Valencia striker and Spain international David Villa, the pre-Arshavin star of Euro 2008, has adjusted his Premiership aims to match his increased profile. Where he was once close to joining Juande Ramos at Tottenham, Villa is now linked with two of the league’s big four: Chelsea and Liverpool. The 26-year-old striker has admitted interest in both clubs, saying the sides “are both big clubs with lots of attraction.”

Chelsea’s place in the Villa conversation is obligatory. They are linked with every high-profile name in the transfer market. Liverpool, however, is the logical choice, with Rafa Benitez, Spain partner Fernando Torres, and a perceived need to add another threat in the attack.

The only problem with the Liverpool scenario is money. Benitez is still on a limited budget, and Villa would cost at least £20 million. There are, however, indications that Benitez’s financial limitations may be easing.

Reports surfaced last week that owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett are patching up the contentious relationship that overshadowed Liverpool’s season. Partly due to this infighting, Benitez’s transfer budget has remained static for the last year-and-a-half.  Meanwhile, player wages and transfer fees have increased with league revenues. This stalemate has contributed to the perception that Liverpool is falling behind the other big four Premier League clubs. While players like Gareth Barry and David Villa are linked with Anfield, Benitez has not been able to finalize any deals, insisting that he must sell players before he can buy.  This has fueled the speculation and urgency surrounding the transfers Xavi Alfonso and Peter Crouch, amongst other Liverpool players.

One of those other Liverpool players, John Arne Riise, has agreed on a move to AS Roma. Roma will give Liverpool around £4 million as a fee for the left back, whose departure from Anfield was guaranteed after the Champions League semifinals. In a class move, club owners and coaches used the Norwegian’s departure as an opportunity to remind Liverpool fans of Riise’s contributions to the club.

With the club owners making peace, more transfer funds may become available, but until the boardroom hatchets are fully buried, the sales of Alonso and Crouch - along with the sales of pieces like Riise - will be crucial to Benitez’s restocking the club.

The main bidder for Crouch, Portsmouth, has seen their £9 million bid rejected. Crouch, who is entering the last season of his deal, has told Rafa Benitez that he wants to move on.  The lanky strike is concerned about playing time with the club and his status on the England national team. Benitez’s move to a one striker, Torres-led attack last season saw Crouch relegated to the bench last season.  Crouch wishes to move to a club where he can have a consistent place among the starting XI.

While Liverpool’s tactical change could motivate Benitez to sell Crouch, increased transfer funds from the boardroom may allow Benitez to keep Crouch. Even if those funds aren’t made available, Benitez alues Crouch at closer to £15 million, a price Pompey boss Harry Redknapp will not meet.

With Crouch out of his reach, Redknapp has expressed interest in teammate Yossi Benayoun. Benayoun is also on Manchester City’s wishlist, though he says he has no interest in moving from Anfield. Should Benitez elect to sell the Israel international, Benayoun could fetch Liverpool up to £6 million.

In the meantime, Spain’s run to the Euro 2008 semifinals has hindered Juventus and Liverpool’s ability to finalize the Xavi Alonso transfer. Though he has said he wishes to concentrate on the European Championships, Alonso has spoken throughout the tournamen of his admiration for Juventus. Being Benitez’s most valuable player to sell, the midfielder is likely to go to Le Zebre shortly after Spain ends their run. The £14 to £16 million Benitez gets from the sale, combined with a few million pounds from Liverpool, will go into Martin O’Neill’s pocket at Aston Villa, ending the prolonged and now predictable Gareth Barry-to-Anfield saga.

The Alonso and Barry dominos are also affecting Liverpool’s play for Newcastle winger James Milner. Milner spent last season on loan to Aston Villa. Now returned to Newcastle, he does not fit with Kevin Keegan’s plans. As with Barry, Benitez and O’Neill are tussling over Milner, with the Aston Villa boss eager to reacquire the 22-year-old. If O’Neill is willing to pay the rumored £8 million he’s say to have offered Newcastle, Benitez will be priced out.

