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Everton are hopeful of striking a permanent deal for goalkeeper Robin Olsen, according to The Athletic.

The lowdown

The Toffees signed the 31-year-old on a season-long loan from Roma at the end of the transfer window in October.

The Swede went on to make 11 appearances across all competitions, including seven Premier League starts when Jordan Pickford was either injured or dropped (via Transfermarkt). He kept three clean sheets in those games, conceding 16 goals.

The latest

Journalist Greg O’Keeffe has said that ‘Ancelotti and Brands like him a lot’, and both the Everton manager and director of football want to keep him as their number two goalkeeper for next season. Olsen is ‘surplus to requirements’ at the Stadio Olimpico, and so it seems mostly a matter of persuading the player to make the move. [The Athletic]

If they’re unsuccessful, then they’ll have to move onto other candidates to be Pickford’s deputy. Everton have monitored Manchester United’s Sergio Romero ‘for a while’, but that transfer is thought to be ‘less likely’ to materialise than it was last summer.

Meanwhile, Joao Virginia, who featured in the FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Manchester City, is expected to be sent out on loan. [The Athletic]

The verdict

Olsen has been a decent back-up option for Everton, although Romero may have a slight edge given his big-game experience from 61 appearances at Old Trafford.

Whilst Roma may not stand in the Swede’s way if he wishes to leave the Serie A club permanently, it could be tricky for Everton to convince him to return after what O’Keeffe called a ‘nasty break-in’ at his home in England.

If he doesn’t wish to come back, and efforts at signing Romero prove unsuccessful, perhaps Everton will simply decide to go with Virginia as Pickford’s understudy instead.

In other news, many Everton fans were buzzing over this James Rodriguez update.

Celtic enjoyed a comfortable afternoon in the Premiership as they strolled to a routine 2-0 win on Sunday to send them six points clear at the top of the table.

Kyogo Furuhashsi opened the scoring in the first half and then Jota, who set up the first goal, sealed the three points with an 87th-minute strike.

The Hoops dominated the match as they ended the game with 74% of the ball and 22 efforts on goal, with Ross County fortunate that they only conceded twice.

Whilst Jota scored and assisted a goal in the match, the real star of the show for Ange Postecoglou was central defender Cameron Carter-Vickers.

It is easy to point at the attackers and praise them for scoring the goals to win the match but all of their work is built on the back of a strong platform. The solid defence allows the likes of Jota and Kyogo to go and do what they want to do without worrying about constantly needing to drop deep to win the ball back – allowing the opposition to press up on them.

Carter-Vickers was outstanding in central defence as he stood strong at the back and was reliable in possession. He played a major role in Celtic’s dominance throughout the game and the forwards should be thanking him for making their lives easier.

As per SofaScore, he won 85.7% (6/7) of his individual duels and made five clearances, one interception and one block to help his side to a clean sheet. This shows that he was superb defensively as he won the vast majority of his battles with Ross County players and did not allow himself to be beaten by the opposition – keeping them away from Joe Hart’s goal.

On the ball, he completed 85% of his passes from 62 touches and created one chance from centre-back. He is not expected to do anything special in possession from his position but Postecoglou will be delighted with his assuredness on the ball.

The £20k-per-week defender continues to impress at the heart of the defence and fans will surely be wanting to see him back at Parkhead next season on a permanent basis.

In the Premiership this season, the on-loan Tottenham man has averaged a sublime SofaScore rating of 7.36 across 29 matches. Celtic have kept 16 clean sheets in those games and the latest one came with the help of his sublime display against Ross County on Sunday.

AND in other news, Source: Celtic on course to seal “immense” summer signing, Ange will be buzzing…

Former Aston Villa midfielder Lee Hendrie has told The Transfer Tavern in an exclusive interview that Ross Barkley’s days at the Villans could be numbered amid reported interest in Ruben Loftus-Cheek.

