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MANCHESTER UNITED have agreed a deal to sell Alejandro Garnacho to Chelsea.

The Red Devils have sanctioned an exit for the wantaway winger worth £40million.

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Garnacho, 21, will join the Blues on a reported seven-year contract after waiting for a move to materialise all summer.

The Argentine had been pushing for an exit after falling down the pecking order under boss Ruben Amorim.

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The Torrance Police Department and the California Attorney General’s Office have entered into an “enforceable agreement” meant to reform the troubled agency following a scandal that led prosecutors to toss dozens of criminal cases linked to officers who sent racist text messages, officials said.

Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced the reforms — which will include changes to the agency’s use-of-force and internal affairs practices, along with attempts to curtail biased policing — during a news conference in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday morning.

Bonta credited former Torrance Police Chief Jeremiah Hart with approaching him after the scandal first erupted in 2021, leading to collaborative reform efforts.

“The Torrance Police Department has demonstrated a commitment to self reflection to looking inward … to address systemic challenges,” Bonta said Thursday.

The California Attorney General’s Office announced its Torrance investigation in December 2021, the same day a Times investigation first revealed the contents of the text messages and the names of most of the officers involved. Court records and documents obtained by The Times showed the officers made offensive comments about a wide range of groups. They joked about “gassing” Jewish people, attacking members of the LGBTQ community and using violence against suspects.

The worst comments were saved for Black men and women, who the officers repeatedly called “savages” or referred to with variations of the N-word. One officer shared instructions on how to a tie a noose and posted a picture of a stuffed animal being hung inside police headquarters. Another message referred to the relatives of Christopher DeAndre Mitchell, a Black man shot to death by Torrance police in 2018, as “all those [N-word] family members,” according to court records.

Sometimes, the officers blatantly fantasized about the deaths of Black men, women and even kids.

One officer shared pictures of tiny coffins intended to house the bodies of Black children they would “put down.” Another imagined executing Black suspects.

“Lucky I wasn’t out and about,” one officer wrote in response to a text about Black men allegedly involved in a Torrance robbery, according to records reviewed by The Times in 2022. “D.A. shoot team asking me why they are all hung by a noose and shot in the back of the head 8 times each.”

The officers also suggested a political allegiance in their hate-filled text thread. In a conversation about needlessly beating a female suspect, Sgt. Brian Kawamoto said he wanted to “make Torrance great again,” a play on President Trump’s ubiquitous campaign slogan.

The texts were sent between May 2018 and February 2022, according to investigative reports made public by the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. Bonta said Thursday that roughly a dozen officers were involved in the thread. At least seven of those officers are no longer employed by the agency, according to court records and a POST database.

The group of officers that The Times linked to the texts has been involved in at least seven serious use-of-force incidents in Torrance and Long Beach, including three killings of Black and Latino men, according to police use-of-force records and court filings.

The officers actions were initially found to be justified in each case, though prosecutors later revisited Mitchell’s death and indicted Matthew Concannon and Anthony Chavez on manslaughter charges.

While Concannon and Chavez were investigated as part of the scandal, The Times has never seen evidence that they sent racist text messages. In the past, authorities have said, some officers under investigation were aware of the texts but did not send any hateful messages themselves.

David Chandler is also awaiting trial on assault charges for shooting a Black man in the back in 2018. In total, five officers linked to the text thread have been charged with crimes.

The scandal may not have come to light if not for the actions of former officers Cody Weldin and Michael Tomsic, who were charged with spray painting a swastika inside of a vehicle that was towed from a crime scene in 2021. That incident prompted former Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón to launch an investigation into possible hate crime charges. While a hate enhancement was never charged in the vandalism case, it led to the execution of warrants on the officers’ cellphones that unveiled the texts.

Tomsic and Weldin pleaded guilty to vandalism earlier this year and gave up their right to be police officers in California. Disciplinary records made public earlier this year identified Weldin as the “owner” of the group text in which many of the racist remarks were found. The group was dubbed “The Boys,” records show.

By engaging in “collaborative reform,” Bonta chose the least forceful method of reform in Torrance. Often, the attorney general’s office will seek court-mandated reform through a settlement, as it has with the Los Angeles County sheriff’s and probation departments, so that it may ask a judge to force change if a police agency doesn’t comply.

Bonta is now seeking to take over the county’s juvenile halls after the probation department failed to honor its settlement with the state.

In 2021, Hart personally approached Bonta’s office, seeking to work together on reform, which may have led the attorney general to use a softer method. Interim Police Chief Bob Dunn, who came to Torrance in 2023 after a long career with the Anaheim Police Department, said he believes Hart’s actions should show the department is committed to reform in the wake of the ugly scandal.

