Saturday News (includes West Ham)

[Alan]

BBC

Everton are hopeful they can sign England winger Jack Grealish from Manchester City for a figure lower than the £50m fee they agreed as part of the 30-year-old's loan deal with the Toffees. (Telegraph - subscription required), external

Manchester United are one of the clubs weighing up a January transfer window move for Crystal Palace midfielder Adam Wharton, with Liverpool and Chelsea also interested in the 21-year-old England international. (Caughtoffside), external

Chelsea tried to sign Ghana winger Mohammed Kudus, 25, before he joined Tottenham in the summer, but could not persuade West Ham to accept a player-plus-cash deal. (Fabrizio Romano), external

Nottingham Forest will have an obligation to buy on-loan Juventus midfielder Douglas Luiz, 27, for 25m euros (£21.6m) if the Brazil international plays 45 minutes of 15 Premier League matches this term. (La Gazzetta dello Sport - in Italian), external

Liverpool and Manchester United are among a number of clubs keeping tabs on Ajax's 17-year-old teenage star Jorthy Mokio, who has already been capped by Belgium and can play at the back or in midfield. (Teamtalk), external

Borussia Dortmund could try to permanently sign Argentine defender Aaron Anselmino, 20, if he impresses on loan from Chelsea. (Bild - in German), external

Manchester United's 21-year-old English winger Sam Mather is in talks to make a permanent move to Turkish club Kayserispor. (Manchester Evening News), external

Chelsea, Everton and Brighton all made summer enquiries with Barcelona about 18-year-old Spanish midfielder Marc Bernal. (Mundo Deportivo - in Spanish), external

Chelsea are interested in signing 20-year-old Juventus and Turkey striker Kenan Yildiz, but will have to pay £86m (100m euros). (Fichajes - in Spanish), external

Fulham will look to cash in on midfielder Harry Wilson in January to avoid losing the 28-year-old Wales international for free in the summer. (Football Insider), external

Nottingham Forest chief football officer Ross Wilson will vacate his role at the City Ground to become Newcastle's third sporting director in three years. (The I paper - subscription required)




Sky Paper Talk

DAILY TELEGRAPH

Everton are hopeful they can sign Jack Grealish on a bargain deal at the end of the season if he maintains his excellent start on Merseyside.

Police from across the UK have been ordered to London amid the threat of serious disorder at two rival marches taking place on the same day as five Premier League matches in the capital.

THE GUARDIAN

Erling Haaland has described ­Manchester City's start to the season as "not good enough" and described Sunday's derby as a "perfect" opportunity to start turning things around.

A former England cricketer is being investigated by police over an allegation of sexual assault and claims two women had their drinks spiked at a London pub co-owned by a group of current and former sport stars.

Doping in track and field has been thrust back into the spotlight on the eve of the World Athletics Championships after the US sprint star Erriyon Knighton was banned for four years and the Ethiopian Diribe Welteji was declared ineligible to run in Tokyo because of a case still being adjudicated.

The head of Japanese athletics broke down in tears on Friday as she promised that hosting the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo would help erase the negative memories of the "Covid Olympics" in 2021.

THE TIMES

There is growing nervousness among football agents that some could face disciplinary action or have their names made public after the announcement of 74 FA charges against Chelsea.

THE SUN

Former Premier League goalkeeper Russell Hoult has been diagnosed with two terminal illnesses and is now receiving palliative care.

Football legend and 'King of the Jungle' Harry Redknapp has vowed to help make speedway great again.

DAILY MAIL

Barcelona's Nou Camp homecoming has once again been put back after the club moved their latest match to a 6,000-seater stadium.

SCOTTISH SUN

Nico Raskin will remain in Scotland when Rangers take on Hearts tomorrow afternoon - even if he won't feature in the game.






The Athletic

Mohammed Kudus wanted to leave West Ham on good terms. So he joined Tottenham

By Roshane Thomas

Mohammed Kudus was on holiday in Ghana when he was informed about interest from a club he did not expect to be in the mix for his signature.

It was always Kudus’ intention to leave West Ham United in the summer transfer window. London rivals Chelsea were the front-runners and initially expressed interest in signing the 25-year-old winger in May. They planned to sign the Ghana international early in the window so he could join Enzo Maresca’s side ahead of the FIFA Club World Cup — a competition they would win — which started on June 15.

