All posts by z3u9t.icu

Leicester City midfielder James Maddison is reportedly a transfer target for both Arsenal and Chelsea.

What’s the story?

The 24-year-old had a stop-start campaign last term, with his poor end-of-season form ultimately costing him a place in Gareth Southgate’s England squad.

However, according to Arsenal transfer expert TheAFCBell and confirmed by Football.London reporter Chris Wheatley, Maddison is the subject of interest from the Gunners as well as from Chelsea.

Rodgers will be gutted

Despite suffering from multiple minor injuries and failing to score or assist in his final eight league games of 2020/21, the creative talent still recorded impressive numbers last season.

In 42 appearances across all competitions, Maddison bagged 11 goals and laid on a further 10 assists for his teammates, highlighting his importance to the Midlands outfit.

It’s no surprise, therefore, that the England international is attracting attention from some of English football’s most successful sides, and news of their interest will surely leave Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers feeling gutted.

The former Celtic and Liverpool boss has built a brilliant team at the King Power Stadium during his two-and-a-half-year reign, achieving consecutive fifth-place finishes as well as lifting the club’s maiden FA Cup crown.

Rodgers will be hoping to keep hold of his best assets this summer as he plans another assault on the Premier League’s top-four, but with rumours circulating surrounding Youri Tielemans and now Maddison, the Northern Irish tactician may be beginning to worry.

Arsenal’s interest in the England international is described as “indisputable” as Mikel Arteta plans an overhaul of his first-team squad, while Chelsea will reportedly make a swoop for him if Hakim Ziyech departs Stamford Bridge.

Although the Foxes have largely built their recent success off the back of selling one of their prized assets each summer for an astronomical fee and then wisely reinvesting the funds, Maddison’s exit would be a huge blow to their plans and ambitions.

Leicester have sold the likes of Harry Maguire, Riyad Mahrez, Ben Chilwell and N’Golo Kante to their domestic rivals in recent years, but if they want to compete at the upper echelons of the top-flight table on a regular basis, then they will have to stop letting their direct competition cherry-pick their top talents.

If Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha decides to cash in on Maddison, something which is not beyond the realms of possibility given Leicester’s recent history of player sales, then it could be a huge blow to Rodgers, who will need to go into the market to find a replacement, something which will not be easy given the impact that Maddison has had on his side.

And, in other news…Huge LCFC transfer update emerges on “extraordinary” £30m beast, fans will be buzzing 

Jordan Henderson has been pictured back on the training pitch ahead of Liverpool’s final game of the season against Crystal Palace.

Reds captain Henderson has been out since the end of February, when he sustained a groin injury in the Merseyside Derby.

Henderson had to go undergo surgery, sidelining him during the run-in with his team-mates scrapping for a top-four finish.

But he trained with the group in Kirkby on Thursday and tweeted afterwards that ‘it’s been a good day’ and that he is ‘so happy’ to be back.

It’s unclear if Henderson will be cleared for involvement against Palace, but victory at Anfield would seal Champions League football for Jurgen Klopp’s side barring an inexcusable collapse by Tottenham at Leicester.

Klopp would of course love to have his skipper available for such a fixture but may be wary of rushing him back to action.

Henderson’s training return is also good news for Gareth Southgate as he prepares to name his England squad for the European Championships.

Here’s how Liverpool fans responded to the images of their captain’s return.

These Reds go wild at Henderson post

“My Skippoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo”

Credit: @C_ynthia_4

“WOAHHHHH”

Credit: @TheAnfieldTalk

“If king jordamessi plays on sunday then that’ll guarantee top 4”

Credit: @ash_r_d

“Welcome back kinggggg”

Credit: @h3_m_my

“HENDO LAAAA”

Credit: @LfcLatch

“Oh my”

Credit: @LFCMaxs

“WHAT A DAY IT’S BEEN”

Credit: @Covid19_vax

“Our skipper is back, YESSSSSS”

Credit: @iamBoyfresh

In other news, fans were also buzzing after this update on what would be a monumental transfer. 

Jon Newsome thinks that Matheus Pereira would snap up the chance to sign for Leeds and play under Marcelo Bielsa.

Despite being unable to save West Brom from relegation, the Brazilian attacker was involved in almost half of the Baggies’ 35 Premier League goals this season, scoring 11 times, whilst racking up six assists.

That’s more goals than both Raheem Sterling and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with two coming in the shock 5-2 victory at Chelsea in April when Pereira also contributed two assists in a devastating performance against the European champions.

But Pereira’s outstanding form means that a move away from West Brom this summer is on the cards.

