With most of the major European seasons now complete, the rumour mill has been sent into overdrive as clubs ponder their moves ahead of what will be a busy transfer window. Check out the latest gossip below, and see all official deals here.
TOP STORY: Juventus, Man United battle for wantaway Saul
Midfielder Saul Niguez is determined to leave Atletico Madrid this summer and Juventus lead Manchester United in the race to sign him, according to Marca.
Despite Atletico's recent La Liga title, Saul is still intent on leaving the club and the report says he wants to take "another direction in his career." Saul has won the Copa del Rey, Europa League and UEFA Super Cup in addition to La Liga in a glory-laden nine-year spell at Atletico.
Juventus are the side who seem most keen to sign him, although that may change if the club change manager, as expected, with Massimiliano Allegri rumoured to be taking over from Andrea Pirlo. Juventus aren't the only side keen, however, and Manchester United are also said to be in the running, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer desperate to strengthen his squad.
Atletico expected a transfer fee of €70 million for Saul in 2019, but now they're reportedly open to offers that "satisfy all parties." Saul himself is reportedly demanding wages in the region of €7m a season, which may prove too rich for United.
The Red Devils have been linked with the 26-year-old over the past few summers, but with the player keen to leave on this occasion, they could be closer than ever to landing their long-term target.
LIVE BLOG
21.57 BST: With the ink still drying on his contract to manage Internazionale, Simone Inzaghi is readying to take his former charge at Lazio Stefan Radu with him to the San Siro, according to Gazzetta dello Sport, with the 34-year-old defender available on a free transfer.
21.20 BST: Borussia Dortmund are on the verge of confirming the signing of 23-year-old VfB Stuttgart goalkeeper Gregor Kobel, Sport Bild writes, with an agreement on all sides that will see the former Switzerland youth international move to the Westfalenstadion to replace 30-year-old Roman Burki.
20.43 BST: Torino forward Andrea Belotti is ready for the next chapter in his career, Corriere dello Sport reports, and "would be happy" to join friend and Italy teammate Lorenzo Pellegrini at AS Roma this summer.
20.06 BST: More information coming out of Italy surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo's future at Juventus, the latest of which emerges from Tuttosport. While getting the 36-year-old forward's wages off the books would save the club €31m in the final year of his contract, the Bianconeri still have €25m remaining in amortised costs from his €100m transfer from Real Madrid, meaning that they would need to recoup a transfer fee of that amount in order to ensure they break even on this endeavour.
19.29 BST: Watford are back in the Premier League, and soon Ashley Young could be back at Watford, according to Sky Sports. The 35-year-old left Vicarage Road 14 years ago, embarking on a journey that took him to Aston Villa, Manchester United and Internazionale, and now the wing-back is a free agent after winning Serie A with Inter, and his representatives are hammering out personal terms to see him return to the Hornets.
18.52 BST: Gazzetta dello Sport writes that Jose Mourinho wants to pair Arsenal's Granit Xhaka with Jordan Veretout in his AS Roma midfield, and the Giallorossi are working to sign the 28-year-old Switzerland international in a deal worth €15m plus bonuses.
18.15 BST: Chelsea signed 24-year-old left-back Ben Chilwell last summer, and the England international enjoyed a sterling debut campaign in west London, but Portuguese outlet Record reports that the Blues have nonetheless joined Manchester City and Manchester United in the race for the signature of 19-year-old Sporting Lisbon left-back Nuno Mendes.
17.38 BST: Cristiano Ronaldo is less than thrilled with Massimilliano Allegri's return to the Juventus dugout, according to Gazzetta dello Sport, and super-agent Jorge Mendes is in talks with Paris Saint-Germain about a switch to the French capital. The 36-year-old forward's preference is to return to Real Madrid, however Los Blancos are unwilling to sanction such a move, leaving just PSG and Manchester United as potential destinations.
United are said to be unable to afford Ronaldo's €31m annual wages, meaning the Portugal captain would need to take a pay cut in order to return to Old Trafford. All the while, partner Georgina Rodriguez has her sights set on a new adventure in Paris.
17.18 BST: Real Madrid have confirmed the signing of David Alaba on a free transfer.
Alaba, 28, a versatile defender who can play at centre-back, full-back or in midfield, joins the La Liga club with his deal at Bayern Munich expiring this summer. Read the full story.
💻 #WelcomeAlaba pic.twitter.com/acS6QDtNkb
— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadrid) May 28, 2021
17.01 BST: Liverpool are set to lose Georginio Wijnaldum on a free transfer to Barcelona this summer, but The Athletic claims that Brighton & Hove Albion's Yves Bissouma is not a target to replace him.
