TRANSFER RUMOURS: Middlesbrough, Portsmouth, Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool, West Ham and Blackburn

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Sportingo’s Mark Apostolou brings us some Monday transfer rumours.

It’s all newspaper rumour and gossip, of course, so don’t take it too seriously! Middlesbrough, Portsmouth, Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester United and Blackburn also figure in today’s first news bulletin.

Juande Ramos definitely has Spurs back on track with one defeat in nine helping his side to climb up the table and progress in Europe. If you believe the papers, it now seems he is about to fork out £30million on homegrown talent to boost his Tottenham squad.

First up we have a pair of Middlesbrough players fresh from their excellent win over Arsenal – England Under-21 international Adam Johnson and full cap Stewart Downing (Daily Mirror). Not sure why Spurs would feel the need for both these wide men, but there you go. Downing is a decent player, even if he does seem to have just one foot.

A full international who has been a fixture at the Riverside for quite a while, he has on many occasions been tipped to move to a bigger club. However, I can’t see either of these transfers happening, especially as Boro are reportedly demanding £7m for Johnson, which seems a tad pricey.

The third portion of this British triple swoop is Portsmouth’s Matt Taylor (various), another wide player and one who has been linked with a move to White Hart Lane for some time. He is a lifelong fan of the club and I guess this can only fuel speculation. Also, Harry Redknapp doesn’t seem to bothered about losing the former Luton man as he has become more of a squad player in recent months. Taylor is apparently available for around £5m – and in my view that is a price well worth paying.

Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho seems set to leave Barcelona and a number of clubs have been linked with the World Cup winner. Chelsea and Man United were heavily tipped to sign the 27-year-old and now it appears that Arsenal could make a bid for the legendary flair player (various).

The former World Player of the Year is clearly a prized asset to bid for but the figures quoted are as immense as his reputation. Apparently his wages alone would be around £8m a year and whoever puts in a bid better hope that the Shevchenko factor doesn’t apply here, i.e. paying a large sum for a player who is not half the star he once was.

However, I think Ronaldinho still has a few years in him and the investment might just pay off. Having said that, Arsenal seem unlikely to fork out such astronomical sums for one player so I imagine that he will, as expected, be heading to Stamford Bridge.

Zenit St Petersburg winger Andrei Arshavin is clearly highly regarded in the UK as he is reportedly a target for a great many British clubs including Blackburn, Liverpool, Celtic and West Ham (various). The hugely talented Russian made mincemeat of the England defence earlier this year and clearly his efforts have not gone unnoticed. So much so that 26-year-old Arshavin seems destined to come to the Premier League.