Arsenal have entered discussions with Bayer Leverkusen about a possible move for the England defender Jarell Quansah, with reports suggesting the German club would want at least €50m (£43m) for a player they signed from Liverpool only twelve months ago. The approach comes as clubs across England scramble to complete deals before the transfer window closes, with Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal all involved in separate negotiations.
According to a report from a national sports broadcaster, the talks are described as exploratory rather than advanced, and Leverkusen are said to have no wish to part with the 21-year-old this summer.
What is driving Arsenal's interest in Jarell Quansah?
Arsenal's pursuit is understood to stem from fitness concerns surrounding two of their senior defenders, William Saliba and Jurrien Timber, which have left the club looking for extra cover at the back, according to a report from a football news outlet. Quansah's versatility is part of the appeal, since he is capable of playing both at centre-back and right-back.
Leverkusen paid Liverpool an initial £30m for Quansah last summer, with the England international still having four years remaining on his contract, and the same football news outlet notes that the Bundesliga side would be reluctant to sell without securing a significant profit on that outlay. Some reports value Quansah at closer to £30m-£35m currently, meaning any Arsenal bid would likely need to go well beyond that figure to tempt Leverkusen into a sale.
Notably, Liverpool are understood to have retained a buy-back option on Quansah, reportedly set at €80m (£69.3m) this summer or €60m (£52m) if triggered in 2027, according to the same football news outlet — though the original report covering this story states only that Liverpool inserted an unspecified buy-back clause when Quansah left for an initial £30m fee last year. Both figures are included here given the discrepancy between sources.
The interest in Quansah has not gone down well with some Liverpool supporters. One reader, Graeme Neill, emailed to vent his frustration at the club's transfer business more broadly:
Whether it's overpaying for Isak, failing to address key gaps in the squad and now failing to activate the buyback on Quansah given several of our CBs are injured (and inexperienced), I imagine most Liverpool fans will be quite glad when Richard Hughes buggers off to Saudi Arabia.
How is Manchester City approaching the closing days of the window?
Enzo Maresca, preparing for his first competitive match in charge of Manchester City against Arsenal in Cardiff on Sunday, has confirmed the club will not meet Chelsea's Friday 5pm deadline to sign Enzo Fernández. Maresca worked with the Argentina midfielder while at Stamford Bridge and City are said to be keen, but Chelsea have set their valuation at £120m and warned they will not negotiate beyond their cut-off point.
Not today to be honest, I don't think we're going to do something today. For sure there are things we need to do, how many I don't know, can be one can be two depends also if players want to leave so we can see. It's 48 hours for the final, my first final in this club, I would like to win my first trophy, so my focus isn't on players that can leave or players that can arrive, my focus is on the game.
Separately, City are reportedly closing in on a deal to sign the 18-year-old midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi from Lille. Fernández is being lined up by City as a potential replacement for Rodri, who has attracted an initial €45m bid from Barcelona.
What other transfer moves are in motion?
Galatasaray had targeted Arsenal forward Gabriel Martinelli, but the picture has since grown more complicated. Arsenal have reportedly been offered the chance to bring in Nigeria striker Victor Osimhen as part of a deal involving Martinelli, with midfielder Ethan Nwaneri potentially added to sweeten a larger swap arrangement.
Elsewhere, Djed Spence has completed a remarkable turnaround, moving from a broken jaw sustained in May to becoming one of England's most talked-about performers during the World Cup, and is now leaving Tottenham for Inter Milan, stepping out from behind Pedro Porro. Footage of Spence greeting cameras during his Italian medical has circulated widely on social media.
At Manchester United, Michael Carrick has ruled out any £100m signing this summer, citing the club's financial position. Speaking about how United can remain competitive, Carrick said:
Money's money. I get that. It's still about football and that's where the competition lies. What we feel naturally as a group is to try and win games. So there's a lot that goes into that, but certainly the situation is what it is as well, whether that's finances or whatever.
Carrick also addressed the situation surrounding Marcus Rashford, who both the forward and the club are said to want to leave, offering supportive comments about the England international's contribution and character:
He's our player and has trained really well. It's been good to have him around the group again. He's a very good player, Marcus, and if you're going to have a career over 10 or 15 years, there's going to be times when things go in a direction and maybe a different direction. All right, that happens. There's ups and downs, and that doesn't judge you as a one-off kind of state. It's what happens over time, and now we're in a positive place as a group, and Marcus can offer us so much. He has done, and he can do again, so it's quite exciting.
Aston Villa's European Cup-winning goalkeeper Jimmy Rimmer has died at 78
Aston Villa announced that Jimmy Rimmer, the goalkeeper who was part of the club's title-winning campaign of 1981, has died at the age of 78. Rimmer played every league match that season as Villa were crowned champions of England.
He is most widely remembered for a cruel twist the following year, when he was forced off with a neck injury just nine minutes into the 1982 European Cup final against Bayern Munich in Rotterdam, a match Villa went on to win 1-0. It marked the second time Rimmer had to watch teammates lift a major trophy without him on the pitch, having also been an unused substitute 14 years earlier when Manchester United beat Benfica in the 1968 European Cup final at Wembley.
Aston Villa said in a statement:
Aston Villa is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of European Cup winner Jimmy Rimmer, who has died at the age of 78. The thoughts of everyone at the club are with Jimmy's family and friends at this incredibly difficult time. Rimmer was one of the finest goalkeepers of his generation, and arguably one of the unluckiest when it came to big occasions. Despite collecting two European Cup winner's medals, he wasn't on the pitch at the end of either final.