The report states that "senior Anfield sources have indicated that signing a replacement for Wijnaldum is not regarded as a necessity." given that Fabinho, Jordan Henderson, academy graduate Curtis Jones, Thiago, Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will be playing in central midfield.
16.00 BST: Toronto FC has told striker Jozy Altidore to train on his own and apart from the first team following a disagreement with manager Chris Armas, sources have told ESPN's Jeff Carlisle.
The sources added that Altidore was upset at being replaced by Ayo Akinola in the 70th minute of Saturday's 1-0 defeat to Orlando City, and confronted Armas over his decision to take him off with the Reds in need of a goal. The sources added that Altidore hasn't been fined.
The development is the latest sign that Altidore wants out of Toronto. Back in January, with rumors swirling about a potential transfer involving the U.S. international forward, sources told ESPN that Altidore's relationship with GM Ali Curtis had reached a breaking point over his contract.
15.45 BST: Inter Milan defender Alessandro Bastoni has been linked with a host of top clubs, but Inter have announced they have extended the 22-year-old's contract to 2024.
15.25 BST: Zinedine Zidane has left Real Madrid but what's next? Our latest Keep or Dump series examines the first-team squad and who should be moved on.
14.31 BST: Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will have to prioritise his summer signings with plans to have a net spend of up to £150m, sources have told ESPN's Rob Dawson. This is despite United wanting to work on options to strengthen five areas of the squad.
United will make money available for new players during the transfer window but with the club still recovering from the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the spending is set to remain measured.
Work is being done on the recruitment of a striker, winger, defensive midfielder, centre-back and right-back although Solskjaer has been told the aim is to sign three first team players ahead of the new season. Tom Heaton is also set to arrive on a free transfer from Aston Villa as a back-up goalkeeper.
Jadon Sancho, Harry Kane, Jack Grealish, Pau Torres, Sven Botman, Raphael Varane, Declan Rice and Max Aarons are among the names being chased for the other positions.
14.09 BST: Juventus have announced the return of Massimiliano Allegri as manager after sacking Andrea Pirlo on Friday.
Allegri was the favourite to succeed the departing Pirlo, who failed to win the Serie A title with Juve for the first time in 11 years. Allegri was Juve manager from 2014 to 2019 and won the league title in each of those five campaigns as well as the Coppa Italia on four occasions.
Under Allegri, Juve also reached the Champions League final twice. Prior to joining Juve, Allegri had led AC Milan to their last Serie A title in 2010-11.
14.05 BST: Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland has been speaking to NENT about his future today.
Haaland, 20, scored 41 goals in 41 games this season to help Dortmund into the Champions League next season and the Norway international has been linked with every big club in Europe, including Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester City.
He is under contract at Dortmund until 2024, but a clause in his contract allows him to leave the Westfalenstadion for around €75m next summer. Last month, sources told ESPN that BVB will only entertain an offer of €180m for Haaland this summer but Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke said he expects the striker to stay for another year.
"Well, I have a contract for a couple of fine years, so I am respectful towards my contract," he said. "I am a simple guy. When I like something I just want to have more. Like I have said before, when I score a goal, I always chase the next goal.
"I have big dreams! I just won my first major trophy and it was a great feeling. So I want to win trophies."
13.24 BST: Atletico Madrid forward Joao Felix says he is happy to remain at the club amid speculation he could leave this summer.
Atletico signed Felix in a club-record €126m transfer from Benfica in the summer of 2019 as a replacement for Antoine Griezmann, who joined Barcelona for €120m.
Felix, 21, has yet to show his true potential at La Liga champions Atletico and scored 10 goals in 40 appearances this season, but Atletico president Enrique Cerezo quashed rumours that the Portugal forward could leave in a swap deal with Griezmann.
"I have a contract," Joao Felix said in Friday's news conference. "I'm an Atletico Madrid player and I'm happy there. Right now I'm focused on the national team. We have an important competition and I clearly believe we are candidates to win."
Felix added that he is accustomed to being under the microscope.
"I'm used to it," he said. "Of course, I listen to criticism. I keep the ones that are constructive and disregard the rest. I know perfectly well my game and what I can do. Things will eventually happen naturally whether its in training or during games. The talent is there and it just has to evolve."
13.01 BST: Liverpool have announced they have agreed to sign Ibrahima Konate from RB Leipzig.
Konate, 22, has agreed a long-term contract with the Reds and will join on July 1 for a reported fee of €41.5m.
"I'm really happy to be joining such a massive club like Liverpool," Konate told Liverpool's website. "It's a really exciting moment for me and my family and I am really looking forward to meeting my new teammates, the staff and getting started on this new chapter.
"Right now, my focus is on the U21 European Championships with France, but after this competition I know I will be joining one of the best teams in the world and that gives me a great feeling."
12.55 BST: Milan are set to lose goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma on a free transfer this summer, but it's not a given he'll move to Juventus.
