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Hot football gossip: Pep's £145m Neymar plot, £37m Xhaka wants Premier League move - and more Chelsea capers

The Transfer Window is shut and bench-warmer Stanley Accrington returns for the weekend as the Boss of Goss Kevin Darling takes a well-deserved weekend off

Hot football gossip: Pep's £145m Neymar plot, £37m Xhaka wants Premier League move - and more Chelsea capers

The immediate post-Transfer Window period is the most tricky of all for players and managers (and gossip-loving sports writers).

A loan window – which sounds like a counter at the bank - is looming but this most likely will involve players you have never really heard of going to lower-league clubs that are barely mentioned in their own local papers.

So a state of limbo and intertia exists until the real business begins again once Pep Guardiola holds the Manchester City chequebook, Jose Mourinho plunders Stamford Bridge as he rebuilds Old Trafford and Jurgen Klopp sparks a stampede by allowing Daniel Sturridge to leave, during which Sturridge is injured and looks set to miss the Qatar World Cup as a result.

So let’s get this straight – nobody of any worth is going anywhere for now unless they are free agents or have their paperwork dealt with by the Real Madrid secretary.

But still the gossip rumour mill grinds on… it’s the oxygen that drives the British media on and on whether you like it or not.

The papers today are having a field day with Chelsea and already speculating that Guardiola already has his first ‘marquee signing’ lined up.

There are no prizes for guessing that Pep’s big telephone-number deal could be Barcelona’s Brazil striker Neymar, but the all-conquering Catalan giants won’t even return Pep’s call, e-mail or text message unless he starts the bidding at £145m – the buyout clause in his contract.

So says the Daily Mirror… take it or leave it.

Meanwhile, in ‘not transfer’ news, Watford’s Nigeria forward Odion Ighalo has revealed to the Daily Mail that he turned down a £300,000 a week move to China because ‘God said it was not for me’ which means he either has a direct line to the Bible’s main man – or he has a super agent/Mourninho’s mobile phone number/incredibly firm wife.

‘I could not sell my dream,’ said Ighalo which are not the words fans of Aston Villa and Manchester United want to hear their owners declaring…

God seems to be playing quite a role in contemporary football.

Borussia Monchengladbach’s Swiss star Granit Xhaka wants a Premier League move and both Liverpool and Arsenal are keen on the £37m-rated ‘top quality midfielder’ as the Star label him, whom he tells: ‘England is my dream. I do not hide it. Whether I’ll be happy there, only the good Lord knows.’

Of course there are other lords available - Jack, Lucan and the cricket ground spring to mind – but how the creator of everything, ever, finds time to provide footballers with career advice is perplexing.

But what of Chelsea, everyone’s second-favourite comedy show behind the ‘Many Lives of LVG’?

Well, the Internet and papers are awash with managerial gossip.

A Daily Express exclusive claims the club have held talks with Antonio Conte, the current Italy coach, as they look to fill Mourinho’s boots and Guus Hiddink’s clogs, while Jose himself is the subject or a huge-yen offer from China to make the national team into a world force according to the London Evening Standard.

Maybe he will tell himself ‘it was not for me’ or he will get advice from Ighalo…

China seems to loom large everywhere at the moment.

Website GetWestLondon reports that Hiddink has been forced to deny that Chinese club Jiangsu Suning offered Chelsea a staggering £75m for Oscar, adding: ‘Well we know that just Ramires had a great offer. Oscar for me is just speculation. We do not go into that.’

Poor Old John Terry says in the Sun he deserves a new deal at Stamford Bridge no matter who the new manager is – even though he doesn’t because it’s a ‘Blues insider’ that speaks on behalf of 35-year-old wallflower JT.

At least the Sun are treading on more solid terra firma when dealing with Saido Berahino – Stoke are ready to make a bigger and better offer for the wantaway West Brom striker but provide neither quote nor proof of this interest.

Plus ca change…