Liverpool are expected to rival Newcastle United for Eintracht Frankfurt's French striker Hugo Ekitike, 23, after being told Sweden striker Alexander Isak, 25, is not for sale in this window. (Sky Sports) , external
The Magpies feel the leaking of Liverpool's £120m interest into the public domain is designed to unsettle Isak. (Telegraph - subscription required), external
As well as Ekitike, Liverpool have also made enquiries about four other attackers in case they are unable to secure a deal for Isak - Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins, 29, Napoli's Victor Osimhen, 26, Yoane Wissa of Brentford, 28, and Real Madrid's Rodrygo, 24. (Mail+ - subscription required), external
Napoli have informed Liverpool a deal for Uruguay striker Darwin Nunez, 26, can be considered off. (Fabrizio Romano) , external
Colombia winger Luis Diaz, 28, has made it clear he wants to leave the Reds after the club rejected a £58.6m bid from Bayern Munich. (Athletic - subscription required), external
Leeds United have reached an agreement in principle for Newcastle's 27-year-old English midfielder Sean Longstaff. (Athletic - subscription required)
Tottenham are rivalling Inter Milan to sign 23-year-old Belgium defender Koni de Winter. (i paper) , external
Bournemouth are holding out for £59m for Ukraine centre-back Illia Zabarnyi, 22, who is wanted by Paris St-Germain. (Independent), external
Chelsea are ready to begin a summer clearout with Portugal forward Joao Felix, 25, in talks over a return to Benfica and France's Christopher Nkunku, 27, also set to leave. (Standard), external
Manchester United have registered their interest in signing Juventus and Brazil midfielder Douglas Luiz this summer, with Everton also keen on the 27-year-old. (Football Insider) , external
Liverpool and France centre-back Ibrahima Konate, 26, has rejected a lucrative approach from the Saudi Pro League. (Mirror) , external
The Reds have put a £43.5m price tag on Konate for any clubs interested this summer. (AS - in Spanish) , external
Sassuolo and Italy striker Andrea Pinamonti is attracting interest from West Ham, with London rivals Brentford also enquiring about the 26-year-old. (Standard), external
There is interest from Leeds United in signing Spain striker Gonzalo Garcia, 21, on loan from Real Madrid. (TBR Football), external
Nottingham Forest have made Aston Villa and England Under-21s midfielder Jacob Ramsey, 24, their number one target this window. (Telegraph - subscription required)
Sky Paper Talk
DAILY MAIL
Liverpool have floated the idea of pursuing Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford this summer.
Liverpool have drawn up a shortlist of striker targets and have asked about Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins, Brentford's Yoane Wissa, Napoli's Victor Osimhen and Eintracht Frankfurt's Hugo Ekitike.
Liverpool are alert to Real Madrid selling Rodrygo this summer.
Aston Villa are monitoring Manchester United winger Alejandro Garnacho.
THE ATHLETIC
Contract talks between Arsenal and Ethan Nwaneri have entered the final stages.
Former Arsenal star Granit Xhaka is in talks to sign for Neom SC in the Saudi Pro League.
RB Leipzig and Stuttgart have both expressed interest in signing Chelsea's Armando Broja.
Bayern Munich are considering a move for Arsenal winger Gabriel Martinelli.
THE SUN
Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard has become a grandad for the first time - at the age of 45.
Ipswich are hopeful of keeping hold of Omari Hutchinson after Brentford failed to trigger his release clause.
Galatasaray are eyeing a summer move for Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson.
THE STANDARD
Joao Felix is in talks over a move to Benfica as Chelsea prepare to step up plans for a summer squad clearout.
Chelsea lifted an imitation of the Club World Cup trophy - because the original is permanently housed in the Oval Office after being gifted to Donald Trump.
THE MIRROR
Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate has snubbed a lucrative approach from the Saudi Pro League, insisting he wants to remain in Europe.
THE TELEGRAPH
Nottingham Forest have made Aston Villa star Jacob Ramsey a primary target ahead of their return to European football next season.
Guardian Rumour mill
Will Unwin
Liverpool are interested in signing Newcastle’s Alexander Isak for a whopping £120m, but it’s always good to have a backup because the world of transfers is never a straightforward place. Plan B comes in the form of Ollie Watkins and a call has been made from Anfield to Aston Villa to check on the England forward’s availability and price tag. Plans C, D and E are also known; Napoli’s Victor Osimhen, Brentford’s Yoane Wissa and Real Madrid’s Rodrygo are of some degree of interest to Arne Slot.
Amid all the shenanigans relating to Morgan Gibbs-White and Tottenham, Nottingham Forest are in the market for a replacement. Aston Villa’s Jacob Ramsey is a candidate to replace him and his current employer would consider selling him to help satisfy those pesky profitability and sustainability rules because any fee would be pure moolah in the account as he is an academy graduate.
