Gossip: 'Real target Conte'; Chelsea 'eye Icardi and Piatek'; Marcelo to force through Juve move?

Real Madrid boss Julen Lopetegui is a dead man walking under pressure and trigger happy president Florentino Perez is considering his options. These are unlikely to include keeping the former Spain boss at the Bernabeu.

So who will replace Lopetegui if results don’t improve? Well, it appears former Chelsea boss Antonio Conte is heading Perez’s shortlist – but there is a bit of a snag. Well two snags really.

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Despite currently been out of work since leaving Stamford Bridge this summer, Conte wants a long-term contract which Perez is unwilling to commit to. He would like to hire the Italian only for the rest of the season and then target Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino for next season.

There could also be a sensitive issue on Eden Hazard who had a difficult relationship with Conte at Stamford Bridge with the Italian often struggling to get the best out of the Belgium star.

Chelsea will also be watching developments closely because it could affect Conte’s severance package after he left last summer with one year left on his £9million-a-year deal.

And it could get worse for Real – reports in Italy claim fullback Marcelo wants to follow Ronaldo and force through a move to Juventus for around £40m.

Chelsea target Icardi and Piatek

Staying in west London, and the Blues also want to solve their striker woes in January. Alvaro Morata has only scored one of Chelsea’s 20 Premier League goals so far, Olivier Giroud has none. Two names feature at the top of the list, according to the Mail.

One is Mauro Icardi the other is Genoa sensation Krzysztof Piatek. However, after declaring Chelsea want the Inter captain, they claim he will be ‘very expensive’ and ‘difficult to prise away’. Sounds like they just wanted to include Icardi in the headline to get more clicks. Who would do such a thing?

A more realistic target would be Polish striker Piatek. The 23-year-old only arrived from Cracovia in Poland in June but has already scored 13 goals in nine games for Genoa. In fact the first game Piatek didn’t score in in Italy was I Rossoblu’s 1-1 draw with Juventus on Saturday.

Genoa are aware of the interest in their hotshot striker and will be willing to cash in at the right price. Napoli are reportedly weighing up a £30m bid, which wouldn’t be a bad return for Genoa considering they only signed him for £3.5m.

Origi on the move?

From our footballers-who-we-forgot-were-still-at-their-club file, out-of-favour Liverpool striker Divock Origi could be on the move to Turkey with both Besiktas and Fenerbahce keen to sign the 23-year-old.

Origi spent last season on loan at Wolfsburg and turned down the chance to leave Anfield in the summer. However, he is yet to feature at all this season and Turkey looks set to offer him a career lifeline.

Elsewhere, Fulham want to open contract talks with teenage winger Ryan Sessegnon. The 18-year-old is a long-term target for Tottenham and is in the final 18 months of his current deal.

And finally Aston Villa has confirmed what we all believed already – that his future lies away from Villa Park despite Steve Bruce’s sacking. His career in the Midlands never recovered from ‘gate-gate’ when he claimed he couldn’t make it to training because his gate wouldn’t open and he couldn’t climb his fence. He’s been on loan in Australia’s A-League since last year.