Transfer deadline day live: Liverpool agree Jeremy Jacquet deal

The 22-year-old, a Norwegian Under-21 international, played 21 times for Sunderland last season and is returning after surgery on his achilles last summer.

The Everton right back Nathan Patterson is interesting the Serie A side Genoa (Paul Joyce writes). The Italians will move for a loan deal if Brooke Norton-Cuffy, their 22-year-old English right back leaves.

Patterson, the Scottish 24-year-old has been at Everton since January 2022, when he was signed by Rafael Benítez on a five-and-a-half year deal. His Everton career has been interrupted by injuries, and he he has only played for the club 66 times in nearly four years.

Wolves are set to confuse fans as they pursue the signing of Angel Gomes to join João Gomes, Rodrigo Gomes and Toti Gomes at the club (Bill Edgar writes). Crewe Alexandra are the only league club to have started a game in any competition with four players sharing a surname — Keith Jones, Dick Jones, David Jones and Mervyn Jones v Workington in the fourth tier in 1960.

For more quirky facts from this weekend’s football, make sure you take a look at our resident stats guru Bill Edgar’s weekly column!

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Massimiliano Allegri, the AC Milan head coach, declined to talk about the proposed deal for Mateta (Gary Jacob writes).

“I’m not including Mateta in the bulletin for one simple reason: as I’ve always done, I only talk about AC Milan players, also out of respect because it’s not right to talk about players from other teams,” Allegri said.

A deal has been agreed between Milan and Crystal Palace for the transfer of the 28-year-old Frenchman.

Nottingham Forest have had a rejected approach for Hayden Hackney, the Middlesbrough central midfielder (Gary Jacob writes). The 23-year-old Englishman has 18 months left on his contract at the Championship club, who are second in the table and are competing for promotion. West Ham United were interested in Hackney last summer.

Arsenal have had a third rejected bid for Igor Tyjon, the 17-year-old Blackburn Rovers and England youth striker who is out of contract at the end of the season (Gary Jacob writes). Rovers want as much as £2million for him.

Tyjon was born in Southport and joined Blackburn from Rochdale in 2023, and made his professional debut in the Championship in September 2024, appearing as a second half substitute in a 3–0 home win over Bristol City.

Arsenal have made an approach for James Wilson, asking to sign the Heart of Midlothian 18-year-old striker initially on loan but with the option of a permanent deal (Gary Jacob writes).

Wilson scored five league goals last season but has struggled for minutes this campaign. Presumably he would be used by the Arsenal academy in the short-term — and perhaps sold on if he doesn’t make the grade. He has appeared for Scotland at youth levels and made his first senior appearance against Greece in the Nations League in March last year. Hearts have also had interest from St Johnstone in the Scottish Championship.

Last summer, the Brighton & Hove Albion owner Tony Bloom completed a £9.86million purchase of a 29 per cent stake in Hearts.

Arsenal need to complete the deal before the English transfer window closes at 7pm tonight — despite the Scottish window ending at 11pm.

Having already spent more than £80million on Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guéhi, Manchester City are happy with their recruitment in this window and will not sign anyone else today.

Kalvin Phillips, who has played just seven minutes of competitive football this season, could leave on loan. Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers have been linked with a move for the 30-year-old midfielder.

City have recalled Sverre Nypan from his loan spell with Middlesbrough, where he made just three starts. The 19-year-old midfielder, who joined City from Rosenborg last summer for £12.5 million, will be part of Pep Guardiola’s first-team squad for the rest of the season.

Divine Mukasa, who is in talks over a new contract, is set to join Leicester City on loan. The 18-year-old attacking midfielder is arguably the best player in the academy and has so far recorded two assists in his six appearances for City.

There are unlikely to be any incomings or outgoings from the Manchester United first-team squad today (Paul Hirst writes). Joshua Zirkzee has been linked with a move to Roma but he now looks likely to stay and fight for a first-team place.

His compatriot Tyrell Malacia has attracted interest from the United States and Turkey, but MLS closes for business on March 26 and Turkey on February 6, so there is no immediate rush for find the 26-year-old left back to find a new club if he does ask for a move. Patrick Dorgu is injured for up to ten weeks with a hamstring injury so Malacia, out of contract in the summer, is now the second-choice left back behind Luke Shaw.

Ethan Wheatley, the 20-year-old striker who spent the first half of the season on loan at Northampton Town, has agreed a six-month loan spell with Bradford City. James Scanlon, the 19-year-old academy midfielder, could also be loaned out.

