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Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Hull and West Brom ‘want Jay Rodriguez’, ‘no move’ for James Rodriguez

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Let’s talk about Rodriguez. James or Jay, it doesn’t matter. They have both been detected on the Hot Football Transfer Gossip radar today, as they both share the unfortunate tag of “forgotten man”.

Although Jay has been forgotten by his club Southampton, the Mirror reports that there are a couple of men who still remember him. Big strapping men too, the kind of guys you want in your corner. Tony Pulis and Mike Phelan.

Apparently, Pulis wants to take Rodriguez on loan to West Brom, while Phelan would be happy with a loan or a permanent transfer or even just to spend a couple of minutes in Jay’s company - just for a change from the tiny pool of 13 players he’s been working with so far this season.

As for James Rodriguez, who has been similarly sidelined by Real Madrid, his options seem a bit more glamorous, with Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United all allegedly having chased him. But the Mirror says the Colombian is set to stay at the Bernabeu, citing a report from Spanish paper AS.

Excited about this news, Hot Football Transfer Gossip went to have a look at AS, but there is nothing there about James staying at Real Madrid. Nothing!

Arsenal are taking their sweet time sealing a deal for the German defender Shkodran Mustafi, with the Express reporting that Arsene Wenger hopes a deal for the Valencia man will be completed “before the transfer deadline”. Yes, that would be preferable.

The Mirror says Wenger’s desires are being stifled by the La Liga club “playing hardball” over the centre-back, the upshot of this hardballing being that Mustafi could end up costing the Gunners £50m. Wenger would almost certainly prefer to play Calum Chambers than spend that kind of dough.

Everton are in talks to sign Yacine Brahimi from Porto, according to Sky Sports “sources”, who say that talks between the Toffees and the Algerian “have progressed very well”, which sounds like a nice time for everyone concerned.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has ruled out making any “panic buys” following the 2-0 defeat at Burnley, saying he would be an “idiot” to sign a new left-back because he doesn’t need one because he’s got Alberto Moreno, who is excellent. (Guardian)

Elsewhere, Fiorentina are trying to buy West Ham’s defensive midfielder Pedro Obiang for about £4m (Gazzetta dello Sport), Turkish club Caykur Rizespor are close to signing Mathieu Flamini and Emmanuel Adebayor (Goal) and Gabriel Barbosa could snub a move to Manchester United and join his Brazil team-mate Neymar at Barcelona instead (Sun). Because you just would really, wouldn’t you?

@darlingkevin