Newly promoted Crystal Palace are preparing to go head-to-head with West Brom in the battle for Genoa centre-back Andreas Granqvist, according to reports from the Daily Star.
Eagles chief Ian Holloway is still keen to strengthen his defensive option ahead of the big kick-off, and sees the Swede as the ideal man to add experience and ability to his rearguard.
Granqvist was thought to be on the verge of completing a move to Serie A giants AC Milan, but the proposed deal recently collapsed.
This has opened the door for Palace, who are willing to meet Genoa’s £3m asking price.
Although he is valued highly by the Italians, they are aware that he is keen to move on, and are not prepared to stand in his way.
West Brom are also rumoured to be interested, after Steve Clarke failed in his attempts to lure Napoli’s Federico Fernandez to The Hawthorns last week.
But, Holloway is confident that the promise of guaranteed first-team action could sway Granqvist, and convince him to select Selhurst Park.
The 28-year-old has also been linked with Liverpool over the course of the last year, after a series of impressive performances both domestically and on the international stage.
Crystal Palace fans, could Andreas Granqvist guide your side to Premier League safety?
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According to Sky Sports, Liverpool defender Daniel Agger believes that the Liverpool supporters cannot afford to lose faith in the club after suffering their worst start to a Premier League season in half a century.
Defeats away to West Bromwich Albion and at home to Arsenal have left Brendan Rodgers’ side with just a solitary point (picked up against the champions Manchester City) going into the international break.
However, Agger, who was linked with a move to Manchester City in the summer, believes that the players are simply taking their time to adjust to the attractive style of football that manager Rodgers wants them to play: “Nothing is easy to fix- not in football and not in life – but we are working on the manager’s ideas everyday, so hopefully we can get better and better during the course of the season.”
To add to the discontent at Anfield, the Liverpool manager allowed £35 million striker Andy Carroll to leave the club on a season long loan to West Ham United, subsequently leaving the Reds bereft of strikers after failing to replace the 23-year-old.
Agger admits that the lack of squad members at Liverpool isn’t ideal but still remains positive. “We are trying everything we can and we have to get the best out of the squad we have,” he said.
The two frontline strikers Liverpool do have at the club – Fabio Borini and Luis Suarez – have come in for some criticism following their inability to convert some clear-cut chances in their first three Premier League games.
Although Agger argued that the onus should not always be on Borini and Suarez to net Liverpool’s goals this season, he admitted that the chances were there and him and his team mates “all need to start taking them.”
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The fixture generator hasn’t been exactly kind to Rodgers and his Liverpool side at the beginning of this campaign. After the international break the Merseyside club travel to the Stadium of Light to face an improved Sunderland outfit, followed by the visit of fierce rivals Manchester United at Anfield.
Southampton are on the cusp of preserving their Premier League status following their crucial 1-0 win against Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium on Tuesday night.
Saints came into the clash in 17th position and only above their opponents on goal difference, and they knew that in reality they had to pick up all three points given they host Manchester City at St Mary’s on the final day, while the Swans welcome already-relegated Stoke City to south Wales.
The south coast outfit have hovered in and around the relegation zone for much of the season, but when they surrendered a two-goal lead against Chelsea with just 20 minutes to play – eventually losing 3-2 – it seemed that they were down and out despite the arrival of Mark Hughes a few weeks beforehand.
That loss to the Blues left them five points from safety with just five fixtures left to play, and with one victory to their name since the end of November the St Mary’s faithful were quickly losing hope.
Luckily for them, their team has turned things around and showed the fight that needed to under Hughes to take eight points from a possible 12 available since then, to leave them on the verge of survival.
Barring a 10-goal swing between them and Swansea on Sunday, they will be playing Premier League football again next season, and it will be a lucky escape in what has been a disastrous campaign for a club that other similarly-sized ones used to be envious of and look up to.
Ever since Ronald Koeman left for Everton in 2016, things have gone downhill for the south coast outfit, and much of that is to do with poor decisions at board level.
