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Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez could be forced to try and shift another flop this summer, with Henri Saviet reportedly likely to return to the club following his loan spell with St. Etienne this summer.

What’s the word?

Well, according to But! Football Club over in France, Ligue 1 side have been disappointed with his efforts this season, with the Ivorian scoring just once and recording only two assists.

After proving relatively impressive for Bordeaux in France, a move back across the English Channel was seen as a wise avenue to go down following an ill-fated few months on Tyneside. However, like his time in black and white, Les Verts are seemingly unhappy with his performances.

What does this mean for Newcastle?

It’s likely the Magpies will actively try and sell the 26-year-old as they attempt to fund what could be a summer spree in preparation for life back in the Premier League.

The options in central midfield will need to be sufficiently addressed this summer, with a January move for James McCarthy having failed, while the likes of Jack Colback, Isaac Hayden and Jonjo Shelvey provide better options as things stand.

No time left to run?

It would be hard to argue against the fact that everything seems to point towards a summer exit. However, Benitez has shown a willingness to integrate players previously on the peripherals of his squad into the first-team this season.

Yoan Gouffran was widely expected to leave last summer, though has become a key figure on the left of the attacking trident that operate behind a central striker, while Cheick Tiote was kept on as long as he was required amid a spate of injuries.

You get the feeling that, if the right offer came in, he’d be allowed to leave in an instant. Still, little Benitez has done with the tools available to him thus far suggest anything is clear cut just yet.

According to Goal.com, Manchester United are prepared to pay £50m to bring Paris Saint-Germain centre-back Marquinhos to Old Trafford at the end of the 2016-17 campaign.

What’s the story?

Despite Eric Bailly and Marcos Rojo both enjoying impressive seasons for Man United, it is understood that Red Devils boss Jose Mourinho wants to bring at least one new centre-back to the club in this summer’s transfer window.

Real Madrid’s Raphael Varane has been linked as part of a deal that could take David de Gea to the Bernabeu, although Los Blancos are said to be desperate to keep hold of the Frenchman.

According to Goal.com, Mourinho is also a firm admirer of PSG defender Marquinhos, who joined the French giants from Roma in 2013.

Man United are expected to spend big at the end of the season as they look to return to the top of English football, and it is understood that the signing of a new centre-back is high on Mourinho’s list of priorities, regardless of the cost.

What would Marquinhos bring to Man United?

Marquinhos, 22, started his professional career with Corinthians, emerging through the Brazilian club’s youth set-up before making his first-team debut during the 2011-12 campaign.

Roma came calling in the summer of 2012, but the centre-back spent just one season with the Italian giants as PSG signed him for a fee in the region of £25m.

The defender has made more than 150 appearances for PSG since arriving in Paris, whilst he has also earned 17 caps for the Brazilian national team despite his youthful age.

Capable of operating at both centre-back and right-back, Marquinhos would seemingly be perfect if Mourinho wished to use a back three next season, while he could also slot in alongside Bailly or Rojo at the heart of a four-man backline.

It does appear that PSG are desperate to keep hold of Marquinhos, but with contract talks at the Parc des Princes stalling, now might be the perfect time for Man United to swoop for one of the best young centre-backs in the world of football.

Chelsea fell to a dismal defeat away to Manchester United on Sunday, a loss that now puts significant pressure on their bid to win the Premier League title.On Saturday Tottenham Hotspur won yet again at White Hart Lane to close the gap at the top of the table to just four points and with six games remaining, there’s still plenty of time for a lead like that to be chased down.Marcus Rashford and Andre Herrera provided the goals for United’s 2-0 win, Jose Mourinho delighted to get one over on a club he once considered his footballing home.Chelsea never looked like coming away from Old Trafford with a win and a number of players looked well below their best.Perhaps the most notable of those was again Diego Costa, who is now in a serious slump of form. As we discussed earlier, it was a performance that drew significant ire from Blues fans on Twitter.As these stats from Squawka show, that anger is justified. Not only is he not contributing in a positive way for his team but he is actually a negative force, giving away far too many fouls and picking up multiple yellow cards over his last five matches.

