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West Ham could do no wrong in adding a new central midfielder to David Moyes’ armoury this summer and they may have landed on the perfect candidate…

What’s the word?

According to the Sheffield Star, the Irons are one of several Premier League teams interested in goal-scoring Blades midfielder John Lundstram with the 26-year-old entering the final year of his contract at Bramall Lane.

It’s claimed that Chris Wilder is resigned to letting him leave this summer should he not agree to new terms with Burnley and Brighton also keen on his services.

There’s also a belief that they are lining up Reading’s John Swift as a potential replacement despite activiating the one-year option on the Englishman’s contract.

The Hammers could land themselves a bargain.

Lampard-esque midfielder

Moyes has already secured the loveable Tomas Soucek on a permanent deal but with Carlos Sanchez out the door and Mark Noble entering the twilight years of his east London career, it can’t hurt to add further options.

The 5 foot 11 enforcer delivered five goals and three assists from 26 starts this season, averaging 1.4 tackles, 1.3 clearances and 1.3 shots per game, via WhoScored.

Whilst this isn’t as prolific as former Hammers graduate Frank Lampard, he does still bear some similarities as a ruthless box-to-box type.

The Liverpool-born man has captained Oxford and some of the England youth teams and has that ability to pick a pass but also be tenacious in the tackle.

His performances this season has led to Wilder waxing lyrical on more than one occasion – against Palace in February, he was lauded as “outstanding” and then a month later, Lundstram was described as a “fantastic example of a professional player”.

Blades teammate Billy Sharp believes he’s a “real menace to other teams” and this is the sort of player who’d do well at the London Stadium in a similar vein to Noble, Lampard and so on.

Valued at just £7.2m by Transfermarkt, the Irons must swoop for Lundstram this pre-season.

AND in other news, Moyes ready to part with £45m star to fund new transfers

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O Corinthians fez sua parte. Em casa, do jeito que a torcida está acostumada a ver, bateu o Coritiba no sufoco e deu mais um passo rumo ao hexacampeonato nacional. Muita vibração e festa dos corintianos, mas ainda faltava um tropeço do vice-líder Atlético-MG.

E o Galo se mostra brigador. Foi também com emoção, suado, no finzinho do jogo contra o Figueirense. O argentino Dátolo, com muita frieza e categoria, marcou aos 45 do segundo tempo e colocou água no chope do Corinthians, que vai ter que esperar mais uma semana para tentar novamente levantar a taça de campeão brasileiro.

Mas a briga que segue esquentadíssima neste Brasileirão é pela última vaga no G4. O São Paulo novamente tropeçou. Fora de casa, saiu na frene contra o Cruzeiro, mas levou a virada do time de Mano Menezes que, em 10º, com 48 pontos, ainda pode sonhar com a classificação à Libertadores.

O Tricolor paulista segue em quinto, mas tem dois confrontos complicadíssimos nas próximas rodadas, Atlético-MG e Corinthians, nada mais que vice-líder e líder do campeonato. A parada vai ser dura. A sorte do São Paulo foi que o Santos também tropeçou. A sina do Peixe fora de casa segue neste Brasileirão. Contra o lanterna Joinville em um péssimo gramado, o Alvinegro não saiu do 0 a 0 e deixou a disputa do G4 ainda equilibrada.

Já a inconstante equipe do Internacional tinha duelo direto com a Ponte Preta. Com gol salvador de Vitinho aos 42 da segunda etapa, a equipe Colorada venceu a Macaca por 1 a 0 e segue coladinha na zona que leva ao principal torneio das Américas. O Sport também voltou a sonhar. Mostrou a sua força em casa e bateu o Grêmio por 1 a 0.

A briga contra a degola também segue emocionante. O Vasco enfim largou a lanterna ao bater o Palmeiras no Allianz Parque e deixou o seu torcedor cada vez mais com a sensação de que ainda dá. Já o Verdão está vendo que a vaga no G4 cada vez dá menos para alcançar…

O Vasco tem quatro jogos extremamente difíceis em sua luta contra a queda. Os ótimos Santos e Corinthians, e os também desesperados Joinville e Coritiba, em duelos diretos contra o rebaixamento. Quem praticamente deixou essa briga foi a Chapecoense, que foi até o Maracanã, virou sobre o Fluminense e venceu por 3 a 2. Ainda serão quatro rodadas de muita emoção.

After 185 games for the club, Dejan Lovren is inching ever closer to the exit door at Liverpool this summer.

