Transfer deadline day: Aston Villa sign Rogers, Bournemouth close on Ünal – live | Transfer window

A deadline day special.

Aston Villa confirm signing of Morgan Rogers from Middlesbrough

Lyon closing on Mangala and Benrahma

Fulham open talks with Lyon’s Rayan Cherki

Ed Aarons

Whilst you are sitting around, doing NISH, Burnley are out making moves.

Lorenz Assignon was actually a target for Galatasaray but it seems that Burnley have beaten Gala – who we are contractually obliged to called ‘the Turkish giants’ – to the signing of the Stade Rennais right back.

Instead, looks like Serge Aurier will sign for Galatasaray from Nottingham Forest. The 31-year-old is currently captaining Ivory Coast at Afcon, where the hosts have reached the quarter-finals. It feels that Aurier’s move to the Turkish league is one that he was born to make.

Manchester City women have signed three exciting young players as they attempt to wrestle the WSL title away from leaders (and holders) Chelsea.

Poppy Pritchard moves from Durham. The 18-year-old striker grabbed a hat-trick for Durham’s Academy in a 3-2 victory over Manchester United’s Under-21s in November 2023. She also found the net inside 15 minutes of her England Under-19s debut in September of last year as the Young Lionesses beat Denmark 5-0.

Tara O’Hanlon moves from Irish side Peamount. The teenage defender is already a Republic of Ireland international. “After winning the league with Peamount, I felt I was ready to try and make the step up to the WSL,” said O’Hanlon. “I’m young, so hopefully I can come in and work hard over the next couple of months. I will do my best to try and earn a place in the team.”

Laura Blindkilde Brown is a big-money move, with City understood to have paid £200,000 for the 20-year-old from Aston Villa. Blindkilde Brown is seen as a replacement for City’s Jill Roord, who became the latest female superstar to suffer an ACL injury last week.

This research needs to be heeded.

This is nice from Graham Ruthven on whether Nottingham Forest can get Gio Reyna going again. At one time, the American looked like one of the brightest young players in Europe.

Enes Ünal, who has been ‘tipped’ to be the next big thing for about 10 years now, looks to be on the verge of joining Bournemouth. Fabrizio Romano has the story.

The Turkish striker was on fire for Getafe last season but suffered an ACL injury in March 2023, and only returned to action last month. Five appearances in January for Getafe, no goals. Apparently he has a €40m release clause, so €16.5m seems cheap but with his injury record it does feel like a risk. The Cherries obviously feel like it’s worth it, though. Imagine Ünal will be a back up to Dominic Solanke for the rest of the season, with a view to replacing the English striker if he moves on in the summer for big money.

The Guardian has closely followed Ünal’s career and was included in our 2014 Next Gen series.

In 2013, he became the youngest player to score in the Turkish top flight, netting in a match against Galatasaray for Bursaspor at the age of 16, got a £2m move to Manchester City in 2015 at 18, moved onto Villarreal for £12m in 2017, and onto Getafe in 2020. It’s been up and down since then.

Anyway, back to football transfers. Here is the Rumour Mill to save the day.

Before we get lost down a food-based rabbit hole, I know that Dyche and Woan are takeaway curry aficionados. They know their way around a menu, let’s put it like that.

“I might be late to the party on this one but I’ve just spotted Sean Dyche and the tough tackling Vinny Samways breakfasting together in a trendy Liverpool cafe,” emails Darrien Bold. “Rumours of a cool £2m swoop doing the rounds in these parts”.

More news when we have it. I’m not entirely sure that the first part of the email isn’t a joke. Dyche eating a posh breakfast with Vinny Samways before training is exactly the sort of thing I imagine that Dyche does on a Thursday.

However, when I interviewed Ian Woan – now Dyche’s assistant at Everton of course – in 2021 when they were at Burnley, he painted a fairly bleak picture of Dyche’s eating habits. Woan and Dyche lived together in a flat in Whalley, Lancashire with no working kitchen.

Rather than commute from Nottingham, Woan lives with Dyche in a nearby flat in midweek, a base for heated discussions on team selection.

“I would never talk back to him in front of other staff. Ever. But in our flat, it’s open season. You’d laugh if you came. Premier League manager, incredibly successful and all it’s got is two couches, two beds and a big-screen TV. I don’t think the cooker works.”

It sounds eerily similar to the Nottingham home Woan, Dyche and (Steve) Stone shared in the early 1990s. “We had nothing in that first house. Stoney spent most of his time trying to get the 2ps out of the pay phone. Sean was always way more professional than us, but would always have MTV on. I was the landlord back then. The rules have changed these days, I know who’s boss.”

This is not disclosed, but looks like Forest’s deal for Ribeiro would be worth more than £10m and if the transfer becomes permanent.

Nottingham Forest sign Rodrigo Ribeiro from Sporting

Ben Fisher

Mahmoud Dahoud joins VfB Stuttgart on loan

The above is from the BBC Lancashire sport editor. Blackburn were apparently pushing for Wharton to be loaned back to the club for the rest of the season, and it looks like Palace nearly pulled out of the deal. However, it seems that things have been resolved. Wharton should still be a Palace player by the end of the day.

That hiccup did disrupt Blackburn’s own transfer plans. American striker Duncan McGuire was reportedly flying over the pond last night from Orlando City to sign for Blackburn for £3.2m, but was told to turn back when the Wharton deal looked like collapsing. Sheffield Wednesday are another team keen on the USMNT forward. It is unclear whether McGuire made it to England.

Crystal Palace are one of the few Premier League clubs that remain very active. Colombia right-back Daniel Muñoz has already joined from Genk on a three-year deal (I can genuinely only think of three right backs that have played for Palace in last 10 years – Ward, AWB and Clyne), the £20m+ deal for Blackburn’s Adam Wharton is expected to be confirmed today and now Ed Aarons has a new lead: West Ham’s Maxwel Cornet, who is an excellent player when fit IMO.

Would those three deals represent a better deadline day than the one Palace had 10 years ago today?

Nope. Palace were in an awful state when these five arrived, but a run of five successive wins in March and April saw the club pull clear of the relegation zone and survive relegation in 2013-14. These signings were crucial to that run.

Chelsea want £5m loan fee for Armando Broja

Jacob Steinberg

Aston Villa, meanwhile, are nearing a Championship capture of their own. We’re expecting this one to be rubber-stamped today after Rogers’ medical.

Speaking of Championship clubs with an embarrassment of riches, here’s league leaders Leicester City, who could be tempted to flog Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall if they receive a bid of around £30m. The midfielder is thought to be a January transfer target for Brighton. Here’s what Foxes manager Enzo Maresca had to say:

“I don’t want Kiernan to go – ask the club if we need to sell or not. The only way we can do something is to sell players. I don’t think that Kiernan’s future was about this game. Kiernan is a Leicester player, hopefully he can play in the next game.

“Here, he showed once again he is in love with the club, if something will happen now, I don’t know. He cares about the club and he has 10 goals this season, probably for the first time in his life, these kind of things, people don’t give the right importance to and it’s not a good thing.”

Southampton’s Alcaraz joins Juventus on loan

Preamble