By Tim Stannard

1) Deal-making in Monaco as Barça renews transfer tug-of-war

So far, this summer, Barcelona efforts to sign anyone with actual value to the squad - sorry Mr Paulinho, sir - have resulted in zero results. 

And that's more than inconvenient as both Barcelona players and fans are restless, a vote of no confidence is on the horizon from institutional opponents, and rivals more testing than Betis are moving into view in the weeks and months to come.

That's why Mr President himself might be called into action on Thursday to get a few deals done - namely those for Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele. 

All of Europe's bigwigs are slumming it in Monaco for the Champions League group stages draw - more on that in a bit - and some face-to-face suit time with Josep Bartomeu might be enough to get Barcelona's transfer blockage removed with the window closing in just one week. 

Whilst the aforementioned Coutinho and Dembele are targets number one and...er...number one, there might be a sneaky move out of the Camp Nou with the very polemic Andre Gomes heading to Juventus, a club with a habit of picking up other team's cast-offs and turning them into footballing gold. Sami Khedira for example. 

Tune into the XTRA from 7PM ET / 4PM PT for a special report from Barcelona on the latest news from the crazy house that is the Camp Nou this summer.

2) More rumors of Ronaldo rift at Real Madrid 

What with the Neymar / Barcelona /Mbappe business going on this summer, poor Cristiano Ronaldo has been left out of the limelight a little. 

Way back in June, it was strongly hinted in the Portuguese media that the footballer wanted to leave Spain over his tax case – comments reinforced before an actual judge at a court appearance – and there are further stories on Thursday that leaving Real Madrid is still CR7’s goal, in case everyone had forgotten. 

Ronaldo’s five-match suspension for a sending-off and a shove on the ref in the Spanish Super Cup has further irked the player, apparently, with a story leaking that a ‘source’ close to the Real Madrid man suggesting that he is looking to leave within the next week with Manchester United his goal. 

Sports Burst calls baloney on that one, but it said the same thing about Neymar and Bonucci. And those deals went very differently. 

3) Champions League draw day in Monaco

As mentioned a few scrolls up, all of footballs powerhouses – except poor Arsenal – are in Monaco for the Champions League group stage draw at 12PM ET / 6PM PT. It’s amazing how only luxury locations are chosen for this kind of business. 

In yet another reminder to Barcelona that the side are not exactly having the best time of it these days, the Catalan club are not in the top seed pool, having failed to win their respective league. Real Madrid did that apparently. That means that the Cules could end up with a group featuring Juventus, Napoli and RB Leipzig. Which would be painful really. 

Or Barca could land Spartak Moscow, Basel and Qarabag. Which would not be so bad. Either way, tune into the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT for the best analysis of UEFA’s handling of some of the most watched balls in Europe. 

4) Wenger gives up on Lemar as PSG go get a goalie

TRANSFER TRACKER TIME!

Arsene Wenger has completely ruled out picking up Monaco’s Thomas Lemar. "It's dead because Monaco have closed the door definitely, I think,” noted the Arsenal boss sadly at a press conference on Thursday.

PSG look like reinforcing the goalkeeping department with a move for Napoli’s Pepe Reina. 

And Sampdoria striker, Patrick Schick, is having a third go at a move this summer having seen transfers to Juventus and Inter fall through. Roma is the latest destination for the Czech forward. 

Remember to head to the beIN SPORTS Facebook page at 12:30PM ET 9:30AM PT for our live, daily Transfer Tracker show. 

WHAT IS SPORTS BURST?

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.