Manchester United's move for Brentford forward Bryan Mbeumo, 25, has stalled as the London club have increased their asking price to closer to £70m, while United do not want to pay more than £65m. (Guardian), external
Liverpool have opened talks with Eintracht Frankfurt to sign 23-year-old French striker Hugo Ekitike. (Sky Sports), external
However, Newcastle United are pushing ahead with their attempt to sign Ekitike in the hope of pairing him with Sweden striker Alexander Isak, 25, next season. (Telegraph - subscription required), external
Aston Villa are among the Premier League clubs weighing up a move for Manchester United and Argentina winger Alejandro Garnacho, 21. (Mail) , external
Manchester United are interested in Chelsea's Nicolas Jackson, 24, as Aston Villa and AC Milan also monitor the Senegal striker's situation. (Times - subscription required), external
Manchester United may look into a swap deal for Jackson which could mean Garnacho moving to Chelsea. (The i paper - subscription required)
Sunderland are exploring a move to sign 32-year-old Bayer Leverkusen and Switzerland midfielder Granit Xhaka. (Sky Sports), external
West Ham are stepping up their pursuit of Bournemouth midfielder Marcus Tavernier, 26. (Football Insider), external
Manchester United have held talks with the camp of 27-year-old Brighton and Ecuador defender Pervis Estupinan before a potential transfer. (Mirror), external
Leeds United have reached an agreement in principle for Hoffenheim and Germany midfielder Anton Stach, 26. (Sky Sports Germany), external
Inter Milan are preparing an offer for 27-year-old Atalanta and Nigeria striker Ademola Lookman. (Gazzetta dello Sport - in Italian), external
Bayern Munich offered £43m plus £4.4m in add-ons and a 10% sell-on clause to Stuttgart for Germany striker Nick Woltemade, 23, but the bid was immediately rejected. (Sky Sports Germany), external
Real Madrid are considering selling Brazil forward Vinicius Jr unless the 25-year-old reduces his high salary demands. (Sport - in Spanish), external
Juventus are exploring the conditions of a potential deal for Manchester United and England forward Marcus Rashford with the 27-year-old also attracting interest from Barcelona. (Sky Sports, external)
Everton have offered around £26m to sign Juventus and Brazil midfielder Douglas Luiz, but the Serie A side are demanding closer to £35m for the 27-year-old, who they signed from Aston Villa for £42.4m last summer. (Tuttomercatoweb - in Italian, external)
Newcastle could move for Brentford and DR Congo forward Yoane Wissa, 28, if they fail to sign Frankfurt striker Hugo Ekitike this summer. (GiveMeSport, external)
Sky Paper Talk
THE SUN
Chelsea have made Aston Villa star Morgan Rogers their top target for the remainder of the transfer window.
A former Manchester United wonderkid is suing a doctor for £7m over an "unnecessary" operation.
Arsenal look to have beaten a string of clubs to the signing of Salford striker Will Wright.
DAILY MAIL
Manchester United are interested in Brighton left back Pervis Estupinan, according to a report.
Juan Mata has revealed that his family urged him to leave Manchester United following the appointment of Jose Mourinho.
The great-grandson of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini will play in Serie A next season after completing a transfer move.
French police have reportedly launched a probe into payments made by Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappe to officers, amid questions over whether the funds were for World Cup duties or personal protection.
DAILY MIRROR
Aston Villa are the latest club to signal their interest in Manchester United outcast Alejandro Garnacho.
Former Aston Villa striker Jhon Duran has fallen out with Jose Mourinho already, just weeks after signing for Fenerbahce, after failing to turn up for the start of pre-season training.
Chelsea are understood to be mulling over a move for Jorrel Hato, the highly-rated Ajax defender who has previously been of interest to both Arsenal and Liverpool.
Manchester United are adopting a new transfer approach and offering up academy players to other clubs.
Former Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri was taken to hospital after suffering a "sudden illness" while taking Lazio training - but the Italian is understood to have recovered after initial checks.
DAILY EXPRESS
Manchester United have reportedly been handed a major boost in their pursuit of Aston Villa star Ollie Watkins.
Liverpool's sporting director Richard Hughes was on the brink of securing Nicolas Jackson, only for the deal to collapse at the 11th hour.
UEFA have issued a hefty 10-year ban on Montenegrin side FK Arsenal Tivat, along with a £434,000 fine, due to integrity breaches and match-fixing claims during their Conference League fixture.
THE TELEGRAPH
Proposals to scrap rebounds from penalties and widen VAR use to cover corners and second yellow cards are among ideas put forward to be considered by football lawmakers.
THE GUARDIAN
Steve Parish has suggested that Nottingham Forest are to blame for Crystal Palace's demotion from the Europa League to the Conference League.
