Arsenal Close In On £25m Deal to Sign El Shaarawy

Arsenal are reportedly closing in on a deal to sign AC Milan striker Stephan El Shaarawy after the North London club opened negotiations with the Serie A side. Arsenal have been involved in ‘secret’ talks with AC Milan over their interest in the 20 year old Italian international.

El Shaarawy has started just one domestic fixture this term as AC Milan boss has opted to use Robinho, Balotelli and summer signing Matri as his main attacking weapons.

The lack of opportunities handed to El Shaarawy has surprised many given that the youngster finished as the club’s top scorer last term, netting 19 goals in all competitions, and now Arsenal are readying a £25m bid for the striker who is looking for the regular first team football he needs in order to cement a prominent role in the Italian national team set-up at the 2014 World Cup finals next summer.

Arsene Wenger is keen to strengthen his attack and is known to be a big admirer of El Shaarawy, who adheres to the French manager’s traditional youthful transfer policy.

Currently Arsenal rely heavily on Olivier Giroud but and Wenger is looking to bring in another striking weapon to assist in the club’s push for the Premier League title.

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Wenger set to bid £26m for trio

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger looks set to raid the transfer market for youth once again this January as he lines up bids for three of the game’s brightest prospects, Patrick Olsen of Inter Milan, Tonny Vilhena of Feyenoord, and Jorginho of Hellas Verona, who would likely cost a combined fee of £26m.

Olsen, 19, is a Danish Under-21 international, and looks a promising midfielder. The Inter starlet has not yet featured for the club’s first team, but has fallen onto Wenger’s radar before as Arsenal tried to bring him in during the summer. Inter rate him highly though, and would likely command a fee of around £7m for his services.

Vilhena, 18, is a Dutch Under-21 midfielder and has become a regular for Feyenoord this season, scoring four goals for the team. He is widely regarded as one of the best young players in Europe at the moment and would also set the Gunners back a fair amount with an asking price in the region of £8m.

And finally, Jorginho is one of the more recognisable names on the list, with the 21-year-old attracting a great deal of attention from the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and AC Milan with his displays for Verona in Serie A this season. He has scored five goals in ten appearances and looks a promising attacker whose skillful style of play would certainly suit Arsenal’s style. Jorginho would likely cost £11m, though if other clubs step up their interest the fee could rise.

Wenger set to bid £26m for trio

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger looks set to raid the transfer market for youth once again this January as he lines up bids for three of the game’s brightest prospects, Patrick Olsen of Inter Milan, Tonny Vilhena of Feyenoord, and Jorginho of Hellas Verona, who would likely cost a combined fee of £26m.

Olsen, 19, is a Danish Under-21 international, and looks a promising midfielder. The Inter starlet has not yet featured for the club’s first team, but has fallen onto Wenger’s radar before as Arsenal tried to bring him in during the summer. Inter rate him highly though, and would likely command a fee of around £7m for his services.

Vilhena, 18, is a Dutch Under-21 midfielder and has become a regular for Feyenoord this season, scoring four goals for the team. He is widely regarded as one of the best young players in Europe at the moment and would also set the Gunners back a fair amount with an asking price in the region of £8m.

And finally, Jorginho is one of the more recognisable names on the list, with the 21-year-old attracting a great deal of attention from the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and AC Milan with his displays for Verona in Serie A this season. He has scored five goals in ten appearances and looks a promising attacker whose skillful style of play would certainly suit Arsenal’s style. Jorginho would likely cost £11m, though if other clubs step up their interest the fee could rise.

Arsenal Agree Personal Terms With Benzema

Arsenal’s pursuit of Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema has apparently taken a big step closer to completion with as the North London club have agreed personal terms with the Frenchman.

Arsenal are thought to be hopeful of signing Benzema in a £22m deal in January and the Emirates Stadium side have apparently agreed terms on a four year deal that would see the French international earn £80,000 a week.

Benzema has come in for a fair bit of abuse from the Bernabeu faithful after a stuttering start to the season though the striker did bag two goals in Real Madrid’s mid-week 7-3 win over Sevilla, this coming after a seven game long La Liga goal drought.

Wenger is no doubt keen to strengthen his strike-force, with Olivier Giroud being heavily relied upon to deliver the goods, not least as the Arsenal manager sees Lukas Podolski and Theo Walcott as wide attacking options, leaving Dane Nicklas Bendtner as the current back-up option for the Premier League table toppers

Tesla Model S: Now the No. 1 car of the (West Coast) wealthy

The choice of the conscious wealthy.

(Credit: Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

You know what a Porsche says about you? It says you don't care.

You know what a Mercedes says about you? It says you believe that if the world ran out of gazelles, it would be just fine.

What drives me to such draconian extrapolations? A piece of fascinating analysis performed by Edmunds.com.

It attempted to discover whether the Tesla Model S was popular beyond the chest-beating, organic sackcloth-wearing confines of Silicon Valley.

