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All players will receive a free pack containing the jerseys of some of the biggest esports clubs in the world

How. Cool. Is. This?!

Not only are esports players getting the chance to play video games profesionally, some of them will now see their kits feature in FIFA 19!

That's right, EA Sports have announced that jerseys from 13 of the biggest esports clubs in the world will appear in Ultimate Team.

Every FUT player will receive a free pack containing the special edition kits from 7pm UK on Thursday, November 1.

And Goal has put all of the kits in one place so you can plan which strip you're going to use before they're released!

Full list of kits:  Vitality, Team Liquid, Team Envy, SK Gaming, Scarz, Rogue, Newbee, NA’VI, MKERS, Millenium, Mad Lions, Hashtag United, FUTWIZ.

• EA Sports
  

  1SCARZ

  Scarz are an esports team from Japan.

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• EA Sports
  

  2VITALITY

  Vitality are an esports team from France.

• EA Sports
  

  3TEAM LIQUID

  Team Liquid are an esports team from Netherlands.

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  4TEAM ENVY

  Team Envy are an esports team from the United States.

Newcastle United have received a big transfer boost as a journalist has dropped a definitive four-word update on the future of Jacob Murphy.

The Lowdown: Murphy has not signed contract yet

Murphy is still stalling on a new contract at the St. James’ Park faithful, although reports broke out in April that the Tyneside club are planning to hold talks with him, amid interest from Rangers, Southampton and Watford for his signature.

That said, while a new deal has not been signed, other clubs will feel that they can lure him away from the North East in the summer transfer window given that his current deal expires next season.

The Latest: Norwich journalist rules out Murphy move

While Norwich City have not been explicitly linked with a move for their former man recently, their sporting director, Stuart Webber, did say it ‘pains’ him how under-utilised Murphy has been on Tyneside, per Chronicle Live.

Now, Canaries journalist Paddy Davitt, in replying to a fan in a Q&A session with the Eastern Daily Press, seems to have ruled out any potential return to Carrow Road by claiming that ‘that ship has sailed’.

Nonetheless, this will come as a welcome boost to Steve Bruce and the Magpies, considering the plans to talk to Murphy over a new contract.

The Verdict: Newcastle must keep Murphy

The Toon must try and keep hold of Murphy at all costs, even if that means giving him a much bigger wage.

The 26-year-old has played the full 90 minutes in each of the last four games in the Premier League so far in the 2020/21 term, and so is clearly an important part of the team at this minute in time.

His added versatility to be able to play both as a wing-back and a winger is also very handy to have in the squad as it allows Bruce or any other manager on Tyneside to switch between a back three, four and five, and so letting him go would not seem like a wise idea in that regard.

In other news, find out who has been lined up as a potential Bruce successor here!

Goal takes a look at the brightest prospects coming through the ranks of the Premier League leaders

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  Phil Foden

  The brightest prospect in the City academy and already a member of Pep Guardiola’s senior squad at just 17. Blessed with excellent technique, skills and an eye for a pass, he already has three senior appearances under his belt. Guardiola recently praised his willingness to attack – even as his older team-mates shirked responsibility. Was named the best player at the U17 World Cup after scoring twice in the final against Spain to help England win their first title at that age-group. Has three senior City starts to his name.

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  Brahim Diaz

  Only slightly behind Foden in the pecking order and another first-team squad member at 18 years old. Brahim is another No.10 but has been deployed out wide by Guardiola this season. Very quick off the mark, a good dribbler, and has improved almost with every outing this season, usually off the bench. Signed from Malaga despite Barcelona’s attempts to lure him, Guardiola showed the youngster around the Catalan club’s historic Camp Nou stadium while he was their coach.

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  Lukas Nmecha

  Close to the first-team picture, especially as City contended with injuries in January, Nmecha is unlikely to get a permanent promotion just yet. A tall, powerful striker who joined the club as a nine-year-old, he scored the winning penalty for City’s first team in the Carabao Cup shoot-out against Leicester City in December. His younger brother, Felix, is also on the books and both played together, and scored shoot-out penalties, in the recent UEFA Youth League quarter-final victory against Liverpool.

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• Manchester City
  

  Nabil Touaizi

  Signed from Valencia for €300,000 compensation at the start of 2017, Touaizi is rated as one of the hottest prospects in the City academy. The 17-year-old forward scored more than 70 goals in two years at Valencia and although all City youth teams play against older age-groups, Blues coaches had no qualms about involving the then 16-year-old in last season's U19 UEFA Youth League campaign. Eligible to play for Spain and Morocco, Touaizi is both tall and fast, able to hold the ball up as a target man.

Carlo Ancelotti must ruthlessly axe Alex Iwobi when Everton travel to Arsenal on Friday night, having been his side’s worst-performing player against Tottenham Hotspur last time out.

Iwobi has struggled to establish himself as a key part of Ancelotti’s plans over recent months but was given the nod to start for the visit of Jose Mourinho’s Spurs, in what proved to be the Portuguese’s final game in charge.

A brace from Harry Kane either side of strikes from Gylfi Sigurdsson ensured the points were shared, but the axe fell on Mourinho’s tenure after 17 months despite guiding the north Londoners to this Sunday’s Carabao Cup final.

Iwobi has been given frequent chances to inspire a turnaround of his form with starting roles in four of the Toffees’ last five Premier League games, yet he has not scored since January 12 or provided an assist since December 16th.

His goal against Wolverhampton Wanderers to help to a 2-1 victory at Molineux remains the Nigerian winger’s only strike of the top-flight campaign, while being without an assist in 15 appearances after ending an eight-game drought with his second of the term at Leicester City.

Ancelotti must now call time on Iwobi’s run in the starting line-up with the Italian set to welcome 14-goal top-scorer Dominic Calvert-Lewin back from an abductor injury, after seeing Iwobi flounder against Tottenham as the worst of Everton’s starting options.

The Liverpool Echo graded Iwobi with their joint-lowest match rating at just four out of 10, having carelessly turned over possession throughout the first half, including in the build-up to Spurs’ opening goal, while The Guardian described his performance as ‘anonymous’.

[snack-amp-story url= “https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/latest-everton-news%2c-views-and-gossip” title=”Latest Everton news, views and gossip!”]

Iwobi was even given the worst match rating of any player for either side by SofaScore at 6.1 out of 10, while WhoScored graded the Toffees’ £50,000-per-week winger at six out of 10 – only Tanguy Ndombele (5.9) was given a lower score for an outfield player.

The Blues’ £34m former Arsenal dynamo earned such woeful grades having missed the target with his only shot of the night, created no goalscoring chances, made fewer accurate passes (18) than goalkeeper Jordan Pickford (21) and lost a whopping 87% of his duels.

Iwobi contested eight challenges at home to Tottenham last Friday but emerged victorious in just one of seven battles on the ground and lost his only aerial contest. He also failed to beat a visiting player with either of his two attempted dribbles.

It was a performance miles from his normal standards, having averaged a modest 51% duel success over his 27 Premier League appearances (16 starts) this season, with success in 2.9 ground challenges (53%) and 0.1 aerial (27%), while making 1.6 successful dribbles (64%).

Altogether, Iwobi’s shocking efforts before being hauled off in the 61st minute meant he earned his lowest SofaScore match rating in 46 appearances across all competitions for Everton – dating back to a 5.3 out of 10 achieved during a 3-1 win over Chelsea at Goodison Park in December 2019.

Ancelotti cannot reward Iwobi for a performance that off the pace by starting him away to his former side on Friday night, and the return of top-scorer Calvert-Lewin will ensure the Italian has an option to slot straight into his starting line-up.

AND in other news, Everton have been told to pay £34.5m for a 23-year-old that Carlo Ancelotti would welcome at Goodison Park…

As the Champions League group stages kick off, Goal takes a look at how the participants have fared in their last five fixtures

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  32Roma | 1 win, 2 draws, 2 defeats

  Roma's start to the season has been far from straight forward. Despite an opening-day victory against Torino, the capital club have failed to pick up a victory in their other three Serie A fixtures, losing 2-1 against AC Milan in their previous away game. Roma also went down to Serie B side Benevento in a friendly game during the recent international break.

  A trip to Real Madrid to start their Champions League campaign will be an enormous challenge, though their exploits against Barcelona in the competition last season may give them hope.

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  31Monaco | 1 win, 2 draws, 2 defeats

  Monaco find themselves just a point outside the bottom two in the Ligue 1 table after five games and without a win in their last four.