“It was the department that identified the behavior, the department that did the investigation and the department that took the case for criminal filing on the initially involved officers,” Dunn said of the city’s reaction to the revelation of the text messages in 2021.

In recent years, Dunn said, the department has taken steps to improve its use-of-force and police pursuit review processes by deploying sergeants to respond to any force incident. The hope, Dunn said, is to collect better information from individual cases that can be used to train officers in deescalation. Hart also created a Chief’s Advisory Panel to collect greater community input on issues facing the department, including bias allegations, according to Dunn.

Republican and Democratic voters share common ground when it comes to the University of California: Both sides express widespread support for UC, its research, medical centers and ability to elevate the lives of students, a statewide poll shows.

Strong majorities of registered voters across demographic groups — urban and rural, racial, education levels — said UC research was good for their communities, including 62% of Californians with only high school diplomas. Voters in their 20s have the most favorable view of research.

The survey results, from the nonpartisan UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, come as the university system faces major battles with the Trump administration over deep research funding cuts and President Trump’s demand of a $1-billion fine to resolve federal charges of antisemitism at UCLA.

“In an era where the benefits of public higher education are being questioned, the polling results suggest that California’s residents see the value in a UC education and recognize the many different ways the UC system contributes positively to the state,” said G. Cristina Mora, the institute’s co-director .

For months, the University of California has been enveloped in the nationwide drive by Trump to reshape higher education, which he sees as a bastion of liberalism hostile to conservative thinking. The 10-campus UC system has faced hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to federal research support that the Trump administration derided as wasteful spending. Last month federal officials suspended more than half a billion dollars in medical study grants to UCLA. Negotiations with the federal government to restore the grants are ongoing.

The Berkeley poll of 6,474 registered California voters showed a more nuanced political picture between Democrats and Republicans against the backdrop of White House invective that accuses selective universities of being hotbeds of race- and gender-based discrimination rooted in diversity, equity and inclusion movements that Trump says don’t match the will of the American people.

UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC Irvine have been accused by the Trump administration of illegally using race in admissions. The entire UC system is also under federal investigation for allegations that it has discriminated against Jewish employees and practiced sex- and race-based hiring discrimination.

Berkeley pollsters found strongest support for UC from Democrats, people with college degrees and state residents who are not white.

But majorities of Republicans also showed support for UC across the board:

• 58% of Republicans agreed or strongly agreed that UC “produces important research that benefits communities in California,” compared with 78% of Democrats.

• 75% of Republicans agreed or strongly agreed that UC academic health centers, such as UCLA Health, are “important to the communities they serve,” while 80% of Democrats said the same.

• 54% of Republicans agreed or strongly agreed that the UC system is “important for helping students to get ahead.” Among Democrats, 74% gave the same responses.

Mora said it was “surprising” that Californians appeared to know enough about UC research to support it.

“Usually, you may think of the UC system as one about teaching and giving degrees. But there was strong approval of research and medical centers.”

The university has six academic health centers and, in Los Angeles County alone, more than a dozen UCLA Health locations. Mora, a UC Berkeley sociology professor, said she thought people’s personal experiences with UC doctors in local communities may have contributed to positive views of UC health programs throughout the state.

IGS co-director Eric Schickler said the data were starkly different from national surveys on higher education.

“If you look at national polling, the story is pretty clear: Republican confidence in higher education has gone down a lot and there’s even some erosion among Democrats in terms of confidence or approval,” said Schickler, a UC Berkeley political science professor. “What you are seeing in California is very strong support in despite those trends.”

One prompt that showed a large gulf between the parties was on taxpayer funding for UC.

Asked whether California should give more or less money to the system, 74% of Democrats said UC should get more. Only 30% of Republicans agreed. UC gets about 9% of its budget from the state, a percentage that has declined over the years amid state budget crunches and payment deferrals.

The institute did not ask Californians about Trump or his education agenda. Instead, the questions were framed in apolitical terms focused on how respondents valued different parts of the UC experience.

Schickler said the Institute of Governmental Studies, while contained within a UC campus, does not take sides in the current political conflict over colleges and universities.

“Our philosophy has always been that the IGS poll is a nonpartisan poll,” he said. “The sample and survey has the same process as any survey we do. This is not a survey UC asked us to do.”

The poll also asked whether Californians would tell a close friend who was admitted to a UC school to enroll or not. In total, 70% of respondents said they would advise enrolling. However, there was a political split: 82% of Democrats said they would share such advice, compared with 51% of Republicans.