Stunningly, the numbers show that in 8 of the top 25 most expensive ZIP codes in the US, the Tesla was the No. 1 registered vehicle of 2013. And it was No. 1 in more of the top 25 than any other vehicle.

Yes, America's wealthy are rallying round to save the Earth. Or, at least, to buy the same rather attractive car.

The East Coast's rich still seem mired in tradition. Take the 10065 ZIP code -- in the heart of New York. The median home price is $4,860,494. But the most registered car title is a tie, between the Mercedes GL-Class and, um, the Jeep Grand Cherokee.Of course, all eight of the ZIP codes were in California, where people always like to think they are ahead of any curve -- especially if they've invented that curve in the first place.

Then there's the 11962 ZIP code. This is Sagaponack, NY, the fifth most wealthy ZIP code. Do you imagine these folks are caring enough to choose, say, the Prius as their favorite car? Sadly, no. Their favorite is the Jeep Wrangler.

California and New York ZIP codes dominate. Aspen, Colo., and Coral Gables, Fla., are the only outliers. The latter favors the BMW 3 series. And the former? Well, it's obvious, really. The Aspenites choose the Ford F-Series.

I am sure that there are many structural reasons, as well as mental, for these disparities.

However, given that Teslas do look very pretty, perhaps they will soon become status symbols as ubiquitous as Mercedes.

Which means that everyone will start making more jokes about them.

The Earth is grateful.

Mystery Google barge will be invite-only Google X showroom, says report

Google's mystery barge in the San Francisco Bay. A new report said that the tech giant is building a VIP, invite-only showroom for Google X projects and products.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

After a week of intense interest in what Google has been building on barges in the San Francisco Bay and in Maine's Casco Bay, the mystery may well be over: The tech giant is developing a reconfigurable, invite-only showroom for Google X-related projects and products.

According to a report from CBS' San Francisco affiliate KPIX, Google has been working on the project for more than a year, and the plan is to make the showroom movable and also capable of being taken apart and reassembled as needed. The idea is that elements of it could be on the water one day, or on a ski slope the next. The edifice will have three floors of showrooms and a party deck, KPIX said, citing "a source who has been on board the vessel."

KPIX also reported that the project has been "personally directed" by Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Google X is the tech giant's secretive research unit. Its efforts have ranged from the Google Glass computerized eyewear to Google's self-driving cars, and last spring it acquired Makani Power, a startup investigating far-out, high-flying ideas for wind power generation.

Last week, CNET was first to report the connection between Google and the mysterious four-story building, made from shipping containers and covered in scaffolding and black netting, that is sitting atop a rusty barge alongside the former Navy base at Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay.

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CNET reported that Google was likely planning to use the structure as a floating data center. But subsequently, a KPIX report and a tip to CNET both indicated that it would be used as some kind of floating Google Glass store. (KPIX is owned by CNET parent CBS.)

Although Google has been working on the structure for months, first inside the cavernous Hangar 3 on Treasure Island, and then outside that building but behind security fencing, it hasn't said anything publicly about the project, nor has it confirmed its involvement. But both the National Park Service and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) confirmed Google's involvement to CNET, though neither agency could say what the tech giant was building on the barge.

And although activity on the project was bustling at one time, it has recently come to a complete standstill.

Across the country sitting idle is a second mystery Google barge that in early October was towed into the harbor in Portland, Maine. The registration on the Portland barge showed its owner to be By and Large LLC, the same company that owns the barge on which the Treasure Island project was built and that also is the leaseholder on Hangar 3. CNET was able to connect the projects on both coasts to Google.

It's isn't clear why work hasn't resumed on Treasure Island. The BCDC has said it isn't ready to issue a permit for Google to move the barge to San Francisco's Fort Mason -- a desire confirmed by the National Park Service, which manages that former Army base -- but BCDC didn't stop the project. Asked if it was responsible for ordering the work stoppage, the Coast Guard also said no.

Google hasn't responded to numerous CNET requests for comment. And in the absence of other public agencies with any knowledge of the project talking, it has been impossible to say why there's no activity at the Treasure Island site. But the Coast Guard in Maine did say that the assumption there is that work will not even begin on the structure that pulled into Portland harbor until the San Francisco Bay-based project is completed. And now, KPIX reported that Google's problem is that it didn't seem to expect that the Coast Guard would consider the project to be a vessel, and therefore subject to marine regulations.

Work likely began on the San Francisco barge project sometime last fall, given that Hangar 3 was leased starting in mid-November 2012. According to The Day Connecticut, work on the East Coast mystery barge structure started sometime in May, although the containers used to assemble that structure were built in San Francisco. That work almost certainly took place in Hangar 3.

Now, the biggest questions are whether Google will confirm the new KPIX report, and when work will start again on Treasure Island. But with the mystery revealed, it's safe to wonder if much of the intense speculation and interest will quickly die down.