As per the Herald and Times Sport, Glasgow Rangers target Jacob Murphy is keen to make a loan move to Ibrox this summer.
The 25-year-old is on the radar of the 54-time Scottish champions, with a loan deal on the cards.
Now, it is said that he is keen to move to Scotland – but his current club, Newcastle, want him to stay at St. James’ Park to fight for a place in Steve Bruce’s squad.
£3.15m-valued Murphy – as per Transfermarkt – has failed to make the grade so far with the Magpies – as it stands, he has scored just one goal in 41 appearances for the club. The Toon’s business in the transfer window, as well, does not indicate that the former Norwich City man has a big future in the north east, with Ryan Fraser joining on a free transfer.
As such, a loan move could be the best thing for him, although it is not clear as to whether the same can be said for the Gers. Given his track record, it is hard to see how he would be a massive boost to the side considering how Ryan Kent, with four goals in his first seven matches, has performed so far this campaign.
Whilst Steven Gerrard may be looking for some more squad depth, it still feels as though Murphy isn’t the man for them.
Everton have been in contact with Watford over a potential transfer for their midfield star Abdoulaye Doucoure for quite some time now. However, even though the Hornets would be open to selling their man, it won’t exactly be a cheap operation.
Now, according to 90min, Carlo Ancelotti is considering throwing two fringe players into the mix as potential makeweights to bring the proposed figure of £30m down a little bit.
The two players in question, as the same source reveals, are Yannick Bolasie and Muhamed Besic. Of course, neither of them have a big role in the team anyway so it makes sense to let them go.
Bolasie has spent time on loan at Aston Villa, Anderlecht and also Sporting CP while Besic himself played at Middlesbrough and Sheffield United. Losing them both should not really be a big hit for the Toffees’ squad but could potentially help them out in this deal.
As of right now, 90min don’t say anything about Watford’s stance on getting two players and some cash in return for their player but Ancelotti is hoping this could indeed help get the deal over the line in the immediate future.
Just like everyone else in the current climate, Everton are working on a mostly reduced budget so meeting Doucoure’s asking price is a tough pill to swallow.
But Watford should be aware of that as well and it remains to be seen whether they agree to the proposed terms.
Verdict
On the face of it, it does seem like sacrificing Bolasie and Besic for Doucoure is a good deal for Everton. Ancelotti obviously doesn’t have them in his plans for the upcoming 2020/21 Premier League campaign so the transfer does make sense.
However, we still don’t know if Watford feel the same way so we’ll have to wait and see what they say.
You wouldn’t believe it if someone told you a couple of years ago, but Manchester United are apparently looking for someone to replace David De Gea.
The Spaniard has been out of form for some time now, and it seems as though the hierarchy at Old Trafford have lost faith in the former Golden Glove winner, and they already have a replacement in their sights.
What’s the story then?
Surprisingly, United aren’t going to look towards Dean Henderson to solve their goalkeeping problems after his impressive season at Sheffield United.
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Instead, the Red Devils are reportedly after Leicester City stopper Kasper Schmeichel, and it’s hard to say that this wouldn’t be a great move.
Immediate hero
Aside from the fact that Schmeichel is a Premier League-winning goalkeeper who is certainly good enough to play for a top side, this deal, in particular, makes so much sense for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side.
Nostalgia is a great factor in how fans view things, and United fans could very easily feel as though they’re back to their glory days if they have a blonde Scandinavian named Schmeichel between the sticks.
Fans should immediately have a lot of respect for their new man due to his dad’s achievements at the club, and with confidence being such a huge factor for a goalie, that support could help the Dane match or even surpass his father’s performances for the Red Devils.
Of course, there will be the worry of constant comparisons getting in his head, but that’s something he’s inevitably had to contend with during his entire career, and he’s coped very well so far.
The Old Trafford faithful would love Schmeichel before he even made his debut, and that could be a massive positive that comes alongside bringing him in.
Rotherham United manager Paul Warne has revealed that the club have received just one offer for striker Jerry Yates.
