Having been forced to begin his first season in charge of Manchester United’s already ridiculously expensive squad on the back of a meagre summer spend of only £145m (with one Zlatan Ibrahimovic thrown in for free), it’s little wonder José Mourinho has been looking so glum in recent weeks.
The Portuguese has been getting his excuses in early, having recently let it be known through the medium of “sources” via favoured media mouthpieces that his squad is so unfit for purpose it will take at least two transfer windows to whip the rabble of upstarts he inherited from Louis van Gaal into the kind of docile, compliant yes-men with whom he can conceivably win a title. Shoring up United’s defence is his top priority and Wednesday’s papers suggest the United manager will attempt to sign Southampton’s Dutch centre-half Virgil van Dijk and Bayern Munich’s ridiculously versatile and talented Austrian defender-midfielder David Alaba in the January transfer window.
It’s long been a running, if not particularly amusing, joke that Southampton are Liverpool’s feeder club, so it should come as no surprise that Van Dijk has also been linked with Liverpool, where he has believed to have a massive fan in Jürgen Klopp. If it helps grease the wheels, Daniel Sturridge could buck the trend by going the other way. Unable to force his way into Liverpool’s first team, the 27-year-old striker is wanted on loan by Saints in January with a view to making the move permanent in the summer – £25m is the sum being mentioned.
Despite dropping down the Juventus pecking order, where he plays a mean second fiddle to Gonzalo Higuaín, Mario Mandzukic has scored in each of his past three starts for club and country. The Croatia striker has nine goals to his name this season, five of them coming in the colours of his national team and the most recent a neat finish into the corner to wrap up Juve’s win in last night’s entertaining but incredibly bad-tempered encounter with Sevilla at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium. Previously a target for Arsenal, Mandzukic is now wanted by West Ham, who have already got another Juve striker on loan in Simone Zaza, whose move to the London Stadium has been little short of disastrous for all concerned. Juventus, for their part, are interested in signing Wolfsburg midfielder and Rumour Mill staple Julian Draxler.
The usual list of Premier League heavyweights are preparing to hitch their skirts at 22-year-old Atalanta central defender Mattia Caldara, who along with his team-mate Franck Kessie is also wanted by Juventus. Under the stewardship of Gian Piero Gasperini, the Bergamo-based side are fifth in the Serie A table and turning heads. Predictably enough, the vultures are circling. In other central defender news, Manchester City’s Jason Denayer wants to make his loan move to Sunderland permanent, while Leicester are rumoured to be taking a £16m January transfer window punt on Genk’s 19-year-old Nigerian whelp Wilfred Ndidi.
And finally, Alan Pardew’s job at Crystal Palace couldn’t be safer, according to some media outlets … while others are reporting he’s about to get the tin-tack and be replaced by keynote speaking’s Sam Allardyce.
