Friday Morning Hot Links

Leeds United

• Leeds United has joined West Ham in having interest in Liverpool’s 19-year old winger Ben Doak, who wants to play more with the first team this season. According to a Liverpool source (not mine), £20 million would get the job done.

• Leeds are “close to agreeing” to a deal for Inter Milan/Iranian striker Mehdi Taremi. Taremi only made seven starts in his first season at Inter Milan last year but is just two seasons removed from back-to-back 20+ goal seasons for Porto.

• Yorkshire Evening Post’s Graham Smyth says that Leeds have told Leicester they plan to activate the transfer clause for Bilal El Khannouss.

• Leeds are also apparently quite interested in Brighton midfielder Facundo Buonanotte, though far-higher profile clubs also have designs on Buonanotte.

• You can watch Leeds United take on AC Milan live from Dublin in their final pre-season friendly at 9am (Central) tomorrow on LUTV.

• Former Leeds Great defender Kyle Bartley (2016-17) has retired. In his 16-year career, Bartley played a career-high 4,050 minutes in a career-high 45 starts and scored a career-high six goals in his one season for Leeds before joining Swansea.

Elsewhere

• BBC: Who is most likely to challenge Liverpool in the Premier League this season?

• Meet Will Still, the cricket-obsessed Englishman raised in Belgium and who definitely didn’t learn how to manage from Football Manager, as he prepares to open the season with Southampton.

• Bayern Munich have joined Newcastle United in the race for Chelsea’s Nicolas Jackson, who would prefer to stay in the Premier League.

• Chelsea are about to finalize a deal for Manchester United’s Alejandro Garnacho.

• Saudi club Al-Nassr, amid interest from Newcastle United and Tottenham, are ready to meet Brentford’s asking price for Yoane Wissa.

• Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner feels “positive” about Palace getting reinstated to the Europa League.

• Tottenham are close to loaning 21-year old Alfie Devine to Championship side Preston North End.

• Carlos Baleba is Brighton’s latest £100 million output.

• Is the Championship the hardest league in European soccer? Check out CBS Sports’ Championship season preview.

• Check out the phenomenal story of Mjällby - leaders of the Swedish Allsvensken with 12 games remaining.

• A Bolivian player got hit in the balls by a firework. Want to see it?

What To Watch: Friday

• 11:30am (Central): Bundesliga 2: FC Nurmberg v SV Darmstadt 98. ESPN+.

• 1pm: Friendly: Monaco v Inter Milan. ESPN+.

• 2pm: EFL Championship: Birmingham City v Ipswich. Paramount+.

• 7pm: NWSL: Houston Dash v North Carolina Courage. Paramount+.