With the League One season coming to an abrupt end, Sunderland manager Phil Parkinson will be looking to bring in some new faces after failing to gain promotion to England’s second tier.
The Black Cats had been cited with interest in former Swindon Town striker Yates and various other clubs have also emerged in the race to sign the 23-year-old, with Blackpool the only club to table a bid for him.
Yates netted 13 goals in 31 games on loan with the Robins in League Two during the 2019/20 season before returning to parent club Rotherham, whose manager Warne revealed that, despite growing interest, only one club has made an offer for the striker.
“There has been no bid from Swindon to my knowledge as we speak on Tuesday morning. I’m aware only that Blackpool have put an official bid in. There might have been a few phone calls here and there (from other clubs), but they’re the only ones to put an official bid in.
“If they reach the technical board’s valuation, then Jerry will be gone, so to speak. In the meantime, he is training with us and training really well. Because of the type of people we are, we will continue to train him as if he’s staying here.
“I’m well aware of the fact there are a lot of clubs interested in him and we’ll see how that progresses. At the moment, the bid hasn’t reached our valuation so he stays with us.”
As per The Gazette, Yates’ contract at Rotherham expired at the end of June but the club activated a one-year extension which has now allowed them to potentially cash in on the £90,000-valued striker.
It seems that Sunderland’s chances of signing Yates are slim, given that Blackpool have apparently stolen a march by submitting an offer for him.
The Black Cats have done little to improve their squad as of yet and it remains to be seen if Parkinson has the funds to bring in the players that he may want this summer.
Do you think Yates would be a good signing for Sunderland if they could get him? Let us know in the comments section below…
Speaking to Football Insider, Danny Mills has suggested that Steve Bruce could be the first to go if Newcastle’s takeover goes through.
What did he say?
The Magpies appear to be on the verge of seeing their takeover confirmed sooner rather than later, and with it, major question marks on Bruce’s long-term future at the club.
Recent reports have touted Rafa Benitez with an emotional return to St James’ Park, and Mills has claimed that with new ownership, one of the first things that often happens is the current manager ends up leaving.
He said: “It is going to be very difficult for Steve Bruce. He has not done a bad job and he is a very capable and very good manager. But big owners coming in with a lot of money will want to put their own person in. They will want the fans onside immediately and the easiest way to do that is to appoint a manager.
“It is unfortunate for Bruce because he has done a good job. We often see owners come in with their own ideas and the first person to go is normally the manager.”
Inevitable
With the likes of Benitez, Mauricio Pochettino and Massimiliano Allegri all being linked with the job at St James’ Park, it seems incredible that Bruce remains in the dugout at Newcastle.
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The current Magpies boss has just been watching on from the side-lines as new reports claim the club have already drawing up replacements for him before the takeover has even been confirmed.
It all seems rather inevitable as Mills suggests, and it would be a major surprise now if Bruce is even given longer than just the end of the season.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool have perhaps recruited better than any other Premier League team in recent years – they’ve really got it right with the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and many more.
But it hasn’t always been like that at Anfield and today we’re going to be revisiting a number of occasions where they have got it woefully wrong in terms of an incoming transfer.
While in recent times Klopp has rarely got it wrong, as a result of clever, well thought out recruitment, previous managers have not been so lucky in the market and have handed some of the most obscure and sub-standard players an unwarranted opportunity to wear the famous red of Liverpool.
So here’s a look at Liverpool’s 20 worst signings of the Premier League era…
Sean Dundee
Valencia v Liverpool 3/11/98 UEFA Cup 2nd round 2nd leg
Pic : Action Images / Stuart Franklin
Liverpool’s Michael Owen & Sean Dundee celebrate Steve McManaman’s goal
Pictured above celebrating with Michael Owen, Sean Dundee was a true waste of money for Liverpool.
£2m may not seem like a lot of dough now at all but back in 1998 it was and all joint-managers at the time Roy Evans and Gerard Houllier would get for that lofty sum would be five appearances (all of them from the bench) and no goals from the centre-forward.
