Friday news (includes West Ham)

[Thanks Alan]

Thanks Alan

[Alan]

"BBC West Ham are closing in on the double signing of Borussia Dortmund and Germany striker Niclas Fullkrug, 31, and Leeds' Dutch forward Crysencio Summerville, 22. (Sky Sports) Arsenal, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid are all interested in 29-year-old France midfielder Adrien Rabiot, who is a free agent after leaving Juventus. (Gazzetta, in Italian) Aston Villa have reached a deal with Chelsea for Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku, but the 31-year-old wants to join Antonio Conte's Napoli. (Il Mattino, in Italian - subscription needed) West Ham have agreed personal terms to sign right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka, 26, but have yet to agree a fee with Manchester United, who want ¬£18m rather than the ¬£10m offered. (Sky Sports Germany) Fulham are in advanced talks to sign Villarreal's Spanish centre-back Jorge Cuenca, 24, for ¬£6.7m. (Standard) Napoli have an offer of 12m euros (¬£10.2m) ready for 23-year-old Brighton and Scotland midfielder Billy Gilmour and are waiting for players to leave the club before making it. (Sky Sports Italy) Arsenal are close to a ¬£25m deal to sign 28-year-old Spain midfielder Mikel Merino from Real Sociedad. (Mirror) Roma have agreed a deal with Girona to sign Ukraine striker Artem Dovbyk, 27, for ¬£28.8m - with AC Milan interested in signing Roma's England forward Tammy Abraham, 26. (Repubblica, in Italian - subscription needed) Stuttgart will withdraw their interest in Brighton's Germany striker Deniz Undav, 28, and look at new targets soon if they cannot reach a deal with Albion. (Kicker, in German) Newcastle are in advanced talks with Sheffield United to sign the Blades' 20-year-old Danish striker William Osula for an initial ¬£10m. (Telegraph - subscription needed) Leipzig will reject a second bid from Barcelona for 26-year-old Spain midfielder Dani Olmo. (Sport, in Spanish) Bristol City, Stoke and Birmingham City are interested in Burnley's Irish defender Luke McNally, 24. (Football Insider) Stoke City want Blackburn Rovers' English midfielder Lewis Travis, 26. (Teamtalk) Nottingham Forest are not looking to cash in on 24-year-old English midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White, despite interest from Newcastle, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Chelsea. (HITC) Manchester City's English midfielder Jacob Wright, 18, has agreed a loan move to Peterborough United. (Football Insider) Sky Paper Talk DAILY MAIL Fulham are among the clubs interested in signing Diego Carlos from Aston Villa. Paul Scholes has ranked Manchester United's greatest midfielders, and he has not placed the club's iconic former captain Roy Keane in the No1 spot. Fulham have made another bid for Scott McTominay, offering ¬£23m for the Manchester United midfielder. Newcastle United are in advanced talks with Sheffield United over a deal for William Osula. Ivan Toney's hopes of securing a summer exit from Brentford could be put on hold after the west Londoners saw new frontman Igor Thiago injured on his debut. Arsenal are in the process of finalising the ¬£25m signing of Real Sociedad midfielder Mikel Merino after club-to-club talks entered key stages. Manchester United's Old Trafford rebuild could cost close to ¬£2.5bn, according to reports, in a blow to Sir Jim Ratcliffe's plans to upgrade the Theatre of Dreams. Manchester United are expected to dip back into the transfer market after losing Rasmus Hojlund and Leny Yoro to injury in pre-season. DAILY EXPRESS Tottenham are reportedly set to move for Bournemouth striker Dominic Solanke. DAILY TELEGRAPH Hampshire are expected to become the first county owned by an overseas franchise after agreeing a ¬£120m sale to the owners of the Delhi Capitals. Zak Crawley is expected to be ruled out of all of England's Test series against Sri Lanka, and could face a race to be fit for the tour to Pakistan after an operation on a broken finger. THE ATHLETIC Novak Djokovic fears his meniscus tear injury has recurred ahead of Olympic tennis semi-final. THE SUN Teenage darts whiz Luke ¬?Littler is planning to toast his success with his own beer range - despite being too young to