Right, that’s me done for the day. Gregg Bakowski will steer you through from here. Have a great weekend, and enjoy whatever it is you can get to watch. Bye.
Southampton’s manager, Ralph Hasenhüttl, is hopeful of completing a deal for the Brest midfielder Ibrahima Diallo before the transfer deadline. Diallo, 21, is reported to have agreed a four-year contract, said to be worth £12m.
“First we must wait until everything is finished. I have seen so many things in this transfer window when finally the deal didn’t happen,” said Hasenhüttl. “Let us wait until he is here and then we can speak about how important it is. We know we have to bring players in, we lost a few players, we have to do something and hopefully this deal will happen.”
Squad sheets and match previews are beginning to come in:
Roy Hodgson has aired some thoughts on transfer window staple Wilfried Zaha, making it clear that he wants the Crystal Palace attacker’s suitors to back off:
“Well I have been told and I think Wilf has had it made clear to him that we are not interested in late bids,” he sniffed. “If it was going to happen, it would need to happen in a time frame which would give us a chance to see what we would want to do with the money. So close to the end of the transfer window, I would certainly hope it will not happen now and I want to continue working with him.”
Frank Lampard speaks, on the question of ‘advice’ from his old mentor José Mourinho
“I don’t think any remarks made on the touchline during the game can be called advice. They can probably be wrapped up as advice after a game when you manage to get back in the game and win on penalties so I don’t think that is the case. I would always be happy to not just take advice from fellow managers but everything around me whether it be my players, staff, people I respect, listen to in football outside football, in life. I think that’s what moulds you as a manager so I don’t think the Jose incident was ever advice. It wasn’t that.”
The screamingly obvious fact that Fulham need to strengthen has not passed by Scott Parker, who is confident of making defensive reinforcements by Monday. “I would like to think with the centre-backs that by Monday we will have some additions in the building to help us and help the squad,” the manager said. “That is what you need when you take the step up from the Championship to the Premier League, you need to evolve and add that quality as well. We are all aware that come Monday hopefully there are some players here.”
One new recruit, Ademola Lookman, who joined on loan from RB Leipzig earlier this week, could start against Wolves on Sunday.
Jürgen Klopp’s been speaking about the Bramall Lane-bound Rhian Brewster:
“He couldn’t make it here so far but he has made big steps in his development. Rhian was really seriously injured and first we had to make sure he was ready again for all the demands of professional football and he is, 100%.
He played a really good half-season at Swansea, he was really impressive, he came (back) here and scored for us in pre-season and you could see he made big steps. If Rhian would be now 25, 26 I would say ‘OK, you can stay and work for your chance and then don’t say I didn’t say you couldn’t stay’.
“But it is a different situation when you are younger, [it is important] a player like Rhian in this position up front makes now the next steps and uses the time he lost during the serious injury – so it is possible a move to another club would make sense.”
Meanwhile Liverpool are preparing to welcome back Jordan Henderson, who has been missing with a knee injury since coming off at half-time at Chelsea two weeks ago. He probably won’t be ready to face Aston Villa on Sunday though before he joins up with the England squad.
More Sancho-move-dampening developments
Michael Zorc [Borussia Dortmund sport director] on Jadon Sancho deal: “Of course we communicated with Manchester United in the past. But everything there is to tell on this matter from our end has already been said. And that won’t change over the next three days”.
And staying on pandemic-related football news:
West Ham manager David Moyes has yet to return to work following his positive coronavirus test and looks likely to be absent at Leicester on Sunday.
The 57-year-old’s 10-day self-isolation period came to an end on Thursday after he and two players tested positive prior to the Carabao Cup match against Hull last week.
But his return has been put on hold with assistant manager Alan Irvine, who has been in charge for the last three matches, set to be on touchline duty again at the King Power Stadium.
Irvine said: “He’s OK. I spoke to him this morning but he’s not been in as we hoped he might have been.
“He’s feeling OK but at the moment we are just following all the guidelines and protocols. He’s in contact with the medical people at the club, obviously, and the Premier League.
“It’s been deemed that it is not right for him to come in just yet so we’ll take it day by day.
“Clearly this is an illness that affects people very severely. It is a very serious thing, I don’t think anybody quite knows what the full effects are and I don’t think it is consistent - it is different from one person to another.
“So it is vitally important that we are safe and follow the protocols that are in place. We need to think about the safety of everybody else at the football club.
“At this moment I would think that it is more likely he won’t be on the touchline at Leicester but that can change during the course of the day today and then tomorrow, so we will carry on the way that we have been trying to work in his absence.
