Manchester United and Liverpool battle for Nathaniel Clyne, Nicolas Gaitan and Christian Benteke

Right, let's get going with the necessary, and then we can all get back to bed.

Liverpool, according to The Telegraph and many other papers, have had a £10 million bid rejected by Southampton for Nathaniel Clyne. It's been rumoured that Manchester United's interest in Clyne has cooled of late, and he also has a new agent who might be keener on having his player join Liverpool or staying at Southampton. If a bid has been made, and United are still interested, expect a bid from United to come in soon. If nothing happens, it's safe to assume United have ideas elsewhere.

Clyne is a very good full-back, and at 24 still has the potential to improve significantly. He doesn't need time to adjust to the Premier League, either, so it would be a good signing for either Liverpool or United, but he's not the only option available. We will see.

Liverpool are also, it says here in The Mirror, after Nicolas Gaitan. United have long been rumoured to have an interest in the transfer, and were rumoured to have a deal ready to complete over the next couple of days. Either way, it's nice to be fighting over something with Liverpool, even if it's not the title. Gaitan has a release clause of £25 million.

Christian Benteke's release clause is higher, at £32.5 million, and Tim Sherwood has told him he can do better than Liverpool. That's true, Arsenal would be better off with him than Olivier Giroud, and he's now a better player than Wayne Rooney. The Sherwood quotes are in The Guardian.

ESPNFC have some quotes about Paul Scholes on Angel Di Maria. He thinks he should be kept for next season, and that's probably the sensible choice. You can read that here.

Last, in The Manchester Evening News, is a discussion of the potential replacements for Antonio Valencia and Rafael.

Back to bed.