Aston Villa are making it very clear that Morgan Rogers is not for sale, and honestly, good luck to anyone trying to convince them otherwise. The attacking midfielder has been one of the brighter stories in the Premier League this season and Unai Emery is not the kind of manager who lets his best toys get taken away without a fight. Villa have built something genuinely exciting at Villa Park and Rogers is right at the heart of it. Whoever is sniffing around him is going to have to come with an absolutely ridiculous offer to even get a conversation started, and even then it feels like Villa would slam the door shut.
Over at Old Trafford, the Marcus Rashford saga keeps rolling along like a slow-moving soap opera. Barcelona are still reportedly keen on signing the England forward from Manchester United, which as a United fan is a strange situation to sit with. Rashford is obviously talented but things have not gone to plan for him at United for a while now, and a fresh start somewhere might genuinely be the best thing for everyone involved. Barcelona taking a punt on him makes sense given their history of backing flair players, though how they plan to fund it given their well-documented financial situation is another question entirely.
Then there is the Denzel Dumfries story, with Real Madrid apparently holding talks with the Inter Milan right-back. Dumfries is a proper modern full-back, good going forward and not too shabby at the back either. Real Madrid losing Dani Carvajal to injury has clearly pushed them into the market for reinforcements on that side, and Dumfries ticks a lot of boxes. Inter will not want to lose him either, so this one could drag on a bit before anything concrete happens.
Three different clubs, three very different situations, but all of them show just how busy the gossip columns are even in the middle of a season. Some of these will happen, some will fizzle out completely, and that is the beauty of transfer rumours really.
Let me know your thoughts.