West Ham have scheduled a medical for Axel Disasi, the Chelsea defender, after agreeing a loan deal with their London rivals for the 27-year-old Frenchman (Gary Jacob writes).

It is still unclear however whether or not Disasi has given the green light to the proposed move.

Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest have been told that Kodai Sano, the NEC Nijmegen and Japan midfielder, will cost at least £17.3million (Gary Jacob writes). NEC, who are third in the Eredivisie, believe that the 22-year-old’s value could rise during the World Cup this summer and have been unhappy with Ajax’s attempts to sign him.

Sano has scored three goals and claimed four assists this season and his agents agreed a contract until 2030 with Ajax.

NEC’s general manager Wilco van Schaik is adamant: “Sano isn’t leaving this transfer window. He’s staying here. And he’s definitely not going to Ajax.”

Sandro Tonali is not going to Arsenal according to Newcastle sources (Martin Hardy writes).

The Italian midfielder, a key part of Eddie Howe’s plans, has been linked with an approach by Arsenal this morning, following the news Mikel Merino will be out for a period because of surgery on a serious foot injury.

However Newcastle insist there has been no contact with Arenal about the 25-year-old, who Newcastle bought in the summer of 2023 for £55million, and then helped during his ten-month ban for breaching betting rules.

Tonali quietly signed an extension to his initial deal at St James’ Park during his ban to take his contract until 2029 and Howe certainly does not want to lose the Italian, who has 30 international caps, with his squad already stretched to breaking point.

Nottingham Forest have had a second bid turned down for Celtic midfielder Arne Engels (Michael Grant writes). Forest had offered £14million for the 22-year-old, who has four caps for Belgium. Celtic rejected that and the Scottish champions have now said no again to a bid believed to be worth £17.3million.

Celtic‘s manager Martin O’Neill rates Engels highly and the club has no intention to sell him in this window. Engels is Celtic’s record signing, having arrived for £11million in 2024, and is under contract until 2028.

After missing out on Jeremy Jacquet to Liverpool, Chelsea are expected to recall the centre back Mamadou Sarr today (Peter Rutzler writes).

Sarr, 20, was sent back to Chelsea’s sister club Strasbourg on loan after the Club World Cup in the summer. He had signed for Chelsea permanently from the Ligue 1 club for about £12million in the summer. The centre back had a strong relationship with Liam Rosenior, when the coach was in charge at Strasbourg. The two clubs are both own by the BlueCo consortium.

Aaron Anselmino, recalled from Borussia Dortmund, is heading the other way to Strasbourg on loan.

David Datro Fofana is also expected to leave Chelsea and head to Strasbourg on loan. He will provide cover for Emmanuel Emegha, who has suffered an injury. Fofana was recalled from the Turkish side Fatih Karagümrük earlier in the window. He had interest from other clubs in France.

Tottenham are looking for a wide forward and a creative midfielder but in a limited market the club are wary of spending money on the wrong player, as has happened too often in recent years (Tom Allnutt writes).

Spurs‘ search for a passing midfielder is expected to be resolved in the summer, given the lack of available options mid-season, so any late move today is more likely to come in attack. The Monaco winger Maghnes Akliouche, Moussa Diaby at Al-Ittihad and Iliman Ndiaye at Everton are among the players Spurs have been following, but the club are not interested in signing Raheem Sterling on a free transfer. Thomas Frank wants long-term signings so while a short-term addition is possible, it would more likely be a loan than a permanent deal.

Disasi is yet to decide if he wants to join West Ham United after they agreed a loan deal with Chelsea (Gary Jacob writes).

The Frenchman hasn’t played a game for Chelsea this season.

West Ham are looking for a goalkeeper but a proposed move for Antonin Kinsky has ended, as Tottenham Hotspur will not release their reserve goalkeeper on loan for the season. Nuno Espírito Santo, the West Ham manager, wants competition for Alphonse Areola as he tries to keep the club in the Premier League.

Kinsky, the 22-year-old Czech, was brought in by Tottenham from Slavia Prague this time last year, but has only played six games for the north London club.

Brighton’s German midfielder Brajan Gruda has joined RB Leipzig on loan (Peter Rutzler writes).

The 21-year-old attacking midfielder joined Brighton from Mainz in August 2024.

The Rennes centre back is due to undergo a medical at Liverpool on Monday ahead of his move to Merseyside in the summer (Paul Joyce writes).

Jacquet, who has impressed for Rennes since breaking into the first team this season, will return to France for the rest of the season.

Brighton are recalling their Denmark midfielder Matt O’Riley from Marseille (Peter Rutzler writes).

