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This article forms part of our Profit Players feature series, which is where Football Transfer Tavern takes a look at how well a player has fared since being signed or sold, using statistical figures and statements from pundits to prove how good of a deal the club managed to achieve.

£81,000 is pennies in today’s football market, even with the current financial crisis that is happening as a result of the global pandemic at the moment. It would not have seemed much either back on the 22nd August 2010, as this is exactly what Matt Doherty cost Wolverhampton Wanderers to sign him from Irish side Bohemians.

The fact that he is still a regular in the team currently is testament to how much of a servant he has been for the Midlands club, remaining with them from the EFL Championship right through to the UEFA Europa League.

However, Doherty’s Wolves career did not get off to the best of starts, having made just one appearance for the senior side in his debut season, according to Transfermarkt.

He was shipped out on loan to Scottish outfit Hibernian FC on the 31st January 2012, before returning to the club at the end of that campaign.

He was consequently loaned out again to Bury FC on the 4th October of the same year, before returning once again three months later.

However, since these two spells, Doherty has not looked back. He returned to play 13 games in the Championship that term, scoring one goal and producing one assist, as per Transfermarkt.

The 28-year old’s market value rose to £270,000 by the end of the season, already more than treble what WWFC paid for him.

Doherty helped the club climb from League One all the way to the Premier League and beyond. In Wolves’ first campaign back in the top flight since he joined, the right-back played in every match, netting a relatively impressive four strikes and making seven assists from defence (via Transfermarkt).

By the end of the term, his market value was £13.5 million, a huge rise on his transfer fee.

Doherty has made 39 appearances in all competitions so far this season, including eight in Europe, a sheer contrast from is time back in League One.

If the campaign resumes, then the Wanderers will have a chance to claim a European spot again, and it will be up to Doherty and co if they want to go one better with Champions League football. One thing is for sure, he has been an absolute bargain signing and is currently worth significantly more than the £81k they paid, with Transfermarkt now valuing him at a whopping £14.4m.

WWFC supporters, has Doherty been your biggest bargain ever? Comment below!

As Newcastle United await official ratification from the Premier League, The Athletic’s Chris Waugh has provided supporters with realistic transfer targets that could kickstart a new era at the club.

The Saudi Arabia-backed consortium is currently undergoing the PL’s owners and directors test after agreeing a £300m deal with Mike Ashley to purchase the northeast outfit – and they have big long-term plans.

Steve Bruce’s Magpies squad lacks serious quality across the pitch as seen in where they find themselves in a mediocre 13th as well as them ranking bottom for expected goals (xG).

Andy Carroll, Dwight Gayle and £40m club-record man Joelinton have bagged just one goal between them, so a striker would be a good place to start and Waugh has tipped up Lyon striker Moussa Dembele, a striker who the club have scouted ‘extensively’.

He said:

“Meanwhile, Moussa Dembele is among the strikers who Newcastle’s recruitment staff have watched extensively. The Lyon forward has scored 16 league goals this season, despite getting into worse positions than the previous campaign according to his xG. He has boosted his scoring statistics by taking more penalties, scoring four of five in Ligue 1. Nevertheless, at 23 he is about to come into his prime and is coveted across Europe.”

The 23-year-old has been in emphatic form for the Ligue 1 side this campaign having scored 22 goals in 42 appearances and while he didn’t score in the competition, he has featured in seven Champions League matches which bodes well for the prospective owners’ long-term ambitions.

It speaks volumes when the Magpies’ top goalscorer is central midfielder Jonjo Shelvey and that four centre-backs have combined for eight goals themselves, via WhoScored.

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Someone like Dembele can be exactly the sort of signing that signals the intentions from the Amanda Staveley-led consortium. It would be a superb addition to kickstart a squad overhaul.

AND in other news, Newcastle fans react over Mark Douglas tweet… “classic Ashley”…

Tottenham are eager to sign Sergej Milinkovic-Savic this summer, according to Foot Mercato as per @TalkingTHFC.

It is no secret Jose Mourinho wants to sign a new striker, as Harry Kane has only recently recovered from a hamstring injury that ruled him out of a large chunk of the season.

Football journalist Santi Aouna reports Mourinho is “dreaming” of signing Milinkovic Savic in the summer.

The Serbian has emerged as one of Europe’s hottest talents after establishing himself at Lazio, and a move would surely benefit Spurs in the long run.

Milinkovic-Savic is arguably one of the best box-to-box midfielders in the world.