12.40 BST: Barcelona president Joan Laporta has said several signings will be announced next week but would not confirm that Ronald Koeman will remain the club's coach next season.
Sources have confirmed to ESPN that Barca want to sign up to four players on free transfers this summer. Manchester City duo Eric Garcia and Sergio Aguero, Liverpool's Georginio Wijnaldum and Lyon's Memphis Depay are all out of contract with their respective clubs and have all held talks with Barca.
Laporta said Barca's end to the season, when they won just two of their final six games to finish outside the top two for the first time since 2008, has accelerated the need for changes.
"Losing has consequences and we will try and improve the squad," Laporta said in a news conference on Friday. "Next week we will announce signings for the first team and you will see the results of what we have been working on."
However, Laporta implicitly confirmed that Koeman, who has one year to run on his contract, will only continue as coach if he cannot find a credible replacement, as reported by ESPN last week.
12.10 BST: Sporting CP forward Tiago Tomas is on the radar of Arsenal, says Record.
Tomas, 18, has a contract until June 2025 and a €60m release clause, so the Gunners would need to get close that in order to do a deal.
Despite his age, Tomas made 37 appearances last season and scored six goals, while also laying on three assists.
12.00 BST: It's fun to dream, but Manchester United a list of top targets they want to sign this summer, according to The Guardian.
The report says: "Ole Gunnar Solskjær wants to strengthen Manchester United in the centre-back, midfield, wide attacker and No. 9 positions, with Pau Torres, Declan Rice, Jadon Sancho and Harry Kane among his preferred targets."
Centre-back Torres won the Europa League with Villarreal and could be signed for around €30m, while Real Madrid's Raphael Varane is a more expensive option at €60m.
Rice has been on Chelsea and United's radar for some time, but West Ham won't sanction a move for the England midfielder less than £90m, while Dortmund winger Sancho could require an even bigger transfer fee at around £100m. And Tottenham's Harry Kane, at £150m, bigger still.
However, former United goalkeeper Tom Heaton, 35, is also close to rejoining the club so that's something.
11.06 BST: Lucas Vazquez has said he's "calm" and expects news "soon" on his Real Madrid future with his contract due to expire next month.
The winger played an important role in the team this season filling in for the injured Dani Carvajal at right-back before a knee injury of his own, picked up against Barcelona in El Clasico in April, ended his campaign.
"I'm calm," the 29-year-old told Movistar's Universo Valdano on Thursday night. "Who wouldn't want to carry on at the best club in the world? Soon we'll know something."
10.47 BST: Dani Ceballos has ruled out another loan deal -- after spending the last two years on loan at Arsenal -- saying it's time for him to earn a place in the Real Madrid team, or move on.
Ceballos, 24, spent the last two years on loan at Arsenal but has admitted the midfielder would now prefer to stay in La Liga.
"I think my moment has arrived, to take a step forward," he told Andalusia's Canal Sur radio. "Either to stay (at Real Madrid) or to leave with a transfer."
Ceballos has made no secret of his desire to return to boyhood club Real Betis at some point, saying "sooner or later I'll wear a Betis shirt again."
10.39 BST: Juventus have announced that Andrea Pirlo has been sacked as manager.
Pirlo, a three-time Serie A winner as a player for Juve, was hired in his first senior management role at the beginning of the 2020-21 season after Maurizio Sarri left following the Bianconeri's elimination in the Champions League round of 16 to Lyon.
The decision comes after a disappointing campaign in which Juve again exited in the Champions League at the same stage -- this time against FC Porto -- and are only in next season's competition as Napoli's home draw with Hellas Verona allowed them to finish in fourth place on the final day of the Serie A season.
A statement on the club's website read: "Thank you, Andrea. These are the first words that all of us need to say at the end of this special experience together. A few months ago, Andrea Pirlo, an icon of world football, began his new adventure, his first as a coach.
"To do this, first of all, it takes courage, as well as awareness of one's own means, especially in a period marked by thousands of difficulties, with the world forced by the pandemic to reinvent its own rules day after day. Pirlo has just begun the first steps of what will no doubt become a brilliant career as a coach. An adventure of transformation, seeking, and often managing, to bring his ideas and his experience as a champion on the pitch from the 'other side' of the fence."
10.15 BST: Is Antonio Conte's replacement at Inter Milan going to work out?
09.25 BST: Harry Kane is unlikely to leave Tottenham this summer, writes Gab Marcotti, as England's captain has no leverage in a depressed, flooded transfer market.
It's all about leverage -- in business, in sports, in life. Or, at the risk of dating myself, it's all about "hand," in the Seinfeldian sense.
