Things change in the blink of an eye in football. The Football Whispers Index takes the latest transfer rumours and gives them a score out of five; the higher the score, the more realistic and reliable the Whisper.

Here are today’s top five emerging whispers. And keep an eye on Transfer Talkfor all the latest gossip.

Cesc Fabregas to AC Milan

The Chelsea midfielder has fallen out of the first-team picture under Maurizio Sarri and is looking to leave the club, according to Italian outlet Calciomercato. The Spaniard’s contract expires at the end of this season, but he could look to leave in January if he continues to find himself on the fringes of the first team. AC Milan are reportedly considering an offer in January, and they think Chelsea want to avoid losing the player for nothing.

Milan Skriniar to Manchester United

If Skriniar is going to move it will be to Manchester United, according to Calciomercato. However, Inter Milan are encouraged that the uncertainty regarding Jose Mourinho’s long-term future at the Premier League club could see the centre-back stay with them and possibly sign a new deal. An offer is on the table for the Slovakian, but the drawn-out negotiations mean that the Manchester United links remain and there is still the possibility of a January bid

In the 26-year history of the Premier League, it’s difficult to remember many more dramatic shifts in style between Chelsea pre-Maurizio Sarri and Chelsea under the Italian manager.

Even Arsenal’s transition from George Graham’s defensive-minded football to Arsene Wenger’s artistic attacking was aided by the one-season reign of Bruce Rioch, who had the demeanour of Graham but preached the importance of playing out from the back and loaded his side with creative talent. Chelsea have not had that type of transition manager and Sarri will have to initiate, and complete, a similar reversal himself.

It’s not merely that Chelsea were focused on defending deep and counter-attacking under his predecessor Antonio Conte, it’s that the club have largely stuck to that template throughout the 15 years of Roman Abramovich’s ownership.

One of the most damaging things that can happen to a player’s career is winning a World Cup. Once you’ve climbed the game’s highest peak, where is there left to go? Most of the French world champions of 1998 went on to have dreadful league seasons in 1998/99. Their captain, Didier Deschamps (now France’s coach) later admitted to feeling “physical and moral apathy” after lifting the trophy. In the next World Cup, the French were knocked out in the first round, the fate of four of the last five teams to win the trophy.

Winning it as a young player is probably worse. In 2002, the Paris St-Germain forward Ronaldinho, 22 at the time, became world champion with Brazil. He then briefly flowered into the planet’s best player, but four years later was spiralling downwards.

So it’s natural to worry now that another young PSG forward, Kylian Mbappe, France’s 19-year-old world champion, has got his career upside down. Winning the World Cup and scoring in the final was “the absolute dream”, he has said. It might seem hard to go from that to an away game in a small French town, or even Anfield, where PSG went down 3-2 to Liverpool in matchday 1 of the Champions League group stage. Mbappe had a lackluster game in England, scoring once but losing possession for Roberto Firmino’s last-minute winner. Nonetheless, mere weeks after Luzhniki, the Frenchman already looks well equipped on the long term to surmount the post-World Cup curse.

We’re still just getting to know Mbappe, and the fly-on-wall documentary about France at the World Cup, shown on the French TV channel TF1 days after the final, was a help. He emerges from the film as a disciplined, popular squad member whose teammates enjoy teasing him about his age. In one scene, shot after France’s lucky 2-1 win in their opening game against Australia, a furious Deschamps (“I don’t want anybody laughing!”) lays into his assembled players for the lack of high-intensity runs. He then turns to Mbappe and says, “Kylian is the one who did least: 3 percent.” (In other words, only 3 percent of Mbappe’s running in the game was at high-intensity.)

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