After all the excitement surrounding the prospect of Savinho leaving Manchester City to join Tottenham, it might eventually transpire that the Londoners are not willing to pay a whopping £70m for a winger who does not score. Therefore they need to construct a cunning plan B. Conveniently this is already on the big blackboard in the recruitment room. Maghnes Akliouche of Monaco is the second option and would be considerable cheaper than the Brazilian, coming in at round £47.5m.
Tottenham, as is well-documented, are in talks over the signing of Eberechi Eze from Crystal Palace. If that goes through, one potential replacement for the winger at Selhurst Park is Southampton’s Tyler Dibling, who is still waiting for his big summer move after interest from Nottingham Forest, Everton and some Bundesliga clubs.
Nicolas Jackson’s name has cropped up on more days than not in this daily column of transfer tittle-tattle. Needless to say, a lot of what is said about the striker has little substance but the latest talk might not head into the ether quite so soon. Aston Villa really need a new No 9 and Chelsea are quite eager to get rid of the Senegalese frontman, which could make this a gloriously symbiotic move for everyone.
As the opening weekend proved, Wolves and West Ham really need to do some business before the window slams in their faces. It might not therefore be particularly helpful that they both want the same player, nor to mention it might be difficult to convince Marc Casadó boyhood club Barcelona to move to Premier League teams who will almost certainly struggle this season but it is worth a try.
Everything is going swimmingly at Marseille after one game this season. And by that, we mean it’s absolute chaos. An opening night defeat to Rennes on Friday concluded with England Under-21 international Jonathan Rowe have a good old fashioned dustup with teammate Adrien Rabiot, a man no stranger to controversy. Both were almost immediately placed on the transfer list. The good news for Rowe is that he is already in talks with Bologna about going to Italy, only a couple of months after completing a permanent move to the south of France from Norwich. Rabiot, one assumes, will be linked with every Premier League club as he has been for most of the past decade.
Veteran striker Jamie Vardy is still looking for a new club after leaving Leicester. The 38-year-old still has plenty to give despite his veteran status and has been linked with a move north of the border to Celtic where he would link up with his former Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers. “Listen, I would not speak about any individual player,” said Rodgers of the rumours. “Of course I worked really well with Jamie, he was brilliant for me in my time at Leicester. But there’s been so many names floated about. I wouldn’t disclose either way.”
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Ipswich are keen to bolster their ranks in midfield and make a cheeky little loan offer to sign Newcastle teenager Lewis Miley but Eddie Howe is eager to keep the 19-year-old at St James’ Park and give him more of a chance. Elsewhere in the Championship, the former West Ham forward Dapo Afolayan may St Pauli leave St Pauli this month and is wanted by Leicester, West Brom and Blackburn. There’s also interest in Belgium from Gent and Genk.