By Chris Wright
£50 million dump. Here’s the round up…
Rumour No. 1: Manchester City are preparing to jettison £50 million worth of players in the summer as manager Roberto Mancini begins a total rebuild of his squad.
Emmanuel Adebayor, Wayne Bridge, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Stephen Ireland will all face the boot at Eastlands, and the Italian boss is planning to kick start his overhaul with a £50 million bid for Liverpool striker Fernando Torres.
Rumour No. 2: It is fairly common knowledge that Real Madrid want a left-back, and what Real Madrid want they usually get.
Los Blancos have reportedly drawn up a shortlist of potential targets, with Manchester United’s £20-million-rated Patrice Evra at the top of the pile.
The other names on the list are Arsenal’s Gael Clichy, Fiorentina’s Juan Manuel Vargas and Lazio’s Aleksandar Kolarov.
The Best of the Rest: This one just won’t go away – Barcelona are still being linked with a £8 million bid for Newcastle defender Steven Taylor.
Carlos Tevez is on the verge of demanding a Man City exit after growing increasingly frustrated with Roberto Mancini’s management style, and Liverpool are apparently waiting in the wings to sign the Argentinian striker.
Should Tevez leave, City will replace him with Bayern Munich target man Luca Toni, who is currently on loan at Roma.
Manchester City are also being linked with a move for PSV’s Bulgarian right-back Stanislav Manolev, but they will face competition for the 24-year-old from Aston Villa.
Everton are planning summer moves for Wigan midfielder Paul Scharner and Sporting Gijon defender Roberto Canella.
Birmingham will lodge a £5 million bid for Manchester United ‘keeper Ben Foster should they miss out on resigning Joe Hart from Man City next season.
Stoke will offload Dave Kitson, Liam Lawrence, Tuncay Sanli and James Beattie in the summer.
Wolves are planning a £6 million raid on Hull for winger Stephen Hunt and centre-back Kamil Zayatte.
Tottenham and Blackburn have been put on alert by the news that Notts County have agreed to release Kasper Schmeichel on a free transfer at the end of the season.
West Brom have slapped a £12 million price tag on Graham Dorrans to ward off interest from West Ham, Arsenal and Everton.