And the 25-year-old is not short of interest, with Leeds and Aston Villa both admirers of the talented playmaker, who can play anywhere across the front-three.

Pereira only made his switch to West Brom permanent 12 months ago, but Newsome would be shocked to see him turn his nose up at the opportunity to play for Bielsa.

He told The Transfer Tavern:

“We’ve seen in fits of burst this year what he’s about. He’s a quality player, but you’d have to get fit to play under Bielsa.

“For me, I don’t see any player not wanting to go to Leeds at this moment in time. The way they play, the style they play and you’re going to work with one of the best coaches in the world, who will make you a better footballer. Who wouldn’t want that?”

Liverpool’s significant injury woes were added to ahead of Saturday’s victory over Southampton with a number of players being ruled out before the game.

The likes of Ozan Kabak, James Milner, Naby Keita and Ben Davies were all omitted from Jurgen Klopp’s squad with what the club described as “minor injury concerns”.

Whilst that in itself is not too worrying with the four hopefully recovering relatively quickly, any absences for Liverpool’s upcoming strenuous schedule could significantly harm their chances of gaining a place in the Premier League top four and with that, a UEFA Champions League place for next season.

It remains to be seen just how severe the issues are, with the specific nature of the problems remaining undisclosed.

However, with the Reds back in Premier League action as soon as Thursday evening against Manchester United, Klopp will certainly hope that at least some of those aforementioned players can return sooner rather than later.

The absences of Kabak, Milner and Keita are probably going to be the most felt.

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Since arriving from Schalke in January, Kabak has become the Reds’ first-choice centre-back, following the injuries suffered by Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip earlier this season.

With him out though, the Reds were forced to play a defensive pairing of Rhys Williams and Nathaniel Phillips against the Saints.

Whilst they earned a clean sheet, it is certainly not a set-up that Klopp will want to use regularly, especially in the race for the top four as Williams, in particular, was caught out a couple of times and was bailed out by his goalkeeper.

Meanwhile, with Milner and Keita out, joining Jordan Henderson on the sidelines, Klopp’s midfield choices are significantly reduced.

Fabinho, Georginio Wijnaldum and Thiago Alcantara are all certainly capable but then that just leaves Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Curtis Jones in reserve – a worrying lack of depth heading into a key final four games of the season.

Klopp then will certainly hope that the injury issues are nothing more than just minor to compound their woes any further but with their next game just a matter of days away, he’ll be concerned that his players seem to be dropping like flies as his side need to be pretty much perfect for the rest of the campaign.

An inability to properly rotate, added to the fact that Klopp is relying on essentially his 8th choice centre-back option in Williams, is a huge worry for the manager, one that could cost his side a top four finish.

AND in more news, find out which other Red gave Klopp a boost instead…

Leeds United are interested in signing Hertha BSC starlet Matheus Cunha in the summer.

What’s the story?

With the future of Helder Costa at Elland Road uncertain, it seems as though Marcelo Bielsa has his sights set on signing a new star winger for his side ahead of next season in the Premier League.

According to German publication SportBILD (via Leeds Live), the Whites made an enquiry to sign the Brazilian back in the January transfer window, and are now ready to reignite that interest in the summer.

The report adds that interest in the 21-year-old is becoming more concrete, and Cunha is keen to explore new opportunities too.

Julian Nagelsmann rates him

The £35m-rated Cunha has enjoyed an impressive campaign with Hertha in the Bundesliga this season, netting seven goals and providing another six assists in just 27 games in the competition.

Prior to starring for Hertha however, Cunha was on the books at RB Leipzig, and worked under Julian Nagelsmann, and the German was quick to hail the kind of ability the Brazilian youngster has, and the progress he has made since leaving them.

He said: “Matheus Cunha is playing really well at the moment – he’s a huge talent and possesses so much skill.”

And, his former manager at Hertha, Bruno Labbadia, said that Cunha has got the kind of ability and talent to be a real game-changer, and can decide games on his own with a piece of magic.

He said: “Matheus has something special. He can always produce something with a moment of individual brilliance.”

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Described as having speed, skill and intelligence by Bundesliga.com, the 21-year-old seems exactly like the kind of exciting winger that could really set Elland Road on fire, and it’s no wonder Leeds are after him this summer.

Meanwhile, Leeds United handed a huge boost as major Elland Road news emerges…

Manchester United have been dealt a big injury blow ahead of their clash with Granada with the likes of Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford potentially not available to start.

The Frenchman has potentially been ruled out for the remainder of the campaign, whilst the latter is a doubt for the clash in Spain.

Luckily, Red Devils’ boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has the perfect solution to those injury woes in the form of speedy winger Daniel James.

