It's a mid-season special as we take the world of football to auction! Rank God Sam Tighe picks his top five most valuable players if we freed everyone of their current clubs and put them up for bidding-the catch is that you have to give every player you buy a five-year-contract, so it's about longevity and potential as well as current form and ability. As ever, Football Insider Dean Jones and host Jack Collins are here to challenge Sam's thoughts at almost every turn.

In this week's Hot Takes, we take a look at VAR and whether it's sucking the joy out of football, whether Harry Maguire's reported £80m switch to either Manchester United or Manchester City makes any sense at all, and where should Colombia's golden boy, James Rodriguez, go for the next stage of his career with seemingly no room for him at the Bernabeu.

Bleacher Roulette takes on more of the big questions: which players from history do we think were overrated; would we rather have the career of Pedro or Thiago Alcantara; and where the weirdest places are that we've watched games of football-before Sam rounds things off by ranking which of Real Madrid's new signings will be a success, based on the kick-ups at their unveiling!

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