Report: West Ham closing in on deal with Czech club
West Ham United are increasingly confident of securing the services of highly rated Senegal international El Hadji Malick Diouf following clear signs from Slavia Prague that a deal is imminent.
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Slavia manager Jindrich Trpisovsky confirmed what many in the Czech capital had already suspected, revealing that Diouf's departure is no longer a question of 'if' but 'when'. Speaking to the media, Trpisovsky said, 'The situation surrounding El Hadji Malick Diouf? It's always the same. We're all thinking about a transfer.' He continued, 'It's a matter of time. The club's management is taking care of it. Malick has an individual plan, we don't want to take any risks.'
Diouf, who recently impressed on international duty as Senegal beat England 3-1, is believed to be attracting interest from several Premier League clubs, with West Ham and Leeds United currently at the front of the queue.
West Ham's long-standing relationship with Slavia Prague
The Hammers have a proven track record of dealing with Slavia Prague, having previously signed both Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal from the Czech club. That history may prove crucial once again as negotiations progress over what could become a record-breaking transfer.
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Slavia Prague are reportedly demanding a fee in excess of the £12.5million they received from Tottenham for goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky. That figure currently stands as the club's highest-ever sale, but Diouf is now poised to eclipse it.
Trpisovsky was full of praise for the player, highlighting not only his technical qualities but also his long-term potential: 'He's a player with extraordinary qualities, and he will have them for the future. Slavia's demands must be met, but we believe he will leave.'
With left-back Aaron Cresswell now gone and Graham Potter keen to bolster his defensive options, Diouf's versatility adds to his appeal. He is comfortable playing as a left-back or as a winger on the same side, a trait that could provide Potter with additional tactical flexibility next season.
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Leeds interest could test West Ham resolve
While West Ham remain confident of striking a deal, they are not alone in their admiration for Diouf. Leeds United, now pushing for promotion under new management, are believed to have expressed serious interest in the player. However, the lure of top-flight football and West Ham's European ambitions could prove decisive.
It is also understood that Diouf's camp prefers a move to a Premier League club with a stable project and a clear development pathway. Graham Potter, known for his work with young talent, may offer the ideal environment for Diouf to continue his rise.
Although no fee has been finalised, all signs now point to a summer exit for Diouf. With both Slavia Prague and the player aligned on his departure, it is a matter of days, not weeks, before this potential transfer reaches its final stages.
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Our View – EPL Index Analysis
From a West Ham fan's perspective, this development feels timely and progressive. El Hadji Malick Diouf looks like the sort of player who could quickly become a fan favourite. He brings energy, flair and composure on the ball, not to mention the kind of versatility that gives managers flexibility during a long season.
With Cresswell moving on, there is a clear vacancy at left-back, and Diouf offers more than just defensive cover. His ability to drive forward and contribute in the final third is something West Ham have lacked from wide defensive areas. Seven goals and four assists last season for a player in that position is significant, even if it came in a different league.
The fact that Slavia Prague are preparing for life without him, and that he is training separately from the squad, adds real weight to the likelihood of his exit. If West Ham can move quickly and decisively, they have every chance of securing another successful addition from a club they already know how to deal with.
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Fans will also be encouraged by the club's continued interest in young, high-upside players with international experience. It suggests a shift towards a more sustainable recruitment strategy and a greater focus on player development, something many supporters have long called for.
