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Everton are among a host of clubs to have “called” about the availability of a “fantastic” attacking player, according to journalist Fabrizio Romano.

Barry expected to oust Beto at Everton

The Blues have completed the exciting £27m signing of Thierno Barry from Villarreal, with the Frenchman feeling like a statement signing by The Friedkin Group and David Moyes.

The 22-year-old has replaced Dominic Calvert-Lewin at Everton, coming in to battle Beto for minutes, but journalist Graeme Bailey has claimed that he will be the undisputed first-choice striker for the Merseysiders next season.

“Barry will be leading the line for Everton this season, I have little doubt. Will he start the campaign, I wouldn’t rule out Beto starting at this point, but Barry is going to be the main man long-term. Everton are so excited by this lad, he really is a great signing. There are few deals this summer that I have personally been more impressed by than this deal. We will have to see how he settles, but I don’t think it is going to take too long for him to be leading the line.”

Everton fans will hope that there are further signings to play alongside Barry, though, and a new update certainly bodes well in that respect.

Everton have "called" about £17m winger – Romano

Taking to X, Romano claimed that Everton have “called” about signing PSV Eindhoven winger Johan Bakayoko in a potential £17.3m deal this summer, with many clubs in the same boat to sell the forward who PSV are “set to sell”.

Bakayoko is a player with so much long-term potential, having already racked up a tally of 33 goals and 22 assists in 131 appearances for PSV, as well as being hailed as a “fantastic” player by football talent scout Jacek Kulig last year.

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The 22-year-old also isn’t short of confidence, either, once talking up his hopes of winning the Ballon d’Or one day: “In the next five years, I want to be close to winning the Ballon d’Or. I’ll do my best and see where it can end, but I don’t want to give myself limits. I don’t want to say, ‘I remember when I won the Ballon d’Or’, or something like this. I want to keep going.”

A right-sided winger who can cut onto his left foot and wreak havoc, Bakayoko could be an ideal choice, adding similar quality to Iliman Ndiaye on the opposite flank.

Manchester United have now opened talks to sign an “insane” £13m+ colossus, making contact with his representatives in recent days, according to a report.

Man Utd set sights on new goalkeeper

It would be fair to say that Andre Onana has flattered to deceive ever since arriving from Inter Milan, and Ruben Amorim even dropped the goalkeeper for Altay Bayindir at times during the 2024-25 season, with the Turk playing three of the final four Premier League games.

As such, it is no surprise that United are now looking to bring in a replacement for Onana, and they have set their sights on a number of ambitious targets, many of whom are vastly experienced at Champions League level.

Target

Current club

UCL appearances

Gianluigi Donnarumma

PSG

40

Marc-Andre ter Stegen

Barcelona

85

Emiliano Martinez

Aston Villa

14

Diogo Costa

FC Porto

23

That said, it could be difficult to attract some of Europe’s top goalkeepers after the Europa League final defeat against Tottenham Hotspur, and the Red Devils have now joined the race for a perhaps more attainable target.

According to a report from GiveMeSport, Man United have now opened talks with the entourage of OGC Nice goalkeeper Marcin Bulka, although given that the two clubs are owned by INEOS, a deal may not be possible until January 2026.

United cannot do business with the French club until September, so they may wait until January before making a move for the goalkeeper, who is valued at over £13m, or failing that they could look to bring him in on a free transfer next summer.

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AC Milan and Galatasaray could provide competition for Bulka’s signature, with United yet to engage in formal club-to-club negotiations, indicating the potential move is not yet at an advanced stage.

"Insane" Bulka impressing in Ligue 1

Football scout Ben Mattinson has expressed his shock that the 25-year-old has remained at Nice for so long, given his impressive performances in France, saying: “Marcin Bułka was insane vs PSG. I’m surprised he’s still at Nice after being the best GK in Ligue 1 last season.

“The combination of his shot stopping prowess and quality both-footed distribution whilst being 6’6” makes him a great option for big teams.”

Indeed, the Polish shot-stopper put in what could be a career-best performance against former club PSG back in April, achieving a 10 SofaScore rating after making nine saves from inside the box and preventing 2.53 goals.

Nice ran out 3-1 winners against the European champions, embarrassing them in their own backyard courtesy of their colossus between the sticks, who averaged the second-highest Ligue 1 rating in the squad last season.

As such, Bulka could be an excellent signing for Man United, and he may be a more attainable target than the likes of Donnarumma and Ter Stegen, although the fact they will have to wait until January is frustrating.

