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Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Liverpool ‘target £44m Williams’, Man City ‘want Fabinho’

What have Bob Holness, video tapes and Jurgen Klopp got in common? It’s blockbusters.

Today’s Sun, while pausing to catch its breath from hurling ugly abuse at Gary Lineker, is insistent that the Liverpool manager is lining up a “blockbuster move” for Athletic Bilbao striker Inaki Williams.

To Hot Football Transfer Gossip, it just looks like a normal move. The Reds are reportedly willing to meet the £44.6m buyout clause in the Athletic Bilbao forward’s contract and bring him to Anfield in January to boost their “title charge”.

But for some reason, the Sun is adamant that this constitutes a “blockbuster”, repeating the phrase “blockbuster move” as if this is somehow different to other moves.

The Sun says some other weird things about Williams, such as that he has “developed at a rapid rate in recent seasons”. Which, for a 22-year-old footballer, is pretty standard.

It’s possible that the Sun sports desk is short staffed this morning because CEO Rebekah Brooks has ordered all the hacks to trawl through Lineker’s 20,500 tweets to see if he ever said anything else horribly left-wing.

Speaking of left-wingers, the Mirror says Gareth Bale is in “no rush” to sign a new contract at Real Madrid, despite several recent reports stating that he had already done so.

It’s encouraging news for Manchester United and keeps the dream alive that they can buy him for £100m-plus next summer. That would be a blockbuster move, see.

Rumours of Cristiano Ronaldo agreeing a new deal at the Bernabeu also seem to have been premature, with the Mirror claiming that negotiations have been “delayed” because the 31-year-old is pushing for a five-year contract extension.

That would mean he’s still earning £18.5m a year when he’s 36, and he might be rubbish, fat and bald by then.

In less encouraging news for Man Utd, rivals Manchester City have reportedly joined the race to sign Jose Mourinho’s alleged number one right-back target Fabinho.

The Sun says City boss Pep Guardiola has identified Monaco’s 22-year-old Brazilian as one of four new full-backs he wants to bring to the Etihad, potentially prompting some kind of “Guardiola-Mourinho bidding war”.

Elsewhere, Borussia Dortmund are interested in City’s young midfielder Bersant Celina (ESPN), Sunderland’s players face a 50 per cent wage cut if they get relegated this season (Mail) and former Stoke and West Brom striker Peter Odemwingie is set to join Bolton (Mirror). But he might drive to Queens Park Rangers on his way there just to check the Hoops don’t want him first.

@darlingkevin