BBC
Everton are looking into a potential move for Manchester City's England midfielder Kalvin Phillips, 29, in January. (Football Insider, external)
Liverpool are among the Premier League clubs interested in 21-year-old Crystal Palace and England midfielder Adam Wharton. (Mail - subscription required), external
Brentford are not expected to offer Jamaica international Michail Antonio, 35, a contract despite the former West Ham forward training with the Bees. (Mail, external)
Manchester United remain in talks with Harry Maguire, 32, over a new deal and face-to-face meetings have already taken place between the club and the representatives of the England defender, whose contract expires next summer. (Fabrizio Romano, external)
Manchester United are prepared to offer £78m for Juventus and Turkey forward Kenan Yildiz, 20, who is also being targeted by Chelsea. (Caught Offside, external)
With signing a new midfielder a key target next summer, Manchester United are considering Brighton and Cameroon star Carlos Baleba, 21, and England international Elliot Anderson, 22, of Nottingham Forest. (Sky Sports, external)
Crystal Palace are preparing for Marc Guehi's exit, either during the January transfer window or next summer, with Liverpool, Barcelona and Real Madrid among clubs who maintain an interest in the 25-year-old England defender. (Express, external)
Napoli are keen on signing Manchester United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo on loan in January despite deciding against a move for the 20-year-old England international in the summer. (La Gazzetta dello Sport - in Italian, external)
Nottingham Forest and Brazil centre-back Murillo, 23, is one of the names at the top of Chelsea's list of targets as they look to strengthen defensively. (Football Insider, external)
Chelsea and Spain Under-19 striker Marc Guiu is eyeing a dramatic return to Sunderland during the January transfer window despite the 19-year-old only being recalled from his loan spell at the Black Cats in August. (GiveMeSport, external)
Sky Paper Talk
DAILY EXPRESS
Liverpool are eager to offer Arne Slot a new contract, with his agent reportedly already working on the deal.
Bruno Fernandes has no intention of leaving Manchester United to play in Saudi Arabia.
DAILY MAIL
Sporting Lisbon agreed a deal to sell Viktor Gyokeres to Manchester United worth more than the fee Arsenal eventually paid to secure his services, an assistant to the Swede's agent has claimed in a bombshell interview.
A former Norwegian national team doctor has revealed that Martin Odegaard could be set for an extended period on the sidelines in a hammer blow for Mikel Arteta.
Saudi sports supremo Turki Al-Sheikh has raised the intriguing prospect of a fresh takeover bid for Manchester United.
THE SUN
England striker Ollie Watkins was withdrawn at half-time after avoiding a potential horror injury against Wales at Wembley.
Michail Antonio has been training with Brentford as he seeks a return to football.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan has lifted the lid on the explosive row with Jose Mourinho that led to the end of his Manchester United career, revealing in his new book that the Portuguese texted him every single night telling him to leave.
THE MIRROR
Pep Guardiola should quit Manchester City to "regenerate" and look for a "new project", according to his former performance analyst Carles Planchart.
THE TIMES
Manchester United have sent a survey to fans to gauge their opinion on a new proposed stadium, with indicative season-ticket prices ranging from £570 to £4,830.
Tottenham Hotspur's majority shareholder, the Lewis family trust, has injected £100m into the club to help drive "long-term sporting success".
THE ATHLETIC
FIFA president Gianni Infantino believes the football industry needs to be more open-minded about when it stages its biggest tournaments as a global game cannot only play World Cups during the northern hemisphere summer.
Manchester United are exploring whether to sell seat licences for a new stadium which would be built adjacent to the existing stadium at Old Trafford.
DAILY RECORD
Steven Gerrard will attempt to lure former England coach Steve Holland into his new-look Rangers backroom team - if he lands the job as gaffer.
Football talk
West Ham plot swoop to sign Adama Traore from Fulham in January
West Ham United are plotting a swoop to sign Fulham forward Adama Traoré in the January transfer window, according to Fichajes.
Traoré has experienced a topsy-turvy journey in the Premier League, having represented Aston Villa, Middlesbrough, Wolverhampton Wanderers, and Fulham.
His most memorable period came under Nuno Espírito Santo at Wolves, where he enjoyed a remarkable surge in form that briefly established him as one of the league’s most feared wingers. The 29-year-old also had a loan spell at Barcelona but was unable to secure a permanent return to his boyhood club.
Since joining Fulham, the Spanish international has registered 17 goal involvements across 66 appearances — scoring four goals and supplying 13 assists. Despite his inconsistency, Traoré’s explosive pace and directness remain a constant threat, and it’s no surprise he remains on the radar of several clubs.
It appears Nuno is eyeing a possible reunion with the winger, as Fichajes claims that the Portuguese manager has personally requested the transfer of Traoré to the London Stadium in the January transfer window.
Depth
The Hammers are looking to strengthen their attack and view the Spain international’s experience in the English top flight as a viable option to add depth to Nuno’s attack and also provide competition for Jarrod Bowen.
