João Gomes Joins Aston Villa in £38m Deal; Man Utd Pursues Left-Backs and Midfielder

The Brazil international João Gomes has joined Aston Villa in a £38m deal. The 25-year-old midfielder, who has 10 caps, ends a three-and-a-half-year spell at Wolves, for whom he made 130 appearances after signing from Flamengo.

Gomes’s arrival at Villa follows the departure of Youri Tielemans to Manchester United and comes with Morgan Rogers on the verge of a £117m move to Chelsea.

The Wolves technical director, Matt Jackson, said: “João deserves everything he gets from the game. He’s the type of professional that coaches love and players love, so he will go on to be the outstanding player that we know he is.”

Manchester United are monitoring Newcastle’s Lewis Hall and Fulham’s Antonee Robinson to potentially strengthen Michael Carrick’s options at left-back.

The manager is intent on signing a third midfielder after the arrivals of Andrey Santos and Tielemans, and is also considering a move for a left-back to compete with Luke Shaw.

Hall has impressed at Newcastle since being loaned from Chelsea for the 2023-24 season before signing for £28m plus £7m in add-ons. The 21-year-old has four England caps and was considered unfortunate not to be selected in Thomas Tuchel’s squad for the World Cup. He is under contract until June 2029.

Robinson, who signed for Fulham from Wigan for £2m in August 2020, was in Maurico Pochettino’s USA squad, making four appearances. Robinson will be 29 next month so is older than United’s preferred profile and his terms expire in June 2028.

United have signed Tynan Thompson, an 18-year-old winger, from Tottenham for an initial fee of about £4m plus up to £4m in add-ons related to first-team achievement. Spurs have matching rights and a 15% sell-on clause.

Thompson, who has played seven times for England’s under-18 side, scored 13 goals and made six assists for Spurs at youth level last season, getting seven goals in seven Uefa Youth League games.

Lisandro Martínez was forced out of Argentina’s 1-0 World Cup final defeat against Spain on 41 minutes owing to an injury. United are yet to determine its severity.