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Journalists Liam Kennedy and Jordan Cronin have revealed the list of players that Newcastle United might seek to move on from the club this summer.

The Lowdown: Newcastle’s 2022 revival

Exactly halfway through the season, Newcastle were 19th in the Premier League with just one win and 11 points from 19 games, staring relegation in the face.

A busy transfer window in January saw the arrivals of Bruno Guimaraes, Kieran Trippier, Dan Burn, Matt Targett and Chris Wood at St James’ Park. Fuelled by these new additions, the Magpies went on a sensational run of form in the first few months of 2022, remarkably ending the season in 11th place with a total of 49 points, averaging two points per game in the second half of the campaign.

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The Latest: Summer exits expected

Following the club’s success in the January transfer market, PIF will surely be looking to build upon this again in the summer. However, this time around, it is expected that a whole host of players will need to make way for the new arrivals.

Kennedy revealed in a Newcastle World Q&A that, whilst the majority of departures are to be expected, Jamal Lewis is set to be handed another chance at St James’ Park

He stated: “This list is getting quite lengthy. And I think we all know the candidates. So instead, I will list one player who I think might stay, despite it appearing as if he is heading out the exit door. Howe is keen to take a look at Jamal Lewis this summer, and depending on what happens in the market, he may well get a second chance at Newcastle.

“In my opinion, a player with all the tools to succeed, just needs a lot of decent coaching – and let’s be honest, that wasn’t forthcoming before Howe walked through the door.”

Taking a different approach, fellow journalist Cronin name-checked a few players that Eddie Howe could jettison during the summer.

He claimed: “Since Liam didn’t write the list of potential departures, I will… Yes, the most obvious are Freddie Woodman, Ciaran Clark, Federico Fernandez, Jeff Hendrick, Isaac Hayden and Dwight Gayle. I wouldn’t rule out others departing however – Miguel Almiron for example, i.e. a player you might not expect to go.”

The Verdict: Busy summer ahead

If Newcastle are to keep buying high-quality players who require substantial transfer fees, then it will be important that the club can offload some of the deadwood early in the window, so that the board have enough time to secure their transfer targets and stick within Financial Fair Play parameters.

Therefore, numerous incomings and outgoings are expected at St James’ Park this summer, as Howe looks to carry the positive momentum from 2022 so far into the forthcoming season as the Magpies potentially eye up a European finish.

In other news: Newcastle United: Journalists address Lucas Paqueta transfer links

Alan Hutton has revealed what Connor Goldson has now told him amid uncertainty over his future at Glasgow Rangers.

The Lowdown: Goldson out of contract

The 29-year-old is among a few first-team players at Ibrox who are out of contract soon, with no signs of a renewal at the moment.

As cited by the The Glasgow Times, Giovanni van Bronckhorst has admitted that there is a ‘small’ chance’ that the defender will sign an extension after prolonged talks with the club.

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The Latest: Hutton reacts

Speaking to Football Insider, former Light Blues right-back Hutton has revealed that, having spoken to Goldson, the centre-back ‘wants’ to stay at the club despite not being able to agree on a new deal.

Hutton, who now does punditry work with Rangers TV, said of the 29-year-old: “He is one of the main men in the squad. It’s quite as simple as that. He’s the vice-captain, a guy who plays week in, week out, he’s always fit and a leader on the pitch.

“It’s one of those ones where he probably wants to stay at the club. After speaking to him a few times myself, I know that he loves being there and he wants to be there in the future.

“But you have to reward these players for what they’ve given the club over the last X amount of seasons. I think that’s the sticking point at this moment in time.”

The Verdict: Get it done

With time running out, both parties just need to get a new contract sorted as soon as possible.

Goldson has been a mainstay in the Rangers team which won the Scottish Cup and reached the final of the Europa League, scoring four goals and supplying four assists from the back (Transfermarkt), and he is in his prime at 29 years of age.

He currently holds a market value of £7.2m, so losing someone of his quality on a free transfer would be a financial blow to the Gers, while also losing a key player from Van Bronckhorst’s side.

In other news, find out who has now emerged as a transfer target for Rangers

The former Australia batter relives the adventure of a lifetime, on and off the field

Vishal Dikshit28-Oct-2025It’s not too long now before the champions of Women’s World Cup 2025 will take home an unprecedented USD 4.48 million. Rewind to 1997, the second time the tournament was held in India, when Australia became the champions for the fourth time. When they returned home with the trophy, Lisa Keightley came back with food bills she had footed worth nearly AUD 2,500.The 1997 World Cup existed in a world that barely intersected with the five-star hotels and top-notch facilities that international players now expect in India. The BCCI was yet to take Indian women’s cricket under its wing, and the ICC was yet to take over the organisation of Women’s World Cups.Keightley, a top-order batter who was 26 at the time, had never ventured out of Australia and New Zealand when she was called-up for her maiden World Cup with the experience of just 14 ODIs.Related

