Mohamed Salah has arguably been Liverpool’s best player this season due to his 28-goal haul from 34 matches.
There were questions over the Egypt international when he moved to Anfield from Roma in the summer.
Doubts arrived with him due to his failed spell at Chelsea, in which he was unable to secure a regular starting spot during a two-year spell.
Jose Mourinho was the man in charge when Salah moved to Stamford Bridge from Basel in 2014.
The attacker rarely got a kick under the Portuguese coach’s term, and instead was sent out on loan to Fiorentina and then Roma.
Salah moved to the Stadio Olimpico permanently in 2016, and now he is proving to Mourinho that he can cut in the Premier League by performing well for Liverpool.
Interestingly, the forward has revealed that he occasionally speaks to his former manager, who is now in charge of the Reds’ arch rivals Manchester United.
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In an interview with FourFourTwo’s March 2018 magazine edition, the 25-year-old said:
“We talked at Chelsea when I first came back from the loan spell at Fiorentina. We also spoke after the match against Manchester United this season and have a good relationship. We didn’t talk much , but it was OK. Three years ago I didn’t play much, but since day one back in England I wanted to show what I can do. I think I’m doing well.”
I’d hate to blow smoke up the proverbial of a young, obviously talented, but relatively unproven home-grown talent, yet once again I find myself committing that cardinal sin in regards to Everton’s defensive wizz-kid John Stones.
The 19 year-old has dazzled Toffees supporters in recent weeks, amid Phil Jagielka’s sidelining through injury, with his most pinnacle performance to date coming in a Man of the Match display against Sunderland last weekend, where the right-back-come-central-defender made more clearances (9) and blocked more shots (5) than any player on the pitch.
The Wearside club may not be the most potent side we’ve seen in the Premier League this season, rather, their 29 goals for, averaging at under one goal per match, is the worst scoring return in the entire division. But regardless, it’s incredibly telling of Stones’ reading of the game that he was required to make just a single tackle throughout the ninety minutes, whilst Everton managed to record a clean sheet away from home in the 1-0 encounter.
In fact, from Stones’ nine Premier League starts in the centre-back role this season, the Goodison outfit have conceded just five times in his presence, claiming clean sheets against the Black Cats, Arsenal, Newcastle and Norwich and racking up 19 points out of a possible 21 in the process.
Resultantly, there have been calls for the young defender to receive a late ascension into Roy Hodgson’s World Cup squad, which begs the question, should the England manager be taking this Toffees hotshot to Brazil, or is this a tournament too early for Stones?
The Everton youngster is clearly a talented player, and far from being the defensive stalwart his prominent clean sheets haul might suggest, it’s Stones’ ability to link up with midfield, personifying the core, purist values of the Roberto Martinez ethos, that has produced such sudden and widespread acclaim.
Predominantly considered as a right-back at former club Barnsley, Stones comes with a unique skill set for the centre-back berth, donning pace, agility and the natural technique you’d expect of a modern full-back. Resultantly, the teen defender boasts a pass completion rate of 90% this term, on average making around 33 passes per match. Far from a sideways stat-whore whoever, the vast majority of Stones’ passes have been in a positive direction, whilst he’s also shown enormous confidence in simply picking up the ball and driving up the pitch with it, keenly and responsibly taking possession in difficult areas.
I haven’t seen a home-grown centre-back do that since Rio Ferdinand, and the buzz surrounding Stones can certainly be sourced to his rather exclusive style of defending, perhaps more in line with those from the continent.
But let’s not be rash here. This is a player whom, impressive or not, has made just 17 Premier League appearances in his entire career. This high praising of a foreign style of play is the kind of thing we said about Jack Wilshere during his first full season at Arsenal and Manchester United’s Tom Cleverley. This is a similar level presumptuous hyping once received by such illustrious Three Lions alumni as Michael Ricketts, Seth Johnson and David Nugent.
