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Today’s jive no longer wishes to be considered for international selection as it finds the role of No3,986,479 very frustrating

Golly. This is an unsettling time, readers. The Mill has always prided itself on being intimately familiar with its environment. The Mill understands it, readers, knows how it works and what its inhabitants are and are not capable of. Or so we thought. But this morning the Mill finds itself having to contemplate the possibility that Arsène Wenger moonlights as a freelance aquarium cleaner in Hertfordshire or spends his Sundays clad in a pink rubber leotard as he pursues a lifelong interest in funambulism. Yes, readers, nothing can be ruled out – not now that the Sun has revealed that Wenger is preparing to smash his transfer record and deeply-ingrained practice by splurging no less than £23m on a goalkeeper. And which goalkeeper? Only Pepe Reina of Liverpool!

It seems barely credible, readers, and if it were in any other organ than the good ol’ Sun the Mill would counsel you to dismiss it as pungent bilge. Speaking of which, the Daily Mirror is a little whiffy this morning, as it claims that the keeper for whom Wenger will fork out an unprecedented fortune is not Reina but Manchester City’s Shay Given. One thing on which all outlets agree, readers, is that Wenger’s spending is not going to end with a goalkeeper: he’s tracking another centre-back, too. Montpellier’s Emir Spahić knows this to be true.

Meanwhile at White Hart Lane, Harry Redknapp risks coming to blows with his former assistant, Tony Pulis. The pair are both trying to lure Nice striker Loïc Rémy, who has given a strong hint as to which he finds more attractive by admitting: “I visited [Stoke] with my agent but it must be said it’s not a club in keeping with what I wanted. They have a beautiful stadium all the same and the training facilities aren’t bad. Tottenham? I haven’t been there but it’s a good club with aspirations of getting even bigger. So they are obviously interesting.” Pulis will console himself over Rémy’s rejection by attempting to convince Sevilla’s Luís Fabiano, formerly a target of Spurs, to turn down Marseille and come to the beautiful Britannia instead. And if that doesn’t work, Pulis will swallow his pride and just ask Redknapp to give him Peter Crouch.

You’ve heard the one about James Milner going to Manchester, right?

Wrong! Because you thought he was heading to City, but the word on the street now is that it’s United who will nab him in the end. And when that sale goes through for a preposterous amount of money, Martin O’Neill will have a few million more ways to persuade Steven Pienaar to swap Everton for Aston Villa. Serie A side Palermo, meanwhile, want to prise Leon Osman away from Goodison Park.

Queens Park Rangers are to give the skills of their PR people a stringent examination by signing popular striker Marlon King.

Newcastle, meanwhile, are going to give their fans something to get topless and excited about by juicing up their team with a bit of flair: Kevin-Prince Boateng and Hatem Ben Arfa are both incoming.

Finally, Roy Hodgson is getting busy at Liverpool. Not only does he fancy bringing veteran Italian striker Alberto Gilardino to Anfield but he’s also plotting a bid for former Arsenal waif Alexander Hleb and is preparing to do battle with Avram Grant and Martin O’Neill for the services of well-known DJ Micah Richards.

Transfer windowArsenalLiverpoolManchester CityStoke CityPaul Doyleguardian.co.uk

Today’s fluff has that tired taste in its mouth

Another day, another reason for members of the Terry family to walk hurriedly past the newsagents looking in the other direction, as the Mirror splash on claims that Lindsey Cowan, fiancee of the Rushden and Diamonds goalkeeper Dale Roberts, had an affair with one of his team-mates — none other than Paul Terry, brother of erstwhile England captain and team-mate’s-partner-befriender John. Furious players at the club are allegedly now campaigning for Paul, who appears to be intent on doing absolutely everything that his brother does, except playing football particularly well, to be sacked. As the spurned stickman’s father George, 62, says: “They say every family has a black sheep – the Terrys must have a flock.”

In other big news, photographs taken at England’s World Cup preparation camp in Austria yesterday clearly show the astonishing sight of Ledley King training. The Mill thought the entire point of King was that he didn’t train, that his remarkable performances were conjured, fully formed, from the depths of his tortured soul, extracted from the deep like so much oil barfing from the sea bed. But if he’s the tortured genius of the England side, the Ludwig van Beethoven of the Premier League, nobody told the chap apparently jogging merrily with the rest of the squad in Irdning, the Styrian hilltown whose name sounds like a verb the players have invented to describe the latest depraved act they have taken to inflicting on starstruck womenfolk.

Talking of England, Sol Campbell has suggested, with a certain amount of logic you must admit, that the only reason Fabio Capello didn’t pick him was that he doesn’t think he’s good enough. “You get the sense he’s never liked me as a player,” he raged. If he stays at Arsenal next season, Sol could be joined by Roma’s Philippe Mexes, Arsène Wenger’s £10m defensive target. Another possible arrival is Marseille winger Hatem Ben Arfa, who has declared his desire to move to England this summer, and is French. He, too, is rated at £10m.

