Chelsea to hijack Liverpool's £55 million move and other EPL transfer rumours of the day - 8th August

All hail the football Gods!!!

The beautiful game may be about to kick-off in earnest - with the extremely non-traditional Friday night kickoff between Arsenal and Leicester City - but summer madness is at its absolute peak right now and managers, directors, presidents, and every other 'Einstein' with a smartphone and a twitter account are working their backsides off to sign the 'one' player that will propel them to greatness in 2017-18.

Here then are the freshest of the rumours, gossip, and riff-raff floating around the interwebs:

Arsenal

If he is so hell bent on leaving....

The Gunners are going to have a ball trying to keep their Chilean superstar/one-man-war-machine, Alexis Sanchez. Not only have various clubs expressed their interest in signing up the in-form forward, he himself seems inclined to move... but the hand that tips the scales might just be this one: Paris Saint-Germain have offered up €88m to tempt Wenger (or more specifically Stan Kroenke) to allow the Chilean to migrate across the Channel. Read all about that right here. On a side note, what in the blue hell is up with PSG?

Ian Wright has gone absolute bonkers at his former club - he's still so lovable isn't he - and have slammed them for not signing Nemanja Matic when the window opened up.... as well as passing up Virgil van Dijk - despite Southampton categorically stating that the Dutchman is not for sale

This one is completely out of the left field - Valencia are preparing a bid for Gabriel! Most Gunners fans still don't know what to make of the Brazilian, but not sure Arsene Wenger would want to part with any of his precious squad depth.

Chelsea

That ponytail next to David Luiz's Afro? Ah! Perfection!

It's that aforementioned definitely-not-for-sale Virgil van Dijk again. Chelsea are all set to return to their sneaky, smarter-than-everyone selves in the transfer market and swoop in on the £55 million rated defender. They are reportedly seeking to take advantage of the excellent relations that Liverpool enjoy with the Saints board - what with Van Dijk writing an open letter and all that jazz, the board might just decide that it might not be too shabby an idea to cash in while flipping Merseyside a right magnificent birdie at the same time.

The Blues are also still behind Serge Aurier, it is understood, and are willing to continue their running battle with Manchester United this summer in pursuit of the mercurial, hot-headed, Ivorian.

Oh, they are also messing around United's pursuit of Sergi Roberto. Why either side would be interested in the Catalan (and that for £36 million+) is absolutely beyond me.

Antonio Conte, meanwhile, has said that whilst his club are still active in the market, the fans better not expect another mega-signing (counting Alvaro as one, hence the "another") - "I think now is not the right moment for Chelsea to spend so much money on one player because we need many players," explained the Italian. "It’s important to divide this amount of money to buy many players."

No Mbappe or Bale, basically.

Liverpool

Can they keep him?

As if that Chelsea-sized jolt to the Van Dijk pursuit was not enough, the Merseysiders now have to contend with a couple of Barcelona directors who have reportedly landed in Liverpool to try and convince them to part with the services of one Philippe Coutinho.

Yes, the deal's still "just a matter of hours" away.

Oh, and the Reds are reportedly interested in bringing Andre Gomes the other way as part of any Coutinho deal... so now not only will they lose the services of their best player, they are likely to get Andre Gomes. What a time to be a Liverpool fan.

Alberto Moreno may be on his way to Watford if reports are to be believed - along with Ashley Young from Manchester United.

Some happy news, though, my disheartened Reds - Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund are all set to battle it out for Athletic Bilbao's exciting forward Inaki Williams - the Basque would certainly lend a dash of speed to an attack that's bristling with pace in the shapes of Sadio Mane and Mohammed Salah.

Liverpool fans everywhere have been sent scrambling for footage from last year's Europa League and Eredivisie after reports emerged of the Reds serious interest in one of Ajax's most promising youngsters - Hakim Ziyech. The attacking midfielder could go a way to softening the impact of any potential sale of their best existing attacking midfielder.

Manchester City

Does Pep have any more full-backs up his sleeve?

The Citizens are going the Chelsea way - in that, they are generating hyper talented young talents and sending them all on loan to Holland. The latest to track that well-beaten path across the North Sea is Mexican starlet Uriel Antuna on a two-year loan deal to FC Groningen (the club where Luis Suarez started off his European journey).

A part of that: Celtic and Nice want to sign Manchester City's former Fulham midfielder Patrick Roberts, 20 years old and full of promise.

Since they already bought every other fullback on the market, the Citizens have decided to pass up on this week's hot favourites - Serge Aurier and Sergi Roberto.

Fear not, though, my blue City fans, Pep Guardiola has stated that he is still two signings away from having a good transfer window - so expect more movement this month.

The Catalan is looking to his home nation, and he likes the cut of Inigo Martinez's jib. La Real's superstar defender is also wanted by Barcelona - so he won't come cheap. Oh, and they still haven't given up on Kylian Mbappe.

Manchester United

Mourinho may not need to lend his brain to this one...

Manchester United's paucity of quality left-backs - no, Daley Blind, Luke Shaw, and Matteo Darmian do not count - has seen them look elsewhere and they really like what they've seen of Danny Rose. Internazionale are interested in the 27-year-old who is a nailed-on starter for Mauricio Pochettino when fit so expect Daniel Levy to give him up on the cheap.

The Red Devils have also had a £36 million bid for Sergi Roberto rejected by Barcelona. I understand the who and the how much, but the answer to the "why" still eludes me.

Rumours linking United to Belgian (and RSC Anderlecht) youngster Leander Deondecker have gained momentum with his agent supposedly revealing that the promising midfielder wants to leave the Belgian goliaths. "Anderlecht want to keep him but the kid wants a new challenge," Christophe Henrotay (the agent, in case you were wondering) is quoted by Foot Mercato. "We'll see if we can find an agreement with the club, but that seems difficult."

If Gareth Bale starts tonight, expect United's interest in him to die... if he doesn't, well... some of us are going to be writing a lot of rumour articles from tomorrow till the end of time.

The Serge Aurier deal is still on very shaky ground, hence the hold up in Timothy Fosu-Mensah's proposed loan move to Crystal Palace.

United are reportedly back in talks with Benfica for 23-year-old Brazilian playmaker Anderson Talisca... and we all know how Brazilians named Anderson who have moved from Portugal do for United. The Englishman, though, will face stiff competition from Besiktas (who Anderson was on loan with for the duration of last season)