According to reliable club insider @ExWHUemployee on Episode 89 of the West Ham Way radio show, West Ham United are keen to sign Middlesbrough winger Adama Traore this summer.
What’s the word, then?
Well, speaking on the radio show @ExWHUemployee confirmed that new Irons boss Manuel Pellegrini, who can make the best start to his reign by signing a 25-year-old defender who dominated Marko Arnautovic, is looking to add young players with pace to his squad this summer, and Traore is on his list of targets.
The former Barcelona starlet has often been criticised for his lack of end product with Aston Villa and then Boro in the past, but he finally stepped up and showed what he could do during the 2017/18 campaign as his current side were beaten by his old club in their Championship semi-final play-off tie.
How did Traore do this season?
The 22-year-old showed he is far more than just being quick and great at dribbling as he scored five goals and provided a further 10 assists in 34 Championship appearances.
The right winger tormented many full-backs during the campaign with his direct style too, and according to WhoScored.com he successfully completed 262 of the 336 dribbles he attempted in 36 league games – including the play-off matches.
However, one blot on his copybook was the fact that he was sent off twice during the campaign, and that is something that would need to be sorted if he was to move to the top flight this summer.
Would he be a good signing for West Ham?
He certainly could be, yes.
While the 22-year-old still isn’t the finished article yet, his latest season with Middlesbrough showed a real glimpse of the quality and potential that he has.
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The winger’s speed and dribbling ability would scare opposition defenders in the Premier League, and now he seems to have matured and is less raw than he was before, he could make a real impact for West Ham in the top flight next term.
His arrival at the London Stadium would also be great news for striker Javier Hernandez – who looks set to play a key role under Pellegrini having previously looked likely to leave this summer – given that he will be looking for assists and service in general in order to find the net on a regular basis next season.
Leicester City defender Harry Maguire impressed and scored his side’s last-gasp equaliser in their 2-2 draw against Manchester United at the King Power Stadium on Saturday, and Liverpool fans have urged their club to buy the centre-back, potentially instead of long-term target Virgil van Dijk.The Foxes signed the 24-year-old in a £17m deal from relegated Hull City in June, and he has quickly established himself as a key player in their team, and is currently one of the standout centre-halves in the Premier League.His side-footed finish in injury-time was certainly impressive, but he has also shown on many occasions that he is able to bring the ball out from the back and create attacks for his side, as well as being solid defensively.Liverpool players were quick to have their say on his latest display via social media, and while one said “need to sign Harry Maguire”, another said ‘we should leave Van Dijk, sign Maguire and save £40m’.Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…
Ipswich Town have announced the loan signing of Ryan Tunnicliffe, the second player to join from Manchester United this season after Frederic Veseli signed a two year deal.
It appears that Mick McCarthy has used his reputation and contacts to secure these deals as both players have mentioned that they were recommended to join Ipswich by their reserve team manager Warren Joyce.
It is safe to say that if the Tractor Boys were still stuck with one their previous managers then they would not have been able to sign half the players that have joined Ipswich this summer
Tunnicliffe is a strong central midfielder who seems most comfortable in a defensive role. He is a ball winner who gets stuck in and has the footballing brain to see what others may not.
The obvious downside is that Tunnicliffe is unlikely to be much of a goal scoring threat considering he hasn’t scored a professional club goal yet. That said, you wouldn’t expect many defensive midfielders to chip in with goals and the Manchester United loanee will probably spend a lot of the time sitting just ahead of the back four.
It is thought that Tunnicliffe will be used mainly as a back up option or substitute for Luke Hyam, but some believe that he may well command a place in the starting eleven more regularly than that. He is held in high regard by the Red Devils and he could surprise a few fans with what he has to offer in the center of the park.
The other player to join from the Premier League winners is much more of an unknown quantity. Some Manchester United fans were baffled by Frederic Veseli’s release from the club as the only news they had heard was that he happy and was impressing in the youth and reserve sides.
Manchester United had gone through a lot of effort to sign Veseli from their rivals Manchester City so Sir Alex Ferguson must have seen a lot of potential in him too. Somewhere along the line something must have gone wrong, for some reason either the player must have wanted to leave or what is more likely is that he was deemed surplus to requirements at Old Trafford.
Throughout last season interviews with both Veseli and the reserve team manager suggested that everything was going smoothly. Apparently he was a player who always maintained a place in the reserve team and a player who would put in a solid shift regardless of what position he played.
The most likely explanation is that upon closer inspection Manchester United decided that whilst Veseli was a solid performer, he was also a utility player that would never be good enough in one position to come close to their first team.
