Much of the post-weekend reaction in the Spanish media has centred around Real Madrid defender Pepe, after scoring the opening goal in a 1-1 draw with local rivals Atletico at the Bernabeu on Saturday.
Indeed, that goal in the Madrid derby may well prove to be the Portugal international’s parting gift to the club he’s served for a decade, twice winning the Champions League title, with his contract due to expire at the end of the season and the 34-year-old’s future seemingly laying elsewhere.
The centre-back’s best years may now be behind him but there still appears to be plenty of interest in his services, with Marca reporting on offers from the Chinese Super League and seeming enquiries from Chelsea and PSG.
The Blues’ switch to three-at-the-back earlier this season has changed the complexion of the Premier League and seemingly laid out the game-plan for what looks set to be Antonio Conte’s defence of the English title next term.
But with three quality defenders already in the starting XI, not to mention Kurt Zouma being nursed back from a long-term injury and Andreas Christensen expected to return from his two-year loan at Borussia Monchengladbach, do Chelsea really need Pepe – albeit on a free transfer?
The majority of Tottenham Hotspur supporters are not too concerned about the rumours surrounding defender Toby Alderweireld.
Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio has claimed on his personal website that the Belgian has informed the North London outfit that he does not intend to sign a contract extension.
The reporter goes on to say that Inter Milan have made enquiries about a possible swoop for Alderweireld, who has a £23.4m release clause that can be activated in 2019.
The 28-year-old has become a regular starter under manager Mauricio Pochettino, forming a centre-back partnership with his fellow Belgian Jan Vertonghen.
The club are on a high given that they have closed the gap to league leaders Chelsea to just four points with six games left to play.
The team are also in contention for an FA Cup winners’ medal as they prepare to face Chelsea in the semi-finals at Wembley this weekend.
The rumours about Alderweireld could unsettle the team’s harmony, but fans are not overly worried at this point.
As reported by The Daily Record, Pedro Caixinha is facing squad disharmony at Rangers surrounding his summer schedule and the team’s inability to follow his instructions.
What’s the story?
The soul searching continues at the Gers this week as they find themselves in between two mammoth ties against Celtic, with little scope for victory. After losing to the Hoops on Sunday, they face Brendan Rodgers’ team in just two days time and it seems as if all is not well in the Light Blues camp.
The Daily Record reckon the manager’s decision to resume pre-season training on June 1st has caused unhappiness amongst the players, most notably Lee Wallace and Joe Garner who have big wedding plans this summer.
What’s more, The Record report that Caixinha has had to blast his players for deliberately not following his instructions on the pitch in Sunday’s match against Celtic. That’s quite the accusation and if true does not bode well for the weeks and months ahead under the Portuguese.
A Daily Record source said:
It’s been a stormy few days that’s for sure. Most of the guys had already got their holidays booked up for after the Scottish Cup Final on May 27. After being told by the previous manager they would not be expected back until June 12 they thought they’d get a couple of weeks off to rest and relax in the sun with their families after a long season. Let’s just say there have been a great deal of unhappy faces around the place and that includes the manager after Sunday’s performance.
One’s thing for sure though, if they manage to upset Celtic this Saturday at Ibrox, smiles would return to everyone at the club.
Manchester has become the Premier League’s residency of uncertain goalkeeping situations over the last few years.
In addition to Pep Guardiola’s questionable decision to axe Joe Hart and bring in error-prone Claudio Bravo as Manchester City’s new No.1 last summer, David Ge Gea’s long-term future at Manchester United has been inconclusive ever since that move to Real Madrid was scuppered by a dodgy tax machine.
Well, the two situations could well cross paths this summer according to The Independent, who claim Joe Hart is open to making a shock switch to Old Trafford should De Gea finally complete his long-awaited Bernabeu transfer.
No doubt, it would be quite a controversial deal for all parties involved, so we asked Red Devils fans last week whether they’d back a move that saw Hart succeed De Gea as United’s No.1.
Well, according to the results of our exclusive poll, 65% would be against such a deal. Should the Spain international depart this summer, Jose Mourinho might be wise to do his shopping a little further from home.
In much familiar fashion as he did last season, Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford has risen from the depths of insignificance to become the man that is marching United forward in the final stages of the season.
Criticised throughout much of the season by his own fans, the striker was seemingly unable to replicate that dazzling form his showed during his breakthrough campaign last term, leading to questioning of his undoubted quality.
