All posts by z3u9t.icu

Liverpool are interested in re-signing Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling in what would be a sensational move, according to journalist Ekrem Konur.

The Lowdown: Sterling on the move?

The England international left the Reds for City back in the summer of 2015, just a few months before Jurgen Klopp took charge at Anfield. The 26-year-old has enjoyed an excellent career at the Etihad Stadium, scoring 116 goals in 307 appearances and winning three Premier League titles along the way.

Sterling has fallen out of favour of late, though, starting just three league games this season, and he could be allowed to leave if he wishes.

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The Latest: Liverpool linked with shock transfer

According to Konur on Twitter, Liverpool are keen on bringing the England international back to the club, in a deal which may come as a shock to many

The journalist tweeted: “Liverpool could make an offer to Manchester City for Raheem Sterling.”

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The Verdict: Won’t happen, but would be great

There will likely be plenty of Liverpool fans who won’t want Sterling back because of his acrimonious exit six years ago, but he could be a perfect addition for Jurgen Klopp. At 26, he still has years left in him, and his pace, directness and consistent end product would make him an ideal option in the final third.

There was a need to bring in another attacker at Anfield in the summer but it didn’t happen, and Sterling seems tailor-made to thrive in Klopp’s system.

That being said, it would be a huge surprise if he ended up back at Liverpool given the nature of his 2015 exit, with a move abroad perhaps more likely even though Klopp has hailed him as ‘brilliant’ in the past.

In other news, some Liverpool fans are fuming at a Reds injury update. Read more here.

Aston Villa have been particularly proactive in the January transfer window when it comes to bringing new players to the club such as Philippe Coutinho, Lucas Digne, Robin Olsen and Calum Chambers.

It now seems as though the Villa faithful can relax about the possibility of one of their current key players potentially leaving the club this month.

What’s the latest?

According to a recent Twitter post from The Athletic’s Villa journalist Gregg Evans, the Midlands club will not be selling Matty Cash during the current transfer window, after a report emerged claiming that the right-back was in talks with Atletico Madrid over a potential move to the reigning La Liga champions.

Evans confirmed that Diego Simeone’s side have an interest in Cash and will consider bidding for him when the summer transfer window opens, but the player will remain at Villa Park for the time being.

The Poland international joined Villa in 2020 from Championship club Nottingham Forest in a deal worth a reported £16m.

Since arriving at Villa Park, the defender has firmly cemented himself as the club’s first-choice right-back, with a total of 51 appearances under his belt across all competitions.

Gerrard will be buzzing

Cash has played more minutes in the Premier League than anyone else at Villa so far this season and earned himself an overall performance rating of 6.88/10 in the process, making him Villa’s fifth-highest rated player according to WhoScored. This highlights just how important the 24-year-old is to the team and why Steven Gerrard would be delighted to have him stay put for the remainder of the season.

Also, in a recent poll ran by Football FanCast, 91% of respondents suggested that Villa should not sell Cash in the summer, showing just how highly he is rated by the fans.

If Atletico make an official approach to Villa in the summer to sign their right-back, the Midlands club should do all they can to keep hold of him and see out the remainder of his contract at Villa Park, which isn’t set to expire until the summer of 2025.

For now, Gerrard must be buzzing to hear that the club have no intention of letting the 24-year-old leave in the final stages of the January transfer window.

In other news – Forget Chukwuemeka: Gerrard could land his own Grealish at Villa Park with “exceptional” starlet

Wolves have had a fairly quiet start to their January transfer window compared to other sides in the Premier League with Japanese midfielder Hayao Kawabe being the only player to arrive at Molineux so far this month.

However, it seems as though the Midlands club could be set to say goodbye to one of their current squad members, which wouldn’t please manager Bruno Lage.

What’s the news?

According to a recent report from Football Insider, fellow Premier League club West Ham United have made a “concrete” move to sign Wolves winger Adama Traore this month.

