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Alan 12:18 Tue Apr 17
Tuesday newspapers (includes West Ham)

BBC

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is willing to let £89m midfielder Paul Pogba, 25, leave Old Trafford with forward and fellow France international Anthony Martial, 22, Netherlands defender Daley Blind, 28, and Italy full-back Matteo Darmian also set to be sold. (Mail)

Darmian, 28, says he will make a decision on transfer interest from Serie A leaders Juventus imminently. (Express)

Manchester City will give manager Pep Guardiola £200m to spend on transfers after winning the Premier League title, with Napoli and Italy midfielder Jorginho, 26, and Shakhtar Donetsk's 24-year-old Brazilian midfielder Fred amongst their targets. (Mirror)

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp is expected to again target Napoli's Poland midfielder Piotr Zielinski. The Italian club beat the Reds to the 23-year-old's signature in 2016. (Sun)

Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta, 33, will move to the Chinese Super League this summer, with two million bottles of wine reportedly part of the deal for the Spaniard. (Marca - in Spanish)

Manchester United have sent scouts to watch Lazio's Serbia midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, 23, with Old Trafford boss Jose Mourinho reportedly wanting to sign two midfielders in the summer. (Mail)

United and England striker Marcus Rashford, 20, looks set to delay new contract talks after falling out of favour at Old Trafford. (Sun)

Manchester City are waiting to hear about a possible transfer ban for allegedly breaching rules around the signing of a teenage player, with a verdict in the case of 17-year-old Argentine forward Benjamin Garre expected this week. (Telegraph)

Tottenham are ready to sell Belgium midfielder Mousa Dembele, 30, and have identified two potential replacements. (Mirror)

Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham are all interested in signing Leicester City and England defender Harry Maguire, 25. (Star)

Atletico Madrid striker Fernando Torres, 34, is expected to reject the Chinese Super League, with Major League Soccer in the United States likely to be his next destination after announcing he will leave the Spanish club at the end of the season. (Marca)

England Under-21 defender Trent Alexander-Arnold, 19, has committed his future to Liverpool and is set to see his wages double. (Mirror)

Boca Juniors are targeting Juventus and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, 40, and want his former team-mate, Argentine striker Carlos Tevez, to help secure his signature. (Radio Continental via Mail)

English midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek, 22, has yet to decide on his Chelsea future after impressing while on loan at Crystal Palace. (Independent)

Leicester want to pursue a £20m deal for 22-year-old English midfielder Jack Grealish if Aston Villa fail to secure a Premier League return. (Mirror)

Former Liverpool and Fulham midfielder Danny Murphy says Newcastle boss Rafael Benitez would be the perfect successor to Arsene Wenger at Arsenal. (Talksport)

Wolves want to spend £20m to sign DR Congo striker Benik Afobe, 25, and French defender Willy Boly, 27 - on loan at Molineux from Bournemouth and Porto respectively - following their promotion to the Premier League. (Telegraph)

Fulham's English winger Ryan Sessegnon, 17, says he wants to play in the Premier League with the Cottagers despite interest from several top-flight clubs. (Evening Standard)






Guardian Rumour Mill

Rob Smyth

José Mourinho is mad as hell and he’s not gonna take it any more. Manchester United’s pitiful defeat at home to West Brom was the straw that broke the special camel’s back and, according to various gossipmongers, he will be open to offers for almost all his first-team squad this summer.

Only a handful of players are guaranteed to be at United next season. Reports suggest Mourinho might be willing to sell Paul Pogba. Whose hair will certain white middle-class men complain about if he goes? Other players potentially up for grabs include Marcus Rashford, Eric Bailly, Anthony Martial and, most shocking of all, Luke Shaw.

United’s reported list of targets includes Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Toni Kroos, Samuel Umtiti, Kieran Tierney, Fred, Jorginho, Harry Maguire, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ivan Rakitic, Neymar and a time machine so that they can go back and unbuy half the current first-team squad..

Tottenham are preparing to sell Toby Alderweireld and Mousa Dembélé, it says here, with Barcelona’s André Gomes and Bryan Cristante of Atalanta possible replacements for the latter.

Alderweireld is a target for Manchester City, who plan to spend £200m on six new full-backs to make their box seat even more comfortable. Other targets include Jorginho, Fred, Julian Weigl, Jean-Michaël Seri, Thomas Lemar and Riyad Mahrez.

