Football Forum | Ticket Forum | Off-Topic Forum | All

Alan 1:25 Sat May 6
Saturday newspapers (includes West Ham)

BBC

Barcelona star Lionel Messi, 29, has rejected the club's first offer in talks to extend his contract beyond June 2018. (AS)

Monaco striker Kylian Mbappe, 18, has told his agents to secure him a move to Real Madrid. (Marca)

Barcelona have held talks with France international Mbappe but failed to convince him to join them instead of their rivals Real Madrid. (Don Balon via Daily Express)

Inter Milan's new Chinese owners are preparing a £10m-a-year pay packet and the promise of considerable transfer funds to convince Chelsea manager Antonio Conte to return to his homeland.(Daily Mirror)

Chelsea defender John Terry, 37, has been offered the chance to join Chinese Super League side Tianjin Quanjian when he leaves Stamford Bridge at the end of the season. (Sun)

Terry has been linked with moves to Bournemouth, Stoke and West Brom and has told friends he has been offered wages of £100,000-a-week and a £5m signing-on fee by one Premier League club. (Times - subscription required)

Chelsea are considering a move for 19-year-old Celtic left-back Kieran Tierney, who could have an asking price of £17m. (Daily Mail)

Schalke defender Sead Kolasinac, 23, is expected to pick between offers from Arsenal, Manchester City and AC Milan by next week. (Bild via Talksport)

West Brom will try to sign Watford striker Troy Deeney after being knocked back last year in their pursuit of the 29-year-old. (Daily Mirror)

Contrary to reports in Spain, journalist Guillem Balague claims that Barcelona have no interest in signing 24-year-old Liverpool playmaker Philippe Coutinho. (Liverpool Echo)

Bournemouth striker Josh King has been linked with Tottenham but Cherries boss Eddie Howe says he has no intention of selling the 25-year-old Norway international. (Daily Star)

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, 67, says playmaker Mesut Ozil, 28, is struggling to cope with the criticism he is receiving. (Daily Mail)

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, 46, is planning to "buy goals" this summer as he aims to improve his side's ability to make the most of the chances they create. (Daily Telegraph)

Chelsea striker Diego Costa is expected to move to Chinese Super League side Tianjin Quanjian in the summer but Blues boss Antonio Conte says he is not worried about the 28-year-old's focus. (Guardian)

Former Italy and Juventus boss Antonio Conte, 47, insists he is more interested in winning than keeping his players happy. (Daily Express)

Southampton manager Claude Puel, 55, is "surprised" his job is reportedly under threat and does not feel under pressure. (Daily Star)

The Football Association do not expect England striker Marcus Rashford, 19, to go against Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho's wishes and take part in this summer's European Under-21 Championships. (Times - subscription based)

Newcastle have been linked with 21-year-old Malaga striker Sandro Ramirez, who has a £5.1m release clause in his contract. (Chronicle)

Bristol City defender Aden Flint, 27, is being chased by West Ham and West Brom. (Sun)

And finally

Former Manchester United midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger - now with MLS side Chicago Fire in the United States - has thrown the opening pitch at a Cubs game in the city. (Major League Soccer on Youtube)

Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce has revealed that his bruised and cut face is a result of having moles surgically removed. (Birmingham Mail)







Guardian

Tottenham suffer capital punishment as West Ham dethrone ‘kings of London’

Manuel Lanzini’s winner means that for the second season running Tottenham’s title dreams have crumbled at the home of a local rival

Barney Ronay at the London Stadium

When a man is tired of London, well, there’s probably a fair chance he is a Tottenham fan in early May. On a chilly, noisy night inside the London Stadium Spurs entered this derby game hoping to apply pressure to Chelsea’s shoulder but knowing they could forfeit the league title, too, by losing the game.

And so it came to pass: another boisterous night in May, another wild, fingernail-gnawing London derby defeat. Almost exactly a year ago a wild draw at Chelsea had seen Spurs give up the ghost on last season’s title challenge. Here the only goal of a bitty game decorated with heavy tackles came from Manuel Lanzini after 65 minutes. Defeat means Chelsea can win the title this time next week with victories against Middlesbrough and West Brom. The race has tipped, inexorably, towards Antonio Conte’s side.