Manchester United's efforts to buy Bryan Mbeumo have stalled after Brentford raised their valuation to closer to £70m.
THE ATHLETIC
Barcelona's planned return to the Camp Nou on August 10 is looking increasingly unlikely as the club struggles to complete the necessary work to be allowed 62,000 people in the stands.
THE STANDARD
Liverpool forward Diogo Jota has been honoured with a mural on a pub near Anfield.
Sarina Wiegman called for a 'proper England' performance as the Lionesses prepare to face Sweden in the quarter-finals of 2025.
Jude Bellingham will be ruled out for three months after successfully undergoing surgery on a shoulder injury.
SCOTTISH SUN
Rangers' new £3.5m star Thelo Aasgaard is a major injury doubt for the Champions League crunch against Panathinaikos.
Shin Yamada has bid a highly emotional farewell to Kawasaki Frontale as he closes-in on his Celtic switch.
DAILY RECORD
Brendan Rodgers has confirmed Shin Yamada is on the way to Celtic - but he's still in the market for another striker.
Barry Bannan insists Rangers have bagged a bargain with their £2.2m swoop for Djeidi Gassama.
Celtic have ditched their co-operation agreement with Queen's Park and will go with Ayr United instead.
Guardian Rumour mill
Rob Smyth
The Villa Park Rehabilitation Centre for Disaffected Souls Who Learned the Hard Way that Old Trafford is No Longer the Theatre of Dreams or Let’s Be Honest Even Hopes could soon have a new arrival. After helping Marcus Rashford discovery his joie de football last season, Unai Emery reportedly wants to do to the same for Alejandro Garnacho, while also injecting him with an eye-watering level of tactical detail and a hitherto unseen desire to do the defensive hard yards.
Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur are also listening to Garnacho FM for the latest, which could result in an unlikely swap deal. The word on the street is the Manchester United’s search for a centre-forward has reached Nicolas Jackson, who might as well have a red shirt to go with the red cards he’s started collecting.
Jonathan Tah, Liam Delap, Jeremie Frimpong.
Men’s transfer window summer 2025: all deals from Europe’s top five leagues
Read more
Villa and Milan also have a soft spot for Jackson’s unique brand of excellence, incompetence and occasional noggin-loss. But Villa might be advised to delete Chelsea’s number for the next few weeks: according to some of today’s rags, Chelsea’s main transfer target this summer is Villa’s potential superstar Morgan Rogers. Just as Pep Guardiola dreams of a team of midfielders, so Chelsea’s recruitment department are moving ever closer to an XI made up solely of attacking midfielders and wide forwards.
Milan and Man Utd are also engaged in an entirely metaphorical arm wrestle for Brighton left-back Pervis Estupiñán, who fancies a new challenge and will sure as flip get one if he joins either of those two.
Detestors of all things Man Utd will be pleased to know we’re almost done with them for today. Before we go, Juventus are the latest club to consider a move for Marcus Rashford.
English football’s love/hate/actually-he’s-really-good-isn’t-he relationship with Granit Xhaka will resume if he becomes the most high-profile arrival of Sunderland’s £££tastic transfer window. Saudi Pro League club Neom FC are keen to scupper that particularly initiative.
Ademola Lookman, the man whose Europa League final hat-trick in 2024 denied Xhaka’s Leverkusen an InvinciTreble, is wanted by Inter. And Bayern Munich, who are back at the summit in Germany after the horrific one-year drought imposed upon them by Leverkusen, have highlighted VfB Stuttgart’s Nick Woltemade as Harry Kane’s eventual replacement.
Stuttgart have told Bayern where to stick their offer of €50m + €5m in add-ons, a 10 per cent sell-on clause and a few laminated posters of Mario Gómez. But we know how this usually ends.
West Ham are doing things quietly, the Graham Potter way, but have already made one outstanding signing in Senegal left-back El Hadji Malick Diouf. Next on their list is one or possibly both of Harvey Elliott, Liverpool’s curly-haired bundle of infectious creativity, and Bournemouth’s Marcus Tavernier
The Athletic
El Hadji Malick Diouf to West Ham: Everything you need to know
By Chris Weatherspoon, Cerys Jones and more
West Ham United have signed El Hadji Malick Diouf from Slavia Prague.
The 20-year-old defender has signed what West Ham described as a “long-term contract”.
As part of this summer’s transfer coverage on The Athletic, in addition to breaking news, tactical analysis and in-depth reads, our Transfers TLDR series (you can read them all here) will bring you a quick guide to each of the key deals.
Give me their backstory in 100 words…
Diouf is just 20 but has already packed plenty into a relatively short career, which began at the Mawade Wade academy in his native Senegal. In 2023, aged just 18, he went to Norway for a trial with Tromso and earned himself a move into European football.
