Jose Mourinho may soon have no more worlds to conquer after his Real Madrid side beat Barcelona at Camp Nou to take a seven-point lead in the Primera Liga on Saturday. But there are eight million reasons why he may return to Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is willing to pay the Portuguese £9m after tax per year in a bid to lure him back to west London, claim The Daily Mail. Madrid would receive £25m in compensation allegedly, but Abramovich seems none-too-concerned about having to take the spending into the £70ms in sacking-hiring-sacking-hiring managers over three years.
On the transfer front, and if there was one thing unsurprising about Manchester United's display against Everton on Sunday, it was how fatigued their midfield looked after 70 minutes. An expected pitfall of a 37-year-old returning to first-team football is tiredness, yet Sir Alex Ferguson stubbornly kept Paul Scholes on the pitch despite him beginning to resemble Charlie Adam.
Gylfi Sigurdsson, however, is having no such problem acclimatising to English football's rigours. One of the signing sensations of the season since his loan move to Swansea, the Icelandic international is now valued at £10m by parent club Hoffenheim.
He is understood to have been monitored by United, but the Daily Mirror have now thrown Everton and Liverpool's hats into the ring. What logic is behind Everton being linked with a £10m player remains mystifying.
Rearing its head again are those persistent Luis Suarez-Paris Saint-Germain rumours. Metro say the 25-year-old Uruguayan and Manchester City's Edin Dzeko are both being targeted by the ambitious French side, as they prepare for a Champions League campaign. Removal vans were a fixture at Dzeko's pad in the north-west as early as January, making a departure from Eastlands seemingly inevitable.
Wolves are down and the one man who everyone wants to save from the depths of despair is Steven Fletcher. The useful Scot striker is wanted by Sunderland manager Martin O'Neill, who is also eyeing Wigan's mercurial attacker Victor Moses. But due to previous Black Cats managers Roy Keane and Steve Bruce spending/squandering too much money, the Northern Irishman will have to sell first, say the Daily Express.
Cultured Fulham midfielder Danny Murphy is relaxed about signing a new deal with the Cottagers, despite the fact that discussions are yet to take place. He says in The Sun: "There's no great urgency with me, because I'm happy and they are happy with me. I'd be surprised if it didn't get sorted."
Thirty-one-year-old Norwich target man Grant Holt is still hopeful of an England call up for Euro 2012, The Sun again report. In perhaps one of football's most obvious ever statements, he assures: "If you put the ball in the area I will do my best to finish." How heartening.
Perhaps embarrassed by how toothless they were in the FA Cup semi-final yet terrific against Manchester United's defence, talk of David Moyes bidding farewell to Goodison Park is gaining momentum. The Toffees' Under-18s manager Alan Stubbs states: "I think David has come to a crossroads in his career," in the Daily Star.
Chelsea are sweating on striker Didier Drogba's fitness ahead of their Tuesday Champions League semi-final second leg clash with Barcelona. The Star say they are leaving it until the very last minute as to whether he travels. We will know today, as the Blues fly out to Spain.
Liam Lawrence, ex-Portsmouth captain, has branded the former owners of the club a "disgrace" after they were relegated to League One, the Mirror say.
And Ian Holloway, again: "I once dragged a player into my office and told him if he dived again, I'd sell him.
"There isn't a manager in the game who encourages his players to cheat." That, via The Independent.