Lanzini finds himself free with the ball in the six-yard box after a goalmouth scramble and finishes emphatically


Lanzini celebrates after giving West Ham the lead in their derby tie against Tottenham at the London Stadium

It has been a generally London-centred affair for Mauricio Pochettino’s young team over the last two seasons. Arsenal were hauled in last weekend, always a significant marker. Indeed, Tottenham were crowned before this game as kings of London by one newspaper, a status earnt by their fine record in derby matches, although, sadly for their fans, not by actually topping the table ahead of Chelsea at any point.

With West Ham still paddling near the bottom, Spurs were expected to muscle their way through this match en route to more urgent engagements. Somehow it never quite looked like happening as West Ham played well throughout, solid and spiky in deep defence and finding unexpected space in Tottenham’s backline.

It made for an engrossing spectacle as the minutes ticked away. This was a violent game too. Kyle Walker was booked early on for a stamp-tackle. Mark Noble was booked for a hack at Eric Dier’s shins that might have been a red. Hugo Lloris, an unlikely enforcer, went through Lanzini on the edge of the box but received the now traditional goalkeeper’s pardon. Cheikhou Kouyaté was sent sprawling among the rolls of loose green matting behind the goal by his own foul on Walker.

It was all a vigorous contrast with the oddly empty atmosphere before kick-off around this bizarro Bladerunner-ish stadium, beamed down into East London like a visitation from some future consumer dystopia. Inside, however, West Ham’s fans can still generate a great wave of noise, as they did after half-time as the game became bruising and bitty. Dele Alli, so incisive against Arsenal, was quiet. Son Heung-min came closest with a low shot from the right that Adrián palmed away.

Somehow a goal always seemed to be coming at the other end. The decisive move came down the left, Aaron Cresswell making ground and crossing. The ball bobbled back to Lanzini, who lashed it into the corner, capping an excellent, scuttling game. Eight of the Argentinian’s last 10 goals have come in London derbies.

At the final whistle this lopsided spaceship of a stadium erupted with West Ham joy, London voices – but not Spurs ones – raised again at the sharp end of things. Pochettino was a little flat but quietly magnanimous. What exactly to take from here?

Some will suggest this was collective failure of will, a bottle job, but that seems ridiculously harsh. Spurs were excellent when it mattered against Arsenal five days ago. This is a young team. They will be back. Although there are still some obvious areas to improve.

If Son caught the eye with his zippy movement, he also highlighted Spurs’ one real failing: a lack of extreme speed in attack, a sameness to their movements. Moussa Sissoko might have addressed this, were he not a disappointing footballer more given to mooching around looking splendid than applying his athleticism to the cause.

Sissoko also flags up another slight area of slackness. Poor recruitment last summer did not help. Vincent Janssen is not of the necessary standard yet. One does wonder how useful Jermain Defoe might have been as a back-up this season, how many extra points he might have dredged up, even if as a starter it is hard to imagine a less obviously Poch-style player.

Even here Christian Eriksen offered some hope with a decent performance against the head, including the pass of the first half from just beyond the centre circle, clipping the ball through the tiniest of channels to set Harry Kane away.

Eriksen has had more touches than any other attacking player in the Premier League this season and is up there with Gylfi Sigurdsson and Alexis Sánchez for the title of most productive attacking midfielder in the division. Again, though, it is an area of strength Spurs could look to strengthen even further, if only to give another dimension to a team that can settle into its rhythms and wear opponents down at home but which is less of a steamrollering force away.

At which point enter the final area of concern. Defeat at this misshapen cantilevered bowl, a Penrose stairs stadium where everything is at the wrong angle, where one half-expects to look down and see the players running straight up into the air, or at a 45-degree angle to the sky, came with an odd sense of foreboding

Who knows, a season at Wembley, away from the comfort of White Hart Lane’s tight angles, might even be a good thing, drawing other gears from this evolving team. For now Spurs can still take second place in the league and above all a sense of wider progress from another season of graft and growth.






Telegraph

West Ham 1 Tottenham Hotspur 0: Manuel Lanzini deals Hammer blow to Spurs' Premier League title hopes

Jason Burt, Chief Football Correspondent

At the former Olympic Stadium Tottenham Hotspur failed to scale the heights and with this shuddering defeat their Premier League title challenge faded.

