Rumour Mongering: Is January Over Yet? Edition

If it's a Tuesday, that means there must be rumours of Liverpool interest in Chelsea's Daniel Sturridge. Though really, it might mostly be because as has been the case with any number of Barcelona players or Arda Turan or David Villa or David Silva before him, Sturridge's is a name that just won't go away regardless of which manager is in charge of Liverpool or how many windows pass while he remains at his original club.

And despite that at the rumoured £15M most Chelsea fans would cackle gleefully at Liverpool for taking the problem of an inconsistent finisher who is seen as having a poor workrate and attitude off their hands, there are still some who would like to see the player in red. There are some journalists who should be more reliable than your standard in the know who see it happening, too.

There might be a case for Sturridge at the right price, but for £15M and near enough a six-figure weekly salary, one would hope that Liverpool would be in for a player who occasionally deigned to pass the ball, who could elbow his way past an out of form Fernando Torres on the depth chart, and whose own fans wouldn't be happy to see the back of. Given Liverpool's transfer history, though, one never does know for certain.

Speaking of Fernando Torres, there are the inevitable scraps of rumours looking to link the struggling striker back to Liverpool despite his burned bridges and that he's far from the player he was in his Liverpool prime. Chelsea are almost certain to look to replace him in January, and given their resources rumours of Falcao arriving aren't entirely unreasonable—but Liverpool very much isn't a reasonable destination for Torres if the London club then look to offload his wages. If anything, a return to Atletico Madrid might seem the more logical reunion, especially if it helps make any deal for Falcao work.

As for Theo Walcott, the player most frequently mentioned alongside Sturridge as a young English attacker from a London club target over the summer, recent weeks have seen a renewed belief that Arsenal are now willing to give him the contract he wanted all along and that he will sign an extension to remain at his current club. If so, that likely puts the Walcott links to bed—at least for a few more years until such time as his contract is once again running down.

Another player who falls into a similar category as Sturridge is Jeffren Suarez. The last time he was linked to Liverpool, the winger played for Barcelona, but it appears that moving to Sporting CP hasn't completely killed speculation that sooner or later he'll end up at Liverpool. At least in Jeffren's case the player's agent has specifically pointed to Liverpool interest while discussing his future on Portuguese radio in recent weeks. Of course whether his agent was referring to actual Liverpool interest of the sort of Liverpool interest that conveniently comes to light when it's contract negotiation time is another matter entirely.

Elsewhere, 23-year-old Ivorian striker Wilfried Bony, who plays for Vitesse Arnhem in the Eredivisie, has also appeared on the radar in recent weeks, while Klaas-Jan Huntelaar remains a hoped-for target amongst many fans even if Shalke's strong season could derail any real chances of signing the Dutchman. And finally, in outgoings there have been suggestions that Stewart Downing could be headed to Middlesbrough on loan while a reunion with former manager Martin O'Neill, who now manages Sunderland, remains a mooted possibility.