Let's have a look at what's happening in the transfer rumours today.

The story that immediately got my attention was the one linking Manchester United with an audacious bid for Liverpool's Spanish striker Fernando Torres. The Sunday Express claim that Fergie will use most of the 80 million Pounds they made from the Ronaldo sale to bring Torres to old Trafford.

1. French club Lyon would consider a huge offer from Manchester United for striker Karim Benzema.
"If Manchester United, who we all know have come into a lot of money, present an offer for Benzema, what can you do?" director Bernard Lacombe told French newspaper Le Progres.
2. Manchester City are confident they will beat local rivals Manchester United as well as Chelsea and Liverpool to the signing of striker Carlos Tevez.

Hotting up.

IN:

Lisandro Lopez: JMA himself was supposed to be in Portugal today to personaly finalize the deal for Lisandro, but management dropped a bomb today on Porto! In L'Equipe, Bernard Lacombe announced that management had called-off the trip to Portugal today, as well as divulging that negotiations for Toulouse striker Andre Pierre Gignac were underway(see more below).

Lyon's special adviser, Bernard Lacombe, has conceded that there is not a lot the club could do to stop Karim Benzema joining Manchester United this season. Whilst alluding to the large transfer kitty we will have, thanks to the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lacombe reckons anything could happen.

"He is with us, but nobody knows what will happen," Lacombe said.

It's official: Tuesday Juninho,alongside JMA, Bernarde Lacombe and Claude Puel, anounced his intention to leave OL after eight seasons. Although it would have been nice to send-off Lyon's son with an eigth Le Championnat trophy, but it wasn't to be. Regardless, OL's captain made sure that he would not leave his squad without-as he has done so many times in the past- leading them into victory.

According to ESPN Soccernet, Lyon director Bernard Lacombe is not interested in selling striker Karim Benzema. He told le Dauphine Libere,

"Even if you should never say never in football, there is a lot of noise about nothing at this moment .

Lyon are continuing their spending spree by shelling out €13m for St. Etienne's Bafetimbi Gomis (plus another €2m in incentives). His cool name and awesome hair will be further augmenting Lyon's ever expanding strikeforce. I'll have a post featuring relevant information and stats about him once he has his press conference, but for now, let's talk about how Lyon's mercato is going.

UPDATE: According to ESPN Soccernet, Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas hinted that striker Karim Benzema might leave. He told L'Equipe,

"Karim has said that he wants to stay another year at Lyon ... But I think that Kaka or Ronaldo maybe imagined remaining with their respective clubs.

I plan to post a much longer entry tomorrow about Lyon's winter transfer season (or lack thereof), but for now, here are some other things that I wanted to mention that don't deserve their own post.

First off, it's INTERNATIONAL TIME!!! That's good news and bad.

This will be a short one, and I can't help but point out the overwhelming twisting of quotes to fit headlines.

First of all there is a quote from Bernard Lacombe, the advisor to Lyon's president, who talked about clubs being flush with cash. And that it would be difficult to resist a big bid if it came: "If United want to buy Karim then what can you do?