The Croatia international joined the Merseyside club from fellow Premier League side Southampton, but has found himself out of favour this season – in total, he made just 15 appearances across all competitions, with only ten of them coming in the top-flight.

Reports in recent days have suggested that the 31-year-old is closing in on a £11m move to Russian side Zenit St Petersburg, and that of course has prompted speculation over where the Reds will be entering the market for a replacement.

Can you spot your Xabi Alonso from your Bruno Cheyrou? This Liverpool quiz will have you questioning your knowledge…



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The Evening Standard have claimed that Brighton defender Ben White – who has been on loan at newly-promoted Leeds this season – is “highly-rated” by the recruitment team at Anfield, although there are concerns whether they would have to pay a premium for him considering he is an English player.

But if Michael Edwards can get a deal over the line for White, then Liverpool could be looking at someone who could form a major part of their back-line for the years to come.

His teammate at Leeds this year, Adam Forshaw, waxed lyrical about his abilities, saying: “He’s unbelievable. He literally hasn’t put a foot wrong. He’s so cool on the ball and he’s clever. He might not be the most physical centre back but he’s just clever. He nicks it, times his headers really well and looks like a top, top player. We’re lucky to have him.”

That idea of White being a “clever” player is backed up by former Premier League defender Danny Higginbotham who paid tribute to his reading of the game. He said: “One of the biggest compliments I can give White is that I don’t know how quick he is because he is rarely out of position and forced to step up a gear.”

Higginbotham’s remarks are eerily similar to how most people may describe Virgil van Dijk. The towering Dutchman never looks he’s ruffled by opposition players, and simply looks like he’s playing in cruise control, rarely bothered by anything.

White appears to be in the same mould, and is exactly why Liverpool must clinch his signing this summer.

Former West Ham United striker Carlton Cole has revealed that both Alan Curbishley and Sam Allardyce tried to sell him during his time at Upton Park, in an exclusive interview with Football FanCast.

What did he say?

Cole spent nine seasons at West Ham between 2006 and 2015, arriving at the club shortly before Alan Pardew was fired.

The forward scored 68 goals during his 293 appearances for the club, but spent a number of spells out of favour at Upton Park.

However, Cole was often able to win over the manager in charge and he revealed how his relationship with Curbishley changed.

“When Curbishley came in he didn’t take to me as I thought he would, but only because I was supposed to go back to Charlton for a second loan season from Chelsea and I chose not to do the second year,” he told Football FanCast.

“He held that against me, I know he did. He tried to get rid of me and Paul Konchesky straight away when he came in, because Konch had a bust-up with him before he left Charlton.

“Shortly after he came in there were a load of injuries, after we stayed up at Old Trafford. He wanted to get rid of me that summer but I did well in pre-season and managed to get a chance. Teddy Sheringham left, Dean Ashton got injured on international duty, so suddenly there were spaces open for me and I knew then I had to graft.

“All I wanted to do was leave an impact so they would always miss me if I wasn’t playing. I needed a run of games, all young players need a run of games to get momentum. I needed to make sure I was invaluable to the team and to my teammates and that’s how I got in the team, then the goals came after. Curbishley then saw that he’d got me playing the way he wanted and he couldn’t drop me after that.”

Following West Ham relegation in 2011 Cole had the opportunity to leave the club again, but decided to stay and enjoyed his best goalscoring season as a result.

“Under Allardyce in the Championship, I could’ve gone to Stoke and stayed in the Premier League but I didn’t think it was the right thing for me to do,” he told FootballFanCast.

“I knew I had to stay at West Ham to try and get them up but Allardyce did want to get rid of me. But I said I wasn’t going anywhere, even though he didn’t really trust me. But then we had a midweek game at Watford and I started because he had to rotate the team, and I scored. That was the start of me being first choice again because I started scoring goals.

“He couldn’t drop me either but I had to battle to stay there.

Proving his worth

Cole was often an underdog as West Ham but as his career showed, he was always able to prove his doubters wrong.

With nearly 300 appearances for the club in total, Cole played a crucial role in their promotion back to the Premier League during the 2011-12 season and scored regular goals in the top-flight.

A great servant to the club, it is hard to understand why he was so often under-estimated by his managers.

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Lots of Manchester United supporters have been remembering Red Devils flop Nick Powell, following his latest comments in an exclusive with the Manchester Evening News. 

