Gossip: Barcelona in talks with Partey
Barcelona have opened talks with Arsenal and Ghana midfielder Thomas Partey, 31, over a free transfer when his contract expires in June. (Sun), externalWant more transfer stories? Read Monday's full gossip columnFollow the gossip column on BBC Sport
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Daily Mirror
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Viktor Gyokeres makes Man Utd U-turn after learning Arsenal transfer decision
Viktor Gyokeres had looked to have ruled out a move to Manchester United after their Champions League failure - putting Arsenal in pole position - but the Sporting Lisbon star may have had a change of heart Victor Gyokeres looks to have changed his tune and is now open to a move to Manchester United - despite them not having Champions League football - which was believed to have been a determining factor. The Swede has long been expected to leave Sporting Lisbon and Arsenal had been seen as his most likely destination if he did head to the Premier League. But now a reunion with Ruben Amorim could be on the cards, reports talkSPORT. No formal talks have been held between those in Manchester and Sporting bosses, but the Red Devils' pursuit of a new striker is well documented. The Portuguese side want around £60million for Gyökeres - which is a £25m reduction on his £85m release clause. Gyokeres has a verbal agreement in place with Sporting allowing him to leave for less after he chose to stay in Lisbon last summer. Arsenal, like United, are in the market for a new frontman after opting against signing a new No 9 for several windows. Mirror Football understands that Arsenal are prioritising Benjamin Sesko, though. Arsenal's sporting director Andrea Berta has been negotiating with representatives of both players and their respective clubs simultaneously as the Gunners seek the best deal. However, the decision among the club's hierarchy is to push forward with their swoop for the RB Leipzig forward, rather than Gyokeres. That would leave the Swede, who scored more than 50 times in all competitions, looking for a new buyer. Several of Europe's top clubs are not looking to add a striker which means, even for a player of his quality, options may be limited. Amorim was the man who signed Gyokeres after he impressed in the Championship with Coventry City, later helping him become one of Europe's most prolific strikers. The United boss has just missed out on Liam Delap, who chose to join Chelsea, leaving him to review other options. Matheus Cunha has already been signed for £62.5m. The 27-year-old has just helped Sporting claim the domestic double and has remained tight-lipped on his future. He said: 'Let us see. It's hard for me to say, because yeah it is football and you never know what's going to happen in the summer. So for me to say anything else than that is impossible.' Gyokeres was asked specifically about the possibility of joining Arsenal and added: 'I don't know, I just focus on this. I've tried to focus on the last games because it's so important and I don't want to think about anything else. So yeah, if anything is true, let's see in the summer.'
Daily Mail
30 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Aryna Sabalenka dethrones French Open queen Iga Swiatek in thrilling semi-final - as world No1 eyes fourth Grand Slam title
The queen of Paris is dethroned, guillotined by the Tiger from the East. Iga Swiatek had won three straight French Open titles and four overall - but never before had she faced Aryna Sabalenka. The Belarusian hammered home her status as world No1, winning a pulsating semi-final 7-6, 4-6, 6-0. The two finest players of the decade had not met at a Grand Slam since the 2022 US Open, and after three years of cold warfare, of straining at the leash, they flew at each other with tooth and claw. When the dust settled, Sabalenka, 27, moved into her first Roland Garros final. Whichever of Coco Gauff and French wildcard Lois Boisson wins the other semi-final, Sabalenka will be favourite to complete the third leg of a career Grand Slam, after her US Open title and two in Australia. The context to this match was Swiatek's terrible form coming in. The 24-year-old had not won a single title since her fourth here last year, and had suffered a succession of shocking defeats - mostly to the kind of power baseliners of which Sabalenka is the gold standard. It has been akin to when a Test cricket batsman is 'worked out' by the bowling fraternity. Not everyone can execute it - still very few in fact - but it is now clear how you beat Swiatek: you rush her, especially on