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David Moyes’ failure to seal a summer deal for John Lundstram could have cost West Ham United, as Chris Wilder has admitted that the Sheffield United midfielder could now leave Bramall Lane in January.

What’s the word?

According to Sky Sports, Lundstram’s stay at Bramall Lane may be nearing its end after a breakdown in last-ditch talks to agree on a new contract, following the midfielder’s rejection of several improved offers.

Wilder has made it clear that he would like the 26-year-old to remain with the Blades, but United chiefs will listen to bids come the winter market after their latest offer – thought to be in line with other recent deals signed by senior players – was knocked back.

Their most recent proposal will remain on the table in hopes that Lundstram commits his long-term future to the side he helped secure promotion into the Premier League, and for whom he started 26 of his 34 top-flight appearances last term and all six to date this season.

Lundstram will also be able to negotiate with foreign clubs in January with his current terms set to expire in the summer, when the former Everton trainee will become a free agent if a winter move or a new contract is not first secured.

Wilder has stated that he would “love” Lundstram to stay at Bramall Lane after marking the midfielder as non-transferable in the summer, having been courted by the likes of West Ham, Brighton and Rangers.

The Irons remain interested in a potential deal for the £7.2million-rated midfielder, per ExWHUemployee, though it remains to be seen if the east London outfit revive their failed efforts when the January window opens.

Perfect partner for Rice

Moyes’ failure to seal a deal for Lundstram in the summer could now come back and cost West Ham, with Wilder and Sheffield United accepting that the midfielder may have to be sold in January a welcome invitation for more potential suitors to step in.

Lundstram has shown what he can bring to the Premier League in his 40 top-flight appearances since helping the Blades to secure promotion in 2018/19, with five goals and three assists last term from central midfield – including winning strikes against Crystal Palace and Bournemouth plus a brace at home to Burnley.

He further created a total of eight big chances last season, squandered four himself and averaged 1.0 shots, 0.6 key balls, 0.5 successful dribbles, 1.4 tackles and 28.6 accurate passes (83%) a game, per SofaScore.

The Liverpool-born ace is yet to score or assist this term having wasted his two big chances and not created a clear-cut chance, but has improved his tally for key balls to an average 1.7, total passes to 30.5 and successful dribbles to 0.8 per match, suggesting he could be the perfect partner for Declan Rice if Moyes can land a winter bargain.

AND in other news, David Moyes needs a “terrific” West Ham man he expects “much more” from to step up now more than ever.

Chelsea have made another move across the transfer market chessboard as Marina Granovskaia opens talks with another major target.

A strong Premier League season in West London has come to a close and the splashing of the cash has already commenced. The Blues look set to push another big money deal through as Granovskaia turns her attention to Jan Oblak, according to Nico Schira (via Daily Star).

Frank Lampard is looking to strengthen his defensive line ahead of what looks to be a thrilling 2020/21 season. A goalkeeper has been outlined as one of the club’s priorities and Oblak has appeared high up the target list.

Atletico Madrid aren’t willing to give up the Slovenian easily and are adamant any interested club must pay his mammoth £108million release clause. However, money doesn’t seem to be an issue for the Blues, who have already signed Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner, with an additional deal for Kai Havertz all but completed.

Kepa Arrizabalaga has returned the worst save percentage out of any other goalkeeper to feature 20 times in the Premier League this season (via Sky Sports). He also kept just eight clean sheets, which is less than the likes of Jordan Pickford and Ben Foster (via Premier League).

Chelsea bought Kepa two years ago for a world record fee of £71million (via BBC Sport), an amount that has yet to be matched or beaten. However, he certainly hasn’t lived up to his huge price tag and it seems Lampard has no intentions of allowing him another season in the net.

The former England international has proved he enjoys a project and it’s not up for debate that Chelsea are undergoing a very exciting transition. Bagging Oblak would see all eyes on the Blues ahead of next campaign and Lampard wouldn’t allow his new signings to disappoint.

With Granovskaia working her magic on the shot-stopper’s agent, Chelsea could be inching closer to shaking on a deal for a new record signing.

Would you like to see Jan Oblak come to Stamford Bridge next season, Blues? Join the conversation in the comments below…

Celtic are ready to come back in with another bid for one of their mooted left-back targets according to fresh reports this week…

What’s the word?

Mail Sport (via the Daily Record) claim that the Scottish champions are set to revisit Paris Saint-Germain defender Mitchel Bakker after having an initial loan bid rejected for the young talent last week.

