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BBC
France striker Kylian Mbappe, 25, has agreed a five-year deal with Real Madrid, having told Paris St-Germain he will leave in the summer. (Marca - in Spanish)
Mbappe held talks with Manchester City the day before announcing he was leaving Paris St-Germain at the end of the season. (Cadena Ser - in Spanish)
Chelsea are monitoring Harry Kane's situation at Bayern Munich amid reports the 30-year-old England striker is not completely happy. (Football Insider)
Liverpool are hoping to lure Bayer Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso and sporting director Simon Rolfes to replace the outgoing Jurgen Klopp and Jorg Schmadtke this summer. (Football Insider)
Tottenham are planning a summer move for Everton's 22-year-old English midfielder James Garner. (Teamtalk)
Oliver Glasner has agreed a two-and-a-half-year deal to succeed Roy Hodgson as Crystal Palace manager. (Sky Sports)
Arsenal scouted Red Bull Salzburg's 19-year-old Israel midfielder Oscar Gloukh on Saturday. (Football Transfers)
Former Wales manager Chris Coleman is a contender for the Republic of Ireland job after talks with England Under-21s manager Lee Carsley stalled. (Independent)
Bayern Munich manager Thomas Tuchel will not be sacked despite suffering a third defeat in nine days against Bochum on Sunday. (Sky Germany)
Barcelona president Joan Laporta has asked for more scouting reports on Brighton manager Roberto de Zerbi as he considers approaching him to succeed Xavi at the end of the season. (Sport - in Spanish)
Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has spoken to 38-year-old Croatia midfielder Luka Modric, whose contract runs out in the summer, about his lack of playing time this season. (90 Min)
Birmingham City's 33-year-old Republic of Ireland defender Kevin Long is close to completing a move to MLS side Toronto FC. (Birmingham Mail)
Sky Paper Talk
DAILY MIRROR
Luis Suarez has revealed that Karim Benzema was due to sign for Arsenal before a late change of heart dashed their plan.
Kylian Mbappe has been tipped to join Real Madrid when he leaves PSG in the summer but his entourage have also met with figures at Manchester City - hours before dropping the bombshell that he would be exiting.
Jordan Henderson was handed the captaincy on just his fourth appearance for Ajax - but suffered injury-time heartbreak after being on the cusp of his first win as NEC Nijmegen scored a 95th-minute equaliser.
Liverpool defender Sepp van den Berg has seen his opportunities limited at Anfield and the Dutchman has accepted he may need to move to pastures new next term.
Idrissa Gueye has revealed he continued to watch Everton games - often on the phone alongside Kylian Mbappe - during his time with Paris Saint-Germain.
THE ATHLETIC
City Football Group (CFG) has announced a "football collaboration agreement" with Turkish Super Lig side Istanbul Basaksehir.
DAILY TELEGRAPH
Dan Ashworth could be prevented from taking up a role at Manchester United until 2026 unless they fork out a £20m compensation fee to allow him to start work as their new sporting director much sooner.
Shane Rose, a three-time Olympic medallist show jumper, has been stood down by authorities for wearing a mankini on horseback in a fancy dress competition.
Ben Stokes has offered England a ray of light as they look to salvage their series in India by suggesting that he could bowl in the final two Tests.
DAILY MAIL
Dan Ashworth has now told Newcastle he wants to leave the club - but he must wait for Manchester United to buy out his contract.
Ex-Fulham captain Danny Murphy claims his former boss Roy Hodgson said he was feeling fine following the health scare that led to the 76-year-old's hospitalisation on Thursday.
Anel Ahmedhodzic disagreed with the decision to send his Sheffield United team-mate Mason Holgate off for his challenge on Brighton's Kaoru Mitoma, claiming it was a "fair tackle".
Everton's buyers 777 Partners are implementing a major staff cost-cutting programme with the aim of reducing headcount across the business by around five per cent.
Eden Hazard has revealed Antonio Conte was the one Chelsea manager he didn't enjoy working under but credits the Italian for producing some of the best form of his career.
