Consequences of the transfer window, Asian Cup and football news from the weekend – live | first division
Key events
West Ham: Real Betis' attempt to sign Pablo Fornals for £6.8m yesterday appears to have failed because a computer at the London Club end said “no”. The Spanish club's chief executive, Ramón Alarcón, has blamed the Hammers for a computer glitch that prevented the transfer of the 27-year-old winger, who has spent the last five seasons at West Ham, from going through, but remains hopeful that the deal can be closed. It will still be finalized in the coming days.
“There was a last minute problem with Fornals, we believe it was a computer problem,” he said. “Betis sent all the documents correctly and on time and it seems that West Ham had a computer problem. It was not only with Betis, but with other agreements (from West Ham). We hope it will be resolved in the coming days.”
London Stadium basement staff in stained Monster Munch t-shirts are turning everything off and on again.
Sheffield United-Aston Villa: Having taken serious and inexplicable exception when a referee assistant ate a sandwich in his presence during a post-match visit to the referees' changing room at Selhurst Park on Tuesday night (hear more about the matter in yesterday's article) . Weekly Football Guardian), Chris Wilder has calmed down enough to look ahead to his relegation-threatened side's match against Aston Villa at Bramall Lane tomorrow.
“If you're playing well, that will come to you,” he said. “I think we are playing well and I think that will come to us. It has to happen sooner or later, we understand that, and that's the pressure we play under.
“We should take advantage of that pressure and try to enjoy it too, and why shouldn't we enjoy the game on Saturday night? It's going to be a fabulous game. We have had some fantastic games against Villa in the past, both home and away. Full house, Bramall Lane under the lights, half past five. It is something we really want to do.”
This weekend's Premier League games
Everton-Tottenham Hotspur (Saturday 12:30 pm GMT)
Brighton-Crystal Palace (3:00 p.m.)
Burnley-Fulham (3:00 p.m.)
Newcastle-Luton (3:00 p.m.)
Sheffield United-Aston Villa (5:30 p.m.)
Bournemouth – Nottingham Forest (Sunday 2:00 p.m.)
Chelsea-Wolves (2:00 p.m.)
Manchester United-West Ham (2:00 p.m.)
Arsenal-Liverpool (4:30 p.m.)
Interview: Harry Kane
Rob Draper He went to Kirchweidach, a town of 2,000 in deepest Bavaria, to watch Harry Kane meet and greet his adoring audience, sing local songs, season soup and slide mugs of beer over a game of shuffleboard. In the midst of all this chaos, the England captain took some time to sit down for a chat…
Friday football news
Hallelujah. The quietest transfer window in recent times has finally closed, his club almost certainly did not strengthen in as many areas as it would have liked and it barely concluded a midweek cycle of Premier League matches with some late, late players . Heartbreak of the wolves in Molineux that the last round of matches of the weekend is about to arrive. Football never stops, so fasten your seatbelts and let's keep the fun going.
