According to The Sun, Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho wants to bring Watford attacker Richarlison to Old Trafford in this summer’s transfer window.
The 20-year-old, who is valued at £18m by transfermarkt.co.uk, has scored five times and registered five assists in 34 Premier League appearances for the Hornets during the 2017-18 campaign.
It is understood that Mourinho wants the Brazilian to boost his attacking options this summer, but the United fans are worried that it could spell the end of Anthony Martial’s time at the club.
Martial has been strongly linked with a move away from the 20-time English champions due to his lack of starts since Alexis Sanchez moved to United in January.
The Sun believe that a move for Richarlison would only occur if Martial was sold, and that has not gone down well with the United fans, who watched the France international put in an impressive performance against Bournemouth on Wednesday night.
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A selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:
Emphatic for England, tepid for Tottenham. That is the dilemma Andros Townsend, Roy Hodgson and Mauricio Pochettino now face.
A blistering 79th minute stunner against Italy this week, bearing stark resemblance to his equally aesthetic strike during England’s 4-1 win over Montenegro in October 2013, secured the result the Three Lions’ committed and calculated second-half display deserved – an almost inevitable 1-1 draw.
But it’s a rare high point amid 18 months of relative anonymity for the Spurs winger; his regularity at club level, particularly under Mauricio Pochettino, largely dependent on injury-stricken, superior-in-quality absentees.
Hodgson only had further superlatives to add regarding Townsend’s performance and a goal that made a draw feel almost like victory in an relatively competitive friendly – even claiming there ‘should always be a place for guys like him’ (in other words, match-winners) in England’s 20-odd man squads.
Indeed, Ross Barkley’s introduction after 55 minutes and Townsend’s a quarter of an hour later gave the Three Lions the impetus and verve they needed to truly test Italy’s water-tight three-man defence, both succeeding where Theo Walcott, Wayne Rooney and Harry Kane – amongst others – had failed in running, powerfully and directly, at the Azzurri backline.
That makes it three goals in seven England appearances for Townsend and not the first time he’s changed the game from the bench for his country.
Yet the prominent return and promising performances internationally are juxtaposed by just three goals in 41 Premier League appearances for Spurs during the last two seasons, one of which was a wayward cross that somehow sneaked over the head of Aston Villa’s Brad Guzan. The trigger-happy Towsend, whose 56 shots in 25 appearances last year produced only the aforementioned accidental goal, is one of those players who can almost score from anywhere. The problem, for Tottenham at least, is that he rarely does, leading to regular accusations of ineffective greed.
The only genuinely stellar moments in Townsend’s Premier League career came during the short-lived loan spell at QPR that catalysed his rise to the England squad and subsequent comparisons with Arjen Robben, courtesy of Harry Redknapp.
Since then, Townsend’s been a peripheral figure and a particularly criticised one at that. Few would have fluttered if Spurs sold the 23 year-old on last summer, and it will be a similar scenario at the end of the campaign.
How last night’s performance influences Mauricio Pochettino however, remains to be seen. Townsend’s found decent form in the Europa League this season and now on the international scene too which, in theory at least, should be an even tougher challenge than Premier League football. Just as form on the continent obliged the Argentine to give Harry Kane a chance at the start of the season, a similar case could now be made for his England team-mate.
Vice-versa, how long can Hodgson realistically stand by the Tottenham misfit, should he continue to endure fringe status at White Hart Lane? The England gaffer appeared determined to maintain his faith in Townsend long-term last night and generally make some selections irrespective of club form, but there will soon be a point when that view becomes unjustifiable.
It can’t be one rule for Townsend and another for those knocking on the Three Lions’ door. There can’t be a situation where the winger become’s football’s Ian Poulter – a lucky mascot of unspectacular ability that miraculously produces the goods on the international stage. Fortunately, at this moment in time, international-standard English widemen aren’t in copious supply.
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The logical solution would be for Townsend to move on this summer and join a club where he’ll be playing regularly. Spurs chairman Daniel Levy too, shouldn’t see too much of a problem in cashing in whilst the winger’s stock is uncharacteristically high.
