The story claims that new Chelsea Jose Mourinho only sees five players in his squad as indispensable and is ready to listen to offers for the rest.That, says the People, is bad news for anyone not named Petr Cech, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, Eden Hazard or Oscar.
And Arsenal are ready to end Torres’s largely miserable time at Stamford Bridge – he would probably command something in the £15-20m range, having cost Chelsea £50m in 2011.
If the Spaniard moves across London, he will probably be joined by Gonzalo Higuain, who has seemingly been on the verge of completing a move from Real Madrid for weeks.
The delay over confirmation of the Higuain has led to much gallows humour among Arsenal fans desperate to see the club come good on their promise of a summer spending spree.
The Sunday Mirror reports on Arsene Wenger’s pursuit of a third striker, Wayne Rooney. It claims Arsenal have made a £20m bid for the Manchester United star, sparking a bidding war against Chelsea, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.
Paper Round has never really thought much of the Rooney-to-Arsenal talk. It’s true they seem genuinely prepared to splash the cash, and a fee of £20-25m is hardly prohibitive.
The stumbling block is surely Rooney’s salary, which currently stands at £250,000-a-week – a figure that would obliterate the Arsenal wage structure.
One man unlikely to be moving anywhere is Aston Villa’s Christian Benteke, according to the Sunday Mirror.
Arsenal and Liverpool were among a host of clubs linked with the Belgian after a spectacular debut season in the Premier League.
However, Villa won’t settle for a penny less than £25m for their top scorer – meaning clubs must look elsewhere.
The flip side of the Villa conundrum is their desire to get shot of former England man Darren Bent.
Once a £24m striker, Bent fell out of first-team contention thanks to Benteke’s exploits, and The Sun claims Villa have not received a single offer for the ex-England man. Bent’s £65,000-a-week pay packet represents the main turn-off for potential buyers, The Sun claims.
Yet more strikers now, and the Mail on Sunday reckons Chelsea have made a colossal £45m bid for Napoli’s Edinson Cavani.
The offer comes in some way short of Cavani’s £52m buy-out clause, with the Serie A side adamant Cavani will not leave for less.
The same paper reckons Manchester City have set their sights on Brazil and Fluminense man Fred after cooling their interest in Cavani, but the Sunday Mirror takes a different tack.
It claims the man in Manuel Pellegrini’s sights is Sevilla’s Alvaro Negredo, who could be theirs for £18m.
And we finish where we started, with Chelsea looking to offload an underperforming front man.
The Sunday Times believes West Bromwich Albion manager Steve Clarke is trying to persuade his old boss Jose Mourinho to let him have Demba Ba on loan for the season.
The Baggies took Romelu Lukaku on a highly successful loan deal from Chelsea last season, and the Belgian has now leapfrogged Ba in the Stamford Bridge pecking order.
(Source: Yahoo News)
