All posts by n8rngtd.top

Alongside the several potential new players Celtic have been linked to this window, they also have their eye on a new manager. The Mirror recently reported that Rafael Benitez is in the picture to usurp Neil Lennon as head coach of the Glasgow giants, following his decision to leave his role in China.

No decision has been confirmed yet and Lennon is still very much in charge of the Hoops, but if he is to be shown the door, the club have a lot to thank him for.

Not only did the Irishman lead Celtic to their historic quadruple-treble accolade, alongside several Premiership titles but he has developed players like Ismaila Soro and David Turnbull into proven first team players.

The 2020/21 season has undeniably been tough on the Bhoys, who are down and out in their chances of securing a tenth consecutive Premiership trophy. They were also handed an early exit from the Europa League after conceding the joint-most amount of goals (19) and managing to win just one match out of the group stages.

With a crisis on their hands, Lennon was forced to rummage around in the substitutes barrel. Taking a punt, the boss took a chance on 2020 signings Turnbull and Soro. This is one of the smartest decisions Lennon has made this season and if he is to part ways with Celtic, he will leaving two ready-made stars in his wake.

According to Transfermarkt, Turnbull has contributed six goals and three assists for Celtic this season, despite only making his first start in October. He has been the difference for his side on numerous occasions, including his goal to secure a point against Hibernian earlier this month.

Soro has also made a vast difference to Celtic’s midfield and has taken the place of Scott Brown on several occasions. According to WhoScored, the 22-year-old has averaged a higher passing accuracy than the Hoops skipper and more interceptions and tackles per match.

This goes to show the benefits of Lennon taking a risk as he desperately tried to turn this season on its head. Whilst he hasn’t achieved what he wanted, he can be proud that he has developed two overlooked players into solid and reliable starters.

In other news, Carlton Palmer believes Benitez would be good coup for Celtic…

It’s been reported that Tottenham Hotspur captain Hugo Lloris has rejected the club’s ‘very lucrative’ initial new contract offer, with the 2018 World Cup winner’s current deal set to expire a year and a half from now.

This news comes after reports emerged claiming that Lloris is wanted by former Tottenham boss, and new Paris Saint-Germain manager, Mauricio Pochettino.

Long-term Levy plan

This contract update on Lloris was originally reported by Football Insider, who have claimed that the Lilywhites’ owner and chairman Daniel Levy, who Lloris claimed to have a good relationship with back in 2016, is keen to sign the Frenchman to a long-term deal that would effectively see him spend the rest of his career at Spurs.

It’s claimed in this report that the Lilywhites hierarchy ‘still have great faith’ in the £10.8m-rated man, as does Spurs manager Jose Mourinho.

Tottenham Hotspur knocked back

Pochettino’s appointment at Le Parc des Princes seems to have thrown a spanner in the works of this long-term Levy plan to tie Lloris down to a long-term deal, which the club has reportedly been working on since August, as Mourinho’s side are now said to be prepared to try and battle ‘strong interest’ from PSG for the goalkeeper’s signature.

With Spurs’ early attempts to get Lloris tied down to a new deal having been knocked back, and the club said to be determined not to allow their captain to enter the final year of his contract amid interest from PSG, it certainly seems that unless they can convince Lloris to change his mind and commit his future to Tottenham in the next few months, a summer departure could well be on the cards.

In other news, Fabrizio Romano has provided an update on Spurs and Levy’s negotiations over a new deal for star attacker, Son Heung-min.

David Moyes’ decision to field West Ham United winger Jarrod Bowen as a makeshift centre-forward against Brighton and Hove Albion backfired horrifically on Sunday.

Bowen was fielded in a central role to serve as the middleman between striker Sebastien Haller and captain Mark Noble, with an emphasis on pushing high up the field at the London Stadium.

Instead, most of the work Bowen could muster at home to the Seagulls saw the former Hull City maestro backtrack into Irons territory, before seeing his reputation spared any further damage when replaced by Andriy Yarmolenko at half-time looking absolutely knackered.

West Ham’s inability to dictate the flow of proceedings in the opening 45 minutes hindered Bowen’s hopes of making a move into a central role work, with the £25m-rated playmaker unable to find the needed space to create or the end product when openings developed.

Brighton’s buoyant start left Haller isolated without his attacking partner able to get close, while even Bowen’s deliveries from set-pieces was woeful with the 24-year-old failing to find a teammate with 50 per cent of his four corners taken.