One thing to expect with the Swiss youngster is that you may see him at right back one game then see him in midfield the next. In the Manchester United reserves side he played mostly as a defensive midfielder but it appears that McCarthy will mostly use him at right back.
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The good news is that despite Veseli’s failure to master one position it has been said he has the potential to develop into “the ultimate utility man”. Every team needs a versatile player in their squad that his highly reliable and Veseli could be that man for Ipswich.
Overall it looks unlikely that either of these players will set the Championship alight but they are great additions to complement a squad that is already looking strong.
West Ham manager Sam Allardyce has declared he does not expect the club to be busy in the last few days of the summer transfer window.
The Hammers have brought in nine new players this summer and parted ways with the same number as Allardyce has reshuffled his squad in preparation for the club’s return to the Premier League. The Upton Park outfit are still being linked with targets as Friday’s deadline draws ever nearer, including Liverpool duo Andy Carroll and Joe Cole.
The club have just signed Matt Jarvis from Wolves for £10m, and the 26-year-old winger played against Swansea at the weekend. However, Allardyce says further signings are unlikely after speaking with the club’s co-chairman, who has informed the manager the Hammers have reached their spending limit. He told Sky Sports “I think that our finances now are on the limit, as it were, speaking to our co-chairmen. I think that we’ll work with what we’ve got.”
Allardyce added if he does make any last-minute reinforcements it is likely to be on a loan basis. He added: “We’ll never say never, you never know what might turn up. But if it’s going to be anything, it’s never going to get past a loan deal, I think.”
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Chelsea’s growing momentum was stunted by their tepid performance in the 1-1 home draw against Huddersfield and now Antonio Conte faces a battle to regain momentum ahead of next weekend’s FA Cup final against Manchester United.
He has just one game in which to do that; the trip to face Newcastle, of course managed by former Chelsea boss Rafa Benitez, on the final day of the Premier League season.
The last two times Chelsea have played the Magpies on the final day, they have lost on both occasions; in the closing act of Jose Mourinho’s first two title-winning seasons in 2004-05 and 2005-06.
It will not be an easy afternoon for the Blues so Conte will have to ensure his side are at the races to a greater degree than they were against the Terriers, who secured the point they needed for survival at Stamford Bridge.
That’s why we asked you whether Conte should recall Victor Moses to the starting eleven for the trip to the north-east and the result was resounding.
84 per cent of Blues supporters want the man valued at £16.2m by Transfermarkt back in the starting eleven and you can check out the full results of the poll below…
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The sun is shining and it’s Wimbledon time again. Or as it’s otherwise known… the time of year when football withdrawal really kicks in!
There’s plenty to love about Wimbledon, of course, but one of the biggest things is the fact that women are paid as much as men . In prize money at least, perhaps not sponsorship deals. But at least there’s progress.
Part of that is probably because of how impressive women like the Williams sisters or Caroline Wozniacki are. Part of it might be because of how exciting the games are anyway. Football can learn a thing or two from tennis.
The Copa America is a wonderful competition, but without home interest it gets discarded, while the Under 21s competition also suffers, particularly given how poor the Three Lions were in the Czech Republic.
But the England women’s team are in the semi-final of the World Cup. So the Women’s World Cup is rightfully capturing the hearts of the nation. At least those who are willing to stay up to watch it.
As an Irishman living in London, I know that the English public has trouble relating to sporting events without having an emotional buy in. As an Irishman, if I were bound to such techniques to get up for a sporting event I could never watch a World Cup!
But the fact that England’s women are doing so well is a great thing for the women’s game. Not just in England, or even in Britain, but all over the World. So to find myself cheering on England is a strange sensation, but one that is definitely justified. The further England go, the better the quality of the game will get. That’s not just because the players will gain experience or get better or anything like that, it’s also because interest in the sport will grow and girls and young women will start to play football more. As such, money will pour into the clubs of the WSL.
And this is a great thing. Not just for football, but for society in general. The best young footballers – the boys – can dream of professional contracts, vast riches and fast cars. Young girls don’t have the same interests from a young age. It’s not because boys inherently love football and girls don’t, but there are so many other ways girls can dream of being successful. Even if they’re incredibly gifted at football, they may choose another career which is seen as more stereotypically suitable or perhaps even more desirable.
England winning the World Cup would go a long way towards convincing young girls that they can be successful at football. If England were to win it, treating the players as idols and giving them the same ovation that Premier League stars could be the kickstart that women’s football needs. It could prompt a surge in participation and drive up the quality, and improving the quality makes the sport better, as well as more marketable.
