With the calendar turning over to the new year, the gossip ahead of the January transfer window is heating up. Transfer Talk brings you live updates on all the latest rumours and done deals. Check out all the confirmed January moves so far on our transfers page.
TOP STORY: Madrid plotting £120m move for Hazard
With Eden Hazard‘s Chelsea contract winding down — the Belgian international will enter the final two years of his deal in the summer — Real Madrid are preparing to break the British transfer record to bring the Blues talisman to the Spanish capital.
The Sun reports that Los Blancos are preparing a £120 million offer for the 26-year-old. And if Chelsea can’t get their No. 10 to agree to a new £300,000-a-week contract, his value will take a significant hit after this summer as the player builds leverage the closer he comes to the end of his deal.
And the Sun quotes Hazard’s father, whom the report states spoke to Belgian media last week, as saying: “Eden has refused a contract extension to be able, if necessary, to follow interest from Real Madrid.”
But he did go on to confirm that there has been “no contact” from Real Madrid as yet.
LIVE BLOG
22.30 BST: That’s going to do it for Monday’s live edition of Transfer Talk. Thanks very much for joining us, and be sure to check back in a few short hours when we return with the best gossip pulled from Tuesday’s back pages.
22.01 BST: Sam Allardyce expects Everton will know if they’ll have the services of £25 million-rated Turkey international forward Cenk Tosun to call on in the next 24 hours.
“We’ve done all we can, so I would presume we’ll know in the next 24 hours if it’s been successful or not,” Allardyce said of Everton’s bid after Monday’s 2-0 loss to Manchester United.
“Obviously, we need a bigger goal-scoring threat than we have at the moment and that may help us in so many ways to achieve better results.”
21.51 BST: Tammy Abraham’s younger brother Timmy Abraham has signed his first professional contract with Fulham after coming up through the club’s youth system.
“Happy to sign my professional contract. Happy new year everybody,” Timmy, 17, wrote on his Instagram account after signing his new deal.
He added: “Every young player wants to get to this point where they become a professional. It’s a very good feeling.”
21.23 BST: The agent for New York Red Bulls defender Kemar Lawrence has told the Jamaican Gleaner the team is willing to move the Reggae Boyz international “if the offer is right.”
Damani Ralph revealed to the outlet that Turkish clubs Fenerbahce and Trabzonspor have shown interest, with the former supposedly having Lawrence on their “shortlist” for the January window.
20.45 BST: Charlton are set to sign 19-year-old Arsenal striker Stephy Mavididi to a loan deal on Tuesday, according to London News Online. Mavididi would be making his second spell with the South London club.
20.00 BST: Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho will be a happier man after his side won at Everton to end a run of three successive Premier League draws, and told Sky Sports that more transfer activity at Old Trafford may wait until the summer.
“I don’t know about transfers,” he said. “In this moment we are in trouble, in two to three weeks’ time maybe we recover and we breathe in a different way. Can we improve now or do we wait until the summer? I cannot say.”
19.47 BST: More from Sunderland now, where Chris Coleman has said he will not sign striker James Vaughan, linked with Wigan, because on-loan ,b.Lewis Grabban is set to be recalled by parent club Bournemouth this month.
18.55 BST: Leicester City boss Claude Puel has said he is aiming to keep Riyad Mahrez after his fine goal put the Foxes on their way to victory over Huddersfield on Monday. Speculation has linked Mahrez with both Chelsea and Arsenal, but Puel said: “I like this player, and I’d like to keep our best players.”
18.45 BST: And something from another Championship manager about the window, this time Sunderland boss Chris Coleman, whose side dropped back into the relegation zone after a home defeat. Coleman said: “What we have to do is fatten the squad up in numbers and add a bit of quality. If we bring that in on top of what we have, we will have a good chance. It will be an important window for us.”
18.20 BST: Norwich coach Daniel Farke has said he is not concerned about potential Premier League offers for star playmakers Alex Pritchard and James Maddison in January. Farke told reporters: “There might be bigger clubs who are interested, but I am used to this. I know there will be some annoying days in January because there will be rumours and I will be asked to comment. Right now, no-one has knocked at my door and said they want to leave.”
17.45 BST: And here’s the first non-league to Football League switch of January — striker Dior Angus goes from Redditch United to League Two Port Vale.
16.05 BST: Both Huddersfield and Watford are considering a move for Wolves’ England under-21 defender Kortney Hause, the Sun reports. He would cost around £2.5 million.
15.40 BST: Switzerland international Reto Ziegler will join Dallas FC after his contract at Luzern was not renewed, the Swiss club have announced.
14.40 BST: Real Madrid are set to sign Valencia forward Rafa Mir for less than £500,000, Marca reports.
14.08 BST: The big news from Burnley today is that Philippe Coutinho, repeatedly linked with a move to Barcelona, is not in the Liverpool squad.
