After listening to José Mourinho bang on about Manchester City “buying full-backs for the price of strikers”, Antonio Conte took one look at the Premier League table, loaded up £50m into the saddlebags and pointed his steed towards Turin. Alex Sandro, a man almost single-handedly keeping the Mill in business since his move to Juventus in 2015, is on the verge of joining Chelsea, according to the Mirror.
Despite having one of the league’s best left-backs in Marcos Alonso, Conte believes the Spaniard could be an option at centre-back, where he sometimes played for Fiorentina, and is keen to beat Manchester United to Sandro. Mourinho is also said to be looking at the Brazilian, as well as a potential move for Napoli’s Faouzi Ghoulam.
What happens when you have your contract terminated by Al Jazira? Europe’s elite come calling. PSG lead the way to sign Lassana Diarra – born in Paris, famous in Portsmouth – with Manchester United, Galatasaray, Milan, Fenerbahce and St Etienne also reportedly keen on the 32-year-old, who is available on a free transfer.
Remember Arda Turan? Previously one of Europe’s most frightening No10s, he is now rotting in Barcelona’s reserves. A January move looks likely and remarkably it is Everton – who already have 476,821 central attacking midfielders – or Milan – who are already trying to shift a mercurial Turkish midfielder off their books in Hakan Calhanoglu – that seems the most likely destination.
Failing a move for Turan, Milan will try for Tottenham’s Mousa Dembélé, who is apparently a bit peeved at having to watch Harry Winks play another square ball to the full-back from the Spurs bench.
Fenerbahce’s Mathieu Valbuena is giving Olivier Giroud the hard sell as the midfielder tries to convince his compatriot to leave Arsenal for Istanbul. Vincent Janssen’s own move from north London has yielded only two goals since September, while Roberto Soldado has scored in one match this season, so the Fenerbahce manager, Aykut Kocaman, has turned to Giroud.
It’s all coming up roses for Wolves right now. Twelve points clear at the top of the Championship, and now they are set to beat Real Madrid to the signing of Valencia’s Rafa Mir. The striker has scored 15 times in 19 reserve appearances and is the subject of a £1.8m bid from Wolves, with the 20-year-old said to favour a move to the Black Country over the Spanish giants.
Elsewhere, Watford are understood to be readying an £8m bid for Didier Ndong, with Sunderland ready to replace the Gabon international with a loan deal for Liverpool’s Ben Woodburn. Sergio Romero has decided that a Carabao Cup defeat to Bristol City probably isn’t enough to get him on Argentina’s plane to Russia 2018, and is pushing for an exit from Old Trafford.