Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Arsenal ‘could lose Sanchez and Ozil’

So maybe Arsenal didn’t win the Premier League this season, or the FA Cup, or the league cup, or the Champions League (as if), or the Charity Shield (oh hold on, they actually did win that – wooooo!), but at least Gunners fans can console themselves with the heart-warming fact that they’ve got Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil. No one can take that away from them, right? Well actually, no.

Today’s terrifying Hot Football Transfer Gossip is that Arsenal could lose not just one, but both, of their proper world class superstars – without whom they would basically be reduced to a slightly glorified version of Watford.

We’ll start with Sanchez, who the Telegraph has claimed is increasingly “frustrated” at the Emirates – to the point that he “stormed out of the stadium” after being substituted in the recent 1-0 win against Norwich. The paper adds that the atmosphere between the Chilean and Arsene Wenger has since been “frosty” in training, leaving the Gunners with a potential battle to persuade the player to sign a contract extension.

There would be no shortage of takers if Sanchez forced a move, with the Telegraph suggesting that Manchester City and Bayern Munich could be among the front-runners.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the Star has claimed in its own inimitable style that Ozil has “dropped a transfer bombshell that will leave Arsenal fans stunned”. Essentially, all Ozil has really said is that he thinks Zinedine Zidane is a good bloke, but in Star terms this means he has “put Real Madrid on red alert” and “refused to rule out a move to the Bernabeu”.

The Metro runs exactly the same story in a completely different way, focusing on Ozil’s insistence that he is “very happy at Arsenal”. But the vagueness of his preceding quote - “In football you do not know what tomorrow will bring, everything is possible" - will send a chill down every Gooner’s spine.

They may be slightly cheered up by a story in the Mirror which suggests that Tottenham’s Harry Kane is wanted by West Ham, although it turns out this was merely the Hammers’ response to Spurs’ attempts to sign Cheikou Kouyate last summer. Irons chairman David Sullivan said he offered to take Kane in exchange for the Senegalese midfielder, who he described as “a huge man” and “a tiger”. Bit weird.

Depending on who you believe, Thibaut Courtois is either “very happy” at Chelsea (Standard) or on the verge of a £65m move to Real Madrid (Daily Mail).

Elsewhere, Manchester United are the latest club to register an interest in West Ham’s young defender Reece Oxford (Sun), Tottenham could swap Ryan Mason for Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson (Standard) and Watford are set to sell Odion Ighalo and replace him with West Brom’s Saido Berahino, whose value has apparently dropped from £25m to £10m (Mail). That’s the power of social media, kids.

@darlingkevin