Amid rumours that they’ve already had to reject a bid worth £45m to sell Anthony Elanga, Nottingham Forest have now reportedly opened talks to sign a possible replacement.

Nottingham Forest reject Newcastle's Elanga bid

After securing a shock place in the Europa Conference League in an excellent season last time out, Nottingham Forest are in no position to sell key players. But that hasn’t stopped certain clubs from testing the waters. Among them, Newcastle United reportedly formalised their interest in Elanga with an offer worth £45m earlier this week, only to see that bid rejected by those at the City Ground.

There’s still plenty of time remaining in the summer transfer window, however, and Forest will be well aware that Newcastle could yet come calling a second time.

If that does happen, then preparing for Elanga’s exit in a worst-case scenario would not be a bad idea for all involved at the City Ground. Already, on that front, Forest have attempted and failed to sign Timothy Weah from Juventus and have also been linked with versatile AC Milan midfielder Yunus Musah.

Whether either of those options possess the quality to replace Elanga is the big question. One man who is unlikely to face problems in that regard is Igor Jesus. The Botafogo forward is reportedly on his way to the Midlands alongside teammate Jair Cunha following their Club World Cup campaign.

The former has already stolen plenty of headlines with his winning goal against Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain and is seemingly about to take the Premier League by storm.

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Jesus and Cuiabano may not be the only Club World Cup stars to arrive, either, amid reports that Forest have opened talks to sign another attacking target.

Nottingham Forest open talks to sign Pepe

According to ESPN Brazil, Nottingham Forest have now opened talks to sign Pepe from FC Porto, who are demanding over €15m (£12m) to sell their 28-year-old winger this summer.

An experienced winger who scored at the Club World Cup for Porto in a 4-4 draw against Al-Ahly this summer, Pepe would offer Forest instant depth and may even be asked to replace Elanga if the Swede joins Newcastle.

League stats 24/25 (via FBref)

Pepe

Elanga

Minutes

1,991

2,501

Goals

3

6

Assists

2

11

Key Passes

31

50

The pressure would instantly be on Pepe if he did step in for Elanga and although his experience could prove to be invaluable, questions will be asked about his ability to match the 22-year-old’s output.

As a versatile backup who can play all across the frontline, however, the Porto man represents an ideal choice as Forest step into European football. At just over £12m too, it’s not a deal that Evangelos Marinakis will need to splash out on for Nuno Espirito Santo in the coming months.

The countdown to the start of Celtic’s season is on with Brendan Rodgers having now learned the fate of his Bhoys in green and white.

It was confirmed on Friday morning, during the SPFL’s fixture launch, that the Hoops will begin their Premiership title defence at home to St Mirren on Sunday 3 August, before traveling to Pittodrie to face Aberdeen a week later.

Also, with a season-defining Champions League play-off to come at the end of August, Rodgers is eager for the club to act swiftly in the transfer market, so are they about to add defensive reinforcements?

Celtic targeting a new defender

According to a report by Sky Sports News, Celtic are ‘in talks’ with J League club Albirex Niigata, as they aim to sign Hayato Inamura, adding that the 23-year-old is ‘keen’ on a move to Parkhead.

Inamura has made just 34 professional appearances, with his team currently in the J League relegation zone, scoring his first-ever senior goal during a 3-2 defeat at Avispa Fukuoka on Saturday.

Before joining Albirex Niigata, he had come through Japan’s college system, representing Maebashi Ikuei High School and then Toyo University, but could he now be on his way to Glasgow?

The latest on Maik Nawrocki's Celtic future

As noted by Mark Walker of the National, Maik Nawrocki could leave Celtic this summer, with Tan Kesler, who is the sporting director at Pogoń Szczecin, confirming they have “talked” about the possibility of bringing him back to Poland.

However, having finished fourth in last season’s Ekstraklasa, thereby failing to qualify for Europe, the Dockers are unlikely to be able to match the £4m Celtic paid to sign Nawrocki from Legia Warszawa in the first place two years ago.

Fair to say, the centre-back has not made much of an impact since arriving in Glasgow, making just 18 appearances, scoring his first goal for the club against Aberdeen last mont

Appearances

18

Starts

12

Minutes

1,081

An unused substitute

30

% of total minutes played

11%

Thus, having started just 12 of Celtic’s 107 matches across the last two seasons, it should not come as much of a surprise that he is angling for a move this summer.