Barkley is currently on loan at Villa from Chelsea and there had been some talk about the Midlands club potentially signing him permanently. However, amid a dip in form, that talk has since died down.

Villa are now being linked with another midfielder owned by Chelsea, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, with TEAMtalk reporting that the Villans have their sights set on the current Fulham player.

And for Hendrie, any move for Loftus-Cheek is likely to spell the end for Barkley at Villa Park. He told TT:

“If they’re certainly going for Loftus-Cheek, I feel [that] rules out Ross Barkley totally. I wouldn’t say he’s burnt his bridges at Villa, but there’s certain things that haven’t gone in his favour.

“When he came in, he started like a house on fire, but you’ve got to maintain that, you know. You’ve got to continue doing it.”

Villa look set to face competition in their potential mission to bring Loftus-Cheek to Villa Park this summer. According to TEAMtalk, Crystal Palace, where the English midfielder spent the 2017/18 season on loan, are also interested in striking a deal with Chelsea for his services.

Journalist Tim Spiers hailed evergreen midfielder Joao Moutinho’s performance in Wolves’ 2-1 victory at home to Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon.

The Lowdown: Big win for Wolves

Bruno Lage’s side hosted Villa in the Premier League, as they looked to continue their march towards European football next season.

It proved to be another positive day at the office for Wolves, who led 2-0 at half-time thanks to a Jonny strike and an Ashley Young own goal as part of an excellent counter-attacking display.

Ollie Watkins’ late penalty made for a nervy ending at Molineux but the Wanderers held on to jump to seventh place in the table, for the time being at least.

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The Latest: Spiers hails Moutinho

Taking to Twitter straight after the game, Spiers gave a brief but positive assessment of Moutinho’s display: “Moutinho’s class showed throughout.”

The Portugal international enjoyed an 88% pass completion rate against Villa, as per Sofascore, not to mention making three tackles and playing one key pass.

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The Verdict: Evergreen hero

At 35, Moutinho could be forgiven for being on the wane but he continues to produce influential performances week in, week out for Wolves, being hailed as ‘outstanding’ by Alan Shearer.

The Portuguese maestro brings so much experience and quality in the middle of the park and the hope is that he remains at Molineux for at least another year, with his current deal expiring at the end of the season.

It may be that Moutinho becomes more of a bit-part player over time but keeping hold of him makes far more sense than losing him this summer, as the Villa win showed.

In other news, Spiers has also provided a key Wolves injury update. Read more here.

Former Manchester City player Paul Stewart thinks that Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish will end up at Manchester City. 

The Daily Mail reported on Tuesday that City were set to make an opening bid worth £75m plus add-ons, but Villa don’t want to sell Grealish unless their valuation of £100m is met.

Grealish scored seven goals and created 12 in all competitions last season for Aston Villa, before being picked for England’s Euro 2020 squad, where he put in a string of good performances and got two more assists.

With plenty of speculation linking Grealish to Manchester City, Paul Stewart told The Transfer Tavern: “I’m a big fan of Jack, I wish he had played more at the Euros to be honest.

“We used him as sort of what we call an impact player, but I think he offers more than that, he retains the ball, he’s great on the ball and he draws players in and there’s very few players that have that ability.

“Gazza had the ability to draw players in which leaves spaces for other players and Jack’s one of the best in the Premiership at the moment doing that, he gets free-kicks and I think he was the most fouled player as well, so yeah I think he will end up at City as well.”

The Premier League Champions only bit of transfer business so far this summer, is Scott Carson signing a one-year deal at the Etihad Stadium.

Alongside the speculation about Jack Grealish, City are also linked with Tottenham striker Harry Kane, but journalist Fabrizio Romano reported that no fee has been agreed, with the only bid of £100m turned down by Spurs last month.

As we reach the conclusion of a season that the vast majority of Sheffield Wednesday fans would probably rather forget, Darren Moore’s side know that nothing but a win on Saturday will give them a chance of surviving the drop.

