Football transfer rumours: Liverpool to sell Raheem Sterling for £50m?

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ASTANA. KAZINFORM - STERLING GOING NOWHERE, screams the Times. HANDS OFF, yells the Mirror. YOU WON'T KOP A MOVE, shouts the Star, as half of the nation's newspapers dedicate their back page to insisting that Raheem Sterling is absolutely, definitely staying at Liverpool for a very long time indeed. And then comes the likes of the Mail - CHELSEA IN RACE FOR STERLING - and the Sun - CHELSEA JOIN £50M STER WARS, RACE IS ON WITH CITY AND ARSENAL - who think he might be on his bike come the summer, Kazinform refers to the Guardian.com.

The latter even say that in addition to England's current top three "both Real Madrid and Bayern Munich [are] watching closely". The Mill gets the feeling - a delicious tingling in the extremities - this one will, somewhat like its subject, run and run.

The Sun also speculates about the future of another Liverpool forward, saying Fabio Borini is "wanted by as many as EIGHT clubs this summer". It doesn't, however, reveal the identity of any of the eight, making this story - again, somewhat like its subject - not totally awful but just a bit weak in all key areas.

"Who doesn't dream of having a player like him?" asks the Internazionale general director Marco Fassone of Yaya Touré, the £43m-rated Manchester City midfield dynamo in whom his club are apparently interested, "but his wages and City's asking price might be a big obstacle". A little further south, Lazio are also targeting England-based talent, having identified Southampton's Graziano Pellè as the ideal summer signing.

Meanwhile in other Serie A/Premier League interaction news, the emergence ofOscar and Ramires as summer transfer targets for Juventus has raised Chelsea's hopes that if they play their cards right they could end up landing pan-European top transfer target No1 Paul Pogba in a complicated players-plus-large-bag-of-swag arrangement.

And now, the return of the hoary old Mats Hummels to Manchester United transfer rumour - not the last resurrection you'll hear about this Easter weekend, nor probably the most dramatic, but worth celebrating all the same. More than three years after the Mill first linked them and very nearly one since the rumours started to get a little more specific and regular, the defensive titan could finally be on his way to Old Trafford, with the Mirror quoting "a source close to the Germany camp" insisting that the Borussia Dortmund defender "is preparing his exit" and "gave some players signs that his transfer is close".

In other haven't-we-been-here-before, German-based-defender-related news, Tottenham's long-rumoured move for Cologne's Kevin Wimmer appears to have been secretly completed, after the Austria coach Marcel Koller let slip that "he switches in the summer to England". What's more, his assessment of the player seems extremely encouraging: "On the ball he is very calm, not rushed," he said of Wimmer. "With his young age he still has potential to improve. He has it all."

Spurs have joined the growing list of potential suitors for Petr Cech, having identified the ageing Chelsea ace as an ideal replacement for Hugo Lloris should the French gloveman be poached by Paris St-Germain come summertime. They would have a fight on their hands, however, with Arsenal, Liverpool and, somewhat confusingly, Paris St-Germain themselves also interested in the Czech shot-stopper.

Arsenal are poised to snap up the Velez Sarsfield "wonderkid" Maxi Romerowithin days, says the Argentinian website Dalefortin, though they'll loan the 16-year-old right back whence he came for two full years, before letting him spend a season or two in their reserves and then selling him to a middle-ranking club in Spain for a small profit.

We conclude with a little general, non-specific pre-window transfer rumbling, as Crystal Palace's Alan Pardew trills that "three or four additions in the summer and we could be a strong candidate for the top 10", Stoke's Mark Hughes insists that "we haven't spent a great deal since I've been here but I never had the impression that, for the right player, funds wouldn't be available" and Swansea's Garry Monk stomps that "we need to up our game and improve our quality". In short: roll on the summer, it's gonna be a good'un.

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