Liverpool may lose Emre Can to Real Madrid, with Dani Ceballos moving in the opposite direction. Their hopes of signing the Roma keeper Alisson appear to be receding, however, with the Roma president saying there is “zero” chance of him leaving the club this summer. Experience tells us football presidents should always be taken at their word, so Liverpool will need to find a new goalkeeping target if they decide Loris Karius isn’t up to it.

Jürgen Klopp may have more joy in his pursuit of the Sevilla defender Clement Longlet, though Barcelona are also interested in biting the hand of their feeder club.

Arsenal are going to pip Manchester City to the Barcelona teenager Robert Navarro, who will instead join City for £200m in five years’ time. Newly promoted Wolves want to sign ‘Union’ Jack Wilshere, while Leicester want to nab Jack Grealish from Aston Villa.





Guardian

Andy Carroll’s late strike for West Ham saves Joe Hart and stuns Stoke



Daniel Taylor at the London Stadium

These are the moments when Gareth Southgate could be forgiven for wondering whether it is time to draw a line through Joe Hart’s international career. This was another personal ordeal for the man who has just lost his place as England’s first-choice goalkeeper. Southgate was here to witness it and, at this rate, there has to be a serious possibility that Hart will be cut adrift from the England squad that goes to Russia for this summer’s World Cup.

What other conclusion can be drawn when the goalkeeping error that led to Peter Crouch, one of Stoke’s substitutes, opening the scoring can hardly be described as a one-off? Indeed, Hart did something very similar in the 3-0 defeat at home to Burnley last month, on the day he was recalled to the side after a long spell in the wilderness. It is becoming a recurring theme and West Ham’s fans were not in the mood to be sympathetic after his latest lapse. There were ironic, unforgiving cheers towards the end whenever Hart gathered the ball without making a mistake.

At least Hart was spared the ignominy of his mistake being the game’s decisive moment and West Ham’s equaliser, courtesy of the fit-again Andy Carroll, helped David Moyes’s team edge another point further away from the relegation places. Stoke, on the other hand, remain in 19th position, having passed up a glorious opportunity to register their first away win since October. Paul Lambert’s side now have only four games to save themselves and still have to play Liverpool after they have hosted Europa League-chasing Burnley on Sunday.

Lambert looked crestfallen afterwards but Stoke’s manager was stretching the truth when he said all the luck had gone against his team. On the contrary, there were three disallowed goals for West Ham in a chaotic second half for the referee, Michael Oliver, in his first game back since the now-infamous Champions League tie between Juventus and Real Madrid, Gianluigi Buffon’s red card and all the unpleasantness that has followed.

Marko Arnautovic had strayed offside before directing in his 55th-minute header and the same player was flagged again when Edimilson Fernandes fired in a shot from 20 yards. This time, Arnautovic was standing directly in Jack Butland’s line of vision and, though Moyes seemed aggrieved at the time, he accepted afterwards it was a fine piece of officiating. West Ham’s manager was less impressed with the decision, in stoppage-time, to penalise Carroll for his challenge on Ryan Shawcross just before another substitute, Javier Hernández, fired in what would almost certainly have been a winner.

It was a dramatic finale to a game that had taken a long time to ignite and, for Carroll, a personal triumph given that he had not played since 4 January and, at one point, was not expected to feature again this season. His goal was expertly taken: he guided in a controlled left-foot volley from Aaron Cresswell’s cross and shifted the mood just as the West Ham fans were preparing, undoubtedly, for another show of loud dissent at the final whistle. Carroll returned to full training only five days before this match and there was an irony that it was two of England’s forgotten men who came up with the goals on the night Southgate was in the crowd to keep tabs on the two goalkeepers.

Moyes made a point afterwards of not being too hard on Hart, restricting himself to saying it was a “surprise” to see the former England No 1 fumbling Xherdan Shaqiri’s shot into Crouch’s path. Moyes also made the point, legitimately, that Hart had made some fine saves in their previous game at Chelsea. Yet this felt like a manager trying not to damage Hart’s confidence any further. The truth, however it is dressed up, was that it was a wretched error from an increasingly accident-prone goalkeeper.

For Stoke, the disappointment was their inability to hold on once they had put themselves in a winning position. The game lived down to expectations during the opening 45 minutes – two ordinary sides huffing and puffing without any real wit or creativity – and it was easy to see why Stoke were averaging under a goal per game this season. Stoke have not managed two goals in a league fixture since January. They have the worst goal difference in the league and it is a problem that needs to be fixed if there is to be a dramatic feat of escapology in the next few weeks.

