Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Ben Arfa to Liverpool, Schurrle to Tottenham, Conte’s crazy plan

Anyone who remembers the good old days, when Lyon starlets Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa were considered the world’s Hottest Football Transfer Gossip prospects, will have been perturbed to witness the way their careers have diverged since - culminating in Benzema flourishing at Real Madrid while Ben Arfa languished on Hull City’s bench. But this season something of an realignment has begun to take place.

Benzema is still doing all right at Madrid, just with the unfortunate caveat that he might soon go to prison for his alleged role in a blackmail scandal that has seen him frozen out of France’s Euro 2016 squad. Meanwhile, Ben Arfa has mercifully escaped Hull and been reborn at Nice, where his 16 goals in 29 Ligue 1 appearances this season have thrust him back in contention for the Euros - possibly at Benzema’s expense.

And while it was always Karim who was getting linked with a lucrative Premier League move in the past, now it’s Hatem’s turn.

The Sun says Jurgen Klopp wants to give Ben Arfa “another shot” at the English top flight - but with Liverpool this time instead of Hull. He could reportedly face competition from both Milan clubs and Borussia Dortmund for the resurgent Frenchman’s signature, but the tabloid says the Reds are in “pole position”.

Another player who could be offered a route back the World’s Most Exciting League is Andre Schurrle, the former Chelsea man who is apparently unsettled at Wolfsburg. The Mirror says Tottenham are keen to bring in the German to “support Harry Kane” in attack. They will therefore be encouraged by the Mirror’s claim that Schurrle’s “Canadian fiance is keen to leave the city” - presumably owing to the notoriously insurmountable cultural differences between Germany and Canada.

The new manager of Schurrle’s former club, Antonio Conte, apparently has an exciting tactical masterplan to play a daring 4-2-4 formation next season, according to the Mirror. The distinctly non-Italian strategy will prompt Conte to swoop for forward-thinking players including Antoine Griezmann, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Javier Pastore and Radja Nainggolan, as well as keeping Eden Hazard and Diego Costa. It could be the craziest season at Stamford Bridge since, well, this one.

Elsewhere, Arsenal are set to offer £16m for “classy” Inter Milan midfielder Marcelo Brozovic (Star), AC Milan are sniffing around Newcastle’s Moussa Sissoko (Calciomercato) and Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri wants to hijack New York Cosmos’ attempt to sign 39-year-old Roma legend Francesco Totti (Sun). Doesn’t Claudio know there is no place for ageing Italians in the World’s Most Exciting League?

@darlingkevin