In the 152 appearances he’s made for the Old Gold since arriving from Middlesbrough in a deal worth a reported fee of £18m back in the 2018 summer transfer window, the 25-year-old has only managed to score ten goals and provide 18 assists along the way, which is far greater than what the club would have been hoping to get from him at this stage.

Potential disaster?

Despite the Spaniard reportedly being unhappy at Molineux with a long-term issue surrounding the possibility of him signing a new deal, Lage would certainly not want to lose one of his most dangerous attacking players midway through their season, especially as they aim to secure a European place.

Labelled as a “dynamic” player by former Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood, Traore has still managed to prove himself to be an important player for Lage in the Premier League this season with an overall rating of 6.96/10 from WhoScored, making him their third-highest rated player.

If Wolves were then to sell Traore this month, it could be a disaster for Fosun and Lage if the team were to miss out on a European finish this season as a result of the winger’s potential absence for the remainder of the campaign.

Considering West Ham are a rival for European football, it wouldn’t be a good idea at all to sell him to the Irons and if they eventually beat them to a place among Europe’s elite, Lage would understandably be rather angry.

With that in mind, it may be the best option to keep the £43k-per-week Traore until the end of the season and then try to secure a move away for him if he still doesn’t want to sign a new deal.

In other news: Lage could blow Wolves fans away by signing £27m-rated ace who is “better than Mbappe” – opinion

Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard could sign the club’s modern-day successor to John Carew in towering Genk striker Paul Onuachu.

What’s the story?

Reports in recent weeks had suggested that the Premier League side are interested in making a move for the 6 foot 7 man-mountain, and now, The Express and Star’s Luke Hatfield has thrown his backing behind a potential move.

He said: “Yeah, I mean, any player of that stature certainly does that (brings a presence to both penalty areas).”

Shades of John Carew

When Carew was in his pomp at Villa Park, Premier League defences were left bullied and terrified by the Norwegian’s incredible combination of power and technique.

Just like the former Valencia man – who scored 48 goals in 131 games for Villa – Onuachu is a real handful up front, with his natural height and physicality making him an unsurprising threat in the air especially.

Three of his 12 strikes this season in the Belgian top-flight have come from headers, while he wins a monstrous 62% of his duels in the air – to put that into context, Tyrone Mings wins just a touch more at just 66%.

The £19.8m-rated forward, was once dubbed a “goal king” by former Wimbledon star John Fashanu, while Alexander Scholz, Onuachu’s former teammate at FC Midtjylland, once claimed he was “impossible to beat.”

Onuachu’s profile makes him completely different to what Gerrard currently has at his disposal in the likes of Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings, and could give Villa a hugely imposing option off the bench or even to challenge for a starting spot.

It’s been so long since Villa fans watched Carew run riot at Villa Park. Onuachu’s arrival would give them another battering ram-like striker to idolise once again.

Meanwhile, Villa can finally replace Idrissa Gueye by signing this star…

This has been a seriously impressive winter for Aston Villa as Steven Gerrard sinks his teeth into a transfer market while manager of the Midlands club for the first time.

Lucas Digne and Philippe Coutinho are the marquee additions but in the mind of Johan Lange, there is more work to be done before the window slams shut.

What’s the word?

This has been a rather momentous 24 hours in the world of Villa’s recruitment team if you believe reports.

They are still very much interested in Yves Bissouma while an offer has even been tabled for Luis Suarez according to sources in Spain.

If that wasn’t enough, they’ve now been urged to make a move for another superstar plying his trade in the Spanish capital; Eden Hazard.

That’s the word of former Dutch star Johan Boskamp who told Het Nieuwsblad, via Sport Witness: “I really hope he changes clubs this winter

“Then maybe he can play 25 games in the next few months. Because if he stays at Real, I don’t think he will play many more games this season.

“And then the World Cup is coming up. It’s a tricky situation. I don’t dare say Chelsea are the answer.”

