BBC
Manchester City are refusing to let England goalkeeper Joe Hart leave on loan and want more than £30m for the 29-year-old. (Sun)
Joe Hart began to fear for his future at Manchester City in May. (Manchester Evening News)
Joe Hart will join Everton on loan because Manchester City have moved a step closer to signing Chile keeper Claudio Bravo, 33, from Barcelona in a £17.4m deal. (Daily Mirror)
Barcelona will sign Ajax and Netherlands goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen, 27, as a replacement for Claudio Bravo. (Telegraaf - in Dutch)
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola may sign a centre-back after the arrival of Claudio Bravo. (Manchester Evening News)
Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri believes midfielder Danny Drinkwater, 26, is close to signing a new contract with the club. (Daily Star)
Arsenal have started talks with Atletico Madrid over the signing of 21-year-old Uruguay centre-back Jose Gimenez. (Daily Mail)
However, Arsenal will have to pay Jose Gimenez's release clause of 65m euros (£56m). (Marca)
Crystal Palace initially offered £15m for Liverpool striker Christian Benteke before finally getting the 25-year-old striker for £27m plus add-ons. (Daily Express)
Stoke midfielder Joe Allen, 26, says he found out he was leaving Liverpool after a text from a friend and that the Reds could have handled his exit better. (Daily Telegraph)
Manchester United will not be signing any other players this summer after spending £156m on France midfielder Paul Pogba, 23, Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 34, Ivory Coast defender Eric Bailly, 22, and Armenia winger Henrikh Mkhitaryan, 27. (Daily Mail)
Sunderland boss David Moyes has offered Ivory Coast defender Lamine Kone a new £50,000-a-week contract. Everton want to sign the 27-year-old. (Sun)
Swansea are looking to Italy's Serie A as they try to replace 31-year-old Wales defender Ashley Williams, who has joined Everton. (Wales Online)
West Brom will only give up on signing Ghana full-back Jeffrey Schlupp if the 23-year-old signs a new deal at Leicester. (Birmingham Mail)
Everton manager Ronald Koeman has told Oumar Niasse he needs to leave the club for the sake of his career. Hull are said to be interested in the 26-year-old Senegal striker. (Liverpool Echo)
Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck, 25, is ahead of schedule in his recovery from a knee injury and could play again in 2016. (Daily Express)
Colombia striker Carlos Bacca says he will stay at AC Milan this season. The 29-year-old has been linked with West Ham. (AC Milan website)
Tottenham have moved again for Espanyol's Spanish goalkeeper Pau Lopez. The London club have already failed with a £3m bid for the 21-year-old and will now try to sign him on a season-long loan. (Evening Standard)
Portugal goalkeeper Eduardo, 33, will join Chelsea next week, according to Dinamo Zagreb manager Zlatko Kranjcar. (ESPN)
Stoke have agreed a £200,000 deal for Dundee United's 6ft 7in central defender Harry Souttar, 17. (Dundee Courier)
Leeds United chairman Massimo Cellino is losing patience with manager Garry Monk after just four games of the season. (Daily Mirror)
Aston Villa boss Roberto Di Matteo is weighing up a £3m move for Tottenham Hotspur defender DeAndre Yedlin, 23. (Daily Telegraph)
And finally
From 'identification' to 'conclusion', agent Neil McGuinness has written a seven-step guide to how a player moves in the transfer window. (Bleacher Report)
Guardian Rumour Mill
Daniel Harris
Not for nothing is Pep Guardiola known as the best coach in the world; behold how he has arrived at Manchester City and binned everyone who doesn’t precisely fit his preordained specifications, replacing them with the most obvious and most expensive players available to him. Genius! And now, he’s decided that he’d like another centre-back, so calling once again on that amazing eye for a talent, has spotted a lad at Juventus by the name of Leonardo Bonucci. Juventus actually made him available to City earlier in the summer, but have since informed them that any deal will require the replacement of numbers with an entirely new financial scale, to be called “in the region of John Stones money”.
To recoup any further outlay, City would like to sell Joe Hart, cleverly drumming up business by first humiliating and then replacing him, in the process drawing attention to a failing that had preoccupied no one – at least relative to his other failings. But after doing all they can to make him the club they are effectively refusing to let him leave the club, refusing to loan him out and insisting that £30m is a fair price for someone they believe to be less good than Willy Caballero. It would be very, very funny indeed, if treating workers badly were very, very funny indeed.
