Take a look at how long David Ginola has his hand on Hugo Lloris’s knee here.
To celebrate @teamginola's birthday, why not watch back his brilliant chat with Hugo again? https://t.co/y0vP1fCF8S https://t.co/QsCOXjETje
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) January 25, 2016
Yup. The blog’s winding down now.
Football Weekly? Football Weekly.
DONE DEAL!
And sticking with Stoke, their midfielder Steve Sidwell has joined Brighton on loan for the rest of the season.
Hughton: "He is a player who's proven at the very top level of English football." #BHAFC https://t.co/tivax3n9U1 pic.twitter.com/qcOkRPIBk9
— BHAFC (@OfficialBHAFC) January 25, 2016
Proven to do what is not entirely clear, but that should be a reasonable deal for Brighton.
Not strictly transfer business, but the news that Ryan Shawcross will be out for a month with back knack might convince Mark Hughes to venture into the market. Stoke are, after all, not exactly overloaded with centre-backs at the moment, rather surprising since you’d assume there would be two or three left lying around from the Tony Pulis days.
Some more details on that Ozil contract thing we mentioned earlier on, here. No comment from Arsenal, but then again you’d be rather surprised if they said ‘Yes! That’s exactly it! How did you know?!?!’
All going on in China at the moment. As well as sniffing around Ramires and Chieck Tiote (although that one seems to have gone quiet) they’re also apparently keen on Inter midfielder Fredy Guarin, with assorted reports in Italy and France claiming a €13m deal is imminent.
Interesting goings on at Padeborn, where shy and retiring former Bayern midfielder Steffan Effenberg is head coach. His position had been in some doubt recently, partly because Paderborn haven’t won in the last eight and are third-bottom of Bundesliga II, but also partly because of an incident in which ex-Hull and Brendford striker Nick Proschwitz, erm, well...lowered his strides to reveal his, well...erm....parts. However, the decision has been made by the high-ups at the club to keep him in his place, and it’s a miracle I’ve made it this far into this entry without making some sort of immature gag.
Not a transfer per se, but Aston Villa have a new coach, and his name is Eric Black - he’s been assistant manager to Neil Redfearn at Rotherham, but the club have just confirmed he has left that job.
With Rotherham a point off the bottom three in the Championship, at least Black will, erm, be used to a relegation scrap...
Huge if true...
@NickMiller79 just seen free agent Hulk Hogan in Elland Rd carpark.
— Dick Farmwarden (@ProperRichard) January 25, 2016
DONE DEAL!
They are flooding in now - Leeds have completed the signing of midfielder Toumani Diagouraga from Brentford.
CONFIRMED | Midfielder @toums20 joins #lufc from @BrentfordFC! Full story: https://t.co/2LBfQiKca6 pic.twitter.com/WKo0VpfSKS
— Leeds United (@LUFC) January 25, 2016
Making room for Diagouraga is Tommaso Bianchi, the Italian midfielder who’s moved to Serie B side Ascoli on loan.
DONE DEAL!
Giulio #Donati wechselt von #Bayer04 zum @1FSVMainz05! Arrivederci und Grazie für alles! #StärkeBayer! pic.twitter.com/aOf4FWXFos
— Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04fussball) January 25, 2016
For those not fully fluent in German, that’s Italian defender Giulio Donati moving from Bayer Leverkeusen to FSV Mainz for the traditional undisclosed fee, signing a contract until 2019.
“I have a desire to play with Messi.” So said Juventus forward Paulo Dybala after scouts from Barcelona were apparently in the crowd to watch him this weekend. Of course, Dybala is Argentinean, which makes his big words a little less dramatic, transfer-wise.
A couple of loans at Everton then Bournemouth haven’t exactly gone to plan for Christian Atsu, but he seems to reckon a move to Spain would be better for him. He told the BBC that Levante are his destination, but word is doing the rounds that Malaga could gazump them.
DONE DEAL!
And it’s a ripper. Doncaster have signed 19-year-old French midfielder Eddy Lecygne on loan from Stoke, for a month.
