All posts by rastrear-estafeta.com

West Ham boss David Moyes needs additions this summer if the east Londoners are to avoid another relegation battle this season and they could fill a creative void with one mooted transfer target…

What’s the word?

According to the Daily Mail, the Hammers have held a long-term interest in Marseille midfielder Morgan Sanson and he may well be considered for a switch to the London Stadium this summer.

It’s claimed that the Ligue 1 outfit want around £25m to let him go with many Premier League teams also keen.

The likes of Wolves, Arsenal, Fulham and Burnley have been linked to the 26-year-old by the report and Marseille could be open to selling him before the end of the transfer window.

Shades of Payet

Typically a number eight in central midfield, Sanson could well be one of the most underrated players across Europe. He has regularly delivered for Marseille, scoring at least five times in each of the last three seasons.

This term, the uncapped Frenchman averaged 2.2 tackles, 1.5 dribbles, 1.4 shots, 1.1 key passes and 0.9 interceptions per appearance, via WhoScored.

It suggests that he’d not only be a wonderful box-to-box addition to the Irons’ engine room but also one that’s going to help them score more goals, whether that’s through bagging them himself or creating.

Sanson has been likened to Ruben Neves in the past and it’s easy to see why but perhaps, he has shades of Dimitri Payet too given the pair’s past with Marseille.

Marseille teammate Boubacar Kamara believes the French star will “become a very great player,” adding that “He is athletic. He is a creator, I sometimes wonder how he manages to think of certain gestures in the field. He has several lungs, he helps us a lot, he sacrifices himself to open up spaces for us” in an interview with La Provence.

If Moyes continues to deploy a 4-2-3-1 of sorts, then the 26-year-old could be the man to fill that number ten void with Declan Rice and Thomas Soucek behind.

Whilst Sanson doesn’t possess the magical dribbling ability of Payet, he does bring that much-needed edge in the final third, which is why the West Ham hierarchy should sanction this £25m move.

AND in other news, Hammers set to battle Aston Villa for £270k-per-week…

Tottenham Hotspur continue to be on the search for a back-up striker and after many failed attempts, could they have fund the ideal candidate at long last?

What’s the word?

According to Record (via Sport Witness), Spurs are interested in signing Benfica forward Haris Seferovic on loan before the transfer deadline in under 14 days time.

They claim that the 28-year-old is an alternative choice for manager Jose Mourinho after missing out on several key targets.

A possible option-to-buy at the end of the 20/21 campaign could be included as part of any deal and the Primeira Liga club haven’t ruled out doing business. It would be a similar deal to that of Gedson Fernandes.

Could bring the best out Kane

Daniel Levy will have blood on his hands if he doesn’t secure a new striker to play second fiddle to Harry Kane this window as it’s risky business to go into a congested calendar with just one senior striker.

Last season in the Englishman’s absence, Spurs were knocked out of both the FA Cup and Champions League with players having to play out of position.

Finding a viable alternative could reap substantial benefits to Kane in what will now be a European Championship season. If he can be rested for some of the lesser matches and perhaps some in the Europa League, then he will be fit and firing in the important matches, thus elevating his game substantially in time for the summer.

In Seferovic they’d be getting a Fernando Llorente type with him measuring 6 foot 2 inches. During the 18/19 season, he bagged 23 goals having also averaged 2.8 shots and one key pass per game, via WhoScored, but now finds himself as the backup in Portugual.

He’s a striker that models his game on Zlatan Ibrahimovic and is described as “an explosive No.9 whose physical frame and height made him stand out, giving him an advantage at youth level. A poacher who is lethal in the area, the striker is more Shearer than Henry” by FourFourTwo.

Seferovic has clinched 65 caps for Switzerland and is valued at just £9m by Transfermarkt, he could well be quite the steal and one that’ll help Mourinho bring the best out of Kane in a crucial season.

AND in other news, Spurs could land a “bargain” in £18m striker likened to Dennis Bergkamp…

Eibar’s sporting director Fran Garagarza revealed that Newcastle United altered their stance over the terms on which they wanted to allow Yoshinori Muto to join the La Liga side after just one week.

