BBC
Manchester United scouts will watch Portugal midfielders Bernardo Silva, 21, Andre Gomes, 22, and Renato Sanches, 18, in their friendly against Belgium on Tuesday. (Mirror)
Paris St-Germain and Juventus are both weighing up a summer move for Manchester United's French striker Anthony Martial, 20, who joined the Old Trafford club for £36m in the summer. (Le 10 Sport via Daily Star)
Real Madrid are lining up a move for Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, 23, who is valued at £79m by the Premier League champions. (Sun)
Former England captain Bryan Robson says Tottenham's Dele Alli, 19, must have a "yes I'm good but I want to be brilliant" attitude after an impressive showing against Germany on Saturday. (Daily Mail)
Aston Villa have added Burnley boss Sean Dyche to their list of candidates to replace Remi Garde as manager. (Daily Telegraph)
Mesut Ozil says Arsenal need to spend heavily in the transfer market this summer to compete at the top of the Premier League next season. (Welt am Sonntag, via Standard)
The Gunners have won the race to sign in-demand Portuguese midfielder Domingos Quina, 16, who has been at Chelsea's academy since the age of 13. (Daily Telegraph)
Tottenham and West Ham are both tracking AFC Wimbledon's Irish defender Ryan Sweeney, 18. (Daily Mirror)
Unattached former Brazil and Barcelona forward Ronaldinho, 36, wants one last contract, in China or the United States. (UOL, via Sun)
And finally
Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini will be looking for a new job when he leaves Etihad Stadium in the summer but Cobh Ramblers deny that he is going to take over at the League of Ireland club.
A fan of Lionel Messi managed to get to meet her idol in Chile by showing security officers a tattoo of the Argentina international, 28, that she has on her thigh. (Sun)
Guardian Rumour Mill
Barry Glendenning
The Rumour Mill is a broad church but in the small part of our domain that is forever the south-east England, the wind-powered blades that fuel our daily torrent of often baseless and wildly inaccurate tell-all and tittle-tattle are whirring like a turbo-charged novelty spinning bow-tie as they are relentlessly battered by the 80mph winds of storm Katie.
Last week’s terrorist atrocities in Brussels mean Belgium’s friendly against Portugal has been moved to the Portuguese city of Leiria, where Manchester United will be well represented on Tuesday in order to run the rule over Bernardo Silva (21), André Gomes (22) and Renato Sanches (18), a trio in whom the club’s interest has previously been documented. Silva is a right-winger with Monaco, while Gomes plies his trade as a playmaker with Valencia and Sanches can be found driving from box to box in the midfield for Benfica.
Reports from France suggest Chelsea are interested in bringing Leicester City revelation N’Golo Kanté to Stamford Bridge this summer but will have to fight off interest from Arsenal, who are interested in some much-needed steel to their midfield. Juventus have also expressed interest in the Frenchman, who made his international debut when he came on as a replacement for Lassana Diarra during France’s thrilling and emotive 3-2 friendly win against Holland over the weekend.
In goalkeeping news, Spanish daily Marca have linked Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois with a move to Camp Nou, where Claudio Bravo isn’t getting any younger and Marc-Andre ter Stegen doesn’t seem to be deemed good enough. No stranger to life in Spain, Courtois has previously spent three very happy and successful seasons on loan at Atlético Madrid from Chelsea. Prodigious AC Milan stopper Gianluigi Donnarumma also features on Barcelona’s shopping list, but is also wanted by Real Madrid, Manchester City and Manchester United. Born in Castellammare di Stabia in Naples, the 17-year-old is a passionate boyhood Milan fan and it is presumed he will remain a Milan fan when he becomes a man. Whether his love for the Rossoneri will be enough to keep him at the club which made him their undisputed first choice goalkeeper at the age of 16 remains to be seen.
Manchester City have agreed a deal in principle with Borussia Dortmund midfielder Ilkay Gündogan, according to the Mirror, which should spell the end of Yaya Touré’s time at the Etihad. Incoming City boss Guardiola and the club’s director of something-or-other Txiki Begiristain were reported to have met Gündogan’s representatives in Amsterdam earlier this month, before agreeing a deal for £25m, but the injury prone player’s “people” have since issued a statement saying nothing has been set in stone. “It is not true,” they harrumphed. “There is no decision and still everything open. Ilkay focuses further once on his recovery.”
In keeping with his policy of only managing teams with excellent players to make his job and life that little bit easier, Pep has requested that his new employers secure the services of Paul Pogba and Isco. And whither Yaya? The Ivorian looks Serie A-bound with Internazionale and Juventus currently locked in an unseemly scuffle for his services.