But the young wideman has already been given ample opportunities to leave White Hart Lane – particularly to Southampton – only to decline. Should that continue to be the case, at some point, either Pochettino or Hodgson will have to buckle on their current estimations of England’s unlikely hero.
‘s Gabby Agbonlahor says he should not be judged by his goalscoring record this year as he regularly plays out of position.
The 26-year-old has scored eight times so far this campaign, including two in his last two games against relegation rivals Reading and QPR.
He has been overshadowed though by summer signing Christian Benteke, who has grabbed 17 goals since his £7million move from Genk.
Austria forward Andreas Wiemann has also bagged 11 goals playing in a more advanced position, with Agbonlahor forced out on to the wing.
The Birmingham-born forward insists he is happy to play anywhere for the team as they look to claw themselves away from the Premier League relegation zone in their remaining eight games.
However, he feels his selflessness is not being recognised and he continues to be judged on his scoring record despite not playing upfront for large parts of the season.
“People will see your goals (and judge you) but they don’t see the position you are playing and they don’t realise the job you’re doing for the team,” he told the Express and Star.
“It is a different season and it’s been different to what it was before with the whole team. You have different roles.
“Three or four years ago I was playing as a striker – then you get judged on your goals. The last few seasons I have been playing more and more as a winger.
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“For me I’m just happy to be in the side so wherever I get told to play I will do it.”
It’s been a juxtaposing debut season for Bernardo Silva at Manchester City. On the one hand, the Portuguese playmaker will be delighted to be part of a side that will win the Premier League title in a dominant fashion only a handful of teams have rivalled throughout the competition’s history.
On the other, he’ll feel his impact has paled to his significance in Monaco’s Ligue 1 title-winning side last season, when he was very much an integral component of the attack.
But Pep Guardiola has been smart with his utilisation of a 23-year-old transitioning to a league that he’s not naturally equipped for, at least in terms of speed and strength. He’s chosen the right games for Silva’s technical quality to shine, where he’s afforded the time and space to cut inside onto his favoured left foot rather than trying to beat defenders for pace.
Attempting to besiege Liverpool at home in hope of overturning a three-goal deficit, the second leg of the Champions League final at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday evening was certainly one of those. Indeed, in a match where City failed to come up with the ingenuity to match their energetic intensity, it was Silva who came closest to inspiring an iconic turnaround for a club still establishing their modern history on the European stage.
The obvious example was when Silva came inside and curled a beautiful effort onto the post, albeit helped by a fizzing deflection off Dejan Lovren’s head, but on a night where City’s attacking players struggled to make repeating impact it was the former Monaco star who created the most chances, took the second-most efforts at goal and completed the second-most dribbles of any of Guardiola’s players.
Establishing his place in the first team, at this point in the season, feels a somewhat futile exercise for Silva. But the importance of Tuesday’s performance lays in what it suggests about next season, when Manchester City will face a challenge that no Premier League side has conquered for nine years – retaining the Premier League title.
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Silva is showing that he can play a far more pivotal part in that, and the idea of him one day replacing namesake David in central midfield is becoming increasingly plausible too. The Spaniard spent early portions of his career out wide as well before being allowed to dictate traffic centrally, and the 23-cap attacker is proving himself a similar breed.
Manchester United’s chances of finishing in the Premier League top four took a major boost yesterday as the Old Trafford outfit put Tottenham to the sword 3-0.
Although the historic club have a number of tough fixtures against some of the division’s best teams coming up, starting with a trip to Anfield this weekend, Louis van Gaal’s side arguably put in their best performance of the season against Spurs.
The Dutch manager made a number of critical decisions regarding personnel in his starting XI that was so impressive yesterday, which will have a major bearing on the team that takes to the pitch to face Liverpool.
In light of his team selection, here are three decisions that Van Gaal got right…
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Juan Mata
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The Spanish midfielder has found the going tough of late and has been by no means an automatic starter for the Red Devils.
