The morning papers have found a new way to talk about Manchester City, and it does not involve lawyers. With the club guilty and the sanction still unwritten, Tuesday's gossip pages have moved on to the part every rival sporting director has been quietly modelling for two years: what happens to the squad if the punishment is severe. Football Insider report that City will put a hefty price on Erling Haaland even in the event of relegation. Not a fire sale. A hefty price.
Everyone is watching the Haaland situation
Fichajes name Chelsea, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Barcelona as clubs monitoring City's position. That is not a shortlist so much as a register of everyone who could plausibly afford him, which tells you how open the situation is thought to be rather than how advanced any approach is. Haaland is 26. He has given City no indication he wants out. The interest here is entirely contingent on a ruling nobody has seen yet, which is exactly why the story can run for months without anything happening.
City's position, as reported, is the sensible one. A club forced down would need money more than ever, and a striker of Haaland's output is the one asset whose value does not collapse with the badge. Whether a buyer would accept that logic is another question, and one that only gets answered if the Premier League goes further than a fine.
Arsenal and United looking at the same right-back
Away from the City noise, Caughtoffside say Arsenal and Manchester United are both watching Alberto Costa, the 22-year-old Portugal right-back at Porto, with Paris St-Germain also interested. Two English clubs and a French one circling the same young full-back is the kind of link that either dies in a week or becomes an auction, and the presence of PSG usually decides which.
Porto have been here before and they rarely sell cheap.
Liverpool, meanwhile, are reported by Teamtalk to retain an interest in Aurelien Tchouameni. The France midfielder, 26, signed a new long-term deal at Real Madrid over the summer, which normally ends a story rather than starts one. Foot Mercato report that Raheem Sterling has been offered to two Ligue 1 clubs and that neither was interested. The 31-year-old is a free agent.
Besiktas say Willock has already chosen
The boldest claim of the morning comes from Istanbul. Besiktas president Serdal Adali has told Talksport he will sign Joe Willock from Newcastle in January, and went further, saying the 27-year-old has already picked his next home. Club presidents in Turkey say this sort of thing often and it comes off perhaps half the time, but a named president going on the record is firmer than the usual January noise.
The Telegraph, finally, report that Eddie Howe will not take a mid-table Premier League job. Crystal Palace and Fulham are mentioned as the kind of club he would turn down. Howe is said to want an underachieving big one instead, which narrows his options considerably and means he may be out of work for a while yet.
Transfer context: All items above are press reports rather than confirmed club business. Sources as credited: Football Insider and Fichajes (Haaland), Caughtoffside (Alberto Costa, 22, Porto), Teamtalk (Aurelien Tchouameni, 26, Real Madrid), Foot Mercato (Raheem Sterling, 31, free agent), Talksport (Joe Willock, 27, Newcastle) and the Telegraph (Eddie Howe). Collected by BBC Sport, 28 September 2026.
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