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New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
How Liverpool can afford to buy Alexander Isak even after committing over £500m in two months
Liverpool's largesse this summer has taken plenty aback, not least as it arrives following a dominant domestic showing last season. Having won the Premier League title in Arne Slot's first year in the Anfield dugout, there's been little suggestion of the club resting on their laurels. Wider dominance is the clear and stated aim, with heady transfer spending to go with tying down top goalscorer Mohamed Salah and captain Virgil van Dijk to contract extensions to replace their deals that were going to expire this summer. Advertisement Including appropriate estimated fees and levies, alongside the £25million signing of Giorgi Mamardashvili from Valencia, who officially joined on July 1 after the deal was done last August, Liverpool's spend in the past two months sits north of £300m ($400m). Even in the madcap world of modern-day transfers, that's a huge sum. Using accounting years, only two clubs have previously exceeded that mark in single-season spending: Chelsea, twice, in 2022-23 and 2023-24, and Manchester City in 2017-18. Signing Alexander Isak too would take Liverpool beyond the £400million barrier, a realm only Chelsea have dared venture into. The latter have become almost synonymous with, shall we say, creative thinking; in each of the two seasons referenced, they avoided breaching Premier League profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) through selling assets to fellow companies within the broader ownership group. Liverpool haven't employed such tactics, so there's naturally been plenty of wondering how exactly they can afford to do what they're doing. Their owners at Fenway Sports Group (FSG) have long fielded accusations of frugality during their time at Anfield, pouring in money at a rate well below the level of peers. Across almost 14 years of ownership to the end of May last year, FSG provided £263.6million in funding to the club; Chelsea received £315m from their owners in 2023-24 alone. What's more, much of FSG's funding has been directed toward infrastructure projects, rather than squad improvements. To sign Isak, Liverpool will have to part with the third-highest fee ever paid for a footballer. Newcastle United would like conversations to start at about £150million for their Swedish striker, which might not prove attainable given he wants to leave and the list of realistic suitors is short. Yet even the £120m starting point Liverpool have previously communicated they are willing to make a deal at would only trail Paris Saint-Germain's signings of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe when it comes to football's richest transfers. To understand how Liverpool buying Isak is even a possibility, never mind his most realistic option from this vantage point, requires looking both forwards and backwards, as well as considering PSR and cash limits which, as we'll see, can be very different things. Even before looking at their activity to date, it's worth detailing where Liverpool stood at the onset of the summer. In 2023-24, they recorded a £57.1m pre-tax loss, the worst financial result in the club's history. Yet, as The Athletic detailed in March, the big deficit was an exception: we projected Liverpool would be comfortably profitable last season. Advertisement Premier League PSR is assessed over a rolling three-year period, meaning strong performance in a preceding financial year can set a club up nicely to spend in the following one. As with any club, Liverpool's PSR loss figure is lower than their pre-tax one, as clubs can remove 'allowable' costs such as spending on youth development, or the club's women's team. In Liverpool's case, those allowable costs are sizeable. We estimate they exceed £40m per season. In other words, that £57.1m pre-tax loss was far smaller within Liverpool's PSR calculation. Correspondingly, the pre-tax profit we were already projecting for Liverpool in 2024-25 represents an even greater PSR profit. Across the past two seasons, the club's combined PSR result is expected to be highly profitable — opening the door for them to post a large loss in 2025-26, if they chose to, while still remaining within the rules. Separate to PSR is Liverpool's cash position, which can be an obvious but underreported impediment to a club being active in the transfer market. FSG have long been keen to manage Liverpool sustainably, and that's borne out in the strong cash position the club appears to have entered the summer with. To the end of the 2023-24 season, Liverpool owed a net £69.9m in transfer fees to other clubs, by far the lowest transfer debt of the Premier League's 'big six' and pretty much middling across the division. That figure only fell last season, leaving Liverpool without large historic commitments hampering their ability to spend now. Compare that with Sir Jim Ratcliffe's March lamentation about Manchester United's transfer debt — £271.6m