Newcastle plan to make a move for unsettled Manchester United striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy. (Daily Mail)

Bayern Munich are also interested in Van Nistelrooy and are poised to table a formal bid. (Times)

Manchester United are preparing to launch a bid for Spanish forward Fernando Torres even though he has a �41.4m buy-out clause at Atletico Madrid. (Times)

Arsenal are set to buy Yaya Tore from Olympiakos for �7m and unite him with his brother Kolo. (Daily Mirror)

Manchester United officials have denied reports that Italy coach Marcello Lippi will join Sir Alex Ferguson's back-room staff. (The Guardian)

Portsmouth are poised to sign striker Nicolas Anelka on a season-long loan deal from Fenerbahce. (Daily Mirror)

Watford are preparing a �500,000 bid for Aston Villa midfielder Lee Hendrie. (Daily Mirror)

Sunderland defender Julio Arca has issued a "come and get me" plea to Spanish side Espanyol. (Daily Mirror)

Fulham are locked in a three-way tussle with Watford and Charlton for Leyton Orient's 20-year-old defender Gabriel Zakuani. (Daily Mirror)

David Beckham is close to agreeing a new deal with Real Madrid, scotching rumours of a planned switch to Newcastle. (Various)

Hamburg's new signing Vincent Kompany says he turned down a move to Chelsea saying: "I did not want to play Russian roulette with my career". (Independent)

Crocked England striker Michael Owen has criticised former boss Sven-Goran Eriksson for taking the untested Theo Walcott to the World Cup. (The Sun)

Fifa boss Sepp Blatter has been clamping down on cheating players at the World Cup but has admitted he used to dive when he played in the Swiss amateur leagues. (Various)

England midfielder Frank Lampard was given a painful World Cup reminder as he began his holiday in the South of France - the yacht he hired was flying a Portugal flag. (Daily Mirror)

Cafe Marcanne in Berlin is showing its love for France captain Zinedine Zidane by serving up a Zizou salad under the gaze of a huge cardboard cut-out of the man himself. (The Independent)

There are culinary fans of Italy, too, with a restaurant in Duisburg, where the team train, offering the Pizza Gattuso. (The Guardian)

Ever-present German legend Franz Beckenbauer has a theory on why there have been so few goals at the World Cup: "The decisive mistake for me was that the players didn't shoot at the goal." Well, that's cleared that up then. (Press Association)

Manchester City fan and Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher will be Italy's lucky mascot for the World Cup final. The rocker is friends with Alessandro del Piero and the Italy striker has told him to wear exactly the same clothes he was wearing for the semi-final win against Germany. (Fifa World Cup website)