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Ange Postecoglou has dropped a teasing hint on Celtic’s remaining business in the January transfer window.

What’s been said?

In recent comments cited by Football Scotland, the 56-year-old Bhoys boss suggested that, despite his earlier claim that Celtic’s business this winter was all but done, the Hoops could still look to get more deals done before the closure of the current market on January 31.

Speaking about the Parkhead side’s potential business, Postecoglou said: “There still could be some things that happen.”

Nicholson must now act

While it is true that Celtic have already been particularly active in the January transfer window, having already brought no less than five new faces to Parkhead this month, following the recent news that both Kyogo Furuhashi and Callum McGregor could be set for lengthy spells on the sidelines, as well as new signing Daizen Madea being called up to international duty, Postecoglou has once again been left short of options in a number of positions within his first-team squad.

Indeed, with Maeda linking up with the Japan squad and Kyogo still unavailable due to a hamstring injury, the Bhoys boss has been left with only Giorgos Giakoumakis as a senior option at centre-forward until at least the start of February – with the Greece international having only played 237 minutes of Premiership football this season due to his own injury troubles.

Meanwhile, with David Turnbull also sidelined with a knock, in addition to both Yosuke Ideguchi and Liel Abada picking up injuries alongside McGregor in the 2-1 Scottish Cup win over Alloa Athletic last weekend, the 56-year-old has also been left short in central midfield and on the wings.

And, with an incredibly important run of fixtures coming up for the Hoops, including the Old Firm clash on February 2, it is clear that despite having already sealed five signings this month, Michael Nicholson simply must make further moves this January in order to give Postecoglou the best possible chance of keeping pace in the Premiership title race.

In other news: Ange can land dream McGree alternative with Celtic swoop for “complete” 23 G/A dynamo

West Brom trio Jake Livermore, Karlan Grant and Jordan Hugill all struggled for the Baggies in their 0-0 draw away to Barnsley on Friday evening.

Valerien Ismael returned to his former club but failed to pick up all three points, on a forgettable night at Oakwell.

The draw leaves West Brom two points adrift of second-placed Bournemouth in the Championship, having played one game more than their promotion rivals before their lunch-time clash with Middlesbrough .

Using statistical experts Sofascore, here’s a look at the three players who struggled most for the Baggies, of those who were on the pitch for at least 45 minutes.

Jake Livermore – 6.4

Livermore is now a hugely experienced footballer but he didn’t enjoy a good night against Barnsley, struggling to impose himself in midfield and deservedly drawing criticism from fans.

The 32-year-old managed no key passes at Oakwell, playing a part in the visitors failing to break down their stubborn opponents.

Not only that but Livermore won zero per cent of his four aerial and ground duels and was guilty of losing possession a total of nine times.

Karlan Grant  6.4

Grant was another who was far from his best against the Tykes.

The forward was almost twice as wasteful at Livermore, giving the ball away a sizeable 17 times, and only one out of six crosses were deemed to be accurate.

Grant missed one big chance, too, proving costly as West Brom failed to find the net, while he also won just three of eight total duels.

Jordan Hugill – 6.5

Hugill was the third player who struggled most on Friday night, leading the line unsuccessfully for Ismael’s men while losing the ball six times.

Like Grant, the 29-year-old was guilty of missing a big chance during the game and only enjoyed 29 touches in the entire match – 12 fewer than his own goalkeeper, Sam Johnstone.

Hugill also played no key passes and won only 7 of his 18 duels, taking the disappointing average of the trio’s contests with opposing players to a 33 per cent success rate (10/30).

None of the three players mentioned even managed to make a single tackle between them, summing up a below-par evening for West Brom.

In other news, some West Brom fans have hailed one exciting young player. Find out who it is here.

Many Wolves fans have been left buzzing over the latest news involving Dion Sanderson.

As per the official website of the Molineux faithful, they have now recalled the central defender back from his loan spell at Birmingham City.

He has certainly done well there, ranking highly among his teammates in terms of average interceptions, clearances and blocks per game in the Championship this season (WhoScored).

With Romain Saiss now representing Morocco at the African Cup of Nations (AFCON), and both Willy Boly and Yerson Mosquera remaining injured, Sanderson will now give Bruno Lage another handy option for the rest of the term.

At 22 years of age, the Englishman still ha so much potential to fulfil, and it seems fans are extremely excited he will get the chance to continue that development with his parent club.

Wolves fans on Sanderson news

These supporters of the Midlands club were left buzzing as the news on Sanderson was shared on Twitter, with one WWFC supporter hailing the club’s decision to recall the defender as ‘excellent’:

“Excellent. Needs to work on not pulling shirts but he’s got the potential to be a fantastic Wolves player.”

