BBC
Real Madrid want to sign Manchester United and Spain goalkeeper David de Gea, 28, following Zinedine Zidane's return to the club. (Sunday Mirror)
Zidane says no final decision has been made on Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois' future at the club. The 26-year-old, who was signed after Zidane left the club in May 2018, was dropped for the Frenchman's first match back. (Evening Standard)
Madrid are also keen on Tottenham midfielder Christian Eriksen - but the Premier League club want £200m for the 26-year-old Dane. (Sunday Star)
Real could sell Wales striker Gareth Bale, 29, to Chelsea as part of a swap deal for Belgian midfielder Eden Hazard, 28. (Sunday Express)
Chelsea will attempt to stop 18-year-old Callum Hudson-Odoi's dream transfer to Bayern Munich, if Hazard opts for a move to Real Madrid. The German champions could break the Premier League record fee for a teenager if the winger favours a move to the Bundesliga. (Sun)
Tottenham are preparing a £50m bid for Fulham winger Ryan Sessegnon. The 18-year-old - who has attracted interested from Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain - has yet to sign a new deal with Fulham. (Sunday Mirror)
Mauricio Pochettino also sent scouts to watch Benfica's 19-year-old Portuguese striker Joao Pedro Neves Filipe. (Sunday Star)
Inter Milan are ready to sell Argentine striker Mauro Icardi, 26, and Croatian striker Ivan Perisic, 30, with Manchester United and Arsenal both interested in signing either player. (La Gazzetta Dello Sporto - in Italian)
Paris St-Germain have put contract talks with Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, 41, Brazilian right-back Dani Alves, 35, and Brazilian defender Thiago Silva, 34, on hold after the French club were knocked out of the Champions League by Manchester United. (L'Equipe - in French)
Former Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp believes Mauricio Pochettino has his "dream job" and that he "doesn't see where he could go that's any better at the moment than managing Tottenham". Pochettino had been linked to a job at either Real Madrid or Manchester United. (Star)
Manager Pep Guardiola says that Borussia Dortmund's English winger Jadon Sancho, 18, "didn't not want the challenge" of attempting to become a first-team regular at Manchester City. Sancho left the Premier League club in August 2017. (Sky Sports)
DR Congo want to convince Crystal Palace defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka to play for the national team. The 21-year-old was born in London and is of Congolese heritage. (Independent)
Arsenal are keen to sign Wan-Bissaka, although Palace want £40m for the right-back. (Sun)
Everton manager Marco Silva has told Colombian defender Yerry Mina, 24, he needs to be more consistent if he wants to become a regular in the first team. (Sky Sports)
Manchester United, Tottenham and Manchester City are all interested in signing Lyon's 22-year-old French midfielder Tanguy Ndombele. (Calciomercato)
Barcelona are interested in Celta Vigo's Uruguayan striker Maxi Gomez - but they may not make a move for the 22-year-old as he does not have an EU passport. (Marca - in Spanish)
Sevilla have opened talks with Roma's former director of football Monchi, who has been linked with a move to Arsenal. (Talksport)
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says his side do not need "any big-money buys". (Sunday Times - subscription required)
Everton's Brazilian forward Richarlison, 21, says he almost quit football as a teenager to "sell ice creams" to help his family out. (Liverpool Echo)
Guardian
Javier Hernández the hero as West Ham beat Huddersfield in seven-goal thriller
Javier Hernández scored twice as West Ham came back from the brink of a humiliating defeat. Huddersfield, bottom of the Premier League and all but doomed, were heading towards only their fourth win of the season when they led 3-1 through Juninho Bacuna and a double from Karlan Grant. But Hernández came off the bench to score twice and push Huddersfield another step closer to the Championship.
“I hate it when my team play badly,” Manuel Pellegrini said. “I think everyone was disappointed when we were 3-1 down but we did well to come back. The victory is very good for the fans, especially when you are losing 3-1 and you don’t give up. That reflects the character of the team. It’s good for everyone. For the fans, for me, the players. It’s good for everyone except Huddersfield.”
