All posts by z3u9t.icu

Leeds United are heading into January in dire straits.

They are just five points above the relegation zone, with several teams below them having a game or two in hand, and there’s a mounting injury crisis amongst Marcelo Bielsa’s first-team squad.

As many as 11 players missed the 4-1 defeat to Arsenal at the weekend – their third successive thrashing in the Premier League.

It means Bielsa, director of football Victor Orta and owner Andrea Radrizzani will surely go against their usual mid-season transfer window plans to actually sign someone.

Of course, the Argentinian head coach needs widespread additions across the team but there is one role that he may already have a solution to.

It’s no secret that United have missed a creative influence in the final third, having waved goodbye to Pablo Herandez in the summer. Only five teams have scored fewer goals than Leeds (18), two of which occupy a place in the bottom three, whilst a little over 44% of their goals have come from set pieces alone.

Although Bielsa could well discover a new Hernandez in the form of academy gem Stuart McKinstry, who seems primed to save Radrizzani and co millions in the upcoming window.

The 19-year-old dynamo has already made his senior bow, coming on as a substitute during a Carabao Cup clash with Fulham in September this year, where he scored the winning penalty to see the Whites into the next round.

Meanwhile, for the U23s in the Premier League 2, he has provided three assists from 11 appearances, whilst playing anywhere in midfield.

The Athletic’s Phil Hay once labelled McKinstry as Leeds’ ‘next big thing’.

“He’s a very confident ball carrier, he’s physically strong, good upper body strength, excellent feet, good at beating his man and creative. In his head, he probably feels he can play in other positions up front as well,” he said.

That very much sounds like Hernandez and in his hay day, he too was able to play on the wing, as well as centrally.

Elsewhere, McKinstry’s former academy director at Motherwell, Steven Hammell, lauded him as a “fabulous young player” who “will do wonderful things and become a household name in the next three or four years” to the Lanarkshire Live Sport Podcast.

Even some of his academy teammates have spotted his massive potential, likening him to Sergio Busquets and Lionel Messi, so the Elland Road faithful also have plenty to be excited about when it comes to their promising Scottish gem.

As such, Bielsa should turn to the teenage sensation in 2022 because he could well emerge as a solid candidate to replace Hernandez in attacking midfield.

AND in other news, Leeds could sign Bielsa’s next Ben White in swoop for “flawless” £18m-rated colossus…

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.

Liverpool failed to make it four consecutive Premier League victories on Monday as they drew 1-1 with Leeds United at Elland Road.

Sadio Mane looked like being the match-winner for the Reds on the night as he scored his first league goal in his last ten games by tapping home Trent Alexander-Arnold’s low cross.

However, the hosts were not to be denied as Diego Llorente outjumped on-loan Ozan Kabak to nod in a late equaliser for Marcelo Bielsa’s troops.

Despite turning in what was a confident first-half performance, the Reds shrunk after the restart, with Georginio Wijnaldum as guilty as anyone in Jurgen Klopp’s squad.

Starting in a midfield three alongside Thiago Alcantara and Fabinho, the Dutchman was drastically underwhelming throughout the evening.

Rated at £31.5m, Wijnaldum could only complete a total of 16 passes throughout the entire match according to WhoScored, with none of those being key to any of Liverpool’s attacking play.

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For context, Reds stopper Alisson managed to rack up 22 of his own – a damning statistic on the part of the former Newcastle United man.

He also had two shots on target for Liverpool too, frustrating his teammates by sending them both off target.

Whilst Wijnaldum proved to be a supremely wasteful figure when on the ball, he proved to be somewhat non-effective off of it when attempting to limit the home side to opportunities.

The Dutchman could only produce one tackle, an interception and a further clearance throughout the game. James Milner, who was playing alongside Wijnaldum in the heart of the Liverpool team, more than doubled that with his six defensive contributions.

So with Jurgen Klopp once again putting faith in the midfielder at Elland Road, the German will be bitterly disappointed by Wijnaldum’s utterly underwhelming showing.

AND in more news, read why Liverpool’s decision to enter the European Super League is the ultimate betrayal of Jurgen Klopp…

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…

Mark Douglas has dropped an inside claim on the potential takeover of Newcastle United by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) group.

Writing in his latest piece for The Chronicle, the football journalist has claimed that “sources close” to the buying side “insist” that the KSA’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) would return to the table if a path was made clear for them to come back, and also added that Inter Milan “reached out” to the Saudis over a potential deal with them instead.

Newcastle takeover hope

Even though there have been rumours swirling of PIF making a move for the Serie A club as Douglas points out, it is not really clear just how interested they are in pursuing that deal, given that Inter reached out to them rather than the other way around.

The fact that PIF would also return to the table if a pathway is cleared is also promising news in terms of the potential revival of the original deal with Mike Ashley.

However, they are currently off of the table at the moment and could easily change their mind if the St. James’ Park faithful were to find themselves relegated from the Premier League down to the EFL Championship.

