Friday News (includes West Ham)

[Alan]

BBC

Tottenham manager Thomas Frank could look to reunite with 29-year-old Al-Ahli and England striker Ivan Toney - who he managed at Brentford - in January. (Talksport), external

Real Madrid's Brazil forward Rodrygo, 24, is also high on Tottenham's list of attacking targets. (Teamtalk), external

Arsenal have placed a 150m euro (£132m) valuation on England midfielder Declan Rice, 26, who is admired by Real Madrid. (Fichajes - in Spanish), external

Chelsea have enquired about Como's Nico Paz, 21, but face strong competition from Real Madrid, who could look to re-sign the Argentina playmaker. (TBR Football), external

Newcastle are "relaxed" about Sandro Tonali's comments on his future, and will not begin formal talks about a new contract for the 25-year-old Italy midfielder until later in the season. (Mail Plus - subscription required), external

Newcastle are in talks with Netherlands defender Sven Botman, 25, over a new contract, but Sweden defender Emil Krafth, 31, is drawing interest from FC Copenhagen. (Mail Plus - subscription required)

Barcelona are planning to open formal talks with Manchester United over a permanent deal for 28-year-old England forward Marcus Rashford. (Teamtalk), external

Napoli could reignite interest in Manchester United and England midfielder Kobbie Mainoo, 20, in January. (Calciomercato - in Italian), external

Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City, Leeds, Everton, Barcelona and Real Madrid are among the other clubs interested in Mainoo. (Caught Offside), external

Borussia Dortmund are keen to re-sign England winger Jadon Sancho, 25, who is currently on loan at Aston Villa from Manchester United. (Football Insider), external

Real Madrid are hoping to sign Bayern Munich and France defender Dayot Upamecano, 27, on a free transfer when his contract expires at the end of the season. (Sky Germany - in German), external

Atletico Madrid are keeping tabs on Chelsea's Spain defender Marc Cucurella, 27, but do not want to move for him until next summer. (Fichajes - in Spanish), external

Ajax have approached their former manager - and ex-Manchester United boss - Erik ten Hag over a return after suspending head coach John Heitinga. (Fabrizio Romano)




Sky Paper Talk

Premier League

Tottenham manager Thomas Frank could look to reunite with 29-year-old Al Ahli and England striker Ivan Toney in January - talkSPORT.

Yoane Wissa will not make his Newcastle debut at former club Brentford this weekend - The Daily Mail.

Manchester United's plans to build a new 100,000-seat stadium have been hit by a further delay with no Government money for the Old Trafford regeneration project to be forthcoming in this month's Budget - The i.

Manchester United have banned a supporter from attending matches for three years for making a homophobic comment about Chelsea on social media - The Daily Mail.

Newcastle are "relaxed" about Sandro Tonali's comments on his future, and will not begin formal talks about a new contract for the 25-year-old Italy midfielder until later in the season - The Daily Mail.

Newcastle have begun early discussions with Sven Botman's camp over a new contract while FC Copenhagen are interested in Emil Krafth - The Daily Mail.

Tottenham midfielder Yves Bissouma had more than £800,000 "stolen" in an alleged fraud from his VIP Coutts bank account - The Sun.

Former Chelsea and Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has opened the door to a surprise Premier League return after the 2026 World Cup - Evening Standard.
International football

Jude Bellingham is set to be included in Thomas Tuchel's latest England squad - The Sun.

Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, has been accused of a "clear violation" of the governing body's statutes after appearing to endorse Donald Trump's political agenda - The Telegraph.

Scottish football

Rangers fans unfurled banners aimed at sporting director Kevin Thelwell and chief executive Patrick Stewart at Ibrox - The Scottish Sun.

Hearts chief executive Andrew McKinlay is set to land a plum SFA vice-presidency role alongside Hampden Park supremo Mike Mulraney - The Scottish Sun.

European football

Real Madrid are hoping to sign Bayern Munich and France defender Dayot Upamecano on a free transfer when his contract expires at the end of the season - Sky Germany.

Atletico Madrid are keeping tabs on Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella but do not want to move for him until next summer - Fichajes.

Napoli could reignite interest in Manchester United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo in January - Calciomercato.

Arsenal have placed a €150m (£132m) valuation on midfielder Declan Rice, who is admired by Real Madrid - Fichajes.

Rugby Union

The Rugby Football Union is giving away tickets for England's clash against Fiji with the governing body struggling to sell out their second autumn international fixture at Twickenham - The Telegraph.

Steve Borthwick has ­acknowledged the challenges presented by ­managing Marcus Smith's ­diminished role for England but has urged the recalled playmaker to kickstart his side's attack against Fiji on Saturday - The Guardian.





