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Transfer expert Graeme Bailey has revealed some exciting Newcastle United news involving both James Maddison and Youri Tielemans.

The Lowdown: Summer interest

It was no secret that the St. James’ Park outfit held an interest in Maddison and Tielemans in the summer transfer window.

They put in an official bid for the former, which was rejected by Leicester City, while they were linked with a late move for the latter on Transfer Deadline Day.

The Latest: In sights again

Taking to Twitter, Bailey has revealed that Maddison and Tielemans are ‘both in Newcastle’s sights’ for 2023, as they could make another move for the pair in January or wait until next summer.

Expanding in his article for 90min, the journalist added that there is ‘no sign’ of an agreement for Maddison to sign a new contract at the King Power Stadium, while Tielemans only has a few months left on his, and so can potentially leave as a free agent next summer, or leave for a cut-price in January.

The new owners in the North East ‘will provide funds’ if needed for Eddie Howe, whether that would be in the winter window or in the summer.

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The Verdict: Exciting

If it is possible to get both in through the door, then the Tynesiders must move soon to fend off any potential competition.

Getting a player of Tielemans’ quality and experience for free would be a real bargain, and even if they settled on signing him in January instead, to get him for less than £20m is still less than half of his market value.

Likewise, Maddison is also a player that can make the difference in the middle of the park, bagging himself three goals and one assist in the Premier League in a struggling Foxes side, while currently ranking as their best performing player in the division (WhoScored).

Nonetheless, signing both would send out a big statement of intent to the rest of the top flight.

Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano reports that Manchester United were offered the chance to sign Napoli forward Hirving Lozano.

The Lowdown: Lozano profiled

Lozano, described as a ‘unique’ player by Luciano Spalletti, has scored 126 goals during his career for both club and country. He is primarily a right-winger who can also play on the left or as a second striker, and has been with Napoli since 2019.

The 27-year-old is sponsored by Nike and is under contract until 2024, and it looks as if he could have been a United player over the summer.

The Latest: Romano’s comments

Talking to CaughtOffside, Romano revealed that he’s been ‘told’ United were offered Lozano’s services but didn’t make an offer, citing a €20m-€25m price tag.

“I’m told Hirving Lozano was offered to Manchester United, nothing else. They never made any bid to Napoli.

“The situation is really quiet, he’s happy at Napoli now; I think his price tag could be around €20m-€25m.”

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The Verdict: Antony flying

Although Lozano has plenty of experience at the highest level for club and country, United eventually bolstered their right-wing ranks with a big-money move for Antony and are starting to reap the rewards.

The Brazilian has already netted three Premier League goals in as many games and appears to have settled in Manchester extremely quickly.

Therefore, not moving for Lozano doesn’t appear to be a disaster at this moment in time, but it will be interesting to see if the club are still monitoring the Mexican heading into the New Year.

Journalist Hannah Perkins has shared a fresh update on the Wolves manager search involving former boss Nuno Espirito Santo.

The Lowdown: Lage sacked…

It’s been nearly two weeks since the Old Gold sacked their former boss Bruno Lage, coming after a series of disappointing Premier League defeats which could leave them in real trouble.

The Molineux outfit currently languish in 18th, having scored the fewest goals of any top flight side with their lack of fire power coming as a major concern.

Wolves have also won just one match this season, a 1-0 victory at home to Southampton at the start of September, as club hierarchy are now tasked with appointing their perfect coach to help turn the tide.

The Latest: Perkins shares big Nuno update…

Sharing news on their former coach Nuno, who has been repeatedly linked with returning to the club, reporter Perkins has a big update for supporters.

The journalist claims he is actually ‘already in Wolverhampton’ for talks.

She explained (via Twitter):

“As per others, Nuno Espirito Santo is indeed in advanced talks to return to Wolves. One source has told me the former boss is already in Wolverhampton to hold further discussions about his return.”

The Verdict: Good news?

Called a ‘great’ manager by Spurs striker Harry Kane, Nuno won the Championship title in his first season at Wolves and could be considered one of their best managers of the last few decades, despite the unceremonious end.

As backed by the BBC, Wolves are indeed in negotiations with their former head coach and he could be the right man to bring stability back to the club.

The 48-year-old knows Wolves inside and out having spent years there before his lacklustre move to Tottenham.

Leeds United have made plenty of high-profile transfers over their illustrious history, many of which were bound to be blunders.

However, trawling back to before their 2004 relegation, there were a clear number of missteps that resulted in their surprise demotion.

Whilst one might be losing key men, another certainly has to be some of their questionable incomings that financially hampered the club.

One such transfer was when David O’Leary decided to fork out £4m in 1999 on Darren Huckerby.

Brought in to solve their striker crisis, he offered little in the way of goals across his season-and-a-half stay in Yorkshire.

Having just scored a respectable nine Premier League goals for Coventry City the season prior to his move, it was thought he might provide an answer to their prayers.

Instead, he would score just six times across 56 appearances for the Whites and would be shipped off no sooner than he had arrived.

The fact they managed to recoup anything for him was sensational, given how awful he was for them.

Regardless, they still had to pay £650k for every goal he scored for the club before his exit.

It is clear that he was not solely disappointing for O’Leary though, as he butted heads with Glenn Roeder during his stint at Norwich City.

He had just produced what he described as a “horrendous” performance, something which Leeds fans would be well used to, to which he received a dressing down far worse than anything he had ever received from a manager before.

To his credit, whilst playing at Elland Road he was competing with the likes of Alan Smith, Mark Viduka and Michael Bridges, who are some of the better strikers that have graced that pitch.

