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• Cole left out of Dalglish’s squads so far this season
• Liverpool agree terms with Evian for Christian Poulsen

Lille are on the verge of completing a season’s loan for Joe Cole, thereby satisfying Liverpool’s desire to save at least some of the 29-year-old’s weekly wage of £90,000.

Cole has failed to recapture his best form since moving to Anfield on a much-heralded free transfer in July of last year. The England international has made only 11 Premier League starts since then, with his appearances coming largely in Europe.

After failing to feature in any of Kenny Dalglish’s squads for Liverpool’s opening three matches of this campaign, it was clear that Cole is deemed surplus to requirements. Dalglish supplemented the Liverpool midfield over the close season with the high-profile signings of Charlie Adam, Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing.

Cole’s salary, though, was always likely to prove problematic to those English clubs – Queens Park Rangers among them – who courted his signature.

The French champions have no such reservations. Lille, who are competing in the Champions League after winning their domestic title for the first time since 1954, are expected to announce Cole’s arrival on Wednesday, thereby adding some much-needed experience to their squad before entering Europe.

Cole, previously of West Ham United and Chelsea, has played 56 times for England but has fallen out of the picture recently under Fabio Capello.

Lille had earlier been interested in the Monaco striker Park Chu-young, who is set to sign for Arsenal, and Chelsea’s Yossi Benayoun; the latter player was coincidentally offered to Liverpool as part of a swap deal for Raul Meireles.

Bolton Wanderers are confident of signing another Liverpool player, the French striker David Ngog. Although a rival bid is thought to be forthcoming from another Premier League club, Bolton hope to seal the £4m arrival of Ngog before the transfer window closes.

Bolton’s manager, Owen Coyle, has been a longtime admirer of Ngog and is now set to match the 22-year-old’s Liverpool salary in order to tempt the player to the Reebok Stadium. Ngog has scored 19 goals since arriving at Liverpool in 2008 but, like Cole, has found himself outside of Dalglish’s plans. Coyle has been keen to bolster his own attacking options after Daniel Sturridge returned to Chelsea from the Reebok Stadium at the end of a successful loan period.

Meanwhile, Liverpool have announced they have reached an agreement with the French side Evian for the transfer of Christian Poulsen. The Denmark international joined Liverpool on a three-year contract from Juventus 12 months ago under Roy Hodgson but has struggled to make an impact and has not been involved so far this season.

Poulsen, who had also been linked with a loan move to Espanyol, can now discuss terms with a view to completing the move.

Joe ColeLiverpoolLilleTransfer windowEuropean footballEwan Murrayguardian.co.uk

Today’s mill is not afraid to shake its booty

Bright, noisy, dripping in gold and not afraid to shake their booty at passing strangers, it can be hard sometimes to tell the difference between Manchester United’s summer transfer policy and Glastonbury headliner Beyoncé. United’s summer of rampant spending looks set to continue with a £6.5m deal for Celtic left-back Emilio Izaguirre — “100% true”, says the player — followed by a £10m move for Barcelona’s European-Under-21-final-free-kick-scoring Thiago Alcântara.

Barcelona are happy to sell him to a Premier League club, the Mirror reports, but only if they can have a buy-back clause inserted into the deal. United aren’t keen on that and as a result look set to lose the player, possibly to Bolton. Well if they liked him they shoulda but a ring on him. Alcântara may in fact end up at Arsenal as a makeweight in the Cesc Fábregas deal, though the Telegraph reckons that Barça are preparing a £31m straight-cash offer for the midfielder that should land on a desk in north London sometime today.

Did anyone else notice, by the way, that Beyoncé’s final words at the end of her Glastonbury set were “drive home safely”? Was that the least rock’n'roll moment in the entire history of rock’n'roll? Other, that is, than the moment Saturday headliners Coldplay submitted a rider rumoured to have included “an assortment of vegetarian, gluten-free dips”. Anyway, we digress. More relevant Glasto talk: Wayne Rooney apparently spent three hours in a drum’n'bass tent and is reported to have been “chuffed” after meeting Mumford & Sons.

Spanish winger Juan Mata has leapt to the top of Arsenal’s transfer wish-list. The 23-year-old has also been linked with Liverpool, but Kenny Dalglish has apparently shifted his focus to Tottenham’s Neil Lennon, though they’ll have to stump up £18m either way. Talking of Arsenal, their other main target, the Vélez Sársfield midfielder Ricardo Alvarez, might now go to the equally interested Internazionale instead.

Talking of Spurs, it looks like Giovani dos Santos is heading to Spain, though Tottenham want a fairly ambitious £6.5m for the man who has started just nine games for the club in three years and can’t find anyone who wants to pay it – it might help if they show potential bidders his goal in Saturday’s Gold Cup final.

Talking of £18m-rated left wingers, Chelsea have been told they can have Arda Turan from Galatasaray, but only if the Turks get £7m and Didier Drogba in return. If Drogba does go the Blues might hang on to Daniel Sturridge, which would disappoint West Bromwich Albion, Bolton, Newcastle and Stoke.

Stoke’s Matthew Etherington has jumped to the top of Aston Villa’s list of replacements for the departing Stewart Downing, though with James Milner, Charles N’Zogbia, Matt Jarvis and Den Haag’s Wesley Verhoek also there, it’s a pretty chunky list. Downing, incidentally, will hand in a transfer request this week to force through a move to Liverpool, for whom Charlie Adam could sign today (with Jonjo Shelvey heading to Blackpool for a season-long loan).

Bolton are ready to lavish a combined £6m on Benfica winger Rodrigo and Middlesbrough defender Rhys Williams.

