Having recently caught sight of Marcos Alonso playing for Sunderland while watching Sky’s 2013-14 edition of Premier League Years, Antonio Conte is back in the market for a left-back. Yesterday the Mill revealed that his prime target was Milan’s Alessio Romagnoli, but Chelsea’s well-groomed manager wants a team moulded in his image and has thus turned to the precise man-bun of Wolfsburg’s Ricardo Rodríguez – though at the risk of leaving absolutely no bases uncovered, Roma, Internazionale and Atlético Madrid have their binoculars trained on said bun too.

Lock up your wingers, Serie A. Roma have been watching Pep-ball and while simpletons like the Mill spotted Sergio Agüero going spare, Roma have noticed there is not a lot of room for full-backs at the Etihad Stadium. They are planning swoops on Bacary Sagna, Pablo Zabaleta and Gaël Clichy to sew up their sides in an effort to hunt down league rulers Juventus.

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Juve have been doing some talent spotting of their own and will beat Manchester United to the signing of Uruguay’s teenager Rodrigo Bentancur despite a £12.5m bid from Old Trafford thanks to a first-option clause written into the sale of Carlos Tevez, the sneaky so and sos. It completes a trio of snubs for José Mourinho after the 18-year-old mini Ander Herrera, Fran Villalba, decided to sign a new Valencia contract and that time Barcelona chose Pep.

In the murky managerial world, Sam Allardyce will be sentenced to two years as the Sunderland manager following his England debacle. A Chinese consortium have their eye on the Wearside club and want to make Big Sam their first appointment after giving David Moyes the elbow. Moyes for Scotland, perhaps?

Like Moyes, the future of Liverpool’s loanee Lazar Markovic is also in doubt after he was booed off by Sporting Lisbon fans following their Champions League defeat at home to Borussia Dortmund.

But he will be cheered by the form of team-mate Gelson Martins, who is tearing it up by all accounts. Manchester United want to sign the 21-year-old who is currently in contract talks at Sporting to improve his pathetic £2,000-a-week deal, the sort of money the Mill earns per correctly spotted transfer. Though to cover all bases, his progress is being monitored by Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, plus Yeovil Town, Floridsdorfer AC, Kalamazoo Outrage, the Match for Peace charity XI red team, and Chelsea, probably.