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One of the sagas of Leeds United’s summer transfer window looks set to resurface ahead of January…

What’s the word?

According to Calciomercato, Udinese have slapped a €30m (£27m) price tag on their coveted midfield sensation Rodrigo De Paul in anticipation for the upcoming transfer window.

They also claim that Inter Milan have entered the race to sign him as a potential replacement for their outcast, Christian Eriksen.

Earlier in the week, JuveLive covered a story noting the Serie A champions’ interest but suggest that it was indeed the Yorkshireman that were closest to signing him, offering that aforementioned figure, which was not enough to tempt Udinese into a sale then.

Victor Orta may well reignite the speculation next month if they really were that keen on landing him.

Forget De Paul

But ultimately, the Whites may no longer need his services thanks to the form of one Marcelo Bielsa favourite.

If De Paul was signed, then the player at most risk was always going to be Mateusz Klich as the pair are strikingly similar but with the Polish engima standing out as one of Leeds’ players of the season thus far, a move for the £27m Udinese man must be avoided.

The 30-year-old has started all ten of their Premier League matches this season, delivering two goals and three assists whilst also averaging 1.8 tackles, 1.8 key passes, 1.2 shots and 2.8 long balls per game, via WhoScored.

Industrious, to say the least.

On the contrary, Udinese have struggled immensely in the Italian top-flight as they find themselves in 13th place, just four points above the drop zone. Not even De Paul’s influence has helped their cause this term.

Orta splashed the cash in the summer and were still yet to even see one of the players he signed in Diego Llorente, so it may be wise to hold back pulling the trigger on the Argentine.

It would be a pretty pointless move considering the exploits of Klich – we know how much he’s adored by Bielsa as he started 45 of 46 matches on their way to clinching the Championship title.

The Whites chief claimed just last week that the 2018 arrival “can play in all the best teams in the world” whilst back in February, he said: “He cannot do better. Klich is a player with very, very much skills physically.”

Perhaps some of that money could be gifted to the €15m (£13.5m) dynamo in the form of a contract extension, he certainly deserves more than the £45k-per-week he’s currently on, especially when the likes of Gjanni Alioski (£55k-per-week), Tyler Roberts (£47k-per-week) and Helder Costa (£70k-per-week) are earning considerably more.

Who needs Rodrigo De Paul when you have the “intelligent” Mateusz Klich?

AND in other news,ÂExclusive: Marlon Harewood claims Leeds must recruit in this area in January…

West Bromwich Albion have been tipped to sign an interesting name before the transfer deadline by former Hawthorns legend Kevin Phillips…

What’s the word?

Speaking to West Brom News, the 47-year-old believes AFC Bournemouth forward Joshua King should be targeted over mooted top target Karlan Grant.

He said:

“I like King. If you give me him as an option over Islam Slimani and Karlan Grant, I would take Joshua King all day long. That’s someone, who if he is on their radar, I would certainly make enquiries for. If a Premier League club comes knocking on the door now, I would seriously consider it.”

Meanwhile, The Sun believe the Cherries would be willing to let the 28-year-old leave for a cut-price £10m.

Perfect solution

This could certainly be the wiser decision to make if the Baggies’ Luke Dowling and co listen to Phillips’ advice, especially as King is available on the cheap.

He’s also far more experienced in the top-flight having enjoyed a good five seasons at Bournemouth where he was a frequent and prolific goalscorer.

The Norweigan international has never scored fewer than six goals in a Premier League campaign with a career-best of 16 coming in the 2016/17 season, per WhoScored.

Despite their relegation last season, King still contributed to ten goals, averaging two dribbles, 1.2 key passes and one shot per game whilst also playing across the front three and in the hole too.

It’s no wonder that Eddie Howe lauded his exciting dynamo as a “complete package” as he’s “outstanding physically, technically and mentally”.

Grant is yet to feature in the Premier League in his career and is commanding a whopping £18m from Huddersfield Town, so there’s surely only one smart answer to finding the solution to Bilic’s striker nightmare.

£10m for a proven goalscorer in King. It’s a no-brainer.

AND in other news, West Brom must launch £6m move for PL winger…

According to The Daily Mirror, Wolves are interested in signing Liverpool star Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in this summer transfer window.

What’s the word?

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side have already done business with the Reds in recent days, with Diogo Jota making the big-money to Anfield.

Now, The Daily Mirror claim that the Reds’ capture of Bayern Munich midfielder Thiago could force Oxlade-Chamberlain into a move away from Merseyside, and that Wolves hope to convince him.

Spot the fact from the fib: Are these Premier League records true or false?

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The report further adds Jurgen Klopp’s side will look to recoup much of the £25m they paid Arsenal to initially sign him back in the summer of 2017 if they are to sell the England international.

