Friday news (includes West Ham)

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Thanks Alan 1:25 Fri Aug 16

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"BBC Manchester United have told Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen, 32, that he is free to find a new club this month and he could leave in a cut-price deal. (Football Insider) Manchester United have no plans to move for Barcelona and Netherlands midfielder Frenkie de Jong, 27, and are pursuing other options. (Metro) Atletico Madrid would like to complete the sale of Portugal forward Joao Felix, 24, to Chelsea and sign the Blues’ 24-year-old England midfielder Conor Gallagher by Wednesday. (AS - in Spanish) AC Milan have reached an agreement with Monaco for 25-year-old France midfielder Youssouf Fofana, who was also looked at by Manchester United. (Sky Italy) Manchester United are in ongoing talks with Burnley over a deal for 26-year-old Norway midfielder Sander Berge. (Sky Sports) West Ham have enquired about a move for Paris St-Germain and Spain midfielder Carlos Soler, 27. (Mail) Former Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino has agreed to become the new United States men's national team coach with the responsibility of leading the team into the 2026 World Cup. (ESPN) Championship clubs Stoke City, Swansea City and Oxford United are interested in signing 20-year-old Scottish right-back Max Johnston from Sturm Graz. (Football Insider) Union Berlin and Getafe are leading the race to sign English forward Cameron Archer, 22, on loan from Aston Villa. (Fabrizio Romano) Chelsea have set an asking price of £60m for any clubs interested in signing 22-year-old English winger Noni Madueke. (Athletic - subscription required) Former Chelsea and Spain defender Marcos Alonso, 34, would “love to join” Manchester United after becoming a free agent by leaving Barcelona. (Fabrizio Romano via Givemesport) Paris St-Germain are set to beat Chelsea to the signing of Rennes’ France Under-23 midfielder Desire Doue. (ESPN) Everton are discussing a possible loan for Napoli and Sweden midfielder Jens Castuje, 25. (TeamTalk) Brighton have made an improved offer for 26-year-old defender Olivier Boscagli – who played for France at youth level – but it is still not enough for PSV Eindhoven. (Voetbal International - in Dutch) Sky Paper Talk THE GUARDIAN Erik ten Hag says Manchester United's ambition is to win the Premier League, claiming they have only been second best to rivals Manchester City since his arrival in 2022. Mauricio Pochettino looks set to take over as the new manager of the US men's team. Howard Webb has said much of the criticism of VAR is because people don't like the outcome of a decision, as the head of the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) tries to rebuild trust in refereeing in the Premier League. Everton plan to test Dele's readiness for a Premier League return with several matches behind closed doors before deciding whether to offer the former England international a new contract. Police in Catalonia have arrested four people after Mounir Nasraoui, the father of the Barcelona and Spain winger Lamine Yamal, was stabbed in a car park in Rocafonda, near Barcelona. DAILY MAIL Manchester United icon Jaap Stam insists Erik ten Hag needs to leave the club before delivering a damning verdict of the Dutchman's style of football as Red Devils boss. Liverpool have been brutally mocked by the Spanish press after Martin Zubimendi became the latest player to snub the Premier League side. Crystal Palace have rejected Newcastle's third bid for Marc Guehi of £55m plus £5m in add-ons. The body in charge of Premier League referees will make their referees appointment policy public for the first time in a move to protect football's integrity. West Ham have enquired about a move for Spain and Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Carlos Soler. Saudi Arabia have reportedly targeted a move for Real Madrid star Eder Militao. FIFA has signed a major sponsorship deal with a USA firm for the first time since the Department of Justice gave world football's governing body a clean bill of health. THE SUN Erik ten Hag says his team is not ready for the start of the new campaign after a busy pre-season. Manchester City are expected to pull off a surprise move for club-less England U20 striker Divin Mubama, who recently left West Ham. Jack Grealish's image rights company has scored big - banking a £7m bonanza from sponsorship deals. Nine Chelsea stars are set to be axed in order to balance the books at Stamford Bridge. Sean Dyche revealed that every one of his players is still for sale at the right price with Everton stuck in takeover limbo. THE TIMES Referees and VARs will be prohibited from officiating in matches involving clubs they support, have a personal connection with or are in the same city in which they live, the policy of the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) on conflicts of interest states. INEOS is exploring the possibility of releasing a behind-the-scenes film on Manchester United as it documents its journey following the partial takeover. THE INDEPENDENT Premier League chief executive Richard Masters says they ""don't want to normalise asterisks on the league table"" as the competition faces up to a potentially critical season over its regulatory future. Premier League ticket prices have risen by an average of 6.7 per cent, according to figures supplied to the Independent by the Football Supporters' Association [FSA] and supplementary analysis, with Crystal Palace the