It’s dire stuff and something which, if it continues, could well end up costing Chelsea the Premier League title. Antonio Conte can’t afford to keep his faith in the striker and although Michy Batshuayi may not be the most lethal of attackers, surely he deserves a chance to show what he can do in the wake of recent performances from Costa?

Chelsea’s crusade to another Premier League title is close to a glorious ending. Abrupt hiccups at the hands of Sam Allardyce and Jose Mourinho in the league left so much riding on the FA Cup semi-final with Tottenham Hotspur. Chelsea again, though, pulled it out of the bag. A Wembley victory without the iconic Didier Drogba might be a rarity for the Blues, but it was as significant as anything the dominating Ivorian produced.

It was a performance of individual quality rather than the golden success of the system. Eden Hazard, Willian and Nemanja Matic provided moments of brilliance as Chelsea spent the majority of the match absorbing heavy possession from their London rivals. Functional with off-the-seat nuggets rather than a footballing lesson, it was a fitting reflection of a Chelsea side that’s momentum has eked away in 2017.

The two defeats sent echoes around the footballing world. Chelsea’s seamless canter to the trophy was brought to an abrupt halt with two defeats as Spurs were continuing to pick up three points whenever they took the field. Reverberations of those results could have caused cracks to appear in a Chelsea squad that is far from the best, deepest or most talented in the league. Instead – largely down to Conte’s influence – they held it together to make sure those six dropped points were nothing more than irritating blips.

Since their draw with Burnley back in February, though, Chelsea’s league victories have lacked conviction. Late goals were needed to beat Swansea, a dramatic Gary Cahill header secured victory at Stoke and sucker-punches were required against Manchester City. Winning away at West Ham and Bournemouth was slightly more relaxed for Chelsea, but even those games were not glossed with the sort of dominant displays they produced in the latter months of 2016.

The win over Southampton in midweek was a necessity and again it was Cahill who turned the match. A brave – if not stupid – header late in the first half saw Chelsea take charge from the beginning of the second period and they never really looked back from then on.

They are finding means of victory. At times their play was breathtaking during their winning streak before Christmas, but those moments of aesthetic footballing joy are altogether infrequent now. Antonio Conte may not mind with the points all that really matters as Chelsea stretch out a hand towards the trophy, yet it is perhaps a sign of where the rest of the league is.

Even with the defence teetering under the slightest of pressure, Chelsea are still on course to record one of the highest points totals in Premier League history. They could yet succumb to the pressure, of course, but the Blues’ efficiency even in a period of indifferent form suggests otherwise.

Conte’s side are not a machine like Mourinho’s best Chelsea outfits, nor are they an artistic project like Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona team, they are a masterful example of making use of players available to a manager. There is no doubt Chelsea need reinforcements throughout the squad this summer, but that only amplifies the achievements of this season.

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Premier League rivals Manchester United and Arsenal have both been handed a boost in their chase for Atletico Madrid defender Jose Gimenez as, according to reports from Mail Online, the Champions League semi-finalists may be willing to compromise on his release clause.

What’s the word?

Both Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger will be busy this summer as they look to press on with their respective overhauls of playing staff. The United boss, who began his process last summer, will be looking to build on the additions made a year ago whilst his long-time adversary in north London is under pressure to deliver an unprecedented summer of business after a well below par season.

Both clubs are chasing a deal for Atleti defender Gimenez, who has a reported release clause of £56m – a price which would make him the world’s most expensive defender. However, as per the report, Diego Simone’s side would be willing to compromise on the fee for the 22-year-old.

A deal for the Uruguayan has been sought after by both sides for over a year, with Gunners boss Wenger more publicly chasing a £40m deal last summer, although nothing materialised.

Where would be best?

