As reported by The Daily Record, Celtic are interested in signing Emiliano Martinez before the January transfer window shuts but face an uphill battle to secure his signature.
What’s the story?
Adding a goalkeeper to the Celtic first-team squad is a massive priority for Brendan Rodgers after Craig Gordon suffered an injury against Hibs on Saturday that will keep him out for three months.
One option the Hoops are pursuing is Arsenal goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
The Daily Record report that Celtic want to bring him to Glasgow but that La Liga side Getafe, who currently have the player on loan, could block the move.
The paper say that they’ll only let Martinez leave if they can keep hold of shot-stopper Vicente Guaita until the summer, who has signed a pre-contract with Crystal Palace but could make his move this January.
Can the Hoops get this complicated deal over the line on deadline day?
Would he be a good addition?
Emiliano Martinez does have limited first team experience but that isn’t uncommon for goalkeepers in their mid-twenties, especially at elite clubs like Arsenal.
He isn’t completely devoid of action though, making 56 first team appearances for six clubs, 13 of which have been at Arsenal.
Two of those appearances at the Gunners were in the UEFA Champions League where he helped keep a clean sheet against Borussia Dortmund and win against Anderlecht. Clearly then he wouldn’t be overwhelmed by European football in the second half of this season at Celtic.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
At 6ft 4in tall, he has the stature to make an impression at Celtic and his football education has certainly been sound enough for Scottish Premiership action.
As last-minute deals go, this could prove to be an excellent one.
Chelsea have this afternoon confirmed the signing of Olivier Giroud from Arsenal on an 18-month contract.
The French international makes the move just a day after making his final appearance for the Gunners against Swansea City.
Chelsea have been searching all January for an elite, proven striker to provide back-up and competition to Alvaro Morata and have finally landed what they were looking for.
Giroud scored 105 goals and provided 41 assists for Arsenal in his time at the club, becoming something of a cult hero at the Emirates due to his knack for the odd spectacular goal or two and netting after coming off the bench.
It’s fair to say that Arsenal supporters aren’t too happy about the switch, even on a day that they’ve signed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Borussia Dortmund and extended the contract of Mesut Ozil.
Some are just sad to see him leave for a rival while others believe the club are making a huge mistake.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
According to West Ham United club insider @ExWHUemployee on Twitter, West Ham United won’t be signing Joe Hart on a permanent basis in the summer.
What’s the word, then?
Well, the Irons took the England international on a season-long loan deal from runaway Premier League leaders Manchester City last summer, but despite beginning the campaign between the sticks for the east London outfit he has lost his place to Adrian in recent months.
@ExWHUemployee suggests that has ended any hope that the 30-year-old could move to the London Stadium permanently at the end of the season, with West Ham instead looking to buy another goalkeeper to provide competition for their Spanish number one.
How has Hart done this season?
The Three Lions stopper started all of West Ham’s opening 14 top flight fixtures this term, but he conceded 30 times and kept just three clean sheets with the team struggling towards the bottom of the Premier League table.
The 4-0 defeat against Everton at Goodison Park – where Wayne Rooney scored from his own half after Hart has rushed out of his penalty area to clear the ball – proved to be the final straw for David Moyes and the 30-year-old has only played on three occasions since.
All three of those outings came in the FA Cup, but now the Irons have been knocked out it seems unlikely that Hart will play for the club again this season – or for that matter ever – unless Adrian picks up an injury or suffers a dramatic loss of form.
Is it the right decision?
It probably is, yes.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
West Ham would have hoped that Hart could be their first-choice goalkeeper for a number of years but he has shown few glimpses of the form and quality he showed for Manchester City earlier in his career, and the club are probably much better off with Adrian between the sticks.
Hart departing will give them another opportunity to bring in a new stopper this summer, and they could prove to be an upgrade on the Spaniard.
Real Madrid could swoop for Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Christian Eriksen this summer to get one over their Spanish rivals Barcelona, according to Don Balon.
What’s the word?
Los Blancos are expected to make waves in the transfer market when the season comes to an end, and it seems that Spurs are on their radar.
Don Balon reports that the Bernabeu-based club are planning to swoop for Harry Kane but will also make a move for Eriksen if their rivals Barcelona nab one of their other targets.