Faded and almost certainly died against West Ham United who produced a full-blooded performance – a performance that sets the standard for them, a signature display at their new home – for their under-pressure manager Slaven Bilic and in doing so finally secured their own top-flight status.

It has been an Olympian effort by Spurs to get this close to the Premier League leaders Chelsea, with nine wins in a row, and how delicious for West Ham that they ended their dreams even if in doing so they helped deliver the title to another bitter London rival.

Chelsea can now go seven points clear again with just three games to play if they beat Middlesbrough at home on Monday and then could win the league with victory away at West Bromwich Albion next Friday. It can be over before Spurs even play again.

A third successive London derby was simply too much for Mauricio Pochettino’s side as they saw their impressive run come to an end and their pursuit of Chelsea falter, just as they struggled to chase down Leicester City last season.

Fortune went hiding last night even if West Ham were deserved winners through the outstanding Manuel Lanzini. Spurs did not bottle it. They were 13 points adrift of Chelsea on Jan 1.

Spurs are emphatically no longer ‘Spursy’. They did not crumble or capitulate and this has been another brilliant campaign for them under Pochettino even if his frustration was evident long before the final whistle.

In the other vast technical area Bilic was a ‘jack-in-the-box’ of perpetual motion, particularly when five minutes of added time were signalled, as he cajoled and urged his players to see this through.

When it was over Bilic hugged his assistants and it was an understandable outpouring of relief as well as celebration because he knows the pressure, the scrutiny has been growing on him during this difficult season in which

West Ham have changed their stadium, lost their best player, Dimitri Payet, been stung again with injuries – Andy Carroll was once again unavailable – and disappointing signings to such an extent that there is a significant question mark as to whether the manager will survive.

He deserves to. He deserves to anyway without this result but here was evidence, if evidence was needed, that he is the right man for West Ham as he demanded a display of bite and commitment and bravery also – taking the game to Spurs – and got it. There could be no quibble over the result, the same result as West Ham achieved last season as they also helped derail Spurs challenge.

It was feisty, a Friday feist-night summed up in one first-half statistic: West Ham attempted no fewer than 16 tackles and succeeded in just one of them with cautions for Cheikhou Kouyaté, Winston Reid and Mark Noble who could even have seen red for a very late lunge at Eric Dier.

Still Spurs were certainly ruffled although West Ham will point to Hugo Lloris hurtling from goal and with both feet off the turf challenging Lanzini outside the penalty area. Lloris got his knee to the ball but followed through on Lanzini with referee Anthony Taylor waving away the protests. Kouyaté was distracted to such an extent that he fluffed a chance to chip the ball into the unguarded net.

Before that Lanzini, set free by Andre Ayew, possibly in his best game for West Ham, had dragged a low shot wide and Bilic certainly appeared intent on exploiting the space this big pitch afforded when Kyle Walker – recalled in place of Kieran Trippier and appearing out-of-sorts amid the interest in him from Manchester City – constantly pushed forward.

West Ham used the space but also closed Spurs down. Their work rate was phenomenal and only in one sequence of play did Spurs truly threaten.

It came with West Ham goalkeeper Adrián spilling Harry Kane’s low shot, Jose Fonte blocking Dele Alli’s follow-up and then Adrián saving superbly with an outstretched leg as Kane drove the ball goalwards once again. From the corner Adrián beat out Dier’s powerful angled header.

They had other half-chances – but nothing of substance. There was little of the constant attacking threat they are capable of with Alli subdued, Kane isolated and Heung-Min Son marginal although he did force another fine save from Adrián with a fierce low shot across the goalkeeper which was pushed away for a corner.

Just as Pochettino decided to change it, spinning on his heels and calling for Mousa Dembélé to try and be his game-breaker from the bench it was West Ham who struck.

Aaron Cresswell – who also performed well on his return – crossed deep with the ball then turned back across goal by another impressive returnee, Sam Byram. Ayew tried to fire it home but was blocked by Jan Vertonghen with the ball running to Lanzini unmarked inside the six-yard area who gleefully thumped it past Lloris.

