Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Man Utd ‘want Neymar’, Van Dijk and Fonte ‘to leave Saints’, West Ham ‘target £25m Wilson’

By Kevin Darling

Southampton will probably never win the Premier League, and they probably won’t even win the league cup, but they should at least receive an MBE for their services for other English football clubs. Since Theo Walcott and Gareth Bale first trundled out of St Mary’s years ago, the Saints have dedicated their existence to make other teams slightly better.

And the Sun reports that this selfless charity work is set to continue, with Claude Puel already “resigned” to losing his central defensive partnership Virgil van Dijk and Jose Fonte to Liverpool and Manchester United respectively.

The tabloid predicts that both players will leave the south coast “over the course of the next two transfer windows”, after which Saints will restart the player regeneration process that will future managers of Liverpool and Man Utd have some players to buy.

With respect to Jose Fonte, who is a really great guy, United fans might be more excited to learn that the Red Devils are trying to sign Barcelona forward Neymar for £180m.

The Daily Record says United have “asked to be kept informed of the Brazilian’s intentions”, although it might be quite a long wait until Neymar’s intention is to leave the world’s best club and play in the Europa League instead.

If United do sign Neymar, which they won’t, then it would accelerate Anthony Martial’s departure from Old Trafford. The Sun says Paris Saint-Germain are interested in the French forward, who Mourinho only uses in the aforementioned Europa League and  the EFL Cup.

West Ham’s endless search for a striker has led them back to Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson, who they first tried to sign in the summer. The Guardian says the Hammers will make a £25m January bid for the 24-year-old Cherry while trying to renegotiate the terms of Simone Zaza’s loan deal. Sadly their preferred option - activating the “go away and don’t come back” clause - is unlikely to be on the table.

Liverpool are preparing a £20m January bid for Celtic sensation Moussa Dembele and are offering to quadruple his wages to come to Anfield, says Glasgow Live.

Another hot young striker, Ajax’s Kasper Dolberg, is wanted by Manchester City but they face competition from Juventus and Napoli for the Dane’s signature (Corriere dello Sport).

Elsewhere, Arsenal are willing to pay “what it takes” to sign 21-year-old Real Madrid midfielder Marcos Llorente (Star), Leicester are in “advanced talks” to sign teenage Genk midfielder Wilfred Ndidi for £14m (Telegraph) and Chelsea manager Antonio Conte is planning to “phase out” John Terry (Mail). Soon, production on all John Terrys will be discontinued and they will not be available to buy anywhere, ever again.