Newcastle confirmed Muto’s departure to Eibar on a season-long loan on September 16, with the Japanese international forward having dropped further down the pecking order at St James’ Park following the £20m arrival of Callum Wilson from Bournemouth.

Magpies change stance to accept lower offer for Muto

Muto was made available for transfer by Newcastle, with the forward having only managed to register two goals for the Magpies in his first two seasons at St James’ Park. However, the Tynesiders turned down Eibar’s initial offer for the striker as they wanted a higher loan fee for the 28-year-old, as per Spanish outlet AS.

However, speaking to AS about Eibar’s transfer dealings this summer, Garagarza suggested that it took just one week for Newcastle come back and accept the Spanish club’s original offer for Muto. That came despite having told them they would not allow him to leave for the terms initially offered by the La Liga outfit.

He said: “Newcastle told us, either you reach some figures or Muto does not come out. We told them that it was impossible. (A week later he arrived) on the figures that we initially told them.”

Muto deal reminiscent of past Newcastle transfer failings

Newcastle enjoyed a productive transfer window this summer, with the Magpies having brought in the likes of Wilson, Ryan Fraser, Jamal Lewis and Jeff Hendrick. However, this news on their negotiations over Muto’s departure may remind fans of some of the less than salubrious moves that have been agreed in terms of both incomings and outgoings over recent windows.

Muto was a player that they brought in for a reported £9.5m, so to end up having to haggle just to secure a reasonable loan fee for him two years later shows the lack of quality they have had in the market. The Magpies may not be able to fully improve in this regard until new owners take over at St James’ Park, with the vicious cycle set to continue otherwise.

Geordies, what do you make of this update on Muto’s loan move to Eibar? Let us know your thoughts by commenting below!

David Moyes must make a late U-turn on his naïve and baffling decision not to sign Queens Park Rangers full-back Ryan Manning following reports the West Ham United boss is no longer keen.

What’s the word?

According to Irons insider ExWHUemployee, West Ham are now unlikely to be signing R’s star Manning before the close of the EFL transfer window on Friday as Moyes “doesn’t rate him”.

The Hammers have been linked with a potential move for the marauding left-back all summer, with The Telegraph claiming back in July that he and Everton’s Jonjoe Kenny were in Moyes’ sights as he strived to strengthen the full-back options at the London Stadium.

Interest in east London appeared to have remained strong throughout the international window and has boiled over into the domestic market, with more recent claims from the Mirror proposing on Deadline Day that a £5million bid could soon land on the table.

It was believed that the offer would be enough to tempt QPR into selling their full-back, as Moyes had scouted Manning throughout the 24-year-old’s sensational 2019/20 season that featured five goals and seven assists across all competitions.

Manning has been unable to add to his impressive numbers at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium this term as he finds himself frozen out of the first-team picture by manager Mark Warburton, who noted last month that the decision comes amid talks over a new contract with the defender otherwise a free agent next summer.

“There’s contract talks at different stages, simple as that,” Warburton said, via quotes by London News Online. “Everyone doesn’t come in at the same time, at the same stage and have the same negotiation.

“I want to make sure that players are focused on the game and there’s nothing derogatory or negative about Ryan, who trains exceptionally well and is a great lad.”

Moyes must make a U-turn

With West Ham yet to sign the left-sided full-back Moyes had hoped to secure all summer, the Irons boss must make a U-turn on his apparent decision not to land Manning’s signature.

In addition to Warburton praising the Irishman for his exceptional work rate in training despite not featuring in the league this season, former QPR head coach Steve McLaren was left stunned just weeks into his tenure by what he was seeing Manning deliver.

“Ryan is a player that I really like,” he said, via quotes by football.london. “In the first two weeks of pre-season I said to Les [Ferdinand, the R’s Director of Football]: ‘wow, he’s a good player’.”

Another ex-R’s boss in Ian Holloway also had great things to say about the Irishman, labelling him “absolutely outstanding” back in 2017.

