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BBC:
Former Manchester City manager and current Inter Milan boss Roberto Mancini, 51, is interested in taking charge of England. (Guardian)
Ex-England captain Gary Lineker and former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand have been consulted by the Football Association as to who should be the next England manager. (Times - subscription required)
Former Tottenham and West Ham boss Harry Redknapp, 69, has been ruled out as a potential successor to Roy Hodgson with England. (Daily Express)
Manchester United have opened negotiations to bring France and Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba back to the club, in a transfer worth £100m. (Sky Sports)
The 23-year-old's agent, Mino Raiola, will meet with Juventus after Euro 2016 to discuss the player's switch to Old Trafford. (Guardian)
And Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is hopeful he can secure Pogba's signature before the Community Shield on 7 August. (Daily Telegraph)
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is preparing to sign 22-year-old Germany forward Julian Draxler, with Wolfsburg holding out for £43m.(ESPN via the Sun)
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is looking to trim his squad, with up to eight players heading out - including midfielder Joe Allen, 26, despite his impressive Euro 2016 performances for Wales. (Daily Mirror)
Six clubs are after Allen, including his former team Swansea City, Southampton and Spanish side Sevilla. (Daily Telegraph)
Liverpool manager Klopp is looking to his old club Borussia Dortmund, with Poland winger Jakub Blaszczykowski, 30, a target.(Bild, in German)
Another departure from Dortmund could be Neven Subotic, 27, with Stoke and Sunderland interested in the centre-back. (Daily Mail)
But newly promoted Middlesbrough could sign Serbia international Subotic on a season-long loan with a view to a permanent move. (Sun)
Crystal Palace have had a bid for 27-year-old Palermo playmaker Franco Vazquez rejected, and face competition from West Bromwich Albion and Sevilla for his signature. (Italian reports via Croydon Advertiser)
Belgium midfielder Radja Nainggolan has turned down a £30m switch to Chelsea, the 28-year-old opting to stay at Roma. (Daily Express)
West Ham striker Diafra Sakho, 26, has handed in a transfer request because the Senegalese striker is looking for guaranteed first-team football. (Daily Mail)
However, 24-year-old Turkey forward Gokhan Tore could be joining the Hammers on a season-long loan from Besiktas.(Sky Sports)
Departing FA chairman Greg Dyke is pondering whether to write a book about his three-year tenure. (Daily Mail)
Italian full-back Davide Santon is close to agreeing a £4m switch to Sunderland from Inter Milan, having formerly played for the Black Cats' local rivals Newcastle. (Guardian)
Leeds midfielder Lewis Cook, 19, will have a medical at Bournemouth on Friday before a £6m move. (Daily Telegraph)
Newcastle manager Rafael Benitez is hoping to make Blackburn's Scotland centre-back Grant Hanley his next summer signing. (Newcastle Chronicle)
PAPER TALK:
• Former Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini is ready to throw his hat into the ring for the England job.
• Juventus have risked Arsene Wenger's wrath by bidding just £26m for star man Alexis Sanchez - £7m less he cost from Barcelona in 2014.
• Leonardo Bonucci could leave Juventus this summer but only to Manchester City, according to reports in Italy.
• Former Newcastle full-back Davide Santon is closing on a return to the north east with bitter rivals Sunderland.
• Arsenal have reportedly opened negotiations with Lille for French full-back Djibril Sidibe and launched a £43m bid for Germany star Julian Draxler.
• Manchester City are set to win the race for Colombian wonderkid Marlos Moreno.
• Paul Pogba is expected to tell Juventus he needs to leave Turin to further his career on his return from Euro 2016.
• Leicester City are to finalise the £18m signing of Ahmed Musa from CSKA Moscow after he arrived for a medical.
• Borussia Dortmund defender Neven Subotic has been released from the Bundesliga side's training camp for transfer talks with prospective clubs. Sunderland and Stoke are interested.
• Tottenham Hotspur are ready to pay the £17m asking price of AZ Alkmaar to sign Vincent Janssen.
• West Ham have opened talks to sign Carlos Bacca from AC Milan and will meet with the player's representatives this week.
• Chelsea have firmed up their interest in Kalidou Koulibaly by submitting a £34m bid, according to reports.
• Jose Mourinho does not want Manchester United's pursuit of Paul Pogba to drag on beyond the Community Shield against Leicester City at Wembley on Aug 7, effectively giving the club a month to try to wrap up a world record £90m plus deal for the France midfielder.
GUARDIAN RUMOUR MILL
Gregg Bakowski
Yes, OK, Olivier Giroud may end up winning a European Championship medal with France after showcasing the best and worst of his repertoire at Euro 2016, creaking around doing decent things, almost very good things and definitely very bad things, stroking his beard and pulling pained expressions in a one-man variety act. But Arsène Wenger knows. He knows Arsenal have to sign another striker. One who can run fast and score goals. He’s closing in on signing one too. A speedy forward who was deemed not as good as Giroud by the France manager Didier Deschamps. In fact, not even as good as the Tigres tank, André-Pierre Gignac. Step forward Alexandre Lacazette, the Lyon forward who battled back from injury to score 11 goals in 10 games at the end of the Ligue 1 season only to be greeted by a Gallic shrug.
