• Frazier Campbell helps Sunderland beat Leicester City
• Carlton Cole strike gives West Ham win at Ipswich Town

A hat-trick from Tim Cahill helped Everton record a 4-2 victory over Norwich City at Carrow Road.

The Australia midfielder had given the visitors a two-goal lead at half-time, but they were pegged back by strikes from Andrew Crofts and Andrew Surman for the Championship side. However further goals from Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and Cahill sealed the win.

Fraizer Campbell continued his excellent pre-season form as his goal helped Sunderland to a 2-1 win over Leicester City at Walkers Stadium. Campbell, who grabbed four goals against Hull last weekend, opened the scoring before Andy King equalised for Leicester. Jordan Henderson’s long-range strike slipped through goalkeeper Chris Weale’s grasp for the winner.

Stoke continued their pre-season preparations as they claimed a 2-1 win over Burnley at Huddersfield’s Galpharm Stadium. The Turkey international Tuncay Sanli had put Stoke, wearing their new away kit for the first time, in front but Graham Alexander levelled from the spot. Burnley were not level for long though as Michael Tonge’s long-range goal gave them the win.

Carlton Cole bagged his fourth pre-season goal as West Ham picked up a fifth straight success against Ipswich Town at Portman Road. Goals from David Murphy and Seb Larsson were enough to give Birmingham City a 2-1 win at Derby County, Gareth Roberts getting a goal back for the hosts.

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• ‘I would love to go back to Everton,’ says USA midfielder
• MLS worried about tug-of-war involving ‘Captain America’

Landon Donovan has held preliminary talks over a permanent transfer to the Premier League and revealed he would love the opportunity to return to Everton.

The USA captain enjoyed a successful two-month loan spell at Goodison Park last season and has been linked with a move to Manchester City, and a reunion with David Moyes’s side. The City manager, Roberto Mancini, claimed to be interested in the 28-year-old during his club’s pre-season tour of the United States, although club officials distanced themselves from the possibility of adding the midfielder to their expanding ranks.

Everton are also interested in a player who contributed to their impressive upturn in form last season but may struggle to meet the asking price of approximately £10m for the LA Galaxy captain without selling players first. Donovan, speaking after the MLS All-Stars’ loss to Manchester United on Wednesday, said: “We hear little bits and pieces here and there. There have certainly been clubs that are interested but right now it’s only preliminary. I think there’s still a lot of time in the transfer window so we’ll see what moves are made and, if it’s serious, then we’ll treat it seriously.”

Previous indications were that Donovan would be available for another loan move only during the break in the MLS season, given that his profile, which rose further at the World Cup, is so important to the promotion of the game in the United States. “Anything is possible,” he said, when asked if he would consider a permanent transfer.

“I would love to go back to Everton. I love the people there and I love the fans there. That said, I love being in America too, so we are going to take everything into account and see where it ends up. This is what I do [raise the profile of the MLS], this is my job and I understand all the parts of it, on and off the field. I’m going to make the decision that’s best for me.”

Donovan was only a substitute in the All-Stars’ 5-2 defeat by United having played a Concacaf Champions League game for LA Galaxy against Puerto Rico Islanders the night before. The MLS Commissioner, Don Garber, believes the league would resist Donovan making a permanent exit even if a substantial offer arrives before the close of this transfer window.

“If Landon was to leave, his profile would be raised higher in the country he was playing in and it would certainly be raised among the core fans in the United States,” said Garber. “But we need to deepen the connection between the American fan as an MLS fan first, and a Premier League fan second. In order to do that, we need our best American players here.

“We need somebody like Landon, who has grown up in southern California, who is bilingual, almost like Captain America for our national team, somebody who is really inspiring a nation of soccer fans. We want to have him play next Saturday in front of people who want to see an LA Galaxy game, as opposed to having them wait to experience him on the Fox Soccer Channel or ESPN because they are watching a game being played in Europe.

“I’m the commissioner of MLS and for my goal, raising the profile of our league, we need our best players here and I will always fight hard to keep them here. We support the interest of players wanting to play in Europe if it makes sense for them and the team they play for. It is the first time we have had a player like Landon.”

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• ‘We wanted Dan Gosling to stay … and we expected him to’
• Everton insist they had a ‘handshake agreement’ on a deal

Everton have dismissed as “ludicrous” claims they did not want to keep the midfielder Dan Gosling, who signed for Newcastle United this week after a technicality in his contract made him a free agent.

The club have been angered by suggestions from Gosling’s agent that they were complacent over contract negotiations with the 20-year-old and they assumed an injury would make him unattractive to other clubs.

Ordinarily clubs are entitled to a fee for any player under 24 but Everton’s failure to make Gosling a written offer of a new deal by a mid-May deadline meant Newcastle could sign him without paying compensation.

Everton thought they had a verbal agreement in place with Gosling and have expressed their disappointment at the way events have unfolded.

A club statement read: “In the wake of a report in a Sunday newspaper in which the agent of Dan Gosling made a series of allegations, Everton Football Club has decided to take the unprecedented step of setting straight a record of recent events which has, in its opinion, been deliberately distorted.

“In the article, Mr David Hodgson suggested that not only did this club not wish to extend Mr Gosling’s stay at Goodison Park but that it had been deliberately tardy with regard to the formal offer of a new contract, presuming that an injury sustained by the player during the course of last season was of such a serious nature it would prevent him from signing for another club. Both claims are ludicrous, totally without substance and grossly misleading.”

Gosling, who joined Everton from Plymouth two and a-half years ago, suffered a serious knee injury in March which is likely to rule him out for the first half of next season. Everton insist they had several conversations with Hodgson, the former Middlesbrough and Liverpool player, over a new deal and were told their “handshake agreement” was “fine”.

The statement added: “It was Everton’s understanding that this gentleman’s agreement would guarantee that the player would extend, by at least two years, the three-year deal he signed upon his arrival from Plymouth Argyle.”

Everton have now accused Hodgson of exploiting the rules to ensure Gosling became a free agent. The club’s chief executive, Robert Elstone, said: “We wanted Dan Gosling to stay with us – and, after what we had been told, we expected him to stay with us. However, in the first week in June, Mr Hodgson rang David Moyes seemingly content that he had manoeuvred a situation where Dan was a free agent.”

Moyes, the Everton manager, has also admitted he feels let down over the affair. “We feel aggrieved that they have contrived a situation to get the player out of the club when, if he had come and said that he wanted to leave, we could at least have done something about it – but at no point did Dan say he wished to leave.”

The Everton chairman, Bill Kenwright, added: “In the very long history of our club, our executive team have never once forgotten or neglected to deal properly and professionally with contractual matters. We place our trust in people; we always keep our side of any offered deal – and all we have ever asked is that others do the same.”

A Premier League tribunal acknowledged Gosling’s right to a free transfer. “Dan Gosling did not walk out on Everton, they chose not to keep him,” Hodgson was quoted as saying at the weekend. “Everton had an obligation to offer him a contract in writing by the third Saturday in May. They could have offered him one pound more than his old contract and could have kept him or got a fee for him at a tribunal. I rang Dan that day to ask if he had got the letter. It hadn’t arrived. He wasn’t jumping around the room in delight because he was a free agent. He was broken-hearted, in tears.”

But Moyes believes Gosling would have been well rewarded had he chosen to stay at Goodison Park. “I read at the weekend that he cried when he didn’t receive a formal, written offer,” he said. “Well, trust me, the money Everton were offering was certainly not a crying matter.”

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