Wayne Rooney’s, expected move to MLS side, D.C. United is reportedly on hold after Everton sacked manager Sam Allardyce, according to The Sun.
Rooney spent the season with boy-hood club Everton, scoring 11 goals for the club and finishing as the team’s top scorer in the league.
However the ex-United striker struggled to find the net in the second half of the season amid rumours that he had a poor relationship with Allardyce – who was brought in mid-season to replace Ronald Koeman.
But with Allardyce out of the picture, Rooney reportedly wants to wait to speak to the new manager before deciding on his future, with D.C United rumoured to be ready to offer the Everton man a £300,000 a week contract.
Rooney showed with his performances that he still has the pedigree to offer value and goals in the Premier League and the five time Premier League winner could yet still stay with Everton.
Everton supporters have been reacting to the news all day on social media. Here is a selection of some of the best reactions…
Celtic supporters have taken to social media to display the delight following the news that former defender Virgil van Dijk has agreed a £75m move to Liverpool.
The Scotsman is reporting that Celtic instituted a sell-on clause when they allowed the Dutchman to join Southampton in 2015, and now they stand to earn around £7.5m following Wednesday’s announcement.
Celtic are expected to use the funds attained from the clause to reinvest in their squad in the forthcoming January transfer window. The Glasgow giants have won the league for the previous six seasons in succession, and they’re vying to extend that record to seven consecutive titles.
They’re currently positioned at the top of the Scottish Premiership, ten points ahead of their nearest rivals, Aberdeen.
The Celtic faithful have turned towards Twitter to express their delight at the news that the club will be receiving a sizeable amount of money in light of the Van Dijk sale…
Tottenham have been continually praised for their strength of squad, the ability for Andre Villas-Boas to maintain the good start to the season across all competitions.
Football, funnily, has a way of looking at the black or white, rather than the grey area in between. There’s always the assumption from football supporters that X player would be a misguided transfer due to the strength of the starting XI, completely neglecting the need for a strong squad as opposed to just eleven good players.
Jermain Defoe seems to be Tottenham’s designated backup and Europa League striker. No problem, it’s still only October. The England international’s competitive nature will see him attempt to force his way in ahead of new signing Roberto Soldado, but the Spaniard’s reputation and scoring record in La Liga places him, for now, firmly ahead of Defoe.
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The thing is, Tottenham want silverware and they want progression. Defoe is a good name to keep on board when the pressure mounts. Such is his own scoring instinct that many teams would fear the probability of a Defoe goal if he were to replace Soldado midway through a match. His movement and pace is adaptable to the European game, where size and strength aren’t as emphasised as they are in England.
But beyond Defoe, what do Tottenham have? A striker in Emmanuel Adebayor whose ambition for the prizes of football are limited to just one aspect. To top that off, he’s not too reliable either.
So in spite of the World Cup approaching, where is the sense in toying with the idea of moving Defoe on in January? Defoe himself may wish to take that path, but for the good of Tottenham’s campaign, they’d obviously be advised to hang on to what they have. Like them, their north London rivals have a strong group of midfielders, and yet Arsenal are regularly condemned for having one senior striker in Olivier Giroud. Though how so many people forget that Lukas Podolski is a striker is beyond me. Tottenham don’t want to find themselves in a similar situation.
Thus far into the season, the fixtures have already been taxing, with the September domestic schedule being broken up by international weeks and European excursions. More of the same will take place this month and through Christmas, by which time Tottenham’s new recruits may start to feel the strain of fixture congestion and no midway break. Defoe is used to these demands where Soldado isn’t. Defoe is an experienced Premier League forward who can be rotated with the former Valencia man when Spurs are forced to play three league games in a week.
The short-sighted nature of football is to look at the next fixture, the strongest XI and the nonexistent problems of a squad that is ‘too strong.’ Where’s the balance? The perfect harmony of keeping everyone happy while also remaining competitive throughout a campaign. Where’s the need and acceptance of the grey area?
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Will the lack of action in a World Cup year ensure a January move for Defoe?
Tottenham goalkeeper Brad Friedel will continue to be Spurs’ number one goalkeeper after an impressive display in the 1-1 draw against Norwich on Saturday, according to The Guardian.
Lloris, who is sixteen years the junior to his goalkeeping colleague and rival at Tottenham Brad Friedel, is number one choice goalkeeper for the French national side.
Lloris wasn’t signed in time to be eligible for the Norwich game. Regardless of this, and perhaps to many people’s surprise, Villas-Boas revealed that Lloris is likely to be a signing for a few years down the line, “the Premier League’s a specific league and we want to build for the future, so we decided to bring in Hugo now as he can be our keeper in the future. We have to work with that and he will have to adapt to the Premier League.”
