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Willian in action for Shakhtar in the Champions League this season. Mike Egerton/EMPICS Sport
In Demand

The Departures Lounge: your daily transfer gossip round-up

Roman Abramovich will have to dig a little deeper into those enormous pockets of his if he wants to sign this Brazilian attacker.

ANDRE VILLA-BOAS wants to bring another Portuguese speaker to a dressing room which already features the likes of Raul Meireles, Jose Bosingwa and David Luiz by signing Willian from Shakhtar Donetsk.

The 23-year-old, whose full name is  Willian Borges da Silva, moved to Ukraine from his native Brazil in 2007 but Chelsea are keen on him relocating to London and have made an official bid of €20m, which has been rejected, for the attacking midfielder.

According to the Daily Mail, Manchester United are interested in a Samba star of their own. Leandro Damiao is a 6ft 2in striker with Internacional who made his debut for the national side against Scotland back in March and Alex Ferguson is believed to be mulling over a move for 22-year-old.

At Everton, the arrival of Italian winger Alessio Cerci is looking increasingly likely as his club Fiorentina will allow him to head out on a loan deal for the remainder of the season after falling out of favour at La Viola.

Manchester City had been linked with the player in the past but the Toffees are favourites along with Serie A club Palermo for his signature now.

The African Cup of Nations began on Saturday and Liverpool appear to be going down a similar route to Newcastle United by signing a player who is competing in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea this month.

Rangers striker Nikica Jelavic has had his dad claim that a move to Anfield is on the cards but if reports are to be believed, Kenny Dalglish is set to bid for Lille’s Senegalese international Moussa Sow, who Fenerbahce are also after.

The Old Firm club will probably replace Jelavic with former Udinese frontman Zlatan Muslimovic as the free agent flew into Glasgow for talks today.

AFCON co-hosts Equatorial Guinea included Ismael Bangura in their squad for the tournament and Bolton would like to take him to the Premier League when is done representing his country.

Wigan are attempting to bolster their relegation-threatened side with a move for Wigan and Chile winger Jean Beausejour while Fulham will miss out on one of their main targets after AC Milan vice president Adriano Galliani announced that they have agreed a deal with Catania for Maxi Lopez.

That’s my lot.

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