It’s here! It’s here! Welcome to the football writing equivalent of Michael Fish’s weather forecast of 15 October 1987, which the Guardian web editors will be dropping like a stone from all front pages as those “solid” links gradually prove to have consisted of little more than gas and hot air in the runup to today’s various slammings shut of the window (11pm GMT in England, Scotland and Italy, 10pm in France, 5pm in Germany).
First, to Arsenal. Mikel Arteta is still “actively looking” for a forward, but has seen the likes of Benjamin Sesko and Matheus Cunha thumb their nose at him in recent days. So: will French teenager Mathys Tel prove their late, dramatic move? Manchester United have had two bids swatted away by Bayern Munich, a £50m offer from Spurs came to nought … could Arteta have more success with a loan approach for a player who doesn’t fancy his chances of kicking on under Vincent Kompany? As for Emirates exits, Atlético Madrid are now said to be winning the race to prise Oleksandr Zinchenko away, to the chagrin of Borussia Dortmund, who also fancied the left-back.
