Traansfer: Real Madrid told to pay £225m for Eriksen?

January has traditionally been a time when keen shoppers are on the lookout for bargains, but you have to go to the right places. You can’t just blunder into a Bentley dealership and slap down your debit card, demand 25% off and hope to saunter out with a shiny motor.

Equally, if Real Madrid thought they could pick up the phone to Tottenham and strike themselves a sweet deal for a lovely new Christian Eriksen, they were very much mistaken. According to AS in Spain, Real are very much keen on the Dane, but have been politely informed to hammer £225m – two hundred and twenty five million pounds – on the table or just not bother. Apparently Real see Eriksen as the ideal replacement for Luka Modric, but not if they have to pay that sort of coin.

Erikson with ball

Speaking of Modric, Inter still hold a candle for him, and are looking to raise funds. That means they’re looking to flog Ivan Perisic to Manchester United, and why not? After all, the manager there was obsessed with getting the Croatian winger for the last couple of years, so as long as he’s still knocking they should have a keen buyer, right? Eh? Oh.

Speaking of departures from Old Trafford, Ander Herrera has apparently been toying with the idea of doing one, with old club Athletic Bilbao keen to bring him home. However, because there’s nothing he can’t do at the moment, Ole Gunnar Solskjær has persuaded him to stay. No matter: Athletic, seemingly on a ‘re-sign all our former players’ tip at the moment, were so impressed with Fernando Llorente’s hat-trick against Tranmere in the FA Cup that they want him back too. Meanwhile United have solemnly come to terms with the fact that they’ll have to wait till the summer if they want Napoli centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly, according to ESPN.
Pity the poor admin department at Chelsea, for this could be a busy month for them. If it’s not processing Bayern Munich’s latest offer for Callum Hudson-Odoi, it’s prepping a bid for Inter’s Mauro Icardi, who is apparently Roman Abramovich’s favoured signing this month. Or, a slightly more realistic option could be Sevilla’s André Silva, but that involves persuading Alvaro Morata to swap places with him. And then there’s Gonzalo Higuaín, about whom rumours will only stop when the sun explodes and the Earth is consumed by its fire, and maybe not even then.
That’s not even considering the continuing Cesc Fàbregas saga, his departure seemingly hinging on them getting a replacement in: word on the street is they’re after both Cagliari’s Nicolo Barella, and/or Zenit St Petersburg’s Leandro Paredes. Also it’s possible that Fulham could move for a job lot of Danny Drinkwater, Victor Moses and Gary Cahill. And finally, despite him seemingly ruling out another loan move, it says here that Crystal Palace want Tammy Abraham for the rest of the season. Sheesh. Lots of paperwork there.

A few bits and bobs to finish. West Ham might be bringing in Gary Medel from Besiktas; Tottenham are keeping tabs on Wolves right wing-back Matt Doherty; Abdoulaye Doucouré has dangled a leg towards PSG; West Brom and Aston Villa both want Newcastle’s Isaac Hayden; Preston would like to borrow Joe Hart for a bit; and our old pal Arséne Wenger is a candidate for the Qatar national team gig. Eeesh.