BBC
Liverpool are considering a move for Bournemouth and Ghana forward Antoine Semenyo, 25, in the January transfer window. (i Paper - subscription required), external
Nottingham Forest and England midfielder Elliot Anderson, 22, has emerged as a transfer target for Manchester United. (Mirror), external
Brazil forward Endrick is open to leaving Real Madrid in January, with the 19-year-old's representatives working on a possible loan move. (ESPN), external
England midfielder Morgan Rogers, 23, is in the early stages of discussing a new contract with Aston Villa. (Sky Sports), external
Villa are also ready to offer 31-year-old Scotland midfielder John McGinn a new deal. (Fabrizio Romano), external
Tottenham are reportedly willing to make an offer close to 60m euros (£52m) to sign Al-Ahli and England striker Ivan Toney, 29. (Fichajes - in Spanish), external
West Ham are targeting at least three players - a striker, a midfielder and a defender - in January as they seek to turn their fortunes around. (Sky Sports), external
Barcelona still owe £138m in transfer fees, including £36.5m to Leeds United for Brazil winger Raphinha, 28, and £12m to Manchester City for Spain forward Ferran Torres, 25. (talkSPORT), external
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim is interested in signing 37-year-old Barcelona and Poland striker Robert Lewandowski next summer. (Star)
Sky Paper Talk
Premier League
Manchester United are among a host of clubs reportedly eyeing up Real Madrid youngster Endrick - Daily Mirror.
Man Utd are also ready to join the race to sign Nottingham Forest's Elliot Anderson. Manchester City and Chelsea have also been watching developments with the midfielder, who only turns 23 next month - Daily Mirror.
Liverpool are reportedly considering a move for Bournemouth star Antoine Semenyo in the January transfer window after growing concerned by Mohamed Salah's poor form - Daily Mirror.
Liverpool are at risk of being fined by UEFA after breaching the competition's rules by missing their pre-match press conference on Tuesday - Daily Mirror.
Scottish football
Tony Bloom will not hand title-chasing Hearts more cash in January because UEFA won't let him - Scottish Sun.
European football
A French top-flight game was halted by the referee - after he wrongly believed he heard homophobic chanting from the crowd - The Sun.
Cristiano Ronaldo's son has taken another step towards following in his father's footsteps after being handed a call-up to Portugal's Under-16 squad for the first time - Daily Mirror.
LaLiga has scrapped its planned match in Miami following a backlash and cited the Premier League's vast wealth for ever wanting to take a fixture abroad - Daily Telegraph.
Rugby Union
England head coach Steve Borthwick will refuse to pick France-bound No 8 Tom Willis for the remainder of the season despite his £160,000 enhanced Elite Player Squad contract - Daily Telegraph.
Harlequins are in a fight to keep Sale target Chandler Cunningham-South with the England back row out of contract in the summer. Sale have space in their salary cap to recruit top-end signings, but the London club want him to stay - The Times.
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has defended his role at Red Bull and says he'll learn from Jurgen Klopp's expertise to help his squad's development, with the autumn internationals on the horizon - The Times.
Golf
Jack Nicklaus has been awarded $50m in damages after former business partners questioned his mental state for entering what they alleged were $750m negotiations to become the figurehead of LIV Golf - Daily Telegraph
The Athletic
Nuno’s new dawn at West Ham: Confusing tactics, a toothless attack and tension in the stands
A concerned Nuno Espirito Santo watching on from the dugout Kevin Hodgson/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images
By Mark Carey
If he did not realise it before, Nuno Espirito Santo will now be well aware of the job he has on his hands at West Ham United.
The 51-year-old cut a forlorn figure on the touchline as Brentford hammered the nail into the coffin with a second goal in the dying moments of Monday’s game — a 2-0 final scoreline in favour of the visitors flattering hosts West Ham more so than Keith Andrews’ side.
For the few home supporters remaining in the stands at that point, cue the final exodus.
