United have beaten Chelsea to signing a big-name player, with Chelsea fans starting to get restless even though there is two months left until the end of the transfer window, and manager Carlo Ancelotti hasn’t yet met the current players. Yuri Zhirkov is on his way to Stamford Bridge at some point, and will more than likely be followed by Boro’s Ross Turnbull and Manchester City’s Daniel Sturridge.

At lest it is looking less likely that the quality players will be drifting away from the Blues, with Inter Milan failing to agree terms with Chelsea on how much they should pay for Ricardo Carvalho and Deco. Inter say £6m, Chelsea say double.

City are able to let Sturridge leave because they are contesting for yet more top-class talent – Roque Santa Cruz, Craig Bellamy and Robinho will soon be teaming up with Carlos Tevez and Samuel Eto’o, although Eto’o is posturing for more money to make him join a club that isn’t in the Champions League. Yet.

Portsmouth have released 5 players and sold one, with Paramot, Lauren, Little, Thomas and Djimi Traore not having their contracts renewed, and Sean Davis heading to Bolton on a free-transfer after seeing out his contract.

Arsenal‘s hopes of signing Felipe Melo took a turn for the worse when the Brazilian central midfielder signed a new deal at his current club, Fiorentina, which may mean that Arsenal look to old boy Patrick Vieira or possibly Yaya Toure, brother of Kolo, for some steel at the centre of the pitch.

Man City’s Carlos Tevez deal may hit a snag or two along the way before its completion, with the Premier League scrutinising the deal at each and every step to ensure Carlos becomes a player of the club, and is no longer owned by a less-than-transparent third-party. The new strike force of Craig Bellamy, Robinho, Santa Cruz and Tevez isn’t exactly terrifying, but it should do well enough to scare the Big Four into making more acquisitions.

An as-yet-unnamed team has supposedly been taken over by some more Arabs from the UAE, in a deal unconnected to the people in charge of City, with a ‘Premiership club’ already having signed the paperwork to transfer ownership. Portsmouth are rumoured to be the club, but have denied the claims.

Ruud van Nistelrooy has urged his Dutch team-mates at Real to find a way out, and a new club, ahead of the World Cup 2010. He wants everyone to be fighting fit. With the arrivals of big-money signings Ronaldo and Kaka, the Dutch contingent are available at bargain prices.

The TV rights for the Premier League games lost by Setanta have already been snapped up at a knock down price, with US TV giants ESPN landing the rights to the Monday and Saturday night games packages for some £40m less than Setanta paid for them. The SPL has now followed suit by re-claiming the rights back off Setanta, who will struggle without the football to bring in viewers.

Chelsea seem to be missing out on big player after big player, with a late bid for Kaka turned dwon, and Tevez now opting to stay in Manchester.  Ricardo Carvalho and deco have already said that they wantto join Mourinho at Inter Milan, and another of Chelsea’s key men from last season, Didier Drogba, has reportedly been on the phone to Jose too.  Things aren’t looking so rosy at Stamford Bridge.

Arsenal completed the £10m signing of intelligent Ajax captain Thomas Vermaelen.  The talented centre-back should shore up the centre of the pitch for Arsenal, behind Cesc Fabregas, and is another canny purchase by Arsene Wenger.

Manchester United, having lost both Tevez and Ronaldo, are set to splurgetheircash on Karim Benzema and Luis Valencia, with Brazilian wonderkid Douglas Costa thrown in for good measure.  Zoran Tosic, the Serbian brought in to play on the wing in January, has revealed that they all knew Ronaldo would be leaving this summer – even before the Champions League Final loss to Barcelona.  Tosic hopes to stake his claim for the vacancy in the pre-season.

Liverpool’s woes off-the-field, with the Americans Gillett and Hicks, seem to have taken a turn for the better, with Gllett selling his stake in his NHL team.

England are now on course to WIN the World Cup (according to the red-tops anyway!) – somehow the boys managed to prove they could go all the way last night, in spite of the fact that the team they faced is semi-professional, based in the mountains (not many pitches!) and is formed of post-men, shop workers and a factory engineer or two. I wonder what the papers will say if England actually beat someone worth beating?!

Arsene Wenger probably won’t have been too happy that youngster Theo Walcott played the entire match – not least with him now jetting off to the U-21 Championships. Wenger had tried to persuade Theo to drop out of the youth tournament, but having spent 4months on the sidelines earlier this season the young winger didn’t see the point in missing out. He has just two weeks off between the tournament ending and Arsenal’s pre-season training starting, so maybe Arsene has a point?!