Researchers conducted most of the polling in early June, months into cutbacks to U.S. campus grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and other federal agencies as the government curtailed research into racially diverse groups as well as LGBTQ+ populations, among other areas.

The surveying largely took place before the Trump administration’s conflict with UC came to a head this month, when the White House demanded $1 billion and sweeping campus changes to restore more than $500 million in research grants at UCLA.

Pollsters asked an additional question in mid-August to a separate set of 4,950 voters who were UC degree recipients. That survey took place after Trump’s latest cuts to UCLA.

It asked UC degree holders whether, “considering the costs of getting your degree from a UC school versus the benefits to you personally, in your opinion was getting your degree worth it or not?”

In response, 82% of Democrats said a UC degree was worth the money, compared with 64% of Republicans.

AC Milan have agreed a £36m deal – including add-ons – to sign Chelsea forward Christopher Nkunku as the Blues close on a deal for Manchester United winger Alejandro Garnacho.

Nkunku, 27, is expected to accept a pay cut in order to join the Italian side on a five-year contract and has been given permission to travel for a medical.

The Blues have also included a sell-on clause as part of the deal, which will end Nkunku’s two-year stay at Stamford Bridge.

The move will have wider implications for Chelsea, with negotiations advancing to sign Garnacho.

The Argentina international, 21, has not played for United this season and is one of several players at the club who has been training away from the main group.

No fee has yet been agreed between the two clubs but BBC Sport has been told by sources that a deal is close.

Eddie Howe explains why Newcastle are in a lose-lose situation with Isak

EDDIE HOWE says Newcastle are in a lose-lose situation regarding Alexander Isak – but admitted there’s “two sides to every story” amid the star’s ongoing strike.

The wantaway Swede, 25, finally went public on his desire to leave this week with his bombshell “broken promises” statement.

Newcastle hit back at the those claims from the striker, who still refuses to play as he tries to force a move to Liverpool, and denied any promises had been made that he could go.

Liverpool, who head to St. James’ Park on Monday, are preparing a new £130m British record bid that Toon insist will be turned down.

And Howe faces the prospect of eventually losing a world-class star or keeping a player who doesn’t want to be there.

He said: “The club has to act in the best interests of Newcastle and we will do that in every situation.

“It is a lose-lose situation to a degree for us because I don’t think we can come out of this winning in any situation. That is why I have said all summer it is a difficult situation for the club to manage.

“We love Alex in the sense in what has done for this football club since he has been here, what he has contributed, what he has given, how professional he’s been and this has just been an unfortunate few months that looks like it is coming to an end. And it will come to an end pretty quickly and then we can focus on the football again.”

Howe says Isak’s relationship with the Toon Army can still be repaired as he refused to stick the boot into the forward – who has become public enemy No1 with fans.

He said: “I believe it can. I believe the supporters will always react off how a player plays and gives the team.

“This has been an unfortunate situation but there are always two sides to every story.

“There’s always more than even I will know, because there are conversations and things that have taken place far away from me and my knowledge of it.

“I’ve been focusing on the team and pre-season, so I’ve become totally detached from the situation to a degree so I think my job now is to support Alex, care for him at this moment in time and see where we are in a week’s time.”

Howe, who hopes to bolster his forward line by bringing in Yoane Wissa, revealed he hasn’t spoken to the £150m-rated hotshot this week.

He claims the whole fall-out is nothing personal and continued to stress how much he wants Isak to return and fire the club to more glory after last season’s Carabao Cup success.

He said: “When I see him we speak as normal. There are no issues between us.

“It’s difficult on both sides. It’s far from ideal for both parties, that’s Alex and us. But when we see each other we’re fine.

“He’s training later on detached from the group. We will, I’m sure, catch up at some stage and hopefully speak soon.

“He’s contracted to us. He’s our player. My wish is he would be playing on Monday night but he won’t be, which is regrettable. But 100 per cent I want to see him back in a Newcastle shirt.

“There’s no doubt how the players will feel. They will feel the same way I do.

“Alex is an outstanding player and a very, very good person, a good character, a good lad. He wants to succeed in his career.

“This has been a really difficult situation for him and for the players to see us without him.

“The players have handled it really well. If Alex decided to come back and play for us the players would welcome him back.”

Howe, who claimed he “didn’t know” if Isak had been fined for refusing to face Aston Villa, also says he has no idea if the situation can be resolved before the September 1 transfer deadline.

But he says the club are still determined to keep the rebel but warned Isak would only pull on a Black and White shirt again if he was “totally committed”.

Howe added: “I’m not a fortune-teller, unfortunately. I’d love to be, but I’ve got no way of knowing what will happen in the next few days in terms of trying to get some finality on the situation, so I’m in the same boat as everybody else, really.

