Paper Talk
Manchester United insist they remain committed to promoting youth players they have raised themselves - despite this summer's £150m, six-player spending spree.
Former Manchester United No 2 Carlos Queiroz has emerged as a shock contender to take over as manager of their bitter rivals Leeds.
Former Bolton and Aston Villa defender Zat Knight is poised to join MLS side Colorado Rapids.
Scottish champions Celtic have signed Manchester City striker John Guidetti on a season-long loan almost three days after the transfer window closed following a successful appeal to world governing body FIFA.
Conference South side Basingstoke Town make ambitious bid for Brazil legend Ronaldinho.
Chelsea legend Frank Lampard would have stayed at Stamford Bridge if he had been offered a new contract.
Victor Valdes has been given the green light to take his medical at Liverpool next month.
Ian Culverhouse has emerged as the shock favourite for the Leeds job.
Mapou Yanga-Mbawa has labelled Newcastle a bunch of long-ball merchants.
Newcastle's new signing Siem de Jong will be out for four months because of injury.
Newcastle wonderkid Rolando Aarons is a target of Liverpool and Manchester City after just 39 minutes of Premier League football.
Manuel Pellegrini warns Eliaquim Mangala he has to fight for his place at Manchester City.
Mo Diame accuses West Ham boss Sam Allardyce of wrecking his career.
Arsenal could offer a short-term deal to Colombia's free agent 38-year-old centre-back Mario Yepes as a replacement for Thomas Vermaelen.
Former Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes, 32, will join Liverpool next month once is fit enough for a medical after a serious knee injury.
Roy Hodgson is raging over criticism of England after a lacklustre 1-0 win over Norway.
Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal is planning on giving several of his homegrown stars the chance to play in the first team.
PSV Eindhoven's 18-year-old Belgian midfielder Zakaria Bakkali has rejected a new deal, putting Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United on alert.
Stoke star Peter Odemwingie could be out for up to a year after suffering his serious knee injury.
Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal is set to continue spending in the January transfer window with Roma midfielder Kevin Strootman and Borussia Dortmund defender Mats Hummels on his wanted list.
Manchester United manager Louis Van Gaal admits he will not be able to sign Borussia Dortmund defender Mats Hummels for at least two more transfer windows.
Angry Kilmarnock players have called in union bosses to settle a pay dispute with chairman Michael Johnston.
John Guidetti says he cannot wait to get going after finally joining Celtic.
BBC
TRANSFER GOSSIP
Newcastle midfielder Rolando Aarons, 18, is a target for Manchester City and Liverpool after just 39 minutes of Premier League football. (Daily Star)
Schalke general manager Horst Heldt has denied claims Arsenal launched a bid to sign their Dutch striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, 31, in the final hours of the summer transfer window. (London Evening Standard)
Arsenal could offer a short-term deal to Colombia's 38-year-old centre-back and free agent Mario Yepes after failing to replace Thomas Vermaelen, who joined Barcelona in the summer, before the transfer deadline. (Daily Star)
Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal is set to continue spending in the January transfer window following an outlay of £150m in the summer. Roma's Dutch international midfielder Kevin Strootman, 24, and Borussia Dortmund's Germany centre-back Mats Hummels, 25, are potential targets. (the Times - subscription required)
But Van Gaal accepts he will not be able to sign Hummels, whose Dortmund contract runs until 2017, for at least two more transfer windows. (Daily Telegraph)
Former Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes will join Liverpool next month once the Spain goalkeeper, 32, who suffered a serious knee injury in March, is fit enough for a medical. (Daily Mail)
The Reds will need permission from the Premier League for Valdes to play for them before January, as they will need to amend their 25-man squad. (ESPN)
Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United's attempts to sign PSV Eindhoven midfielder Zakaria Bakkali have been boosted by the 18-year-old Belgian, who has a year left on his current deal, rejecting a new deal with the Eredivisie club. (Daily Express)
Liverpool will step up their interest in Stromsgodset's 15-year-old Norway under-21 international midfielder Martin Odegaard, who has also been linked with Manchester United. (Metro)
Former Birmingham and Serbia striker Nikola Zigic, 33, insists he was an option for Arsenal before the Gunners signed Danny Welbeck from Manchester United. (International Business Times)
OTHER GOSSIP
Frank Lampard, 36, who joined Manchester City in the summer on loan from New York City, says he is upset he never got to say a proper goodbye to Chelsea fans. (the Sun - subscription required)
Newcastle fear striker Siem de Jong, 25, could be out for four months after suffering a groin injury in training. (Daily Mirror)
France's main commercial television channel, TF1, has dropped Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger as a match commentator on the national team's matches. (Guardian)
