Elliott

Aston Villa, Manchester United and Lyon are keen on Real Madrid striker Endrick, Napoli want Manchester United’s Kobbie Mainoo in January and N’Golo Kante could make return to France.

Aston Villa have joined Manchester United in wanting to sign 19-year-old Brazil striker Endrick on loan from Real Madrid in January. (Daily Star on Sunday), external

However, Lyon are favourites to land Endrick, who is keen to move to get more first-team football and improve his chances of making Brazil’s squad for the 2026 World Cup. (Foot Mercato – in French), external

Manchester United are also set to step up their efforts to sign England midfielder Elliot Anderson, 22, from Nottingham Forest in January, but could face competition from Chelsea, Manchester City and Newcastle United. (Caught Offside), external

Napoli want to sign Manchester United and England midfielder Kobbie Mainoo, 20, on loan in January, with a view to making the move permanent in the summer. (Mirror), external

Aston Villa’s obligation to turn England attacking midfielder Harvey Elliott’s loan move from Liverpool into a permanent switch is thought to kick in if the 22-year-old makes 10 appearances for the Midlands club. (Independent), external

Paris FC are keen on making a move for 34-year-old France midfielder N’Golo Kante, whose contract with Al-Ittihad runs out next summer. (Foot Mercato – in French), external

Mexico striker Santiago Gimenez, 24, has until the January transfer window to convince AC Milan he deserves to stay at the club instead of being sold. (Gazzetta dello Sport – in Italian), external

Italy forward Lorenzo Insigne, 34, is a free agent after leaving Toronto FC and holding out for a move to Lazio. (Football Italia), external

Liverpool are ready to break the British transfer record again for Alexander Isak, but Al-Hilal are also preparing a huge bid for the Sweden striker, while Newcastle are lining up Benjamin Sesko as a potential replacement, plus more.

Liverpool are poised to make a British record bid for Newcastle and Sweden striker Alexander Isak, 25. (Mail+ – subscription required), external

But Saudi side Al-Hilal are also currently preparing a bid, understood to be more than £130m, for Isak after he was omitted from Newcastle’s squad for their pre-season tour of Singapore. (Talksport), external

Chelsea and Manchester United have ruled out a move for Isak, with the latter having already spent big on Brazil forward Matheus Cunha, 26, and Cameroon international Bryan Mbeumo, 25. (Mail), external

Newcastle have turned their attention to Slovenian international Benjamin Sesko with the 22-year-old RB Leipzig striker the main target should Isak leave. (ipaper), external

Aston Villa have told Manchester United striker Ollie Watkins is not for sale, despite interest in the 29-year-old Englishman from the Old Trafford club. (Telegraph – subscription required), external

Newly promoted Leeds United have agreed a deal with Lyon for goalkeeper Lucas Perri worth £15.6m, with the 27-year-old Brazilian expected to undergo a medical at the Whites’ pre-season training camp in Germany. (Mail), external

Bayern Munich are set to bid again for Liverpool and Colombia winger Luis Diaz. The Merseyside club are aware of the 28-year-old’s desire to leave and talks will continue. (Fabrizio Romano), external

Liverpool have offered French defender Ibrahima Konate, 26, a new contract to fend off interest from Real Madrid, who are keen to sign him this summer or next. (Footmercato – in French), external

Brazil international Douglas Luiz, 27, failed to report for the first day of pre-season training at Juventus on Thursday as West Ham, Everton and Liverpool all have interest in the midfielder. (Gazetta dello Sport – in Italian), external

Chelsea’s English winger Raheem Sterling, 30, has emerged as one of a number of forward targets for Italian champions Napoli. (Calciomercarto – in Italian), external

Liverpool attacker Harvey Elliott is open to leaving the Anfield club, with interest in the 22-year-old England youth international from West Ham. (Metro), external

Spurs are considering a £15m offer from LAFC for captain Son Heung-min as the 33-year-old South Korean mulls over his future. (Sun), external

Real Madrid are open to loaning 19-year-old forward Endrick to another team to avoid hindering his progress, but the Brazilian would prefer to fight for his place at the Bernabeu. (ESPN), external

Elliott made 18 league appearances under Arne Slot last season, but his only two starts came against Chelsea and Brighton, when Liverpool had already won the league.

That was in stark contrast to the previous season, with 11 starts in 34 league games for the Reds in Jurgen Klopp’s final campaign.

Elliott has made 147 appearances, scoring 15 goals, in his six years at Liverpool since joining from Fulham as a teenager, with a season on loan at Blackburn in 2020-21.

England Under-21 boss Carsley has only seen Elliott’s desire to succeed this summer.

“I’ve not seen a lot of the frustration,” he added. “What I have seen is someone who’s determined to play and to get the minutes. He wants to play every game and all of the minutes.

“He’s definitely built into the tournament. Not getting as much game time towards the end of the season, we’ve had to manage his minutes in terms of the amount he’s played and the intensity he plays at because he’s so explosive with the way he moves and his end product.

“We’re very lucky to have him.”

Brighton have been linked with a move for Elliott, as have former club Fulham, and while Wolves have been mentioned they have already signed Spaniard Fer Lopez and any fee is likely to be too high for the Molineux outfit.

Former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock, part of BBC 5 Live’s commentary team in Slovakia, believes Elliott has done well to ignore talk about his future and impress at the Euros.

“There’s a lot of speculation about ‘will he be at Liverpool next year?’,” said Warnock, who made 67 appearances after coming through the youth ranks at Anfield.

“That’s not easy. There will be phone calls with his agent about who’s talking, where are we looking at going and what are the potential avenues, am I going to stay at Liverpool? It’s very much a rollercoaster as the tournament goes on.

“Because of the amount of games he has played for Liverpool, and the impact he had coming in, I think we all thought he would catapult and play for a long time in the first team.

“But he has a World Cup winner in Alexis Mac Allister in front of him, [Ryan] Gravenberch had an unbelievable season and [Dominik] Szoboszlai was brought in for big money.

“He has responded well in this tournament. Mo Salah talks about moments in games and Harvey Elliott is one of those players for the moment. When the moment presents itself he is calm and composed.”

South Korea’s Ko Seok-hyeon beat Welshman Oban Elliott via a unanimous 30-27 decision at the UFC Fight Night in Baku, Azerbaijan on Saturday.

Ko – making his UFC debut – produced a dominant display featuring several submissions throughout the three rounds, with the 31-year keeping Elliott grounded for long periods.

Elliott, nicknamed ‘The Welsh Gangster’, has now suffered his first defeat since making his UFC debut in February 2024.

He was originally set to fight on 31 May at UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas against Ramiz Brahimaj.

That bout was cancelled because of visa issues, but the UFC moved swiftly to keep the 27-year-old active, rescheduling him for this weekend’s card.

The Welshman entered the contest with a 3-0 UFC record thanks to a knockout win over Bassil Hafez at UFC 309 in November and unanimous decision victories over Preston Parsons and Val Woodburn.

Elliott trained across Europe with some of the sport’s elite fighters to prepare for the bout.

But it was not sufficient against the opponent known as ‘The Korean Tyson’, who came into his UFC debut with an impressive 11-2 record.