All posts by z3u9t.icu

Tottenham manager Antonio Conte has led his side to fourth in the Premier League, as it stands, and is on the verge of sealing a place in Europe’s premier cup competition for 2022/23.

Finishing in the top four could have a major impact on their business in the summer as it could help their efforts to land a certain Lazio gem.

It was recently reported that Spurs will make a move for Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, with Fabio Paratici plotting a swoop for the midfielder if the club can secure Champions League qualification this season.

He is reportedly valued at €80m (£66m) by the Italian outfit and he is attracting interest from other teams, with PSG and Juventus said to be keen on him.

Antonio Conte would love him

The Spurs head coach needs him at the club as he would offer something different to the current crop of Spurs midfielders.

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Tottenham do not currently have any central midfielders who offer a big goal threat in the Premier League. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg is the club’s top-scoring player from that position with just two goals to his name, which suggests that they lack a player like Milinkovic-Savic.

In Europe’s top five leagues over the past year, the Serbian international ranks in the 93rd percentile or higher for non-penalty goals, assists, expected assists, non-penalty expected goals, and shots per 90 – as per FBRef. He is also in the 80th percentile for shot-creating actions and in the 97th percentile for progressive passes, proving that he is an elite attack-minded midfielder.

Parma’s sporting director Demetrio Albertini previously lauded his talent, saying: “Milinković-Savić has the characteristics of a great champion; he has extraordinary elegance.”

This high praise is backed up by his incredible attacking statistics for Lazio. He has nine goals and nine assists in the Serie A this term, after producing eight goals and nine assists last season – proving his consistency in the final third.

At the age of 27, he is also now heading into his prime years and this means that Conte will not need to worry about him reaching his potential. Spurs have a number of young players in their squad, including Ollie Skipp in the same position, and it will be a relief for the head coach to have another experienced option to choose from in the middle of the park.

This, along with his attacking quality, is why the Italian boss needs him in North London next season. He can bring goals and to the side from midfield and take some of the pressure off Heung-Min Son, Harry Kane and Dejan Kulusevski, whilst also providing them with chances to score with his progressive passing.

AND in other news, Conte can finally axe “terrible” £91k-p/w dud as THFC plot bid for £58m-rated “leader”…

Many West Ham United fans have taken to Twitter to praise new signing Kurt Zouma for his performance against Manchester United on Sunday.

The French defender, who joined the Hammers from Chelsea three weeks ago in a £29.8m deal, made his Irons debut in last week’s 2-0 win away to Dinamo Zagreb before his home debut for the club in yesterday’s defeat to the Red Devils.

He partnered Angelo Ogbonna in a back four which also included Aaron Cresswell and Vladimir Coufal, and the 26-year-old put in an impressive display against the title contenders at the London Stadium.

As per Sofascore, Zouma made 12 clearances, won all of his ground duels and three of his four aerial duels, and completed 93% of his passes against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side. He also made a last-ditch challenge to stop the ball from reaching Cristiano Ronaldo in the second half, a tackle which received a standing ovation from the home supporters.

The performance from the Frenchman captures the strength in depth that West Ham now have in the centre of defence, with Craig Dawson and Issa Diop available as backup to Zouma and Ogbonna.

West Hams buzzing with Zouma

These Hammers fans took to Twitter to praise their new centre-back after his ‘incredible’ performance on Sunday, with one supporter claiming he is the best player the club have signed in a ‘very long time’.

“Absolutely an Incredible Player What A Signing!”

Credit: @X3Number1

“@KurtZouma you are total star, 100%”

Credit: @_samhowell

“Best player we have bought in a very long time but unless we get a lot better players to play with him don’t think he will stay long”

Credit: @scottyboy1552

“Played a good game today. Solid performance”

Credit: @hillbound1490

“Zouma The Rock”

Credit: @CHTillidie1

“Can he take penalties?”

Credit: @JayneJon

In other news, West Hams are excited about a new figure at the London Stadium. Find out more here.

Manchester City fans want to sign Cristiano Ronaldo this summer after it was suggested the Portuguese striker has been offered to the Citizens.

Despite possessing a squad full of talent and recently adding Jack Grealish (mancity.com) to their plethora of attacking options, it has not been the best start to the campaign for City this term.

They lost the Community Shield against Leicester City and they followed that up with a 1-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on the opening matchday of the Premier League season.

In a shock report, the Corriere dello Sport (via Marca) has suggested £40.5m-valued Ronaldo (Transfermarkt) has been offered to the Etihad Stadium outfit. While the 36-year-old may be approaching the end of his career, he has still managed 101 goals in 133 games for Juventus (Transfermarkt), showing he still has plenty of his legendary ability.

