So we are into the silly season of football transfers in the January window.

The rumours quickly started with Steven Gerrard being tipped for the MLS and it was quickly confirmed, although I don’t think it was any great surprise with the way Liverpool are going about things this year.

But the huge shock – which just goes to show that nothing lasts for ever in football – have been rumours that Lionel Messi wants to leave Barcelona.

Andoni Zubizarreta has been sacked as sorting director, which has definitely weakened the position of coach Luis Enrique, and things are certainly not right in the Barcelona camp.

I can’t see the club getting rid of Messi to support the coach, and it’s just one of those situations which you never imagined you would come across.

The big talking point of the last couple of days has been Wilfried Bony to Manchester City – and that looks a decent signing given his goal record at the moment.

But I am not quite sure how Bony and Sergio Aguero are going to fit into things together.

You have two finishers there, with neither really getting involved in build-up play, which is very unlike Manchester City.

There is no doubt, however, that if Aguero is out, Bony is as good as there is in the box at the moment.

City – and his current club Swansea – will certainly be hoping the Ivory Coast striker returns from the Africa Cup of Nations unscathed.

One signing which may have gone slightly under your radar is that of Todd Kane by Nottingham Forest.

They have taken the England Under 21 defender from Chelsea and while you may be wondering why I’m mentioning this, it’s because it’s the first move to be concluded because of the Skybet Transfer Fund.

We offered the opportunity to customers signing up for new Skybet accounts to nominate their favourite Football League club for a potential £250,000 prize to spend on new signings.

The scheme was run from summer up until mid December and we had 70,000 fans making nominations when they opened their account.

Naturally, we were delighted because we felt this was a great way for us to support the Football League clubs and also to engage with supporters, and it has worked fantastically well.

I went down to the presentation in London, when Huddersfield Town were among those clubs hoping to be drawn out, but it was Forest supporter Shaun Lander who won the random draw at Wembley and so Forest collected the cash.

Because Forest are on a transfer embargo at the moment, they have signed Kane on loan, but all parties have stated they are delighted with the outcome.

The scheme is now up and running again – Shaun Lander picked up £5,000 for himself, so it’s well worth getting involved – and there will be another draw in the summer, when another £250,000 will be handed out to a Football League club.

The Skybet Chase is coming up at Doncaster on Saturday, January 24, and we have a great list of entries.

It’s a £75,000 Listed event over three miles at Town Moor and forms part of what is shaping up to be a brilliant National Hunt season.

At Skybet, we love being a part of it and we are again sponsoring the Supreme Novices at the Cheltenham Festival – or I should say the Skybet Supreme Novices.

Favourite at the moment is Douvan, trained by Willie Mullins, and you may want to keep an eye on his performance tomorrow, when he runs in the Grade 2 sportinglife.com Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle.

Douvan was an impressive winner on his debut in Ireland in November, when he beat subsequent Grade 1 winner Sizing John by 12 lengths at Gowran Park, and many believe he has the class to beat Tolworth Hurdle winner L’Ami Serge when it comes to our race at Cheltenham.

You will get only very short odds for Douvan to win tomorrow, but Vautour, who won the Punchestown race last year and is also owned by Susannah Ricci, went on to win the Supreme Novices.

Mullins reports Douvan to be in good order, so it will be interesting to note how he runs.