Manchester United defender Phil Jones, 22, says his team-mate Wayne Rooney, 29, will prove to be a "great" England captain. (Manchester Evening News)
Liverpool left-back Alberto Moreno, 22, says he "had a point to make" after a poor debut against Manchester City and was thrilled to score in the 3-0 win over Tottenham. (the Sun - subscription required)
Manager Steven Pressley says Coventry City's return to the Ricoh Arena on Friday night is the biggest day in the club's history since they won the FA Cup in 1987. (Daily Express)
Aston Villa midfielder Kieran Richardson, 29, says the club's assistant manager Roy Keane inspired him to lose weight and get in shape after a serious back injury left him feeling low during their time together at Sunderland seven years ago. (Daily Express)
Meanwhile, Keane says he is "getting the best of both worlds" in working with Villa as well as assisting Martin O'Neill with the Republic of Ireland. (Daily Telegraph)
Manchester United are still focused on producing their own players even though they brought in six players at a cost of £150m this summer. (Daily Mirror)
Midfielder Jordan Henderson, 24, has no doubts that Liverpool team-mate Raheem Sterling, 19, will not get carried away despite the winger's impressive performances for England. (Liverpool Echo)
West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace has called for the transfer window to close before the start of the Premier League season. (Express and Star)
Sixty-one per cent of 155,000 people polled by Spanish newspaper Marca want Costa Rican Keylor Navas, 27, to replace Iker Casillas as goalkeeper following the 4-2 defeat at Real Sociedad. (Marca - Spanish)
BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard, 35, demonstrated his support for the New York Giants as the NFL season got under way.
AND FINALLY
Malta's players were treated to the start of Linkin Park's song Numb over the stadium's speakers as they prepared to sing their national anthem before their 1-0 friendly defeat by Slovakia. (Daily Mirror)
Guardian Rumour Mill
Nick Miller
Think of the Rumour Mill, and transfers in general really, as a Newton’s cradle. Or one of those gold waving cat things (interesting fact to use at your next society cocktail party: due to the differences in the interpretation of gestures and body language between the West and Japan, those cats aren’t actually waving goodbye/hello, but beckoning. You’ll be the hit of the soiree). Or Russell Kane. Sure, you might find it annoying, distracting and vaguely unnecessary, but the one thing you have to admit is that it keeps going. Keeps on churning. Keeps on going. Keeps on keepin’ on.
And it will never, ever stop. You can put your fingers in your ears and cover your eyes as much as you like, but it simply will not cease. So you might as well embrace it, really.
Just as Manchester United fans are no doubt embracing this new-found liking for chucking cash around willy, and indeed nilly. Finally, after years of mending and making do as fifties incontinently gushed out of the club and to some loan shark in a sharp suit or the Glazers’ piggy bank, some of this dough is going on the stuff it’s meant to go on – specifically, players. And lots of them. Shiny ones, too.
After the acquisitions of Angel di Maria and Radamel Falcao, it seems Ed Woodward is taking a further break from swapping family photos with Jorge Mendes to throw a sack of green at Roma, in the hope that Kevin Strootman will be thrown right back. Or, perhaps given the current state of the Dutchman’s knee, carefully packed with hay, bubble wrap and some of that utterly hateful squeaky polystyrene stuff and very carefully shipped over to Manchester.
Louis van Gaal wants a handsome goateed centre-back too, but as his mother should really have taught him, I want doesn’t get, and he will be disappointed in his pursuit of Mats Hummels, with Borussia Dortmund not keen to let their star defender go, even though United were awfully kind and made Jurgen Klopp do that massive and slightly unsettling grin by giving them Shinji Kagawa back.
Heading out the Old Trafford door in January could well be Juan Mata, seemingly marginalised by all these expensive new boys, even though he was one of those expensive new boys only eight short months ago. Those in the know reckon Juventus are counting out the pennies in preparation for a bid for the man who rather unsettlingly resembles a better-looking Wayne Rooney, and if Mata is sold he will presumably take the news in that crushingly pleasant and polite manner that will make you feel bad for occasionally saying ‘Is he actually that good, though?’
Despite Arsenal apparently being in the wad-waving, pocket-jingling, light-a-cigar-with-a-fifty, ‘We’ve-got-oodles-of-cash-to-fire-around-from-a-t-shirt-cannon’ club too these days, they didn’t manage to sign a centre-back in the transfer window, meaning they are basically one injury away from Gunnersaurus or one of those waving/not waving cats having to fill in at centre-half. Rather selfishly Arsene Wenger is keen to avoid such an undeniably entertaining situation, so he’s going to improvise in another, perhaps slightly more traditional manner by signing Mario Yepes, currently a free agent after leaving Atalanta, so thus not restricted by the iron fist of the FIFA registration rules.