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

Let’s see what the fans had to say about the Ronaldo news below

“PLEASEEEEEEEEE”

Credit: @ZinnySZN

“Yes him over Kane easy. plus a pen scorer”

Credit: @JrJrjuniorsjr1

“IMAGINE THE SCENES ‘Welcome back to Manchester’”

Credit: @Puttci0

“you love to see it”

Credit: @TomWoods_

“Imagine the goals he’d get with KDB behind him”

Credit: @JesusRole

“As much as I call him Penaldo, he is exactly what we need. Someone to just stay in the box and be at the end of crosses. His movements are probably amongst the greatest ever. The only concern would be his pressing.”

Credit: @RDragon7l

In other news, Man City fans slammed this man against Spurs.

Former Newcastle United star Steve Howey insists that the club have done well to hand midfielder Joe Willock a six-year contract after signing him on a permanent deal.

Willock enjoyed a spectacular loan spell at the club last season, after moving from the Gunners in the January transfer window.

In total, the midfielder made 14 appearances in the Premier League for the Magpies at the back end of last season and scored eight goals.

Newcastle paid £25m to bring the player into the club on a permanent basis and he has signed a six-year contract at St James’ Park.

Howey believes that Newcastle have protected themselves in terms of big clubs potentially making bids to sign Willock if he thrives during his stay at St James’ Park.

However, he is somewhat doubtful about the potential of Willock downing tools if bids come in while he is only midway through his contract.

Speaking to Football FanCast, Howey said: “I think the club might be thinking, hopefully, and I’m the same, he does absolutely brilliant. If he does brilliantly, they can either keep him or nine times out of ten, what would tend to happen is he would go to what’s classed as one of the other bigger clubs and at least Newcastle have got him tied down for a period of time.

“He’s signed a contract, he’s happy with the contract that he’s signed, as long as you don’t get a player that spits his dummy out and downs tools, because that’s happened in the past with some players, ultimately you’ve got a contract, you’ve got to try to honour that.”

After a disheartening 2020/21 season which saw Sheffield Wednesday relegated from the Championship, Darren Moore’s side have had a mixed start to their League One campaign.

With nine games played prior to today’s clash against Oxford United, the Owls have won four, drawn three and lost two, with their latest match seeing them beat Wigan Athletic 2-1 at the DW Stadium.

Looking ahead to the game against Oxford, Owls manager Darren Moore revealed in his latest press conference that Sam Hutchinson and Lewis Gibson have both trained ahead of today’s clash but that George Byers will not be available. With this in mind, here’s how we feel the Owls will set up against Oxford, with two changes from the team in midweek.

Will Wednesday pick up another win this weekend?

In goal, Bailey Peacock-Farrell has been a regular for Wednesday so far this season and should continue there to face Oxford.

The defence could see full-backs Marvin Johnson and Liam Palmer retain their places in the team after the midweek victory, with the duo making a total number of seven tackles and five interceptions between them against Wigan, proving themselves to be useful defensive outlets for Wednesday.

There could be some change in the centre-back position, though, with Hutchinson taking Cheyenne Dunkley’s place at centre-back alongside Dominic Iorfa, who also impressed in midweek, earning himself an overall match rating of 7.1/10 (as per SofaScore).

This could then lead to Barry Bannan coming back into the squad after being an unused substitute against Wigan.

Elsewhere, the other change we think Moore should consider for the Oxford match would be to take Jaden Brown out of the team after failing to make an impact against Wigan from the left-midfield position, taking 27 touches and losing possession on 12 occasions, ultimately earning a rather lacklustre overall match rating of 5.8/10, making him Wednesday’s lowest-rated player on the day according to SofaScore.

In his place, we feel Moore should give Olamide Shodipo, who replaced Brown in midweek, a chance from the start to see if he can do a better job than the 22-year-old did against Wigan.

On the other side, Moore should stick with Dennis Adeniran on the right to see if he can have some sort of attacking threat, even though his two league goals this season have come from when he’s played in the centre of midfield.

Finally, Wednesday should continue with Lee Gregory and Callum Paterson, who scored against Wigan, as their two strikers to hopefully fire the club to another three points.

In other news: Sheff Wed handed big injury boost ahead of Oxford clash, fans will be delighted – opinion

Derby County have recently completed a deal to sign former Manchester United and QPR midfielder Ravel Morrison on a one-year deal.

What’s the story?

Morrison had been training with the Rams during pre-season and had featured in their friendly clash with his former side Manchester United.

The 28-year-old had most recently been on the books with ADO Den Haag, although his spell with the Dutch side reached an early conclusion towards the end of the 2020/21 season.

Derby were struggling with numbers heading into the new Championship campaign, but have now been allowed to sign players this summer in ‘exceptional circumstances’.

Morrison is the latest signing to arrive at Pride Park, and Wayne Rooney will be hoping that the midfielder can make a positive impact with the Rams this term as they look to avoid relegation into the third-tier of English football.

