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According to reports, rumoured Aston Villa transfer target Matias Vecino could be available for around £6m in the summer.

What’s the story?

Reports just before the January transfer window opened suggested that the Uruguay international was a target for Dean Smith’s side as they looked to strengthen their midfield.

Now, Italian publication CalcioMercato claim that Vecino has been made available for a transfer in the summer, and that with his contract coming to an end in 2022, could be allowed to leave for a little as £6m.

The report adds that Inter are keen to offload him now, rather than lose him for free when his contract expires next year.

Perfect for Dean Smith

In the 29-year-old, Villa would be signing a deep-lying playmaker blessed with a “terrific range of passing” should a deal for the Uruguayan go through.

The £75k-a-week earning Vecino looks to be a tailor-made midfielder for Smith given his ability to control the game and also step in and make a tackle – as per Whoscored, the veteran’s career average of two tackles per game is considerably better than any of Villa’s current midfield options from this season in the Premier League, while only Ross Barkley can post better numbers than his 1.5 shots per match.

A profile from ESPN said: “Part of Vecino’s charm is the fact that he tends to bring a little bit of everything to the table — something modern midfielders are increasingly asked to do. He can pass well, he can tackle, and is both physical and graceful: the former Empoli man has, in short, the toolkit needed to shine not just in Italy, but (hopefully) also among Europe’s elite.”

While Villa have been linked with a potential big-money swoop for Sheffield United’s Sander Berge, Vecino’s experience and far cheaper price surely makes him the kind of impressive bargain that Johan Lange should be all over.

Meanwhile, Villa could find a new Gareth Barry in this man…

Manchester City have been linked with a move for Southampton striker Danny Ings recently but the Citizens would be better off avoiding the 28-year-old and focusing their efforts on Borussia Dortmund sensation Erling Haaland.

According to Sky Sports, City are eyeing the former Liverpool man as a more ‘attainable’ option than the Norway international, and see Ings as a potential replacement for Sergio Aguero, who is looking increasingly likely to depart in the summer when his contract at the Etihad is set to expire.

Ings enjoyed a superb season with Southampton in the 2019/20 campaign, hitting 22 top-flight goals and finishing as the joint-second top scorer in the division but he has been unable to match those figures in a struggling Southampton side so far this season.

Although his season has been impacted by a number of short-term injury problems, the England international has just eight top-flight goals for Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side, although the breakdown in his contract talks may well be impacting his form.

His contract at St Mary’s is set to expire at the end of next season, which potentially opens the door for Man City to bring him in on a cut-price deal ahead of next season, whilst Ings has also admitted that he would love to join a Champions League side.

However, his injury-hit spell on Liverpool, where he would manage just 25 appearances, should be a warning to City that a move for the 28-year-old could backfire if he spends more time on the sidelines than on the pitch.

Although Eddie Howe dubbed Ings an “outstanding player” last season, there seem to be few benefits, other than financial reasons, why City should target Ings ahead of Haaland this summer, as whilst the Southampton man is a proven Premier League goalscorer, he will turn 29 this summer, whereas the Dortmund star is just 20 and has the potential to be one of the best players of his generation.

Ings would also add to City’s English quota, but there seems very little to suggest that he would be an adequate replacement for Aguero, who will undoubtedly go down as a club legend at City due to his remarkable goal-scoring record.

The Argentinian has had plenty of his own injury issues, of course, but the club would be making a huge mistake if they were to axe him this summer in favour of Ings and if they do want to find a replacement for the former Atletico Madrid man, they should go all-out for a world-class forward.

And, in other news… No goals or assists in March: £63m-rated Man City ace let his standards drop this month

Keith Gillespie has exclusively told Football FanCast that he expects West Ham United loanee Jesse Lingard to leave Manchester United at the end of the season, with the Irons keen to sign him permanently.

Lingard’s Old Trafford contract doesn’t expire until next summer, but he hasn’t featured in the Premier League for the Red Devils since July having fallen out of favour under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and has flourished since moving to West Ham in January.

Having scored eight times and added four assists in just nine league appearances for the Hammers, Lingard was recalled to the England squad – featuring in all three of the recent World Cup qualifiers – and is in the form of his life.

Lingard’s only three outings for Manchester United this term came in the domestic cup competitions, and whilst reports have suggested he could make a sensational return to Old Trafford next term, Gillespie believes that it’s the end of the road for his United career.

He told Football FanCast:

“I’d probably say that he will leave the club. He had plenty of time there to do something and got plenty of opportunities, and he didn’t deliver.

“It’s fantastic how well he’s done at West Ham. He’s really gone in and helped the club, scored goals, assisted and looks like someone who really enjoys playing football again. It can’t be fun when you’re not even making the squads, which is what was happening at Manchester United.