Vice-chairman Les Reed and chairman Ralph Krueger chose Claude Puel as the man to take the club forward following Koeman’s departure, and while the Frenchman led them to an eighth-place finish, his rotation and overall negative style of play meant that he wasn’t popular with the fans, or the players.
The failure to get out of a Europa League group that they should have done – they failed to score away in three matches – was particularly disappointing, and one of the reasons Puel was relieved of his duties at the end of the campaign.
Southampton hadn’t been used to getting decisions like that wrong having had Alan Pardew, Nigel Adkins, Mauricio Pochettino and then Koeman at the helm previously, as well as striking lucky with their recruitment when their best players moved on to the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.
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Krueger and Reed needed to get the next appointment right seeing as they finished in eighth but were just six points above 17th, showing the fine margins between the sides outside of the top six in the top flight.
The feeling is that they thought they would attract better managers than they perhaps did for the role, and in the end they took a risk by bringing Mauricio Pellegrino to St Mary’s following an above average season with newly-promoted Alaves in La Liga.
It was a disastrous decision, but perhaps what was even worse was the arrogance from Reed and Krueger not to admit their mistake and get rid of the Argentine manager sooner than they did, when it was clear things weren’t getting better.
He could have easily gone after the 4-1 loss at home to Leicester City in December, the 5-2 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur a fortnight later or the 2-1 reverse at home to fellow strugglers Crystal Palace at the start of January – a perfect chance to get in a new manager while the transfer window was still open.
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Instead, they dithered and dithered and in the end they made another terrible decision just before deadline day as they let Pellegrino bring Guido Carrillo in from Monaco on a club-record deal.
That was an unforgivable error given that the manager was sacked little over a month later, and the quality and mentality of the striker has perhaps been best highlighted by the fact that he has often struggled to make the matchday squad since Hughes took over in March.
Not sacking Pellegrino earlier was a decision that almost cost Southampton their Premier League status, and a change in tact in terms of transfers that has seen them buy players that are out of favour with big clubs rather than buying the best from other leagues hasn’t worked out either.
Reed and Krueger may think that they are sitting comfortably if Saints do – as expected – stay up, but the supporters showed their discontent on Twitter when the former was linked with a role for England last month, and owner Gao Jisheng shouldn’t be at all happy either.
The duo – Reed especially – may have done good jobs in the past, but they have failed the St Mary’s faithful over the course of the last two seasons and it is time for a change – otherwise the south coast outfit could find themselves in a similar situation in 12 months’ time.
After starting with both Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Romelu Lukaku against Burnley on Boxing Day, Manchester United really shouldn’t have had to rely on half-time sub Jesse Lingard to bail them out, coming back from 2-0 down.
But that was the position they found themselves in as the Belgian striker – still United’s top scorer – has started yet another goal drought, whilst Zlatan Ibrahimovic – who, in fairness, only has one start to his name all season – is yet to score in the Premier League, his only goal coming against Bristol City.
This weekend, after three without a win in all competitions, the Red Devils need to find a victory from somewhere in order to stop the rot, but it won’t be easy: not because Southampton are the most difficult opponents they’ll face in the coming weeks, but because there’s another game just 48 hours later, up against Sam Allardyce’s Everton.
That won’t be easy either, not least because the Toffees have only conceded twice under their new manager, and it’s those sorts of defences which have given United difficulties in recent weeks. That means United can’t just think about beating Southampton first and then moving onto Everton: with two games in three days, they have to juggle both by resting players with a view to winning both games.
In order to do that, you get the feeling that Lukaku will have to play one game and Ibrahimovic the other. With the Saints game first up this weekend, should Mourinho play Ibrahimovic or Lukaku up front on Saturday, resting the other for New Year’s Day? Have your say below?
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Arsene Wenger has always prioritised the Premier League. Through talking up the team’s ability to finish first (even if he didn’t really believe it himself) to ensuring that come the second half of the season when Arsenal were usually well and truly out of the title race, the objective was on finishing in the top four.