Over the weekend, Sky Sports reporter Anthony Joseph revealed that Neil Lennon’s top priority was signing a new left-back before the end of the transfer window next month.

Transfermarkt currently value the 20-year-old at £810k whilst it remains to be seen whether their second bid would be another temporary offer or a permanent one.

Lofty comparisons

Currently, Lennon only really has Greg Taylor available in the role following the departure of Kieran Tierney last summer and the recent controversy surrounding Boli Bolingoli.

Therefore, it does make sense for Nick Hammond to try and bolster their defensive ranks with an addition in this position.

Bakker has only featured five times for the PSG senior side since joining on a free transfer from Ajax yet he was still nominated for the 2020 Golden Boy award.

Having come through the system at the famed Ajax academy, the young left-back has drawn comparisons to Jan Vertonghen, who recently swapped Spurs for Benfica after over eight years in the Premier League.

There was even a belief that he’d be the natural successor to Nicolas Tagliafico, but evidently that hasn’t come to fruition.

In the past, reports have lauded Bakker as “an exceptional talent and one that has a bright future” whilst his key attributes make him an “excellent tackler” with “bags of pace”.

Hammond should absolutely come in with a second bid for the PSG sensation.

AND in other news, Celtic exit on brink of stunning collapse…

After struggling against Norwich in the FA Cup over the weekend, Manchester United will be keen to make amends as they face Brighton at Old Trafford. 

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made eight changes to the team that beat Sheffield United in the Premier League last week, as Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw and Bruno Fernandes were the only survivors.

Jesse Lingard, Eric Bailly, Juan Mata, Sergio Romero, Diogo Dalot, Fred, Scott McTominay and Odion Ighalo all started at Carrow Road, but Solskjaer’s side needed extra-time to beat the Canaries and secure their place in the semi-finals (BBC).

The Red Devils will be looking to make a statement against Brighton, as United are currently in sixth place, five points behind fourth-placed Chelsea, amongst the chasing pack of Wolves, Tottenham, Sheffield United and Arsenal.

Transfer Tavern have worked on a predicted starting lineup, which sees Solskjaer make eight changes to the team that faced Norwich.

Man United have started the past four fixtures in a 4-2-3-1 formation and it is hard to imagine Solskjaer will mess around with his favourite system.

Sergio Romero drops to the bench as David de Gea takes up position between the posts.

Meanwhile, Diogo Dalot struggled to make the most of the rare opportunity to prove himself, and Aaron Wan-Bissaka will slot back into his rightful place.

Similarly, Luke Shaw was exposed on the opposite wing on multiple occasions during the game against the Canaries, and this may be the perfect time for Brandon Williams to stake his claim in the starting lineup.

Fernandes is in the middle of developing a potent pivot with Paul Pogba in the midfield and it is unlikely Solskjaer will want to disrupt their burgeoning partnership.

The duo were instrumental in inspiring the 3-0 win over the Blades and will be looking to get more minutes under their belts, with Nemanja Matic coming back in to add some steel to the midfield trio.

Neither Jesse Lingard or Juan Mata managed to convince the critics, or the boss for that matter, as they were pulled off the pitch in the second half.

If anything, this has made the Norwegian’s job much easier, as he has a wealth of attacking talent to choose from.

Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford, who are the club’s joint top-scorers this season, will be eager to add to their combined tally of goals against the Seagulls.

However, Solskjaer has a dilemma on his hands, as Mason Greenwood hasn’t scored since the the Premier League restart, while Daniel James has been inconsistent throughout the season so far.

Brighton staged a surprise victory over Arsenal last week, which will no doubt be playing on the Norwegian’s mind. He may turn to James to ping in crosses from the right wing, as the 23-year-old has supplied the second-highest amount of assists this season.

Man United fans, do you think this is how Solskjaer will lineup against Brighton? Let us know down below!

The would-be owners of Newcastle United have revealed their transfer plans for the upcoming summer window pending the proposed takeover in the northeast.

According to The Athletic, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabian (KSA) group had held discussions about possible players to target at the beginning of the week and, more recently, in another remote conference focusing on the current squad and who may join them going forward into the new season.

One of the players discussed in the piece by Chris Waugh and James Horncastle was Valentino Lazaro, who is yet to learn as to whether he has a future at St. James’ Park following his loan spell from Inter Milan.