‘A great player and person’

Morrison hasn’t exactly settled at any club in recent seasons, with the midfielder finding regular minutes hard to come by.

But that could be about to change with Derby County, with the Rams certainly needing additional strength in depth in their senior squad, with a number of their Under-23s having to be included in the matchday squad during pre-season and for their season opener against Huddersfield Town.

We’ve seen glimpses of Morrison’s exciting potential though, with the 28-year-old netting a memorable solo goal against Tottenham Hotspur whilst with West Ham United earlier in his career.

Rooney has evidently been pleased with Morrison’s impact during training and pre-season, and he and the club’s supporters will now be keen to see him make an instant impact with the Rams.

Speaking in a recent post-match press conference (quotes sourced from The Athletic’s Ryan Conway), Rooney expressed his delight at signing Morrison, and admitted that he’s ‘lifted’ the club, before labelling him as a ‘great player and person’.

“I’m delighted to get Ravel in. He can add to our creativity. I could speak about question marks people have against him off the pitch – he’s had a past. We’ve all got a past. But since he’s been at our club, he’s lifted us. He’s a great player and person.”

It could turn out to be a shrewd addition for Derby if Morrison can get back to his best, and he could turn out to be the difference between them staying in the Championship for another season or dropping into League One.

More importantly for the Rams, he’s another senior signing this summer, and that was certainly needed within Rooney’s squad ahead of the 2021/22 campaign.

Morrison could be in line to make his Derby debut on Tuesday when Rooney’s side host Peterborough United at Pride Park in what could potentially be a tricky test in the EFL Cup.

Celtic have reached a basic agreement with Yokohama F. Marinos for attacker Daizen Maeda, according to Yahoo Japan.

The Lowdown: Hatate and Ideguchi moves

The Hoops are looking to make three Japanese signings in the New Year following the success of Kyogo Furuhashi’s £4.86m switch in the summer.

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Celtic have reportedly already reached agreements for midfielders Reo Hatate and Yosuke Ideguchi earlier this month, and it seems as if they are edging closer regarding a move for Maeda.

The 24-year-old, described as a ‘tireless worker’ by Kieran Devlin, netted 23 times in 2021 and now looks set for a reunion with Ange Postecoglou.

The Latest: Maeda update

According to Yahoo Japan, Celtic have struck a basic agreement with Yokohama F. Marinos for Maeda to sign on loan for the second half of the season.

The Hoops will then be able to make the move permanent for €2m, with Maeda expected to travel to the UK soon.

The Verdict: Final piece of the jigsaw?

Celtic have been working on moves for Hatate, Ideguchi and Maeda for some time now, and it appears as if deals are in place for the trio before the January window has even opened.

New Hoops CEO Michael Nicholson certainly isn’t hanging around, and who knows, should all three moves go through at the beginning of 2022, he could then look at permanent transfers for loanees Jota and Cameron Carter-Vickers.

The pair have impressed in Glasgow, however, the duo could cost over £12m combined (Jota £6.5m, CV £6m), so it’ll be interesting to see how busy Celtic are after proposed moves for the Japanese trio.

In other news Celtic will look to move on ‘horrendous’ ace in January; ‘jittery’ man may also leave – Kieran Devlin. 

As per a report by 90min, an interesting Tottenham Hotspur transfer claim has dropped with the Lilywhites now eyeing Barcelona forward Ousmane Dembele.

The Lowdown: Paratici, time to get working?

After Spurs humbling 1-0 defeat away to Vitesse in the Europa Conference League, managing director Fabio Paratici has been urged to get working on the signings of alternative attacking options.

As well as being short of natural centre-forwards bar Dane Scarlett and Harry Kane, the club’s wide options are also a point of contention.

Injuries have already occurred to the likes of Son Heung-min and Steven Bergwijn while Lucas Moura could be slowly reaching the twilight phase of his career.

As the January transfer window slowly approaches, news has emerged on what Spurs ‘may be willing’ to offer Dembele.

The Latest: Spurs ‘may be willing’ to offer Dembele wage increase…

As Tottenham eye the Barcelona forward, along with several other clubs, his current side are working to try and tie him down with a contract extension.

His current deal expires in 2022 and agreeing fresh terms is proving difficult for Barca, especially considering their financial situation and the fact Dembele wants a pay rise on his current wage in excess of £200,000-per-week.

This is where Paratici and Spurs come in, with the 90min report claiming they could be one of several interested sides now ‘willing to offer the money he wants’.

The Verdict: Worth the gamble?

Despite being called ‘frightening’ by Lionel Messi himself, offering the Frenchman over £200,000-per-week could be a very risky move by Paratici.