Manchester United and Manchester City are to battle it out like drunk teenagers on a Saturday night on Watford High Street, the object of their affections being Aston Villa’s demure James Milner, rated at £25m. City have already had a £20m bid turned down, but a part-exchange deal may prove acceptable — Stephen Ireland and Shaun Wright-Phillips could be offered by City, while United are considering a deal involving Michael Carrick. Neither club plans to stop spending there – City want £21m Bordeaux forward Yoann Gourcuff and will offer Patrick Vieira a new one-year contract, while United are putting together a £15m bid for Everton’s Jack Rodwell, despite David Moyes telling them they will have to “come with a very big cheque”.

Strap up tight and buckle your braces, it’s day two of the Cesc Fábregas transfer saga! Arsenal are demanding £80m (The Mail) or £45m (The Telegraph) or £40m (The Guardian) while Barcelona have made a £30m take-it-or-leave-it offer (The Star). The good news for those who get rapidly fed up of transfer sagas: Barça hope to have the deal done by Monday. The bad news: they’ll then go for £70m Fernando Torres. Also on his way out of Anfield is Alberto Aquilani, who will move to Juventus in a straightforward swap deal with Felipe Melo heading the other way.

Stoke hitman Ricardo Fuller is a big-money target for a string of giant clubs. “Right now a lot of clubs are interested and are knocking on the door,” says, er, Ricardo Fuller. Employing someone else to talk him up ridiculously is Valencia-departing former Manchester United striker Giuseppe Rossi, who is wanted by Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Liverpool, according to his agent. “He’s on the notebooks of those four clubs,” Andrea Pastorello said.

Wayne Rooney, who revealed four years ago that he likes to sleep with the vacuum cleaner on and has “ruined so many hairdryers by letting them burn out” in the name of a good night’s rest, tells the Sun that he’s still torturing hairdryers, and lies on the floor of aeroplanes to allow the hellish incessant roar of the massive engines to gently transport him to the land of nod. “I don’t know what it is, but the noise helps me to sleep,” the total loon says.

Portsmouth will let Avram Grant join West Ham for nothing, but only if he promises to take Tal Ben Haim with him. The Israeli could decide to join Twente instead, though where that would leave the much-travelled Israeli centre-back is anyone’s guess.

Finally, to Birmingham — the two words that Burnley’s Steven Fletcher will be telling his chauffeur this morning when Blues’ £6m Wolves-gazumping offer for the Scottish striker is accepted. Also on his way to the Midlands is Hull’s Stephen Hunt, who will join West Bromwich Albion for £4m – rising to £5.5m if the Baggies avoid relegation – but on his way out is Marlon Harewood, whose Villa Park hell will be ended by a lucrative deal with Turkish champions Bursaspor.

Transfer windowFernando TorresBarcelonaLiverpoolEuropean footballSimon Burntonguardian.co.uk

It is well known that Liverpool’s ground was once home to Everton, but in 1971 United fans called the Kop their home end

On Friday 20 August 1971 a team wearing red walked out at Anfield to rapturous applause from supporters bedecked in red and white scarves and standing on the Spion Kop. Their opponents were Arsenal, who had beaten Bill Shankly’s side 2-1 in the FA Cup final to secure the double in May of the same year. But the home side were not Liverpool. They were Manchester United.

Hidden deep within the pages of football’s dustiest history books lurks a dark secret – or so it appears. The club that now boasts 18 league titles, the same number as Liverpool, could once call Anfield its home, just as Liverpool’s great city rivals Everton did in the 1880s. In 1971, with United banned from playing their first two home matches in Manchester, after hooligans had thrown knives into the away section at a match at the end of the previous season, their opening “home” games would be played at Anfield and Stoke’s Victoria Ground.

But so forgotten is this forgotten story that even some Manchester United players who took part in the 3-1 victory over Arsenal cannot remember doing so.

A lethargic first-half performance by a United side still trying to find its feet under a new manager, Frank O’Farrell, following Matt Busby’s departure in June 1971, found themselves trailing to a fourth-minute Frank McLintock strike. United would enjoy a stirring comeback in the second half thanks to George Best’s growing influence, which led to an equaliser deftly lifted over Arsenal’s goalkeeper, Bob Wilson, by Alan Gowling. A United goal at Anfield celebrated by the home fans must be among the rarest things in football. So such a memorable occasion would be dear to Gowling, wouldn’t it?

“I can’t remember,” he says. “Who did we play?” I remind him that it was Arsenal. “United played a home match at Anfield? Give over,” he says, incredulous. So inconceivable does it seem that one can almost understand Gowling’s reaction, but a picture in the Guardian of 21 August, 1971 clearly shows him leaping over Wilson to celebrate his goal, scored at the Anfield Road End.

