LIVERPOOL will battle Arsenal and Manchester United for Viktor Gyokeres after growing frustrated in their pursuit of fellow Swede Alexander Isak.
Reds boss Arne Slot is desperate to sign a top striker ahead of their Prem title defence — and has the two Scandinavians in his sights.
But No 1 target Isak, 25, is proving difficult to lure away, with Newcastle preparing to make him the highest-paid player in their club’s 132-year history.
Isak earns £130,000 a week but Toon want to reward his 27-goal season with a bumper £200,000-a-week deal.
Meanwhile, £60million-rated Gyokeres, who has hit 97 goals in 102 games since arriving in Portugal from Coventry two years ago, has been on Slot’s radar for months.
The 27-year-old was United’s top summer target after boss Ruben Amorim took him to Sporting.
But he wants to play in the Champions League and the Red Devils have no European football.
Arsenal have already had a £55.3m bid rejected by the Portuguese champs and are likely to return with a second offer.
But they now face stiff competition from the Kop.
Gyokeres is at war with Sporting president Frederico Varandas over his selling price and has warned he will not return for pre-season training.
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He has an £85m release clause but Sporting could sell for £20m less.
Slot wants to bolster his options up front as Darwin Nunez is close to joining Napoli in a £42m deal.
While the Reds continue to pursue Crystal Palace skipper Marc Guehi and are confident of landing the 24-year-old defender — in the last year of his contract — for £35m.
Guehi would fill the void left by Jarell Quansah, 22, who is set for a £34m switch to Leverkusen.
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TWO survivors of the 7/7 terror attack yesterday thanked The Sun after they were finally invited to a service marking its 20th anniversary.
We told on Tuesday how Dan Biddle, who lost his legs to a bomb at Edgware Road station, and his saviour, Adrian Heili, had been snubbed.
The Greater London Authority has now sent them invitations to St Paul’s Cathedral — and they have accepted.
Dan, 46, from South Wales, still has PTSD.
He said: “As the most injured survivor of 7/7 I was disappointed not to have made the original guest list but am grateful that this has now been put right after being alerted by The Sun.
“From the start I’ve felt a lack of understanding and compassion when it comes to those who survived 7/7.
“I will be attending the memorial service at St Paul’s to be able to reflect on the day that changed me forever and to also remember those who did not survive.
“We can never forget what happened that day”
Ex-Army medic Adrian, 44, ignored his own injuries to help Dan.
The service will be attended by more than 400 survivors and families of the 52 killed.
IRAN executed three more prisoners accused of spying for Israel as it launched a major crackdown in the wake of the 12-Day War.
The three men – named as Idris Ali, Azad Shojai and Rasoul Ahmad Rasoul – were hanged yesterday morning.
The trio were paraded on State TV in blue prison uniforms after being convicted of espionage.
At least six men have been killed in the past 10 days on the orders of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A further 700 have been rounded up and arrested.
Iran human rights boss, Mahmood Amiry Moghaddam, said: “After the ceasefire with Israel, the Islamic Republic needs more repression to cover up military failures, prevent protests, and ensure its continued survival.
“Executions are the Islamic Republic’s most important tool for instilling societal fear, and in the coming days and weeks, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of prisoners might be at risk of execution.”
In May, a young son of a British couple imprisoned in Iran on spying charges revealed how devastated he was after hearing of his parents’ arrest.
Husband and wife Craig and Lindsay Foreman have spent almost 150 days in jail since being detained during a round-the-world motorbike trip.
The Brits entered Iran despite being warned by the Foreign Office and their family to avoid passing through the notoriously strict state.
The couple, both in their 50s, were held back in January on unspecified espionage charges.
The Iranian government continues to claim they were “posing as tourists” to gather intelligence against the Middle East nation.
Ever since their incarceration, the pair have hardly spoken to their loved ones and mainly had contact with the Foreign Office.