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“It was just exciting, it was new, it was hustle and bustle,” Keightley says of her first India impressions, speaking to ESPNcricinfo. “It was just very different from Australia, and when we catch up with the players I played with in that ’97 World Cup, some of our funniest stories and experiences are what we had on that tour.”Over the course of the tournament, Australia voyaged almost all across India, playing their league games in Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Nagpur and Lucknow.”Our accommodation was really poor. I remember people getting sick and it was definitely a lot different than it is now,” Keightley says. “I remember my first accommodation when we got off the plane. I went into my room, I went to turn the shower on, and the shower taps were cemented and they didn’t move. I think the bath taps worked but the water was brown and then I went to turn on the telly and it just didn’t work. And the beds had looked like they’d been there for a very long time.”But I suppose it brings a group together. We definitely didn’t let that stop us from wanting to win the World Cup and, I suppose, sticking together as a group and enjoying each other’s company. I think that was a trip where you could say that drew us together.”Keightley was among the less-experienced members of the side and she sat out Australia’s first two games. She was, however, among the best-prepared players, even for some of the off-field eventualities. She carried an extra bag to India stuffed only with food items from back home, but she probably hadn’t accounted for her team-mates, who soon began lining up outside her room. They soon gave her a new nickname.The victorious Australia squad pose with the World Cup trophy•Craig Prentis/Getty Images”I was called the Tuckshop, which in Australia is a place where you go and get sweets,” she says. “So my little bag was full of sweets and lollies and chips and all the stuff that we felt we wouldn’t get in India. And people used to barter with me because I had such a big array of options, they were getting sick of theirs. So they’d say, ‘I’ll give you a muesli bar if you give me whatever.'”Navigating the streets of India might have been a challenge, but negotiating with her team-mates came naturally to Keightley.”Usually, I got a lot more than what they got. So I could get two and three of theirs and it was quite harsh. And I’d just give them like a packet of chewing gum or they would choose what they wanted. And then I had the choice of saying, ‘well, okay, one’s not going to cut it for a packet of chewing gum. I would like two muesli bars and a packet of chips’, or something like that.”I had this caramel-coated popcorn that was very popular. And that was just so different from anything we get in India. So that went for a high price. I usually got a few good things for the popcorn.”Keightley made her maiden World Cup appearance when Australia got to Hyderabad, where they bundled Pakistan out for 27, still among the lowest totals in women’s ODIs. With some spare time in hand before heading to Mumbai for their next fixture, Keightley, Mel Jones and wicketkeeper Julia Price thought it was a good time to go shopping before leaving Hyderabad. They journeyed to the old city, famous for its jewellery.”So we had put our luggage in the hotel, jumped in tuk-tuks, went to this strip where you could buy gold. And when we went to leave, we had no idea of what our hotel name was!” Keightley laughs. “And we had to go to a police station, then they helped us find where we were staying. Then they took us home in the police car.”In Mumbai, Denmark suffered the ignominy of watching Australia amass 412 for 3, only the second ODI total that had breached the 400 mark, with captain Belinda Clark scoring a record 229* and becoming the first double-centurion in women’s ODIs. Keightley played second fiddle, scoring 60 in a first-wicket stand of 168 with Clark. Denmark were rolled over for just 49, losing by a gargantuan 363 runs.Belinda Clark scored a double-century against Denmark and 52 in the final•Getty Images”I remember it was really hot,” Keightley says. “And Belinda was one of the fittest players going around in the Australian team. So to score that many runs was amazing. I do remember there was a tree on the ground in one of the corners and the boundary came in and around the tree. Yeah, she makes my small little 60 look insignificant, doesn’t she?”We just took a picture of the scoreboard. And congratulated Belinda and took a lot of photos. And that was probably about all we did, really. I don’t think we realised at the time that it was the record until the game finished. And then we thought, ‘oh, we better take a picture of the scoreboard and have something to remember it by.'”Australia were on a hot streak. They bundled England for 95 in Nagpur, hammered Netherlands by 115 runs in Lucknow, and were set to take on India in the semi-finals. All this while they sustained on ” bread, Vegemite, and eggs.” They almost left Jones and Price behind in a plane before realising they were sleeping in the last row and also survived a bomb threat on a flight before getting the all-clear with no bomb found in the luggage.They made it to Delhi for their semi-final on Christmas Eve, and the accommodation, once again, left something to be desired.”We lived in where they played the Delhi Open (an ATP tennis tournament), they had rooms around the tennis court,” Keightley said. “And someone was cooking from the kitchen, and across the road, there was the Hyatt. I do know I came back from that tour with an expensive food bill, because we all started to get a bit sick, so we’d go and eat in the five-star hotel wherever we were.”So I came back with a AUD 2000-2,500 food bill, but we did all take different options in food.”Keightley paid all of that out of her own pocket. She was working at the time with Cricket New South Wales, her home state, who granted her paid leave to play the World Cup.”I was one of the lucky ones,” she says. “Not everyone had that opportunity. I just went home and paid my bill and got on with life. It was just the way we did it back then. Usually, you didn’t get allowances. And if you did, it was very, very small and it didn’t cover too much. So usually we would finish the tour with an expensive bill.”A game in Delhi in winter usually means plenty of fog and bad light, and the semi-final was reduced to 32 overs a side.”We ended up playing the semi-final in an army barracks where there was a ground,” Keightley says of the Harbax Singh Stadium that was then the home ground of the Services team in men’s domestic cricket. “And we had no crowd because of a late change in venue. And I remember it being very, very close.”A large number of women and girls thronged Eden Gardens for the 1997 World Cup final•Craig Prentis/Getty ImagesIndia fell short by 19 runs and Australia were off to Kolkata to play the final against New Zealand at Eden Gardens, which could cradle nearly 100,000 people at the time. And there was something to celebrate off the field too.”We loved the final because we went to a five-star hotel and were there for about seven days, for five days or so before the final,” Keightley says. “And it was amazing compared to what we had been staying in. And we loved it because we had time and we went shopping and we went to the market. Obviously, we trained as well. And then it was probably the first time we got to play in one of the main stadiums in India. And the change rooms had fans and the toilets were nicer than we had.”And when we got there, we heard that they were going to try and do a record of the most females watching cricket in a ground. So they shipped in all these schoolgirls to watch the game. And you could not hear a thing. It was so loud. And we had never experienced anything like it.”I suppose it’s very similar to the WPL when you play RCB. That’s what it felt like for us. You had to yell. So, it was our first experience of, ‘wow, this is what the men would experience every time they play against India and Australia.’ We definitely enjoyed that.”It turned out to be a record crowd, ranging between 60,000 and 70,000, among them a 15-year-old ball girl named Jhulan Goswami. Watching the likes of Clark and speedster Cathryn Fitzpatrick kindled in Goswami the dream of taking up the sport as a profession and fast bowling as a passion.Australia kept New Zealand to 164 and took home the trophy with a five-wicket win, along with memories, anecdotes and experiences of a lifetime. Who wanted a million dollars?