Staying in the Premier League for a club promoted from the Championship gets more difficult as each year passes. Sunderland, however, have a cunning plan and it involves signing a shed-load of players. The Bologna centre-back Jhon Lucumí is another to have been placed on what is starting to seem like many shortlists dotted around the Stadium of Light. The Black Cats are doing what all clubs do at this stage of the window – monitoring some situations, including that of Leicester’s Bilal El Khannouss, who was one of few players to come out of any credit from last season’s misery at the King Power.
Koni De Winter is supposedly the “new Vincent Kompany” and not solely because he is Belgian. Having such a moniker will naturally draw interest and Inter are willing to battle it out with Tottenham for the Genoa centre-back’s signature.
Juventus are eager to get rid of Douglas Luiz and a return to the Premier League seems a sensible solution for the former Aston Villa man. Manchester United and Everton are the keenest to do a deal for the 27-year-old Brazilian, who would could even be available on loan.
Brentford are usually pretty savvy in the transfer market so when it is whispered that they want the Sassuolo striker Andrea Pinamonti, then everyone immediately starts to think he must be good. A team with an utterly dreadful recruitment record in recent times, West Ham, are also contemplating making an offer, which makes one wonder.
Sometimes a decent Club World Cup campaign is not enough to kickstart a player’s career. Gonzalo García looked half-decent in a tournament played at a snail’s pace, but Real Madrid still might be happy to let him go in the short term and Leeds are waiting in the wings for the striker.
And it has always felt somewhat inevitable that João Félix’s second nondescript spell at Chelsea would end with a quiet exit to Benfica. Mercifully the Portuguese forward’s first club might be happy to take him back, if they can sort out suitable finances, but it sounds as if a deal can be done.
The Athletic
Meet El Hadji Malick Diouf, West Ham’s first signing of the summer
By Roshane Thomas
West Ham United scouts were in attendance when El Hadji Malick Diouf nullified Bukayo Saka’s impact as Senegal beat England in a friendly last month — which is when they felt it was crucial to push ahead with securing his signature.
Thirty-five days later, Diouf has joined from Slavia Prague on what the Premier League club describe as a “long-term contract”.
The 20-year-old full-back has become West Ham’s first signing of the summer window, in what is expected to be an extensive rebuild under head coach Graham Potter, following his appointment partway through this year’s winter one. Mohammed Kudus has moved to London rivals Tottenham Hotspur for around £55million, while Lukasz Fabianski, Aaron Cresswell, Vladimir Coufal and Danny Ings have departed at the end of their contracts. Although Michail Antonio’s deal also expired on June 30, his departure has not been formally announced by the club.
Signing a left-back was a priority for Potter, with Emerson facing an uncertain future amid reports linking him with a return to Italian side Roma and 19-year-old Ollie Scarles still in the early stages of his development at senior level.
Diouf, who previously had interest from Brighton & Hove Albion and Crystal Palace, was a longstanding target for West Ham. He had a breakout 2024-25 season for Slavia, his only full campaign with the Czech side, registering seven goals and four assists across 41 appearances. With this move looming, he was embraced by their backroom staff before he was brought on in the final stages of their friendly against Dynamo Dresden of Germany on Sunday.
“I had it in my head that he wouldn’t be here,” manager Jindrich Trpisovsky told Czech outlet inFotbal. “I was already resigned to it. It was a matter of days. The club’s management did a great job. Slavia got what they wanted.
“No one knows exactly what Malick is still capable of achieving. He wanted London a lot, and it worked out for him. We are all happy that his big dream came true.
“I’m so happy for Malick. I’ll miss him as a football player, but above all as a person. The boy is extraordinary and will be even better. His potential is brutal.”
A graduate of the Mawade Wade academy in Senegal’s capital Dakar, Diouf joined Slavia from Tromso in January 2024 after just under a year with the Norwegian side. In September, he was handed his Senegal debut by the team’s then manager Aliou Cisse, who played for Paris Saint-Germain, Birmingham City and Portsmouth and captained the national team.
Diouf, who has now played four times for his country, can look to Coufal and Tomas Soucek for inspiration. Both moved from Slavia to West Ham in 2020 and immersed themselves in east London culture and memorably helped the club win the 2022-23 UEFA Conference League final in Prague — at Slavia’s stadium.
With Coufal and Soucek having risen from unknown commodities to become influential players, West Ham continued monitoring the Czech domestic league and players.
Under David Moyes, the club scouted Abdallah Sima, a Senegalese midfielder who was then at Slavia but moved to Brighton in 2021 and forward Adam Hlozek, then at Sparta Prague, before his move to Germany’s Hoffenheim last summer. Former Slavia player Alex Kral had a forgettable time in claret and blue in 2021-22 on a season-long loan from Spartak Moscow that was cut short in the January.
Although Moyes opted against signing Hlozek and Sima, the arrival of another player from the Czech First League at the London Stadium has been a long time coming.
El Hadji Malick Diouf tangles with Milan’s Christian Pulisic in the Europa League last season (Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)
So, what will Diouf bring to West Ham?