What was not taken into account, however, was that Rashford had gone from poster boy to water boy in the presence of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and on the occasions he was utilised, it was often in his unfavored position out wide.
Since Zlatan’s season was cut short through injury, the 19-year-old has proven his critics wrong, stepping up to the plate to be United’s star performer of the final part of the season.
It started against Chelsea in April with the teenager opened the scoring with a trademark run and finish as United toppled the league leaders with a 2-0 home win.
Four days later he scored an injury time winner at Anderlecht to take United through to the Europa League semi-finals. In the semi-final first leg, his goal proved to be the decisive one against a strong Celta Vigo side to ensure Jose Mourinho’s side were present in Stockholm at the end of the month.
Jose Mourinho’s famed lack of appreciation for youth may prevent young Rashford from being the man to lead the line for United in the coming years, though, especially if Ibrahimovic comes back to fitness sooner that expected.
What do you think? Has the England starlet got what it takes to be the main man for United? Have your say in the poll below…
According to the Daily Mail, Everton are prepared to sell James McCarthy this summer, providing that they receive an offer in the region of £20m.
What’s the story?
McCarthy was one of Everton’s standout performers during the 2015-16 campaign, making 37 appearances in all competitions for the Merseyside outfit.
The Republic of Ireland international has been plagued with injuries in 2017, however, and only managed 12 Premier League appearances during the 2016-17 season.
According to the Daily Mail, Everton boss Ronald Koeman is an admirer of the 26-year-old, but the Dutchman would be prepared to sell the midfielder this summer if a club presented an offer of £20m.
McCarthy, who is currently on the sidelines with a hamstring problem, joined Everton from Wigan Athletic in the summer of 2013, and has made more than 120 appearances for the Toffees during his time on Merseyside.
Which clubs are in the hunt?
Newcastle United and West Ham United are both believed to be interested in signing McCarthy this summer, although it is understood that Newcastle lead the race.
Magpies boss Rafael Benitez has been handed a £100m war-chest in a bid to consolidate Newcastle as a Premier League club once again, and the Championship winners are said to be prepared to offer McCarthy a lucrative financial package.
Crystal Palace have also been credited with an interest, although the Eagles would be unable to match the wages that both Newcastle and West Ham could offer this summer.
Newcastle failed in a bid to bring McCarthy to the club in the January transfer window, with the midfielder keen to stay at the highest level of English football.
The Magpies appear to be moving in the right direction after securing a return to the Premier League, however, and McCarthy, who has once linked with Manchester United, could reignite his career at St James’ Park.
Wingers are, by nature, inconsistent. They attempt the inventive, the unorthodox and the unusual, but only for the absolute very best does it nearly always pay off.
That’s why Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi emerged as the best players in the world on opposing flanks on either side of the El Clasico rivalry. Less talented and more predictable wingers are exactly that – easier to predict, and therefore stop, for opposition defenders.
Thus, the winger trade-off is as simple as it is obvious. Their moments of magic and individual brilliance can often decide matches, but expecting them to do it every week without fail is unrealistic. The inconsistency is inevitable; the gorgeous football wouldn’t happen without the occasional abject performance. In other words, to quote the cliched adage, you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.
Most managers in world football appear largely accepting of that compromise, as well as the fact most wingers are confidence players who therefore not only need to be kept in high morale to produce their best form but also left off the leash as much as possible, in roles that allow their natural attacking instincts to thrive.
Jose Mourinho, however, has toiled with that notion for much of his career. His attempts to find some consistency in inevitably inconsistent players has created quite the winger graveyard, but the wide-men who’ve perished in their bids to find some acceptance from the Special One haven’t stayed dead; they’re coming back to life, Liverpool transfer target and Birthday Boy Mohamed Salah emerging as the latest resurrection – and potentially the most detrimental yet to Mourinho.
After arriving from FC Basel in January 2014, Salah’s Chelsea career lasted just one year and 19 games. He was officially on the books for another 18 months, but spent the entirety of that time on loan in Serie A.
To say Salah wasn’t given much of a chance in west London would be a bit of an understatement; despite scoring twice in a cameo berth during his first six months with the Blues, he made just 10 starts and clocked up a miserly total of 879 minutes overall – hardly enough time for a then-21-year-old to make his mark on a title-winning side.
Perhaps Mourinho simply thought Salah wasn’t good enough for Chelsea at that time; perhaps he thought he didn’t have the attitude to be affluent under his tutelage.