The publication states that if the Catalan club swoop for Toby Alderweireld, then Madrid will try to sign Eriksen, who has been linked to Barcelona for some time.
The rumour has suggested that Real president Florentino Perez is the man to select the Tottenham pair as transfer targets.
Could Tottenham lose both?
In this modern age, loyalty is not always common in football and money certainly talks.
[ad_pod ]
Neither Kane nor Eriksen have expressed a desire to leave the North London outfit, but if Madrid come calling, it would be no surprise if their heads were turned.
Tottenham sit in a strong position, though, as both are tied down to long-term contracts, which means that chairman Daniel Levy could demand a staggering fee for the duo.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
The businessman has proven in the past that he can be stubborn when it comes to negotiating transfers.
Levy will certainly use that tactic if two of his best players are wanted elsewhere.
Paul Merson has claimed that a number of Arsenal players are not good enough to turn out for the Gunners on a consistent basis.
Arsenal suffered a 3-0 defeat to Manchester City in the EFL Cup final on Sunday afternoon, with Sergio Aguero opening the scoring for Pep Guardiola’s side, before Vincent Kompany and David Silva both netted in the second period.
Head coach Arsene Wenger has again been criticised for the embarrassing loss, but Merson has insisted that the players must take the blame for the poor performance.
Indeed, the 49-year-old, who turned out for the Gunners between 1985 and 1997, has insisted that a number of the club’s current players are only good enough for a team of Everton’s standing.
Merson told talkSPORT:
“The team isn’t good enough. Some of the players just aren’t good enough to play for Arsenal.
“They need a clear out. Five or six of the players who played yesterday should be playing at Everton, or lower. It’s all about the players. If you haven’t got the best players, you’re not winning anything.”
Arsenal will again lock horns with City on Thursday night as the two teams prepare to meet at the Emirates Stadium in the Premier League.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
The Gunners are still in the Europa League, but have a tough assignment against Italian giants AC Milan in the round of 16.
Leeds fans have been reacting to Paul Heckingbottom’s pre-Reading press conference this morning, and it doesn’t seem like there’s much hope of a positive result.
Heckingbottom took over at Elland Road with the team in a dire state, and he hasn’t really improved it much. Leeds fans are losing patience with the 40 year-old, and his pre-Reading comments haven’t done much to life spirits either.
Leeds travel to Reading on Saturday with 14 points between the sides, but neither team have had much to brag about recently. Both sides have just one league win in 2018, and a win for either would be a huge boost.
Manager Paul Heckingbottom spoke to the press on Thursday about his team’s visit to the Madjeski, admitting that the recent performances simply haven’t been good enough.
The form of the midfield has attracted a lot of criticism from fans, but equally the defending from set pieces has been absolutely woeful in recent months.
The manager admitted they are struggling with set pieces, and says they simply don’t have the players to switch to his preferred man marking system.
Leeds are likely to be without both Liam Cooper and Kemar Roofe for the trip to Reading, who Heckingbottom thinks deserve to be higher in the table than they are.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Fans have been reacting to the managers comments on Twitter, and let’s just say they aren’t particularly confident about Saturday’s clash…
West Ham United’s situation in the Premier League is a precarious one as they sit just two points above the relegation zone.
David Moyes and his team have just eight games left to save their season, but at the moment, focus seems does not seem to be on performances and results.
During the club’s last game, which was a 3-0 defeat to Burnley, a number of different pitch invaders disrupted the match.
One man swiped the corner flag and held it aloft, while another was thrown to the floor by club captain Mark Noble, who later issued a rallying cry to the supporters.
Those found guilty of invading the pitch have been issued with lifetime bans, but it has not stopped supporters from airing their discontent towards co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Former West Ham striker Frederic Kanoute has given his say on the situation, telling Goal.com that ex-manager Slaven Bilic helped the club improve before he was sacked mid-season.
“It’s sad. It’s a shame because sometimes they show improvement, above all when Bilic was the coach. When he was there, the club started to improve but unfortunately, it seems that they always fall back into old routines.”
