BBC
Real Madrid are the latest team to have joined the battle for Celtic's 20-year-old striker Moussa Dembele. (Mirror)
Real's Isco, 24, has put Premier League clubs on alert after revealing his frustration at a lack of game time this season - the Spain midfielder has previously been linked with Tottenham and Arsenal. (Mirror)
Manchester United have revived their interest in Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos, 27, and will seek to test Real Madrid's willingness to keep the German star in the summer. (Independent)
Brazil centre-back Marquinhos is set to sign a new four-year contract with Paris St-Germain as the 22-year-old turns down interest from Chelsea and Barcelona. (Yahoo Sport via Sun)
Chelsea have initiated discussions over the transfer of 22-year-old Portugal international Bernardo Silva and are willing to pay £70m. (Times)
Inter Milan and Croatia winger Ivan Perisic, 28, will be staying with the Serie A club, according to sporting director Piero Ausilio despite interest from Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool. (Daily Star)
Everton have lined up £17m-rated Palermo and Macedonia striker Ilija Nestorovski, 26, to replace Belgium forward Romelu Lukaku. (Sun)
Juventus and Gabon midfielder Mario Lemina, 23, has been tipped to leave the club this summer, with Premier League sides Crystal Palace and Watford expressing an interest in signing him. (Croydon Advertiser)
Atletico Madrid are open to offers for 29-year-old France forward Kevin Gameiro this summer - potentially solving Tottenham's strike problem. (Mirror)
Manager Antonio Conte has said that he wants his first season in English football to end with Chelsea captain John Terry lifting the FA Cup at Wembley. (Standard)
Steve Bruce says he has been assured that his Aston Villa job is safe. (Telegraph)
Netherlands striker Vincent Janssen has vowed to prove his worth at Tottenham after his tough start to life in England. (Daily Mail)
Newcastle midfielder Jack Colback, 27, says the club are not getting many penalties this season because the players are "too honest". (Newcastle Chronicle)
Liverpool are close to signing France youth international Yasser Larouci. The 16-year-old attacking midfielder is a free agent having turned down a contract with Ligue 2 side Le Havre. (Liverpool Echo)
And finally
Millwall striker Steve Morison said Premier League champions Leicester City were intimidated by a packed crowd at the Den during the Lions' shock 1-0 FA Cup win on Saturday. Morison claimed Foxes full-back Ben Chilwell was "scared" to take a throw-in. (Daily Star)
Every Lincoln City player is set to receive a £5,000 bonus after beating Premier League side Burnley in the fifth round of the FA Cup.(Daily Mail)
Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck, who suffered a knee injury this season, says he does not expect to play against Sutton United in the FA Cup fifth round on Monday because of the non-league club's 3G pitch. (Evening Standard)
Guardian Rumour Mill
Barry Glendenning
Following that midweek 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, it was back to the bread and butter of La Liga for Barcelona on Sunday. If the Camp Nou faithful were expecting a reaction from their team, they were left disappointed. A season low crowd of just over 63,000 watched their team labour to a 2-1 win over Leganés, who are currently enjoying their first ever season in the top flight and sit just one place above the relegation zone. On an evening when some sections of the crowd booed Barça’s manager Luis Enrique, Lionel Messi looked so fed up he didn’t even celebrate the last-gasp penalty kick he converted to help his side scrape a 2-1 victory.
Barcelona’s current woes could have reverberations on the Premier League: the Mirror reports that Manchester City are teeing up a £100m bid to bring Messi to the Premier League and reunite him with his former manager Pep Guardiola. With Luis Enrique’s days in charge looking numbered, Tottenham Hotspur supporters will be upset by press reports saying the Spanish club have identified Mauricio Pochettino as the Spaniard’s successor despite his longtime association with their city rivals Espanyol. The 46-year-old Argentinian is contracted to Tottenham until 2021, but wouldn’t be human if he wasn’t tempted by the offer of a spell in the Camp Nou hot-seat.
Monaco left-back Benjamin Mendy is also wanted by Manchester City, to fill the Gaël Clichy-shaped hole likely to be left in Guardiola’s squad when the French veteran’s contract expires this summer. City also remain interested in Sunderland goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, who is already back in training despite fears the knee injury he sustained in his side’s Boxing Day defeat at the hands of Manchester United would keep him out for the season.