“The club has had a very strong stance regarding Alex’s situation all summer. Obviously there has been a lot of conversations between the club and his representatives that I’ve not been a part of, but for me, nothing has changed throughout the summer.

“If Alex is to play for Newcastle again, he has to be totally committed. I don’t think it works any other way. But that question is for another day. When any player puts on the shirt and steps onto the pitch, he has to give his all for the team.”

CHELSEA are willing to send out Raheem Sterling on loan again – as they try to shift up to TEN players before the transfer window closes.

Both the Blues and Sterling would prefer to find a permanent deal.

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But they equally want to avoid the kind of last-minute scramble that sent the England international to Arsenal last season.

Chelsea are seeking to offload Sterling, Nicolas Jackson, Christopher Nkunku, Axel Disasi, Renato Veiga, Carney Chukwuemeka, David Datro Fofana and Ben Chilwell in the next fortnight.

Young winger Tyrique George could also be on the way out, while defender Aaron Anselmino is surplus to the current requirements of boss Enzo Maresca.

Sterling has two years left on a contract worth more than £300,000 per week.

Chelsea ended up paying a significant proportion of those wages last season as part of an 11th-hour deal with the Gunners on transfer deadline day.

Sterling would prefer to stay in England and preferably in the London area. Son Thiago, eight, signing for Arsenal’s academy earlier this summer.

Fulham have shown interest but it is yet to turn into a concrete offer, and oversea clubs including Napoli have also been linked to the winger..

Chelsea still want to bring more new players IN to the club, despite already spending more than £240m this summer.

BEST FREE BETS AND BETTING SIGN UP OFFERS

They have recouped £200m in sales by moving on players like Noni Madueke, who joined Arsenal for £52m.

But the Blues will need to sell in order to feel comfortable about making deals for Manchester United’s Alejandro Garnacho and RB Leipzig’s Xavi Simons.

So far Chelsea have struggled to find clubs willing to match their valuations for Jackson, Nkunku, Veiga, Chuwuemeka and Disasi.

And although the Blues would prefer to sell them all if possible, they are now open to loan deals with obligations or options to buy for at least some of them.

Napoli could now join Newcastle, Aston Villa, Juventus and AC Milan among the potential suitors for Jackson, after former Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku suffered an injury.

But the Blues are struggling to create a competitive market for their other unwanted stars.

THEN THERE WERE 10 – CHELSEA OUTCASTS

Duds ready to go – and where they could end up…

• Nicolas Jackson – Newcastle, Aston Villa, Juventus, AC Milan, Napoli

• Christopher Nkunku – Bayern Munich

• Renato Veiga – Villarreal

• Carney Chukwuemeka – Borussia Dortmund

• Axel Disasi – Wolves, Ajax

• Raheem Sterling – Fulham, Napoli

• David Datro Fofana – Wolves, Nice, Toulouse

• Tyrique George – Borussia Monchengladbach

• Aaron Anselmino – Real Betis

Bournemouth have agreed a deal for Liverpool winger Ben Doak for an initial £20m with a further £5m in add-ons.

The 19-year-old is expected to complete his transfer to the south coast in the next 24 hours in a move that remains subject to paperwork and passing a medical.

Doak was left out of Liverpool’s 4-2 win over Bournemouth at Anfield on Friday night, amid ongoing talks between the two Premier League clubs.

But Bournemouth have since secured a deal for the forward, who has six caps for Scotland, and spent last season on loan at Middlesbrough, scoring three times and recording seven assists in 24 matches.

They are understood to have beaten interest from other Premier League clubs, including Leeds, as well as Portuguese club Porto.

Doak’s move will give him a better chance of playing first team football having played just 10 times for Liverpool since joining from Celtic in 2022.

It will take Liverpool’s sales to around £200m this summer, having spent more than £270m on new signings and having had a £110m bid for Alexander Isak rejected by Newcastle.

The Premier League’s major sales have included Luis Diaz to Bayern Munich in a £65.5m deal, Darwin Nunez to Al-Hilal for £46.3m and academy player Jarrell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen for £35m.

Caoimhin Kelleher, Tyler Morton and Nat Phillips have also been sold, while the club received £8.4m from Real Madrid to release Trent Alexander-Arnold early from his contract, though the Spanish club dispute this figure.

The sale of Doak could see Liverpool bring in around £80-90m in initial fees for the winger, Phillips, Alexander-Arnold, Kelleher, Quansah and Morton. The six players arrived as either youth players or development projects and cost the Reds an initial £600,000. The subsequent profit for players classed as ‘homegrown’ can all be classed as ‘pure profit’ to immediately boost the Reds in terms of profit and sustainability calculations.

