Real Madrid want Rooney and Gerrard for £110m

Surely it's only a matter of time before a Spanish football club ends up in court on a stalking charge. First there was Barcelona and their ceaseless pursuit of Arsenal skipper Cesc Fabregas, which led the Gunners to issue football's equivalent of a restraint order – a letter from director general Ivan Gazidis ordering the crass Catalans to back off.

Now the Mirror reports that Real Madrid have an "obsession" with Manchester United's goalscoring machine, Wayne Rooney, who bagged a brace in the Reds' 3-0 thrashing of Fulham at the weekend taking his season's tally to 32. Real's former president  Ramon Calderon said his successor at Real, Florentino Perez, is obsessed with the idea of bringing Rooney to the Bernabeu Stadium, particularly in light of the Spanish club's exit from the Champions League last week to lowly Lyon.

The Mirror says Rooney would come with a £80m price tag and quotes Calderon as hinting some sort of offer might be in the pipeline: "Maybe there will be a deal," he said. "You have to take into account that the most important thing is what a player wants to do."

Asked if Cristiano Ronaldo regretted his decision to leave Old Trafford last summer for Real, Calderon said: "I don't think so. He did what he wanted to do, he came to a big club. The idea was to win everything but you can't buy everything with money."

But if the Express is to be believed Ronaldo might soon be heading back to Manchester. According to the paper United boss Alex Ferguson has "opened the door to a sensational return" for the perma-tanned footballing genius. Ronaldo admitted last week that he and his former boss keep in contact by phone on a regular basis and the Express says that Ronaldo has confided that he prefers life in Manchester to Madrid, and in particular he misses Ferguson's passion for the game.

As for Fergie, he admits he hasn't given up hope of one day seeing Rooney and Ronaldo reunited in a red shirt. "Cristiano knows the value of Manchester United. That's the thing. What the players have got here is protection," the United manager said. "They come to training every day and there is nobody here to disturb them. You would like to think that one day he will come back, but you never know. I don't think he will stay at Real Madrid for life or anything like that."

Talking of clubs for life, could Liverpool's talismanic skipper Steven Gerrard be on the brink of leaving the only club he's known in 12 years as a professional footballer? The People says that Real Madrid are not only stalking Rooney, but also Gerrard, and are about to table a £30m offer for the 29-year-old. The paper says that their humiliating exit from the Champions League will lead to a purge among their present crop of Galacticos, and Gerrard is the man they believe will make them tick next season.

It won't be the first time that the Spanish giants have tried to lure Gerrard south, but with Liverpool enduring a torrid season Real are quietly confident that this time they'll get their man. Gerrard signed a new four-year deal last summer, increasing his weekly wages to £140,000, but the People says the England star is tempted by Real's renewed interest.

And there was more bad news at the weekend for Liverpool fans with the news that striker Fernando Torres is refusing to pledge his loyalty to the club unless manager Rafa Benitez dips into the transfer market this summer and bolsters the current squad. Speaking to Spanish newspaper AS Torres demanded fresh blood because Liverpool remain a long way from being in a position to challenge for silverware. "If we do not reinforce the squad," he said, "next year all we will be able to do is fight for fourth again. Being in the Champions League is not so important for me, what is really important is that the club makes an effort and brings in important players to improve the quality of the squad... we need signings to come." ·