Nonetheless, the North East club need to fully focus on avoiding the drop for now and then deal with any potential takeover scenarios at the end of the 2020/21 term.

In other news, find out whose display against Aston Villa was slammed by Lee Ryder here!

Fabio Paratici’s next task at Tottenham Hotspur will be to offload some of the club’s unwanted players, according to Football London journalist Alasdair Gold.

The lowdown

Tottenham confirmed Paratici’s appointment as the club’s managing director of football on Saturday.

The former Juventus executive doesn’t officially start in his new role until 1st July, but he has already identified Paulo Fonseca as his preferred managerial candidate.

And Spurs are now closing in on the appointment of the former Roma boss, which could be announced this week.

The latest

Gold reports that, with the managerial appointment all but finalised, Paratici’s attentions will now turn to sales.

Spurs are said to be in need of funds to ‘revamp’ their squad after losing £200million in revenue as a consequence of the pandemic.

He adds that a number of players’ agents have already been told to seek out new clubs for their clients.

Paratici will be working with technical director Steve Hitchen on player recruitment, and the pair are ‘believed to be friends’.

He’s expected to take advantage of Hitchen’s ‘knowledge of the English game’ and Spurs’ current group of players.

The verdict

Spurs’ apparent sell-to-buy plan looks to be off to a strong start, with Serge Aurier reportedly set to join PSG for a healthy €20million. They’ve arguably got the better end of that deal.

If they’re serious about this ‘revamp’, they should now look to the likes of Davinson Sanchez, Eric Dier, Harry Winks and Erik Lamela as potential sources of funds.

They’ll want to wrap up these deals swiftly so Fonseca isn’t left waiting on the green light to move for his own targets.

In other news, could this be a possible Serge Aurier replacement?

Porto are reportedly interested in signing Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos and if he were to leave Ibrox this summer it would be a huge blow to Steven Gerrard and his hopes of retaining the Scottish Premiership title next season.

What’s the word?

According to Portuguese news outlet A Bola, the Liga NOS side are keen on signing the Colombia international this summer as he would be a dream addition for manager Sergio Conceição, however Rangers’ asking price is likely to be a problem for the Portuguese giants.

The report suggests that Rangers would likely demand €20m (£17.2m) for Morelos this summer, which is no surprise after another impressive season at Ibrox helped Gerrard’s side win the league title unbeaten.

A huge potential blow for Rangers?

If Morelos were to leave Ibrox this summer it would undoubtedly be a huge blow to the Gers’ hopes of winning their 56th league title next season, as he has proven himself to be one of the best players in the league since joining from HJK Helsinki in 2017.

In 182 appearances for the Teddy Bears, El Bufalo has contributed an extremely impressive 94 goals and 43 assists in all competitions, and he also broke Ally McCoist’s record to become their record goalscorer in Europe, so to lose him ahead of their return to the Champions League next season would be far from ideal.

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After he broke the record, Gerrard was full of praise for Morelos, saying:

“It’s fantastic for him from a personal point of view. Alfredo’s a top-class player, a top-class goalscorer, and it’s fantastic that he’s still here.”

Last season saw the 24-year-old forward contribute 15 goals and 12 assists in all competitions for the Gers and his performances in the Premiership before the season split saw him average an impressive 7.20 rating from WhoScored for his performances, which ranked him as the sixth-best performer in Gerrard’s side.

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Therefore, it is certainly a blow that a side such as Porto who impressed in the Champions League last season are interested in Morelos ahead of the summer, and it would be a huge shame for Rangers to lose him.

And, in other news… Rangers facing major blow with 25 y/o “Rolls Royce”, Gerrard would be gutted

Carlo Ancelotti will be anxiously awaiting the return of Ben Godfrey from international duty after the Everton defender failed a late fitness test.

That’s according to the Liverpool Echo, who note that Godfrey and Tom Davies were both unable to represent England’s Under 21s against Croatia on Wednesday.

The Young Lions medical team carried out late checks to see if either of the Toffees duo could feature in the Euro 2021 win, which dumped Aidy Boothroyd’s side out of the competition at the Group Stage.

Godfrey had played the full 90 minutes as England faced Portugal on Sunday to earn his ninth U21s cap, but required treatment during the 2-0 loss.

The 23-year-old centre-back had featured for the full fixture as England were beaten 1-0 by Switzerland last Thursday, too.

Only Tottenham Hotspur’s Oliver Skipp and Swansea City’s Marc Guehi also played all 180 available minutes among England’s outfield options over the defeats to Switzerland and Portugal.

Davies had started each loss but was withdrawn early in the second half against Switzerland and approaching the final quarter of an hour against Portugal, when earning his 23rd Young Lions cap.

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Ancelotti will now be very concerned over the prospect of being without Godfrey and Davies when Everton host Crystal Palace at Goodison Park on Monday, looking to end a three-game losing streak across all competitions.

The Toffees have only won one of their last five games at home thanks to a 1-0 result over Southampton on March 1, while losing to Fulham, Burnley and Manchester City twice.