Whilst the drama of the Premier League continues through May, Leeds United are already done and dusted with their triumphant 2024/25 campaign in the Championship.

Indeed, Daniel Farke’s Whites would close out the season as champions, having obtained a remarkable 100-point haul, which is the highest points total ever reached by the West Yorkshire giants.

With no football left to play on the pitch, Leeds’ main focus now rests on the hectic transfer window to follow, with plenty of rumours already coming out of Elland Road.

Leeds' attempts to strengthen up top

Farke won’t want to lose the identity of the squad that managed to leap up to the Premier League, but he will be aware of how punishing the top division can be if improvements are not sought after.

One area that Leeds look to be prioritising is in attack, with rumours already coming to the surface that the newly promoted side are keen on the likes of Richarlison and Troy Parrott as fresh centre-forward personnel.

But, there is another new face in this department that will really intrigue the Elland Road masses, with Sky Sports journalist Rob Dorsett revealing that the Whites could put a new £100m+ transfer kitty to good use by snapping up Everton star Beto, a player they have a vested interest in ahead of the summer.

Dorsett has further revealed that it’s unclear whether the Toffees would allow for this switch to take place, but if Farke and Co were successful in landing the towering 27-year-old, the German could have his next Teemu Pukki on his hands with the Finnish ace always a solid and robust option up top for Norwich City.

How Beto could be Farke's new Pukki

Obviously, the main standout moments of Pukki’s career at the Canaries under Farke came in the Championship.

The 129-time Finland international would collect 65 of his strikes in Norfolk in the bread and butter of the second tier, but the 5 foot 11 menace did manage to show off some flashes of his immense quality up a level too under his ex-manager.

Whilst Farke’s Canaries did immediately fall back down to the EFL at the end of the 2019/20 season, Pukki could at least exit that dismal campaign with his head raised high, having amassed a respectable 11 strikes from 36 contests.

Beto could well eclipse that total in the here and now for Moyes’ side with three league games left to go, with the German perhaps seeing a similar style player to his former great in the Portuguese forward, who could potentially offer the Whites a stable head in attack when navigating the step-up.

Looking at the table above, Beto hasn’t blown anyone away this season at Goodison Park with seven strikes from 27 league games, but the £17m-rated forward does operate in a similar fashion to his 35-year-old counterpart, with both attackers in question content with limited touches of the ball before firing home an opportunity in the same bullish and dogged fashion.

Moreover, adding in the ex-Udinese man to the Leeds ranks would offer Farke something different to what he currently has at his disposal, with Beto previously praised for his “powerful” nature by former manager Sean Dyche, away from possessing some similar attributes to Pukki.

He could love life in West Yorkshire too lining up next to Dan James and Manor Solomon who twist and turn defences for fun, before then presenting the 27-year-old with some golden chances.

Of course, this could all just be speculative chat churned out of the rumour mill, but if Leeds do have an opportunity to land Beto, they should take it, with Farke ready to work his magic on the Lisbon-born forward like he did with Pukki.

Leeds could seal best striker signing since Wood with move for 20-goal star

Leeds could land their best striker signing since Chris Wood in a swoop for this star.

By
Dan Emery

May 7, 2025

From draining Test duel with India to the Hundred, in-form batter looks ahead to Ashes tour unburdened by captaincy, and answers David Warner

Valkerie Baynes14-Aug-2025Joe Root’s relief was right there on his face when he declared Ashes selection as “not my concern anymore”.Root, the England captain from 2017 to 2022 whose fine run of form was a key feature of the recent drawn home Test series with India, which captivated even the most casual of followers, scarcely drew a breath before launching into the Hundred with Trent Rockets.But it all forms part of his evolution, which has him enjoying one of his best seasons to date and playing with greater freedom, ahead of his first Ashes series in Australia unburdened by the captaincy since 2013.Root’s two subsequent Test tours of Australia featured plenty of off-field drama that he had to deal with as skipper including, in his words, the post-Covid restrictions surrounding the 2021-22 series, for which Ben Stokes was added to the squad after an injury lay-off just 10 days before they departed. Before that, Stokes missed the 2017-18 Ashes in the aftermath of the Bristol nightclub affair and Jonny Bairstow was embroiled in a bizarre “headbutt incident” (inverted commas gestured by Root) with Australia’s Cameron Bancroft which turned out to be a proverbial storm.Related