Lyon have turned their nose up at the £35m wafted in front of them by Arsenal. They want £42m for the 25-year-old. That’s serious cash. Probably way too serious for Arsène, who will go off and sign a zippy left-back instead. Djibril Sidibéwill do from Lille. Julian Draxler is still on Wenger’s radar too. But we all know that the Wolfsburg creator’s £43m pricetag means he’ll just stay on the radar, blipping away in Germany, miles from north London. Damn you Premier League TV money!
West Ham have done all right out of signing 29-year-olds recently. Haven’t they Dimitri? So Slaven Bilic has shoved £26m down a tube and sent if on towards Milan in the hope that they’ll part with Carlos Bacca. The Colombian pretty much guarantees goals. And with Bilic telling him earnestly, almost on the verge of tears, how much he believes in him in that croaky voice of his, you expect that is something that won’t stop at the Olympic Stadium. Whether he joins or not, one Hammer who will be knocking on the exit door, is Diafra Sakho. Sam Allardyce may rescue him with an £11m bid plus bus fare to Sunderland.
If there’s a player pulling up trees in the Eredivisie you just know Ronald Koeman has got his beady eye on them. The latest is the £14m-rated France Under-21 striker Sébastien Haller. The powerful 6ft 2in forward has scored 35 goals in 57 games for Utrecht and Koeman is sizing him up for the Romelu Lukaku-shaped hole that will likely appear in the Everton frontline when someone finally pulls their finger out and signs the big Belgian. Perhaps even Arsenal. Oh, what’s that? Everton want £75m? Perhaps even PSG.
Derby County fancy a grey-haired experienced pest in midfield. So they may be tempted to hire free-agent Leon Osman for the role.
Fresh from snaffling Victor Valdés on a free transfer, Middlesbrough want a big, strapping defender in front of the 34-year-old in case, well, you know, he’s actually not that good at being a goalkeeper anymore. They plan to send £8m the way of Borussia Dortmund for the Serbia international Neven Subotic and the Bundesliga runners-up spared the 27-year old from doing squat-thrusts on Thursday in order to hurry him on his way. “Subotic was released from training, to lead negotiations with a potential new club,” said a Dortmund tweet. Boro will have competition from Stoke, however, with Mark Hughes deciding that having concentrated solely on putting go-faster stripes on his Stoke-mobile for the past two seasons, it’s high time he sorted the back bumper out.
And Mahmoud Dahoud has played down talk of a move to Liverpool from Borussia Mönchengladbach. In fact, he’s pretty much given Jürgen Klopp a list of all the reasons why he shouldn’t sign him. “Who says I should leave Gladbach? I still have room for improvement. My finishing has to improve, I have to get stronger in the air and I can still improve physically to get stronger on the pitch.” If Liverpool want that kind of player they may as well just keep Jordon Ibe and let Bournemouth keep their £15m.
SQUAWKA
Comolli: Bielsa was Payet’s master, like Wenger and Henry
Damien Comolli insists Marcelo Bielsa was the “master” who took playmaker Dimitri Payet to his current level.
Payet is enjoying a sensational year, having been voted into the PFA Team of the Season for his efforts with West Ham United, after helping them to seventh place in the Premier League.
The 29-year-old has continued that form at Euro 2016 with France, scoring three times this summer to help his nation to the final.
It’s a level that Payet was able to find regularly during his time with Marseille prior to his move to England and Comolli, the man who persuaded St Etienne to give the player a chance, has put that down to the work of Bielsa.
And the 44-year-old has compared the relationship between Payet and the Argentinian coach to that of Arsene Wenger and Thierry Henry.
“In a player’s career, you sometimes need to find their masters,” Comolli told the Daily Mirror.
“Thierry Henry had Arsene Wenger, maybe Cristiano Ronaldo would thank Sir Alex Ferguson and, for Dimitri, it was definitely Bielsa.
“Bielsa moved him from the left wing to the No.10 role and in France there is a saying: ‘when you like someone a lot, you punish them harder.’
“I got frustrated with Dimitri in that he did not understand what it took to reach the top. People say that he has improved but I don’t think he has improved.
“But from now compared to when he was 19, he has just become more consistent and done it on the big stage.”
Payet scored nine times in the English top-flight last season but it was creatively where the formidable attacker thrived, offering 116 chances to his teammates.
Both he and Bielsa left Marseille last summer, and the coach is set to take charge of Serie A side Lazio in the new campaign.
Meanwhile, Payet is preparing for Sunday’s European Championship final against Portugal, following Thursday’s win over Germany.
HITC
According to a recent report from Sky Sports, West Ham United youngster Reece Oxford has been offered a £20,000-a-week contract to sign for German side Red Bull Leipzig this summer, but the teenager should reject the chance to leave the Hammers and commit wholly to the club.
At just 17, most people would be tempted by such a wage, but Oxford can become a superstar at West Ham and he needs to remain under the tutelage of Slaven Bilic – the man who gave him his senior debut last season.
