Everton fans have been waiting for Sam Allardyce to be sacked at the end of a miserable season for quite some time now but there was just time for the former England manager to annoy the fanbase one more time before the campaign was out.
The crux of the issues have been Allardyce’s negativity and caution in charge at Goodison, even after it became apparent that the Toffees would comfortably survive and his team selection on the final day of the season has further aggravated a fanbase already baying for blood.
A five at the back, with three defensive midfielders has not gone down well at all with a set of fans who are already at the end of their tether.
We’ve taken a closer look at the more hostile reaction towards a team that Everton fans hope will be Allardyce’s parting shot at the end of a season where he has brought survival to Goodison but not much more…
With the Premier League’s TV rights package soaring above most people’s belief levels, every Premier League club is now a rich club. That’s why Crystal Palace can shell out enough money not just to tempt PSG into selling Yohan Cabaye, but to tempt the Frenchman to come to the South London club even without the lure of Champions League football or even the prospect of it next season.
The same can be said for Swansea and Andre Ayew. These are Champions League players we’re talking about – the kind of players that one of the Premier League’s bigger teams would be looking at. Or at least a continental giant who regularly ply their trade at Europe’s top table.
But clearly money talks, and England has plenty of it. And one of the biggest winners seem to be West Ham.
They are benefitting from the money and they are also benefitting from their move to a new and iconic stadium next season. They can attract bigger and better players into the club. It looks like they’re attracting the kind of player who will bring an elegance to East London not seen since the 1960s. These are heady days – exciting times.
Dimitri Payet has already joined the Hammers. He’s another of the Champions League quality players coming to Premier League clubs who clearly have ambition. Payet stumped up more assists than anyone else in Ligue 1 last season and showed some great form for Marseille even though OM couldn’t hang on to a Champions League spot in the end.
Alex Song might yet come back to the Boleyn permanently, but the only thing that looks like ending that particular deal is the Barcelona man’s ankle which could be strapped up for months.
Champions League finalist Angelo Ogbonna is reportedly close to a deal and Javier Hernandez has even been touted as a target for the Hammers this summer.
So West Ham are quietly putting together a team that can compete at the upper echelons of the Premier League with players of proven quality. Champions League quality even. They’re attracted by money – who isn’t – but they’re also attracted by the prospect of playing at the Olympic Stadium and of playing in a team that has ambition. All of the players entering the club just make more players want to come and play for them too.
The more big name players who sign for West Ham, the more big name players who want to sign for West Ham. And the more success West Ham have with these players in the squad, the more success West Ham will have.
In a new stadium, with a good team competing for European football, West Ham can attract even bigger names on the pitch, but they can also attract even bigger investment off it too. Money can come into the club from wealthy owners who see the club as a great investment – a Premier League club with potential and an iconic stadium. And what’s more, it’s in London.
This looks like the start of something really special at West Ham. Manchester City’s move to their City of Manchester Stadium after the Commonwealth Games in 2003 was the catalyst for their takeover in 2008. The owners could see that they were a big club with a great stadium. A club with a big fanbase and bags of potential. And then came two Premier League titles in three years.
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West Ham’s rise could be even more meteoric. With a good squad already in place, the move to the new stadium is already on the cards, and if investment can come straight away who knows where the Hammers could be in three or four years time.
These really are exciting times in East London. West Ham are in a position that should be the envy of most clubs, but they need success on the pitch this season to put all of this in motion. If the new and exciting signings can challenge for Europe, or do well in the Europa League, then it’ll put them on the map.
Every Premier League club is now a rich club, but some are richer than others. Success over the next few seasons can put West Ham up towards the top of the table, and maybe towards the top of the rich list too. Three years ago athletes were going for gold in the Olympic Stadium, next season’s move might just have West Ham digging for gold.
Manchester City have agreed a £34m deal with Shakhtar Donetsk for Brazilian international Fernandinho, according to Sky Sports.
The midfielder has been spotted leaving a hospital in the city, which is a well-known venue for club medicals.
A fee is believed to have been agreed with the Ukrainian side, for whom the 28-year-old has been in impressive form of late.
City are set to confirm Manuel Pellegrini as their new manager in the coming days, and the Chilean is said to have big plans to overhaul the Citizens’ squad.
A deal for Sevilla winger Jesus Navas has reportedly been agreed, and with new attacking talent on the way, the ex-Malaga coach has set his sights on improving his midfield options.
Fernandinho is seen as the perfect man to add some energy and drive to City’s engine room, and is believed to be Pellegrini’s first choice.