Yepes is 38-years-old (39 in January) and missed a decent chunk of last season with injury, so you are very welcome to fill in your own punchline about that one here. Quite apart from anything else, by the time Arsenal have got Yepes up out of his big chair in the corner, oiled up his joints that presumably sound like the walls in the Death Star trash compactor these days and he’s recovered from the ‘three to four week’ injury suffered in his first training session that keeps him out for two months, it’ll be January and the next transfer window anyway, so there’s a reasonable chance this one might be a mild waste of time. Hey ho.
Speaking of free agents with questionable limbs, Liverpool are apparently all set to sign Victor Valdes, once the Spanish keeper’s banjaxed knee is un-banjaxed enough to complete a medical. However, apparently Liverpool will have to put on their best suit of clothes, slick down their hair and say pretty please with sugar on top to the Premier League if they actually want Valdes to play before January, because they will require special permission to add him to their 25-man squad. As that currently only contains 19 players, it would therefore presumably take an act of quite hilarious spiteful officiousness for the suits so say ‘Naaaaah’ to that one.
At the other end of the age scale, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United have supposedly been ALERTED by the news that Zakaria Bakkali, a red hot young munchkin of a winger who is currently setting hearts a flutter at PSV, has rejected a new contract at the Dutch club, and with his current one set to expire next summer, they are understandably keen to get some sort of compensation for the 18-year-old. Atletico Madrid and Borussia Dortmund are mad keen too, it says here.
In further football child news, Liverpool are sniffing around Martin Odegaard, a precocious 15-year-old that the Rumour Mill probably would have immaturely hated at school just because he’s dead good at stuff and probably all the girls fancy him. Manchester United were linked with him in the transfer window, so one suspects Brendan Rodgers is at least partly motivated by the prospect of a delicious gazumping, as much as actually rating and wanting the player.
We’ll leave the final word to Nikola Zigic, who provided us with some light relief as the summer transfer window built to a head-mashing crescendo by being linked with Arsenal. Of course they eventually elected to sign Danny Welbeck, presumably on the basis that he’s better at football than the spindly Serb, and Arsene Wenger pooh-poohed the rumours, but the man himself insists it was all legit:
“My agent was talking with Arsenal but they finally opted for another player,” he said. “We talked with them until the last days of the market. I am very happy because Arsenal had me on their list. I would have liked to join them, but big teams always consider several alternatives.”
And that should probably do it, no more business to attend to h...oh, wait a second. Celtic have signed John Guidetti on loan from Manchester City, four days after the transfer window closed and they thought a paperwork snafu had crushed their dreams. Huh. Bloody love a loophole Celtic, don’t they?
Express
I should have left a long time ago! Mo Diame's parting shot at West Ham
MOHAMED DIAME has accused West Ham boss Sam Allardyce of stalling his career by “shunting” him around the team.
Midfielder Diame, who joined Hull in a £3.5million deadline-day move, insists he would have landed a far bigger club with better treatment at Upton Park.
Senegal captain Diame joined West Ham in 2012 after three seasons at Wigan. He has signed a three-year deal at the KC Stadium.
He said: “At West Ham I was shunted around all the different positions.
“I wanted to play for a club that is high in the Premier League table. At least with Hull I will be certain of playing in my favoured role.
“I should have left West Ham a long time ago, as with them I wasn’t permitted to play in central midfield.
“I wasn’t able to get the biggest clubs interested in me, because when they came to watch me I’d been put in a position that was not mine.”
Mail
Alex Song and Ravel Morrison inspire a stunning West Ham goal against Ipswich
Alex Song and Ravel Morrison put together a series of one touch passes
Diafra Sakho applied the finish to the fine West Ham move
West Ham beat Ipswich Under 21s 5-1 with Fanimo scoring four
Song signed for West Ham from Barcelona on a season-long loan
By Grant Miles
It may have only been an Under 21 fixture against Ipswich but West Ham produced a goal which could have graced any stage.
It was not so much the finish from Diafra Sakho itself that was impressive, more the superb one-touch interplay between Alex Song and Ravel Morrison that preceded it.
Song, who joined the Hammers on deadline day from Barcelona, showed his superior skills with an array of tricks and flicks, at one point even bringing out a cheeky Rabona.
One touch: Song and Morrison combine magnificently for West Ham at the start of their fourth goal
Connection: The two Hammers midfielders show they can read each other's play in the build-up
Slick: West Ham manage to slice through the Ipswich defence with ease to set up a superb goal
Finish: Diafra Sakho is handed the ball on a plate and duly scores from close range
And his tiki-taka touches clearly spurred Morrison into action, as he linked with his team-mate and stretched for a volley to set up Sakho.
