All posts by n8rngtd.top

[ad_pod ]

Tottenham Hotspur are “lucky” to be in the Champions League final, according to former Liverpool star Graeme Souness, per Balls.ie.

The former Reds manager insists that there has been a great deal of fortune in the club’s miraculous run to the showpiece, with Spurs having beaten Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City and Ajax to reach the final stage in Madrid.

Liverpool, meanwhile, have beaten Bayern Munich, Porto and Barcelona to get to the final but Souness appears hung up on the form of Mauricio Pochettino’s men in all competitions.

They have lost a total of 19 games across the Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League, and the Sky Sports pundit has expressed his disbelief that they will be playing in Saturday’s game.

He said: “The minute you try to attach logic to a game of football, you will come unstuck. Eight, nine times out of ten, the team with the best players wins the football match. Liverpool have the best players.

“On the other side of that coin, there’s a small part of me thinking, ‘Spurs’ name is already on that trophy’. The way they’ve got to the final, they have been lucky.

“You can’t say Liverpool have been lucky. They came back from 3-0 down against Barcelona, you can’t say that was a lucky performance. They steamrolled Barca that night, stopped Messi, they steamrolled them.

“I’m hoping it will be a Liverpool win but there is an element of doubt in my mind because of the luck Spurs have enjoyed getting to the final.”

And fans insist that he has no right to make such a statement and that his bias is shining through, while others believe that Pochettino’s team talk has been written for him.

Take a look at the best of the reaction on Twitter below!

Rangers fans have been fearing for a while what the summer may bring fr Afrddo Morelos. The fan base will be split on this one, as they attempt to weigh up the positive impact of the Colombian’s goals against the negatives of the points his discipline has cost them. Either way, he’s being linked away as Newcastle United are interested in the hitman.

The t150 mile trip from Glasgow down to Newcastle be one that Morelos finds himself making this summer, but it would be more than just a move Southwest, as it would take him from the Scottish Premier League to the English Premier League, the most watched league in the world where he could really make or break his career. Nothing yet, though is set in stone.

The links for this move have come from the often inaccurate Don Balon, however, as The Daily Record has reiterated that the Magpies want Morelos it has made the story more believable, and as we all know in football absolutely anything can happen, including this. It could be a switch, though, that relies on Newcastle being taken over by Sheikh Khaled, the UAE royal who wants to purchase the club.

Morelos would certainly be missed for his goals, but with five red cards this season, Steven Gerrard should be happy to offload him. If the fee being reported is correct then it will see the Glasgow club become £20 million richer, and with the kind of money it wouldn’t take long for Stevie G and the Gers to get over the Colombian’s exit and get to rebuilding, so they should certainly move him on if the rumours prove true.

Rangers fans, would you be happy to lose Morelos? Let us know by commenting below!

[ad_pod ]

Liverpool fans have urged their club to move for Sporting Lisbon attacker Bruno Fernandes in this summer’s transfer window.

Fernandes enjoyed a wonderful 2018-19 campaign for his Portuguese club – scoring 32 times and contributing 18 assists in 53 appearances in all competitions.

Manchester United have been strongly linked with the Portugal international as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side prepare to spend big this summer.

However, Liverpool seemingly stand a chance of signing the 24-year-old due to his admiration for Jurgen Klopp.

Indeed, Sport Witness have carried quotes from RTP (relayed in the printed version of Record) where Fernandes has paid tribute to Klopp’s work at Anfield.

There is currently no indication of whether the Reds are interested in bringing the attacker to Merseyside in this summer’s transfer window.

How much money could you make busking for a week as a freestyle footballer? Find out in the video below…

However, after a Liverpool fan account asked supporters which player should be the club’s first signing this summer, Fernandes emerged as a recurring theme…

A selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:

[ad_pod ]

Leeds United fans on Twitter want their club to sign both Helder Costa and Ivan Cavaleiro after it was announced that Wolves are willing to let the Portuguese pair leave Molineux this summer.

The Yorkshire club have already been linked with Costa during this window, but after this latest development, the fanbase are hoping to see his teammate join as well.

The pair were incredible in the Championship at Wolves, but both men have struggled to make the step up to the Premier League.

The Whites may struggle to bring in both wingers. It has been reported that Wolves are willing to let one go out on loan, but they want to cash in on the other player. Leeds have been linked with Costa on loan, so they would have to fork out a fee for Cavaleiro if they did end up getting the former on a temporary basis.

Marcelo Bielsa has reportedly made strengthening the wings his priority this summer and a double swoop for the tricky Wolves men would go a long way towards helping that.

Here’s what the Elland Road faithful have been saying on Twitter…

Whilst Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang comfortably lead the attacking line for Arsenal, it’s easy to forget that the Gunners have another striker amongst their ranks.

Eddie Nketiah is a player that introduced himself to the world in Arsene Wenger’s final season as Arsenal boss as the teenager scored a brace in the League Cup to bring the Gunners from behind to beat Norwich, but things have slowed down since that October night.

The striker has only goal against Burnley on the final day of the previous campaign, and with Lacazette and Aubameyang being two of Arsenal’s most important players given how many goals the duo score, Nketiah could be set for another season on the bench.

Unless, of course, he is sent out on loan for the 2019/20 season, and according to football.london, this is something Arsenal are thinking about as the likes of Bristol City, Charlton and Augsburg are all said to be interested in Nketiah, and we believe that the north London club sending the 19-year-old out for the year is exactly what the striker needs.

Nketiah has been quite incredible in Arsenal’s U-23 side over the past three seasons, won the Premier League 2 in 2018, and with such a prolific record, the England U-19 striker is more than ready for the step-up into professional football.

Of course, Unai Emery might have his reservations of sending out the attacker on loan given the fact he is Arsenal’s third-choice striker and that something could happen to Lacazette or Aubameyang next season, but putting caution over development is something the club can’t afford to do with a talent like Nketiah, who at this stage of his career needs to be playing first-team football.

Arsenal were in this position last season when Nketiah, as reported by the Sun, was set to go out on loan to Augsburg in the January transfer window, but due to deals for Ivan Perisic and Yannick Carrasco failing to materialise, the teenager remained at the club and missed out on potentially playing four months of first-team football, and this summer the Gunners can’t be making the same mistake twice.

Arsenal fans, does Nketiah need a loan move next season? Let us know!

t’s safe to say that Arsenal are in need of a new centre-back this summer, or two.

After a season where the Gunners made it three years in a row without Champions League qualification, it’s now clear that something major needs to be done at the club this summer if the north London side are to return to Europe’s elite competition, and one area of the squad that needs overhauling majorly is the defence.

With the second highest amount of goals conceded out of any side in the top-six and some truly woeful defensive performances from the defence as a collective as well as some horrific individual errors, it’s no surprise the fans and Unai Emery are keen to see changes to the backline this summer, and that looks to be what the course of action will be,

According to journalist Duncan Castle via the Daily Star, the Gunners are interested in Manchester United defender Eric Bailly, who only made 12 Premier League appearances for the Red Devils last season, and with Arsenal captain Laurent Koscielny being touted with a move away from the club this summer according to Foot Mercato via the Sun, we believe the Ivorian centre-back would be the ideal man to replace the veteran Frenchman.

For starters, Bailly being just 25-years-old makes him the perfect player to fit in Emery’s plan of lowering the overall age of the Arsenal squad dramatically as the Gunners current average sits at 26 years and 5 months per talkSPORT, the seventh highest in the Premier League, and essentially swapping Koscielny for the United defender will more than reduce that number.

As well as age reduction, Bailly has shown over the past three seasons that he is more than capable of playing in the Premier League. Comparing his stats from his last full season in the Premier League, 2016/17, with Victor Lindelof and Chris Smalling’s numbers this year and it is clear that the Ivorian, when given first-team football, can excel.

Looking at WhoScored, the former Villarreal man averaged more tackles, interceptions and clearances per 90 than both Lindelof and Smalling, as well as winning more fouls and completing more dribbles

Not many Arsenal fans like the idea of Koscielny leaving the club, but if a player like Bailly is available this summer, it could be a sacrifice worth taking for the long-term benefit of the Gunners.

Arsenal fans, would Bailly be a good replacement for Koscielny this summer? Let us know!

[ad_pod ]

According to The Guardian’s Dominic Fifield, Crystal Palace are hoping to remove, or at least reduce, a sell-on clause inserted into Wilfried Zaha’s contract when he joined from Manchester United in 2015, should Aaron Wan-Bissaka end up moving to Old Trafford this summer.

The Guardian reported that the two clubs were due to meet again on Monday in order to try and thrash out a deal following an improved bid from the Red Devils over the weekend for the 21-year-old, with the Eagles looking for a guaranteed £50m for their academy graduate.

While he is clearly a player with huge potential, to get that money for an individual who has only made 46 appearances for the south London outfit would be too good to turn down.

If Palace sell Wan Bissaka and Zaha, will they be in another relegation battle? One fan gives his opinion in the video below…

The Guardian adds that cancelling the Zaha clause could be worth as much as £15m to Palace should the Ivory Coast international leave – something that has clearly worried some of the Selhurst Park faithful given their Twitter comments.

However, not everyone as looked at it in a negative way, with one believing that getting rid of the clause “would actually be really big for us”.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

[ad_pod ]

“More chance of Arsenal signing (Cristiano) Ronaldo from Juventus in a swap deal from (Aaron) Ramsey”. So went one tweet after reports emerged in January claiming that Tottenham Hotspur were interested in signing Tanguy Ndombele from Lyon this summer.

Now, after reports emerged that Spurs have agreed a £55m deal to sign the France international, that tweet looks all the sillier.

But it is a symptom of a diseased cycle that follows every single transfer story that emerges from any outlet across the globe.

Indeed, whenever a player is linked – particularly one with a big reputation, like Ndombele – fans rush to their keyboards to share their hottest takes. Some will base their take on statistics, others just a gut reaction, maybe some have actually seen him play. Really, though, it doesn’t matter. Twitter is about tweets sent in an instant and then forgotten about.

In November, one fan claimed that Ndombele was “not good enough”. There was no basis to this claim, just the claim. The supporter has a Twitter account and all must hear him.

With the transfer window open, the tweets have grown tiresome at best and genuinely nausea-inducing at worst.

Click on any official Spurs tweet. Seriously, just pick one. It can be about a new sponsorship, whatever. Click it. One of the replies will be “ANNOUNCE NDOMBELE”. It will be capitalised. There may be a hashtag.

It is poison.

And it ensures that there is precious little desire to actually seek out the real news, the real truth, behind the deal. Now, there are genuinely excellent journalists out there – Football.London’s Alasdair Gold covers Spurs with distinction, as does Dan Kilpatrick at the London Evening Standard – who are doing their best to keep fans clued up on the comings and goings at Hotspur Way.

They did not get into this profession to be meme’d at on Twitter, or to have hashtags thrown at them. Think of Neil Jones, the superb Liverpool reporter formerly at the Liverpool Echo. He posted on Twitter that he had been the victim of a house fire. A Liverpool fan replied asking what he thought of the latest quotes from striker Luis Suarez.

This is what Twitter has become. As a Tottenham fan, it is disheartening to see so many so-called supporters simply desperate for the latest morsel of information.

Sure, transfers are exciting, and for Spurs, we’ve waited a fair old while for a new player to come through the doors. Lucas Moura, in 2018, was the last.

But the entitlement is staggering. The demands placed on the club and on journalists are ridiculous.

