The first rumour is quite a good one, with the classy Real Madrid midfielder Mahamadou Diarra apparently on the For Sale list at the Spanish giants after last summer’s spending spree. The strong giant was replaced in the team bu the other Diarra last year when Mahamadou was out injured, and as they now have a plethora of top class midfielder he is now surplus to requirements. Arsenal are also thought to interested at the right price of course.

The young Juventus playmaker Giovinco was linked with Liverpool earlier this week as he is lacking regular playing time at the Old Lady of Italian Football, but it seems his agent now thinks he will be staying in Italy.

The agent, Luca Pasqualin, said yesterday: “I don’t think there is much to read into the reports in the sense that Giovinco will remain at Juventus,”

“I don’t know who came out with the news, but I can say that Giovinco will stay in Turin. That is the truth.

“To be honest I have not read the article, but even if I did, I wouldn’t have read too much into it.

“Giovinco is a Juventus player and he has the faith of the coach and the club.

“As for Liverpool, there are no real comments to make. He will stay at Juve.”

The last rumour concerns the little know centre-half Nicolas Hernan Otamendi, from Velez Sarsfield in Argentina. The 21 year-old has recently forced himself into Diego Maradona’s national side, and is said to have attracted the likes of Real Madrid, as well as Liverpool, with his stunning performances in the Argentinian League. He is rumoured to have been recommended to Benitez by Javier Mascherano.

The Velez president Fernando Raffaini admitted talking to Real Madrid about Otamendi, but no official offer has been received yet.

“It’s true that I had a meeting with (Real director) Jorge Valdano, we spoke about many things, but he didn’t make an offer at any point.

“We had a conversation and he said that Otamendi could be a good player for Real Madrid, but all we spoke about was thinking about the future.”

It is thought that an offer of around £9m would secure Otamendi for Liverpool.

That’s it for today!