In Sharjah in 2020, Tewatia produced some of the most unbelievable hitting after surviving Bishnoi. In Mumbai, it happened again

Sidharth Monga28-Mar-2022Rahul Tewatia has shown his utility as a T20 player, but his fate seems to be forever used as a common noun thanks to that Sharjah game two IPLs ago. “Can he do Tewatia?” is often asked when a batter gets off to a desperately slow start in a difficult chase.That indeed was a once-in-a-lifetime turnaround after Tewatia had been 8 off 19, apparently sucking the life out of an exciting chase. He ended up with 53 off 31 that night, providing a counter argument against “retiring out” in T20s. Having said that, not even Tewatia will believe that can be repeated.At Wankhede, in his first match for a new franchise, albeit in a smaller chase, Tewatia found himself in a bit of a similar situation. The opposition captain was the same, KL Rahul. Tewatia was 6 off 10. The requirement was now 68 off the last five. Most importantly, Tewatia’s nemesis was the same: Ravi Bishnoi, who was the main reason Tewatia struggled on that night in Sharjah.Related

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Bishnoi hardly ever spins the ball back in to the left-hand batter. Tewatia was wise to that fact in Sharjah too, which was apparent from how he kept looking to hit long-off and wide long-off, but he couldn’t adjust to the angle and the pace. After missing out on drives down the ground, Tewatia tried the slogs and the sweeps. It didn’t work. Then he tried that reverse-sweep, and his execution was not great. Eventually he managed to hit one six by running down at Bishnoi, but it was clear he couldn’t let Bishnoi dominate him again.Before getting to Bishnoi, though, Tewatia took a toll on Deepak Hooda’s non-turning offbreaks by targeting the shorter leg-side boundary. Now it was Tewatia against Bishnoi, already beaten outside off by the one that keeps going away, one off three the head-to-head. But there were a couple of things in Tewatia’s favour in Mumbai. One, Bishnoi had a wet ball to contend with, and two, he was bowling only his fourth over at the death in his IPL career.This was the first match that Tewatia was facing Bishnoi since that Sharjah game. He knew he couldn’t afford a repeat. Fairy-tales don’t happen again and again. This time he pulled out the reverse-sweep the first ball of the 17th over. It is a shot he sparingly plays. He played it seven times in the 2020 IPL, and four times in 2021. And yet he absolutely nailed it, which suggests he must have worked harder on that shot just for this kind of bowling.”Bishnoi bowled what he has been bowling to me, but after that reverse-sweep he was forced to think,” Tewatia told after the match. “He tried to use the bigger leg-side boundary, but I kept playing my shots.”That one six and the lure of the big boundary made Bishnoi veer from what had troubled Tewatia in the past. He even bowled one wide down the leg side. This innings was no common noun. This was not Tewatia. This was just a smart lower-order batter using whatever he has at his disposal to see through a chase. He will want more such innings to be associated with his name before he is done.