Indeed, the coming World Cup could be a tournament too soon for Stones. Despite recently declaring during a Sky Sports interview that the 19 year-old had been the Toffees’ best trainer this season – a title decided by Roberto Martinez’ method of awarding points to his players on a weekly basis, with the highest recipient in line for a prize at the end of the year – the Everton manager admitted that Stones still had a long way to go before representing his country at a major tournament.
But if there’s one lonesome World Cup strategy that’s undoubtedly served England well over the years, it’s the customary tactic of bringing one budding youngster to the major tournament ahead of schedule. A 19 year-old Rio Ferdinand went to France ’98, Joe Cole went to the 2002 World Cup at just 20 years of age, and in 2006, to much surprise and criticism, Sven Goran Eriksen included a 17 year-old Theo Walcott in his World Cup roster. Most recently, Jack Butland and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain got the nod from Roy Hodgson for Euro 2012, despite their exceptionally limited exposure to top flight and international football at the time.
It’s a trick which is yet to throw its first curve-ball. All, with the exception of Jack Butland, have emerged as key players for club and country since their premature England inclusions, and as much as one can credit prior England managers for spotting future stars, one can’t ignore the obvious benefits of experiencing the unique World Cup atmosphere at such a tender age has had on the careers of these players.
Many will argue that if Roy Hodgson is to follow suit at the coming tournament in Brazil, then the ceremonial position in the England squad should go to Southampton’s Luke Shaw, who by far and large has been the most impressive home-grown youngster over the last two seasons. But England’s heart of defence currently faces a grim future; if Gary Cahill, Phil Jagielka and Joleon Lescott were slim pickings enough, then their current most likely successors – Ryan Shawcross, Steven Caulker and Chris Smalling – send a macabre chill down one’s spine. With the exception of Phil Jones, the Three Lions’ golden age of world-class centre-halves appears to have come to a rather abrupt end.
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Could John Stones emerge as a timely saviour? Inclusion in the World Cup squad, albeit in a non-playing capacity, would certainly put him on the right path.
Hodgson has declared however that his 23-man roster will include no abrupt surprises. No maverick Adam Johnsons, no cult-hero Gareth Barrys, no Championship wonder-kids of the Danny Ings variety. Therefore, much to my personal disappointment, a late call-up for the Everton prodigy appears incredibly unlikely, especially considering his place in the Toffees backline will presumably be returned to Phil Jagielka once the 31 year-old has recovered from his sideline bout.
But fear not young Stones; with Jagielka at 31, Cahill 29 and Lescott turning 32 by the end of the summer, Euro 2016 is already loudly calling your name.
It’s the subject that simply refuses to go away within English football at the moment and for Tottenham Hotspur winger Gareth Bale, he’d do well to pick up a couple of newspapers of late. In a series of weeks that have seen the issue of diving hop straight back up to the top of football’s agenda of malaise, you would have thought that the Welshman would have the nous to avoid a complete PR disaster.
Indeed, while the actions of Liverpool’s Luis Suarez has catalyzed a whole catalogue of fierce debate over the practice of simulation, Bale has played his own part in ensuring it continues to produce column inches. And a further contentious tumble on international duty against Scotland, has shot Bale straight into the spectrum of chief suspects.
But the issue for Bale isn’t one of personal integrity. It’s one that has the ability to cause both himself and his side some serious problems later along the line this season.
The issue of diving isn’t anything new on these shores. As with so many other issues in football, there is something very topical about the way it manages to creep up onto the footballing radar. As the fickle finger of the Premier League spins round on a never ending basis, talk about top flight thespians will usually subside and make way for the two-footed tackle debate or the flailing elbow argument.
But things feel different this time. For many people, Spurs fans included, there was a sense of poetic justice in seeing Luis Suarez get planted over by Norwich’s Leon Barnett for a stonewall penalty, only for referee Mike Jones to wave his claims away. The proverb “you reap what you sow”, has been wheeled out often in the past few weeks and in fairness, it certainly rings true to a certain extent.