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“There was a lot of distractions,” Root said. “This time I just want to go and enjoy the tour for what it is. It’s a beautiful country, it’s a great place to go play cricket.”Clearly it’s going to be hostile, it’s going to be everything you’d expect and want from an away Ashes series. That’s something you’ve got to relish and want and I want to go out there and just enjoy being a part of it.”There was a reminder of those hostilities earlier this month when David Warner, now retired from Australia duty, reminded Root that he was yet to score a century in Australia, adding: “He will have to take the surfboard off his front leg.”That was ahead of Warner’s debut in the Hundred, the competition which will again bring him face to face with Root in London Spirit’s clash with Trent Rockets on Thursday.Root shrugged off Warner’s comments as “all part of the fun”.”You know that there’s going to be storylines and there’s going to be people wanting to hype up a big series and it doesn’t really change anything when you get out there,” Root said. “You’ve got to try and impact the game and help your team get off to a good start. That’s business as usual as far as I’m concerned.”I can’t have any control or say how people see the game or talk in an interview, so it’s sort of irrelevant. What more can I do about it? Just make sure it’s not a talking point in six months’ time or a hundred days’ time.”But he did address that elusive century on Australian soil.

“Naturally with age, with experience, I’ve got a better understanding of my own game and how I want to construct innings in different situations on different surfaces against different bowler types and been able to roll it out pretty well over the last little while”

“The thing that stands out for me is I probably wanted it way too much the last couple of times,” Root said. “It took me away from what was important.”Having played there a couple of times before, now going there with 150-odd Test matches under my belt, I feel like you couldn’t be more ready for it so just go and enjoy what a great tour it should be.”Root was the second-highest run-scorer in the India series with 537 at 67.12. His innings-to-century ratio in Tests for 2025 is the best it’s been in a calendar year at 3.33 and his conversion rate is also superior after turning three of his four 50-plus scores into centuries. The other was an unbeaten 53 in a successful run chase as England went 1-0 up in the India series.In terms of batting average, Root’s 63.44 for 2025 so far is his third-best after 2014 (97.12) and 2023 (65.58) in years where he has scored 100 runs or more.During India’s visit, Root also moved to No. 2 on the all-time leading run-scorer’s chart, after Sachin Tendulkar, and posted his 39th century in the format, putting him fourth behind Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting.But, after 158 Tests, Root said it wasn’t so much the milestones that kept him going.”As a player, more of the motivation is can you keep evolving,” he said. “Can you keep finding ways of staying ahead of your opposition? Can you make sure that you don’t stand still and become stale? Can I keep being creative? Can I keep finding ways of improving and making sure that the stuff that I’m doing well stays at that level as a bare minimum?Root celebrates his 39th Test century•Getty Images”Naturally with age, with experience, I’ve got a better understanding of my own game and how I want to construct innings in different situations on different surfaces against different bowler types and been able to roll it out pretty well over the last little while.”The continuing challenge will be, can I stay consistent with that? Can I keep finding answers to questions posed at me wherever we are in the world and whatever conditions and whatever situation. That’s the fun of it, right?”Root also credited Brendon McCullum, whose arrival as England head coach came shortly after Root relinquished the captaincy in April 2022, with rejuvenating his batting career.”Having worked with Baz has changed the way that I look at the game,” Root said. “I’ve got less technical, I’ve become more about trying to manage the game better and find ways of problem solving. It’s been very refreshing to have someone with a very different way of looking at things come and add a huge amount to my game. He’s been brilliant.”Without the burden of captaincy – for his country or franchise – Root has also relished playing in the Hundred, even if it is at the end of an energy sapping five-Test wrangle with India, and even if attention has inevitably shifted to upcoming Ashes selection.Speaking on a call set up by KP Snacks, who are celebrating the achievement of installing over 100 grass root community pitches in England and Wales, Root said of the India series: “It was tiring. We fielded a lot, so it was physically quite tiring, it was mentally tiring. All the games went pretty much down to the wire. But when you flick into a new format, you go into a new dressing room and it can energise you in a different way.”Come Ashes time in November, there’s no doubt that energy will be in healthy supply too. KP Snacks, the Official Team Partner of The Hundred, are celebrating the installation of over 100 new community cricket pitches across England and Wales. To find out more and search for your nearest pitch, visit: www.everyonein.co.uk/pitchfinder

Chamari Athapaththu is a favourite in this race, but faces stiff competition from the likes of Annabel Sutherland and Danni Wyatt

