It's an odd thing, but in football it seems your stock can rise even if you don't kick a ball in anger.

Youth seems to be the answer in the wake of England's ignominious exit from the World Cup, and Adam Johnson is now one of the names being touted for the national side.

Our winger was omitted from the final 23 for South Africa, but his skills are what several scribes are crying out for, with Henry Winter in the Telegraph ruminating on what Fabio Capello should do next thus:

"He promised 'to introduce new players to give the team new energy', a welcome undertaking, yet something he should have considered before the tournament, particularly in regard to the omitted Johnson. The Manchester City winger would have given England balance, trickery and a left foot."

City's capture of Yaya Toure looms large, with mcfc.co.uk's exclusives from Friday getting picked up all over the shop, but of course the talk about potential targets goes on and on.

The Mirror's David Anderson immediately moves the agenda on from the arrival of Yaya by revisiting our supposed interest in Lazio left back Aleksander Kolarov.

"City have denied claims from Italy they have made an offer for the Serbia World Cup defender, but he is on Mancini’s hit-list of full-back targets along with Benfica’s David Luiz.

"Mancini wants at least three more signings and, as well as a full-back, he is also after England midfielder James Milner and a striker."

It's not all one-way traffic on the transfer front, with claims that Micah Richards still interests Spurs in the London Standard and Nedum Onuoha linked with both Everton and Sunderland in the Independent. Pre-season training starts on Monday, so expect the transfer merry-go-round to spin off into orbit if the close season is anything to go by.....