Yet it is extremely backwards to place so much importance in the Champions League. The club need UEFA’s top competition for the revenue it brings in; anything in the way of a deep run in the competition is simply a bonus. But since the move to the Emirates, Wenger has always been handicapped in his ability to field a strong team in Europe and continue to force the club over the line for a top four finish.
It’s baffling when you think about it. The club have been in a seemingly endless cycle of never really pushing on in their hunt for silverware, all the while talking up one of the factors that have handicapped them along the way.
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I don’t think Wenger’s tactical ability in Europe needs to be questioned – at least to any great degree. Two semi-final appearances, one which lead to the final in 2006, isn’t really something you’d expect from a club of Arsenal’s experience in the Champions League, but the manager has never had the resources to go all out.
When the team did make the final in Paris, it came off the back of a real struggle to overtake Tottenham for fourth. The same was true in 2009 when the club were eliminated by Manchester United over two legs. Arsenal had done surprisingly well to get as far as they did that year, but had it not been for the injection of life offered by Andrey Arshavin in the January window, Arsenal would almost certainly have failed to make the following year’s competition.
Sometimes it’s worth comparing Wenger to his managerial contemporaries. Manuel Pellegrini has done a lot with the little he’s had in the past in Spain. Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund, right across the board, were hardly a match for Bayern’s endless supply of resources but made it to the final alongside their domestic rivals. And yet Real Madrid have been failures in Europe up until Jose Mourinho arrived and put matters straight, to a degree. The Portuguese led the club to three consecutive semi-finals when the best they could muster previously was a trip to the last 16.
Arsenal’s failure to really deliver on the European stage is a result of the move to the Emirates. Bar 2006, the only season that Arsenal perhaps should have done more with what they had was 2004. Wenger had been building to a team of that ability and ferocity in domestic competition, yet when they failed to get past Chelsea at the quarterfinal stage, Wenger dismantled that squad with near-frightening pace. The importance should have been in building on that team and transferring their Premier League dominance onto the European stage. By 2006, the spirit of the Invincibles was completely absent. Many of the key figures remained, but as a collective the squad was far from an equal.
A lot of this is the reason why I’ve raised the question about the club missing out on the Champions League for a season at least. The problem is fans are too quick to concern themselves with matters on the financial front. They also want to throw in comparisons relating to Liverpool and their struggles to get back into the mix for the Champions League, all the while completely ignoring clubs like AC Milan, Juventus, Napoli, Lyon, and Bayern, among others, who have missed out on the Champions League but have quickly, in most of their cases, returned.
But then you’d have to question whether Wenger and the Arsenal backroom staff would have the same ingenuity to turn the ship around off the back of a season out of Europe. The scouting department comes into play, resulting, often, in poor acquisitions. Wenger has been rightly criticised for his lack of tactical expertise in the domestic game, let alone in Europe, so that adds to the overall problem too.
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The problem with Arsenal is that you can’t pick one fault and isolate it from the rest. It’s a domino effect that allows one poor decision to fall back on everything else. The club’s lack of incentive to change, or even their inability, has resulted in a vicious cycle and stagnation. This summer is billed as the end to all that and the beginning of something new. But for whatever failures the club have had in the Champions League, they do not solely lie with Wenger’s tactical approach.
Should Arsene Wenger be questioned for his results in Europe?
Leeds United ended what was yet another disappointing Championship season in the bottom-half of the table on goal difference following their 2-0 win against Queens Park Rangers at Elland Road on Sunday.
It was just their fourth win of 2018 – all of which came on their own patch – meaning they ended the campaign on 60 points, with 20 defeats from their 46 league fixtures.
It was certainly a case of what might have been for the Yorkshire outfit given they started so well back in August and topped the standings for a time in September, but a dreadful run of form since then saw then gradually drop down the table.
Paul Heckingbottom struggled to make too much of a positive impact from February until May having replaced Thomas Christiansen, and it remains to be seen whether he will stay or go, although he certainly deserves his chance to stamp his own foot on this squad during the summer transfer window.
