The day will come when the Mill can announce that it is a target for Manchester City. Picture it: Rumour Mill City (RMC), blowing every other purveyor of transfer piffle and waffle out of the water. We will all belong to City soon. Not yet, though. City, who have told Real Madrid not to bother asking about Sergio Agüero, remain focused on spreading the Word of Pep to every footballer in existence, which is they’ve responded to news of Arsenal and Chelsea eyeing Wilfried Zaha by entering the race for the Crystal Palace winger. They’ll hand over £40m to make sure that Zaha receives a proper football education from Professor Pep.
If they’re feeling generous, though, they might let Manchester United sign Alex Sandro from Juventus for £60m. City have their eyes on another left-back anyway, sending scouts to watch the Augsburg hotshot Philipp Max in his team’s recent 3-3 draw with Freiburg. Max has 10 assists in 17 games this season and would provide cheap cover for the injured Benjamin Mendy.
City are also on the verge of signing Libertad’s Paraguayan midfielder Jesús Medina for £3m.
Arsenal have noticed that Sideshow Dave isn’t in the Chelsea team any more and reckon that the Brazilian could be theirs for £30m in January. Chelsea will agree to the deal as long as David Luiz agrees to act as a sleeper agent and brings his World Cup 2014 form to the Emirates.
José Mourinho has had enough of Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s inconsistency. With Mesut Özil likely to be heading to Old Trafford on a free next summer, Mourinho has decided to let Mkhitaryan leave as soon as possible and Internazionale are standing by with an offer to take the Armenian on loan in January. Also on the move next month is Barcelona’s Javier Mascherano, who’ll join Hebei China Fortune for £10m.
West Ham United, who like the look of Bournemouth’s Harry Arter, want £15m for horse racing enthusiast Diafra Sakho, but Cardiff City have no desire to spend that much on the striker. Everton, meanwhile, plan to splurge £20m on the Lille defender Adama Soumaoro.
Liverpool’s Emre Can is a name doing the rounds at Juventus. If you don’t believe us, ask the Juventus club suit Giuseppe Marotta. “Emre Can is a name doing the rounds because his contract is running down,” he confirmed. “I won’t deny he is a player we too have monitored and many important clubs will try to close a deal over the next few weeks. We are tracking the situation, nothing more.” Nothing more, he says, but watch this space.
Leicester City have too many strikers, so Leonardo Ulloa will be sold to either Aston Villa or Sheffield United, while Watford and Newcastle United both like the look of Islam Slimani.