Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich will hand under-fire manager Avram Grant a £100m transfer kitty for next season. (Daily Express)

Atletico Madrid are keen to lure Liverpool manger Rafael Benitez and keeper Jose Reina to the club next season. (Daily Star)

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has asked striker Louis Saha to try to persuade £30m Lyon target Karim Benzema to join the Old Trafford club. (Daily Mirror)

Meanwhile Ferguson's number one target Dimitar Berbatov looks to be staying at Tottenham, having been promised a bumper new pay deal. (Various)

Arsenal fear key midfielder Mathieu Flamini has agreed to join Juventus. Flamini is out of contract at the end of the season. (The Independent)

Portsmouth are hopeful that striker David Nugent will join Ipswich on loan next week. (Daily Mail)

Newcastle are eyeing Carlisle's teenage hot-shot Gary Madine for the next campaign. (Daily Mirror)

Wigan manager Steve Bruce is set to swoop for Senegal skipper Lamine Diatta, who is currently a free agent. (Daily Mirror)

Arsenal's Abou Diaby is a reported target of Italian giants Inter Milan. (Daily Mirror)

Manchester United defender Michael Lea is on trial at Plymouth. (Daily Star)

Crystal Palace striker Dougie Freedman is set to snub a move to Leeds United. (The Sun)




OTHER GOSSIP
Manchester United defender Gary Neville has made his latest comeback from injury, lasting 60 minutes in a reserve team game against Liverpool. (Various)

And fellow team-mate Ben Foster, who has been out with a serious knee injury, is also close to a return and could force his way into Fabio Capello's thoughts. (The Guardian)

The Premier League looks set to abandon its plans for a '39th game' after cancelling a scheduled meeting with Fifa president Sepp Blatter. (The Guardian)

Arsenal players have reportedly asked William Gallas to start acting like a captain, after he staged a bizarre on-pitch sit-in following his side's 2-2 draw with Birmingham on Saturday. (Daily Mirror)



AND FINALLY
Tottenham manager Juande Ramos has blocked plans for a victory parade, insisting his players must focus on the Premier League and the Uefa Cup before hiring a bus. (The Sun)

Arsenal fear key midfielder Mathieu Flamini has agreed to join Juventus. Flamini is out of contract at the end of the season. (The Independent)

That would be bad for Arsenal imo. I think he's a great player and has done some very solid performances of late

Inter Milan are lining up a £14m bid to lure Belarus winger Alexander Hleb away from Arsenal. (Daily Express)

Lyon has accused Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson of scandalous behaviour in trying to unsettle their £45m-rated striker Karim Benzema after making public his interest in him. (Various)

Meanwhile, United want to sign Cameroon keeper Carlos Kameni. (Daily Star)

Blackburn are set to trigger an option to keep Dutch defender Andre Ooijer at the club for another year. (Various)

Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill is ready to open contract talks with left-back Wilfred Bouma. (Daily Star)

But O'Neill has told on-loan Liverpool keeper Scott Carson that his future cannot be sorted out until the end of the season. (Various)

Manchester United and Liverpool are battling it out to sign Peterborough's 6ft 5in keeper Joe Lewis. (The Sun)

Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan insists he will have money for new players in the summer - as long as he keeps the club in the Premier League. (The Sun)

Keegan says he needs five new players to transform the team. (Daily Mirror)

Meanwhile, Mark Viduka is unhappy at being left out of the side and looks set to leave Newcastle. (Daily Mail)

Sunderland manager Roy Keane has transfer-listed Liam Miller after becoming fed up with the midfielder's poor time keeping. (Various)

Tottenham boss Juande Ramos is pressing on with plans to sign a new goalkeeper to replace Paul Robinson. (The Sun)

West Ham manager Alan Curbishley plans to snap up Derby teenager Giles Barnes for £3.5m. (Daily Mirror)

Wolves manager Mick McCarthy wants to sign Middlesbrough's 20-year-old winger Adam Johnson. (Daily Star)

