Latest football rumours from today's newspapers.

• Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill is ready to battle Arsenal for £8m-rated Standard Liege midfielder Steven Defour. (Daily Mirror)



• Roque Santa Cruz is keen to leave Blackburn and accept an offer to join his former Rovers boss Mark Hughes at Manchester City in January. City could pay up to four times the £4.5m Rovers paid Bayern Munich for the Paraguay striker in the summer of 2007. (The Guardian)



• Arsenal are set to make a January bid for giant Bayern Munich defender Daniel van Buyten. (Daily Star)



• Michael Ballack will start talks with Chelsea in January about extending his stay at Stamford Bridge. (The Sun)



• LA Galaxy midfielder David Beckham will not be joining AC Milan on a permanent deal at the end of his loan spell at the San Siro next year. (The Sun)



• Blackburn have taken Egyptian right-winger Ahmed Al-Mohammadi on trial from ENPPI with a view to signing him in January. (Daily Mirror)



• Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp is eyeing West Ham's goalkeeper Robert Green or a potential loan deal for Manchester United's Ben Foster as he looks for a January replacement for the error-prone Heurelho Gomes. (Daily Express)



• QPR are set to sign Bolton striker Heidar Helguson in a loan move that could lead to a permanent £1m switch. (Daily Mirror)



• Wigan midfielder Olivier Kapo will plead with Latics boss Steve Bruce to let him leave the club after only four months and return to France in the New Year. (Daily Star)



• Real Madrid could bring in Hernan Crespo from Inter Milan as a replacement for injured striker Ruud van Nistelrooy. (Daily Mirror)

• Former Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd has failed in a £13m bid to buy Spanish side Real Mallorca and has been told it will cost him at least £12m more to clinch the deal. (Daily Star)



• Martin Hansson, the referee in Liverpool's Champions League draw with Atletico Madrid at Anfield, has revealed he has received death threats over his decision to award Steven Gerrard a late penalty. (The Guardian)



• Newcastle's interim manager Joe Kinnear will ask Magpies owner Mike Ashley for a contract extension until the end of the season when he meets him on Saturday. (The Guardian)



• Ashley's hopes of selling the club have been hit by figures that show the Tynesiders are losing fans quicker than any other Premier League side. (Daily Telegraph)



• The British government will move next week to block French plans to pass control of English professional sport - including Premier League football - to a pan-European sports 'super regulator'. (Daily Telegraph)



• In-form Manchester City midfielder Stephen Ireland says Mark Hughes is the first "proper" manager he has played under at the Eastlands club. (Daily Mirror)



• QPR owner Flavio Briatore will continue to have a hands-on approach to picking the team after appointing Paulo Sousa as first team coach. (Daily Mirror)



• Former Portugal international Sousa has been told he will have money to spend in the January transfer window, and that he is in sole charge of first-team affairs. (The Times)



• Sousa was recommended to QPR by Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari, and he also took advice from the Brazilian before accepting the Loftus Road job. (The Times)



• Briatore wanted to give the QPR job to caretaker boss Gareth Ainsworth but co-owner Bernie Ecclestone, vice-chairman Amit Bhatia and sporting director Gianni Paldini convinced him that Ainsworth was too big a gamble. (The Times)



• Former Inter Milan coach Roberto Mancini, who is learning English in London, turned down the QPR job because he did not want to work in the Championship. (The Times)



• Arsenal's have targeted Major League Soccer deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis as they continue their search for a new chief executive. (Daily Mail)



• Diego Maradona has still not signed his contract to become Argentina boss. (Daily Mail)



• Tottenham have named their 1984 Uefa Cup final penalty shoot-out hero Tony Parks as their new goalkeeping coach after the departure of Hans Leitert. (Daily Mirror)



• Portsmouth goalkeeping coach David Coles was among the candidates for the Spurs job but Pompey fought to keep hold of him after losing Harry Redknapp and Joe Jordan to the north London club. (Daily Express)



• Or, Redknapp will raid Fratton Park again to add Coles to his backroom staff. (Daily Star)



• Former Scotland star Wille Johnston is asking for a pardon over the drugs ban at the 1978 World Cup that cost him his international career. (Daily Express)



• West Ham United's vice-chairman Asgeir Fridgeirsson says the club will not have to sell players in the January transfer window despite one of their main shareholding companies, Hansa, heading into administration. (The Guardian)



• Former Carlisle United full-back Zigor Aranalde has applied for the vacant manager's job at Brunton Park. (Daily Star)



• Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel, who was expected to be out until late December, hopes to return to action sooner than originally anticipated after recovering from a knee injury. (The Independent)



• Portsmouth's prospects of solving their financial problems could be hit by planning delays to their proposed new stadium, which in turn, may adversely affect a possible takeover of the club. (The Times)



• Former Tottenham and Aston Villa target Ruben De la Red, 23, may have to quit football after suffering a heart attack playing for Real Madrid at the end of October. (Daily Star)



• Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is furious that Gunners star Theo Walcott was injured on England duty this week and wants a review of the international schedule. (Daily Express)



• Walcott will be out for at least eight weeks after a Harley Street specialist advised him to have an operation on his injured right shoulder. (Daily Mail)



• Or, Walcott is still waiting on the verdict of a specialist to discover whether his dislocated right shoulder will require immediate surgery. (The Independent)



• It is understood Walcott wants to have the operation now, which would enable him to be back in action again by the start of February. (The Independent)



• The Gunners have not yet considered pursuing compensation over Walcott's injury but that is an avenue which is open to them. (The Guardian)



• If Arsenal successfully argue they deserve to be compensated with Walcott's wages they would gain about £200,000. (The Times)

• The Premier League winner's medal that former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho threw into the stand at Stamford Bridge after his side clinched the 2006 title has been sold for £21,600 at auction. (Daily Telegraph)



• Former England striker Andrew Cole has been secretly mentoring on-loan Tottenham striker Frazier Campbell since he joined Manchester United at the age of 10. (Daily Mirror)