Even if you believed Kohli-cam to be the most egregious example of a team game being turned into a personality cult, you might just find yourself missing it

Karthik Krishnaswamy16-Jan-20222:06

Is Rishabh Pant a dark horse to be India’s next Test captain?

They were thirty-sixed in Adelaide, and there was no Virat Kohli for the rest of the series. How did India cope? Rather well, as it turned out.Back spasms ruled Kohli out in Johannesburg, and a younger, quieter stand-in oversaw an unexpected defeat during which, in some eyes, India’s efforts on the field lacked the full-time captain’s energy and aggression. Kohli returned in Cape Town and poured his energy and aggression onto every blade of grass and into the stump mic. India lost in more or less the same way.Captains get far more credit for victory and far more blame for defeat than they ever deserve. They are as good as their teams happen to be, and Kohli’s results across formats are the best of any full-time India captain because he led India’s best-ever team. It’s as simple as that.Well, almost as simple.Related

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• Talking points: Spotlight on Kohli the batter, Rahul's slot, and India's bowling combination

• Kohli resigns as Test captain: Rohit 'shocked', tributes from colleagues pour in

Go back to Kohli’s first-ever Test as captain. Not yet full-time captain, he made – or was involved in making – two decisions that immediately spelled out what his captaincy would be like, and how it would be different from anything that came before.He dropped R Ashwin and played the debutant Karn Sharma, in the belief that wristspin would bring quicker wickets than fingerspin on Australian pitches. Then, on the final afternoon, Kohli kept playing his shots and going after an outlandish fourth-innings target even after India had lost every other recognised batter, this when he had already scored hundreds in both innings and had the chance to pull down shutters and try to bat out a draw.Australia scored at five-and-a-half runs an over against Karn’s legspin over their two innings, and he never played Test cricket again. And Kohli’s willingness to risk defeat in the pursuit of victory ended up in defeat.Seemingly impulsive selections and the preference for the outright aggressive option remained a marked tendency during Kohli’s early years as captain. St Lucia 2016 was a case in point, when India left out Cheteshwar Pujara and M Vijay and brought in Rohit Sharma for his freer-scoring style, which they perhaps desired with the forecast suggesting that significant time would be lost to rain. India won despite an entire day getting washed out, as it transpired, even if Rohit didn’t make a hugely significant contribution to the result.It wasn’t the first or last time Pujara found himself out of the XI following a short stretch of poor form. Ajinkya Rahane would experience this too, during the South Africa tour of 2017-18. It would seem an irony, then, that the last year of Kohli’s captaincy would feature an unwavering belief in Pujara and Rahane despite both experiencing far longer streaks of even leaner form.This reflected, possibly, a tempering of Kohli’s early impulsiveness. Or it perhaps just reflected a greater belief in his two middle-order comrades after they had both proven their ability multiple times in difficult situations, and a recognition that their low averages over a prolonged period may have had as much to do with the bowlers and conditions India were facing, Test match after Test match, as any drop in their ability. Kohli’s returns over the same period were hardly any better.Kohli’s early trigger-happiness, then, may have simply been a consequence of having a younger and less experienced core group of players. As they grew older and more settled in the side, they may simply have become harder to displace. It’s a natural cycle that all teams go through.Shami, Bumrah, Ishant – the pace bowling riches that flourished under Kohli get a doff of his hat•Getty ImagesThe other quality Kohli showed in his Adelaide captaincy debut, however, never changed, and he always remained willing to risk defeat in the pursuit of Test wins. That quality would come to define his captaincy.Nowhere was this more evident than in his consistent use of five-bowler combinations. His predecessor MS Dhoni had also been keen on it, but the fifth bowler was usually someone in the mould of Stuart Binny or Ravindra Jadeja, who in the early stage of his Test career was viewed as a batting allrounder, even if that aspect of his game took longer to live up to its potential than his bowling.In contrast, Kohli played five genuine bowlers in his first two Tests after that 2014-15 Australia tour, when the post-Dhoni era began in full earnest. In Fatullah, he picked three fast bowlers – Ishant Sharma, Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav – and two spinners – Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh – and if a one-off Test against Bangladesh seems like the easiest assignment for a brave selection, he went in with two fast bowlers – Ishant and Aaron – and three spinners – Ashwin, Harbhajan and Amit Mishra – in India’s next Test in Galle. All five were bowlers first, and for all his ability with the bat, Ashwin had never batted above No. 8 before those two Tests. And with Dhoni no longer in the side, the five bowlers were batting below Wriddhiman Saha, whose batting ability was at that stage largely unproven.It didn’t quite come off in Galle – even though it took a freak innings from Dinesh Chandimal to turn what looked like an inevitable Sri Lanka defeat into an unexpected win – and India tempered their approach as they came back to win the series, with Binny recalled as a hedge-your-bets allrounder. But Kohli had shown his willingness to sacrifice batting depth to heighten India’s