What Villas-Boas can rely on is the sort of professionalism from Hugo Lloris which has earned him the privilege of being the French captain. Lloris accepts that he may have to be patient before he can stamp his authority in the Tottenham goal, “I’m here because I believe in Tottenham. There are a lot of great players here and a great manager. Everything is in place to qualify for the Champions League. But the most important thing for me is to show I am up for the challenge on the pitch. I’m ready to do the utmost for the team and the supporters.”
Former Tottenham defender Sebastian Bassong believes that Lloris will learn a lot from studying Friedel at White Hart Lane, “I think he’ll learn a lot. He’s [Lloris] a really good goalkeeper but now he’s in a new competition and a new country, he’ll need Brad’s help.”
Lloris is one of a number of arrivals who is a part of a transition period at White Hart Lane following the key departures of Luka Modric to Real Madrid and Rafael van der Vaart to Hamburg. Another one of the arrivals at Spurs, Moussa Dembele, did manage to make an appearance for his new side and subsequently made an immediate impact scoring the opening goal in the 1-1 draw to Norwich.
Dembele said after the game that he has been impressed by Villas-Boas’ management style thus far, “the manager is very clear what he wants me to do and he just told me to play my game the same way I always play.”
Arsenal’s 3-1 defeat to Leicester City wasn’t an easy night for youngster Ainsley Maitland-Niles.
Making only his second Premier League appearance of the season at right-back, the Foxes clearly targeted the youngster due to his inexperience; 47% of their attacking play came down the left flank, which was essentially the source for Leicester’s first two goals.
A looped cross travelled from left to right before being finished off by Kelechi Iheanacho, while Maitland-Niles’ failure to contain Demarai Gray eventually saw Henrikh Mkhitaryan foul the English winger for a penalty kick.
And yet, despite the 20-year-old’s difficulties, there were still moments of individual quality that really shone through at the King Power Stadium. He actually created the joint-most chances, completed the most dribbles and made the joint-second-most tackles of any Gunners player, although the England U21’s 16 possession losses served as a key reminder that he still suffers from the inconsistency of youth.
Whoever replaces Arsene Wenger at the Emirates Stadium this summer will be desperate to make his mark on the squad via the transfer market, but the glimmers of huge potential Maitland-Niles has shown during his short Arsenal career suggest he could be even more valuable than a new signing for the north Londoners.
Rather than investing money in big names, Arsenal’s next manager should be investing his time in Arsenal’s promising young players instead – starting with Maitland-Niles. Not only will it help preserve the distinct Arsenal DNA Wenger will leave behind once he officially steps down, but it will also save the club a fortune in transfer fees.
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The past two seasons haven’t been the best for Manchester United fans, finishing seventh during the 2013-2014 campaign and only scraping into the top four last term, despite spending a massive £150million on new players.
Yet, club captain Wayne Rooney continued his incredible consistency in front of goal, with the England international once again reaching double digits in goals scored, a feat he has accomplished ever since joining the Red Devils from Everton back in 2004.
But last season it was tough to keep 29-year-old in your Fantasy Premier League roster, as manager Louis van Gaal deployed the player in midfield for a majority of the campaign due to the arrival of Radamel Falcao and the presence of Robin van Persie, diminishing his returns that did not justify his rather hefty 11.5 price tag.
However, that is all about to change. With the two aforementioned strikers leaving Old Trafford and United purchasing some solid central midfielders in Morgan Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger, Van Gaal has named Rooney as his main front man and the England man is expected to lead the line for the upcoming campaign in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 set-up.
Statistically, Rooney had the best conversion rate of any of Manchester United’s strikers last season, converting 15.2% of his opportunities compared to RVP’s 13.2% and Falcao’s 10.8%.
Rooney also has an amazing potential to garner assists, making the second most key passes (45) among forwards last season. He did, however, finish with only five, but it was his lowest tally since 2006 and is expected to fare much better this time around.
Rooney may also earn a fair share of set pieces and penalties, with the club captain expected to return to spot-kick duties following Van Persie’s departure to Fenerbahce. But with the signing of Memphis Depay, and now that Juan Mata is a permanent fixture in Van Gaal’s plans, the former Toffees star may be forced to share dead-ball duties.
The thing that could prove the tipping point to have Rooney in your squad is United’s opening set of fixtures. The Red Devils have a favourable run of seven games (Tottenham, Aston Villa, Newcastle, Swansea, Liverpool, Southampton and Sunderland) that give the Three Lions captain a great chance to get your squad some early points.
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By the time United face Arsenal in Gameweek 8, Rooney may be the top performing forward… making his price of 10.5 suddenly seem like absolute peanuts.
Written by Football FanCast and commissioned by Fantasy Football Scout, the tips, news and views site for those who don’t just play Fantasy Football.
