Football rumours from today's newspapers

• Atletico Madrid striker Sergio Aguero is prepared to take a pay cut to join Manchester City.
  (The Mirror)


• Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger expects to see midfielder Cesc Fabregas, who has been linked to Barcelona, in a Gunners shirt on Saturday when the team play Cologne in a friendly.
  (The Mirror)


• Meanwhile, Fabregas is pleading with Arsenal to be allowed to move back to Barcelona.
  (Daily Mail)


• Peter Crouch is being tracked by QPR after Tottenham signalled they would be willing to sell the striker this summer.
  (Metro)


• West Brom are edging closer to completing a move for former England midfielder Owen Hargreaves after admitting they are set to meet him this week. Hargreaves was released by Manchester United after being plagued by knee problems.
  (talkSPORT)


• Everton are weighing up a bid to take Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner on loan.
  (Daily Mail)


• Blackpool are closing in on a deal for Manchester United's Senegalese international forward Mame Biram Diouf.
  (Daily Mail)


• Striker Adel Taarabt moved a step closer to leaving QPR after being left out of the club's pre-season tour to finalise a move to Paris St Germain.
  (The Mirror)


• Newcastle want to sign Chelsea forward Daniel Sturridge on loan as manager Alan Pardew looks for a solution to his striker problems.
  (The Mirror)


• Aston Villa lead Juventus and Liverpool in the race to sign Fiorentina's 27-year-old winger Juan Manuel Vargas.
  (footie-online)


• Blackburn are facing a transfer crisis - with their Indian owners told by their bank to cut the club's overdraft before they can buy.
  (The Mirror)

• Chelsea forward Salomon Kalou has told Blues manager Andre Villas-Boas he does not need to spend big to win back the Premier League title.
  (The Mirror)


• Chelsea fans will finally get to see defender Slobodan Rajkovic this week - nearly six years after he signed for them. The Serb, 22, was included in the squad that flew to Malaysia for the start of the Blues' pre-season tour but he still does not have a work permit to play in Britain.
  (The Sun)

• Under-fire Fifa boss Sepp Blatter has been voted the biggest 'celebrity villain' of the past decade.
  (The Mirror)


• When three of North Korea's players tested positive for steroid use during the Women's World Cup, team officials blamed it on the musk deer gland treatment used in Chinese medicine for the effects of lightning strikes.
  (Metro)