Football transfer rumours Ilkay Gündogan to Liverpool

Poor Jürgen. There was a sort of sad inevitability that things would threaten to turn pear-shaped and temper the excitement of Liverpool fans early on in the new manager’s reign, but nobody would have thought long-term injuries to two of the few mildly-impressive performers at Anfield this season would be sustained before they even get a chance to press the Premier League’s kings of pressing at White Hart Lane.

The injury to Danny Ings, especially, has seen every striker in the world linked with a move to join Klopp’s revolution. Zlatan Ibrahimovic? Check. Robert Lewandowski? Check. Thomas Müller? Check. And if Harry Kane finds the net tomorrow? Check. But Klopp has also now turned his attention to the midfield. He wants his former Dortmund player Ilkay Gündogan, despite Barcelona also looking to lure the 24-year-old from north-west Germany, and has also given the nod to the Transfer Committee for a bid to be sent in Porto’s direction for the teenager Ruben Neves.

Having written off the first two months of the season as “pre-season” and just realised his first and second-choice goalkeepers are out of action, Steve McClaren, winner of only two of his last 21 league games, is keen on bringing Champions League winner Victor Valdés to St James’ Park. McClaren’s promise of a peg in the dressing room and the opportunity to train is understood to be swaying the Spaniard after revealing that Tim Krul’s season-ending knee injury could cost his team up to 20 points. At least they have three from pre-season, though...

Andy Carroll could well be in the shop window come January judging by the comments of West Ham’s Slaven Bilic yesterday, the Croatian suggesting his injury-prone frontman could have avoided some knacks if he applied himself better. “I didn’t have to become West Ham manager to know Andy Carroll,” Bilic said. “I heard sometimes he gets injured because he was not totally dedicated to his football. There is definitely something behind them. They are true stories. It is very rare for people to make up stories.”The Mill agrees that there is nothing worse than rumours without foundation, which is why there is absolutely zero chance of the big striker re-uniting with a manager who loves him in the north-east. Move to Sunderland having previously spent time at St James’ Park? Sam Allardyce would not have any of it. And that’s before you factor in Allardyce – who has a book out, you know – leaving Upton Park on such good terms, especially with supporters.

And that brings things around nicely in a full circle. Ever since Pep Guardiola decided to take a break and spend some time chatting about chess with Gary Kasparov in New York, the word sabbatical has been buzzing in and around football as much as the phrases in and around good feet for a big man. But now a shift has taken hold and lengthy time-outs are no longer en vogue. Jürgen Klopp cut his short to join Liverpool, while Allardyce is at Sunderland after deciding lounging about in a Spanish villa had rapidly grown tedious.

Now Brendan Rodgers has taken it to a whole new level by reportedly penning a lucrative deal that sees him returning to work less than a fortnight after being dismissed by Liverpool. Yes, folks, the news was broken by the Seventh Wonder of the World, Twitter’s biggest ITK account, Richard Keys. The King of Just Banter revealed that Rodgers is indeed grafting again, taking up a punditry role on BeIn Sports – just not this weekend, because fellow managerial geniuses Paul Lambert and Malky Mackay are on.