According to an interesting report in the Mirror today, Manchester United are close to an agreement with Borussia Dortmund for defender Mats Hummels, for a fee reportedly in the region of £20 million.
They claim that if the deal is to be done, United could do with rivals Liverpool offering a helping hand, with Dortmund having apparently made a move to sign their young centre-back Tiago Ilori on loan as cover. This is apparently a move Brendan Rodgers "would allow."
We can say with at least some degree of certainty that Louis van Gaal would like to have Hummels in his defence, having been linked with him for a long time and in several pretty reputable sources. However, is there anything in the latest series of rumours? TBB has no idea, but £20 million seems pretty cheap for one of the world's top players.
As an aside, United were also heavily linked with Dutch international centre-back Stefan de Vrij earlier in the window, though since joining Lazio he's revealed there was nothing in those rumours at all:
"Several clubs contacted me, I don't think it's fair to say the names. I can say that Manchester United were not one of them."
Oops.