Manning made his sole outing of the current season to date in QPR’s 3-2 defeat at Plymouth Argyle in the Carabao Cup, where he recorded a mammoth 106 touches, played 64 accurate passes with a 91% accuracy rating, registered four key balls, took three shots, made three tackles, and won seven duels including all five ground battles and two aerial contests, per SofaScore.

It was a similar story in last season’s Championship campaign, in which he was registered as creating 12 big chances to score and averaging 77.9 touches, 1.9 key balls, 1.7 accurate crosses, 2.0 tackles, 1.7 clearances, 6.6 duels won and 0.9 successful dribbles a game.

AND in other news, the dominant displays of an £8.55m-rated West Ham star are backing the Irons into a corner concerning his long-term future.

Former Premier League manager Alex McLeish has tipped Barry Douglas to be a success at Watford if he moves to Vicarage Road this week.

It has proven to be a busy summer at Elland Road in terms of transfer business with a large number of new faces arriving through the doors of the Yorkshire club.

Head coach Marcelo Bielsa has improved his squad options but with the domestic transfer window still open until Friday (October 16), a number of fringe players could potentially leave.

The likes of Gaetano Berardi left the club this summer and it is now looking like defender Douglas could be set for an exit too.

A whole host of clubs have been labelled with interest in the Scottish left-back, and former Premier League club Watford have now emerged as front runners in the race to sign the defender this week.

Douglas receives McLeish backing to make Watford move

With Football Insider claiming Watford’s interest, former Aston Villa boss McLeish has given his thoughts on whether or not the former Wolves defender would make an impact at the Championship club.

“Watford aren’t in the Premier League, they’ll be smarting the fact that they were relegated, they will feel like they have something to prove,” McLeish told Football Insider.

“Troy Deeney, etcetera, in that dressing room will be cracking the whip and telling the other players in that dressing room that we have to get back to the Premier League.

“To do that in the Championship, there has to be a massive level of consistency and Douglas has got that experience. If Watford go for him then you would think he would add to the squad.”

Douglas has made 44 appearances for the Whites thus far.

The correct move for Douglas to gain sufficient playing time

Stuart Dallas has promoted himself as the number one choice at left-back in Bielsa’s side over the last 12 months and one can’t really see Douglas getting many chances to show his worth with Ezgjan Alioski there as a versatile option too.

With a whole host of defensive options available to him this season, Bielsa is fully equipped for the competition and threat of the Premier League, having the likes of Luke Ayling, Liam Cooper, Pascal Struijk, Robin Koch, and of course Alioski, who have all been performing well over pre-season and over the start of the new campaign so far.

Douglas, will no doubt be eagerly anticipating Friday’s deadline day as he looks to start a potential new chapter in his career, but a move to Watford would be a superb one for the defender, especially given their ambition to bounce back and gain promotion back to England’s top flight.

Do you think Douglas would be a success at Watford? Can he help them get back in the Premier League? Let us know in the comments section below…

West Brom have long struggled to score goals, even during their promotion campaign.

Baggies outcast Charlie Austin ended the campaign with ten for the season, making him their top goalscorer – a far cry from the 23 that Dwight Gayle managed just a season earlier albeit under a different manager.

It’s why Karlan Grant was signed for £15m from Huddersfield Town this summer. He bagged nearly double what Austin managed with 19 goals in a struggling side.

However, it’s all well and good doing that but Slaven Bilic may still need to tweak his system to bring the best out of the 23-year-old.

In just his second start, Grant fired home his first goal by getting on the end of a low cross from Callum Robinson during Albion’s 1-1 draw with Brighton last week.

This sort of predatory instinct in the box should have Matheus Pereira’s ears ringing – but only if he’s deployed through the middle as it’s arguably his best and most lucrative position.

The Brazilian sensation, who signed for a total of £9m in the summer, delivered eight goals and 20 assists of which 64% of his goal contributions came in the number ten role, per Transfermarkt.

Yet this season, he’s played four of six games at right-wing and only once behind the striker.

As someone who averaged 2.8 key passes per game, via WhoScored, it’s imperative that the 24-year-old playmaker is the man feeding Grant as the season rumbles on.