But Salah’s subsequent successes in Serie A strongly suggest otherwise, notching up 35 goals and 20 assists in 81 appearances during his two-and-a-half years with Fiorentina and Roma, and the Egypt international’s disappointing spell at Chelsea fits perfectly into a correlation of talented wingers being misused and underappreciated by Mourinho.
Indeed, alongside Salah in Mourinho’s undead winger graveyard are some very interesting names; Juan Mata, who has ironically become one of Mourinho’s most important players at Manchester United, Andre Schurrle, who was sold by Chelsea just six months after scoring twice in a World Cup semi-final, Juan Cuadrado, who was hardly given the chance to integrate himself into the team before becoming a key player for Juventus during a two-term loan spell, and Kevin De Bruyne, who was given three outings on the wing at the start of the 2013/14 season before being dropped and sold to Wolfsburg, where he established himself as one of the best creative midfielders in world football.
Of course, all of those were involved in Mourinho’s second spell at Chelsea, where his seeming distaste for wingers hit its peak. Schurrle believes that was largely due to Eden Hazard’s status as the Blues’ most valuable player, meaning five or six wingers were battling it out for a spot on the right flank that would require them to put in extra mileage to compensate for the Belgian playmaker’s limited industriousness.
“It’s difficult for young players at Chelsea because they’re a big team with big stars. It’s even harder for the wingers as there are only two in the team and Eden plays always, as he’s the best player in the league. So you have one position on the right wing which was between Willian, Oscar, myself, sometimes Mata, occasionally De Bruyne.
“The other thing is that Eden is given more freedom so the other winger has to work even harder. You have to work for that freedom, and Eden deserves it as he creates everything up front. He scores goals and makes assists so it’s right he should have that freedom.
“It’s a bit different for the right winger. You have to work back a little bit more. When one player gets more freedom the rest of the team has to adjust, but makes it a little bit more difficult to play on the other side.”
But Mourinho’s distrust of wingers spans further back than that. His FC Porto side claimed their shock Champions League title in 2004 using a diamond midfield with Pedro Mendes an Maniche at its widest points, whilst the Inter Milan outfit that achieved the same feat under the Portuguese had Goran Pandev and most unusually Samuel Eto’o, one of the greatest strikers of his generation, as the wide-men in a 4-3-3, committing to an almost unhealthy amount of tracking back.
Likewise, even when Mourinho had one of the best wingers in the world at his disposal in the form of Hazard, the then-Chelsea gaffer focused more on ensuring the Belgian did his bit defensively than how to reap the full benefits of his world-class quality in the final third. It paid off as Chelsea won the title, but came back to bite him the campaign after as the form of a worn-out and apathetic Hazard sensationally tanked and Mourinho lost his job.
That epitomises Mourinho’s relationship with wingers perfectly. Even the very, very best are asked to contribute defensively, whilst those more typically inconsistent are expected to find consistency elsewhere by practically running themselves into the ground – which is exactly why Willian was quickly favoured over Mata, De Bruyne, Cuadrado, Schurrle and Salah to claim the role of Hazard’s balancing act on the opposing flank.
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Whilst every manager has their preferences and tastes, you have to wonder how realistic Mourinho’s actually are. After all, wingers with Willian’s industry are an exceptionally rare breed and although there has been a heavy sway in recent years towards the notion that attacking players must make a difference out of possession as well, the tracking back duties Mourinho places on his wingers are often too demanding.
Indeed, whereas much of the footballing world has focused on pressing from the front, which requires a huge physical shift from wingers but at least leaves them in advanced positions should they win the ball back, Mourinho still takes the stand-off, safety-in-numbers approach, often asking Manchester United’s wide-men last season to tuck in almost as second full-backs and invite the opposition onto them.
Perhaps unsurprisingly then, the Red Devils finished up with the most draws of any Premier League side, just 16 of their top flight goals came from wide players and 68% of their shots came from central positions – the fifth highest rate throughout the entire division.
Making a few enemies of wide-men won’t mean much to Mourinho as long as his sides continue to lift silverware – even during a largely underwhelming campaign at Old Trafford, he still picked up three trophies when including the Community Shield. But the problem now is that the ghosts of the some of the wingers he laid to rest, often disposing of them in the most ruthless fashion possible, are coming back to haunt him.