Fresh from their clinical evisceration of Fulham, Spurs are being linked with Kévin Gameiro. The 29-year-old Atlético Madrid striker responded to reports that his club might be ready to offload him by coming off the bench to score a hat-trick in just four minutes and 45 seconds against Sporting Gijón on Saturday. It was his most significant contribution to the Atlético cause since signing for the Spanish club from Sevilla last summer. Having taken almost an hour to score his hat-trick against Fulham, Harry Kane might need to up his game.
With 27 goals in 41 games for Celtic to his name since his move from Fulham last summer, Moussa Dembélé has got antennae twitching all over Europe and could move from one team of domestic flat-track bullies to another if rumours of Bayern Munich’s interest in putting him on the pay-roll are true. Reports in Scotland say the Bundesliga side are ready to boost the Celtic coffers to the tune of £30m in exchange for the 20-year-old French striker.
Liverpool are ready to riff on Leicester City’s current Premier League pain by relieving them of their promising young defender Ben Chillwell, who endured a torrid time of it at the Den on Saturday. According to Millwall striker Steve Morison, Chilwell was so intimidated by the “verbals” of Lions fans during Leicester’s defeat by the League One side that he feigned a hand injury so he could stop taking throw-ins. “I’m not being funny,” said Morison. “He said his fingers hurt him – come on, we’re playing a game of football.” Liverpool are also being linked with a “summer swoop” for Mario Götze, who has failed to impress at Borussia Dortmund since moving back there after his three-year spell at Bayern Munich.
Manchester United want Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and will pay Arsenal £30m to bring the midfielder to Old Trafford. In another winter of discontent for Arsenal fans, the Ox has struggled to nail down an automatic starting place and is understood to be on José Mourinho’s summer shopping list. In other news relating to comings and goings at Old Trafford, the Telegraph claim United might be willing to sell Wayne Rooney before the end of the month if a team from the country’s Super League make a suitably generous offer for the striker before their transfer deadline on 28 February. Whether or not Wayne would be amenable to such a move remains to be seen.
C&H
Reid happy as Hammers toughen up
Winston Reid knows the Hammers are getting better and better.
The are no longer a team that falls apart when the going gets tough and but one that is improving with every outing.
And assessing the progress, Reid said: “In the last game we played against West Brom, even though we were 1-0 behind, we were the better team throughout the game, whereas we might have crumbled a couple of months ago.”
“We didn’t get the win in the end but over the 90 minutes that was probably our best performance of the season.
“It’s obviously a bit different when you go away from home because you know that, at some stages of the game, you’re going to be under pressure, but we’re improving which is good.”
“I think getting a couple of new players in has freshened things up and everyone is on the same page,” he explained.
He refuses to analyse the Payet affair saying: “I don’t want to pinpoint the whole situation on Dimi, because I think that would be unfair.
“He had his own issue which he had to deal with in his own way, which he did, and we’re past that now. He’s happy and we’re happy as well, so we’ll just move forward and do our best.
“It’s been good. Obviously it takes time to build up an understanding but it’s improving with every game. Jose and Snoddy have fitted into the group really well, and that’s also important, that we’ve signed not only good footballers, but good people as well who fit within the group.”
NinetyMinutes
West Ham linked with Brazilian playing in La Liga, nine goals this season
By Gareth McKnight
West Ham United are keeping a close eye on Real Sociedad striker Willian Jose, according to Calcio Mercato.
The Hammers are expected to reinforce in the final third this summer, with a marque centre forward signing eluding the Premier League club ahead of the current campaign.
With both Simone Zaza and Jonathan Calleri failing to fire, West Ham remain overly reliant on Andy Carroll for goals and inspiration in attack.
Jose has netted nine La Liga goals in 19 outings for the Basque side – the exact same record he had for Las Palmas in the entirety of last season.
The 25-year-old Brazilian was signed by Real Madrid in 2013 but did not get a chance to play regular first-team football due to the surplus of talent at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Since leaving the capital city side Jose has started to score and West Ham are being linked with a possible summer deal for the South American hitman.
