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Today’s blurb has eaten too much porridge

Ah, José. Every stop he makes, he makes a new friend. But he can’t stay for long, just turn around and he’s gone again. Maybe tomorrow, he’ll want to settle down. Until tomorrow, he’ll just keep moving on (Ba-da, ba-da, ba-da, ba-da).

Yes, football’s littlest hobo seems to be on the move again, although they won’t be accompanied by the lump in the throat that his TV equivalent never fails to bring. Real Madrid have drawn up a two-man shortlist of potential replacements. Smoothly coiffed, scarf-wearing, German man-plus Joachim Löw is one of the names scrawled in Crayola on the back of an old receipt, reckons the Daily Mail EXCLUSIVELY, while the other is wilting north London spendthrift Arsène Wenger.

Quite how the denizens of the Bernabéu would react to a manager whose transfer policy seems to contradict everything Madrid have stood for over the past 15 years or so, but if the transition from Galácticos to 19yearoldprospectfromMetz-icos fails then at least they’ve had plenty of practice of late with those whistles and hankies.

Manchester City want former Barcelona vice-president Ferran Soriano and former Camp Nou technical director Txiki Begiristain to be their new chief executive and director of football. On the pitch, City are close to wrapping up a £2m deal for Israel’s Nir Biton after the midfielder sorted out his national-service-knack.

Anton Ferdinand is set to snub John Terry’s handshake offer this weekend, say the Mirror, hopefully in the time-honoured fashion of lifting the hand at the last minute and pressing his thumb to his nose before waggling his fingers. The tongue-poke and “Ner, ner, ner, ner, ner” is, of course, an optional extra.

Mark Hughes can’t wait to start spending at Loftus Road. South Africa striker Katlego Mphela of Mamelodi Sundowns and Fulham’s Clint Dempsey and Bobby Zamora will all be turning him down in the near future.

Newcastle have been told they will have to fork out £2m for Watford’s Adrian Mariappa, having had a derisory offer rejected. “I couldn’t begin to tell you how far away it was,” said Watford manager Sean Dyche. “My son’s got more in his money box,” he added, raising the intriguing question of how exactly you fit £500,000 in a child’s piggy bank.

Bolton, Swansea, Barnsley, West Ham and Sheffield United all want to borrow Raheem Sterling. Liverpool say they can’t have him.

Sunderland are keen on Bolton’s solid-pine battering ram Kevin Davies. Aston Villa will release Emile Heskey, Carlos Cuéllar, Habib Beye and Brad Guzan this summer.

Nicky Maynard has turned down the chance of four months of Premier League football, rejecting Wigan’s offer despite the Latics agreeing a fee of £2.2m for the Bristol City striker.

West Ham, having tired of their £6m pursuit of Rangers’ Nikica Jelavic, want Salomon Kalou on loan until the end of the season. Also in the Championship: Leicester will beat Sheffield Wednesday and United in the race to sign Stoke’s Ben Marshall and Doncaster have taken Peru defender Jesús Rabanal.

Transfer windowArsenalReal MadridManchester CityLiverpoolJohn Ashdown
guardian.co.uk

Today’s babble is after one final pay day

Moonlit strolls along the banks of the Seine following romantic dinners for two in the Musée d’Orsay all soundtracked by clichéd accordion music played by a man wearing a beret, blue and white striped shirt, and an onion necklace could soon become a staple in one Chelsea midfielder’s life if TalkSport’s reports that Carlo Ancelotti has made enquiries about bringing Frank Lampard to Paris Saint-Germain turn out to have a grain of truth in them. With his place in midfield far from secure under current manager André Villas-Boas, Lampard has 18 months left on his contract and has already been the subject of enquiries from Manchester United and LA Galaxy, so it’s far from inconceivable that his head wouldn’t be turned by the prospect of one last big day in the French capital. In other news pertaining to Chelsea, Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk say they’ve rejected a £16.7m bid from the west London club for Brazilian midfielder Willian.

Gus Poyet has hatched a fiendish plan to bring Michael Owen to Brighton, according to this morning’s Sun. The former England striker’s opportunities have been strictly limited at Manchester United, but quite how he’d feel about moving so far down south when his well-documented racing and bloodstock interests are based in the north-west is anyone’s guess. Both Manchester clubs are also believed to be interested in Benfica winger Nicolás Gaitán, who has been making reassuring if unconvincing noises about how he won’t be letting talk of a lucrative move to the Premier League distract him.

