TRANSFER GOSSIP
Arsenal are prepared to let midfielder Cesc Fabregas leave for Barcelona if the Catalan club double their offer to £60m for the Spanish midfielder.(Daily Mail)
Barca are also keen to take Arsenal left-back Gael Clichy to the Nou Camp next season.(Mirror)
Real Madrid are considering an offer of £40m for Fabregas in an attempt to sabotage Barcelona's efforts to sign the 23-year-old Spain international.(Footylatest.com)
But Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard is the preferred transfer target for Real Madrid fans, according to a poll in Spanish newspaper Marca. (Footylatest.com)
Meanwhile, Real midfielder Lassana Diarra is a £24m transfer target for Manchester United.(Caughtoffside.com)
Chelsea's out-of-contract midfielder Joe Cole would be better off moving to Manchester United than Arsenal, says former World Cup winner and Blues defender Marcel Desailly. (FourFourTwo.com)
Manchester City will present a final £27m bid to Aston Villa for midfielder James Milner but the Midlands club are holding out for £30m.(Daily Star)
French champions Marseille are keen to take striker Roque Santa Cruz off Manchester City's hands, with the Eastlands outfit prepared to part with the Paraguayan for £8m.(Daily Mail)
Arsenal have made a fresh £8m bid for Lorient centre-half Laurent Koscielny.(The Sun)
West Brom have entered the race to buy Norwegian teenage striker Marcus Pedersen from Stromsgodset, with Sunderland, Blackburn, Bolton, Everton and Fulham also keeping tabs on the highly rated 19-year-old. (Daily Mail)
Birmingham will increase their offer for Palermo striker Fabrizio Miccoli after the Premier League's club initial £3.4m bid was rejected by the Serie A side. (Daily Mail)
Tottenham are preparing a £16m bid for Porto's Colombian striker Radamel Falcao. (Footylatest.com)
Spurs outcast Giovanni Dos Santos is a target for Spanish club Sevilla, along with Mexican compatriot and Arsenal striker Carlos Vela.(Mirror)
German side Wolfsburg are ready to spend up to £20m to take Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov away from Manchester United.(Footylatest.com)
Roy Keane's future as Ipswich Town manager is in doubt as former club favourite and ex-Celtic boss Tony Mowbray and Steve Cotterill have been linked to the Portman Road job. (Mirror)
OTHER GOSSIP
Former Liverpool favourite Robbie Fowler believes Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp is the ideal man to take over at Anfield following Rafael Benitez's departure. (The Sun)
Slovenia midfielder Robert Koren says his team will not be scared of England in their final Group C match on 23 June in Port Elizabeth. (The Sun)
The referee who will officiate England's opening World Cup match against the United States, Carlos Eugenio Simon, was suspended by the Brazilian Football Association last season amid accusations of being "unambiguously inconsistent, unfair and inequitable".(The Times)
The Football Association has sought safety assurances from local organisers that England's friendly match against South African side Platinum Stars on Monday in Lesetlheng will be free of crowd trouble following a stampede at a similar game in Johannesburg that resulted in 15 people being injured on Sunday. (The Independent)
Platinum Stars defender and former Tottenham Hotspur Mbulelo Mabizela says his side "will get stuck in" against England at the Moruleng Stadium. (Daily Telegraph)
AND FINALLY
Brazil president Lula da Silva says Argentina manager Diego Maradona's policy to allow his players to have sex with their partners in South Africa will undermine their chances of winning. "I want to see the Argentines arrive staggering and exhausted to their games," he said.(The Guardian)
www.bbc.co.uk