Perhaps it is generational. Well, it has to be, because Twitter wasn’t about when Spurs were a mid-table side in the 1990s – imagine the Jurgen Klinsmann saga unfolding on social media – but maybe it stems from those kids who have grown up playing FIFA and Football Manager and view transfers as the simplest thing in the world.

Watch Tottenham Hotspur Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

This isn’t a case of typing in “Ndombele”, putting a bid together on your laptop, submitting it, hitting the space bar and receiving an answer; the sooner that the majority of the “Announce Ndombele” crowd realise that the better because, as it is, Twitter is a nightmare platform to delve into during the transfer window.

Why search any player’s name when all you’re going to get is a bunch of keyboard warriors attempting to convince the club – by the club, it’s obvious that we mean an admin guy who is sat at his laptop scheduling tweets – to buy this player instead of that player?

And if Ndombele does come through the door, as looks likely, then it will simply move on.

Spurs have been linked with Jack Clarke, Ryan Sessegnon and Giovani Lo Celso too. If the club do eventually announce the signing of the coveted Frenchman, don’t be surprised to see an “announce Lo Celso” tweet.

That is what Twitter is.

But with it being the primary news source for so many fans, one has to wonder if the pollution of the website has genuinely ruined Spurs’ transfer window.

Certainly, it has ensured that every single deal becomes a saga, and it has also proved that most fans will never be happy with what they have.

[ad_pod ]

This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more… 

Jack Clarke’s move to Tottenham has finally happened, but the deal has also seen him return to his former club on loan.

The 18-year-old will be spending another season at Elland Road, but after starting just four games last term will he get more opportunities under Marcelo Bielsa?

Winger options

With the arrivals of Jack Harrison and Helder Costa, Leeds’ wide areas are now somewhat oversaturated. Realistically, the Whites have four senior players who could be ahead of Clarke in the pecking order in Costa, Harrison, Ezgjan Alioski and Pablo Hernandez.

All four of these players have more experience than Clarke and other than Costa they contributed to more goals than the 18-year-old last season.

Will he start?

There may simply be too much depth in these positions for the Spurs loanee to be seen as a starter.

Harrison was Bielsa’s preferred option last term as he made 39 appearances, and there is an argument to be made that Alioksi is even better than the Man City man.

On the right-wing, you have last season’s Player of the Year, and a man who has put up some extraordinary numbers when playing in the Championship.

For these reasons, it’s hard to see the teenager playing any role other than the one he played last season where he was a bit-part player.

Being signed by the Champions League runners-up shows that Clarke is a highly-rated player with a bright future, but it’s tough to see Bielsa trusting him with a regular starting role due to his lack of experience.

Fortunately for the youngster, he is a fantastic option from the bench having made 20 substitute appearances last season, and Bielsa won’t hesitate to use him in that way once again for the upcoming campaign.

[ad_pod ]

Tottenham Hotspur are in the hunt to sign Leeds United star Kalvin Phillips, according to The Mirror.

The paper say that Spurs are interested alongside Aston Villa and Newcastle, although the Elland Road outfit value the player at as much as £30m.

Phillips was a massive part of the Leeds side that came close to promotion from the English Championship last term, making 46 appearances for the club.

Before Tanguy Ndombele, Spurs fans haven’t been able to vlog about a transfer since January 2018! Judging by the video below, it’s been worth the wait…

However, entirely untested at a level above the English second-tier, the reported asking price is a little steep even in today’s inflated market.

The central midfield area may not be a massive priority for Spurs either, as some have fans pointed out, especially after the impressive capture of Tanguy Ndombele.

If Spurs are to progress from their current standing and push towards winning the Premier League, they’ll likely need a higher calibre of signing than Phillips, even if he is young and has potential at 23 years of age.

Watch Tottenham Hotspur Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

Fans aren’t very keen on seeing him arrive at the club, with many taking to Twitter over the last 48 hours to share their thoughts…