Archive January 31, 2026

Jean-Philippe Mateta agrees contract with AC Milan until 2030, Fulham have £20m offer for Joe Willock rejected by Newcastle, and Michael Carrick wants Marcus Rashford back at Manchester United if he stays as head coach.

Jean-Philippe Mateta has agreed a contract with AC Milan until 2030, but Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner will not let the 28-year-old France striker leave unless they have a ready-made replacement. (Times – subscription)

Mateta is waiting for permission to fly to AC Milan for a medical, but the final decision over any deal is with Crystal Palace. (Kaveh Solhekol)

Fulham have had a £20m offer for Joe Willock rejected by Newcastle United, who will not sanction a move for the 26-year-old English midfielder unless they find a replacement. (Talksport)

If Michael Carrick is retained as Manchester United head coach beyond this season, he wants England forward Marcus Rashford, 28, back from his loan spell at Barcelona. (Telegraph – subscription)

Sunderland and Everton are showing an interest in Chelsea‘s 19-year-old England Under-21 forward Tyrique George. Clubs in Spain, France and Italy are also following him. (Sky Sports)

Sunderland have offered 25-year-old French forward Wilson Isidor to Napoli. (Calciomercato – in Italian)

Tottenham and Leeds United are among the Premier League clubs to have been offered the opportunity to sign 22-year-old Colombia striker Jhon Duran, who is on loan at Fenerbahce from Al-Nassr. (Teamtalk)

Liverpool and Chelsea are in talks with Rennes to sign 20-year-old French defender Jeremy Jacquet, but he will only move in the summer. (Fabrizio Romano)

Chelsea are considering recalling 20-year-old Senegal defender Mamadou Sarr from his loan at sister club Strasbourg. (Sky Sports)

British bantamweight Francesca Hennessy moved closer to a world title shot but had to dig deep for a tough points win over Ellie Bouttell at London’s Copper Box Arena.

In a clash of styles, Bouttell tried to rough Hennessy up on the inside, while Hennessy responded with sharp footwork and cleaner work at range.

At times the action was scrappy, and both fighters had to contend with cuts after an accidental clash of heads in the second round.

The result could have gone either way, but the judges scored it 95-95, 97-93 and 96-94 to hand Hennessy victory in the bout, which was shown live on BBC Two, with a majority decision.

“What a fight, great opponents, I have so much respect for her,” Hennessy said. “It was absolute war.”

With her eighth straight victory, the 21-year-old becomes the mandatory challenger for undisputed world champion Cherneka Johnson’s WBC title.

Hennessy arrived at the Copper Box with momentum behind her and, as ever, walked to the ring smiling as she soaked up the occasion.

The Kent fighter has built a strong following, helped by a viral video charting her journey from an overweight youngster to a bantamweight contender on the cusp of world honours.

The quick-footed Hennessy settled into her rhythm, working behind her jab, but Bouttell, 29, was not in London to make up the numbers.

She pressed forward to close the distance, with both fighters cut after the accidental head clash – Hennessy on the forehead, Bouttell under her right eye.

Hennessy landed a sharp combination in the fourth, but Bouttell continued to march forward, landing heavy hooks in the middle rounds.

Promoter and manager Mick Hennessy cheered his daughter on from ringside, while Bouttell’s family, watching her compete in the UK for the first time, made their voices heard.

By the final bell, with both women having thrown close to 500 punches and showing the marks of battle, it was difficult to tell who had edged the contest.

Bouttell entered as something of an unknown quantity but leaves with many new fans. For Hennessy, questions remain about how she will fare against established world-level opposition.

A clash with Johnson would represent a significant step up, but Hennessy – who turns 22 in October – has made no secret of her ambition to become the youngest undisputed champion in boxing history.

In the co-main event, Dutch light-heavyweight Gradus Kraus won his 10th pro fight with a destructive second-round stoppage victory over Scotland’s Boris Crighton.

Kraus, 24, made a memorable ringwalk, dancing alongside his four-year-old daughter Gianna.

The heartwarming father-and-daughter routines have become a regular part of Kraus’ entrances as the pair danced to Soulja Boy’s Crank That.

Just minutes later, Kraus went from father to fighter as he landed a stinging left hook to the body in the first round, sending Crighton to the canvas.

Crighton, 32, admirably got back up to land a few clean shots early in the second, but Kraus’ blistering flurry dropped him again – although he was guilty of landing a punch while the Glaswegian had dropped to his knee.

A final left to the body with under a minute remaining forced the referee to wave off the contest.

Britain’s Josh Kelly put on a slick and brave performance to beat Bakhram Murtazaliev and win the IBF light-middleweight title by majority decision in Newcastle.