With modest, mild-mannered Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic looking a shoo-in to become one of the star attractions in next season’s Premier League carnival, Paris Saint-Germain fancy replacing him with Manchester United recent French import Anthony Martial. In Germany, Bayern Munich midfielder Mario Götze is reported to be agitating for a move to Liverpool, where he is eager to renew acquaintances with his one-time Borussia Dortmund manager Jürgen Klopp.
In management news, Brendan Rodgers’s imminent return to Swansea City is being reported as a done deal now that Francesco Guidolin is being mooted as a likely replacement for Chelsea-bound Italy manager Antonio Conte. And finally, Rémi Garde’s Aston Villa misery is expected to be brought to an end before the end of the week. Burnley boss Sean Dyche has been touted as a potential replacement, along with Nigel Pearson, although quite why he’d want to leave a progressive club like Burnley to man the tiller of a comparative death ship remains anyone’s guess.
Turkish Football
Slaven Bilic denies clause forcing West Ham to sign Emenike for €11m
by Emre Sarigul
West Ham boss Slaven Bilic has denied a clause in on-loan Fenerbahce striker Emmanuel Emenike’s agent forcing the club to sign the Nigerian international for €11 million if he makes 10 Premier League appearances.
Speaking to Turkish sports newspaper Fanatik Bilic said: “It is absurd we would never have agreed to such a clause and that the club have no obligation to sign him.”
Bilic also revealed that the club will make a decision on the future of Emenike at the end of the season.
“Everything will become clear at the end of the season,” he added.
West Ham will hold talks with Fenerbahce and Emenike regarding signing the striker on a permanent transfer at the end of season.
“We will hold talks with Emenike and Fenerbahce at the end of the season but it is too early to say if he will stay or not it also depends on the money being asked,” he said.
The Mirror does however, report that West Ham do not want to sign Emenike on a permanent deal at the end of the season.
Emenike has two goals in all competitions for the Hammers since joining over the winter transfer window.
The Nigerian international also spent the first half of the season on loan at Al Ain scoring seven times in 11 appearances.
Guardian
Mark Noble: I didn’t want a testimonial and Upton Park to be half-empty
The Hammers captain was worried about the turnout but a sellout crowd will honour a rarity as ‘there aren’t many of us that stay at a club in this day and age for 10 years, especially the club you’ve been brought up with and you support’
Jacob Steinberg
The worst fear for any host is that no one will turn up for their party and, instead of allowing himself to feel excited about being awarded the final testimonial at Upton Park, the first thoughts to cross Mark Noble’s mind were that the stadium would be half empty and the entertainment would turn him down. “I was nervous,” West Ham United’s captain says. “I didn’t want to get a testimonial and 15,000 people turn up. It’s just the way I am personally.”
As it turned out, however, the wide array of club heroes and cult legends on the guest list did not require much persuasion to accept the invitation and the game was sold out within a couple of weeks. Paolo Di Canio and Rio Ferdinand are the star names in a 35-man West Ham all-star squad that will take on the current team in front of 35,000 supporters at Upton Park on Monday afternoon and Noble’s mood has lightened enough for him to start winding up James Tomkins, one of his oldest friends, about having to sell 60,000 tickets when he has his testimonial. “He’s got the task of filling the Olympic Stadium,” Noble says – and he does not even try to hide his amusement.
The 28-year-old is enjoying life at the moment. Despite the disappointment of being overlooked by England yet again, Noble has played the most accomplished football of his career this season. Invigorated by Slaven Bilic, the midfielder has been a key part of the best side West Ham have had since finishing fifth in 1999.
West Ham are firmly in the fight for Champions League qualification, while an FA Cup semi-final against Everton awaits them if they win a quarter-final replay against Manchester United on 13 April. Yet the local boy who walked back to his house in east London after making his debut in 2004 has been around for the bad times as well. Noble belongs to a dying breed. He has been at West Ham for 16 years. The one-club man is a rare species these days.
“There aren’t many of us that stay at a club in this day and age for 10 years, especially the club you’ve been brought up with and you support,” Noble says. “I just take it in my stride and train every day. When I speak to my dad and my wife, and friends, they say it’s 10 years at West Ham, you’re leading the team out every week, when you sit back and really think about it, it’s very rare.”
Players such as Noble give a team an identity. He will give the proceeds of his testimonial to three charities – Help for Heroes, the Dylan Tombides Foundation and Richard House Children’s Hospice – and he believes that West Ham’s English core has helped overseas players such as Dimitri Payet and Manuel Lanzini to settle in the Premier League.
“It’s partly my job,” Noble says. “I learnt a lot of this from Kevin Nolan, who was really good with foreign players coming in and bedding them into the squad. The way the Premier League is now we have a lot of foreign players. A lot of very good foreign players. It’s partly my job to bring them in and bring them into part of the family. You’ve seen the relationship I’ve got with Dimi and Manu, Cheikhou, Sakho.
