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According to The Mirror, Manchester United remain interested in Sevilla hotshot Jules Kounde as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer seeks to bolster his defensive options in the summer.

What’s the word?

Despite finding themselves second in the table, the Red Devils have conceded 27 goals in 21 Premier League games this season.

And now, The Mirror claim that Solskjaer is prepared to wait until the summer before bolstering his defence, with Kounde now his prime target.

It is understood that Solskjaer views the £60m-rated 22-year-old Frenchman as his ideal centre-back partner for Harry Maguire, who arrived at Old Trafford in an £80m move from Leicester City in 2019.

Rio Ferdinand 2.0?

The Norwegian has Maguire, Victor Lindelof, Eric Bailly and youngster Axel Tuanzebe available at his disposal, with the latter three jostling for position to bag the spot beside the club captain at the back, each with varying degrees of success.

Bailly has battled various injuries over the years, whilst it’s fair to say that Lindelof has looked defensively shaky this season, and Tuanzebe is still relatively inexperienced, despite impressing in the Champions League.

Despite being shorter than Rio Ferdinand, Kounde shares a lot of similarities with the club legend and former England international.

Just like Ferdinand, while some centre-backs will soley focus on the defensive aspect of the game, the French national has shown no hesitation in attempting to carry the ball forward or play out from the back, having scored one goal in 17 top-flight appearances in La Liga this season, as evidenced by his 0.9 dribbles per 90 minutes during his time with Sevilla.

But that doesn’t mean that his defensive contributions should go unnoticed, either, as he is prepared to get stuck in to deny clear-cut chances for the opposition.

Per WhoScored, Kounde is currently averaging more interceptions (1.3) and clearances per match than Tuanzebe and he commits fewer fouls than Lindelof’s 1.1.

In his last season with Bordeaux, he averaged 1.3 tackles, 1.4 interceptions and 5.4 clearances per game, via WhoScored.

It’s these kind of performances that led Sevilla sporting director Monchi describing the defender as “one of the sensations of French football.”

Kounde could add a touch of class in the heart of the United defence, considering his experience in the Champions League, and he still has room to improve at the age of 22, which is precisely why Ed Woodward should sanction such a move.

AND in other news, Manchester United’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka was Solskjaer’s only silver lining in Arsenal draw…

Dele Alli remains a Tottenham Hotspur player.

The 24-year-old midfielder was the saga of the winter transfer window as his future in north London was in doubt amid interest from former manager Mauricio Pochettino at Paris Saint-Germain.

It’s thought that a loan move to the French capital fell through at the final hurdle as Spurs couldn’t secure a replacement, though this now leaves Jose Mourinho with plenty to ponder.

His side have hit a wall with their recent form, back-to-back defeats in the Premier League have cast uncertainty over whether or not the perennial underachievers can break their trophy hoodoo.

They still remain in all cup competitions, in which there’s a Carabao Cup final to come, but having held the lead in the English top-flight just a few months ago, it now looks a hard ask to break into the top four.

Surely Alli can still play a major part?

He’s only featured for a total of 472 minutes in all competitions this campaign, but it’s time for Mourinho to make a major U-turn on him.

According to the Evening Standard’s Dan Kilpatrick, Giovani Lo Celso is set to miss the whole of this month, and a return in March is by no means certain and whilst some fans are clamouring for the involvement of Carlos Vinicius in the absence of Harry Kane, he’s not necessarily the answer.

Across matches against Liverpool and Brighton – those two successive defeats – Mourinho’s men have combined for an xG of 0.47. By comparison, they had 1.28 against Sheffield United, 3.14 versus Fulham and 2.53 at home to Leeds, via Understat.

It would be easy to point the finger at Kane’s injury, but the defeat to the Seagulls highlighted a creative problem.

As per SofaScore, Spurs failed to create any big chances and managed only three shots inside Brighton’s penalty box – nearly four times fewer than the home outfit. Perhaps they were unlucky to only win by one goal.

