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Paper Talk
Alan Pardew has delivered more bad news to Newcastle fans by admitting Cheick Tiote is unsettled and could quit the club.
Chelsea's Ryan Bertrand has set the stage for a permanent transfer to Southampton following a dig at 'dishonest' Blues.
West Ham's Diafra Sakho is at the centre of a headbutt bust-up with Luke Shaw after the Manchester United defender ended Saturday's game with a black eye.
Aston Villa striker Christian Benteke is set to return from a six-month knee injury lay-off against Manchester City on Saturday.
Eden Hazard has ruled out any chance of leaving Chelsea for Paris Saint-Germain, despite continued interest from the French champions.
Eliaquim Mangala's calamitous display at the KC Stadium has left Manuel Pellegrini with a dilemma for Manchester City's Champions League clash with Roma tomorrow night.
Christian Benteke is close to ending his injury nightmare and could make a long-awaited return against Manchester City on Saturday.
Arsenal fear midfielder Aaron Ramsey could be out for up to six weeks after pulling his hamstring in Saturday's clash with Tottenham.
Valencia are hoping to bring Manchester United playmaker Juan Mata back to the club.
Wayne Rooney has apologised to his Manchester United team-mates for getting sent off against West Ham.
Manchester City midfielder has warned their fellow title contenders that the best is yet to come from the Premier League champions.
Wayne Rooney has admitted that he is braced for a debate about whether he has the temperament to captain Manchester United and England in the wake of his "crazy" red card against West Ham United.
Newcastle United hope to open talks with Cheik Tiote in an effort to extend the Ivory Coast player's contract at St James' Park.
Stoke City manager Mark Hughes had hoped Newcastle's French striker Emmanuel Riviere would be turning out for his side this season, instead of their opponents tonight.
Liverpool are set to offer star midfielder Raheem Sterling a new deal to fend off interest from Real Madrid.
Aston Villa, Sunderland and Southampton are queueing up to sign Manchester United outcast Ashley Young.
BBC
TRANSFER GOSSIP
Chelsea forward Eden Hazard, 23, has ruled out any chance of leaving Chelsea for Paris St-Germain, despite continued interest from the French champions. (Daily Mail)
Manchester United playmaker Juan Mata has emerged as a transfer target for former club Valencia, with the Spanish club keen to sign the 26-year-old on loan in January with a view to a £30m deal next summer. (Daily Star)
Newcastle manager Alan Pardew says midfielder Cheick Tiote, 28, was left unsettled by the prospect of a move to the Russian league during the summer and is keen to get the Ivory Coast international tied to a new deal at the Tyneside club. (Daily Mirror)
Stoke manager Mark Hughes says striker Emmanuel Riviere, 24, turned down a move to the Potters in the summer in favour of joining Newcastle. (The Times - subscription required)
Aston Villa, Sunderland and Southampton are set to battle it out for the signature of Manchester United winger Ashley Young, 29. (Daily Express)
Chelsea's Ryan Bertrand, 25, whose loan stint at Southampton is his ninth with seven different clubs, is hoping to make his latest escape from Stamford Bridge in January. (Daily Mirror)
Nottingham Forest boss Stuart Pearce says his injury problems could force him to dip into the loan transfer market. (Daily Star)
OTHER GOSSIP
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers gave up his free Sunday to join striker Daniel Sturridge, 25, in a training session to test his fitness ahead of this week's Champions League match in Basel. (Daily Mail)
West Brom manager Alan Irvine believes striker Saido Berahino should be in England manager Roy Hodgson's thoughts for the upcoming European Championship qualifiers against San Marino and Estonia. (Birmingham Mail)
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has ordered his players in for extra practice at taking corners. The Gunners had 15 corners in Saturday's north London derby draw with Spurs but created only one chance from them. (Daily Express)
Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has revealed he will continue to rotate his squad, including goalkeepers Joe Hart and Willy Caballero. (Manchester Evening News)
Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock has praised the performance of winger Jason Puncheon, 28, after criticising him last season. (The Guardian)
BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Manchester City midfielder Samir Nasri is facing a spell out after having groin surgery but the Frenchman is hoping for a quick recovery after tweeting a picture of himself from his hospital bed. "Thanks for the support!" he wrote. "Surgery went well! Now time for recovery!"