Mata was deployed on the right of Van Gaal’s 4-1-4-1 formation yesterday, which is an unusual role for the ex-Chelsea man – but one he embraced wholeheartedly.
The talented playmaker’s presence on the park gave United an extra cutting edge in the final third and this was certainly to the benefit of main striker Wayne Rooney.
Despite Marouane Fellaini being the majority of people’s man-of-the-match, Mata put in an imperious display to remind his manager just how good he is.
His technique, vision and ability to pick a killer pass make him a match-winner and a player that deserves more time on the pitch at Old Trafford.
Michael Carrick
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Experienced midfielder Carrick started in the designated holding role against his former club and again proved that he is one of the most under-rated players in English football.
United look like a much more slick and intelligent side with the former West Ham star in the boiler room, with the veteran dictating play and picking out his attacking team-mates with some sumptuous passing.
Unlike Tottenham, who struggled to deal with Fellaini’s presence between their midfield and defence, Carrick also nullified the presence of firstly Christian Eriksen, and then Moussa Dembele.
His presence also allowed the likes of Fellaini and Herrera to get forward.
It is clear that Carrick is a key component to United’s style of play, with an emphasis on getting the ball down and passing it due in part to his inclusion.
Daley Blind
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Blind was signed in the summer after star performances at the heart of Ajax’s midfield, but the Dutch star is quickly proving just how versatile he can be.
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With Luke Shaw and Marcos Rojo unavailable, the Netherlands international slotted into the United side at left-back and was one of the star performers.
Not for the first time this season, Blind played as a full-back or wing-back and offered defensive solidarity and an additional attacking threat with his delivery and range of passing in the opposition half.
Ashley Young could have played at left-back, as he has done at times this term, but utilising Blind in defence freed the ex-Aston Villa winger up to terrorise Spurs right-back Kyle Walker.
Although his best position is most likely in the boiler room, Blind showed that he has all the attributes to be a solid left-back and will certainly be in Van Gaal’s thoughts to retain the role ahead of the trip to Liverpool.
Wigan chairman Dave Whelan believes that Callum McManaman’s challenge on Newcastle’s Massadio Haidara on Sunday was a ‘fair’ one.
The young attacker appeared to catch his opponent with a clumsy tackle, for which he was not punished.
Haidara was stretchered from the pitch after the incident with suspected knee-ligament damage.
Latics boss Roberto Martinez said that McManaman’s actions were not malicious, whilst referee Mark Halsey had his view of the offence blocked.
But, Whelan feels that the youngster didn’t even commit a foul, insisting his player got the ball:
“I was watching the match and the referee was only 15 to 10 yards away, the ball came down between the two players, they both went for it. Our lad got the ball, no question he got the ball, but they collided – the still pictures look like he has gone for the player and gone over it, but he didn’t, he got the ball.” He told Sky Sports.
“The referee was only 10 yards away and didn’t even give the foul – it was a fair challenge.”
Whelan, who saw his footballing career ended by a reckless challenge during the 1960 FA Cup final, believes that such clashes are just an unfortunate part of the sport:
“I got the ball but we collided and I broke my leg – and these accidents do happen. It was an accident when we went for the ball and in football you are allowed to go for the ball.”
It’s unclear as to whether the FA will take a strong stance on the incident, but they could do so in order to reduce the risk of injury to players in the future.
Whelan is adamant that McManaman should not be charged, but says that he will not fight their decision:
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“It sends out the right message, the message is this; you play football and the ball bounces you are entitled to go and win it, kick it or get the ball as long as you go for the ball and it is not too high and this was only 14 inches off the ground – now that is playable,
“We will accept it as the FA look at things carefully, but they won’t stop the pictures like the press do.”
Upon a weekend in which a Chelsea win could, Manchester City excepted, re-congest the Premier League’s top five with just six points separating second and fifth, Liverpool face the daunting task of instigating the top fight action at Selhurst Park in Saturday’s 12.30pm kickoff.
The Reds are 13 places and 33 points better off than Crystal Palace in the table, but they know more than anybody the grave dangers of underestimating a visit to the antiquated South London ground.
