In January, I just don’t see it. The best option by a wide margin would be prayers for Thomas LANS.

The larger problem is that the pool of midfielders who are both good enough and available is basically nil. Much like Rice, I think we’ll have to maintain potentially long-term contacts ands be ready to move at a moment’s notice.

Zubimendi, for example, has real quality, but no apparent desire to leave La Real. If that ever flickers for an instant, we move.

I would commit unnatural acts to prise away one of Le Real’s midfielders, but the Tchouameni rumours seem frankly even less credible than the Rice ones did: at least there Rice was clearly going to move at some point, just somewhere else, and there’s zero credible indication that any of those might really move.

I would have happily taken Douglas Luiz (for our bench) two years or a year ago, at numbers discussed then, but there’s no deal to be had there.

All of the other names bandied about don’t move me much at all. Our standards are just too high.