Football transfer rumours: Draxler and Vucinic to Arsenal?

Today, however, all has changed, changed utterly, even if many of the older football clubs around the world still hark back to their 19th century origins by conducting much of their transfer business by fax machine. With less than 48 hours of the January window remaining, it looks increasingly likely that Draxler will be a Gooner by Saturday morning, with John Cross, the Mirror's authority on all things Arsenal-related, reporting that Arsène Wenger is "on the brink of sealing a deadline-beating £30m move" for the Schalke midfielder. Despite strenuous denials from the German club's officials, Schalke are apparently prepared to do business in order to raise some much-needed cash, while the offer of a 100% pay rise is likely to have Draxler himself packing his bags and ordering a London A-Z. In Wednesday's Rumour Mill we reported that a party of blazers from Arsenal were en route to North Rhine-Westphalia to talk turkey with their Schalke counterparts, but according to German football boffin Raphael Honigstein, this morning's edition of the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper suggests "Arsenal's fabled delegation never arrived nor announced themselves in Gelsenkirchen on Wednesday". Of course this doesn't mean that talks are not ongoing via the medium of agents, telephones, carrier pigeon or winged monkey, Kazinform quotes the Guardian. In other news pertaining to Arsenal, the Sun reports that they're on the verge of signing Juventus striker Mirko Vucinic, and Italian newspaper Tuttosport - admittedly an even less reliable source of transfer tell-all than the one you're currently reading - appears to confirm the news by reporting that the two clubs have already agreed terms on a loan deal that will keep the player at the Emirates for the rest of the season. The transaction in question may, however, hinge on the short-term future ofFredy Guarín. Should Inter's Colombian midfielder move to Juventus, Vucinic may well go the other way. Having said that, Juve general director Giuseppe Marotta has stated publicly that his club are no longer interested in Guarín, having described their attempts to negotiate with Inter as "a closed chapter". And to think some people find all this transfer speculation tedious, eh? One chapter that remains very much open is that entitled 'Inter's Attempt To Bring Manchester United Winger Nani To The San Siro On Loan', while elsewhere in The Big Book Of Transfer Rumours, 1990s English synthpop outfit St Etienne have told Chelsea they want £18m for their 19-year-old central defender Kurt Zouma, recently named as one ofEurope's top youngsters and stars of the future in the Observer. Having had their eye wiped by Chelsea in the battle to secure the scrawl of Mohamed Salah, Liverpool will be displeased to learn that two unnamed Premier League clubs are hopping to hijack their bid to bring Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk winger Yevhen Konoplyanka to England. According to the Daily Telegraph, one of those unnamed clubs is named Tottenham Hotspur. In other Spurs news, Lewis Holtby has made it clear that he wants to leave White Hart Lane before the week is out and the former Germany international Christoph Metzelder has apparently claimed on Twitter that the midfielder was recently spotted in the Düsseldorf area. This sighting suggests he may be off to Borussia Dortmund or Schalke, although he may just have been in town to visit the local Aquazoo Löbbecke Museum. Closer to home, Crystal Palace are hoping to sign Tom Ince in the next 36 hours, but Blackpool are holding out for £4m for a young winger whose contract expires in the summer. Meanwhile in Portugal, Academica Coimbra midfielder Fernando Alexandre is hopping in a time machine and travelling back to the 19th century where he hopes to line up for West Ham. A potential snag: the Hammers are prepared to pay £500,000 in new money, but Academica value their player at double that amount. That's your lot for today, but tune in tomorrow when we'll bringing you all the news that's fit to print (and plenty more that isn't) in our all-singing, all-dancing January Transfer Window Deadline Day Rolling Blog. Kick-off: 9am.