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The top stories and transfer rumours from Thursday’s newspapers…

THE SUN

New England star Angel Gomes has become Newcastle’s top target.

DAILY TELEGRAPH

England have left the door open in their hunt for a permanent manager by sounding out a number of external candidates.

Cristiano Ronaldo has reignited his war of words with Erik ten Hag by telling the Manchester United manager he sent out the wrong message when he said the club were a “long way” from being able to win the Premier League and Champions League.

Kevin Sinfield has been offered a new three-year contract by the Rugby Football Union with England coach Steve Borthwick desperate to keep the rugby league icon on his coaching staff.

Jon Rahm has been given a final warning that he needs to settle his LIV Golf fines – or at least appeal the sanction – by noon on Thursday if he wants to begin to make himself eligible for next year’s Ryder Cup.

THE GUARDIAN

Arsenal are still waiting to discover the full extent of Martin Odegaard’s ankle injury but their captain is expected to be unavailable for at least three weeks.

Chelsea have appointed a media expert with no experience of running a football club as the first chief executive officer of their women’s team. Aki Mandhar has been headhunted to run the Women’s Super League champions from her position as general manager of the Athletic, the sports website owned by the New York Times.

DAILY MAIL

Alejandro Garnacho has risked the wrath of Erik ten Hag by controversially liking an Instagram post. The Manchester United winger liked a post from Fabrizio Romano detailing Cristiano Ronaldo’s recent criticism of Red Devils manager Ten Hag.

Wesley Fofana has revealed that he contemplated leaving Chelsea during the summer transfer window.

Chelsea are closing in on confirming their 41st departure of a hectic summer by loaning David Datro Fofana to AEK Athens before the Greek transfer window closes on Wednesday.

DAILY MIRROR

Manchester City are still waiting to assess the full extent of the injury suffered by Nathan Ake on international duty.

William Gallas has warned Chelsea has been left in a “real mess” because of the civil war in the boardroom.

DAILY EXPRESS

Frank Lampard reportedly remains on the Football Association’s radar as they continue their search for the next England manager.

DAILY RECORD

Celtic are set to open talks with Alistair Johnston over a new deal to bring him in line with the club’s top earners.

Former English FA high flyer Adrian Bevington has revealed why he wants to land the vacant CEO role at Rangers.

Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez has been disqualified from driving following two driving offences.

The Argentina international received the ban and was fined £3,020 after being found guilty on two charges of failing to identify the driver of a Porsche Cayenne.

A driver of the car was allegedly caught speeding on Carmarthen Road, Swansea on December 20, 2023, by South Wales Police and running a red light on Church Street, Llanelli on November 28 last year by Dyfed-Powys Police.

It was not proven that Fernandez was the driver of the vehicle on either occasion.

Both police forces wrote to the 23-year-old, as the vehicle’s registered owner, but he did not respond to requests for information.

Fernandez did not appear before Llanelli Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday for sentencing, having been found guilty in his absence at two hearings earlier this year.

Court papers gave two addresses for Fernandez, one at the Chelsea training ground in Surrey and another in Kingston-upon-Thames.

Wyn Evans, the chair of the magistrates, said: “We are dealing with two matters of failing to give the driver’s identity which has been proved in Enzo Fernandez’s absence.”

In total, he was charged £1,000 and £110 in police costs for the offence in Llanelli and a further £1,000 charge, £800 victim surcharge and £110 in police costs for the offence in Swansea.

He was also given six penalty points for each offence – 12 points in total.

Fernandez already had nine penalty points on his license for speeding, leading to an automatic ban for six months starting from Wednesday.

Fernandez won the World Cup with Argentina in December 2022 and a month later joined Chelsea in a then-British transfer record £106.8m deal from Benfica.

He joined the Lisbon side in the summer of 2022 from Argentinian club River Plate for £8.8m and played just 29 games before moving to London.

Todd Boehly is determined to press ahead with plans to buy Chelsea despite Clearlake Capital being confident it will continue to be the club’s majority owners in the long term.

Chelsea insiders are surprised and concerned that differences between the ownership groups – which are now irreconcilable – have entered the public domain.

Boehly – who has no intention of selling any of his shares – is unhappy with the way the club is being run and the lack of progress over the redevelopment of Stamford Bridge. He also did not want Mauricio Pochettino to lose his job as head coach at the end of last season.

The decision to replace Pochettino was taken after co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley compiled a detailed review of the season. Boehly and Clearlake Capital’s Behdad Eghbali and José Feliciano have sign-off on all key decisions at the club.

Who will blink first in Chelsea power struggle?

Multiple long-term investors have approached Boehly in the past month to offer to provide the funds to buy out Clearlake. They believe their offer would be so compelling that it would have to be considered by Clearlake’s investors.

The decision on whether to accept or reject any bid would be made by Clearlake co-founders Eghbali and Feliciano.

Clearlake has completely ruled out selling any of its shares despite Boehly refusing to take no for an answer as things stand.

The Clearlake-Boehly consortium bought Chelsea in a £2.5bn deal in 2022. Not even a significant premium on that price would tempt Clearlake to consider selling its stake.

While Boehly has let it be known that he is unhappy with the current ownership structure, nothing has been heard yet from other investors such as Mark Walter and Hansjorg Wyss.

Boehly, Walter and Wyss each own just under 13 per cent of Chelsea, which makes up the 38.5 per cent of shares not owned by Clearlake.

Will Chelsea move stadium?

Meanwhile, Chelsea are considering all options for a bigger stadium. No decision has been made yet on whether to redevelop Stamford Bridge or to move to a new site.

Chelsea chief executive Jason Gannon has held talks with Transport for London and property developers Delancey about including a football stadium in plans to redevelop Earls Court.

However, the Earls Court Development Company have ruled out such a move. “There is no plan within our plans for Chelsea FC to relocate to the Earls Court site,” a spokesperson said.

“We have a fully detailed design, shortly to be registered with both local authorities, which prioritises the delivery of thousands of homes and jobs, culture and open space through a well-designed and considered masterplan which has evolved over four years of engagement.

“This will see development commence in 2026 with the first residents and occupiers moving in from 2030. This is, and will remain, our primary focus.”

In April, Chelsea’s parent company BlueCo bought a 1.9-acre site next to Stamford Bridge which would make it easier to redevelop the stadium.

Chelsea Q&A: Have Boehly & Eghbali fallen out?

Sky Sports News’ chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol:

Eghbali and Boehly were never best friends but it does definitely appear as if their relationship is less close than it was when they first arrived at Stamford Bridge.

They are both very successful, strong-headed businessmen and it is natural that they will both have their own ideas about how the club should be run.

In private conversations up until last year they put on a united front, but it is now clear that Boehly has reservations about the club’s new recruitment strategy and the failure to make significant progress on redeveloping Stamford Bridge.

Having said that, all major decisions at Chelsea have to be signed off by Eghbali, Feliciano and Boehly – so Boehly is still closely involved in the overall strategy.

Relations between Eghbali and Boehly can best be described as professional and cordial at the moment. Boehly visited the Clearlake box at Stamford Bridge before the opening game of the season against Manchester City three weeks ago.

Read the full Q&A…

What next for Chelsea?

While unrest continues to rumble on off the pitch, Chelsea will return to action on it with a game against Bournemouth in their first fixture after the international break.

The match kicks off at 8pm on Saturday – live on Sky Sports Football and Sky Sports Main Event.

Enzo Maresca’s side will be looking to build on their emphatic 6-2 win against Wolverhampton Wanderers prior to the break, while Bournemouth will be eager to secure back-to-back wins following the late comeback victory against Everton.