The January Transfer Window - 2016

[Lineker]

Ravel Morrison to Bournemouth is rumoured to be on. Hope that doesn't happen, he isn't worth the trouble.

[Lineker]

Crystal Palace midfielder Jonny Williams has sealed a loan move to MK Dons until the end of the season.

[Lineker]

[Lineker]

I think @Gazz is gonna puke...

Just look how fucking depressed he looks.

[MDK]

And they've replaced his hand with a football

[Colly]

He's had to close down his Twitter due to the level of abuse.

[Gazz]

Why, Steve? Why?

[Just Joe]

 

Don't really care where he was before hand, he's a decent stop gap to the end of the season if we are hit with injuries and could prove to be a big help to Pickford in training, which he's come out and said himself. It's a shame he's had to delete twitter because a few fans on both sides of the divide have taken it upon themselves to give him abuse.

[MDK]

It makes sense for him if his house and family are in the North East. And anyway, its just a job.

[TCO]

Am I the only one not bothered by it?

Good for him and his family. He was as loyal as servant as anyone, spending his career sitting behind Given. Glad to see him still finding a role in the Premier League at this point in his career. 

[Colly]

Not bothered at all, Twitter people are morons. He lives in the North East, is looking to go into coaching and we've only got 3 sides in the top 2 divisions, so if a vacancy comes up he'll take it. Plus he can do a hilarious hoy into his own net to keep us up last day of the season...

[MDK]

30 minutes ago, Ultra Rare Colly said:

Not bothered at all, Twitter people are morons. He lives in the North East, is looking to go into coaching and we've only got 3 sides in the top 2 divisions, so if a vacancy comes up he'll take it. Plus he can do a hilarious hoy into his own net to keep us up last day of the season...

Agent Harper reporting in

[Hobo]

I am enjoying the rumours that that Liverpool enquired about Kasper Schmeichel. Even if there is no chance he'll move in January.

[Lineker]

The Chelsea midfielder Ramires is attracting strong interest from the Chinese club Jiangsu Suning and is expected to cut short his stay in the Premier League and become the latest Brazilian import to the Super League.

Ramires, an £18m signing from Benfica in 2010, has not started a Premier League match under the interim stewardship of Guus Hiddink and was not included among the substitutes for the recent draw with Everton and Sunday’s win at Arsenal. The 28-year-old midfielder signed a four-year contract at Stamford Bridge in October but, having slipped down the pecking order, may now be permitted to depart with Chelsea even likely to make a slight profit on his sale.

Jiangu Suning are coached by the former Chelsea player, Dan Petrescu, and would be willing to pay around £20m for the Brazil international. Their squad are on a training camp in Málaga and Ramires could link up with his new team-mates in Spain before their departure back to China if a deal is thrashed out.

The midfielder, capped 52 times, has started only seven league games this season, the last of which was the 2-1 defeat at Leicester that prompted José Mourinho’s dismissal as manager.

Ramires’ departure, to join such as Paulinho and Luiz Felipe Scolari in China, would potentially offer Ruben Loftus-Cheek a more regular route into the Chelsea first team, speeding up the young Englishman’s development, and would appear to confirm the key role John Mikel Obi will enjoy under Hiddink. The Nigerian, such a bit-part player under previous Chelsea managers, has offered the team balance in defensive midfield and liberated Cesc Fábregas and Oscar to make their mark around him.

Chelsea expect other departures before the closure of the transfer window on 1 February, with Christian Atsu set to join Levante on loan for the remainder of the campaign and Bertrand Traoré also likely to secure a temporary deal. Hamburg have joined Marseille in inquiring for his services. There remains the possibility Radamel Falcao’s loan agreement from Monaco could be terminated six months early, while some doubt still remains over the immediate future of Loïc Rémy.

Alexandre Pato, whose representatives have been regular contact with Chelsea over the last few weeks, could join initially on loan from the Brazilian club Corinthians with a view to a permanent move if he makes a positive impact back in European football. The 26-year-old forward scored 63 goals for Milan over a six-year spell in San Siro before returning home three years ago. He has spent the last two seasons on loan at São Paulo.

[stokeriño]

£20 million for Ramires would be pretty super money at this stage. The only concern would be, presuming that we get no other midfielder in this week, relying too heavily on some combination of Mikel/Matic/Fabregas and ending up in the lurch sometime in the next few months. Our central midfield depth isn't too great after all, especially since RLC seems to be played at #10 on the rare occasions he does get played.

[MDK]

You could consider this season as a write-off and just flog him for 20mil. Might as well give youth a chance.

[stokeriño]

4 minutes ago, MDK said:

You could consider this season as a write-off and just ... give youth a chance.

Yeah we've had fans saying this for a few months now. Still waiting.  

[MDK]

Holding your breath for so long might be damaging to your health

[Matt]

Pfft, I could hold my breath for the rest of my life.

[Lineker]

Andros Townsend looks certain to move from Tottenham to Newcastle with the clubs close to agreeing a compromise over the fee for the England winger.

Townsend, who has barely featured for Spurs this campaign and has played only 64 minutes in the Premier League in total, has been targeted by Newcastle’s manager, Steve McClaren, for several weeks as he seeks to strengthen his squad for the battle against relegation.

Tottenham’s chairman, Daniel Levy, had originally demanded that they pay £14m to secure the 24-year-old and rejected Newcastle’s opening offer of £10m earlier this month.

But with Mauricio Pochettino keen to free up space in his squad, the Tottenham manager has personally intervened to request that the club accepts a lower bid – understood to be somewhere in the middle of the two clubs’ valuations. Levy is believed to have sanctioned the move in principle and now Townsend will discuss personal terms with Newcastle but is expected to sign for the club in the next 48 hours.

Having been a regular in Roy Hodgson’s England squad last season, Townsend was banished from Spurs’ first team after clashing with the fitness coach, Nathan Gardiner, and forced to train with the Under-21s. He has not played for Tottenham’s first team since and it is now nearly two years since he completed a full Premier League match for the club.

But it is understood that Pochettino has been impressed with Townsend’s attitude since being frozen out of the first team picture and was keen to allow him to find another club as a goodwill gesture.

Real Madrid have a buy-back clause in their transfer agreement with Arsenal for Mesut Özil, according to leaked transfer documents.

A contract on the Football Leaks website shows Arsenal must notify Real if they ever intend to sell the Germany international to another Spanish club.

The financial terms of the offer received for the playmaker would be disclosed to Real, who would have 48 hours to decide whether to match the offer, or until noon, London time, on the final day of the relevant transfer window, whichever comes first.

Should a rival Spanish club sign Özil for more than €50m, Real would be entitled to 33% of the profit. The contract shows Arsenal paid €44m when they signed Özil in September 2013, with the fee rising to a maximum of €50m.

Six separate €1m payments, up to a maximum of €6m, are contingent on Arsenal qualifying for the Champions League group stages in any season from July 2014 onwards. Each one must be paid within 30 days of qualification being secured, the contract states.

An Arsenal spokesman said: “We don’t discuss contracts of any of our players.”