But as the Suarez debate rumbles on, it seems to have reopened another and the school of thought that Premier League referees are beginning to judge the Uruguayan on reputation, rather than an incident on it’s own merits, is one that should cause equal cause for concern. And it’s one that Gareth Bale in particular, should give more than a moment’s thought to.
Fans of teams who have been on the receiving end of one of his tumbles (Villa and Arsenal supporters, take a stand), may be happy to dispute this, but Bale bestows a more polished public profile than Luis Suarez. A modest, humble talent, there are no bans for racial abuse or red cards for blatant hand ball on his resume. But if he continues to fall to the ground under little to no contact, that will all count for diddly squat.
Bale has already faced several allegations of diving and despite his claims to the contrary, his justifications for going down easily, hardly endear himself to a wider audience.
Following critique over his penalty winning dive in the 5-2 defeat against Arsenal last season, Bale responded that his art is more injury prevention, than diving:
“It’s annoying. You have people flying in at you, it’s not really diving, you’re trying to get out of the way of the challenge if anything,” the Welshman said last year.
“It’s a difficult one. You can see why people say you’re diving but at the end of the day I’d rather dive than get hurt.”
While Bale’s viewpoint maintains a certain amount of gravitas, it’s impossible to skirt round the viewpoint that he has more than a tendency to go down to easily. The wider debate surrounding simulation can be extended to very specific and technical instances and whether by launching himself over a full-back’s trailing leg at regular intervals is any better, is highly disputable.
But the stonewall acts of cheating are simply unforgivable and his fall in Spurs’ 2-0 victory over Aston Villas was totally unacceptable. The sight of watching Bale go down under thin air as he pre-empted a kick from Brad Guzan that never came, was really quite hard to watch. It gets worse every time you see it and if anyone was still to doubt the Welshman’s tendency to dabble in football’s darkest of arts, they can surely be in no doubt now.
Although, it’s not just his own morality that he’s damaging by going to ground like that. If Bale waltzes into the penalty area and is hacked down against Chelsea this weekend but the referee waves him away, then Spurs fans will be left with a Luis Suarez situation all of their own. Premier League referees must stay subjective, but does human nature dictate that when they see him go down, his fall against Villa will come into their head? It shouldn’t, but it could well do.
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Even if referees are wrong to not judge each situation on their own merits, but Bale shouldn’t even be putting them in a position for that to become an issue. If he goes down in the penalty area against Roberto Di Matteo’s side on Saturday, you can bet your mortgage that his side will be screaming dive regardless of what happened. Bale’s behavior has only played into their hands.
Regardless of whether Shaun Maloney has claimed that his feeble contact with Gareth Bale constituted a penalty last week, it remains a woefully soft decision. And the problem is, with every ridiculous tumble the Welshman is taking, he is subjecting himself to forensic scrutiny in each incident.
Fans who frequent White Hart Lane love watching Gareth Bale for his barnstorming runs and his gifted ability – not for his acting skills. And when his behavior is set to put his side in jeopardy of getting a fair run, fans have the right to demand he cleans up his act. And fast.
What do you think about Gareth Bale’s antics for Spurs and Wales? Let me know what you think on Twitter: follow @samuel_antrobus and let me know if you think it’s time AVB sorted the Welshman out.
According to reports in the Daily Mail, Tottenham Hotspur face a battle to keep manager Mauricio Pochettino with Real Madrid ready to step up their pursuit of the 45-year-old, and Spurs fans have been quick to have their say on the rumour.
The Daily Mail says the La Liga giants are weighing up a move to bring the Argentine boss to Spain at the end of the season with Zinedine Zidane’s men struggling this term – they are currently 19 points behind Barcelona in the Spanish top flight and were knocked out of the Copa del Rey by Leganes during the week.
The report adds that while Pochettino is tempted by the opportunity of working with Real, the north London outfit wouldn’t be willing to let him go easily – especially as he has no release clause in his contract.
Tottenham supporters took to social media to give their thoughts on the story, and while one simply said “he’ll go”, another said “this will test Poch’s loyalty”.