at the end of last season, and even higher now — and you get a sense of how Liverpool are less restrained than others. Completion of works on the Anfield Road End in early 2024 brought an end to a significant period of infrastructure investment, releasing the club from sizeable cash commitments. Further ensuring plenty of cash to be tapped was the extension of a revolving credit facility (RCF) from £200m to £350m in September 2024. At the end of May that year, only £116m of the RCF had been drawn down. All of this is without getting into the fact Liverpool enjoyed record revenues in 2024-25, projected at over £700m, ones which are only expected to grow further this season. Having established Liverpool's strong PSR and cash positions, we can move onto determining just how much they've spent to date. Or, more pertinently, how much they've committed to in total spending. On transfer fees, agent fees and transfer levies, Liverpool's estimated spend on Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong and Mamardashvili totals £314m. We don't know the terms of when the various fees will be paid, but it seems a safe bet Liverpool's transfer debt has jumped from lowly beginnings. Advertisement Transfer fees tend to be widely reported at this level, but reliable information on how much players are paid is difficult to come by, and not only because there's often little benefit to the involved parties in disclosing such figures. Clubs increasingly reward players with an array of performance bonuses which, if achieved, can mean the player's actual annual wage strays far from the basic salary which might have leaked out back when they signed. Taking that crevasse-sized caveat into account, we're necessarily limited in how accurately we can project what Liverpool have committed to in terms of paying their new recruits over their respective contracts, all of which run for a minimum of five years. Even so, estimates by The Athletic put the sum committed to those five new signings in excess of £250m over their contracts. Add that to the transfer fees above and we arrive at a commitment from Liverpool this summer to spend well in excess of half a billion pounds on new players. Even for a club with £700m-plus revenues, that's a lot, especially when coupled with a wage bill which only trails Manchester City's in England. As we've detailed, Liverpool have plenty of PSR headroom in 2025-26, and could stomach a big loss if they fancied it. The problem with that tactic is it does require mitigation further down the line. Come the 2027-28 season, the profit of last year falls off Liverpool's calculation. That's without getting into the intricacies of UEFA's squad cost ratio (SCR), a measure which limits the proportion of income clubs can spent on transfer fees, wages and agent costs. Notably, income for SCR purposes includes a club's profit on player sales (albeit a pro-rated version, which we won't get into here). It is player sales which now hold the key to much of Liverpool's financial strategy. Such sales will boost the bottom line in the current season, aiding both domestic and European PSR, as well as provide a cash boost and limit transfer debt from soaring too high. In fact, remarkable as it may seem, player sales in this window could prove enough to offset the in-year impact of Liverpool's huge spending on incomings. They have probably already done so. To understand how that can possibly be the case, consider the sale of Luis Diaz to Bayern Munich. Diaz is to join the German champions for €75m (£65.6m; $87.4m). He arrived on Merseyside three and a half years ago for a fee which eventually saw £43m flow from Liverpool to Porto. That fee was expensed (amortised) across Diaz's five-and-a-half-year contract, meaning his book value at the point of sale equated to roughly 36 per cent (two years out of five and a half) of the total fee spent on him. Advertisement After adding on assumed agent fees and levies, that left Diaz's book value at around £17.5m. Liverpool are selling him for £65.6m, thus crystallising a £48.1m profit — one which they book immediately into their 2025-26 accounts. The same is true of some far simpler sales. Pretty much all of the £30m generated from Jarrell Quansah's move to Bayer Leverkusen last month was also booked immediately as profit, likewise £8.4m received from Real Madrid for Trent Alexander-Arnold and £3m from West Brom for Nat Phillips. A further £10m in profit came from selling Caoimhin Kelleher to Brentford. In all Liverpool have banked an estimated £99.5m profit on player sales already this summer. That £99.5m is just the transfer fees. The wages of those outgoings aren't well-known but will all add up. Alexander-Arnold, for example, earned around £200,000 per week before bonuses, costing Liverpool a minimum £12m per year after employment taxes. While sales are booked immediately, transfer fees are spread across contracts. Liverpool's 31 May accounting date offers a further disconnect, as player contracts run to 30 June, meaning a month's worth of transfer fee at the end of a player's