Chelsea target Enner Valencia and Diafra Sakho?
Yes, he slapped it in personally. No meek submission for Sullivan, verily the Diego Costa of the bid-placing game, a man for whom other clubs are to be approached with a threatening mien and most probably some kind of mock military jacket and whose documents are traditionally delivered with a slap, punch, butt, jab or whipcrack (though to be fair the Rumour Mill can't really throw stones here, given that we often send things using a stamp). The motivation behind the Hammers' move may be the fact that two of their current crop of frontmen, Enner Valencia and Diafra Sakho, have attracted the attention of Chelsea, who are after a striker having decided that current bench-warmer Loïc Rémy isn't much use, Kazinform refers to The Guardian .
Talking of giving up on formerly French-based forwards, Emmanuel Adebayor's move away from Tottenham moves ever closer, with Paris St-Germain joining QPR and Stoke on the list of clubs keen for him to play six good games for them before cheerfully seeing out the remainder of his contract as a substitute. The French side have identified a cunning way of getting round this problem, proposing that Adebayor joins only on loan, for the remainder of this season. Spurs are minded to accept the offer, so long as the heavy-walleted Gallic gang pick up his £100,000-a-week wages in full. Liverpool's scouts have been busy, with various sources linking them with Hannover midfield pairing Lars Stindl - who's 26, has a £3m buyout clause and, less promisingly, was reported in Wednesday's Bild to have agreed to join Schalke - and Leonardo Bittencourt - having an impressive season with his club and with Germany's Under-21s but, less promisingly, subject to a contractual buy-back clause involving former club Borussia Dortmund. There's also Porto's 17-year-oldRúben Neves, who has been labelled the "new Busquets" and has the additional advantage of, so far as the Mill can tell, not being about to sign for someone else instead. Chelsea's widely-touted sale of André Schürrle back to Germany somewhere will be rushed through in order to fund their widely-touted purchase of Juan Cuadrado. Also heading from west London to Germany is Junior Hoilett, the QPR flop who is all set to attempt a career resurrection at Borussia Mönchengladbach. Harry Redknapp could also sell Matt Phillips, with Hull, West Brom and Derby all keen on the winger. Birmingham might have been knocked out of the FA Cup by West Bromwich Albion at the weekend but the match represented a victory of sorts for at least one member of the team, withDemarai Gray playing so well that the Baggies now want to buy him.Liverpool and Bournemouth - who according to the Sun have had a £4.25m bid rejected, and according to the Mirror are preparing a bid of £4.25m - are also keen on the winger. The Baggies have made their Australian full-back Jason Davidson available for any kind of transfer to anyone at all - loan, permanent deal, whatever you want just come and get him. Having just snapped up Darren Bent, Derby want another high-profile loan signing to boost their promotion bid in the shape of Tom Ince, now back at Hullafter a temporary spell at Nottingham Forest. And Hull want a high-profile signing of their own to boost their, well, whatever they want to do next bid in the shape of 20-year-old Manchester United ace Nick Powell, though today's papers are in wild disagreement over whether they want him on loan or permanently, and now or in the summer. What's more, according to the Besiktas vice-president Ahmet Nur Cebi, Hull want to bring Demba Ba back to England, though Aston Villa are also keen on the twinkle-toed former Chelsea and Newcastle goal-grabber. Villa have had some promising news in their pursuit of Scott Sinclair, with Manchester City deciding they may be minded to accept a loan offer after all, having initially seemed determined to negotiate a permanent transfer. And with their survival chances looking slimmer and dimmer amid results that seem to get grimmer and grimmer, Leicester want to add a little shimmer and glimmer in the shape of Lex Immers, Feyenoord's £4.5m-rated attacking midfielder.
