The wind whistles and a wolf howls. A chorus of tumbleweed rolls by. In the distance, a forlorn church-bell clangs. It being the first official day of non-business following European Transfer Deadline Day on Friday, even Oliver Twist would turn up his nose at the thin, watery gruel which the Rumour Mill rather bashfully finds itself forced to serve up to its ravenous public today.
Leicester City haven’t ruled out the prospect of ending Danny Drinkwater’s Chelsea purgatory by offering a return to the King Power Stadium in January, but may need to fend off interest from Southampton if they are to do so. Tottenham midfielder Mousa Dembélé could move further afield, what with the 31-year-old Belgian thought to be mulling over a January move to China. Super League side Beijing Sinobo Guoan. The midfielder remains a firm favourite of his manager Mauricio Pochettino, but had something of a nightmare in his role as lone defensive midfielder during his team’s defeat at the hands of Watford yesterday.
Manuel Pellgerini is in no danger of being sacked despite West Ham’s slapstick start to the season, says the Mirror. The Chilean and his side looked to be on course to secure their first point of the season against Wolves at the London Stadium and would have got it away with it if it wasn’t for that pesky Adama Traoré doing a passable impersonation of The Flash as he bagged a winner deep in added time. Despite spending £100m during the summer, West Ham are anchored to the bottom of the table and have tough games Everton, Chelsea and Manchester United to come this month. Despite the potential for further embarrassment, their owners are reported to have no plans to pull the trigger on Pellegrini just yet.
Having posted a sledgehammer-subtle dig suggesting Brendan Rodgers is untrustworthy on Friday, Moussa Dembélé finally got the move to Lyon he’d been yearning for, but not until he’d been forced to concede that he’d been made no promises before his £19.7m transfer to the French side’s Groupama Stadium. Following Celtic’s 1-0 win over Rangers yesterday, Rodgers revealed that he had forced the striker to sit out Friday’s training session and summoned him to a meeting with senior management. “I just asked him: ‘Can you tell me and the guys in the room that you received promises from me, or any member of Celtic?’,” said Rodgers. “And quite clearly and categorically he said ‘no’. So, once he said that, that was fine then, I said: ‘You can now go, if you can get the move’.”
And in other news that has no real place in the Rumour Mill but is going in anyway because we’ve a word-count to fill, Yaya Touré has returned to Olympiakos, the club he departed for Monaco in 2006. It’s a Deadline Day move that passed us by, so you might have missed too.