contract will fall into the accounting period ostensibly covering the season after they've left the club. That has the corresponding impact of lowering the immediate hit. Ekitike, announced on 23 July, will see just over 10 months of his fee and wages accounted for in 2025-26; it would have been 11 months if Liverpool's financial year ran to the end of June. It might sound inconsequential, but at the level of fees involved here it makes a difference. On amortisation costs alone, we estimate Liverpool's quintuple of new faces will hit the 2025-26 books to the tune of £56.3m. In other words, on fees, the combined £99.5m in player profits this summer comfortably outstrip this year's amortisation cost stemming from new signings. That ignores wages, and Liverpool are paying big amounts to their new recruits, particularly Ekitike and Wirtz. Yet they've also shifted a chunk off the wage bill, principally through the departures of Alexander-Arnold and Diaz. Exact amounts are unknown but this summer's sales could reasonably total around £25m in annual wages saved. Advertisement The wages added via the new signings easily outweigh that sum but, as we've seen, player sales to date cover the new amortisation costs with over £40m left to play with. Our estimate of the total 2025-26 cost of Liverpool's five new signings, across both fees and wages, is a little over £100m. That's just a smidge more than the player profits Liverpool have generated this summer. Add in the wage savings and, as ludicrous as it may sound, Liverpool's transfer activity has generated a profit in 2025-26. Understand all that and you go a long way to understanding how, at least in the here and now, signing Alexander Isak even for the mooted £150m transfer fee (2025-26 amortisation after assorted costs: £28.6m) and £300,000 per week wage (2025-26 salary cost: £14.8m) wouldn't blow Liverpool's current finances to smithereens. Far from it. Signing Isak would add an estimated £43.4m in costs this year, but by our estimate that would only just tip the impact of this summer's transfer dealings into a position of adding costs comparative to 2024-25. Owing to the timing of his signing, Isak's annual cost would then increase to around £53m from next season. That highlights a rather glaring omission in all this. So far, we've only really considered 2025-26. Sales made this summer have generated £99.5m in profit but will garner precisely nothing next year; meanwhile, the new signings continue to cost the club a huge annual sum. Twelve months of costs for each of their new recruits will hit Liverpool's books in 2026-27, and for several years after. We estimate business to date has loaded £109m onto Liverpool's annual costs — a figure which rises to £162m if Isak is signed on a deal that would ultimately cost Liverpool over £250m across his time at Anfield. Predicting where Liverpool's wider finances will go in the future is a fool's errand, not least those elements linked to on-field performance. But by any stretch, an extra £109m-162m in annual costs, recurring for several years, is a big bill to pay. We outlined our estimation Liverpool's business to date has committed them to well over half a billion in spending over the next five or six years; stick on a further £250m-plus for Isak and you're at a sum in the region of £840m. That's been offset by £99.5m in sales profits so far, alongside whatever wages have departed. There's also the point that, in the case of Diaz, Liverpool benefit from not having to amortise his fee now he's gone (the other departures had negligible amortisation costs). That's around a further £9m saving on last year. All told, outgoings have probably generated income or produced cost savings this coming season totalling £136m, while adding the signing of Isak to existing business would see a total increase in this season's costs of around £144m. In other words, the net impact of the summer's activity would be to add just an extra £8m in costs in 2025-26. That does also ignore any impact from those new contracts handed to Van Dijk and Salah. Those two could become of greater significance to the matters of today in two years' time. Their new contracts expire in 2027 and, while its unknown if they'll stay beyond then, it's a distinct possibility they won't. Given the size of their pay packets, that would provide a significant reduction in Liverpool's wage bill — thus helping to offset the costs this summer's new signings are continuing to incur. Advertisement That's a while off, albeit Liverpool will already be thinking about how they foot the long-term costs they're currently committing themselves to. As we've seen, remarkable as it may appear, this summer's activity so far has actually generated a net profit in the club's 2025-26 financial year. Any more big sales — like, for example, Darwin Nunez — would only further improve the bottom line. The potential problem comes later, when more sales are needed or other measures, like generating higher revenues or cutting costs, have to be undertaken. Liverpool's summer is signing them up to a hefty future commitment, though in the here and now their finances continue to look rosy. That will remain the case even if they take the plunge and make Alexander Isak the most expensive player in English football history.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Tying down Morgan Gibbs-White is Forest's best business of the summer: He's the ultimate all-rounder