Credit: @PeppiattColin

“Welcome back! Excited for this”

Credit: @pjsaturday63

“This is a great call! Killer, Coady and Dion! It’s magic, you know!”

Credit: @JamesJWYork

“So happy to see this news, come on @SandowRs Go smash it!!! We all behind you!!!”

Credit: @Marksav8pesc

“Bigggggg”

Credit: @ashstain99

“DION DION DION”

Credit: @RA_04NKS

In other news, find out who Wolves have now submitted a bid for here!

Tottenham Hotspur could look to offload struggling midfield star Dele Alli in the January transfer window, according to Daily Star journalist Paul Brown…

What’s the word?

Speaking to GIVEMESPORT this week, the reporter said:

“I think the club as a whole, if they get the right offer for Dele Alli, they probably would take it.”

During the last winter window, the 25-year-old was linked with a move away from north London but that failed to materialise, though other reports suggested that chairman Daniel Levy was against such a decision.

He appears to have changed his tune since, with Football Insider suggesting that he is available for a transfer due to him being ‘difficult to manage’ behind the scenes.

Time’s up?

It has certainly been a fall from grace for the 37-time England international, who has not been called up to Gareth Southgate’s squad since June 2019.

Back in 2016/17, the former MK Dons starlet emerged as one of the Premier League’s biggest and brightest young talents, off the back of 22 goals and 13 assists across all competitions, earning some comparisons to top-flight greats Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes.

But in recent years, Alli has struggled to replicate such exploits and has been on a downward spiral ever since ex-manager Jose Mourinho was seen lambasting him as “lazy” in more colourful language in the club’s ‘All or Nothing’ docuseries that was broadcast on Amazon.

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Since the start of the 2019/20 campaign, nearly two-and-a-half years ago, the £27m-rated playmaker has provided 12 goals and ten assists across major competitions, via WhoScored. A fraction of what he managed in that one season.

His latest appearance in a Lilywhites shirt drew some scathing reviews, including one from former midfielder Jamie O’Hara, who unleashed on Alli after their humiliating 2-1 defeat to NS Mura last week.

“Some of the players – and I’ll name them as well – Doherty, Ndombele, Dele Alli, Davinson Sanchez were absolutely shocking. They should be ashamed of their performances tonight. I don’t think you’ll see a few of these in a Spurs shirt ever again.”

Indeed, these are thoughts echoed by much of the Spurs faithful. When asked by Football FanCast recently, some 86% of nearly 300 supporters believe the long-serving star has no future under Antonio Conte.

If the north Londoners can garner some sort of fee for him in the upcoming transfer windows, then it could seriously bolster the Italian’s playing squad and as such, they must surely be buzzing by the news that he could be sold in the near future.

AND in other news, Spurs set for game-changing boost amid behind-scenes insider claim…

Celtic aren’t expected to make a move for Gremio midfielder Fernando Henrique, according to Football Scotland.

The Lowdown: Henrique links

Reports last month suggested that the Hoops were set to bring Henrique to Scotland in the New Year.

The Daily Record relayed reports from Brazil who labelled a Parkhead switch as ‘likely’, even though the 20-year-old hasn’t featured in Gremio’s last 22 league games.

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Henrique even follows Celtic on Instagram, of course leading to more speculation, but it seems as if a move to Scotland isn’t on the cards after all.

The Latest: Not interested…

Football Scotland shared an update regarding Henrique on Wednesday morning.

They claimed that links over a move to Celtic are ‘wide of the mark’, stating that Ange Postecoglou’s side are no longer interested in the central midfielder.

The Verdict: Focus on Japanese trio…

Celtic have a lot on their plate at this moment in time ahead of the January transfer window opening, with the Hoops reportedly looking to bring in three Japanese stars.

Midfielders Reo Hatate and Yosuke Ideguchi are two of those, and should Celtic land the pair, then a move for Henrique may no longer be needed.

Forward Daizen Maeda is also on Celtic’s radar, with the club also looking to make Jota’s loan permanent. So, this update on Henrique, who hasn’t kicked a ball in recent months, shouldn’t come as a shock, and shouldn’t cause much heartache for Hoops fans either with so many other targets lined up.

In other news: Celtic set to lose millions on colossus who wants out of Parkhead in January. 

The previous summer window saw a number of incoming and outgoing transfer deals taking place with the likes of Danny Ings, Mario Lemina, Jannik Vestergaard and Ryan Bertrand, among others, leaving the club in a mass exodus.

Meanwhile, the likes of Adam Armstrong, Romain Perraud and Lyanco, among others, made the move to St. Mary’s.

One player that made a permanent transfer to Southampton in the summer that the club hit the jackpot with is 18-year-old right-back Valentino Livramento.

