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One of the heroes of that great Leeds team of the early 2000s, Ian Harte more than most would have been chuffed to bits at seeing his former side clinch their return to the Premier League.The Whites secured their top-flight status thanks to rivals West Brom slipping to a surprise 2-1 defeat to Huddersfield Town on Friday night, meaning that they have guaranteed a top-two spot in the Championship and automatic promotion.And Harte was quick to take to Twitter to share his thoughts on Leeds’ Premier League return.

Having played in the Premier League in his time with Leeds, Harte will know all about the kind of magic that Elland Road can inspire when hosting top-flight football.

In what has been a long and drawn-out campaign, Marcelo Bielsa’s side have completed their main goal of finally getting out of the Championship, and they’ve done it with some games to spare too.

No more play-off heartbreak, and no more worrying about a late meltdown. The job is done, and now it’s time to celebrate.

Leeds United fans absolutely adore midfielder Kalvin Phillips so you can only imagine the reaction should the 24-year-old ever depart Elland Road, but maybe they shouldn’t worry going by Beren Cross’ latest article.

The LeedsLive reporter profiles young prospect Alfie McCalmont dubbed Marcelo ‘Bielsa’s next project’.

He claims that the Argentine was asked by Victor Orta about what he wanted should Phillips leave the west Yorkshire outfit – a contingency plan if you like – and Bielsa went away and watched all of the U23’s 2018/19 campaign and decided that the 20-year-old Northern Irishman was the man.

McCalmont was handed his debut earlier this season, coming on as a substitute against Salford City in the EFL Cup and would record his first start in the same competition two weeks later against Stoke City.

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He’s also picked up a cap for his national side.

Some supporters have been reacting to Cross on social media, here’s what has been said…

AND in other news, Leeds fans react as Marcelo Bielsa image emerges…

Speaking to Football Insider, Noel Whelan has revealed why he believes Victor Orta faces a difficult job at Leeds this summer.

What did he say?

After Angus Kinnear revealed that Orta has turned his attentions to “extending loan player contracts and retaining options for permanent signings beyond their original expiry date”, Whelan has suggested that the Spaniard will find it difficult to work under the current circumstances.

He said: “There’s going to be disappointments across the board at many, many clubs when it comes to players – they’re undecided on their future, other clubs don’t know if they can let a player go now.

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“There’s going to be a lot more disappointment than we think right now because no one knows the future and how things are going to pan out after this.

“Everyone’s very uncertain – until the season’s probably finished and we have an idea of how everything’s going to play out, people can’t really make decisions and judgments right now.”

Unprecedented

Make no mistake about it, Orta will have his work cut out in terms of dealing with players who are already at the club like Jack Harrison and Ben White, and then also trying to weave his magic with new signings too.

Marcelo Bielsa will no doubt be keen on ensuring that the club’s current loanees are still a part of his first-team squad for the Championship run-in, and with promotion firmly within their grasp, it would be quite something if they let it slip because they had to wave goodbye to Harrison and White, amongst others.

Whether Orta can keep the Leeds squad in tact over these coming weeks may determine the Whites’ quest for Premier League football next season.

Amidst the continued uncertainty over the future of Paul Pogba, Manchester United unsurprisingly seem to be keen on ensuring they bring in a new central midfielder this summer.

Pogba was the subject of big interest from the likes of Juventus and Real Madrid last summer, but ended up staying put at Old Trafford – injuries however have stopped him from taking to the field too many times however this season.

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But according to The Daily Mail, United, Chelsea and Tottenham are all interested in Lazio powerhouse Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, with the report revealing in an update that he will be allowed to leave the club for a fee upwards of £80m.

After hearing about the latest news on the Serbian, United fans took to Twitter to voice their thoughts on the situation.

Some United fans seemed to be totally on board with the idea of Milinkovic-Savic coming in to be Pogba’s replacement at the club.

If Pogba does end up leaving the club this summer, then bringing in Milinkovic-Savic would certainly be an adequate replacement.

The Serbian has a similar physical profile to the former Juventus star, and wouldn’t come with all the added Mino Raiola baggage that comes with Pogba.

It’s a move that makes a lot of sense.

It’s July 2016 and a group of ardent Hammers fans have been waiting for four hours in the pouring rain for an opportunity to meet their Canning town born hero – Mark Noble.

He has been delayed for attending the grand opening of the new stadium store due to flooding in the Brentwood area in Essex where he now lives, caused by out of season torrential rain during the night and early morning. However, those Hammers fans don’t care; they’ve simply got to meet and have their photograph taken with him.