drink. Aaron Wan-Bissaka is on the verge of leaving Manchester United. DAILY STAR Newcastle winger Anthony Gordon is reportedly eager to join Liverpool if the chance arises this summer. David Moyes has admitted he failed in pursuits of Gareth Bale and Cesc Fabregas during his time at Manchester United. EVENING STANDARD Crystal Palace are ironing out the final details of a loan deal that would see Malcolm Ebiowei join Oxford on loan. DAILY RECORD Russell Martin insists there is ""not a chance"" Celtic target Shea Charles will be allowed to leave Southampton unless they can bring in reinforcements first. Celtic are said to be keeping tabs on Philadelphia Union midfielder Daniel Gazdag - with the Hungary star reportedly on a three-man watchlist. C&H ‚ÄúFive New Signings‚Äù | West Ham Ain‚Äôt Finished Yet Irrespective of whether West Ham snare Dortmund‚Äôs Niclas F?ºllkrug or Aston Villa‚Äôs Jhon Duran, it‚Äôs clear we‚Äôre serious about buying a striker. Therefore, even if we Hammers fans are not entirely sure about the identity of the next three transfers, it‚Äôs safe to say that West Ham are in advanced negotiations to sign a right-back, winger, and striker. However, we‚Äôre not finished there. The Irons remain in the hunt for at least two more players in the form of a central defender and a central midfielder. That was confirmed to C&H by a top club source who reiterated that West Ham are involved in negotiations for multiple players in all the positions mentioned. It truly appears to be an unprecedented spree by the club, who are seemingly using every penny from the sale of Declan Rice and ploughing it back into the squad. Added to some creative accounting and a record turnover in the last published accounts, the Hammers clearly have a decent war chest to rebuild this season. Clearly, there will need to be some more outgoings, but as things stand, the transfer activity shows no sign of relenting. The Athletic West Ham head coach Julen Lopetegui ‚Äì forged by Basque sporting traditions By Dermot Corrigan ‚ÄúHere, each village was its own universe, cut off from everywhere,‚Äù says Bernardo Atxaga. ‚ÄúSan Sebastian is only a short drive away these days, but back then it was like another world.‚Äù Atxaga is one of the Basque Country‚Äôs most renowned literary figures and a friend and neighbour of the family of West Ham United head coach Julen Lopetegui. He is speaking to The Athletic at a table in the Iturri Ondo (‚Äòby the fountain‚Äô) bar on the main square in the town of Asteasu, where he and Lopetegui, 57, grew up, now a 40-minute drive from the northern Spanish city of San Sebastian. It is part of the Basque Country, a region of northern Spain on the border with France of three million inhabitants that share linguistic, historical and cultural ties. Atxaga offers a tour ‚Äî across the paved stone square with its pretty splashing fountain, past the 18th-century town hall with its arched gallery, and down winding cobbled streets that are shaded from the mid-morning sun. Just around the corner is the Lopetegui family house, a typical brick dwelling that has been significantly expanded and modernised in recent decades. When the former Spain, Real Madrid, Sevilla and Wolverhampton Wanderers manager was a boy, the home included a garage storing buses the family owned and stalls for pigs raised for the menu of the restaurant the family ran. The Lopeteguis have long been important figures in this corner of the Basque Country, where local sports have traditionally been much more important than football. ‚ÄúI‚Äôve very few memories of any football final, but all the radios would be on for the pelota finals,‚Äù Atxaga says. ‚ÄúAll the kids here, the most athletic ones, went for pelota vasca. It was a game central to life here. Julen played it and his brother Joxean was a champion.