Of course, what came to be dubbed ‘Crystambul’ is the obvious example; as Brendan Rodgers’ side looked to improve their title chances by further increasing their goal tally despite already going three goals up at Selhurst Park, the Eagles suddenly produced an incredible three-goal comeback – essentially closing the book on the 2013/14 Premier League title race with three strikes from the 79th minute onwards.
The campaign after, the Selhurst curse struck again; this time Palace going one step better to record a shock 3-1 win, the decisive goals scored in the final twelve minutes.
The prevailing narrative was one of those results typifying Liverpool’s intrinsic flaws under Rodgers; an almost dogmatic passing philosophy that created the kind of soft underbelly Palace had the perfect equilibrium of aggression, directness and sheer speed to regularly rip through on the counter-attack.
Yet, Liverpool are hardly the first major club to struggle in the hostile atmosphere at Selhurst Park, or fall victim to a traditional style of football that has become increasingly idiosyncratic in the modern game.
Just two weeks ago, Gary Neville revealed how he often feared going to Selhurst Park during his playing days – fittingly just before Manchester United went two goals down in an abysmal first half performance – and the uniqueness of Palace’s home has only become more evident then.
It remains one of the few historic grounds in the Premier League, where the fans can reach out and touch the pitch’s most peripheral blades of grass, and where a large section of uniformed, flag-waving, militant supporters acts as the terrace jukebox with bass amp included; leading the chants and bouncing with such relentlessness that the whole stadium is never quite inanimate.
In fact, since Palace returned to the Premier League in summer 2013, not a single member of the Premier League’s big six have produced a perfect record at Selhurst Park. That is to say, neither Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United or Tottenham have won on all of their visits there. And perhaps even more tellingly, five of those six have all lost there within the last four seasons – the only exception being the Red Devils.
That still constitutes just 21 points gained – six victories and three draws – from 29 games. But Palace have been defiant in defeat as well; a 3-0 defeat to Chelsea in 2014/15 is the only occasion since their top flight return that they’ve lost a home game to a member of the big six by more than two goals, while just six of their 20 losses have been by more than one goal.
Amid an era in which the gap between the top teams and the rest of the Premier League appears to be only growing wider, that’s an incredibly solid record – even this season, which will probably be remembered most for top six dominance, Roy Hodgson’s relegation-threatened side have beaten reigning champions Chelsea and held the impending champions, Pep Guardiola’s free-scoring, sensationally dominant Manchester City side, to a scoreless draw.
And thus, there are positives and negatives for Liverpool to take into Saturday’s game. The positive is that an obstacle initially prescribed as a Liverpool-specific problem is by no means exclusive to them; the negative though, is how widespread the Selhurst curse appears to be and how no top Premier League side has found a consistent solution to winning there.
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In some ways then, as the argument for Liverpool being the biggest threat to City’s title threat next season continues to grow its army of endorsers, this Saturday is arguably a bigger test than their Champions League meeting with the Citizens next week.
There’s so much to admire about the emotional, candid and entertaining Tim Sherwood, who embarks now on the tremendously difficult task of saving Aston Villa from relegation.
Sherwood is not a man of convention. He doesn’t adhere to the usual tactical practices that his managerial contemporaries place faith in. Tales of him playing as many attacking players as possible in the same formation are frequent. Damning interviews slating the quality of his own players have surfaced in the past, something you’d rarely see from one of England’s top managers, who never openly criticise their players individually. He’s also shown the audacity of few before him in his willingness to experiment and nurture youth – a commendable trait for a manager in the foetal stages of his career.
From a neutral’s perspective, it’s crisply refreshing to see a ‘hotshot’ of sorts waltz into the mainstream and throw the managerial rulebook out the window. Tottenham were wonderfully entertaining to watch in parts last season with their gung-ho mentality beset on them by Sherwood’s dogmatic ideology. And each game was usually followed by interviews often littered with controversial jabs at a range of different people, giving the media oceans of bait to feed upon and the twitter-user plenty to rabble about.