Tanguy Ndombele, who has become a regular starter under Mourinho this season, hasn’t delivered an assist in nine straight league outings, only further highlighting the lack of creativity behind the frontline.

So even if Vinicius leads the line against Chelsea tomorrow night, there is no guarantee that he will successfully deliver as the likes of Heung-min Son and Gareth Bale – two seasoned stars in the Premier League – are barely getting any service themselves.

This is where Alli has a shot at redemption. In his last appearance, albeit against non-league Marine, he ran the show as you can read here.

The £36m-rated attacking midfielder provided at least seven assists across three successive top-flight campaigns between 2015 and 2018, and has a career average of 1.6 key passes per 90, via WhoScored.

Ndombele has only just hit seven assists for Spurs and it’s taken him 18 months, whilst Lo Celso has only managed four, so evidently, there’s a clear lack of attacking influence from midfield.

Now that Alli is staying in N17 for the time being, he must be unleashed and given a fair crack of making a difference – starting with their arch-rivals tomorrow evening.

The 37-time England international has scored more goals (six) against the Blues than any other team in his career.

Only in November did the Spurs boss laud the out-of-favour star as a “team player,” which perhaps makes his constant exclusion even more baffling.

So forget Vinicius, Mourinho must start Alli vs Chelsea.

AND in other news, Levy could land Mourinho his own Van Dijk in £35m Spurs swoop for 6 ft 4 “top talent”…

Leeds United midfielder Adam Forshaw is still not ready for action after a horrible 15-month lay-off.

In response to supporters on Monday, The Athletic’s Phil Hay claimed the 29-year-old “has been trying to get over the last hurdle for a long time”

A hip problem has seen Forshaw sidelined since September 2019 with his final appearance in a Whites shirt being a 45-minute stint against Charlton.

The former Brentford and Middlesbrough man has played a total of seven matches since the start of the 2019/20 season and underwent surgery nearly a year ago in the United States.

With the emergence of Jamie Shackleton, the signing of Rodrigo and Stuart Dallas a natural central midfielder, it’s hard to imagine Forshaw ever playing for the Yorkshire giants ever again.

And because of that, it would be wise for Victor Orta to look to move him on at the earliest convenience, as ruthless as that would be.

Leeds are merely wasting financial resources keeping players like this at the club.

Between Forshaw (£60k-per-week) and Gaetano Berardi (£35k-per-week) alone, they are spending nearly £100k-per-week on a pair of players who aren’t going to contribute one minute to their cause this term.

Those wages could be spent elsewhere – on a central defender who is going to help shut up shop, perhaps?

Indeed, the 5 foot 9 maestro has cost the club around £500k-per-game since the start of their Championship-winning season and overall, around £265k-per-match since his £4.5m arrival in 2018.

It would be a brutal call to sack him off, but United need to look at the bigger picture to help their chances of remaining in the top-flight.

Noel Whelan believes Forshaw would even welcome fresh start elsewhere, he told Football Insider: “The January window has obviously just opened and I’m sure he wants to go and get settled in a team where he can play football. He’s a good footballer, so I’m sure that will be on his mind.”

Orta must show no mercy over the “exceptional” and long-serving midfielder this month.

AND in other news, Orta can find Bielsa his next Kalvin Phillips in £13m BRUTE…

Former Scotland manager Alex McLeish believes that losing James Forrest is a “massive” blow for Celtic and manager Neil Lennon.

Forrest out

The 29-year-old is unlikely to return to first-team duties until February, with the Irish tactician confirming that he has undergone surgery on his ankle injury at the start of last month (cited by Glasgow Times).

During the 2020/21 campaign, Forrest has scored twice and provided one assist from five starts and two outings from the bench, averaging a match rating of 7.14, having 2.4 shots per game and accumulating a pass success rate of 89.3% (Whoscored). Lennon is a huge fan of Forrest and described him as “priceless” last season (cited by The Times).

Speaking to Football Insider, McLeish compared Celtic’s pain of losing Forrest to Tottenham’s anguish with their star man Gareth Bale.