Bournemouth have also had a busy summer having sold Dango Ouattara to Brentford for £42.5m last week.

They already lost defenders Illia Zabarnyi, Dean Huijsen and Milos Kerkez for a combined total of about £150m to Paris St-Germain, Real Madrid and Liverpool respectively.

Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola said his side are “not where they want to be” before defeat at Anfield and added “important movements” will be made before the transfer window closes on 1 September.

Goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic, left-back Adrien Truffert and centre-back Bafode Diakite have joined the club this summer, with January signing Eli Junior Kroupi also coming into the squad after finishing last season on loan at Lorient.

Sources say the Cherries are in the market for a further central defender and a striker to compete with Evanilson, with alternative option Enes Unal expected to be out with a major knee injury until November or December.

It was football media day for six West Valley League teams on Saturday at Granada Hills, and as a unit, the coaches and players are convinced they have a chance to be the best league in the City Section in terms of competition.

While defending league champion Birmingham has an overall 49-game winning streak against City Section opponents, Cleveland, Granada Hills, Chatsworth, Taft and El Camino Real hope to be factors in the playoffs.

Cleveland is making strides to challenge for second place with a group of talented juniors, including two Nigerian-born players, running back Moyosoreoluwa Odebunmi and linebacker Oluwafemi Okeola.

Odebunmi, in his first varsity carry in a scrimmage against Van Nuys on Thursday, ran for a touchdown.

“When I scored, I was like, ‘Oh wow,’” he said. “But I know it’s not going to be easy.”

Birmingham has an offensive line filled with 300 pounders, and when 6-foot-5, 260-pound quarterback Kevin Hawkins plays tight end, the Patriots are truly giants up front. Coach Jim Rose said of Hawkins running the ball: “It’s like tackling a lineman. He’s a huge guy out there.”

Birmingham held a pizza eating contest this past week, and the winner was lineman Pablo Granados, who ate 10 slices in seven minutes. Hawkins was runner-up with seven.

Chatsworth offensive lineman Pablo Escobedo is known for riding his horse in his Chatsworth neighborhood. “It’s pretty cool,” he said.

Chatsworth should have one of the league’s best running backs in junior Devin Del Toro, who has been playing running back and linebacker since his freshman season. Coach Shawn Johnson said he has made “a huge jump.”

There are two players in the league who are outstanding two-sport athletes in football and baseball. That’s Taft quarterback/catcher Nathan Swinson and El Camino Real defensive back/center fielder Shane Bogacz.

Both try to find time to hit the batting cages to stay sharp during football season.

Granada Hills will continue to run the double-wing attack, focusing on running the ball, but the midseason availability of transfer quarterback Taiyo Dorio from Crescenta Valley could cause coach Bucky Brooks to try a pass or two.

Wingback Myles Cross drew laughter when he said, “I caught a pass.”

Brooks offered praise to all coaches and players in the City Section.

“I applaud all those who opted to stay in the neighborhood and play for neighborhood schools,” he said. “I want to salute everyone. I love the competitiveness.”

Brentford have agreed a club record deal worth up to £42.5m for Bournemouth forward Dango Ouattara.

The 23-year-old is set to travel to London on Friday to undergo a medical.

Sources close to Ouattara told BBC Sport he wanted to leave, having not had a prominent role at Vitality Stadium.

The Burkina Faso international scored nine goals in 37 appearances in all competitions for the Cherries last season.

Nottingham Forest previously held an interest in Ouattara, but they have agreed a £37.5m deal with Ipswich for England Under-21 winger Omari Hutchinson.

Brentford themselves had a £35m bid rejected by Ipswich for Hutchinson last month.

Nick Mashiter, BBC Sport

It is a deal Aston Villa and Unai Emery would have preferred not to have done in an ideal world.

However, this is not that world but one in which teams must abide by profit and sustainability rules, and finances are tight at Villa Park.

A youth product like Ramsey would always be the asset to sell to generate pure profit and £40m will undoubtedly help Villa comply with the rules.

It was the same last year when they had to sell Douglas Luiz despite qualifying for the Champions League.

It would be churlish to call Villa purely a selling club now but they are not immune to financial pressures, as has been obvious over the past 18 months, and the failure to reach the Champions League this season will naturally have an effect.

Emery was a fan of Ramsey – he would have like to have kept him – but the manager is living in reality. He knows the landscape Villa must navigate, even if it may seem rocky.

Striker Evann Guessand has joined from Nice and there are likely to be more arrivals, perhaps even the return of Marco Asensio after his successful loan last season, but Villa must continue to outthink the bigger spenders.