THE family of a man who died after being stung by wasps in his garden have warned people to be aware of the potential fatal side effects of insect stings.
Michael Sheehan was picking up hedge clipping at the rear of his Cork property when he was stung several times, an inquest heard today.
The 56-year-old father-of-three died at his home near Macroom last year after he received five or six wasp stings in November 2024.
Mr Sheehan, who was originally from Ballinlough in Cork city, was pronounced dead at 2.16pm on November 5, at his home in Glen Tanar, Carriganine.
His wife Carmel told an inquest that shortly after noon her husband left the study to help men who were cutting the hedge in their garden.
After a short period he came back into the home and said he was “after getting stung by a wasp”.
However, there was no cause for concern at this stage as he wasn’t showing any ill effects.
Mrs Sheehan realised there wasn’t any allergy medication in the house and decided to make the short journey one mile down the road to the chemist to pick up some Zirtek.
But when she returned home, she found her husband “face down on the kitchen floor”.
She alerted the men working in the garden who then rushed in to the house.
She told the inquest: “I saw John trying to get Mick to respond. He was sitting Mick up and slapping his face.”
Mrs Sheehan called emergency services and the Irish Community Air Ambulance from Rathcoole landed in the nearby golf club.
On arrival to the home a first responder told her that if she had prayers to say it was probably the appropriate time to start them.
Mrs Sheehan said that sometime after 2pm Dr Jason van der Velde, a consultant in emergency medicine, told her that her husband had passed away.
A local priest was contacted and prayers were said in the kitchen before the deceased was brought to the morgue at Cork University Hospital for a postmortem examination.
Mrs Sheehan told Coroner Frank O’Connell her husband had no history of allergies.
Garda Don Coomey said when he arrived at the Sheehan home he was informed of the death of the retired tax consultant.
He noted that there was a small number of wasps in a nest out the back of the property.
Giving evidence, Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster said Mr Sheehan suffered around five to six wasp stings on his head, back, and arms.
She said very high levels of tryptase were recorded.
Elevated levels of tryptase can be a marker for severe anaphylactic reactions, including those triggered by insect stings.
Dr Bolster told members of the family that Mr Sheehan suffered a swelling of the larynx which obstructed his breathing causing him to “collapse very suddenly”.
She said he suffered a massive allergic reaction and didn’t think that “anything could have been done” to change the outcome.
The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.
He said it was “most unfortunate” that Mr Sheehan died when he was “innocently picking up hedge clippings”.
He offered his condolences to the Sheehan family on the loss of a much loved father and husband.
Inspector Mary Skehan also offered her heartfelt condolences to the deceased’s wife, his children – Conor, Katie, and Aine – and the extended Sheehan family.
Speaking after the inquest members of the Sheehan family urged the public to be aware of possible side effects of insect stings.
They said that people who know they have an allergic reaction to wasp or bee stings should consider investing in EpiPens.
THESE are exciting times to be an Aston Villa fan – and they are about to get even better.
The club tasted Champions League football for the first time this season, with memorable victories at Villa Park over Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain.
Now they are progressing with plans to renovate their iconic stadium, bolstering the capacity to rival the Premier League elite while creating a giant beer hall and even hosting another sport.
Villa Park opened in 1897 and has been Aston Villa’s home ever since after they moved from the uneven pitch of Wellington Road.
The stadium was built in the grounds of the Aston Hall stately home, owned by Sir Thomas Holte, whose name is used for the famous stand behind one goal.
The pitch now sits where an ornamental pond once took pride of place.
The original stadium took three years to build at a cost of £16,733, approximately £1.8m today, with a capacity of 40,000.
In its early years, the pitch had a cycling track around the perimeter to host cycling and athletics events.
Various renovations have taken place over the years, including an £887 terrace covering.
Plans were drawn in 1914 to fit in 120,000 fans but never materialised.
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Everton’s Goodison Park inspired the two-tier design before further updates in the 1970s once Doug Ellis became chairman.
