Manchester United reportedly have their eye on two potential January signings

It's late November - a time of year when you can't turn on the television without seeing the John Lewis Christmas advert and you can't flick through the sports pages of a newspaper without seeing some form of January transfer window gossip.

As has been the case throughout the last few transfer windows, Manchester United appear to be featuring heavily in the latest gossip columns. Having splurged a fortune over the summer months with a view to making the club competitive in the race for the Premier League title, Jose Mourinho's side have failed to click so far. They currently sit sixth in the league - nine points behind first place Chelsea. Being so far down the league table is all the licence needed to link United with some January reinforcements and that's precisely what's happened today. The Mirror have linked United with a move for Bayern Munich's David Alaba, who has been a regular with the Bavarian club for a few years now. Not only can he play in defence, he can also slot in in midfield too. Quite how they expect to entice the Austrian to Manchester remains another matter, but Herr Alaba isn't the only man being linked with a move to Old Trafford. Southampton's Virgil van Dijk, who has impressed throughout this season, is also being linked with a move to north. The 25-year-old would apparently cost United upwards of £30m should they fancy bidding for him, although Southampton would almost certainly be reluctant to sell. Still, get ready for many, many more Manchester United transfer rumours in the weeks ahead. Catch up with the latest episode of Football Friday Live: