All posts by n8rngtd.top

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An article in the Daily Mail has linked Phil Jagielka with a stunning return to Sheffield United 12 years after he departed the club.

Since leaving Yorkshire, the defender has had an incredibly successful career. He has made over 350 Premier League appearances and earned himself 40 England caps, but now it may be time to give something back to the club where it all began.

His first stint

Jagielka is just as much a hero at Bramall Lane as he is at Goodison Park, and every single Blade would be happy to welcome him back.

He was the standout player in Neil Warnock’s team that was promoted to the Premier League over a decade ago, and his performances in red and white during the 2000s sealed his place as a fan favourite.

Even though Jagielka was 25 when he left United he hadn’t fully matured as a player. Warnock seemingly didn’t know his best position and described him as “The new Patrick Vieira”, while also saying “I can see Jagger eventually taking over from Gary Neville at right-back for England.”

“Finding a Lionel Messi in Sheffield… bit of a tall order!” – Watch Championship fans attempt to name their clubs’ Messi in the video below…

Still got it

The defender turns 37 in August, and many people would say that he isn’t up to scratch as a Premier League defender anymore, but Jagielka still has all the capabilities to prove them wrong.

When he has appeared this season, he has been more than competent at centre-half, and that was never more evident than when Arsenal came to Goodison Park.

The 36-year-old was thrust into the starting XI just minutes before kick-off due to an injury picked up by Michael Keane during the warm-up.

He had the daunting task of facing up against Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, and he dealt with them both as if he were 10 years younger as well as scoring the winning goal.

He can be the leader at the back that any newly promoted team needs, and although he won’t be able to play every minute of the campaign as he did back in 2006/07, he can undoubtedly be a valuable asset for Chris Wilder when he needs to defend a lead late on.

After another trophy-laden season, Celtic’s fans have an enjoyable summer to look forward to and can already be excited for what’s to come in the next campaign. With Neil Lennon once again at the helm, will it be just as a successful term as the one Rodgers set them on last August?

Of course, we always sit in awe at Celtic and how successful they are in the Scottish League, but is league dominance all the Celtic board want? I highly doubt it. With another crack at Champions League football to come next season, just how many players will we see perform consistently?

Here’s a couple of players we feel will struggle to perform next year under the reign of Lennon.

Youssouf Mulumbu 

A man that has graced even the heights of the Premier League, but he just isn’t what Celtic need anymore.

After returning from his not so outstanding loan spell with Kilmarnock, it seems fairly safe to say that the 32-year-old midfielder isn’t in Lennon’s plans come the start of next season.

With the likes of Olivier Ntcham and Eboue Kouassi coming in and impressing, Mulumbu may just need to bite the bullet and find himself a new club, or give Lennon the perfect scenario and become the experienced mentor in the Celtic dressing room, helping the younger players really grow into the world of football.

Jonny Hayes 

The 31-year-old right midfielder may just find himself struggling to feature next season, especially with the return of what seems to be a wonderkid in Marian Shved.

Hayes found himself having an in-and-out of the squad type of season, managing to bag just one assist in all of his league appearances. It is clear to see that if Celtic do truly want to compete in the Champions League once again, they need new blood down the right hand side.

Shved, who recently returned back from loan, managed to bag himself 11 goals and three assists in his time away from Celtic, which of course, isn’t great news for the Irishman.

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You may not have heard of or know very much about young Dayot Upamecano, but he is certainly one to watch over the next few years. The young Frenchman has starred for both RB Salzburg and RB Leipzig in his short career, and now that Football.London are linking him with a move to Arsenal for £30m, Gunners fans couldn’t be more excited.

The young defender has proven to be one of the most promising centre backs in the Bundesliga and has really shone for Ralf Rangnick’s Leipzig side.

It may be tough for the 20-year-old if he is to be signed up by Arsenal and thrown in at the deep end, but he has both the technical ability and physical prowess to shine in the Premier League should he be given the time to adjust to his new surroundings.

In any case, the Frenchman is a much better option at the back than an out-of-form Shkodran Mustafi, so if Unai Emery can force this one through then it would almost certainly be a massive upgrade in defence, which is the area of priority this summer.

The chances are that if the £30m fee is correct the Gunners will have competition for a player with this much potential, but that hasn’t stopped fans drooling over a possible move.

Take a look at some of the best Twitter reactions down below…

It has emerged in recent weeks that Tottenham defender Danny Rose could be on his way out of the club, after telling Sky Sports that his position is unclear. Well, with Tottenham reportedly keen on a move for long-term target Ryan Sessegnon, it’s understandable why this may be the case. Still, a quick glance below at his form across the season suggests perhaps Tottenham should not be looking for a replacement at all. 

Firstly, let’s discuss the potential move then. To Sky Sports, Rose said: “If I’m back at Tottenham next season, great, if I’m not – great.” It doesn’t exactly strike as desire, or even intention, to stay. Indeed, the former Leeds youngster added that his age, being 28-years-old, was a factor in this, despite being happy with his increased game time this season.

According to the Evening Standard, his comments have taken the Tottenham hierarchy by surprise. Pochettino was reportedly very impressed by the left-back this season, who played 26 league matches alongside eight in the Champions League this season, after all.

When looking at the stats, it’s not hard to see why Pochettino was so impressed. One can make a quick comparison to Tottenham’s other left-back, Ben Davies. Surprisingly, the Welshman (per WhoScored) actually played more matches than Rose this season, with 27 league appearances and nine in the Champions League. Yet, during his games at left-back, the team conceded 10 more in the league and he failed to contribute to a single goal, whereas Rose claimed four assists.

Now, you could say Ben Davies is perhaps not the ideal comparison – and fair enough. But when comparing Rose to Ben Chilwell, who started England’s Nations League semi-final and could be subject of a potential big-money move to Manchester City, his numbers are again admirable.

Chilwell conceded an average of 1.19 goals per game last season, where Rose only conceded an average of 0.62. Additionally, he made just one more assist in ten additional appearances, had a lower cross accuracy, created less big chances, had a lower tackle success percentage and lost significantly more duels (stats via PremierLeague.com).

Granted, Chilwell kept more clean sheets, won more duels and made no errors leading to a goal, where Rose made one but the point remains. The Leicester star, after all, is a man who The Telegraph report is a prime target for Guardiola and would cost more than the £75m Liverpool paid for Virgil van Dijk.

With that in mind, it’s not as if he had a much better season than Rose at all. Yes, there are going to be fewer chances to sell him as he gets older, but Rose still retains the kind of quality to make him one of the best left-backs in the league. If there’s a chance to keep him, it shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand.

Tottenham fans, what do you think? Would you like to see Rose at the club next season? Or is it time to freshen up? Comment below. 

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Lots of Everton fans have taken to Twitter to discuss a report from Goal linking them with a move for Porto’s Yacine Brahimi.

The Toffees are reportedly interested in signing the Algerian, who is out of contract with Porto this summer – as you can see from some of the supporters’ reactions below, they’ve been linked with the attacking midfielder before.

Watch the video below to see the most insane overhead kick you will see this week…

Brahimi enjoyed an impressive 2018/19 campaign with 13 goals and nine assists to his name last term, recording his best return since arriving in Portugal from Granada.

The 29-year-old has jetted off to the Africa Cup of Nations with Algeria with his future at Porto still unresolved, which has seemingly alerted the attention of Everton.

It would definitely be a strange signing, seeing as Marcel Brands outlined his intentions to bring players between the ages of 20-25/26 to the club – the Sporting Director said that the Toffees ‘don’t want to invest big money in players who are older’.

Of course, he would be free. However, free transfers usually command quite big sums in terms of wages and agent fees, so it would still assumingly be investing big money in him if Brahimi was to arrive at Goodison Park.

Let’s take a look at what the Everton fans on Twitter have been saying…

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In his column for The Mirror, Stan Collymore shared his thoughts on Paul Pogba’s situation at Manchester United.

The former Liverpool ace revealed that he wished he’d studied how his future teammates played before making the move to Anfield, as he struggled without midfielders who would play the ball over the top to him, whilst he also felt that he couldn’t run with the ball due to Steve McManaman’s presence.