“He may not be here in person but he continues to be involved in what we do and is making the final decisions with everything we are doing. That will continue whether he is on the touchline or not.”
Issa Diop and Josh Cullen, who also tested positive, are back at the club’s Rush Green training ground.
In the least surprising news of the day, tonight’s game between Kilmarnock and Motherwell has been postponed. Killie’s entire squad was instructed to self-isolate after six positive Covid-19 tests so it was impossible for them to put a team out.
Jamie Jackson has run the rule over Manchester City’s shiny new £64.3m centre-back Rúben Dias so you don’t have to …
There are questions regarding his pace and ability to succeed at the elite level where City aim to dominate. The 6ft 2in Dias is not slow but nor is he considered fleet-footed. And there is a school of thought that he was not the most prized defensive talent to emerge recently from Benfica’s academy. Francisco Ferro is nominated by some for that status but Dias’s team-first, die-for-the-cause ethos made him the go-to at the club for Rui Vitória, then Vitória’s successors as head coach, Bruno Lage, Nélson Veríssimo and Jorge Jesus.
Read the full profile here:
And a bit of Palace news from PA Media:
While Palace are not expected to be busy in the transfer window during the final few days, free agent Nathaniel Clyne could return to Selhurst Park.
The defender has trained with the Eagles since last month and with young full-back Nathan Ferguson still out with a knee injury, there is a space for him to become part of the group.
“We believe and hope he is getting back to his best,” Hodgson said of Clyne, who started his career at Palace. “In the coming days we will reassess because it is a position where we are not covered at the moment because the young lad we brought in to play in that position is still struggling with a knee injury.
“There is an opportunity I think for someone like Nathaniel to come into the club if that is what everyone at the club wants and thinks is the right thing to do. Certainly I have been impressed.”
Everton may have strengthened impressively in the past couple of months, but they have some injury problems brewing. Jonjoe Kenny has been ruled out for a month with Allan sidelined until after the international break.
Midfielder Andre Gomes will also miss Saturday’s visit of Brighton with a minor issue, as will striker Moise Kean who is ill. Everton are already without Mason Holgate, Jarrad Branthwaite and midfielder Jean-Philippe Gbamin, though the prognosis on Richarlison is more hopeful, who also came off in the Carabao Cup win over West Ham with an ankle injury.
And a view from the other dugout …
As you might expect Pep Guardiola has been glowing about Marcelo Bielsa, ahead of Manchester City’s Saturday trip to Leeds United. “He is probably the person I admire the most in world football – as a manager and as a person.”I think he is the most authentic [original] manager all the time, in terms of how he conducts his teams, like he is unique. Nobody can imitate him, it’s impossible, especially his behaviour as a person off the pitch and related to the media.
“I don’t see him quite as much – now, when I have the pleasure to spend time with him, it’s always inspirational for me. My teams won more titles than him, but in terms of knowledge of the game, I am still away from him.”
He also weighed in on the current handball farrago. “Football is an unpredictable game. The hand from Eric Dier, the one from Brighton against United, West Ham against Arsenal: everyone knows if there is an intentional hand or when it is absolutely unintentional – when one guy is jumping in the box and after the deflection it hits the hand and you get a penalty: that, honestly, is quite ridiculous. But hopefully the referees and managers can decide the best for the game, to be most fair.”
There’s no escaping the essential appeal of the meeting between Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City at Elland Road tomorrow evening, and the Leeds manager’s been speaking about it, maintaining he was never Guardiola’s mentor and adamant that the Catalan has always been his own man.
“I do not feel like a mentor to Guardiola. It’s not just how I feel, it has been evidenced to not being the case,” Bielsa said. “If there’s a manager who is independent in his own ideas, that is Guardiola. It’s not just because I say it is, it’s because his teams play like no other team.
“The memories I have [of Guardiola’s Barcelona when Bielsa was at Athletic Bilbao] are they managed to neutralise our attempt to impose ourselves. Anyone who faced Barcelona in those four years will give you the same answer. Many believe that is the best club team ever created.
“I never find it comfortable to talk about an opponent’s weaknesses,” Bielsa said of Saturday’s opponents. “The season is very short and it’s hard to make conclusions as to whether they are weaker than before. To talk about an opponent’s weakness in public is never a comfortable thing.”
Leeds have refused to comment on reports since Bielsa’s press conference that their bid to sign the midfielder Michael Cuisance from Bayern Munich had fallen through.
When asked about the France Under-20 international, who had been expected to complete a move this week, Bielsa said: “I would prefer to talk about him when he is officially our player.”
