Friday's gossip column

TRANSFER GOSSIP

Manchester City will revive an £11m move for Hamburg's German defender Jerome Boateng in the summer and are also keen on highly-rated Osasuna right-back Cesar Azpilicueta, 20.(Daily Mail) 
Everton are being linked with a move for Dinamo Zagreb's Croatian centre-forward Mario Mandzukic, 23.(Daily Mail) 
Lokomotiv Moscow have not given up on signing Roman Pavlyuchenko from Tottenham.(Daily Mail) 
Spurs could be lining up a summer move for Lazio's former Aston Villa midfielder Thomas 'The Hammer' Hitzlsperger, 27, after the German struggled to settle in Italy.(The Sun) 
Nice striker Loic Remy is keen to join Arsenal in the summer.(TribalFootball.com) 
The Gunners have been rebuffed in their attempts to sign Stuttgart's 15-year-old goalkeeper Odessas Vlachidimos for £1m.(Daily Mail) 
Newcastle defender Steven Taylor, reportedly involved in a training ground bust-up with team-mate Andy Carroll, will leave this summer with Everton and Aston Villa chasing the 24-year-old.(The Sun) 
Portsmouth have been offered £250,000 by Spartak Moscow to terminate Quincy Owusu-Abeyie's loan early and send him back to the Russian side. (Daily Mail) 
Birmingham are ready to offer Matthew Taylor an escape route from Bolton by bidding £2m for the unhappy 28-year-old this summer.(The Sun) 
Stoke City are interested in Congo-born Belgian striker Christian Benteke, 19, who is on loan at KV Kortrijk from Standard Liege.(Daily Mail) 
Birmingham boss Alex McLeish is reportedly keen on Nantes youngster Jonathan Nanizayamo.(Daily Mirror) 
Wolves manager Mick McCarthy is plotting a double raid on cash-strapped Portsmouth with a joint £1.5m bid for Tommy Smith and Aaron Mokoena.(The Sun) 
Everton want to lure Bristol City youngster Christian Ribeiro to Goodison Park.(TribalFootball.com) 
Nottingham Forest have suffered more transfer frustration after failing to land Aston Villa left-back Wilfred Bouma on loan.(Daily Mirror) 

OTHER GOSSIP

West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola banned team co-owner David Sullivan from a meeting with his players after their relationship broke down in the wake of Sullivan's highly critical open letter to fans.(Daily Mail) 
Zola says he is confident he can keep the Hammers in the Premier League, but is less confident he will still be manager next season.(Daily Express) 
Norwich boss Paul Lambert, a former Celtic player, is the favourite to succeed Tony Mowbray on a permanent basis as manager of the Bhoys - with Henrik Larsson an outside bet.(The Times) 
Craig Bellamy is being investigated by Manchester City after allegations of an incident in the players' tunnel at the end of their 2-0 defeat by Everton on Wednesday.(Daily Mail) 
Meanwhile, Everton want an apology from Manchester City chief executive Garry Cook after he had a VIP fan and his wife thrown out of Eastlands.(Daily Mirror) 
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has told his players their Premier League game against Birmingham on Saturday is the "priority" over next week's Champions League meeting with Barcelona.(Daily Mirror) 
Wenger has suspended contract talks with stars such as William Gallas and Mikael Silvestre, refusing to discuss terms until crucial matches are out of the way.(The Guardian) 
Meanwhile, the Gunners could welcome back Dutch striker Robin van Persie within three weeks as he continues to make progress after an ankle ligament injury.(The Sun) 
Chelsea defender Paulo Ferreira has revealed some of Chelsea's older players fear they will never win the Champions League after last week's last 16 defeat to Inter Milan.(Daily Star) 
No such worries at Liverpool, where midfielder Javier Mascherano has pledged his future to the club and expects to sign a new contract soon.(PremierLeague.com) 
Though Reds legend Phil Thompson has urged stars Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres to threaten to quit the club unless there is real investment in the playing squad at Anfield.(The Sun) 
Portsmouth boss Avram Grant will ask Tottenham's permission to let on-loan midfielder Jamie O'Hara play in the two sides' FA Cup semi-final meeting next month.(Daily Mirror) 
England fans are angry that the team will play three Euro 2012 qualifiers on Fridays so that players can return to their clubs a day early.(The Guardian) 
Portsmouth's Ricardo Rocha has accused Chelsea star Florent Malouda of setting out to hurt him with a swipe of the elbow during the teams' Premier League clash on Wednesday.(Daily Mail) 
Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves has moved a step closer to a return after being pulled out of a reserves game to train with the first team.(Daily Mirror) 
Sven-Goran Eriksson, Mark Hughes and Bernd Schuster will find out on Friday which one of them is to coach Ivory Coast at the World Cup in South Africa this summer. (Daily Express) 
Burnley are facing a mass exodus in the summer after refusing to give in to players' wage demands, with 11 first-teamers out of contract at the end of the season. (Daily Star)
Former Peterborough manager Mark Cooper has emerged as the favourite to replace Steve Staunton as boss of Darlington.(The Sun) 

AND FINALLY

Paul Gascoigne confronted an imposter who posed as him on social networking site Twitter, taking a photo of himself in front of a TV news channel displaying the date and time to prove he was the real Gazza.(Daily Star) 
Riot police in Brazil restored order in a league match between Genus and Moto Clube by baton-charging and then pepper-spraying the players.(The Sun) 
Three-time world player of the year Ronaldo has apologised for making an obscene gesture to fans of his Corinthians team in Brazil after their defeat by Paulista.(NBC) 
Juventus goalkeeper Antonio Chimenti was so upset after conceding a 35-yarder against Sampdoria that he broke his hand punching a dressing room table. (The Sun)

www.bbc.co.uk