I have written this column early for two reasons.  Firstly, Jack Sullivan has tweeted something and the club’s official Insider has also provided an article which I can follow on from.  Secondly, I am interviewing Trevor Brooking later with SDCC for a new radio show that we are launching and will be airing on the site.  This one will be prerecorded but most will be live.  I am not a radio person and do not have the voice for it but I am sure it will be an interesting listen.  I will give more details later and we are delighted to have a new forum on the site. Again, more info will come on that.

Tore deal delayed:  The deal is actually completed from all ends now.  The hold up is because of the Islamic festival of Eid.  Turkey is a largely Muslim country and everything stops for their biggest festival.  The Turkish administration offices and legal departments needed to make this deal final are shut until Monday and this is the word from within the club. Whilst Tore is in England it will explain why the deal cannot be finalised until the departments reopen next week.  Eid is not something that can be predicted and depends on the position of the moon after the month of fasting (although I am no expert).  No one is able to predict when it will happen and unfortunately it has fallen this week to delay this transfer.  Rest assured he will sign.

Bids in for forwards:  As I regularly report in my columns, and despite people saying I am throwing out as many names as possible, we do have lots of bids in for forwards.  I have regularly listed who they are and these are all true. The figure is around ten player bids. Today we had a bid for Bacca accepted by AC Milan.  The club are keen to sign him and he is, at the moment, the number one target.  The problem is he has asked for huge wages again.  Many sites have been reported 60k a week, it is double that at £120k a week plus bonuses.  The club feel that these demands are too high and have offered less and hope to meet him more in the middle.  Should we offer him £120k a week it would smash our wage structure and be way more than both Andy Carroll (the highest paid player) and Payet (the most deserving).  Whilst the chairman has admitted he offered Tevez £150k a week, this could be justified and like I said before it wasn’t a recent offer despite what has been reported elsewhere.  This offer was months ago, before Payet had signed his new deal.  We therefore want Bacca to lower his demands and go more clause based rather than having a high weekly salary.  This is especially needed given that he is unproven in England.

Wage Demands all round:  Unfortunately all the forwards that we are after have huge wage demands – another top target, Gomez, is the same.

Calleri:  I have had it confirmed that the Argentina forward is a top target and that the club are very disappointed that he has now been called into the Olympic squad having not originally been accepted.

Sakho Transfer Request:  It has also been confirmed that Sakho has put in a transfer request.  The club are not too concerned about this.  We are really worried about his injury record and think if he wants to move this could be a good thing for the club.  Unfortunately other clubs, namely Sunderland, are also aware of the injury concerns and on that basis are offering a low initial fee with much of it based on how many games he plays. WBA are also interested but again, at the moment will only pay a small initial fee, so we want to hold out for more.  The bottom line is the player is unhappy and is very likely to leave.

If any news breaks while I am out tonight I may be able to do a second column.