Would David Sadler, who commanded United’s defence, recall the occasion?

“Was I playing?” he says. “I just can’t remember. Alex [Stepney, the Manchester United goalkeeper] might recall it. He’s better at remembering matches than me.”

Stepney tipped a shot from the diminutive Arsenal winger George Armstrong against the bar at the Kop end in the second half to keep United in the game at 1-1. Did he enjoy being the only Manchester United goalkeeper in history to feel the full support of United’s fans emanating from the Kop?

“I vaguely remember that we had to play two games away from Old Trafford, but I can’t recall that match,” says Stepney, who made over 400 appearances for United. Perhaps there’s some kind of conspiracy to hide the truth.

“I thought I’d only ever won one match at Anfield, when we beat Liverpool 4-1 [in December 1969] – so I can add a second win now,” he says. “The only one I remember playing away from home was when we played a home match at Plymouth [Uefa banned United from playing their home leg of a Cup Winners' Cup match against St Etienne within 200km of Manchester, following crowd trouble during a 1-1 draw in France in 1977].”

The Manchester United captain, Bobby Charlton, scored his team’s second goal at the Anfield Road End with a free-kick curled around the wall and into the left-hand corner of the net. Brian Kidd, who is now Manchester City’s assistant manager, wrapped things up with a goal in the dying minutes.

One man who can just about recall the match is the “Voice of Anfield”, George Sephton, Liverpool’s stadium announcer who had started the job a week before. “I can still see the half-empty ground,” he says. “It was spooky. I had just started, it was an extra match, it was Friday night so a bit of piece and quiet, I thought.”

And what of Liverpool’s famous anthem? Surely United’s players didn’t run out as the home team at Anfield to “You’ll Never Walk Alone”?

“It was only the third game in my career,” says Sephton. “I couldn’t swear on the bible but I’m almost certain I didn’t play ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ at the game. It’s been ‘our’ song since 1963! It was weird because Anfield felt like a neutral ground but from my perspective I was just happy that I had an extra couple of quid in my pocket because I was young, just married and was saving up for a house.

“I don’t remember any trouble on the night. The enmity with United wasn’t as bad in those days as it is now so it was nice to turn up and watch a game which you weren’t bothered about in terms of the result. If it happened nowadays of course, I’d be cheering Arsenal on. But now they would just play the match behind closed doors.”

The FA’s decision to send United to play at Anfield in the wake of a hooliganism incident seems hare-brained now, but at the time hooliganism happened at most games and in any case, as the former Liverpool club secretary Peter Robinson, who helped organise the fixture, explained last year, the animosity didn’t exist as it does today.

“When I started at Liverpool in the 1960s the great rivals were always Everton,” said Robinson. “The rivalry has changed. It turned into Manchester United when they had this terrific emergence but before that I can remember them being relegated [in 1974] and having some really difficult times. I can also remember United supporters standing in the Kop. It wouldn’t happen today, would it?”

The rivalry between groups of hooligans was still fierce however, even if the antipathy felt between real football supporters of both sides was not, and the front page of the Guardian the morning after the match carried the usual depressing news of trouble. “About 100 fans” were ejected from Anfield, according to the report, the windows of some houses in Anfield were smashed and “600 skinheads” were said to have been “kept in check” by police after throwing bricks at the United supporters as they were frogmarched back to Lime Street station and on to trains back to Manchester.

The Guardian correspondent Eric Todd’s match report brimmed with frustration at the behaviour of the fans in the Kop and of the wider trouble that was prevalent in football in the 1970s.

“Once again, certain sections of the crowd, whatever their places of origin were the villains of the piece,” he wrote. “And those psychiatrists, amateur or professional who spend many hours trying to explore the minds – the word is used quite loosely of course – of certain members of the footballing public would have enjoyed last night.

“As soon as the teams arrived on the field the Kop vomited scores of young ’supporters’ of both sexes who ran down the field to the end where United were warming up. The police, although hopelessly outnumbered, did their best and removed as many as they could capture. When the invaders discovered that United would attack the Kop end they retraced their steps and suffered further losses.”

United would suffer further losses too. Liverpool were given 15% of the gate receipts from the 27,649 fans who attended the game and United were instructed by the FA to pay Arsenal compensation, as the gate was below the 48,000 that attended the fixture at Old Trafford the previous year. (Until the 1980s, gate receipts for league games were shared). Even Everton stood to benefit if the crowd at Goodison Park was below 46,000 the next day, for their match against Sheffield United.

You can stop whispering now. The secret is out.

LiverpoolManchester UnitedArsenalGregg Roughleyguardian.co.uk