Tottenham Hotspur learnt that Manchester City stand in their way of reaching a Champions League semi-final on Friday in one of the mouth-watering ties of the competition. Mauricio Pochettino’s side will know that they will need to be at their very best to be able to edge past their Premier League rivals.

And, for one man, it could potentially be the last time that he is involved in the Champions League with Spurs.

What’s the News?

According to a report by The Daily Mail, Victor Wanyama is just one of a number of players that Tottenham could look to offload in the summer.

The Kenya international, who is valued at £22.5million (Transfermarkt), has struggled to return to the form he once showed before he suffered his serious knee injury.

The Verdict:

The writing appears to have been on the wall for Wanyama and his Tottenham career (The Daily Mail), as he has seriously struggled to make an impact upon his return and injuries have played a huge role in his lack of recent opportunities.

With Harry Winks continually putting in a number of solid performances, and with Eric Dier seemingly favoured over the Kenyan when fit, his chances have really diminished and have seen him make just five starts in all competitions this season.

The 27-year-old has been an excellent servant for the north London outfit since his move from Southampton and became a clear fan favourite after he built an impressive partnership alongside Mousa Dembele.

When fully-fit, Wanyama has plenty of energy and can dominate the space in between the two penalty boxes with the intensity he has in his play, which could make him an excellent option for a team currently in the middle of the Premier League table.

However, as for Tottenham, it would appear that he could be entering the final few months of his time in north London.

Tottenham fans, what do you make of the news regarding Wanyama? Do you think Spurs should keep him beyond the summer or are they right to potentially offload him now? Join in with the discussion below by sharing your thoughts with us.

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According to Calciomercato, West Ham United are ‘closely following’ Hoffenheim forward Joelinton ahead of a potential summer move.

What’s the word, then?

This is not the first time that a Premier League club has been linked with Joelinton. Indeed, Newcastle United were credited with an interest last month.

According to the report, Newcastle were in talks to land the Brazilian forward in a £52m deal, which did seem a bit farfetched at the time, and still does now.

Calciomercato, though, claim that West Ham are having a look at the 22-year-old, who has been in strong form during the 2018-19 campaign.

Indeed, Joelinton has scored 11 times and contributed nine assists in 32 appearances in all competitions for Hoffenheim, including seven goals in the Bundesliga.

The South American has recently been quoted as saying that he is ‘very happy’ at Hoffenheim, but it remains to be seen what occurs in this summer’s transfer window.

Should West Ham make a move?

It does seem likely that West Ham will move for a new centre-forward this summer as Andy Carroll prepares to leave on a free transfer.

The futures of Marko Arnautovic and Javier Hernandez, meanwhile, are also far from secure.

There is no question that Joelinton is a talent, but his experience of top-level football is quite limited.

This is the striker’s first campaign as a key player for Hoffenheim, having spent each of the last two seasons on loan with Rapid Vienna.

If Hoffenheim are indeed demanding upwards of £50m for the attacker then it is simply too much of a risk for West Ham to pursue a deal.

And the Hammers would be better off reigniting their interest in Celta Vigo’s Maxi Gomez, who looks certain to leave his Spanish club this summer.

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Antonio Barreca has not been seen in a Newcastle United shirt since making his debut for the club in the final stages of their Premier League clash with Tottenham Hotspur on February 2.

Barreca joined the Magpies on loan from Monaco during the January transfer window.

He played four minutes of his team’s 1-0 loss to Tottenham at the start of last month, but has not even made the bench for Newcastle’s last six Premier League matches.

Earlier this month, the English club’s fans had a negative reaction to a tweet mentioning the defender and it would be fair to say that things have not improved.

It was actually the Italian’s birthday on Monday.

Watch the best fails from the world of indoor football in the video below…

As expected, Newcastle’s official Twitter account was on hand to wish Barreca a happy 24th birthday, but the response from the club’s supporters was not too positive indeed.

