The likely departure of their manager, Tim Sherwood, and technical director, Franco Baldini this summer has not prevented Tottenham Hotspur from featuring prominently in today's flurry of transfer speculation. The Sun say the north London club are plotting to bring the midfielder James Milner to White Hart Lane from Manchester City this summer, while the Star say they've lined up the Valencia defender Jérémy Mathieu as a replacement for Jan Vertonghen. The Belgian may move to pastures Nou after being mooted as a potential replacement, along with David Luiz, Daniel Agger and Thomas Vermaelen, for the Barcelona centre-half Carles Puyol.

A native of Luxeuil-les-Bains, in eastern France, where today's Rumours once attended a wedding featuring an unaccompanied choir due to the presence of a family of mice in the church organ, the 30-year-old Mathieu can play in the heart of defence or at left-back and has been scouted on numerous occasions by Spurs already this season. His contract contains a £17m buyout clause, but the Star claims the Spurs chairman Daniel Levy "feels a deal can be done for less than that" even though moneybags Ligue 1 side Monaco are also interested in the French international.

Manchester City are ready to pay handsomely for the signatures of the Everton midfielder Ross Barkley and the Southampton full-back Luke Shaw and will splurge £50m on the pair in order to increase the amount of homegrown talent in their squad. City's neighbours Manchester United are equally interested in signing Shaw and may also attempt to lure his Southampton team-mate Adam Lallana to Old Trafford while they're at it. With Southampton facing a potential exodus of young English talent, their supporters can at least look forward to seeing the Juventus striker Fabio Quagliarella arrive at St Mary's during the summer.

Meanwhile back in north London, Arsenal are preparing to take advantage of Queens Park Rangers' financial woes by signing the French striker Loïc Rémy. Currently on loan at Newcastle, whose owner's apparent lack of ambition will preclude him from signing him on a permanent basis, Rémy has a get-out clause in his contract that allows him to leave Loftus Road in the event of another club offering to buy him for a bargain price £8m.

Should Liverpool finish in the top four this season and secure qualification for the Champions League, Anfield mandarins will reward manager Brendan Rodgers with a transfer kitty of £60m to bolster his squad. The Austrian international centre-half Martin Hinteregger, 21, is unlikely to account for too much of that sum, but that didn't stop Rodgers sending scouts to watch the young defender do a decent job marking Luis Suárez in his country's 1-1 draw against Uruguay last Wednesday. "The imposing Hinteregger caught the eye with his physicality and composure and his style appears to be tailor-made for the Premier League," wrote David Hytner, in yesterday's Observer, adding that: "Hinteregger has also drawn interest from Arsenal."

Sergio Ramos's brother and agent, Rene, has revealed that the Spanish red card magnet turned down a massive offer from an unnamed Premier League club that is almost certainly Manchester City or Chelsea in recent months. "Out of respect to the club I will only say that they are English," he told the Spanish newspaper Marca. "The offers are very, very big in economical terms, but we are at the club we want to be at. The best in the world. So, more than once, I had to say: 'Thanks very much for your interest, but no.' I reiterate, right now, leaving Real Madrid is a non-starter."

In other news from Spain, AS reports that Chelsea's on-loan-at-Atlético Madrid goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, has verbally agreed to join Real Madrid when his contract expires in the summer of 2016. And in Germany, Bild claim that both Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund are sniffing around the Cagliari defender Davide Astori, who is available for £9m.