Wayne Rooney has signed a new contract with Manchester United worth a reported £300,000 a week. The club is happy, the great freckled one is happy, the Stretford End and everyone involved at Paul Stretford’s End are happy, even the jaded, snarking curmudgeons are happy, such are many plentiful examples the situation provides for their life force enhancing belief that modern football is at the root of everything rotten and evil on this ghastly forsaken burning rock of nothingness we fool ourselves into thinking a home. Everyone is happy.
And yet somehow the sneaking suspicion that we’ve all been had lingers like the bad aftertaste of a Casillero del Diablo.
So, in another life, what else could United have spent 300k a week and 14m a year on instead of Wayne Rooney’s inevitable second hair transplant?
1. Pay two people £150k a week to play in midfield
It may have escaped those without the finely tuned nose of a true detective, but I’ll let you in on a secret – United have a problem in midfield. Despite the fact Rooney often spends huge swaths of games in a sort of self created auxiliary holding left back role, he’s not midfielder. Yet. Whilst the ridiculous valuation of footballers may threaten to become an elaborate satirical performance piece on the housing crisis (or perhaps it’s vice versa?) 300k is still a huge amount. You can still pick up a top of the range playmaker (only two previous owners) for a cool £150k. Even in the trendy deluxe diminutive Spanish model, David Silva and Juan Mata both command in the region. Perhaps get them in a collectable set? Buy two and get a novelty Marouane Fellaini thrown in for free! Ilkay Gundogan is on a paltry, almost insulting mid level banker’s salary of £25k a week. Why not buy a whole team of him? Some of them can play in defense (which, don’t tell anyone, is also a problem.) Sheeeyyyt, United could’ve caved into Paul Pogba’s salary demands thirteen times and still had change for an Ilkay Way.
2. Expand Old Trafford to compete with City.
Manchester City are now the biggest club in Manchester. Manuel Pellegrini has spoken, and in every sense but the actual words he used and what they mean, he’s right. So how will United compete with City and their imposing haul of 3 league titles once their new 60,000 capacity expansion makes the Etihad the second largest club stadium in the country, behind only, erm, Manchester United? Well, by expanding their own stadium of course. Perhaps with an exclusive corporate helipad and a state of the art pitch level retracting jumbotron. One architect has already proposed cramming ticketless fans onto the roof! To ignore such genius would be folly.
3. Do a Bayern and give back to the fans.
With it’s increasingly rampant propensity for evil, PR is now very important to football. Few top clubs can escape the perception that their working class roots are being eroded in favor of big business by an army of invisible Tony Blairs all desperate to play head tennis with Kevin Keegan. Bayern Munich can certainly try though, with their cheap tickets, safe standing and wily initiative to shame not only our football, but also our exorbitant pricing by buying out Arsenal’s away allocation as a goodwill gesture to their fans. Gone are the days of xenophobic ‘bantz!’ and giggling at rude sounding names, these days any football fan worth their salt wants to be German. With this in mind, United could claw back some respectability for our feeble Unterliga by reimbursing 26,000 of their lowest tier season ticket holders as a show of good faith. Anyone who spends a whole season singing songs about David Moyes deserves some mercy.
This would be brilliant, and is quite comfortably the least likely option on this list.
4. Hire thousands of teachers, nurses and soldiers.
Barely a contract renewal or transfer window goes by without some enlightened altruistic sole lamenting the plight of our underfunded public sector betters. “Just imagine how many teachers/nurses/soldiers you could pay with such and such’s salary” they say, curiously never implying we could up their wage substantially, but merely that we could hire more of them, at the same rate. To this end, United could hire thousands of nurses, soldiers and teachers, at the going rate, to aid the physios, guard the stadium and teach Rooney the many available alternatives in the English language to “obviously”
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5. Buy an MLS Franchise/Sponsor a Llama/Help pay off their debt.
You know, something daft like that. Lolz.
