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With more hushed talk than a Chinese whisper convention, here’s all of today’s transfer gossip

With Jim White remaining in cold storage until next Thursday at least and a 17-year ball boy man dominating the news this week, it’s gone pretty quiet on the transfer front of late and the gossip could be best described as lukewarm on this cold Friday morning.

Still with Harry Redknapp about and more Frenchmen in the market than Alan Pardew could shake a crusty baguette at, there is still enough to keep us going and it is with ‘Arry’s struggling QPR side that we will start this morning’s round up.

Providing Newcastle don’t get there first, the relegation candidates are believed to be in the hunt for Toulouse’s French midfielder Etienne Capoue according to both The Times and The Sun and could have to splash out as much as £10 million for the 24-year old.

If that doesn’t work out, Redknapp could swoop for Jake Livermore from old club Tottenham, but Andre Villas-Boas is not thought to be keen on that move at all at all, understandable given the loss of Sandro for the rest of the season.

In fact, The Star are claiming that AVB wants to strengthen in that very area of the pitch with the capture of West Ham’s Mohamed Diame, who was also believed to be on Arsenal’s radar this month.

Spurs could look to exploit what appears to be a pretty meagre £3.5 million release clause in Diame’s contract, although Big Sam would be loathe to lose one of his star performers so far this season. If it was Fergie who was asking for him on the other hand...

Even Stevie Wonder could see that all is not right between Jose Mourinho and Iker Casillas at the moment, but the Special One’s need for a netminder has been exacerbated by a hand injury to the Spanish number one that will likely see him miss the meeting with Man United in the Champions League next month.

The Mirror claim that QPR’s Julio Cesar is the apple of Jose’s eye, having worked with him previously at Inter Milan, while The Star reckon that Mourinho is setting his sights higher and wants another of his old boys in the shape of Chelsea’s Petr Cech. Casillas probably won’t be out for too long and Mourinho probably won’t be at Madrid for much longer so whoever does go there is likely to fill the jersey only a temporary basis, but watch this space.

Closer to home, The Sun are claiming that Aiden McGeady wants to get ‘Russian back to Britain (see what they did there)’ from Spartak Moscow with both Sunderland and Wigan said to be interested, but they’ll have to pay at least £5 million for his brilliant dribbling skills but often frustrating deliveries from each flank.

In some of the more unlikelier rumours we’ve heard today, Real Mallorca are believed to be chasing a loan deal for Alan Hutton, a man who certainly wouldn’t be on Shane Long’s Christmas card list, while Chris Hughton’s search for a striker has extended to Sporting Lisbon’s Ricky van Wolfswinkel, surely one of the best names in the business.

Finally, Liverpool fans may never have thought they’d see the day when they were trumped by Southampton in the transfer market, but that looks like it could be the case with Gazzetta dello Sport claiming that the Saints have upped their bid for Inter Milan defender Philippe Coutinho to £8.4 million, almost a million quid more than a bid made by the Reds from which they said they will not budge.