The Athletic

West Ham and the financial impact of relegation

West Ham United’s 3-1 victory over Newcastle United last Sunday was much-needed.

Four home league games had yielded just two goals scored, 12 conceded, and four defeats. That win, a first at the London Stadium since February 27 and only West Ham’s third in 2025, moved them to within three points of 17th.

And it was followed by a protest. Hammers United, a supporters’ group, have called on club chairman David Sullivan and vice-chair Karren Brady to resign and, in the wake of the Newcastle win, made clear that ill-feeling extends beyond the immediacy of a crucial three points. At Hammers United’s behest, fans staged a post-match sit-in. Banners called on Sullivan and Brady to go.

The club’s troubles are nuanced but have been brought into sharper focus this season. Even with Sunday’s win against a surprisingly listless Newcastle, West Ham sit in the Premier League’s relegation zone. They have already lost to two promoted sides — Sunderland and Leeds United.

A long season remains, and their next match, at home, again, against 17th-placed Burnley, could vault them out of the bottom three. Yet the chances of soaring free of worry for the rest of the season remain slim. West Ham are in a relegation battle.

No one gains financially from demotion, but it impacts some more than others. Existing cost bases play a big part, likewise a team’s ability to generate money by selling some faces that didn’t look out of place in the top tier.

Beyond that, club owners come into play. Between 2015 and 2024, Championship clubs lost a collective £3.2billion, all of it (and a little more) funded by benevolent shareholders. Amounts required for recently relegated clubs can vary, but a general rule is that the longer you stay in the second tier, the more you’ll need to lean on an owner or two.

One thing is for certain — if relegation comes, West Ham’s revenue will drop. That has been the case pretty much since the Premier League’s inception, but it has become more pronounced since 2016, when a new TV deal exploded onto the scene.

Since then, only one club has seen post-relegation turnover fall by less than a third. That was Bournemouth in 2020-21, and even that was only because of the Covid-19 pandemic pushing seven of the club’s 38 Premier League games into the subsequent accounting year. On average, club revenues after relegation have fallen by 46 per cent.

That fall is principally driven by a reduction in broadcast income, even as relegated clubs enjoy the benefit of parachute payments, which far outstrip the TV earnings of their new Championship peers.

West Ham's TV money would halve if they were relegated

What West Ham will receive in Premier League earnings this season is unknowable currently, but last season’s floor, for bottom side Southampton, was £109.2million.

Post-relegation, clubs enjoy those parachute payments to ease the burden, but the drop-off is steep. Last season, a first-year parachute payment totalled £49m. The amount for Leeds United, in their second year in the Championship, was £40m and, had there been a club in receipt of a third-year payment (there wasn’t), they’d have received £17.8m.

Championship clubs, including recently relegated ones, receive a ‘Basic Award’ payment from the EFL, too, though that was just £5.4m last season and has only increased marginally since. In other words, TV income now halves upon relegation.

Other revenue streams fall as well.

The EFL’s new TV deal, which commenced at the start of the 2024-25 season, has afforded Championship clubs significantly more exposure than previously, but it is unlikely to have proven enough to offset the lost commercial revenues clubs suffer after relegation.

In the past decade, commercial revenues at relegated clubs have dropped by an average of 42 per cent. While the figures vary noticeably from club to club (the median drop is actually higher, at 46 per cent), even the most commercially astute have been unable to avoid losing revenue. Leeds broke a Championship record for commercial income in 2023-24, but it was still a 10 per cent drop on what they’d managed in the Premier League.

West Ham’s commercial income of £58m is the Premier League’s ninth-highest, so while a fall would be likely upon relegation, it may be that, like Leeds, they’d still be able to generate significantly more than Championship peers.

Clubs relegated from the Premier League see decreases in commercial revenue

Lost revenue at the gate is another factor, but promisingly, not all clubs see a reduction in matchday income. In recent seasons, Watford, Leeds and Leicester City all maintained gate receipts at a similar level following relegation, while Burnley saw notable growth following their 2022 demotion.

The London Stadium is the third-largest ground in the Premier League, only trailing the homes of Manchester United and Spurs. West Ham have routinely filled it since moving in as tenants in 2016, and while it’s uncertain if that would remain the case in the second tier, the deal the club got upon signing a 99-year lease would ensure the stadium isn’t a weight around West Ham’s neck like it might be for other sides with huge homes if they went down.