Song has signed for West Ham on a season-long loan deal and will be looking to make his debut once he achieves match fitness.
And if he produces skill like that in the first-team, he could help counter the accusations of negativity which dog manager Sam Allardyce's style of play.
And Song could also be the player who finally inspires Morrison to fulfil his undoubted potential.
Matthias Fanimo scored four as the Hammers put on an impressive display against Ipswich - but even that feat could not upstage the superb team goal.
Highlights vid
OS
From the Academy
Academy Manager Terry Westley pens his exclusive column for the Official Website
Hello everyone,
They say a week is a long time in football, and I certainly could not disagree with that. We are only a few games into the season and, as football fans know only too well, a lot has already happened.
Despite only picking up one point out of three games so far, our Under-21s have been putting in good performances. Development Squad coach Nick Haycock said he believes his team deserve seven points for their efforts, and I completely agree.
We could easily have won at Manchester City in a game that ended 1-1 on Sunday. I was at the City game and, with the funding they have got, the quality of players and the value of the side they put out, it was an incredible performance. Kieran Sadlier put us in front, but they equalised with only two minutes to go.
They have gone out and recruited players from all over the place. If you look, we had a 15-year-old in Reece Oxford playing. We are delighted with the performance we put in. Their Development coach Patrick Vieira was talking about how impressed he was with the commitment to the task our boys put in. That's a big compliment to the work our staff and our players put in.
Sometimes it's not about the result, you turn a blind eye to that and concentrate on the development of the players. All we are trying to do is to get the best performances out of our players. My role is to stretch them as far as I dare. For Reece Burke and Oxford playing at the back, it was a great experience for them, they were tested to the maximum and they will learn from that. In that respect they will be better prepared for first team.
The same is true for our U18 coach Steve Potts, whose team drew 3-3 at home to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday and remain unbeaten.
Steve is clearly a legend at the club, with the amount of games he played. He has also got two boys in the system, which is not easy for himself, or the two boys. Steve handles that responsibility with great respect. He never gives anyone a favour, he is a very honest, hardworking coach. He never uses the fact that he has played over 500 times for the team as a way to get in. He is early in to training, and he is late to leave. He is now working towards his UEFA A license. To me he looks like a coach whose individual plan can go a long way, just like his career here.
Here at the Academy we have an all-round philosophy which is to promote our most talented youth players into more senior age categories. As a result of this, sometimes we are going to lose games because we are going to play younger players in the team. As far as I am concerned, as long as we are sticking to this plan, we are doing the right thing and are going in the right direction. We could fill our squads with experienced players and we would win a lot of games, but we might not get anyone through the system.
Nick was very upset we did not win on Sunday against Manchester City. First, he is a City boy, as he is from that area and worked for the club previously. We were leading until two minutes to go, you could see the emotion in his face. But we have to focus on the positives. The fact we came away having 'only' drawn to City shows how ambitious we are. Those are they high standards we expect of ourselves. A further positive is that, with Reece Oxford, we had the best player on the pitch.
Another positive is players like Jordan Brown who we've recruited, scored two goals the other weekend for the U18s and he looked dangerous. Yes, you want to win, but we also want to promote young players into older age categories. Steve understands that, that's what we want to do.
It cannot be a generic system. We cannot do the same training sessions for every player we've got. Reece Oxford is on a very different programme to what Elliot Lee needs for example. There are at different levels in their careers. We need to be sure we're giving individual work depending on their needs so that when there are 18 they have the toolkit to play in the Premier League.
We have a number of players away on international duty this week and next and it is a learning curve for all of them. You want them to learn from all the other talented players they are around. It's an opportunity to work with different coaches and tactics, maybe play in a different position. At the same time it is important they don't get carried away with international calls because there are plenty of boys of play for England U16s and U17s who don't have careers. They have to understand that what they do for us is the bread and butter in terms of their careers.
We've got Josh Cullen going away with the England U19s, Kieran Sadlier going away with Republic of Ireland U21s, so there's a hefty group of players who are getting a taste. Reece Burke was on stand-by for the England U19s. I watched the England game last night and watched Raheem Sterling, Jordan Henderson and Fabian Delph, and we have to be in that mould. We have to create players of that ilk who can go into our team and push on into the very highest level.
This weekend, those not on international duty will have a challenge of their own as the Premier League have invited two foreign teams - Benfica and Real Madrid - alongside Spurs and us, to a four-team tournament at Tottenham.
We accepted that invitation, the tournament is this Friday and Saturday. On Saturday at Little Heath we're hosting a tournament for the Under-16s - West Ham, Fulham, Spurs and Norwich. The winners of that will go through to an international tournament.
All in all, it's been another interesting and exciting week at the Academy, and the next seven days promise to be no different!
Terry Westley