Boskamp continued: “Eden plays better in a team that has the ball. So I don’t know if he fits into coach Thomas Tuchel’s plans. He has also brought back Lukaku, and that is not going well either.

“They could also loan Eden to Aston Villa or another club. It doesn’t matter where; he just has to play. That’s the most important thing.”

Time to revive Hazard

The Belgian sensation has rather gone off the rails since swapping Chelsea for Real Madrid but there is no denying that he is still a remarkable player.

He has scored just five goals in 59 outings since a mega £89m move back in 2019 but the fact of the matter is that Hazard is someone who not only knows English football inside out, but is a player who performed spectacularly during his time at Chelsea.

The 31-year-old racked up a supremely high volume of 110 goals while contributing a seriously impressive tally of 92 assists as well.

In the process, Hazard won two Premier League titles, the FA Cup and also took home two Europa League trophies.

It was his performances that played a massive hand in securing those honours and he was met with some eye-catching praise as a result.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp hailed him as a “special” player, while others mentioned the forward in the same breath as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Furthermore, he has been compared to one of the greats we’ve seen on English shores. Christophe Dugarry once said of the Belgium international: “He’s faster than Zidane, more technique than Thierry Henry.”

Of course, his stock has fallen since those appraisals, so much so that Madrid reportedly accepted a €40m (£33m) proposal from Newcastle for his services, only for the player to reject them.

With that in mind, he may well reject any potential advance from Lange and co too, but a six-month stint alongside Coutinho is surely attractive for Hazard.

His star isn’t burning quite so bright as it was but he is still special and there is never any reason to question his technique.

A fifth deal of the winter when you consider incomings and outgoings, specifically Hazard, is unlikely for Villa but if a deal can be struck, he’d be quite the coup.

AND in other news, Sky Sports journo drops exciting AVFC transfer update on live TV, fans surely buzzing…

Liverpool striker Divock Origi is increasingly close to joining AC Milan this summer, with the Serie A club’s board giving the ‘green light’ for the move.

The Lowdown: Origi leaving this summer

The Belgian seems a certainty to move on from the Reds at the end of this season, with his current deal expiring at that point.

Origi has been a spectator for much of the 2021/22 campaign, making just five starts in all competitions and finding himself well down the attacking pecking order.

He has been constantly linked with a summer move to Milan and it looks like a matter of time until it is completed now.

The Latest: Milan move edges closer

According to TuttoMercatoWeb [via Sport Witness], ‘the green light has arrived from the board’ of Milan, as he looks set to seal a transfer to Italy.

It is claimed that ‘only the signature is missing’ and that an ‘agreement’ has been reached, bringing an end to an unforgettable spell at Liverpool for Origi.

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The Verdict: One last legendary moment?

The 26-year-old have may become more of a bit-part player by the year but he will always be remembered for scoring some truly iconic goals for the Reds, from Everton to Barcelona.

With Liverpool still battling for an unprecedented quadruple, the hope is that Origi has one last huge moment in him – one that further enhances his legend at Anfield.

It would be a fitting way to end for him, only strengthening the argument that he is one of the Reds’ all-time great cult heroes.

In other news, David Ornstein has dropped a key Liverpool transfer update. Read more here.

With the next January window on the horizon and Newcastle United currently finding themselves in a relegation battle, this could provide their new owners with the chance to improve their squad for the remainder of the campaign.

Taking this into account, it seems as though the Tyneside club are positioning themselves to make a swoop for a player who will be fairly familiar to a lot of Premier League followers.

What’s the news?

It has recently been reported by Juve Live (via Sport Witness) that Newcastle are in pole position to make a swoop for Juventus and former Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey during the upcoming January transfer window.

During his time with Arsenal, the midfielder, who is currently valued at £9m according to Transfermarkt, made a total of 371 appearances with the north London club across all competitions in which he managed to score 65 goals and provide 65 assists in the process with 40 of those goals coming in the 262 Premier League games he played in.