S Sudarshanan07-Dec-2023
Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka)Set 2 – capped allrounders. Base price: INR 30 lakh
Despite having a base price of INR 30 lakh – that is, the lowest bracket for overseas players – Athapaththu found no takers in the inaugural WPL auction. Subsequently, she did not find a place in the Women’s Hundred, the Women’s Big Bash League or the Women’s Caribbean Premier League either. But the Sri Lanka captain showed what teams were missing out on with a stellar show in 2023.Athapaththu starred with two unbeaten centuries in Sri Lanka’s first-ever ODI series win against New Zealand, scored an unbeaten 47-ball 80 for their first win in a T20I against New Zealand and then led the charge in their first T20I series win over England in September. Her outstanding batting form meant a late call-up from Sydney Thunder for the 2023 WBBL as an injury replacement.She took the WBBL by storm and finished with 552 runs – the second-most in the season – at a strike rate of 127.18 and with the Player of the Series award no less. She also returned nine wickets with the ball at an economy rate of just under seven. Expect her to be the most expensive pick at the WPL auction.Annabel Sutherland was on fire at the 2023 WBBL•Getty ImagesAnnabel Sutherland (Australia)Set 2 – capped allrounders. Base price: INR 40 lakh
Sutherland played four matches in WPL 2023, scored only 28 runs and picked up three wickets with an economy rate of 10.99, before being released by Gujarat Giants. She turned her form around in the women’s Ashes, scoring her maiden Test century in Australia’s win in Nottingham before picking up 3 for 28 in a narrow T20I loss against England at The Oval.Sutherland’s 47-ball 50 batting at No. 7 proved crucial in Australia’s only ODI win of the multi-format Ashes. She then flourished in the 2023 WBBL, scoring 288 runs – the most for Melbourne Stars – and picking up 23 wickets, joint third-most for the season. She also led Stars for the last three games of the season in Meg Lanning’s absence.Danni Wyatt celebrates the Women’s Hundred title with her Southern Brave team-mates•Julian Finney/Getty ImagesDanni Wyatt (England)Set 1 – capped batters. Base price: INR 30 lakh
One of only three women to have played 150 or more T20Is, Wyatt surprisingly found no takers last time with a base price of INR 50 lakh, something she was disappointed with. Her ability to hit the ball hard at the top of the order as well as take spinners down with ease is something only a few batters possess in world cricket. She topped the batting charts for Women’s Hundred champions Southern Brave and Charlotte Edwards (CE) Cup winners Southern Vipers.Wyatt struck at 141.14 and scored 295 at the Women’s Hundred. Her Player-of-the-Match performance in the final – 59 off just 38 balls with nine fours and a six – only enhanced her reputation of changing gears at will and attacking spin. She also made 273 runs in the CE Cup at a strike rate of 150. Her T20I record in India is also enviable – 459 runs in 16 outings at a strike rate of 143.43 with a best of 124Amanda-Jade Wellington was named player of the WBBL final after taking 3 for 16•Getty ImagesAmanda-Jade Wellington (Australia)Set 5 – capped spinners. Base price: INR 30 lakh
Wellington is a serial winner in 2023. She has been part of title-winning teams at the FairBreak Global Invitational Tournament, the WCPL and the WBBL. She was omitted from Australia’s T20 World Cup squad earlier this year and then did not opt in for the inaugural WPL auction. But she starred in the WCPL final with a four-for for Barbados Royals.Wellington then returned 23 wickets in the WBBL – tied third in the season – including bowling the last over of the final to help Adelaide Strikers defend their crown. She is a handy batter down the order. Strikers’ head coach Luke Williams is with Royal Challengers Bangalore in the same capacity and that could also make Wellington a go-to pick.Shabnim Ismail was a key cog for Hobart Hurricanes in the WBBL•Getty ImagesShabnim Ismail (South Africa)Set 4 – capped fast bowlers. Base price: INR 40 lakh
Intense bidding saw UP Warriorz pick up Ismail for INR 1 crore at the last auction. But after just three games in the season, she finds herself back in the auction pool this year. The fiery South Africa fast bowler, who retired from internationals earlier this year, showed her wares at the Women’s Hundred, the WCPL and the WBBL.She picked up 11 wickets in the Women’s Hundred, including a hat-trick in the last over that helped Welsh Fire eke out a narrow win over Birmingham Phoenix. She prevented Phoenix from scoring four off the last three balls with nine wickets in hand, one game after her three-for had skittled Oval Invincibles for 80.Ismail also picked up 13 wickets for Hobart Hurricanes in the WBBL, after a four-for for Guyana Amazon Warriors in the WCPL final.