The Serb dominates the midfield with his imposing frame, as he stands at 191cm (6’2 feet) tall, and his physicality sets him apart from some of his more notable contemporaries.

After arriving at the Stadio Olimpico from Genk for £16.2m, the 25-year-old has played 27 games in Serie A this season, scoring 5 goals, creating 4 assists, taking 2 shots per game, averaging 1.2 key passes, and completing 1.2 dribbles.

Meanwhile, Tanguy Ndombele has made the headlines for all of the wrong reasons.

The club’s record signing has been embroiled in an ongoing dispute with Mourinho which has shown no signs of stopping anytime soon.

At the moment, all the evidence points towards Ndombele leaving the club in the near future. Barcelona are keeping a close eye on the situation, while Mourinho has never been one to back down from confrontation.

Indeed, the Portuguese famously banished Bastian Schweinsteiger during his time in charge of Manchester United, as the German midfielder caused disruption by leaving the country for surgery multiple times.

If Ndombele ends up leaving, Milinkovic-Savic would surely be the perfect replacement. In fact, the Serbia international has earned a higher WhoScored rating than his French counterpart for his performances this season.

The Biancocelesti are willing to let him leave, but only if the price is right, and he is currently valued at £57.6m via Transfermarkt.

Whether or not Daniel Levy will splash the cash is another matter entirely.

Tottenham fans, should the board sign Sergej Milinkovic-Savic before the start of next season? Join the discussion in the comments section…

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

Sheffield Wednesday’s season has ticked like an erratic metronome.

There were majorly positive signs when Garry Monk finally took the reins in September, losing just one game in eight matches, but his tumultuous tenure so far has seen continuous problems arise.

Some in his control, some not.

Maybe the January transfer window will be his saviour, should they go relatively unscathed from the EFL.

At the start, the 40-year-old was faced with his skipper Tom Lees being out injured alongside a lengthy six-game suspension to two-time top scorer Fernando Forestieri.

Watch Sheffield Wednesday Videos With StreamFootball.tv Below

Reliance on this season’s goal-getter Steven Fletcher then became the next issue, not that it has even been resolved yet while in the grand scheme of things, the Owls have the oldest squad in the division, so giving youth a runout every now and then can’t exactly hurt, can it?

Now the club have been charged by the EFL for financial misconduct over the sale of Hillsborough to owner Dejphon Chansiri as he tried to offset any debts during the 2017/18 season accounts.

One football finance expert believes that a 12-point deduction will be the minimum punishment dealt by the Football League, which would turn Wednesday’s season from being in with a chance of reaching the playoffs into a relegation dogfight.

As of right now, it would sink them to second-bottom in the division.

Meanwhile, Monk heads into this weekend without two key members of his defence as Liam Palmer, and now Julian Borner, are suspended – failure to pick up all three points against a Charlton Athletic side that will struggle to field a competitive team would be inexcusable.

The former Swansea City legend inherited this squad in its entirety from his predecessor Steve Bruce and then caretaker manager Lee Bullen, and given the circumstances off the field, he should be cut some slack.

January could see him bring in some players of his own, which may allow him to set up his side exactly how he wants, while later this summer, a vast rebuild task could be on his hands as over ten first-team players see their contract expire at the end of the season.

Give Monk time, see how the EFL play things out, and then reassess his impact around this time next year. Perspective.

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In other news, Wednesday fans have slammed one surprise member of the starting line up….

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Speaking to Sky Sports, Arsenal defender Rob Holding has issued a rallying cry to his teammates as they look to arrest their poor run of form.

What did he say?

Unai Emery’s side have endured a miserable start to the current campaign, finding themselves in sixth place in the Premier League, and already languishing eight points behind Manchester City in fourth.

The Gunners are currently on a five-match win-less streak across all competitions, and were beaten 2-0 by top-four rivals Leicester before the international break. Ahead of their upcoming clash against Southampton, Holding insisted the club are not at a “crisis point”, and simply insisted that a couple of wins would turn things around considerably.

He said: “We just need to string a couple of wins together and I think that will lift the confidence again and hopefully set us off on a run. We just need to stay calm and stay positive. We’re sixth, we’re not a million miles off it. We’re going into a busy Christmas period now where there’s going to be three Premier League games a week.

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“We’re eight points off the top four but if we have three wins in a week we’re back up within touching distance so it’s not crisis point by any stretch of the imagination. We need to keep calm, keep positive and keep working on what we need to improve on.”