“Massive loss, a massive loss,” he said.

“We’ve said before about Gareth Bale leaving Tottenham and Tottenham are like: ‘We’ve got £80million to spend, we’ll splurge on six, seven players,’ and you think six or seven can outdo what one player does and that didn’t happen with Spurs.

“It took a long time for a lot of those players to develop and some of them never worked. That’s kind of an example of what I’m saying about special players and, you know, James Forrest has been a special player for Celtic and, not only that, he was a special player for me and for Scotland.

“To lose a key player in your team can cause a disruption to the whole team. I’m not saying that’s the reason for Celtic’s difficult start but Forrest is a player who makes that team tick, even if he’s not in form, it’s just that he puts the fear of death into a defender.

“Even if he’s not at his best and a defender maybe marks him out the game, other players flourish and that’s the things that you don’t really see when you’re involved in the professional side of the game.”

Transfer Tavern Verdict

While it could have played a role in Celtic’s demise in the league this season, there are bigger issues in the squad rather than just one player’s absence, most notably in defence.

That being said, Forrest’s statistics alone show that his attacking prowess has been greatly missed.

Time will tell whether Lennon plans to bring in any backup players once the transfer window opens. But whatever happens, the boss will need to bridge the gap to ease the pressure on his shoulders.

In other news: Journalist provides exciting update on ‘priceless’ Celtic star that will delight fans.

Glasgow Rangers will want to avenge their loss to St. Mirren in the Betfred Cup when they travel to Paisley to take on the Saints in the Scottish Premiership on Wednesday afternoon.

Steven Gerrard will be well aware that it won’t be a walk in the park for the 54-time Scottish champions, having borne witness to a humiliating last-gasp defeat at the hands of Jim Goodwin’s side earlier this month.

Besides that humbling defeat, Rangers have been in scintillating form since the start of the season, with 18 wins, two draws and no defeats in the top flight. But with games coming thick and fast this month and next – they play Celtic three days after facing the Saints – Gerrard will want to rotate his squad in the midst of a busy schedule.

With that in mind, Gerrard may decide to bring Calvin Bassey back into the fold to face the Saints at St. Mirren Park.

The 20-year-old has featured seven times in the Premiership this season, but has only started on three occasions so far, with his last appearance coming by way of the fateful quarter-final against St. Mirren in the Scottish League Cup.

He has been left as an unused substitute on the bench for the past three games in the top flight, with 28-year-old defender Borna Barisic preferred in his place instead.

Gerrard’s undisputed first-choice left-back put in an immense shift against Hibernian, but if the Ibrox boss does decide to give Barisic a break, then Bassey surely must be his first port of call to replace the Croatian on the left side.

Equally capable of playing at centre-back or full-back, the Englishman, who turns 21 in a matter of days, could cause Goodwin’s side all sorts of problems bombing up and down the flanks with his bursts of pace and pinging crosses into the box.

Gerrard has been effusive in his praise for the Leicester City academy product, telling reporters after the Europa League game against Standard Liege:

“I thought Calvin was outstanding. For someone who has very little experience, to come into a game as big as that and at that level and perform the way he did made us very proud.

“He’s a fantastic kid, a kid who wants to learn, who wants grow and evolve and with team we’re really confident we can help polish him up and get him to become even better than he is.

“He’s got real interesting attributes right now and he showed them on Thursday night, which was fantastic to see.”

In seven appearances in the Premiership this season, Bassey is averaging 1.7 tackles and one interception per game, via WhoScored.

It’s fair to say that the youngster has turned out to be an absolute gem ever since he arrived at Ibrox in the summer. He bagged his first goal for the club against Falkirk in the Betfred Cup and his endurance and durability could be key for the Gers keeping another clean sheet if he is selected.

AND in other news, Steven Gerrard dealt huge blow as Rangers midfielder Ryan Jack remains sidelined due to injury…

Spurs are reportedly one of the Premier League outfits keeping tabs on Red Bull Salzburg star Dominik Szoboszlai. That’s according to 90min, who claim that Daniel Levy and co are amongst the likes of Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool who are all monitoring the midfielder’s current situation.

