All posts by h716a5.icu

Manchester United have been linked with a move for Villarreal winger Samuel Chukwueze ahead of the upcoming transfer window.

What’s the story?

According to CaughtOffside, the Red Devils are among a number of Premier League clubs interested in acquiring the 22-year-old’s signature over the summer.

The report also reveals that Chukwueze has a release clause of £69 million and that Liverpool and Chelsea are among his potential suitors.

Woodward must avoid

Chukwueze has impressed since joining the Yellow Submarines back in 2017, making 119 appearances for the La Liga outfit during his time with the club.

The Nigeria international’s dazzling displays earned praise from fellow African footballing star Samuel Eto’o last year, who lauded the 22-year-old’s talent and potential before adding that an improvement to his end product is required.

“He is an incredible player who is growing in leaps and bounds,” claimed Eto’o.

“He is a quality player and he needs to score more goals, but he has the quality and ability to be more than just a goal-scoring forward. Once he gets all of that he will be top.”

However, in the 12 months since the former Barcelona and Inter striker outlined where Chukwueze needs to improve his game, there has been little evidence of progress.

In 2019/20, the £18 million rated attacker (as per Transfermarkt) bagged four goals and provided six assists in all competitions. In the recently concluded campaign, he boosted those numbers only marginally to five goals and eight assists.

While Chukwueze is certainly a talented player with plenty of room to grow, it’s questionable whether he’s at the level that United currently need in order to close the gap to newly-crowned Premier League champions Manchester City, his goal and assist tallies suggest that he isn’t.

The Old Trafford outfit finished 12 points behind Pep Guardiola’s men in 2020/21 and were dumped out of the Champions League in the group stages, indicating significant progress is still required until they’ll be able to challenge for football’s greatest honours.

With Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho reportedly available for £75m this summer – just £6m more than the Chukwueze’s release clause – Ed Woodward would be making a huge mistake in prioritising the Villarreal man’s signature ahead of Sancho’s.

It’s highly unlikely that United can afford both right-wingers, or that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can find room for both men in his first-team squad, and therefore, Sancho must be the focus rather than Chukwueze.

And, in other words…James Cooper drops huge Man Utd transfer claim that’ll surely have fans buzzing 

Tariq Saeed01-May-2002

As Darren Lehmann, Matthew Hoggard and the rest of the Yorkshire Team don their whites to begin the defence of the County Championship, Taylors of Harrogate are ensuring that budding White Rose players of the future have the opportunity to fulfil

Taylors of Harrogate13-May-2002As Darren Lehmann, Matthew Hoggard and the rest of the Yorkshire Team don their whites to begin the defence of the County Championship, Taylors of Harrogate are ensuring that budding White Rose players of the future have the opportunity to fulfil their potential. Over the course of the season, the family tea and coffee merchants will be awarding £500 bursaries to the four Yorkshire clubs who are doing the most to develop young cricketers.According to Assistant Marketing Manager Jessica Ambler, `As sponsors of the County side we often hear of clubs across the county who are going to great lengths to train and nurture cricketing stars of the future. Our `Yorkshire Tea Bursary for Cricket Development’ is now available for those clubs in need of a little financial support.’If you feel that your cricket club supports young local cricketers and could put a £500 bursary to good use, please contact Oliver Mantle at Taylors of Harrogate, Plumpton Park, Harrogate, HG2 7LD for more information and an application form.

Chris Hughton is open to the idea of allowing Lyle Taylor to leave Nottingham Forest this summer.

What’s the talk?

That’s according to a report by Football League World, who claim that the Garibaldi could make the 31-year-old centre-forward available for loan in the upcoming transfer window.

It is reported that a number of Championship clubs, including the likes of Middlesbrough, Blackburn Rovers and Barnsley, are keeping a close eye on the situation of the £900k-rated Montserrat international ahead of a potential summer move.

Taylor must go

After signing for Sabri Lamouchi’s Forest side on a £5k-per-week three-year deal back in August of last year, Taylor did not enjoy the finest of debut seasons at The City Ground this term.

With Evangelos Marinakis sacking the manager who signed the striker just four games into the club’s 2020/21 campaign, before subsequently appointing Chris Hughton, it soon became clear that Taylor was not the 62-year-old’s first-choice centre-forward.