Speaking to Dominic Booth, Powell opened up about his time at Old Trafford. The 26-year-old revealed he only signed for United because of Sir Alex Ferguson, and admitted: “I remember waking up from my back operation and he’d announced his retirement. So I had no idea, woke up and then he’d retired.

“I remember saying before that I didn’t want my op, as United had pretty much won the league by then and you needed 10 appearances to get a medal – I was on two or three. I made a couple of bench appearances and I was really enjoying the time, even though I wasn’t playing. He [Ferguson] told me exactly what I was getting into and I didn’t mind that.”

Powell acknowledged “it was always going to be different when Sir Alex retired. If he wasn’t there and I didn’t have a phone call and meetings with him, I probably wouldn’t have gone to United. So it was always going to be a downhill spiral for me as soon as he left.”

After arriving at the Theatre of Dreams from Crewe Alexandra all the way back in the summer of 2012 for £6.75m, the Englishman flopped and only made 9 appearances for United in all competitions, scoring just 1 goal, before departing Manchester for Wigan Athletic on a free transfer.

While it is safe to say things didn’t quite work out during his time at the club, Powell now plies his trade at Championship side Stoke City, where he has netted 4 goals and produced 4 assists for Michael O’Neill’s Potters in the English second division (Transfermarkt).

UtdReport posted his thoughts on Twitter, prompting plenty of replies from the United faithful. One fan remarked the midfielder was “never good enough” and another simply asked “where is he now?”

Have a read through the different reactions down below…

United fans, do you think Nick Powell was Sir Alex Ferguson’s biggest failed signing? Let us know in the comments!

This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…

There was plenty of excitement when Pablo Fornals joined West Ham United in the summer, especially following his performances at the U21 Euros.

During the tournament, he amassed 2 goals and 1 assist from 3 starts and 2 substitute appearances, including an eye-catching hit against Belgium, as the Spaniards went on to lift the trophy.

Watch West Ham United Videos With StreamFootball.tv Below

However, that form has not been translated at London Stadium at all, as indicated by the statistics below:

The 23-year-old has shown an ability to keep the ball, maintaining a pass success rate of 82.8%, though he is struggling to do anything of note with it as has been shown across his 5 starts and 6 substitute appearances.

This is a big problem, as West Ham described him as a “creative, technically-gifted playmaker” following the announcement of his arrival.

A positive from his performances is that he has shown a willingness to work for the team, averaging 0.9 tackles per game, despite being dribbled past 0.5 times on average.

It says a lot about the 23-year-old’s time at the Hammers so far that his only goal contribution came against Newport County in the Carabao Cup, when he bundled the ball in from inside the six-yard box.

The Spain international now has a chance to get more game time and turn things around, with Manuel Lanzini’s injury meaning he has less competition for places in the team in the coming months.

To start that against Tottenham Hotspur would be a brilliant way to get Hammers fans excited about him again.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

A new report coming from ESPN stated that Atletico Madrid have joined the race to sign Manchester United’s Nemanja Matic. And looking at their squad as a whole, he just might be Diego Simeone’s missing link.

What’s the word, then?

It seems that Simeone is still not done with adding more firepower to his Atletico Madrid squad.

ESPN report that the Rojiblancos have now joined AC Milan in the race to sign Manchester United’s 31-year-old defensive midfielder, Matic, once the transfer market opens.

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They also state his eligibility to play in the Champions League, having only played in the Europa League for the Red Devils, as one of the key factors in this potential deal.

When taking everything into consideration, Matic does look like someone Simeone has been missing in his current lineup.

The missing link

Atletico Madrid have gone through a massive rebuild last summer with many big and experienced names departing the Spanish capital.

The likes of Antoine Griezmann, Diego Godin, Juanfran and Lucas Hernandez all left as the Rojiblancos made an estimated profit of €311m (£280m) which they promptly invested in some young blood.

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But even though young prodigies like Joao Felix are bound to develop into superstars at some point in the future, they are certainly lacking some experience and leadership at the moment.

This is exactly where Matic comes into play.

The now 31-year-old midfielder has definitely fallen out of favour with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, having only played five games across all competitions in the current 2019/20 campaign, amassing just 340 minutes under his belt.

Not to mention that his contract with the Red Devils is due to expire next summer, which would make him an attainable target for Atletico Madrid.

Seeing how he’s not really playing that much, or at all, and Manchester United themselves are not firing on all cylinders with the team currently stuck in seventh place, it’s not a stretch to assume the Serbian might be on his way come January already.

