Long rumoured to have his eye on José Mourinho’s job at Manchester United, Zinedine Zidane is today reported to have held “preliminary talks” with his former teammate David Beckham about managing his new Inter Miami franchise. With no players, no stadium and no games scheduled until the 2020 MLS season, the new expansion team won’t take a whole lot of managing at the moment, but Beckham has already said he wants “to create the biggest club in the USA and so that means attracting some of the biggest players”. While a high-profile manager would help attract the kind of marquee signings Beckham is after, it seems implausible to think Zidane won’t get a better offer between now and Inter Miami’s maiden MLS season.

A couple of months ago, Zidane was rumoured to be taking on a new role as technical director at his former club Juventus, but the Serie A side torpedoed the notion by pointing out that the position is already occupied by Pavel Nedved. Today, reports from Italy suggest the Serie A club’s chairman Andrea Agnelli likes the cut of Leroy Sané’s jib and will try to sign him from Manchester City in the next couple of years.

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Wolves’ Rúben Neves is a creative midfielder in big demand but will not be sold for a penny less than £110m, according to The Times. Both Manchester City and Manchester United are reported to be interested in the 21-year-old, who was the subject of praise from José Mourinho over the weekend. “These two Portuguese boys, they are both the kind of player that likes to bite, to press,” said Mourinho of Neves and his team-mate Joao Moutinho, in the wake of Wolves’ spirited draw with United at Old Trafford. “They don’t give a long time for you to have the ball, to turn, one touch, two touches, you don’t have much of that.”

Fulham are hoping to make a Premier League player of Maxwel Cornet, who was so impressive in Lyon’s victory at Manchester City in the Champions League last week. The Cottagers were unsuccessful in their bid to sign the 21-year-old winger in the most recent transfer window, but will ramp up their interest in January.

Despite Tottenham Hotspur’s dogged summer pursuit of Jack Grealish, Aston Villa raised eyebrows by refusing to sell their young star and now reports from the Midlands suggest the 23-year-old’s representatives have opened talks with his employers over a new deal. With less than two years left on his current deal, the Villa CEO, Christian Purslow, and owner, Nassef Sawiris, are eager to discuss new terms that would make Grealish the highest paid player at the club and mean that any future suitors would have to pay the Championship club top dollar to lure him away.

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And finally, still without employment after leaving Dundee at the end of August, Steven Caulker is wanted by both Aston Villa and Wigan Athletic. The 26-year-old central defender has also been linked with a move to Arsenal Kiev and seems unlikely to be without a club for too long.