It’s a tough question to ask. Having missed out on a deal last summer, the north Londoners moved in on German alternative Shkodran Mustafi, who is now a first team regular at The Emirates, meaning game time may be harder to come by should a move come about for Gimenez this year.

His place under Wenger would largely be determined on whether or not the Frenchman sticks with the back three currently being deployed, as you would fancy the Atleti man to make it in said three over Englishman Rob Holding.

Whilst there are complications at The Emirates, it seems a move to Old Trafford may be more simply for the centre-half. Having singed Eric Bailly last summer, Mourinho has still remained adamant that his back line needs improving, meaning Gimenez would more than likely slot straight in ahead of Chris Smalling and Phil Jones.

Providing that Real Madrid have fixed their faulty fax machine, it does appear likely that David de Gea will leave Manchester United for the Bernabeu this summer.

Speculation linking Spain’s number one with a return to Madrid has gathered pace over the last couple of months, and the goalkeeper’s omission from the Man United XI in recent weeks has only fuelled suggestions of a move.

As expected, Man United supporters are not happy with the idea of losing quite probably the best goalkeeper in the world, and after De Gea posted a cryptic Tweet on Monday afternoon, the Red Devils fans were out in their numbers.

There were some that decided to slate Real Madrid, but the majority of the responses signalled around their desire for De Gea, who is not expected to feature in this week’s Europa League final, to remain with the 20-time English champions.

De Gea’s tweet, which was accompanied with a picture of him making a flying save, has left the supporters even more confused with what will occur in this summer’s transfer window.

According to reports from The Telegraph, Chelsea are eyeing Leicester City winger Riyad Mahrez as a potential addition to their attacking cast.

The Blues will be without Eden Hazard at the start of next season due to injury, but Antonio Conte wants more options in the final third anyway – likely due to the fact his side will not only be defending the Premier League title but also participating in the Champions League next season.

Doubts remain over whether the Algerian international is truly at Chelsea’s level. Although he was the driving force behind Leicester’s shock Premier League title win last season, the 2016/17 campaign saw him muster up just six goals and three assists in the top flight.

The Telegraph claim Arsene Wenger has already admitted his interest in the 30-cap winger, however – seemingly relating to comments he made on beIN Sport recently, as quoted by The Express – so passing up on Mahrez could end up strengthening one of Chelsea’s potential title rivals for next season. Mahrez is valued at £25.5m by transfermarkt.com.

So, Chelsea fans, does your club need to beat Arsenal to Mahrez’s services? Let us know by voting below…

Most young footballers who make it through to the Premier League first teams from the academy systems do it from the big clubs themselves. Graduates of the academies of the biggest clubs around the country are to be found all over the league, though depressingly, rarely at those big clubs themselves.

But the reason why young English players are seldom seen in starting lineups of the top four probably has to do with game time and perception rather than ability. After all, how can the best youth teams in the country like Manchester City and Chelsea fail so badly to promote their players. The answer surely isn’t in the quality of the players, but the pressure to get results.

That means loan moves, and in some cases players falling by the wayside. That’s partly because host clubs are less likely to care about the player’s long-term development, and more likely to only care about the player’s short term performance levels for the duration of their loan.

It’s also partly because ending up on loan can also tarnish a player in the eyes of some onlookers – that’s not necessarily a conscious thing, but when you see the likes of Marcus Rashford bursting onto the scene and scoring in big, glamourous games, it does make loan players in lower leagues look bad, and there’s nothing they can do to change that perception if they aren’t trusted to start in the top tier.

This will come under the microscope again as England’s U20 side reached the World Cup final this week. For only the second time in 87 years, then, England have reached a World Cup final at any age group. Which makes this kind of a big deal, but it also means that there will be hype, that media speciality so unconducive to youth development in football.

One player who didn’t make the World Cup squad, though, was Rico Henry. Billed as the ‘next Ashley Cole’ by a headline in the Daily Mirror almost two years ago, there were links to Arsenal, as well as Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham. At the age of 17, though, you can see why the hype was such a burden, as Henry hasn’t spent the last two years ousting Nacho Monreal from the Emirates side’s starting XI, but perspective is needed.