Roberto Martinez is set to finally be unveiled at Wigan later today, whilst West Brom fans have begun an online petition in the hope it will convince their boss Tony Mowbray (who has got the club relegated twice!) not to jump ship for Celtic. Not sure it’ll help…

The exodus of talent from Newcastle and Middlesbrough has yet to happen, which has prompted Tuncay Sanli to make sure everyone knows that he wants to play at the highest level. His intricate passing game perhaps isn’t suited to the blood and guts of the Championship, but Boro fans won’t appreciate his sentiments.

The confusion remains at Newcastle, who have yet to sort out their owner, manager or any of their players! The foreign legion of Xisco, Gutierrez, Coloccini, Bassong and so many others are all lining themselves up for a move away from the club, but have been forced to wait whilst Mike Ashley gets his finances in order.

Barcelona are staying ‘calm’ amidst Real Madrid’s spending – but that’s probably only because they are signing Serie A’s best player Zlatan Ibrahimovich in return for Samuel Eto’o and £10m. A good deal for all concerned, but it won’t be confirmed until June 30th according to Italy’s Gazzetta newspaper.

With the big deals on hold for the time being, its time for the smaller moves to take some of the limelight – apart from there aren’t many of them either!? Welsh international Carl Fletcher is set to sign for Plymouth, and the wonderfully named Prince Tagoe (Ghanaian international) will sign for Hoffenheim, but they’re not really the stories the press likes to cover!

The managerial merry-go-round continue, with Felipe Scolari now a manager in Uzbekistan, Tony Mowbray set for talks with Celtic, and Martinez confirmed at Wigan.

Setanta Sports’ impending collapse will leave many Scottish Premier League and English Championship clubs struggling for cash, which makes signing players on free transfers and loans all the more important.

One side of Manchester will be happy come Thursday, with Carlos Tevez set to make a straight choice between the established power of United and the billion-dollar funded ambition on show at City. United have agreed terms with his agent, Kia Jaroobchian, but Tevez is unhappy that its taken so long for the Reds to clinch the deal, and doesn’t feel wanted. In contrast, City are willing to smash their wage-structure (is there one?) to get the Argentine, as well as making him their star player. The deal will be done as soon as his international duties have finished.

Michael Owen is the talk of the tabloids once more n the run-up to an England game, but sadly it’s only for transfer reasons this time. The out-of-contract once-great striker has been linked with both Everton and Aston Villa (Martin O’Neill this morning distanced himself from the rumours), although there is still a chance that Owen will end up in Italy at Roma.

Arsenal are close to agreeing a deal for Ajax’s 23 year old captain Thomas Vermaelen, who may or may not be joined in the centre of defence by Brede Hangeland – any deal would have to smash Fulham’s £12.8m transfer record.

Mike Ashley isn’t having much luck in his quest to sell Newcastle United. Having slashed the price of the club to just £100m to aid his deteriorating retail empire, he has started accepting offers via email. Needless to say, he has been offered £10, a curly wurly, and even a pair of Oasis tickets for the club!

Portugal left it very late to secure their much-needed win over Albania – Cristiano Ronaldo captained the side, and it looked like it was heading for a draw (which would have killed Carlos Queiroz’s qualification hopes) until Bruno Alves popped up in the 93rd minute to smash home. Lucky boys.

Ji Sung Park‘s South Korea became one of the first teams in the hat for the Finals next year with another convincing win.

On the transfer front, the big guns all appear to be for sale. Save for Lionel Messi, Rooney and Steven Gerrard, all the top players – Ibrahimovich, Eto’o, Ronaldo, Kaka, Tevez etc – are up for grabs. There is talk of Ibra and Eto’o swapping clubs, though that was before Manchester City have finalised what promises to be a massive contract offer for the Cameroonian.

Tevez‘s agent Kia Jaroobchian has previously mentioned a June 10th deadline for his client, who will have finished football for the summer by that point, and will be looking to have his club tied up so he can properly relax without worrying about passing the medical!

The managerial merry-go-round is still underway, with Martinez expected to be confirmed at Wigan later today, Mowbray moving to Celtic, Darren Ferguson heading to West Brom, etc, etc. Look out for Gordon Strachan, who has been tipped to take on the Portsmouth role.