“I think come the end of the season West Ham will be doing everything to secure him on a deal.”

Whilst West Ham might not necessarily be Lingard’s next club, it’s hard to imagine a situation where he becomes part of Solsjkaer’s plans once again, meaning an Old Trafford exit is more than likely.

Celtic have offered Kyle Joseph a long-term deal ahead of the expiry of his Wigan Athletic contract, according to Football Insider.

The report claimed that the Hoops have submitted a formal offer to the 19-year-old striker in a bid to stave off growing competition from the likes of Tottenham Hotspur, who are understood to be waiting on a character assessment before they step-up their interest.

The deal would apparently involve a £300,000 compensation payment to Wigan, who sit second from bottom in League One.

Who is Celtic target Kyle Joseph?

Joseph graduated from the Latics’ under-18s to the under-23s last season and this term he has made his first team breakthrough (via Transfermarkt). He has been handed 14 appearances in League One, 12 of which were starts, and scored five goals. Most notably, he netted a hat-trick in a 4-3 away win at Burton Albion just before the turn of the year.

According to WhoScored, Joseph’s predominant strengths lie in his dribbling and his finishing. However, he is currently out of action after injuring his back.

Transfer Tavern verdict

This could be another shrewd move from Celtic after they captured 19-year-old Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Liam Shaw on a pre-contract agreement in February (via Yorkshire Live) – a move with echoes of the potential deal for Joseph on a similar arrangement and at a similar age.

Deals like this enable the Hoops to build for the future with minimal expense, and it is always a good sign when there are high-profile competitors for a deal – once they can be seen off, of course.

If Spurs to make an offer of their own, it may come down to who can provide Joseph with the clearer and more exciting vision of his future.

In other news, this ex-Celtic player has taken aim at the club’s board.

Speaking exclusively to Football FanCast, former West Ham man Rob Lee outlined his concerns about the club’s reported pursuit of Hwang Hee-chan.

The Hammers have been in the market for a new striker ever since Sebastien Haller left for Ajax but with just days remaining in the window, they are yet to find a replacement.

One player linked with the club in recent days is RB Leipzig forward Hwang Hee-chan. Reputable Irons insider EXWHUEmployee revealed this week that he was someone on the club’s radar as they aim to end January with a bang.

Of course, David Moyes already has West Ham into the top four of the Premier League at the time of writing, so signing a striker could merely be the icing on the cake of what’s been a good month for the Hammers.

However, Lee labelled concerns about the possible move. He was quizzed about West Ham’s pursuit of Hwang this week and he didn’t appear to be a fan of the possible move. He told FFC:

“The problem for me is, if you’re going to be the main goal scorer for the team, I’d always go for someone who’s proven in the Premier League. I don’t care how well they’ve done in other leagues, how well are they going to do in the Premier League?”

Lee continued: “There’s pressure when you move to a new country and if he’s your main goal scorer and he’s not scoring goals, then you’re in trouble. So that’s why I would always go with somebody who’s proven and then if you’ve got a proven goalscorer up front – Danny Ings is a proven goalscorer you know, his contract’s up at Southampton – you know he can score, and then if you buy someone from abroad for a lot of money, the pressure’s not really on him to score loads of goals to start with, he can settle in.”

“We’ve seen it at Chelsea with Timo Werner – unbelievable goalscorer on the continent but can’t hit a barn door at the minute,” the pundit concluded. 

Indeed, it’s easy to see this one not working out for West Ham if they do push for a move. Hwang has scored 45 goals for Leipzig but only one of them was scored this term. With the player out of form, a move has the potential to be disastrous for the Hammers.

Fortunately, they may have had a lucky escape. Despite West Ham’s reported interest, Julian Nagelsmann admitted on Thursday afternoon that he wasn’t keen on letting the South Korean go unless they found replacements.

Nagelsmann shared that the 25-year-old had handed in a transfer request at the Bundesliga club but that he wanted to see more of him in training before making any decisions.

AND in other news, WHU could replicate Antonio move by swooping for “explosive” 17-goal ace…

With Neil Lennon finally walking away from his role as Celtic manager, it came as a surprise.

That shouldn’t really be a sentence when you consider how poor their campaign has been. Yet, with the Northern Irishman staunchly defending his position, it looked like he’d stay for as long as possible.

Dermot Desmond and Peter Lawwell now have a big challenge to find the next man for the job. A host of names have been linked in recent weeks from Roberto Martinez and John Terry to David Wagner and Mick McCarthy.

Yet, another name has been Frank Lampard. The 42-year-old was sacked as Chelsea boss earlier this year and is a free agent. With that in mind, it would be much easier to lure him to Glasgow than someone like Martinez or Terry.