A selection of the reaction can be seen below:

[ad_pod ]West Ham United fans on Twitter have seen the lighter side after Academy of Football product Conor Coventry received his maiden call-up to the Republic of Ireland under-21 squad.Hammers fans have ripped into the Ireland U21 team that the 18-year-old central midfielder has broken into for a 2021 UEFA European U21 Championship qualifier at home to Luxembourg, taking no prisoners.Unsurprisingly, the bulk of the comments centre around Coventry’s teammate and close friend Declan Rice, who famously progressed through the youth ranks of the ROI team and into the senior side, before switching his international allegiance to England.Rice was included in his first Three Lions squad this week meaning the wound is still very tender for the Irish FA and they will be keen to tie the English-raised Coventry down as soon as possible.

As satirical as the reaction from West Ham fans is, with the Claret & Blue Army not holding anything back in their trolling, there is still the very real possibility that the youngster could follow in his comrade’s footsteps.

Remarks such as “can’t wait till his first England cap” and “he’ll be English before you know it” have been flying around Twitter since the announcement.

Check out the pick of them, below…

أكد أشرف إبراهيم سفير مصر بدولة المغرب على ارتفاع الحالة المعنوية للاعبي الزمالك قبل مواجهة الرجاء في دوري أبطال إفريقيا.

ويستعد الزمالك لخوض مباراته أمام الرجاء المغربي، في التاسعة من مساء الأحد المقبل بتوقيت القاهرة، الثامنة بتوقيت المغرب، في ذهاب دور نصف نهائي دوري أبطال إفريقيا.

وقال أشرف إبراهيم في تصريحات تلفزيونية عبر قناة الزمالك: “لاحظت ارتفاع الروح المعنوية لجميع لاعبي الزمالك ‏قبل مواجهة الرجاء، والأمور جميعها على ما يرام”.

وأوضح: “الزمالك قدم مبادرة مميزة بإجراء تحليل لفرجاني ساسي وتم ‏عزل اللاعب في غرفة داخل الفندق”

طالع | الزمالك يعلن إصابة فرجاني ساسي بكورونا وعزله في مكان خاص

وتابع: “الوداد اكتشف اصابتين بكورونا للاعب ‏وإداري بصفوفه”.

وأردف: “حوريا كوناكري الغيني يمتلك 9 اصابات بكورونا قبل مواجهة ‏بيراميدز، والحل في يد الكاف بالطبع من حيث اتخاذ الاجراءات الطبية ‏اللازمة بعد عزل لاعبيه”.

واختتم: “أناشد الجماهير المصرية أن تكون قلوبها غداً مع ‏الأهلي في مواجهة الوداد ومع الزمالك في مواجهة الأحد ‏أمام الرجاء، والقطبان يمثلان اسم وسمعة الكرة المصرية”.

يذكر، أن بيراميدز سيواجه منافسه حوريا كوناكري الغيني مساء الثلاثاء المقبل في نصف نهائي الكونفدرالية.

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Leeds fans can’t believe what they are reading after Neil Harris suggested the club get away with things on a regular basis following the missile incident on Saturday.

Harris implied that the Leeds fans fall foul of EFL rules on a regular basis but for some reason avoid punishment, saying “Is it common at Leeds? Do they get away with it? I don’t know.

“Various players get hit by coins, bottles and lighters. It is not acceptable in football grounds. Messages are sent out asking fans not to do it. Everybody has got a duty of care to stop that happening across the nation. It’s going to take a serious incident for it to happen and that’s not what we want to see.”

Leeds have already been given two sanctions by footballing authorities this season with a £200,000 fine for spying on Derby County training sessions, and an additional £5,000 fine for a touchline altercation when the side met Bolton.

Fans were particularly peeved at the comment implying Leeds are allowed to get away with things more than other clubs, after their hefty fine surrounding ‘spygate’ which technically didn’t break any rules.

On the whole Leeds fans were bemused by Harris’ quotes after the weekend as the general consensus at Elland Road is that the club are hard done by rather than treated lightly.