  Radamel Falcao and Co. have been grouped with Borussia Dortmund, Club Brugge and Atletico Madrid, who visit on Tuesday, and face a tough task to turn their fortunes around in the next game.

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  30Inter | 1 win, 2 draws, 2 defeats

  Tipped as Juventus' main contenders in Serie A, Inter have struggled to live up to expectations thus far in Italy after a busy summer of transfers.

  Defeats to Torino and Parma have left them in the lower reaches of the table, and with Barcelona, Tottenham and PSV to come in the Champions League, Luciano Spalletti needs to find a winning formula quickly.

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  29Valencia | 1 win, 3 draws, 1 defeat

  Valencia's only victory this season came in a friendly against second-division CD Alcoyano, highlighting the club's struggles so far this season.

  Though they finished fourth last season, Valencia have managed three draws and a defeat in their opening four Liga outings, with a 1-1 draw at home to Atletico Madrid a rather unremarkable standout result.

  Cristiano Ronaldo's return to Spain is the stuff of nightmares for the Liga outfit, with the Juventus forward finally opening his account for his new club at the weekend.

Barry Ferguson has suggested that Glasgow Rangers winger Ryan Kent is worth at least £20m in today’s market.

Ferguson discusses Kent

Kent was in terrific form for the Gers against Celtic in the Scottish Cup fourth round on Sunday, forcing an own goal from Jonjoe Kenny as the Gers won 2-0. His performances this season have attracted interest from Leeds, who are said to be ready to offer £15m for the 24-year-old (The Scottish Sun).

Writing for the Daily Record, Ferguson believes that Kent is worth £20m at least. He said:

“How much could we be talking for the Englishman? No less than £20million for a player who has time on his side.”

Massive increase on market value

Kent is currently valued at £7.2m by Transfermarkt – £20m would therefore represent a 192% increase on that figure, which is a considerable amount. With 11 goals and 13 assists in all competitions, this has been the former Liverpool man’s most productive season as a professional footballer.

The reported interest from Leeds could well be matched by a number of other clubs during the summer transfer window. As Ferguson says, Kent has plenty of years ahead of him and has already shown bags of promise.

As per WhoScored, he has been the Gers’ second-best performer this season, while only James Tavernier has a higher tally of goal contributions in the Premieship among Steven Gerrard’s squad.

The likelihood is that he will end up in the English Premier League at some point in the future. Whenever he departs Ibrox, Ross Wilson and co must make sure that they get the right price for him.

In other news, many Rangers fans lauded this man’s performance against Celtic.

Leicester could be set to strengthen their forward-line ahead of a potential UEFA Champions League campaign with the signing of Espanyol’s Raul de Tomas.

According to Reports in Spain, the Foxes are eyeing the Spaniard alongside fellow Premier League clubs Leeds United and West Ham United.

Brendan Rodgers and Jon Rudkin must make sure they secure his signature.

Whilst in the Segunda Division, de Tomas is enjoying a stellar campaign in front of goal having scored 16 goals in the league for Vicente Moreno’s troops.

This adds to his impressive record in the top-flight of Spanish football having netted a respectable 18 goals in 47 showings in La Liga throughout his career.

His form has certainly been noticed. Striker partner Jonathan Calleri has labelled the Spaniard as a “great footballer”.

De Tomas’ prolificacy then would add to Rodgers’ options considerably with Jamie Vardy edging towards 35 and Iheanacho, whilst in a rich vein of form, has not quite shown the consistency throughout his Foxes career to become a viable long-term successor to the veteran striker.

More options would, of course, be welcome with another European campaign potentially on the horizon too.

De Tomas has previously played on the European stage with Benfica so that experience could come in extremely handy.

Away from that, however, the former Real Madrid starlet would be an extremely affordable option as the Foxes aim to strengthen their forward line.

The 26-year-old is rated at just £9m so could certainly be a deal that the Foxes could complete with ease, a key aspect considering the impact that the pandemic has had upon the finances at the King Power Stadium.

Should the Foxes look to bring in another striker ahead of an upcoming UEFA Champions League campaign, De Tomas looks an excellent option.

AND in more news, take a look at which former flop had Leicester laughing all the way to the bank…

Some Everton fans have been reacting to an update on the contract situation of Thierry Small at the Goodison Park faithful.

