Arsène Wenger is proactive. He’s dynamic, he’s in charge and he’s going to sign your player. Hot on the heels of Sead Kolasinac’s arrival, he’s at it again – photographed by a quick-thinking citizen-journalist at Nice airport clutching a pricey-looking bag of shopping and flanked by his vassal boss Ivan Gazidis. Does 2+2=Mbappé? Apparently a higher level of maths is needed for this one: Wenger was in the region to speak with Lyon’s top brass about trusty Rumour Mill steed Alexandre Lacazette, with the Gunners keen to get most of their big deals done uncharacteristically early.
Perhaps Wenger might make a quick hop over to Barcelona, who believe they have won the heart and mind of their former player Héctor Bellerín. Terms are said to have been agreed with the right-back and now, such is the way football works, the clubs need to get to work over a fee. £50m might do it, and reports in Catalonia say Bellerín wants out. There could even be another departure from the Emirates, too, with almost-top-class striker Olivier Giroud warning darkly that he “won’t settle for such limited playing time” when Arsenal get next season’s knockabout japes underway.
The Rumour Mill values its regular stars and if Romelu Lukaku is soon to flee the nest we do, at least, have James Rodríguez. Liverpool are in for the out-of-favour Real Madrid playmaker! And so are Arsenal! And so is pretty much every top-tier club you can name, according to Wednesday’s reports, all of which should end up meaning an agent does pretty well in a couple of months’ time.
That would all be big news but surely not as big as Bournemouth signing a new captain, leader and legend at the same time. So hold the back page, then, for imminent news of the Cherries doing exactly that – with John Terry apparently close to signing a £100,000-a-week deal to continue his top-flight career for a year longer than really seems wise.
Another Chelsea product, Southampton’s Ryan Bertrand, is in demand, with suggestions that Manchester City could steal in for the left-back amid problems with their bid for Monaco’s Benjamin Mendy. And if they don’t, Liverpool or even the Stamford Bridge club probably will.
City are about to bid farewell to one member of last season’s squad, with the lesser-spotted Nolito having touched down in Spain ahead of what is expected to be a loan move to Sevilla. The Premier League could see a new wide forward come in soon enough though: West Ham are looking to stem the flow of discontent at the London Stadium with a move for Jürgen Damm, a Mexican winger who plays for Tigres, with £4m apparently likely to do the job there.
And in the latest evidence that Championship club Wolves’s transfer policy definitely, undoubtedly, assuredly isn’t being led by Jorge Mendes, the Molineux side are interested in adding Manchester United stalwart Bebé – currently on the books of Eibar in Spain – to their cadre.