The allure of a new signing in the transfer window is unmatched, but keeping your best asset is just as important. There's always a probability that investing the money from a sale may reap rewards. However, holding onto your most important player is often more of a certainty of success, especially when it's one of the best players in the Premier League. Advertisement After Tottenham Hotspur matched the £60million ($80.5m) release clause in Morgan Gibbs-White's contract, Nottingham Forest considered reporting Spurs due to what they believed was an illegal approach to sign the midfielder. The delay allowed Forest to act and they managed to convince Gibbs-White to sign a new contract until 2028. Gibbs-White's influence at Forest is beyond any doubt. The England midfielder thrives between the lines with his smart positioning and line-breaking passes, while also being a threat in space due to his ball-carrying ability and pace. His smart off-ball movement helps the team's attack, and he has become a threat from attacking set pieces in the last year. That's without mentioning his defensive discipline and intensity in terms of winning the ball in midfield. Additionally, Forest's attacking midfielder is capable of playing multiple midfield roles, which helps the side diversify their approach from one game to the next. Gibbs-White's understanding of space is one of his key assets, which is visible in settled possession phases and on the transition. In this example, away at Fulham in February, Gibbs-White is trying to offer Murillo a passing option between the lines… … but when he realises that the passing lane is blocked… … he moves in the other direction as soon as Sasa Lukic adjusts his position to defend Danilo. This allows Murillo to find Gibbs-White between the lines… … and the latter combines with Danilo before finding Chris Wood's run behind the defence. Forest's centre-forward then finishes the move, with his shot deflecting into the bottom corner. In another example, from the 1-0 victory against Tottenham in December, Forest win the ball in midfield and Gibbs-White immediately checks over his left shoulder to see where the space is. He adjusts his position to offer a passing option before carrying the ball forward and assisting the winner. The midfielder's talent in terms of knowing which space to attack is complemented by his off-ball movement. Here, in a game against Manchester City, Gibbs-White drops in the right half-space to offer a passing option between the lines… … which forces Bernardo Silva to leave Brennan Johnson and defend the ball. Gibbs-White then plays the ball to the current Spurs winger… … and attacks the space as Johnson dribbles past City's left centre-back, Aymeric Laporte. Gibbs-White's off-ball movement puts Rodri in a one-versus-two situation, and the attacking midfielder smartly holds his run to stay onside, before Johnson finds him… … and he plays the ball across goal for Wood to score the equaliser. These types of underlapping runs are a vital part of Gibbs-White's off-ball movement, as illustrated below in his SkillCorner profile, which looks at his off-ball run-types per 30 minutes in possession, compared with midfielders across Europe's top seven leagues. Gibbs-White is constantly eager to offer himself as a progressive passing option (Ahead of the ball, 93 out of 99) or a runner in behind the defence (80 out of 99). On top of that, he regularly pushes into the penalty area to be in a position to attack the cross (Cross receiver, 88 out of 99). On the ball, Gibbs-White's strongest skills are his vision, passing range, and his ability to play perfectly weighted passes or crosses, whether that's from a rest position or on the run. Since 2022-23, he has registered the fifth-most assists in the Premier League (26), tied with Bruno Fernandes and only behind Ollie Watkins (27), Bukayo Saka (30), Kevin De Bruyne (33), and Mohamed Salah (40). Advertisement Gibbs-White is adept at progressing the play through switches to the wide areas or by finding runners into the penalty box, as illustrated by the graphic below. Last season, 19 per cent of Gibbs-White's completed passes were progressive, which was the 13th-highest rate in the Premier League among central and attacking midfielders who played at least 900 minutes. The midfielder's passing is enhanced by his ability to play the ball from different angles and trickery to create the angles in the first place, as seen below from Forest's 3-1 victory against Fulham in April 2024. In another example, away to Aston Villa last season, Gibbs-White initially doesn't play the return pass to Neco Williams, which Tyrone Mings can easily defend. He receives the ball on the back