But fear not, Liverpool fans — the reason for Coutinho’s absence is that he has a thigh problem.
13.35 BST: New York City FC have signed Paraguay international midfielder Jesus Medina from Club Libertad.
Medina comes in to take the Designated Player place available following the retirement of Andrea Pirlo, with the 20-year-old signing a four-year contract.
.@JesusMediina8 sits down for his first interview as one of the City’s own #WelcomeJesus
WATCH ➡️ https://t.co/LRil93sHY7 pic.twitter.com/wLzwPGbouV
— New York City FC (@NYCFC) December 31, 2017
13.20 BST: Birmingham City, Derby County, Cardiff City and Sunderland are all interested in Norwich striker Cameron Jerome, an ex-Birmingham player, according to the Birmingham Mail.
13.00 BST: For your watching pleasure: which Premier League club needs which player or players this month? With the top clubs set to look for reinforcements, the FC crew pick out a few players who could be on the move. Find out who they’re talking about here.
12.50 BST: Staying in the Championship, Brentford have completed a move agreed in the summer to sign Denmark under-21 international striker Emiliano Marcondes from Nordsjaelland. He will move to Griffin Park on a three-and-a-half year contract, subject to all paperwork being agreed.
12:30 BST: Championship leaders Wolves are being linked with a move for Norwich City striker Nelson Oliveira as they look to consolidate their position at the top of the league, the Eastern Daily Press reports. Oliveira was reported to have been a target for Reading in the summer.
12:10 BST: Virgil van Dijk became the world’s most expensive defender this month when he signed for Liverpool, having left Celtic move to the Premier League with Southampton in 2015. According to the Daily Record, Jozo Simunovic could be the latest stopper to leave the Scottish giants for a deal south of the border, with Burnley the interested party.
11:48 BST: It’s not just Theo Walcott’s former club Southampton who are interested in taking the Arsenal winger on loan. According to the Daily Mirror, the England international is also on the radar of Everton, West Ham United and Watford.
Walcott, 28, has made just four Premier League appearances for the Gunners this season, so a move out of the Emirates could be just the thing to rejuvenate his career with a World Cup coming up.
11:24 BST: DONE DEAL (sort of)! Leicester City have finally confirmed the signing of Adrien Silva after the Portugal international was unable to seal a £22million move from Sporting Lisbon on transfer deadline day last summer as the paperwork was submitted 14 seconds late.
Subsequent appeals to FIFA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport were rejected, meaning both the club and player had to wait until January for Silva to become eligible to play.
The 28-year-old, who has played several behind-closed-doors friendlies to help gain match fitness, told Leicester’s official website: “It’s been very frustrating, but now the difficult times are past me and now I’m very happy to be close to my goal. I’ve been working hard every day to arrive at this moment and I’m in good shape. I will be in good shape because I have worked a lot – I have confidence in that – but I have to play games to get better.”
After the completion of his registration as a #lcfc player on New Year’s Day, here’s what Adrien Silva had to say in an exclusive interview with LCFC TV ? https://t.co/SEwAZ9bLyI pic.twitter.com/gEvcMZ0sCX
— Leicester City (@LCFC) January 1, 2018
11:03 BST: Everton could announce the signing of Turkish striker Cenk Tosun from Besiktas as early as Tuesday, The Times reports.
Everton boss Sam Allardyce confirmed last week that Tosun, 26, was one of several players he was targeting as he looks to continue the Toffees’ climb back up the table.
10:42 BST: WATCH — The ESPN FC TV crew discuss the latest transfer chatter, including which PSG stars could be on their way to Real Madrid and if Diego Simeone could be the man to replace Jose Mourinho at Manchester United.
10:25 BST: Manchester United will make a £40m move for Inter Milan midfielder Joao Mario once Henrikh Mkhitaryan moves to the Serie A club, according to The Sun.
The newspaper says that United see the Portugal international, 24, as the long-term replacement for Michael Carrick. The 36-year-old has made just one appearance this season, in September’s Carabao Cup win over Burton Albion.
10:06 BST: Three little words from Wilfried Zaha to make Crystal Palace fans very happy. The former Manchester United attacker has been linked with pretty much every other one of the Premier League’s biggest clubs in recent months. However, following Crystal Palace’s creditable 0-0 draw against Manchester City on New Year’s Eve, he was asked by BBC Sport if he was staying at Selhurst Park to which he replied: “Yep, I am.”
09:49 BST: Virgil van Dijk says Liverpool is the “perfect match” for him after his move from Southampton was officially completed. The 26-year-old’s switch from the Saints was agreed last week, but with the January transfer window now open his deal — which sources have told ESPN FC is worth £75 million, the highest fee ever paid for a defender — is now sealed.