West Ham's gate receipts far outweigh the cost of using the London Stadium

West Ham’s annual rent at the stadium has ticked over the £4m mark, but that pales in comparison to amounts the club makes — and keeps — from gate receipts. Clubs don’t disclose specifics of how much it costs to run their grounds, but an obvious rule of thumb is that the bigger ones cost more to maintain. In 2023-24, West Ham were housed in the league’s third-largest stadium, yet their ‘other expenses’, where running costs sit, were only the division’s 10th-highest. What’s more, West Ham sources, who asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships, told The Athletic that relegation would halve the already low rent bill.

Even so, those other expenses were still £60m, and relegated clubs don’t always find it easy to slash such expenses (or perhaps choose not to, in the hope of a quick return to the top flight).

In terms of their biggest costs, West Ham’s wage bill had been static for years, but leapt to a club record £161m in 2023-24, a rise of £24.1m and 18 per cent in one year. For a long time, many Premier League clubs have included relegation wage cuts in player contracts, and a West Ham source confirmed they are no different in doing so. Yet even if those cuts offset revenue reductions, which isn’t a guarantee, the club’s underlying operating loss means other funds, likely from player sales, would need to be found.

Notable growth was also seen in transfer fee amortisation costs, where an £83.5m charge represented another club record and growth of 28 per cent in one season. Those amortisation costs are driven by big recent transfer spending.

One area where clubs increasingly find themselves pinched is in meeting transfer liabilities, and particularly if instalments are due at the same time income tumbles. West Ham owed a net £127m on transfers at last check, although that’s a figure from May 2024. The club’s transfer debt will have moved on since then.

Of that £127m, around two-thirds of it was short-term. Only £47m was due to be paid subsequent to May 2025. Yet that doesn’t include the net outlay since, across last season and the summer just gone, totalling in the region of £160m.

Relegated clubs have increasingly turned to player sales to offset lost income, and the size of those sales has helped them carry huge wage bills to try to gain instant promotion. In 2023-24, recently relegated Leicester, Leeds and Southampton all had salary costs above £80m; the average of the rest of the Championship was less than £30m.

A West Ham relegation would doubtless see them tap the same revenue source. Players such as Jarrod Bowen, whose contract runs to June 2030, would be ripe for generating big income. This can then be recycled into a promotion push.

Owner funding is another port of call, but that has been relatively thin on the ground at West Ham, save for when Daniel Kretinsky bought into the club in November 2021. That saw £123.5m in shares issued, but around half of it went on repaying existing owner loans, and no shareholder funding arrived between then and the end of May 2024, when the latest available accounts end.

At the end of August 2024, the club carried just £5m in debt, but this summer they entered into three separate funding agreements, two with Barclays (one likely a renewal and/or extension of an existing £40m overdraft facility) and one with Rights and Media Funding.

Specifics on those aren’t yet known, but external debt funding is more expensive to clubs than money received from share issues. This, combined with the fact that West Ham pulled forward £69.2m in transfer fees due to them last season (a type of transaction they are far from alone in undertaking), is indicative of a club where careful cash flow management is clearly required. That cash position would only tighten in the event of relegation and, if there was no owner funding forthcoming, player trading would be required. It may prove to be even if relegation is avoided this season.

West Ham are a strange case. They were profitable in two of the last three seasons on record, cash-positive at the operating level, and their most recently disclosed wage bill ate up just 60 per cent of revenue. Compared to many peers, they look far from financial worry.

Yet recent seasons have witnessed an increase in player spending, which, at least as of right now, looks wasteful. Over £350m net has gone on transfers since June 2021, even with the £100m sale of Declan Rice. Costs have risen, but performance has faltered. Operating losses topped £30m two seasons ago and, without a Rice-sized player sale, a notable overall loss was expected last season.

That would only worsen with relegation, and West Ham have already shown indications of requiring careful cash management. That lack of owner funding would not necessarily have to change, as parachute payments and player sales could act in the manner they have elsewhere. The London Stadium deal continues to be of remarkable benefit to the club, at least financially.

Yet, like any club, relegation would become a big problem the longer they took to regain Premier League status. Revenue falls would outpace cost cuts. Income achievable from player sales would wane. Meanwhile, the overhang of instalments from past transfer spending would weigh even more heavily.

West Ham won’t go bust from relegation, but nor will they want to countenance the strain it would impose. It would be better to avoid it altogether. Beating Burnley on Saturday afternoon looks an essential step toward that goal.



Goal

'There is interest' - West Ham ready to offer Kobbie Mainoo an escape route from Man Utd in January as England star bids to rescue 2026

West Ham are reportedly ready to offer Kobbie Mainoo an escape route from Manchester United in January, as the England star is desperate to rescue his 2026 World Cup chances. The 20-year-old England international once stormed onto the Premier League stage with poise and maturity. But he now finds himself watching from the sidelines, and could seek an exit in the winter transfer window.