His SofaScore heatmap from the Seagulls affair even showed the right-hand corner flag to be where a majority of Bowen’s 25 touches were taken, as he laboured to a mere seven successful passes, misplaced his two open-play crosses, offered zero key balls and missed the target with his sole shot before being hooked.

The £96,000-per-week forward further lost possession 10 times, though won three of his four ground duels, and will be desperate for the hectic festive schedule to end in order to earn a welcome rest having started all 15 of the Hammers’ Premier League fixtures this term.

Moyes will now be forced to go back to the drawing board ahead of West Ham’s trip to Southampton on Tuesday night looking to resolve his creativity crisis, that left the Hammers forced to come from behind twice to snatch a point at home to Brighton.

Yarmolenko is unlikely to be Moyes’ answer having endured a frustrating cameo against Brighton, as the Ukraine international’s direct runs caused the Seagulls problems but often without a decisive end product.

AND in other news, a West Ham gem who’s “not been at the races” betrayed David Moyes vs Brighton.

Everton fans have been reacting to a post on Twitter, which relayed footage of Robbie Savage and Chris Sutton, who labelled Dominic Calvert-Lewin a diver.

Speaking on BBC Five Live Sport, Sutton stated the Everton forward was the winner of the ‘simulation game’, going on to say that Calvert-Lewin was ‘better than that’ and to ‘just stop it’ when it came to simulation, before Savage also repeated the call that the £40.5 million-rated 23-year-old was ‘better than that’.

So far this season, Calvert-Lewin has been in incredibly fine form over his 16 league appearances for Carlo Ancelotti’s side, scoring 11 goals and averaging a WhoScored match rating of 7.40 – ranking him as the club’s second-best performer in the top flight.

And, after BBC Five Live Sport shared the footage of Savage and Sutton on Twitter, fans of Everton flocked to have their say on the matter, with many left furious by the pundits’ remarks.

So, what exactly did these Everton fans have to say in reaction to Robbie Savage and Chris Sutton’s comments regarding Dominic Calvert-Lewin?

“Staggered by this. DCL wouldn’t even be in the top 100 divers in the Prem! Look at Man U diving to get pens every week! Liverpool get them every other week! Leicester are trying it, Jose has got Kane doing it at Spurs…and you choose to highlight DCL. Absolutely bonkers!”

@DannyBrodders

“Really weird take this. Calvert-Lewin isn’t even renowned for going down and he didn’t even claim for a penalty. So many more obvious examples than any of the players mentioned there.”

@matt8284

“Utter embarrassments, the state on this pair. One player who oozes integrity..and you rate him as a cheater or and a diver. You lack class… But hardly surprised. You spout bile to try and stay relevant… But you are utterly irrelevant. Not surprised that BBC is going downhill”

@Rexellis75

“So funny. This is pathetic you have started with someone who would struggle to make the top 100 premier league divers #pathetic #boring what are the chances the actual cheaters such as Harry Kane, Mo Salah, Bruno Fernandez don’t make this list”

@jonty1878

“This is utterly absurd.”

@EmmaHanko

“sack them now absolute joke. Never been booked for simulation.”

@LHenney06

In other Everton news, find out which Everton man has been linked with a move to West Brom here!

Leeds United defender Robin Koch limped off against Chelsea in the Whites’ 3-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge on Saturday night but Bielsa could have a natural replacement in 17-year-old Nohan Kenneh.

The German international looked to be struggling in the opening stages of the game against Frank Lampard’s side and was replaced after less than 10 minutes after he had gone down clutching his knee.

He was replaced by Spanish centre-back Diego Llorente, who made his first start for the club after missing the first two months of the season with a groin injury.

This leaves Bielsa with just Llorente, Liam Cooper and Pascal Struijk as fit senior centre-backs in this side, and as we approach a busy Christmas period, you worry that if the Argentinian manager doesn’t rotate his side, then he will suffer more injuries in his defence.

Fortunately, he also has 17-year-old Kenneh available to him, with the academy graduate having trained with the first-team in recent weeks, so he is clearly knocking on the door for a start in Bielsa’s side.

Therefore Koch’s injury, whilst unfortunate, gives the Leeds manager the perfect opportunity to unleash Kenneh and show fans what the young academy sensation is capable of.

The England U17 starlet is yet to make a senior appearance for the Elland Road outfit but has made seven appearances for the academy sides so far this season.