In their minds, any of them or their families could be Mark Noble and by the same token, he could be one of them. This, thoughm is only part of the reason why he is considered ‘Mr West Ham.’

This week it has been announced the West Ham United captain has donated £35,000 to Basildon Borough Council to help deliver essentials to the people effected by the Coronavirus outbreak. It is also believed he has played a part in the #playerstogether campaign – along with other senior Premier League players like Jordan Henderson, Harry Maguire and Troy Deeney – created to help raise funds for the NHS in these current troubling times.

Back in May 2016, he was even granted the freedom of the Borough of Newham – the London Borough West Ham resides in – for his services to the people of the area.

This came as no surprise to West Ham fans. A club captain for four years and part of the first team for thirteen, he is one of them after all, but what has led him to this point?

Below are just five of the reasons why West Ham fans hold their No.16 in such high regard…

He grew up in the local area of the club he now leads.

Mark grew up in Canning Town and then Beckton, a stone’s throw from Upton Park.

Having played for local side Barking Colts, he was then picked up as an 11-year-old by scouts at Arsenal. However, due to the distance to Highbury from his then home in Beckton, causing him to be consistently late for training, the decision was made for him to join his local club West Ham United’s Academy two years later in 2000.

Mark became the youngest player to appear for the club’s reserve team at the age of 15 and after several appearances for the reserves, he then made his debut with the first team as a 17-year-old in August 2004 in a League Cup match against Southend United.

“Obviously when you grow up in the area you love playing on the street, and to go from playing on the street with my mates to playing at Upton Park is a bit surreal,” he said after his debut.

His passion for the club and the fans

Noble became club captain in September 2015, in time for West Ham’s momentous final season at Upton Park in 2015/16.

Upon succeeding previous Captain Kevin Nolan, Noble said: “When you are at a massive Barclays Premier League club like West Ham United playing in the best league in the world, to be captain and be brought up in the same area is something very special for me, for my family and the fans because they can relate to it.”

He spoke to the fans during an interview after the famous final match against Manchester United in May of that year, stating “this isn’t a football club, this is a family. Every West Ham fan out there is my family.”

It’s comments like these that demonstrate Noble’s undoubted commitment and passion for the club.

Over the years he’s been with the club through good times and bad, including in 2018 when fan unrest led to protests and pitch invasions at the club’s new home in Stratford..

Noble’s passion led to him helping to drag one of the protestors off of the pitch in a day of ignominy for the club.

“I’m a West Ham fan and I’ve always protected the club,” he said. “If someone approaches me, I’ll protect myself.”

He plays ‘The West Ham Way’

The phrase ‘playing the West Ham Way’ has long been derided, some of the time unfairly, but this largely depends on what your opinion of the West Ham Way is.

Most at West Ham believe it’s origins to come from the 1960s when Ron Greenwood’s side enjoyed arguably the most successful period in the club’s history. Winning the 1964 FA Cup and the European Cup Winners Cup the following season, closely followed by three of their players playing a major role in the glorious World Cup winning England team in 1966, West Ham United became known as a free-flowing football team.

Often, Greenwood’s philosophy was that it was as important to play well as it was to win matches. In the years since, the club haven’t always stuck to this idealist way of playing, but could it be interpreted that the West Ham Way has itself changed somewhat. Nowadays, West Ham fans expectation of their players is commitment and hard work, with maybe a little bit of style from time to time.

Mark Noble perfectly understands this philosophy. This was never better demonstrated than in the match where Noble scored his first league goal for the club against Tottenham Hotspur in March 2007.

Brought into the side’s midfield by Alan Curbishley, thanks in part to an injury crisis but also because of his hard-working industrious playing style, Noble spent much of the game buzzing all over the Spurs midfield before scoring a superb strike to give his side the lead. He even ended the game in tears following a last-minute defeat, seemingly condemning the club to relegation, before a marvellous end of season run, with Noble in the side, winning seven of their last nine games to stay up.

Over the years his playing style has adapted to an extent, leading the team from a deeper position as age has caught up with him, robbing him of his pace and stunting his previous penchant for running up and down the pitch.

Now, his deep lying midfield position allows him to be pivotal to the way the team plays, often spraying passes to players with more technical ability in advanced areas leading to goals. His pass completion rate each season has consistently been over 80% in recent years. In his 495 matches, he has 59 assists for the club and 60 goals – with 38 of those coming from the penalty spot.

