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Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Arsenal ‘target Dembele, Reus’, Chelsea ‘want Bonucci’

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If this is to be Arsene Wenger’s last season as Arsenal manager before he goes off to fulfil his destiny and manage England, you’d expect he might finally throw off the shackles and splurge the Gunners’ entire cash reserves on Cesc Fabregas, Wayne Rooney, Vincent Kompany and Robin van Persie in January in one last desperate attempt to win something good.

But instead, Wenger’s transfer policy appears to be telling us that he is planning for the future at the Emirates. He’s going young.

According to the Sun, the player in Wenger’s sights in the next transfer window is 20-year-old Moussa Dembele, the striker who was on the verge of a move to rivals Tottenham last season but couldn’t go there in case Mousa Dembele suffered an identity crisis.

Spurs may be currently ruing this slice of bad luck as Dembele Jr rattles in the goals for Celtic, allegedly attracting the interest of Wenger, as well as Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.

The Star is linking Arsenal with an even younger player in the shape of 17-year-old Monaco winger Kylian Mbappe, whose name sounds a bit like the French version of a number one hit song by Hanson.

Wenger is being tipped to “splash the cash” on Mbappe, who recently broke Thierry Henry’s record to become Monaco’s youngest ever goalscorer. Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain are also said to be keen on him.

Wenger could also make a move for Borussia Dortmund’s Marco Reus, says the Express, but that’s only if Mesut Ozil refuses to sign a new Gunners contract and moves to Real Madrid instead, as has been suggested.

Paul Pogba’s agent has confirmed what Hot Football Transfer Gossip was trying to tell you throughout the entirety of last year - that Chelsea wanted to sign Pogba.

The ubiquitous Mino Raiola says in the Express that Jose Mourinho was trying to sign the French midfielder while he was Blues manager last summer, but Juventus wouldn’t allow it.

Meanwhile, the current Chelsea boss Antonio Conte has “demanded an overhaul” of his squad after a dodgy start the season, reports the Times.

The Italian has apparently had lunch with Roman Abramovich “three days in a row at the club’s training ground” as they discussed the overhaul. Surely they could have found somewhere nicer to eat than that. Crazy.

Anyway, Conte made it very clear during the lunches that he still wanted to sign Leonardo Bonucci, so Juventus should brace themselves for an extremely large bid for him in January.

Finally, in England manager gossip, Eddie Howe is likely to be on the FA’s three-man shortlist along with Wenger and Gareth Southgate (Mirror), former Schalke coach Ralf Rangnick is a “dark horse” for the role (Telegraph) and - most excitingly - Germany legend Jurgen Klinsmann has also been named on the shortlist (Star). Oh, but that’s for the Swansea job.

@darlingkevin