The 28-year-old himself is said to be keen on a move to the Etihad Stadium, hinting that a deal could be concluded swiftly ahead of pre-season training.
Fernandinho may be well known to some sections of English football fans after his impact in the Champions League last season.
The midfielder scored in Shakhtar’s win over Chelsea in the group stages, helping the Eastern European squad into the knock-out phase of the tournament.
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Can Fernandiho help City reclaim the Premier League title with his mix of energy and samba flair?
Sunderland manager Martin O’Neill yesterday expressed his delight after managing to lure former Manchester City winger Adam Johnson to the Stadium of Light for a fee of around £10 million.
Johnson, 25, made a promising start to his Manchester City career, scoring his first goal for the club in a 1-1 draw away at Sunderland. However, his first team opportunities at the Etihad have been few and far between of late, and a move away from Manchester seemed evident.
O’Neill told BBC Radio Newcastle: “I’m delighted he’s chosen us. I’m thrilled for the supporters who now get a chance to be excited by him.” O’Neill also believes that Johnson has made a wise career move if his aspirations of playing for England are to be fulfilled: “If he’s playing more regularly and playing well, it’s a big goal of Adam’s to play well for his country.”
O’Neill added that the signings of Johnson and Scottish striker Steven Fletcher demonstrates Sunderland’s desire to attain a higher league position than their 13th-placed finish last campaign: “We want to try to do better than last season, plus keeping the ingredients that got us out of trouble – that spirit the players possessed, although it faded towards the back end of last season once we had achieved Premier League status – there was a drop off in intensity.”
Johnson made an impressive start to his Sunderland career last night, albeit up against a Morecambe side from League 2. The England international provided two assists for the talented James McClean in a comfortable 2-0 victory for the Black Cats.
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West Ham United’s disappointing 2017-18 campaign went from bad to worse when they suffered a 4-1 home defeat to Manchester City on Sunday afternoon.
Losing to the English champions was not a major shock, but it would be fair to say that the club’s supporters were not happy with their team’s performance.
To be blunt, the fans want the board and head coach David Moyes to leave their football team.
A number of players have also been criticised this season, but one individual that seems as popular as ever is Austrian attacker Marko Arnautovic.
The 29-year-old, who is valued at £16.2m by transfermarkt.co.uk, has been in good form for the Hammers in recent months, and has managed 10 Premier League goals during the 2017-18 campaign.
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Arnautovic was one of a few West Ham players that approached the fans after Sunday’s match, and that has gone down very well, with the attacker receiving praise on social media during a very difficult period for the club.
A selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:
It gets said pretty much every year but this summer feels like a more important transfer window than most for Arsenal.
The Gunners are ending the 2014/15 campaign on an impressive run, barring recent defeats and draws to Swansea City and Sunderland respectively, and are resultantly expected to launch their most viable Premier League title bid for almost a decade next season.
In order to do that, however, the north Londoners need pretty much the perfect summer, where the right signings are brought in, the right players are booted out and the club is left in a much stronger position.
But Arsene Wenger’s track record in the transfer market isn’t exactly exemplary. The Gunners gaffer certainly knows how to find good value for money, yet his long-term approach and lack of ruthlessness often has a one-step-forward-two-steps-back effect.
So to keep ‘Le Prof’ on the right path, Football FanCast have drafted a summer to do list for the Emirates outfit.
BUY A TOP CLASS NO.1
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David Opsina has performed well since stepping in for the shower-smoking Wojciech Szczesny as Arsenal’s No.1, claiming eight clean sheets in 17 Premier League appearances, coming into the side just as the Gunners began to pick up form.
But we’ve been here before with Arsenal goalkeepers. Manuel Almunia was Jens Lehmann’s understudy before taking the No.1 mantle and Szczesny’s was the Spaniard’s until a horrendous run of form saw their roles reversed.
Instead of pinning their hopes on yet another second-choice ‘keeper to have broken into the first team only due to the inadequacies of others, the north Londoners need to sign a proven, world-class, long-term stopper this summer who can be depended upon for the next four or five years.
The obvious answer is Chelsea’s Petr Cech. Some tabloids claim the Gunners have already entered negotiations to sign the four-time Premier League winner, who represents the exact balance of quality and experience they should be looking for this summer.
Some potential alternatives include Inter Milan’s Samir Handanovic, a two-time Serie A Team of the Year member whose San Siro contract is set to expire in 2016, Stoke City’s Asmir Begovic, who offers proven Premier League pedigree, and Southampton’s monolithic shot-stopper, Fraser Forster.