With the likes of Scott McTominay, Andreas Pereira and Fred in Solskjaer’s midfield, the Red Devils wouldn’t miss Matic all that much but he could be a big scoop for Atletico, who are looking to add experience into their ranks.

The Serbian midfielder might be that missing link to finally get Simeone’s men back on track.

Only time will tell, though.

علق طارق يحيى رئيس قطاعات الناشئين بنادي الزمالك على تعادل الفريق أمام المقاولون العرب في الدوري المصري الممتاز.

الزمالك تعادل إيجابيًا مع المقاولون العرب بهدفين لمثليهما، في المباراة التي جمعت الفريقين على استاد القاهرة الدولي، في إطار مواجهات الجولة الثامنة عشر من المسابقة الأكبر محليًا.

وقال طارق يحيى في تصريحات تلفزيونية عبر فضائية “الزمالك”: “وسط الملعب هرب من الزمالك في الشوط الثاني، وتراجعنا بشكل قوي وغير مبرر، ولا يوجد أي سبب لذلك، فريق المقاولون العرب كان مستسلمًا”.

وتابع: “يجب أن أقرأ المنافس جيدًا، وخطأ محمود جنش حارس المرمى كان صعبًا بعض الشىء، وتسبب في هدف تعادل المقاولون العرب”.

واختتم: “السبب الرئيسي لتعادل الزمالك هو الأخطاء الفردية، والتراجع غير المبرر في الشوط الثاني”.

جدير بالذكر أن الزمالك يحتل صدارة جدول ترتيب الدوري المصري برصيد 40 نقطة.

أدى لاعبو الفريق الأول لكرة القدم بنادي الزمالك تدريبات بدنية وإطالات في مجمع صالات الدكتور أشرف صبحي بمقر النادي قبل بدء تدريب اليوم بملعب النادي.

ويستعد الزمالك للقاء البنك الأهلي الإثنين المقبل في الجولة السابعة عشر لمسابقة الدوري المصري، والتي ستقام باستاد القاهرة الدولي.

وباشر باتريس كارتيرون المدير الفني للفريق وأسامة نبيه المدرب العام والبرتغالي فيرناندو مدرب الأحمال الإشراف على التدريبات البدنية والإطالات.

وتطرق كارتيرون للحديث مع معاونيه عن البرنامج التدريبي الذي سيتم تنفيذه في مران اليوم استعدادًا للقاء المقبل.

كما تأكدت جاهزية محمود عبد الرازق شيكابالا لمباراة الزمالك والبنك الأهلي بعد تعافيه من الإصابة العضلية التي تعرض لها في مباراة الأهلي.

طالع | كارتيرون يمنع التصريحات الإعلامية للاعبي وجهاز الزمالك

وكان شيكابالا قد تغيب عن المباراة الأخيرة أمام الإنتاج الحربي حيث انتظم اللاعب في تدريبات الزمالك اليوم بشكل طبيعي بعد التأكد من جاهزيته من الناحية الطبية.

وانتظم إمام عاشور لاعب وسط الفريق الأول لكرة القدم بنادي الزمالك في تدريبات الفريق اليوم.

وكان عاشور قد حصل على راحة من تدريب أمس الجمعة بإذن من الجهاز الفني للفريق بقيادة الفرنسي باتريس كارتيرون، قبل أن يعود للمشاركة في تدريب اليوم.

وواصل حازم إمام الظهير الأيمن للفريق للفريق خوض البرنامج التأهيلي الخاص به في ظل معاناته من الإصابة.

وكان حازم إمام قد تعرض للإصابة في مباراة الأهلي الماضية، ووضع الجهاز الطبي برنامجا تأهيليا له كي يتمكن من العودة للمشاركة في التدريبات بأقرب وقت.

Barcelona beat Sevilla 4-0 at Camp Nou on Sunday.

Goals from Luis Suarez, Arturo Vidal, Ousmane Dembele and Lionel Messi proved decisive in the Liga encounter, as Ernesto Valverde’s men recorded a crushing weekend win.

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Overall, it was a good performance by the whole team but once again, it was Vidal who caught the attention of the Blaugrana fans.

Barcelona were quick to share some impressive stats, stating that in 23 games in La Liga when Vidal was in the starting lineup, they are yet to be defeated once.

As a result, many of the fans were absolutely gushing over their Chilean midfielder, calling him their best signing in recent years and even urging the club to start him ahead of Sergio Busquets.

It seems that Vidal is well and truly one of the fan favourites at the Camp Nou.

You can see some of their reactions and comments down below: