Barcelona Keeping Tabs On Porto's Juan Manuel Iturbe

Barcelona is closely monitoring the progress of young attacker Juan Manuel Iturbe, currently under contract with Porto, AS reports.

The 18-year-old forward joined the Portuguese champions from Cerro Porteno earlier this summer, but has yet to make his official debut for his new side.

Nevertheless, he is considered to be one of the most exciting youngsters around and has already caught the attention of Barcelona due to his performances for Argentina at the Fifa Under-20 World Cup in Colombia in August.

Although Barcelona have no intention of signing Iturbe imminently, the Catalans' sporting director, Andoni Zubizarreta, has allegedly held an informal meeting with Gustavo Mascardi, who holds 40 per cent of Iturbe's rights, to make him aware of Barca's interest.

Iturbe has a contract with the Europa League holders until the summer of 2016.

Arsenal And Chelsea Battle For Barcelona Forward

Spanish giants and current European champions Barcelona are desperately trying to fend off interest from across Europe in the latest prospect to come through their highly regarded La Masia academy, forward Gerard Deulofeu, according to talkSPORT.

The player has been likened to Lionel Messi by the academy's coaches, leading to interest from several clubs, but Arsenal and Chelsea are said to be at the front of the queue.

Deulofeu is in fact so highly rated by those at Barca that he has been pencilled in to make his debut for the club this season, despite only being 17 years old.

However it is this young age which could be a problem for Barcelona, as he is not allowed to sign a professional deal until he is 18 years old.

Arsenal of course already knows how to poach young players from the Barca set-up, having taken advantage of these contractual issues when they signed Cesc Fabregas in 2003, when he was 16.

The young player, who was apparently watched by Arsenal chief scout Steve Rowley at the Under-19 Championship this summer, could be snapped up for as little as £3m due to a buyout clause in his current deal with Barcelona.

The Catalan giants are keen to keep the player, however, and are said to already be working on terms for his professional contract.

Spurs Striker Set For January Premier League Switch

Sunderland manager Steve Bruce is thought to be desperate to land Tottenham striker Roman Pavlyuchenko and will make a fresh approach in the winter transfer window, according to the People.

The Black Cats boss failed to secure a deal for the Russian forward when Spurs pulled out of the deal in the final hours of the transfer window and instead brought in Nicklas Bendtner on-loan.

Tottenham were forced to withdraw from negotiations as Peter Crouch had sealed a £10m move to Stoke and they could not find a suitable replacement at such short notice.

However, Bruce was left encouraged by Pavlyuchenko's interest in moving to the Stadium of Light and is keen to reopen negotiations in January.

Much of that will depend on the success of Tottenham's strikers and, in particular, Emmanuel Adebayor who arrived at White Hart Lane this summer on-loan from Manchester City.

Santos President Admits Barca Leading Race For Neymar

Santos president Luis Alvaro de Oliveira has admitted that Barcelona have gained the upper hand in the race for Neymar.

The Brazilian hotshot was widely tipped to join Real Madrid, but it looks as though he could move to Barcelona instead.

“It’s true that Barcelona have contacted Neymar, we are in contact with Sandro Rossel and I think, at this moment, he is closer to Barcelona than Real Madrid,” Santos president Luis Alvaro de Oliveira told RAC 1.

The player himself also confirmed that he has been contacted by the Spanish giants.

“Real Madrid and Barcelona have come calling for me. Both clubs want me, I can confirm it, but I have not reached an agreement with any of them,” Neymar told AS.

“The interest from Spain’s big two makes it that my confidence is very high because I am being followed by two big clubs like these.”

Juventus Targets Benfica's Joan Capdevila

Juventus is weighing up a move for Benfica left-back Joan Capdevila, according to a report in ilsussidiario.net.

The Spain international joined Benfica in the summer on a free transfer as a potential replacement for Fabio Coentrao, who left for Real Madrid, but he has found himself behind Emerson in the pecking order at the Portuguese club.

Capdevila has been omitted from Benfica's squad for the Champions League group phase, with the 33-year-old's agent airing his client's disappointment with the decision.

Napoli has been mooted as an interested party and it is now suggested that Juventus has joined the race for the former Villarreal player.

The Turin-based outfit is reportedly looking for a new left-sided defender after loaning Reto Ziegler out to Fenerbahce earlier in the month.

The Spanish veteran, who has so far only made one official appearance for Benfica, has a 20 million euros release clause attached to his contract.

Giuseppe Rossi Refuses To Rule Out Napoli Move

Giuseppe Rossi's future is not strictly confined to Villarreal, as his agent Federico Pastorello will not close the door on a move to Napoli.

The 24-year-old Italy international, who could feature in Tuesday night's Euro 2012 qualifier against Slovenia, was linked with a summer exit from the Spanish club.

A move to Barcelona never took flight despite talks with the club, while interest from Napoli, AC Milan, Juventus and Inter fizzled out as he stayed at the Madrigal.

Napoli has already expressed their desire to sign Rossi in future with president Aurelio De Laurentiis recently admitting a move could be possible.

And Pastorello is not totally against the idea.

"It is nice to hear that Napoli want Rossi, but for the moment there are no chances that any deal can take place," the agent told Radio Kiss Kiss.

"However, like we always say in football, never say never."

Napoli takes on Cesena on Saturday night, while Villarreal hope to recover from their 5-0 thrashing against Barcelona with a home game against Sevilla.

Eriksen Keen On Spanish Move

Highly-rated Ajax starlet Christian Eriksen has revealed he would be interested in joining a Spanish side in the future.

The Danish midfielder was thought to be on Manchester City's radar this summer but it appears the Primera Liga would be his preferred destination.

The 19-year-old, who is under contract in Amsterdam until 2014, insists he is in no hurry to leave the Eredivisie champions but admits his game would be well suited to Spain.

"With my style of play, there is no doubt that Spain would be ideal for me," Eriksen told Voetbal International.

"But I'm still not transferring. My priority is to play football and at Ajax I play in the championship and I will play in the Champions League.

"It may take two or three years before I move to Spain. I'm in no hurry to go until I'm ready to go. "

Eriksen admits he took a course to try and learn Spanish but has already given it up.

The Dane added: "It was pretty demanding, since it was learning Spanish from Dutch."

Reds Exploring Uruguay Link

Liverpool is to explore the possibility of tapping into Uruguay's emerging talent, with two internationals from the South American nation now on their books.

The Reds snapped up promising defender Sebastian Coates during the summer transfer window and he will link up with countryman Luis Suarez at Anfield.

Coates was signed from Nacional, the same club that helped to launch Suarez's career before he went on to make a name for himself at Dutch giants Ajax.

Nacional are the most successful club in Uruguayan football and Liverpool believe a partnership between the two sides could be beneficial to all concerned.

Director of football Damien Comolli is keen to look into the issue and admits discussions have been opened regarding a possible cross-continent understanding.

"I've got to thank the people from Nacional, the directors and their chairman because they have been very helpful," the Frenchman told Liverpool's official website.

"They tried to help the player (Coates) complete his will, which was to come here.

"They tried to find a solution for us to make it happen. We now have strong links with them because both Luis Suarez and Sebastian Coates have come from this club and been developed by their academy.

"We are talking about a partnership with them that we would like to create over the next three, four or five years, to see if there is more talent coming through.

"Maybe we can help them to develop their standards and in turn have the ability to bring those young players here.

"During the Copa America they had 14 players out of the 23 who had at some point played at Nacional or were developed by Nacional. That is a fantastic record for their academy."

Comolli added: "It is very interesting for us

"We already have a strong link with South America through Lucas (Leiva), Maxi (Rodriguez) and Luis.

"Since it's been a success with Luis - and I'm sure it will be for Sebastian - why don't we try to make it an even bigger success by bringing in other players from Nacional?"

Fergie Rubbishes Barca Talk

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson believes Barcelona is not the greatest team of all time and does not think there is 'any sense' in trying to compare them with great teams from the past.

Barcelona beat United in the Champions League final back in May to claim their third European crown in six years.

Pep Guardiola's men have also won La Liga three years in a row and that dominance both in Europe and domestically have led to many calling them one of the greatest sides of all time.

When quizzed on the issue Ferguson agreed that Barca were a world-class team but were only good enough to rank alongside famous sides of the past.

"It's certainly among the best sides of all time. But so was the Milan side with Franco Baresi, (Carlo) Ancelotti, (Roberto) Donadoni and the Dutch players," Ferguson told Corriere dello Sport

"There's a short memory in football. Now everyone says Barcelona is a fantastic squad, but at the time they said the same thing about Milan.

"I don't think there's any sense in asking which is the best team of all time. The important thing is to remember that a certain squad was special.

"That makes me think of the Dutch squads in the 70s, Bayern and Celtic, which beat Inter in the European Cup in 1967. That was a squad in which the players were born within a 25-kilometre radius."