As per the Liverpool Echo, talks between the Merseyside club and the left-back are ‘progressing’, after a previous report had claimed that he was reluctant to commit his long-term future at the Toffees, as he was not being given enough opportunities with Carlo Ancelotti’s squad, including just being able to train with them.

As such, a number of clubs, including Arsenal, Manchester United and Leeds United, have become interested in signing up the 16-year-old should he wish to leave the Blues.

However, the Echo have reported that discussions over a potential new deal are ‘continuing as planned’ and that he and his camp are ‘relaxed’ about the negotiations.

Everton fans on Small contract update

These EFC supporters reacted to the contract update on Twitter, with some calling for the young English talent to be sent out on loan in order to get more of a taste of men’s football:

“At least there’s progression. Get him a decent contract and get him out on loan for a couple of years to somewhere he’ll actually develop”

Credit: @TheDanMox

“Seems to be a lot of anticipation surrounding this kid, I hope he stays”

Credit: @Paul1971EFC

“Can’t lose this player. Would rather have 2 more seasons from Digne and then Small becomes a first teamer if he is still progressing.”

Credit: @cjmarston

“And then here is the reality… absolutely nothing to be worried about”

Credit: @NeilA1878

“I get the fact he wants first-team football. The same shower that are berating him are probably the ones that will rip him to shreds if he has a bad game, a la Tom Davies and Barkley”

Credit: @Paulm696

“He’s only 16 and he’s moaning about more first-team football? Send him out on loan”

Credit: @Riley87Js

In other news, find out what early team news before Crystal Palace has been lauded by Toffees here!

Robin Olsen reportedly wishes to no longer stay at Everton following the news of an armed robbery while at home with his family earlier this month.

As per Calciomercato, the Sweden international could return to AS Roma and stay at the Serie A club following the end of his loan spell at the Goodison Park faithful, not wanting to stay on Merseyside after what happened at his home.

Everton should keep Olsen

The Merseyside club should be looking to convince Olsen to stay on a permanent deal once his loan at the Toffees comes to an end.

The 31-year-old is vastly experienced and is more than capable of providing some decent competition to Jordan Pickford in between the posts in the future.

Some of his displays so far this season have been very impressive to say the least, with former Premier League striker, now pundit, Kevin Phillips even going as far as to claiming that he was ‘amazing’ in a game against Leeds United back in February.

Even though Joao Virginia has emerged from the shadows in recent times following injuries to both Pickford and Olsen, the latter should still be considered Carlo Ancelotti’s number two goalkeeper, and given Roma’s willingness to let him go out on loan, coupled up wit the fact that he is 31 years of age, Olsen may well be available at a decent price for the Toffees.

In other news, find out what injury update has been lauded by Blues here!

According to a report by The Mirror, Jose Mourinho is eyeing a move for Southampton colossus Jannik Vestergaard this summer as he makes the signing of a central defender a top priority – and it’s Tottenham’s belief they can land themselves a bargain as the 6 foot 6 powerhouse enters the final year of his contract. 

Jose eyeing Vestergaard

The Denmark international is reportedly a wanted man by Mourinho after a solid season, with Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl arguably missing him when he was reduced to the sidelines through injury.

As per The Mirror, Tottenham have been very impressed with everything Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg has brought to the club and could wish to swoop for another bargain addition from the south coast club.

It is reported that Mourinho personally believes Vestergaard could bring the desired surety in defence which Spurs have arguably lacked at times this season, and Tottenham view him as a possible bargain given his contract situation.

Transfer Tavern take

It’s hard not to see why the Lilywhites boss is a fan judging by recent plaudits, with Martin Keown likening Vestergaard to Virgil van Dijk in an exclusive interview with talkSPORT.

As well as this, former Tottenham boss Tim Sherwood hailed the 28-year-old as ‘outstanding’ for his Southampton contribution this season when speaking on Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday at the end of January (via HITC).

The giant Dane has won 3.6 headers per game this season, the most of any Saints player and more than anyone in Spurs’ squad.

Time will tell whether Mourinho manages to land Vestergaard in the summer, but he certainly seems interested and could be a decent addition

In other news: Tottenham have been sent a Harry Kane warning, find out more here.