The Rumour Mill: Chelsea defender reports resurface as Carlo courts Roma midfielder

De Rossi does his famous "levitating football" party trick

The absence of club football over the last couple of weeks has left unimaginative journalists and bloggers with a lot of time on their hands and a lot of space to fill.

This usually results in Paris Saint-Germain being linked with at least one disgruntled player from either AC Milan or Chelsea. A lot of the rules from PSG window bingo can be applied in international breaks too, cards and markers at the ready.

The wearyingly predictable story this week concerned a possible January swoop of the FA's favourite left-back, Chelsea's soon-to-be-out-of-contract Ashley Cole: "Paris Saint-Germain will attempt to see off competition from both Manchester clubs and Real Madrid by offering Ashley Cole a £150,000-a-week three-year deal worth £23million", reported the Daily Mail. As ever where the Mail is concerned, there are no quotes or any kind of evidence to back this story up.

Although Ancelotti has gone on record with his admiration for Cole, Leonardo has swooped in to pour a big bucket of cold water on the idea that we might take the 31-year-old off the Blues' hands: "Besides Lucas, nothing is done and there are no discussions with any player, either for January or next season," he told Le Parisien. So that should keep the papers quiet, at least for a couple of weeks.

Perhaps more interesting is our interest in AS Roma's Daniele De Rossi. The midfielder has fallen out with his gaffer, the mercurial Zdenek Zemen, and is reportedly interesting PSG and Manchester City.

"I think De Rossi and is a great player, I was surprised by the fact that he did not play, but I think it was only a temporary decision," Carletto told Radio Montecarlo, before raising a seductive eye-brow in the 29-year-old's direction.

"He's a great midfielder, it is normal to be approached by PSG as we are one of the few clubs that can spend big money in the market, but the market is closed. At least he can talk [to PSG] in January."    

President Nasser added: “It’s true, we like De Rossi. He is certainly a great player, but we don’t negotiate through the media."

Perish the thought, it's not like we did that with Beckham. Or Pato. And Nasser definitely didn't express any interest in Ronaldo last month, oh no. A fee of around €25million would probably be required were we to follow up our interest in January.