The Mill does not care for the January transfer window. How can that be it hears you ask? Well it’s not that the Mill does not delight in the now beyond parody nature of it all, or that the result of said parody is that very few major transfers now actually happen in January. No, it’s because title-chasing teams are not able to swoop for someone to single-handedly ruin their promising season. Think Kevin Keegan’s decision to sign up Faustino Asprilla for Newcastle in February 1996. You see Leicester are making one or two waves at the top of the Premier League but they will have to wait until the summer to dip into the market and so may just stay the pace. Claudio Ranieri is already preparing his targets for his difficult second season though – namely Ahmed Musa from CSKA Moscow for a cool £23m and Ousmane Dembélé, with the Italian refusing to let Tottenham have all the fun. This particular Dembélé plays for Rennes and has also cropped up on the radars of Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United, but who wouldn’t pick the King Power these days?
Speaking of Manchester United, the Mill really does feel for poor old Louis van Gaal, almost as much as it feels for poor old John Terry. He was forced to bat away more questions about José Mourinho on Sunday but if he can last the pace until the end of the season, he’ll have £40m of striking talent at his disposal with numerous reports that Odion Ighalo is on his way from Watford. Here we have a classic case of ‘head-being-turned syndrome’ what with Ighalo registering just once in his last six league games but that will not deter poor old Louis.
More on what is already shaping up as the saga of the summer now. The treatment table’s Daniel Sturridge doesn’t think it right that he gets to sit and watch Liverpool for free while supporters will soon have the shell out £77 a match and so he’s going to do one out of Anfield with Newcastle ready to cough up £30m for the once prolific forward. This has more than a touch of the Michael Owens about it but Mike Ashley knows a bargain when he sees one and after already snaring Jonjo Shelvey and Andros Townsend this one might just have legs.
In north London news, Tottenham are signing no one, what with a stadium to build, but one Serie A star is on his way back to the Emirates in the shape of forgotten man Wojciech Szczesny. Roma do not want to make his season-long loan permanent so the stopper will return to Arsenal and may just be joined by a somewhat brighter Serie A star in Paul Pogba. You see according to Pogba’s older brother Florentin, he used to dream of playing for Arsenal as a youngster. “Paul is a little crazy, obviously in the best sense,” says Florentin.
In new contract news, Sergio Agüero, Alexis Sánchez and Robert Lewandowski are all set to re-sign on the dotted line at Manchester City, Arsenal and Bayern Munich respectively and Lewandowski could be joined at Bayern by Javier Hérnandez, who must have caught the eye in Bayer Leverkusen’s goalless draw with the German champions over the weekend.
And in manager news Max Allegri has moved into pole position for the Chelsea job by virtue of his English lessons which the Mill can only infer are being taken in order to end poor old JT’s silent treatment.