And so I come back to tennis. Some of the most famous sportswomen are tennis players, and partly this is because women’s tennis is so competitive. It’s similar in athletics, too, where the women’s events are competitive and fun to watch. When the sport is marketable the public takes an interest, and when the public takes an interest the game grows in so many different ways. It grows in stature and prestige, it grows in fame and it grows financially. It even grows in quality.
So old rivalries aside, I hope England can reach a final this week. A boost for the marketability of the women’s game in the same country as the most marketable league in the world is a big prize for the England women’s team. The lesson that football can learn from other sports, ironically, is a lesson in marketability. And if the English team does well, so will the sport.
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Liverpool are close to signing winger Christian Atsu from Porto, according to the Guardian.
The Premier League side are in talks with Atsu, who has just one year left on his current contract.
Atsu, a fast and trickery winger, could be sold for as little as £3million. The Ghanaian international scored his first goal for Porto in February, and has been tipped to become a talented star in European football.
The winger only turned 21-years-old in January, and has impressed a number of clubs, including Tottenham. Spurs are managed by former Porto boss Andre Villas-Boas, who brought Atsu into the first team squad when he managed the Portuguese side.
Atsu would join a list of new Liverpool players this summer, as Brendan Rodgers looks to do his transfer business as early as possible. The Northern Irishman has already signed Kolo Toure on a free transfer, whilst he closes in on bringing Iago Aspas and Henrikh Mkhitaryan to Anfield.
Rodgers has already raised funds for his transfer spending, by selling forward Andy Carroll to West Ham, after the England forward completed his medical with the Hammers on Tuesday.
Atsu could rival Stewart Downing for a place in the first team next season, as Rodgers looks to push the Reds into a European place in the table.
Would Atsu be a good signing? Is Rodgers targeting the right players?
Share your thoughts below!
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Liverpool have begun the new season with a brand spanking new philosophy to compliment the new manager at the helm in Brendan Rodgers. It’s all very new down at Anfield this season, even the nets in the goals are new, but old new because they used to be red years ago. However, after defender Jose Enrique’s assertion that the club were attempting to copy Barcelona’s style this term, is that really the way forward for the club?
Copying the greatest club team in living memory is no small feat – the hours of learning and the mentally and physically exhausting time put in on the practice pitch means that this sort of football is not tailored to every kind of player, particularly older ones set in their ways.
Footballers, by and large, are a pretty dim breed of people and all this ‘let’s pass the ball around nicely for five minutes’ is often beyond the realms of most English players’ capabilities, it’s simply not in their DNA to ignore an extravagant Hollywood pass every five minutes – it’s certainly a case of nurture over nature and it requires a great degree of patience that many at the club may not be able to cope with.
Jose Enrique told ESPN last week: “The best team in the world is the best example; Barcelona. You could see against Real Madrid a few days ago, how when they have the ball it is amazing and when they lose it, within three or four seconds they have it back. This is the way we try to play. We can’t compare with Barcelona they are different, but we are trying to play like this. We are starting to learn but we are learning well.”
Against West Brom and in their Europa League games to date, Liverpool have shown a willingness to play the ball out from the back and hunt it down like wild animals looking for an easy meal whenever they happen to lose it, which makes a welcome change from the lethargy which seemed to take hold of the side in the final stages of last term under Kenny Dalglish. There’s an urgency and purpose to their play now, which makes them an attractive and dangerous proposition.
Of course, this cost the side all three points against Manchester City, when Martin Skrtel was found guilty of committing the cardinal sin of defending, playing the ball back to his goalkeeper without looking what was behind him, but Rodgers’ reluctance to criticise him after the match highlighted that this is a learning period for everyone at the club.
Against the champions at Anfield, Liverpool were very impressive, with Joe Allen and Jonjo Shelvey in particular catching the eye. The average age of the squad was just under 25 years of age, the youngest that the club have turned out since playing Newcastle way back in 2003. There is a clear and deliberate shift in ethos – get young players in that the manager can mould, who suit his style of play and are willing to learn his ways, with Raheem Sterling praised by Rodgers as much for his tactical discipline as his pace or trickery out wide.
Nevertheless, doesn’t this all sound vaguely familiar? Didn’t Arsenal try something very similar under Arsene Wenger with Cesc Fabregas as the fulcrum of all of their attacking and creative play? A side based largely around youth and future potential? The result was a seven-year trophy drought from which the club are just starting to recover in terms of their change in tack in the transfer market, and from which they may never fully return to the pinnacle of the top flight because it backfired.
The £15m purchase of Allen was certainly less of a risk than many first feared and he’s misplaced just six of his 114 attempted passes so far in his two league outings at his new club – in short, he’s been absolutely superb, which given that he’s familiar with the system and his role in it, should come as no surprise.