only one of last season's 17 surviving clubs to not raise their prices. Nottingham Forest have been responsible for the biggest increase. DAILY MIRROR Julen Lopetegui has vowed to ensure the West Ham captain's armband does not weigh heavy upon Jarrod Bowen. Joe Cole believes Mauricio Pochettino's Chelsea frustrations were clear in the weeks before the manager left Stamford Bridge, despite overcoming a tough start to finish sixth in his one Premier League season. Roberto De Zerbi has claimed he left Brighton because he clashed with owner Tony Bloom and he could not accept ""unfair things"". DAILY STAR Tony Pulis has praised Wrexham's coaching staff and players for remaining focused on football amidst the 'circus' the Hollywood owners have created. THE ATHLETIC Southampton are working on a deal to sign Cameron Archer from Aston Villa. Everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite is set to miss the start of the season through injury. Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag says new signing Joshua Zirkzee is ""close"" to being ready to start for the Premier League season opener against Fulham on Friday. Chelsea goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic is surplus to Enzo Maresca's stylistic requirements only a year after joining from New England Revolution of MLS. American businessman John Textor has entered a period of exclusivity to pursue the purchase of Farhad Moshiri's majority stake in Everton. Chelsea have made midfielder Cesare Casadei available for transfer. Southampton are in advanced talks with Chelsea to sign Lesley Ugochukwu on a season-long loan. Manchester United sponsor Qualcomm has triggered its two-year extension option on its front-of-shirt deal with the Premier League club. Chelsea hope to sell striker David Datro Fofana this summer. Vitor Roque, 19, is close to leaving Barcelona, despite only joining in January. DAILY EXPRESS Manchester United will make a renewed attempt to prise Frenkie de Jong away from Barcelona this summer, according to reports in Spain. Crystal Palace have informed Jean-Philippe Mateta's suitors that the in-form striker is not for sale this summer. DAILY RECORD Fears are growing that Rangers full-back Ridvan Yilmaz is set to be out of action for months after being carried off on a stretcher during a bruising Champions League defeat to Dynamo Kyiv. Former Rangers star John Lundstram has been given pelters by Trabzonspor fans on social media after the Turkish Super Lig side were knocked out of qualifying for the Europa League. Connor Barron will block out the noise from any Rangers fan protests on Saturday and insists the players are hurting just as badly after their Champions League exit. SCOTTISH SUN Rangers have sacked a new Celtic-supporting marketing guru after an offensive social media post was dug up by fans. Leeds United are reportedly eyeing a swoop for Rangers star Rabbi Matondo. Adam Idah insists he is not returning to Celtic to be Kyogo Furuhashi's back-up. Inverness Caledonian Thistle's new owners have stumped up £70,000 to have their kit released by suppliers Puma - after the old regime failed to pay the bill for last season's strips. The Athletic Premier League changes for 2024-25: How VAR, handball and offside will be different By Dan Sheldon Ready yourselves for another season of… legal battles, endless debate about clubs’ finances, VAR outrage, nine-year player contracts and managerial sackings. Yes, the Premier League is back! After a summer of Spain winning the European Championship, Argentina lifting the Copa America, and Olympians playing football in Paris and other French cities, the real entertainment is returning to a screen near you. And it starts at Old Trafford this evening (Friday), where Manchester United host Fulham to kick-start another nine months of unscripted drama otherwise known as Pure Barclays. There will still be 22 footballers on the pitch, a referee, a couple of nervous managers and thousands of fans in attendance, but there have been some tweaks to the format for 2024-25. Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Southampton are back in the top flight, new laws are being introduced, semi-automated offside rulings are on the way, a new ball will be kicked around, there are fresh faces in the dugouts and, for the first time since October 2015, no Jurgen Klopp. So, without further ado, allow The Athletic to steer you through the need-to-knows ahead of the new season… Changes to VAR The Premier League and PGMOL, the match officials’ organisation, accepted they lost their way with VAR last season, so spent the summer reminding match officials, club managers and players of its importance, while also unveiling a six-point plan to improve it. This focuses on reducing delays to the match involvement, in-stadium announcements on decisions, better communication, maintaining a high threshold for VAR intervention, more transparency and more stringent training. Supporters inside stadiums will now be shown all ‘goals’ that get disallowed on the venue’s big screen(s), as well as a definitive clip if there has been a delay to the restart of the action because a goal has been checked for a potential offside or possible foul. There is also a new Premier League Match Centre social-media account that will communicate the facts regarding VAR decisions. The PGMOL went on a VAR recruitment drive over the summer, receiving interest from around 60 officials, and 12 new specialist video assistant referees will be rolled out during the season. Video assistant referees at PGMOL’s Stockley Park