Strengthen the strike-force
Arsene Wenger’s faith in Olivier Giroud appears to be unconditional and admittedly, the France international, through his height, power and link-up play, has certainly proved a useful tool over the last three campaigns.
But the fact of the matter is that in the last five seasons, not one club have been named Premier League champions without their top scorer netting in excess of twenty goals. Diego Costa, only through injury, might prove to be a rare anomaly this term with only 19 in an otherwise consistent Premier League trend. Giroud, meanwhile, has not scored more than 16 in his three top flight campaigns.
So Wenger needs to find either an upgrade on the 28-year-old this summer or an alternative option that offers more natural poacher instincts than the industrious and versatile Danny Welbeck – who has proved to be a rather underwhelming addition since moving to the Emirates last summer.
Top class strikers aren’t in copious supply at the minute, but there’s certainly a number of front-men on the market who could compete with Giroud for his regular lone striking role.
Gonzalo Higuain for example, a Gunners target in summer 2013, looks set to leave Napoli after their failure to qualify for next term’s Champions League. Sevilla striker Carlos Bacca, who could fire the La Liga outfit to a second consecutive Europa League title next Wednesday, has a £21million release clause in his contract, whilst the buy-out fee of Porto star Jackson Martinez, boasting 92 goals in 132 appearances for the Dragons, is just £7million more.
Likewise, Burnley’s Danny Ings and Marseille’s Andre Pierre Gignac will be available on free transfers this summer, whilst recent reports claim Barcelona could relinquish winger-forward Pedro – not a striker per se, for just £7million.
REDUCE THE WAGE BILL
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Arsenal’s wage bill surpassed Chelsea’s for the first time in over a decade this season – despite the gulf in quality between the Gunners and the Premier League champions – so in my opinion it’s imperative Arsene Wenger shifts some of the deadwood in the summer.
We already know Mathieu Flamini and Abou Diaby are most likely heading out of the exit door, with their contracts set to expire at the end of the campaign.
But some further cuts certainly wouldn’t go amiss. Mikel Arteta and Lukas Podolski all allegedly earn within the region of £80k per week. Although they add depth to the squad, it hardly seems like good value for money, considering they’ve made just eleven Premier League starts collectively this term.
That money would be better used attracting a top class name to the Emirates with a mega-contract. Paul Pogba anyone?
CASH IN ON HOME-GROWNS
In comparison to the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United, who have made an art form of selling the right player at the right time, the Gunners never seem to get a fair price for their departees. Real Madrid, for example, paid more for Gareth Bale than Arsenal made selling Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Robin van Persie combined.
So perhaps it’s time Arsene Wenger showed a little more ruthlessness on this front – selling players that could be worth more to the north Londoners on the transfer market than on the pitch.
Take Jack Wilshere for instance, a talented prospect by all means yet one that’s continually riddled with injury problems – making just 95 Premier League appearances out of a possible 190 since his first team breakthrough in 2010.
Manchester City, in desperate need of young home-grown talent, would pay an absolute fortune to sign the England international this summer. The tabloids claim they’re prepared to offer £30million. That could be a new goalkeeper, defensive midfielder or centre-forward for Arsenal.
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Likewise, a plethora of clubs would cough up top dollar for Theo Walcott, despite the fact he’s managed 21 Premier League appearances over the last two campaigns and has just a year left on his contract, purely because home-grown goalscorers are becoming an ever rarer breed.
It’s most likely Wenger will do whatever he can to hold onto these players this summer. But in my opinion, their fiscal vastly outweighs their footballing worth. West Ham loanee Carl Jenkinson is another who belongs firmly in this category.
SIGN A MIDFIELD MONOLITH
There’s a glass ceiling between Arsenal and the other title challengers and it’s epitomised best by their lack of physicality in central midfield. Chelsea have Nemanja Matic, Manchester City have Yaya Toure, Manchester United have Marouane Fellaini, but the Gunners’ engine room is filled with diminutive playmakers.
Francis Coquellin has added a more defensive dynamic in recent months but the north Londoners are still in desperate need of height and power. It’s a problem that’s plagued them for years and Arsene Wenger can’t afford to put it off for another summer – especially with Arsenal expected to mount their most viable title charge for nearly a decade next season.
There’s certainly some decent options on the market. The common suggestion in the tabloids is Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin. He measures in at 6 foot 2 and has averaged the second-most tackles per match, 3.7, of any Premier League player this term.