Cuadrado and Schurrle have been kept at a safe distance in Serie A and the Bundesliga respectively, but De Bruyne is now the star player for Mourinho’s biggest rivals at a professional and personal level – Manchester City and Pep Guardiola. Likewise, Mourinho ironically spent much of last season almost completely dependent on Mata to provide some magic from midfield and now, perhaps most troublingly, Salah has been tipped to return to the Premier League with Liverpool.
It’s not just the Northwest derby that should concern Mourinho, as the Reds look to reach an agreement over a transfer fee with Roma, but also how Salah is seemingly so perfect for the way Jurgen Klopp wants his side to play. In terms of positioning, explosiveness and netting prowess, he’s almost a carbon copy of Sadio Mane; the idea of both being part of the same attacking line-up borders upon frightening.
On top of that, there’s the inevitable sub-plot of Salah looking to show up the manager who took just twelve months to deem him surplus to requirements, not to mention the fact it’s United who have to catch up with their old rivals after finishing sixth last season.
And there’s another concern for United fans too; what becomes of the wide-men currently in their ranks? Mourinho already doesn’t trust Henrikh Mkhitaryan to the level you’d expect of such an obviously talented winger, his alliance with Mata always feels like it’s on a knife-edge and perhaps most worryingly, Anthony Martial just doesn’t fit that mantra of hardworking wide-man at all.
That’s three fine talents who could all fall by the wayside over the next few years – and in Martial’s case, another who could later come back to bite the Special One.
Indeed, in a few years, we could well be talking about Martial turning up at a Premier League rival. And whilst Salah has proved himself to be a far more talented player than Mourinho and any others gave him credit for at Chelsea, Martial belongs in a different calibre all together. He could well be the next ghost to emerge from Mourinho’s reviving winger graveyard. WIN! Take our survey below for a chance to win your favourite club’s new 17/18 home or away shirt…
Everton are set to sign Michael Keane, potentially by the end of play today.
The Burnley defender, whose 2016/17 campaign saw him play a pivotal role in Burnley’s survival bid and establish himself in Gareth Southgate’s plans for the England national team, will reportedly join the Goodison Park ranks for a hefty £25million – suggesting he’ll be a key part of Ronald Koeman’s plans next season.
But that leads to the question of who should partner Keane at the heart of Everton’s defence. Ashley Williams and Phil Jagielka were Everton’s most consistent centre-back picks in the top flight last term, whilst Ramiro Funes Mori featured fairly regularly until a season-ending injury in March.
So, Everton fans, which of those three should start alongside Keane if Everton plan on breaking into the top four next season, or does Ronald Koeman need to spend again to find the perfect partner to his latest signing?
According to The Gambling Times’ football insider Graeme Bailey, Tottenham Hotspur are actively looking to offload flop Moussa Sissoko this summer.
Spurs signed the France international in a £30m deal from Newcastle United last summer, but he has struggled to make an impact with the north London outfit and often found himself on the substitutes’ bench, while he played the full 90 minutes in the Premier League on just one occasion.
All in all the 27-year-old made 34 appearances in all competitions for Pochettino’s side, failing to get on the scoresheet and providing four assists.
The Gambling Times suggests that China could be a likely destination for the Frenchman, and it would be a move that could potentially help the club recoup the majority of the amount they paid for Sissoko last year.
Tottenham supporters were quick to have their say on the rumour via social media, and while some would accept £15m just to get rid of him, others still don’t understand why they bought him in the first place.
Arsenal fans’ prayers were finally answered earlier this month when the club splashed out a record breaking fee to land French striker Alexandre Lacazette from Ligue 1 side Lyon.
Gooners around the world had been begging for a marquee striker signing for years until the forward, who bagged 37 goals for his former side last season, was confirmed on a five-year-deal as Arsene Wenger’s second signing of the summer after full-back Sead Kolasinac.
Fans didn’t have to wait long to see the French international in action either, as Lacazette stepped out for his debut against Sydney FC in the opening game of their pre-season tour of Australia and Asia, which will also see Wenger’s side take on their Champions League nightmare Bayern Munich and fellow FA Cup finalists Chelsea.
It took Lacazette all of 16 minutes to bag his first Arsenal goal having been introduced in the 68th minute on the way to a 2-0 win and after the game winger Alex Iwobi spoke very highly of his new teammate.
“As you can see he will add goals to the team and bring good link-up play,” Iwobi said of the 26-year-old when speaking to Sky Sports.
“He’s already enjoying his time here and having good chemistry with the lads. I’m sure there’s a lot to come from him this season.”