According to reports out of England, Aston Villa boss Martin O’Neill is trying to lure American Frankie Simek away from Sheffield Wednesday. He has already had a £2m bid turned down by the Owls, and it looks like Villa will need to double that offer to pry Frankie away from Sheffield Wednesday. With Jozy recently being sold for $10 million, Frankie being valued at $8 million, and reports of Monaco splashing some serious scratch for Michael Bradley, this is shaping up to be a great summer for American players in the transfer market.

It was a long time coming, but even Pep gave the thumbs up to the signing of Brazilian right back Daniel Alves.

Gregory Coupet, the man who played over 515 matches for Olympique Lyonnais has made his way to La Liga side Atletico Madrid for an undisclosed sum.

Coupet joins Czech Republic defender Tomas Ujfalusi, Netherlands defender John Heitinga, French striker Florent Sinama Pongolle and Brazilian midfielder Paulo Assuncao as Atletico Madrid preparefor their upcoming 2008/09 Champions League and La Liga campaign.

Some pretty damn good additions to a squad that already features Forlan, Simao, Reyes, Luis Garcia and Miguel.

image via Football

UPDATE -  Zenit has rejected Barcelona’s second offer, 15 Million Euros for Arshavin.

Dutchman and Zenit St. Petersburg coach Dick Advocaat has come to terms with losing 27 year old Russian National Team star Andrei Arshavin to a big name European club.

So much so that Advocaat has told Arshavin (who’s scored 13 times in 37 appearances for Russia) that he isn’t required to train with the 2008 Uefa Cup Champions as both club and player are expected to have something sorted very soon.

“Andrei hopes to play elsewhere in Europe and something will happen this week,” he said. “He is a good player and would do well in any league in Europe but my advice to him is that it’s up to him where he goes.

“He has to do what he wants, he is the man who will be playing. It is disappointing that he is leaving but that’s the way it goes.”

Even though Arshavin scored two goals (against Sweden and Holland) at Euro 2008, I’m just wondering if his struggles against Spain in the Semi-Finals are having any effect on the big clubs decisions to drop the money Zenit is looking to collect.

image via SportReport

DOUBLE UPDATE -  Could Real Madrid’s Julio Baptista be on his way to join up with Harry Kewell at Galatasaray SK?

Baptista has been told by German head coach Bernd Shuster that he was free to explore all of his options after not being in the first team frame for the upcoming 2008/09 campaign.

The bigger question is will Roma come in and grab the big Brazilian first?

UPDATE - Pretty cool interview with Kewell coming out of passport control with Galatasaray’s television station.

After five extremely injury plagued years with Liverpool, the Australian left footed wizard known as Harry Kewell is headed to Turkey after signing a three year deal with Turkish giants Galatasaray SK.

With the 29 year old signing at this point, you’d think it would be pretty difficult for him to be named as one of three overage players for the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Can you imagine going from a back up at Manchester City to number 1 at PSV?

After the 2007/08 Eredivisie Champions cut ties with Heurelho Gomes, who held a clean sheet in over 60% of his matches played with PSV and will now look to make his mark with Tottenham Hotspurs, Huub Stevens looked no further than 26 year old Swedish International Andreas Isaksson.

A four year deal was announced, but the fee has not been disclosed as of yet.

Isaksson has been the starter for Sweden since 2002 with over 60 caps to his name so far. With his overseas experience with Juve, Rennes and Manchester Cuty, you’d think he’d have no problem acclimating with his new surroundings in Eindhoven.

Keep an eye on the 21 year old Brazilian Cassio, who Isaksson will be battling for the number 1 spot. The youngster has the ability to push by the Swede if he isn’t careful, similar to what happened at Manchester City with Joe Hart.

image via Football

Atletico Madrid has signed two International defenders coming off impressive Euro 2008 campaigns and ahead of their 2008/09 Champions League Qualifiers.

Czech Republic defender Tomas Ujfalusi signed as a free transfer after spending the last four years with Serie A’s Fiorentina.

Johnny Heitinga heads to Vicente Calderon (at least until 2010 when they then move to the Olympic Stadium after agreeing with the city of Madrid to sell the land under which the Calderon sits on) after Mexican Head Coach Javier Aguirre paid 10 Million Euro for the defender who’s only played for Eredivisie side Ajax.

image via SoccerJones

In his first signing as new Chelsea boss, Luis Felipe Scolari has signed Portuguese midfielder Deco from Barcelona. With Pep Guardiola saying Deco wasn’t in his plans at Barcelona, Scolari wasted no time in snatching up the Brazilian born, Portuguese playmaker. I’ll be curious to see how Deco does in the EPL. What do you guys think? Will he succeed in England?

[Via Chelsea FC]

Turkey’s hero and what should soon be former Newcastle United midfielder Emre Belozoglu is awaiting the Turkish Government decision as to the amount of time the 27 year old must serve in the country’s compulsory national service before this transfer to Fenerbahce is completed.

The 3 Million Pound transfer hit the snag when Emre’s national service obligations came into play because of the 3 year overseas rule that states that citizens may pay a “Euro fine and attend 21 days of basic training, rather than the 15 months of mandatory service for men ages 21 to 40 years of age.”

A St James’ Park official has told The Times that Emre “will have national service obligations if he gets the timing of his return to Turkey wrong and that is the only reason for the delay.”

image via Photobucket

UPDATE - AS Roma’s deal for John Arne Riise is done as the payer will earn 2.8 Million Euro per year in a 4 year deal as Roma will pay 5 Million Euros to Liverpool over the course of four installments.

The breakdown gets even more complicated as Roma will have to pay certain amounts dependent on how many Champions League matches and player appearances Riise makes with the club.

Norwegian left back John Arne Riise seems to be on his way to AS Roma after Liverpool accepted the 5 Million Pound transfer bid from the Serie A team.

Anyone else thinking the 5 Mil for of the 27 year old Riise and 14 Mil for Xabi Alonso is going straight to the kitty for a new Gareth Barry bid?

image via Textually