QPR club doctor Imtiaz Ahmad is set to make a move across London to become head of sports medicine at Crystal Palace.
THE TIMES
Mason Holgate, with a contender for the worst foul of the season, is set to be fined by his team after he helped condemn Sheffield United to 80-plus minutes with 10 players and a defeat that edged his loan club a step closer to a likely relegation.
Everton boss Sean Dyche has revealed he was in a bar having a beer with a mate when he received a message from Kevin Thelwell, the director of football, about half an hour before news of the club's 10-point deduction was announced.
THE GUARDIAN
Alex Mitchell has been ruled out of England's crucial Six Nations match against Scotland on Saturday with a knee injury, dealing Steve Borthwick a major setback as he plots his side's first Calcutta Cup win in four years.
Ben Stokes said England will not let their bruising defeat against India in the third Test eat up his side for the remainder of the series, even if, for the second loss in a row, the captain left the ground unhappy with technology.
Israeli swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko was jeered by some of the crowd after finishing second in the women's 400m medley on the closing day of the World Aquatics Championships in Qatar on Sunday.
DAILY EXPRESS
Kyle Walker has revealed Pep Guardiola did not mince his words with the Manchester City squad after they trailed Chelsea at half-time on Saturday.
Manchester United's interest in Bologna striker Joshua Zirkzee has reportedly "diminished" but he could still end up playing in the Premier League next season, with other leading clubs also linked.
THE SUN
Arsenal legend Ian Wright has urged Gareth Southgate to pick Manchester United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo in his next England squad.
Crystal Palace supremo Steve Parish held a "secret" meeting with Oliver Glasner in a London hotel hideaway - but the exchange was spotted by guests, including the Sheffield Wednesday squad.
Five players and a coach have been hospitalised after fan trouble saw a firework thrown towards the dugout. The incident occurred as Mura welcomed Maribor in the Slovenian PrvaLiga.
Former Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea is focused on staying in Spain as he continues to seek an end to his footballing exile.
Kalvin Phillips waited around for half-an-hour to speak to referee Tom Bramall to try and find out why he was sent off during West Ham's defeat by Nottingham Forest.
Wales are sweating on the fitness of skipper Aaron Ramsey for their Euro 2024 play-off bid next month after he suffered a calf injury playing for Cardiff at the weekend.
Sunderland boss Michael Beale has apologised for snubbing Trai Hume as the defender was coming off after being substituted against Birmingham on Saturday.
A Premier League footballer was shocked to find out a tenant living in one of his properties had been forced to turn it into a drug den by a criminal gang.
Gareth Southgate is planning another media day, with England's squad members available for interview before they fly out to Germany for Euro 2024.
DAILY RECORD
Chris Sutton put the blame for Celtic's descent towards crisis at Brendan Rodgers' feet - and reckons anyone who doesn't understand where fans are coming from simply doesn't get the Scottish game.
Celtic Women defender Caitlin Hayes took aim at Rangers for "letting women's football down" by locking away fans out of Sunday's derby.
Baffled St Johnstone boss Craig Levein reckons it's time to slash refs' wages after claiming too many whistlers are waiting for VAR to do their job for them.
The Athletic
Lucas Paqueta-shaped hole is causing West Ham and David Moyes huge problems
By Elias Burke
When Kalvin Phillips won the ball near the halfway line in the 27th minute, West Ham United looked to be in on goal.
But Phillips sent a wayward pass forward, which was easily mopped up by the Nottingham Forest defence. Moments later, Edson Alvarez was presented with a similar opportunity in a similar area. Again, a promising attack was snuffed out before it even started.
It is clear West Ham have a Lucas Paqueta-shaped hole in their team both in possession and without it.
When Paqueta suffered a calf injury on December 28, West Ham were on a three-match winning streak. He’d had a hat-trick of assists in one of those games, a 3-0 win over Wolves and in the next, the 2-0 win at home to Manchester United, he collected another. Before leaving the pitch in the 33rd minute of a 2-0 away win against Arsenal, he helped create Tomas Soucek’s opening goal.