Here’s what Leeds fans had to say on Twitter…

Josh McEachran. Gael Kakuta. Lucas Piazon. Charly Musonda. These are names that are written into the history of Chelsea Football Club, and all for the wrong reasons. Whilst the Blues have been celebrating silverware and breaking records over the last 15 years, many of the players at the club have been living through a very different fate. 

Indeed, for all of Chelsea’s success on the pitch at Stamford Bridge, they’ve had markedly less success on the training pitches at Cobham – at least in the traditional sense. Featuring in five consecutive FA Youth Cup finals is a testament to the strength of the Chelsea academy, but the Blues’ failure to promote any young talent into the first team during that time indicates that it’s a system with a broken cog.

Josh McEachran made first appearance for Chelsea in the Premier League during the 2010-11 season, but in the 2015-16 season, he moved to Brentford after 5 separate loan spells. Gael Kakuta played a solitary game for the Blues in the 2009-10 Premier League season, and he’s subsequently spent time at 10 separate clubs since, either on loan or permanent moves. He left Chelsea in 2015 on a free transfer. Lucas Piazon had shades of Kaka about him when he moved to Stamford Bridge in 2011, but after just 1 Premier League game for the Blues in the years since, he’s best known for his impressive two-year stint at Fulham now. Charly Musonda is more of a contemporary failure for the Blues, with his failed loan to Celtic last season indicative of Chelsea’s mismanagement of their most talented young players.

On their own, Chelsea’s inability to harness this talent is bad enough, but when combined and added to the likes Nathaniel Chalobah, Ryan Bertrand and Bertrand Traore – three players that were sold on for pennies after Chelsea signed big money replacements – the problem becomes an epidemic, and so far, Chelsea haven’t been able to find a cure.

That’s a real problem for a number of reasons. Firstly, and most notably, it reduces the overall quality on the field for Chelsea. Some of Europe’s most talented men have graced the pitch at Stamford Bridge only to be moved on prematurely, like Kevin De Bruyne and Mohammed Salah, and that’s left the Blues in a worse position long-term. It’s also bad for the fans of the club. You only have to watch Chelsea once to see how popular homegrown talent is, given the constant chances of ‘Ruben!’ whenever midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek enters the fray at Stamford Bridge. Homegrown talent has an immediate affinity with a club’s fanbase, and their lack of utilisation at Stamford Bridge has been a consistent point of contention between the fans and the club at Stamford Bridge in recent years. There’s also the club identity argument. If a player has grown up at a club, he’s inherently got a better connection with it, and that can help make them a better player as a result. Take John Terry, for example. He had incredible natural talent, but it was his love for Chelsea that took him to the next level.

There’s no doubt, then, that Chelsea are worse off for their lack of youth development, and that’s only come to the fore more prominently this week owing to a recent report surrounding Jadon Sancho. Sancho has emerged as one of Europe’s brightest young talents this season after ditching Man City for Borussia Dortmund, and now the Independent are reporting that Man Utd are considering an £80 million move for him. That’s a stunning sum of money, and it serves as further proof that Chelsea simply cannot afford to not utilise their youth talent. Not only is it costing them players on the field, but, evidently, it’s costing them big money, too.

Now, of course, Chelsea have made big money from their youth academy over the years, but nobody has come close to the £80 million fee associated with Sancho – and so it’s clear that Chelsea are missing a trick. Not only is the Englishman impressing on the field, but he’s now potentially going to make a big impact off of it, too.

This is particularly poignant at present given the situation surrounding Callum Hudson-Odoi. Linked with a move to Bayern Munich in January, he’s hardly featured since that point, with the German giants still expected to return for him in the summer. And, with only a year left on his contract at Stamford Bridge, the Englishman could well be able to force an exit for Chelsea for a cut-price fee.

