The Rumour Mill is only taking an educated guess, but we’ll be bound that every morning, a large number of Liverpool fans click on to this page in the hope of finding out that their club is close to securing the services of Jürgen Klopp or Carlo Ancelotti. But as things stand today, it looks like Brendan Rodgers will be hanging on to his job, James Milner will be staying at Manchester City, Edin Dzeko will be going to Roma, there will be no bid for the Fiorentina goalkeeper Neto, Tottenham are in the box seat to land Danny Ings, Tim Sherwood will persuade Christian Benteke to stay at Aston Villa for another year and earn himself a move to Real Madrid – he’s that good, reckons Tim – and a risible £10m bid for the Southampton full-back Nathaniel Clyne will be turned down. Still, there should be a few new seats in the main stand by 2016, so there’s that.
Arsenal, by contrast, are not hanging about, despite the Cup final. They’ve laid the best part of £25m on the table for the Porto striker Jackson Martínez, another £15m for the Galatasaray goalkeeper Fernando Muslera and aren’t giving up hope of landing the Southampton midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin.
Manchester United aren’t faffing around either. They’ll be making enquiries for the £22m Sevilla striker Carlos Bacca, and the £21m Benfica midfielder Nicolás Gaitán. Liverpool are also sniffing around the latter, hoping to hijack the move, but consider Memphis Depay and let us move on without further comment.
Let’s go back to 1973, and that year’s FA Cup winners Sunderland are also, like contemporary rock behemoths Bachman-Turner Overdrive, takin’ care of business. They’re asking every other passer-by if they’d like to take the manager’s job that’s on offer at the Stadium of Light. The Real Sociedad boss David Moyes has said no, Paul Clement prefers a move to Derby County and Sam Allardyce thinks it’s too early to get back on the horse. Oh look, here comes Steve McClaren.
Let’s now go back to 1976, and that year’s FA Cup winners Southampton are also, like Bachman-Turner Overdrive, whose 1973 hit Takin’ Care of Business was still getting airplay on Radio 1, takin’ care of business. The Saints really know what they’re doing in the transfer market, and they’ve put in a £7m bid for the Lille midfielder Idrissa Gueye. Crystal Palace and West Ham United are also keeping tabs on the situation, with Liverpool presumably planning to pay the victors £27m for the player next summer.
Poor Liverpool, it’s not been their day, week, month or year. Ah well, the owners hold their pre-season debrief next week. Perhaps things will start looking up after that?