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Tottenham Hotspur defender Kyle Walker was forced to shut down his Twitter account after Spurs fans berated him over yesterday’s defeat to Chelsea, as reported by the Daily Mail.
@kyle28walker was bombarded with abusive tweets from his own fans after his mediocre performance in the London derby that saw rivals Chelsea come from 2-1 down to win 4-2 in the second half.
Walker was at fault for the final Chelsea goal in injury time and it seems that despite his full commitment to the club, some sections of online Spurs fans needed to vent their anger.
“Would love to know what I’m doing so different I give 100 per cent every game and still u (have) something to say I’m 22 and learning #embarrassing,” Walker wrote before deleting his account.
“If I said what I thought to these people I would get done humans make mistakes it was 90mins and I though(t it was) a foul end off (sic)!!!!”
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According to reports in The Irish Sun on May 24, Leeds United have been told that they will need to pay £6.5m if they want to sign Peterborough United striker Jack Marriott this summer, and their fans were quick to react to the rumour on Twitter, with one even mentioning Peter Ridsdale’s name.
The Irish Sun says that the Yorkshire outfit, along with Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday, are keen on the 23-year-old attacker who scored 33 goals in 56 appearances in all competitions for the Posh this term.
It is certainly no surprise that the Whites could be looking for a goalscorer to finally replace Chris Wood with Pierre-Michel Lasogga set to return to Hamburg following an uninspiring loan spell, and 2017 summer arrivals Caleb Ekuban, Pawel Cibicki and Jay-Roy Grot all struggling to make an impression.
We asked Leeds fans to vote on our poll to see whether they would like to see their club spend £6.5m on Marriott this summer, and a huge 72% said they wouldn’t want Andrea Radrizzani to splash out on the League One marksman.
It seems certain that United will bring in at least one – and possibly two – new centre-forwards this summer with links to Marriott, Jerry Mbakogu and Abel Hernandez already happening in the last couple of weeks, and it will be interesting to see whether they are willing to bid big for the former.
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According to reports in Swiss media outlet Blick, Southampton and West Ham United have joined Tottenham Hotspur and Borussia Dortmund in the race to sign Basel centre-back Manuel Akanji, who is rated at €20m (approximately £17.7m) by his club, before the January transfer window slams shut at the end of the month.
What’s the word, then?
Well, Blick says that Dortmund are hoping to tie up a deal for the 22-year-old defender soon, although the player would have a decision to make as he will want to be playing regularly ahead of the World Cup in Russia next summer.
Blick says that the Bundesliga giants have already offered €15m (approximately £13.3m) but the Swiss club want more and know that there is interest from the Premier League.
The report adds that Saints and the Irons, along with Spurs, are also keeping tabs on the centre-half and have the financial muscle to potentially create a bidding war – something that would suit Basel.
How good has Akanji been this season?
He has been excellent.
The 22-year-old has quickly established himself as a key player at the back for Basel, helping them qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League by playing every minutes in their group games, and he has become a regular fixture for Switzerland in recent months.
The defender has scored two goals and provided two assists in 28 appearances in all competitions this term, and according to WhoScored.com he has won eight tackles, made 13 interceptions, 12 blocks and 31 clearances in Europe this term, as well as winning 15 of the 23 aerial duels he has faced.
He is known for his pace and his long passes, which could prove to be two useful traits if he does seal a move to the Premier League this month.
Would he be a good signing for Southampton or West Ham?
He certainly would be.
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Akanji has shown in the league and the Champions League for Basel the quality and potential he has, and if either club could pick him up for around £18m in the current market they would probably be delighted.
Saints may well be looking for a long-term replacement for Virgil van Dijk following his move to Liverpool, while David Moyes could try to add a younger centre-back to his squad with most of his options in that position either above 30 years of age or reaching that milestone this year.
Celtic are a club with a rich tradition of footballing success, but whose recent years have been undercut by financial restraint. The SPFL Champions have been the great underdogs of European football in recent times, consistently achieving more than they realistically should and maintaining their lofty reputation.