“All these boys came and didn’t speak a word of English, to be honest. I speak really quick, so they don’t understand me for about two months. Normally I say something and it takes them about five seconds to register and then they start laughing, and come back to me. It’s just a great place to be at the minute, with the players we’ve got and the team spirit we’ve got; it’s a real good time to be at West Ham.”
West Ham United’s Mark Noble with the representatives of the charities that will benefit from his testimonial. Photograph: Avril Husband/West Ham United via Getty Images
As a lifelong West Ham fan, Noble has rarely thought about leaving, although relegation under Avram Grant in 2011 was the lowest point of his career and it took the appointment of Sam Allardyce that summer to convince him to stay. Five years down the line, West Ham are fifth in the Premier League.
“There have been times. I have been asked. The question has been asked of me. Obviously, when we got relegated, stuff like that,” Noble says. “I remember being away on holiday and getting phone calls from my agent, who told me that people had been in touch.
“When I realised that they brought Big Sam in and the players they brought to the club – they had decided to give it a real go – I just batted it all away and decided to stay. I love this football club. It seems to be the right decision.The grass is not already greener on the other side.”
4th Official
West Ham Interested in £4 Million Rated International Striker; Why This Could Be A Coup For Bilic
West Ham United are showing interest in Toulouse forward Martin Braithwaite as reported by The Daily Mail. The report also claims that Premier League duo Sunderland and Leicester are also showing interest in the 24-year-old Danish forward. The Premier League trio will scout the forward during Denmark’s friendly against Scotland at Hampden Park on Tuesday night.
The 24-year-old forward’s contract with Toulouse will expire in the summer of 2017 and that could see him moving out in the summer on a bargain. The Daily Mail claims that Toulouse will listen to offers of around £4 million which is not a big deal for any Premier League club. With the new TV deal set to boost the revenue of every Premier League side, we can expect heavy spending in the summer.
West Ham are expected to be one of the most active clubs during the summer transfer window in order to bolster their squad. The Hammers will shift to the Olympic Stadium from the start of the next season bidding a goodbye to the historic Boleyn Ground. The rise in capacity promises the East London club more revenue added to the new TV deal. West Ham targeted a place in European football next season and are on the right path to achieve that. The Hammers are not only in line for a Europa League place but can even make it to the Champions League. Therefore, big investments are pretty much on the cards in the summer for the ambitious London club.
However, you do not necessarily need to spend big to strengthen your squad every time. West Ham signing Martin Braithwaite would be a smart piece of business. Martin Braithwaite is a pacy and tricky forward who is versatile enough to play on either flank or as a center forward. The Danish international has good flair and exceptional dribbling abilities. With the versatility he offers and a relatively low fee, Martin Braithwaite can be a smart coup for Slaven Bilic.
The Danish forward has bagged 11 goals from 34 games in all competitions this season. Not the best piece of statistics but considering Toulouse is struggling at the danger zone and Braithwaite playing most of the games on the wings, the figures do not look that dire.
West Ham needs major bolstering in attack in the summer and are reportedly after two strikers. Meanwhile, the Hammers are lacking depth on the wings as well. Martin Braithwaite can play at both positions and, therefore, it would be smart from West Ham to bag his signature in the summer for a base bargain fee.
HITC
Report: Tottenham, West Ham want AFC Wimbledon's Ryan Sweeney after scouting missions
Olly Dawes
Tottenham, West Ham, Charlton Athletic and Huddersfield Town are reportedly keen on signing AFC Wimbledon defender Ryan Sweeney.
According to The Mirror, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United are keen to sign AFC Wimbledon teenager Ryan Sweeney this summer.
Sweeney, 18, joined AFC Wimbledon at the age of just eight, and has made his way up through the ranks with the club to eventually play for the first team.
A giant 6ft 4in defender, Sweeney has now made nine appearances for AFC Wimbledon this season - and it seems that his performances have attracted interest.
The Mirror report that London rivals Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United have both been scouting Sweeney of late, and have been impressed with his displays.
It's also claimed that Championship clubs Charlton Athletic and Huddersfield Town are also looking to sign Sweeney, but two of the Premier League's biggest clubs will be confident of beating them to the teenager's signature.
With one cap for the Republic of Ireland Under-18's, Sweeney has been making an impact for club and country, and his promising displays could now earn him a summer move.
Spurs should be appealing to any young player given Mauricio Pochettino's record promoting youngsters, with Eric Dier, Dele Alli and Harry Kane all becoming not only key players for Spurs, but also England international.
Meanwhile, West Ham's growth under Slaven Bilic and imminent move to the Olympic Stadium will also be an attractive proposition for any player, and Sweeney could have a tough choice if both clubs move for him this summer.