Since that day, West Ham have played six league matches, collected three of the 18 available points and scored only three goals. From a three-game winning streak at the turn of the year, they are now on a run of as many clean-sheet defeats.
Saturday’s 2-0 away loss against Forest was not the 6-0 humiliation handed out at the London Stadium by Arsenal the weekend before, where fans questioned their players’ lack of leadership and character, but it reinforced this team’s lack of intricacy in the final third.
Zero big chances created, three shots on target and an expected goals figure of 0.5 against a team that had not kept a clean sheet in the Premier League since November 5. On this occasion, the numbers tell most of the story.
“We hugely miss him,” David Moyes said of Paqueta afterwards. “If you look at the record (since he got injured), people will show you the goals and how he put players in to score. It’s been a huge thing. Also, a big thing is that the natural balance has been hurt without him on the left. Today, we played Mohammed (Kudus) from the left, where he’s probably better from the right. Jarrod (Bowen), as well. We’ve just been struggling to find that balance without Paqueta.”
In Paqueta’s absence, Moyes has sought to resolve the lack of creativity, but whatever he’s tried has failed.
He trialled Soucek in the No 10 position, but the Czech midfielder struggled to connect with Bowen and Kudus. While Soucek has been a reliable servant to the east London club and has scored plenty of important goals, he lacks the technical quality and intricacy to bear the creative responsibility of linking the defensive midfield to the attack.
Of the Paqueta replacements, Danny Ings fared best during a 2-2 away draw to Sheffield United three weeks ago, but he has not started in the position since. This week, James Ward-Prowse, whose excellent performances in the role earlier this season prompted wide-ranging debate on his England credentials, had another go but did not remedy West Ham’s woes with the added creative burden.
Michail Antonio, who started as a lone striker in his first game since suffering a knee injury on international duty with Jamaica in November, had one shot. Shortly after Phillips was dismissed for a second yellow card in the 71st minute, Antonio and full-back Vladimir Coufal were replaced with Maxwel Cornet and Ben Johnson, the latter a defender by trade who deputised on the wing last week.
In his two starts since last month’s loan move from Manchester City, Phillips has given away a goal against Bournemouth and now been sent off. While his quality is undeniable, having starred for England and Leeds United before a difficult 18 months with City, the early evidence suggests Moyes might have been better served supporting him with reinforcements further up the pitch.
Paqueta has returned to training, but the club are cautious about rushing him back into action in case he aggravates his injury. With Said Benrahma and Pablo Fornals having departed in the winter window for Lyon and Real Betis respectively, Ings and Cornet are the only senior attacking options available from the bench. Still, owing to Moyes’ decision to opt for Johnson further forward against Arsenal, they do not seem to feature prominently in the manager’s current plans.
With Brentford at home a week today (Monday) — a side who have lost eight of their last 10 league games and are looking over their shoulders at the relegation places — West Ham fans are justifiably questioning whether their team can find their first win of the year in that fixture.
Without an answer to their recent woes, the pressure from the stands mounts on Moyes.
The travelling supporters on Saturday sang “Sacked in the morning!” after Phillips was dismissed, and a ‘Moyes Out’ banner was brandished. Following Callum Hudson-Odoi’s stoppage-time goal to seal Forest’s victory, they left the City Ground en masse, with sections of the fanbase clearly ready for the Scot, who delivered a European trophy last season, to go.
But he is keen to remind them that, in his opinion, he’s about as good as it gets for West Ham.
“I don’t think we can ever please everybody, but I think it would be hard to say there have been many better times at West Ham,” Moyes said. “I think they’ll (the fans) honestly have to say that it’s as good a time as there’s been at the club, regarding winning a trophy (the Europe Conference League) and league positions (finishing sixth and seventh in the two completed seasons of his second spell in charge).
“Maybe there will be managers who excite them more, possibly. But the one who’s sitting here wins more.”
The best way to ease the pressure will be to get that first win of 2024 next weekend.
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