So, would Inamura be an upgrade?

Well, Anthony Joseph of Sky Sports describes him as a “left-footed centre-back” who is also capable of filling-in at left-back, which could be useful versatility.

Should he arrive, he would become Celtic’s ninth Japanese player, as the table below outlines.

Kyōgo Furuhashi

2021-2025

165

Shunsuke Nakamura

2005-09

159

Daizen Maeda

2022-present

158

Reo Hatate

2022-present

142

Tomoki Iwata

2022-24

42

Kōki Mizuno

2008-09

12

Yūki Kobayashi

2023

7

Yosuke Ideguchi

2022

6

Fair to say, there are some bona fide successes on that list, including last season’s top scorer Daizen Maeda, as well as key midfielder Reo Hatate, who would surely help Inamura acclimatise to life in Glasgow.

Analyst and scout Will Glavin describes Inamura as “tactically intelligent” as well as “comfortable building from the back”, adding that he would add “technical quality” to Rodgers’ team, concluding that this is a “low-risk investment”.

Meantime, Stephen McGowan of the Herald forecast that he will be able to compete with Auston Trusty and Liam Scales for the starting left-centre-back spot, with the place as Cameron Carter-Vickers’ partner very much still up for grabs.

So, this appears to be a sensible addition from Celtic, but one that could spell the end for often-forgotten man Nawrocki, who would find his game time even more limited, forcing him to look elsewhere for game time.

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Chelsea have already made a couple of signings during the 2025 summer transfer window, and have confirmed the addition of midfielder Dario Essugo from Sporting CP. The most recent of those signings was Mamadou Sarr, the young French centre-back who joined from sister club Strasbourg of Ligue 1.

The other addition was Liam Delap, who made the move to Stamford Bridge from now relegated Ipswich Town. He cost the Blues £30m, the price of his relegation release clause at Portman Road, although BBC Sport say he will cost Chelsea £20m up front.

Delap, a European champion with England under-21 back in 2023, might not be the only player from that successful side to join the Blues this summer.

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Delap joins his fellow under-21 European Championship winner, Cole Palmer, in the Chelsea squad. It certainly fits the transfer policy we have seen from the Blues under Todd Boehly, to sign young talents who will have an impact now and in the future.

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The man who could join his former England teammates at Stamford Bridge is James Trafford. According to a report from The Telegraph, Chelsea could ‘enter the race’ for the Burnley goalkeeper, having kept a close eye on him ‘for more than a year’.

Indeed, the West London club do not go into the race for Trafford as favourites. Rather, they could end up hijacking the move, with fears at Newcastle United, who are ‘negotiating over the asking price’ with Clarets, that Chelsea could poach the goalkeeper.

Burnley have asked for £30m or more for the goalkeeper, a fee Chelsea would need to match to pull off the hijack.

Why Trafford would be a good signing

If Chelsea were to sign Trafford this summer, and poach him right from underneath Newcastle’s nose, he would join the club with a great reputation. It was a sensational 2024/25 campaign for the Burnley shotstopper, with football scout Antonio Mango calling him the “future England No1” based on those efforts.

Indeed, it was a magical season for Trafford, helping his Burnley side to promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking. In 45 Championship games, he conceded just 16 goals and kept 29 clean sheets.

Those numbers are ridiculous. It was a team effort, of course, with a strong defence in front of him, but certainly a large part of the defensive success was down to Trafford between the posts. He conceded an average of 0.36 goals per game across the season, as per FBref.

That is one of the many metrics in which Trafford ranked first amongst Championship goalkeepers last season. Another impressive stat is his save percentage, which was 84.5% last season.

FBref stats show that he stacks up well against Premier League goalkeepers, too. In 2024/25, Trafford conceded the least number of goals compared to top-flight shot stoppers who played at least 50% of games, kept double the amount of clean sheets and had the highest save percentage.

Trafford key stats & rank vs. PL/Championship goalkeepers
Stat	Trafford number	PL rank	Championship rank
Goals conceded	16	1st	1st
Goals conceded per game	0.36	1st	1st
Saves	85	14th	=13th
Save percentage	84.5%	1st	1st
Clean sheets	29	1st	1st
Stats from FBref

Equally too, there are a number of similarities between Trafford and Chelsea’s new number nine, Delap. Not only have they played alongside each other for England under-21s, but the pair also represented Manchester City’s academy alongside each other.

