8 September, 2011: The Pick of Today's Football Transfer Rumours

The pick of today's Premier League, Serie A, La Liga and Bundesliga football transfer rumours, news and gossip for 8 September, 2011. All the latest transfer rumours surrounding Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Roma, Barcelona and Real Madrid will be covered here.

Plenty of bicycle-related wordplay/picture mash-ups in this morning's Sun. A picture that shows James Milner, Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry photo-shopped onto a trio of mountain bikes is used as the sole basis for an extended article on Capello's impending "clear-out" of aging-stars from the England set-up.

Paul Ince reckons he's identified the problem, too many caps. "We're giving out caps like confetti," the 'Bloody Marvel' said. "Playing for England used to be the pinnacle of your career. Now it's not that important as we have the Champions League and Premier League. If you get called up, you should make sure you're there," which is also really good life-advice.

Elsewhere in the world of largely invented football stories Tottenham will attempt to gazump QPR's bid for former England captain David Beckham when his LA Galaxy contract expires in November. Spurs boss Harry Redknapp is also keen on Brazil striker Leandro Damiao but could lose out to Barcelona who have sensationally entered the four-month race to sign the player.

Redknapp is also in need of an additional goal-shy centre-forward and has identified Schalke's Klaas-Jan Huntelaar as just the man for the job. But he faces a fight with Liverpool and Inter Milan for Sao Paolo midfielder Lucas who could be available for £15m.

Mega-bucks Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala are hovering around the Emirates looking for a bargain, with one-season wonder Andrey Arshavin top of their transfer hit-list.

Wenger, meanwhile, is "showing interest" in Fiorentina midfielder Riccardo Montolivo, who has entered the final 12 months of his contract. Quite how Mr. Wenger displays his curiosity, the website doesn't say and that, reader, is an image we'll let you conjure yourself.

Finally, new Chelsea signing Raul Meireles says he never wanted to leave Liverpool.

"When I was in Porto, I knew that I wanted to go and the club wanted to sell me, and I only had to wait for the right choice," he told the official Chelsea website.

"This year was different because I knew that I didn't want to leave Liverpool. I felt that the new owners didn't want to sell me but, when I knew that Chelsea and Andre wanted me, it convinced me.

"It was strange, because I knew of the interest of Chelsea, and the interest of the coach, and it was a pleasure to come to this club, but it was strange because it was on the last day. The people think that I wanted to leave it is only because Chelsea wanted me. For Andre to want me, that is why I wanted to go."