Wednesday's gossip column

TRANSFER GOSSIP

Paris St-Germain are interested in signing Manchester United's £40m-rated striker Wayne Rooney. The French league leaders want to improve their attacking options and have identified 27-year-old Rooney as a potential target to partner Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Paris St-Germain are interested in Wayne Rooney, who joined Manchester United in 2004

Full story: The Times (subscription required)

Everton face a battle to keep hold of 25-year-old midfielder Marouane Fellaini this summer after Real Madrid, Chelsea and both Manchester clubs expressed interest in the Belgian.

Full story: Daily Mail

Former Real Madrid president Roman Calderon has said 28-year-old forward Cristiano Ronaldo, who has two-and-a-half years left to run on his current contract with the Spanish club, will make a decision about his future in the summer.

Full story: talkSPORT

Barcelona striker David Villa could be on Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger's radar again after the Catalan club admitted they would not keep the 31-year-old Spain international against his wishes.

Full story: Metro

Manchester United could be set to make a move for Leicester City striker Jeffrey Schlupp after the powerful 20-year-old made a surprise appearance for Sir Alex Ferguson's reserves.

Full story: Daily Mirror

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is tracking Feyenoord's Stefan de Vrij and watched the 21-year-old centre-back in his side's 2-1 win against PSV Eindhoven on Sunday.

Gareth Bale has scored eight goals in his last six games for Tottenham

Full story: The Sun

Tottenham winger Gareth Bale, 23, is set for talks with Real Madrid over a £40m move in the summer. Madrid would pay £30m up front with a further £10m over the next four years.

Full story: Daily Star

Real Madrid are prepared to pay £70m to sign Bale, with ex-president Ramon Calderon saying: "Real Madrid is in a very healthy situation, so we would be in the position to sign him."

Full story: talkSPORT

GLOBAL GOSSIP

(Sourced by BBC Monitoring)

Norway striker John Carew, 33, has spoken of his shock at being signed by Inter Milan for the rest of the season. "I was not expecting this call, life is full of surprises," says the former West Ham player, who has not had a club since the summer.

Full story: Gazzetta della Sport (in Italian)

Former Germany international Torsten Frings, 36, has announced his retirement from professional football. The midfielder, who had been playing in Canada with FC Toronto, said that his recovery from hip replacement surgery was taking too long for him to continue playing.

Full story: Frankfurter Allgemeine (in German)

French midfielder Paul Pogba, 19, has pledged his future to Juventus following speculation in the Italian press of a move to another top European club. A representative of the former Manchester United player said: "Everyone at Juventus is helping him to grow and there are no signs that he will be saying farewell at the end of the season."

Full story: Football Italia

OTHER GOSSIP

Sunderland have banned winger James McClean, 23, from Twitter after another sectarian row on the social networking site.

Full story: Daily Mail

Swansea City manager Michael Laudrup is set to snub Europe's top clubs this summer - with Real Madrid, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal all reported to be interested in the Dane - to stay with the League Cup winners.

Full story: Daily Mirror

Swansea midfielder Leon Britton believes he can still play for England - at the age of 30. England manager Roy Hodgson watched Britton play for the Swans in their 5-0 Capital One Cup final win against Bradford.

Full story: Daily Star

AND FINALLY

Football fans exiting Newcastle's St James' Park could be speeded on their way if plans to install slides outside the ground are approved. The company involved said the slides were intended "to inject some fun".

Full story: 606 newsletter