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Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Adebayor ‘denies whiskey-drinking claims’, Man City ‘want Bonucci’

No Premier League clubs are trying to sign any Barcelona or Real Madrid players today so instead let’s start with the most entertaining piece of Hot Football Transfer Gossip of the month, courtesy of our friend and yours, Emmanuel Adebayor.

The eventful life of the Togolese centre-forward has taken its latest unforgettable turn - this time related to his failed summer transfer to Lyon.

The Guardian reports that Adebayor has issued a statement denying claims the move collapsed because he “smoked cigarettes and asked for a shot of whisky in his coffee” during a meeting with the French club’s manager Bruno Genesio.

An excellent tale, but one the former Tottenham striker insists is entirely made up.

“Usually I do not comment on any transfer negotiations or speculation but this time certain matters need to be cleared up,” Adebayor said, before revealing that Lyon has flown him from Togo on a private jet to sign him but the plane arrived late, so they bought someone else instead.

They still had a "perfectly amicable” meeting although Adebayor insisted he “only drank water” and said a report in Football France that he boozed on whiskey was “meant as a joke”.

“Unfortunately the press in other countries couldn’t see that the journalist was being highly sarcastic and they rewrote the story,” Adebayor added.

And he’s right.

Although the whiskey story was clearly a spoof - also alleging that Adebayor wanted a private helicopter to take him to training - it was picked up by several UK publications including the Telegraph, the Mirror and the Sun (who have since removed it - the spineless, devious little toads).

What this proves is not only that the English football media will lap up any old nonsense without checking the facts, but also that people will believe pretty much anything you tell them about Emmanuel Adebayor.

Would anyone have fallen for the spoof if it was about James Milner? No (well, maybe the Sun).

Moving on, Manchester City have “renewed” their interest in a January move for Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci after Vincent Kompany suffered his latest injury blow (Express). Although encouragingly his City team-mate Gael Clichy commented, “I don’t think it is something big” - and the left-back’s medical skills are known to be impeccable.

In manager gossip, Arsenal are planning to replace Arsene Wenger with Bournemouth’s Eddie Howe at the end of the season (Star), Louis van Gaal is set to return to management with German strugglers Werder Bremen (Sun) and his former assistant Ryan Giggs is “open to” replacing Francesco Guidolin as the manager of Swansea (Independent).

Finally, it’s bad news for Marouane Chamakh, who Sky Sports reports will not be signed by West Brom following his trial at the Hawthorns. Maybe he should go into business with Adebayor and they could sell themselves as a ready-made free agent strike partnership.

@darlingkevin