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BBC
Barcelona's Spanish defender Gerard Pique, 31, says it "would be nice" if Manchester United's France World Cup winning midfielder Paul Pogba, 25, moved to the Nou Camp in the future. (AS)
Chelsea's England defender Gary Cahill, 32, is determined to stay and fight for his place despite being frozen out of Maurizio Sarri's squad. (Telegraph)
Former Arsenal and France forward Thierry Henry, 41, is set to turn down the chance to manage Bordeaux because of fears over a lack of funds at the Ligue 1 club. (Sun)
West Ham defender Reece Oxford, 19, is wanted on loan by Spanish top-flight side Eibar, who are willing to pay the Hammers a £1.8m loan fee. (Marca)
Roma and Netherlands midfielder Kevin Strootman, 28, is set to end his five year stint in Serie A by moving to France to join Marseille for £22.6m. (Football Italia)
Former Chelsea and Brazil midfielder Ramires, 31, is close to re-joining Benfica on loan from Chinese club Jiangsu Suning. (O Jogo)
Paris St-Germain have "categorically denied" speculation linking them with Tottenham and Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen, 26. (Evening Standard)
Manchester United have reportedly rejected approaches from AC Milan and Atletico Madrid for France forward Anthony Martial, 22. (RMC Sport - in French)
Belgium goalkeeper Simon Mignolet will not be allowed to leave Liverpool before the end of the European transfer window despite the 30-year-old's desire for more first team football. (Guardian)
Arsenal are on the verge on signing a £300m kit sponsorship deal with Adidas, with Puma's contract with the club expiring at the end of this season. (Football.London)
Crystal Palace have become the first Premier League club to offer players to sides in lower divisions for free, on the condition they are picked to play. (Times)
Los Angeles Galaxy are interested in signing 35-year-old ex-Arsenal and Ivory Coast defender Emmanuel Eboue. (Sun)
Aston Villa are looking to persuade English forward Jack Grealish, 22, to sign a long-term contract with the Championship club after refusing to sell the player in August. (Mirror)
Nottingham Forest striker Ben Brereton, 19, is close to joining Championship rivals Blackburn Rovers initially on loan which will become permanent in a deal worth up to £7m. (Telegraph)
Stoke City midfielder Giannelli Imbula, who was born in Belgium and has played for France Under-21s, is wanted on loan by Rayo Vallecano, who play in Spain's La Liga. Stoke broke their transfer record to sign the 25-year-old from Porto for £18.3m in February 2016. (Cadena Ser)
Guardian Rumour Mill
Barry Glendenning
Seeing as José Mourinho thinks Manchester United didn’t lose “from the strategic point of view and from the tactical point of view” in their 3-0 defeat at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur, it’s probably safe to assume he would also scoff at the notion that they are a club in crisis. Nevertheless, the c-word is being bandied about willy-nilly across back pages and if what happened to United at Old Trafford isn’t something approaching a mess, it will, to paraphrase Sheriff Ed Tom Bell in No Country For Old Men, certainly do til a mess gets there.
One of several players scapegoated for United’s previous loss against Brighton, Anthony Martial, was left out of Mourinho’s matchday squad for the Spurs game and has made no secret of his desire to leave the club. While Mourinho would happily sell him to raise funds for more of those centre-backs who can’t defend properly that he seems to have so much time for, Ed Woodward has already turned down offers from Milan and Atlético Madrid. United’s chief executive seems determined to hold on to the 22-year-old Frenchman, who he clearly believes will thrive under United’s next manager.
Liverpool refuse to let Simon Mignolet leave Anfield for another club
Read more
Still struggling with depression and financial problems following the break-up of his marriage, among other personal issues that have left him down on his luck, the one-time Arsenal cult hero Emmanuel Eboué could be thrown a career lifeline by LA Galaxy. The MLS side are reported to value the Ivorian’s experience, while Brazilian side Cruzeiro are also being linked with the full-back.
Having blocked his mooted move to Spurs towards the end of the transfer window, Aston Villa have scheduled talks with Jack Grealish for September. With two years left on his current deal, Grealish is already on £20,000 per week, a stipend which will more than double if he inks a new and improved contract. Meanwhile in London, Tottenham midfielder Moussa Sissoko is wanted by Fenerbahce, who could take him on loan with a view to making any deal permanent. The French midfielder is currently surplus to Mauricio Pochettino’s requirements and few Tottenham fans would shed tears if he left the club, but with Harry Winks only just returning from injury he might be required as cover.
Having spent the summer hawking their £18.3m record signing, Giannelli Imbula, around various European clubs without success, Stoke City are hoping to ship him out to Spanish side Rayo Vallecano before the end of the week. The Belgian spent last season on loan at French side Toulouse and has been told he doesn’t have a future at the Britannia Stadium.
A man who has been linked with no shortage of Premier League clubs but never joined any of them, Kevin Strootman is about to leave Roma and join Marseille for £22.5m. The Dutch midfielder is understood to have undergone a medical yesterday and was left out of Roma’s matchday squad for last night’s 3-3 draw with Atalanta. Elsewhere in France, It’s looking like Thierry Henry will turn down the Bordeaux job due to the lack of transfer funds that will be made available to him. In Nice, his former Arsenal team-mate, Patrick Vieira, is about to sign the Paris Saint-Germain reserve goalkeeper, Kevin Trapp, on loan.
