Real Madrid star looking for house in London ahead of Arsenal move, Manchester United after Ligue 1 starlet, and more: Premier League transfer rumour - 3 February 2018

It is only just the third day after the transfer window slammed shut, but we are in no dearth of transfer news. Indeed, the usual suspects are all here, barring Tottenham, as we have another full-house of Premier League transfer rumours.

So here we go!

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#5 The pain of David Moyes

In yesterday’s roundup, we reported the reason for Islam Slimani ending up at Newcastle United instead of West Ham. And today, we have quotes from David Moyes stating that even he himself thought that the Leicester striker would be joining the Hammers, but the move never happened.

As quoted by Sky Sports here, he said:

"Slimani was agreed on Tuesday night and it didn't come off on Wednesday. I only woke up on Wednesday to be told that it wasn't going to happen."

"Then on Wednesday afternoon we hoped to do Amadou. We put in a loan offer for him, which we hoped might have been good enough to get him."

"We didn't want to pay the asking price because we hadn't seen him often enough to say it was worth putting out £16 million for him but we made a really big loan offer and couldn't get him in the end."

Not a good time to be David Moyes, it seems.

#4 Merseyside

Pulisic is the most talked-about USA player in the world now

Liverpool are perhaps the only club in the world that agree to sell their best player midway during a season. They are like the small club among the big clubs, as painful as that sounds. They had a lot of money from Philippe Coutinho’s sale, but they never used it.

Nevertheless, there is a feeling that they might finally use it in the summer as Mirror believe that Liverpool will face tough competition from Bayern Munich for American star Christian Pulisic.

Meanwhile, L’Esportiu say that Espanyol rejected a late bid from Everton for talented Spanish left-back Aaron Martin, with the offer being somewhere around €20 million for the youngster.

#3 Chelsea

Asensio needs more minutes

Chelsea are a club that finds itself a lot amongst transfer rumours. They are not only linked to new players, but some of their finest players are also reportedly carving a way out of the club. One such player is Eden Hazard.

After having declined a chance to sign a new contract with the club, with Real Madrid in his sight, there seems to be a flurry of rumours of the possibility of him going to the Spanish capital. One such rumour comes from Spanish outlet Diario Gol.

However, unlike the other reports, there is some respite for Chelsea fans here. Apparently, if Real Madrid sign Eden Hazard, then Marco Asensio will leave the club.

Also, La Gazzetta Dello Sport claims that Chelsea are willing to pay the release clause of Napoli manager Maurizio Sarri in a bid to replace Antonio Conte.

#2 Arsenal

Karim Benzema is a man NOT in form

Arsenal might just become the new version of Manchester madness if things continue the way it is. One of the things about Arsenal is that every year, they are linked to one specific player.

And once again, that specific player has been linked to the Gunners. According to Don Balon, Karim Benzema knows that his days at Real Madrid are numbered. As a result, he is looking for a house in London because he will join Arsenal in the summer.

Meanwhile, as quoted by Goal, Arsenal were forced out of signing defenders because they lacked the financial muscle, admitted Wenger.

“Everybody looks for defenders. You could see again, you look at City, they buy again a defender. How much money did they spend on defenders in the last three years? We don't have the financial power of Manchester City. And the fact that they conceded half the goals we conceded is as well down to the fact that offensively they are very powerful. And they have a lot of possession in the opponent's half that we have not."

#1 Manchester madness

Mahrez has been AWOL since handing in a transfer request

Benedict Badiashile is a really coveted youngster. According to L’Equipe, a host of top European clubs are after his signature and one of them are Manchester United. The Red Devils made a bid for him in the summer but failed with it as Monaco outright rejected it.

Meanwhile, Mirror report that the reason why Leicester City didn’t allow Riyad Mahrez to leave for Manchester City on Deadline Day for £60 million is that they believe if Virgil van Dijk is worth £75 million, then their sky-high valuation of the player is correct.