It's transfer deadline day... again! - The Warm-Up

It’s only 11 days since the transfer window slammed shut, but in reality it has been left open a crack, which hopefully explains the cold draught around here and the slight damp feeling. Today, the transfer window slams shut again, but properly this time, as until 5pm Premier League clubs can still do business with clubs in the Championship, League One and League Two. It’s deadline day, Jim, but not as we know it.

A couple of decent deals appear to be in the pipeline, most notably West Ham going after Brentford’s electric forward Said Benrahma, who could cost in the region of £30m. West Ham are also in the market for a new striker and have failed with a £13m offer for Bournemouth’s Josh King.

Tottenham, meanwhile, are looking to sign Joe Rodon, who even if he sounds like the host of a massively popular podcast is actually a defender who plays for Swansea and Wales and could cost up to £18m if Jose Mourinho and Daniel Levy can get a deal over the line.

Liverpool are unlikely to sign Stoke keeper Jack Butland despite recent reports but they could be looking to send Harry Wilson out on loan once again.

In all honesty, it looks like being a real knock-off version of the proper deadline day, but as we wait for the Premier League to return we will take what we can get…

Okay, in the ‘who will save English football’ sweepstakes who had Gary Neville, David Bernstein and Denise Lewis? Come up and collect your prize.

Yes, adding to his ever-lengthening CV in football, and handily pushing that coaching spell at Valencia onto the second page, Gary Neville has emerged as a potential saviour of English football after fronting up a manifesto for change under the title of ‘Saving Our Beautiful Game’.

Coming so soon after the magnificent five-day lifespan of Project Big Picture, only narrowly outlasting the average Mayfly, the latest blueprint to save football proposes an independent regulator to help address the crisis in football because the “FA lacks credibility” and “football has shown itself incapable of self-reform".

Both pretty reasonable starting points but it’s hard to get invested in a plan which clearly won’t win any support from major stakeholders. So best of luck, Gary, just keep us updated on that.

The timing of the international break has meant that Liverpool have had two whole weeks to stew on their cataclysmic 7-2 defeat to Aston Villa – a result that doesn’t make any more sense the longer you look at it, and probably never will.

After a fortnight in which many international teams have crammed in three matches, Liverpool’s players have regrouped ahead of tomorrow’s 12:30pm kick-off against table-topping Everton, but Jurgen Klopp hasn’t waited until now to lay the groundwork for Liverpool’s recovery.

Indeed, he has revealed that he was so disturbed by the Villa result that he opened up the group chat and sent a long, rambling message after Liverpool’s night of shame.

"The night after the game was not the best night of my life but I got up in the morning and I knew I had to speak to my boys but they were not here," Klopp told BBC Sport. "So I texted them a long, long message which was pretty much my thoughts about the things which had happened and after that I felt much better because then it was out and from that moment we could carry on and that's what we did.

"Now we are here and we have had enough time to deal with it. Losing a game is the exact opposite of what you want, losing it 7-2 makes it of course worse but sometimes we have to show that it can be useful.

"We have the chance to show that on Saturday lunchtime against Everton so that makes it really interesting because we face a team who is flying obviously and we got a proper knock. So now let's see who deals better with what."

Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting scored on his Bayern Munich debut last night. And then scored again.

Marcus Rashford MBE is beginning to lose his patience. The Manchester United striker’s incredible campaigning to address child poverty has been a consummate exercise in how to win friends and influence people, with his very persuasive methods memorably forcing the government into a U-turn back in June when it agreed to fund free school meal vouchers across the summer for around 1.3m people.

When one of the only good-news stories of 2020 was announced, Rashford said he was “grateful that the Prime Minister did change his decision”. Boris Johnson in turn said that: "I talked to Marcus Rashford today and congratulated him on his campaign which to be honest I only became aware of very recently, today - and I thank him for what he's done."

But now, it seems that Rashford is quite understandably growing a little frustrated at having yet again to try and prompt the government into feeding the poorest children in this country, across the upcoming half-term and then again at Christmas. As well as launching a petition to end child poverty, Rashford took aim at No. 10 with a particularly pointed tweet.

As always, The Warm-Up loves and appreciates Marcus Rashford.

Derby take on Watford in the Championship tonight and then it’s all eyes on the Premier League again from Saturday with the Merseyside derby kicking things off from 12:30pm. You can follow every Premier League match live with us across the weekend.