Stoke — three mentions in one Mill: what are the odds? — whose back-up keeper Thomas Sorensen could be on his way to West Ham, want £4m-rated Monaco defender Cédric Mongongu. They have also made a complicated double bid for Birmingham duo Scott Dann and Cameron Jerome. Tony Pulis has proposed an £8m initial fee, with all sorts of bonus clauses meaning the fee might so much as double before the Potters have finished paying out. For that to happen, however, both players would have to earn international recognition, Stoke would have to break into the Premier League’s top six and Andy Murray’s collection of Percy Pig sweets would have to sprout wings and fly to the moon.

Craig Gardner is also likely to leave Birmingham, with Sunderland — who are also preparing a £7m bid for Reading’s Shane Long — Wolves and Newcastle — who also want the Paris St-Germain striker Mevlüt Erdinc — scrapping over the goalscoring midfielder. Possibly coming to the Blues is Hibernian manager Colin Calderwood, who Chris Hughton wants to make his assistant (though he might end up taking Dann’s place in defence at this rate).

Manchester City’s megabucks transfer targets of the day are Fiorentina midfielder Alessio Cerci, Partizan Belgrade defender Stefan Savic and the Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero. But trumping them all is Porto’s comedy-named striker Hulk, upon whom a £36m price tag has just been slapped.

And most likely recipient of QPR’s squillions of the day is 37-year-old World Cup winning Italian centre-back legend Fabio Cannavaro.

CelticManchester UnitedBarcelonaBolton WanderersTottenham HotspurLiverpoolChelseaGalatasarayStoke CityAston VillaBenficaMiddlesbroughWest Ham UnitedMonacoBirmingham CitySunderlandWolverhampton WanderersNewcastle UnitedManchester CityPartizan BelgradeQPRFiorentinaSimon Burntonguardian.co.uk

• Liverpool remain reliant on injury-prone Fernando Torres
• Sunderland swoop for Ghana’s World Cup star Asamoah Gyan

Sunderland made the biggest splash, Manchester City finally recouped some money for Robinho and Birmingham City helped take this summer’s total spend towards £350m. Arguably the most significant development on transfer deadline day, however, was what did not happen at Liverpool.

For the second successive season Liverpool have been left over-reliant on the form and fitness of Fernando Torres having failed to improve cover for a striker who has suffered two injury-plagued campaigns and, as Roy Hodgson conceded on Sunday, is not fully recovered from the knee problem that impacted on his World Cup. The Anfield club made a belated attempt to wrest Carlton Cole from West Ham United yesterday, having considered previous options over recent days, but several offers were unable to convince the Hammers to sell the England international.

Liverpool are believed to have offered Lucas Leiva, the Brazilian midfielder, and Ryan Babel, their Dutch international forward, in exchange for Cole but neither player wanted to leave Anfield for Upton Park. Babel reportedly travelled to London via helicopter in anticipation of a deal only to eventually Tweet that; “I’m going no where. LFC all the way. YNWA!!” as the clubs failed to agree on a valuation for Cole. With PSV Eindhoven’s Ola Toivonen priced out of Liverpool’s reach, and Bayern Munich refusing to release Mario Gómez even on loan, Hodgson will have to make do with Babel, David Ngog and Dirk Kuyt as cover for Torres until January.

The failure to sign a much-needed striker means Liverpool recouped more than they spent in this transfer window, another indication of the financial restrictions under the co-owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, and this after convincing Torres and Steven Gerrard to resist any overtures for their signatures in the summer.

Hodgson did at least resolve Liverpool’s deficiency at left-back with the signing of Paul Konchesky from Fulham, the manager’s former club, in a £3.5m deal that also sent promising youngsters Lauri Dalla Valle and Alex Kacaniklic in the opposite direction. The Liverpool left-back Emiliano Insua, who rejected a move to Fiorentina in the summer after a £5m deal had been agreed between the clubs, joined Galatasaray on a season’s loan with a view to a permanent deal. The French midfielder Damien Plessis signed for Panathinaikos while Liverpool are still hopeful of releasing Nabil El Zhar and Charles Itandje on loan after the deadline.

City recouped an initial £18m, rising to £21m, for Robinho after the errant Brazilian forward signed a four-year contract with Milan – two years after his £32.5m arrival at Eastlands from Real Madrid. The Premier League’s biggest import on deadline day belonged to Sunderland and their club record £13m capture of the Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan from Rennes.

The 24-year-old, who scored three goals in Ghana’s run to the World Cup quarter-finals, signed a four-year contract with Steve Bruce’s side. Gyan said: “My family is in England already and I am happy this is the right place for me. The Sunderland coach has faith in me because he has been following me for two years now. I am pleased I have the opportunity to come to England.”

Tony Pulis ended his exhaustive search for a new striker moments before the deadline when Stoke City signed Eidur Gudjohnsen on loan from Monaco and also the former Arsenal, Birmingham City and Liverpool winger Jermaine Pennant. Alex McLeish was also active as Birmingham signed the former Arsenal midfielder Alexander Hleb from Barcelona on a season-long loan, the Czech defender Martin Jiranek from Spartak Moscow and the Chile winger Jean Beausejour from Club America, both for undisclosed fees.

Everton rejected Tottenham Hotspur’s offer of Robbie Keane and David Bentley for Steven Pienaar and Louis Saha. Harry Redknapp initially proposed a swap deal of just Keane for Saha and Pienaar, who is out of contract at Goodison Park next summer, only to throw Bentley’s name into the deal too this morning. Everton dismissed that offer but allowed Joseph Yobo to join Fenerbahce on a 12-month loan with a view to a £5m permanent transfer next summer. David Moyes also enquired about Charles N’Zogbia but was unable to further his interest in the Wigan Athletic winger without selling Ayegbeni Yakubu.

LiverpoolTransfer windowManchester CitySunderlandStoke CityEvertonAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk