David Moyes maintains that he is not expecting many, if any, new arrivals at Old Trafford this month, while several clubs are casting flirtatious glances in the direction of Juan Mata on the Chelsea bench.
On the evidence of most of this season and the last six weeks or so in particular, a blind man could see that Manchester United are in dire need of reinforcements if they want to maintain their fight to stay in the Champions League next season.
Defeat at home to Swansea (their fourth loss in six games at Old Trafford) has heightened the sense of desperation amongst Manchester United supporters, who shouldn’t really be getting their hopes up if the most recent comments of David Moyes are anything to go.
After the Swansea defeat yesterday, Moyes recognised the need to add to the squad at the earliest opportunity but maintained his stance that he is unlikely to do so this month.
"We would like to bring people in but are those players available?" Moyes is widely quoted as saying in this morning’s papers.
"There is an urgency but there's no point in me hyping it up because the players we would like to bring in are probably not available in January."
One of those players is, according to the Daily Express at least, Bayern Munich striker Mario Mandzukic, who is apparently being monitored by both United and Arsenal following confirmation of the inevitable news that Robert Lewandowski will join the Bavarian giants in the summer.
German paper Bild say that Bayern have no interest in selling the Croatian attacker but we wouldn’t be surprised if the rumour surfaces again come the summer time.
Mandzukic, of course, hasn’t played in the Premier League before but one man who has is Salomon Kalou and he could return to England just 18 months after leaving the Premier League with The Daily Mirror reporting that the 28-year old (we had assumed he was a lot older than that for some reason) is a target for both Spurs and Liverpool this month.
Speaking of Spurs, one signing that certainly hasn’t proved as effective as the club’s fans might have hoped is Erik Lamela and the unsettled Argentinian could be on his way back to Italy and to Inter Milan in particular, with Gazzetta Dello Sport reporting that his representatives are meeting officials from the Nerazzurri today to discuss a potential loan move for a guy who became Spurs’ record signing when he arrived in the summer.
Inter might make it something of a double whammy in terms of their foray into the Premier League transfer market, with reports of a move for the barely used Juan Mata surfacing in various places once again this morning, following on from a report in yesterday’s Sunday Times which suggested that PSG and Napoli were also interested in the scheming Spaniard.
Elsewhere, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer has made good use of his knowledge of former club Manchester United by signing United Academy products Magnus Wolff Eikrem (from Heerenveen) and Mats Moller Daehli (from Molde) for new club Cardiff, while Newcastle want to prise Dutch international Luuk de Jong from Borussia Monchengladbach (Daily Mail).
The Daily Mirror suggest that Monaco are interested in signing Thomas Ince from Blackpool (Daily Mirror), while Irish international Wes Hoolahan is believed to be one of the creative players Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert is planning on bringing in this month.