Ignores the big problem

While the 24-year-old’s words of inspiration are understandable, and even admirable, they simply do not address any of the underlying issues that have caused the Gunners’ season to unravel to this point. Emery’s men have faced a staggering 16.4 shots per game on average – a statistic that is only better than newly-promoted Norwich and Aston Villa respectively.

Their lack of defensive stability means they are always feeling the pressure of needing to score multiple goals in a football match to win. Keeping a clean sheet has become such a rare phenomena, that their last away shut-out in the top-flight came in their opening game of the season against Newcastle. So whilst Holding may do his best impressions of a public motivator, those words will simply fall on deaf ears until they set about fixing their shocking back-line.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

The transfer window is just around the corner, and the rumours are beginning to gather apace.

Liverpool will no doubt be looking to see if they can add any real talent to their squad, with Timo Werner amongst the main names to be linked with a move to Anfield.

According to 90min.com, however, the Reds are looking at another European talent as well.

Watch the moment Adam Lallana broke United hearts at Old Trafford in the video below…

They are reporting that Jurgen Klopp and co are interested in signing FC Copenhagen’s Mohammed Daramy. The Reds are said to have sent scouts to watch the 17-year-old, who is also believed to be being looked at by almost half of the teams in the Premier League, as well as Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig.

So far this campaign, he has three goals in 15 matches at senior level and is currently valued at £900,000 by Transfermarkt. Whilst he may not be a well-known name, his signing could indicate a change to the Merseyside club’s transfer policy.

Watch Liverpool Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

In the first three full seasons following Klopp’s arrival, Liverpool went about adding real quality to their squad. They spent a total of £393.8m on a host of players, such as Virgil van Dijk and Alisson. In the latest transfer window, though, they parted with just £1.3m, which was spent on Sepp van den Berg. Harvey Elliott also joined, but on a free transfer, as did Adrian.

The former two have a combined age of 33, which equates to one James Milner. It appears that there has been a clear plan set up for the future. The main nucleus of the squad is set, but they won’t be getting any younger. The average age at Liverpool is 26.9, which is younger than just five other sides in the Premier League.

If they want to dominate in the future, it is essential they look to bring in up-and-coming talents to rejuvenate a team that will only get older.

As another teenager, Daramy would be part of that transition and, if all were to go to plan, he would be part of a group of youngsters who would be ready to step in when current stars such as Roberto Firmino and Jordan Henderson are on the wane.

For clubs at the very top, concentrating on the here and now is not enough if they want to attain regular success.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Mauricio Pochettino made a mistake on Sunday as he benched Tanguy Ndombele against Liverpool.

On the chalkboard

The Frenchman was curiously missing from the starting XI when the teams landed before the encounter, having played against Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League in midweek.

He did come on as a substitute in the 63rd minute, though, replacing Harry Winks, and enjoyed an excellent cameo performance.

However, one has to wonder why he wasn’t included initially; Spurs struggled to exert any measure of control on the game prior to his introduction, as evidenced by the final possession tallies. Liverpool had 68% to Spurs’ 32%.

During his time on the pitch, Ndombele registered a total of 19 touches, per WhoScored, one shot and two key passes and a passing accuracy of 77%, higher than all but two of Spurs’ starting XI.

And his statistics so far this season are enlightening too, painting Pochettino’s decision in an even darker light.

He has played twice in the Champions League, along with seven times in total in the league, and his performances in Europe have been genuinely exceptional.

Per WhoScored, he has registered two assists, one shot per game, two key passes per game and 1.3 dribbles in the Champions League.

Defensively, he has also won two tackles per game, 1.7 interceptions and 1.3 fouls. He also has a passing accuracy of 89.1% from an average of 43 passes.

In the Premier League, he already has two goals to his name, one assist, 0.8 shots per game, 0.8 key passes and 1.1 dribbles. He also makes 2.3 tackles and has a pass completion rate of 83.1% from 29.5 passes.

Baffling call

Ndombele was signed for a club-record fee in the summer but here he was, on the bench, against perhaps the best team in the Premier League and technically speaking, the best team in Europe.

Per WhoScored, Ndombele is better than Moussa Sissoko in every attacking area bar dribbles, in both the Premier League and the Champions League, and is also a more assiduous defensive presence.

Both Victor Wanyama and Eric Dier have struggled for minutes this season and are not really direct competitors to his spot, while Harry Winks, meanwhile, makes more interceptions than Ndombele but is outperformed in every offensive category, even though his pass accuracy is higher.

The stats show that the Frenchman is better than the majority of the players he has been bought in to play alongside and yet, he was not introduced until the game was slipping away.

He should have been on the teamsheet from the outset, and while that is not to say he would have rescued his side from an Anfield defeat, he could well have had an impact on them keeping the ball an providing some sort of counter-attacking threat when 1-0 up.

That he wasn’t able to is the result of a poor Pochettino decision.

Chris Sutton and Andy Robertson both took to social media to praise and thank the Hammers man for his international career, while Kenny Miller told him to enjoy his retirement.

The Liverpool left-back stated that Snodgrass has supported him throughout his career, adding that he’d been particularly helpful after he was given the captaincy.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Bury’s academy manager Mark Litherland has given a glowing review of Saul Shotton amidst reports the youngster will sign for West Brom.

What’s he said?

A report from the BBC this week has claimed that the Baggies are set to sign Shotton following the automatic termination of his contract at Bury, who were expelled from the Football League earlier this month.

The 18-year-old is now a free agent and has previously had bids rejected for him from Leeds United and Watford, so it could be quite the coup for Albion if they landed him.

Find out how a world-record-holding freestyler got on with the worst football in the world in the video below…

Shotton has only made six senior appearances in his career for the Shakers, but his former academy manager has talked him up, by saying:

“He is really comfortable on the ball and bringing the ball out of defence.

“He is also good in the air and reads the game well.

“What he has now been given by Albion is a huge opportunity and it’s up to him what he does with it.

“He played four games in League One when he was 17-years-old and still a first-year scholar and did very well – because of that there’s always been interest in him.”

Watch West Bromwich Albion Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

Fits the bill

Baggies boss Slaven Bilic likes to play a passing style of football and that all begins by playing out from the back. This is emphasised by glancing at his previous jobs – for example at Besiktas, his team enjoyed 55% of possession and completed 81% of their passes during his final term in Turkey.

At present, West Brom are second in the league for pass success with 83.1% and their centre-backs are integral to that.

Both Semi Ajayi and Kyle Bartley, who have played every minute of this Championship campaign, rank inside the top four of the team for average passes per game with a passing accuracy of 83.1% or better too.

The review given by Litherland about Shotton highlights just why the Croatian would be after such a player, especially outside the transfer window.

Bilic was also quoted as saying “If there was a one-off situation, if it’s a young player and we can use him, then okay – we’d consider it,” so maybe there is even a first-team opportunity here for the promising starlet this campaign.

Those comments certainly bode well if he does eventually walk through the doors of the Hawthorns.

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Liverpool were beaten in Naples for the second year running on Tuesday night, and Jason McAteer has given his thoughts on the clash exclusively to Football FanCast, in partnership with GentingBet.

The Reds were victim of a controversial penalty decision at the San Paolo Stadium, as Jose Callejon appeared to already be going to ground before Andy Robertson clipped him.

McAteer shared his view on the incident: “No, I didn’t (think it was a penalty). I thought the referee got it wrong.

“It was a weak one, Robertson asked the question of the referee to make a decision, but it would be nice to see the referee take a stance against people clattering into defenders and falling over and diving.”

The second goal came courtesy of a mix-up between Virgil van Dijk and the rest of the back-line, and although the Reds have have kept just one clean sheet this campaign, the former Kop ace is not concerned by the issues at the back.

“For 80 minutes we were worth a point and I think if you had offered Jurgen (Klopp) that he would have taken it.

“It’s obviously raising question marks because of the defensive form we had last season, but there are going to be times when other teams create chances, are clinical and we are going to concede goals.

“I’m not pointing that at Adrian, but to lose a ‘keeper of Alisson’s quality, when he’s got the understanding of the four in front of him, it is a big loss.”

Fabinho was undoubtedly the Reds’ star player on the night with 95% passing and six tackles, and McAteer was absolutely full of praise for the Brazil international.

“He gives the manager a license to be more expansive with the two players alongside him.

“He’s slowly becoming a cult hero at the club, more or less now he’s the first name on the team-sheet. I’m a big fan of his, I wouldn’t put him quite in N’Golo Kante’s bracket just yet, but he’s certainly not far away.”

Elsewhere in the group, Erling Haaland stole the headlines with a hat-trick for Red Bull Salzburg, and speaking on his upcoming battle with van Dijk, McAteer said: “He’s still a young lad, it will be a good test to come up against arguably the greatest defender in the world.

“Playing for Salzburg is different to playing for one of the top, top clubs. It’s whether he gets the service and whether Salzburg have enough of the ball.

“But for him as a learning curve you always want to put yourself against the best, and I’m sure he’ll learn from the experience.”

Klopp’s side will welcome the Austrian outfit to Anfield on October 2.

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