According to Arjun Miglani at Goal.com, L’Equipe is reporting that Portsmouth are interested in Nancy striker Marc-Antoine Fortune.

According to Sky Sports News, Liverpool have signed midfielder Jay Spearing and defender Stephen Darby to new long-term deals.

According to Robert Tanner at the Sunday Mercury, Birmingham are set to battle with Celtic for free agent and former Arsenal midfielder Amaury Bischoff.

Birmingham are also thought to be interested in defender Solvi Ottesen but a midfielder might be more of a priority.

According to Sky Sports News, Sunderland are close to signing Deportivo Toluca defender Paulo Da Silva on a free transfer. Toluca made a statement saying,

“The English team’s offer was not within our reach.”

Da Silva told the club’s official website,

“First of all I want to thank the Deportivo Toluca for the effort they made and for giving me the opportunity to fulfil a dream, which is playing in Europe, it is certainly an important step in my football career.”

UPDATE: According to Marc Iles at the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, Bolton made a bid for Swansea City midfielder Ferrie Bodde. Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins said,

“We received a written offer from Bolton yesterday … The offer was worth around £2.5m.”

“We believe Ferrie is worth a lot more than that and as a result we officially turned the offer down today. In fact, we do not want to sell any of our players.”

June 25th, 2009 According to Football Spy at the Daily Mirror, Wigan Athletic are interested in Swansea City midfielder Ferrie Bodde. However Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins wants £5million for him.

UPDATE: According to Richard Bailey at Sky Sports News, Sport Express is reporting that Yuri Zhirkov has flown to London to undergo a physical for Chelsea.

June 30th, 2009 According to Ashley Gray at the Daily Mail, Chelsea officials are in Moscow to try and complete a deal for CSKA Moscow footballer Yuri Zhirkov. It is being reported that the fee will be around £18million and Chelsea will offer Zhirkov a three-year deal worth £80,000-a-week.