This isn’t only a Chelsea problem, it’s important to recognise that. Man Utd, the team linked with Sancho this time around, have their own issues, and they’ve got a ton of under-utilised talent that should get a chance. From Tahith Chong to Mason Greenwood. the Red Devils face a similar set of issues if they don’t make use of the academy. But the difference between the two clubs is that Man Utd have a history of focusing on youth, and even during their recent struggles, players like Marcus Rashford have made the jump. And that’s, significantly, without the use of the loan system.

This has never been a more pressing issue for Chelsea. They’ve been able to manage the consequences of their rejection of youth for years with minimal impact, yet now it’s not only costing them talent; it’s also costing them money. It’s at this point that the Chelsea brass cannot, and surely will not, allow it to continue.

Hudson-Odoi, too, is only at the surface of the problem. From Mason Mount to Reece James to Dujon Sterling, there are dozens of young players at Stamford Bridge that could prove to be worth their weight in gold. And if Chelsea don’t utilise them, somebody else will, and as in the case of Sancho, they will reap the rewards instead.

Chelsea fans – what is the solution to this problem? Will Hudson-Odoi leave? Do the Blues just need a complete restructure? Let us know below…

–  Take a look at the rest of our Trending Transfer coverage on Man Utd’s interest in Jadon Sancho by clicking here –

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FIFA 19 is a broken game.

Fans have been complaining for months about the botched product released by EA Sports, such have been the myriad issues plaguing the title.

FIFA 19 released in September in a state that was viewed as promising by many players but, since then, patches and updates have reduced the game to a broken mess that continues to promote the money-spinning Ultimate Team mode over anything else.

Football FanCast has put its thinking cap on and taken a look at three suggested solutions to fix FIFA before the next editions rolls out.

Focus on single-player

Not every FIFA player likes to play Ultimate Team.

That is not to deny that the mode is a money-making behemoth that earns EA Sports millions of pounds every year by virtue of players buying packs in the desperate hope of seeing Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi pop up.

The pack odds, published for the first time this year, prove that the likelihood of packing a superstar is slim to none.

As a result of that, there needs to be some love put into the alternatives, namely Career Mode.

In previous iterations of FIFA, before the as-then untapped potential of FUT was realised, Career Mode was the place to be.

You could buy and sell players and build a super-team, or take your local club all the way to the Champions League final, all while having a fantastic time on the pitch.

Now, it’s stale; there’s very little incentive to grind to the end of the season as there hasn’t been a significant facelift given to Career Mode in this console generation. Fans still love it, they still play it, and it deserves some much-needed attention.

Fix defending

This is relatively simple. If you make a tackle with your defender in FIFA 19, and you win the ball, you should have possession.

This is football 101. Yet, all too regularly, the Frostbite engine that has been used to make the game throws in some “randomisation” and the ball ricochets around before invariably ending up with the opposition team.

Are the media letting Jurgen Klopp off lightly for his lack of silverware? The Pl>ymaker FC squad have their say in the video below…

This is annoying at best and game-breaking at worst. There are so many clips online of players cleanly winning the ball only for it to rebound to another attacker on the opposition team. All too regularly it ends in a goal.

Add into that the genuine idiocy of many goalkeepers in the game and you have a recipe for disaster.

In FIFA 20, this has to be resolved.

Leave FUT alone and focus on what’s important

EA Sports have to make a decision.

They either want FIFA to be an online gambling service where young children and teenagers fritter away their pocket money in the hope of packing Ronaldo, or they want it to be the ultimate football simulation. They can’t have both.

Ahead of FIFA 20, they should leave FUT as it is; it is a money-making machine and will be just fine if only subtle tweaks are made.

And that should allow them the time to sort out the mess that is timed finishing – every single shot that is timed perfectly goes in and all too often, so do the ones that are mistimed – and pace-abusing. If you have a quick winger and a tall striker, you’re winning most games online.

Scripting, too, appears to be real. EA Sports have never confirmed this but there are times when it seems as though the game is actively working against you.

If they allow FUT to stay as it is and remedy some of the issues raised here, FIFA 20 might just be a game worth buying.