However, the 31-year-old still went on to make a total of 39 Championship appearances for Forest this year – although only 15 came as starts – over which the former Charlton Athletic hitman scored a mere four goals, registered no assists and created just one big chance for his teammates.

Taylor also hit the target an average of just 0.4 times per game, as well as missing eight big chances over the course of the season, with these metrics seeing the striker earn an extremely disappointing seasonal SofaScore match rating of 6.64 – ranking him as Hughton’s joint-ninth worst performer in the second tier.

These lacklustre displays largely contributed to Nottingham Forest’s worst league finish since Mark Warburton was in charge of the club in the 2016/17 Championship season, with the Garibaldi scoring a mere 37 goals over their 45 league fixtures this season – with the only side scoring fewer than the Reds being Derby County, who hit the net just 36 times this term.

As such, it would appear highly advisable for Hughton to move Taylor on this summer, be that on a loan or even a permanent deal, as the former Wimbledon forward – whom Neal Ardley previously dubbed an “outstanding” player – does not appear to be compatible whatsoever with the 62-year-old’s style of play at Forest.

In other news: Transfer update emerges on “hit and miss” 24 y/o dynamo that could divide Forest fans

Spanish journalist Jose Felix Dias, via The Spurs Express, has just shared a huge claim concerning 2020/2021 Tottenham Hotspur loanee and club legend Gareth Bale.

Bale was brought back to N17 on a temporary deal from Real Madrid last season in a transfer which stunned supporters and captured the imagination.

What followed was a largely mixed reunion at Spurs, with the Welshman getting off to a slow start under former boss Jose Mourinho and struggling with fitness issues. 

However, after the turn of the year, Bale appeared to really find his feet again in the Premier League and finished the campaign as Tottenham’s third top scorer in all competitions (WhoScored).

[web_stories_embed url=”https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/web-stories/spurs-latest-news/” title=”Spurs latest news!” poster=”” width=”360″ height=”600″ align=”none”]

There has been speculation over whether Spurs can re-sign the 31-year-old on loan again or even buy him on a permanent deal, but reporter Dias has now shared a big blow for that scenario – if he is right.

It is claimed by the journalist that Bale plans to hang up his boots following the conclusion of international football this summer.

Bale’s agent has disputed the claims, but it’s safe to say Spurs fans are not happy.

Find a flavour of their verdicts on the development down below.

Spurs fans livid over Bale development

“Gets worse and worse.”

Credit: @_10kanee

“Yeah please keep the bad news coming”

Credit: @TanguyNdembele

“what”

Credit: @aishathfc

“honestly can we catch a break”

Credit: @foootttbbbaaall

“Keep the bad news up”

Credit: @Thfc17N17

“Pain”

Credit: @cathalmurphy97

“I am a broken man”

Credit: @sonohedman

“the sad news just keeps coming……”

Credit: @calhutchings67

In other news: Spurs in pole position to sign ‘absolutely sensational’ ace as concrete talks emerge, find out more here.

A quick look at the scorecard might suggest that this was another case of win the toss and win the match