He’s also the mentor for his central midfield partner and the man many West Ham fans hope will take his place as captain one day – Declan Rice.

He’s ‘Too Good for England’

Noble’s promise in his early career led to International recognition for England at U18 and U19 level, closely followed by a call up to the U21 side in the summer of 2007 by then coach Stuart Pearce. He would go on to captain the team at the 2009 U21 European Championships, where they would be defeated in the final by their German counterparts.

However, a call up to the senior national side has long eluded him, despite some critical acclaim over the years. He was tipped by some to go to the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Euros due to his club performances in those seasons, but on both occasions was overlooked by Roy Hodgson in favour of younger candidates, despite his obvious experience.

Noble’s lack of England caps put him alongside other West Ham ‘legends’ who have had similar snubs, like Billy Bonds and Julian Dicks, often because of fears their rugged style of play may not be suited to international football.

West Ham fans know his qualities, though, and if anything, this has helped endear him to the Hammers faithful, serenading him with chants of “Too Good for England” several times over the years.

His dependability and consistency

Since his return to the club after returning from a loan spell with Ipswich Town in the first half of the 2006/07 season, Noble has averaged 28 league appearances each year. That’s an incredibly consistent run over 13 seasons. That’s largely due to his importance to the side, allied with his superb injury record.

During the thirteen seasons that Noble has been part of the first-team, he has suffered only six notable injuries, with the maximum time away from the team being 49 days in both the 2012/13 and 2016/17 seasons. He has been consistently picked by no less than seven managers in his time at West Ham, who often use varying playing styles, yet still come back to using Noble as part of the spine of their teams. He even reportedly played through pain and required injections to play for the club in 2017, displaying his obvious dependability.

He’s not always been immune to calls at certain stages to be dropped, notably during the 2016/17 season, a time he said “was the hardest of his career” and also more recently this season during the club’s wretched run of form. There being some suggestions new loan signing Sparta Prague captain Tomas Soucek could take his place in the side once the Premier League resumes.

If this season does mark the beginning of the end of Mark Noble’s time as West Ham’s talisman on the pitch, then it’s surely only going to be only the beginning of the next stage in his football career. Noble admitted in 2018 that he hadn’t done his coaching badges but he certainly sees himself as a mentor figure: “I think there’s no better person than me at this club to know the morals and ensure the foundations are kept with the young players and staff members.”

It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the coming years, whether he moves into coaching or joins the growing list of former footballers that end up chatting to Sky Sports or BT Sport every week in punditry.

Either way, there can be no doubt those Hammers fans will always see him as ‘one of them.’

It must be pretty great behind a Liverpool fan right now.

They are the current European champions, after two finals in a row in the tournament. Not only that, they top the Premier League by eight points from Leicester City and Chelsea, whilst Manchester City, the current holders, are a further point back and currently sit in fourth place.

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As such, a place at Anfield to watch the Reds in action is amongst the hottest tickets in town. The Merseyside outfit are currently planning an extension to the current stadium, and are even said to be consulting both fans and local residents to get their thoughts on the future renovation.

However, it seems they may want to look at sorting out the club’s ticketing system, which is the cause of much debate amongst the team’s supporters.

Several members have been complaining about the difficulties to get their hands on tickets, and they have taken to Twitter to do so. You can see some of the best comments from the social media platform below.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

A level head, but not quite in the right place.

Leicester City have made an incredible start to the season, and as a result, people are starting to wonder just how far they can go. Some are even suggesting that they are still very much in the title race.

However do Leicester ‘deserve’ to be in the position that they’re in, or have they been lucky? Former Foxes defender Matt Elliott believes it’s very much the former.

What’s he said?

Speaking to Sky Sports, Elliott said that although he wasn’t going to proclaim them as certainties for Champions League football, they deserved to be in the position that they’re in:

“They’ve got themselves in a tremendous position, and the thing is it’s not by a fluke, it’s there on merit.”

Not strictly true

Whilst credit has to go to Rodgers and his side for being as high as they are, to say that the whole thing has been down to them would be somewhat of a stretch. Much in the same way that Sheffield United have managed to make a great start to the season, part of that is solely down to some members of the traditional ‘top six’ going through a number of problems this season.

That is why it’s so imperative that Leicester carry on this momentum and, to borrow a phrase from one of Rodgers’ old players Steven Gerrard, ‘do not let this slip’, because they may never get a better chance this side of their 2016 title win.