But some viable alternatives include Sporting Lisbon’s beastly play-breaker William Carvalho, valued around the £20million mark, Real Madrid’s bosman-bound World Cup winner Sami Khedira, Monaco’s prodigious anchor Geoffrey Kondogbia and Bayern Munich’s forgotten man Javi Martinez.
Admittedly, it doesn’t have to be a defensive minded player. Newcastle’s industrious Moussa Sissoko and Juventus warrior Arturo Vidal represent more progressive options.
But either way, adding physicality to the engine room is vital if the Gunners intend to take next year’s crown.
Norwich boss Chris Hughton is hopeful Michael Turner will play again this season despite picking up a groin injury against Reading.
The former Hull City and Sunderland defender has been an ever present in the Canaries side since December but managed just 17 minutes of the 2-1 win over the Royals last Saturday.
Turner has formed an excellent partnership with Sebastian Bassong and Hughton is keen to have Turner fit for the run in as he feels Norwich need a few more points to guarantee another season in the Premier League.
He said: “We certainly would’ve liked Michael to have stayed on. We’re not sure how bad it is. He’s felt his groin and we’re hoping it will be slight.
“I’ve always thought we will need around 40 points and there are teams around us capable of winning games so I do think it will take more.”
Should Turner be ruled out of the remaining four matches then Ryan Bennett could be set for a run in the team after stepping off the bench to score on Saturday.
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One of the major talking points involving Liverpool this week was not the terrible result away to West Brom on the opening day of the season, when they lost 3-0, nor was it the desperately poor decisions of referee Phil Dowd, rather the fact that the academy’s technical director, the highly thought of Pep Segura quit his post last week – so where exactly does this leave the club?
The 51 year-old cited the fact that he wanted to be closer to his family in Spain as the reason why had decided to bring an end to his three-year association with Merseyside, but the timing of the decision told its own story.
Former U-18 coach and old Liverpool player Mike Marsh recently signed a deal that saw him become Brendan Rodgers first-team coach at the club, and it took just 11 days after he signed his new deal for Segura to leave, so there is clearly a connection there between the two.
Rodgers said about Marsh’s promotion at the time: “For me, it is very important to have people with the sort of root of Liverpool in their heart, the soul of the club. I’ve come in and I’ve got an understanding of what it is like. I feel I’m from the same bottle of the people of Liverpool and the city, with similar backgrounds. There are no worries about that, and I’ve also got players from Liverpool in the first-team group.”
It was widely believed that Segura was set for the very same promotion at the end of last season under the club’s former manager Kenny Dalglish, but that the appointment of Rodgers in the summer led to the 39 year-old boss wanting total control over certain parts of the club, namely the technical aspect, which led to a clash of personalities with Segura.
Having arrived back in 2009 with an impressive CV which included a managerial spell in Greece with Olympiacos, Segura was instrumental in the coaching of a whole host of Barcelona’s current crop of stars such as Andres Iniesta, Gerard Pique and Cesc Fabregas during his role with the Barcelona B-team.
He stepped up to the position of reserve team manager last season as he continued to rise through the ranks at the club, before reverting back to his original role in the summer. Alongside Rodolfo Borrell, another former Barcelona youth-team coach, they were brought in by former manager Rafael Benitez and told to overhaul the club’s youth-team system and academy.
The result is that slowly but surely, under the ethos of Segura’s 4-2-3-1 that he’s got every single youth-team playing across the board, and under Borrell’s and Segura’s guidance, more and more youth-team players are beginning to break into the fringes of the first-team squad – Suso, Raheem Sterling, Adam Morgan, Jon Flanagan, Jack Robinson and Connor Coady to name the best examples. The club arguably would have felt the departure of Borrell more, seeing as he has coached this latest exciting crop of player for two years as U-18 coach, before taking over the reserve-team job in the summer.
In 63 competitive games as coach with them, the team have emerged victorious on 36 occasions and scored 143 goals, while they also went on to finish 2nd in last season’s Premier Academy League, losing out to Champions Everton by a single point- despite seeing his youngsters net 18 more goals than their cross-city rivals. While they also finished third in the inaugural NextGen series, which is sort of like the Champions League for youngsters, beating Marseille in the play-off after a heavy defeat to Ajax in the semi-final and the difference being made across the board is clear for all to see.