Nuno’s dream signing

Much like one of their earlier summer transfer targets, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Oxlade-Chamberlain is equally as versatile, but crucially, has been playing in a side that has been competing for every possible major honour in European football in his time at Liverpool.

Able to play in central midfield, as well as even as a wing-back, full-back or winger, the 27-year-old would bring a wealth of experience and give Wolves another string to their bow.

Nuno could better rotate his squad having someone like Oxlade-Chamberlain in his ranks, and he has got all the physical attributes to be a real force for the Molineux side.

Speaking back in October after his goal-scoring display against Genk in the Champions League, Rio Ferdinand said: “You can tell Klopp loves him and he’s desperate to get him in the team somehow. He offers something totally different to the likes of Milner, Wijnaldum, Fabinho and Henderson. He can dribble past people which is hard for a midfielder. It’s great to see him get back in. I like the way that he gets into those positions.

“Once he gets into those pockets in behind the opposition’s midfield he can dribble and shoot. He’s a fantastic footballer and it’s all about decision making there. He offers something totally different in the midfield for Liverpool.”

If Wolves can convince Liverpool to sell Oxlade-Chamberlain, then they would be getting a major coup.

Tottenham Hotspur could sell seven players to fund Jose Mourinho’s summer spending spree, reports say. 

Tottenham have signed Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg from Southampton for a fee in excess of their original £15m opening offer, via the BBC.

Now the Lilywhites have turned their attention to looking at other new recruits as Mourinho is ready to ring changes in the summer.

According to Football Insider, Spurs need to sell before the club can make some major signings, while Kyle Walker-Peters has joined the Saints for a reported £12m to bring his time in north London to an end.

Daniel Levy is trying to sell Serge Aurier to AC Milan after he apparently agreed to move to the San Siro as he has no intentions of signing a new deal.

The Portuguese reportedly wants to sign an attacking midfielder, a centre-back, a right-back, as well as a backup striker for Harry Kane and goalkeeper to provide cover for Hugo Lloris.

Mourinho must sell the deadwood in order to raise some much-needed transfer funds, which includes defenders Juan Foyth, Danny Rose and Cameron Carter-Vickers, while Erik Lamela is also considered surplus to requirements.

Spurs have entered into negotiations with Inter Milan to sort out a deal for Tanguy Ndombele, as he wants to leave north London after falling out with Mourinho. Nevertheless, Daniel Levy may regret letting him leave as he could end up fulfilling his full potential elsewhere.

Kane suffered a torn hamstring during the defeat to Southampton last season and Spurs struggled to score goals during his lengthy absence. Finding a forward who is capable of providing him with competition and cover is paramount in the transfer market. The Lilywhites have been linked to several top-class strikers, including England international Callum Wilson and Napoli’s Arkadiusz Milik, who could be available for a cut-price deal.

Tottenham fans, do you think Mourinho will make the signings he needs to compete for trophies next season? 

The Daily Record has suggested that Glasgow Rangers make a move for Ilia Gruev after his contract at Werder Bremen recently came to an end.

The 20-year-old made the move to Bremen in 2015, and has played for their youth teams ever since. He has previously been compared to Fernando Redondo, but he failed to make a single appearance for the Bundesliga outfit, and he is now available on a free transfer. Whilst he is still without experience at the highest level, he could be a no-risk signing for Steven Gerrard.

Although he did not play for Bremen’s first team in the previous campaign, he did appear for their second team in the Regionalliga Nord. In 15 matches, he managed two goals and four assists, which is not a bad return for someone who is primarily a defensive midfielder. Bremen have had a very difficult term in the Bundesliga in the previous campaign, only staying up via the relegation play-off against Heidenheim, and even then only on away goals – manager Florian Kohfeldt had little opportunity to give inexperienced players their first opportunities in professional football.

Now out of contract, and with wages that are unlikely to be through the roof, Gruev could be a bargain for Ross Wilson and co at Ibrox. He is still very young and could certainly improve and with a Transfermarkt value of £180,000, taking him for nothing would surely be decent business.

Let us know what you think below!

Newcastle United boss Steve Bruce has given a fresh injury update on Florian Lejeune as he spoke in his press conference (via ChronicleLive) ahead of the Tyneside club’s Premier League clash against Eddie Howe’s AFC Bournemouth side this evening.

As per the outlet, the coach said that the defender has “picked up a nasty thigh injury” from when the Magpies played Hull City in a friendly game behind closed doors last month in preparation for the 2019/20 season to restart.

Bruce’s team won that match, 2-0 with Lejeune incidentally getting himself on the scoresheet alongside Allan Saint-Maximin (as per Vavel).

