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Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Chelsea ‘make £21m Alonso swoop’ (Marcos, not Xabi), Sunderland ‘want Hart’

With little over 120 hours remaining until the transfer window SLAMS SHUT, some clubs are starting to get twitchy - especially the ones who haven’t yet landed the players they planned to. And one step away from twitchy is desperation. And one step away from that is madness. All out madness.

And Hot Football Transfer Gossip is not suggesting Chelsea are there yet, but they do seem to be about to spend £21m on Marcos Alonso.

Yes, you remember Marcos Alonso. He played left-back for Bolton and then he was on loan at Sunderland for a bit. Him. Chelsea. £21m.

That’s what the Telegraph says anyway. The broadsheet claims Antonio Conte’s attempts to strengthen his defensive options have become “increasingly urgent” (note, NOT desperate) and he has opened talks with Fiorentina about signing the 25-year-old Spaniard.

Apparently Conte has “hit a wall” trying to land many of his “first choices”, such as Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly and AC Milan’s Alessio Romagnoli. So now it seems he’ll be content to just buy any defender who plays in Serie A - and Alonso fits the bill.

Conte may also be doing his midfielder shopping in Italy, with Gazzetta dello Sport claiming the Blues are “edging closer” to signing Inter’s Marcelo Brozovic. Football Italia, however, add that Arsenal are similarly interested in the 23-year-old Croatian, who would apparently cost about £25m.

One transfer saga that has unequivocally hit the desperation level is Manchester City’s attempt to offload Joe Hart. The Mirror reports that the Citizens are willing to pay £90,000 of his £120,000 wages to ensure he leaves before the end of the transfer window.

That would essentially make him one of the cheapest goalkeepers in the league and therefore makes him suddenly very attractive to cheapskate chairmen everywhere. The Sunderland Echo seems to think that the Stadium of Light could be Hart’s next destination, especially after the Black Cats lost Vito Mannone to injury.

With Manchester United and Leicester target Gabriel ‘Gabigol’ Barbosa seemingly on his way to Inter (Gazzetta dello Sport), the Foxes have reportedly stepped up their interest in Sporting Lisbon’s Algerian striker Islam Slimani.

However, Talksport says the champions’ £21m bid was rejected and that Sporting are demanding £34m, which is annoying because the player’s previous release clause of £25m has recently expired.

Elsewhere, Southampton are still close to smashing their transfer record by signing Lille’s Sofiane Boufal for £21m (Guardian), Liverpool have bid £11m for Borussia Dortmund’s 17-year-old American winger Christian Pulisic (Telegraph) and Newcastle are set to spend £5m on Ipswich’s 33-year-old striker Daryl Murphy (TWTD). They’re not desperate though.

@darlingkevin