Since joining the Saints for £5m from fellow Premier League side Chelsea, a side who did everything they could to keep hold of him in the summer according to Thomas Tuchel, the teenager has played the full 90 minutes in all of Southampton’s Premier League games so far this season apart from their 0-0 draw against Manchester City where he was taken off after 86 minutes after picking up a yellow card just two minutes earlier.

Livramento has also managed to score one goal and provide one assist in that time, proving to be an exceptional threat in offensive areas.

This shows just how important Livramento, who is currently valued at £10.8m according to Transfermarkt, has made himself for the Saints and how much Ralph Hasenhuttl rates him at such a young age.

The manager labelled the full-back back in August as a “fantastic young player”, and the fact that he is currently rated as Southampton’s second highest-rated player with an overall season rating of 7.02/10, according to WhoScored, further highlights what a great bit of business it was from the club to sign him.

However, with Livramento revealing last month that he would not rule out a potential move back to Chelsea in the future, an understandable admission given how he’s a product of their youth academy, we feel that it should be Southampton’s long term priority to keep him on the south coast for as long as possible.

His current contract isn’t set to expire until 2026 but given the talent he’s already shown in his short time at St. Mary’s and the fact that he has a lot of potential within him to develop and grow, it would be somewhat of a disaster to lose him.

While it may still be early days in his time at Southampton, it would be nothing short of a catastrophe for the club if they end up losing such a talented player before his current contract runs out.

He has proven to be an exciting addition to the Saints ranks and he could well be the difference between beating the drop next May.

In other news: Get rid: Ralph must let go of £18k-p/w forgotten Saints figure, his time’s running out – opinion

Newcastle United are reportedly now in the mix with some of the giants of the UEFA Champions League to sign Darwin Nunez.

The Lowdown: Potential is there

Nunez is a player with a lot of potential at 22 years of age, and his agent Edgardo Lasalvia believes that he is ‘destined for great things’.

Lasalvia also claims that he has ‘a lot of things in common’ with Manchester United striker and fellow Uruguay international Edinson Cavani, a man who has scored an abundance of goals wherever he has been.

Nunez has eight goals and two assists in 13 games in total over all competitions so far this season for Benfica, including three in four in the Champions League (Transfermarkt), promising to become one of the best forwards in Europe if that UCL record is anything to go by.

The Latest: In the mix

As per Record (via Sport Witness), the St. James’ Park faithful are now ‘tightening the siege’ for Nunez, and are among a number of top Champions League clubs in the race for his signature.

AC Milan, Inter, Juventus, Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and FC Barcelona are also named a potential destinations for him, but he would only be allowed to leave at the end of the season, unless a club pays his astronomical release clause in January.

That currently stands at a whopping €150m (£125.9m), and would have to be paid in full if he is to leave in the winter transfer window, so it’s safe to assume this is one for the summer watchlist.

The Verdict: Wait and see

With the predicament that they find themselves in, the North East club may want to wait until the summer before they assess whether they should make a move for Nunez.

If they avoid relegation from the Premier League down to the Championship, then a move should be plausible, providing that they can get him for a reasonable price, and not that mega big release clause.

With his goalscoring record and bustling style of play, Nunez would frustrate and hassle defenders in the top flight, demonstrated when Arsenal left-back Kieran Tierney fumed at him in a UEFA Europa League game last season after going down under his challenge.

Nonetheless, the Tyneside outfit need to hope that one of the huge clubs in the chase do not end up paying his clause in January, so that he is still available in the summer.

In other news, find out which £175,000-per-week ‘champion’ has been ‘offered’ to NUFC here!

Sunderland will be looking to bounce back from their 1-0 defeat to Charlton on Saturday as they travel away to face QPR in the League Cup on Tuesday.

The Black Cats succumbed to a loss at the weekend as Jayden Stockley scored the only goal for the Addicks, sending Sunderland down to fourth in the table.

They now have a chance to regain momentum and gain some confidence as they face a Championship side in QPR, with the chance of progressing through to the fifth round of the competition.

Lee Johnson could make some changes to his team to freshen the team up and give other players a chance to show that they deserve to start in the league. As part of this, one player he must ruthlessly axe from the team is attacking midfielder Alex Pritchard.

The former Huddersfield and Norwich playmaker recorded the joint-lowest SofaScore rating (6.4) for Sunderland against Charlton as turned in a worrying display in midfield. Per the same source, he lost 85.7% (6/7) of his duels on the pitch, whilst failing to make a single tackle, interception, block or clearance.

This shows that he was a lightweight in his 50/50 battles and did not put the hard work in defensively to win possession back and get his side back on the front foot.