This data from tracking provider SkillCorner looks at how players move off the ball. Although Diouf was playing for a team who were dominant in a weak league, the graphic below shows that he fits the marauding full-back bill nicely. He ranked highly last season for runs that were underlapping (96th percentile — so only four per cent were better), overlapping (82nd) and lateral (93rd) compared to the other full-backs in our sample, which consists of players at his position across the top seven European domestic leagues and the highest division of Czech football.
Diouf’s main attributes are his crossing, heading ability and speed.
In Slavia’s Europa League fixture against Swedish side Malmo in January, it was his delivery which led to Ivan Schranz’s late equaliser.
His new team-mate Niclas Fullkrug was often starved of service when he returned to full fitness from a hamstring injury in the final weeks of his debut season in April, and the 6ft 2in (189cm) Germany international striker may benefit most from Diouf’s arrival.
It is worth remembering Fullkrug’s first interview as a West Ham player, shortly after his £27m switch from Borussia Dortmund in August.
“I am not only a strong player but I also like to come into the No 10 position and come towards the ball,” he told the club’s official website. “I am capable with both feet and have good aerial ability as well. These are my strengths.”
Diouf’s skill set would complement Fullkrug’s game and potentially kick-start the 32-year-old’s West Ham career, after only three goals in 20 appearances in that 2024-25 debut campaign. The youngster’s crossing ability would also benefit captain and main attacking threat Jarrod Bowen and Soucek, a 6ft 3in midfielder with a knack for scoring headed goals. Last season, West Ham scored more cross-assisted goals than Manchester City, Manchester United (both seven) and Chelsea (four).
In the Czech First League last season, Diouf averaged 5.70 crosses per 90 minutes. That is significantly higher than Aaron Wan-Bissaka (2.17), Emerson (2.71) and Scarles (2.03).
The Senegal international’s arrival means Potter has two offensive full-backs in his squad.
Wan-Bissaka, who was voted West Ham’s 2024-25 player of the year, markedly improved that side of his game last season, registering five assists in 36 Premier League appearances. Scarles and Emerson had a combined total of one in 46 league outings.
It is why Potter often favoured playing Wan-Bissaka at left-back, with Coufal replacing him on the opposite flank. Emerson’s long-term future remains unclear but Roma, where he spent two and a half seasons before Chelsea brought him to England in 2018, have been credited with an interest in the 30-year-old Brazil-born Italy international.
Diouf also scored seven times in the Czech First League last season. His eye for goal will boost West Ham’s attacking play, so too will his burst of speed on the counter.
This pace was evident in Slavia’s away win against Banik Ostrava in December, in which Diouf scored the only goal, surging past the opponents’ right-winger David Buchta to get on the end of a Lukas Provod cross.
In this passage of play from Slavia’s 4-0 win at Ceske Budejovic a few weeks earlier, Diouf floats a great ball to a team-mate, who makes a darting run in behind the defence.
He then opts to thread a pass across the face of goal as opposed to shooting from an angle, but it was another sequence where Diouf showcased his vision, this time coming from a more central area.
Most impressive about Diouf is his playmaking ability. In a 2-0 home victory against Sigma Olomouc last August, he pushes forward with the kind of confidence only fleetingly shown by Scarles and Emerson in such situations.
He surges into the box on his preferred left foot…
… and is then double-teamed, but evades both defenders to score in fine fashion.
Potter wants to build a West Ham side who play the game his way, and will hope that Diouf’s signing can help kickstart those ambitions.
The youngster has become the eighth Senegalese player to join the Hammers. He joins Henry Camara, Demba Ba, Abdoulaye Faye, Papa Bouba Diop, Mohamed Diamé, Diafra Sakho and Cheikhou Kouyaté on the list.
Sport Witness
West Ham favourites for signing – Details of Hammers offer are emerging
Last week, West Ham emerged as major candidates to sign Juventus’ Douglas Luiz.
The Italian press have repeatedly reported negotiations are ongoing the London club is being presented as the likeliest destination as things stand.
Wednesday’s edition of Gazzetta dello Sport reports tthat whilst Everton are interested, it’s the Hammers who are leading the race to sign Douglas Luiz.
The newspaper explains that West Ham want to convince Juve with an initial loan deal worth €10m and are looking to offer an option to buy him permanently for a fee of around €25m and €30m.
That option can turn into an obligation based on certain, as yet unknown, conditions, and it’s that which is s ticking point for Juventus. Whilst they’d likely accept a loan with an obligation to sign the player permanently, they don’t want that to be conditional.
Everton have also made initial contact but West Ham remain in the lead for the former Aston Villa star.
Gazzetta report that all the contenders are keeping a close eye on each other and trying to understand whether Juve will grant any discounts. The Brazil international has struggled during his time in Turin so far, having faced injury and tactical hindrances under both Thiago Motta and Igor Tudor.