An agreement has been reached to terminate his loan early after Marseille failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League.

O’Riley is expected to feature for Brighton during the second half of the season, with midfield departures expected by the south coast club.

Fulham’s move for Ricardo Pepi is no longer proceeding after PSV Eindhoven failed to find a replacement (Peter Rutzler writes).

Fulham made a new proposal for the United States forward Pepi in the last few days and while personal terms were also not thought to be an issue, the remaining stumbling block concerned PSV sourcing a replacement. The Dutch league leaders were reluctant to sanction the deal without sourcing cover.

The 23-year-old, who has a broken arm, is now expected to stay at PSV. Fulham were also looking at Oh Hyeon-gyu, Genk’s South Korea striker, but it is not clear whether they are pursuing him at this stage.

West Ham United are confident of signing Axel Disasi on loan from Chelsea after AC Milan paused their interest in the defender (Gary Jacob writes). The east London club have conceded the highest number of goals in the Premier League and will lose Jean-Clair Todibo for three matches after his dismissal at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Disasi rejected a move to West Ham last summer. West Ham bid £12million for Taylor Harwood-Bellis but Southampton wanted £20million for the 24-year-old defender. West Ham could also sign a goalkeeper on loan.

Chelsea had approached Stade Rennais earlier in January about a deal for Jeremy Jacquet but ultimately Liverpool‘s proposition was more appealing to the defender (Peter Rutzler writes).

The west London club had been informed of the fee to sign the centre back and personal terms were not understood to be an issue.

However, there is less competition for places at Liverpool and this may have been a decisive factor, particularly as Chelsea are refusing to consider a sale of Josh Acheampong, 19, coupled with the expectation that Mamadou Sarr, 20, will be recalled from Strasbourg today.

Mikel Merino is set to miss most of the rest of the season after breaking a bone in his foot in the 3-2 loss at home to Manchester United eight days ago.

The versatile Spaniard, who scored the equaliser to make it 2-2 in that game, is set to have surgery this week, though his absence will be partly offset by the return of Kai Havertz.

Arsenal’s squad depth stands them in good stead, but they may try to sign a midfielder on loan. They cannot however recall Ethan Nwaneri from his loan move at Marseille.

• Mikel Merino set for surgery and could miss rest of season

Nottingham Forest are aiming to make additions to their squad today, with a left back and midfielder priority positions for Edu Gaspar, Forest’s head of football, as well as a striker (Hamzah Khalique-Loonat writes).

Neco Williams is suspended for Forest’s next league match, after being sent off in Forest’s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace on Sunday, while Oleksandr Zinchenko (who Edu signed at the end of the summer transfer window), was recalled from his loan by Arsenal and sold to Ajax, underscoring the importance for a left back.

Forest made a £35million bid for Jean-Philippe Mateta last week, however, Crystal Palace agreed to sell Mateta to AC Milan for about £30million. The Midlands club also hoped to sign Davide Frattesi from Inter Milan, however, such a deal appears unlikely, with Inter wanting an incoming midfielder before sanctioning a sale.

Mats Selz sustained a groin injury during yesterday’s match with Palace but the club are yet to ascertain its severity. However, Forest have cover in goal as they confirmed signing Stefan Ortega on loan from Manchester City on Sunday. The club are also waiting for an update on Calum Hudson-Odoi, who suffered a shoulder injury on Sunday.

The broadcaster and his yellow tie are synonymous with deadline day. He shares his favourite stories from one of the most hectic days of the football calendar with Alyson Rudd.

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The 19-year-old Chelsea winger is nearing a loan move to Merseyside, with an option to buy.

The academy product has been granted permission to travel to Merseyside for a medical by Chelsea while final details are resolved between the two clubs. George was expected to leave Stamford Bridge in this transfer window after making only 11 appearances for the first team this season. He had missed out on a summer transfer to Fulham, who withdrew from a £22million deal on deadline day in September.

In case you missed it late last night…

Liverpool have agreed a £60million deal for the 20-year-old Rennes centre back Jérémy Jacquet, who’ll be joining them in the summer.

The France U20 defender had also been the subject of strong interest from Chelsea, but Liverpool accelerated talks in the last day or so.

• Liverpool agree deal for Rennes centre back Jeremy Jacquet

Hello and welcome to the Times’ live coverage of transfer deadline day 2026. With the window closing across Europe at 7pm GMT, clubs have until then to finalise any deals to strengthen either their squads or their coffers for the rest of the season.

Stay tuned to keep up to date with all the news and updates from across the continent.

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