Sunderland manager Paolo Di Canio is closing in on the signing of Vito Mannone from Arsenal, according to Sky Sports.
The Black Cats sold their number one Simon Mignolet to Liverpool earlier this week and Mannone has been eyed as the ready-made replacement.
The 25 year old has failed to break into the first team at Arsenal since his move from Atalanta eight years ago but impressed on loan at both Hull and Barnsley in the Championship.
Di Canio wants his compatriot to be the man between the stick at the Stadium of Light in a deal that will see Sunderland save a sizeable fee in that department.
The North East club are also in talks with Argentinean right back Gino Peruzzi over a switch to England from South America.
Peruzzi was the man that kept Brazilian hot-shot Neymar quiet over two legs of the Copa Libertadores semi-finals earlier this year and was expected to make a move to big European club this summer.
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Highly rated South Korean midfielder Ki Sung-Yueng has become Swansea City’s record signing after putting pen to paper on a three-year deal from Celtic.
Ki, 23, will not be able to play for the Swans as they take on West Ham in today’s lunchtime kick off but he is clearly excited to have arrived.
“When I look at Swansea I see a club that is growing and growing, and the style here is very attractive to me,” he told the club’s official website.
“Last year I watched them a lot in the Premier League and they did things very differently to a lot of the other teams. They wanted to keep the ball and pass it around, which I love to do. When they didn’t have the ball they worked so hard to get it back quickly.”
“This is something I have dreamt about since I was a child – playing in the Premier League against the best players in the world. I can’t wait to play my first game.”
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Arsene Wenger’s fairytale ending to life as Arsenal manager has turned into a nightmare.
The Frenchman had hoped to lead the club to Europa League glory before signing off permanently, but it was not to be.
Pressure was on the Gunners’ shoulders heading into Thursday night’s semi-final second leg against Atletico Madrid in Spain due to the fact that they conceded an away goal in the Emirates tie.
The match sat at 1-1, with Arsenal knowing that they needed to score at Atletico’s ground to have any hope of progressing into the final.
It was a painful encounter for Wenger’s men as they were the better side for large parts of the game, but ended up losing 1-0 on the night following Diego Costa’s goal.
Arsenal fans were crushed by the result, and many aimed criticism at Hector Bellerin for his performance during the encounter.
While the Gunners support were suffering, their arch rivals Tottenham Hotspur were not feeling the pain as strongly.
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In fact, plenty of the club’s supporters took to Twitter to mock Arsenal’s failings, because not only will Wenger’s reign end without silverware, they will also fail to qualify for a place in next season’s Champions League.
Following Luis Suarez’s departure to Barcelona last summer Daniel Sturridge was poised to be Liverpool’s main striker and potentially their new hero. But it is difficult to see how this season could have gone any worse for the 25-year-old, who has made just 12 appearances in a campaign which has been dogged by injuries.
Just a few days ago it was announced that Sturridge will be missing the start of next season as he continues to recover from hip surgery. He is unable to train fully for the next four months and will also miss England’s games – although Brendan Rodgers will be happy about that. He should be available for the Reds around October but with so much time spent getting injured, recovering and then getting injured again it seems that Sturridge’s body has really struggled this year and it is hard to see how he can get back his best next term.
There are numerous occasions where players have had persistent thigh injuries, and even once they have recovered it’s still restricted their future impact on the pitch. After all part of what makes Sturridge so lethal is his pace so if he can’t rely on that he may find it difficult to thrive in our very physically demanding league.
You only have to look at a player like Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere or Manchester United’s Radamel Falcao. Both have suffered lengthy lay-offs and where the Englishman has resembled glass at times, hurt from the slightest of knocks, Falcao no longer looks as dangerous as he once was.
Liverpool are relying on Sturridge to spearhead their charge into the top four next season so if he ends up unable to recreate last year’s 20+ goals then the task will have to fall to misfiring Mario Balotelli. It is absolutely possible that the Italian will have finally found his shooting boots by then or the club may once again try to sign a striker in the summer transfer window, but all at Liverpool will be hoping is that Sturridge eventually comes back stronger than ever.
What makes the forward’s situation appear so uncertain is not only how much of the season he’s missed, but also the fact that despite being given ample time to recover once he did return to the first team he couldn’t hack it. Most injured players may come back a bit slower but they tend to make it through the rest of the year.
If Liverpool want last season’s Premier League title near miss to be chalked up to more than just a fluke then they will need a seriously strong campaign next year. The competition for those precious four places gets fiercer each year and teams like Southampton and Tottenham will continue to throw their hats into the ring. The Reds can’t afford to be without a prolific striker so a dip into the transfer window is their best bet as relying on Sturridge is too much of a risk. For now he needs to rest and get his body back to full strength, then we’ll have to wait to see if his injuries come back to haunt him.
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