Here’s Bill Gates and Gideon Osbourne offering Roberto Martinez some tips on organising a back four.
Took @BillGates to @Everton to meet @PJags06 @TimHowardGK @OfficielArounaK & Roberto Martinez promoting @sportrelief pic.twitter.com/d0foeSBylj
— George Osborne (@George_Osborne) January 25, 2016
Remi Garde has been talking, and he offered a fairly pithy response to questions as to whether Aston Villa would be making any signings this month:
“Hopefully yes,” he said.
He expanded, clearly warming to a theme: “I don’t know exactly what. We will see. Sometimes the end of the transfer window is active.”
Quite the talker. Mathieu Debuchy is one of the men they have in mind, seemingly. That’ll be a loan deal.
An email from Niall Farmer, on Paddy Bamford:
“I think Bamford would be an excellent, albeit expensive loan signing for QPR. It will ease Conor Washington’s transition from League One and take the pressure off of Seb Polter for goals. That being said he would be mad to opt for us, we are destined for ‘transitional’ mid-table mediocrity whereas a move to Hull will almost certainly offer him second-tier glory and a chance to do one better than last season’s championship loan outing.”
Here’s a piece on Bamford’s potential destination from our men last month...
Here’s some more on Ramires’s potential move to Jiangsu Suning, from our man Dominic Fifield:
The Chelsea midfielder Ramires is attracting strong interest from the Chinese club Jiangsu Suning and is expected to cut short his stay in the Premier League and become the latest Brazilian import to the money-flushed Super League.
Ramires, an £18m signing from Benfica back in 2010, has not started a Premier League match for the London club under the interim stewardship of Guus Hiddink and was not even included among the substitutes for the recent draw with Everton and Sunday’s eye-catching win at Arsenal. The 28-year-old midfielder only signed a new four-year contract at Stamford Bridge in October but, having slipped down the pecking order, may now be permitted to depart with Chelsea even likely to make a slight profit on his sale.
Austrian defender Michael Madl is on his way to Fulham, according to his current club Sturm Graz. The Austrian club have announced on their website that Madl is heading to London for a medical, and as ever with these things there’s some fun to be had with Google translate, which interprets their announcement thus:
“We have with the traditional English club Fulham put together a good overall package and tomorrow the final conversations.”
Hello. Victor’s been at the Photoshop, I see...
I'm very proud to be part of Standard de Liege ! #coyr pic.twitter.com/nySee3NJS9
— Victor Valdes (@1victorvaldes) January 25, 2016
Nick Miller is back – he had a prawn dish from Guardian Towers’ canteen – to (correctly) guess that the Roma player is one-France-cap wonder Jonathan Zebina. Not one guess into my inbox from any of you, which means either nobody is reading this thing or nobody had a scooby who it was.
Fun fact, Zebina likes contemporary art!
That’s all from me, it’s Miller time. Bye!
Two bits of news from the lower leagues: Cardiff City midfielder Matthew Kennedy, once of Everton, has joined League One’s Port Vale on a one-month loan deal whilst League Two’s Accrington’s Stanley have tied Sean McConville to a new contract until 2018.
Stanley manager John Coleman said: “He won’t be the last to sign up. We expect a few more to be putting pen to paper over the coming weeks.”
“With all due respect to Mancini surely the Samp kit is the SECOND best in Italy: here is the evidence...” emails Jonny Mills.
Was there a more decorated (jewellery) player than Roberto Baggio? You can catch a glimpse of his bracelet on his right wrist, but I also remember he wore an earring (left lobe) and a ring (left hand). Maybe a necklace as well.
Quick quiz: we all know the name of the defender in the top right of this photo, but can you name the Roma player pictured in the middle? I’ll give you a clue. … he’s French.
Updated
What next for Patrick Bamford? Voted the Championship’s player of the year last season on loan at Middlesbrough, he struggled when he made the step up to the Premier League at Crystal Palace. Needless to say, plenty of Championship clubs are sniffing around for a loan deal, namely Hull City and QPR.
