BBC
Paris St-Germain are the favourites to sign 28-year-old Arsenal and Chile forward Alexis Sanchez. The French club want him to replace their Brazil forward Neymar, 25, who is likely to leave for Real Madrid next season. (Sunday Mirror)
Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil is set to open talks with Barcelona, although Manchester United are also keen to sign the 29-year-old Germany international. (Sun on Sunday)
Chelsea are considering an approach for Stoke's 24-year-old England goalkeeper Jack Butland, as contract talks with their Belgium international Thibaut Courtois, 25, have stalled. (Mail on Sunday)
Arsenal are expected to make a new bid for Monaco's 22-year-old France winger Thomas Lemar in January, but it will be well below the £90m they offered in August. (Mail on Sunday)
Stoke are planning to make a £2.5m bid for Augsburg's 27-year-old Ghana right-back Daniel Opare. (Sun on Sunday)
Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane suggested he is planning to add to his squad in the next transfer window, but says that no players will leave. (Marca)
Napoli and Belgium forward Dries Mertens, 30, says Barcelona were interested in signing him earlier this year, but he turned the move down. (Het Laatste Nieuws, via FourFourTwo)
Watford intend to report Everton to the Premier League should the Merseyside club's major shareholder Farhad Moshiri continue with his pursuit of Hornets boss Marco Silva. (Sunday Times - subscription required)
However, Everton's search for a new manager has opened up a boardroom rift between Moshiri and chairman Bill Kenwright with the club's owner eager to appoint a big name at odds with the latter's desire for a hungry young boss. (Sunday Mirror)
Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos has urged the club to go all out to sign 27-year-old Manchester United and Spain goalkeeper David de Gea. (Don Balon via Talksport)
Chelsea are poised to beat Arsenal and Manchester City to the signing of Hamburg's 17-year-old striker Jann-Fiete Arp. (Metro)
Newcastle are keen to secure a loan deal for out-of-favour Manchester United left-back Luke Shaw, 22, and help the England international revive his career on Tyneside. (Sunday Mirror)
Meanwhile...
Burnley midfielder Johann Berg Gudmundsson, 27, has tipped Clarets boss Sean Dyche to become the next England manager. (Daily Star Sunday)
Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho said his side had "too many attackers" in Saturday's 1-0 win over Brighton. (Observer)
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino claimed his side are out of the Premier League title race after drawing at home to West Brom. (Sunday Telegraph)
Paris St-Germain have agreed a new sponsorship deal with Nike, in which they will earn £53m a year from next June. (Paris United - in French)
Ex-England boss Sam Allardyce said he is not yet thinking about a return to management. (Daily Star Sunday)
West Brom caretaker manager Gary Megson revealed he spoke to sacked former boss Tony Pulis on the telephone 40 minutes before they kicked off in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Tottenham. (Sky Sports)
Best of Saturday's gossip
Real Madrid and Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo, 32, has held secret talks with Paris St-Germain. (DiarioGol, in Spanish)
Alan Pardew is set to be named the new West Brom manager and the former Crystal Palace boss could start work on Monday. (Sun)
Germany and Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil, 29, will be offered a £350,000-a-week deal to move to Barcelona. (Daily Mirror)
But Gunners manager Arsene Wenger has denied any deal has been agreed to take Ozil away from Emirates Stadium. (Daily Star)
Boss Antonio Conte is urging Chelsea to resolve contract issues with goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. (Guardian)
C&H
Hammers among world highest payers
A new survey – published today – shows the Hammers holding 14th place in salaries paid with an average wage of £2.9 million.
This puts them behind the two Manchester clubs, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs in the Premier League with only seven big hitting European giants in front of them.
The 2017 global sports salaries survey (GSSS) shows too that the PL wage has risen above £50,000 per week for the first time — a global first for any football league.
But while average yearly pay in the 2017-18 season in England’s top division is now £2,642,508 (or £50,817 per week), the world’s three best-paid clubs come from Spain and France.
Barcelona top football’s list, with average first-team pay of almost £6.6m a year with Paris St Germain second (£6.5m) and Real Madrid third on £6.2m.
HITC
Dortmund interest shows why West Ham should be excited about Fyodor Smolov
Danny Owen
West Ham are eyeing Russia captain Fyodor Smolov - a striker Dortmund felt could replace Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
How on earth do you plan to replace a striker who has scored 104 goals across the previous three seasons? Well, when Borussia Dortmund were planning for the potential departure of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, per The Mail, the Bundesliga giants turned their attention towards a little known Russian by the name of Fyodor Smolov.
A journeyman striker who has exploded into life at the relatively late age of 27, Smolov had only scored 16 goals in his entire professional career before signing for Krasnodar in the summer of 2015.
After two seasons with the Russian side, however, the skilful centre-forward had 48 goals in all competitions. And so far this season, he has eight in ten while also establishing himself as Russia’s first-choice centre-forward with the World Cup looming large on the horizon.
You can see, then, why Dortmund were mulling over whether or not to hand Smolov his big break before Aubameyang decided to stay for another year.
But that does not mean Smolov has missed his chance to move to a major European league. The Mail reports that the Russia captain is a £15 million January target for West Ham – and is keen on a move to London.
David Moyes wants to strengthen The Hammers’ spine and Smolov, an intelligent striker with the technique to play out wide, would offer both versatility and offensive quality. And with Javier Hernandez, Diafra Sakho and Andy Carroll struggling for consistency this season, the late-blooming Russian could quickly become West Ham’s go-to goalscorer.
And considering Dortmund felt Smolov could replace one of the world’s best strikers in Aubameyang, West Ham fans should be in no doubt about their latest target’s ability.