When it comes to Harry Kane and a move away from Tottenham Hotspur, he simply has very little. Which is not to say he won't move this summer -- transfer markets can be weirdly unpredictable and subject to knock-on effects -- but rather that unless there's a sudden bout of irrationality, it's unlikely.
There's a school of thought that his time at Tottenham has come to an end, fuelled by briefings from his entourage, Kane himself saying that while individual awards are great, he wants to win silverware ("and that's not happening right now") and the widespread reports that Spurs are ready to deal. Depending who you choose to believe, Spurs chairman Daniel Levy would be seeking a transfer fee of between £120 million and £150m if he were to sanction Kane's departure.
Kane might be the best centre-forward in the Premier League (which he led in both goals and assists this season), he might be a likeable and marketable star, and he might have done things the "right" way in terms of sticking around at Spurs when he could have pursued more money and trophies elsewhere. But there are several factors working against him and his wishes.
08.52 BST: Talks between Barcelona and Lionel Messi over a new contract are progressing satisfactorily with club president Joan Laporta having had a meeting with the player's father and agent, sources told ESPN's Moises Llorens and Adriana Garcia.
ESPN has confirmed a Catalan TV3 report that Messi has a first informal proposal on the table from Barca, one that Laporta presented to Jorge Messi during their meeting. The proposal showed the specific financial figures that the Catalan club are ready to pay the Argentinian to continue at the Camp Nou beyond this summer.
The meeting was "very positive," a source told ESPN, but Messi, whose contract expires on June 30, wants to wait to find out about the club's sporting project before making a decision.
ESPN reported last month that Barca president Laporta planned to offer Messi a two-year contract with an option to extend it an additional year to compensate for the wage reduction that the Barca captain would have to accept.
Should Messi agree, he will have the choice to decide whether to continue at Barca after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar or go to MLS.
08.30 BST: Talks between Chelsea and AC Milan regarding Fikayo Tomori remain at a standstill, according to Sky Italia.
The England defender joined the Rossoneri on a six-month loan in January with a €28m option to sign him permanently included in the deal. Milan are keen to retain Tomori but want to negotiate the fee as the 23-year-old has been a regular in Stefano Pioli's side, making 22 appearances in all competitions.
However, the Blues are not prepared to lower their demands have reportedly received other offers from the Premier League that they are evaluating. Tomori has a contract with Chelsea until June 2024.
PAPER GOSSIP (by Nick Judd)
- Manchester United are to make an audacious bid to sign Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Jan Oblak, according to the Sun. The report states that United are looking to solve their goalkeeping crisis by swapping Oblak for David de Gea. Oblak, 28, would command a transfer fee of around €80m, but United believe they can lower that fee by sending De Gea in the opposite direction. De Gea, who missed the crucial penalty against Villarreal, came through the ranks at Atletico.
- Manchester City have made Jack Grealish their primary transfer target this summer and they're prepared to bid up to £100m in an effort to land their man, according to the Mail. City boss Pep Guardiola is a long-time admirer of Grealish, and the Catalan coach wants the 25-year-old to be the hub of City's midfield going into the 2021-22 season. Grealish still has four years to run on his contract at Aston Villa, which was renewed last September, meaning City will have to pay a premium to get him out of Villa Park.
- Hakan Calhanoglu appears likely to leave AC Milan this summer as the end of his contract nears, and though his likely next destination is still unknown, Liverpool are said to be interested, according to Calciomercato. The 27-year-old attacking midfielder has had offers from Qatar but would seemingly rather play at a higher level. Juventus had expressed interest but there's a lot of change in Turin, while Liverpool have made no firm offer as yet.
- Paris Saint-Germain have approached AC Milan with an offer for left-back Theo Hernandez, according to Footmercato. The two clubs are yet to agree a deal, however, although the French runners-up have intensified negotiations in the past few days. The 23-year-old is contracted to the Rossoneri until June 2024 and Milan are in no rush to let him leave. However, after having scored eight goals and picked up eight assists in 45 matches, the former France youth international is a wanted man in the French capital.
- The latest managerial rumour sees Barcelona president Joan Laporta confident he can persuade Pep Guardiola to return to the club, according to AS. The Barca boss plans to call the Manchester City manager after the Champions League final in an attempt to lure him back to Camp Nou. Even if Laporta has to wait until the start of the 2022-23 season, he is said to been keen to try to persuade the former Barca boss to return.
- Brighton & Hove Albion are keen to land Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah, which could see midfielder Yves Bissouma move in the opposite direction, according to the Sun. The Gunners are one of many clubs interested in the talented 24-year-old Bissouma, but Arsenal are hoping Graham Potter's interest in Nketiah might make a swap deal possible. Brighton are looking for attacking reinforcements and see 21-year-old Nketiah as perfect competition for the likes of Danny Welbeck, while Arsenal need to strengthen in midfield.