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Key events
West Ham agree deals for Castellanos and Pablo
Jacob Steinberg
West Ham are poised to boost their attacking options by signing Gil Vicente’s Pablo Felipe and Lazio’s Taty Castellanos at a cost of up to £47m.
Both deals have been driven by Nuno Espírito Santo, who is looking to help his struggling side’s fight to stay in the Premier League by adding more firepower. West Ham considered a move for the Wolves striker Jørgen Strand Larsen but decided against making a bid after concluding that his £40m valuation was too high.
Much talk about possible incoming Chelsea gaffer Liam Rosenior’s credentials. Michael Butler profiles him here.
Liam Rosenior started this decade as a columnist for the Guardian and is now the favourite to replace Enzo Maresca as manager of Chelsea. While the prospect of Barney Ronay or Jonathan Liew making the move into management is a tantalising one, Rosenior’s rise – from a youth coach at Brighton to an assistant and interim manager at Derby before full-time management at Hull City and Strasbourg – shows just how far the 41-year-old has come.
After a very respectable playing career at Bristol City, Fulham, Reading, Hull and Brighton, Rosenior earned a coaching job at the latter, managing the Seagulls’ under-23 side and supplemented that with punditry roles.
Would like to know what Strasbourg fans think of all this too. Because one of the (many) problems with multi-club ownership is that the “junior” clubs in such arrangements are prone to having their setups disrupted on the whim of the “senior” ones. Strasbourg are seventh in Ligue 1, eyeing the European places.
A little slice of Mikel Arteta chat, in which he was being pretty noncommital about Arsenal’s possible January transfer activity: “We are open to every option [for new signings] – we can find short, medium and long-term solutions but let’s see what happens and we’ll try to make the right decisions.” Asked about whether players such as Ethan Nwaneri might be shipped out on loan, the manager insisted that “every player is important, has a role that can change through the season and every player should be ready to play”.
Arteta had some warm words for Enzo Maresca: “I wish him all the best. I really like Enzo as a person and professionally – he has done a terrific job at Chelsea.” Arsenal visit Bournemouth tomorrow evening.
Who was at a game yesterday? Commiserations to those at the Gtech Stadium for that Brentford-Spurs stinker, and Liverpool v Leeds wasn’t exactly a barrel of fun either. Sunderland (and Arsenal) fans will have enjoyed their own stalemate rather more though. Meanwhile Ipswich are coming up on the rails in the Championship promotion race and Bristol City filled their boots in a 5-0 romp against Portsmouth.
Here’s some accounts of yesterday’s action:
Thanks Taha, morning everyone. And as it’s that time of the year again, I’ve sifted through some transfer tittle-tattle for you.
Time for a switch: Tom Davies will take over from here.
Right then, why not share what you’re most looking forward to this year (in a footballing sense, of course). Or any predictions: your World Cup, Champions League winners, top-scorers, summer transfers etc.
So Enzo Maresca has left the building. It was a very decent stint on paper, one with two trophies, including a Club World Cup victory which may grow in significance if the tournament becomes a properly serious thing in the future. But it was pretty turbulent, too; Jacob Steinberg has the inside story on what went wrong.
Preamble
Hello, hello, hello and welcome to the first Friday blog of 2026. We’ve already had some drama at Stamford Bridge with the departure of Enzo Maresca, and there’s plenty of Premier League action to review/preview. But let’s just ease up before going full throttle and take in this excellent interview with Jess Carter, the Guardian Footballer of the Year.
A lot of people don’t like the way I play football and that’s absolutely fine, but then attacking someone because of what they look like? I can’t do anything about that one, and I wouldn’t want to. I could never imagine going on to my social media to tell you how I think you’re doing at your job.