Not surprisingly, Europe's win in the Ryder Cup has captured interest from plenty of Premier League footballers. "Yes, well played #TeamEurope totally deserved, and for Donaldson to clinch it in his first Ryder Cup too!" wrote Stoke goalkeeper Jack Butland. Manchester United's Michael Carrick added: "There you go!! What a shot to win it @DonaldsonJamie Well done boys, top drawer."
AND FINALLY
A campaign has been launched calling for former Stoke City kit man Neil Baldwin to be given a knighthood after his story was told in the BBC film Marvellous last week. (Stoke Sentinel)
Guardian Rumour Mill
Barry Glendenning
With Juan Mata no longer guaranteed a starting berth at Manchester United following the arrival of Ángel Di María, Ander Herrera and Radamel Falcao at Old Trafford, speculation linking him with a move to his old stomping ground of Valencia at some point during the next transfer window is quietly simmering on the hob of transfer chat. The Spanish club is currently the subject of a takeover by Singapore-based billionaire Peter Lim, who has previously attempted to buy Liverpool and more recently negotiated the purchase of a 50% share of another world famous club, the Evo-Stik Division One North club Salford City from Class of 92 members Ryan Giggs, Gary and Phil Neville, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes.
Any move for Mata, who left Valencia for Chelsea in 2011, will depend on Lim first reaching an agreement with pithily titled Spanish financial institution Bankia, who hold the club’s debt. A little over a week ago Lim instructed his representatives to postpone negotiations with the bank after growing frustrated by what he perceived to be their lack of co-operation. Having already invested significantly in Valencia, by bringing in players such as Álvaro Negredo, Rodrigo and André Gomes, it seems unlikely that Lim will give up on his plan to revive the grand old club just yet.
Ashley Young is another player who looks surplus to attacking requirements at Old Trafford, but ought to have no shortage of suitors in January. According to the Daily Express, Sunderland, Southampton and Young’s alma mater Aston Villa are all interested in signing the player, who is very much up for sale despite his United contract running until the summer of 2016. Meanwhile in the defensive ranks, United quite like the cut of Juventus centre-back Angelo Ogbonna’s jib. A left-footed stopper of Nigerian extraction who has nine senior appearances for Italy under his belt, the 26-year-old Ogbonna is a central defender by trade but can also line up at full-back if required. A price tag of £12m has been mentioned, but United may have to fend off interest from Arsenal, among other clubs who are monitoring the defender.
Good news for Chelsea fans, who’ll be delighted to hear that Eden Hazard has been telling French television station Canal+ that he isn’t interested in signing for Paris Saint-Germain, despite the French club’s apparent obsession with signing him up. Earlier this summer, Hazard opted to stay at Chelsea despite widespread speculation about his future and more recent comments suggest he’s happy with his decision to remain in London. “When I left Lille, I wanted to leave France, so I couldn’t have signed for PSG,” he said. “Every year I’m the priority of PSG. But I’m at Chelsea and this is where I want to grow. This is the most important. Never say never, but if I came back to Ligue 1, it would be with Lille, the team I support and I still love.”
Meanwhile on Merseyside, Brendan Rodgers is counting out £31m from the club change jar in the hope that it will be enough to convince Napoli to part with Gonzalo Higuaín, who has yet to score in five Serie A appearances this season. The Argentinian striker hasn’t completely lost his mojo, having bagged one goal in the Champions League against Sparta Prague, and it seems rumours of his unhappiness at Napoli may have been greatly exaggerated. “This is a fantastic city where to play soccer and, as in any place, where you win, everyone is happy, when you don’t, people overreact,” he said last week. “I chose to come here, Naples is a wonderful city.”
The city of Liverpool has no shortage of charms either and Raheem Sterling’s “people” will soon be preparing for talks with the club regarding a big fat contract extension that will keep their client on Merseyside. With Real Madrid believed to be sniffing around the young winger, they’ll have no shortage of leverage with which to bargain. Meanwhile at Goodison Park, the lesser-spotted Tony Hibbert, who kept Sterling in his pocket after making his first Everton start for 666 days on Saturday, will be all a tremble after hearing weekend rumours that José Mourinho hopes to spend £20m on an Everton right-back. Sadly, with Roman Abramovich likely to decide that Hibbert looks a wee bit too much like Vladimir Putin for his liking, Mourinho will almost certainly bid for Séamus Coleman instead.
