Paper Talk
West Ham have added Wilfried Bony and Christian Benteke to their list of striker targets.
Barcelona have dropped their interest in Everton defender John Stones as they fear he would struggle to adapt to La Liga.
Arsenal's Aaron Ramsey fears his thigh injury could keep him out of Wales' Euro 2016 campaign this summer.
Aston Villa are getting ready to offload flops Idrissa Gana, Jordan Ayew and Jordan Veretout at the end of the season.
Nigerian wonderkid Kelechi Nwakali has revealed he has signed a five-year contract with Arsenal.
Liverpool and Manchester United will battle it out for World Cup star Mario Gotze this summer as Bayern Munich prepare to sell the forward.
Goalkeeper Arthur Boruc is set to sign a new contract at Bournemouth.
Swansea are poised to sign Reading's Wales midfielder Hal Robson-Kanu when his contract expires at the end of the season.
Saido Berahino has been told he can leave West Brom in the summer - for the right price. That fee is believed to be between £10m-£15m as he will only have one year left on his contract.
Italian World Cup winner Gennaro Gattuso - now boss at Pisa - says he would walk to Old Trafford to become Manchester United manager.
Chelsea have been left stunned by John Obi Mikel's decision to put his contract talks on hold. Mikel's current terms run until June 2017 and at 28 years old, his next move will likely be his last.
Arsenal players ripped into each other during a fiery half-an-hour crisis meeting after their defeat by Swansea in a desperate bid to save their season. The dressing-room summit was led by Petr Cech, Per Mertesacker, Tomas Rosicky and Mikel Arteta.
Former Tottenham left-back Benoit Assou-Ekotto has revealed he prefers to buy his football boots on eBay rather than take handouts from sponsors.
West Brom have stepped up their pursuit of Laurent Depoltre by inviting the Gent striker's agent to watch a match at the Hawthorns.
Newcastle will give Rafa Benitez the title of 'manager' as they look to appoint him before Monday's trip to Leicester, but first they must sack head coach Steve McClaren.
Aaron Ramsey will discover the extent of his thigh injury today amid fears he will miss most of Arsenal's run-in.
Fabrice Muamba is on course to become a full-time academy coach, four years on from the day he suffered cardiac arrest playing for Bolton at Tottenham.
Ilkay Gundogan, the Borussia Dortmund midfielder, is one of Pep Guardiola's top targets for Manchester City after photographs emerged of the Germany player's agent meeting Txiki Begiristain, City's director of football.
THE HERALD
Mark Warburton has not bought a house in Glasgow because he is still unsure whether he will be at Rangers for the long-term.
BBC
Manchester United and Liverpool will compete this summer for £31m Bayern Munich and Germany midfielder Mario Gotze, 23. (Daily Star)
Barcelona want to sign Leicester winger Riyad Mahrez, 25, but say it will be difficult to lure him away from City this summer. (Mundo Deportivo, via International Business Times)
However, the Spanish champions have lost interest in Everton defender John Stones over doubts that the 21-year-old England international could adapt to La Liga. (Mirror)
West Ham are ready to move for Manchester City striker Wilfried Bony, 27, and Liverpool forward Christian Benteke, 25, if they miss out on their top target, Marseille's Michy Batshuayi, 22. (Mirror)
AC Milan legend Gennaro Gattuso, who is now boss of Pisa, says he would "walk to Manchester" if he were offered the Old Trafford job. (Sun)
Southampton fear Sadio Mane's drop in form will reduce his transfer value this summer. The 23-year-old had been valued at £30m after interesting Manchester United and Chelsea. (Star)
West Brom have told striker Saido Berahino, 22, that he can leave in the summer, with Tottenham leading the chase. (Sun)
The Baggies have stepped up their pursuit of Gent striker Laurent Depoitre by inviting the 27-year-old's agent to watch a match at The Hawthorns. (Daily Mail)
Aston Villa are set to lose 20-year-old forward Jack Grealish in the summer. (Telegraph)
Grealish could be followed out of Villa Park by Jordan Veretout, 23, fellow midfielder Idrissa Gana, 26, and striker Jordan Ayew, 24.(Birmingham Mail)
Manchester City have stepped up their attempt to make 25-year-old Borussia Dortmund midfielder Ilkay Gundogan one of Pep Guardiola's first signings - and will also turn their sights on Schalke forward Leroy Sane, 19. (Guardian)
