The transfer windows in Europe's top leagues are closed, but it's never too late to look forward to January. Click here to view the latest transfers, and keep up to date with the newest gossip below.
Top 10 free agents in 2020 | European transfer review
TOP STORY: Man United on red alert for Bale
Manchester United have been encouraged by the news that Gareth Bale wants to leave Real Madrid, according to a report on BBC Radio 5 Live.
After a summer of speculation linking Bale with a move away from the Spanish capital, the report suggests that the Welshman has decided he wants to leave following his omission from the squad to face Club Brugge in the Champions League last week.
Bale feels that he has been treated unfairly and is now looking for a way to force a move.
The news will alert United, who have been linked with a move for the former Tottenham forward for many years. The addition of Bale could help United climb the table, but also appease supporters angry at Ed Woodward's continued transfer failings.
It was thought Bale would end his time in Madrid with a transfer to China in the summer, but the deal to join Jiangsu Suning fell through.
LIVE BLOG
23.15 BST: That will do it for the latest edition of our LIVE Transfer Talk blog. We hoped you enjoyed following along with us and remind you to check back shortly for the latest transfer rumours, reports and rumblings. Goodnight!
22.32 BST: Now that Mario Mandzukic's move to Qatar is off, where will the Croatian land next?
Mandzukic, 33, was allowed to seek a move to leave Juventus this summer but is still at the club even though he does not project to be in Maurizio Sarri's plans. The former Champions League winner and World Cup runner-up figures to leave the Allianz Stadium in January with Man United the club often linked.
Italian outlet Tuttosport are going one further and claiming that Mandzukic and United already have a "verbal agreement" for the player to join the club on January 1. Man United need attacking reinforcements badly but we will have to wait until Jan. 1 to see if Mandzukic is indeed the answer.
21.17 BST: West Ham have locked up the club's third-longest serving player to a contract extension.
Aaron Cresswell, who has been with the club since 2014, has signed a contract extension at the London Stadium through 2023. The 29-year-old defender has made 184 appearances with the Hammers and three appearances for England.
20.41 BST: Bolton teenager Dennis Politic has gotten off to a bright start this season in League One and clubs further up the pyramid are taking notice.
Football Insider can confirm that Aston Villa and Wolves are both monitoring the 19-year-old Romanian, who has been the one bright spot for bottom Bolton this season.
19.55 BST: DONE DEAL! Petr Cech (yes, that one) has ended his retirement and signed with a new club... sort of.
The former Chelsea and Arsenal keeper, now 37, has signed with British ICE HOCKEY team the Guilford Phoenix! The club announced the marquee signing on Wednesday and that Cech will debut for the club this coming Sunday.
Cech told the club's website he is excited for the new opportunity to play a sport he loves.
**PETR CECH SIGNS WITH THE PHOENIX**
— Guildford Phoenix (@gford_phoenix) October 9, 2019
The ex professional footballer will begin his ice hockey career this Sunday when he makes his debut for the Phoenix!
Full story here: https://t.co/DdpOdLz6yb pic.twitter.com/kyQuERVBHa
"I am delighted to have the opportunity to play with the Phoenix to get the match experience. I hope I can help this young team to achieve their goals for the season and try to win as many games as possible when I have the chance to play. After 20 years of professional football this is going to be a wonderful experience for me to play the game I loved to watch and play as a kid."
We aren't ready to anoint him the next Dominik Hasek just yet but whether it is on the pitch or on the ice, Petr sure knows how to shut down the opposition.
19.04 BST: Man City have fallen eight points behind leaders Liverpool in the Premier League with injuries at centre-back to Aymeric Laporte and Nicolas Otamendi playing a critical role in the club's early-season struggles.
Pep Guardiola has said City will be standing pat in January but after Sunday's 2-0 loss to Wolves, transfer speculation surrounding City has ratcheted up again. The latest rumour? Bournemouth centre-back Nathan Ake arriving at the Etihad in January.
Paddy Power has lowered the odds of Ake moving to City to 3/1 due to previous interest in Ake by City and Pep Guardiola's club's current injury dilemma. Ake, 24, was rumoured to City in August but the Cherries reportedly are holding out for £80 million for the gifted Dutch defender.
Will City go for a defender in January? They really have to at this point, don't they?
18.18 BST: Man United need help at striker and former Rangers forward and current Sky Sports pundit Kris Boyd believes the answer could be lying in Scotland.
That player is Celtic frontman Odsonne Edouard, who Boyd believes is ready to take a step up in level and play in the Premier League. Boyd views the ex-PSG man a bright talent and believes he could even play for France's senior side if his career continues in this upward trajectory.