Oxford’s outstanding performance against Arsenal on the opening weekend of last season suggested West Ham had found a new star, but he was used sparingly thereafter and rumours have persisted that he could move on.
With a contract until 2019 his short-term future is secure; however the Hammers may now have a decision to make to ensure they do not have an unsettled player on their hands.
It will not be enough to offer Oxford a new deal; Bilic will also have to give him more chances. But that should not be a problem given his undeniable talent and West Ham’s presence in four competitions next season.
The time has come for Bilic to show his faith in Oxford on a regular basis, but so too must the teenager show his faith in the Hammers.
If he does, the two could flourish together. After all, just ask Manchester United what happened when they refused to give chances to a teenage Paul Pogba just a few short years ago.
DAILY STAR
Man United, Arsenal and West Ham eye £5m-rated Euro 2016 star
MANCHESTER UNITED, Arsenal and West Ham are in the hunt for £5m-rated Slovakia star Ondrej Duda.
The 21-year-old - who is nicknamed Dudinho - was one of the Slovak stars who helped ruinEngland’s Euro 2016 by forcing a 0-0 draw with the Three Lions in Nice.
He scored their goal against Wales in a 2-1 defeat.
And now Polish club Legia Warsaw are ready to let him go to the Premier League if their valuation is met.
HITC
Rob Lee says son could have been West Ham's answer to Spurs star Harry Kane
Rob Lee says his son Elliot could have been West Ham United's answer to Harry Kane, had he been given the chance.
The former England international and Newcastle United favourite supported West Ham as a boy and ended his career with the East Londoners under Alan Pardew.
Since retiring he has watched both his sons Olly and now Elliot try but fail to make it with the Hammers.
Elliot, now at Barnsley, was heralded the next Tony Cottee after impressing more and more as he progressed through West Ham's famed Academy.
The stocky striker scored plenty of goals at youth and reserve team level but his big change of first team football at Upton Park proved elusive under former boss Sam Allardyce.
When Big Sam departed for Sunderland many fans thought Lee would finally get the chance he deserved under Slaven Bilic, a manager famed for promoting youth.
It looked like they were right when Lee scored the only goal in a 1-0 win on his first senior start in last season's Europa League qualifiers.
However, that was it for Lee at West Ham and he was released at the end of the season.
The decision doesn't sit comfortably with his dad, though.
Writing in his column for the Chronicle in the wake of Elliot's release last month, Rob said his son could have been West Ham's answer to Spurs star Harry Kane and believes he would have flourished alongside Andy Carroll.
"I know he’s my son and I’m biased, but I know how good he is because I’ve watch him develop over the years," Rob wrote in the Chronicle.
"At West Ham, I thought he deserved a chance over the likes of Emmanuel Emenike and Nikica Jelavic, both of who just sat on the bench.
"Elliot was never really given a chance even though he scored in the Europa League - and I really believe he would have done well alongside big Andy Carroll. You never know how good someone is going to be until you give them a Premier League chance; just look at Harry Kane."
A damning indictment from Bilic proved Allardyce was right all along
Like Spurs, Hammers fans love nothing more than to see a homegrown youngster graduate into a first team star.
Kane has been a revelation at White Hart Lane and there has been a degree of jealousy from London rivals at his success.
But Lee's release from West Ham was a pretty damning indictment of Bilic's opinion of the young Englishman.
WEST HAM AGREE LOAN DEAL FOR BESIKTAS’ GOKHAN TORE
It’s been reported that West Ham United have agreed to sign Besiktas winger Gokhan Tore on a season-long loan.
As reported by Sky Sports, the east London club have an option to sign the 24-year-old Turkish international permanently once his loan spell ends, with the fee in the region of £10 million. Tore will now reunite with his former boss Slaven Bilic, who’s preparing for his second season in charge of the Hammers.
In their two years together in Istanbul, the forward played 73 matches under Bilic, scoring 13 goals whilst creating a further 19. They finished both campaigns in third behind city rivals Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray respectively.
Last season Bilic guided West Ham to their highest top flight finish since 2001/02 and best points total (62) in the Premier League era. Their excellent campaign was somewhat overshadowed by Leicester City though, who won the title under Claudio Ranieri.
There was a marked improvement in an attacking sense when compared to Sam Allardyce’s final season in charge, which the supporters greatly appreciated. The Hammers scored 21 more goals and created 53 more chances than in 2014/15, when the now-Sunderland boss secured a 12th place finish.
And when it comes to defending, as frugal as the Allardyce regime was, Bilic’s new-look West Ham kept two more clean sheets.
As they head to the Olympic Stadium ahead of next season, Bilic has created an environment in which the Irons can push for silverware. West Ham have already moved to improve their squad in preparation for 2016/17, signing midfielder Havard Nordtveit and forward Sofiane Feghouli.
(Alan returns tomorrow. Jeffrey Bernard is unwell - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3GXdV8x5vc&index=2&list=LLUKA-s_KgsEopsmljw2YCmA)
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