Plus: Nottingham Forest have agreed a deal with Man United to sign Dean Henderson on loan; The traditional festive round of PL matches between Boxing Day and New Year is being dropped; Gareth Southgate retains the full support of the Football Association and his England players
All the top stories and transfer rumours from Thursday’s national newspapers…
THE SUN
Newcastle are growing frustrated in their pursuit of top targets Sven Botman and Hugo Ekitike – with officials believing clubs are applying the same ‘Toon tax’ on the mega rich Saudi-owned Magpies as they did during the January transfer window.
Arsenal are telling miserly rivals to put up or shut up after pulling the plug on Lucas Torreira’s cut-price move to Fiorentina.
Bournemouth are close to snapping up right-back Ryan Fredericks and midfielder Joe Rothwell on a free transfer and will also land midfielder Marcus Tavernier from Championship side Middlesbrough.
Schalke and Wales forward Rabbi Matondo is at the centre of a six-club summer transfer fight as Premier League trio Brentford, Leeds and newly-promoted Nottingham Forest are all admirers.
Ex-Tottenham striker Vincent Janssen is wanted by Marc Overmars and Mark van Bommel at Antwerp.
DAILY MAIL
Nottingham Forest have agreed a deal with Manchester United to sign Dean Henderson on loan with the option to buy for £20m.
Benfica are only set to bring in £47m of the initial £64m up-front fee for Darwin Nunez’s sale to Liverpool – with his former sides Penarol and Almeria set to pocket £1.94m and £8.95m each from the transfer.
UEFA are reportedly planning a brand new money-spinning mini tournament in the United States featuring the winner of the Champions League.
Brice Samba has informed Nottingham Forest that he wishes to leave this summer and he is keen on a move to Ligue 1 side Lens.
Aston Villa youngster Cameron Archer is a loan target for more than a dozen Championship clubs, including Watford, West Bromwich Albion and Sunderland, but is expected to be given a chance by Steven Gerrard on next month’s tour of Australia.
A new Premier League fixture ‘leak’ has emerged to deny Manchester City will face Bournemouth on the opening day – after the top flight’s Twitter page appeared to accidentally reveal the champions would play the newly-promoted Cherries.
Watford’s chairman has slammed their former goalkeeper Ben Foster for his ‘utterly wrong’ YouTube vlogs, and claims he was fined for continuing to produce them after promising to stop.
DAILY TELEGRAPH
The traditional festive round of Premier League matches between Boxing Day and and New Year is being dropped from schedules in a move to ease player burnout after the World Cup.
Gareth Southgate retains the full support of the Football Association and his England players, despite fans calling for him to be sacked.
Four per cent of players in the Gallagher Premiership were paid £400,000 or more in the 2020-21 season according to the first ever disclosure of average salaries for top-flight players following the release of Premiership Rugby’s salary-cap report.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson will defend her world heptathlon title next month without a coach after suddenly walking out on her American training setup just five months after relocating to Florida.
DAILY MIRROR
David Moyes is keen to take Southampton midfielder James Ward-Prowse to West Ham.
Premier League bosses have clamped down on postponements for next season and games will only get called off in “truly exceptional” cases.
Arsenal have received a boost in their pursuit of Bologna defender Aaron Hickey with the Serie A club admitting the Scotland international could be sold this summer.
THE GUARDIAN
The French authorities deployed riot police in large numbers at the Champions League final in Paris apparently due to a misconceived association of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster with hooliganism, according to an official report produced for France’s prime minister.
Juventus expect Paul Pogba to sign a contract with them at the beginning of next month after a verbal agreement was reached for the midfielder’s return.
THE TIMES
Former Manchester United and Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon has held further talks about buying Everton, with his consortium granted a period of exclusivity to discuss a deal with the present owner, Farhad Moshiri.
A report into allegations of abuse and bullying in British gymnastics is expected to detail young gymnasts being subjected to a culture of fear and body shaming by some coaches.
DAILY STAR
West Ham fear Newcastle could be poised to hijack their £30m move for Nayef Aguerd – as David Moyes targets a reunion with Adnan Januzaj.
DAILY RECORD
Rangers will continue to profit from the cinch SPFL sponsorship despite league chiefs striking a deal that cuts the Ibrox side out of requirements to display the car dealer’s branding.
Trabzonspor are set to step up their bid to land Borna Barisic ahead of their crack at the Champions League, but there is also interest from Italy in the 29-year-old Croatian international full back.