And like that, Nick Miller has departed (for an hour or so) for some lunch. Michael Butler stepping in – do email me at michael.butler@theguardian.com or tweet me @michaelbutler18 with your transfer tips, musings, hopes and dreams.
Grim old time at Bolton right now. Basically everyone is for sale, for reasons with which you’re probably already familiar, and according to the Bolton News Darren Pratley is attracting some interest, specifically from Ipswich. Neil Lennon has been putting out the ‘for sale’ sign...
There was interest in him and I think there is still interest in him this month as well,” he said. “He has been superb. He is starting to show the form he had last season before he got that really bad hamstring injury.
“He is pitching in, not only with all round good performances, but goals as well. That’s the reason we kept him on.
“He is captain material and he is starting to drive the team forward.”
Elsewhere, such as with Zach Clough and Mark Davies, who both nearly moved to Bristol City and Sheffield Wednesday respectively but those moves collapsed for various reasons, it’s not quite as lively, according to Lennon:
It has gone a little quiet but I’d be surprised if my phone doesn’t start ringing next week.”
If you’ll apologise for a spot of self-promotion, here’s some lunchtime reading from, erm, me. On Derby, where the fear of failure seems to have become more powerful than the hope of success.
More from Sky now, and they reckon that Leicester are in talks to sign Brazilian forward Eder from Sampdoria. Although quite why Eder would want to give up playing in the best kit around - still, after all these years - I don’t know.
So thus far, the three biggest PL spenders in the transfer window occupy 17th, 18th and 16th positions. Makes sense https://t.co/WKegGyO6mM
— Ian Prior (@ianprior) January 25, 2016
Seems that Chelsea youngster Bertrand Traore is in demand - Marseille, Hamburg and Borussia Dortmund are keen. And after the success of the last youthful winger playing for an English club who needed a bit of first-team football Dortmund loaned, you can understand why they’re so keen to do it again...
It seems, according to some people, Pep Guardiola has already signed and sealed his move to Manchester City, and is already making moves. According to Sport, he wants to take keeper Claudio Bravo with him.
Then again, they do say such talk is according to ‘the British media’, so lord knows where this one started.
I never thought I’d see this day, but it appears that Leandro Damiao, the great ghost of the transfer window who previously appeared to be Daniel Levy’s version of Randall Stephens (“a phantom, an apparition, second cousin to Harvey the rabbit”) is actually a real person.
Leandro Damião now in Seville having flown in this morning, ready to sign for Betis on 1.5 or 2.5 yr deal https://t.co/id314RgJWP
— Andy Brassell (@andybrassell) January 25, 2016
This Football Leaks business is quite interesting. As part of this whole hoopla supposedly designed to bring truth, light and fidelity (or whatever) to the game, they’ve been publishing stuff they’ve come across, one of which is Mesut Özil’s contract at Arsenal.
It seems Real Madrid inserted a couple of clauses designed to keep the German assistmeister away from other clubs in Spain should Arsenal ever sell him. Firstly there’s the buyback clause in his contract, so Real have first dibs on him, but then there’s also the sell-on clause, saying that if Arsenal flog him for over €50m to another Spanish club then Real get 33% of any profit.
Updated
And more from Chelsea...
#Ramires from @ChelseaFC is going to #Jiangsui (China) @SkySport @SkySportsNewsHQ
— Gianluca Di Marzio (@DiMarzio) January 25, 2016
BUT WAIT! ESPN reckon Pato is about to sign for Chelsea, on loan until the end of the season. It only took six minutes for Hiddink’s doubts to clear up.
Sky Sports.com report that Chelsea had a deal in place to sign Alex Pato while Jose Mourinho was in charge, but Guus Hiddink isn’t so sure and that’s why the move hasn’t gone through yet.
This is good...
#EMTUpdate: Pre booked rail tickets for 13 Feb will be accepted on our trains on 14 Feb when travelling with your @LCFC match ticket.