Power vacuum at the governing body – and a severe lack of alternatives – means captaincy debate may rumble on

Andrew Miller29-Mar-2022Say what you like about the World Test Championship table, but it doesn’t half concentrate the mind. There England are, rooted to the foot of the standings having won a miserable 12.5% of the available points in their three series to date for the 2021-23 cycle, and not even the asterisk attached to the incomplete series with India can provide any mitigation. This team really is producing the worst Test cricket in the world right now.It was another World Test Championship table, Wisden‘s unofficial version, that effectively woke England up to its last most urgent crisis of competence, way back in 1999. That summer famously finished with Nasser Hussain, England’s new captain, being booed off the balcony at The Oval after England’s 2-1 loss to New Zealand – and like the winter just gone, the defining trends were a series of batting collapses from established players, and an air of fatalism at the merest hint of adversity.It was a focal point of anger that somehow hadn’t materialised throughout a preceding decade of, let’s face it, distinctly intermittent glory, but if history is repeating itself, then it’s not from an entirely equivalent footing. Once again, England’s Test team has been substandard for a while – just as in the 1990s, their rare bright spots have been sufficiently compelling to distract from the marquee moments of defeat that have dominated the era. By 1999, however, most of the major changes that would revolutionise the coming decade were already on the cards.Related

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These included Hussain’s appointment, of course (although it would take Duncan Fletcher’s arrival as coach to unlock his true potential as a leader), but more significantly, the creation in 1998 of the ECB as a unified body to oversee all levels of the game in England and Wales. This cleared the way for the introduction of central contracts, and began the process by which England’s Test players could be treated as elite international athletes, rather than reluctant loanees from their counties.But now, 23 years later, here England are again. At rock-bottom by pretty much any measure that matters, but without so much as a footstool in situ to begin their long, and long-overdue, traipse back towards the standards expected of one of Test cricket’s Big Three teams.Far from being the sport’s impending saviour, the ECB of 2022 is arguably too cumbersome to cope with a crisis of this variety. The pandemic revealed it to be a lumbering corporate machine with more financial imperatives than sporting ones – and until it splurged all its reserves on the setting-up of the Hundred, Tom Harrison, the lame-duck chief executive, would probably have hailed that fact as proof that English cricket had “entered another paradigm”.Instead, the ECB currently lacks a full-time chairman, a full-time director of cricket and a full-time head coach, and also lacks any genuine cricketing nous within its boardroom. Andrew Strauss is back in an interim capacity, and emitting all manner of reorganisational vibes, but as he’s made clear from the outset, his family circumstances will win out over any petitions to make his role full-time.A fraught Nasser Hussain and David Graveney face the press after New Zealand beat England in 1999•Getty ImagesAnd it is against that backdrop that we arrive at the sadly compromised status of the captain, Joe Root – arguably England’s finest Test batter of the 21st century and as such one of the ECB’s few unequivocally blue-chip assets, but one whose most primal desire to stay at the crease for as long as possible (a trait that hasn’t often rubbed off on his team-mates of late) is currently coming across as an obstinate refusal to face up to the realities of his tenure.”I’m very passionate about trying to take this team forward,” Root said in the wake of the Grenada defeat. “I feel like the group are very much behind me. We’re doing a lot of really good things. We just need to turn that into results.”It’s entirely possible that Root is as right to stand his ground as he is wrong. Just as Ashley Giles, England’s since-sacked MD, was correct in his assertion after the Ashes loss in Sydney that a mass cull of the existing hierarchy – himself included – would only be “setting up future leaders for failure”, so it could be that Root knows, more viscerally than anyone else could ever fathom, that he alone has the stature to contend with such hopeless circumstances.That said, a mere two months have elapsed since the horrors of Hobart, and already Root’s England have come up with an even more insipid display. Never mind hitting rock-bottom, their performance in Grenada was more akin to spinning out into the void like an astronaut unmoored from a space-station – a team so disconnected from the gravity of their situation that there no longer feels like any limit to how far they could drift.

After a long winter, it's time to take a break and recharge ahead of the summer, but I believe in the future of this team pic.twitter.com/MwmnLTlikP

— Joe Root (@root66) March 29, 2022