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For gaming enthusiasts looking to pick up the latest video games, consoles and accessories, there was only one port of call last week – the GAME Deadline Day window. Combining the Black Friday tradition of low prices with the ethos of football’s much-anticipated transfer deadline days, there were some huge bargains to be had. But what would happen if the gaming and footballing worlds collided once again to make their very own, collaborative team? GAME recently asked football fans to pick their Ultimate Gaming XI – here’s a look at who made the cut…

Goalkeeper

GianLUIGI Buffon

Shouting ‘Let’s-Go’ from the back will be GianLUIGI Buffon as the long-serving Juventus goalkeeper prepares to ‘wowies’ crowds once again as the number one for GAME’s starting XI.

Defence

RYU Ferdinand

RYU Ferdinand has karated his way to centre-back as a fighting favourite in GAME’s starting XI. The footballer-turned-boxer will be hoping to block and intercept as quick as a ‘hurricane kick’.

BATTLEFIELD: BAD Kompany

Kompany will be stepping onto the BATTLEFIELD to defend against destruction on the pitch. Being heavily regarded as one of the best defenders in the world will put him in good stead to successfully battle any opponent.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA Skrtel

Skrtel will be ‘Cowabunga-ing’ onto the pitch from Fenerbahce as part of GAME’s defensive back line. With all his experience dating back to when he was a young teenage turtle, he’s sure to be ‘eating feet’.

Ashley Cole OF DUTY

Ashley Cole OF DUTY will be shooting straight from the hip as he takes up a slot in the firing line. The former Chelsea man will return to old soil for GAME having played for LA Galaxy since 2016.

Midfield

CRASH BANDICoutinho

Coutinho ‘crashes’ into GAME’s starting XI as he looks to complete his mission as the attacking midfielder in the team. He’s often ‘Aku-Aku-sed’ of being a little magician by Liverpool fans due to his vision and passing ability.

Steve PACMANaman

Steve will be ‘PAC-ing’ his bags as he joins the GAME line-up. The Liverpool icon will relish the opportunity to pull the strings in midfield once again after leaving Manchester City more than 12 years ago.

TONY HAWK’S: PRO S-Keita

Seydou Keita will be gliding across the pitch like TONY HAWK as he inverts into GAME’s lineup. Having skated into the starting eleven, the Malian midfielder will be adding to his 625 career appearances at club level.

YOSHI Benayoun

YOSHI Benayoun is about to add to his ‘Mario’ caps. As Israel’s joint second top scorer with 24 international goals for his country, GAME will expect a few driving strikes from the former Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal man.

Strikeforce

CALL OF DUThierry Henry and TEKKun Aguero

The fighting duo will be ‘CALLed into DUTY’ as they respectively aim to shoot and kick as many goals into the back of the net as possible. Bearing in mind Henry’s record as Arsenal’s record goalscorer, GAME will expect the Frenchman to shoot on sight. With Aguero enjoying a fine run of form for Manchester City, he’ll hope to ‘Kazama’ a few shots home too.

As reported by the BBC, Rangers legend Ally McCoist believes the time is right for Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes to make the switch to Ibrox, ending more than a month of speculation that he will quit the Dons and succeed Pedro Caixinha.

What’s the story?

Ally McCoist understands perfectly well what it means to lead Rangers in a new era when their spending power isn’t what it once was, managing the club through financial crisis and the lower leagues of Scottish football.

No surprise then that he’s weighing into the debate about the future direction of the club and he’s given an unequivocal about who should take the club forward.

As quoted by the BBC, the former Light Blues striker said:

It’s possibly the right time for Derek and certainly the right time for Rangers to appoint Derek. He’s the majority of fans’ choice. The whole thing has taken too much time for the Rangers supporters and we’ve had the bizarre situation where Derek has been quizzed at his last two press conferences ahead of the last two games against Rangers when in fact Rangers have beaten them. It’s had a strange twist and an unreal feeling about it.

The former Rangers boss is spot on in his assertion that the entire saga has drifted on for far too long and supporters need to see movement on a new appointment this week or the club risk seeing them lose all faith in the decision makers at Ibrox.

The new era is overdue

Pedro Caixinha was sacked almost six weeks ago and with matches continuing in a busy schedule and the January window looming, Rangers really need their new man in place to bring stability to performances and figure out what moves need to be made in the transfer market.

Of course, the club were reported to have made an official approach to Aberdeen this week and refused, ultimately taking the pursuit of McInnes out of their hands.

However, if there’s no sign of the Dons manager quitting, they’ll need to move onto other targets very quickly or risk seeing their season go completely off the rails.

We’re over two years into Jurgen Klopp’s tenure, and Liverpool find themselves facing the same old problems; a venomous attack offset by a far more modest, far less reliable defence. That was evident once again on Sunday as the Reds found themselves coming away from a Merseyside derby they entirely dominated with just a single point. While criticism can be drawn from profligacy up top, it’s nonetheless hard to ignore that Liverpool conceded from what was Everton’s only real attack of the match.

That soft underbelly continues to cost the Reds invaluable points and it’s what most Liverpool fans will expect Klopp to address in the coming transfer window, preferably by reviving the club’s interest in Southampton defender Virgil van Dijk.

But it remains to be seen whether the south coast outfit will feel more open to a sale mid-season after threatening to report Liverpool for an improper approach during the summer, and there’s also a debate over whether the ball-playing Dutchman is truly what the Reds need. Yes, quality on the ball is more important at centre-back than ever before – but the biggest concern amongst Liverpool’s current defensive personnel is their lack of reliability in simplistic defensive situations.

And if alternatives are to be considered,Burnley’s James Tarkowski is fast becoming a potential candidate. Many feared for Sean Dyche’s side after the sale of Michael Keane to Everton during the summer, shortly followed by the departure of top scorer Andre Gray, but Tarkowski has more than filled the void of a centre-back expected to make England’s World Cup squad if fully fit by the time next summer comes around. In fact, he’s arguably improved upon the level of form Keane produced to earn a £25million move to Goosion Park.

We’ve seen that consistently throughout the season, Tarkowski featuring in every minute thus far of a Clarets campaign that has pushed them up to fourth place in the Premier League, and last night’s 1-0 win over Stoke City provided yet another example. In a victory that owed everything to Burnley’s rear-guard, Tarkowski won 12 aerial duels, made eleven clearances and completed three interceptions.

If there’s one concern, it’s that Burnley’s style of play has a knack embelishing the performances of their centre-backs because they’re so well protected and their duties are made as simple as possible – predominantly, defending the box with headers and clearances.

Just as it made Keane stand out last season, Tarkowski is quickly emerging as the new defensive star at Turf Moor. A pass completion rate of just 67% last night suggests Tarkowski will struggle with the extra demands placed on centre-backs at Anfield.

But valued at just £2.7million by Transfermarkt and on the verge of entering the final 18 months of his Burnley contract, Tarkowski seems worth the mid-season gamble for Liverpool, especially at the age of just 25. Would you back a swoop for the promising Englishman? Let us know by voting below…

Newcastle United suffered their fourth consecutive defeat on Saturday, losing 1-0 away to Arsenal in the English Premier League.

A Mesut Ozil stunner was enough to win the three points for the Gunners, although they were comfortable throughout the 90 minutes without going on to kill the game off.

It was always going to be difficult for the Magpies to get a result at the Emirates but the scoreline means they’ve now just won one point from their last 27 available and they’re facing a relegation dogfight in the second half of the season.

Supporters, while recognising a decent performance despite the result, were disappointed with a number of Rafa Benitez’s tactical decisions throughout the match, most notably the substitutions of Jacob Murphy and Mikel Merino, who were seen as the team’s top performers on the afternoon.

Did the Spaniard get things wrong by taking them off instead of the likes of Joselu?

Fans took to Twitter to share their thoughts…

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Liverpool are one of a number of clubs interested in Barcelona defender Yerry Mina after his strong World Cup showing.

According to The Mirror, Liverpool want the Colombia centre-back who became the first ever defender to score in his first three World Cup matches.

The Sun have also reported that Tottenham Hotspur and Everton are also interested in the 23-year-old who Barcelona may be willing to leave him on loan next season.

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We asked Liverpool fans in our poll if they wanted to sign the World Cup star and a resounding 89 per cent said they wanted the 6ft5 powerhouse.

Central defence is an area Jurgen Klopp has been working on for some time after the big money signing of Virgil Van Dijk in January, but his partner Dejan Lovren still leaves a lot to be desired.

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Liverpool fans clearly think it is worth Klopp upgrading on the Croatian and Mina could be the man to help shore up that defence.

According to Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio, Newcastle United are interested in a deal for Roma forward Gregoire Defrel this summer.

What’s the story?

Defrel is widely expected to leave Roma this summer, and a number of clubs – including Everton, Crystal Palace and West Ham United – have been linked with a move.

However, according to Di Marzio, Newcastle are also in the race as Magpies boss Rafael Benitez looks to sign a new striker ahead of the 2018-19 campaign.

Benitez recently admitted that he would have to sell before he could buy this summer, but it is being reported that Defrel could be available on loan.

The Premier League outfit are believed to be in a strong position to complete a deal for West Bromwich Albion forward Salomon Rondon.

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However, supplementing Rondon’s arrival with the signature of Defrel would certainly leave the club in a much healthier position entering the new season.

Why is Defrel available this summer?

The 27-year-old scored 23 times in 73 appearances for Sassuolo before moving to Roma in last summer’s transfer window.

The 5ft 11in Frenchman really struggled to make his mark at Stadio Olimpico, however, managing just one goal in 20 appearances in all competitions.

It is understood that Roma want to sell the centre-forward this summer, but would also be open to a loan exit, which puts Newcastle firmly in the race.

Defrel is not exactly the type of signing that would set pulses racing at St James’ Park, but he would be a good addition if Rondon also made the move.

Taking the Frenchman on loan – if that is indeed an option – would be a no-brainer for a team needing to upgrade the likes of Dwight Gayle and Joselu ahead of the 2018-19 Premier League campaign.

Riyad Mahrez joined Leicester City from Le Havre for just £450,000 in January 2014. The Algerian arrived from the port-city as a completely unknown entity to all those outside of his new club and avid fans of French Ligue 2 football.

Now though, four years later and as a Premier League winner with the Foxes, he has completed a £60m move to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City – becoming their record signing in the process.

Back in 2014 when he first joined, Leicester were still competing in the Championship and Mahrez was a skinny winger who many thought would be too lightweight for English football. In fact, Leicester’s scout was only in Le Havre to watch the Algerian’s teammate Ryan Mendes, who spent the 2015/16 season on loan at Nottingham Forest but has now just signed for Sharjah FC in the United Arab Emirates.

After just a month at the club and a few substitute appearances, Leicester boss Nigel Pearson announced that Mahrez was ready to start matches and Leicester went on to gain promotion to the Prem as winners of the Championship.

The first season in the Prem after promotion is always about consolidating and avoiding relegation, and for Leicester, who looked all but down at more than one point, this was achieved via a great escape, as they won seven of their last nine league matches to finish 14th.

Then came 2015/16. What more is there to say that hasn’t already been said? Mahrez scored 17 goals, provided 10 assists (of which most were for Jamie Vardy) and won the PFA Player of the Year trophy as Leicester made history, becoming 5000/1 winners of the Premier League.

After that memorable season, Mahrez gave an interview to FourFourTwo magazine in which he admitted that he hadn’t even known that Leicester had a football club before he joined the club. Perhaps even worse, he’d thought they were simply a rugby club.

Now, thanks to ‘that’ season, the 27-year-old has helped to put Leicester on the world footballing map.

However, in these situations the club’s never get the credit. Leicester should be praised for doing just as much for Mahrez as he has done for them and now he’s got his dream move to the big time.

It was a gamble to bring the tricky, and slightly lazy, winger to the King Power and they gave him the chance to prove himself and get minutes under his belt before he became the main man for Claudio Ranieri.

City fans will be hoping that Mahrez brings to the Etihad the kind of form that saw him tear up Manuel Pellegrini’s side in February 2015. A 3-1 victory then saw Leicester go five points clear and that could be pinpointed as the moment many started to believe.

Born in Paris to an Algerian father and Moroccan mother, Mahrez was once considered not good enough by the board at Quimper, an amateur team then in France’s fourth tier. Leicester took a chance when signing him back in 2014 and the huge profit made on his sale is testament to the work put in to developing him as a player and making him the dangerous attacking force he is today.

Mahrez may not have known who Leicester were before, but he will certainly never forget them now.

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Nottingham Forest target Lee Tomlin has been told he can leave Cardiff City this summer, according to The Nottingham Post.

The 29-year-old forward, rated at £2.7m by Transfermarkt, spent the second half of last season on loan at the City Ground where he scored four goals and registered three assists during his spell.

The journeyman only signed for Cardiff last summer but it appears they are ready to let him go this summer as they prepare for life in the top flight.

According to the report, Tomlin has been told he can leave the club this summer, but with his wage increase following promotion, it may be tricky for Forest to sign him on a permanent deal.

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It was reported earlier in the summer by the same publication that Nottingham Forest were keen on bringing the tricky forward back to the East Midlands this transfer window, but now Aitor Karanka has strengthened his striking options, it’s unclear whether he’s still in for Tomlin.

Nottingham Forest fans have been reacting to the news on social media and here’s what they’ve had to say.

Loads of West Ham fans have been having their say on their midfielder targets, and plenty of fans are completely against a move for Danny Drinkwater.

West Ham are expected to cash in on Cheikhou Kouyate this summer, as the Hammers look to round off their fantastic summer window with a bang.

For all the good business Pellegrini and the club have done to improve the attack and defence, there is a real concern it will all be for nothing if they don’t get a top notch defensive-minded midfielder in before the window closes.

Southampton’s Mario Lemina has been heavily linked to become the man at the base of Pellegrini’s midfield, but recent reports suggest it could be Drinkwater.

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The English international was in fantastic form when he left Leicester for Chelsea, but is now out in the cold having found himself unable to force a way into the side at Stamford Bridge.

According to The Mirror, the Hammers are eying the Chelsea outcast, and Maurizio Sarri is willing to let him leave.

Loads of fans have been giving their verdict on this one, and you can find some of the best Twitter reactions down below…

After a summer of incomings, Arsenal will be looking to sell of some of their less important squad players in the last week of the window. 

The likes of Lucas Perez, Carl Jenkinson and Danny Welbeck are all up for sale and Arsenal will be looking to finalise deals for the three.

While most of the squad players that will leave the club won’t bring in much money, Unai Emery is looking to cut the squad down in order to give some of the younger players a chance.

One other name that has left the club, is Arsenal academy product Chuba Akpom, who has joined Greek Super League side PAOK on a permanent deal.

The Breakdown

The 22-year-old has never really had a chance to break into the first-team since he made the step up from the academy.

The striker has been sent out on loan six times during his career at Arsenal, most recently spending last season with Belgian side Sint-Truden. The young striker scored six times in 16 games in Belgium. It was thought that Sint-Truden were leading the way to sign the forward but lost out to PAOK who have paid £2 million for Akpom.

At one time, Akpom was highly regarded by Arsenal but after a loan spell at Hull City – where he played 35 times – the young striker lost his chance to break into the team.

Since then, the forward has fallen behind fellow academy graduate Eddie Nketiah and a permanent deal seems a wise move for all.

What do you think Arsenal fans?