Charlie Adam
Despite that one cracking season in the Premier League for Blackpool, Charlie Adam was never good enough to represent a club like the Reds and he probably knew that as well.
That’s why the creative Scotland international lasted just the one campaign on Merseyside in what was a very strange time for Liverpool Football Club.
Christian Benteke
There are similarities between Adam and the next infamous member of this list, the man known as one of the attacking flops of all time at Anfield – Christian Benteke.
Then gaffer Brendan Rodgers splashed out an eye-watering £32.5m on the striker in the summer of 2015 and like both Adam and Dundee would last just the one term – ironically, Benteke left the North West with a record of ten goals in 42 matches, not too bad at all.
Alberto Aquilani
Mention the name Alberto Aquilani and most Kopites would offer a chuckle, this is certainly not the impression that the Italian would have wanted to leave when he arrived from Roma for £17m plus bonuses prior to the 2009/2010 season.
In truth, Xabi Alonso was always going to be a hard act to follow and that role always had the potential to be a poisoned chalice to whoever had to fulfill it, however, the woeful Aquilani made a special mess of it and it’s no small miracle that he managed to officially remain a Liverpool player for three years.
Milan Jovanovic
Famous for that hilarious video of his Reds best bits on YouTube, Milan Jovanovic turned up in the red half of Merseyside to a different manager to the one that signed him in 2010.
Roy Hodgson was hardly renowned for getting the best out of his players at Anfield and the Serbia midfielder is some example of that.
The balding winger is remembered at the Reds for the wrong reasons and 18 appearances after his signing he was shipped back to the league in which he tricked Rafa Benitez into thinking he was any good – the Belgian first division.
Christian Poulsen
Is that a picture of Dirk Kuyt?
No, if Christian Poulsen was even half as decent for Liverpool as the legendary Dutch frontman he wouldn’t be anywhere near this list.
Putting any ifs and buts aside, Roy Hodgson was probably right to identify the Dane’s quality, after all he is one of the rare few to have played in all five of Europe’s big five divisions, though by 2010 he was fast slowing down and his terrible only campaign in Anfield Road is best forgotten.
Tiago Ilori
All the big teams have done it; signing a youngster dubbed to be the next big thing in European, or even world football, only for them to flop massively.
Well, Tiago Ilori is the Reds’ anti-climactic starlet and they paid a fair amount of money for him in September 2013, a reported £7m for the then 20-year-old who would only ever represent the club three times.
Paul Konchesky
As you may have already noticed, the Reds made some stinkers of signings around the turn of the decade, but none of them quite as terrible as Paul Konchesky.
The left-back was Roy Hodgson’s main man at Fulham so he saw no reason why he couldn’t follow him to play the same role at Anfield, however, his spell was nothing short of a total disaster shrouded by his mum’s Facebook rant in which she branded Liverpool fans “scouse scum.”
Mario Balotelli
Sure Mario Balotelli’s mother never said anything bad about Kopites, but his football in Liverpool could hardly do the talking for him either.
The controversial character was alright at Manchester City and pretty impressive at the 2012 UEFA European Championships, however, Luis Suarez’s were big boots to fill at Anfield plus there was always the weight of his £15m+ price tag – he was set up to fail really and did.
Joe Cole
Liverpool’s decision to sign Joe Cole in the twilight of his career was a strange one and they got what they deserved for what was a poor bit of business.
The former England and Chelsea star may not have cost Roy Hodgson any actual money but his £130k-per-week salary was obscene for what the Reds actually got, a mere 42 matches, five goals and three assists, sub-standard for any attacking midfielder let alone Cole.
Brought in from Dutch side FC Twente for a reported £7m, Nacer Chadli showed flashes of promise in his time at Tottenham.
The Belgium international only ended up playing 119 times for the north Londoners, after signing back in the summer of 2013 when Andre Villas-Boas was in charge of the club.
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The 30-year-old scored 25 times and provided a further 16 assists during his time with the Lilywhites, and Spurs fans have taken to Twitter to share their memories of their former ace.