Personal terms were agreed, but there was a stumbling block. Chelsea offered West Ham £40million ($54.2m) plus midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in the swap deal, but their offer was rejected. Both clubs failed to reach an agreement and Dewsbury-Hall was later sold to Everton for £30m in August.

Tottenham Hotspur also saw Kudus as a transfer target and the winger was surprised by their interest. The north Londoners first enquired about his availability in July and saw their opening bid of £50m rejected. West Ham’s hierarchy were initially reluctant to accept offers less than £60m, but Tottenham were the only club to make a formal offer for the Ghanaian.

Chelsea, however, had not lost hope of signing Kudus. They needed another attacker with winger Noni Madueke set to complete his £55m switch to Arsenal. Due to Chelsea’s interest, Tottenham wanted assurances from Kudus that he was keen to join because they feared Chelsea would attempt to hijack the deal.

Kudus gave Tottenham his word he would join and felt he would get more playing time there, as opposed to Chelsea. He completed his £55m switch and became the first player to move between West Ham and Tottenham since August 2011, when Scott Parker signed for Spurs following West Ham’s relegation from the Premier League.

Ahead of this weekend’s game, Kudus is likely to receive a hostile reception on his return to the London Stadium. It is a far cry from the days of the winger entertaining the crowd with his trademark celebration, being a fan favourite to the extent that Ian, a season-ticket holder in the Billy Bonds Stand, travelled more than 3,000 miles (5,000km) to Accra, the capital of Ghana, to watch Kudus play for the national team.

He had other standout moments, such as his solo goal against Freiburg and acrobatic strike against Manchester City, but these showboating skills will no longer be in a claret and blue jersey.

Kudus’ desire to join Thomas Frank’s side also stemmed from wanting to play in European competition. Tottenham, who finished 17th and below West Ham last season, will compete in the Champions League this season, having won the Europa League. Kudus also had interest from clubs in the Middle East, but wanted to remain in the Premier League.

Sources with knowledge of the deal say Chelsea did not show enough commitment to sign Kudus. He had no intention of waiting longer and appreciated Tottenham’s determination to sign him. It mirrors the summer of 2023 when the versatile forward had interest from the west Londoners, but they stalled on finalising a move.

During negotiations with West Ham, former technical director Tim Steidten convinced Kudus he would develop into a crucial player, which led to his £38m arrival from Ajax. Kudus signed a five-year deal, with the option of a further year.

He adapted seamlessly in the 2023-24 season, registering 17 goals and six assists across 45 appearances. Clubs enquired about his availability in the summer of 2024, but their advances were rejected. Kudus’ unhappiness at West Ham pre-dates this summer, having initially wanted to leave after his debut season. The stumbling block was West Ham wanting clubs to activate his £85m release clause, which many were reluctant to do.

By his standards, Kudus had an underwhelming 2024-25 campaign, scoring five goals and assisting four in 35 appearances in all competitions. The departure of former first-team coach John Heitinga to Liverpool and tension with ex-manager Julen Lopetegui were cited as factors in his struggles.

At half-time at Brentford in September last year, Kudus and Lopetegui had a frank exchange of words. Members of West Ham’s hierarchy reached out to Kudus’ camp to reassure them that there were no issues between the player and the former head coach. But it made the attacker further disillusioned with life in east London.

Despite Kudus’ desire to leave, he did not want it to be an acrimonious departure. Those close to the player strongly deny suggestions that he submitted a transfer request or reported late for training before his departure. He reported for pre-season training at Rush Green as planned on July 7.

Kudus was utilised in multiple positions across West Ham’s front line, but his preferred position is on the right flank. It is where captain Jarrod Bowen is naturally suited, which limited Kudus’ ability to play there. His desire to leave also stemmed from an urge to play in his natural position. The winger has played in that role in Tottenham’s league games against Burnley, where he registered two assists, Manchester City and Bournemouth.

Kudus is not concerned about the volatile reception he could receive at the London Stadium. It is a ground that used to be his playground, where some would parade the Ghanaian flag in his direction and where he was serenaded by fans.

But given the level of disdain over his switch, that animosity is unlikely to subside any time soon.