For all of that though, if you invert that neutral perspective and look at Sherwood’s value through an Aston Villa lens, perhaps there’s less to be chirpy about. Sherwood was always going to be a risk given his only aforementioned six month tenure in all of football management, but was he necessarily a risk worth taking?
You can see, superficially, why Randy Lerner will have moved swiftly to secure Sherwood’s services. For a club in dire financial straits Sherwood’s lack of experience probably made him a fairly cheap option, and the fact that he was previously unemployed meant Villa avoided paying compensation to another club.
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That, combined with his attacking ideals, make him an ideal candidate to tackle their appalling attacking impotency, which has outwardly made them a remarkably boring team to watch this season. And for the way in which he brought on Nabil Bentaleb and Harry Kane with an assured confidence this time last year, Lerner will have smiled upon the prospects of Villa’s (cheaper) youth players getting the attention they need.
For all of that though, there was a reason Sherwood was sacked by Daniel Levy last year, despite him (almost infamously given the satire surrounding it on social media) boasting the best win percentage (50%) of any manager in Tottenham’s history.
But there’s a reason why you never heard Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger or Alex Ferguson publicly assassinate one of their players in the media. There are also a plethora of further reasons why selecting as many attacking players in your starting eleven is no guaranteed formula for success. Sherwood’s methods may be entertaining to the neutral, but they are also risky.
Truth be told, the best managers for saving you from relegation are your Tony Pulis’ and Sam Allardyce’s. They, individually, couldn’t be more different from Sherwood in a footballing sense. Their playing styles are based around defensive, resilient, and physical football, designed in the most pragmatic sense to yield results. Results are ultimately key, and unfortunately for all of Sherwood’s gloss and shine, the underlying roots that will become prevalent in the Midlands will not necessarily gift the results they desire. West Brom will be fine with Pulis at the helm. West Ham owe Sam Allardyce an awful amount as he’s plotted their transition to the Premier League.
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Sherwood offers no such assurances, and one can’t help but think Lerner was lured into the Sherwood package by offering something that his team were lacking, at the expense of a viable, effective strategy. Villa are in all sorts of trouble for now, and Tim Sherwood probably wasn’t worth the risk of rescuing them from their seemingly interminable descent into the abyss of English football.
If Kyle Naughton’s Tottenham Hotspur future felt somewhat uncertain at the start of the season, the progress that the full-back’s made within the side this season would certainly suggest such worried may have been a little premature.
Before Andre Villas-Boas had arrived at the club, despite a number of impressive loan spells away from the club he joined from Sheffield United in 2009, Naughton had racked up a mere three first-team appearances for the Lilywhites. This season, the full back has racked up 19 in all competitions.
Although despite racking up the appearances for Tottenham this season, it still feels somewhat difficult to describe this term as a ‘breakthrough’ one for the 24-year-old.
When he arrived at the club alongside Kyle Walker in a joint £9million deal from Bramall Lane four years ago this July, Naughton was generally perceived to be the more advanced talent in comparison to his close friend and teammate.
But where as his progress on loan at both Middlesbrough and Leicester City was steady, Walker’s momentum was seemingly unstoppably and following his success out on loan at both QPR and Aston Villa, a barnstorming PFA Young Player of the Year winning season at Spurs, shortly followed. Naughton on the other hand, enjoyed a modestly successful spell on loan to Norwich City last term.
Yet while that gap in class between both Naughton and Walker seemed perhaps unbridgeable last season, that’s no longer felt quite the case and when Naughton has found himself in the Spurs starting XI this season, supporters have hardly been greeted by a player grossly inferior to their 22-year-old right-back. In fact at times, it’s been quite the opposite.
Yet with all the injury, inconsistency and most poignantly lack of depth that Tottenham have suffered in the full-back department, Kyle Naughton still doesn’t seem to have really made either berth his own. And for as steady as he’s been whenever he’s started in a white shirt, it’s never particularly been much more than that. Steady.
