It must have been quite annoying for Manchester City to think they had secured the £60m signing of Alexis Sanchez on deadline day, only to see Arsenal’s bungled attempts to replace the Chilean scupper the deal. But here’s something to make them feel better – they can buy him for £20m in January.

This, at least, is according to today’s Sun, which says Alexis is set to belatedly seal his dream move to the Etihad in a “bar-Gunn” deal. Ahahahahaha – so clever.

Is it worth waiting four months to save £40m? For almost all football clubs except Man City, yes. But for Citizens owner Sheikh Mansour it’s probably equivalent to the feeling mere mortals get when we get a free 25% extra in a box of Fruit and Fibre.

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Is it worth, in Arsenal’s case, waiting four months to lose £40m? That partly depends on whether the Gunners can get the Premier League title wrapped up by January, which Arsene Wenger seems to think they might do based on his recent comments.

So everyone’s a winner, expect obviously Sanchez, who one senses would rather spend the next four months playing fetch with his dogs than playing in the Europa League.

Costa’s Chelsea return mystery

Another deadline day loser, Diego Costa, has finally got bored with watching Brazilian soap operas on his mum’s telly and is heading back to London, reports the Spanish paper Marca.

Chelsea had demanded that the striker end his self-imposed exile in order to earn a January move to Atletico Madrid. However, the Mirror says reports of Diego’s long-awaited return are false, with Blues “sources” insisting Costa has not returned to the UK at all. All of which seems to the point to the possibility that he has sent a body double. Wouldn’t put it past him.

Another claim in Spain is that Manchester United’s David de Gea has asked his mate Sergio Ramos to help him seal a move to Real Madrid. Diario Gol says the goalkeeper has “taken advantage of his coexistence” with Ramos (Google Translate on the money as usual) to ask the Real captain to persuade Zinedine Zidane to sign him. Bet Ramos always has people asking him to do that.

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Elsewhere, Andres Iniesta is set to end speculation of a move to Juventus by signing a new contract at Barcelona (Mundo Deportivo), Championship Bolton are set to sign the former Arsenal flop Julio Baptista, now 35, on a free transfer (Sun) and Tottenham striker Vincent Janssen “is finished” at the club after he angered Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino by refusing deadline day moves to West Brom, Stoke and Brighton (Mirror). At least he has finally proved adept at finishing something.

@darlingkevin