Spurs were stunned. Jonathan Calleri should have ended it as Toby Alderweireld, uncharacteristically, dawdled inside his own area with the striker stealing the ball away and drilling a right-foot shot that was superbly turned away by Lloris for a corner.

Spurs pushed. They had to. But it was desperate. Passes went astray, West Ham threw their bodies on the line and the minutes ran down.

The faces of the Spurs players – Christian Eriksen, Kane, Alli – said it all as they stood motionless as it all came to an end. As their opponents celebrated, as the West Ham fans goaded them, they knew it was over. The heads were bowed but they can hold them high.

As the Manchester clubs, Liverpool and Arsenal, floundered they gave us a title race. But finally West Ham had a big scalp in the league in this ground; a ground that Spurs had wanted to knock down to build a new stadium here. Instead this is where their title hopes were demolished.

MATCH FACTS (Mail)

WEST HAM: Adrian 7; Fonte 7.5, Reid 8, Collins 7.5; Byram 7, Kouyate 6.5, Noble 7.5, Cresswell 8; Lanzini 8.5 (Fernandes 90), Ayew 7.5 (Snodgrass 84); Calleri 6.5 (Fletcher 89).

SUBS NOT USED: Randolph, Nordtveit, Feghouli, Rice.

BOOKINGS: Noble, Reid, Lanzini, Byram

GOALS: Lanzini 65

MANAGER: Slaven Bilic 8

TOTTENHAM: Lloris 6, Walker 6.5 (Trippier 80 - 6), Alderweireld 5.5, Vertonghen 6 (Dembele 67 - 6), Davies 5.5, Dier 6.5, Wanyama 6.5 (Janssen 73 - 5.5), Son 5, Eriksen 6, Dele 5.5, Kane 6.

SUBS NOT USED: Vorm, Wimmer, Nkoudou, Sissoko.

BOOKINGS: Walker, Trippier

MANAGER: Mauricio Pochettino 5.5

REFEREE: Anthony Taylor

ATTENDANCE: 56,992

Ratings by Rob Draper





Sun

Aden Flint wanted by West Ham and West Brom as Bristol City boss Lee Johnson admits he could struggle to keeper defender

Former non-league defender Flint, 27, has been superb for Robins since joining from rivals Swindon in 2013

By Alex Crook

BRISTOL CITY manager Lee Johnson admits he faces a battle to keep Premier League target Aden Flint next season.

Centre-back Flint is wanted by West Ham and West Brom.



And Johnson says that the former non-league giant could go if a Prem club is prepared to pay bigger money for him.

Speaking ahead of Sunday’s final day clash at home to relegation-haunted Birmingham, Johnson said: “I can’t give any assurances to be honest.

“We know what football’s like.

“This happens at Man Utd, Bristol City or Rochdale if a club comes up with a figure that’s big enough to matches the club’s valuation.

“If you feel that the player wants to go – and the player’s quadrupling their wages – and you’ve got a couple of players you can bring in that will be better or better in the future then it’s again just part of football.

Flint celebrates a later winner against Barnsley in April

“You try and guard against that by giving your better players new contracts, like we did with Aden at the start of the season.

“That means the ball’s in our court if there was a big bid.

“The timing’s key, but the bigger key is to have ready-made replacements in every position anyway as you’re always susceptible to a late bid.”

Takashi Miike 12:28 Sun May 7
Re: Saturday newspapers (includes West Ham)

thanks Alan

El Scorchio 3:37 Sat May 6
Re: Saturday newspapers (includes West Ham)

John Terry...has told friends he has been offered wages of £100,000-a-week and a £5m signing-on fee by one Premier League club.

PLEASE NO

Deany_Mac 3:14 Sat May 6
Re: Saturday newspapers (includes West Ham)

Saul Bollox 3:10 Sat May 6

Think he might be Millwall. What a shit report

Saul Bollox 3:10 Sat May 6
Re: Saturday newspapers (includes West Ham)

Are you sure Barney Ronay's report is from the Guardian? It sounds like it's from the Jewish Chronicle

BubblesCyprus 2:59 Sat May 6
Re: Saturday newspapers (includes West Ham)

Thanks Alan Top Man on WHO.

ted fenton 2:22 Sat May 6
Re: Saturday newspapers (includes West Ham)

Thanks Alan.