Real Madrid and Barcelona target £60m Cesc Fabregas

Cesc Fabregas is back in Barcelona's crosshairs, according to the Daily Star, but this time they may be forced into a bidding war by their hated La Liga rivals Real Madrid. The 22-year-old Arsenal skipper has been declared the prime target by all of the candidates to take over at the end of the season as Barca president, and the Arsenal captain could see his value rocket up to £60m, especially if Real's president Florentino Perez decides to try and make Fabregas his club's latest galactico. Both Arsene Wenger and the player have dismissed transfer rumours about Barca before, Fabregas saying: "I am ignoring any talk about my future. I live day to day and my dream is to win the Premier League with Arsenal this season"...

The Daily Mail claims that Chelsea are close to completing a deal for Atletico Madrid's Sergio Aguero in a deal that values the striker at £50m - and will also see him become the Premier League's highest paid player on more than £170,000 a week. The 21-year-old has been a target of the Stamford Bridge club for some time now, and his brace against them in the Champions League earlier this month reminded Carlo Ancelotti of the talent of the Argentinean international. Chelsea will be looking to wrap up the deal before their Fifa transfer ban - currently suspended while the club goes to the Court of Arbitration in Sport - comes into effect, probably in February. The only sticking point in the transfer while be Aguero's cup-tied status, meaning he would have to sit out the second half of Chelsea's Champions League campaign...

Manchester City boss Mark Hughes is looking at bringing in the tough-tackling Italian midfielder Gennaro 'Rino' Gattuso, the Daily Mirror reports. The 31-year-old AC Milan enforcer has fallen out with club boss Leonardo and is desperate for first team action, so that he can impress his national boss Marcello Lippi ahead of next year's World Cup in South Africa. Gattuso speaks English having spent time with Glasgow Rangers, and would add a bit of solidity to the City line-up - a quality lacking in a few of the club's recent string of five consecutive draws. A loan deal until the end of the season could then be followed up with something more concrete after next summer's big tournament...

Following yesterday's story that Real Madrid are looking to clear out a raft of their pre-galacticos players in a bid to cut the wage bill at the Bernabeu, Ruud van Nistelrooy has been tipped by the Guardian for a move to Harry Redknapp's Tottenham. "My intention is to play at the World Cup with Holland," the 33-year-old van Nistelrooy said. "If I do not play, that will be impossible because I need to be able to prove that I can still play at the level I did a few months ago [before my injury]. That said, right now I do not have any club." The Dutchman was deadly in his last sojourn in the Premier League, scoring 95 goals in 150 appearances for Manchester United before joining Real in 2006... ·