SO BEGINS JANUARY, and the start of football transfer window-related silly season.
Consequently, a number of rumours that are, quite frankly, odd, have been doing the rounds in the lead up to the big event.
And with that in mind, we’ve taken the 13 most eye-catching ones and ranked them on a scale of craziness, with ’1′ being the lowest and ’5′ being the highest.
That’s not to say they definitely won’t happen of course, but expect gasps of Andy-Carroll-to-Liverpool-for-£35m-esque proportions if they do
1. James McCarthy to Manchester United (Craziness rating: 5)
(Image: Neal Simpson/EMPICS Sport)
2. Brede Hangeland to Arsenal (Craziness rating: 4)
(Image: Adam Davy/EMPICS Sport)
3. Wesley Sneijder to Liverpool (Craziness rating: 5)
(Image: Antonio Calanni/AP/Press Association Images)
4. Steve Morison to Aston Villa (Craziness rating: 3)
(Image: Mike Egerton/EMPICS Sport)
5. Leighton Baines to Arsenal (Craziness rating: 2)
(Image: Joe Giddens/EMPICS Sport)
6. David de Gea to Real Madrid (Craziness rating: 4)
(Image: Nick Potts/PA Wire/Press Association Images)
7. Nani to Arsenal (Craziness rating: 4)
(Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire/Press Association Images)
8. Ryan Shawcross to Manchester City (Craziness rating: 3)
(Image: Barrington Coombs/PA Archive/Press Association Images)
9. David Villa to Swansea (Craziness rating: 5)
(Image: Andres Kudacki/AP/Press Association Images)
10. Franco Di Santo to Liverpool (Craziness rating: 4)
(Image: Jon Buckle/PA Wire/Press Association Images)
11. Yann M’Vila to QPR (Craziness rating: 4)
(Image: Laurent Cipriani/AP/Press Association Images)
12. Richard Dunne to New York Red Bulls (Craziness rating: 2)
(Image: John Walton/EMPICS Sport)
13. Cristiano Ronaldo to Manchester United (Craziness rating: 5)
(Image: Lalo R. Villar/AP/Press Association Images)