A few Spurs fans revealed that they felt it was a mistake letting him go, with one supporter in particular calling it one of Mauricio Pochettino’s biggest errors.
A couple of fans simply insisted that he is as good as, if not better, than the likes of Lucas Moura and Erik Lamela.
With Steven Bergwijn arriving on the books in the January transfer window, Spurs have got another winger to pin their hopes on to deliver success.
The Dutchman has similarly shown early signs of being a real coup for the Lilywhites, not least his superb volley against Manchester City in the Premier League.
He will however have to be a whole lot more consistent than Chadli was to ensure that he goes down in the history books as a real Spurs success.
Meanwhile, Spurs fans are reminiscing over this former powerhouse.
Once upon a time every team had a cult hero, a player with inherent limitations or a character flaw that often meant he wasn’t necessarily the best around but who was still absolutely adored by his club’s fan-base. These days you’ll be lucky to identify five across the entire Premier League.
This is a great shame because the importance of having a cult hero at a club cannot be under-stated, offering as they do a deeper connection between eleven professional athletes and thousands of fans on a tiny fraction of their wages and maybe as meaningful as this is the fun element they bring. Chants are devoted to them, usually a bit off-kilter and humorous.
When they do something well it means more. When they mess up it prompts not criticism but a tut and a wry smile.
There appears to be only a handful of these dying breed left in the top flight, fighting the good fight; popular despite, not because, and undoubtedly one of them is Sheffield United’s Lys Mousset.
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Powerful, explosive, and fond of a dribble or three the 23-year-old former France under-21 striker arrived at Bramall Lane from Bournemouth this summer for £10m.
The fee – a club record for the newly promoted Blades – raised eyebrows from some quarters because Mousset was hardly prolific on the south coast, scoring just five goals in 71 appearances. Yet given these disappointing figures it says a great deal that his departure was greeted only with sadness by the Dean Court faithful.
It didn’t take long for United fans to find out why. Mousset fulfils the key aspect of any cult hero in that he is occasionally brilliant but often not.
For him it is not inconsistency that leads to such erraticism: rather he unfailingly opts against taking the safe choice, instead getting his head down and seeking to single-handedly destroy. He excites. He gets bums off seats.
This alone is enough to make any player a fan favourite but the Motivilliers-born forward’s recent habit of adding substance to the style has only seen his popularity rise further.
A winner against Arsenal last month was swiftly followed by another game-changing performance from the sub’s bench away to West Ham with a volleyed equaliser for good measure.
A week later Mousset grabbed the headlines with a hat-trick of first-half assists as Burnley became the latest big scalp of the Blades. Against Spurs he teased and tormented. Surpassing his Bournemouth scoring record before Christmas looks almost inevitable at this rate.
“He’s a popular boy with the other players and he’s a popular boy with the supporters as well. You can see why they’ve taken to him,” manager Chris Wilder said at the end of October, clearly pleased that his expensive summer gamble is paying off.
As for the player himself he is resolved to repaying the trust shown in him by the Yorkshire club: “I have been waiting for this chance since I came to England, to prove myself, and I want to show the fans what I’m about.”
He already has secured a place in their hearts for a long time to come.
Besiktas are looking to sign on-loan goalkeeper Loris Karius from Liverpool on a permanent basis, according to reports from Turkey.
Fanatik claimed [via Sport Witness] that the Istanbul-based club want to sign the 26-year-old permanently after an upturn in form over the past few weeks, with a proposal to complete an €8m (£6.84m) transfer in four equal instalments over a four-year period.
The German is into the second year of a two-year loan spell at Besiktas from Anfield, with the Turkish side hoping to formalise the deal in January if Liverpool agree to their transfer proposal, as per Fanatik [via Sport Witness].
If Fanatik’s reports are true, it would represent a remarkable volte-face from Besiktas, with Takvim claiming less than a month ago [via The Mirror] that the Turkish club were seeking to cancel Karius’ loan spell prematurely.