Unlike so many of the players to have made the u20 World Cup squad, Henry doesn’t play for a Premier League side. In fact, in the squad, there is one Reading player, one Charlton Athletic player and two Newcastle United men. The rest of the 21-man squad is made up of players owned by clubs who competed in this season’s Premier League. Each and every one of them will face the problems of getting into a top tier first team over the next few years.

But not Henry. Although he wasn’t snapped up by a Premier League side two years ago while still at Walsall, he was brought to the Championship by Brentford at the start of the season, and at the age of 19, played 12 times in the second tier this season.

For such a young full-back 12 games is probably the perfect amount, even if the current footballing climate seems to want young players to embark on a meteoric rise to their first team without any regard for the concept of development – that is, getting better over time.

This is why Henry could yet come very good indeed. Taken away from the limelight by a competitive Championship side, rather than rotting in the academy of a top team and sent on loan to clubs who don’t care about putting any effort into his development, Henry has become part of a first team squad, and used sparingly enough to shield him from pressure. It’s been two years since national newspapers compared him to a legend of his position and that can only be a good thing.

On top of that, having missed out on the chance to represent his country at the World Cup this year, the Brentford man may be disappointed, but he will also be spared the hype that the rest of the team will get for their stunning efforts.

In the end, most of the squad will not be playing Premier League football next season, they’ll be out on loan to Championship clubs. And yet Henry will be at exactly the same level, the only difference is he’ll be spared the hype and he’ll be at a club who actually care about his long-term development. He may be a long way away from being called the ‘next Ashley Cole’, but that may just be the best thing that’s ever happened to him.

As expected, Newcastle United have offloaded one of their goalkeepers, and it is Matz Sels who has departed.

The club announced on Thursday that the 25-year-old has joined Anderlecht on a season-long loan.

It is a disappointing development for the player given that he joined the North-East outfit just one year ago.

He arrived on Tyneside with the aim of becoming the new first-choice keeper, but he did not hold that position for long.

Manager Rafael Benitez gave Sels just five appearances, all of which were in cup competitions, while Karl Darlow took the number one spot.

The Belgian’s long-term future at Newcastle is uncertain, but he has four years remaining on his contract so the door is likely to stay open ajar.

Benitez has a goalkeeping dilemma given that Rob Elliot is now back fit following a knee injury, and both Tim Krul and Freddie Woodman are vying for places.

The problem has eased slightly now that Sels has gone, and his departure has sparked different reactions from the supporters.

As reported by The Daily Mail, it’s looking increasingly likely that Manchester United star Wayne Rooney will return to his former club Everton this summer.

What’s the story?

Rooney made an emotional switch from Goodison Park to Old Trafford thirteen years ago now and since then has achieved everything there is to achieve with Manchester United.

It seems now though that his relationship with the Red Devils is coming to an end.

The Daily Mail reckon that the United legend is ready to take a massive wage cut in order to re-join Everton this summer, in fact he’s willing to half his £300,000-a-week salary.

Unbelievably, he could arrive back in Liverpool on a free transfer with the Mail also reporting that United are willing to pay up the last year of his contract.

Does he still have what it takes to shine on Merseyside?

The perfect time to return?

Although he’s a veteran of the game, having played at the top level for over 15 years now, Wayne Rooney is still just 31 and has plenty to offer a team in the English Premier League, even if he’s not quite the world-class force he was at one point.

What’s more, this may be the perfect time to return to Everton with the club finally in a position to spend lots of money and compete with the others for a top four finish.

The club have invested heavily into Ronald Koeman’s vision this summer and adding Rooney could be the missing piece of the puzzle. He’s a player of vast experience and huge ability and could find motivation to regain the best form of his career given Everton are his boyhood heroes.

The only question was whether the Toffees could afford his services but it appears that the stars aligning in that regard too.