foot and dribbles inside, which forces Mings to change his body orientation, making it physically harder for the centre-back to defend Gibbs-White's pass to Williams. All of the above factors in Gibbs-White's ability to break lines with his passing, despite Forest having the third-lowest possession in the 2024-25 Premier League season. The England midfielder's skill set would translate well to a more dominant approach, especially his ability to break down medium and deep blocks with incisive through balls. This is crucial in case Forest decide to evolve their game or opponents surrender possession to defend differently. On the defensive side of things, Gibbs-White understands the requirements of the different roles behind the striker and even central midfield, as he showed in Forest's 1-0 victory against Manchester City in March. In that match, Gibbs-White started as a central midfielder in Forest's 4-4-2 defensive shape… … and regularly dropped to mark Phil Foden as Nico Dominguez moved up to press Josko Gvardiol. The logic behind that approach was to neutralise Gvardiol's attacking threat while preventing Foden from operating between the lines and in the space between Forest's right-back and centre-backs. Additionally, it allowed Ola Aina, Nikola Milenkovic and Murillo to focus on marking Jeremy Doku and Erling Haaland without worrying about leaving their positions and creating a gap in Forest's defence. Gibbs-White's profile has plenty to offer regardless of a team's style because he has the skill set to play in a transitional attack that is looking to hit opponents on the counter, or a ball-dominant one that wants to force the opposition deeper before breaking them down — it is why he would have been a superb addition for Spurs or any other side. Advertisement The attacking midfielder is the beating heart of Nuno Espirito Santo's team and losing him after Antony Elanga's move to Newcastle United would have been a major blow as Forest return to Europe for the first time in 30 years. In a summer when wealthier Premier League teams are harvesting talent from up and down the table, keeping Gibbs-White is Forest's most important transfer activity by far.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Liverpool believe they've got a forward even BETTER than Rodrygo
Luis Diaz is off to Bayern Munich. A deal worth a reported €75m has been agreed between Liverpool and the German record champions. After three years - and several major honours including the Premier League - the 28-year-old is off to the Bundesliga. His loss has brought up the question of who - if anyone - could be brought to the club to replace him. LFC Kits Shop Now LFC Signed Merch Shop Now LFC x Titleist Shop Now Diaz scored 13 times in the Premier League last season - pushing Cody Gakpo all the way for his starting spot. A cash boost of €75m could come in very handy for Richard Hughes if he is plotting a successor to Diaz but right now the focus appears to be on Alexander Isak. It's no secret that Liverpool recruiters admire Rodrygo Goes of Real Madrid while Anthony Gordon at Newcastle has also been looked over closely. Will Liverpool replace Diaz? Nonetheless, with Gakpo on board - as well as Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike and available - Liverpool's needs at left wing are NOT as profound as you might think. And the strong contingent vying for a spot on the left side of Liverpool's attack is perhaps ONE reason why it's now being reported that the club are prepared to move on from Rodrygo. AS is reporting that Tottenham are the new frontrunners for the Brazil international - whose future at Real Madrid looks uncertain. Liverpool interest in Rodrygo is cooling 'Liverpool is cooling off, Arsenal is freezing, and Bayern Munich doesn't have him as a Plan A,' the report reads. 'In this scenario... Tottenham has burst in.' Under contract until 2028, Real Madrid value Rodrygo at around €90m to €100m although the report adds that Spurs hope to talk that price down. The wages will be another factor - with Rodrygo reported to be earning around €400k per week once basic and bonuses are factored in. © IMAGO - Rio Ngumoha Liverpool Hughes would prefer to develop Ngumoha Maybe Richard Hughes has had a look at his current options and decided simply that Rodrygo is not worth the money right now. And who might blame him? Gakpo is at the peak of his powers - scoring 18 goals and adding seven assists in all competitions last season. Wirtz, meanwhile, is an attacking midfielder who could nonetheless be named from the left if Dominik Szoboszlai retains his position at No10. Ekitike is viewed by Liverpool as a multifaceted attacker who can play left wing as well as up top. And who would stand in Ngumoha's way at this stage of his development? Liverpool need to give the 16-year-old all the senior minutes they can right now as he looks like a generational prospect. Madrid will have to settle for a bid from Tottenham as right now unless something changes the Reds will be happy to go into the season with their current options at left wing.