Just a year later, he was on the move again, this time to Slavia Prague on a four-and-a-half-year deal. Now, just 18 months into that contract, he is heading for the Premier League. Diouf has also earned four caps for Senegal so far, including the 3-1 win over England in June.
Cerys Jones
What should I expect to see?
Diouf is an athletic left-back who is noted for being attack-minded and having a strong left foot. He has played regularly as a left wing-back, so West Ham fans can expect to see him looking comfortable covering ground up and down the left flank.
Cerys Jones
How will they fit tactically?
In Diouf, West Ham have a player to recreate the dangerous left-footed crosses that Aaron Cresswell, who departed this summer, delivered at his pomp. The 20-year-old has an eye for goal, too, striking seven times for Slavia Prague in the Czech league last season.
His experience playing in multiple positions on the left, as well as his acceleration and recovery pace, should make him a decent fit as a full-back and wing-back under Potter.
Adapting to the Premier League will be a challenge as he will be against quicker and more physical players. Diouf’s raw ability and decision-making require refinement, but there are plenty of reasons for optimism.
Anantaajith Raghuraman
What’s their injury record?
The defender has been sidelined twice in the past year, both for short periods, due to leg and ankle issues, but his record shows no serious injury problems.
Cerys Jones
Someone who knows him says…
“No one knows exactly what Malick is still capable of achieving,” Slavia manager Jindrich Trpisovsky told Czech outlet inFotbal. “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.”
Cerys Jones
What do we know about the finances of the deal?
West Ham have reportedly spent around £19million ($25.4m) on Diouf, who has signed a ‘long-term’ contract for his new club. He leaves Slavia Prague after a year and a half in the Czech capital.
If we take that fee, it is close to the record sale made by a Czech club, which happened to include the same clubs. West Ham bought Tomas Soucek from Slavia five years ago for €21m, or £19.1m using the exchange rate at the time.
Chris Weatherspoon
What impact will this have on both clubs’ PSR calculation?
Diouf’s contract length at West Ham is unknown, though from a PSR perspective, Premier League (and UEFA) rules limit clubs to spreading transfer fees over a maximum of five years.
Using five years, therefore, and assuming agent fees of 10 per cent plus a four per cent transfer levy, signing Diouf will add £3.8m in amortisation costs on West Ham’s 2025-26 books, then a further £4.3m per season to the end of 2029-30. £534,000 will fall into 2030-31.
Diouf’s wage is unknown but will make the cost of buying him go beyond the estimated £21.7m in acquisition fees.
Slavia Prague only bought Diouf in January 2024, signing him up to a four-and-a-half-year deal. His purchase from Norwegian side Tromso only cost them around €2m (£1.7m), meaning this deal generates significant profit. After relevant deductions, Slavia should earn around £16.8m profit on the Diouf sale, to go with the chunky fee they received from Tottenham Hotspur for goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky just six months ago.
It’s not only the Czech side who benefit from this deal. International transfers see up to five per cent of the fee distributed to clubs who aided in the player’s development up to the age of 23.
Diouf is still only 20, so only three per cent of the fee — £570,000 or so — will cascade down, but that could still be a significant boost to the clubs involved. Tromso should bank around £95,000, while Senegalese youth programmes at Galaxy Football Academy and Mawade Wade academy will share an estimated pot of £475,000 between them.
Chris Weatherspoon
(Top photo: Getty Images)
Caught Offside
West Ham enquire about signing 3x Premier League title winner who’s available this summer
West Ham United have reportedly made an enquiry about the possible transfer of Manchester City attacking midfielder Jack Grealish.
The England international has fallen out of favour at the Etihad Stadium in recent times, and it perhaps makes sense that his future seems to be in serious doubt this summer.
West Ham are among the clubs keen on Grealish at the moment, and have asked about his availability, according to TBR Football.
The Hammers are not the only ones chasing Grealish, however, with CaughtOffside recently informed of the former Aston Villa man having plenty of suitors elsewhere.
Who else is in the race to sign Manchester City’s Jack Grealish?
Our report named the likes of Napoli, Tottenham and clubs from Saudi Arabia as possible suitors for Grealish.
The 29-year-old might not quite be at his best any longer, but it seems clear that he won’t be short of options if he decides to leave City.
West Ham could certainly do very well to add a big name with that kind of flair, technical quality and experience to their squad for next season.
Graham Potter inherited a difficult job when he took over from Julen Lopetegui last season, and a statement signing like Grealish could make all the difference for him.
Still, there will surely be a fiercely contested race for Grealish’s signature, so it remains to be seen if WHUFC can position themselves as the favourites for him.