The 24-year old has enjoyed a relatively fine 2019/20 Premier League campaign so far, winning 1.7 of his duels per game and also averaging 0.8 tackles, 0.5 key passes and 0.5 successful dribbles per match, as per Sofascore.

Whether these kinds of figures are enough to persuade Steve Bruce to keep Lazaro is another question, but he may be one player on whom the prospective buyers would need to make a decision if their bid is approved by the Premier League.

The Austrian international will surely be looking to make a good final impression in the Tyneside club’s home encounter against champions Liverpool tomorrow if he is to seek a permanent move to the Magpies.

Nevertheless, the finer details of who the consortium are looking to buy and sell have not been revealed as of yet, but it has been confirmed that they are in talks about their plans for the upcoming transfer window if the £300m deal with Mike Ashley is given the green light.

Geordies, which players would you most like the Toon to buy? Comment below with your views!

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

If you were living under a rock for these past few weeks, and then saw Arsenal’s dismal 2-1 defeat to Brighton on Thursday night, you would be forgiven for thinking that Unai Emery was still in charge.

The Gunners looked every bit as bad as they have done all season, but this time it was Freddie Ljungberg who was the man in the dugout. And whilst it was only the Swede’s second game in charge of the north London side, the signs do not look good at all for either his, or his club’s prospects.

And quite simply, he has made mistakes befitting of his Spanish predecessor – none more so perhaps than the way he set his team up. Despite facing a side at home who were in the bottom half of the table heading into the game, Ljungberg appeared to be overly cautious with the way he wanted his team to play. Joe Willock’s inclusion in the starting line-up for the second game running was another sign of his faith in youth, but it was a selection that certainly didn’t help the Gunners. If anything, it actually hindered them.

The Arsenal boss peculiarly decided once again that Mesut Ozil would be better off playing on the flank, and this time from the left-hand side, leaving Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to play from the right. Whilst the intention of using Willock to press the ball high up the pitch is entirely understandable, the Gunners desperately needed a play-maker with the ability to stitch things together. They weren’t playing one of the so-called top teams where possession is at a premium. It was therefore no surprise to see the north London side’s attack look completely disjointed as they have done this entire season. As per Sofascore, they managed just two shots on target in the first-half, before substitutions and tactical switches helped bridge the gap a little.

But at one point in the first-half, Willock appeared to be playing as a second striker, and even ahead of Alexandre Lacazette. Playing Mesut Ozil in the number ten role, and then perhaps having Aubameyang from the left, or up front alongside the Frenchman would have made so much more sense. Instead, Ljungberg borrowed one Emery’s worst traits by setting his team up completely wrong before the match had even begun.

Meanwhile, Arsenal can’t afford to make this huge gamble by appointing this man.

How quickly things can change. Just a week after receiving criticism for his performance against Manchester United, Paulo Gazzaniga appears to be the toast of the town when it comes to Tottenham fans.

The Argentine was slammed for his role in the defeat to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side at Old Trafford in Jose Mourinho’s first return to the touch-line in Manchester. But against Wolves on Sunday afternoon, Gazzaniga came up trumps, with a commanding display in between the sticks.

Watch Tottenham Hotspur Videos With StreamFootball.tv Below

As per Sofascore, he made an impressive four saves – three of them being made inside his own area – and made one high claim too as he looked assured with his handling. And after watching him put in a fine showing, Spurs fans took to Twitter to voice their thoughts on their shot-stopper.

Many Spurs fans raised the conversation of whether Gazzaniga has perhaps even done enough to permanently displace first-choice goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, with one supporter in particular suggesting his distribution and dealing with crosses is better than the Frenchman.

With Lloris still set to be out for the foreseeable future, having Gazzaniga who can hold on to goalkeeping duties without too much fuss would be a major boost to Spurs. If he can maintain the level of performance that he showed against Wolves on Sunday, then they won’t be missing their French number one as much.

Meanwhile, Tottenham fans have had this surprising reaction to the news this ace has made his full return to fitness. 

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Sheffield Wednesday manager Garry Monk has spoken about their recent EFL charge for the first time this week as the side prepare for Saturday’s Championship outing.

What’s he said?

The Owls face league leaders West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns as they look to get back into playoff contention having slipped to eighth in the league, some three points from the top six.

Watch Sheffield Wednesday Videos With StreamFootball.tv Below

But last week, the club were charged for financial misconduct following the £60m sale of their Hillsborough stadium to owner Dejphon Chansiri.

