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BBC
Brazilian forward Neymar, 25, has told Barcelona team-mates Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez he will stay at the club, after the pair persuaded him not to join Paris St-Germain in a world record £200m deal. (Sport)
Arsenal forward Alexis Sanchez's transfer to PSG is on hold after talks collapsed over the 28-year-old's transfer fee and wage demands. (Le Parisien via Talksport)
Gunners boss Arsene Wenger fears Chile international Sanchez has been tapped up but reiterated that the player, who has one year left on his deal, will not be sold. (Daily Telegraph)
Arsenal are set to make a move for Sporting Lisbon midfielder William Carvalho, 25. (Record via Daily Star)
Chelsea will step up their interest in 23-year-old Arsenal midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain this week but can expect a battle from Manchester City. (Daily Express)
Everton have offered £40m plus a further £5m in add-ons for Swansea playmaker Gylfi Sigurdsson, 27. (Daily Express)
Swansea City have been given permission to hold talks with their former striker Wilfried Bony after putting in place a deal with Manchester City for the 28-year-old. (Wales Online)
Tottenham are closing in on the signing of Germany Under-21 defender Jeremy Toljan, 22, from Hoffenheim.(Record via Sun)
Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino says 27-year-old midfielder Moussa Sissoko, who joined from Newcastle for £30m last season, is still part of his plans. (Standard)
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp says 23-year-old midfielder Emre Can, who has one year remaining on his contract, is going nowhere this summer and that there have been "good talks" over a new contract. (Liverpool Echo)
But Juventus will make a bid of between £27m and £31m for Germany international Can and, if that fails, will try to sign him on a free transfer next summer. (Tuttosport via Daily Mail)
Liverpool will not make a move for Southampton centre-back Virgil van Dijk, 26, unless they are invited to do so by the south coast club. (Daily Mail)
Manchester City have dropped their asking price for 30-year-old midfielder Samir Nasri, who is being shunned by team-mates on the club's pre-season tour because of his arrogance, from £21m to £10m. (Times - subscription required)
West Brom are preparing a £10m bid for Manchester United defender Chris Smalling, 27. (Daily Star)
Talks between Leicester City winger Riyad Mahrez and Roma have taken place but the Foxes are still unwilling to accept an offer of £30m for the 26-year-old. (Gianluca di Marzio)
Liverpool's chances of signing RB Leipzig midfielder Naby Keita are looking increasingly remote as the German club insist they will not sell the 22-year-old Guinean this summer. (Sky Sports)
The Reds will not increase their £66m bid for Keita and will instead return to sign the player in 12 months when his release clause will be £48m. (Daily Telegraph)
Inter Milan boss Luciano Spalletti says the club could sell winger Ivan Perisic, 28, if they "are satisfied with the money" amid interest from Manchester United. (Daily Mirror)
Bayer Leverkusen striker Javier Hernandez, 29, will fly to London on Tuesday to complete his move to West Ham. (Sky Sports)
Manchester United and Arsenal could go head-to-head for Real Madrid's 21-year-old winger Marco Asensio. (Don Balon via Daily Star)
Newcastle United are hopeful of signing Hull midfielder Sam Clucas, 26, for £4m. (Sun)
Leicester City are closing in on Coventry City's George Thomas, 20, and are preparing to make a second bid of £500,000 for the striker. (Independent)
Swansea have made a £3m bid for Barnsley full-back Andy Yiadom, 25, after their first bid was rejected. (Sun)
Leicester striker Jamie Vardy, 30, says he has "no regrets" over not moving to Arsenal last summer. (Daily Mirror)
Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas, 30, says strikers Alvaro Morata, 24, and Michy Batshuayi, 23, will be "under pressure" to get up to speed quickly as they are the club's "main strikers". (Times - subscription required)
Manchester United's Henrikh Mkhitaryan, 28, says he will be a "better player" after some tough times last season. (Guardian)
The best of Sunday's transfer news
Barcelona are ready to offer £80m for Liverpool and Brazil midfielder Philippe Coutinho, 25. (Sunday Mirror)
PSG are increasingly confident of signing forward Neymar for £196m from Barcelona, with the Brazilian supposedly having agreed a contract worth £27m a year after tax. (Sunday Express)
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has denied forward Alexis Sanchez, 28, is on the verge of a £70m move to Paris St-Germain. (Standard)
Chelsea will make a formal offer for Arsenal midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain within the next 48 hours but face competition from Manchester City for the 23-year-old. (Sunday Express)
Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane believes forward Cristiano Ronaldo "is going to stay" with the club after reports he wanted to leave Spain following tax fraud allegations. (Independent)
Guardian Rumour Mill
Nick Ames
Even allowing for the fact that pre-season news cycles make each day seem like a month, and that for all we know they’ll be forced to play Steve Bould up front against Leicester on the opening day, this hasn’t felt like the most Arsenal-ish of transfer windows so far. Sead Kolasinac and Alexandre Lacazette were both nailed down early on and look fine signings; there hasn’t, when we cut to the chase, been too much sign of Alexis Sánchez or Mesut Özil leaving either and at the current rate of knots you might be forgiven for thinking Thursday really will be the next Friday in Islington from next month.
