by Tim Stannard

Tick tock, tick tock.

Sports Burst is picturing Real Madrid boss, Julen Lopetgui, sweating in his office – easy now – and flicking his eyes to both his squad roster for the season and also the Spaniard’s desk calendar.

There are nine days left for the transfer market in Europe…just nine days left for the manager to both make the decision on a player purchase and seal the deal on any reinforcements that may be required for the club to win the Treble – the mission for any campaign.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s void has yet to be filled and the number of targets is dwindling should Real Madrid chose to twist rather than stick in their footballing blackjack game. But one that is in the news in Spain on Tuesday is Valencia striker, Rodrigo.

The footballer fits the bill on a number of fronts, although the player will be a little pricey at around $120 million. Rodrigo is a Spanish international, a proven goal-scorer with 16 La Liga goals last season – and one this year - and even a spell in the Real Madrid youth system back in the day. Oh, and Lopetegui knows him well from the Spanish youth system.

Find out on the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT when Kevin Egan and Dre Cordero will tell the Real Madrid men exactly what they need to do.

Hudson hawks watching Big Apple MLS rumble

There is a bit of business to attend to in the genuine odyssey that is the Champions League this season.

Basically, we are now at the stage where teams play a two-legged play-off match to get the chance to make the group stage, which is drawn next Thursday. Three games were played on Tuesday – only PSV look like having half a toe in the promised land after a 3-2 away win at BATE. There are three more to come on Wednesday – Young Boys face Dinamo Zagreb, MOL Vidi FC – the new name for Videoton – host AEK Athens and there is a whopper between Ajax and Dinamo Kiev.

But hold your horses, old-timer European types! THE MLS – that still annoys people – has a huge clash in the Hudson River Derby as New York City FC takes on the New York Red Bulls.  The hosts – lead by the wonderfully named Dome Torrent – are currently third in the Eastern Conference standings but can leap above their city (sort of) rivals into second with a victory.

Catch the best of the day’s action on the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT

Bordeaux grapevine links Thierry Henry after Poyet whine

Not exactly a vintage week for Bordeaux.

The Ligue Un side suffered a huge attack of ‘wine-ing’ from manager Gus Poyet last week with the Uruguayan coach was sacked after a very public outburst aimed at his bosses over the sale of striker, Gaetan Laborde, to Montpellier, one of a number of departures with which Poyet disagreed. The hierarchy is “trying to kill me from behind to make me leave,” fumed Poyet. It worked.

Now the Bordeaux grapevine has some juicy news that Thierry Henry’s people are talking to the club about taking over. The former Arsenal man, French legend, and current Belgian assistant coach has reportedly agreed in principle to take over but Henry still needs to meet with the Ligue Un side’s American owners to seal the deal.

Henry would join Patrick Viera at Nice as another high-profile, World Cup winning big-hitter in charge of French teams. “He wants to do it, he is intelligent and he has the qualities,” said a supportive Arsene Wenger.

Find out more of what’s being going on from our Dre Cordero with Kevin Egan on the XTRA at 7PM ET and 4PM PT

Julian Draxler headed for sunny Seville

TRANSFER TRACKER!

The pickings are getting admittedly slimmer with just over a week or so to go until the market closes in Europe. The aforementioned Rodrigo deal is the biggest story going at the moment, however there might be some big movement in Sevilla with PSG and Germany’s Julian Draxler heading to La Liga after playing a bit part in Paris for the past year. That is set to continue under fellow countryman, Thomas Tuchel.

Speaking of PSG, there is also talk that the Ligue Un champions are trying to bring in Chelsea’s Marcos Alonso, arguably the MVP of Stamford Bridge. Good luck with that one.

And to wrap things up, the latest news from Manchester United is that the club have sanctioned the sale of Anthony Martial to anyone who will take him – an idea that Jose Mourinho, for once, might well agree with.

Catch all the TRANSFER TRACKER news by going to our daily show on the beIN SPORTS USA Facebook page at 12PM ET / 9PM PT.

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. Sports Burst 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.