One of the contract’s penalty clauses states that Manchester United‘s Ronaldo will receive around 30 millions euros if Real Madrid do not come in for him in the summer – making him a whole lot richer! On the other hand, if the transfer goes through and he ends up in Madrid, he will pocket a healthy signing-on fee as well as seeing his wages DOUBLED (and he gets to play for his ‘dream club’.)

One club that might be short of cash this transfer window is Liverpool – after they announced a massive £42m operating loss – much of it caused by the £21m in interest payments that the American owners forced onto the club. Rumours that Rafa Benitez would be adding to the Spanish contingent may well prove wide of the mark, with winger David Silva currently in talks with both Barca and Real, and striker David Villa expected to cost a lot of money!

Manchester City are still dreaming of a strike-partnership of Samuel Eto’o and Carlos Tevez, whilst their central midfield may be boosted by Xabi Alonso.

Chelsea have yet to start their spending spree, and are intent instead on securing the futures of their best players. Ashley Cole will be the first to sign on the dotted line, with Frank Lampard and John Terry set to follow suit to ensure that the Stamford Bridge side retain an element of Englishness.

With Bruce installed at Sunderland, and given a £60m kitty to spend, he’ll return to his former club to take Lee Cattermole to the Stadium of Light, before heading to the Spurs bargain bin and picking up Darren Bent. Tom Huddlestone and David Bentley will be out of the door to Aston Villa, whilst Harry Redknapp will also sanction the sale of Didier Zokora to Villareal.

The Kaka saga looks like being concluded after AC Milan supremo Galliani admitted that they could not afford to pass up the offer of £70m for one player – and has already talked up a fresh start built around youngster Pato. Ancelotti has supposedly given up on signing the Brazilian for Chelsea, so will use his money on Franck Ribery and Valencia’s David Villa.

With Manchester City making a move for Samuel Eto’o, Ibrahimovich could be brought in by Barcelona to paper over the cracks. Eto’o is needed because Chelsea’s first signing this season is set to be out-of-contract City striker Daniel Sturridge, who is set to take home upto £50,000 a week in spite of having made only a handful of appearances in the Premier League.

Chelsea also want to sign old-boy Glen Johnson, possibly for as much as £17m, topping the £11m they paid West Ham for him when he was just a promising youngster. It seems that they have given up on Arsenal’s Emmanuel Adebayor though, with the Togo international moving through the revolving door at AC’s Milanello.

Relegated Middlesbrough could be playing next season without Tuncay Sanli, with Rafa Benitez interested in ‘the next Yossi Benayoun’. The Reds have also been linked with Kevin Nolan, whose Scouse roots and hard-working approach could make him a useful understudy to Javier Mascherano.

Manchester United have decided that Fraizer Campbell and Danny Simpson are surplus to requirements, with both transfer listed.

Team-mate Michael Carrick appears to have jeopardised his international future by not telling the England set-up that he was unlikely to be able to play in the upcoming international rounds – there is no doubt he is injured, but he should have told Fabio Capello well before the Friday call-up deadline. Carrick looks to be recovering sooner than Owen Hargreaves, who is still unlikely to be ready for the new season in spite of spending the whole of the last campaign in plaster on the sidelines. Hargo has vowed to play again, but his career could yet be cut short.

There is a chance that both Manchester City and Chelsea could steal in with a last-gasp bid, but neither club has the romance or history that the Madrid club offers. The move should trigger big moves in Serie A, with AC Milan looking to spend the money wisely to create a more youthful team. Robinho (unhappy at City), Nani and Anderson have all been linked to the Milan side.

Manchester United can be safe in the knowledge that Ji Sung Park and Nemanja Vidic are staying – both have come out in the Press to let the fans know – though it looks like Fraizer Campbell may be off to Hull City after a less-than-successful stint at Spurs. Having been knocked down the pecking order by the arrival of Danny Welbeck and Federico Macheda, Campbell may be returning to the Tigers, where he enjoyed a great season two seasons ago, leading them to promotion.

Barcelona look set to add to their world conquering team with Cesc Fabregas soon set to trade passes with Iniesta and Xavi in the centre-circle, and Zlatan Ibrahimovich adding some guile and zest to the front-line, in place of Thierry Henry.

Daniel Sturridge is now out of contract at Manchester City, which has prompted them to try and secure the signature of Carlos Tevez before the week is out. Gareth Barry has already joined the club, in search of Champions League football, and a few more useful additions by Hughes should make next season very, very interesting.