You know how it is when there's something you've wanted for ages, really really wanted for a very very long time, or at least fancied a bit for quite a while, until finally the moment comes when you might actually be able to get it and you think, "Actually I'm not that fussed, let's go to the pub".
Well that is how football works too.
Take, for example, Roque Santa Cruz. Having just looked it up on our newspaper archive search tool, the Mill can reveal that the Paraguayan hitman was first linked with Manchester City in 2007, before he even signed for Blackburn. Just this January City bid £20m for him and were told it wasn't enough. This summer Rovers are likely to drop their asking price but City don't care – they're not interested any more. But they've rather taken a fancy to Valencia's David Villa, whose £35m price tag shouldn't be too much of a problem, and they might pop over to Madrid and snap up Arjen Robben while they're in Spain.
Arsenal, on the other hand, will be very interested indeed. With Emanuel Adebayor's move to Milan likely to be resurrected Arsène Wenger will be in the market for a striker and Santa Cruz is top of their hitlist. According to various media sources this morning, Arsenal will sign him for £10m or for £12m, and they may or may not offer Nicklas Bendtner as some kind of sweetener. They also may face competition from "Tottenham and possibly Liverpool", or maybe they won't.
Liverpool might have already splashed their cash on Carlos Tevez, who is no longer wanted at Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson, you see, wants to spend the £30m the Argentinian would cost on Karim Benzema instead. Chelsea, Real Madrid and Barcelona are also sniffing round the French ace.
While in France, they might have bumped into David Moyes. The Everton manager popped across the Channel this week to cast his lazy eye over Rennes full-back Rod Fanni, with a £6m summer switch in the pipeline. Moyes may be buoyed by news that Stoke and Wolves are both interested in taking the permanently-injured, dog-loving winger Andy van der Meyde on a free transfer.
Another popular French defender is Newcastle's Sébastien Bassong, linked with a £9m move to Arsenal. Cheaper, younger, but less likely to play in anyone's first team for a few years is Liverpool's 16-year-old centre-back Andre Wisdom, who might get a tasty offer from Chelsea, Arsenal again or Manchester City again before he's old enough to sign a long-term deal at Anfield.
Wigan have given up on the overpriced Ecuadorian Christian "Chucho" Benítez, who plays in Mexico for Santos Laguna. So they might buy Fraizer Campbell from Manchester United instead.
Derby are going to sell lots of players, either because they're not good enough or because their name is Przemysław Kazmierczak, which is clearly ridiculous, while Leicester want to keep on-loan Arsenal full-back Kerrea Gilbert for good.
And there is a cockatoo called Snowball, living in a bird shelter in Indiana, who can dance. The ability to boogie has so far been identified in 14 species of parrot, but no mammals other than the human. "We found strong evidence that these birds were synchronising with the beat," a boffin said.
