A Happy Christmas to all WHOersBBC
England and Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney, 31, will be offered £700,000 a week by two Chinese Super League clubs to join them next summer.(Daily Mirror)
Southampton value their Netherlands defender Virgil van Dijk at £60m but have no plans to sell the 25-year-old in the January transfer window. (Telegraph)
Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United have been linked with Van Dijk, but Saints say the trio can challenge for his signature in three years. (Sun)
New Crystal Palace manager Sam Allardyce will receive a £4m bonus if he keeps the club in the Premier League. (Daily Mail)
Former England boss Allardyce will get £20m to spend in the January transfer window to help the club avoid relegation. (Daily Star)
Everton are ready to make a formal approach to Manchester United for Netherlands winger Memphis Depay, 22, and France midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin, 27. (Telegraph)
Arsenal are targeting Sunderland's England Under-21 keeper Jordan Pickford in a move that would see them loan the 22-year-old back to the Black Cats for the rest of the season.(Evening Standard)
Manchester City are monitoring Lionel Messi's situation at Barcelona after the 29-year-old Argentina international's talks over a new deal with the club stalled. (Marca, via Sun)
City manager Pep Guardiola says he has "no plans for a major signing" in January and would happily complete the season with his current squad.(Guardian)
Former England manager Roy Hodgson, 69, says his players "seemed to freeze a little bit" during their last-16 defeat by minnows Iceland at Euro 2016.(Times - subscription required)
Manchester United will offer Zlatan Ibrahimovic a coaching role to try to keep the 35-year-old Swedish striker at the club.(Daily Star)
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp says his side miss Wales midfielder Joe Allen, who left the club to join Stoke, who the Reds host on 27 December.(Daily Express)
Everton boss Ronald Koeman says he is unsure whether 23-year-old midfielder Ross Barkley will fulfil his potential.(Daily Mail)
Koeman could also use Barkley in a swap deal for 27-year-old Tottenham midfielder Moussa Sissoko. (Sunday People)
Valencia want to sign Manchester United defender Marcos Rojo, 26.(Daily Mirror)
Hull City manager Mike Phelan says is would take a "huge" offer for anyone to sign midfielder Robert Snodgrass, 29. (Hull Daily Mail)
Sunderland and then-manager Peter Reid came close to signing striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Ajax in 2002. (Times - subscription required)
And finally
Arsenal have cancelled their Christmas party on the back of two successive league defeats following advice from keeper Petr Cech and defender Laurent Koscielny. (Independent)
Benfica's Sweden defender Victor Lindelof, 22, has dropped a hint he will be moving to Manchester United by signing a fan's replica Old Trafford shirt. (Daily Express)
All three Premier League managers - Paul Lambert, Brendan Rodgers and Alan Pardew - who have signed Crystal Palace striker Christian Benteke have been sacked. (Daily Mail)
C&H
Sakho surgery: Why the long wait?
News that Diafra Sakho could be out until March after deciding to undergo surgery on his long term back injury is irritating …to put it mildly.
Slaven Bilic revealed the news in a presser ahead of the trip to Swansea and immediately raised the question which may have been in many minds – why wasn’t this decision taken a year ago?
Indeed one might have thought after the failed medical at West Brom that it would have been a priority issue but still it didn’t happen.
As is always the case the player has the final say on these issues and how they are treated and thus – along with his advisers – Sakho appears to have chosen to believe he could recover without the need for what we at CandH have been told is “a very small procedure.”
Our understanding is that the striker has been advised that he had been told he needed surgery but that conflicted from advice he received from elsewhere.
However, the good news is that according to insiders the required procedure will settle his back problems once and for all!