With the Barry negotiations dragging out, Liverpool back-up plans have started popping-up in the news. Midfielder Rafeal van der Vaart’s performance for Holland in Euro 2008 has seen his name linked to Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea. Speculation holds the Reds will jump into the Hamburg midfielder sweepstakes should Martin O’Neill continue to raise Barry’s price. Likewise, Blackburn midfielder David Bentley has seen his name attached to Anfield after handing in his transfer request last week.

Both of these names will disappear from Liverpool rumors if and when the Barry transfer is completed. Until some finality is reached in that negotiation, van der Vaart and Bentley will remain back-up plans for Benitez, who has targeted Barry all summer.

Another Liverpool back-up plan that’s emerged from Europe is Ivica Olic. The hyperactive Croatian forward, also playing for Hamburg in the Bundesliga, scored in his team’s group stage upset of Germany. He will be an option for Benitez should David Villa not come to Anfield. Olic has scored 21 goals in 48 games since moving to Hamburg from CSKA Moscow in January 2007. If he were to go to Liverpool, Olic and right wing Dirk Kuyt would combine to form the most active winger tandem in the league, sure to get under the skin of every back line in the Premiership.

It’s only taken three days for the hiring at Stamford Bridge to set the British soccer media ablaze, so much so that, for the first time in its short history, Premiership News and Rumors concentrates on one club:  Chelsea FC.

While new Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari guides the Portuguese national team team through Euro 2008, the rest of the soccer-following world has volunteered to help him figure out how to spend owner Roman Abramovich’s fortune, from which £100 million might be allocated towards this summer’s transfer budget. All prominent targets from Scolari’s 2002 World Cup winning side from (Brazil) and the current Portuguese national team have had Chelsea move to the top of their likely destination lists; most prominently, Barcelona’s Deco and Ronaldinho.

After Scolari was named Chelsea boss earlier this week, speculation of Deco’s potential move from Barcelona exploded. Before that, speculation had Deco’s list of potential targets down to two: Chelsea and Inter Milan. Inter had been thought the favorite because of the hiring of Jose Mourinho, with whom Deco won the Champions League at FC Porto in 2004. With Scolari now announced at Chelsea, Stamford Bridge is now thought to be the favorite to land the Portuguese international, with some reports saying a deal is already done. Deco and his agent deny such a deal is in place, with the midfielder now worried that Barcelona may be asking too much as a transfer fee. “At my age you cannot ask too much for me,” said the 30-year-old, who was reported close to a deal at Inter before the Scolari hiring. That deal, said to be for around £10 million, was partially scuttled by Barça increasing their asking price. Deco’s price is now said to be closer to £15 million, with a high figure of £20 million also reported.

Deco’s teammate at Barcelona, Ronaldinho, had been speculated to Manchester City before Scolari’s hiring, but now that the man who was in charge of his 2002 World Cup winning team is at Chelsea, Ronaldinho has said “it would be a pleasure to cross paths with him again.” Part of what had made Ronaldinho’s move to Manchester City plausible (beyond Thaksin Shinawatra’s money) was the lack of interest from elite clubs. With Scolari now at Chelsea, that lack of interest may be no more. Shinawatra has been confident that City will acquire Ronaldinho, ready to pay a £20 million fee to Barça.

One other Barça player, Cameroon international Samuel Eto’o, has been linked with Chelsea, part of what might be a package deal with Deco. Eto’o has also been linked with Inter and AC Milan, the three teams most prominent in the bidding for Chelsea’s Didier Drogba. Drogba, however, in the wake of Scolari’s hiring, has reiterated his contract with Chelsea that runs through 2010, indicating he is willing to stay at The Bridge. If Drogba does indeed want to stay - a pledge he has notably come just short of making - Eto’o looks more likely to move to the Serie A.