Nevertheless, the central defender could potentially be out for the rest of the campaign, which would be a blow to the Toon – in his six Premier League matches this season, Lejeune has won four duels per game and also averaged 2.2 clearances, 1.7 interceptions and 1.3 tackles per game, according to Sofascore.

He may not have start every upcoming match, but the 29-year old could be a useful player to have on the bench if one of Newcastle’s centre-backs gets injured, or even tactically if Bruce wants to see the match out and put on an extra body to help defensively.

However, it seems possible that Lejeune may miss the rest of the season, meaning that the manager will have to rely on the likes of Jamaal Lascelles and Federico Fernandez to stay fit in the heart of his defence.

Only time will tell whether Lejeune missing will make any real difference, but his absence could be a real blow for Newcastle.

Geordies, is Lejeune’s injury a major blow to Newcastle? Comment below with your views!

From Francis Jeffers to Andrey Arshavin, Arsenal have really made some awful signings over the years, especially under the 22-year reign of Arsene Wenger.

There’s so many that we struggled to fit them all into this list and had to leave out some strong contenders!

There is hope amongst Arsenal fans that, under Mikel Arteta, things might change for the better in the near future and perhaps there might be a more successful transfer strategy put in place. If there can be more Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s and fewer Denis Suarez’s then it can only be a good thing, right?

Anyway, here’s Arsenal’s 20 worst signings of the Premier League era so far…

Mikael Silvestre

We start with a great player who the Gunners just decided to prise away from Manchester United way too late in his career, versatile French defender Mikael Silvestre.

The 31-year-old at the time of his Emirates Stadium arrival really struggled to have the same impact he had at Old Trafford in north London and featured a mere 43 times in two years.

Andre Santos

Arsene Wenger scouted the former Brazil international at Fenerbache and decided to take a near £5m punt on the left-sided star, it was one that failed to pay off with Santos only able to provide three goals and no assists in 33 outings.

He also hardly endeared himself to the red army, see Robin van Persie incident.

John Jensen

Curly-haired Danish 1992 UEFA European champion John Jensen became something of a cult hero at Highbury right at the beginning of the Premier League era.

However, that doesn’t really take away from the fact that he never really delivered in the tricky pre-Wenger period for the North Londoners and he was signed as a result of an agent giving George Graham a back-hander – at least he’ll always have that seminal goal against Queens Park Rangers to remember.

Denilson

When the Gunners forked out £3.4m to sign little-known 19-year-old Brazilian Denilson in the summer of 2006, there was a feeling of excitement and bemusement around the club.

The latter one turned out to be the more appropriate reaction.

Despite making over a century-and-a-half of Arsenal appearances, the central defensive midfielder never really lived up to his potential and comfortably makes it onto this list.

Sebastien Squillaci

Taking about easily being one of the Gunners’ worst signings in Premier League history, Sebastien Squillaci is right up there and could even be the worst.

The ill-disciplined ex-France centre-back never really settled into English football, struggling from the off and the fact that his international career was brought to a halt after he moved to north London says it all really.

Denis Suarez

Denis Suarez’s loan from Barcelona to Arsenal in the second half of 2018/2019 was certainly one of the most pointless transfers of the Premier League era.

The agile attacking midfielder played just six times, a cameo role from the bench on each occasion, before picking up a groin injury a month before the end of the campaign and spending the rest of it on the sidelines.

Junichi Inamoto

There was definitely something fishy about Japan legend Junichi Inamoto’s switch to Highbury in 2001 as he was plucked out of the microscopic J-League on loan only to ever feature four times in cup competitions.

Looking back now it very much appears that there were other motives behind this move, perhaps the Gunners wanted to raise their profile and sell more shirts in Japan ahead of the 2002 FIFA World Cup? And maybe the transfer was successful in that sense?

Nevertheless, Arsene Wenger’s face above doesn’t in the least suggest suspicion…

Yaya Sanogo

Former Golden Boy nominee Yaya Sanogo is a classic example of that player who impresses hugely in pre-season and turns out to be a flop when they start to sink their teeth into some competitive action.

The French youth prodigy did what Arsenal’s official social media accounts are still referring to as a “madness” against Napoli in the Emirates Cup in just his second pre-season, scoring four times in a 5-1 victory.

However, his form competitively was a world apart from this as Sanogo pathetically never scored a Premier League goal in four years before a free transfer back to his homeland with Toulouse.

Richard Wright

It’s simply laughable that not only did the Gunners spend £2m, some sum in 2001, to bring goalkeeper Richard Wright in from Ipswich Town, Arsene Wenger saw him as the long-term replacement for ageing club legend David Seaman.

Wait, it gets better, Wright actually managed to earn a Premier League winners’ medal during his mistake-laden Highbury spell but unsurprisingly, he didn’t even come close to establishing himself as the new first choice in north London.

