With less than a week to go until the commencement of the new Premier League season, teams are still hard at work trying to strengthen their squads.
Chelsea have been heavily linked with a move for Everton’s John Stones, but reports this morning now indicate that the Londoners are also targeting Tottenham defender Danny Rose.
The Mirror reports that Chelsea have asked their neighbours to name their price for Rose, who is believed to be valued at about £15m.
The Premier League champions have only two front-line full-backs at their disposal since Filipe Luis was sold back to Atletico Madrid and they want Rose to fill the void.
Former England defender Rio Ferdinand will be pleased to hear the news, as he’s been warning Stones off signing for the Blues.
The former Manchester United captain urged the 21-year-old to join his old club, claiming that Stones would be a “lunatic” to join Chelsea and sit on the bench.
United certainly need strengthening in the defensive department, with Phil Jones looking suspect during their pre-season defeat to PSG.
Louis van Gaal, however, is aware of no such problem and has actually decided to ship out another defender.
This time it’s Brazilian defender, Rafael, who will has confirmed that he will join French side, Lyon.
He took to Instagram to thank Sir Alex Ferguson and the club for his time at the club saying: "I want to thank Manchester United fans for all the love during those 8 years. Since I signed with the club I lived incredible moments, after all it was 8 years wearing the shirt of one of the biggest clubs of the world. Thank you Manchester United FC."
Turning to Newcastle now and the Toon army will face a challenge if they are to hold onto midfielder Moussa Sissoko.
If reports this morning are to be believed, Steve McClaren should expect approaches from both Liverpool and Manchester City.
The highly rated midfielder scored four times last year and made 35 appearences last season for Newcastle.
He is currently valued at around £17m.
Brighton and Hove Albion have recaptured a former player this week, announcing the signing of Bobby Zamora.
The 34-year-old returns to the team who signed him 15 years ago on a free transfer after London side QPR refused to extend his contract at the end of last season.
He originally joined Brighton for a paltry £100,000 in August, 2000.
And finally in today’s edition of the transfer round-up, Southampton have made a bid of between £7m-£8m (depending on the newspapers you read) for Celtic defender Virgil van Dijk.
Southampton have once again been hit with high profile exits this summer as well, including Morgan Schneiderlin, but will hope to arrest that trend by signing the Dutchman.
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