BBC
Juventus are eyeing a £175m move for Liverpool's Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah, 26. (Sky Arabia - via 90min)
Manchester United have entered the race to sign Paris St-Germain midfielder Adrien Rabiot, 23, this summer. (AS - via Mirror)
Maurizio Sarri's fate as Chelsea head coach is set to be decided in the next fortnight. (Telegraph)
Chelsea players held a clear-the-air meeting at the club's Cobham training ground on Monday following their 6-0 defeat by Manchester City. (Mail)
Derby manager Frank Lampard has dismissed rumours suggesting he is a contender to replace Sarri if Chelsea sack their head coach. (Evening Standard)
Sarri faces further scrutiny from the Chelsea hierarchy over his handling of Bayern Munich target Callum Hudson-Odoi, 18. (Mirror)
Barcelona have agreed on terms with Eintracht Frankfurt to sign Serbia striker Luka Jovic, 21, this summer. (Diario Sport)
Juventus' Argentina forward Paulo Dybala, 25, is getting closer to a move to Real Madrid next summer. (AS)
West Ham bid £35m for Atalanta's Colombia striker Duvan Zapata, 27, during the January transfer window. (Di Marzio)
Watford's Adrian Mariappa says it is a "good thing" midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure is a target for Paris St-Germain but hopes the club can keep the 26-year-old Frenchman. (Evening Standard)
Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil could be decisive in dictating the future of manager Unai Emery, according to the club's former player Ray Parlour. (Metro)
Former Tottenham striker Darren Bent believes the club's South Korean forward Son Heung-Min, 26, could be a target for other clubs during the next transfer window. (Goal)
Tottenham centre-back Juan Foyth, 21, has revealed he turned down Paris St-Germain to join Spurs in 2017. (Goal)
Barcelona wanted to sign Fenerbahce centre-back Martin Skrtel, 34, during the January transfer window, but the former Liverpool player turned down the move. (AS)
New Oldham manager Paul Scholes claims Jose Mourinho will watch his results after being a fierce critic of the former Manchester United boss. (Mirror)
Crystal Palace have trolled Australian side Newcastle Jets for launching a similar set of kits to their own. (Talksport)
Guardian Rumour Mill
Barry Glendenning
Move along. There’s little or nothing to see here. The eagerly awaited return of the Champions League means transfer tittle-tattle takes a back seat in today’s back pages, although speculation does abound over how much Aaron Ramsey will be trousering when he heads to Juventus in the summer. The Arsenal and Wales midfielder has signed a pre-contract agreement with Juventus and while some reports suggest he’ll be getting an eye-watering £400,000 per week over four years, others say he’ll be forced to get by on a paltry £250,000 stipend once the Italian taxman gets his cut.
Meanwhile in China, the former Manchester United midfielder Marouane Fellaini has revealed he passed up the opportunity to sign for Paris Saint-Germain last summer, before heading to Shandong Luneng in January. The Belgian will come up against Marek Hamsik in the Chinese Super League if the Slovakian can get his transfer to Dalian Yifang over the line. Hamsik was left out of Napoli’s squad to face Fiorentina last weekend and instead went to Madrid to conduct a medical. His transfer will be completed in the next day or two if the two clubs can iron out the nitty-gritty of the payment plan for his £17m fee.
Chelsea look likely to miss out on Eintracht Frankfurt striker Luka Jovic, the 21-year-old Serb who has banged in 19 goals for the Bundesliga outfit this season. On loan from Benfica, Jovic is ready to sign for Barcelona, despite interest from the English side, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. In other news, Chelsea midfielder Tiémoué Bakayoko has put the horror show that was his brief time in England behind him and is eager to make his loan move to Milan, where he has gone a long way towards restoring his reputation, permanent. To make it happen, Milan may have to give Chelsea their 22-year-old Ivorian midfielder Franck Kessié in return.
Also out on loan from Chelsea, Kenedy isn’t exactly covering himself in glory at Newcastle and will be sold by his parent club in the summer unless his form improves. “He has the potential, we have seen that, so it is not someone telling you,” said Rafael Benítez of the Brazilian in the build-up to his side’s game against Wolves. “We have seen here how good he is, and he has to go back to his level.”
And finally, Ajax defender Matthijs de Ligt has become something of a Rumour Mill staple in recent months and the latest speculation suggests Juventus are in the box-seat to sign the 19-year-old ahead of Barcelona, Manchester United and Liverpool.
Di Marzio
West Ham made large bid in January for Atalanta's Zapata: the backstory from the transfer market
Atalanta's system has successfully developed several of its players into valuable commodities, in the past and present. During the just closed window, the club turned down offers for Zapata, Castagne and Ilicic. For Duvan Zapata, the striker was the subject of a big €40 million offer from West Ham. Atalanta turned down the Premier League side, choosing to retain their top scorer in their push for a Champions League appearance. Celtic meanwhile offered €10 million for Timothy Castagne, which was also turned down by the nerazzuri. Lastly, an offer from Roma arrived during the window for €13 million, and the same reply came from Atalanta, they refused the offer.
C&H
Magnificent Irons seven get England calls
West Ham’s academy has once again hit the heights with seven youngsters being called up for England youth international squads this week.
The work being carried out by staff under academy director Terry Westley has been an extraordinary feature of the Hammers season with four of our lads being selected to represent their country at U15 level, and three travelling to St. George’s Park to be part of the U16 squad.
The U15s, who face Belgium on Wednesday, will see young Hammers Jacob Knightbridge, Junior Robinson and Divin Mubama to select from, as well as Sonny Perkins, who recently joined the Club when he made the switch from Leyton Orient.
Meanwhile, Jamal Baptiste (pictured above) and Jayden Fevrier, are part of the England U16 s along with Amadou Diallo, who turns 16 this week. The winger has been so impressive for the U23s when called upon to play at that level this campaign.
The U16s’ training camp includes fixtures against Norway, Brazil and World Cup winners France.
Academy Director Terry Westley said: “It’s great recognition for the players and the whole club to have seven of our young players selected for two England squads. These lads have been working hard and playing great football all season and every one of them deserves the recognition.
ClaretandHugh says: The extraordinary progress of our academy just goes on and the latest magnificent seven to get England call ups show just what good hands the operation is in. It’s incredibly important that with Brexit apparently around the corner (sorry to mention it because I know how boring it has become) that clubs find and develop as many of their own youngsters as they can with the various restrictions which are likely to be be imposed on young imports from Europe after the withdrawal from the EU. Thankfully with our current boss in place any youngsters who are showing themselves gifted enough are getting their chance and a big message is going out to parents of promising youngsters: “Your boy has a real opportunity at this club.” No praise is high enough for what’s going on at the grass roots of our club. Long may it continue.