"Talk about playing with France, is it a possibility? Yes. Do I think he'll do it with Celtic? No.
"That'll be in back of his mind, he'll need to make that move if he's going to get in the French squad. I don't think it'll be January, but come next summer, if there's something of £25-30 million, which is reasonable for me, I think this guy will go to the very top."
"If I was Manchester United, I would come in and give the £25-30million in the summer.
"I wouldn't be surprised if a Brighton or an Aston Villa come in and pay the £30 million for Odsonne Edouard and then he goes again."
Edouard, who has nine goals in 17 games thus far this season, is not the only striker with Celtic ties linked to Old Trafford, as his predecessor and current Lyon striker Moussa Dembele has also been proposed as a solution to the Red Devils.' goalscoring woes.
17.33 BST: Red Bull Salzburg forward Hwang Hee-chan scored a beautiful goal last week in the Champions League against Liverpool and it looks as if some of the Merseyside clubs' 'rivals' have taken notice.
The Daily Mail reports that Arsenal -- and Crystal Palace -- are now scouting the South Korean forward, who has scored seven goals and provided 10 assists in 11 games this season for the Austrian outfit. Hwang, still just 23, is a close friend of Tottenham star Son Heung-min, and has now put together three strong seasons in Austria for Salzburg, despite a disappointing loan spell at Bundesliga side Hamburg.
Arsenal's one previous South Korea? The infamous Park Chu-young...
16.59 BST: Shifting to the states momentarily, a couple of highly-rated American youngsters have inked new deals with their current MLS clubs.
FC Dallas and once-capped U.S. international midfielder Paxton Pomykal, one of the USMNT's highest rated prospects, has signed a contract extension through 2023 to remain at his hometown club, per The Athletic's Sam Stejskal. The 19-year-old, who has been linked with moves to some of Europe's biggest clubs, made 25 appearances for Dallas this season and starred at the Under-20 World Cup with the U.S. this past summer in Poland.
Along the same lines, Atlanta United agreed to a contract extension through 2023 with fellow USMNT up-and-comer Miles Robinson.
The 2nd overall pick in the 2017 MLS SuperDraft, Robinson, 22, had a breakout season for Atlanta in defence, playing 34 times and earning his first call-up to the United States senior team.
16.21 BST: Lionel Messi almost left Barcelona!
15.30 BST: Edinson Cavani and Thiago Silva could leave Paris Saint-Germain for free at the end of the season, sources have told ESPN FC.
The South American pair are both into their final year of contract with PSG and the Ligue 1 giants are yet to offer either an extended stay at Parc des Princes.
According to ESPN FC sources, Cavani has not totally ruled out the possibility of staying and believes he can still convince sporting director Leonardo and the PSG leadership to offer him a new deal.
However, no such offer has been forthcoming, and Silva has also been left in the dark regarding the club's plans for him beyond the end of this term.
14.32 BST: Arsenal would quite like to get Mesut Ozil off the books, while the 30-year-old midfielder himself is probably keen to move on given his lack of game time so far this season.
Ozil is a boyhood Fenerbahce fan so will be delighted to read a report in Turkish newspaper Takvim that states the Gunners have opened talks about a transfer.
13.48 BST: According to A Bola, Manchester United, Sevilla and Benfica are all interested in America's Sebastian Cordova.
Cordova, 22, has scored three goals in 11 games for America and has attracted attention for his excellent performances in midfield. The Mexico international has made just one appearance for his national side, but is very much viewed as a fine future prospect.
13.12 BST: Arsene Wenger could be set for a new job at Lyon and it would see him come face-to-face with Nice boss and former Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira on Nov. 23.
12.20 BST: River Plate midfielder Exequiel Palacios will not join Inter Miami CF, with the player eager to play in Europe, says his agent.
The 21-year-old, a reported target of Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City, has been linked with MLS as new franchise Inter Miami are eager to sign him in 2020.
Palacios' agent Renato Corsi told Marca Claro: "Palacios will not go to Miami, he took the decision that he wants to go to Europe."
The midfielder has scored one goal and set up one more in eight league appearances for River this season, and has a contract until June 2021.
11.11 BST: Paul Pogba is a name that we've seen quite a few times in TT, but the latest reports from Tuttosport mean he could be appearing a lot more soon.
Pogba has made it clear that he wants a new challenge after growing criticism of his performances at Manchester United and, though sources have told ESPN that the club are keen to tie him down to a new contract, the Italian outlet claims that he's rejected their offer and wants €30m per year, or around £500,000-a-week.
The report also says that Juventus are waiting in the wings, with Real Madrid the only other option for the midfielder.