David Hytner flags up a couple of nuggets from José Mourinho’s press conference. First, a barb about the handball rule and who it might benefit: “I don’t like subjectivity in football because subjectivity normally goes to a certain side. I don’t like subjectivity. To be honest, the mails sent making comments about the previous penalties and about the subjectivity coming, I didn’t read them. I’m not interested in reading them. I prefer not to.”
And on his return to Old Trafford with Spurs this weekend to face his former club Manchester United: “What’s that? Revenge? I won so many times at Old Trafford as Man United coach and as an opponent coach. Revenge for what? Nobody treated me badly there, everyone was so nice to me, I don’t have enemies there, I don’t have bad feelings. Revenge for what? It’s just a football match I want to win.”
Thanks Gregg, Tom here returning to duty, and with a full story on that Europa League draw:
It sounds very much like David Moyes, who tested positive for Covid-19 last week, will not be on the touchline for the lunchtime kick-off against Leicester on Sunday. Mind you, they beat Wolves 4-0 without him last time out so another performance with Moyes managing remotely is perhaps no bad thing. Here’s what assistant manager Alan Irvine had to say at the pre-match press conference:
At this moment I would think it is more likely that he won’t be on the touchline at Leicester. That is something that can change in the course of today or tomorrow
Jürgen Klopp has been speaking before Liverpool’s Sunday evening match with Aston Villa. He says Jordan Henderson is back in part-training after suffering a knee injury against Chelsea and his England call-up for games against Wales, Belgium and Denmark is a “win-win” situation:
He has absolutely no muscle issues, he’s not injured any more. Now we have to make sure he can make the next step. What that means for the weekend, I don’t know. I was in close contact with Gareth Southgate and it is clear that he will use the time with national team for getting match fit. Hendo had four or five days normal pre-season before he played his first game for us because of the situation we were in. He played against Chelsea and got this little injury, which was not serious, but he has been working on his physical things already for a few days but now [it will be] more football specific with us and then the national team. He will have minutes for England, which is then a proper win-win situation which I’m really happy about.
Kilmarnock were supposed to be playing Falkirk in the Scottish Premiership at 7.45pm tonight but their entire playing squad have been instructed to self-isolate for 14 days following six positive Covid-19 cases. A statement from Scottish football’s Joint Response Group read:
NHS Ayrshire & Arran Test and Protect Team carried out Covid-19 contact tracing following the six confirmed positive tests at the club. As a result, the club has been advised by the local Problem Assessment Group that the whole playing squad should self-isolate for a 14-day period. This is in order to minimise the risk of further cases in the staff group and wider local community and to support Test and Protect. The SPFL board are meeting this afternoon to discuss the implications for Kilmarnock’s fixtures within that period and will issue a statement thereafter.
Killie are due to kick off their Betfred Cup campaign at Falkirk on Tuesday before hosting Dunfermline on 13 October 13. Their subsequent league game is a trip to Livingston on 17 October.
This has “lunchtime read” written all over it. Tim Parks wrote his cult classic about Hellas Verona two decades ago. Where are the characters in the book now?
Thanks Tom. Arsenal may have to do without William Saliba in their Europa League squad when they do begin their European campaign. It’s looking increasingly likely he could leave Arsenal on loan before Monday’s international transfer deadline, with Mikel Arteta admitting the next few days are a “crucial moment” in shaping his squad for the rest of this season. Here’s the latest from Nick Ames and Jacob Steinberg:
Right, and after all that draw-crunching, I’m off for some lunch and Gregg Bakowski will take the helm for a bit. See you later.
And that’s it. Some of the spice has been removed from all this, with the absence of - or limits to - crowds. Dundalk’s fans would have been making plans for Arsenal away already, and Leicester’s working out how to get to Luhansk, but there’s a few tasty ties in among that lot. More reaction to come.
Group L: Gent, Crvena Zvevda, Hoffenheim, Liberec
Group K: CSKA Moscow, Dinamo Zagreb, Feyenoord, Wolfsberger
Group J: Tottenham,Ludogorets, Lask, Antwerp
Group I: Villarreal, Qarabag, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Sivasspor
Group H: Celtic, Sparta Prague, Milan, Lille
Group G: Braga, Leicester, AEK, Zoryha Luhansk
Group F: Napoli, Real Sociedad, AZ Alkmaar, Rijeka
Group E: PSV, PAOK, Granada, Omonioa
Group D: Benfica, Standard Liege, Rangers, Lech
Group C: Leverkusen, Slavia, Hapoel Beer Sheva, Nice
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