— East Midlands Trains (@EMTrains) January 22, 2016
...in relation to the rather understandably irked fans who had to change plans after Leicester v Arsenal was rearranged at late notice. For details...
It’s an ess short of being ideal, but presumably Fulham’s scouts are booking flights to Salzburg...
@NickMiller79 - one for the future? https://t.co/3lqTuWgbdt #moussadembele
— PhilippaB (@Philby1976) January 25, 2016
A couple of Fulham strikers - specifically Moussa Dembele and Ross McCormack - are in demand this month, with Tottenham interested in the former and Middlesbrough the latter. But Cottagers boss Slavisa Jokanovic says no dice on those two. Sort of.
“There is always speculation about Dembele and McCormack, but people need to understand Fulham too,” Jokanovic told Sky Sports.
“If they are serious people they see we do not need money right now, we need other things, and we are not in a situation where we have to sell our best players.
“We have seven days or so left and everything will be clearer then but, from my side, I don’t want and I do not make the steps to sell anyone. The plan is to bring in new people and we are looking at the loan market.”
McCormack missed the weekend’s game against Hull due to some sniffles, apparently, although it’s up to you whether you believe that.
An additional point is to note that presumably, if Spurs sign Moussa Dembele from Fulham to go with Mousa Dembele who they signed from Fulham, Fulham will have to find a bloke called Mousssa Dembele that they can buy then sell to Spurs in a few years.
Poor old Giuseppe Rossi. He looked like he was going to be a star at one point, but it’s hard to think of a player who’s had worse luck with injuries. He has agreed a loan move from Fiorentina to Levante in Spain, and here’s why:
Giuseppe Rossi on picking Levante:"It was first team to pursue me & I saw it as a good solution: a city & league I know well & that I like"
— David Amoyal (@DavidAmoyal) January 25, 2016
You’ll like this.
According to Calciomercato, Mario Balotelli’s people are pushing for a return to England (he’s currently on loan from Liverpool at AC Milan), and is DEMANDING he play for a club with ‘West’ in the title. Well, not quite - but West Brom and West Ham are mentioned as possible destinations.
Conference South side Weston-super-Mare AFC are missing a trick, here.
“‘ey up Nick, hope you’re well this fine Monday,” starts Oliver, in amiable and rather northern fashion. “West Ham are apparently set to seal the deal for Burak Yilmaz today or tomorrow - Lady Brady is over in Turkey right now getting her wallet out of her pocket and writing a check for a few million quid (somewhere between four and five, apparently). He seems, on paper, to be a good buy - strike rate of 1 in 2 for the past five years for both club (Trabzonspor and Galatasary) and country - but he’s never left his home country. Any idea if he’s actually half decent? Or will this be the classic West Ham January Striker Purchase where he spends the next six months on the bench and then toddles off in the summer (Keane, Maynard, Paulista, Boriello, Nene)?”
For what it’s worth, Slaven Bilic said this of Yilmaz at the weekend: “He [Yilmaz] is a good player you know. At the moment it is only rumours. He is a very important player for Galatasary and we are well covered in those positions. We are still expecting all our strikers to come back from injury in a couple of weeks time. Players like Yilmaz are always linked with clubs, not just West Ham.”
Nothing to do with football, but have a read of this, from elsewhere on the Guardian this weekend. It probably would’ve been quicker for her to write “Why don’t they just die then we can have their house?”
Here’s something...
@NickMiller79 This might be of interest. CHelsea loanee Todd Kane has impressed at N.E.C., lots of teams interested. https://t.co/AYDULqNxvF
— Michiel Jongsma (@JongsmaJongsma) January 25, 2016
Drama in the Guardian canteen as the chap behind the counter burns my ham & cheese croissant, which was the last one so has to go and find another. Well, it’s more exciting than some of the transfer stuff out there.
Lothar Matthäus has been stoking the fires of a potential bid from the Premier League for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, tossing figures like €100m around wantonly, but Borussia Dortmund grosse käse Hans-Joachim Watzke has put a wet tea towel over that one.
