According to Bill Howell at the Birmingham Post, Aston Villa are interested in Middlesbrough’s Stewart Downing and Tuncay Sanli. However Middlesbrough want £20million for the pair.

It is also reported that Everton made an informal bid for Tuncay that was rejected and Tottenham are also interested in Downing.

According to Richard Bailey at Sky Sports News, Stoke City winger Liam Lawrence admitted that he and the club are not far apart in working out a new deal. He said,

“I just want to get signed to stay at Stoke for the next four years … It has been a long, difficult process and could go either way. We are not far apart but the next two days are crunch time.”

According to Stoke City’s official website, Stoke City defender Andy Wilkinson signed a new deal that will keep him at the club until 2012.

According to Stoke City’s official website, Stoke City midfielder Salif Diao signed a new one-year deal.

According to Nick Szczepaniak at TimesOnline, the Arsenal board rejected a proposal from billionaire shareholder Alisher Usmanov to create new shares to raise funds for the transfer window and to reduce the club’s debt.

The reason for the rejection was largely due to the fact “that the plan would require existing shareholders to take up their full allocation of new shares or face their stake being diluted when the process is completed.”

According to the Manchester Evening News, Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp is interested in Manchester City striker Craig Bellamy. It is also reported that Redknapp might join in the hunt for defender Richard Dunne.

According to Celtic’s official website, Celtic have signed Nancy striker Marc-Antoine Fortune. Fortune agreed to a three-year deal with the club. Hull City, West Ham United, and Portsmouth were all linked with the striker.

UPDATE: According to Tottenham’s official website, Sevilla have agreed to a deal for Tottenham midfielder Didier Zokora.

June 8th, 2009 According to Laurent Picard at Setanta Sports, Sevilla are interested in Tottenham midfielder Didier Zokora but he isn’t their main priority. Sevilla manager Manolo Jimenez said,

According to Sky Sports News, Bolton boss Gary Megson admitted that he has made bids for West Bromwich defender Paul Robinson and Swansea City midfielder Ferrie Bodde.

He also admitted that he is not interested in Manchester City midfielder Gelson Fernandes and West Bromwich midfielder Jonathan Greening. Megson said,

“Paul is a West Brom player at the moment. We have made an offer and we will wait and see what happens with that.”“We have made an offer for Ferrie … We are where we are with that one and if Swansea do want to do business it will be on the price we have last done at.”

“Fernandes is very similar to a player we have got here so we are not involved in that one … We have not been involved with Jonathan Greening either. We could go on and on because I think we were linked with about 300 players last summer.”

“We’ve brought Sean in and I’d like to get six more players … I don’t want to be a football club like we were last year when we turned up at the Emirates with only two or three subs.”

According to Football Spy at the Daily Mirror, Hull City have joined Rangers in the hunt for Le Havre striker Amadou Alassane.

According to ESPN Soccernet, reports in Spain are indicating that Manchester City have made a bid for Villarreal striker Giuseppe Rossi.

However Rossi’s agent Federico Pastorello said,

“Nobody has offered the going price and I am 99 per cent certain the player will be with Villarreal next season … Rossi is happy in Villarreal and would only consider leaving for one of Europe’s six big clubs.”

UPDATE: According to Manchester United’s official website, Manchester United have signed Bordeaux winger Gabriel Obertan. Obertan signed a four-year deal with the club.

July 7th, 2009 According to ESPN Soccernet, Bordeaux winger Gabriel Obertan is undergoing a physical for Manchester United.

According to the Express and Star, Wolverhampton’s top target is Chelsea defender Michael Mancienne. Wolves chief executive Jez Moxey said,

“Michael has never left our thinking but I don’t think Chelsea will allow him to leave on a permanent basis.”

“We’ve not necessarily finished our business. We haven’t used a loan yet so they are available to us. We may be able to use one of these but we may need to wait for a Premier League club to say, ‘yes, you can have him.”

“But that might not be until towards the end of the transfer window.”

UPDATE: According to Birmingham’s official website, Birmingham have permenently signed Lee Bowyer on a free transfer. Bowyer signed a two-year deal with the club.

July 2nd, 2009 According to Birmingham’s official website, Birmingham boss Alex McLeish is confident they will sign Lee Bowyer. He said,

UPDATE: According to Thomas Zocher at Sky Sports News, Bayern Munich spokesman Markus Horwick said that the club has not met with anybody concerning defender Lucio. He told Deutsche Presseagentur,

“Bayern have not met with anyone regarding Lucio, there is also no enquiry or phone call concerning a transfer bid … Lucio is actually on holiday and we hope he has a good time there before returning to pre-season training with us.”

July 6th, 2009 According to the Daily Mail, Manchester City are set to sign Bayern Munich defender Lucio for around £6million.

According to Arsenal’s official website, Arsenal have signed striker Robin Van Persie to a new long-term contract.