In all, they have played 21 games together, and it is certainly interesting that the pair have had such a similar career. After plenty of loans across the EFL, they each left City – joining Burnley and Ipswich for £19m and £20m, respectively – forged their own paths and made a real name for themselves, before potentially reconvening at Chelsea. It is quite the story.

On top of that, the Blues also pipped Newcastle to the signing of Delap. Back in May, it was reported by TEAMTalk that they had ‘showdown talks’ with the striker. However, Chelsea won the race to sign him, and they could well be set to repeat the feat with Trafford.

Paying £30m for a goalkeeper with the quality of Trafford seems like an easy decision for the West Londoners to make. This could be one of the sagas of the window, and one Chelsea will be hoping they can win.

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Niall O’Brien: Ireland should have restricted Canada to 115-120

A week ago, Canada fast bowler Jeremy Gordon was thrown the ball to rein in a surging USA side. The previous over had leaked 20, but Gordon had bowled a tight couple of overs, and with USA still needing just under ten an over, Canada entrusted him to tighten the screws.Instead, in a nightmarish sequence of events, Gordon sent down an 11-ball over that saw 33 plundered off it – the second-most expensive over in T20I history. The US target was down to a run-a-ball, and they cruised to victory.Little wonder, then, that Gordon felt he had amends to make against Ireland. “I personally felt my over is what gave away the last game,” he said. “To make a comeback and help the team get over the line makes me feel I’ve done a good job and makes me quite happy. It’s very emotional.”Related

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Gordon has reason to be proud. Opening the bowling in defence of 137, he homed in on the back-of-a-length area. The New York strip came in for heavy criticism following India’s match against Ireland, including from the ICC itself. While the wicket was much truer on this occasion, Gordon still understood how to exploit the conditions.”I realised when Ireland bowled first that when they hit the back of a length, it was sometimes over the batter’s shoulder and sometimes kept a bit low. So I thought ‘why should I change that?'”I was overthinking in the first game. Here, I realised the pitch was in my favour because of the variable bounce. So if I hit that 7-8m length and target a line on the body or just towards the off stump I figured I’d give myself a good chance to defend the total.”It was precisely how Ireland’s first wicket fell. Canada were keeping things tight, and Gordon banged another one in back of a length. Paul Stirling, Ireland’s captain, had scored just 9 off 16, and the pressure told as he attempted a swipe across the line that was never truly on. The ball reared up and drew the top edge.Jeremy Gordon picked up impressive figures of 2 for 16•Getty Images

But having seen the game slip away at the death against USA, it was more satisfying for Gordon to return and finish Ireland off in the final over. Ireland needed 17 to win, and he followed up the trademark short-of-a-length ball with another. Mark Adair, Ireland’s last remaining hope of victory, tried to slap it towards midwicket but only ballooned it back up to Gordon, who took a straightforward catch. He would concede just four, and finish with figures of 4-0-16-2.”There’s definitely a lot of confidence now,” he said. “For us it’s about doing the basics right and to be disciplined. It’s about not getting ahead of ourselves. We’ll appreciate the win and then go back to the drawing board. It’s going to be Pakistan and India next, two of the better teams in the world currently. If we’re disciplined in all three areas, we might give a good account for ourselves on the day and then who knows what could happen.”Part of the intrigue of the game, though, concerned the pitch and ground conditions, particularly as the stadium gears up for it’s biggest clash on Sunday. India will take on Pakistan, so it wasn’t just the Canadians and the Irish interested to see how the surface held up after the tournament organisers were left scrambling to ensure their biggest game would not be played in subpar conditions.Though the improvement from the Ireland-India game was noticeable, Player of the Match, Nicholas Kirton, who scored 49 off 35 for Canada, felt it was far from ideal.”It wasn’t that easy to bat on this wicket, trust me,” he said at the post-match presentations. “I just tried to get in and get to grips with the pace of the wicket. There was an area in the middle of the wicket that played a bit up and down. I tried to stay as still as possible and get a good base. The outfield is a bit slow and I focused on running hard, but other than that it was a pretty good wicket to bat on.”

Leeds United made their second signing of the summer transfer window on Monday evening when they officially confirmed the arrival of Jaka Bijol from Serie A side Udinese.

The central defender is now set to compete with the likes of Ethan Ampadu, Pascal Struijk, and Joe Rodon for a place in the starting XI in the Premier League next season.