The 20-year-old has attracted attention from all over Europe, with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Dortmund just three others to be very keen on his services. The interest is more than justified too. This season alone, Szoboszlai has contributed to 14 Salzburg goals in 15 appearances, breaking down to five goals and nine assists so far.

His red-hot form adds to his impressive tally at the Austrian club, where he boasts 22 goals and 33 assists so far in 76 senior appearances (via Transfermarkt). These are certainly numbers that Jose Mourinho will be blown away by and they are similar to that of Tottenham icon Son Heung-min.

Szoboszlai could be perfect Son protege

Whilst Harry Kane has been the poster boy of the north London outfit for years now, teammate Son is slowly encroaching on his spotlight. The South Korean is in unstoppable form this season and it’s not a fluke either. Mourinho’s treasured winger has been consistently scoring and assisting goals for almost five seasons now, but where the team relies so heavily on him, they struggle immensely when he is unavailable.

Son’s injury last season really hurt Spurs and their form in the Premier League. Having a younger attacker with a similar playing style to the 28-year-old will hugely benefit the team. Not only would signing Szoboszlai add much-needed depth to Tottenham’s attack but working closely with one of the best wingers in the world would hugely improve his own game.

The Lilywhites have Steven Bergwijn and Ryan Sessegnon on the books as back-up left-wingers. The latter is currently out on loan with Hoffenheim in order to gain some valuable first team minutes, but he has been showing a lot more promise playing in his old position of left-back. Mourinho will undoubtedly be aware of this and could be considering reverting him back to a defender once he returns.

Bergwijn on the other hand is finding first team action hard to come by and has been reduced to mainly cameo appearances this season. If Levy splashes out on bringing Szoboszlai to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, it could spell trouble for Bergwijn, who is three years older than the Hungarian talent.

Similarly, Sessegnon is also younger than the former PSV man and both naturally have the upper hand on being selected under Mourinho.

In other news, Spurs could sign ideal Eriksen replacement in Jack Grealish…

Former Wolverhampton Wanderers goalkeeper Matt Murray has exclusively shared his thoughts on Wolves attacking pair Daniel Podence and Pedro Neto and their future in Nuno Espirito Santo’s team.

Speaking to Football FanCast, Murray had this to say on the duo and how they will need to step up now that the club have sold Diogo Jota to Liverpool.

He said: “I’d never heard of him [Neto], I’ll be honest I’d never heard of him and then he came in and he was absolutely brilliant. He did really well last season, I think he is a fantastic player, he deserves his chance and I think he’ll be worth a lot more than what we paid for him.

“[With] Podence, lockdown I think actually was good for him because it gave him time to do the work, do whatever it took to get up to the way Wolves play, get up to speed and I think after lockdown he was absolutely outstanding. He’s small, he’s dynamic, wins penalties, unlocks defences and he fits the system.

“The way Wolves are playing now, sometimes a little bit more technical, both of these players really fit the system but still [they have] big boots to fill in Jota.”

Neto joined the Midlands club back in the 2019 summer transfer window from Italian club Lazio for a fee of £16.11 million. In the 2019/20 season, Neto made a total of 44 appearances for Wolves across all competitions in which he scored five goals and provided five assists.

Wolves then signed Podence in the previous January transfer window from Greek side Olympiacos for a fee of £17.64 million. Since then, the 24-year-old has made 16 appearances for the club in which he has scored one goal and provided five assists.

With Wolves having sold Jota to Liverpool in recent weeks, Podence and Neto are now fighting for the left-wing spot in this current Wolves side from now on.

It appears that Murray has enough confidence and belief in both of these players that they can crack on and become important players for Wolves now that Jota has left the club,

Aston Villa striker Mbwana Samatta is set to be the subject of a loan offer from Turkish side Fenerbahce, according to a report from A Spor.