Guardian

Mutiny is in the air but little prospect of West Ham having their own Levy moment

Jacob Steinberg

It will not only be fans of Tottenham looking on with interest when the architects of one of English football’s most astonishing acts of corporate brutality watch life after Daniel Levy begin with a game against rivals where most supporters are waiting for something similar to happen at their club.

The small talk should be fascinating when the owners of West Ham welcome members of the Lewis family into the directors’ box at the London Stadium on Saturday afternoon. And how was your international break? Get up to much? And just when did you decide that it was time for Daniel to step down as chair?

Perspective is a funny thing. While Spurs fans are mostly celebrating the demise of the figure widely blamed for holding them back, West Ham’s are wondering if it really would be so bad to have a chair capable of delivering a world-class stadium and the occasional season of Champions League football. Perhaps chants of “We want Levy in” will soon be heard around Stratford.

West Ham fans are fed up. Widespread disdain for David Sullivan, the largest shareholder, and the vice-chair, Karren Brady, means there will be anti-board protests before next Saturday’s home game against Crystal Palace. Mutiny is in the air. A boycott of next month’s game against Brentford has been proposed by Hammers United, a vocal fan group, and there is also the drama of West Ham’s official Fan Advisory Board going public with a recent vote of no confidence in the club’s board.

The big target is for Sullivan and Brady to step down. It is not the best look given that West Ham describe the FAB, which represents more than 25,000 supporters, as the club’s “primary mechanism for formal consultation and engagement”.

Subsequent attempts to paint Hammers fans as deluded are wide of the mark. The person who talked of a “world-class stadium with a world-class team” when West Ham left Upton Park for the London Stadium in 2016 was Brady.

That was the trade-off for moving. The reality is nobody decides to support West Ham because they want trophies. They go to be entertained, to sometimes upset a bigger team, to feel part of something. The argument from many is that has all been lost now that West Ham play in an athletics stadium. Discontent is inevitably going to rise when you find yourself watching bad football from a bad view, sometimes with away fans sitting in home areas and making no attempt to keep quiet after a goal for the visiting

There would not be as much anger if West Ham had not struggled so much since winning the Conference League in 2023. Nobody worried about a lack of identity during the David Moyes era. Fans can be reactive. This situation is not dissimilar to the one that flared in early 2020. Yet that was just before the onset of the Covid pandemic. Momentum came to a halt and the problem for the protesters is that West Ham were, well, good by the time stadiums were fully reopened in August 2021.

Yet there is a feeling that Moyes papered over the dysfunction. The FAB’s point that “the likes of Brighton, Bournemouth, Brentford and Crystal Palace outperform West Ham on and off the pitch” is not meant to patronise those clubs. It is not unreasonable to feel that a better structure, with new football and commercial executives prising power from Sullivan and Brady, would stop West Ham from falling behind clubs with lesser histories, smaller fanbases and smarter owners.

The recent transfer window was a mess. Another relegation battle is a distinct possibility, although it is worth stressing that much of the ill feeling can also be traced back to the club trying and failing to do away with concession tickets at the start of last season. What a waste of time. All it did was make supporters less willing to trust the board. Reports that West Ham had to sell to buy this summer were viewed suspiciously, even though it was communicated to outside intermediaries working on signings.

There is a desire for Sullivan to rethink the structures around him, to modernise and make sharper appointments, to have less sway. The 76-year-old still calls the shots – and this is where it gets tricky. The difference with Spurs is that Levy ran the day-to-day for 24 years but was never the ultimate power. Maybe supporter unrest played a part in his exit but it was the Lewis family who made the abrupt final call. At West Ham, Sullivan is both Levy and the Lewises. Nobody directs Sullivan. Barring a coup orchestrated by other shareholders the question is simply whether Sullivan ever decides to walk away.

This is how it is. Sources say that Brady, who met the FAB for talks on Thursday, is not about to resign. As it stands, one path forward is for others on the board to come together and demand change. But the fact that the Gold family put a proportion of their shares up for sale almost two years ago, without a deal being struck, suggests they are not looking to take control. Daniel Kretinsky, the Czech billionaire and owner of Royal Mail, and Tripp Smith, the US businessman, seem content to remain minority investors. There has been no public rocking of the boat. Perhaps it will all take place silently and secretly. For now, though, there is little prospect of West Ham having their own Levy moment.

[With Kind Regards]

Thanks Alan.