But the future is bleak for the club. Scottish football continues to be dwarfed year on year by its near neighbours and without that financial support the hope of competing against the best in Europe fast becomes the stuff of fantasy.
It therefore seems apt that the man to push forward a solution is the same person that saved the club from bankruptcy 20 years ago this week. Fergus McCann, the Scottish-Canadian entrepreneur, revealed that his last remaining dream for the club he loves is to see them merge with England into a redesigned English Premier League. He warned fans that it is ‘impossible’ to attract the best players without escaping a Scottish league set-up with ‘too many small clubs’ to generate serious cash. The club generated a revenue of £75.8m last year on the back of their run to the Champions League knock-out stages, a figure that still only compares with the likes of Norwich and Fulham in the Premier League. Celtic can surely do a lot better, and with supporters clamouring for success this is surely an enticing option?
McCann thinks so; and he believes market forces will inevitably dictate the move for Celtic to cross the border and become part of the English League:
“I think it could and should happen. It would triple the size of the club in financial terms, overnight.”
Explaining the necessity behind Celtic finding a way to escape the confines of a small domestic market, McCann added:
‘”The EPL now dwarfs Scottish football financially and makes Celtic’s progress a daunting challenge. Nowadays, supporters want the best, and that is impossible in Scotland generally, with too many small clubs. This is obvious. It is a real achievement for Celtic to play in the Champions League group stage. In the last two years they represented the smallest country.”
This will invariably be a notion that polarises opinion within the club, and one that is likely to be far from an easy decision when it comes down to it. Celtic wouldn’t lose their Scottish base but their relationship with the Scottish League is one that for many should cherished rather than abandoned.
McCann would see this as his ideal legacy; by pushing through the move he could guarantee a sustainable future for the club he adores.
Celtic are accused of lacking ambition, by selling their best players and bringing in cut-price also-rans there remains little hope for the club to continue its involvement in top-level European Football. For Lawwell though the situation is precarious, having to balance the books without the revenue streams of his continental rivals. It is worth remembering the fact that Celtic aren’t immune from the perils of financial collapse, and Lawwell’s prudence is what has been holding the club together of late. Selling the likes of Wanyama and Ledley without an adequate replacement may seem like an aberration, but for Celtic at the minute it is a necessary reality.
So how would McCann’s dream change all this?
To say that the move would treble Celtic’s revenue overnight isn’t an overstatement. Premier League prize money, TV deals and the potential for a new wealth of sponsors could transform Celtic’s fortunes and make them seriously competitive once again. This is without mentioning the power of Celtic as a brand, a club that has the international fan base to rival even the biggest Premier League clubs.
Whether the cost of success is too much to bear is another issue. Celtic’s heritage is built upon Scottish league football and for some a move would be almost inconceivable. The animosity falls both ways with English fans wary of the Scottish Champions moving across the border; it is fair to say the path forward will be a difficult one.
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For Celtic though change is a must. The current trajectory is towards further decline and without drastic changes we are unlikely to see much of a change from the current worrying trend.
Will this be a case of having to swallow their pride for Celtic?
Queens Park Rangers striker Rob Hulse has completed a move to Charlton Athletic on loan.
The R’s frontman failed to make Ranger’s 25 man Premier League squad and will now join up with the London outfit on a three month temporary deal.
QPR.co.uk confirmed the 32 year old is on his way, he made 25 appearances at Loftus Road, netting just twice since a 2010 move from Derby County.
Hulse will be hoping to be involved in the Addicks mid-week fixture against Watford at the Valley.
Charlton are the lowest scorers in England’s second-tier and are perilously close to the Championship drop-zone.
Chris Powell’s striking options recently took a hit with frontman Ricardo Fuller missing their draw with Blackburn Rovers due to a virus.
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Powell told Charlton’s official website: “I’m really pleased to have Rob on board and look forward to working with him.
“With the squad we have we do have one or two players that have played at this level before and a couple that have played Premier League, but you need that Championship know-how week in, week out and I think Rob will give us that.”