And finally, Rumour Mill readers with a spare £100m knocking around might consider buying Aston Villa, now that the club’s owner Randy Lerner has slashed his original selling price by 50%.
Mail
Manchester United feel Wayne Rooney red card was unjust... especially after Diafra Sakho headbutt left Luke Shaw with a shiner
Manchester United defeated West Ham 2-1 in their Premier League clash
Captain Wayne Rooney was sent off for kicking out at Stewart Downing
Alleged headbutt involving Diafra Sakho left Luke Shaw with a black eye
By Ian Ladyman
Manchester United’s sense of injustice over Wayne Rooney’s red card on Saturday has been heightened by their private view that defender Luke Shaw was the victim of a headbutt by West Ham forward Diafra Sakho.
United manager Louis van Gaal made the slightly peculiar claim on Saturday night that Rooney’s foul of Stewart Downing in the second half of his team’s 2-1 win at Old Trafford was no worse than some tackles committed by their opponents.
However it was an alleged incident between Shaw and Sakho that infuriated United as the teenage full-back left the stadium sporting a huge shiner beneath his left eye.
United would not comment publicly on the matter but at one stage in the second-half Shaw was seen remonstrating with a linesman who he clearly felt should have picked up the incident.
On Sunday night, the FA had no record of a complaint and will wait to see if there is anything in the report of referee Lee Mason when it drops on Monday morning.
Shaw was also critical of the decision to send off Rooney and claimed his tackle was no worse than a trip on him by Sakho earlier in the game.
'We have actually had a lot of bad luck, especially with Wazza’s red card as I would say there was a handball before that but the referee didn’t stop play,' said Shaw.
'Earlier in the game, Sakho did the same to me.
'But I just focus on winning games and I’ll keep doing that.'
OS
Manager on Monday
Sam Allardyce is demanding a defensive improvement from his West Ham United side
Sam Allardyce wants his West Ham United side to start turning performances into points when Queens Park Rangers visit the Boleyn Ground on Sunday.
The West Ham United manager saw encouraging showing sadly yield no return as his side were narrow losers at Manchester United on Saturday. He demanding more of his squad this Sunday and is clear that the primary area for improvement is a defence that he feels is shipping goals far too easily at present.
"Overall I wouldn't say it's been a great start [to the season] in terms of points as we should have at least nine or maybe ten points so far," Allardyce said. "There have been some great performances but great performances need to accumulate points and they're not accumulating enough points.
"Our team seriously has to start thinking about not conceding too many goals. At the moment we have to score a minimum of two goals a game and I don't think we're quite there at the moment where we can score two or more goals every game to get where we want to."
Tellingly, some generous defending from the visitors played a part in both of the host's first-half goals at Old Trafford, with two clinically-taken efforts from Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie leaving Adrian with no chance. Big Sam's side did pull one back through Diafra Sakho's fourth goal in as many starts just before the break, before they laid siege to the Red Devils' goal in the second half following Wayne Rooney's dismissal for a kick at Stewart Downing.
"We set up to try and attack and if we hadn't have made the silly mistakes we might have won," Allardyce exaplained. "But even after they scored we had a golden chance for Enner Valencia to make it 1-1 and you've got to take your chances when you come to Old Trafford. Then, after we made a bad mistake for the second, there was a good comeback, but not good enough."
The travelling Claret and Blue Army - who were superb throughout - thought their outstanding support had been rewarded when the returning Kevin Nolan prodded in a Carl Jenkinson cross in injury time. Sadly for the West Ham United captain and the thousands of visiting fans, the goal was controversially ruled out by the assistant referee for offside, a decision Big Sam was somewhat disappointed with.
"We patiently waited to break down the ten men that were camped in their box to try and hang on for the victory. We got behind them and Kevin timed his run and put it in the net but the assistant referee has blown it for us sadly.
"But we have our own blame to take for the way we gave the first two goals away and then not taking our chances at the other end."
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