Since joining Juventus back in 2019, the 30-year-old, who has been described as an “intelligent” player by his teammate Federico Chiesa, has made 70 appearances for the Turin club across all competitions, scoring six goals and providing six assists along the way.

In terms of a potential move to Newcastle in January, this could be a great piece of business from the Tyneside club and their new owners to add a player to their current squad with such experience who could be a big help for some of their younger midfield options such as Joe Willock and Sean Longstaff.

Ramsey’s potential arrival could also provide Howe with the next version of Yohan Cabaye at St James’ Park, who often proved to be a goalscoring threat from midfield, having scored 18 goals and provided 14 assists in 93 appearances for the Toon between 2011 and 2014.

If the Wales international were to join Newcastle in January and become a useful attacking threat for Howe’s side, this could be just what they need to help push them away from the relegation zone and in the Premier League next season.

In other news – Offer on the table: PIF working to land NUFC deal for beast which will leave fans buzzing…

Rangers have experienced the highs and the lows of the transfer market over the years and Ross Wilson is the latest chief at Ibrox to navigate his way through the windows.

He has pulled off some impressive deals, including the signings of Leon Balogun, Ianis Hagi and Joe Aribo, but he has also been culpable for signings such as Cedric Itten and Amad Diallo. This illustrates how difficult it can be to have a high success rate as you can never guarantee that a player will come good.

Whilst you can look at moves over the years and judge whether they were the right ones or not, you can also look back at players the Gers wanted and failed to get.

One famous player the club missed out on a deal for was Barcelona teenager Lionel Messi. The Gers reportedly enquired about a swoop when he was 17 in 2004 and did not take it any further after they were unable to secure a loan, with the Glasgow giants seemingly not exploring the chances of a permanent move.

Thankfully, the Argentine winger didn’t amount to much and hasn’t been heard of on the world stage since… right?

Well… not exactly. The forward was valued at just £2.7m by Transfermakt at the time of Rangers’ enquiry, which – for some context – is less than Fashion Sakala (£3.6m), Amad Diallo (£16.2m) and Kemar Roofe (£3.6m) are worth now.

Since then, he has won just the seven Ballon d’Or trophies and scored 680 goals for Barcelona and PSG combined, whilst also providing 314 assists. He scored 474 goals and manage 216 assists in 520 La Liga outings for the Catalan giants, winning four Champions League titles along the way for the Spanish side.

By the age of 30, Transfermarkt valued Messi at a whopping £162m. Rangers, meanwhile, have a total squad value of £118.85m, which illustrates how big of a talent the Argentine icon has been throughout his career.

His former Barcelona teammate Carles Puyol previously dubbed him an “alien” and legendary manager Jose Mourinho called him the “god of football”, with his out-of-this-world career statistics backing up the praise. He has dominated football throughout his time on the pitch and Rangers missed out on the chance to watch him play for the Light Blues.

Imagine Lionel Messi in a Gers kit firing in goals with his left foot at Ibrox, even if it was just for one season… it is the stuff of dreams and it could have been a reality. One that got away…

AND in other news, Gvb now plotting Rangers swoop for “exceptional” monster, he’d be a bargain “diamond”…

An update has emerged on Sevilla gem Diego Carlos, regarding Newcastle United’s interest in his services…

What’s the talk?

According to The Telegraph, the Brazilian defender is one of a number of players on the club’s list of potential centre-back signings.

The report claims that Eddie Howe wants a mobile player in that position who can play with the ball at his feet, with Carlos on his list of targets.

Coloccini 2.0

Eddie Howe must complete a deal to sign the £40k-per-week La Liga defender as he could be a superb addition to the side.

He has averaged an impressive SofaScore rating of 7.12 for Sevilla this term, making 1.8 tackles and interceptions per game and winning 64% of his duels. This is an improvement from the 1.6 tackles and interceptions and duel success of 53% he managed last season, showing an improvement over the past 18 months.

