Those wisps of smoke you can see in the sky over east London are emanating from the hole being burnt in West Ham’s pocket by £105m of Declan Rice revenue, and Hammers boss David Moyes seems to have convinced his employers to invest a sizeable chunk of it in Conor Gallagher. Chelsea have rejected a £40m offer for their impressive midfielder, who is surplus to requirements at the club despite having featured prominently in pre-season warm-up games in the USA. Tottenham are also interested in taking Gallagher off Chelsea’s hands and see him as an ideal replacement for Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, who continues to agitate for a move to Atlético Madrid. Aston Villa’s Douglas Luiz and Barcelona’s Ivorian midfielder Franck Kessié are also rumoured to be inching their way across Tottenham’s radar.
While the slim but not entirely implausible possibility of Kylian Mbappé spending his gap year in Riyadh has been covered extensively elsewhere, Al-Hilal’s £269m bid has also sparked speculation that the French striker may end up spending next season on loan in the Premier League. Excluded from the Paris Saint-Germain squad that travelled to Japan for a pre-season tour, the striker will need to play football somewhere in order to maintain his fitness for next summer’s Euros if he remains frozen out of Luis Enrique’s squad in Paris. Chelsea and Spurs (no, really) have been mooted as possible loan destinations.
While the unlikely prospect of Mbappé pitching up at White Hart Lane has prompted ridicule from fans of other clubs, the Manchester United manager, Erik ten Hag, refused to discuss the possibility of the 24-year-old turning out for Manchester United. “We never speak about players who are under contract at other clubs,” said the Dutchman, who has called on the Old Trafford hierarchy to get in a new striker “as soon as possible”. Atalanta’s Rasmus Højlund and Eintracht Frankfurt’s Randal Kolo Muani remain top of his shopping list.
Everton are reported to be in “advanced talks” with Spanish side Almería over a deal to bring El Bilal Touré to Goodison Park, although reports from Italy suggest the 21-year-old Malian striker is on the verge of signing for Atalanta, as a replacement for Højlund. Everton have also had a bid for the winger Wilfried Gnonto rejected by Leeds, who are confident they can hold on to the young Italian because he does not have a relegation clause in his contract, and therefore won’t have to take a pay cut to play Championship football.
Omitted from the Wolves pre-season squad that travelled to Portugal for pre-season training as the club ramp up their interest in West Ham’s Aaron Cresswell, the 23-year-old full-back Ryan Giles could be off to Luton Town for a bargain £5m. And available on a free transfer following his release from Liverpool, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s list of suitors is no longer restricted to clubs beginning with the letter ‘B”, following the news that Aston Villa have added themselves to a list previously restricted to Brighton, Brentford and Besiktas.