It was a trademark Kelly display as he danced around the ring, displaying devastating speed and high ring IQ – knowing when to engage and when to get on his heels.

Both fighters hit the canvas with Murtazaliev going down in the fourth and Kelly in the ninth. The Briton went down a further two times late in the fight, but both were ruled as slips.

Two judges scored the bout 115-111 and 114-113 in Kelly’s favour with the other having it down as a 113-113 draw.

Murtazaliev looked to have got to grips with Kelly’s evasive style in the latter rounds, but the home fighter rallied in the last three minutes to end strongly.

Kelly, who becomes Sunderland’s first world champion, sprinted to embrace trainer Adam Booth when the result was announced before grabbing the belt and raising it up to the 4,000-strong crowd.

“It feels like a dream. I envisioned this,” Kelly told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“I was praying a couple of days ago, envisioned the fight, and I had deja vu of the knockdown in the tenth round.

“I had to concentrate – I feel overwhelmed. I need to take a second backstage to gather myself. I’m mentally exhausted.”

Kelly takes the UK’s tally of reigning male world champions to six, alongside heavyweight Fabio Wardley, welterweight Lewis Crocker, super-featherweight Jazza Dickens, featherweight Nick Ball and light-welterweight Dalton Smith.

It has been some start to life as a Premier League manager for Liam Rosenior.

Saturday’s thrilling comeback win against West Ham was Chelsea’s fourth league win in a row since the 41-year-old replaced Enzo Maresca at the start of January.

And, in his biggest test to date, it was his drastic half-time substitutions that led to the Blues recovering from 2-0 down to win 3-2 and moved them into the top four.

After making seven changes from their midweek Champions League win in Napoli, a limp first-half display allowed relegation-threatened West Ham to deservedly take control.

But, making three half-time changes, Rosenior inspired a comeback in which substitutes Marc Cucurella and Joao Pedro hauled Chelsea level with a goal apiece – before Enzo Fernandez’s dramatic stoppage-time winner.

Criticism can be levelled at Chelsea for a poor first half in which they were booed off, fully deserved to be two goals down, and raised further questions about the quality of their squad.

After the match, Rosenior played down the importance of his substitutions, instead crediting the mentality of the players since his arrival.

“My biggest learning is there’s a spirit and a fight and a resilience in this group that I really, really like,” he said. “I’ve demanded that from the first day of stepping in.

“We haven’t had many training sessions, but we’ve spoken about reacting positively to setbacks.

“We’ve spoken about reactions to losing the ball, pressing, energy, intensity. All of that was there in the second half, which wasn’t there in the first half. I don’t put that just down to the changes I made.”

Overall, Rosenior’s early reign, now four weeks old, has been characterised by grinding out results and impactful in‑game adjustments.

His predecessor Maresca ended his tenure after a breakdown in relations with the ownership and having dropped a league‑high 15 points from winning positions – prompting frequent criticism of his mid-match decisions.

There will be questions about whether Rosenior got his starting XI wrong, having made wholesale changes from the 3-2 win at Napoli.

Chelsea’s entire left side – Alejandro Garnacho, Jorrel Hato and Benoit Badiashile – could arguably be blamed for Jarrod Bowen’s opening goal and Crysencio Summerville’s second for West Ham.

All three were taken off at half-time, despite an enforced earlier change when Jamie Gittens was replaced by Pedro Neto midway through the first half.

Rosenior said: “The individuals came off and then people will look at them. That wasn’t on them. There was a collective poor performance in the first half.

“Those players know with me, I make early changes. It doesn’t mean that all of a sudden they’re out of my thoughts at all.”

Early changes have become one of the defining characteristics of Rosenior’s management at Chelsea, as was also the case at sister club Strasbourg, which is likewise owned by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital.

Against Brentford, early substitutions helped Chelsea protect a narrow lead before a late goal secured a 2-0 victory in his first league match.

Despite a poor performance on Saturday, Garnacho has credit in the bank after scoring two goals from the bench against Arsenal in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final, while Cole Palmer set up Joao Pedro twice as a substitute in Naples.

Joao Pedro highlighted in his Sky Sports interview that Chelsea have a “strong squad”, while ex-Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp added after Saturday’s win: “If you ask every single Chelsea fan, it was the easiest set of substitutions you’ll ever have to make.”

There is depth in terms of numbers, but changes such as Cucurella, Joao Pedro, Wesley Fofana, Neto and eventually Reece James – all among Chelsea’s strongest performers – were always likely to influence the match when introduced from the bench.

However, it has proven challenging to keep Chelsea competitive when resting players.

It was a criticism Maresca made of the squad after a 3-1 defeat by Leeds when, like Rosenior against West Ham, he rotated heavily. He said that players such as Andrey Santos and Tosin Adarabioyo were not at the “level” of his first-choice starters.