The Dutchman told Liverpool’s official website: “With the history at the club and everything around it – even the training ground and stuff – it is just a perfect, perfect match for me, and for my family as well. Obviously there is a lot of money being paid, but I can’t do anything about that money, I can’t do anything about the price – nobody can. It’s only the market. The only thing I can do is just work hard, do the good things and be 100 per cent every day. That’s what I definitely want to do – and I am going to do.
09:30 BST: The first star unveiling of the January transfer window (or, if you prefer, the final one of the summer) saw Diego Costa finally be presented as an Atletico Madrid player. The former Chelsea striker agreed to rejoin the La Liga side in September but has been unable to register as the transfer window was closed.
He was officially introduced as an Atletico player on Sunday, while he will be registered today when the winter window opens, and said he was “tired” of training and keen to play as soon as possible — with Atletico’s next match coming against Lleida Esportiu in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday.
“I want to thank the club for the effort they have made to bring me back,” Costa said, in comments reported by Marca. “I just want to play as soon as possible. I’m tired of training.” Read more here.
?⚪? WELCOME HOME
???We’ve missed that smile, @DiegoCosta. #AúpaAtleti #BienvenidoDiegoCosta pic.twitter.com/2Zt5NwnBKN— Atlético de Madrid (@atletienglish) December 31, 2017
09:21 BST: Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has urged supporters to stay calm and trust chairman Daniel Levy over the future of Toby Alderweireld. The Belgium defender’s £55,000-a-week contract is due to expire next summer and a source has told ESPN FC that he has rejected at least one offer of a new deal.
Spurs have the option of extending Alderweireld’s contract until 2020, but doing so would activate a release clause allowing him to leave for £25 million during a two-week window in the summer of 2019.
Pochettino said: “This is a message for our fans and for everyone: he still has two-and-half years of contract. [Lionel] Messi had six months left on his contract. Messi! Nothing is happening. If something happens, the club is going to communicate it. But I don’t understand all these things when the players are all under contract. Daniel Levy said to me: ‘Don’t worry gaffer. It’s two-and-half years.'” Read more here.
09:05 BST: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola wouldn’t completely close the door on a January move for Alexis Sanchez. Sanchez is available on a free transfer at the end of the season and sources have told ESPN FC that he would favour a move to City.
Asked whether City will make a move when the transfer window reopens on Jan. 1, Guardiola said: “I don’t know. He is a player for Arsenal and I think he is going to stay there. We will have internal meetings and see what is for the best, but he is an Arsenal player and I think he will be [after January].” Read more here.
Goretzka set to join Bayern on a free
According to Sport Bild, which also cites reports from Marca, Schalke and Germany midfielder Leon Goretzka will join Bayern Munich on a free transfer this summer.
With the 22-year-old’s contract set to expire this summer, he’d been identified by many of Europe’s biggest clubs, the report states, with Madrid and Barcelona both high on the player.
The Germany publication cites Marca as reporting that Barcelona’s negotiations led the La Liga leaders to believe that Goretzka has already concluded a deal to join Bayern.
United backing Pogba to bring in Dybala
Manchester United are hoping “secret agent” Paul Pogba can help them in signing former Juventus teammate Paulo Dybala for around £90m, according to the Mirror.
Pogba, who has underwhelmed at United since joining for a world-record fee in the summer of 2016, played with Dybala for a single season in which, according to the outlet, the two became close friends.
Per the paper, Mourinho “is anxious to bring in more firepower to ease the expectation on this season’s leading scorer Romelu Lukaku and 2016-17’s top gun Zlatan Ibrahimovic” and Dybala has jumped Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann as the apple of the Portuguese’s eye for next season, despite suffering through a horrid campaign that’s seen him benched on more than one occasion with the Turin giants.
Tap-ins
— Veteran Swiss defender Reto Ziegler is considering a move to Major League Soccer, according to the Luzerner Zeitung. The well-travelled 31-year-old saw his deal with Switzerland’s FC Luzern recently end and is looking for an eighth club to join in his career, though no specific MLS team was mentioned as being on his wish list.
— Watford boss Marco Silva is confident he’ll win the “battle” to sign disappointing Leiceister striker Islam Slimani, reports The Mirror. Rafa Benitez is also keen to secure the Algeria international’s services. However, Silva is thought to be the favourite for his signature as he previously managed Slimani at Sporting.
— Southampton are looking to bring back Theo Walcott in January, states The Daily Mail. The 28-year-old left the Saints for the Emirates as a teenager back in 2006. And Walcott, now 28, is set to return to St Mary’s on loan in hopes of finding regular minutes.
Follow @ESPNFC on Twitter to keep up with the latest football updates.