Manchester United’s increasingly tight-fisted board have refused to countenance a £10m bid for 17-year-old Dinamo Zagreb playmaker Mateo Kovacic, presumably on the grounds that it would be cheaper to coax Sir Bobby Charlton out of retirement. Tottenham and Manchester City will now go head-to-head in the battle to bring the young tyro to Blighty.

The Mirror reports that Liverpool have approached Real Madrid with a view to taking attacking midfielder Esteban Granero to Anfield on loan. Known as “El Pirata” (The Pirate), possibly because he says ‘Arrrr!’ a lot and habitually plays with a parrot perched on his shoulder, the 24-year-old Spaniard has been restricted to just four appearances under José Mourinho this season and is very much for sale, but without any club having put in a concrete offer, Kenny Dalglish is hopeful of sorting out something more short-term with the Bernabéu suits. Liverpool have also denied claims by the father of Rangers striker Nika Jelavic that they are interested in securing the scrawl of his boy, but are believed to be interested in Udinese’s Chilean versatility man Mauricio Isla.

Currently top of the Premier League player ratings awarded by readers of a website not a million miles from here, Swansea goalkeeper Michel Vorm’s consistently excellent performances have aroused interest at Manchester United and Chelsea, according to Swansea director John van Zweden. Swans fans need not fret over the possibility of losing their Dutch keeper, as Vorm insists he has no intention of going anywhere.

Despite being temporarily confined to the dock of Southwark crown court and generally having more important things than usual to worry about in the final week of the January transfer window, Harry Redknapp wants to bring Lazio striker Mauro Zárate to White Hart Lane. Currently on loan at Inter, the Argentinian has previous in England where he spent time on loan at Birmingham City, scoring four goals in 14 appearances, but failing to help them avoid relegation from the Premier League.

Sunderland want to maintain their charge towards the Champions League title by bringing Mohammed Abdellaoue to the Stadium of Light from Bundesliga side Hannover 96. A Norwegian international striker of Moroccan descent, “Moa” has scored 13 goals in 24 starts in all competitions this season.

Newcastle have made an offer for Watford captain Aidy Mariappa, a 25-year-old English defender of Fijian extraction who has spent his entire professional career to date at Vicarage Road. Elsewhere in the Championship, Barnsley manager Keith Hill is hoping to bring Stoke City midfielder Michael Tonge to Oakwell, while Reading are hoping to recruit Blackburn striker Jason Roberts.

Transfer windowChelseaParis St-GermainManchester UnitedBrighton & Hove AlbionLiverpoolReal MadridTottenham HotspurEuropean footballBarry Glendenning
guardian.co.uk

• Europe’s biggest clubs could start breakaway league in 2014
• Owners motivated by possibility of generating more money

Who are the teams involved?

It is the biggest brands in football that are driving this agenda. Between them Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Internazionale, Milan, Manchester United, Liverpool and Barcelona have won 36 European Cup and Champions League titles, almost two-thirds of those played. Where these clubs play money will undoubtedly follow.

Added to this are Arsenal and Chelsea who, despite never having won Europe’s elite trophy, boast international fanbases that would assist in driving the revenues of a competition. There would also be invitations to the other big names from across Europe: Juventus, Roma, Ajax, Porto, Marseille and a few others — Manchester City perhaps?

Why do they want to do it?

The short answer is: money. And lots of it. A new breed of football owner has emerged who does not see the proprietorship of their sporting assets as a benevolent activity. Men such as Silvio Berlusconi have used football club ownership to push a popular political agenda, or Roman Abramovich to raise his profile overseas with a trophy asset. Both have been content to sustain huge losses in support of their clubs. But the US owners who began entering the football market with the 2005 Glazer takeover of Manchester United are used to generating cash from their sports franchises. They consider it insane that almost every entity at the top of the world’s most popular sport haemorrhages cash.

How could they make a breakaway actually happen?

Legally they would be entitled to break away from football’s existing structures in 2014 when the current accord between the clubs and Uefa, which in the Champions League runs the club game’s most lucrative competition, elapses.

Eyeballs follow Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney and Fernando Torres wherever they go. And with fan interest come the dollars of sponsors and broadcasters – as Fifa has found with the explosion of its revenues over the past decade and a half.

In 1997 Fifa’s entire annual revenue was $22.5m; by 2009, at the same stage in a World Cup cycle because it was also one year before a tournament took place, Fifa had generated $1bn from their events. With that amount of money to share between them the clubs could make anything happen.

How would a breakaway work?

To maximise revenues and to provide security of income for those clubs involved, access to the tournament is likely to be restricted. Although a closed league would probably not play well with European fans used to promotion and relegation, a simple play-off system for a single place may be the kind of sop that clubs aim to get away with.

Similarly to the existing Uefa Champions League, it