Monday evening was supposed to be a new dawn at the London Stadium, but Nuno’s first home game after being appointed as Graham Potter’s replacement almost a month ago had already begun under a cloud after supporters staged a boycott of the match as part of a protest against the club’s board.
Matters hardly improved thereafter.
Rather than reflecting on a warm welcome to the dugout, Nuno’s primary thoughts were already focused on the negative atmosphere in the ground.
“I think we are all concerned, and you can see that from our own fans,” he said in the aftermath. “Concern comes in (the form of) silence, silence becomes anxiety, and then we have a problem.”
The repercussions on the pitch are telling. Risk-averse actions from West Ham’s players only served to create more agitation in the stands.
“We try to ignore it,” Nuno added. “We try to make them (the players) feel confident to express themselves, but you cannot hide it — it’s there to see. The imprecise situations we have, like passes not clicking. Have to do with many aspects — and mentally, it is one of the aspects we have to solve.”
Nuno’s team selection only added to the bemusement on the night. Granted, he is still acquainting himself with the squad he’s inherited, but an experiment to play multiple players out of position did not pay off.
A back four with the right-footed Kyle Walker-Peters at left-back and the left-footed Oliver Scarles at right-back was as confusing as it sounds, with both men unable to use their weaker foot to cross the ball on the few occasions they did push forward to support the attack.
Nuno’s admission of error came with a triple substitution at half-time that signalled a move to three at the back with a wing-back system utilising naturally-sided pair of El Hadji Malick Diouf and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
Without striker Niclas Fullkrug because of a thigh injury, Lucas Paqueta was selected as a false nine, and a lot of what West Ham did well going forward came in the opening 20 minutes. Quick interchanges and neat flicks between Paqueta, Jarrod Bowen, Mateus Fernandes and Crysencio Summerville saw the hosts’ creative players stay narrow to combine well at times, but a lack of a focal point was evident within minutes as they repeatedly looked up to find none of their team-mates in the penalty area.
Only one shot on target all night is evidence enough of that. That is the lowest tally West Ham have managed at home since they failed to register a single attempt against Crystal Palace in January. Since 2018-19, there have only been five occasions at the London Stadium where West Ham have recorded a lower single-game expected goals value than their 0.33 on Monday evening.
Monday night served as a damning indictment of Nuno’s view of Callum Wilson’s ability to perform in the absence of Fullkrug. The former England international, 33, played no part at all as 20-year-old Callum Marshall got the nod off the bench instead for the second consecutive game.
Marshall was unable to make an impact, but the need for a recognised striker to lead the line and have runners off him was evident from the match’s opening stages.
Nuno has previously spoken of West Ham prioritising their defensive foundation before they look to improve their attack, but there were not many signs that things were trending in the right direction here. Brentford had 15 shots in the first half, their joint-highest tally in the opening 45 minutes of a Premier League game since they were promoted four years ago.
After the game, Nuno spoke about his side’s inability to win individual duels as a primary concern he needs to address — attributes that are more important than ever in the current landscape of the Premier League.
It was a theme of the evening.
Dejected West Ham players trudge off at the end Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
Yet West Ham’s inability to win the second ball after contesting an aerial duel or a long ball was just as crucial to their demise.
Roll the video back for both goals conceded — and Brentford’s disallowed one ‘scored’ by Igor Thiago — and you will find a throng of disorganisation that stems from losing the first or second contact from a simple direct ball.
Nuno’s success last season as Nottingham Forest head coach was built on strong defensive foundations, so West Ham fans can be confident that an uptick in fortunes is not far away. It can hardly get much worse in the short term, with their team now having lost five successive home games in England’s top division for the first time in nearly a century, last doing so in 1931.
Having left one difficult job at the beginning of the season, Nuno looks to have gone out of the frying pan and into the fire.
It is now his job to extinguish the prospect of West Ham becoming genuine relegation candidates in the weeks ahead, with his side in desperate need of getting back to basics.