Meanwhile, little City – or Barcelona as they’re still known to some – will replace Claudio Bravo with Ajax’s Jasper Cillessen. Last summer, Cillessen was a target for Manchester United, when Louis van Gaal thought David de Gea would leave for Real Madrid; also around that time, he replaced Ángel di María with Memphis Depay.
United, though, do not expect to buy again during this transfer window, unless a player they want becomes available. Similarly, José Mourinho will not indulge in gratuitous tiffs with anyone he wants, unless he wants to.
Talking of Mourinho, Charity Shield champion David Moyes has offered Lamine Koné £50,000 a week to reject Everton’s advances and stay at Sunderland. He could earn far more on Merseyside, but is likely to be put-off by the glaring omission on Ronald Koeman’s CV: he has yet to defeat Wigan Athletic in a Wembley showpiece.
Koeman, for his part, is busy shattering dreams, not only telling Oumar Niasse that that he needs to leave Everton but also that Hull City are interested in buying him. The Senegalese striker plans on inviting Graham Taylor and Gianluca Pagliuca to form a support group.
Elsewhere, Arsène Wenger is still looking for a centre-back, but is struggling with the nature of the market. He simply cannot abide a situation in which English clubs are charged more money than other clubs, his degree in economics failing him right when he needs to notice that English clubs have much, much more money than other clubs. Nonetheless, Arsenal have, apparently, opened talks with Atlético Madrid over José Giménez, a transfer to excite all of football; who is not fascinated to see how long it takes for a Uruguayan defender to become fully arsenalised?
And finally for today, we go across north London to Tottenham. Earlier this summer, they offered £3m for Pau Lopez, Espanyol’s 21-year-old goalkeeper – only for it to be rejected. So instead, the incomparable Daniel Levy is trying to sign him on a season-long loan with an option to make it permanent, because of course, the original stumbling block was Espanyol’s moral conviction that Spurs must try before they buy. It’s beautiful.
Mail
Astra Giurgiu 1-1 West Ham: Denis Alibec scores late leveller after Mark Noble's penalty gave the Irons an advantage in Europa League qualifier
Mark Noble put West ham ahead from the penalty spot after Christian Sapunaru's handball from a corner
Astra caused the Irons defensive problems on a troublesome pitch at the Stadionul Marin Anastasovici
Substitute Denis Alibec smashed in a leveller seconds after West Ham missed a big chance for a second
By Sam Cunningham
They may have joked that they were on a stag do, but West Ham's players suffered a Europa League hangover after being held by Romanian minnows Astra Giurgiu.
Striker Andy Carroll made the proclamation in jest when they touched down in Bucharest to face opponents who shocked them at this final stage of Europa League qualifying last year, beating a West Ham B-team in Giurgiu.
When Mark Noble put them ahead from the penalty spot after a dominant first half they looked on course for comfortable revenge, but substitute Denis Alibec smashed in an equaliser with seven minutes remaining and their progression to the group stage is far from certain against opponents who should have been there for the taking.
Astra's Denis Alibec goes to rip off his shirt as he celebrates scoring his side's late equaliser against West Ham
Mark Noble stepped up to score West Ham's vital penalty in their Europa League qualifier against Astra Giurgiu
The Hammers captain pumps his fist after scoring from the spot just before half-time at the Stadionul Marin Anastasovici
Astra's owner Ioan Niculae — Romania's richest man — is in prison for illegally financing a presidential campaign. The head coach, Marius Sumudica, is serving a domestic two-month football ban for betting and had to seek special permission, granted at the last minute, from Uefa to manage from the touchline. The very definition of crisis club.
They are the Romanian champions, but have taken only four points from their opening four games this season.
'I'm not happy in the way they put us under pressure but considering who played for us in some positions, you can expect that sometimes,' West Ham manager Slaven Bilic said.
It's captain versus captain as West Ham's Noble bursts past Junior Morais in the first half of their Europa League clash
The Iron's Sam Byram tries to put the ball into the box under challenge from Astra Giurgiu's Junior Morais
West Ham's Michael Antonio went close with his first-half header but saw his effort cleared off the line
Astra Giurgiu's Alexandru Ionita comes under attention from West Ham's Reece Burke as the Romanian tries to clear
'We have to cope without moaning in this period. We are strong, we have to show character and quality. Tonight was it great? No. Was it good? No. But it's OK.
'The score is very simple — if we can't beat them at home then we shouldn't be in the Europa League.'
New signing Jonathan Calleri, brought in on a season-long loan from Deportivo Maldonado this week, was thrown straight in by Slaven Bilic and was twice denied by Astra goalkeeper Silviu Lung.