Meanwhile striker Freddy Eastwood appears to be ready to seek a move from the club after claiming he is restless at Molineux. (Daily Mirror)

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez will not be rushed into offering defender Sami Hyypia a new contract. (Various)

Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp has revealed he expects striker David Nugent to join Ipswich on loan before the weekend. (Various)

Wigan striker Julius Aghahowa is wanted by Crystal Palace as a replacement for Dougie Freedman. (Daily Mirror)

Carlisle have dismissed rumours that 17-year-old striker Gary Madine is on his way to Newcastle. (Telegraph)



OTHER GOSSIP

Frank Rijkaard is set quit as Barcelona coach this summer and it is believed he would consider an offer to manager Chelsea. (Various)

Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard has revealed his distress at the club's failure to challenge for the Premier League title. He says he is "gutted" when he looks at the league table and insists even winning the Champions League would not rescue their season. (Various)

Arsenal's ownership is uncertain after the restriction against Alisher Usmanov mounting a takeover bid expired on Wednesday evening. (Various)



AND FINALLY

Liverpool striker Fernando Torres is the master prankster of Anfield and constantly mocks the accents of his team-mates. His impressions of Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher have the lads in stitches. (Various)

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney is ready to give up learning the guitar after struggling with the basics and complaining it "is doing my head in". The England star wants to take up the drums instead. (The Sun)

Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas says he has become more team-focused in the last year after admitting that he used to "want to show more of his own stuff" and was guilty of playing as an individual. (Various)

He'll need a whole set of new players if they get relegated too.

not going to happen you'll go down before we do

Yeah but our squad is a Championship one to start with remember.

Anyway, I'd be careful what you're saying. Come Sunday there's every chance you could be below us in the table.

Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill is prepared to pay Liverpool £10m to make on-loan goalkeeper Scott Carson's move to the Midlands club a permanent one. (Daily Mail)

O'Neill is also planning to relaunch a bid to sign American 'keeper Brad Guzan from Chivas USA after failing to sign him in January. (Daily Mail)


Out-of-contract Senegal captain Lamine Diatta has been offered a one-year deal at Newcastle. (Daily Express)

Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan is also planning a £12m bid for St Etienne striker Bafetimbi Gomis. (Daily Mirror)

Tottenham boss Juande Ramos is planning a £10m swoop for Espanyol's Dani Jarque and Carlos Karmeni. (Various)

Real Madrid will offer Cristiano Ronaldo £8m-a-year to lure him away from Manchester United. (Daily Star)


OTHER GOSSIP

Striker Obafemi Martins has said he is close to signing a new five-year contract, worth £26m, at Newcastle. (The Sun)

Owner Roman Abramovich is planning an overhaul at Chelsea after admitting he has made mistakes in the wake of Jose Mourinho's exit as manager. (Daily Mail)

Russian billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov is behind a bid to buy Sheffield Wednesday. (Daily Mail)

Birmingham defender Martin Taylor has said he will be happy when Arsenal striker Eduardo has fully recovered from his broken leg and is back scoring goals again. (Various)

Ajax's Albert Luque has said he never wants to play in England again after an ill-fated spell at Newcastle. (The Sun)


AND FINALLY

Newcastle striker Obafemi Martins has revealed that he didn't know who Kevin Keegan was when the former England boss took over at St James' Park (The Sun)

Derby midfielder Robbie Savage has splashed out £160,000 on a new Mercedes, custom painted in the club's colours. (Various)

AC Milan are set to make a £20m bid for Chelsea striker Didier Drogba in the summer. (Daily Mirror)

Blackburn are poised to offer former AC Milan midfielder Johann Vogel a short-term contract. (The Sun)

West Brom want to sign on-loan Hearts striker Roman Bednar in a permanent £2m deal. (Daily Mirror)

Arsenal have joined the list of clubs trailing young Cardiff City midfielder Aaron Ramsey. (Daily Mirror)

Coventry City boss Chris Coleman wants to take defenders Carlos Bocanegra and Dejan Stefanovic on loan from his old club Fulham. (Daily Mirror)