[freshpress-quiz id=“562145″]

Leeds have five more Premier League games between now and the new year, so surely Bielsa will be tempted to make some changes to his squad to try and avoid his senior players being overexerted, which could lead to Kenneh being an opportunity to shine.

The 17-year-old can play as both a centre-back and a defensive-midfielder too, which gives Bielsa some more freedom in where he wants to play him if he decides that he isn’t ready to feature as a centre-back in the Premier League.

Either way, Koch’s injury is a blow for Leeds, so it will be interesting to see if Bielsa trusts Kenneh, or any other youngster, to replace him in the upcoming fixtures.

And, in other news… Forget Rodrigo: “Brilliant” £7.2m-rated beast is proving himself to be Leeds’ signing of the summer

Declan Rice was uncharacteristically wasteful in West Ham United’s victory over London rivals Fulham on Saturday, with the England international unable to leave a positive impression on the result.

The 21-year-old is among the most important players at the London Stadium, where boss David Moyes has called on Rice to start all available Premier League fixtures since returning to succeed Manuel Pellegrini at the helm.

But Rice was far from the player reportedly set to earn a £120,000-per-week contract after transfer interest from Chelsea this summer, as the midfielder West Ham valued as high as £80million frequently struggled to put any pressure on Fulham.

England boss Gareth Southgate has been awash with praise for Rice in recent weeks, using words like ‘maturity’ ‘responsibility’, ‘huge potential’ and ‘great mentality’ to describe the 11-cap international he awarded a debut to.

But Moyes failed to see any of that or any real influence from Rice this weekend, and will be hoping for far better from the midfielder once he returns from Three Lions duty after being named in Southgate’s squad to face the Republic of Ireland, Belgium and Iceland.

Southgate will be hoping his prior praise is met with a performance on the pitch, too, having said via quotes by the official West Ham website: “We are delighted, pleased with how he is developing. He is a good professional, wants to learn, wants to work for the team, digs in for the team, is getting more vocal on the pitch.

“He has huge potential and the reason he has that potential is because he has a great mentality and desire to keep improving. He has other good examples among the senior players here. He knows the ones to follow and that is a good start.

“To have the additional responsibility of [West Ham] captaincy is brilliant and tells you also a bit about him as a person. For someone that young to be given the captaincy tells you the maturity he has, the responsibility he takes.”

Rice offered next to none of what Southgate has lauded him for against Fulham this weekend, as the Irons captain was uncharacteristically careless, particularly in the first half, as he lost five of seven ground duels, four of six aerial duels and turned the ball over on nine occasions, per SofaScore, for a duel success rating of just 30%.

He was further dribbled past when attempting two of his three tackles and committed two fouls, but somewhat made up for those shortcomings with three interceptions and by blocking two shots.

Though Moyes would have expected Rice to offer far more from his vast time on the ball, having recorded 81 touches, yet saw the midfielder attempt just 16 of his 70 passes in the final third, per WhoScored and play just five of his total efforts long – of which three found teammates.

Rice will know he can offer more than what he presented against Fulham, and both Moyes and Southgate will be banking on seeing that on the pitch in the weeks to come.

AND in other news, West Ham have entered the £8m race to sign an in-demand sensation who “can do anything”.

Romanian journalist Emanuel Rosu, who regularly provides updates on Glasgow Rangers midfielder Ianis Hagi, has been on the end of some poor treatment from an unnamed representative of a Scottish newspaper.

Rosu was a constant source of knowledge for ‘Gers fans when Hagi moved on loan to Ibrox earlier this year and has provided updates on the 22-year-old ever since. Given his valuable position as an expert on all things Romanian football, you can understand why Scottish journalists would be eager to have him as a source.

However, it seems that one unnamed writer has taken advantage of Rosu. The latter was asked to provide some information on Hagi and his family, with the promise of payment. In the end, although he did provide what he promised, he did not receive any money for his work.

He shared a Twitter conversation with the journalist on the social media platform and it attracted plenty of attention from ‘Gers supporters. It is fair to say that many were far from happy – they have had plenty of problems with that they call the “mainstream media”.

Let’s see what they had to say about the treatment of Rosu below

In other news, Rangers fans slam this star who had a “touch like an elephant” against Standard Liege. Let us know what you think in the comments!

Whilst Kevin De Bruyne’s missed penalty may be the biggest cause for frustration amongst Manchester City fans following their 1-1 draw against Liverpool on Sunday afternoon, Rodri’s performance was really disappointing.