Having picked up an impressive 14 points from their last nine Championship fixtures, the Owls have given themselves a glimmer of hope on the final day of the season. A win against Derby County, coupled with Rotherham United failing to beat Cardiff City, would be enough to miraculously ensure that Wednesday retain their Championship status.

As such, considering the magnitude of the fixture, will Moore decide to make any changes to his starting XI from the 0-0 draw with Nottingham Forest last time out? Here’s our predicted XI, along with the latest team and injury news…

Despite receiving the welcome boost of having two injured players in contention for a return to the matchday squad, we predict that Darren Moore will make just one change to the team which started against Forest, along with a slight tweak in formation.

Following a fine performance from the bench last time out, having five shots at goal, making one key pass and winning four of his six aerial duels over just 34 minutes on the pitch, we predict that Jordan Rhodes will come back into the starting XI. That is at the expense of Andre Green, whom the 31-year-old replaced in the second half against Forest, with the youngster failing to record a shot and completing only five passes.

This means that the striker Moore dubbed a “wonderful talent” will partner Josh Windass up front in a switch to a 3-4-1-2 formation.

Meanwhile, both Chey Dunkley and Massimo Luongo could make the squad after returning from injury, but with Jamie Smith claiming that he does not want to rush them back into the starting XI, we expect both players to be named among the substitutes this afternoon.

In other news: Encouraging update emerges on “excellent” Owls ace, Moore and fans will be buzzing – opinion

Former Everton striker Marcus Bent believes that Tottenham are resigned to losing Harry Kane this summer regardless of who they appoint as manager.

Kane has already made his feelings clear about wanting to leave the club, whilst several sources earlier this week reported that Manchester City have already made their first approach by bidding £100m.

However, Daniel Levy remains persistent on keeping the 27-year-old despite his will to move on to challenge for major trophies and consistently be playing in the Champions League.

Appointing a high-profile name like Mauricio Pochettino or Antonio Conte might have improved Spurs’ chances of keeping Kane for at least another season, but having missed out on all their top targets it seems unlikely that the striker would be tempted to hang around for someone like Graham Potter.

However, Bent exclusively told The Transfer Tavern that regardless of the incoming manager, Kane’s mind has been made up:

“I don’t think it’s on any manager coming into Tottenham that would make Kane stay.

“I think he wants to move on, there’s so much instability within the club, team, chairman and board, and they have given him everything, but now in his career he wants to go out and do something personal and look back on his career and say he made the right decision.”

Liverpool fans are far from happy with the news that Thiago Alcantara has not featured in any images from the Reds’ latest training session at Kirkby.

The Spain international was signed from Bayern Munich last summer, and was expected to become a key member of Liverpool’s squad. However, it hasn’t quite worked out like that.

He has so far managed just 35 appearances for the club since making the switch (Transfermarkt), as injuries have curtailed his chances of really unleashing his obvious quality.

He has made just two starts for Jurgen Klopp’s side in the Premier League this campaign, and has missed the last two through injury. Now, it appears that he could be out of the action for a little while longer as he was not pictured during the club’s latest training session.

The news was shared on Twitter by @AnfieldWatch, and it attracted plenty of attention from the supporters. They took to the social media platform to share their thoughts.

Let’s see what the fans had to say about the Thiago update below

“This man is a big fraud”

Credit: @l3mzyL

“He’s worse than naby”

Credit: @Jef46916091Jeff

“Be gone in the summer I expect. Bit part player. So disappointing”

Credit: @LeighBergin

“Such a plastic midfield”

Credit: @JohnSno36837584

“He misses all our important big games while only being available against the dross.”

Credit: @kevin_the_gray

“Lets just swap this guy for Kessie.. Heard Milan are interested”

Credit: @Bwoy_Tynnie

In other news, Liverpool fans want this man to leave the club.

Ange Postecoglou will have an early chance to lay down a marker on Wednesday as Celtic face their first pre-season friendly in Wales.