New signing, Argentina international Jonathan Callieri, tries to make the running on his debut for the Hammers
The 22-year-old former Boca Juniors man went close to marking his bow with goal as he met a corner with a fierce header
The Argentine headed Enner Valencia's cross on target in the ninth minute and did the same from Gokhan Tore's corner on 41 minutes, but Lung made diving stops.
It took a mainstay of the side, however, to put them ahead a minute before the break. Captain Noble converted a penalty after Cristian Sapunaru handled in the box.
The 250-odd West Ham fans who travelled were placed in a cage in one corner of the ground, yet on the pitch in the first half their team played with a degree of freedom against weaker opponents.
Antonio watches on as the ball whistles just wide as West Ham looked to apply the pressure to their Romanian hosts
Astra's Cristian Sapunaru handles the ball from a West Ham corner just before the break to concede a penalty
Sapunaru and his Astra team-mates remonstrate with Artur Soraes Dias but replays showed the referee was correct
In the 12th minute, they had another effort cleared off the line, this time Michail Antonio meeting Tore's corner with another header, only for Junior Morais to block by the right post.
They should have sealed it a minute before Astra equalised. Substitute Marcus Browne, only 18, raced through from the half-way line, on the break, but opted to lay the ball into Antonio's path instead of shooting. Antonio, stretching, could only hit the side netting.
Straight up the other end, a low corner found Alibec and he beat Randolph and a wall of bodies from close range. These away jaunts to Romania have been no fun.
Callieri brings the ball down under the watchful eye of Astra defender Kristi Vangjeli during the second half in Romania
rons target man Andy Carroll came off the bench in the second half, here he is felled by Astra's Geraldo Alves
West Ham's players can only watch as Alibec fires high into Darren Randolph's net to square up the Europa League tie
MATCH FACTS
ASTRA GIURGIU (4-2-3-1): Lung 6.5; Vangjeli 6 (Alibec 58 7), Geraldo Alves 6, Fabricio 6, Junior Morais 6; Lovin 6, Sapunaru 5; Ionita 6 (Florea 86), Seto 6, Filipe Teixeira 6 (Balaure 90); Niculae 6.
UNUSED SUBS: Gavrilas, Florea, Oros, Mansaly, Stan, Balaure.
BOOKED: Sapunaru, Vangjeli, Geraldo.
GOAL: Alibec 83.
MANAGER: Marius Sumudica 6.5
WEST HAM (4-4-2): Randolph 6; Byram 6, Oxford 6, Ogbonna 6, Burke 7.5; Gokhan Tore 6.5 (Browne 75 6), Noble 7, Obiang 6, Antonio 6; Calleri 6.5 (Collins 63 6), Valencia 6 (Carroll 62 6).
UNUSED SUBS: Adrian, Reid, Kouyate, Fletcher.
BOOKED: Byram, Oxford, Antonio.
GOAL: Noble 45+1 pen.
MANAGER: Slaven Bilic 5.5.
REFEREE: Artur Soraes Dias (Portugal) 6.
MOTM: Burke.
Ratings by Sam Cunningham
Express
West Ham eye loan deal for Man City striker: Slaven Bilic looking to solve injury troubles
WEST HAM are reportedly set to turn their attention to Manchester City outcast Wilfried Bony.
By Jack Staplehurst
The City striker is being allowed to leave the Etihad this summer with Pep Guardiola open to offers for the 27-year-old.
Bony has failed to establish himself as an integral player in the City squad since arriving in January 2015 for £28million from Swansea.
And the Ivory Coast international has even fallen behind youngster Kelechi Iheanacho in the pecking order at City.
African Football
FC IfeanyiUbah set to seal West Ham partnership
Top officials of Nigeria league club FC IfeanyiUbah led by owner Ifeanyi Ubah are scheduled to sign a partnership with Premier League side West Ham United on Saturday.
By Kola Daniel
“The club will sign an MOU with West Ham tomorrow (Saturday),” disclosed Wale Ajayi, who is on the trip to England.
“The agreement will cover the English club setting up a viable academy in the eastern part of Nigeria, where IfeanyiUbah are based.”
The Nigerian club will from next season wear West Ham replica jerseys as part of an arrangement to promote the ambitious London club in a country that closely follows the Premier League.
FC IfeanyiUbah are playing in their second season in the Nigerian top-flight league.
They have signed players from Brazil, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Cameroon.
‘The Anambra Warriors’ have qualified for the semi-final of this year’s Federation Cup.
They are owned by oil magnate Ifeanyi Ubah, who himself was an aspiring goalkeeper in the early 90s.
On the club’s delegation to England are five Football Association (FA) chairmen.