Collymore suggested that Pogba may have thought twice about making the move to Old Trafford had he studied his future teammates, but felt the lure of a romantic return in a world-record transfer move may have been too much to turn down.

Could United be in the hunt for an £85m blockbuster signing this summer? Check out the video below…

Yet the Mirror columnist had another point to make; he thinks Pogba has been let down and pointed the finger at the Old Trafford club.

What did Collymore say?

The former Red wrote: “Imagine if Pogba had played with Roy Keane or Patrick Vieira alongside him – he’d be elevated to super world class.

“United have also let Pogba down by ­failing to sign the player or players who’d bring out the best in him.”

It’s the other way round!

United have let Pogba down? More like the other way round.

The France international made a mockery of the club by falling out with Jose Mourinho last season and then seemingly downing tools until the Portuguese’s departure – this was evidenced when he burst into form in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s early days and looked a completely different player.

The former Juventus man had also talked up a move to Real Madrid midway through the season, and came out yet again just last week to say that he fancied a new challenge ‘somewhere else’ – he has been utterly disrespectful to a club that bends over backwards for him more often than not.

The idea of needing to build around Pogba is nothing new and a common argument whenever top talents don’t perform consistently well. But there’s the other side to that coin too; why isn’t Pogba’s quality – which saw him lift the World Cup with France last summer – getting the best out of those around him?

Pogba is the one who has let United down – on the pitch, in public and behind the scenes.

Putting the ‘silly’ in ‘silly season’ this summer so far has undoubtedly been Leeds United. First, we had those ridiculous links with free agent Gianluigi Buffon, but now it’s gone a step too far, which we didn’t think was possible, as there are claims Francesco Totti could wind up at Elland Road.

Before anyone gets excited, this is a player, who no matter how fantastic he was in his prime, is 42-years-old and has been retired since the end of the 2016/17 season. Regardless of that, TuttoMercatoWeb have claimed that Marco Borriello, whilst talking on Sky, claimed that he’s spoken to Totti who mentioned he had an offer to return to playing from an English team.

The reports are that the club in question is Leeds United. Come on, though, let’s just have a look at this one. If Totti does still have some of his superb technical ability, there’s no way he’ll still have his legs and the Championship can be a physically unforgiving league to deal with.

Surely there’s no way that the Italian would consider going back on his 2017 decision to retire and dust off his boots? It wouldn’t be the first time that a player has come out of retirement, and you could argue that if Buffon somehow ends up at Elland Road then it may be another pulling point for Totti, but not a lot else suggests that this might have legs.

The aim for Leeds should be looking into bringing in young guns to freshen up their squad. A few young, lively signings could do the trick for Leeds United, especially after witnessing Jamie Shackleton and Jack Clarke’s impressive form this past season, and there’s no way that Totti can be described as ‘young and lively’ as a player now.

We’re not going to stand here and slate the player, as Totti is a legend of the game. His career saw him score 250 Serie A goals in a 24-year career with Roma, but when he called time on that career it would have been for a reason, so one more season playing at Elland Road would make no sense at all.

After all, the Yorkshire Evening Post even described the transfer rumour as ‘nonsense’.

Leeds fans, surely you agree that a Totti swoop makes no sense? Comment below!

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

According to Turkish publication Aksam, Fenerbahce are interested in signing Arsenal centre-back Shkodran Mustafi this summer.

What’s the word?

The report claims the Super Lig giants are lining up a move for the Germany international and that the Turkish side’s sporting director, Damian Comolli, has already made contact with the 27-year-old’s agent.

The news of Fenerbahce’s interest comes after BBC’s David Ornstein revealed on BBC 5 Live Sport that Arsenal have been looking to offload the centre-back ever since he first signed and that Unai Emery had decided “enough was enough” after the Europa League final.

End the misery now

For far too long Mustafi’s name has just become synonymous with calamity and derision. This is a World Cup winner with Germany, consigned to being looked at as not even being worthy of Sunday League football.

His errors and mistakes have been infuriatingly similar, inspiring a horrible case of deja vu. His biggest gaffe this season came at a time when the Gunners simply couldn’t afford it, allowing Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha to waltz on through and end up costing the north London side a precious result in their race for Champions League qualification.