Former Chelsea goalkeeper Rob Green echoed that view on BBC Radio 5 Live, saying: “Rosenior righted the wrongs in the second half, but he’s got the same problems now as Enzo Maresca.

“The players who are not in the starting XI are so far off the starting XI. So he’ll be delighted, but also at the back of his mind, he’s got a problem.”

Rosenior is just the fourth English manager to win his first three Premier League games.

He has won six of his first seven matches in all competitions and has overseen Chelsea’s first comeback from two goals down to win a Premier League match.

Those results have propelled the Blues to fourth place while competing on four fronts domestically and in Europe.

Ask a fan of any team in Scotland who they want their club to sign before Monday’s transfer deadline and there will be one name which sticks out.

Tawanda Maswanhise.

With 18 goals in all competitions, it is no surprise there are clubs rumoured to be circling like sharks in the water around the Motherwell forward.

The Zimbabwe rising star has been a revelation so far this season, currently standing alone as the league’s top scorer with Jens Berthel Askou’s side trailing Celtic by just two points.

At just 23 years old, his good years are ahead of him and Motherwell are in no mood to sell, with Maswanhise contracted until 2027. The club also hold an option for a further year.

“We have a game on Wednesday [against Dundee] and the business we plan to do doesn’t really involve him,” Askou said after Maswanhise’s double secured a 2-0 win over Livingston.

“I never said he wasn’t for sale, but I said we don’t have a plan to sell him now.”

Kieron Bowie’s exit from Hibs was confirmed last week, with the young Scotland cap joining Hellas Verona in Italy’s Serie A.

It took a reported £6m fee to shift him from Leith, with more money flowing to Easter Road in potential add-ons, but Bowie’s numbers pale in comparison to Maswanhise.

“If Bowie, with nine goals, is going for £6m, there’s no way Motherwell will say ‘we’ll accept £2.5m-£3m’,” former Motherwell captain Stephen Craigan said. “Not a chance in a million years.

“He can play wide, he can play centre-forward. And what he’s shown is that he can score all types of goals. That’ll be the gauge, somewhere close to that [£6m mark], if someone wants to pinch him before the window shuts.”

Craigan also explained there are other circumstances which suggest Motherwell’s hand will not be forced in the coming days when it comes to their in-demand striker.

“There’s a couple of things as well,” he said. “The Lennon Miller [who was sold to Udinese in the summer] money, there’s still a good chunk of that there. If he makes progress, they get more.

“Crowds at Fir Park are up by 1,500-2,000 at home. There’s plenty of money sitting about, Motherwell aren’t desperate to sell their prized asset.

Motherwell fans will be cursing any chat linking Maswanhise away from Fir Park. It is believed no formal bids have been tabled, but he is the name which continuously gets talked about.

Where would Maswanhise go, though? Championship strugglers Blackburn Rovers have been touted, while plenty of pundits have suggested both sides of the Old Firm should take a look at the Zimbabwe international.

Chat around how he could add a dynamic edge to Celtic’s misfiring attack has grown on message boards, social feeds and across the media landscape. Especially given his dynamism and ability to play centrally or cut in from out wide.

However, even if Scotland’s two biggest clubs came sniffing around, former Rangers striker Rory Loy is not convinced Motherwell would be moved.

“If Maswanhise had scored that amount of goals in the Austrian league, a young player with a couple of assists as well, you’d look at it and go that’s a great bit of business [for the Old Firm],” Loy said.

Plundering Motherwell for a forward has worked before for Celtic – think of Scott McDonald’s time in Glasgow, scoring 64 goals in 128 games which included a winner against AC Milan. Albeit that was some time ago now.

However, it does not always work. Jake Hastie never made a league appearance for Rangers, while David Turnbull’s time at Celtic on the back of a £3.25 move ended after struggling for game time.

Wherever he goes, it will be fascinating to see what Maswanhise turns up. He scored just six goals in his debut season at Motherwell following his switch from Leicester City, and was in and out of the team under previous boss Michael Wimmer.

But with the guidance of Askou, it has been a different story. His 13 goals in the league make him more prolific than anyone else in Scotland’s topflight, but he is outperforming his expected goals (xG) by 6.5 goals.

He also was named as one of the three most promising talents at the Africa Cup of Nations after shining brightly for Zimbabwe.

Is it the case that this is a purple patch? Has he become a clinical finisher over the summer? Or is he benefiting from Askou’s coaching, as are the likes of Elliot Watt, Callum Slattery, and previous loanee Stephen Welsh? A rising tide lifts all boats, after all.

The fact he stood out so much for his nation in Morocco despite not getting much game time would suggest not.