Latest football rumours from today's newspapers.

• Manchester City manager Mark Hughes is lining up a January bid for Sampdoria's Italian playmaker Antonio Cassano. (Daily Mirror)



• City are keen to sign Rennes' Cameroon midfielder Stephane Mbia for £9.6m when the transfer window reopens. (The Sun)



• Chelsea are favourites to beat Arsenal and Liverpool to the signing of Barcelona wonderkid Gerard Deulofeu, 14, who has been dubbed the new Ronaldinho. (The Sun)



• West Ham are preparing to sell as many as eight senior players during the January transfer window. (Daily Telegraph)



• Wigan boss Steve Bruce has rejected claims he has struck a moral agreement to sell midfielder Wilson Palacios to Manchester United in January or the summer. (The Times)



• Tottenham midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng is likely to snub a loan move to Birmingham and return to Germany in January. (Daily Mirror)



• QPR hope to sign Reading striker Leroy Lita. (Daily Mirror)



• Crocked midfielder Markus Paatelainen has quit Inverness Caledonian Thistle and returned to Finland to have treatment for his cruciate ligament injury. (Daily Record)



• Portsmouth are close to signing 16-year-old Ghana international Tawrick Jibril, who plays for Accra Hearts of Oak in his home country. (Daily Star)

• England captain John Terry is out of Saturday's World Cup qualifier with Kazakhstan and is a doubt for Wednesday's trip to Belarus. (Various)



• Scotland manager George Burley admits Saturday's clash with Norway will be "win or bust" for his side's hopes of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup finals. (Daily Record)



• West Ham have broken Premier League rules by allowing an unregistered doctor to treat their players. (The Sun)



• At least three Premier League clubs received cautionary calls from their banks on Wednesday about their debts. (Daily Telegraph)



• Hull City chairman Paul Duffen says the Tigers will stay in the black this season and not go into debt to fund the pursuit of short-term success. (Daily Mirror)



• Tottenham's £15m winger David Bentley admits people are laughing at the club because they are bottom of the Premier League. (The Sun)



• Spurs players held a crisis meeting and came out backing their under-fire boss Juande Ramos. (Daily Star)



• Everton midfielder Phil Neville has not given up hope of an England recall. (The Sun)



• Newcastle boss Joe Kinnear could be charged by the Football Association over his rant at journalists last week. (Various)



• Arsenal have failed to lure Millwall's deputy executive chairman Heather Rabbatts to the Emirates Stadium. (The Sun)



• Former Bolton and Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce is favourite to replace under-pressure boss Colin Calderwood at Championship strugglers Nottingham Forest. (The Sun)



• Sunderland manager Roy Keane says the club's proximity to the coast restricts the number of youngsters eligible to join the club's youth programme because of FA rules that boys must live within 90 minutes' travel time of any team they sign for. (The Guardian)



• Injury-hit Portsmouth striker David Nugent faces another two months on the sidelines after undergoing a second hernia operation. (Daily Express)



• Hamilton teenager James McCarthy, 17, will consider playing for Scotland if their boss George Burley proves he wants him more than the Republic of Ireland. (Daily Record)



• Hearts midfielder Bruno Aguiar wants to complete his comeback from serious ankle and knee injuries before thinking about getting a new contract at Tynecastle. (Daily Record)

• Arsenal captain William Gallas was nicknamed Pierre Richard - the French equivalent of Mr Bean - when he was an apprentice at Caen. (Daily Mirror)



• Football League referees Steve Cook and Dave Foster passed a fitness test last week - only to be told later that clockwatchers had lost count and they had accidentally been timed over only nine 400m laps rather than 10. (The Sun) Liverpool striker Fernando Torres is dreaming of scoring the winner against Manchester United in this season's Champions League final. (Various)