“Matthaus appears to be in the know on this one,” he told Bild. “But in all serious, even if such an offer would come in, that would be irrelevant for us. We are simply not selling Auba.”
It feels like we say this every transfer window, but is this the dullest window in recent memory? The biggest transfer so far has been Jonjo Shelvey. A perfectly good player, without question, but not exactly one to get the juices flowing.
So what do you think will liven things up a little? Email your suggestions to Nick.Miller@theGuardian.com and I’ll make it happen. Or something.
Here’s one you may have missed from Saturday, on supposed Liverpool target Alex Teixeira, who fancies leaving Ukraine:
I would like to move in this transfer window and have told them [Shakhtar] that. They have received a very good offer and they are working on a solution. But if I don’t go now then I will leave in the summer.
“After six years in Europe and with Shakhtar we are ready to move and I have spoken to my wife and daughter.”
Here’s Sam Allardyce saying he wants to buy some players in January so he can get back to watching Coronation Street. Or something like that.
Fancy an interactive transfer doo-hickey thing you can click on and stuff, that tells you who’s spent the most money this month? Step right up, friends...
Marseille winger Georges-Kévin N’Koudou seems like a popular man at the moment. According to our man Ed Aarons, scouts from Liverpool, Manchester United and West Ham gave him the once-over during their game against Lyon yesterday. For the first time in about a billion years, West Ham might actually be the most attractive proposition of those three, from a football perspective.
Here’s your daily round-up of today’s finest transfer stuff & whatnot - it’s The Rumour Mill. Today it includes:
- Louis van Gaal’s position, or imminent lack thereof, at Manchester United
- Pato and/or Ezequiel Lavezzi to Chelsea
- Watford and Crystal Palace looking at Andros Townsend, for reasons best known to themselves
- Liverpool looking at Barcelona keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen
- Real Madrid to bid £75m for Robert Lewandowski
Speaking of players who don’t look like they will be going anywhere this month, here’s Atletico Madrid flyer Antoine Griezmann, also chatting to Téléfoot.
“I am feeling very well at Atletico. This is a big club and I want to achieve great things here. I am ambitious and my goal is to win trophies here.
“I have become more mature. The club and my team-mates rely on me. I have become a more complete player and have to continue on the same path. I am not at my best just yet.
“I work every day to improve and reach my top. I am still far away from the best players.”
There’s been talk that Moussa Sissoko might be calling a cab from the firm AAA Do One, in a bid to free himself of Newcastle, but not right now according to the man himself.
“I do not think I will leave Newcastle. The club will not want to let me go. And then the question arises about the timing, a few months before the Euros,” he told French TV people Téléfoot.
“I have been called up to the national team despite our results. I get to play every weekend and perform well.
“Like every player I dream of winning titles and matches in the biggest clubs. I will think about my future after the Euros.”
Updated
DONE DEAL!
Albeit a done deal that was done yesterday, and one that we all knew was going to be done last week. Yes, for social media’s Victor Valdes is being freed from his inhuman Old Trafford prison and is set to roam free on the fields of Liege.
Make sure you read this - specifically the words ‘hard work’ - quite carefully...
#gracias @ManUtd Family ! pic.twitter.com/Rshsg1f51T
— Victor Valdes (@1victorvaldes) January 21, 2016
Updated
Let’s start with Gervinho, for whom someone is supposedly set to pay an awful lot of money. Someone in China, specifically.
“I can confirm there are negotiations on-going for Gervinho to China,” said Roma director Mauro Baldissoni. “When a player expresses the desire to leave, there’s no point keeping him.”
Updated
Ah. Good morning. It’s the transfer window. Or at least the end of it. Which of course means that we’re here, the Guardian’s fearless troupe of transfer trailers, to bring you the latest news and gossip. If there is any of either. Which, frankly, in this transfer window, there hasn’t.
Still, we’ll keep ourselves amused, won’t we? A few stories from the weekend that you might have missed, coming right up.
Nick will be here shortly.
