If there’s one man who deserves to be in the World Cup quarter-finals but isn’t, it’s Leroy Sane Kasper Schmeichel. The Dane saved three penalties against Croatia on Sunday and still ended up on the losing side, but his heroics have not gone unnoticed by the Premier League big boys.

Chelsea and Liverpool are both today tipped to make moves for the Leicester City goalkeeper. Sky Sports “sources” say the Blues are “interested” in Schmeichel as a replacement for Thibaut Courtois, who continues to be linked with a move to Real Madrid.

Alternatively, the Express says the Reds are “favourites” to snap up the 31-year-old as they seek someone, anyone, to prevent Loris Karius remaining as the club’s number one next season.

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Liverpool are also seeking someone, anyone, who will take Daniel Sturridge off their hands. You remember Daniel Sturridge, right?

The Star says the Reds are “expecting” a £10m bid from Turkish side Besiktas for English football’s forgotten man, although it transpires that they are only expecting this bid is because they’ve seen it reported in Turkish news outlet A Spor, which in terms of reliability is somewhere on a par with the Star.

Chelsea propose Higuain/Morata swap deal

While we’re on the subject of washed-up centre-forwards, Chelsea are trying to offload their £60m record signing Alvaro Morata. Gazzetta dello Sport says the west Londoners are attempting to negotiate a swap deal with Juventus that would see Gonzalo Higuain move to Stamford Bridge and Morata return to Turin. Juve are thinking about it.

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Chelsea have also outlined their demands to any clubs that want to sign Willian – namely Manchester United and Barcelona. Mundo Deportivo says the Blues have slapped a £70.8m price tag onto the Brazilian’s head (not literally) and will now wait to see if anyone pays it, which they probably will because it’s 2018.

United and Chelsea will both be left disappointed, however, by the Star’s claim that Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski will not be allowed to leave the German champions this summer. Also left disappointed by this news with be Lewandowski himself, who has made it very clear that he fancies a lucrative Premier League contact new challenge.

Transfer

Meanwhile, we’ve all been left disappointed by the actions of Steven Nzonzi, who the Mail reports has handed in a transfer request at Sevilla in order to force through a move to Arsenal. The former Stoke and Blackburn midfielder has a £35m release clause in his contract but the Spanish side could now accept £22m.

Elsewhere, Man Utd utility man Daley Blind will have to take a pay cut to seal a move from Old Trafford to Ajax this summer (Telegraph), Huddersfield and Wolves are keen on Middlesbrough’s flying winger Adama Traore, whose contract contains an £18m release clause (Sun) and Aston Villa chairman Dr Tony Xia has stunned officials at the cash-strapped Championship outfit by declaring he will not sell the club to Americans (Mirror). But that’s fair enough because Villa have a strong tradition of being a Chinese club going back centuries.