The goalkeeper endured a difficult start to the season, conceding nine goals in four league games during the autumn as well as being culpable for a horrendous misjudgement in Besiktas’ Europa League loss to Slovan Bratislava, when he raced from his line but failed to reach a 50-50 ball, gifting Andraz Sporar a tap-in, as per The Guardian.
However, since the start of October, Karius’ form has improved drastically, with only one goal conceded in his last five league matches as Besiktas collected 13 points from a possible 15. [via TransferMarkt]
That run included a derby victory over Galatasaray in which he kept a clean sheet and made three saves, a feat he repeated in their most recent outing against Denizlispor.
He has actually had a better record of late than Liverpool’s Alisson, who has conceded one goal in each of his six Reds appearances since returning from a calf injury a month ago. [via TransferMarkt]
However, the Brazilian still has a better return for the season overall with seven goals conceded in eight appearances (0.87 per game), compared to Karius’ 20 in 14 matches (1.43 per game).
Adrian, who deputised for Alisson during his spell out injured, let in 13 goals in his 11 games for the Reds this term (1.18 per game), also leaving him with a better concession rate than the German throughout 2019/20.
Aside from Alisson and Adrian, Liverpool can also call upon Caoimhin Kelleher in goals, with the young Irishman managing a clean sheet on his senior debut against MK Dons in September and making a decisive penalty save in the Carabao Cup shoot-out win over Arsenal last month.
Karius may be on a good run of form now, but his error against Slovan Bratislava had echoes of the fateful 2018 Champions League final, and with the Reds already well-stocked for goalkeeping options, they would be right to accept Besiktas’ reported £6.84m transfer proposal if the Turkish club follow through on it.
What is really crazy to think about is that the Reds paid just £4.75m to bring the Mainz man to Anfield, so could actually be set to make a profit on a player who has done nothing but make mistakes, both on Merseyside and while out on loan.
Fans have often praised sporting director Michael Edwards for his work in selling players like Dominic Solanke, Jordon Ibe and Christian Benteke for more than they are likely worth, and it appears another master-class from the Reds transfer guru could be on the way.
Liverpool fans, should the club accept the transfer offer that Besiktas are reportedly lining up if presented to them in January? Have your say by commenting below!
This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…
Everton’s Djibril Sidibe has hailed Bernard as a key figure in his impressive start to life on Merseyside.
The defender believes the intense nature of the 27-year-old’s style has had a big impact on his mentality at Goodison Park.
What did he say?
Sidibe joined Everton from Monaco in the summer on a season-long loan and has recently become an important part of Marco Silva’s plans. The Frenchman initially had to wait for a spell in the side and has praised the Brazilian, who is valued at £18m by Transfermarkt, as a big influence on helping him adapt to English football.
The tenacious forward is small in stature but will battle with the biggest on the pitch and the right-back believes this has had a big impact on him.
Sidibe told evertonfc.com: “The biggest difference in England is your state of mind, how you go into a game mentally.
“Look at Bernard. He is tiny but look at him, the intensity he puts into a game, his runs forward and back.
“His tackling and his gestures on the field. Everything. He is all action. He is an example we can all follow.
“Skill and ability and size are important.
“But your mental approach is very important, too; the fact you go 100 per cent all out for every challenge, in attack or defence.”
Settling in nicely
Everton’s defensive problems have been an issue for Marco Silva to contend with this season. The club have conceded 18 goals in 12 Premier League games, which has seen the club stay around the relegation zone for the majority of the season.
However, over the past few weeks, Silva’s fortunes have changed slightly and that has arrived in tandem with Sidibe’s increased involvement at right-back.
It does seem that the Frenchman has suddenly become an integral part of the manager’s plans, starting in each of Everton’s last four Premier League fixtures.
In this time, Sidibe has managed to build up an average rating of 6.84 in the league and he also provided the all important assist for Richarlison’s winner against Southampton with a sweet cross.
It seems that Bernard’s attitude is clearly rubbing off on Sidibe as he goes from strength to strength within his fresh environment.