We heard yesterday that 26 year old Dutch centre forward Klaas Jan Huntelaar (of Real Madrid and currently AC Milan fame) is going up for transfer come January, and, with a desire to play in England, clubs entering the bidding war for the £12 million-rated striker will be Chelsea, Liverpool and Birmingham, who have recently come into some money with the arrival of Carson Yeung as their new owner.



If Liverpool fail to entice Huntelaar to come to them over Chelsea then the £20 million that Rafa Benitez has to spend (which he tells us he has been promised for this year, due to the club’s new sponsorship deal with banking group Standard Charter, despite potentially dropping millions in investment next year for not qualifying for the Champions League) will go on striker Carlton Cole and winger Adam Johnson. It’s no doubt that with Torres’ recurring injuries the manager needs to back him up with a substitute striker so will bring someone to the club in January (what’s wrong with Babel? That’s a different discussion I guess...)

More news - Roman Pavlyuchenko may leave Spurs and return to Russia, with Zenit St Petersburg willing to pay over £10 million. The striker, who finds himself behind Defoe, Crouch and Keane in the Redknapp’s pecking order, could potentially find himself in Turkey with Besiktas willing to match any bid that St Petersburg put in, while he could still be playing in England next year with Birmingham, Fulham and West Ham all interested.

West Ham’s England centre-back Matthew Upson, courted recently by Liverpool before their signing of Sotirios Kyrgiakos, may find himself at Man City where Mark Hughes has, so we are told, finally resigned himself to losing the Premier League’s most expensive player Robinho. Barcelona may put in a trade deal with Yaya Toure on the cards, although Manchester United also want to strengthen their faltering defence by signing the Ivorian centre back.