In our latest daily update talk cock sessions, we look at the latest club news for Alexander Isak, Everton FC, Mikel Arteta, Oscar Gloukh, and Jadon Sancho, gossip, and highlights that have football fans from over the world buzzing with excitement.
Barcelona want to sign striker Alexander Isak from Newcastle
Barcelona are keen on signing striker Alexander Isak from Newcastle United, as a replacement for 35-year-old Robert Lewandowski.
Xavi is a big fan of the forward and he has been targeted as the club look to bolster their forward options.
They are also planning their long-term future with Robert Lewandowski now 35 years of age.
Signing Isak will be no easy task with the striker having signed for a club-record £63m last summer.
He has scored 12 goals in 31 matches but has had to compete with Callum Wilson for the starting role up front.
Isak’s contract runs up until 2028 and it is unlikely that Barcelona will make any serious move until the summer.
There are problems with Everton’s proposed takeover by 777 Partners
Everton’s proposed £500 million takeover by 777 Partners is coming under some severe scrutiny.
Everton’s takeover by 777 Partners could come under threat after an investigation was launched following concerns raised about the firm’s investment in British basketball.
The same day a deal was announced for 777 to purchase Farhad Moshiri’s 94.1 per cent stake in Everton, the British Basketball Federation began a review connected with the American firm’s co-ownership of the British Basketball League.
The probe relates to late payments made by 777 to the BBL this year that left the latter in danger of failing to pay its bills and triggered a complaint by seven of the league’s 10 clubs to the BBF.
The outcome of the review could have major implications for the Everton takeover, which is subject to the prospective buyers passing the Premier League’s owners’ and directors’ test.
A word from the government on the proposed takeover of Everton by a Florida-based investor with a multi-club system across multiple continents, an opaque funding source and a chequered history? asks the paper.
It is, so they seem to be saying – and with no doubt some relief – a matter for the Premier League.
However, soon such thorny questions will be a matter for the government’s independent regulator to decide. Whether an entity such as 777 Partners is a suitable owner for a historic British club like Everton is the kind of monumental decision that a regulator would face at some point.
One suspects that Josh Wander, a co-founder at 777 Partners, would not have got as far as agreeing terms with current owner Farhad Moshiri had he not been confident he would pass the Premier League’s owners and directors’ test.
He pleaded no contest to charges of cocaine trafficking in 2003, when he was a student, although that may not even make it onto the first page of the list of concerns about Everton’s putative new owners.
Mikel Arteta passionately defended his idea to switch goalkeepers after handing David Raya his debut
Arteta was keen to normalise the idea of not having an established no. 1 goalkeeper, even changing them during the match.
The Arsenal boss expanded on his idea about not being afraid to change his goalkeepers should the need arise.
Arteta: “It’s like this,” he said. “I’m a young manager. I’ve been in this job three and a half years and I have few regrets with what I’ve done.”
“One of them was that on two occasions, I felt after 60 minutes and 85 minutes, in two games, in this period, to change the ‘keeper in that moment. But I didn’t do it. I didn’t dare to do it.”
“But I’m able to take a winger, or a striker off, or put a central defender on to drop to a back-five and hold that result. We drew those games and I was so unhappy.”
“Someone is going to do it, and maybe it will be *gasps*. That’s strange. Why? Why not? We have all the qualities in another goalkeeper to do something when something is happening and you want to change momentum. Do it.”
Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool are all keen on RB Salzburg forward Oscar Gloukh
Three top Premier League sides are keen on RB Salzburg teenager Oscar Gloukh.
The 19-year-old has impressed for the Austrian side since moving from Maccabi Tel Aviv for £6 million in January.
Gloukh scored eight times and provided 10 assists in 40 appearances last season, and has added a further three goal contributions for Salzburg this time around.
The Premier League trio had scouts watching Gloukh during the international break and are monitoring him ahead of a potential move.
Barcelona are the latest team to be linked with a swoop for Manchester United winger Jadon Sancho
Barcelona are weighing up a shock loan move for Manchester United cast-off Jadon Sancho in the January transfer window.
Sancho took to social media to refute boss Erik ten Hag’s claim he was left out of the squad for United’s 3-1 defeat at Arsenal because of poor training performances. Sancho was banished from first-team training by Ten Hag and was dropped for United’s game against Brighton on Saturday.
Sancho’s spell at Old Trafford has been underwhelming since completing his move from Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2021.
He had emerged as one of the stars in the Bundesliga but has failed to replicate that form at United.
They struggled to register loan signings Joao Cancelo and Joao Felix late in the summer transfer window, with further outgoings required before any new players arrive.
It would appear fanciful that they could fund Sancho’s wages this season without at least one major departure.