Andrey Arshavin

Andrey Arshavin is a man who will always polarise opinion in world football – there was no doubting his talent though he could never really get over his frustrating inconsistency.

The fact remains, however, that the Gunners never really got anything more than THAT performance against Liverpool at Anfield out of the controversial Russian for their lofty £14.85m.

In an impressive team performance on Saturday afternoon, Newcastle fans stunned Premier League champions Manchester City with a hard-fought 2-2 draw at St James’ Park.

The Magpies arrived on the back of a dismal 2-0 defeat to Steve Bruce’s former side Aston Villa, and taking on a team like City who had already netted 37 times in the league, was no doubt a daunting prospect.

But the Tyneside club effectively stopped Pep Guardiola’s free-scoring men with a resolute defensive performance, with the home side blocking a total of seven shots.

And one man who was at the heart of the back-line, was Federico Fernandez. As per Sofascore, the Argentine made a mammoth ten clearances, four interceptions and two tackles, and was key to the Magpies earning a precious point.

After seeing the 30-year-old’s performance, Newcastle fans flooded to Twitter to voice their thoughts on the centre-back.

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Many supporters of the Tyneside club insisted that he was the man of the match for his display, lauding him for being as “solid as a rock” and a “warrior”.

Check out some of the reaction of Newcastle fans below:

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets… 

Amid the growing fall-out of Granit Xhaka’s now infamous clash with the Arsenal supporters at the Emirates a few weeks ago, one of the big talking points has been whether the Switzerland international now has a long-term future at the club.

Reports in recent weeks have suggested that the north London side are prepared to let the ex-club captain go, with a return to former side Borussia Monchengladbach even being mooted. As such, the Gunners have been linked with a whole host of midfielders themselves as they look to enter life without Xhaka, and one man who has supposedly been on their radar, is RB Salzburg starlet Dominik Szoboszlai.

According to Football Insider, the Gunners had scouts to take a look at Szoboszlai while the 19-year-old was in action for Hungary against Wales on Tuesday night. If the north Londoners thought they would witness the starlet go on to stamp his mark on a pivotal game for both countries – automatic qualification to EURO 2020 was on offer – then they were sadly proven wrong.

The teenager struggled greatly in the heat of the occasion, failing to get involved in the build-up play for Hungary and not being able to control the game in his side’s favour. As per Sofascore, his 6.1 match rating was the second-worst of any player to have featured for the full 90 minutes, and when looking at his underlying numbers during the game, it is easy to see why.

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Playing in a number ten role, Szoboszlai could muster just 40 touches and 18 successful passes – a staggeringly low amount considering Hungary averaged 59% possession. Despite trailing as early as the 15th minute courtesy of a goal from former Arsenal star Aaron Ramsey, the prodigy couldn’t muster any shots on target in the entire contest.

Indeed, whenever he did get on the ball, he looked all at sea, losing possession on 15 separate occasions. Ramsey meanwhile struck twice to give Wales the all-important win, and there no doubt would have been a sense of regret at losing the now Juventus man in the summer. If Szoboszlai thought this was his audition to eventually be the Welshman’s heir at the Emirates, then he failed miserably.

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…

As quoted by the club’s official website, Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has hailed Fred for his role in the victory over Brighton in the Premier League.

What did he say?

The Red Devils registered a fine 3-1 win over the Seagulls on Sunday afternoon, and they looked to be at their fluid, attacking best, racking up 21 shots on goal.

Whilst the forwards appeared to have a field day, one man who dominated proceedings in the middle of the park, was Fred. As per Sofascore, the Brazilian won six duels, two tackles and provided one key pass as he helped run the show at Old Trafford.

And, speaking after the game, Solskjaer heaped praise on the £47m man, and insisted he was central to stopping Brighton from getting into the contest.

He said: “You get confidence from playing games. He has not really had a run of games and I think he set us up with his midfield play. He won the ball. We had to get after them because, with (Davy) Propper and (Dale) Stephens in midfield, we couldn’t let them get on the ball and I thought Fred was maybe the catalyst.

“Maybe there were a couple of fouls he shouldn’t have made in the first half to give them chances because that was one of the big opportunities they had, from set-plays. But, otherwise, he was excellent.”

Turnaround

After flitting in and out of the team last season and ending up with just 25 appearances to his name in his debut campaign for the club, Fred has begun to turn his Old Trafford career around. The 26-year-old has now played and completed the full 90 minutes in the previous five Premier League games for United, and has established himself as permanent fixture in the first-team alongside Scott McTominay, in Paul Pogba’s absence.

When the Frenchman returns from his injury, it will be very interesting to see whether Fred will have done enough to keep his place. But on his current form – including his spirited performance in the defeat to Bournemouth last week – there are signs the midfielder is beginning to come good.