Especially if they can somehow get Marco Asensio through the door. What now? Yes, Real Madrid’s boy wonder is apparently on their radar and would go down just nicely as a long-term replacement for their want-away Chilean – who will presumably be high-fiving with Gunnersaurus for one more year. Manchester United and Juventus are among those interested too, though, while Real wouldn’t mind keeping hold of the gifted forward themselves – all of which files these links under “curious”.
Any move for Asensio could, of course, happen rather more urgently if Sánchez left round about now. Paris Saint-Germain may still be his best bet, particularly with their bid for Neymar seeming to have hit the skids. How do we know that? We know because Gerard Piqué has posted a photo with him and his club-mate looking very happy indeed, along with a message reading “He stays”, on his Instagram account. Footballers are what has given the Mill a job; footballers appear to be what soon put the Mill out of a job.
Up in Liverpool, they’re still keen to make good their long-term interest in Virgil van Dijk but they’re going to be very polite about it and only bid for the want-away Southampton defender when given permission. Who said leopards couldn’t change their spots? The Saints may be less than keen to grant it given Chelsea’s interest in both Ryan Bertrand and Cédric Soares. Liverpool will also have to go softly, softly for their RB Leipzig target Naby Keïta, who now looks a more likely target for next summer when he would become a modern-day steal at £48m.
Could West Bromwich Albion, model retirement home for pensioned-off Manchester United stalwarts, be about to see another one – perhaps earlier than expected? They are apparently taking a look at Chris Smalling, who could become surplus to requirements at Old Trafford with Victor Lindelof on the books and Eric Bailly back to fitness. United aren’t done with their own chequebook though and may have a clear-ish run at Nemanja Matic now that Juventus have opted against pursuing the Chelsea midfielder.
One front that has been pretty quiet of late is the Moussa Dembélé front – but things could be about to warm up considerably with the news that Marseille and Celtic have been discussing a possible deal. It’s thought that £20m could get Dembélé to the south of France, although the timing would be far from ideal.
Newly-relegated Hull City think the way to get over losing Andy Robertson to Liverpool is to replace him with Brentford’s Rico Henry, while newly-promoted Brighton are keen for Cardiff’s Kenneth Zohore to lead their line. And that’s your lot for today. Another week of all this starts here.
ESPN
Javier Hernandez ready to take his starting chance with West Ham
Stephan Uersfeld
Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez is the all-time top scorer in Mexico's history and third on the list of Mexican players to score in Europe (behind only Hugo Sanchez and Carlos Vela). But as he prepares to join West Ham, his time at Bayer Leverkusen has shown one thing: that he thrives when given a chance to shine.
Hernandez never settled at Manchester United after spending five years at the club having arrived from Guadalajara in 2010. And when Manchester United coach Louis van Gaal and assistant Ryan Giggs exchanged a knowing glance when the striker missed a second-half penalty in a 4-0 win against Club Brugge in late August 2015, it was clear the Mexican's time at Old Trafford was up.
Having only just returned to England after spending the previous season on loan at Real Madrid (where he scored nine goals in 33 games), Manchester United cut their losses and sold Hernandez to Leverkusen for around £7 million.
After 103 matches and 37 goals -- with a league-high of 14 coming from the bench -- his 44 appearances as a substitute had earned him a reputation as a "super-sub" but given him little chance to cement his place in the XI.
But in Germany, for the first time in his European career, Chicharito was no longer second-choice and became one of the key players in Bayer's attack during a largely successful season that saw them finished third behind the league's two powerhouses Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund in 2015-16.
Mostly used as the left attacker in then-Leverkusen coach Roger Schmidt's hard-running 4-2-2-2 system, Hernandez, after a short period of adaptation, started to clock up the goals: a total of 26 in 40 matches in all competitions that season. Contrary to his time at United, Hernandez started 38 of them and over his two seasons he played the third-most games of all Leverkusen players.
Though the goals did not come so easy in a difficult second term at the Bay-Arena, he still managed a total of 39 goals in 76 matches. And, in total, he had 87 shots on goal, more than any other Bayer player in those two seasons, and nearly 45 percent of those shots made it past the keeper.
But his time at Leverkusen can't simply be qualified by the number of goals he scored. The striker also boosted Leverkusen's profile in the United States and Mexico, where the Bundesliga club became a household name, and his selfless runs opened up plenty of space for his teammates.
Hernandez perfectly fitted into Roger Schmidt's idea of long-ball football. He held the ball up between the lines, waited for the wingers to catch up, distributed, and moved into the penalty box to find a position where he was most effective. His one weakness remains tracking back and helping out when his side need to recover the ball, but it's clear that he thrives when given more games.
Yet, in his second season at the Bay-Arena amid the collapse of Roger Schmidt's system, it became evident that Chicharito has not overcome a certain weakness. While he works incredibly hard when his side's in possession of the ball, tracking back and helping out his teammates trying to recover the ball was until this day does not remain his biggest strengths.
The 29-year-old arrives back in the Premier League at the perfect time. He still has some good years ahead of him, has the experience needed to success in England and now has the confidence to showcase what he can as a starter.
West Ham came 11th in "goals scored" (47) in the Premier League last season, 15th in shots attempted (9.4 percent) and last in the ranking for shots on target (26.9 percent), so they will certainly appreciate having a goal scorer in their ranks.
Hernandez, for his part, will be seen to show Manchester United what they missed when he lines up against his old side in the first match of the new Premier League season on Aug. 13.
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