The latest transfer gossip, rumours and damned lies…

Maicon to Chelsea
The tabloids have grown tired of linking every current AC Milan player - minus David Beckham - with a move to Chelsea should Carlo Ancelotti takes over. Instead, they have started identifying players at other Italian clubs, with 27-year-old Inter Milan’s right-back Maicon reportedly a £22 million target.

The Spoiler truth-o-meter: Maicon is one of the best right-backs in the world but with the Blues’ ageing squad in need of an overhaul, they can’t really afford to spend that much on a position where they have three options under the age of 26 (Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Mancienne).

Brede Hangeland to Arsenal
Arsene Wenger has identified Hangeland as the standout performer in the Fulham defence that have conceded less goals than Arsenal this season and is

Oooh look a fancy 4-4-2 diamond formation

Obliging the interweb’s unrelenting appetite for “Best of 2008″ lists at this time of year, The Spoiler has considered the eleven players who have impressed us the most so far this season. There’s no room for well-played Brazilians or anyone who plays at Anfield or Old Trafford, and a surprise choice between the sticks…

GK Robert Green (West Ham)
Pepe Reina and Petr Cech may keep more clean sheets but they are rarely tested as much as Green, who (aside from one bad game against Bolton) has had a fantastic season. Of all the players West Ham could lose next month, it is Green’s departure that would prove the most fatal.

DL Luke Young (Aston Villa)
The Spoiler wasn’t the only one to raise eyebrows when Aston Villa paid a fee rising to £6 million to sign Young in the summer but he has delivered not just at right-back, but out of position on the left too, where he has recently been preferred to the underperforming Nicky Shorey.

DC Michael Turner (Hull)
If someone told you at the start of the season that one of Hull’s

Use your vote wisely

The scenario: You’re the manager of a Premier League team, and you’re allowed to strengthen your squad by signing just one player in the January transfer window. But you can only choose someone from Woy Hodgson’s improved squad - so who do you pick?

Your options: Woy the Boy has cannily ditched some of the journeymen so mysteriously favoured by Lawrie Sanchez. Jimmy Bullard, Brede Hangeland, Andy Johnson and Clint Dempsey should all be on your shortlist.

But there can be only one. Vote below: