With the season about to enter its tenth round of fixtures, we are a quarter of the way through the league campaign, which while it may not be enough to judge either fully or accurately how the season will eventually turn out, is enough time to make an opinion on which players have done well since signing for their new clubs.
While Manchester City and Newcastle have predominantly relied on those players who helped them so much last season, most clubs have sought to bring in fresh first-team bodies. They don’t always have to be the most expensive acquisitions, but the way you can tell whether they’ve been a success or not at this stage is if their presence is already missed from the starting eleven.
Click on Arouna Kone to unveil the top 10
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According to Turkish newspaper Aksam, Newcastle United have activated an £8.8m release clause in the contract of Besiktas midfielder Oguzhan Ozyakup.
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The 25-year-old, who has previously been linked with a return to Arsenal, contributed eight assists in 37 appearances for his Turkish club last season.
Ozyakup recently signed a new contract with Besiktas, but it is understood that the deal has an £8.8m release clause, which Newcastle have decided to activate.
Magpies boss Rafael Benitez is said to be keen to tie up a deal before the end of the month, with a number of other clubs closely monitoring developments.
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The 35-time Turkey international started his professional career at Arsenal, but only made two first-team appearances for the Gunners before making the move to Besiktas in 2012.
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The midfielder has gone from strength to strength at his Turkish club over the last few years, and could well turn out to be a star in the Premier League.
The Newcastle fans have been airing their views on the speculation on social media, and a selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:
According to reports in the Daily Echo, £6m Southampton flop Florin Gardos is free to negotiate a move away with his contract unlikely to be extended in the summer.
What’s the word, then?
Well, Saints signed the Romania international in a £6m deal from Steaua Bucharest in 2014, but the 29-year-old has been hampered by injuries throughout his time at St Mary’s and has made just 18 appearances in all competitions, with 11 of those coming in the Premier League.
The centre-back’s contract with the south coast outfit is due to run out in the summer, and according to the Daily Echo the club has no intention of renewing it, meaning the defender can now speak to other clubs about signing a pre-contract agreement deal before the end of the season.
The report adds that Gardos’ teammate Jeremy Pied also finds himself in a similar boat, with an exit likely for him this summer too.
How has Gardos done with Southampton?
It has been a tough three-and-a-half year spell for the Romanian centre-back.
When he initially joined in 2014 he had to battle with captain Jose Fonte and loanee Toby Alderweireld for a place at the heart of the defence, and even when the latter joined Totteham Hotspur he was then replaced by Virgil van Dijk.
Injuries have also played a big part in the 29-year-old being labelled as a flop, although there were some games where he looked as though he had the ability to be a success in the Premier League – he played 69 minutes as the club won 1-0 against Manchester United at Old Trafford in January 2015 and looked more than capable.
Will he be missed?
Probably not, no.
Saints supporters have barely seen enough of Gardos to know whether he is good enough to play for them regularly or not, but given his lack of involvement this season even though he is fit, they probably have their answer right there.
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With Wesley Hoedt, Maya Yoshida, Jack Stephens and Jan Bednarek all ahead of him in the pecking order, it is no surprise that he will be on his way out of St Mary’s in the summer.
Liverpool striker Luis Suarez has confessed that he has an obsession with winning, but finds balance in life with his family, the Mirror reports.
The Uruguayan international said as a street-kid he had to fight his way out of poverty and that the rage still lurks deep inside him.
However Suarez disclosed that his wife has toned down his inner child at home, despite of his appetite to be the best at everything.
In a video on the Liverpool official website, the forward said he hates losing so much there were occasions when he made his three-year-old daughter cry.
“I can never lose. I don’t like that and sometimes I can see and my wife can see that Delfina is the same,” he said.
“She doesn’t like losing and when we play in the house and she loses she cries and Sofia says she’s like me on the pitch!
“When I was a child I never liked to lose. From seven years old I started to do competitions and things like that and I never liked to lose…and even now, when I go onto the pitch sometimes 100 per cent it’s from the street.”
The 26-year-old explained that the desire to win came from a life of poverty – when he had to steal food for his family – and that the trait has stuck with him.
