Transfer Tuesday: Rumors and rumblings

Jakub Błaszczykowski

Kuba's agent Wolfgang Voege had a chat with RadioBlu a few days ago. Voege had nice things to say about Fiorentina and Florence, complimenting Sousa and the team's recent results, but added in no uncertain terms that the player is still a Borussia Dortmund player and could well return there in June of 2016. While this is a real punch in the crotch, at least now we, and Prade, know ahead of time and can plan accordingly.

Walace

The 22 year old Brazilian defensive midfielder was the subject of rumors all summer long. Fiorentina's strategy of incrementally increasing their bid for the player didn't seem to work on a determined Gremio. Now, though, Corriere dello Sport reports, the third-party group that owns the majority of Walace's rights have decided to cash in, holding out of about 7 million euros and a cut of all future profits from sales on the player, and it's rumored that Fiorentina scouts have been spotted in the stands at his games.

Touted as "the new Emerson," Walace is a powerful player with a surprising turn of pace. He's physical and can carry the ball forward with a bit of skill, but he's not exactly David Pizarro as a passer. He looks like an excellent backup for Matías Vecino, with a chance to be even more. That is, of course, only if davih permits Gremio to sell him.

Lisandro Lopez

First things first: this is the center back Lisandro Lopez, not the striker Lisandro Lopez. Sousa seems to want a new central defender, and the Argentinean, frozen out at Benfica, seems to fit the bill nicely. We've actually got an in depth look at his potential January arrival here for your perusal.

Philippe Mexès

So there are some downsides to that center back thing, and those downsides are Mexès, as reported by CalicoMercato.com. While he's a pretty good player on the pitch and occasionally does something unfathomably skillful, he's earned a reputation as one of the premier jerkfaces in Serie A, which takes some doing. Briefly and farcically tabbed for a shock switch from Milan this summer that was nixed at the last moment by the Silvio Berlusconi, the player's contract is up next year anyways, so he'd probably come cheap. Given his age (he'll turn 34 before the end of the season) and penchant for dirty tackles and punches, we can only hope Prade will recall those low blows instead of the odd spectacular goal.

Dennis Praet

Anderlecht's 21 year old creative midfielder Dennis Praet wants out, according to the grapevine. A fixture in the Belgian youth setup and now with a senior cap as well, the trequartista has been showing up on "best young footballers" lists for years, although he's slightly overshadowed by other members of his nation's golden generation. The rub is that Anderlecht are holding out for a 9 million euro offer, which seems more in line with a Premier League club's finances. He does look like he could be an excellent player, though.

Other center backs

Tuttosport has also mooted Nikola Maksimović and Thomas Heurtaux, of Torino and Udinese respectively, as potential reinforcements at center back. Both would be veteran backups rather than obvious starters, but could do the job reasonably well.

Think these are ridiculous? Got the inside scoop on the real stories? Flabbergasted that we're really talking about transfers in the middle of a historic run? Let us know in the comments.