Lambert argued afterwards that if Stoke had played this well throughout the season Mark Hughes would still be their manager and the team would not be in the bottom three. There was a fair amount of top-spin on that assessment but in one respect it was an improvement – Stoke had lost their previous seven fixtures in London, conceding 26 goals in the process. Ultimately, though, it needed a goalkeeping mistake for them to take the lead and that, for Hart, made this a night that could have serious ramifications for his hopes of going to the World Cup.

MATCH DETAILS (Mail)

West Ham (3-4-2-1): Hart 5; Rice 6, Ogbonna 6, Cresswell 6.5; Zabaleta 6, Kouyate 6, Noble 6.5, Masuaku 6.5 (Lanzini 81); Fernandes 6.5 (Hernandez 76, 7), Mario 6 (Carroll 86); Arnautovic 6.5
Subs not used: Adrian, Evra, Cullen, Hugill

Goals: Carroll 90

Bookings: Kouyate 85, Cresswell 90

Manager: David Moyes 6

Stoke (4-2-3-1): Butland 7; Zouma 6, Shawcross 6.5, Indi 6, Pieters 6; Allen 6, Ndiaye 6.5; Bauer 6 (Crouch 70, 7), Shaqiri 6.5, Sobhi 5 (Cameron 61, 6.5); Diouf 5

Subs not used: Grant, Sorensen, Campbell, Fletcher

Goals: Crouch 79

Bookings: Crouch 80, Martins Indi 82, Ndiaye 90

Manager: Paul Lambert 6

Ref: Michael Oliver 6.5

Att: 56,795




Telegraph

Andy Carroll rescues West Ham United after Joe Hart blunder hands Peter Crouch and Stoke brief lifeline



Matt Law, Football News Correspondent, at London Stadium

Gareth Southgate had turned up at the London Stadium to see two of England’s goalkeepers, but Joe Hart will be desperately hoping the manager of the national team had left before his spill almost gifted Stoke City what would have been a priceless victory.

Andy Carroll spared Hart’s blushes to some extent, but the way in which West Ham’s goalkeeper gifted Stoke substitute Peter Crouch the 79th-minute opener handed a World Cup advantage to Jack Butland.

Stoke’s fans sang “England’s number one”, both in support of Butland and to mock Hart, as Crouch celebrated what they thought would be a winner.

Having been sent on with 15 ­minutes remaining, Crouch reacted quickest to slide the ball into the net after Hart had fumbled Xherdan Shaqiri’s shot straight into his path.

But, fortunately for Hart, West Ham had their own big man to call on and Carroll scored for the first time since January, having been out injured for three months, to ­secure a point and stop second-from bottom Stoke making ground on them.

There were 90 minutes on the clock when Carroll volleyed Aaron Cresswell’s low cross past Butland and there was still time for another of West Ham’s substitutes, Javier Hernandez, to have what would have been a winner chalked off for handball against Carroll.

It was referee Michael Oliver’s decision to rule out the Hernandez goal at the end of his first match in charge since handing Real Madrid the crucial Champions League penalty against Juventus and sending off Gianluigi Buffon. Buffon hit out at Olivier repeatedly following the incident and the official’s wife, Lucy, a Women’s Super League referee, has received abuse and threats.

Carroll’s full-time complaints, as he argued that he had not committed handball before teeing up Hernandez, were far more respectful. The two other second-half goals that were disallowed for offside against Marko Arnautovic were decided by one of Oliver’s assistants.

Karren Brady had urged us all to tune into her new television show at 8pm and, for the first 45 minutes, it had proved to be good advice from West Ham’s vice-chairman.

It was 15 minutes before kick-off that a message on Baroness Brady’s Twitter account read: “15mins until my new show Give it a Year starts on ITV, hope you watch it and hope you enjoy it!”

Whether or not Brady and her social-media team realised that Give It A Year clashed with West Ham’s game against Stoke is not clear, but those who tuned into her 30-minute show did not miss much in terms of what was happening at the London Stadium.

Arnautovic had been targeted by Stoke fans during his first game against his former club in December. Here, he was booed by the ­travelling supporters every time he touched the ball, but looked the player most likely to break the deadlock during the first half.

He wriggled around Ryan Shawcross in just the seventh minute and saw his low shot from a tight angle deflected out of play by Butland, as West Ham started the brighter.

Butland had also kept out Arthur Masuaku in the opening stages and it was the Stoke man who was the busier of the two England goalkeepers in the first half.

Arnautovic clearly wanted to rub more salt into Stoke’s wounds and it looked like he would get his goal 10 minutes before the break. Pablo Zabaleta surged into the penalty area and found the Austrian, who, from close range, smashed the ball straight into the chest of Butland and the ball flew out for a corner.

