Football transfer rumours: Newcastle told to offer north of £50m for Barella?

Make no mistake, football is in transfer mode now. How does we know this? The speculation is flowing like a river, and England’s imminent fixtures are taking a back seat.

Harry Kane might have greeted international colleagues past and present with a Cliff Richard-style gold disc thank-you gesture for his own achievements (!) but he’s still not leaving Manchester United, who have deemed it too expensive, and too much of a pain to get Charlie Kane and Daniel Levy in the room together.

So that leaves lots of other strikers with Victor Osimhen of Napoli – just the £150m – and the Atalanta forward Rasmus Højlund – just the £50m. Plus, we don’t know who will be writing the cheque what with takeover speculation drumming along in the background.

Tottenham and United meanwhile are both set on goalie David Raya, for whom Brentford have set a public price of £40m. Spurs won’t pay it, but will United?

Meanwhile, there’s a big noise coming out of Newcastle that Internazionale’s outstanding Nicolò Barella might be joining their midfield unit. There he will be joined by James Maddison to allow Bruno Guimarães for a freer role, is the word though those aboard the tactics truck don’t quite see the logic of that. For an offer of £50m, Inter say Barella – who is playing at the Nations League finals – is going nowhere while Maddison still favours a London-centric move. Rennes’ French midfielder Désiré Doué is also a Toon target but as an 18-year-old, he’s one to be put on the backburner, maybe loaned out as with Yankuba Minteh earlier this week.

Kai Havertz, willowy, skilful, creative, not without his moments but not quite at the top level: can anyone think of a more Arsenal player? Or at least an Arsenal player of the late-Wenger years?