Are Man City better than Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’? Fans discuss in the video below…

The miscommunication was eerily reminiscent of the goal scored by Charlie Austin for Southampton, when the England international ghosted in from behind, when he had absolutely no right to.

In 84 Premier League appearances, the German has seen three errors directly lead to goals and has a questionable disciplinary record too. His tendency to lunge into challenges has seen him pick up 26 yellow cards and commit a total of 103 fouls – more than one a game.

Valued at £22.5m by Transfermarkt, Mustafi is at an age now where the mind-numbing errors should be virtually non-existent. But despite playing at the top level for sides like Sampdoria, Valencia and now Arsenal, the 27-year-old has shown no real sign of improvement.

Watch Arsenal Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

After witnessing the Gunners’ defensive struggles in a 3-1 defeat to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium earlier this year, Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher fumed: “Mustafi has never been good enough since the day he walked in the door and that’s the reason why all the goals come down there. To see Arsenal defend like that, there’s a big job there for Unai Emery to do.”

The big job Emery has to do is getting Mustafi out the door. If Fenerbahce are willing to take a chance on the blundering defender, then the Gunners by all means should allow them to take it.

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Dejan Lovren celebrated his 30th birthday recently and in some style too if his Instagram account is anything to go by.

The unpredictable Liverpool defender bought himself a brand new Ferrari as a treat and was quick to share it on social media and

/Bzql-MWFI-j/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link” data-lasso->Instagram for all his fans to see.

Some of the stars, both from the footballing world and otherwise, were clearly impressed by Lovren’s new toy, and they let him know in the comment section.

Daniel Sturridge was among those drooling over the beautiful car as the now ex-Liverpool player posted a series of emojis to show his appreciation for what is a truly amazing machine.

He was not the only one as Donna Vekić and Ivan Dodig, a pair of Croatian tennis stars, also replied to their compatriot’s post with some emojis.

Lovren’s future at Liverpool is yet to be fully decided as AC Milan continue to express an interest in the defender.

Last season, Lovren played a total of 18 games, scoring once and assisting once in all competitions.

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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…

Celtic midfielder Scott Brown insists he has given no thought to slowing down at the Hoops as he enters another new season with the Scottish champions, speaking to The Celtic View (10/07, page 13).

What’s he said?

Aside from spells out due to injury, Scott Brown has been in a regular in the Celtic side since signing for the club back in 2007.

In total he’s made a massive 517 appearances, winning an incredible 19 trophies, many of which have come as club captain.

However, now 34 years of age, you could be forgiven for thinking he could start to be phased out of Celtic line-ups.

Brown though is solely focused on continuing to push forward, even as he studies for coaching qualifications.

Keith from C’mon the Hoops throws back to the ‘Battle of Britain’ from the 2003 UEFA Cup quarter-finals in the video below…

As quoted by The Celtic View (10/07, page 13), the Hoops captain said:

“I gave up international duty a few years ago in order to keep pushing with Celtic, and that’s what I plan to do.

“People need to stop writing me off now and then! For me, I don’t really care what’s said about me. I go out, I perform, we win, I play well, I’m happy.

“If I don’t play well and I don’t get into the team the next game, it’s as simple as that. We’ve got a fantastic manager and backroom staff who will make those decisions.

“I did my ‘A’ license, and I’ve got a few assignments to do before it’s done and dusted. It’s something for the future, of course, once football finished for me, but, like I say, I think I’ve still got some time on the pitch left in me yet.”

Still plenty to achieve

Despite his enormous trophy success, there’s still plenty to achieve for Brown at Celtic, with history on the horizon providing a tantalising temptation for the veteran to extend his playing career for as long as possible.

This season the club are going for a record-equalling ninth league title in a row and if that’s achieved then they’ll be looking to delight supporters with a tenth by the end of 2020/21.

Watch Celtic Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

Perhaps unsurprisingly, that’s when Brown’s contract runs until, having agreed fresh terms in January.

His eyes are on the prizes ahead and although Rangers are improving all the time under Gerrard, Brown will be wanting to keep them at arms length for just a couple of more years at least.