Newcastle are eyeing a summer move for Lyon defender Samuel Umtiti, 22. (Talksport)
Liverpool are interested in signing Cologne keeper Timo Horn, 22, and defender Jonas Hector, 25 - but face competition from Arsenal and Manchester United for the former. (Bild - in German)
Midfielder Leroy Fer hopes the good start to his loan move to Swansea from QPR will help land him a permanent move this summer. (Express)
Tottenham could make a summer move for Sassuolo forward Domenico Berardi, 21, who they have been keen on for several years. (Metro)
Brazil boss Dunga says he would prefer to see Barcelona forward Neymar compete for his country at August's Rio Olympic Games than play in the Copa America. (Esporte Interativo via Sky Sports)
New Sunderland signing Emmanuel Eboue has admitted that keeping the Black Cats in the Premier League is "going to be difficult". (Newcastle Chronicle)
Former Bolton defender Fabrice Muamba has passed his Uefa B licence course as he bids to become a full-time academy coach. (Express)
Everton defender Bryan Oviedo is recovering at home but could miss Saturday's FA Cup quarter-final against Chelsea after being admitted to hospital with a chest infection. (Liverpool Echo)
Best of Radio 5 live
With Zlatan Ibrahimovic's contract set to expire this summer, is the Swede courting English clubs?
Chelsea winger Eden Hazard's "mind is somewhere else", says French football journalist Julien Laurens.
And finally
Former Spurs full-back Benoit Assou-Ekotto plays in boots brought for £23 off eBay - saying he would "rather be free than prostitute myself for a sponsor". (Canal Plus, via Sun)
Brondby's manager Thomas Frank has quit after being criticised by the Danish club's chairman - using his son's social media account. (Guardian)
Guardian Rumour Mill
Gregg Bakowski
Barcelona scouts have been hovering around the King Power Stadium like hypnotised flies this season, what with all that soft-shoed shuffling, zippy passing and mesmeric attacking going on. And after finally snapping out of their hazy daze they’ve come to the conclusion that they think they were impressed with what they saw. Particularly from Riyad Mahrez, a player who has finally worked out how to open his box of tricks and seemingly can’t stop practising them.
The upshot is that Barcelona are now very much ‘interested’ in taking the Algerian to the Camp Nou, where, presumably, a tiki-taka shaman will put him through his paces before he is told to take the flickometer test and study Lionel Messi at night school before being given a spot on the bench. Mahrez has been photographed in a Barça top recently too, one of only around 30 million in the world, so expect this move to definitely happen.
One Premier League prospect who won’t be doing a George Orwell and heading to Catalonia to fight for the cause, is John Stones. The same scouts don’t seem bothered by the Everton centre-back’s curious tendency to try to impersonate Messi in his own box at least three or four times each game. No, that’s not an issue, probably because Barcelona rarely have to defend. What does bother them is his attitude, which seems a bit odd really, given that they can’t have gotten to know him all that well unless they planted a pretend friend on Merseyside. Ah. As a result they say they fear he wouldn’t adapt to the Spanish game so they’ll be looking elsewhere for a centre-back. As much as the Mill would love to say Robert Huth has caught the eye of those Barça scouts, well, some things are even too much of a stretch for this purveyor of fanciful fluff.
Manchester United and Liverpool are doing battle all over the place at the moment. Not content with duking it out for a spot in the Europa League quarter-finals and that treasured sixth-place spot in the Premier League, they’re also going to get busy bashing each other up in a battle royale for the signature of Bayern Munich’s Mario Götze, a player who in the last year has made Daniel Sturridge look like a picture of perfect health. When the attacking midfielder has finally been put back together by club doctors, Ed Woodward and Ian Ayre will flex their muscles in the direction of Munich and hope that no one remembers their desperate attempts at luring the player to the north-west when he signs a new deal to remain in Bavaria this summer.