Ralph Dellor22-Jun-2002A quick look at the scorecard might suggest that this was another case of win the toss and win the match. In fact, the rapid Essex demise having been put in by Warwickshire had more to do with some indifferent batting against good bowling supported by efficient fielding. It appeared that Essex had an unquenchable belief in their invincibility as they produced a series of reckless strokes that could have carried them to glory, but it was the Warwickshire batsmen who called, and played, all the shots to bring an early finish to the last-ever Benson and Hedges Cup final as they won by five wickets.Warwickshire captain Michael Powell would have been more than happy to win the toss on an overcast morning. He was even happier when the second ball of the day from Shaun Pollock from the Nursery end saw Nasser Hussain, averaging over a hundred in one-day cricket at the time, nibbling at it as it went down the slope to be caught by wicket-keeper Keith Piper.Graham Napier came in with the intent of taking the game to Warwickshire, even from this early stage, and for a time succeeded. With Darren Robinson unfurling some elegant strokes, particularly through the off-side, and Napier on the charge, it appeared that Hussain’s dismissal might have been a momentary aberration on the part of Essex.Subsequent events proved otherwise. There was a touch of farce about Napier’s dismissal when it came in the eighth over. A shot to deep square leg went to Jamie Troughton, whose throw was on the way when Napier decided not to take the third run on which he had embarked. As he regained his ground without any undue urgency, the return hit the stumps, the batsmen went for an overthrow, but a television replay showed that Napier was out at the moment when the throw from Troughton hit the stumps direct.Next ball, from Neil Carter, John Stephenson got an inside edge and dragged the ball onto his stumps for his fourth duck in the competition this season. He might be keener that most to see the end of the competition.Three overs later, Robinson played a horrible swish against Carter and only succeeded in sending the ball high into the covers where Dougie Brown took a simple catch.Enter the talismanic figure of Ronnie Irani, captain, saviour and hero of all Essex. For a time he and Andy Flower stabilised the innings and there was the possibility of a revival. The pair had put on 21 runs that, in the circumstances, represented a major advance before Irani drove tamely at Brown to send a catch out to Neil Smith at mid-off.In Smith’s first over of off-spin, the 25th and scheduled halfway mark of the innings, Flower tried to glance down the leg-side, got an edge and Piper took the catch to leave Essex struggling deep in the mire at 86 for six.Aftab Habib was next to go, moving down the pitch to Ashley Giles and clipping a simple catch to Nick Knight at short mid-wicket that did not extend the former Essex player’s powers as one of the best fielders in the game. The catch to mid-on offered to Powell by Jon Dakin off Brown left Essex on 134 for eight in the 43rd over was equally simple.Paul Grayson, who had come in amid the carnage at eight in the order, and Ashley Cowan demonstrated what could be done with sensible application. They did not manage the boundaries that might have given Essex some sort of total to be defended, but to occupy the crease for the full 50 overs at least gave an air of respectability that at one time appeared unlikely. Cowan even managed a boundary in the final over – the previous one had been recorded in the 23rd – to finish on 27, while Grayson made 38 as they added 47 from 48 balls.Warwickshire began their reply at a rate of knots. Eight runs came off Irani’s first over of the innings. But the slender hopes of the men from the east were raised by the fall of two wickets in the space of six balls.Cowan struck first when he induced a catch behind by Powell when he had 11 and the score was 19. It had advanced by just two runs when Knight edged Irani through to Flower to elicit thoughts of a real contest that never quite materialised.Ian Bell demonstrated his burgeoning class while Troughton, the son and grandson of actors, displayed no nerves on the big stage as the pair launched into a third wicket partnership that made the game safe for Warwickshire. They added 84 in 12 overs with 14 fours. There had been but nine in the entire Essex innings.Irani switched and changed his bowlers, but to no effect. The Warwickshire pair went to a 50 partnership in 29 balls as the ball flew to all parts from all bowlers. There might have been the odd stroke that did not come off the middle of the bat, but the aggression of the partnership deserved a little fortune and the lack of quality in the bowling did not.It came to an end when the sixth bowler to be used, Napier, persuaded Troughton to chase a wide one to give Flower his third catch of the innings. There had been eight fours in Troughton’s innings of 37 off only 33 balls.Pollock joined Bell, who went to his fifty from 66 balls with seven fours with a push into the covers off Cowan. There was no stopping Warwickshire as soon as Pollock picked up the rhythm of the innings, even when Pollock drove Irani high to mid-off and Stephenson got Trevor Penney lbw in the next over.Warwickshire eased to the target with a minimum of fuss, thanks to the calm assurance of Bell which must surely have impressed the England captain, Hussain, who for once was forced to look on helplessly as Brown clipped the winning runs through midwicket off the second ball of the 37th over.

Northants Steelbacks have breezed to a seven-wicket victory over Derbyshire Scorpions in a floodlit Norwich Union League second division tussle at Wantage Road