The Whites certainly need to make some big changes over the close season seeing as a number of their players once again consistently underperformed, while more often than not they didn’t look like a team and were far too easy to break down.
The failings of the likes of Pierre-Michel Lasogga – who will return to Hamburg following his loan spell – Caleb Ekuban, Jay-Roy Grot and Pawel Cibicki up top mean that finding a decent replacement for Chris Wood this summer should be a priority, but the midfield needs some work as well.
Kalvin Phillips and Eunan O’Kane have been the first-choice central midfield for much of the campaign – especially under Christiansen – but while Phillips clearly does have some ability, neither of them showed it on a consistent basis in what was one of the key areas where Leeds struggled the most.
Someone like Ronaldo Vieira – who was something of a regular under Garry Monk last term – has failed to hit the heights that he did then and hasn’t pushed O’Kane and Phillips for a spot in the XI as much as he perhaps should have done, while the situation with Mateusz Klich was strange.
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The Poland international was signed from AZ Alkmaar last summer, but for whatever reason he was barely picked in league games despite showing his quality in the EFL Cup win against Burnley at Turf Moor, with his relationship with Christiansen seemingly not good.
Despite the Yorkshire outfit’s woes in the middle of the park, the arrival of £4.5m-rated Adam Forshaw from Middlesbrough during the January transfer window saw Klich sent out on loan to FC Utrecht just days before Christiansen was relieved of his duties – and he has impressed.
The 27-year-old has scored one goal and provided a further three assists in 14 appearances from the middle of the park, with one of those assists coming in the draw against Heracles where he also made a remarkable 11 key passes.
While most of his outings for the Eredivisie outfit have come from the right-hand side, he has shown the quality that he has in his locker and the ability that he was never really given an opportunity to show for Leeds.
The Whites need to ensure that they bring the Polish midfielder back to the club and get him involved with pre-season under Heckingbottom – or whoever else – because he is proving why he should be starting ahead of the likes of Phillips, O’Kane and Vieira in the centre next term if the Yorkshire club are to challenge for promotion.
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That isn’t the only change that must happen, either.
Adam Forshaw
Forshaw has been one of Leeds’ best and most committed players on the pitch in the second-half of the campaign, and he has shown the leadership skills that he has.
Whether Heckingbottom stays or not, the 26-year-old needs to have the captaincy ahead of Liam Cooper – who is often a liability because of his lack of discipline during games – next season, in order to drive this underperforming club forward.
Forshaw’s tenacity next to Klich’s quality in the centre of the park for Leeds could prove to be crucial, and it could be a partnership that helps finally takes them into top-six contention – minimum.
Liverpool’s first seven away games are horrendous, probably the worst run of fixtures anyone could ever face. With pressure mounting on Brendan Rodgers towards the end of last season, a poor run at the start of this season could be the end of his tenure at Anfield.
That’s not sensationalism, that’s the state of modern football. Rodgers still deserves a chance, sure, but can the owners afford to give it to him if Liverpool are midtable after ten games?
It would be a repeat of last season in many ways. If Liverpool start slowly, they can blame the fixtures – last season they could point to the Suarez sale – and then put a run together from Christmas onwards. But that might not be enough to get them Champions League football. With United and Arsenal spending money, City will surely strengthen too and Chelsea will also feel they have enough firepower by the end of the summer to fend off the chasing pack. Liverpool will have to move forward quickly, not stand still.
And to his credit, Rodgers has recognised this. He’s made some very good signings indeed and all before the window has really even opened in earnest. There’s only a month left before the season opener – a second consecutive game away to Stoke, the scene of the crime as far as Liverpool are concerned – and Liverpool have a better squad than they did going into the last game of last season.
But the problem for Rodgers this summer was always going to be the lack of Champions League football, and whether the club could attract the calibre of players needed in order to bring his team on. The Europa League just isn’t catnip enough to Europe’s biggest stars.
