Football transfer rumours: Gareth Bale to Tottenham Hotspur? | Football

Another day, another glut of speculation about what the future holds for Tottenham Hotspur under José Mourinho. After trolling his own employers by cavorting behind that flag while celebrating Wales’s qualification for Euro 2020, Real Madrid rebel Gareth Bale is being linked with a return to his former club, whose new manager tried to sign him when he was in charge of Manchester United. Both Real Madrid and Bale’s agent, Jonathan Barnett, are believed to be in agreement that the Welshman will not be going anywhere until next summer at the earliest.

While David Hytner, the Guardian’s man on the Tottenham beat has it on good authority that Mourinho won’t be given any money to spend in January, that hasn’t stopped idle gossipmongers elsewhere linking Sporting Lisbon midfielder Bruno Fernandes, Benfica centre-back Rúben Dias and Manchester United midfielder Nemanja Matic with moves to White Hart Lane. Mourinho is also understood to be an admirer of Bournemouth defender Nathan Aké but is “willing to lose” want-away trio Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen and Christian Eriksen, according to the Express. He is less willing to lose Harry Kane, however, and has insisted that Spurs don’t listen to any offers for the striker next summer.

With so much media focus and scrutiny on their north London rivals, Arsenal’s ongoing problems have been temporarily shunted out of the spotlight but that doesn’t mean they’re not still busy trying to solve them. They sent scouts to watch Hungarian midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai, 19, in his nation’s defeat at the hands of Wales on Tuesday and despite his tender years, Arsenal view the Red Bull Salzburg starlet as an ideal replacement for the outgoing Granit Xhaka.

Elsewhere, Liverpool, Napoli and Chelsea are all giving Genk midfielder Sander Berge the glad eye, while AC Milan’s Polish striker Krzysztof Piatek might be heading to Everton in a swap deal that would see Moise Kean go the other way.

Yet to score for Crystal Palace this season, but surfing the wave of confidence that comes with scoring twice in a 6-1 victory for his country over Cyprus, Christian Benteke is pondering the possibility of a fresh start elsewhere. “Playing for your club is always different from the national team,” he told Belgian daily La Dernière Heure. “I hope the Cyprus game will give me my confidence back and give me the chance to score for Palace. But I also have to think about the January transfer window. I will give it some thought and I’ll see what can be done.”

And finally, those Mario Mandzukic-to-Manchester United rumours won’t go away but they have been joined on stage by some all-singing, all-dancing speculation suggesting the Old Trafford outfit have cooled their interest in the Croatian striker and might try to sign Edin Dzeko from Roma instead.