George Dobell24-Jul-2002Northants Steelbacks have breezed to a seven-wicket victory over Derbyshire Scorpions in a floodlit Norwich Union League second division tussle at Wantage Road.The Steelbacks were stronger in all departments as they made light of the Scorpions lowly 143 all out, crossing the winning line with more than 17 overs to spare thanks to Mike Hussey’s fine unbeaten 72.The win takes the Steelbacks second, and in a good position to push for promotion. The Scorpions are left in the bottom three, contemplating another season in the second division.Earlier in the day the Scorpions, shorn of Dominic Cork (England duty), Michael Di Venuto and Graeme Welch (both injured) simply could not get going against a disciplined attack, despite choosing to bat on a pitch that remained good for batting throughout.A tight opening spell from Cousins and Greenidge (who finished with career best one-day figures of 3-22) set the tone, with Stephen Stubbings falling to a good, low catch by Sales at slip off Greenidge as he played an extravagant drive.Gait, slashing at Greenidge without any foot movement, followed for 23 and after 15 overs the Scorpions had compiled just 42-2.Selwood, who came out to bat to Kenny Rogers’ ‘Coward of the County,’ lived dangerously. Dropped by Sales at slip off Penberthy, he eventually fell to the same bowler. In attempting to turn the ball on the leg side he succeeded only in dollying a leading edge to Hussey at point.Bassano’s innings was tortuous. His 11 occupied 49 balls, and included a reprieve from Sales at slip, slashing at Penberthy. But the bowler got his man, when the batsman missed an expansive heave and was struck on the back leg. Penberthy, the Steelbacks beneficiary, finished with 2-16 from nine miserly overs.The Scorpions could ill afford another slip up, but when Sutton drove to a diving Brophy at cover and was sent back by his Dowman it left the innings in disarray at 63-5.A couple of good drives from Jason Kerr, in partnership with stand-in skipper, Matthew Dowman, gave the visitors some hope in a stand of 39, though the pair enjoyed plenty of fortune. Kerr was lucky not to be caught when turning Brown away on the leg-side, but instead benefited with five runs as the throw-in struck Dowman and the ball ran away to the boundary.Together the pair brought up the 100, before Jeff Cook responded to being driven through the covers for four with a quicker ball that Dowman, attempting to dab away on the off side, nicked to Bailey, standing up behind the stumps.Kerr greeted Swann into the attack with the shot of the innings, dancing to the pitch of the ball and drilling it for four. His 65* against the same opponents earlier in the season took his team to victory, and for a while he made batting look easy. Certainly his foot movement and straight hitting were an example to his less orthodox team-mates as he compiled an attractive 45.But when he was sent back by Lungley, looking for an optimistic single, the Scorpions were 135-7 and their last hope of setting a really competitive target was over.A super direct hit to the bowler’s end from Hussey at point did for Mohammad Ali, Dean skied Greenidge to Swann at long-on and Lungley became the fourth man run out when attempting a pretty desperate single off Swann as the Scorpions failed to bat out their overs. The target was never likely to be enough.In reply Hussey, the Steelbacks skipper, and Loye started as if they had a train to catch, taking 20 off the first two overs.Loye was in particularly aggressive mood, following an on-driven boundary with a swept six over mid-wicket off Kevin Dean to bring up the 50. But later in the same over Loye fell, caught at cover-point, driving uppishly.The Steelbacks wobbled somewhat as Sales fell to another Kerr long-hop, helping it straight down the throat of Selwood at long leg and Brophy, a South African who qualifies through EU regulations, was beaten for pace by Mohammad Ali, edging an attempted pull to the keeper.But Hussey continued untroubled, first pulling, then driving Dean for boundaries before swatting Kerr’s first ball, a pretty friendly long-hop, to the square leg fence. His 50 came up in just 47 balls, with seven boundaries.Cook provided the stability Hussey needed. He on-drove Kerr for four before square cutting Ali for four more in an attractive cameo of 37 not out as the pair added an unbroken 58 for the fourth wicket to see their side to the most comfortable of victories in just the 28th over.

Leicester City would have been far better off financially qualifying for the Champions League than winning the FA Cup, explains football finance expert Kieran Maguire.

The Foxes did battle with Chelsea on both fronts towards the end of the season, coming out on top in the FA Cup final but falling short in the race for Champions League qualification having seen defeat at the Bridge before losing against Tottenham.

Just like in the 2019/20 Premier League campaign, Leicester ended up in fifth place behind fourth-placed Chelsea, just missing out on passage to Europe’s elite competition.

And Maguire, speaking exclusively to TT, has highlighted the financial consequences of the club’s final league position.

“From a purely financial position, from a purely financial perspective, they were better off qualifying for the Champions League,” The Price of Football author said. “I think from a footballing perspective, they were far better off winning the FA Cup.

“But if the focus is going to be on money, you will get a minimum of £30m from winning the Champions League. For winning the FA Cup, you make £2m.

“Admittedly, they’ve also qualified for the Europa League, but the Europa League, if they only get as far as the group stages, we’re probably talking £8m.”

That extra £30m could have gone a long way in regards to things like transfers and wage budget.