His wife sees things differently, by banning him from bringing his attitudes on the pitch back into their home.
“I have worked very hard in my life to stay at this level and I can’t miss one ball, because I love football,” he explained.
“But now sometimes I’m another person because you try your best, you perform and you change. But it depends on the moment.
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“Sometimes you lose the game and you go back to the house and I see my wife and two children and I forget everything.
“And when I score four like in the Norwich game I come home and my wife tells me forget that you have scored four on the pitch because here you are my husband!”
Sunderland defender John O’ Shea believes that a consistent run of games will revitalise the club’s flair players.
The Black Cats rescued a draw in Sunday’s game with Newcastle thanks to Demba Ba’s late own goal, but the centre back is aware that this spells just one win in 15 games for his side.
The Republic of Ireland star feels that with the lengthy international breaks for this calendar year, the club’s attacking personnel will have time to gel, and find their form in front of goal.
O’Shea mentioned that it was important to get the likes of Stephane Sessegnon, James McLean and Adam Johnson to work on supplying quality service to their £14 million summer acquisition Steven Fletcher.
The versatile defender went on to tell Sky Sports “Now over the next few weeks, fingers crossed, with a few bodies coming back as well, we will be able to go on a stronger run than we have been doing.
We have not been losing games. Obviously, we lost against (Manchester) City, but we should have more wins on the board than what we have.”
A worry for Sunderland and Martin O’Neill is that opposing sides have managed to ensure that the club’s danger men are kept quiet in games.
However, the former Manchester United ace, O’Shea was quick to point out that all the players have confidence in the team’s ability.
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Next up is a tricky trip to the Britannia stadium for the Black Cats where they will be trying to secure a 3 points that could provide a real impetus to their campaign.
Leroy Sane was one of Pep Guardiola’s star performers in the Manchester City team last season.
The attacker, who scored 14 goals and registered 17 assists in all competitions, was thought to be a shoe-in for the World Cup, but it was not meant to be.
Joachim Low opted against including Sane in the 23-man squad that will travel to Russia for the tournament, which gets underway on June 14.
At the age of just 22, the attacker has become regular feature in City’s team, but he is yet to earn the same status on the international stage.
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In fact, Sane, who joined the Cityzens from Schalke in 2016, has earned 11 senior caps for his country.
Given the talent that runs through the reigning world champions, it was always going to be a difficult job for Low to whittle down his squad.
Understandably, plenty of City fans have been left disappointed by the snub, while others are thankful that Sane will get a much-deserved rest to be fit and firing for the new season in August.
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Former England midfielder Jamie Redknapp has claimed that Marcus Rashford might be forced to leave Manchester United for the sake of his career.
Rashford, 20, has already made 36 appearances in all competitions for United this season – scoring an impressive 10 goals in the process.
The attacker is without a goal in his last eight Premier League matches, however, and has struggled to hold down a regular position in the team in recent weeks.
Alexis Sanchez’s arrival is also expected to harm Rashford’s chances of securing a position in Jose Mourinho’s starting team at Old Trafford.
Pundit Redknapp has said that Rashford ‘probably needs to go and play football somewhere’ following Sanchez’s switch from Arsenal.
Redknapp told Sky Sports:
“I just feel for people like Marcus Rashford. They go down the pecking order and he’s probably thinking where do I fit in now.
“He might have to go in the end. It doesn’t help your confidence. Every time you are training you think ‘I’m not going to play on Saturday’.
“He probably needs to go and play football somewhere. It is a shame but that’s modern day football and that’s why it’s so hard for young British players to get opportunities.”
United will look to continue their impressive run of form when they travel to Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Wednesday night.
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Rashford was on the scoresheet in United’s 4-0 win over Yeovil Town in the fourth round of the FA Cup last week.
It amazes me just how often Premier League chairmen opt for hiring a manager that directly contrasts in every manner to the one they’ve just swiftly relinquished from their respective dugouts.
Back in 2007, Roman Abramovich replaced anti-football extraordinare Jose Mourinho with Brazil boss Philippe Scolari. Just this summer, Roberto Mancini’s mafioso style and Italian tactics were swapped for La Liga’s coy in public yet adventurous in philosophy Manuel Pellegrini at Manchester City, and Everton chose free-footballing Roberto Martinez to carry the Goodison mantle from the Manchester United-bound David Moyes, a manager who has always favoured winning the ball high up the pitch rather than messing around with it in your own six yard box.
Some transitions are successful, others not, and now it’s time to examine Tottenham’s sudden overhaul, and whether new boss Tim Sherwood is taking the club in the right direction or pushing them towards tactical naivety.
The former Spurs midfielder, now in the dugout, a member of the old Villas-Boas regime but clearly one with some different ideas. A man who, unlike his predecessor, appears to actually enjoy communication and interaction with other human beings.
More than anything else, regardless of drubbings to Manchester City away and Liverpool at home, it was the Lilywhites’ inability to score goals under the Portuguese that proved to be his undoing.
Enter Sherwood’s philosophical backlash; since the ex-England man took the managerial helm, mercurial striker Emmanuel Adebayor has been reinstated for first team duties after his half-season in the development squad, 4-4-2 has been decisively favoured over a five-man midfield, and the North Londoners have netted nine times in four Premier League outings – that’s only six less than AVB managed in 16 games before being given the boot by Daniel Levy.
It’s traditional, it’s simple, it’s English, it’s direct, it’s ambitious, it’s attacking, it’s 4-4-2. It’s everything Sherwood’s predecessor would quietly shudder at whilst moving magnets around his vertical tactics board and trying to explain the importance of a double-pivot in deep midfield during a half-time team talk.
But it didn’t take long for Sherwood’s new bold and basic 4-4-2 philosophy to reveal its flaws.
Taking on a Manchester United side with one of the weakest midfields in the Premier League’s top half, and the Lilywhites ran riot on the break, able to bypass the middle of the park all together and make progress down the flanks.
Against Arsenal in the FA Cup however, a match which was never in Tottenham’s favour, and it took less than half hour for Spurs’ two flat banks of four to be decisively undone, leaving striking duo Emmanuel Adebayor and Roberto Soldado to stroll around aimlessly on the half-way line waiting for nothing to happen.
What was the issue? Not only are the Gunners the most in-form team in the country right now, topping the Premier League table and playing some very snazzy football to boot, but they’re also incredibly midfield-centric.
So much so that striker Olivier Giroud has almost as many assists as goals this season, with his job of laying off the ball to one of Arsenal’s venturing midfielders made incredibly easy by the lethality of Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil, Santi Cazola and Theo Walcott.
And during Sunday’s ad hoc North London derby, it was even more imperative that Tottenham flooded the middle of the park rather than concern themselves with fluency and link-up play in the final third. With Giroud hit by the winter flu, Nicklas Bendtner out with an ankle knock and Lucas Podolski fit enough for the bench but not to start, the Gunners essentially opted for a false nine formation, with Theo Walcott heading the attack but by no means shackled to his front-man role.
Rather, transition was the name of the game. Gnarby popping up here, Rosicky breaking through there, and Santi Cazorla netting a sensational strike from a difficult angle after half an hour, with the full-backs doing all the work down the flanks.
If there’s ever an occasion to bore your opponents to death and utilise two holding midfielders, two of AVB’s many crimes as Spurs boss, it’s an FA Cup visit to the Emirates.
Sherwood has denied claims that it was his utilisation of 4-4-2 that eventually cost his side a place in the fourth round, responding to journalists after being quizzed on the issue post-match; “No. They outnumbered us in the middle of the park but we outnumbered them out wide. They can’t have it all ways. I think we were fine. We didn’t lose the game because we were outnumbered in the middle of the pitch.
“A lot is made of systems – 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or whatever you want to call it… It’s about passing the ball to your own team and keeping hold of it because when you lose the ball you are always going to be out of shape – otherwise you are going to be a rigid, boring team.”
You can certainly see his point – failing to take attacking risks was Tottenham’s biggest flaw under AVB – and there were lots of other elements at work on Sunday evening. Namely a string of injuries leading to a debut for the unblooded Nabil Bentaleb, caused by a hectic schedule of six games in 17 days, the fact Arsenal are at the top of the Premier League table for legitimate footballing reasons, and defensive muck-ups from the nowhere-to-be-found Kyle Walker and the caught-in-possession Danny Rose.
