Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri has identified his former Napoli charge Lorenzo Insigne as one of several missing pieces of his Chelsea jigsaw puzzle, but has the minor inconvenience of a transfer ban preventing him from snapping it into place. Should his employers fail in their efforts to get the ban overturned, or at least postponed, Liverpool could instead make a Premier League player of the Italian winger in exchange for £60m in used fifties.

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That pesky transfer ban could also have an effect on the future of Kurt Zouma, who’d quite like to stay at Everton but may be recalled to Stamford Bridge unless Chelsea are allowed to sign a suitable replacement.

Meanwhile in Germany, Bild say Real Madrid are ready to bin off their attempt to lure Kylian Mbappé away from Paris Saint-Germain and focus their attention on signing Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund instead. While the Bundesliga side have been consistent with their insistence that Sancho is not for sale, the German tabloid say their resolve would be sternly tested by a mooted offer of around £155m. Real are also ready to make Eden Hazard an offer he’ll find difficult to refuse, specifically a weekly stipend of £400,000 and a one-off golden hello of his own weight in Haribo Starmix, should he ask for it.

In a revelation that will come as little surprise to anyone who has seen him jogging around the pitch doing little or nothing for the Manchester United cause, French sports daily L’Equipe reports that Paul Pogba has told his team-mates he wants to leave Old Trafford this summer. Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane has been openly flirting with the French midfielder since taking over at the Bernabéu, while Pogba is also believed to have admirers at Barcelona and Juventus. He certainly doesn’t have too many left at Old Trafford, where club officials are expected to cash in on the midfielder as they set about rebooting the club ahead of next season.

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Marcos Rojo has also been deemed surplus to Manchester United’s many personnel requirements and will be shipped out for a cut-price £15m (ONO), while the ongoing problem of how to solve a problem like Alexis Sánchez and his £500,000-(and the rest)-per-week wages remains on Teflon Ed Woodward’s “to do” list. The job of finding a new goalkeeper to replace the increasingly pouty and disinterested David De Gea is also beginning to look increasingly pressing and Jan Oblak is being mentioned in conjunction with a move to Old Trafford. The bad news for Ed? The ink is still wet on the new four-year deal the Slovenian signed with Atlético Madrid last week and it will cost £87m to trigger the release clause.

Milan winger Hakan Calhanoglu is a person of interest in inquiries currently being conducted by West Ham and Leicester City and will cost either club the thick end of £25m. A star for Croatia during the last World Cup, curiously coiffured Besiktas defender Domagoj Vida could be taking his blond ponytail and undercut to Molineux next season, although the Birmingham Mail reckon Wolves will have to fend off interest from Inter to land their man.

And out on loan in the Dutch League where he is impressing with Vitesse Arnhem, one-time Norwegian wonderkid Martin Ødegaard has caught the eye of Ajax scouts. They’re keen on bringing the 20-year-old to Amsterdam, but not so enthused by the prospect of having to fork out the £17m transfer fee being asked by the player’s parent club Real Madrid.