chances of picking up 20 wickets, and it would remain a feature of his captaincy.It was fitting then, with Jadeja – now a genuine batting allrounder overseas – out injured, that Kohli’s last Test as captain featured five out-and-out bowlers, with Ashwin and Shardul Thakur making up a hit-or-miss combination of lower-order batters at Nos. 7 and 8.But how much was this down to Kohli, and how much down to Ravi Shastri, in both his stints as head coach? Five bowlers was also a feature of Anil Kumble’s brief and highly successful tenure, during which Ashwin often batted at No. 6. With Kohli out injured for the decider of a tense home series against Australia in Dharamsala, Kumble and the stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane chose to give the wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav a debut rather than pick a like-for-like middle-order batter.And when Rahane stood in after 36 all out, India brought in Jadeja as a second spinner at the MCG rather than replace Kohli with a specialist batter.Kohli, Shastri, Kumble, Rahane and even Rahul Dravid, then, all seemed to share the same vision as far as picking five bowlers was concerned. And you can see why. It was a sound idea, and India had the players to make it work.In a sense, Kohli was lucky to take over the captaincy when the bulk of those players, particularly a promising group of bowlers, were all just beginning to mature at the Test level. Ashwin, Jadeja, Ishant, Umesh and Mohammed Shami had experienced most of their growing pains under Dhoni.You could argue, however, that Kohli and Shastri laid down the fitness standards that drove those bowlers to become the best versions of themselves. Over the course of their tenures, the fast bowlers went from being able to deliver one spell of high intensity during a day’s play and then losing steam, to being able to come back with the same intensity over multiple spells. Bharat Arun must take some of the credit for their upskilling as well.Ishant exemplified the extent of growth that was possible in this regime. He had averaged 37.30 in 61 Tests until the end of 2014. Since the start of 2015 – which is when Kohli became full-time captain – he has averaged 25.01 over 44 Tests, pitching the ball significantly fuller and closer to off stump than he used to, and rediscovering his inswinger.And as the incumbents became more threatening bowlers, newcomers came in looking like they had already played 20 Tests. One of them, Jasprit Bumrah, was both a once-in-a-generation genius and a product of the BCCI’s system, having been recognised as a prospect as far back as his stint at the National Cricket Academy in 2013, when he began building up the fitness he needed to ensure his body could withstand the demands of his unorthodox action. The other, Mohammed Siraj, was an even clearer product of a smoothly-paved talent pathway, having performed brilliantly on multiple India A tours before making his Test debut.As with everything else, Kohli may have only had a limited role to play in the rise of those two bowlers. But it’s not a knock on his captaincy. It’s just a reminder that a team’s success is the culmination of a number of processes overseen by a number of skilled decision-makers, of which the captain is only one. It’s probably healthier anyway when less power is concentrated in one pair of hands, even if – at the peak of his powers as batter and captain – it seemed as if Kohli was Indian cricket’s biggest power centre.Virat Kohli arrives at India’s training session•BCCIThe aura around Kohli’s captaincy, in truth, was much larger than the actual scope of his role, and this was simply a reflection of how aggressively personality-driven cricket’s marketing and packaging has become. Even Sachin Tendulkar didn’t have a dedicated camera following his every movement to ensure that the producer could bring you every pump of his fist and every raise of his eyebrow. And as the camera sought Kohli out, Kohli played up to it, a symbiotic relationship that filled our screens with frenzied send-offs, fingers on lips to quieten the opposition’s fans, and hands cupped around ears to raise the volume of India’s fans.This, of course, is who Kohli is, even if it’s a hyperreal version of him. Even if that on-field personality’s contribution to India’s results was negligible, it’s the part of his captaincy that will be remembered most fondly – or, if you fall on that side of the divide, with the most distaste. It’s possible that he’ll remain just as expressive when he is no longer captain, but it’s likely that Kohli-cam will play a smaller role in our lives, leaving you with curiously mixed emotions. Even if you believed Kohli-cam to be the most egregious example of a team game being turned into a personality cult, you might just find yourself missing it.

Fabrizio Romano has shared some transfer news out of Tottenham in what is a big boost for Thomas Frank, with chairman Daniel Levy adding to their short list of summer signings ahead of an imminent deadline day.

Spurs have just four days to bolster Frank’s squad in the desired areas, as Levy attempts to back the Dane before a very long and arduous campaign where the Lilywhites will be competing on four fronts.

£69m attacker "really" wants to join Tottenham with Xavi Simons

Spurs is a desired landing spot ahead of the deadline.

2

By
Emilio Galantini

Aug 28, 2025

They’ve made an excellent start to the new Premier League season, rounding off impressive wins against newcomers Burnley and heavyweights Man City in the past fortnight, but injuries to key players have partly prompted a late scramble for new recruits.

James Maddison is set to miss a large portion of 2025/2026 after rupturing his ACL in pre-season, while Dejan Kulusevski could be out until much later in the year as he continues his recovery from a knee problem.