Rimmer, capped once by England, was replaced in the 1982 final by his understudy Nigel Spink, who kept a clean sheet as Peter Withe scored the second-half winner to secure Villa's only European Cup triumph to date. Spink subsequently became Villa's first-choice goalkeeper, and Rimmer was sold to Swansea in 1983 after making more than 200 appearances for the club. He began his career at Manchester United but could not dislodge Alex Stepney as first choice, moving to Arsenal in 1974 before signing for Villa three years later.
How is Lincoln City preparing for life back in the Championship?
Lincoln City have appointed Tom Shaw and Chris Cohen as joint head coaches following a summer of transition that nonetheless preserved some continuity at the club. The pair replace Michael Skubala, who guided the Imps to 103 points and promotion after a 65-year absence from the second tier before departing for Bristol City.
Shaw and Cohen were previously assistants at the club, and their promotion to joint charge came about as their own pitch to the club's hierarchy coincided with an internal plan already under way to appoint from within. The arrangement is intended to avoid repeating the difficulties associated with Liverpool's short-lived joint management experiment involving Roy Evans and Gérard Houllier in the late 1990s. The two coaches are finalising preparations for Saturday's season opener away to Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium, a club that has spent more than £20m on summer signings — roughly four times what Lincoln have spent across their entire 142-year history.
What did Kieran Trippier say about his return to the Championship?
Kieran Trippier, who has featured for some of the biggest clubs in European football, spoke candidly about the surprise of his situation at Wolves and his focus heading into the new season:
I'm not going to sit here and lie, I wasn't expecting it. But it's the club's decision. I had good chats with Rob, of course, but I'm here to play for Wolves. There are many surprises in football and that certainly was a surprise, I'm not going to deny that. But I just cracked on, I was with my kids on holiday, training in Mallorca and just looking forward to day one in pre-season.
Trippier described the step down from the Premier League in stark terms, noting that the Championship carries a relentless demands totally different from the top flight, according to the original coverage of his interview.
What is happening with Fifa's leadership dispute?
The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) has publicly backed Fifa president Gianni Infantino after Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation demanded his resignation, a development that underscores deep divisions within global football's governing structures.
Following an executive committee meeting in Fiji, the OFC issued a statement on Friday praising progress made under Infantino over the past decade, marking its first public comments since a since-abandoned plan to sell off World Cup assets came to light this month. However, New Zealand — the OFC's biggest member and the only nation from the confederation to qualify for this summer's World Cup — broke ranks by withdrawing its support for Infantino and calling for an independent review of the Fifa Forward Enterprise programme, a demand also made by the three rebel confederations.
What else is happening around the Championship's return and the transfer window?
The Championship season resumes this evening, led off by Blackburn Rovers' visit to Wolves, where striker Raúl Jiménez may face jeers from travelling supporters for his part in Mexico's defeat to England at the Azteca Stadium. New Wolves manager César Peixoto will also begin his first assessment of whether his methods can translate to English football.
Elsewhere in Championship previews, Bristol City's £4m summer signing Bledi Tolaj arrives on the back of four consecutive seasons of progression: 19 goals in the National League for Aldershot in 2023-24, 14 in League Two for Port Vale in 2024-25, and 18 last season split between Port Vale and Plymouth after a January move, of which 17 came for Plymouth. Tolaj finished as League One's fourth-highest scorer last season and also registered eight assists, a total bettered by only six players, while his combined tally of 26 goals and assists was surpassed only by Dom Ballard's 27 — Ballard has since joined Tolaj at Bristol City following a move from Leyton Orient. Tolaj also topped League One for shots taken last season with 113, averaging 3.7 shots per 90 minutes, a rate bettered only by Aaron Connolly.
In Sweden's Allsvenskan, unfancied side Sirius have emerged as an unlikely title contender, a storyline that has drawn comparisons with last season's surprise run by Mjällby. Central to the story is Scottish striker Robbie Ure, who built his reputation as a prolific scorer in Sweden before departing to test himself in La Liga.
Premier League club previews continue, with a focus on Fulham's appointment of Álvaro Arbeloa as a coach — a decorated former defender for Liverpool and Real Madrid who is looking to reset his young coaching career following a difficult half-season in the spotlight at Real Madrid.
Persistent heat and drought conditions across the UK have led to the postponement or cancellation of a number of sporting fixtures and events, particularly at amateur level, because of health warnings linked to the extreme temperatures. The dry conditions have also visibly altered playing surfaces across the country, illustrating how the weather is reshaping the domestic sporting landscape this summer.
What happens next?
Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen are expected to continue negotiations over Jarell Quansah in the coming days as the transfer window nears its close, according to the national sports broadcaster's report, with Leverkusen likely to hold firm on a valuation well above the fee they paid Liverpool last year. Arsenal will need to decide whether meeting that price is worthwhile given their defensive injury concerns.
Manchester City's Enzo Maresca takes charge of his first competitive match against Arsenal in Cardiff on Sunday, while the wider transfer picture — including Chelsea's stance on Enzo Fernández, the potential Martinelli-Osimhen swap involving Arsenal and Galatasaray, and Manchester United's ongoing discussions over Marcus Rashford's future — is expected to develop further before the window shuts.
Key Facts
- Arsenal have opened talks with Bayer Leverkusen over a possible deal for Jarell Quansah, valued by some reports at £30m-£35m, with other reports suggesting Leverkusen want at least £43m.
- Liverpool are reported to hold a buy-back option on Quansah, cited at either an unspecified figure or as high as £69.3m this summer, dropping to £52m in 2027, depending on the source.
- Aston Villa's 1981 title-winning and 1982 European Cup-winning goalkeeper Jimmy Rimmer has died aged 78.
- Lincoln City begin their Championship campaign at Middlesbrough on Saturday under new joint head coaches Tom Shaw and Chris Cohen.
- The Oceania Football Confederation has backed Fifa president Gianni Infantino, though New Zealand has withdrawn its support and called for an independent review.