Does a South American centre-back who loves a challenge remind you of anyone? By signing Carlos from the Spanish side, Howe could land the next Fabricio Coloccini for Newcastle. The Argentine defender played over 200 times for the Magpies in the top-flight and the ex-Bournemouth coach could find the club’s new long-term defensive boss this window.

Spanish football analyst Domagoj Kostanjšak previously lauded the Sevilla destroyer, saying:

“He’s a really physical player – he’s built like a tank and they don’t call him ‘The Beast’ for no reason. He’s really good in the air and he’s decent on the ball as well – you have to be under Julen Lopetegui.

“He’s been in my top three or four centre-backs in Spain this season, along with Raphael Varane and Inigo Martinez – he’s been a bit of a revelation. He’s playing the best football of his career and he immediately settled in. I would say there is a shade of Kalidou Koulibaly about him – not the same quality, of course, but I would compare him to him.”

This suggests that he has the physical strength required to deal with Premier League forwards. Kostanjšak’s comment on Carlos’ ball-playing skills also shows that he fits the profile of player Howe wants for his side, as he is capable of playing out from the back and starting attacks with his passes. 

Therefore, he could be the perfect signing for Newcastle in January. He has proven himself to be a top performer in La Liga and could arrive to help the Magpies to more clean sheets in the second half of the season, with the potential to be at the club for many years to come – much like Coloccini was.

AND in other news, Howe can seal “absolute treat” for NUFC in swoop for monster who’s “Beckenbauer level”…

As per Football Insider, former England number one Paul Robinson believes that Nathaniel Phillips is more likely to be allowed to leave Liverpool than Joe Gomez, amid strong interest from West Ham.

The Lowdown: West Ham’s centre-back crisis

West Ham are now running short in the defensive department due to injuries sustained by centre-backs Angelo Ogbonna and Kurt Zouma.

Ogbonna is expected to be out for the rest of the season after suffering from a cruciate ligament rupture on the 7th of November, whilst Zouma sustained a hamstring tendon injury during the Hammers’ 3-2 victory against Chelsea.

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The 27-year-old Frenchman is especially important to West Ham’s defensive success, as he leads the team’s statistics with 5.2 clearances and 0.5 offsides won per game. The Italian defender also deploys the high-line to perfection, sitting second with 0.4 offsides won per game.

As a result of this huge blow to David Moyes’ plans, Liverpool player Phillips has been shortlisted as a January transfer target, and it is believed that a fee around £12m would be enough to secure his services.

The Latest: Robinson reacts to Phillips links

As reported by Football Insider, Robinson, a regular pundit on Sky Sports, believes that there is more chance of Phillips leaving Liverpool in the January window than Gomez. The former Spurs keeper said: “Phillips has got more chance of leaving than Gomez has, that’s for sure.

“I still think a deal will be difficult to do though given the injury crisis Liverpool had last season.

“Phillips was brilliant at the end of last season but whether he is of the same level as Zouma and Ogbonna, I would question that.

“It’s an area that Moyes probably need to address though.”

The Verdict: Phillips a possibility

The Sunday Mirror have reported (as shared by Football Insider) that the Reds will block any attempt at luring Gomez away from Anfield.

However, it is understood that Jürgen Klopp will listen to offers for the 6 foot 3 Phillips, who is deemed to be lower in the pecking order at Liverpool. This could open up the possibility of the 24-year-old making the switch in January.

The Englishman may not be as technically gifted as Zouma and Ogbonna, exemplified by not having made a key pass when playing in the League cup this season, but Klopp has hailed his heading ability, saying that “in the air, he’s a monster!”

Therefore, Phillips may just be the perfect addition to help reduce West Ham’s defensive crisis and simply add a bit more depth and solidity where Moyes needs it most.