Watching him compete against Steven Gerrard would be an enthralling battle at the top of the SPFL but there is another underlying narrative brewing at Celtic.

There are a host of issues plaguing the club right now, one of which lies within the usage of academy players. It was very rare under Lennon for the club to select their best youth prospects, and as a result, a number are potentially departing the club.

Cameron Harper could be on the verge of a move to New York Red Bulls while it looks incredibly unlikely that Karamoko Dembele will stay. He is out of contract in the summer and is yet to sign a new deal.

Reports (via The Sun) state he probably won’t put pen to paper either. Although the 18-year-old has rarely played for the senior team, he’s still undeniably their most exciting talent coming through.

With the arrival of Lampard, however, they could finally convince Dembele to stay in Glasgow. At the moment, he clearly doesn’t see a way of getting into the Celtic first-team and who can blame him?

[snack-amp-story url=”https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/check-out-the-latest-on-celtics-managerial-vacancy” title=”Check out the latest on Celtic’s managerial vacancy!”]

Though, the English boss’ arrival would only be good news for the young players at Parkhead; namely Dembele.

Lampard may have eventually failed at Stamford Bridge but if there was one thing to give him credit for, it was his usage of academy players. Chelsea have traditionally been a club that have opted for big money signings over blooding their stars of tomorrow.

Though, Lampard changed that. The likes of Fikayo Tomori and Mason Mount rose to prominence under the former midfielder at Derby before they got their chance at Chelsea the following campaign. Tammy Abraham and Reece James also became key parts of a side that fielded the fourth-youngest squad in the Premier League last term with an average age of just 24.3.

Lampard has shown himself to be a terrific mentor for young players and if anyone can finally help Dembele make a long-lasting first-team breakthrough at Celtic, it would be him.

AND in other news, Christie could be in trouble if Celtic hire 57 y/o coach “reminiscent to Craig Brown”…

Gary Mabbutt has told Football FanCast that Harry Kane has gone from being doubted at youth level to becoming one of the best strikers in world football.

The Tottenham Hotspur striker has been in absolutely electric form this season, with Spurs attempting to claw their way back into the Champions League qualification race and also attempting to break a trophy drought that stretches back to 2008.

Kane has been central to everything Spurs have done well, scoring 26 goals in all competitions and also laying on 16 assists. That’s 42 goal involvements in 37 games.

The 27-year-old turned in another virtuoso display against Crystal Palace on Sunday as Spurs won 4-1.

Kane scored twice, including a brilliant curling strike from the edge of the box, and also laid on two assists as Spurs won their third successive top flight game, before he followed it up with another brace against Dinamo Zagreb.

Of course, Kane was doubted earlier in his career as he failed to make his way into the Spurs team and went on various loan spells, playing for the likes of Millwall, Norwich City, Leicester City and Leyton Orient.

He only scored 16 goals across those loan spells in 60 games, but he has been prolific since his breakthrough at Spurs, netting 212 times in 323 games.

Kane has never scored fewer than 15 goals in a single Premier League season and Mabbutt believes he has now earned his place as one of the single best strikers in world football.

He told FFC: “Harry himself is somebody that, at times, in his younger days there were questions being asked about would he make it from development level to first team level. Now he’s up there with the best strikers in the world.

“Obviously he’s a goalscorer, he creates goals, causes havoc in defences. I’ve seen him a lot over the years in training and I’ve been fortunate to play with some of the best strikers in era and Harry’s certainly up there amongst them.”

Mabbutt is particularly impressed with the way Kane scores his goals, insisting that he has a particular technique that flummoxes both goalkeepers and defenders.

He added: “His finishing is phenomenal. Harry has this unbelievable skill of being able to basically have a very short backlift before getting a shot in and that catches out goalkeepers, defenders and everyone around him.

“He’s one of the best strikers in the world.”

Steven Gerrard’s side have been hit by a huge injury blow ahead of Glasgow Rangers’ Scottish Premiership clash with Aberdeen on Sunday afternoon.

Rangers midfielder Scott Arfield still has yet to make a first-team appearance for the 54-time Scottish champions in 2021 since he suffered an injury against Hibernian on Boxing Day.

And their initial fears have been confirmed for the worse after Gerrard revealed Arfield will now miss Sunday’s game at Aberdeen as he faces up to five weeks out.

“It’s an injury you can’t really push,” Gerrard said.

“Scott’s about to come out of a boot that he’s been in since the injury. He’s progressing well but in the short term, Scott will be missing.

“He’s got quite a significant injury. We are probably looking at four to five weeks.”

Rangers will also be without striker Kemar Roofe at the weekend after he was forced off at half-time in the Old Firm victory over Celtic.