The Australian has been working the Hoops squad hard over the last few days but the moment the fixture is done, he must focus on transfers again.

What’s the word?

With Celtic’s first Champions League qualifying match rapidly approaching, Postecoglou needs to get as much business concluded before that day.

A European run would be lucrative for the club and would give the new boss a big chance to impress and make up for the torrid season they endured in 2020/21.

One player who could feature in that qualifying run is Aaron Hickey. According to a new report from the Scottish Sun, Celtic are confident of signing the player and expect to strike a deal with Bologna in the coming days.

The Bhoys have reportedly laid £3.5m on the table but the Italian side are looking for a fee nearer to €8m (£6.8m) for his services.

A tremendous signing

If Postecoglou and Dominic McKay can get this deal over the line then it would surely leave supporters absolutely elated.

After all, the club are hardly well stacked in a full-back position heading into the new campaign.

Greg Taylor and Boli Bolingoli will battle it out of a place on the left flank during pre-season but we’ve already suggested that the latter doesn’t deserve to have a place under the new management.

[snack-amp-story url= “https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/read-the-latest-celtic-news-doig-nketiah-mccann” title= “Read the latest Celtic transfer news!”]

Taylor is hardly a pillar of consistency either, struggling to nail down a permanent role in the team despite the questionable performances of Diego Laxalt last term.

Hickey, on the other hand, could bring greater consistency to the left-hand side of the Celtic XI.

The youngster may only be 19 years of age but he is a player wise beyond his years, and somebody who could replicate what Kieran Tierney brought to Celtic.

Now a rampant beast for Arsenal and Scotland, he loves roaming forward in search of driving to the byline and providing a cross.

Hickey doesn’t possess the same level as pace but he’s still capable of driving forward and beating his man.

Though, the defender is also tactically aware. Speaking about his game, former Hearts boss Daniel Stendal commented: “Aaron as a player is like Philipp Lahm.”

Stendel concluded: “For me at Hearts, he played as a full-back. He not only runs up and down the line, but looks for attacking moves like Lahm once did. And Aaron can also play in the central midfield. Trust me, he will have a great career.”

The full-back left Celtic when he was just 16 so to bring him back now he’s developed and become a first-team regular should delight supporters. It’s not often you earn a second bite of the cherry with somebody you let go at such a young age.

AND in other news, Celtic eye bargain swoop for 24 y/o “monster”, Postecoglou will adore him…

Rangers have been dealt a huge blow ahead of their game against Alashkert on Thursday afternoon, with a number of first-team players unable to travel.

What’s the word?

It was confirmed by The Athletic’s Rangers correspondent Jordan Campbell that Steven Gerrard, along with several first-team players, are unable to travel to Armenia for the second leg after registering a positive Covid test.

Allan McGregor, Jon McLaughlin, James Tavernier, Calvin Bassey, Ryan Kent and Scott Wright are all unavailable for selection in Yerevan, and with Rangers holding a slender 1-0 advantage from the first leg at Ibrox last week, this puts their qualification hopes at serious risk.

A huge blow for Rangers?

You would hope that, even without these first-team players, Rangers will still have too much for their Armenian opponents but after scraping past them at Ibrox, it could prove to be a very tricky afternoon for the Teddy Bears.

As well as missing players through the virus, the Gers will also be without Ryan Jack and Fashion Sakala through injury, whilst John Lundstram and Kemar Roofe are both suspended.

This leaves Gerrard with very few options to choose from the bench and it is also unclear how the 41-year-old manager will share his input on things from home, with Gary McAllister likely to be the one giving the team talk and instructions from the side of the pitch.

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After already blowing their chance of reaching the Champions League group stages with an embarrassing home defeat against 10-man Malmo recently, Rangers fans will surely be worried that these circumstances could lead to another defeat, which would leave them without any form of European football for the 2021/22 campaign.

And, in other news… Gerrard could be set for huge Rangers transfer blow