The transfer ‘exclusives’ that will link the Blues to anyone and everyone in the coming weeks gathers momentum today with a plethora of rumours and purported ‘done deals’ in the red-tops.

Neil Ashton in the News of the World reckons City are preparing an £80m players-plus-cash deal to lure Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres away from Merseyside.

In return for the Anfield pair, Ashton says the Blues will swap Emmanuel Adebayor and Stephen Ireland and pay an additional £40m.

Torres and Gerrard are likely to be this summer’s continuing saga and will be regularly linked to City, Chelsea, Barcelona and Inter Milan - so don’t expect this kind of story to go away quickly.

Elsewhere, Paul Smith in the Sunday Mirror believes Harry Redknapp will begin his summer spending by bidding £6m to land Micah Richards, though when the ‘sources close to’ line is mentioned attempting to give stories substance, you do wonder...

In the same paper, Simon Mullock links the Blues with Real Madrid’s Gonzalo Higuain, claiming City believe the free-scoring Argentine could forge an exciting partnership with Carlos Tevez, but again, the story is little more than speculation.

Away from the transfer gossip of the day, the Mail on Sunday reports that Sir Alex Ferguson is more wary than ever about the threat of City. Bob Cass quotes the Manchester United boss as saying: “They will be a lot stronger this time - I think we can all hear the horses’ hooves galloping closer.”

Let’s hope he’s right ... giddy-up!