There’s no point trying to whip in crosses for a player that’s not known for his aerial ability – he won just 0.8 duels on average per match last season – nor is that sort of thing in Bilic’s tactical playbook (West Brom ranked 16th for aerials won in the Championship).

Sky Sports pundit Keith Andrews described Pereira as “an all-round attacking player” who has blown him away with “his skill, his ability on the ball, the way he takes the game to the opposition and the vision he has.”

Whilst former coach Nate Weiss dubbed him a “genius” because “he is able to do things that no other player can do.”

Having him play centrally in attacking midfield is the best thing Bilic can do right now – the likes of Robinson, Grady Diangana and Kyle Edwards can take up the places out wide instead.

AND in other news, West Brom should unleash “exceptional” beast after Ahmed Hegazi sale…

Speaking exclusively to Football FanCast, former Premier League goalkeeper Chris Kirkland has revealed his shock at Aston Villa’s decision to sack Steve Bruce back in 2018.

The now Newcastle manager was removed from his duties at Villa Park by Christian Purslow, Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens after going on a run of just one win in his previous nine league games, leaving them in 12th in the Championship table, and still smarting from a dramatic 3-3 draw with bottom club Preston North End.

Despite Villa’s struggles towards the end and subsequent rise under Dean Smith, Kirkland has admitted that he was left incredibly surprised that the Midlands club took the decision to sack someone with Bruce’s “record”.

Hilariously obscure Premier League players – Can you name them all?

World Class score: 95% | Expert score: 80% | Veteran score: 65% | Intermediate score: 45% | Amateur score: 30% | Try Again: 5%

Speaking to FFC’s James Beavis, he said: “When he got sacked at Villa they were two points off the playoffs. They sacked him, and yes they’ve got up since then, but it was just absurd.

“Why would you sack somebody who’s got a record like he has in the Championship? He gets teams promoted and then when they go up to the Premier League, with Wigan he took them to a 10th-placed finish which was the best they’ve ever had.”

Whilst Kirkland may be right to point out Bruce’s tonne of experience managing at Premier League and Championship level, Villa’s wretched run of form at the time surely warranted a change in direction.

With football requiring immediate results and little time for patience, even someone like Bruce with his wealth of knowledge isn’t going to be afforded the time to try and ride out the wave.

Many Villa fans had lost their patience in the veteran boss, with that Preston game of course seeing one particularly angry supporter throw a cabbage in Bruce’s direction. That’s not to mention the kind of volatile atmosphere that was developing within the crowd at games, and supporters calling for him to be gone.

And when you look at how Villa have soared since they got rid of their former manager, then it’s absolutely clear that they made the right call.

Smith has led them to promotion from the Championship, made sure they didn’t get relegated in their first season back in the Premier League, and has been the architect of an impressive start to the new campaign that has even seen them thrash current champions Liverpool, 7-2.

Everything has turned out well for Villa, so fans may not be totally on board with Kirkland’s verdict.

Although Fulham’s second-half performance in their 3-2 defeat against Everton may be a positive for some fans, it should not gloss over what was an awful display from midfielder Mario Lemina.

The 27-year-old, who joined on loan from Southampton. in the summer transfer window and is earning £40,000-a-week at Craven Cottage according to Spotrac, struggled throughout the game against the Toffees.

Scott Parker opted to bring both Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Andre-Zambo Anguissa off the bench, and both were able to have much more of an impression on the game than Lemina did in the 69 minutes he was on the pitch.

As per SofaScore, the Gabonese international lost possession 13 times during the game against Carlo Ancelotti’s side and posted a solid, if unspectacular, pass accuracy rate of 84%, with 32 out of 38 of his passes finding their mark.

However, it was defensively where he struggled most, as Everton were able to cut through the Fulham midfield on a number of occasions, with Lemina regularly losing out to the more energetic Toffees players.

Of the 10 ground duels he was involved in, he was able to win just three, with the Everton players perhaps wanting the ball more than he did, which culminated in SofaScore awarding him a match rating of 6.1 – ranking him as the worst player on the pitch.

It was no surprise, therefore, that he was replaced with around 20 minutes of the game remaining and after he went off, Fulham looked much more dangerous and were able to win the ball back on a number of occasions.

