The Warm-Up: Just sign Chelsea flops - Liverpool close on Mohamed Salah

Pretend all you like that scouting matters, that clubs must cast their nets as wide as possible - but quite clearly the best transfer strategy is to cream Southampton's best players and nab whoever used to be at Chelsea.

Liverpool's penchant for the former is well-documented, and they are now about to splash £39m on Stamford Bridge reject Mohamed Salah.

It seems a lot, given the overwhelming impression from Salah's 19 games for Chelsea of a radio-controlled car whose controller was on the blink - no idea where it's meant to be going, but rushing there at top speed.

However it seems that during spells in Italy with Fiorentina and Roma, Salah chanced upon a fresh set of Duracells, and now he is to return as what Liverpool hope is the latest Chelsea reject to boss the Premier League after Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku.

£39m isn't what it used to be, and frankly it seems a price worth paying just to have somebody other than Andy Carroll as your record signing.

Meanwhile, expect the bids to go flying in for Marko Marin, Papy Djilobodji and, erm, John Terry.

Oh, goodie, more tax fraud developments. Just what everyone needs this sultry morning.

It's now Jose Mourinho who has caught the eye of Spanish prosecutors who claim the Manchester United manager owes the taxman 3.3 million euros (£2.9m) from when he coached Real Madrid.

A statement from Gestifute, Jorge Mendes' management company, said Mourinho had not been contacted by the Spanish authorities, and produced scanned documents appearing to show that Mourinho had met his tax obligations from 2010-2013.

The statement also claimed Mourinho "paid more than €26m in taxes, with an average tax rate of over 41%" in the three years up to May 2013 - which by the Warm-Up's back-of-the-envelope maths means he earned at least €63m in those three years, with post-tax earnings of over €37m.

Nice work if you can get it. Maybe if the Warm-Up had an agent, it too could bring in €21m a year.

Meanwhile Cristiano Ronaldo has been called to give evidence on July 31, accused of defrauding the Spanish tax authorities of €14.7m (£12.9m) - a claim he strenuously denies.

Reducing your tax burden legally is a complicated and, for accountants, lucrative business.

But given how much footballers and managers earn, and how much energy they spend on reputation-burnishing philanthropic projects, wouldn't it make a change of pace if just once it came out that someone had paid too much tax?

In more money news, Manchester United have been cleared of wrongdoing in the deal to sign Paul Pogba last summer, but FIFA have opened disciplinary proceedings againist Juventus for their role in the deal. It is claimed that Pogba's agent Mino Raiola made £41m from the midfielder's £89m switch to Old Trafford.

Asked whether he received £22m from Juventus Raiola replied, hilariously: "I'll just say it’s not an exact figure: maybe it's less but maybe it's even more.”

FIFA added: "We cannot comment further as proceedings are ongoing." The Warm-Up cannot comment further because it has lost the will to live. Isn't this much more exciting way to spend June than a World Cup or European Championship?

Props to Dani Alves and Diego Maradona for an excellent spat, which started when Alves went on Brazilian TV.

"You want to compare Messi to Maradona? You can't compare them," Alves said. "I would not be proud to say that I won a World Cup with a 'Hand of God.' I wouldn't be able to tell my son that I won a World Cup like this with the whole world talking about it. The 'Hand of God' tricked us, you have to take this firm position. A sportsman like this can't be an example for youngsters."

Maradona's response. "Dani Alves is an idiot. He makes 28 passes and only gets four right ... He speaks because he plays in a position on the pitch where football is not played. They (right-backs) touch the ball three times and make eight fouls per game."

Still, the Warm-Up is heartened by Alves' zero-tolerance approach to gamesmanship.

Boca have been crowned champions of Argentina for a 32nd time after rivals Banfield lost 1-0 to San Lorenzo on Tuesday night.

FIFA have warned Mexico about their fans' conduct after homophobic 'Puto' chants were heard during Sunday's Confederations Cup game against Portugal.

Well, if there's one place that simply won't accept discriminatory abuse of footballers, it's Russia.

On this day in 1990, Ireland and the Netherlands finished with an identical record in World Cup Group F and had to be separated by the drawing of lots.

Ireland won and got a second-round game against Romania - which they won. Netherlands got West Germany, and memorably lost.

Anyway, let's enjoy Sepp Blatter conducting the draw with an unfeasible amount of background noise.

Speaking of Sepp... if you haven't read David Conn's account of his 2016 lunch with Blatter, you really must.

The Confederations Cup returns after a hard-earned day off - on today's menu: