The name Charlie Adam hasn’t featured too regularly in the rumour mill over the past few years, perhaps mainly due to the fact that the Stoke fantasista has never really been the same since he left the cosy confines of Bloomfield Road in 2011.
But despite David Moyes being voted La Liga’s gaffer of the week after masterminding Real Sociedad’s 3-0 win over Elche on Friday night, Adam is apparently top of the former Manchester United manager’s hit-list in January after falling out of favour at the Britannia Stadium. Spanish website Fichajes (which those lovely people at Google translate reliably informs us means “signings”) says the sometime Scottish international “would accept without hesitation” the opportunity to leave sunny Stoke behind this winter, with the prospect of regular football under Moyes too good to turn down for a player whose biggest contribution this year has been winding up Tottenham players at every given opportunity.
The only question remains is whether he can do it on a wet and windy night Tuesday in San Sebastián? Over to you Señor Moyes.
After Mats Hummels, Aymeric Laporte and Ron Vlaar, the latest knight in shining armour ready to ride to the rescue of Manchester United’s shambolic defence is Diego Godín of Spanish champions Atlético Madrid. According to the Daily Telegraph, Louis Van Gaal has “identified the centre of defence as a priority area for reinforcement” after almost four months in the job - a task that would have taken the Mill less time than it takes to peel an orange.
The Uruguayan is under contract with Atlético until 2018 but has a release clause of €36m (£28.5m), a fee that can be cobbled together from the loose change down the back of Ed Woodward’s sofa.
Arsenal are another team who are a few defenders short of a picnic these days but fear not Gunners fans as Dick, sorry Virgil van Dijk, could be on his way from Celtic. The Dutchman won’t come cheap, mind, with the Scottish champions warning that he will have to splash the cash to snare him. Rumours that Arsène Wenger can get Van Dijk for a discount if he performs Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious at Celtic’s Christmas party have so far proven unfounded.
Now the Mill isn’t one to blow its own trumpet but the progress of Burnley’s Danny Ings this season has not come as a surprise in this dark corner of Guardian towers. After a slow start and several gratuitous uses of the headline ‘Ings can only get better’, four goals in his last five appearances have sparked the Clarets’ revival under Sean Dyche, even if it hasn’t helped to shift the manager’s seemingly permanent sore throat.
With his contract due to expire at the end of the season, perhaps the threat of Ings joining Newcastle or Southampton in January for a cut-price fee may finally persuade the Ginger Mourinho to invest in some Strepsils? We can only dream.