the forehand win where she takes such a big backswing; you play relentlessly flat and hard, attack her first and second serves, especially by drilling the ball straight at her on the forehand side. Sabalenka did exactly that, steaming into a double-break 4-1 lead. Everything about Swiatek's game was frenetic, rushed. She was not giving the match, or herself, any time to breath and settle. In a comparison of these two players' strengths, the greatest advantage to Swiatek would lie in her movement. Sabalenka moves well enough but she is more of a wham bam woman; Swiatek's footwork is freakishly fast; she seems to take twice the number of steps of anyone else. Sabalenka is a tiger, as the tattoo on her left forearm denotes; Swiatek is more of a gazelle, whose traditional approach when facing a big cat is to run rings round it, not trot up and say, Fancy a scrap? In the final analysis, of rallies between one and four shots, Sabalenka won 34 more than her opponent; in rallies of five or more strokes, Swiatek was +10 - but she did not do enough to elongate the rallies. Still, at 4-1, with a double break, some tension seemed to creep into the Sabalenka game. Leading 40-30, she hit an ace that would have made it 5-1, but the umpire called back the play for a net cord, leaving Sabalenka bemused. Whether that affected her concentration or not, it was a different match thereafter. Switek was starting to pick the Sabalenka serve better and adjust to the pace of her shots. Her first hold of the match brought her back to 3-4, then Sabalenka played a shocker of a service game, including two double faults, to level the scores. At 5-5, having been a net-cord from 5-1, the Sabalenka of a few years ago would have crumbled emotionally; the imperious new version played a brilliant return game, including her best shot of the match, a curling forehand pass on the run. Swiatek responded with a break of her own but Sabalenka snatched the tiebreak 7-1. The standard of returning had been breathtaking. A recent innovation in tennis has been data company Infosys and their shot-quality metrics. The gist is every shot is scored out of 10; at the end of the first set, Sabalenka and Swiatek's return quality was measured at 9.8 and 9.4 respectively, compared to the field's average of 6.5. The return quality dipped in the second set - how could it not? - and holds became more easy to come by. Swiatek played with more poise, too, mixing up her game far better, getting her opponent on the run. Her first serve percentage almost jumped from 54 to 76; Sabalenka's dropping from 55 to 48. After two hours of brutal brilliance, we looked set for an epic deciding set. Instead it was a rout, as Sabalenka sorted out her first serve percentage and landed massive forehands time and again. She ended, appropriately, with two clean return winners.
BBC News
30 minutes ago
- BBC News
'We need a striker' - your transfer window priorities
We asked for your thoughts on what Aberdeen need to do in the transfer what some of you said:Russell: We need an out-and-out number nine. Someone around the age of 23 making a name for themselves. Would also like to see a young, combative central midfielder. [Dunfermline's] Ewan Otoo looked good against us in the cup Another good goalkeeper to add competition. Tall targetman, Sam Dalby is available and a couple of physical midfielders who can go box-to-box. Also a natural left-back who can drive forward out of With the news that Bojan Miovski is to become available, would it not be far fetched to think we could either offer a loan or even sign him, albeit on reduced terms? The club has some money to spend and it would give a clear indication of what they want next Need a left-back, two midfielders and two strikers as a priority. I feel there needs to be a pathway for some of the youngsters to get some game time. Alfie Stewart, Findlay Marshall, Fletcher Boyd, Adam Emslie and Alfie Bavidge and obviously Jack Milne after his outstanding performance in the cup Some players do still need to depart. We don't really want any of the loan players back, and could do with moving Peter Ambrose on. Need a couple of strikers, a centre-back, left-back, a couple more midfielders and a good number Squad needs trimmed. A couple of full-backs and some midfield legs required. This season has to see some of the sterling talent in the youth ranks getting more We need a striker and a left-back as a priority. Kevin Nisbet is too expensive and not really worth the wages so we need to be scouring Europe or further afield. The media will naturally link us with guys like Ronan Hale out of sheer laziness.