West Ham boss Alan Curbishley still hopes to sign Chelsea midfielder Steve Sidwell in a £5m deal. (Daily Mirror)

Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan is set to sign Senegal defender Lamine Diatta to bolster his squad. (Daily Express)

Diatta has passed a medical and agreed a deal until the end of the season. (Daily Star)





OTHER GOSSIP

Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart, Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor and Newcastle winger James Milner are in line for England call-ups. (The Times)

Dubai International Capital could still reach a deal with George Gillett for his 50% stake in Liverpool. (Various)

Former Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce says the current problems at St James' Park are not his fault. (Daily Telegraph)

Celtic boss Gordon Strachan's job is safe even if he fails to win the Scottish Premier League this season, according to Bhoys chief executive Peter Lawwell. (Daily Record)

Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc feels he was unfairly booked for clapping Hibernian fans after his side's win at Easter Road on Saturday. (Daily Record)

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney says he will never quit the Premier League because it is the best in the world. (Various)

Arsenal may have beaten AC Milan at the San Siro on Tuesday but Wigan goalkeeper Chris Kirkland thinks they will struggle against his side this weekend because of the muddy pitch at the JJB Stadium. (Daily Mirror)

German side Hamburg want Croatia boss Slaven Bilic to be their new manager. (Daily Star)

Chelsea boss Avram Grant predicts his side will be drawn to face Liverpool in the Champions League semi-finals for the third time in four years. (Various)

Uefa president Michel Platini will be at St Johnstone's Scottish Cup quarter-final tie with St Mirren on Saturday. (Daily Record)

Hibernian striker Steven Fletcher is set to win his first full cap against Croatia on 26 March. (Daily Record)

Micky Adams, Paul Simpson and Chris Casper are competing for the vacant manager's job at Shrewsbury. (Star)





AND FINALLY
Stockport County are selling a million pixels on their website for £1 each in an attempt to raise £1m to buy back Edgeley Park. (Various)

Manchester City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson has introduced bingo to his squad - hosting sessions when the team gets together before matches. (The Sun)

Strictly Come Dancing star Alesha Dixon has been on a string of dates with Aston Villa striker John Carew. (The Sun)

West Brom will have to play at least 108 minutes of football to beat Bristol Rovers in Saturday's FA Cup quarter-final. Research by Cup sponsors E.ON shows Rovers players effectively run for an extra 18 minutes because of their boggy home pitch, where they have scored four times in the last 10 minutes during their run.

Chelsea have told Didier Drogba they will not stand in his way if he wants to leave this summer - as long as he helps them win silverware this season. (Daily Express)

Tottenham are closing in on Carlos Kameni after the Cameroon keeper got the all-clear to leave Espanyol. (Daily Mirror)


Middlesbrough midfielder Fabio Rochemback wants to move back to his former club Sporting Lisbon. (Daily Mirror)

Manchester United's hopes of luring Lyon striker Karim Benzema could be over after he looked set to agree an extension to his contract with the French club. (Daily Telegraph).

Chelsea could be poised to step in with a late offer for Benzema, 20, with Andriy Shevchenko likely to be off-loaded in the summer, possibly to former club AC Milan. (Daily Mirror)

On-loan Georgios Samaras wants Celtic to trigger a £3m release clause to sign him permanently from Manchester City. (Various)

Dunfermline striker Tam McManus is poised to sign for Colorado Rapids. (The Sun)





OTHER GOSSIP
Sir Alex Ferguson insists he will still be managing Manchester United at the age of 70. (Various)

Croatia boss Slaven Bilic reckons Arsenal striker Eduardo will make a full recovery from his broken leg. (The Sun)

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez insists he was right not to bring back former striker Michael Owen but sign Spaniard Fernando Torres instead. (Various)

The Scottish Premier League says there will still be a club relegated but only one promoted if Gretna go out of business. (The Sun)

Gretna only managed to pay their players this week after a handout from the SPL. (Daily Express)