It was perhaps a surprise that the loanee was given a start by Parker, considering in the five Premier League games he has featured in so far this season, he has registered a very poor average rating of 6.4/10 (per WhoScored).

Both of Loftus-Cheek and Anguissa have scored better across the season so far, so it would not be a surprise to see one of them replace Lemina in Fulham’s next fixture, which sees them take on Leicester City away from home in the Premier League.

According to TEAMtalk, Crystal Palace are interested in signing Glen Kamara from Glasgow Rangers.

What’s the word?

Kamara has been an integral part of Steven Gerrard’s side as Rangers have made a strong start to the season as they sit top of the Scottish Premiership and qualified for the knockout stages of the Europa League.

It’s claimed that Roy Hodgson still retains an interest in the Finland international with several players out of contract in the summer, including veteran midfielder James McArthur.

However, Palace will face stiff competition from several other Premier League sides such as Everton, Newcastle, Sheffield United and Southampton if they wish to secure his services when the winter transfer market opens in January.

Get it done, Eagles

The 25-year-old defensive midfielder has been in impressive form for the Gers since the start of the season, providing one goal in 20 appearances in all competitions, via Transfermarkt.

Injuries have limited McArthur to eight starts in the Premier League this campaign, as he missed the clash with Wolves, whilst Luka Milivojevic was suspended for the entirety of November after he received a red card in the defeat at Molineux.

Jairo Riedewald has stepped up in the club captain’s absence, but that hasn’t been enough to prevent Palace from slipping further down the table, with just one win from their last four games.

Steve Parish may be best served sanctioning a move for Kamara as not only would he be able to compete with the likes of Riedewald, McArthur and James McCarthy for a place in the starting line-up, but he’d also be a useful attacking threat as well.

The Ibrox boss was effusive in his praise for the midfield dynamo following the win over Dundee United, as he said: “The previous coaches that have worked with Glen at Arsenal and when he moved on have done a fantastic job because he’s been schooled right.

“I think he fits into our system like a glove. He could’ve started today, without a shadow of a doubt, he’s certainly pushing. I thought he was very good when he [came] on.

“Over the course of the season, Glen Kamara’s going to get many appearances.”

In five games in the Europa League, he has scored one goal, whilst he is averaging 2 tackles and 1.6 interceptions per game, via WhoScored.

Former Rangers player Neil Murray has also praised Kamara in the past, telling The Daily Record: “Kamara was excellent at the weekend and he really is an intelligent footballer.

“He has so much ability on the ball, although if you don’t have that then you just won’t play in Gerrard’s midfield.

“We tend to forget how young he is and how much better he is going to get.”

Comfortable on the ball and confident in possession, these kind of traits would be most welcome in south London, and when you consider the fact that his market value is estimated at a mere £1m via Transfermarkt, he could be an absolute steal if the Eagles can get a deal over the line.

AND in other news, Crystal Palace must make cut-throat Mamadou Sakho decision amid Real Betis links…

Many Crystal Palace fans are reacting to the latest transfer news around the club which suggests James McCarthy could be leaving.

According to TEAMtalk, and tweeted out by @cpfc_xtra, Scottish giants Celtic are ready to offer the midfielder a contract in January in the hope of persuading him to make the move.

With Scottish midfielder James McArthur near to end of his career as he is now 33, it seems quite risky to let the Irishman leave unless an immediate replacement is brought in.

McCarthy’s exit would mean Palace could lack serious depth in midfield, and the news has seen fans desperate for the ‘key’ man to stay, while others ponder if he is indeed replaceable.

It is easy to see why supporters feel this way too – he has managed 2.2 tackles, one interception and 1.4 clearances per game this campaign, so he is vital to protecting the defence (WhoScored).

With his contract expiring in the summer, there is a real possibility that he could leave on a free, so the club need to act fast if they want to keep him, or at the very least secure a fee for his services.

Here is what Palace fans said following the news around McCarthy:

In other Palace news, have a read of a bizarre statistic about the club which fans aren’t happy with here!