Seven days and counting, we can do this people
This time next week, you’ll be still wiping the sleep from your eyes after a late one watching the Super Bowl and you’ll flick on Sky Sports News to realise that is also TRANSFER DEADLINE DAY, meaning a full 16 hours of speculation, hyperbole, wild fans behind reporters and a loan move for an Arsenal prospect.
Truly, it is a great time to be alive.
One week out, the rumor mill doesn’t look in great nick today, with the pickings slimmer than a football inflated by Bill Belichick but we must press on. The top story of the day concerns West Ham, who are doing a passable impression of a serious outfit these days under Sam Allardyce. Comfortably keeping tabs with the big boys for a European place they are also into Round Five of the Cup, a feat beyond most of the top half of the Premier League.
Big Sam wants to cement that place by adding Darren Fletcher to his side before the deadline. The Scot, after battling back to fitness following a horrible illness, has been a bit part player under Louis van Gaal but we wonder will the Dutchman let the midfielder go, especially in this window.
The Mirror say a 24-hour deadline has been issued by West Ham for the deal to go through but there is talk that Valencia, West Brom and Celtic are also sniffing around so this one will probably run all the way to next week.
As for new arrivals into Old Trafford, the Mail say that a new defender, Paris Saint-Germain’s defender Marquinhos in fact, has been targeted by Van Gaal, but the French club say that they would only let the 20-year-old go in the summer for an eye-watering £50m. That’s a lot of dough, even for the mega-money generating United.
Dipping into slightly less sexy news, the Mirror say that Danny Ings may be joining fellow Fantasy Football sensation Harry Kane at Tottenham while the same paper says that West Brom are inching closer to landing Callum McManaman from Wigan after chucking an extra £500,000 on their initial bid of £4m.
Finally, in news that is best filed under ‘nonsense’, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea are all ‘monitoring’ how Sergio Busquests’ contract talks at Barcelona are going, according to the Star. The piece admits the 26-year-old is ‘likely’ to sign a long term deal to stay in Spain so we think we can consign this bit of gossip to the big transfer rumour skip we keep right by our desk.
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