BBC
Brentford are considering a move for Norwich's 24-year-old United States striker Josh Sargent as they prepare for the potential departure of England forward Ivan Toney, 27, who is interesting Chelsea and Arsenal. (Football.London)
Arsenal are considering moves for Brazil winger Raphinha, 27, and 24-year-old Spain forward Ferran Torres, who both play for Barcelona. (Fichajes - in Spanish)
Liverpool are set to open talks with Andy Robertson over a new contract this summer and are not concerned by reports linking the 29-year-old Scotland left-back with Bayern Munich. (Football Insider)
Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund are monitoring AC Milan's Italy Under-17 forward Francesco Camarda, who is set to turn down the offer of a professional contract at the Serie A club when he turns 16 next week. (Gazzetta dello Sport via Football Italia)
Chelsea are willing to pay Brighton a six-figure compensation fee so scout Sam Jewell can join the club now rather than in the summer when he completes his period of gardening leave. (Sun)
Arsenal have made Sporting Lisbon's 25-year-old Sweden striker Viktor Gyokeres a transfer priority this summer. (TodoFichajes - in Spanish)
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia's father says the 23-year-old Georgia winger will stay at Napoli this summer despite being linked with Real Madrid and Barcelona. (Radio Serie A via Mundo Deportivo - in Spanish)
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp and Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta
Tightest title race in years - who will win Premier League?
It is one of the Premier League's most exciting three-way title battles for years - but who will emerge triumphant?
France midfielder Adrien Rabiot is to prioritise new contract talks with Juventus over a potential move away from the Serie A club, with Tottenham monitoring the 28-year-old as they look to sign a midfielder this summer. (CaughtOffside)
Liverpool hope to make more than £10m from a fly-on-the-wall documentary covering Jurgen Klopp's farewell season. (Sun)
Arsenal set to rival Manchester United in the race to sign 22-year-old Spanish defender Miguel Gutierrez from Girona. (Fichajes - in Spanish)
Former West Ham boss Slaven Bilic is not in contention for the Republic of Ireland job despite the Croatian, currently in charge of Saudi Arabian side Al-Fateh, being linked with the role. (Irish Independent)
Sky Paper Talk
DAILY MIRROR
Barcelona are set to ignore the advice given to them by Pep Guardiola and opt against pursuing Brighton's Roberto De Zerbi as their next manager.
DAILY EXPRESS
Egypt's FA has rejected a request from Liverpool to leave Mo Salah out of their squad for a friendly against New Zealand during the international break.
DAILY TELEGRAPH
Jos Verstappen has told friends his son Max will move from the Red Bull team if he must and has already been seen on numerous occasions speaking to Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff.
THE SUN
Brentford have tabbed Norwich City striker Josh Sargent as one of the possible options to replace Ivan Toney if he leaves the club this summer.
Chelsea are ready to pay the compensation being asked by Brighton to bring recruitment chief Sam Jewell to Stamford Bridge. Jewell is currently on gardening leave.
There are fears luckless Australia batsman Will Pucovski might be forced to retire from cricket after suffering an 11th concussion after being struck on the helmet while playing for his state Victoria.
THE ATHLETIC
LaLiga is investigating after a video surfaced on social media of a child allegedly calling Vinicius Junior a monkey during Real Madrid's draw at Valencia on Saturday evening.
TALKSPORT
Former Manchester City chairman David Bernstein has revealed the club was being pursued as a feeder team by Rangers and then Premier League "opportunists" Wimbledon during the darkest days of his time in charge.
DAILY MAIL
Former Tottenham and Newcastle wing-back DeAndre Yedlin looks like being one of the wage cap victims at Inter Miami as he is closing on a deal to join rivals FC Cincinnati.
Jesse Lingard said he felt "blessed and grateful" to have made his debut for FC Seoul on Saturday even though he was roundly booed during their 2-0 defeat to Gwangju.
Steve Borthwick faces some tough selection calls ahead of England's Twickenham date with Ireland with Marcus Smith potentially going straight back into the XV despite missing the opening three games with a calf injury.
Wimbledon midfielder Harry Pell infuriated MK Dons supporters before Saturday's heated clash by appearing to smash balls into a crowd of fans during the pre-game warm-up.
Football fans have hit out at Accrington Stanley after they sacked long-serving manager John Coleman.
DAILY TELEGRAPH
England goalkeeper Mary Earps will become the first women's footballer to be honoured with a waxwork at Madame Tussauds.
The Athletic
Alphonse Areola is now getting the attention his performances deserve
By Roshane Thomas
When David Moyes walked onto the Goodison Park pitch at full time, he headed for Alphonse Areola and pointed at the goalkeeper. It was a sign of respect from the manager and one which confirms that he was justified in making him West Ham United’s No 1.
During West Ham’s 3-1 win away to Everton, the hosts attempted 22 shots. Areola saved Beto’s penalty — the second spot kick the France international has stopped this season, the other being Enzo Fernandez’s effort in the victory against Chelsea in August. He is the only goalkeeper to save more than one in the Premier League this season.
Areola also crucially denied Dwight McNeil from close range in the 58th minute when the score was 1-0 to Everton. The momentum then swung in West Ham’s favour with Kurt Zouma, the captain, scoring a header from James Ward-Prowse’s set piece two minutes later.
