Manchester United seem to have lost their battle to land midfielders Arturo Vidal and Kevin Strootman, but Louis Van Gaal could yet bring a gem of a player in from the La Liga before the transfer window slams shut.
After seeing their moves for Vidal and Strootman stall, with both players' clubs – Juventus and Roma -- insisting they would be staying, Manchester United are now being linked with a transfer for Atletico Madrid playmaker Arda Turan.
Turan, of course, is nothing like either Vidal or Strootman, both of whom are box-to-box central midfielder. However, the Atletico Madrid midfielder has shown his capabilities in La Liga over the past few years and has been linked with a move to the English Premier League on a few occasions in the past.
Arsenal and Liverpool were the clubs linked with the 27-year-old in the previous transfer windows, with, Manchester United, according to reports in Turkey and France, now making their move.
The reports suggest United have already held talks over a possible transfer, with the club ready to negotiate with Atletico Madrid over a transfer fee; however United face competition from French side Monaco.
The La Liga champions are unlikely to let Turan go on the cheap, having already seen the likes of Diego Costa and Filipe Luis, both to Chelsea, leave the Vicente Calderon and it will be interesting to see just how much they demand for the Turkey international, especially if Monaco are also interested.
Meanwhile, Jose Mourinho confirmed Chelsea did have an interest in signing Luke Shaw from Southampton, but were put off by the 19-year-old's salary demands. United eventually beat out competition from the rest to sign Shaw after agreeing to pay a £27 million transfer fee with the Saints and wages of around £100,000 a week with the player.
"If we pay to a 19-year-old boy what we were being asked for, for Luke Shaw, we are dead," Mourinho said. "We kill our stability with financial fair play. We kill the stability in our dressing room.
"Because when you pay that much to a 19-year-old kid -- good player, fantastic player -- but when you pay that amount of money, the next day, we'd have players knocking on our door. "They'd be saying, 'How is it possible? I play for this club 200 games and won this and that, how come a 19-year-old comes here and gets more money than I get?'
"It would kill immediately our balance and we don't allow that."
Chelsea finally zeroed in on Filipe Luis from Atletico, signing the Brazilian defender for a much lesser transfer fee.
"Sometimes you have to make decisions," Mourinho added. "I don't criticise the other clubs for paying it. They can pay what they want. I don't have any comment about it. But for my club we can say it would be very negative for us.
"So, you can say Filipe's much less expensive. And a guy like Filipe Luis played for Brazil, won titles in Spain, won European competition, played Champions League semifinal -- this guy is much cheaper than an English young lad. And is he good for our average wages? Yes he is."