One other current Chelsea player leaning back towards the club is center back Ricardo Carvalho. In what same have labeled as the most positive effect of Scolari’s announcement, the Portuguese international backed off quotes from early in the week pushing a reunion with Jose Mourinho. The hiring of Carvalho’s national team coach could be enough to see the club’s player of the year stay.

Another current member of the club Scolari’s hoping to keep is Frank Lampard. Lampard was another, along with Carvalho and Drogba, set to be targeted by Mourinho, but Scolari is said to be keen on keeping the midfielder, ready to make him the club’s highest paid player at £150,000 per week. The stabilizing factor of such a prominent hire may be a deciding factor for the England international, who is heading into the final year of a contract that he can buy-out for £7 million.

Real Madrid’s Robinho has also seen his name linked with Chelsea since the hiring of Scolari, though any club’s deal for the 24-year-old Brazilian is unlikely to be completed until the Cristiano Ronaldo affair ends. Robinho, it is rumored, will be proposed as a makeweight in the deal that would send Ronaldo from Manchester United to Real Madrid. Whatever odds you put on that happening, Real Madrid are unlikely to off-load the young winger when he can be used to help lure his superstar replacement. Should Madrid not acquire Ronaldo or Robinho not be makeweight in that deal, the amount speculated for a Chelsea bid is £28 million.

And no transfer speculation report would be complete without a mention of the man of the hour, David Villa. The Valencia striker has been the star of Euro 2008 over Spain’s first two matches, scoring four goals, including a hat trick in the Spaniards’ opening match against Russia. Already carrying a high price tag after scoring 18 goals in 29 games for Valencia, Villa was set to be sold to help Valencia balance their books, with Liverpool loosely mentioned as an interested party. But with Villa’s stellar performance at Euro, Rafa Benitez and his tight transfer budget might be priced out of the market, with the 26-year-old striker approaching a realm in which only the Chelseas of the world can consistently play. Villa will also see his priced pushed by La Liga giants Real Madrid and Barcelona, both of whom will have to deal with calls to acquire the available Spanish hero. However, in a ploy seemingly to drive up the price, Valencia coach Unai Emery now says Villa is not available.

If Villa truly is off-the-market, he will join a growing and distinguished list of names linked with Chelsea that have been affirmed unavailable by their owning clubs. AC Milan has warned off Chelsea regarding star midfielder Kaka amidst rumors Scolari may seek out the Brazilian. Liverpool continues to say Feranando Torres is unavailable, with Chelsea being the main target of those comments, while Bayern Munich says they will not sell Frank Ribery.

One of the more bazaar pieces of speculation holds right back Jose Bosingwa, who was confirmed in mid-May as switching from FC Porto to Chelsea, was actually a Scolari signing, with the Scolari authorizing the signing of the Portugal international almost one month before he was announced hired at Stamford Bridge. These are the type of rumors you get when the British media is handed the story of an elite club hiring a high profile coach and allocating him a seemingly unlimited amount of transfer money. You get conspiracy theories and, as seen above, links between club and almost every high-profile player in the world. Thankfully, no rumors of Portuguese international Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Stamford Bridge have surfaced.

Yet.

Rating- 2(possible)

The 34 year old Spanish midfielder is set to join an MLS side this summer according to several reports out of England. Mendieta is currently under contract with Middlesborough, but is said to be ready to move stateside. The spanish midfielder has 38 caps for Spain, and has previously play for Valencia, Lazio and FC Barcelona. More details should be coming in soon.

Rating- 2 Possible 

 According to two French based sources, Lille striker Patrick Kluivert is said to be in talks with the Toronto club. The 31 year old striker has been capped 79 times for the Netherlands, and has most recently played with Ligue 1 side Lille. Kluivert would most likely take up TFC’s Designated Player spot.What do you think, would this be a good pickup for TFC? Would he be worth potentially using a DP spot?