DOMINIC KING - MERSEY BEAT: Wayne Rooney returning to Everton sounded like a story from a different era, an old professional going back to his first love for one last hurrah

DOMINIC KING - MERSEY BEAT: With each passing minute, he gets closer to the door. The relentless pursuit, the speculation and the astronomical bid.

MERSEY BEAT: Marcel Brands has a towering reputation in Dutch football, an eye for talent and an ability to transform a club. Recent reports suggest he has been approached by Everton.

DOMINIC KING'S MERSEY BEAT: The list, even now, cannot fail to raise eyebrows. First, you see Oxford United; then names such as Luton, Sunderland and Birmingham pop up.

DOMINIC KING - MERSEY BEAT: It is three years to the day since Liverpool sacked Brendan Rodgers. We must start with that fact in an attempt to apply some context about the club's situation.

DOMINIC KING - MERSEY BEAT: In the days before he named his squad for Russia, one player kept popping into Gareth Southgate's head more than anyone else: Adam Lallana.

DOMINIC KING - MERSEY BEAT: Liverpool look like they need an individual to spring forward and take things by the scruff of the neck. Jurgen Klopp will hope Naby Keita steps forward.

DOMINIC KING - MERSEY BEAT: Towards the end of 2020, Liverpool will have a new £50million complex. The renovation of their Academy at Kirkby is well underway.

Kingfisher, which also owns Screwfix, saw sales shoot up 38 per cent in the third week of March. Online sales jumped by a quarter as people avoided shops as the threat of the virus became clear.

The Government has now released guidance on what to do if you're in the middle of a move. So should you move house, delay your purchase, or pull out of the sale completely?

We speak to small business owners and self-employed workers who tell us how they're adapting their businesses in the face of coronavirus.

Paul takes over at the takeaway pizza group after leading the coffee chain through its growth spurt ahead of its £3.9bn sale to Coca-Cola by former owner Whitbread last year.

De La Rue predicted that adjusted operating profit for the 12 months ending March 27 would be between £20m and £25m, in line with earlier guidance. This is a major drop on the previous year.

The advertising group yesterday warned that the coronavirus crisis was hitting revenues as clients delayed spending decisions and put back marketing campaigns.

Companies cutting dividends and laying off workers in a battle to survive the coronavirus crisis should not be handing millions of pounds to bosses.

Mark Barnett, Invesco's best-known fund manager, will wash his hands of all the companies his funds own which are not listed on the stock exchange. Investors are expected to take a painful hit.

The Competition and Markets Authority said the merger 'will not worsen the offering', due to the other large players in the market. The merger will be subject to approval of shareholders.

The company announced it would raise £1bn from a public share sale, and by borrowing an additional £3.8bn on the bond markets. The money will be used for day-to-day spending.

AIM-listed business Science Group has become the latest firm to design a ventilator from scratch. It has signed an agreement to provide 10,000 of them if regulators approve.

Despite steady gains yesterday, the FTSE100 fell 24.8 per cent, or 1870.48 points, in the first three months of the year to end the first quarter at 5671.96. It was the biggest ever quarterly points fall.

The industry has been pleading for state aid after being crippled by the Covid-19 pandemic. Virgin Atlantic, part of Sir Richard Branson's empire, has led calls for an £7.5bn industry rescue package.

While the relaunched Notice Plus account from Epsom Derby sponsor Investec has more moving parts than a track full of racehorses, it offers an easy-access element with a top-rate deal.

Small firms who sign up to eBay will pay no charges to list or sell up to 250 items a month until May 31. Existing business sellers will be given a 30-day payment holiday on all fees.

A day which started with optimism due to a surge in a Chinese manufacturing index in March, suggesting there could be a sharp 'V' shaped recovery from global lockdowns, ended with more alarming data.

A probe is now under way into the failure, which went unnoticed for more than a decade until discovered by our pensions columnist Steve Webb and This is Money.

The fashion retailer has appointed agents to sell its head office and warehouse in West Yorkshire. The sale and leaseback deals are part of a strategy announced at its annual results last week.

The scheme also includes new hires the supermarket has made to help deal with added demand sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. Supermarkets dealt with record levels of demand in March.

Some HSBC directors are said to be furious at the Bank of England for forcing it to cancel its dividend and suggested the bank should move its headquarters from London to Hong Kong.

A record 6.65m Americans filed for help from the US Government last week, up from the previous record of 3.3m the week before, as measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak led to millions losing their jobs.

The soap-maker found a series of payments over the several years that Alex Kanellis was in charge did not live up to the standards expected of a chief executive.

Steve Murrells is in charge of 60,000 staff and around 2,500 stores that are vital for keeping the nation's cupboards stocked, but his empire also includes pharmacies and the funeral care business.

Alarmist forecasts of more than 20m job losses in the US, and a 10 per cent plus loss of output in Britain and in America in the second quarter, look likely to be a reality.

The DVLA has released the list details of the personalised plate options it has removed from the market for being insulting, with the likes of M20 RON, A20 RSE and BS20 TRD all being pulled from sale.

22-year-old Tara Hinchy and 31-year-old Greg Linning were among those who told This is Money they had changed their shopping habits in response to the coronavirus.

Since Britain was put in lockdown thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, a number of apps have seen their popularity boom - the right place, the right time and all that.

Laura Tenison, the founder of upmarket children's clothing retailer JoJo Maman Bébé, says: 'We are an ethical business.' And she has been working on her own production line during the Covid-19 crisis.

Owners of cars will see their car tax costs rise in-line with the RPI index, usually adding £5 to bills. However, new vehicle buyers will be hit harder, as first-year VED rates are determined by a new test.

Chief executive Andy Hornby will have his earnings slashed by 40 per cent for a period of three months while chief financial officer Kirk Davis will see his pay cut by 20 per cent.

Glaxo said it would invest more than £200m in the US company and that they would initially focus on speeding up development of Vir's antibody drugs, which could be used to treat Covid-19.

Some 4.7million drivers are stuck with insurance policies that automatically renewed, with many now asking legal steps to be taken to stop the practice, according to Go Compare Car Insurance.

The typical home value was £240,384 in March, according to the Halifax index - meaning prices were at a standstill last month. It remains to been if they hold-up during the coronavirus outbreak.

Brendan O'Shea started Just Clear with just his wife and a van. Now his franchise is nationwide, and has been hired to decontaminate thousands of buildings of Covid-19

A damning review by the Financial Ombudsman of an anti-fraud code which came into force last May has raised numerous concerns about the way banks are treating victims who have lost millions.

When it comes to loading up the big guns, Japan is market leader. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is unsheathing a fiscal package as the country places its cities under a state of emergency.

A board meeting at Herfordshire-based technology star would have seen China Reform parachute in four directors yesterday - effectively giving it power over the business.

My partner Chris and I live in a first-floor flat, so when our neighbour sent us a message out of the blue insisting we use her front garden to enjoy the sunshine on Sunday, I could have kissed her.

The supermarket's latest preliminary results cover the year to 29 February and do not cover the spell of mass panic buying in the last few weeks.

Register offices are closed for now because of the virus outbreak, so parents should add a note about this to their child benefit claim and submit it anyway, says HMRC.

Bank of America alone has approved 177,000 loans worth $32.6 billion (£26.3 billion) in just over a week. The White House says that £56.5 billion of such loans have been sorted.

Tiziana's possible treatment may have a number of advantages over its competition - not least the inhaler method used to get the drug to the affected area.