Chelsea and Tottenham will meet each other for the 52nd time in the Premier League this weekend and their close proximity in the table once again this term highlights how significant the London rivalry has become in English football during the last few years. From the Battle of Stamford Bridge to FA Cup semi-finals, the Blues and Spurs suddenly find themselves repeatedly duking it out at the top end of the English game.
This time around, Champions League qualification is on the line. Antonio Conte will know his side need all three points to keep their hopes of being in Europe’s top competition next season alive, just as Mauricio Pochettino will know a victory will almost cement the north Londoners a place in the top four.
But can history tell us anything about the likely outcome in Sunday’s 4pm kickoff? Football FanCast take a look…
Head-to-Head
Make no mistake about it, Chelsea have completely dominated this fixture throughout the Premier League era, boasting more than five times the number of wins as Tottenham, keeping almost three times as many clean sheets and scoring nearly double the amount of goals. Spurs have even picked up more red cards than the Blues, albeit by a difference of just one.
Tottenham didn’t actually beat Chelsea in the Premier League until 2006, but there has been a better balance to this clash in recent years. Spurs’ famous 5-3 win at White Hart Lane on New Year’s Day 2015 signified a key shift and with that result included, both teams have won two, lost two and drawn two of their last six Premier League encounters.
Incredibly though, Tottenham are still chasing their first ever Premier League win at Stamford Bridge.
Top Scorer
Down the years, the top scorer in this fixture has been Chelsea icon Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink, who took just eight appearances against Spurs to bag a staggering ten goals. That includes a perfect hat-trick in 2002 as Chelsea claimed a 4-0 victory at Stamford Bridge, the powerful Dutchman netting curlers with his right and left and a point-blank header in between.
Tottenham’s best representative is Teddy Sheringham with six who, rather incredibly, beat Chelsea just twice from 27 encounters throughout his entire career. Worryingly for Spurs fans though, the only member of the top five who’ll be involved on Sunday is the Blues’ talismanic attacker Eden Hazard – he’s grabbed four goals and two assists in 10 top flight outings against the Lilywhites.
The Unforgettable Match
Britain Football Soccer – Chelsea v Tottenham Hotspur – Barclays Premier League – Stamford Bridge – 2/5/16 Tottenham’s Eric Dier fouls Chelsea’s Eden Hazard Reuters / Dylan Martinez Livepic EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or “live” services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further d
A match Tottenham fans will dread seeing brought up, but it’s undoubtedly the fixture that has made the rivalry what it is today. Whilst Spurs’ 5-3 romping of Chelsea on New Year’s Day 2015 deserves an honourable mention as the result that announced Tottenham as a true title-contending force, it doesn’t quite compare to the notorious battle of Stamford Bridge, which produced a Premier League record of nine yellow cards.
Tempers boiled over as Chelsea came back in a game Spurs needed to win to have any chance of catching Leicester City in the 2015/16 title hunt, producing unsavoury challenges, fisticuffs on the touchline and one iconic goal from Eden Hazard.
No encounter between the two clubs has had more on the line, and no encounter has produced such incredible violence and drama in a true all-or-nothing affair.
The Shared Hero – Gus Poyet
Football – AXA Sponsored FA Cup , Quarter – Final , Tottenham Hotspur v Chelsea , 10/3/02 Tottenham’s Gustavo Poyet is challenged by Chelsea’s Frank Lampard Mandatory Credit:Action Images / David Jacobs
Gus Poyet’s relentless supply of goals from midfield captured the hearts and minds of both sets of supporters. An affluent spell at Chelsea saw him net 36 goals in 105 Premier League outings, including a stunning strike against Sunderland, and score for the Blues against Real Madrid in the 1998 Cup Winners’ Cup final.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
The Uruguayan’s stint at White Hart Lane was somewhat less successful, blighted by injuries, but he still notched up 18 in 82 for Spurs in the Premier League and became a firm fan favourite, later serving as assistant manager to Juande Ramos.
However, Poyet isn’t remembered too fondly by all Chelsea fans for one notorious incident – at the end of a 5-1 League Cup win for Spurs in 2002, he turned to the away Blues support and audaciously kissed the Tottenham badge.
Leeds fans are losing their cool over Paul Heckingbottom’s latest comments, after the manager said he is surprised by speculation over his future.