Mainoo caged at Old Trafford

Mainoo is a product of United’s much-acclaimed academy, but has been handed just eight appearances all season, and only one of them has come as a starter: during the club’s disastrous Carabao Cup humiliation against League Two minnows Grimsby Town. Ruben Amorim's rigid 3-4-3 formation has offered no room for the young star, and he has been left to warm the bench. Despite calls over the summer for him to seek a loan move, the club blocked every approach, insisting he’d feature prominently. But nearly halfway into the campaign, his role has dwindled into cameo appearances and false promises.

West Ham come calling for Mainoo

According to transfer insider Fabrizio Romano, the Hammers have made a firm approach to take Mainoo on loan this January. Crucially, they’re offering something United can’t, which is guaranteed minutes.

Speaking on his daily podcast, Romano explained: "Mainoo wanted to go on loan late in the summer transfer window, but Manchester United and Ruben Amorim decided against it at the time. Mainoo is not playing regularly, so he wants a loan move. There is interest from West Ham, offering guaranteed minutes."

For West Ham boss Nuno Espirito Santo, Mainoo fits a glaring need as the Portuguese coach wants a dynamic midfielder who can carry the ball, dictate tempo, and break lines.

Napoli enter the race, as Conte eyes a midfield reinforcement

But West Ham aren’t the only ones at the table. Over in Italy, Napoli have rekindled their pursuit of the English starlet. The reigning Serie A champions, who are now managed by Antonio Conte, are on the hunt for midfield reinforcements after Kevin De Bruyne was sidelined with a thigh injury. According to Sky Sports, Napoli’s interest in Mainoo is for real, and discussions are already underway over a potential January loan that includes an option to buy. United are said to be open to a compromise as they could allow a temporary move, but have ruled out a permanent sale in January. The proposed deal would see Napoli take Mainoo on loan until the end of the season, with an option to make it permanent in 2026, depending on appearances and performance.

It has been reported that Mainoo is tempted by the opportunity to work under Conte. The idea of playing alongside Scott McTominay, another United academy graduate now thriving in Italy, only adds to the allure. Moreover, United would prefer to send him abroad rather than strengthen a Premier League rival. This is a stance that complicates West Ham’s pursuit. The club hierarchy has reportedly ruled out several domestic options, leaving Napoli as the frontrunners if United dig in their heels.



The Hard Tackle

West Ham United in transfer tussle to sign Quinten Timber

West Ham United will reportedly look to sign 24-year-old Dutch midfielder Quinten Timber from Eredivisie club Feyenoord next year.

According to a report by Spanish outlet Fichajes, Quinten Timber is the subject of interest from West Ham United. The Hammers are keen on reinforcing their first-team squad by signing a versatile midfielder next year. So, the 24-year-old Feyenoord mainstay has emerged as a target for the East London club.

The Dutchman’s contract situation makes him an appealing target for prospective suitors, and the Eredivisie giants are ready to part ways with him for €20 million in the winter transfer window. So, a winter move to West Ham United may be on the cards for Timber.
Quinten Timber and his situation

Quinten Timber has established himself as one of the best midfielders in the Eredivisie since joining Feyenoord from FC Utrecht in July 2022. A native of Utrecht, the 24-year-old spent his formative years in the Netherlands, passing through the academies at DVSU and Feyenoord before graduating from the youth division at Ajax.

However, the Dutch midfielder has risen in prominence after returning to Feyenoord. Timber has made over 100 appearances for the Eredivisie club while chipping in with 19 goals and 14 assists. However, the player faces an uncertain future at Feyenoord after entering the final year of his deal. The situation has piqued the attention of several Premier League outfits, including West Ham United.
London calling?

West Ham United’s interest in Quinten Timber is understandable. The Hammers are scouring the market for a versatile midfielder heading into the winter transfer window, as deficiencies in the middle of the park have been glaring this season. Additionally, James Ward-Prowse has no future at the London Stadium under Nuno Espirito Santo.

Other midfielders, including Guido Rodriguez, also face an uncertain future at West Ham. Several candidates, including Ismael Saibari, have thus emerged on the East London club’s wishlist, with Timber also a viable target. The 24-year-old Dutchman will be available for a cut-price fee of €20 million in the winter transfer window.

While West Ham can sign Timber for free next summer, he will be available for a reasonable fee of €20 million in January. So, it will be interesting to see what the future holds for the versatile Dutch midfielder.

[wingdamage]

Thanks Alan