base have been told not to get involved in subjective calls, instead only intervening when there is a ‘clear and obvious error’. A new term will also be heard: “referee’s call”. It will be used to make it clear the on-pitch decision is critical in the process, and that this should stand unless there is, yes, a clear and obvious error. If a referee gets sent to the pitch-side monitor, the replays they are shown on it will be played at normal speed. Only when a point of contact is being established will the frames be slowed down. Semi-automated offsides introduced Semi-automated offside technology (SOAT) is coming, although not for the start of the season as the technology is still being tested. The Premier League expects it “from after one of the autumn international breaks”, so it could be September, October or as far away as November. SOAT — yes, another acronym — has proven effective and efficient, most recently at Euro 2024. Before that, it was used at the men’s World Cup in 2022. Genius Sports, already a data partner of the Premier League, will supply the technology. You can read a full breakdown of what to expect from it elsewhere on The Athletic. Revised handball rule After receiving feedback from the players that there were too many penalties given for handball last season, changes have been made to what constitutes that offence. The Premier League has advised players that not every touch of a hand or arm on the ball is an offence and that they are not expected to move with their arms into an unnatural position behind their backs to try to avoid such contact. It will not be handball if the player concerned is deemed to be in a justifiable position or making a justifiable action; if there is a clear change of trajectory when the ball is touched by, or deflects off, the same player; or if the ball hits the supporting arm when a player falls to the ground. PSR alternative being trialled The current profit and sustainability rules (PSR) will remain in place for this season, but a shadow system of the new regulations will be trialled ahead of the 2025-26 campaign. Clubs agreed to this non-binding shadowing at the league AGM in June and it will comprise squad cost rules (SCR) and top to bottom anchoring rules (TBA). The Premier League and its clubs want to evaluate the system alongside European football governing body UEFA’s financial regulations. SCR regulates on-pitch spending to a proportion — 85 per cent — of a club’s football revenue and net profit/loss on player sales. TBA is a de facto hard salary cap that would limit the amount any club could spend on their first-team squad to five times the amount the bottom-placed team the previous season received from the Premier League in centralised media and sponsorship income. A key difference with these new financial rules is that clubs will now be asked to provide accounts twice a year, in March and October, meaning the Premier League will be assessing them on more up-to-date information. The league’s proposed anchoring rule faces stern opposition from the Professional Footballers’ Association, the players’ trade union in England and Wales, and was voted against by three of the 20 clubs — Aston Villa, Manchester City and Manchester United — in April. The new Premier League ball (Nathan Stirk/Getty Images) Changes to team news, the mid-season break, the ball and celebrations There are a few other changes. Team news will now be released 75 minutes before kick-off, rather than an hour, while players were informed last season that there would be no mid-season break in 2024-25 due to a congested calendar. To help with player welfare, the Premier League is starting a week later than usual this season, on the third weekend in August. There is also going to be a new ball, the Nike Flight (pictured above), which marks the sportswear company’s 25th year as the league’s official ball supplier. It has been designed to generate more powerful strikes and has moulded grooves intended to reduce drag. Another change that has been welcomed by the players is a new 30-second allowance for celebrations after a goal has been scored, which will not be included in the game’s added-on time. Mail Man City agree £1.5m compensation package with West Ham for free agent Divin Mubama - as Pep Guardiola makes shock move to bolster his forward line after Julian Alvarez exit By Simon Jones Manchester City have agreed a fee of around £1.5million with West Ham as compensation for 19-year-old forward Divin Mubama who was out of contract. Mubama had been due to sign for Famalicao in Portugal before City stepped in. The 19-year-old forward is a free agent after his contract ran down with West Ham but they are still due training compensation after nurturing the teenager's career since the age of eight. The England U20 international was a frustrated figure at West Ham where he made 12 appearances last season but was predominantly used from the bench and kept as back-up to their forward options. He was offered new terms but wanted to develop his career elsewhere and had set his sights on playing abroad until the Premier League champions made their move. City are looking to bolster forward options with Julian Alvarez having left for Atletico Madrid and Oscar Bobb ruled out with a fractured leg. Mubama is viewed as one for the future and could figure around the first team squad initially but with an eye on playing regularly out on loan further down the line. The former Hammer featured for the east London side 12 times in all competitions, only turning out five times in the Premier League."