Despite being somewhat plagued with slight inconsistency – an aspect that is understandable considering he is just 23 years of age – the former Swansea City man is enjoying a positive season.

He has hit five goals in all competitions so far throughout 2020/21, already one more than his entire haul of last term.

The £60m-rated winger though has hit that form at just the right time with four of those strikes coming since mid-December alone.

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Whilst James still has some way to go to match the respective influences of both Martial and Rashford, with the attacking duo accounting for just under 30% of the Red Devils’ entire goal haul for the season, it would surely be a silly move from Solskjaer to keep him marooned on the bench considering the team’s injury worries.

After all, the United boss himself has been full of praise for James, stating that he was “getting back to his best” following the 4-0 thumping against Real Sociedad earlier in the season, a match in which he notched a goal and an assist.

With just Amad Diallo as competition on the wings due to Martial and potentially Rashford’s absences, it might appear that the inclusion of James is by default.

He is more than worthy of being included from the start though despite those injury woes.

AND in more news, take a look at where Federico Macheda is now playing his football…

Celtic will play no part in the newly formed European Super League but the impact of the institution on the Bhoys, and indeed around the globe, will be considerable.

In a presumably dark and dingy room somewhere, a person or group of people decided that alienating football fans for the rest of time was a good idea. In many senses, this will mark the death of football as we know it.

Money has taken over the game but that is no new story. What is fresh, however, is the idea of taking the prize pot away from almost every club in Europe.

For the 12 founder members, including Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham and Liverpool south of the border, they will reap the rewards while the clubs around them falter, crash and potentially die. Certainly at a grass-roots level, football will struggle.

Fortunately, protests have already begun as a revamped Champions League is brought into the limelight in order to combat the ESL.

This is set to have huge ramifications for Celtic, consequences that could actually benefit the club.

Get French Football News shared on Monday that UEFA’s Executive Committee had voted unanimously in favour of a new 36-team Champions League due to begin in 2024.

After the Super League was officially announced, UEFA met and finalised their proposal for an expansion of the very best club competition in European football.

The format would see clubs put in four pots of nine teams, with the initial stage acting as one big league of 36 teams. After that, the clubs are put into a draw and assigned ten matches in the initial phase.

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The top eight clubs in the league would then progress to the knock-out stages.

But why does this have any bearing on Celtic? Well, it could mean more money and a greater chance of going far in Europe.

With more teams comes more spots and with the European Super League now in motion, the competition will wave goodbye to some of the favourites for the tournament.

Consequently, we could see sides like Celtic doing a lot better on the European stage.

The prize money in three years time could be considerably different but Bayern Munich pocketed around €130m for winning the trophy last season.

In 2020/21, those who qualified for the group stages received a payment of €15m with each win ensuring an extra €2.7m flows into the club’s financial reserves.

For getting to the last 16, teams receive €9.5m while if they advance to the quarter-finals, they receive an extra €10.5m on top.

Semi-finalists, meanwhile, are handed €12m and finalists an extra €15m on top of all of the other sums of money.

That cash is simply performance-based without considering television and matchday revenue.

The European Super League is incredibly bad news for football in general but it could actually be beneficial for Celtic, especially for majority shareholder Dermot Desmond.

After UEFA’s news early this week, he must be salivating over the thought of extra revenue and more money for both him and the football club.

Even if it doesn’t go ahead, extra spots to qualify for the revamped Champions League will go down nicely for the Hoops.

AND in other news, Director of Football makes big Celtic manager claim, Desmond won’t be happy…

Celtic’s recruitment in recent years hasn’t exactly been flooded with success stories. From the current crop at Parkhead, there are few that spring to mind.

The club’s top scorer Odsonne Edouard has been a triumph for obvious reasons while Kristoffer Ajer has developed from a boy to a man during his time in Glasgow.

That being said, plenty have walked through the door, played very little football, and then been sent packing again.

That could happen to quite a number of Celtic’s current playing squad. Vasilis Barkas cost £4.5m last summer but has started just 13 league games.

As for Albian Ajeti, he’s only started ten SPFL outings after arriving from West Ham. It’s clear that Nick Hammond and the Hoops hierarchy haven’t always got things spot on.

That being said, there are also errors from the Brendan Rodgers era we can delve into; namely Eboue Kouassi.

Rodgers brought the defensive midfielder to Scotland in 2017 but he featured on only 12 occasions in the league during his three years at the club.

Stuck behind Scott Brown in the pecking order, Rodgers failed to find many opportunities for him in the starting XI. After all, in domestic action, there was no chance a team as dominant as Celtic’s needed two holding players.