On the ball, he was inconsistent. Via SofaScore, he created three chances for his teammates as he showed off his quality to open up defences in the final third. However, he also had a dribble success rate of 0% and gave possession away 20 times from 52 touches, whilst also completing three of his eight attempted crosses and long balls.

Therefore, he was not able to prove that he can be reliable off the ball or on the ball. Despite showing flashes of quality, the overall standard of his performance was not good enough and that was reflected in the final score as Charlton won the match.

Johnson must axe Pritchard from the XI for the encounter with QPR after proving himself to be a liability to the team, giving him the chance to get his head down in training and focus on next weekend’s League One game against Rotherham. Hopefully, it will fuel the fire inside the midfielder and encourage him to up his levels ahead of playing a starring role against the Millers.

AND in other news, Possession lost 18x: Sunderland dud with 25% dribble success had a ‘mare vs Charlton…

Tottenham Hotspur have informed their players to prepare for the arrival of Antonio Conte.

What’s the talk?

That’s according to The Telegraph journalist Matt Law, who revealed in a post on Twitter that Daniel Levy and Fabio Paratici have told the playing staff to expect the former Juventus, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Italy manager to be leading training on Tuesday morning.

In his tweet, Law said: “Tottenham’s players have been told to prepare for the fact Conte could take training tomorrow.”

Fans will be buzzing

Considering just how impressive Conte’s CV in football management is, the news that the 52-year-old could be leading proceedings at the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club Training Ground as soon as tomorrow is sure to have left fans buzzing.

Indeed, being appointed at Juventus after mediocre seventh-placed Serie A finishes in both of the two seasons prior to his arrival, Conte not only led the team he captained as a player to the Scudetto during his first season in charge, he did so without seeing his side lose a single game.

The Italian then repeated his title-winning heroics in the following two campaigns, before leaving Turin for the previously underachieving Italian national side, who he led to the quarter-finals of Euro 2016 – losing 7-6 to Germany on penalties.

After leaving the Azzurri in the summer of 2016, Conte went on to experience his first taste of English football the following season, rather remarkably guiding a Chelsea team who had finished the previous season in 10th place to the Premier League crown in his debut campaign – picking up 93 points along the way.

One more less successful season at Chelsea followed, before the 52-year-old returned to Italy, taking over an Inter Milan outfit who had not finished higher than fourth in the league since 2010/11.

However, once again, Conte exceeded expectations in his first season in Milan, narrowly missing out on the Scudetto with a second-place finish, before securing the Nerazzurri’s first league title – and subsequently ending his beloved Juvetnus’ domestic dominance – in 10 years in the 2020/21 campaign.

As such, with Conte very much appearing to possess the ability to lift a team out of a decline and rather rapidly bringing them success – a trait that is much-needed in Tottenham’s next manager – the news that Conte looks close to becoming Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor would seem to bode very well for Spurs indeed.

In other news: Journo issues teasing 3 word Spurs manager update after Nuno sack, fans surely buzzing

Leeds United are plotting a January bid for Club Brugge winger Noa Lang but are set to face competition from Arsenal for his signature.

What’s the story?

Reports in recent months had suggested that the 22-year-old was a major target for Marcelo Bielsa’s side, with The Athletic’s Phil Hay revealing that the Whites really like him as a player.

Once the Premier League season had started, it was claimed by Football Insider that Leeds remain interested in Lang and have had scouts keeping tabs on his performances over the course of this campaign ahead of a potential move.

Dutch publication Voetbal24 have now suggested (via Sport Witness) that the likes of Leeds, Arsenal and AC Milan want to sign Lang, with a very good chance an offer will come in during the January transfer window.

Dribbles more than Raphinha

After a stellar 2020/21 season with Brugge – the 22-year-old netted an impressive 17 times across all competitions – it’s no surprise that Leeds are keen on finally getting their man in January.

Dubbed a “phenomenon” by Belgian sports journalist Peter Vandenbempt, Lang made history when he became the first player in 60 years to mark his debut with a hat-trick for Ajax, prompting Erik ten Hag to wax lyrical about him.

The Amsterdam club’s manager said: “He showed (his talent) today and I am very happy with that. Noa shows (his ability) it during training and during the reserve matches. And today he has also clearly shown it at the highest level too.”

Leeds fans have already seen the impact that an exciting new winger can have on the club after Raphinha’s signing last year, but when you compare the Brazilian’s stats to Lang’s this season, it’s the latter who fares better.

The Brugge star has seven goal contributions compared to Raphinha’s two, while he has also averaged three times as many dribbles as the Leeds man – a real indication of the directness with which he plays and the end product he already seems to have.

Leeds fans will surely be excited at potentially signing him in January.

Meanwhile, Phil Hay has delivered an update on this former key figure at Elland Road…