Villa Park’s capacity hit 46,000 in 1994 but reduced back to 40,310 when the Holte End became an all-seater stand by the end of that year.
The most recent renovation work was the rebuilding of the Trinity Stand in 2000, officially opened by King Charles, whose grandfather George VI opened the previous version 77 years earlier.
The current capacity is 42,918 – making Villa Park the tenth-biggest football stadium in England.
There have been long-term hopes to increase the size of Villa Park for years.
But they turned into genuine plans when the new V Sports owners took over from Tony Xia for good in 2019 and the club enjoyed promotion back to the Premier League.
Villa received planning approval from Birmingham City Council for their new development in December 2022, prompting the expansion ideas to go public.
The following year, though, the proposals to demolish the North Stand and completely rebuild it were shelved by president of business operations Chris Heck as a “bad idea” that would see the stadium’s capacity drop to 36,000 for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons.
But in December 2024, Villa announced new grand designs with artists’ impressions of what the updated Villa Park could look like with a modernised North Stand.
The timing could not have been better, coming in the year the club celebrated their 150th anniversary.
And it also coincided with the Champions League campaign, which saw Unai Emery lead his side to eighth in the league phase to book their spot in the last 16 where they saw off Club Brugge before falling to PSG in a blockbuster quarter-final.
First and foremost, the standout plan is to redevelop the North Stand.
Villa confirmed in April 2025 that the stand will be refurbished and expanded from 5,000 to more than 12,000 seats.
The three other stands are also getting minor upgrades, too, which means the overall capacity of Villa Park will initially increase to around 50,000 – a 7,000 boost.
However, eventually the hope is to bolster that total to 52,000 in the coming years.
Ironically, even with the increases, Villa will slip down the Premier League pecking order because of Everton moving into their new 53,000-seater Hill Dickinson Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.
Villa are also developing the area outside the ground, with a new “plaza” complex on the site of the current car park in front of the North Stand.
That will feature The Warehouse, a massive beer hall which will be the largest in the Premier League and a fan zone space for supporters to gather before matches.
A brand-new two-storey club shop is also in the works for fans to stock up on all their Aston Villa merchandise.
And, as part of the condition of the council’s approval, the Witton train station, located just a few hundred metres north of the ground, is also set to be rebuilt with a new footbridge, larger and safer queueing systems, improved shelters and capacity for bigger trains.
This is to accommodate double the number of passengers to 10,000 fans on a matchday.
Villa expect the construction work to take around 24 months to complete – and are hoping it will all be done by the end of 2027.
The Warehouse is set to be ready to open by Christmas 2025, though.
Crucially, Villa are NOT planning to reduce Villa Park’s capacity while the new North Stand is built in a rarely-seen move.
The likes of Liverpool and Fulham saw their maximum attendances drop as a result of the building work.
But Villa proudly announced their “robust design process” found a way to modernise the existing North Stand “without losing any seats during the season”, meaning a full house can continue to roar the Villans on.
As expected, the whole project will not come cheap.
Aston Villa have estimated the cost will be a minimum of £100m for the improvements to Villa Park.
The large bulk of that will go into the brand-new North Stand.
That is the big question – and it is hard to see this redevelopment being anything other than a positive for Aston Villa and the local area once the obtrusive building work is all done.
A bigger ground has two key, fundamental benefits – more fans creating a better atmosphere and more money made from selling extra tickets, refreshments and merchandise.
Villa also predict the renovation will help pump £120m annually into the local economy and create 1,700 full-time equivalent jobs.
But there are a few other major benefits.
The Warehouse will double up as a key indoor arena in the West Midlands, staging high-profile music gigs and even boxing fight nights in the new indoor arena.
Lastly, and most importantly for all football fans, the work is scheduled to be done by the end of 2027 – in time for Euro 2028.
Villa Park is one of the nine venues put forward to Uefa to stage matches when the UK and Ireland host the tournament.