And Gerrard confirmed that Ryan Jack won’t be available for the Premiership encounter on Sunday either. While he’s making progress, the club are unwilling to take any risks, as he has yet to feature for the Gers since the 4-0 thrashing of his former club Aberdeen at Ibrox in November.

The ever-reliable Arfield has barely missed a beat ever since the Englishman first took charge of the Govan-based Glaswegian giants, making more appearances across all competitions than any other outfield player, with only Allan McGregor, Connor Goldson and James Tavernier earning more minutes.

Rangers manager Gerrard lavished praise on the 32-year-old after he scored a dramatic winner against Standard Liege in the Europa League. He told BT Sport, as quoted by The Scottish Sun: “If you play like Scott Arfield and perform like he does on a daily basis and put in what Scott puts in, you’ll stay in the team.

“Of course, we’re going to have to look after him at certain times. But Scott’s in on merit – don’t let anyone tell you anything different.”

The former Canada international has provided seven goals and five assists in 31 games, via Transfermarkt.

Whilst his form had somewhat tailed off in recent weeks prior to the injury, there’s no doubt the absence of Arfield will be a big blow for Gerrard ahead of the trip to Pittodrie to take on the Dons, and for the remaining few weeks that he will now miss.

AND in other news, Exclusive: Steve Howey urges Glasgow Rangers captain James Tavernier to stay at Ibrox…

When Liverpool released goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi on a free transfer in the summer of 2013, few would have predicted how his career would’ve turned out.

The Hungarian joined Austrian side RB Salzburg, where he spent two years, in which he made 100 appearances before making the predictable move to RB Leipzig in 2015 (per Transfermarkt).

This was already impressive for a man who’s time at Liverpool was dominated by loan spells to the likes of Hereford United, Tranmere Rovers and Hull City but in his five years at Leipzig, he has established himself as one of the best in the business.

The 30-year-old, who is valued at £9.9 million, has made 189 appearances for Die Roten Bullen ahead of this weekend’s fixtures, in which he has conceded 221 goals and kept 57 clean sheets (per Transfermarkt).

Gulacsi has also made 36 caps for his country and showed his class in the Bundesliga last season, as Julian Nagelsmann’s side conceded just 34 goals in 32 games while he was in net, with him also keeping 10 clean sheets (per Transfermarkt).

The former Liverpool man, who earns €30,000 (£27,000) a week at Leipzig, also helped the Bundesliga side reach the semi-finals of the Champions League, where they were eventually defeated 3-0 by PSG, so he now has experience at the very highest level.

Considering Liverpool’s goalkeeping struggles in recent years, with Loris Karius’ Reds career ended in one fell swoop after a disastrous performance in the Champions League final defeat against Real Madrid, whilst Adrian has earned a lot of critics since joining as a back-up to Alisson, it could be argued that the Merseyside club would have been better served by putting their faith in Gulacsi when he was younger.

Back in 2009, Rafael Benitez was full of praise for the shot-stopper, calling him “fantastic” and suggesting that he was very happy with his development (per HITC) but eventually the club decided that he wasn’t worth keeping in 2013, in a decision which they must surely now regret.

Liverpool finished their Champions League Group Stages campaign with a 1-1 draw against FC Midtjylland on Wednesday night, with Jurgen Klopp putting his faith in a number of Reds’ youngsters for the game in Denmark.

Rhys Williams was making his fourth start in the competition for the Reds, having started in both games against Atalanta and Midtjylland so far this season, and once again put in an assured display at centre-back.

Whilst Klopp’s side came under a lot of pressure from the hosts after Fabinho was replaced at half-time, the 19-year-old defender was rarely bested by the Danish side’s physical front line.

As per SofaScore, the academy graduate made 10 clearances during the game, as well as one interception and two tackles, whilst he was dribbled past on just one occasion.

He also won 11 of his 13 duels on Wednesday, which is impressive when you consider the height of Midtjylland’s strikers, and the number of long balls the home side pumped forward in the second half, as they looked to steal all three points.

Williams was also assured with his passing in Denmark, as 46/55 of his passes found a Liverpool shirt, resulting in a pass accuracy rate of 84%, whilst he lost possession on just nine occasions.

He was also impressive with his long passing, with six out of seven of his long ball attempts finding a Liverpool player, which emphasises his quality on the ball.

Earlier in the season, Klopp was full of praise for Williams after his performance in the 5-0 win against Atalanta, saying:

“Exceptional. I cannot imagine being 19 and playing in the CL against Zapata, it’s incredible! “I couldn’t be more happy for Rhys. You should see him in the dressing room, you’d need something special to get the smile off his face!”

There is an immense amount of pressure on the youngster’s shoulders this season, following the injuries to Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez, but he once again showed his quality in Denmark in what was a tricky tie for the Merseyside club, and it seems as if he has a bright future with the Reds.