Ancelotti goes into the Eagles clash without star summer signing Abdoulaye Doucoure after the £20m former Watford midfielder was ruled out likely for the remainder of the season with a fractured foot.

Fabian Delph has also been sidelined of late and while Jean-Philippe Gbamin has returned to training, it remains to be seen if the 25-year-old will be called on to play his first game since August 2019.

Losing Godfrey will come as a huge blow to the Toffees in defence, having started nine of the Merseyside outfit’s last 10 fixtures in the heart of the backline – including eight of the last nine Premier League matches prior to the international break.

Everton have kept three clean sheets in the 11 top-flight matches that Ancelotti has fielded Godfrey in a centre-back role this season, which came in a three-game run against Liverpool, Southampton and West Bromwich Albion.

To now be without the former Norwich City enforcer will be particularly problematic for Ancelotti, who is said to consider the Toffees’ £20m summer signing as the best of his central defensive options.

Ancelotti will be expected to call on Michael Keane, Mason Holgate or Yerry Mina to protect Jordan Pickford’s goal against Crystal Palace, should Godfrey fail another fitness test.

AND in other news, Everton are tracking a £17m striker with “a wealth of talent”…

West Ham United have another new striker on their shortlist ahead of the summer…

What’s the word?

According to Eurosport, the Irons are tracking Atalanta forward Duvan Zapata ahead of the upcoming window as they fear Tammy Abraham could be out of reach financially.

It’s claimed that David Moyes will have around £35m to spend on a new forward but that is still short of Chelsea’s £40m valuation, and that’s on top of his desired £140k-per-week wages.

Zapata provides an interesting alternative and sits alongside Brentford talisman Ivan Toney and Sparta Prague’s Adam Hlozek on Hammers’ priority list.

Sign him up

If Abraham is too expensive, then Moyes should absolutely target the Serie A goal machine instead. It’s no secret that his squad needs another forward and at the very last that’s one extra frontman.

GSB never replaced Sebastian Haller after sanctioning his exit during the January transfer window after just 18 months at the London Stadium, meaning the Scottish manager was left with an injury-prone Michail Antonio as his only senior option.

The 30-year-old powerhouse has proven to be a prolific marksman in Italy throughout his career and this season he has been in fine form, providing 18 goals and 12 assists in all competitions, via Transfermarkt.

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That has taken his overall tally for Atalanta to a whopping 65 strikes in only 126 appearances, which is around a goal every other game.

His physical attributes make for the most appeal as at 6 foot 2, he has the stature to cause many Premier League defences nightmares, and that is something that his former teammate, Papu Gomez, alluded to last season.

Speaking on Instagram (via Goal), he claimed:

“Zapata’s shorts look like underwear, he is so big. Sometimes I don’t even want to get close to him in a match because he’s a beast and it hurts. When he is feeling good he’s like a train – you throw the ball forward and ‘ciao!'”

Furthermore, ex-Colombia boss Jose Pekerman praised Zapata after his international debut and suggested that they “need him with his power.” He has since gone onto land 16 caps for his national side.

It remains to be seen how much of that £35m would be eaten up by a move for the Atalanta sensation but given CIES value him at €30m (£26m), he should certainly come a lot cheaper than Abraham, who is yet to deliver as consistently as Zapata.

Moyes will also finally get another option up front, ending the nightmare of the last few months.

AND in other news, Huge blow: Moyes handed injury setback, Irons star “may not play again this season”…

Newcastle United were reportedly offered as many as seven different players on loan in the summer transfer window.

The Lowdown: Frustrating window

The St. James’ Park faithful only managed to bring in one player of note on a permanent deal in Joe Willock from Arsenal.

Given that he was already on loan there last season, the squad has not really improved in what turned out to be a frustrating window in the North East.

The Latest: Players offered

Writing in his latest piece for The Daily Telegraph, Luke Edwards has said that the Tyneside club were offered seven players on loan throughout the window: Hamza Choudhury, Axel Tuanzebe, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Hector Bellerin, Harry Winks, Mason Holgate and Boubacar Kamara.

However, all of them requited a loan fee to be paid, which the Magpies hierarchy insisted that they could not afford.

The Verdict: Shame

To get even just a couple of those players in on loan deals would have made the window a much better one for Steve Bruce’s team, and instead, the former Aston Villa and Sunderland manager now has to work with a very similar squad to last season.

Described as a ‘phenomenal’ player by pundit Paul Robinson back in February after an impressive performance against Burnley while on loan at West Brom, Maitland-Niles made his feelings known late on in the window about potentially wanting to leave (The Guardian), and one cannot help that a deal could have been struck with the Gunners having already brought in Willock.

Tuanzebe and Bellerin have both moved on to Aston Villa and Real Betis respectively, but the Toon should really be looking at revisiting moves for the other five players when January comes around.

In other news, find out why NUFC’s offer for this player was rejected here!