Spanish assist-machine David Silva is believed to be flattered by interest from Milan, who spent €175m on an overhaul during the summer, but are currently languishing in seventh place in Serie A, already six points off the pace set by Napoli and Juventus. Silva has two years left on his contract at Manchester City but is dilly-dallying on inking an extension and utterly baseless speculation suggests he may agitate for a move elsewhere next summer.
Currently letting his contract run down at Arsenal, Mesut Özil will be free to discuss his future with foreign suitors in January and conflicting reports in the past 24 hours suggest Internazionale may or may not be keen to offer him a new home. Some say the Italian club’s chairman, Erick Thohir, has dismissed any such talk as “just gossip”, which is invariably grist to the Rumour Mill’s … er, mill. “Who knows who is behind that one,” he said. “A lot of signings in the winter aren’t optimal, I know from experience after we brought Lukas Podolski and Xherdan Shaqiri.” Elsewhere, however, Thohir is quoted as saying the Arsenal midfielder “is definitely one of those players we’re looking at”, so you can understand that we’re feeling a mite confused.
Having been shown the door at Bayern Munich, Carlo Ancelotti is already being linked with Slaven Bilic’s job at West Ham United. The mere availability of the Italian seems to be the key factor, given the apparent determination of Davids Sullivan and Gold, West Ham’s owners, to replace the Croatian, who has long been considered a dead man walking and the axe may fall if his team lose against Swansea City at the London Stadium on Saturday. “Sometimes you laugh, sometimes you are angry, sometimes you are down and other times it makes you more motivated,” Bilic said, when asked how it feels to see your job constantly linked with other candidates. “It affects you, of course it does, you are human. Sometimes it makes you more pissed off when it happens to your colleagues. I can’t moan about my job. I am only fed up talking about it. When you are doing good, average or bad, you can’t switch off.”
Barcelona may have to ask Camp Nou regulars to keep the noise down if they succeed in their aim of signing RB Leipzig striker Timo Werner. Last spotted asking to be substituted because of dizziness amid the din at Besiktas’s Vodafone Arena, the 21-year-old subsequently left the field during his side’s Champions League match against the Turkish side.
And finally, Werner may need to cover his ears as we sound our “done deal” klaxon, having just heard the news that the striker Ross McCormack’s disastrous spell at Aston Villa has been punctuated by a loan move to Melbourne City that will keep the Scotland international there until January.