Dembele’s injury record speaks for itself and could be a real bone of contention to any Spurs move regardless of his ability, not to mention multiple incidents of behavioural issues affecting his career in Catalonia.

In other news: Matter of time: Yet another Spurs player eyeing N17 exit, he’s already said yes…find out more here.

Reliable journalist Fabrizio Romano has dropped a transfer claim linking Benfica striker Darwin Nunez with a move to a whole host of Premier League clubs, including West Ham United.

The Lowdown: Failed January move

The Uruguay international was at the centre of numerous transfer rumours in the January transfer window, one of the most prominent of which came with West Ham making a move towards the end of the month.

Whilst it was said that the transfer attempt was in the pipeline for weeks, Jack Rosser of the Evening Standard has claimed that the Irons submitted a club-record £60m bid for the 22-year-old on deadline day.

Nunez reportedly said that he preferred a move to a Champions League side, so Benfica rejected the east London club’s bid.

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The Latest: Romano’s news on Nunez…

Fabrizio Romano has now shared the latest news regarding a potential £66.6m summer move for Nunez.

Taking to Twitter, he claimed: “Darwin Núñez will leave Benfica in the summer, fee around €80m. His new agent will now meet with many top clubs to explore opportunities. #transfers

“Man United already discussed his name internally – Arsenal wanted him last January as West Ham but Darwin was not for sale.”

Whilst the Irons aren’t explicitly said to be planning on making an imminent move, it is implied that Nunez’s agents will meet with the club over a potential sale.

The Verdict: Would be a fantastic signing

Former Benfica manager Jorge Jesus has hailed the 22-year-old as one of the brightest prospects in world football, saying: “He was the most expensive player in the history of the Benfica and, with the pandemic I don’t know, but he could also be the most expensive player to leave the Benfica. This boy will be the best in the world and, unfortunately for me, I will lose him in no time.”

With such high praise, and with a return of 31 goals in 36 matches this season (including five in the Champions League), it is no wonder that a whole host of Premier League clubs are interested in the Uruguayan striker.

However, with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United now reportedly interested, a move to West Ham seems far less likely to come to fruition, particularly if they miss out on qualification for Europe next term.

In other news: ExWHUemployee drops triple transfer claim

West Bromwich Albion have made a late offer in a bid to secure a deal to bring Matt O’Riley to The Hawthorns in the January transfer window.

What’s the talk?

That’s according to a report by the Daily Record, who claim that Valerien Ismael’s Albion side have attempted to hijack Celtic’s move for the Milton Keynes Dons central midfielder with an 11th-hour bid for the 21-year-old.

However, the report goes on to state that, at present, it appears as if the former England U18 international is still set to make a £1.5m switch to Glasgow, with O’Riley having already undergone a medical with the Premiership side on Wednesday.

Finally, it is also believed that the likes of Swansea City, Blackburn Rovers and Huddersfield Town were also keen on a move for the midfielder, although it would appear as if West Brom and Celtic are the only two sides who lodged a concrete bid.

Ismael’s next Mowatt

While, at this stage, it seems as if a move to West Brom does not look overly likely, considering just how impressive O’Riley has been for MK Dons this season, it would appear highly advisable for Ismael to return with an improved offer in a bid to steal the 21-year-old away from Celtic’s clutches.

Indeed, over his 26 League One outings in the current campaign, the £405k-rated man has been in astonishing form, having already bagged seven goals, provided five assists and created seven big chances for his teammates, in addition to making an average of 2.1 key passes and taking 1.5 shots per game.

The £900-per-week midfielder – who is also adept at playing in both a more defensive and attacking midfield role – has also impressed in metrics more typical of his position, making an average of 1.5 interceptions, two tackles, 48.2 passes, one clearance and winning 4.6 duels per fixture.

These returns have seen the player who FLW founder Sam Rourke dubbed a “star” average a quite incredible SofaScore match rating of 7.37, not only ranking him as his club’s second-best performer in the league but also as the joint seventh-best player in the entirety of the division.

The editor then went on to heap a great deal more praise on the midfielder, stating in a post on Twitter: “[He is an] elegant central attacking midfielder who is comfortable with both feet. Seven goals, five assists in L1 so far. Strong dribbling ability with a real eye for a killer pass. Not afraid to shoot from distance too.”

Indeed, this description could quite easily fit one of Albion’s current options in the middle of the park, Alex Mowatt, who scored eight goals, registered seven assists and created nine big chances over his 44 Championship appearances for Barnsley last season, as well as making an average of 1.5 key passes and taking 1.8 shots per fixture.

As such, should Ismael manage to somehow get a deal over the line for O’Riley this month, the Frenchman could well have landed his next Mowatt, not to mention a significant upgrade on a number of the Baggies’ current central midfield options.

In other news: Sky Sports pundit drops worrying WBA January claim, it’d be a “huge blow” for Ismael