10.27 BST: Lionel Messi has revealed in an interview with Catalan Radio Rac 1 that he thought Neymar would have joined Real Madrid if he were not going to return to Barcelona over the summer.
"He was really looking forward to leaving [PSG], to make a change, to leave Paris," Messi said. "I thought that [Real Madrid president] Florentino [Perez] and Madrid would do something to sign him. I thought that if Neymar didn't come here [Barcelona], he would go to Madrid."
09.44 BST: Arsenal midfielder Dani Ceballos has been speaking about his future. At Real Madrid, the 23-year-old had played just 16% of possible minutes under Zinedine Zidane and now on loan at the Emirates he has managed 57%.
"It was clear in my mind from the first moment -- I had to leave, get back playing and enjoying my football again because in the two previous years, I hadn't been able to do that. I made the right choice going to Arsenal. I'm really happy there," Ceballos told reporters at a news conference for Spain. "The boss [Unai Emery] is showing a lot of faith in me and it's important to have that. I hope to repay him out on the pitch by playing well."
Asked if his return to Madrid would depend on Zidane's own future, he replied: "Who knows? It's hypothesis and nothing more than that. He left the club after winning the Champions League three times so it's impossible for me to say what will happen."
08.58 BST: Well this quote just took on a whole new dimension, given the news below.
Franck Ribery, who left Bayern this summer to join Fiorentina on a free transfer, had said that the Bavarians would have no room for Borussia Dortmund sensation Jadon Sancho. If Thomas Muller leaves, they might...
"Sancho is a good player, but Bayern has enough good players in this position, where should he play? There are Muller, [Serge] Gnabry, [Ivan] Perisic, [Kingsley] Coman, [Philippe] Coutinho, [Robert] Lewandowski," he told Bild. "There is a lot of competition, I hope that Sancho confirms his good year, but there would be little room for him in the Bayern squad."
08.30 BST: Sport Bild claims that Thomas Muller is desperate to leave Bayern Munich in the January window. Muller, who turned 30 last month, has started only three games this season and mostly been consigned to a place on the bench.
The forward has played 325 Bundesliga games for the club, while his Germany career appears to have been ended at 100 caps by coach Joachim Low. Bayern boss Niko Kovac says that Muller is behind Philippe Coutinho in his pecking order.
PAPER ROUND (by Nick Judd)
Dortmund, Arsenal chase Celtic's Dembele
Celtic wonderkid Karamoko Dembele is a target for Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund, reports German title Bild.
The 16-year-old is being tracked by a whole host of Europe's top clubs after having made his way into the Bhoys' first team.
Dembele was awarded his senior debut at the end of last season and he was quickly given a first professional contract at the age of 15, such was his potential. He has yet to start a game this time around, though, but such is his untapped potential that the biggest clubs want to take a chance on him.
Dembele, who was born in London but raised in Glasgow, has played for both England and Scotland at youth level and is yet to make a decision on which one he might represent long term. However, he could be tempted to move given both Dortmund and Arsenal have this season given young players opportunities.
City target Croatia star Antonio Marin
Manchester City are lining up a move for Dinamo Zagreb winger Antonio Marin, according to Sky Sports.
The 18-year-old grabbed an assist and generally impressed for Dinamo in a 2-2 draw against City's under-19s. The youngster is contracted to the club until 2024 and has two caps for Croatia's U21s.
Marin already has first-team experience after breaking into the side last season, and he has four appearances to his name this time around. Chelsea and Villarreal are also said to be interested in his services.
Rabiot's Juve tenure already ending?
Adrien Rabiot may be set to leave Juventus just months after joining the club on a free transfer in July, Calciomercato reports.
France international Rabiot has been unable to establish himself in a crowded Juve midfield, leading to the player's mother and agent touting his services to clubs around Europe.
Calciomercato claims that members of Rabiot's team have been in contact with Barcelona representatives, as the Juventus star plots a potential January escape route. Barcelona were reportedly keen on the 24-year-old over the summer, but Rabiot instead opted to join Juventus, alongside Aaron Ramsey and Matthijs de Ligt.
Tap-ins
- Gabriel Barbosa, 23, is close to making his loan move to Flamengo permanent after the Brazilian club appear to have agreed a fee with Inter Milan. Gabigol has scored 18 goals in 18 games and was attracting interest from all over the world, though Corriere dello Sport is suggesting the two clubs have now reached an agreement.
- Juventus are unwilling to let Paulo Dybala leave the club in January -- according to Calciomercato. Dybala had been linked with moves to both Spurs and Manchester United over the summer months, but with deals unable to be agreed, the Argentine star stayed put. The report says that an improvement in form, and a show of faith from boss Mauricio Sarri have convinced the 25-year-old forward to stay -- until next summer at least.