But amid all the recent praise of how Sherwood has spawned a goal frenzy at a club that had averaged less than one per game prior to him taking the Spurs hotseat, you have to wonder whether his tactical naivety will cost Tottenham on more occasions this season than a solitary FA Cup master-class from their local rivals.
Some would label it brave to field a 4-4-2 against a club of Arsenal’s technical prowess and midfield dominance. Others would call it stupid.
So the question remains whether Sherwood’s feel-good 4-4-2 is here for the long-haul or simply a flash in the pan; a shock doctrine that prevails in the short-term but leaves intrinsic flaws and poor results as its legacy – especially if the Spurs boss is allowed to bring in a new choice of striker in January, who will quickly become redundant if the Lilywhites revert back to a one-up-front policy.
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The Arsenal performance certainly counts as a forebearer but it’s by no means the ultimate test. That will come against the likes of Everton, Swansea, Manchester City and Liverpool; teams designed to hold onto the ball and pull apart flat midfields. They’re also the calibre of opposition Spurs were expected to be effectively competing with at the start of the season.
With a few more games under his belt and a better understanding of the role at hand, Sherwood needs to demonstrate that the tactical vulnerability he showed against Arsenal won’t become a repeat occurrence, even if it does mean reverting back to the pragmatic, boring football of the old regime. Otherwise, his bold 4-4-2 will quickly be judged as decisively daft.
Gareth Bale has rejected claims that he dived to win a penalty for Wales against Scotland on Friday night.
The Tottenham winger scored two late goals to earn the hosts a 2-1 victory over Craig Levein’s men at the Liberty Stadium, with Shaun Maloney adjudged to have tripped Bale for a penalty in the deciding goal.
Despite the anger of the Tartan Army and criticism in the media, Bale has insisted that the award of a spot-kick was just.
“Somebody clipped me and I went over. He (Maloney) clipped my leg and I couldn’t stay on my feet,” Bale told Sky Sports.
“It was a simple penalty and it was nice to get up and slot it away.
“I’ve missed a few when I’ve taken them in the past, but I fancied it. I was confident and thankfully I did step up,” he commented.
Meanwhile, national boss Chris Coleman has praised Bale, and stated that the attacker will go down as one of the nation’s best-ever players if he continues on his current path.
“Gareth wouldn’t be fazed by moving to Real Madrid, Barcelona or any other top club in the world.
“It’s not easy moving to another country and culture, but he has the character to handle that. He’s young and has it all in front of him.
“In this country we talk about the great John Charles, Ryan Giggs, Ian Rush. Southall was the best goalkeeper in the world,” added Coleman.
“There’s no doubt in my mind Gareth will be up there with those guys.
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“He’s only 23. It’s not a case of ‘can he up there with those guys?’ He will be,” Coleman testified.
As reported by The Star, Everton are interested in signing Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere on a free transfer this summer.
What’s the story?
Wilshere still hasn’t signed a new deal at the Emirates Stadium despite offers and with his contract set to expire at the end of the month, he is one of the hottest properties in this summer’s transfer window.
The Star report that Everton are one of the teams interested in his services, rivalling the likes of Newcastle and West Ham United for his signature.
The paper say that the player is set for talks with Unai Emery but is still unhappy with the terms offered on his potential new contract at the club.
The player has previously been reported to earn £110,000-a-week at the Gunners.
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A good signing?
There may be question marks around Wilshere to compete at the level Arsenal are looking for in the future, but he has more than enough quality to make an impact at the London Stadium.
Coming into his prime years as a player, the midfielder appears to have put most of injury issues behind him, making 38 appearances for Arsenal in all competitions in 2017/18.
He needs a manager who puts belief and purpose into his game and being given new midfield responsibility at Everton under Marco Silva could be the making of him.
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The Toffees themselves are looking for attacking midfield improvement after difficult seasons for Wayne Rooney and Tom Davies and Wilshere has both the ability and experience to improve Everton.
The transfer of Theo Walcott demonstrated that squad players at the top six sides can give the Goodison Park outfit a big boost and Wilshere would likely be no different.