The SPL will offer Gretna a crisis loan to stay in business until the end of the season. (Various)

Rangers striker Daniel Cousin will be out of action for up to four weeks with a broken jaw. (Various)


Everton striker James Vaughan could miss the rest of the season after a knee operation on Monday. (The Sun)

West Brom midfielder Filipe Teixeira faces up to eight months on the sidelines with cruciate ligament damage. (Daily Mail)

Manchester City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson admits he will consider the Intertoto Cup route into Europe next season if his side fails to qualify through the Premier League. (Various)

Liverpool could soon be owned jointly by American Tom Hicks and the Dubai International Capital after they looked on the brink of an agreement. (Various)

Fulham boss Roy Hodgson wants to stay on as manager next season - even if they are relegated from the Premier League. (Times)



Former Leeds, Coventry and Middlesbrough striker Noel Whelan is a contender to become manager of East Stirlingshire. (Various)




AND FINALLY
Michael Ballack reckons Chelsea's resurgence since their Carling Cup final defeat to Tottenham was down to skipper John Terry's insistence on a team-bonding paint-balling trip the following week. (Guardian)

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger can expect a nice bottle of red from Wigan boss Steve Bruce, who is still grateful for the Frenchman lending him three players key to him getting promoted with ex-club Birmingham last season.

Chelsea are lining up a bid for Werder Bremen's £25m-rated Brazilian playmaker Diego, which could throw Frank Lampard's future into question. (The Sun)

Dwight Yorke is set to quit Sunderland and is considering heading back to Australia to play for Sydney FC. (Daily Star)

606: DEBATE
Is he a realistic target for CFC? Or, indeed, a superior option than the buck-toothed one from Barca?

Chris Whyatt

Manchester United and Arsenal have tabled bids for Cardiff prodigy Aaron Ramsey. The 17-year-old, who is valued at around £5m after only seven starts for the Bluebirds is being courted by Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger - with Old Trafford believed to be his likely choice. (Daily Express)

Chelsea have launched a £7m bid for Uruguayan centre-back Martin Caceres, who is currently impressing in a loan spell with Spanish side Recreativo Huelva. Parent club Villarreal rate him at £14m. (Daily Mail)





OTHER GOSSIP
Thierry Henry has put Premier League clubs on alert by throwing a tantrum after being substituted by Barcelona in their 2-1 defeat to Villarreal. His old Arsenal pal Robert Pires, who played in the side which beat Barca, said: "If I were to say that Henry was happy, I would be called a liar." (The Sun)

Manchester United assistant manager Carlos Queiroz is wanted by Benfica as their next manager after the Portuguese giants sacked boss Jose Antonio Camacho. (Daily Mirror)

Barnsley's FA Cup heroes - who bagged £1,000 per man for knocking out Chelsea - have been promised £10,000 each if they can do the same to Cardiff and reach the final. (Daily Star)

Arsene Wenger reckons Cesc Fabregas and Mathieu Flamini are the best central midfield partnership he's ever had at the club - even better than Patrick Viera and Emmanuel Petit. "Before, we had players with impact and now the player's strength is in mobility," says the Arsenal boss. (Various)

Alan Curbishley will fly to Italy this week to meet Gianluca Nani, the general manager of Brescia who is set to become West Ham's technical director in the summer. (The Times)

Stuart Pearce does not think Theo Walcott is ready for full England honours and wants him to stay in his Under-21 set-up for the time being rather than being elevated into Fabio Capello's plans. (Various)




AND FINALLY
Southampton pair Bradley Wright-Phillips and Nathan Dyer have each been fined two week's wages after apparently being captured on CCTV in an alleged nightclub theft. (The Guardian)

Former England manager Graham Taylor is branching out from football and is set to become a patron of the Government-backed DanceEast Academy in Ipswich, which opens in September. (The Times)

Chairman and owners of English football clubs have been warned they risk being branded "a bunch of racists" if they do not take immediate action to address the fact that there are only two black managers out of all 92 league clubs. (Daily Telegraph)