Another morning, another celebration in soccernet towers that we can put another drawn out transfer saga to bed. The Telegraph pitch it right by declaring we can all "move on" now Xabi Alonso is about to become a Real Madrid player, for the princely sum of £30m.

The Independent report either Roma's Alberto Aquilani or Steven Defour, of Standard Liege are being lined up to fill Anfield's Alonso-shaped hole, though they may face competition from Everton for the latter. Of course, they know all about signing midfielder's from Belgium's leading club after last summer's purchase of Marouane Fellaini.

As ever, The Sun are quick off the mark to fill the void now the Alonso affair is all but sealed. They say AC Milan executives emerged from a meeting yesterday intent on capturing Arsenal skipper Cesc Fabregas. They are willing to splash £31m, but given Xabi went for £30m, one thinks they may have to up that. A lot.

The same rag has it that Harry Redknapp is getting increasingly desperate in his attempt to solve Tottenham's defensive crisis. A £10m deal for Blackburn's Christopher Samba is the latest to be mooted.

Tony Pulis fancies taking injury prone Everton striker James Vaughan to Stoke on a season-long loan, according to the Daily Mail, while The Sun says Dider Drogba has signed a new three-year deal at Chelsea worth over £100,000 a week.

Away from transfers for a minute and Portsmouth have registered the first Premier League bout of infighting, before the season has even begun. The Mirror would have us believe that during a post-drinking-session bust-up striker David Nugent was "allegedly hit across the legs with a lump of wood by defender Marc Wilson".

And to finish on another potentially violent episode, Sir Alex Ferguson has unleashed the first round of mind games in Rafa Benitez's general direction. He reckons Chelsea are Manchester United's main title rivals telling The Guardian "Liverpool have just had probably their best season for 20 years, finished up with 86 points and still finished four adrift. It will be hard for them to match that, let alone improve. Other teams will read Liverpool better." And so it begins....