It was not just Moyes who embraced Areola post-match. Vladimir Coufal, the right-back, and Kalvin Phillips, on loan from Manchester City, urged the goalkeeper to go to the away end so he could be serenaded by fans.
“Alphonse’s goalkeeping and his saves have been great,” Moyes said. “You could hear the crowd here chanting his name and quite rightly so. He deserves all the plaudits he’s been given. I said to him he made the difference and his performance was terrific. He has incredible athleticism, which is as good as anyone’s at the club. He makes terrific saves and he’s been really good for us. There are bits we’d like him to improve, like his distribution, but he’s done great since making it into the team.”
Areola has had to wait patiently to dislodge Lukasz Fabianski. After joining from Paris Saint-Germain, initially on loan in the summer of 2021 before his deal was made permanent in August 2022, Areola’s game time was largely limited to cup competitions.
Before the season opener against Bournemouth, Moyes felt it was necessary to make the switch with Areola — seven years younger than his Polish rival — viewed as West Ham’s long-term goalkeeper. Fabianski was informed by Moyes and goalkeeping coach Xavi Valero that he would not be No 1 in 2023-24.
“I took the news awfully,” Fabianski told French news outlet Canal+. “Being honest, first of all, it was a massive shock. Second of all, the information made me angry. I wasn’t mentally ready for something like this. The way the situation was handled feels weird to me. As you can probably feel my pain, all I will say is that through my work with the club, the coaching staff and the manager, I deserved the situation to unfold in a much different way.”
Moyes defended his decision, convinced that Areola represents the future of the club. It is not just this season that the Frenchman has been dependable and a consistent performer. In 2022-23, he made 23 appearances, conceding 21 goals and keeping 10 clean sheets. Areola started the 2023 Europa Conference League final ahead of Fabianski, which was an early indication of who Moyes saw as No 1 for this campaign.
“I’m here to give my best,” said Areola. “Decisions are decisions. We are here to work for the team, for the club. It’s good for us that the club are in both competitions still and I will be happy if Lukasz plays. He’s always supporting me as well when I play, he congratulated me after the game. We’re just pushing each other to reach our best level and be ready to help the team.”
The numbers illustrate how Areola’s shot-stopping has been impressive this season. Using ‘expected goals on target’ (xGOT, which considers the quality of the on-target attempts a goalkeeper has faced, accounting for the placement in the goal and the angle from which the shot is taken), we can calculate Areola’s ‘goals prevented’ metric (which estimates if he has under- or over-performed compared in saving shots).
As can be seen from the graphic below, Areola has conceded 33 goals from an xGOT of 35.8, suggesting he has saved about three more goals than would be expected by the average goalkeeper.
Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, Mohammed Kudus, Tomas Soucek and Edson Alvarez have played key roles in West Ham being seventh in the Premier League and in the last 16 of the Europa League, but there have also been occasions where Areola has single-handedly kept his side in the game.
When he saved Fernandez’s penalty against Chelsea, it was just before half-time with the score at 1-1. From there, West Ham won 3-1, courtesy of goals from Michail Antonio and Paqueta. Earlier this year, draws against Brighton & Hove Albion and Bournemouth could have ended in defeats were it not for Areola. In the recent 4-2 home win against Brentford, a late siege from the visitors saw the goalkeeper make a superb save to repel the threat of Ivan Toney.
Areola saved his best performance of the season for Saturday’s win against Everton. But, more importantly, West Ham are belatedly playing with confidence after a difficult start to the year. Paqueta’s return from a calf injury has been a contributing factor and the team will aim to produce another good performance in Thursday’s Europa League tie against German side Freiburg.
“We’re here to fight for the club, for the manager, to compete for another year as a European club,” said Areola. “We started the season well and everyone said, ‘Yeah, West Ham are here’. Then we lost a few games and people said we didn’t deserve to be there. Now we won two games and we’re back, of course, it’s football. Ups and downs, but we’ve got hold of these points and we deserve to be where we are.”
Inside Futbol
Star Admits West Ham Loanee ‘Absolutely Insane’ And Thought ‘Must Be A Mistake’
Vejle star Oliver Provstgaard has revealed that after seeing West Ham United loanee Nathan Trott’s quality, everyone at the club was in disbelief that he joined the Danish outfit.
The 25-year-old goalkeeper joined Vejle from West Ham on a two-year loan in the summer of 2022 and Trott helped them win promotion to the Danish Superliga last season.
This season, the West Ham goalkeeper is in good form and has kept five clean sheets in 20 games for Vejle.
Provstgaard feels that Trott is very hard to score against and pointed out that the goalkeeper has incredible range between the sticks.
The Danish defender also added that the West Ham goalkeeper’s quality was visible from day one and revealed that everyone at the club struggled to believe that with his talents he decided to join the Danish Superliga outfit.
“When he came to Vejle, we looked each other in the eye and thought: It must be a mistake that he has come”, Provstgaard was quoted as saying by Danish outlet Bold.
“You could see the high level from day one.
“He has an absolutely insane range.
“We experience it ourselves in training; you can’t score against him at all, at least not outside the box.
“It requires some big chances.”
Vejle may well be keen to keep hold of Trott after the expiry of his loan and it remains to be seen if they can strike another deal with West Ham.