He eventually left the Hoops last summer as he completed a permanent switch to Genk. However, in the process, they ultimately lost the heir to Brown’s throne.

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The skipper has announced that he’ll leave Celtic on a free transfer at the end of the season when his contract in Glasgow expires. He is set to join Aberdeen as a player-coach and thus, will leave a pretty glaring gap in the Hoops squad behind.

Ismaila Soro feels like the most natural successor but in Kouassi, they had someone primed and ready to take on that duty.

Talking about the Ivorian in 2018, Rodgers tipped him to eventually succeed Brown in the middle of the park: “Eboue’s brilliant in training, he does everything, and longer term he will certainly fulfil that role when Scott moves on,” he said.

Unfortunately, that prophecy won’t ever come true. Kouassi was shipped off quicker than you could mutter the word Celtic.

He was moved on loan to Genk within a year of Lennon being there and he never got an opportunity to prove himself to the Northern Irishman.

The 23-year-old took his leave without ever really making an impact in Glasgow. It’s a shame because the midfielder clearly had lots of talent.

When he burst onto the scene for Russian club Krasnodar, he regularly completed over one tackle per game. A stern and combative player, Rodgers did rate him highly.

“He has good ability and hopefully can come back strongly from injury and show he has a big part to play,” he commented in January 2019.

“Eboue can play here though. That’s the reason such a young player cost a couple of million Euros. He has a talent and in the Europa League games played well,” the former Celtic boss added.

Ultimately, it was fitness doubts and injury concerns that ensured he never got a consistent opportunity at Parkhead.

Kouassi had his ankle problems and spent the second half of the 2018/19 campaign out with a cruciate ligament injury. Had those problems not occurred, he may now be in with a chance of succeeding Brown. Instead, he’s no longer at the club.

AND in other news, Bye-bye Edouard: Celtic must swoop for 28-goal “sensation” who’ll “go to the very top”…

West Bromwich Albion fans have been reacting to the news that they spent the least in agent fees from February 1st 2020 to February 1st 2021 amongst sides in the Premier League.

Throughout this campaign, the Baggies have spent £37.93m on new acquisitions (Transfermarkt). While that fee is not the lowest in the top flight, they have still managed to spend the least on agent fees. They parted with £4.2m, which was less than the likes of Burnley, Crystal Palace and Brighton, all of whom spent less on transfers during the summer and winter windows.

However, that may well be corroborative with the fact that they are where they are in the Premier League table. The top four biggest spenders on agents are Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool – three of those sides are currently in the top four of the table.

The news was shared on Twitter by journalist Joseph Masi, and it attracted plenty of attention from the Baggies supporters. The fans took to the social media platform to share their thoughts.

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

“Shows in our league position”

Credit: @robertupton9

“Madness that we’ve managed to spend less than Burnley!”

Credit: @AshDavies21

“Proud of that”

Credit: @albion_gaming

“Good, I’m really happy we aren’t throwing money at middle men who are fleecing the game. Well done WBA more should follow your lead .”

Credit: @AdKido44

“If your not willing to pay the money don’t be surprised when were going straight back to the championship.”

Credit: @sicoop01

“No surprise is it looking at the amount we spent on transfer fees”

Credit: @steaksworth

In other news, West Brom are interested in this 24-year-old.

Leeds United face West Ham United on Monday night and Whites manager Marcelo Bielsa has been discussing the impact of Raphinha since he joined the club.Bielsa comments on RaphinhaSpeaking before the Premier League clash, Bielsa said: “What Raphinha is able to create, we’ve already seen. After, what shows more shine or not is whether he’s able to do it on a regular basis. The set-pieces, he manages them very well.”Physically, he’s very apt. He can unbalance individually or combine with his team-mates. I can’t think of many more things to add to an attacking player, but the most important thing is how many times those resources are shown in every game.”Raphinha is shining in momentsIt is easy to say why Bielsa is discussing the consistency of the £16.2m-valued Raphina as, in his 21 league appearances (including three from the bench), the 24-year-old has picked up five goals and five assists (Transfermarkt), This is a fantastic return for a relatively young player in a new league with a promoted team, but these goals and assists have come in patches and he has sometimes had lean spells on that front.His underlying attacking stats show that he is unlucky not to have more goals, as he has averaged 2.3 shots, 2.1 key passes and 1.7 successful dribbles per game for the Whites (WhoScored), figures which rank him highly among his teammates – he is second for shots and top for key passes and dribbles among Leeds’ squad.These figures show that he can shine in moments, but they need to be converted into more goals if he is to answer his manager’s comments about producing on a regular basis.In other news, this Leeds transfer target could be available in the summer!