Arsenal might have finally found that signing they've been looking for all summer, where will Benteke end up, Mata to Everton and Manchester City attempt to clean house.
Shkodran Mustafi has agreed to join Arsenal, who have been struggling to fill the gaps at the back (and also up front) in their squad. The centre-back has agreed to join the Gunners from Valencia, but the two clubs have yet to agree a fee. However, The Guardian report that they're still in negotiations on signing their number one defensive target, with Valencia believed to be holding out for over £25 million.
Staying in London, Mesut Ozil has apparently expressed an interest in leaving Arsenal to return to Real Madrid (it takes two to tango, Mesut) as The Sun claim that sources in Germany say that he would jump at the chance to go back. He's reportedly frustrated with the lack of transfer activity at The Emirates, and contract negotiations have stalled as a result.
A fake image doing the rounds on Twitter yesterday suggested that Christian Benteke's move to Crystal Palace was a done deal, but it seems that West Brom have jumped in to hijack that bid, and are willing to break their transfer record to get the Belgian international. That might benefit Alan Pardew anyway, given he promised that the team would be playing more tiki-taka football, a style which might not suit Benteke...
Manchester City are looking to offload the dead weight in their squad, as Wilfried Bony, Eliaquim Mangala and Samir Nasri have been told they can hit the road. Once again, The Sun have a different and exciting angle on it, saying that Nasri has been put on a special fat-burning program at the club after he failed a basic sprint test.
Juan Mata is ready to leave Manchester United and head to...Everton? Well according to The Times that seems a real possibility, as the Spaniard is not going to stay at Old Trafford with Jose Mourinho. Meanwhile, Bastian Schweinsteiger is happy to sit there and see out his contract, despite being "exiled" by the Portuguese at the club.
Over on Merseyside, Ronald Koeman has admitted that they might have to sell Romelu Lukaku, but they are apparently not interested in signing Bony to replace him. They might have a dearth of strikers soon if the Liverpool Echo are to be believed, as they are also hoping to get rid of Oumar Niasse at the same time. The Dutch manager grabbed even more headlines after saying that his team is only 70% ready for the start of the new season as they need to get fitter, so he's setting the bar nice and low for the first few weeks.
Strangely, today's roundup features an awful lot of death threats, but for once they're not aimed at us. Instead, it's Mauricio Pochettino who threatened to thin the ranks of his squad by killing some of them in what The Daily Telegraph have described as an "unconventional" pre-season meeting. Apparently it was an attempt to get rid of the ghosts from last season, after they collapsed at the end of last season. Here's some exclusive footage:
Mauricio is intense, but he's not the only one threatening his players. Claudio Ranieri stated that he has no intention of selling Riyad Mahrez to Arsenal, and joked that he'd strangle him if he left. Things are getting weird in the world of transfers...
And the rest: Guardiola wants to replace Joe Hart with a "sweeper-keeper" like Marc Andre Ter Stegen; Jose Mourinho has been told he has to sell if he wants to buy; Chelsea have made a bid for Joao Mario of Sporting Lisbon, tabling £39 million for the midfielder; Nacer Chadli is on the wanted list for Borussia Dortmund and Swansea, but he's now got a price tag of £20 million on his head; Burnley and Hulla re both interested in James Chester; Mile Jedinak looks to be headed to Aston Villa; Claude Puel says Nathan Redmond is the his side's Thierry Henry.
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