Villa boss Dean Smith saw the likes of Keinan Davis, Wesley and Samatta struggle for consistent form last season and the latter is now being linked with a move away from the club.

Despite arriving in January for £9.45m, Samatta’s future with the Claret and Blue side now looks bleak with the Midlands club opting to bring in Ollie Watkins from Brentford.

Watkins netted an impressiveÂ26 goals in the Championship last term for Brentford and the youngster will be expected to start ahead of the aforementioned trio.

To add to Watkins’ arrival, Villa are also now being linked with Lyon striker Bertrand Traore, with a latest report claiming that talks are underway over a £19m transfer.

Reacting to the potential exit for Samatta this summer, fans were pretty split. Some were happy to see the back of the £8.55m-valued man given he has only scored twice in 16 appearances for the club, whilst others were keen to give him another chance having only joined in January…

Do you think Samatta should leave Villa on loan? Let us know in the comments section below…

Despite not coming away with any points from their Premier League clash against Arsenal on Saturday, West Ham can take an awful lot of positives from it.

David Moyes’ switch to a back-three almost brought home an improbable win at the Emirates, with Eddie Nketiah’s late strike ensuring the Hammers couldn’t manage a point, let alone all three.

On Tuesday night, West Ham return to Carabao Cup action, with a home clash against Hull City. And just like the second round versus Charlton, Moyes is likely to ring the changes for the contest, with a number of fringe players getting the opportunity to impress once more.

And with that in mind, below is a look at how the Hammers could line up.

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Whilst West Ham looked far more defensively solid against Arsenal with a back-three – they conceded just seven shots on goal in the entire game – Moyes may revert back to type against Hull.

So in front of number two goalkeeper Darren Randolph, the likes of Ben Johnson, Fabian Balbuena, Issa Diop and Arthur Masuaku may make up a traditional back-four.

And after some fans were frustrated at Moyes’ decision to leave out Josh Cullen against the Gunners on Saturday, the youngster will surely be straight back into the starting line-up. Alongside him, the £100k-a-week earning Jack Wilshere may finally get a run out after his recovery from injury, and a potential 45 to 60 minutes worth of action in the Carabao Cup a good way to ease him back.

Up front, Sebastien Haller will hope to continue his goal-scoring from the last round of the competition when he netted twice, with the likes of Andriy Yarmolenko, Manuel Lanzini and Felipe Anderson offering support.

Predicted XI: Randolph; Johnson, Balbuena, Diop, Masuaku; Cullen, Wilshere, Yarmolenko, Lanzini, Anderson; Haller.

Sunderland and Ipswich Town are battling it out to sign former Norwich City goalkeeper Remi Matthews, according to East Anglian Daily Times.

Black Cats manager Phil Parkinson continues to scour the transfer market in an attempt to build a squad capable of winning promotion to the Championship after two successive failures to get out of League One.

One area in particular that needs sorting ahead of the new season is the goalkeeping position, with last season’s number one Jon McLaughlin leaving for Scottish Premiership side Rangers in June.

Matthews has now emerged as a potential target for the Wearside club, having played under Parkinson at Bolton Wanderers. Ipswich are also said to be interested in making a summer move for the 26-year-old as Paul Lambert, like Parkinson, looks to improve his squad ahead of next term.

The stopper made 33 appearances for the Trotters last season in League One, conceding a total of 66 goals and keeping eight clean sheets, before being released during the summer.

The Norfolk-born ‘keeper began his playing career with Norwich City before having loan spells with the likes of Burton Albion, Doncaster Rovers and Plymouth Argyle, as per Transfermarkt.

Sunderland need a new goalkeeper but it remains to be seen if Matthews has what it takes to go from relegation with Bolton to a promotion push with the Black Cats.

Signing him on a free transfer, however, looks like a low-risk move given that he is a free agent, while his previous working relationship with Parkinson could also be advantageous.

Do you think Matthews would be a good signing for Sunderland? Let us know in the comments section below…