The Mill is in a bad mood. Maybe it's because chronic back pain meant the Mill endured the sort of troubled sleep usually reserved for those having nightmares about man-eating cheeseburgers and talking trees. Maybe it's because the Mill's central heating unilaterally chose to take the morning off, leaving chez Mill colder than an evil snowman's heart. Ultimately, maybe the futility of daily gossip-pedalling is finally getting the Mill down. Either way, the Mill has a bag on.

But the frosty atmosphere at casa de Mill this morning is nothing to that at the Britannia Stadium. One tabloid today asserts that the bust-up between Tony Pulis and James Beattie was sparked by the striker branding his manager "a liar", at which point "Pulis exploded in a fit of rage … with the players astonished both by the violence and the fact that the towel he [Pulis] was wearing had fallen to the floor." With the image of a furious and naked Pulis lunging wildly about the steamy confines of a post-match dressing room likely to be on the Mill's mind for most of the day, it must seem tattooed to the inside of Beattie's eyelids. No wonder most papers today reckon he'll be on his way come January.

Manchester City are "plotting" a £12m move for Bayern Munich's Philipp Lahm. "Mark Hughes watched the left back in action for Bayern last month, as part of a trip to watch his dream target Franck Ribéry," reports the Sun, who fail to mention that the same could be said of any member of the Bayern squad unless Hughes carefully closed his eyes whenever someone other than Ribéry had the ball.

January could also see more moving forwards than at the opening night of a management-speak convention. Gianfranco Zola wants Brazil's Adriano to bolster his flakey West Ham attack, while Portsmouth's move for Amr Zaki could be back on the cards, Notts County are "set to snap up" Francis Jeffers, big-spending/future crisis-club Nottingham Forest will offer Plymouth £2m for Jamie Mackie, and Fenerbahce will tempt Aston Villa with a £5m bid for John Carew.

Kristján Gauti Emilsson – that's why Rafa Benítez has gone to Iceland. The 16-year old central defensive "wonderkid" (can a central defender ever really be a wonderkid?), who also had trials with Manchester United and Rangers, will sign for Liverpool later this week. Apparently.

Celtic + financially complicated loan deal = Robbie Keane.

Tottenham – Robbie Keane = Wheeler-dealer January striker fun for Harry Redknapp.

Real Madrid have set up a trellis table on the front lawn and stuck little price tags on all their old tat. Royston Drenthe, Fernando Gago, Ezequiel Garay, Guti, Rafael Van de Vaart, Mahamadou Diarra and Ruud van Nistelrooy are all sitting on it and doing their best to look doe-eyed for the passing customers. Jerzy Dudek doesn't have a price tag, but he's sitting atop a pile of old board games and jigsaws with a hopeful expression.

And Tony Adams's absence from the game will shortly come to an end at New York Red Bulls. MLS sources suggest the former Arsenal defender will, probably in a long-winded and slightly confusing way, ask Thierry Henry to join him.