West Ham’s defensive frailties have been a primary concern this season, with the Hammers conceding 16 goals – the worst record in the Premier League so far. However, a lack of cutting edge in their attack has also impeded their progress.
The Hammers have only managed to score more than once in a league game on a single occasion — the 3-0 victory over Nottingham Forest in August — and have since found it difficult to generate clear-cut chances.
Strengthening their attacking options will therefore be a top priority when the January transfer window opens, with Traoré now being earmarked as a possible option.
Having played only 143 minutes of football for Marco Silva’s side this season, there’s a belief Fulham could be open to sanctioning his departure from Craven Cottage in January if they receive offers in the region of his £7m Transfermarkt valuation, rather than risk losing him for free when his contract expires next summer.
3 Added minutes
I was a West Ham wonderkid who thought their tactics 'wasted energy' - now I'm playing with YouTubers at 28
Once an England international and a rising West Ham star - now playing with YouTubers after spells in five different countries.
The history of the Premier League is littered with young prospects who didn’t quite make the grade – but few who would go on to play for 13 teams in five countries before they turned 28, and who now play alongside YouTubers in a six-a-side event watched by hundreds of thousands of viewers.
That, however, is the path which Jordan Antonio Brown’s career has taken after he came through the ranks at Arsenal and West Ham United. He’s played in Germany, Czechia, Iceland and Canada, won titles with a team that’s less than a year old, and is now showing the top flight what it might have missed out on in a very different sort of arena.
What happened to West Ham prospect Jordan Antonio Brown?
A diminutive striker who started his career at Arsenal before moving to West Ham’s academy when he was 17, Brown made his debut as a Hammer in a Europa League qualifying match in 2015 under Slaven Bilić – but it would prove to be his first and only appearance for a club at which he had once been touted as a serious prospect for the future.
It wasn’t just his club that saw him having a bright future. Brown played for England at Under-16 and Under-17 level, scoring three times at the latter level in seven appearances. Unfortunately, he never quite kicked on as many had hoped.
Injury played a part, as it so often does in such cases, and a badly-timed knee meniscus injury sustained at a crucial point in his development didn’t help matters – but a brief and uninspiring loan spell with non-league Chelmsford City didn’t help to raise his stock, either. He was released in 2016, still just 19 years of age, having fallen short of the bar set by the Premier League.
Brown wasn’t deterred, however, and started off on nearly a decade of globe-trotting, starting with two years at Bundesliga side Hannover 96, for whom he made 40 reserve appearances without making the first team.
While he didn’t quite make it in the German top flight either, Brown had some interesting observations about his time there and the differences in coaching styles that he experienced.
““The tactical ideas they have are different. In England if you are very good then they let you just be good but in Germany they want to mould you,” he told Sky Sports. “The attitude in Germany is that you can be the best player in the world on the ball but if you are not doing what they want off the ball then you simply won’t play.
“There are training sessions without the ball where they explain that if the ball goes here then you are expected to go there. In England, I never did that. You just do what you do and it’s almost random.
“When I was playing up front for West Ham, I was leading the line and pressing but I was basically just pressing the person nearest to me. If someone is there you close them. It was only when I went to Germany that I realised that maybe wasn’t the cleverest idea. You are wasting energy if you are not pressing as a team.”
Brown would take those lessons on to Czechia, where he played for Znojmo, then to Canada, where he starred for newly-formed Cavalry FC, scoring crucial goals as they won the spring and fall championships in the Canadian Premier League just a year after the club was founded in 2018.
Further stints in Canada followed with Electric City FC and Pacific FC, there was another spell in Germany with VfR Aalen, and 13 appearances for Fylkir in Iceland – all before he returned to England to play non-league football with Northwood, Egham Town and Burnham, where he plies his trade now. He is still just 28 years of age, but is now combining his non-league career with something quite different.
How the Baller League gave Brown a new opportunity
Perhaps the most unexpected opportunity which came Brown’s way, however, wasn’t in a foreign country but in London – with the UK edition of the Baller League , the streamer-led six-a-side competition which pits a combination of former pros, one-time academy prospects and content creators against one another.
Brown played in the first edition for Trebol FC, who were meant to be managed by legendary Portuguese winger Luis Figo – although, in the end, the former Real Madrid and Barcelona star never took part. Now renamed Mystery Team with their manager for the second season, which starts this autumn, as yet unveiled, Brown is once again on the roster.
When asked what he had enjoyed most about his time on the Baller League, and what prompted him to come back, Brown simply said that it was about “enjoying football.”
“I play football to enjoy,” he added in an interview with Ali Chin’s YouTube channel. “I don't play football to have a job or I [could] still be playing football abroad if I wanted to. Obviously I don't because of my family and I wanted to settle over here. But yeah, for me like it was always like I wanted to play football to enjoy it again.”
Brown combines his Baller League career with weekend football with Burnham – a far cry, perhaps, from West Ham or England’s age group teams and a very different environment from the many that he experienced overseas, but still one which provides money and opportunities that few other prospects who missed out on a career at the top level receive.