We start this morning with Harry Kane, who earlier in the week was talking about how it’s fine never to score in the first month of the season - even if scoring in every month of the season is your job. And already, this approach has gained him traction on the Continent, where, like Glenn Hoddle before him, his laid-back relationship with work is given the respect that it deserves. So, in January, Milan will offer Spurs €50m for him, in full knowledge that they have no chance whatsoever of getting him. Nonetheless, everyone will be dead impressed.
Everyone, that is, save Alessio Romagnoli, their young centre-back, who is already extremely impressed. Extremely impressed with himself for being the subject of a £35m offer from Chelsea, extremely impressed with his club for turning it down, and extremely impressed with himself for being the subject of a £35m offer that his club turned down. Instead, Chelsea are pursuing Middlesbrough’s Ben Gibson and Burnley’s Michael Keane - quite how impressed Romagnoli is with that remains to be seen.
In further Italian news, Manchester United’s Matteo Darmian, yet another resounding success of the Louis van Gaal era, may be returning home - apparently, his relationship with José Mourinho is at a “complete breakdown”. The suspicion is that this may, in some way, be related to his not very goodness at association football - though it may be that he is simply a victim of the philosophy which impelled Mourinho to promote young Antonio Valencia from the youth team. Either way, Juventus are interested taking Darmian on loan in January, with a view to making the move permanent in the summer (that being in 10 months’ time). The ruse might, though, be complicated by United’s desire to be paid £17m!
Also less than enamoured with Mourinho is Adnan Januzaj, who has been pondering how the horror of Sunderland came to be visited upon him. “It is not a case of re-establishing myself,” he said, showing all the self-effacement that has so endeared him to his last two managers. “For two years I didn’t have many chances to play but I came here to Sunderland to prove to some people that they were wrong.” It is possible that first he will need to stop proving that they were right.
Meanwhile, Mauricio Pochettino has been discussing Christian Eriksen’s new contract - in the process revealing that his form might have been affected by speculation about his future. Similarly, it also might not have been. And finally for today, while mere mortals consider transfers, Seancenté del Dyche is theorising about transfer systems, fella. Hot on the heels of Burnley’s 1-0 defeat against Accrington Stanley - these posh foreign managers would do exactly the same if only someone would give them a chance - he has decided that the window should close before the season starts, or not at all. “People in more powerful positions than myself have said it,” himself humblebragged. “It’s not about right or wrong, it’s about common sense”. Whereupon he left the audience to pick out those semantics, and went home to get his guitar.
