It's amazing what kind of transfer gossip picks up interest outside of the window.
Without any concrete transfer news to report media outlets are starting to concoct some outrageous transfer stories in the hope of generating some interest in the quiet period.
We've already seen how Dirk Kuyt was linked with Barcelona, at the same time Leicester duo Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy are being linked with Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Another cracker of a rumour has come to surface today as several newspapers are reporting that Monaco have had a £35m bid rejected for none other than Jose Mourinho.
The reports say that Monaco minority shareholder Alessandro Proto met with Roman Abramovich this weekend and offered to buy out the Portuguese managers contract right there and then.
What's makes this less believable is, instead of biting his hand off, Abramovich supposedly rejected the offer as he wanted twice that amount for his under pressure manager.
To make things even funnier, Proto is said to be the man on whom Christian Grey (50 Shades Of Grey) is based upon. The colourful character even released a statement through his company on the rumour.
We offered €50 million to have the coach immediately, but the request was €100m and that figure seems exaggerated.
Monaco have cooled their spending in recent seasons after making big money signings such as Radamel Falcao, James Rodriguez and Joao Moutinho.
They haven't made a marquee singing in the past couple of seasons so it seems quite unlikely that they'd suddenly decide to change their mind and offer £35m for a manager who's on the brink of losing his job.