So given that Rodgers has done alright so far, he’ll have some goodwill before the start of the season. But that could disappear suddenly if they start to lose games. It doesn’t matter how excusable those defeats might be, football is fickle. Logically, defeats away to Stoke, Arsenal, Man United, Everton, Tottenham, Chelsea and Man City shouldn’t really have a bearing on a manager’s position. But with Rodgers already under pressure Liverpool need to win some of those games.
He knows that Jurgen Klopp is just a phone call away from taking his job and that a poor run could really seal his fate.
And in fact, Klopp is in a wonderful position if indeed he does want to manage Liverpool. The German can take a few months off and watch from afar as Rodgers toils under the pressure of such a tough start. Then if Rodgers does get the sack, Klopp can come in mid-season, the tough fixtures already out of the way, and bring the team to a decent finish. Rodgers could do all the dirty work and Klopp can come in and finish the job, looking like the saviour all the while.
But that will only happen if Liverpool stutter in their tough few games and are unable to rectify the situation. If Rodgers is under pressure then the players will need to step up and do it when the chips are down. That’s what’s going to save Rodgers through this tough period, the players. If his young team can handle the pressure, after a poor end to last season and a tough start to the next one, then there’ll be no need for Klopp or another saviour come November time.
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The players Rodgers has brought into the club so far this summer must be players that he can rely on. That’s why Milner is perfect, he and Firmino are players who will help out the team defensively too. Milner epitomises the ‘honest, hardworking’ stereotype, which is exactly what you need when the pressure is on.
With Klopp waiting in the wings, the pressure really is on Rodgers and he needs the players to help him out during the opening weeks. But he’s bought well so far and maybe Klopp will have to wait a little longer to take over at Anfield.
Tottenham Hotspur defender Danny Rose will wait until the end of the season to find out if he has a future at White Hart Lane.
The young left back has impressed on loan at Sunderland this season and the Black Cats are keen to sign the England under-21 international on a full time basis.
The 22 year old was loaned out due to lack of first team opportunities in North London but his stella individual displays at the Stadium of Light may have changed that.
Current Spurs left back Benoit Assou-Ekotto has been injured for a large part of this season leaving them with a lack of cover in that position.
Sunderland boss Paolo Di Canio has praised the youngster but admitted he has no idea if he will join the North East club or not.
“He’s our player at the moment. Sunday will be his last game and then we will see,” Di Canio told the Shields Gazette.
“I don’t want to talk about the future because we have to focus on the next game.
“In my opinion, he can improve a lot defensively. He’s an attacking-minded left-back, but he has to improve a lot defensively.
“He’s got a great future in front of him. He’s a powerful guy. The strength and elasticity he’s got mean he can run forward with the ball and beat people easily.
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“It’s obvious he can play at the top level, but everybody has to improve.”
In six of the last nine Champions League finals, a Spanish team has won.
Indeed, since 2001, the only times in which a La Liga team has lost in a Champions League final was when Atletico Madrid lost to the team who will be Liverpool’s opponents later this month, Real. On both those occasions, a Spanish team had to lose.
And when Inter Milan beat Bayern Munich in 2010, or when Chelsea beat the German giants in 2012, both times Barcelona had been sensationally ousted from the competition at the semi-final stage by teams who would go on to win the competition.
That’s the scale of the dominance Spain has over Europe: when their teams don’t win the Champions League, everyone seems to agree the best team didn’t win.
But that could be about to change.
Liverpool are the team tasked with stopping Real Madrid from becoming the first side to win the competition three times in a row since Bayern Munich in the 1970s. But stopping this Real Madrid side looks like it is shorthand for stopping Spanish dominance in Europe.
Liverpool may have already done that.
A period of English resurgence was foretold after the Premier League’s recent media rights riches made their clubs much wealthier than their European counterparts. Leicester City, West Ham, Southampton and Everton all made the top 20 of the 2018 Deloitte Money List.
In that research, 14 of the top 30 richest clubs are English, and the biggest number of clubs any other league can boast in the list is five, from Serie A. They have the money, the players, and the coaches to make a serious impact.
And yet, so far that hasn’t happened. Despite Liverpool making the final, only Manchester City joined them in the quarter final stage, as the others had all been knocked out before then.