‚Äù Pelota vasca is a traditional court sport played using your hand or a woven basket to direct the ball. Also known as jai alai, it was and is a professional sport in the Basque Country. In 1986, Joxean Lopetegui won gold in the super-fast version called ‚Äòremonte‚Äô. Further back, the brothers‚Äô father, Jose Antonio, was a sports star, a champion of another traditional Basque sport called harri-jasotze (lifting stones). Under the name Aguerre II, during a three-decade career that began in the 1940s, he set records that still stand today. ‚ÄúLifting stones was something enormous here, key to everything,‚Äù says Atxaga. ‚ÄúAguerre II was unique, not just for his strength, but his speed, it was something electric. He could lift a stone of 100 kilos 50 times in a minute. Julen and Joxean inherited both things: strength and dynamism.‚Äù Football first grabbed the attention of the village in the mid-20th century via cards packaged with chocolates made down by the coast in Antiguoko, then an industrial suburb of San Sebastian. A sign of Asteasu opening up to the world was Julen going to secondary school in San Sebastian in the 1970s. There he started watching Real Sociedad play at their old Atotxa stadium. By the time La Real won back-to-back La Liga titles in 1981 and 1982, he was a goalkeeper in their youth ranks. After starring against Real Madrid in the 1985 youth Copa del Rey and seeing his opportunity to become a starter in Real Sociedad‚Äôs first team blocked by Spain‚Äôs No 1, Luis Arconada, Julen and his father accepted an offer to join Madrid‚Äôs Castilla youth team, where he could launch his professional career. The stroll around today‚Äôs Asteasu, population 1,500, shows little sign of the bustle of the modern world. There are lots of carefully restored gleaming white houses, the beautiful brick 14th-century San Pedro church, nicely manicured gardens and sheep avoiding the sun by lying in the shade. On a roundabout near the house where Lopetegui‚Äôs father, now 93, lives, flies the Basque ‚ÄòIkurrina‚Äô flag, with its white and green crosses on a red field. This is a reminder of the struggle against central Spain, which included the Basque terrorist group ETA‚Äôs (the initials for ‚ÄòBasque homeland and Liberty‚Äô in the Basque language) campaign of violence from the 1960s to the 2000s. Julen is proud of his eight Basque surnames: Lopetegui, Agote, Aranguren, Arteaga, Eizmendi, Kalparsoro, Usabiaga and Ugartemendia, inherited from his great grandparents. Still, representing Real Madrid or being Spain national coach from 2016 to 2018 was never an issue in the village, says Atxaga, who has won Spain‚Äôs national literature prize (2019) and the equivalent Basque version (2014): ‚ÄúThere will always be someone who makes a comment, but it was never a problem.‚Äù Behind the town hall is a sculpture showing ‚Äòsegalaris‚Äô, another traditional Basque sport involving cutting of hay, with bets often made on who could do it fastest. The artist is Mikel Valverde, who has illustrated many of Atxaga‚Äôs books. Valverde is the brother of Athletic Bilbao coach Ernesto, another close friend of the author. The sculpture in Asteasu depicting ‚Äòsegalaris‚Äô, the traditional Basque sport involving cutting hay (Dermot Corrigan/The Athletic) Many of European football‚Äôs top coaches come from this area. Mikel Arteta, the Arsenal manager, is from San Sebastian. Bournemouth‚Äôs Andoni Iraola hails from Usurbil, an industrial town on San Sebastian‚Äôs outskirts, and Bayer Leverkusen‚Äôs Xabi Alonso is from Tolosa, a 30-minute drive up into the mountains. Unai Emery, of Aston Villa, comes from Fuenterrabia, an hour towards the border with France. Real Sociedad coach Imanol Alguacil is from Orio, a short trip the other way along the coastline. All have different styles of football but a strong competitive streak. Through playing and coaching careers with many twists and turns, Lopetegui has retained family characteristics honed during his upbringing in Asteasu. During his nine months at Wolves, his tactical nous was clear as he lifted the team clear of relegation, while his stubborn character was evident when differences over transfers saw him resign five days before the 2023-24 season began. As The Athletic finishes the tour by the town‚Äôs new modern Pelota Vasca court, Atxaga says he has not asked Lopetegui about such decisions. But a drive to succeed in every sport has always been present in Asteasu. ‚ÄúIt was always important to win,‚Äù he says. ‚ÄúIt‚Äôs not the best Basque attribute, for me, but here competition is taken to the extreme. There was always a masculine thing, to show that you were a winner.‚Äù"