Radu Dragusin also suffered an ACL injury back in the winter, and the Romania international still isn’t ready for selection.

As a result, Tottenham have been in the market for a new centre-back, number 10 and winger over the past few weeks, with club legend Son Heung-min also waving an emotional goodbye to the club earlier this month before joining LAFC.

Spurs were in talks to sign Savinho from Man City, but Pep Guardiola’s side appear to have blocked the move despite the Brazil international’s extreme eagerness to move down south for more game time.

Their search for a playmaker hasn’t been plain sailing either, with Levy missing out on both Eberechi Eze and Morgan Gibbs-White in spectacular, dramatic fashion this window alone.

However, according to reports, Tottenham’s mission to sign a new number 10 could now be coming to a close.

In the last 48 hours, Spurs began talks over hijacking Chelsea’s deal for RB Leipzig sensation Xavi Simons, who was a former member of Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy before switching to PSG’s youth ranks.

The 22-year-old has been dazzling in Germany with Leipzig for two years, making his move there permanent in January, but he’s now set to join the Lilywhites after successful talks.

Xavi Simons signs Tottenham contract after "overnight" agreement

According to Romano, following an “overnight” agreement, Tottenham are set to sign Simons in a deal worth £52 million, with his medical already completed and contracts now penned.

The Netherlands international, who can also play on the left, will provide Frank with versatility, attacking flair and proven quality in the final third.

Despite suffering an ankle ligament injury at the start of 24/25, Simons still managed 11 goals and eight assists over 33 appearances in all competitions, with Bundesliga expert Kevin Hatchard previously sharing exactly what Frank can expect from his newest arrival.

Cole Palmer reportedly missed Chelsea's latest training session amid concerns about a troublesome groin problem. The England international has had an injury-hit start to the season, with the 23-year-old missing games against West Ham and Fulham due to this issue. The England international limped off in the Blues' 2-1 loss to Manchester United and it seems a spell on the sidelines beckons.

• Palmer has injury-disrupted season for Chelsea

  The former Manchester City man only came back from this injury in the 2-2 draw at Brentford on September 13, but was forced off after 21 minutes in the defeat at United last weekend. He also sat out the Blues' 2-1 Carabao Cup win over Lincoln City in midweek, raising fears he could be unavailable for a while. And according to , Palmer missed Chelsea's open training session on Thursday.

Advertisement

• Getty Images Sport
  

  Maresca calls on team to thrive without Palmer

  Former Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino previously challenged his squad to prove they are not "Cole Palmer FC" ahead of a clash with Arsenal. They would lose that game 5-0, with Palmer missing out due to illness. The England ace has 58 goal contributions in 98 Premier League appearances and is vital to Chelsea's success.

  While head coach Maresca admits they are a better side with Palmer in it, they need to find solutions when he isn't around. 

  He toldlast week: "We need him, no doubt. With Cole we are a better team. But when Cole is not available we need to find solutions and ways to win games. We did it against West Ham and Fulham. We were close against Brentford."

• Chelsea need to 'protect' Palmer

  The former Leicester City manager stressed the importance of not rushing Palmer back before he is ready, particularly after a long summer that included the Club World Cup and a shortened pre-season.

  Maresca said, "We need to protect Cole for sure, 100%. Not only Cole, in my personal view, because as I said now, because of the Club World Cup or because we never stop, we need to manage and protect different players," Maresca explained, also referencing Moises Caicedo and Joao Pedro."

  He added: "The solution with Cole, I don't know, now we have a meeting with the medical staff and we decide the best solution for him. But it's also a kind of injury that is not like black and white. It's an injury that someday you can be better. It's not that you have pain and tomorrow will disappear. Sometimes you can be better, sometimes you can be worse. That's why we need to manage day by day."

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  When will Palmer return for Chelsea?

  Maresca is yet to give any clear indication as to when Chelsea's attacking talisman will be fit and ready once again. The west London outfit face Brighton in the Premier League on Saturday in a battle between sixth and 14th, respectively, before continuing their Champions League campaign at home to Benfica next Tuesday. Finally, the Blues have a crunch clash with defending champions and current unbeaten league leaders Liverpool on October 4, in what is their final game before the latest international break. It remains to be seen when Palmer will be available once more.

Newcastle striker Nick Woltemade has revealed a heated on-field exchange with Arsenal defender Gabriel after what he described as a high elbow to the face during their 2-1 defeat at St James' Park. Woltemade insists he is 'not the type of player to fall down' for fouls, highlighting frustration over dangerous challenges and sportsmanship in the Premier League.

• Gabriel and Woltemade's heated clash

  Woltemade opened the scoring for Newcastle in the first half by jumping over the Brazilian defender, only for Arsenal to mount a dramatic comeback with a 96th-minute winner from Gabriel. After the opener, Woltemade appeared to be elbowed in the face by Gabriel, but the challenge went unpunished. The incident sparked a tense confrontation between the two, which referee Jarred Gillett had to intervene in to calm down.