In his pre-match press conference, the 40-year-old was asked about the situation, and he said:

“In terms of myself, the staff, the players, we have to control what we can which is the football and producing performances. The club will work with the EFL on those issues and we have to focus on our jobs.

“My job and duty is to focus on football. Nothing can stop us working hard every day on the training pitch. We all have to stick together, more than ever, it’s key that we all overcome every hurdle thrown at us.”

Worrying times ahead?

This level of uncertainty will surely have some sort of impact on the players as they have no solid idea on whether or not their season will be scuppered because of this, if it is, you’d imagine motivation levels would drop unless Monk has some sort of superpowers to stop that from happening.

According to one football finance expert, the Owls are likely to face a 12-point penalty at the very least while another transfer embargo or even expulsion can’t be thrown out of the occasion until the EFL say otherwise.

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Such repercussions would almost certainly derail their season as if a deduction was taken right now, Wednesday would go from playoff contenders to being in a relegation dogfight.

But what Monk says is right, there’s nothing he can do other than try to secure results on the pitch because, at the end of the day, it was Chansiri’s decision that has seen the club fall into this worrying situation.

Meanwhile, this is how Garry Monk can get the best out of one failing Wednesday favourite…

Another day, another Liverpool victory.

After beating city rivals Everton 5-2, the Reds have now won 14 out of their first 15 games in the Premier League, and they have also taken their unbeaten record to 32 matches in the Premier League, the most in their history. Who can stop the Anfield outfit?

Sadio Mane was on top form against the Toffees. He scored once and provided two assists, and the Everton defence were unable to cope with him throughout the night.

As you can imagine, there was plenty of love for him from the club’s supporters on the night as he put Marco Silva’s team to the sword.

It truly was a stunning display from the Senegal international, and he deserves all the love he gets. His pass for Divock Origi’s first strike, in particular, was absolutely outrageous.

Of course, Mane has just come off the back of a fourth-place finish in the Ballon d’Or. After this performance, there are some supporters who believe he should have beaten Lionel Messi to the trophy.

Indeed, performances like this will only give the fans even more ammo to argue that the former Southampton player should have taken the accolade home. To add to his 26 goals and five assists last term, he now has has 13 and seven this season respectively.

No clues: Can you name the season these iconic Liverpool images belong to?

However, not everyone was 100% happy with his display. At the end of the match, he had two fantastic chances to not only tie up the three points, but also to bag his hattrick. He somehow contrived to miss both of them, though. The fans were quick to point out his mistakes.

Indeed, he should have had more than the solitary goal he ended up with. But in the end, it didn’t matter. The red juggernaut marches on.

In other news, Tim Howard has his say on which is the best derby: Manchester City vs Manchester United or Liverpool vs Everton.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more… 

Sheffield Wednesday dropped out of the playoffs following their defeat to Blackburn Rovers on Saturday afternoon.

Garry Monk suffered just his second loss of his Owls tenure as the home side fought from behind to clinch all three points.

The south Yorkshire side surely thought they had won it seven minutes from time when substitute Jacob Murphy planted a header past the goalkeeper, but Tony Mowbray’s men bagged two goals in the final three minutes.

Wednesday were surprisingly without Barry Bannan so Kieran Lee was handed an opportunity to start in midfield while Julian Borner returned to the defence to partner Dominic Iorfa.

But it wasn’t an enforced decision that put the visitors at a disadvantage before a ball was even kicked, it was Monk himself who failed to set his team up in the correct manner for this test.

On the Chalkboard

Rovers had been in a torrid vein of form going into this match as they endured a run of six games without a victory, four of those being defeats.

In that same spell, they also conceded 13 goals, which is some going considering they have only let in 19 all season, per WhoScored.

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This apparent sign of defensive frailty should have given Monk a perfect chance to revert back to a system which utilises two upfront, but instead, he went for Steven Fletcher on his own.

And their top goalscorer struggled to make much of an impact as he was so isolated in attack.

The 32-year-old won seven aerial duels, more than any other Wednesday player, but this rarely contributed to a genuine chance with very little support around him.

So far this season, results like the one against Middlesborough have shown that a 4-4-2 system can pay dividends, especially when coming up against a side with an evident weakness.

The Owls netted four first-half goals in the space of just 30 minutes in that game, yet on Saturday, they could only muster up five shots on target from a total of 18.

Providing Fletcher with a partner couldn’t have been any more obvious, and Monk’s baffling omission of that has ultimately cost them regardless of how close they nearly came to clinching something.