Otherwise, their player base will continue to dwindle. FIFA 19 has been the worst version of the game to date, and it might just get worse if its developers do not start to listen to fans.

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According to the Telegraph, Ander Herrera has reportedly demanded a contract in excess of £200,000-a-week to stay at Manchester United, amid interest from Paris Saint-Germain – the midfielder’s current deal expires in the summer.

What’s the word, then?

Well, the Spaniard will be available on a free transfer unless the Red Devils can agree terms with him over a new deal, although they will reportedly not be held to ransom by the 29-year-old after he requested such a huge wage.

Herrera has enjoyed somewhat of a renaissance at Old Trafford since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replaced Jose Mourinho in the dugout, emerging as one of United’s key players since the start of 2019.

Which “global superstar” has just been named Man Utd’s worst ever January signing? Find out in the video above…

However, whilst United want the former Athletic Bilbao man to stay and are said to have offered him a substantial increase on his current earnings of £80,000-a-week, Herrera has demanded a salary that would catapult him amongst the club’s top earners.

Alexis Sanchez’s wages cause more issues

It has previously been reported that Sanchez’s alleged earnings of £500,000-a-week have completely shattered the wage structure at Old Trafford, with the Chileans’s salary making it extremely difficult to negotiate a new deal with David de Gea – the Spanish keeper is said to be demanding double his current deal of £240,000-a-week.

Whilst that will worry United – the 28-year-old is one of the most important players at the club – the fact that Herrera is now demanding such a huge salary to stay at the club proves that Sanchez’s ludicrous earnings are having a detrimental effect on the squad.

Solskjaer will obviously have a number of issues to clean up in the summer having recently been appointed on a permanent basis, most notably finding a right-winger and potentially another centre-back.

However, the situation involving Sanchez and the evident knock-on effect this is having on other members of the squad, who feel they should be earning closer to the former Arsenal man’s earnings, may well be the determining factor on whether or not the Norwegian will be a success in Manchester.

As we can see, players are requesting salaries that do not befit their quality or importance to the team, as, whilst Herrera and De Gea are key players, they definitely should not be earning, nor are they worth, figures in excess of £200,000-a-week and £480,000-a-week.

The sooner the peripheral figure of Sanchez leaves the better, or the highest earning player at the club will continue to plague morale around the place and cause players to request absurd sums.

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The Sun have claimed that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United are interested in signing Norwich City youngster Ben Godfrey, who is rated at just £10 million.

What’s the word then?

The 21-year-old is being watched closely by the Red Devils’ scouts but is also the interest of other clubs in the Premier League, per the original report.

Godfrey has been a key component for the Canaries this year as they’ve continued their push towards the Sky Bet Championship title, playing every minute since mid-February as the club possess a four-point lead at the top of the table with just eight matches remaining.

The starlet’s recent form under Daniel Farke has helped him break into the England under-20s squad and there is much excitement about him around the football world, with comparisons even being drawn between the 6 ft centre-back and current United defender Chris Smalling according to The Sun.

The price is right and United shouldn’t miss out

The main thing that will make Godfrey such an attractive prospect at Old Trafford is his reported price of £10 million, which would be an absolute bargain in the realm of modern football.

What other hot young English prospect, and at the mature age of 21, can be secured for such a low fee? Man United shouldn’t miss out on this and need to move quickly to make sure they pip rivals to his signature.

Looking at the team’s current first-team centre-back crop, there is a clear lack of youth in the ranks, with the youngest being Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly (24).

This problem can easily be solved by Godfrey, slotting in to provide some freshness in the position and perhaps allowing Solskjaer to get rid of some dead wood if he ends up staying beyond the summer.

The greatest part of a cheap move for the York City academy graduate for the Red Devils, should Norwich accept £10 million, is the low risk, if it doesn’t work out only a small amount has been wasted.

There is, of course, the possibility of it being difficult to prise Godfrey away from Norfolk if his current side get promoted, but if United throw everything behind the move then there aren’t many young players who can afford to turn down a move to “The Theatre of Dreams”.