You’ll all be delighted to hear that the transfer merry-go-round is up to full speed which means that we have a bumper edition of transfer rumours for you this week.
Let’s start at Parkhead where Celtic are planning to sign half of the Scotland squad. Well, two of them. Ikechi Anya has long been a target for Ronny Deila’s side and he has been joined on the ‘wanted list’ by Sunderland’s Steven Fletcher who would like to have a bit of an easier life next season.
In the interest of consistency, Virgil van Dijk could be on the move to the Barclays Premier League. Sunderland want to use him as a part-exchange for the afore-mentioned Fletcher. Is that a good deal? It’s worth pointing out that Van Dijk scored 10 goals last season, to Fletcher’s 5, which of course means absolutely nothing.
Across the city, Rangers will give new manager Mark Warburton something which is laughingly being referred to as a ‘warchest’ to bring in an entire team of new players. Lee McCulloch is waiting by the phone.
South of the border and things are hotting up in the race for Radamel “He Of The Knackered Knee” Falcao with Chelsea expected to announce his signing next week to ramp up the Stamford Bridge faithful’s excitement levels.
Leicester City have jumped on the “James Chester is worth £10m bandwagon”, joining Aston Villa, Newcastle and West Brom in pursuing the Hull Tigers defender.
With David De Gea almost certainly off to Real Madrid, Manchester United are going to sign a goalkeeper! Any goalkeeper! Jasper Cillessen, Tim Krul, Hugo Lloris, Samir Handanovic, Asmir Begovic, your Dad, Mattia Perin, Petr Cech and even Victor Valdes (he’s already there you know) have been linked with the position. Massimo Taibi is not waiting by the phone.
On the continent, Atletico’s Mario Mandzukic could be on his merry way to Wolfsburg despite reports in last weeks’ papers guaranteeing that he had already agreed a deal to move to Manchester United… or Liverpool… or Juventus.
Check back next week when Celtic will have definitely completed deals for David Marshall, Alan Hutton, Russell Martin, Craig Forsyth, James Morrison, Matt Ritchie and Steven Naismith. You heard it here first.