And if Naughton has designs on anything approaching a long-term future at White Hart Lane, then the chances are we’re going to have to see a little bit more from him. Getting the role of part-time cover down to a tee is all very well, but it’s not gong to see him start too many Premier League games.
Naughton has made just the 10 starts in the league this season, which when you consider in Walker’s dreadful loss of form earlier on in the term and Benoit Assou-Ekotto’s lengthy spell on the sidelines, that’s hardly the sign of a player really seizing the moment. Should Naughton still be feeling his way into the game, playing an important, but subdued part in a team gunning for a top four finish, wouldn’t be too bad at all.
But at 24-years-old, Naughton can no longer be classified as a fledgling youngster and from a personal perspective, he should be starting football matches.
During his time on loan at Carrow Road last season, Naughton showed enough to suggest that he’s got what it takes to cut it at the highest level, week in, week out. Neat and tidy in possession, he’s both positonally aware and a sensible decision maker – the latter of those traits something that Spurs have most definitely been lacking at times in the full-back positions this season.
Although with the greatest of respect to Norwich City, while a safe and steady foundation to your game is likely to bode well for a team looking to avoid relegation, at the level Tottenham are trying to compete for under Villas-Boas, it’s not necessarily going to be enough.
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At times this season, while Naughton’s been capable of picking out a couple of clever passes, he’s tended to offer a mixed bag for Spurs going forward. For all the brilliance of Gareth Bale and the intricacies of their powerful midfield engine, the Lilywhites remain at their very best when their fullbacks are bombing along up and down the flanks. Naughton gives you guile from an attacking perspective, but hardly the sort of ferocious drive and positivity that Kyle Walker possesses.
Naughton’s versatility perhaps hasn’t particularly helped proceedings and as well as he’s done in playing nearly 20 games in all competitions for Spurs, having his time chopped up between both right and left-back probably hasn’t helped him find much in the way of any rhythm. Although his chopping and changing between both berths has been the staple sign of a solid squad player. And unfortunately for Naughton, that’s exactly what his role in N17 appears to have transcended into.
In terms of filling in the gaps for Villas-Boas and offering a reliable and often fruitful stop-gap, Kyle Naughton has ticked all the boxes for the Portuguese. But his problem seems to be not so much failing to deliver when starting matches, but more not delivering enough. And you can’t help but wonder how much longer he might have to change that.
On one hand, this season has been the one in which Kyle Naughton has finally got his Spurs career off the ground, yet on the other, it’s also been a term that’s seen him solidify himself as more of a useful cog than fledgling first teamer. Whether he has what it takes to change that perception, only time will tell.
According to Don Balon, Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas has told teammate Marco Asensio that he could join Arsenal in this summer’s transfer window.
What’s the story?
Navas gets a lot of bad press for a goalkeeper that has certainly played his part in Real Madrid winning back-to-back Champions League titles.
The Costa Rican came close to joining Manchester United in 2015 as part of the deal that would have taken David de Gea to Real Madrid, but a faulty fax machine saw that particular move break down at the final moment.
It is thought that Real Madrid will move for unsettled Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois at the end of the season, which would put Navas’ future in doubt.
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According to Don Balon, Navas has informed his Los Blancos teammate Asensio that he would seriously consider a move to the Emirates Stadium in this summer’s window.
Would Navas be a good signing?
Petr Cech has had a wonderful career in the English game, but the Czech is now 35 years of age, and has shown signs of a decline over the last 12 months.
Number two David Ospina, meanwhile, has never really shown on a consistent basis that he has the potential to be Arsenal’s first-choice goalkeeper.
Navas would bring a host of experience to the Emirates Stadium having made more than 130 appearances in all competitions for Real Madrid since joining the Spanish giants from Levante in the summer of 2014.
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The 31-year-old is a wonderful shot-stopper, and has certainly shown that he has the temperament to represent a top-level club.
It is unlikely that Arsenal would have to break the bank to sign the Costa Rica international, but the fact that he has managed just six La Liga clean sheets this season might be a touch concerning for the London club.