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  Woltemade opens up on feud with Gabriel

  Speaking to , Woltemade gave a detailed account of the incident: "After the goal, there was a situation where I felt his elbow in my face at two metres, so his arm had to be really high. I just said it to the referee that I felt something in the face, and I think it's not right to feel something in the face."

  He continued on the confrontation: "Following that, he said sorry after, so I think he knew he hit me in my face. I didn't solve the situation to be honest. I don't like this. If you do some things in-game and then a few seconds later you say sorry, that's not part of the game. I like the situation where you can have a good battle, but it always has to be fair. His elbow should not be in my face."

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  German striker not one to 'fall down' and engage in theatrics

  Woltemade made clear his commitment to fair play as he refused to go down after Gabriel's apparent elbow: "I'm not the type of player to fall down for this. It's hard because sometimes maybe you have to do this, but this is not my type of football."I just stand tall, try to play my game, and I don't exaggerate challenges. Sometimes these situations happen in football, but it should always be safe and fair. I can't control what happens, but I can control how I react, and I want to play proper football without resorting to theatrics."

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• Woltemade making a mark on struggling Newcastle

  Newcastle will look to recover quickly as they aim to close their growing gap with the top half in the Premier League standings. Woltemade is expected to maintain his spot when the Magpies face off with Union Saint-Gilloise in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Summers like this are not the norm for Arsenal Football Club.

Aside from 2023, when Declan Rice joined the club, it’s hard to think of very many windows in which the Gunners went out with such conviction to secure their targets.

There are still just under two weeks until the window slams shut and Mikel Arteta has a new starting number nine, a new number six who was courted by some of the biggest clubs in the game, and four more signings to dramatically improve the bench.

Moreover, if that somehow wasn’t enough, the North Londoners are now closing in on Eberechi Eze and have been linked with another youngster who could have just as much potential.

Arsenal target youngster who could be as good as Eze

It’s been quite a dramatic summer of transfers so far this year, but we don’t think anything is going to quite top what happened on Wednesday night.

Transfer Focus

Mega money deals, controversial moves and big-name flops. This is the home of transfer news and opinion across Football FanCast.

With the Arsenal fanbase still coming to terms with the news that Kai Havertz had suffered another injury, The Athletic’s David Ornstein revealed that Berta and Co had gone back in for Eze, despite Tottenham Hotspur agreeing personal terms.

Then, within just a couple of hours, the move was given the Fabrizio Romano ‘here we go’ treatment.

It’s the sort of transfer that could change the club’s season, and yet, it looks like the North Londoners want to make at least one more signing.

At least that is according to a recent report from French outlet L’Equipe, which has claimed Arsenal are interested in Malick Fofana.

The report has revealed that the Gunners are eyeing a move for the Ivorian international, and that while Lyon do not want to sell, they may have to due to their perilous financial position.

With the winger valued at €40m, which is about £35m, it wouldn’t be a cheap deal for Arsenal, but given Fofana’s ability, it’s one worth fighting for, especially as he could have as much potential as Eze once did.

Why Fofana could be as good as Eze

Now, we aren’t suggesting that Fofana is as good or as complete as Eze is at the moment, but there are more than a few indications that he could become as brilliant in the future.

The first is his output for Lyon last season.

In 41 appearances, totalling 2280 minutes, the “game-changing” prospect, as dubbed by U23 scout Antonio Mango, scored 11 goals and provided six assists.

That means that the 20-year-old was able to maintain an average of a goal involvement every 2.41 games, or every 134.11 minutes, which would be impressive for a seasoned veteran, let alone someone his age.

Moreover, he’s already picked up where he left off, as he provided the assist in Lyon’s one-nil win over RC Lens on the weekend.

The second reason we reckon the young Belgian could be an Eze-esque star in the making is the fact that his underlying numbers are nothing short of remarkable.

According to FBref, he sits in the top 1% of attacking midfielders and wingers in Europe’s top five leagues for percentage of shots on target and goals per shot, the top 3% for progressive carries, the top 6% for carries into the final third, the top 7% for crosses into the penlaty area and more, all per 90.

In other words, the dynamic winger is elite at bringing the ball up the pitch and into dangerous attacking areas, while also having a brilliant cross on him – sound like anyone else?

Finally, even though the Aalst-born gem is primarily a left-winger, he is more than comfortable playing off the right, or deeper, in wide midfield positions, which would give Arteta more tactical flexibility.

Ultimately, Fofana is already an excellent attacker, but with his output, underlying numbers and ability to play in more than one position, he could end up being as good as Eze one day.

Therefore, Arsenal should do what they can to bring him to the Emirates before the window slams shut next month.

The new Havertz: Arsenal weighing up late move to sign £80m star after Eze

The big-money star could be just what Arsenal need following Kai Havertz’s injury.