But attempting to copy Barcelona’s style, as Jose Enrique has claimed, which Allen at the heart of it seems like a foolish thing to try and attempt. Their squad and Liverpool’s squad are absolutely poles apart in terms of quality, while the majority of players plying their trade at the Camp Nou have been indoctrinated into such a style from a very young age, not taught it well into their careers.
Perhaps the Spanish left-back has merely fallen into the trap of comparing every side that passes the ball with Barcelona, which seems an overly simplistic thing to do, as each side has their own different ways of penetration to make all the passing worthwhile. The phrase tiki-taka is one that’s often bandied about, but very few teams actually play with it and judging by Liverpool’s performances so far, they aren’t one of them.
There’s also the fact that no club in British football has ever been successful with a style of play that focuses solely on retaining possession as a means of not only attack, but defence – it doesn’t quite suit the culture of the league that we’re in.
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Swansea’s demolition of West Ham last weekend showed that passing football is far more transferable than long-ball football over the course of a 38-game season and to a higher level with better players, but the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City have built their successes in recent years on the ability to do a bit of the ugly stuff as well as the tidy triangles often praised to the high heavens.
It’s a massive gamble, an experiment of sorts, but in the theme of the new at Anfield this season, it’s something borrowed, not blue which appears to be the in-vogue thing. Attempting to copy Barcelona is futile; having a footballing philosophy is fine and principles by which you want to abide by, but you must put your own stamp on it, otherwise you’re in danger of losing your own identity as a club along the way.
Rangers trail Celtic 3-0 at half-time in the last Old Firm derby of the season at Celtic Park in a match they have to avoid defeat in to stop their arch-rivals winning the Scottish Premiership title, and Gers fans have destroyed 5ft 10in winger Daniel Candeias for his display in the opening 45 minutes.
The 30-year-old has made a big impression in the final third for the Ibrox outfit this term with eight goals and a further 13 assists in all competitions, but he was partially at fault for the first goal his team conceded against Brendan Rodgers’ men.
The Portuguese wide man allowed Kieran Tierney to cross with his favoured left foot and put his hands behind his back even though he was standing outside of the penalty area, and Odsonne Edouard was on hand to fire home.
Rangers supporters, who earlier demanded on Twitter that Halliday didn’t start at left-back, were quick to have their say on Candeias’ performance via social media, and while one labelled him as “just as bad as Halliday”, another said “get Candeias off now”.
Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…
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The season has only just finished but Tottenham Hotspur have made their first signing of the summer.
Austrian international, Kevin Wimmer played his last game for FC Koln on Saturday before saying his goodbyes. It is believed that the London club will formally announce the signing in the next two weeks with his fee being around £4.3million. Wimmer has agreed to a four year deal at White Heart Lane which is to replace Younes Kaboul who started the season as captain but soon fell out of favour at the club.
The 22-year-old Central defender is the first of what is expected to be a number of key signings for Spurs boss, Mauricio Pochettino. The Argentinian boss has used the season to assess his squad and is now looking for a complete change around. Those who have seen Wimmer play frequently for the German side say his strengths like in tackling and challenges. In the Bundesliga he won 81% of his challenges this season, only picking up three yellow cards. While he is solid at the back, he will not overcommit himself or engage in challenges and his close man marking leaves little to be desired but that’s where new teammate, Jan Vertonghen could come in.
At the beginning of the season, Wimmer was unable to use his 6 foot 1 inch frame to his best ability but manager, Peter Stoger, has taken it upon himself to improve his aerial duels and now Spurs are gaining a player where winning the ball in the air is one of his strongest assets. The Austrian had a slow start to the season but has come on leaps and bounds thanks to the guidance of his gaffer who has really taken him under his wing to help improve his style of play.
Pochettino is hoping he can build a long-term team at White Heart Lane and he believes that the summer transfer window is the place to be. Having seen teams like Manchester City become an “ageing squad” the manager is keen to have youth at the heart of his club and will make the impact they so desperately need in a defence which has only kept nine clean sheets this season in the League. The Argentinian really believes the 22-year-old has a bright future at the club. They have a fantastic youth academy with Alex Pritchard the next to join the likes of Harry Kane, Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason in the first-team squad.
Wimmer is young, keen to learn and hard-working despite still having things to learn and he could become as strong as John Terry is for Chelsea. His style fits into that of the Premier League and it seems to be a move which will be a great success for all those involved in the club. Spurs needs a new pair of young legs in their defence and Wimmer seems to be the perfect fit.
Tottenham fans should be very excited about their first signing and if they carry on like that the next season should be an interesting one for the club.
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