As per SofaScore, the Spanish midfielder picked up a worrying 6.0 rating for his display against the 2019/20 champions, which was the joint-worst of any player on the pitch.

Whilst the defensive midfielder’s passing wasn’t too sloppy during the game, with him picking up a pass accuracy rate of 84%, with 56/67 of his passes finding their mark, he still managed to lose possession on 13 occasions during the game against Jurgen Klopp’s side.

Of the six ground duels he was involved in, he managed to win just one, whilst he failed to win his one aerial duel during the game, suggesting that he certainly wasn’t at his sharpest against the Reds.

Since joining from Atletico Madrid for £56.43 million last summer, the 24-year-old has gone on to make 63 appearances for Pep Guardiola’s side, contributing four goals and two assists (per Transfermarkt).

Last season, the midfielder made 35 appearances in the Premier League, averaging a very strong 7.09 rating, whereas this season so far has seen him average a much less impressive 6.76 rating for his performances in the top-flight (per WhoScored).

This suggests that, so far this season at least, the £57.6 million-rated man has not been at his best for the Citizens and perhaps this is reflected across the whole team, with the Etihad Stadium outfit sitting in 11th position in the Premier League after their opening seven games (per BBC Sport).

Both Rodri and Manchester City will have to improve on their performances following the international break if they want to re-establish themselves as title hopefuls, although they face another tough game in their next Premier League fixture when they face Tottenham Hotspur away from home.

Stoke City are among a string of clubs in the English Football League rivalling Sunderland in the transfer race for Scott Fraser, according to Daily Record.

Ahead of a third straight season in League One, Black Cats manager Phil Parkinson is seeking to assemble a squad that he feels is capable of gaining promotion to the Championship.

The 52-year-old coach has already added some new faces to his squad with the signings of Bailey Wright and Aiden O’Brien, whilst Tom Flanagan signed a new deal to remain at the club.

Sunderland’s interest in Fraser has also been reported in the last few weeks, although that has now been matched by a number of clubs.

Fraser, who had spent the last two seasons with Burton Albion, opted to turn down a new contract at the Pirelli Stadium this summer and move on to a new chapter in his career.

The 25-year-old, who boasted five goals 11 assists in 30 League One appearances in 2019/20, is not just wanted by Sunderland, though, with both Stoke City and Hull City also said to be keen on him.

The Daily Record reported that Stoke manager Michael O’Neill is keen on the Scot, whilst League One newcomers Hull City will be keen to add quality to their squad as they seek to bounce back following their relegation from the Championship last month.

The race to sign Fraser looks likely to come down to the winner having the most pulling power, both financially and in terms of league stature.

If that proves to be the case, then Championship outfit Stoke could have the edge over League One duo Sunderland and Hull, which would leave frustration for the Black Cats were they to miss out on a player that they have targeted for some time.

Do you think Fraser would be a good addition to the Sunderland squad? Let us know your views in the comments section below…

Leicester are reportedly favourites to sign Adam Lallana from Liverpool this summer.

According to Dominic King (via Sportslens), the Foxes are keen on bringing the former England international to the King Power to reunite him with former boss Brendan Rodgers. Lallana will be available as a free agent at the end of the season and will be able to join the club of his choice.

It was recently confirmed by Jurgen Klopp that Lallana would play no further part in Liverpool’s 2019/20 season. King has reported that this is so the 32-year-old doesn’t risk any unexpected injuries squandering his chance of a top move.

The midfielder has dedicated six years to the Merseyside outfit after joining from Southampton in the summer of 2014 (via BBC Sport). Despite long-term injuries affecting a lot of his career in red, Lallana has made a total of 178 appearances, scoring 22 goals and assisting another 22 (via Transfermarkt).

Lallana would bring experience in abundance to Leicester’s midfield if they were to sign him up. With a Champions League and Premier League medal to his name, the 32-year-old could be what the Foxes need to challenge in Europe next season.

As it stands, Rodgers’ side are fourth in the league table, having slipped down a place following their recent draw against Arsenal. Both Chelsea and Manchester United are eager for a top four spot, so Leicester need to keep hold of their current position.

Should they qualify, Lallana could be a key figure in their Champions League run as well as pivotal player in the middle of the park. Especially as a free signing, the Foxes would be foolish not to bring the Englishman to the club.

Would you like to see Leicester sign Adam Lallana this summer? Join the discussion in the comments below…