Daniel Farke is also in the market to add another number nine to his squad, having already brought in Lukas Nmecha on a free transfer from Wolfsburg.

Football Insider claims that Leeds are interested in a deal to sign Fulham centre-forward Rodrigo Muniz, but the Cottagers are confident of keeping hold of the Brazilian frontman.

The report adds that the Whites have already had an offer of £32m rejected by the fellow Premier League team, and that the London-based side are prepared to price the Championship champions out of a move for the striker.

This latest update suggests that the Fulham marksman will not be making his way to Elland Road this summer, but what could he have brought to the team?

What Rodrigo Muniz could bring to Leeds

If Leeds can turn it around to sign him, the 24-year-old attacker would join the Whites to provide Farke with a Premier League-proven number nine who has shown that he can score goals at that level.

In the last two seasons, Muniz has racked up 17 top-flight goals for the Cottagers, which shows that he knows how to find the back of the net in the top division in England.

Appearances

26

31

xG

8.72

5.81

Goals

9

8

Big chances created

2

1

Key passes per game

0.7

0.2

Assists

1

1

As you can see in the table above, the Brazilian forward also outperformed his xG in both of those seasons, showing that he is also a reliable and clinical finisher.

However, creativity is not his strong suit. A return of two assists in two seasons, and a peak of 0.7 key passes per game, does not suggest that he would create many high-quality opportunities for his teammates.

Muniz would, though, offer physicality in the number nine position. He won 52% of his duels and won 2.2 aerial battles per game in the Premier League this season, which shows that he can hold his own against top-flight defenders.

Whilst there are clearly a lot of strong qualities that the Fulham star could bring to West Yorkshire, Leeds are now reportedly pursuing a striker who could be an even better signing.

Leeds pursuing deal for Serie A star

According to Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, as relayed by Sport Witness, Leeds United are expected to make another bid to sign Nikola Krstovic from Lecce in the summer transfer window.

The report claims that the Championship champions have already had an offer of £19.7m rejected by the Italian side for the Montenegrin centre-forward, but they are now plotting another attempt to snap him up.

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Mega money deals, controversial moves and big-name flops. This is the home of transfer news and opinion across Football FanCast.

It also reveals that AS Roma are interested in signing the 25-year-old marksman, and that they would be prepared to offer a player in exchange for him, although they have yet to make an official bid.

Meanwhile, the print edition of Corriere dello Sport, via MOTLeedsNews, reports that Lecce value the forward at a fee of around £26m, and claims that Leeds are ready to pay big money to get a deal done for the striker.

It now remains to be seen whether or not their second offer for the Montenegro international will be enough to tempt the Italian team to part ways with the attacker.

Why Leeds should sign Nikola Krstovic

The Premier League new boys should push to sign the Lecce number nine before the end of the summer transfer window because he would be an even better signing than Muniz.

Krstovic would be considerably cheaper if the latest reports are to be believed, with Lecce valuing him at £26m compared to the significantly more than £32m that Fulham want for Muniz in order to price Leeds out of a deal.

This means that it could be more financially viable for the Whites to pursue the Montenegro international, which would also free up more funds to be spent on other areas of the squad as they look to build a team that can compete in the Premier League.

Krstovic, as shown in the clips above, is a versatile goalscorer who has shown that he can find the back of the net in a variety of ways, with either foot, from close or long range, and with his head.

The Lecce sensation, who was dubbed “integral” by former boss Roberto D’Aversa, has proven that he can score goals in a major European league, netting 18 Serie A goals in the last two seasons combined.

Appearances

31

37

Sofascore rating

6.88

7.14

Goals

8

11

Big chances created

1

5

Assists

1

5

Duels won per game

3.7

4.9

As you can see in the table above, Krstovic outperformed Muniz at league level in the 2024/25 campaign, with three more goals and four more assists, whilst also winning more duels per game.

The Montenegro international’s ability to generate high-quality opportunities for himself is one of his most impressive attributes, as he has accrued 24.80 xG in two seasons in the Serie A, compared to the Fulham man’s tally of 15.32 in two Premier League campaigns.

This could suggest that Krstovic is better at getting himself into goalscoring situations, which could be particularly useful in a season that Leeds are expected to be battling relegation in.

Overall, the Lecce star could be a better signing than Muniz for the Whites as the striker may be able to offer more goals and assists in the top-flight, whilst being a cheaper addition to the squad.

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