By
Jack Salveson Holmes

Aug 21, 2025

Manchester United played out a 2-2 draw with Everton in Atlanta, Georgia, at the weekend, as Ruben Amorim’s side won the Premier League Summer Series over in the United States.

Football is encapsulated by peaks and troughs, and so too was this closing pre-season fixture over the pond defined by some good and some bad for the Red Devils, who are desperate to find themselves once again after finishing 15th in last season’s Premier League and losing the Europa League final to Tottenham Hotspur.

Change was always going to be necessary, and INEOS have indeed acted with intent to reshape the frontline, signing Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo from divisional rivals.

However, more is still needed. United require another central midfielder, and remain interested in replacing Andre Onana between the sticks.

But there’s no question that the most pressing, and most prominent, concern remains finding a new out-and-out central striker.

Man Utd's attacking transfer plans

Rasmus Hojlund, 22, has been vocal in his desire to stay at Manchester United next season and fight for his place at number nine, but the rumour mill suggests technical director Jason Wilcox has transfer-listed him for £30m.

The Danish striker flattered to deceive last season. Sure, he was let down by a dearth of creativity behind him, but lacked control and confidence, and scored only four times across 32 appearances in the Premier League.

And Amorim is focused on signing an upgrade, and the chosen target is RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko, who has emerged at the centre of the transfer tussle also involving Newcastle United.

The Magpies made a £70m bid on Saturday, which was rejected. Man United haven’t, although INEOS know they can sign the Slovenian without having to sell first (whereas Newcastle must first cash in the Alexander Isak cheque).

But could the Old Trafford side yet have an even bigger deal in the pipeline?

Man Utd lining up British-record bid

According to Spanish sources, Manchester United are ready to shatter the transfer market by launching a bid for Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior.

The 24-year-old is one of the best players in the world, and no mistake. However, he has been the subject of persistent transfer speculation concerning the Saudi Pro League in recent years, owing largely to a new Los Blancos contract that remains unpenned.

Man United want to take advantage and remind the world that they are a superpower. A package worth €200m (£174m) is being put together, and that would make the Brazilian the most expensive player in British football history.

Why Man Utd want Vinicius Jr.

Vinicius Jr, 25, is one of football’s true superstars, having joined Real Madrid from Flamengo for a £39m fee as a teenager in 2018.

Madrid president Florentino Perez said: “He’s a player who is already considered one of the great hopes of Brazilian and world football.”

Though Sesko is a centre-forward, and Vinicius Jr is more of goalscoring winger, this would be an opportunity too good to pass up, and there’s no question that the South American is the target INEOS must prioritise.

Indeed, it’s not like he doesn’t have the skills to serve as a goalscoring sensation at the club. As per FBref, the Real gem ranked among the top 10% of positional peers across Europe’s top five leagues last season for goals scored, the top 13% for shot-creating actions, the top 2% for progressive carries and the top 3% for successful take-ons per 90.

Perhaps he’s coming off the back of a campaign that left something to be desired, but the man still notched 22 goals and 19 assists across all competitions. In fact, he’s now surpassed 35 goal involvements for four seasons in succession.

Sesko, conversely, has yet to prove he has what it takes to take a seat at the elite table, having scored 13 goals from 33 Bundesliga fixtures in 2024/25.

The potential is there, and, of course, Sesko may well shape into one of the finest goalscorers in the business if he signs for Man United this summer, but in Vinicius Jr, Amorim would land a tailor-made figurehead with an absurd amount of technical quality. He’s the real deal.

Of course, the Brazil international is typically found coming off the left flank, and that’s an area that Cunha will be expected to play in, but the Madrid man’s compatriot started up front for Amorim’s team against Everton the other day, and Vinicius Jr, too, could be interchangeable positionally.

If the talk of his shooting ability wasn’t enough, the 25-year-old also averaged two key passes per game in La Liga last season, as per Sofascore, also averaging 2.7 dribbles and a whopping 5.8 duels per match. Earning £349k per week, you’d expect him to bring such a degree of completeness to the table.

Further, he’s one of the most recognisable faces currently competing in the Champions League, scoring in the 2018 final against Liverpool and the 2023 final versus Borussia Dortmund, triumphant on both occasions.

That’s the kind of pedigree Man United need if they are to restore themselves, rekindle that fire that once burned so bright at the height of the global game.

Described as a “legend in the making” by talent scout Jacek Kulig, Vinicius Jr has already left an indelible mark at Real Madrid, and could take his development to the next level by becoming a talisman at Old Trafford.

Sure, Sesko is a talented young striker with plenty of power and much determination besides, but we’re talking about a star on a different scale here, and if there truly is a chance to bring Vini over to the Premier League, the Red Devils must pounce as they march back to the top of the European scene.

Amorim's very own Ibrahimovic: Man Utd to make bid for "phenomenal" talent

Manchester United are making moves for a player who could replicate Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

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By
Ethan Lamb

Aug 4, 2025