It’s funny how sometimes one plus one equals three, isn’t it?

The Mail on Sunday have deduced that Stuart Taylor’s return to City following the expiration of his old contract has cast doubt on Shay Given’s future with the Blues.

In the paper’s Sport on Sunday section, the uncredited snippet on Given claims that the Republic of Ireland keeper “faces being frozen out at Eastlands with Roberto Mancini already promising Joe Hart he will start the season as No.1 to stop him going out on loan again.”

Is it not possible that the Blues need experienced cover in case another keeper crisis should arise similar to the one at the end of last season?

Whether Shay is ready for the start of the campaign or not also remains to be seen following his painful shoulder injury sustained at Arsenal last April. True, it will be a fascinating battle between Given and Hart, but it is going to be a long season and it could be that both feature prominently.

Elsewhere the Fernando Torres and James Milner links rumble on and several tabloids continue to get mileage out of the ‘Bellamy to Spurs’ story.

The Daily Star on Sunday claims the Blues are monitoring Ghana’s Kwadwo Asamoah, while Neil Ashton in the News of the World believes Martin O’Neill is keen on Stephen Ireland – but only as part of a deal to take Milner in the opposite direction.