Huddersfield had scored only eight away goals before they showed up at the London Stadium. By half-time that tally had reached double figures and just after an hour they made it 11 with West Ham looking every bit a set of players who have already clocked off for the summer.
Mark Noble’s early penalty gave West Ham a false sense of security and Huddersfield had hit three goals before Angelo Ogbonna made it 3-2 with 15 minutes left. Hernández then took over to earn West Ham a third successive home Premier League win for the first time since they moved to the former Olympic Stadium.
They had been gifted the lead after a quarter of an hour when the 18-year-old Aaron Rowe, making his full debut, tripped Manuel Lanzini in the area and Noble did the honours. Yet two minutes later Huddersfield, who had not scored a goal away from home since Boxing Day, were level. Michail Antonio lost Bacuna at Aaron Mooy’s corner, leaving Bacuna with a free header to open his account for the club.
Worse was to follow when Alex Pritchard played a short free-kick out wide to Chris Löwe. The Huddersfield full-back drove the ball low into a crowded area and Grant was on hand to steer it home from six yards out.
West Ham trooped off at half-time with boos ringing in their ears and Pellegrini sent on Hernández for Antonio. Marko Arnautovic, summoned from the naughty step for a first start since January when the striker declared he wanted to move to China, should have equalised after a jinking run from Felipe Anderson but shot too close to the goalkeeper Jonas Lössl.
Moments later Huddersfield had their third, Grant bullying Issa Diop off the ball and cutting inside Ogbonna’s feeble challenge before curling into the top corner.
Arnautovic was substituted to the sound of more jeers, illustrating that all is not yet forgiven for the former crowd favourite. Yet his departure may have galvanised West Ham as, with 15 minutes remaining, they halved the deficit, Ogbonna scoring with a powerful downward header from Aaron Cresswell’s corner.
In the 84th minute the substitute Samir Nasri sent over an inviting diagonal cross that Hernández buried at the far post with a diving header. Even then Huddersfield could have won it, only for Philip Billing to hook a glorious chance over from eight yards out. So there was an air of inevitability when, in stoppage time, Felipe Anderson lofted the ball into the area and Hernández guided it home to cap a barmy match.
“Javier’s an important player,” Pellegrini said. “Every time he’s inside the box he is dangerous. He started on the bench so did not have so much pressure. I always say to players that subs are so important, they must have their minds on the game.”
It was hard not to sorry feel for Huddersfield, destined for the drop but so close to securing only a fourth win of the season. Their crestfallen manager, Jan Siewert, said: “I can’t describe my feelings right now. Look at my face.
“We scored three goals, we haven’t done that all year, so the match plan worked. I was working so hard all week. I am so proud of the performance. There are reasons we are bottom of the table but we kept fighting and you saw that today.”
Telegraph
Javier Hernandez heads two late goals for West Ham to deny Huddersfield a rare win
Mark Evans, London Stadium
A storming finish, inspired by Javier Hernandez, brought three goals in the final 15 minutes and eased the disquiet that was beginning to slowly take root around West Ham during a difficult start to 2019.
Manuel Pellegrini’s side could have been in the FA Cup quarter-finals this weekend, save for an embarrassing defeat at Wimbledon, or pushing for a place in Europe but for a mediocre run of league results that hit a low point in last weekend’s defeat at Cardiff.
Down 3-1 against a Huddersfield team that now stands possibly two games from certain relegation to the Championship, the Hammers entered the game’s final quarter-hour with the stadium emptying and those supporters that remained far from happy at events unfurling before them.
Enter Hernandez and a performance, and victory, that will certainly ensure a better mood for Pellegrini and his players this week.
“It was good for everyone, for the fans, me, the players,” said Pellegrini. “The whole team played very bad but we had three players as subs who did very well in this game and the important thing was not to give up. A lot of times, maybe you’re finished when you’re 3-1 down after 71-72 minutes.”
West Ham certainly looked finished when Karlan Grant, a £2 million January signing from Charlton who, one supposes, will have a big part to play if Huddersfield are to return to the Premier League from the Championship next season, scored his second goal of the afternoon after 65 minutes.