West Ham will use Dimitri Payet’s ability to speak successfully in his native tongue to sweet-talk Belgium’s Michy Batshuayi to the Olympic Stadium in the summer. They’ll have to hope Payet’s as successful at bending ears as he is at bending free-kicks, mind, as Spurs and Juventus also fancy singing sweetly to the 22-year-old when the weather takes an upturn in June. If he isn’t, then they’ll turn their attention to Wilfried Bony, who will last about 37 seconds under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, or Christian Benteke, because the Hammers always have such luck when trying to nurse emotionally and physically shattered former £30m-plus Liverpool strikers back to their barnstorming best.
Slaven Bilic also has an eye on Jack Grealish, who West Ham hope to rescue from the Villa Park wreckage by offering him a similar coloured shirt and the promise of a game every now and then at a club that isn’t run like an out-of-town nightclub.
On the subject of shambling clubs, Newcastle are interested in the Lyon defender Samuel Umtiti – probably a good deal more interested in him than he is in them.
Spurs will try to bring Saido Berahino to the club from West Brom at the 99th time of trying but if they fail they’ll just sign someone else with a similar surname. The Sassuolo forward Domenico Berardi will do. He’ll be cheaper and probably won’t be so free and easy on Twitter when the chips are down.
And finally, Jürgen Klopp will stop pretending he thinks Simon Mignolet is a decent keeper and try to steal away the Köln goalkeeper Timo Horn to Liverpool, a No1 with a name that already provides a honk, so hopefully his goalkeeping won’t.
HITC
West Ham star Manuel Lanzini apologises to teammates over amazing video post
West Ham United star Manuel Lanzini has apologised to two of his teammates after posting a cheeky video on social media showing off his audacious skills.
Damien Lucas
The supremely talented midfielder was caught on camera embarrassing teammates Alex Song and Angelo Ogbonna at the Hammers' Chadwell Heath training ground ahead of this Sunday's big FA Cup quarter-final clash against Manchester United at Old Trafford.
The skilful Argentinian first pulls off a genius nutmeg on a sliding Song before beating another player and then exchanging passes with captain Mark Noble before nutmegging Italian international Ogbonna.
Noble then passes it back to Lanzini and despite slipping the player nicknamed 'the Jewel' still gets the all-important touch to find a teammate and keep the brilliant passing move alive.
With Song still on his knees in embarrassment, Ogbonna takes matters into his own hands and playfully wrestles with Lanzini for showing them up.
'Sorry for this'
Lanzini took to his Instagram account to post out the video with an apology to his teammates, saying: "Sorry for this hahahaha."
Lanzini
The video was also re-posted by Hammers hero Dimitri Payet with the message "I love you Manuel Lanzini."
Lanzini has been a huge hit with Hammers fans since signing on loan from UAE side Al Jazira last summer.
He has spent the best part of three months out through injury but his return to the first team has coincided with Slaven Bilic's side winning four games in a row against Blackburn Rovers, Sunderland, Tottenham Hotspur and Everton.
The Hammers are expected to activate their option to buy the star at the end of the season, as reported by the likes of Sky Sports.
Talksport
Manchester United eyeing Serbian defender dubbed 'the new Nemanja Vidic'
Nikola Maksimovic in action for Torino
Manchester United have joined West Ham and Tottenham in the race to land Nikola Maksimovic, the man dubbed 'the new Nemanja Vidic'.
The two London clubs were both interested in signing the Torino ace during the January transfer window but he has so far stayed put at the Italian club.
However, Torino are bracing themselves for summer interest in the central defender, who is back to his best following a January return from an injury lay-off.
And now reports in Italy have claimed that Manchester United are the latest side to express an interest in the 24-year-old former Red Star Belgrade man.
United struck gold when they landed Maksimovic's fellow Serb Vidic from Spartak Moscow back in January 2006.
The defender went on to captain the club and make 298 appearances for United, who are currently in the market for a new centre-half.
