Deadline day is fast approaching but despite having very little time to do it, the Premier League big guns still have an awful lot of business to be done if the rumour mill is to be believed.
In any other year we would be glad that the transfer window is extended by a couple of days but such have been the amount of sagas and dubious links to the various players involved that it would almost be a blessing if the window followed the calendar to the letter and closed tonight.
There are still two and a bit days to go, however, and some will have you believe that some of the clubs will do more business in that time than they have done in the entire summer to date.
Manchester United, for example, could have added four players to their squad by Monday night and while all of the papers report some interest in Ander Herrera, Daniele de Rossi, Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines, the Sun reckon that David Moyes is about to go and splash £77 million on all four in a Spurs-like spending spree, although the Times suggest that De Rossi in particular will be a tough nut to crack.
The consensus is that only one top club needs players more than United do right now and that club is Arsenal, who have history when it comes to Supermarket Sweep style acquisitions at the last minute.
The Times say that the Gunners are back in for Yohan Cabaye and are close to agreeing a £14million move, while the Mirror think that Arsene Wenger will be more ambitious and try to land Schalke playmaker Julian Draxler, who is rated at £60 million but we can’t see Wenger paying that spicy a meatball for his services.
While Draxler’s arrival would excite Gunners fans, less exciting would be the potential arrival of Salomon Kalou as has been mooted in the Daily Mail, who, as we suggested might happen yesterday, have taken Kaka’s desire to leave Real as a sure sign that he wants to join Arsenal, Manchester United or a host of other Premier League clubs.
There seems to be a little more substance behind Liverpool’s attempts to sign defensive duo Tiago Ilori from Sporting Lisbon and Mamadou Sakho from PSG – L’Equipe say that the latter is as good as a done deal – for a combined fee of around £25million, although they are facing competition from West Brom and Southampton in their bid to take Victor Moses on loan from Chelsea.
Speaking of West Brom, the Times say that after they had to give one striker (Romelu Lukaku) back to Chelsea, they want another one (Demba Ba) in return, while the Mirror are linking the Baggies with a move for Marseille midfielder Morgan Amalfitano.
Finally, Middlesbrough are trying to secure the signature of Stephen Ireland (Mirror), Sunderland should seal a deal for Swansea’s Ki Sung-Yueng before Monday (The Sun), Manchester City have been given the go ahead to sign veteran defender Martin Demichelis from Atletico Madrid (The Sun) and Gareth Barry is prepared to take a pay cut to leave City for Everton on loan (Daily Mail).