There appears to be a disconnect between the way that the academy and reserve-team is set up at the moment and the first-team, though. Rodgers has been keen to implement his own 4-3-3 system at the club, moving away from the 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-2 of the Dalglish and Benitez eras. Dalglish was keen to keep the course with the way Benitez had set things up, having been involved with the academy under the Spanish manager.
It remains to be seen how this will change things around the club but the departure was certainly a surprising one and make no bones about it, Liverpool have lost a world-class youth-team coach.
While the Academy may continue to follow the plans put in place by him for the foreseeable future, particularly with Director of Academy and Player Development Frank McParland still at the club, the long-term vision could alter now that he’s no longer there to help see it through, which is a worry.
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Having been promised a promotion that never came and seeing his role at the higher echelons at the club in terms of debate over the future of the side and the way it should be run be reduced, his marginalisation led to his inevitable exit.
It must have come as something of a slap in the face for him, but Rodgers is yet again proving that when it comes to his vision, he is very much his own man and he’s staked a lot of the club’s progress to date so far on his own footballing philosophy, so the pressure is on, not just with the more visible first-team, but behind the scenes at Anfield too.
Emre Can is unlikely to play for Liverpool again this season due to injury, but there are questions over whether he will don the red shirt ever again.
The midfielder’s contract expires at the end of the season, and there is uncertainty whether he will extend his stay at Anfield.
As it stands, the 24-year-old has not agreed fresh terms and there is no indication that he will.
Earlier this month, Calciomercato reported that Can is a top priority for Juventus, but the transfer gossip surrounding the midfielder has since gone cold.
Last week, Liverpool fans expressed concern on social media when the Germany international was notably absent from the club’s new kit launch.
With three Premier League games, the Champions League semi-finals and possible final left to play for the Merseyside outfit this season, it will not be long before Can’s future becomes clear.
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Amid the uncertainty, we asked you whether it is likely that the Reds will lose their midfielder this summer, and the outcome is certainly one-sided…
Can, who moved to Anfield from Bayer Leverkusen in 2014, has made 35 appearances in all competitions this season, scoring four goals and creating four assists.
Phil Chisnall… What? Who? You may ask. The retired forward was the last player to move directly between Liverpool and Manchester United way back in 1964. The rivalry between the two great North West clubs has ensured that transfer between them have been very, very, very rare, and although numerous players have represented the two sides, they don’t sit down together too often to thrash out complex agreements.
However, 2015 could be the next date on the list, with reports indicating that Liverpool are considering a quite frankly shocking swoop for Javier Hernandez. The Mexico international is currently away from Old Trafford on loan at Real Madrid, but another switch this summer looks to be on the cards.
Here are FIVE reasons it could make sense…
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Liverpool need goals
In the Premier League Liverpool’s top scorers – Jordan Henderson, Raheem Sterling and Steven Gerrard – are tied on six goals… SIX. That’s a far cry from last term when both Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez smashed over 20 apiece, as the Reds ran riot.
Hernandez’s currency is firmly goals, and despite his lack of playing time at Real Madrid, he possesses a better goals-per-90 minutes ratio than any of Liverpool’s current forwards and has netted over 30 goals in English football already.
Hernandez needs a fresh start
A loan move to Real Madrid was somewhat optimistic on ‘Chicharito’s’ part, with his playing chances at the Bernabeu always likely to be lower than at Old Trafford. Sure enough, he managed just 270 minutes of La Liga action, and with a return to United looking unlikely, a fresh start looks to be best.
Liverpool could offer him a route back to England, more game time, the chance to impress and a nice platform to get one over on his former employers.
Rodgers has a record of saving cast-offs
Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho were struggling while at Chelsea and Inter Milan respectively. But January 2013 switches to Anfield to work under Rodgers have revived their careers to the point that they’re considered to be two of the best players in their positions in the Premier League.
Hernandez is not as young as the aforementioned duo, but he still has cope to turn things around at 26.
Lambert, Balotelli & Borini may be off
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Reports have indicated that Mario Balotelli, Rickie Lambert and Fabio Borini could all be axed this summer. With a combined total of just four Premier League goals between them, it’s easy to see just why the Merseysiders would look to shift them all on, but doing so will leave them short of options.
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Should the threesome be sold, then Hernandez could come in to support Sturridge, whose injury record illustrates just how often he needs someone to step in.
Cheaper than others
Although £8m is a figure beyond the imagination of all us ‘normal people’, in the realm of football it’s actually a relatively low figure. Liverpool, regardless of their Champions League qualification fate, will surely have such funds in place, and other targets are likely to cost far, far, far more.