At this point, Leeds fans are just waiting for this miserable season to end, and most are in agreement that the end of the season should also be the end of Paul Heckingbottom’s short stint in charge.
Brought in to get the club’s playoff push back in full swing, the 40 year-old ex-Barnsley man has done quite the opposite, and the performances somehow seem to be getting worse not better.
That said, Heckingbottom seems pretty confident about his position, stating in his pre-Villa press conference that nothing has changed.
When asked about reports owner Andrea Radrizzani had lost faith in him, the manager said: “I think that surprised everyone in all honesty. Nothing has changed.
[ad_pod ]
“I came in here in February with slim hopes of the play-offs and we were chasing that down. That was the first goal – let’s not let this season die out quickly – but it did die out quickly so we were straight onto the second phase of what we wanted to do, which was to start looking at players and getting our plans laid down for next season.”
With fans growing tired of Heckingbottom’s boring demeanour and the lack of performances on the pitch, the news that the boss is already planning for next season is certainly worrying to many.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Plenty of fans have pointed out that the manager deserves at least one transfer window to right his wrongs, but most can’t look past their side’s awful form.
Some of the best Twitter reactions can be found below…
Southampton face a must-win Premier League clash against Leicester City at the King Power Stadium on Thursday night as they look to avoid suffering relegation to the Championship.
The 18th-placed Saints looked to be on course to close the gap to the sides above them when they led Chelsea 2-0 at St Mary’s on Saturday with just 20 minutes of the match remaining, but three goals for the visitors in a crazy nine-minute spell saw them fall to a fourth successive top flight defeat that has left them on the brink of going down.
Mark Hughes’ men come into the match against the Foxes five points from safety with just five games remaining, and with the champions Manchester City visiting the south coast on the final day they will know that they need to pick up victories sooner rather than later if they overtake the likes of Swansea City and Huddersfield Town above them.
Despite their own poor form, the Welsh manager will be buoyed by the fact that Claude Puel’s side have lost successive fixtures against Newcastle United and Burnley.
Hughes, who was questioned by his own fans following his selection on Sunday, brought in Jan Bednarek for the suspended Jack Stephens against Chelsea as he stuck with a 3-4-2-1 system, but he could be considering making more changes for the visit to the east Midlands considering his team suffered such a big collapse last time out and with the fact that Mario Lemina, Sofiane Boufal, Manolo Gabbiadini and Charlie Austin all started on the substitutes’ bench.
Here is how Southampton must line up against Leicester…
Alex McCarthy has been between the sticks for Southampton since Boxing Day but after conceding 12 goals in his last four Premier League appearances, Mark Hughes should look to give Fraser Forster a chance to stake his claim in the team at the King Power Stadium.
Elsewhere, Jan Bednarek, Maya Yoshida and Wesley Hoedt collapsed in the final 20 minutes against Chelsea and were slammed by the fans on Twitter after the match, and the Welsh manager should look to bring Ryan Bertrand in as a left-sided centre-back in a three-man defence, alongside Wesley Hoedt and Maya Yoshida with Bednarek dropping to the substitutes’ bench.
Hughes once again stuck with a midfield duo of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Oriol Romeu against Chelsea with Bertrand and Cedric Soares as wing-backs, but he should look to change things up against Leicester.
If Bertrand is utilised as a centre-back, the Welsh boss should bring in Sam McQueen at left wing-back following his impressive performance in the 0-0 draw against Manchester United at Old Trafford on December 30, and he should play James Ward-Prowse alongside Hojbjerg and Romeu in the middle of the park, with Sunday’s goalscorer Dusan Tadic the man to drop out.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Hughes has gone with one up top in the last two matches with Shane Long starting playing a lone role against both Arsenal and Chelsea, but he should bring top goalscorer Charlie Austin in to feature alongside the Republic of Ireland international at the King Power Stadium.
Austin showed with his substitute appearance against Arsenal the goalscoring threat he brings to the team, and while they are so suspect at the back they need players who can find the net on the pitch.
Long will certainly trouble Leicester’s defenders with his pace and never-say-die style of play, and they could prove to be a fruitful partnership against the Foxes.