By Tim Stannard

1) James tires of Bernabeu bench life

Sadly, for those whose blood is fueled by eggnog and gossip, the winter transfer market can be a little underwhelming. More often than not, the transfers end up being overpriced panic buys by club A, for underperforming and expendable footballers from club B. But this time around, there could be a veritable Galactico move after declarations from James Rodriguez on Sunday that his time was pretty much up at the Santiago Bernabeu, after the team’s water bottles saw more action than the midfielder in the FIFA Club World Cup bonanza in Japan.

Monday sees the start of what will be an awful lot of speculation as to the destiny of the want-away South American. Spanish sports daily ‘AS’ are kicking things off with a very wide net indeed, by pretty much naming every big club in Europe. The tip from Sports Burst? PSG – watch this space. Tune into the XTRA from 7PM ET / 4PM PT every day for the latest transfer rumors, deals and generally made-up stuff, too.

2) PSG to hold Qatar crisis talks

PSG might well be looking for a good news story as reports from France suggest that there are going to be high-level, big chair talks in Qatar on both the future of Unai Emery and also the club’s January transfer targets. Defeat to Guingamp on Saturday sees the Ligue Un side picking up just one point from the past nine, to leave PSG seven points behind league-leaders and autumn Champions, Nice. Wednesday’s home clash against Lorient is quite the must-win for Unai Emery, and fortunately it is on beIN SPORTS on Wednesday from 2:45PM ET / 11:45AM PT.

3) Bonucci given extra incentive in new Juve deal

One name has just been struck off the transfer rumor roster – Leonardo Bonucci. The sturdy Juve centerback has signed a contract extension with the Turin club to take the stopper to 2021. That extra 12-months and a probably nice pay rise gives Bonucci the “incentive to be better every day”, apparently. Juventus are currently sitting at the top of the table with a handy seven-point lead after the weekend’s win against Roma and return to action on Thursday in a clash against Crotone that is live on beIN SPORTS.

4) Klopp looks for Everton win to stay in title race  

The Premier League is making a rare foray into Monday and has chosen quite the humdinger – the Merseyside derby in Goodison park. The challenge for Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool will not just be to overturn Everton, and that should not be too much of a sweat with Everton winning just the one of the last 19 Premier League fixtures between the pair, back in 2010. But even a win for Liverpool would still keep the Anfield outfit six-points from current runaway Premier League leaders, Chelsea.

La Liga also has some business to take of too with Athletic Bilbao hosting Celta Vigo and the very in-form Iago Aspas. That clash is live on beIN SPORTS from 2:30PM ET / 11:30PM PT. Catch the highlights of both games live on the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT. All that is followed by the Locker Room and a wrap-up of a huge weekend of football thrills and spills.

5) Simeone says home is where the heart is with Atletico

Diego Simeone has tried to dampen down some rumors that the Argentinean only has eyes for Inter these days. Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s Copa del Rey clash against lower league Guijuelo, Simeone said that he is where he wants to be. “I haven’t seen my kids on a daily basis for five years now, if I am here, it is because I want to be here.

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The life philosophy of Sports Burst is that if you are not upsetting someone, then you are not trying hard enough. SB is a daily trawl and troll through the morning's sports news to bring you fact-nuggets to make you both smile and swear. Hopefully at the same time.