Mark Noble tested Butland once more before Oliver sounded the half-time whistle and gave everybody the chance to convince themselves this could only get better.

Fortunately, it did. An Arnautovic header got the home fans off their seats but he had been standing in an offside position when Cresswell’s cross was delivered and the goal was correctly ruled out. Mame Biram Diouf squandered a great chance for Stoke moments later as Moritz Bauer sent in a low centre that the striker wastefully skied over the bar. Manager Paul Lambert sank to his knees.

The home side thought for a second time they had taken the lead, only for the linesman’s flag to again deny them. Edimilson Fernandes danced away in celebration when his low shot his the net, but Arnautovic, who had attempted to help the ball in with his heel, had been standing yards offside.

Butland was at full stretch to save another Cresswell free-kick that had glanced off the head of Joe Allen. Lambert responded by throwing on Crouch and, with under 15 minutes remaining, counterpart David Moyes sent on Hernandez.

But it was Crouch who made the telling impact, thanks to Hart’s terrible error. That should have been the moment that gave Stoke hope, but Moyes called for Carroll and he made his own mark.

It would have been the dream finish for Carroll and West Ham if Hernadez’s stoppage-time goal had been allowed to stand, but, just as he had in Madrid, Oliver got his big decision spot on.




HITC

Everton and West Ham eye Moroccan playmaker Ziyech

Will Butcher

Ajax assist machine Hakim Ziyech has been in wonderful form this season, catching the eye of Everton and West Ham



Ajax playmaker Hakim Ziyech has been in sensational form for the Dutch giants this season and Italian outlet CalcioMercato claim Premier League sides Everton and West Ham United are interested in a summer move.

The 25-year-old has dazzled Eredivisie defences this term, scoring eight goals from attacking midfield but more impressively, the Morocco international has created another 15 strikes for his side in 36 league and cup appearances.

Ziyech even impressed in the early stages of the 2017-18 Champions League qualification rounds, creating one of Ajax's three goals in their two-legged tie against Nice. However, Ajax were knocked out on away goals.

But that has not stopped the former FC Twente star, who has continued to shine in red and white as Ajax currently sit in second in the Eredivisie table - 10 points behind leaders PSV Eindhoven.

With the number 10's career turning into somewhat of a standstill but obviously capable of better, West Ham and Everton are both looking to lure the African star to the Premier League. But they face competition from Spain.

La Liga giants Valencia are also said to be keen in nabbing Ziyech's signature, who has three seasons still to run on his current deal at the Johan Cruyff Arena.




Sport Witness

Atletico have €20m Dendoncker agreement, but not all is lost for West Ham

Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad have a big article in their Tuesday edition claiming Anderlecht signed a preliminary agreement ‘a few months’ ago with Atletico Madrid, committing to sell them Leander Dendoncker for €20m in the next summer transfer window.

It’s stated Atletico have the option to sign the player for such a fee, but aren’t committed to using it. Should another club offer more than the €20m agree fee, then Atletico have a right to match it.

Dendoncker can’t be forced into accepting the move.

This all comes as something of a surprise, given the attempts from West Ham and others to sign the player in the winter window, which would surely suggest any agreement must have come after that… a further surprise as Anderlecht have only recently changed owners and this must have been agreed by the previous regime.

Het Nieuwsblad say Dendoncker tried to get a transfer to West Ham, Everton or Crystal Palace during the winter window, but Anderlecht blocked it.

After that there were widespread claims in the Belgian media that Dendoncker had been given an assurance he can leave in the summer for around €15m, obviously less than the €20m said to be agreed with Atletico.

This hasn’t been covered in Spain, and even if true it’s certainly not all hope lost for West Ham. Atletico may decide not to take up their option, and Dendoncker himself may well prefer a move to the Premier League.

ted fenton 2:40 Tue Apr 17
Re: Tuesday newspapers (includes West Ham)

Dumbleweed 1:09 Tue Apr 17

Texas Iron 2:14 Tue Apr 17
Re: Tuesday newspapers (includes West Ham)

Cheers...

Alan 2:08 Tue Apr 17
Re: Tuesday newspapers (includes West Ham)

Dendoncker story added

Dumbleweed 1:09 Tue Apr 17
Re: Tuesday newspapers (includes West Ham)

Thanks Alan 12:19 Tue Apr 17

Thanks Alan 12:19 Tue Apr 17
Re: Tuesday newspapers (includes West Ham)

Thanks Alan