It was a goal to savour as Terence Kongolo’s short pass from inside the Huddersfield half found the young forward who spun past Issa Diop and sped through, before despatching a magnificent 25-yard shot into the top corner.
But Huddersfield, as manager Jan Siewert lamented later, are bottom of the table for a reason and proceeded to demonstrate precisely why in the minutes that followed.
After 75 minutes, Angelo Ogbonna rose powerfully to meet an Aaron Cresswell corner with an emphatic finish that breathed belief into a stadium that had booed off their team at the interval and jeered off the ineffective Mark Arnautovic after an hour.
Suitably inspired, it was Hernandez who was found, unmarked, six yards out to stoop and head in a cross from fellow substitute Samir Nasri after 83 minutes. And in the second of the five minutes of stoppage time that would be added on, Hernandez made the most subtle, but important, of touches to glance along Felipe Anderson’s cross, from a Cresswell short corner, to leave Jonas Lossl rooted to the spot.
“Look at my face,” said Siewert when asked how disappointed he was. “After the game, I went to our supporters and tipped my cap to them, as you say in English. We have seven more games left to represent the club and the people working at this club because they are amazing.”
Still, if the remainder of this season is about putting the building blocks in place for a promotion campaign this time next year, an afternoon in the capital was hardly a complete waste of time for the visitors or their supporters. Initially, it had looked destined to be another fruitless outing for a team with four wins in the past 13 months when Michail Antonio headed against the bar early and Aaron Rowe unnecessarily tripped Manuel Lanzini inside the area to allow Mark Noble the penalty that produced a 15th-minute lead.
But a West Ham defence badly exposed in the Cardiff defeat again looked far from confident and that advantage lasted just two minutes.
Aaron Mooy’s corner should have been dealt with as it sailed into the six-yard box but Juninho Bacuna rose way above Issa Diop to power the ball home.
Uncertainty in the home defence was exposed again when Huddersfield took the lead after half an hour through Grant’s first. Alex Pritchard’s quick free-kick caught out Antonio, who failed to close down Chris Lowe on the left. His centre might have been cleared, but the ball reached the young striker who converted clinically.
The real drama and, for the neutrals at least, heightened entertainment was to come in the late stages after Pellegrini’s game-changing substitutions, most notably when Jason Puncheon missed a glorious chance to restore Huddersfield’s lead from six yards, just moments before West Ham’s winner.
But, ultimately, the day belonged to Hernandez who, just seven days earlier, had been booked and heavily criticised for diving in the defeat at Cardiff. “Javier has been playing well for all the games but the game against Cardiff, all the team played very badly including him,” said Pellegrini. “Today was much better for him. He started on the bench and I always say to players the subs are so important, so they must have their mind on the game.”
C&H
Hammers Gomez hopes rise
West Ham’s hopes of signing Celta Vigo’s Maxi Gomez on the cheap rose yesterday as his club, relegation threatened Celta Vigo were beaten by Real Madrid 2-0.
It’s now well known there is a clause in the striker’s contract which allows him to leave for 22 million should the club drop out of La Liga 1.
And the defeat in Madrid brought that reality a little closer with Vigo remaining in the relegation spots at third off bottom.
The team face a crucial game next weekend when the team immediately above them, Villareal, visit.
Should Villareal today beat second off bottom Rayo Vallecano they can go four points clear of Vigo ahead of next weekend’s game.
Meanwnhile Hammers insiders have made it clear to CandH that stories the striker is fancied by Barcelona are little more than “agent talk.”
A well placed source – speaking to us by telephone – said: “We developed a good relationship with Celta Vigo during talks in summer and the suggestions of Barcelona smack of agent talk.”
Marca
Gomez has an important handicap. The Uruguayan does not have an EU passport and that is a problem. At this time, Barcelona has covered the three non-EU places with Arthur, Arturo Vidal and Malcom. If they wanted to bring Maxi Gómez they would be forced to part with one of those three players.
The continuity of Arthur is non-negotiable, that of the other two not so much, although both have reached Barcelona this season. Malcom's would be the most feasible.