However, you would have to imagine that most Leicester supporters probably would not swap Wembley glory, the club’s first-ever FA Cup triumph, for a bit more cash into the club’s pocket and qualification for a competition the team has played in before.

As the Everton hierarchy will tell you; finding a new first-team manager is incredibly hard.

The Toffees have had to do it on multiple occasions over the last decade but they’re now back at square one as they hunt Carlo Ancelotti’s successor.

What’s the word?

This has been a week of twists and turns in the club’s chase for a new head coach.

Nuno Santo was the favourite but after talks stalled, Everton turned their focus to former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez.

Gennaro Gattuso is now believed to be in the frame too after Tottenham ended their short chase of the Italian on Friday morning.

Benitez was on the verge of becoming the new boss at Goodison Park according to talkSPORT and Sky Sports News host Jim White but there is another name in the frame.

Per ESPN, the 61-year-old faces competition for the role from Roberto Martinez. He’s a coach that Bill Kenwright has been keen on bringing back since their search began.

Forget Gattuso

Martinez would be an interesting hire for the Toffees based on his previous reign in Merseyside.

He told Kenwright that he’d deliver Champions League football to Goodison Park but departed after just three years having won 42.7% of his matches.

The Spaniard came close to delivering on his promise in his first campaign, taking them to a fifth-place finish.

[snack-amp-story url= “https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/read-the-latest-everton-manager-transfer-nuno-conte-wood-marcelo” title= “Read the latest Everton manager and transfer news!”]

However, what followed was mid-table mediocrity for Everton as the manager was dubbed “stubborn” for his tactical approach by Lyndon Lloyd, editor of popular Everton fansite ToffeeWeb.

Based on that, he’d be a poor appointment. As Ancelotti was keen to reiterate, the Toffees have a goal of reaching Europe’s top table and Martinez has already had one bite of the cherry and failed to do that with them.

However, he would be a much better choice than Gattuso. Everton need someone who can bring them stability and it’s evident that the Italian is not up to that task in that area.

He left Fiorentina after only 23 days in charge and has never managed more than 100 matches at a single club throughout his managerial career.

The hot-headed coach has a stern attitude but is an unknown quantity in English football. Martinez, on the other hand, now has experience of managing the highest-ranked side in international football; Belgium.

Crucially, the 47-year-old also has experience in England and knows the surroundings at Goodison Park.

Very rarely should you go back to a past lover but if Gattuso is the only other alternative, Everton would have to consider Martinez instead.

AND in other news, Imagine him & Benitez: Everton must sign £266k-p/w beast who dubbed Rafa “amazing”…

Ticket sales, on the opening day, for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa were hit out of the park yesterday when heavy demands put to much pressure on on-line and telephone sales

Keith Lane16-Jul-2002Ticket sales, on the opening day, for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa were hit out of the park yesterday when heavy demands put to much pressure on on-line and telephone sales.Not only did the website fail, where it is reported that only 300 packages where sold, but the call-centre with problems of its own and the added burden of calls about the crashed web site, could only manage 7,400. The internet system that had been tested over and over again could not handle the 4,000 to 5,000 requests it received every minute.Long queues at all 12 venues caused further problems with the Wanderers the worst hit. Breakdowns at the venue of the final resulted in only about 250 of the more than a 1,000 fans who camped outside the ground overnight able to get packages for the Wanderers before the sold out boards went up. Most of the Wanderers packages being sold at the other venues. Kingsmead was the next main venue to be sold out.Cricket fans may still visit the Wanderers stadium ticket offices tomorrow if they wish to book stadium packages for any other venue or Follow the Team packages.By the end of trading a total of 90,000, out of a possible 222,000 packages going on sale, were sold. The remainder will be available at all the venues until they are all sold. The web-site and call-centre will also remain open but the “busy server” message could be the order of the day.Dissatisfied fans at the Wanderers had to be calmed down by Dr Bacher who added that “We will come back to you people… You will see World Cup cricket at the Wanderers.” Names and contact details of these disgruntled fans have been recorded and they would be first in line should any packages become available. He explained that around the country, fans at other venues were also able to buy Wanderers packages. "We have always said that we want people from around the country to get a chance to attend the ICC Cricket World Cup final should they so desire."Booking will continue from 09h00 (08:00GMT) at the 12 venues hosting ICC CWC matches, on the ticketing call-centre on 083 123 2003 and via the website on www.cricketworldcup.com.