Soccer transfers update

The Alexis Sanchez transfer rumour mill went into overdrive on Thursday afternoon, when reports emerged Manchester United had lodged a £20m offer for the want-away Arsenal forward.

Sanchez started on the bench for Wednesday night’s goalless first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final at Chelsea – which Gunners boss Arsene Wenger insisted had “nothing to do with the transfer market”.

The former Barcelona forward is widely expected to link up with Pep Guardiola once again by completing a move to Manchester City.

However, reports, emerging initially from Italy, suggested United boss Jose Mourinho was hopeful a late deal could be reached to see the Chile forward instead jump into the red half of Manchester.

As well as getting a sizeable fee for a player out of contract in the summer, Arsenal would also apparently see Henrikh Mkhitaryan head south, if they could match his wages of around £200,000-a-week.

Whatever eventually pans out, this is one transfer saga which could well be set to run all the way through to deadline day – and what a ride that would be!

Meanwhile, Gunners defender Francis Coquelin has completed his transfer to Valencia for an undisclosed fee.

Huddersfield are closing in on completing the transfer of midfielder Alex Pritchard after confirming a deal had been reached with Norwich.

Terriers boss David Wagner revealed in a press conference on Thursday afternoon that only personal terms were now left to be agreed with the former England Under-21 international.

Norwich had initially rejected a £5m offer for a player they bought from Tottenham during the summer of 2016, and who missed the start of the campaign as he recovered from ankle surgery.

Pritchard, 24, leaves the Sky Bet Championship club in 13th place – well adrift of the top six after an inconsistent first season under head coach Daniel Farke.

Leicester have added Mali youngster Fousseni Diabate to their squad.

The 22-year-old winger joins the Foxes from French Ligue 2 club Ajaccio for a fee of around £1.8m.

The deal is still to be officially confirmed – but that didn’t stop Diabate from posing for the obligatory putting-pen-to-paper snap on social media.

When fully fit and firing on all cylinders, striker Daniel Sturridge is a potent weapon for both club and country.

However, the 28-year-old has been limited to just 14 appearances and five starts for Liverpool this season.

Where better then for the former Manchester City trainee and Chelsea youngster to kickstart his career than with a loan spell at Inter Milan? Or how about a bit closer to home with Newcastle?

Swansea boss Carlos Carvalhal has only been in the job for just a fortnight and already he’s fighting to keep one of his star players.

Defender Alfie Mawson is attracting attention from the likes of West Ham, Watford and Everton while the lure of European football, well, the Europa League, could entice him to join Celtic who are also showing an interest.

Carvalhal, has made it clear that Mawson won’t be sold for anything less than £50million.

Italy seems to be a endless supply of transfer rumour at the moment.

Andre Schurrle? You remember him – German international midfielder, used to play for Chelsea and netted the odd screamer? Of course you do.

Schurrle left Stamford Bridge for Wolfsburg, then swiftly onto Borussia Dortmund last summer.

The 27-year-old, though, could be now offloaded – along with his reported £7.5m wage bill.

Possible destinations – Inter? Maybe – or could the 2014 World Cup winner end up at West Ham? Well, it is that time of year when anything can happen….