But the final Liverpool eventually made won’t just be a shootout between Madrid and Liverpool, Spain and England – it will also, on some level, probably decide the Ballon d’Or, too.
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Mohamed Salah is picking up awards left, right and centre, but if Madrid win the Champions League again it will surely be Cristiano Ronaldo who bags another golden ball. But if Salah is in the final three – and especially if he wins – he’ll have proven something which could change how we view football over the next few years: that you don’t have to be at Real Madrid or Barcelona to land a Ballon d’Or.
Up until Neymar left Barcelona for PSG, it appeared that way, and the pair’s dominance over the top continental competition seemed to solidify that belief. But if Salah can do it from a team who finished fourth in the Premier League last season and scraping qualification into the play-off stage of this year’s Champions League then that fact alone surely proves the cracks in the dominance of the El Clasico clubs are ready to burst open.
Transfer rumour mill time… and the latest names to be thrown together are Mohamed Salah of Chelsea fame (well, sort of) and Tottenham. Two local rivals doing business is rare, due to the potential ‘egg on face’ scenario the selling side are always wary of, so this report has to be taken with a small pinch of salt. However, should it?
Well, we at FFC Towers think that Salah to Spurs would be a match made in heaven for the player, and the two sides involved. ‘Why?’ we hear you cry… well, here are FIVE reasons.
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Game time…
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Now this is the big one, Salah needs game time. It’s hardly a shock that he shone at Basel, struggled at Chelsea and then was impressive again at Fiorentina – guess the two clubs he played regularly for! With competition for game time fierce and Stamford Bridge and Jose Mourinho a manager opposed to rotation, The Egyptian’s chances of becoming a first-team star at the age of 21-22 (he’s now 23) were always likely to be slim.
However, over at White Hart Lane, Mauricio Pochettino is a coach more akin to giving other options a go, while the Lilywhites hardly possess a wealth of wide attackers lighting up the Premier League.
More suited to a side of Spurs’ ambition…
Perhaps, as it stands, Salah is not quite at the level to compete for titles and European honours at one of the biggest clubs around. After all, his move came on the back of some impressive showings with Basel, who, no disrespect, are the big fish in a pretty tiny Swiss pond.
Featuring in the Europa League and challenging for a top four berth may be Salah’s level for now, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all at the age of 23. Spurs are very much in that niche, so it could be a match made in heaven…
Still very talented
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Despite his struggles at Chelsea, Salah is indeed a talented player. Dubbed the ‘Egyptian Lionel Messi’ in his Basel days, capped 37 times at international level (with 21 goals to his name) and a league champion in Switzerland, the youngster clearly has talent.
Tottenham could use that ability, with supplying Harry Kane with ammunition certainly a priority heading into the 2015/16 campaign, in which the Lilywhites hero may have a tougher time from defenders.
Are Spurs and Chelsea genuine rivals?
The elephant in the room with this one seems to be the whole domestic and local rivalry between Chelsea and Spurs. Although the postcodes mean that the two clubs will always been London-based foes, are they actually teams competing directly against one another? The White Hart Lane outfit haven’t finished ahead of Chelsea since the 2011/12 campaign, and even that result (fourth and sixth respectively) was somewhat skewed by the Blues’ late season Champions League push.
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In between times the West Londoners have kicked on to re-establish themselves as kings of the English game, while in the north of the capital, Tottenham have routinely sold their best players and failed to enter the Champions League since 2010.
Pace and guild from wide
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Salah’s main strength is his ability to take on opposing full-backs with a mix of pace and trickery. Such a desire is always good in a wide attacker, with, ultimately, the aim of a traditional winger being to get past his man and deliver the ball to the strikers. Although the lines are somewhat blurred in Pochettino’s 4-2-3-1, with the attacking midfield three tasked with drifting to fill space, Salah appears to offer a different option. He’s more agile than Nacer Chadli, less infuriating than Andros Townsend, not as burdened by price-tag as Erik Lamela and pacier than Christian Eriksen.