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Montpellier’s French forward Gaëtan Laborde
Montpellier’s French forward Gaëtan Laborde, a transfer target for West Ham. Photograph: Sylvain Thomas/AFP/Getty Images
Montpellier’s French forward Gaëtan Laborde, a transfer target for West Ham. Photograph: Sylvain Thomas/AFP/Getty Images

Football transfer rumours: Gaëtan Laborde to West Ham for £16m?

This article is more than 3 years old

Today’s fluff didn’t hear your wicked words every day

After Sebastian Haller’s sale to Ajax last week West Ham have cash in the bank and a desire to improve their attack, and they apparently feel that Montpellier’s Gaëtan Laborde, 26-year-old author of six goals in 20 Ligue 1 games this season, could be the £16m answer to their problems. Also on the radar, reports the Telegraph, are Boulaye Dia at Reims and Adam Armstrong at Blackburn.

Héctor Bellerín is on his way out of Arsenal come the season’s end, with speculation linking him with an enviable selection of future employers with Barcelona, Juventus and Paris St-Germain all jostling for his attention. In other Premier League-based Spaniard news, Juan Mata could be Iberia-bound at the end of the current campaign, with a return to Valencia in the offing. In other players-not-getting-much-gametime-at-Manchester-United news, Jesse Lingard, who has not sniffed a single minute of Premier League football this season and has been on the pitch for just 63 minutes of league action in the last 12 months, could make a temporary escape from his miserable existence at Old Trafford, with Sheffield United keen on borrowing him for the remainder of the season.

Milan, whose last league title came a decade ago, lead the Serie A table with a game in hand over their closest challengers in both the sporting and geographic senses, Internazionale (at least until the Rossoneri play Cagliari this evening), and are going to express their determination to stay there by completing the double signing of 34-year-old free agent centre-forward Mario Mandzukic – whose move has moved beyond the mere speculation stage after he actually turned up in Milan – and Chelsea’s out-of-favour 23-year-old English defender Fikayo Tomori on loan. Inter meanwhile are ready to loan out their overpaid substitute Christian Eriksen, but not to Spurs, from whom they signed him for around £17m less than 12 months ago, because that would be embarrassing.

Huddersfield’s Alex Pritchard seems to be bound for the door marked exit, the question being whether he leaves on a free transfer when his contract expires in the summer, or for a small bundle of cash immediately. A gaggle of Championship clubs including QPR, Birmingham and Bristol City are watching with interest.

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Tariq Lamptey is staying at Brighton thanks. “We knew his potential when we signed him and hoped he would have a really positive impact on the club, and that has proved to be the case,” said Graham Potter. But Bernardo is going back to Leipzig, presumably because though Brighton hoped he would have a really positive impact on the club, that has not proved to be the case. And finally, Cardiff are going to give Bournemouth £750,000 and get Jack Simpson in return.

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