Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Berahino, Koscielny, Stones, Tomkins, Witsel

The flurry of bona fide, actual transfers in the last couple of days came about because the transfer window has now officially reopened. It’s the time when we see the proof that everything Hot Football Transfer Gossip said about Zlatan going to Man Utd, and Nolito going to Man City and Townsend going to Crystal Palace was true.

By extension, it also means that virtually every other piece of news reported in HFTG was not true, because otherwise there would be four thousand players posing in new club shirts right now, rather than four.

But HTFG was right on the money about Steve Mandanda, eh?? And the crowd goes wild.

Now, just because a player didn’t change clubs on 1 July doesn’t mean he won’t do so at some other point in the next two months. They’re just making us wait a bit, that’s all. That’s certainly the case with Saido Berahino, anyway.

The West Brom striker is still a West Brom striker despite a year of speculation about him leaving the Hawthorns, with the latest development - as reported in the Mirror - being that Stoke’s £16m bid for the 22-year-old may not be enough because the Baggies are holding out for £20m.

There’s a nice piece of fresh gossip in the Standard, which says that Bayern Munich are “believed to be weighing up a move” for Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny.

And there’s a tedious piece of stale gossip in the Telegraph, which says that Manchester City are “prepared to pay £50m” for John Stones to ensure it’s them who gets him and nobody else. Looks like the Everton defender’s lack of playing time in England’s dismal Euro 2016 campaign has actually boosted his value.

Another centre-back on the move could be West Ham’s James Tomkins, who the Mail says has been the subject of a £12.5m bid from Crystal Palace, who are literally buying everyone.

Now that Belgium’s Euros bid is over, it will be interesting to see where their players end up because virtually all of them have been linked with moves.

Squawka reports that Everton have agreed a £30m deal with Zenit St Petersburg for the Red Devils midfielder Axel Witsel and have agreed to pay him £100,000 a week. Wonder if Toffees striker Romelu Lukaku is still worth £65m?

Elsewhere, Henrikh Mkhitaryan will complete a £26m move to from Dortmund to Man Utd “this weekend” (Mail), Chelsea and United are vying to sign former Blues midfielder Lassana Diarra from Marseille (Star) and the reason Watford rejected a £37.5m bid for Odion Ighalo from Shanghai SIPG was because the striker didn’t want to play in China because God told him not to (Mirror). The Hornets’ bank manager must be pretty annoyed with God right now.

@darlingkevin