Rumour of the day
Chelsea will make one final attempt to persuade Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery that his future is at Stamford Bridge.
Bayern continue to maintain that Ribery, who is valued at more than £45m, will remain in Germany but new Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti is refusing to concede defeat (Daily Mail)
Carlo Ancelotti has delayed his arrival at Chelsea to try to push through the signing of Brazil star Alexandre Pato.
SunSport understands AC Milan expect to meet Blues officials in the next 24 hours to negotiate a deal (The Sun)
Best of the rest
SunSport understands AC Milan expect to meet Blues officials in the next 24 hours to negotiate a deal.
Manchester City are confident of unveiling Carlos Tevez by Monday in a deal taking Mark Hughes’ spending to £200million since he became boss (Daily Mirror)
Rafa Benitez’s transfer plans could be thrown into chaos by a £25million bid from Barcelona for Javier Mascherano (Daily Mirror)
Fraizer Campbell looks poised to sign for Hull City when he returns from a delayed summer holiday and despite serious interest from Sunderland (Guardian)
Aston Villa have inquired about Middlesbrough’s England winger Stewart Downing.
Any move would be complicated by the fact Downing will not return until October from the foot injury he suffered at the end of last season, but Villa may look at the option of a loan deal with a view to a permanent move (Daily Mail)
Mark Hughes fears being priced out of the market for Joleon Lescott (Daily Star)
Patrick Vieira has been given a final £100,000-a-week offer to join Birmingham (The Sun)
William Gallas last night vowed to walk away from Arsenal for nothing next summer unless he is allowed to leave now (Daily Mirror)
Amir Zaki has urged new Wigan boss Roberto Martinez to spend some of his newly acquired transfer funds on bringing him back to the club (The Sun)
Birmingham want Armand Traore on a season-long loan from Arsenal (The Sun)
Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce won’t be taking Joey Barton off Newcastle’s hands by signing the football bad boy for a second time (Daily Star)
Clint Dempsey is in line for a shock swithc from Fulham to Everton (The Sun)
New Sunderland boss Steve Bruce is poised to swoop for Reading winger Stephen Hunt (The Sun)
Obafemi Martins was late for training on Newcastle's first day back, but still bagged a pay rise due to the deal he signed when he first moved to St James' Park (The Sun)
Wigan boss Roberto Martinez is rushing through a £2m deal for Honduras international Hendry Thomas - to keep him out of Steve Bruce's clutches at Sunderland (Daily Mirror)
