Chelsea and Manchester City are engaged in a Christmas cracker of a ding-dong transfer battle, with both Antonio Conte and Pep Guardiola apparently desperate to fortify their midfield by spending £26m on the former Stoke and Blackburn star Steven N’Zonzi, who was playing very much under their noses and yet was unwanted by the Premier League giants until he moved to Sevilla for just more than a quarter of that sum – a paltry £7m – last summer. But Chelsea’s primary midfield focus could lie elsewhere, given the existence of a rival rumour linking them with a £25m move for Atalanta’s Franck Kessié, while they are also one of a number of clubs – including Internazionale, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain – said to be keen on the Fiorentina forward Federico Bernardeschi, who is unlikely to go anywhere before the end of the season.
Arsène Wenger is already considering replacements for contractual trouble-makers Mesut Özil and Alexis Sánchez, and has placed the Borussia Dortmund pair of Marco Reus and Christian Pulisic high on his list, though he might have to out-wrestle Jürgen Klopp if he is to stop Liverpool from swooping for them first. One potential Arsenal signing that is likely to be less hotly contested is that of Cohen Bramall, a 20-year-old left-winger spotted playing for Hednesford Town in the Evo-Stik Northern League Premier Division – and previously rejected by both Crewe and Leek Town – who apparently impressed so much on a recent two-day trial that a contract offer is imminent.
Manchester United are ready to firm up their rumoured interest in Benfica’s Nelson Semedo with a £35m bid, though the right-back’s transfer is unlikely to be completed before the summer, with José Mourinho about to splash his entire allocation of January cash on another Benfica defender, Victor Lindelof. That much-mooted move might not go exactly as planned, however, with newspapers in Portugal predicting that the Swede will instead sign a new deal with the Portuguese giants, raising his buy-out clause to a chequebook-bothering £50m.
Newcastle plan to respond to their post-Christmas slide to second in the Championship by spending even more money, with Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson seen as the man to fire them back to the top of the table. They are also said to be “leading the race” to sign Chelsea’s Ruben Loftus-Cheek on loan, though there are “up to 10 clubs” involved in that particular sprint. Middlesbrough, meanwhile, are keen on Udinese’s Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu, though the Ghana midfielder’s involvement in the African Cup of Nations might put a spanner in the works.
A man who spent £4,000 on the number plate VAR9Y in the hope of flogging it on to Jamie Vardy at a profit has sold it again for just £2,080 after he was unable to contact the Leicester ace, who already has a personalised number plate on his blue Bentley. Despite that setback there will be some new arrivals at the Leicester training ground in January, with a deal for Racing Genk’s Wilfred Ndidi all but complete and Claudio Ranieri handed a £30m mid-season war chest, according to the Telegraph.
The Watford striker Jerome Sinclair looks certain to spend the second half of the season on loan in the Championship, with Norwich, Reading, Brentford and Cardiff all interested in recruiting him. The latter club need a striker to replace Marouane Chamakh, who may only have played 46 minutes of league football this season but has been named on their substitutes’ bench a few times, and could jet off to al-Arabi in Qatar in the new year.
Who’s going to be the new Swansea manager? The Sun exclusively reveal that Roy Hodgson “has emerged as the strong candidate” for the role suddenly and involuntarily vacated by bungling Bob Bradley on Tuesday, but elsewhere Ryan Giggs is near-unanimously considered the most likely hot-seat-sitter. And finally, another top Premier League star is being courted by China’s Super League, who plan to offer a massive salary boost in an attempt to get their man. This man, though, isn’t even a footballer – it’s whistle-blowing wonder Mark Clattenburg, named the best referee in all humanity at the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai yesterday.
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