And finally, there’ll be love in the air over Ibrox if Rangers sign Eros Grezda for £2m. The winger plays for Osijek in the Croatian top flight and will come in as a like-for-like replacement for Jamie Murphy, who is out for the season after rupturing knee ligaments in a League Cup match against Kilmarnock.
Evening Standard
West Ham’s foreign stars are in for a nasty shock against AFC Wimbledon, warns James Hanson
Dons striker looking forward to old-fashioned, physical Cup tie
GIUSEPPE MURO
James Hanson wears the scars of his battles and the AFC Wimbledon striker has warned West Ham’s centre-backs they are in for a bruising encounter at Kingsmeadow on Tuesday.
Hanson was one of the heroes when Bradford reached the League Cup Final in 2013 and the former shelf stacker is targeting another top-flight scalp.
West Ham’s new-look defence looks vulnerable and Hanson has warned their backline to prepare for an uncomfortable introduction to a team from the lower leagues of English football.
“I always look forward to the physical battle,” the 30-year-old told Standard Sport. “I have had stitches, broken noses, but you give them out as well.
“That is one of my strengths, being as physical as I can be. West Ham have a lot of foreign players who have not played in this type of game before and we want to make them as uncomfortable as we can. Hopefully, we can get some service and cause them problems at the back.”
Issa Diop and Fabian Balbuena were West Ham’s centre-backs for the 3-1 defeat at Arsenal on Saturday and Hammers manager Manuel Pellegrini could resist the urge to rotate after three defeats from three League games.
Hanson helped Bradford knock out top-flight sides Arsenal, Wigan and Aston Villa five years ago and scored the decisive goal in the semi-final that sent the then League Two side to Wembley.
He added: “Premier League defenders are not as physical as in the lower leagues. We got a lot of joy at Bradford with the way (manager) Phil Parkinson played. It was quite direct and a lot of things went through me. The Premier League teams did not match us physically. You have got to have a game plan, stick to it and be patient.
“If it takes 10 men behind the ball, then that is what you have got to do. Be difficult to break down and then, whenever you get a chance to put it in the box, you have got to test Premier League sides.”
Bradford lost 5-0 to Swansea in the final in 2013 but they secured promotion to League One that season and Hanson, who came through non-League football and was working in a Co-op until 2009, went on to score 40 goals in the next three-and-a-half years.
Those goals earned him a move to Sheffield United in January 2017, where he was hampered by a string of injuries. He joined Bury on loan for the second half of last season but continued to struggle with his fitness.
Hanson describes last season as “my worst in football” but he hopes his summer move to Wimbledon can revive his career. “We play 4-4-2 and it suits me down to the ground,” he said. “That is one of the things (boss) Neal Ardley sold to me. We have two wingers who cross the ball and the deliveries that come are brilliant for me.”
A groin injury in one of his first training sessions meant it was a frustrating start at his new club but Hanson, who has yet to score this season, is now nearing full fitness.
Wimbledon have scored just five times in six games this season but Hanson says: “We lost 2-1 against Sunderland on Saturday but I feel that was my best performance in a Wimbledon shirt. I am feeling sharper now. Hopefully, when that first goal comes they will be like buses. We have had a couple of games where we have fired blanks and we should have beaten Sunderland.
“We need to show a lot more ruthlessness and more composure. We had a lot of clearcut chances but we were snatching at them a bit. I am sure we can change that with hard work on the training ground.
“If we perform like we did against Sunderland then we will definitely cause West Ham problems. They have made a lot of new signings but maybe they have not gelled yet.
“The game is on television so the cameras might be expecting a little upset. Let’s not disappoint and at least put on a performance for the fans to be proud of.”
Start time
Wimbledon vs West Ham kicks off at 7:45pm on Tuesday 28 August at Kingsmeadow.
TV online and live stream coverage
The match will be shown live on Sky Sports' Premier League and Main Event channels, and is available via Now TV with a day pass on offer for £7.99. Sky Sports subscribers can stream the match online via SkyGo and the SkyGo app.
Team news
West Ham skipper Mark Noble missed Saturday’s defeat to Arsenal after a back injury left him unable to train for most of the week. Marco Aunoutovic opened the scoring for his side at the Emirates on Saturday but was forced off with a muscular injury. Michail Antonio was another casualty from that 3-1 defeat, picking up an ankle injury. Both players will be assessed ahead of Tuesday.
Predicted starting XIs
Wimbledon: King, Sibbick, Nightingale, Oshilaja, Purrington, Wagstaff, Wordworth, Trotter, Garratt, Hanson, Piggott
West Ham: Adrian, Zabaleta, Diop, Oxford, Masuaku, Rice, Cullen, Sanchez, Yarmolenko, Snodgrass, Perez
Marca
Eibar look to sign Reece Oxford on loan
The sporting department at Eibar believed their work was done for the summer, but poor performances in the opening two matches of the new season have set the alarm bells ringing and they are now trying to bring in Reece Oxford on loan from West Ham.
He is also wanted by AZ Alkmaar, although the Basque club seem more likely to land him.
The Daily Mail reported on Sunday that Eibar had expressed interest and this has been confirmed by MARCA, with Los Armeros' sporting director Fran Garagarza working to include a purchase option of two million euros in the loan deal, although West Ham are initially reluctant about this.
The 19-year-old defender would arrive to provide an extra option at centre-back, with Paulo Oliveira and Anaitz Arbilla having had difficult starts to the season and with Ivan Ramis often injured.
Oxford's arrival would likely lead to the exit of Alejandro Galvez, in order for Eibar to keep one extra spot in their squad available for a potential attacking reinforcement.
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