Whilst they are to an extent playing with house money based on some pre-season predictions putting them outside the Champions League places and contending instead for Europa League football, those expectations have changed based off their start to the season.

If they were to stumble from their position now, it would possibly go down as a bit of a failure, particularly if the likes of Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United don’t get themselves out of their respective ruts.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

Aston Villa have made a mixed start to life back in the Premier League after ending their three-year absence, winning three of their first 12 fixtures, but Dean Smith would be wise to alter his attacking midfield selections if he is to get the best out of club-record signing Wesley.

The Brazilian forward arrived from Club Brugges in a £22m deal during the summer transfer window, and despite scoring four league goals, the striker has struggled at times – appearing isolated at the spearhead of Villa’s attacking frontline.

Utilising the 22-year-old and his proven goalscoring prowess – having scored 32 league goals in the Belgian Pro League – will be crucial if Smith is to ensure his side can stave off relegation, and a player who could unlock Wesley’s potential is another of the club’s summer signings – Jota.

Having made the switch from rivals Birmingham City to Villa Park, the Spaniard has struggled with a hernia injury alongside falling in the preference list of his manager.

The 28-year-old has started just three leagues games for the newly-promoted side, but created a crucial assist for Wesley in the club’s 2-0 victory over Everton; a delicate through ball timed to perfection for the striker to bury in front of a rapturous home crowd. That type of service would be ideal for Wesley.

Not only is the summer signing creating space, but he is aiming to take on opposition defenders and break through at an impressive rate.

Despite his lack of starts, Jota’s take-on success rate at 83.3% – the 11th highest rate in the league of any player to have attempted more than five.

The £4.5m-rated playmaker’s ability to find space between the lines is the type of service that Villa’s Brazilian forward thrives off.

Having gone four league games without a goal since scoring a brace against Norwich City at Carrow Road, the re-introduction of the former Birmingham man could be a shrewd move from Smith if he is to galvanise Wesley and ensure he can reach double digits in his debut Premier League campaign.

Tottenham Hotspur fans were less than thrilled with Christian Eriksen’s goal against Red Star Belgrade on Wednesday.

The Denmark international came off the bench to score against the Serbian side in the Champions League as Spurs ran out comfortable 4-0 winners on the road.

Mauricio Pochettino’s men held a 3-0 advantage when the Dane was introduced and he merely added the cherry on top of the cake.

However, fans weren’t exactly delighted that he added his name to the scoresheet.

Indeed, he has struggled throughout the season, netting just once before Wednesday’s game and laying on one further assist.

Of course, the Dane revealed his desire to take on a new challenge in the summer, with The Athletic claiming that he would only have joined Real Madrid or Barcelona.

His contract expires in the summer and he could well leave on a free if he does not come to an agreement over a new deal with the north London club.

Take a look at the best of the reaction from fans on Twitter below!

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Moussa Sissoko has maintained that Tottenham Hotspur can get back to their best despite a poor start to the season, per the club’s official website.

What’s he said?

The France international has started every single game in the Premier League this season, but Spurs have won just three of those encounters.

Indeed, Mauricio Pochettino’s men are currently 11th in the top-flight, eight points behind both Leicester City and Chelsea in third and fourth respectively.

But Sissoko is confident that he and his team-mates have the ability to turn their form around and begin to climb the table.

He said: “Like always, I give my best for the team and that’s what I will always do, like every player, until the end of the season.

“We are together and we want success together. Of course, the results in the last few weeks haven’t been great for us, but that’s football, that’s life.

“Sometimes it can be like this and we have to work our way through it, stick together and I’m sure good things will follow soon.”

Nonsense quotes

What’s the point of coming out with cookie-cutter quotes that supporters will surely find infuriating?

At the end of the day, all that matters – clichéd as it may be – is the score at the final whistle.

It is all very well coming out with these template words but Sissoko, of all people, needs to start backing everything up on the pitch.

He has been one of the club’s most improved players and, obviously, Pochettino trusts him.

But he has yet to add an end product to his play. On Sunday, against Liverpool, as Spurs lost 2-1, he had a prime opportunity to play in Son Heung-Min in the final 10 minutes but he ended up playing the ball through to Reds goalkeeper Alisson Becker instead.

Indeed, per WhoScored, while he has laid on one assist this season, he averages just 0.5 key passes per game, is dispossessed on average 0.9 times and has 1.7 unsuccessful touches.

Sissoko would do better to work on adding an end product to his game instead of pontificating about his side’s chances.