However, when he was handed the chance to be their main man, he floundered.

It marked a shocking piece of business, which surely will have contributed to their need to sell off their key assets.

This would end in relegation, whilst Huckerby actually scored a respectable 31 goals in 82games for Manchester City, only adding further insult to injury.

When Alphonse Areola made his move to West Ham United permanent during the summer, there was perhaps an expectation that the Frenchman would usurp Lukasz Fabianski as the number one in David Moyes’ side.

The Polish shot-stopper is 37 now but, disappointingly for Areola, he shows no signs of slowing down and has been one of the most consistent performers in the Hammers’ side so far this season.

Fabianski’s WhoScored average rating of 6.76 in the Premier League ranks him as the seventh-best performer in West Ham’s side, which is an impressive feat given that he has kept just three clean sheets so far this season.

The former Arsenal man has also done well at preventing goals in the top flight, as the Hammers have been expected to concede 13.14 goals this season but have shipped just 12 so far, which shows that he is over-performing.

Only five other sides in the Premier League are performing better in that aspect, which again emphasises how consistent Fabianski has been, but surely Moyes is thinking about when Areola is ready to make the step up to number one.

The French ‘keeper produced another solid display in the Europa Conference League on Thursday night as the Hammers beat Silkeborg 1-0, which was his second clean sheet in the competition.

Areola would earn a 7.7/10 match rating from SofaScore on Thursday, the best of any player, as he made three saves and completed 81% of his passes, which is a significant improvement on the 63.5% averaged by Fabianski in the Premier League this season – suggesting that the current number two might be better with his feet.

Mark Noble is certainly a big fan of the former Fulham man, as he sang his praises last season after he kept a clean sheet in the Carabao Cup win against Manchester City.

He said: “Alphonse knows Lukasz is number one at the minute, but he’s great around the boys, he doesn’t sulk, he comes in and he’s been fantastic in the Europa League games that he’s played and fantastic in the Carabao Cup games and tonight he showed how good he is and what a great bit of business for us.”

With the summer signing continuing to impress now that he is here on a permanent basis, Moyes must start to consider handing him some minutes in the Premier League, as the 37-year-old Fabianski cannot be relied upon forever.

ECB formally advertises for two new head coaches after Chris Silverwood’s post-Ashes sacking

Matt Roller26-Apr-2022England will revert to a split-coaching structure for the first time in eight years after the ECB formally advertised for two new head coaches: one for their Test team, the other for white-ball cricket.The decision to split the coaching role in two had been widely anticipated since Rob Key’s appointment as managing director of men’s cricket and has now been officially confirmed, with candidates invited to apply for their desired role by May 6 and first-round interviews scheduled for May 9 and 10. England’s next Test is against New Zealand on June 2, and their next limited-overs series starts on June 17 in the Netherlands.Andy Flower (Tests) and Ashley Giles (ODIs and T20Is) previously split the role from 2012 to 2014 and had a difficult relationship, with England’s best players routinely rested from limited-overs series, but the level of expectation for England’s white-ball teams is significantly higher now.Chris Silverwood, who was sacked after the Ashes defeat in Australia, missed multiple limited-overs series due to the demands of the schedule. The fixture list is equally punishing over the next 12 months: there are six separate England tours scheduled for the 2021-22 winter, while the Netherlands ODI series takes place during the gap between the second and third Tests against New Zealand in June, necessitating separate squads.Related

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ESPNcricinfo revealed on Saturday that Graham Ford, who formed a strong working relationship with Key at Kent from 2005 to 2009, has emerged as a contender for the Test job, while Gary Kirsten, Paul Collingwood, Simon Katich and Tom Moody have also been mentioned as potential applicants.Collingwood was in charge of both the T20I and Test tours to the Caribbean earlier this year on an interim basis but both series ended in defeat and his closeness to the players as an assistant coach may count against him following England’s poor run of results.The job specifications suggest that the ideal candidates for the roles should be “accomplished strategists with clear and ambitious plans for how they will develop and build success for English cricket moving forward” who will show that they can “create a winning culture and world-leading teams”.Key will be formally unveiled to the media at Lord’s on Thursday, just over a week after starting his new role, and is expected to present a clearer outline of his vision to revive the England teams after a disappointing winter which saw the Test team go winless across eight games and the T20I side beaten in the semi-finals of the World Cup in the UAE.While working as a pundit for Sky Sports, Key was critical of his predecessor Giles’ decision to make the position of national selector redundant and hand those duties to Silverwood. He is yet to confirm whether he will appoint a single selector, but the advertisement for the coaching roles stipulates that the each new head coach will play “a central role in selecting the team for their respective format alongside a national selection panel”.

Sheffield Wednesday reporter Joe Crann has labelled an injury update on Ben Heneghan as ‘horrible news’.

The Lowdown: Surgery required

Heneghan, who made the move to Hillsborough over the summer, has made 13 appearances for the Owls this season.

The centre-back suffered a serious anterior cruciate ligament injury in last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Lincoln City. It has now been confirmed by manager Darren Moore that the 29-year-old will have surgery and may not play again this season.

The Latest: Crann reacts

Crann took to Twitter on Friday to relay the news regarding Heneghan.

He described the defender possibly missing the rest of the campaign as ‘horrible news’.

The Verdict: Not good

Heneghan has been one of the club’s best-performing players this season behind Barry Bannan, as per WhoScored, so this update is a major blow for the Owls.

Fellow centre-back Akin Famewo has been missing for the majority of the season as well, which leaves Moore with limited centre-back options heading into the New Year.

The Owls may well decide to look into bringing in a new defender during the January window following this update on Heneghan, but hopefully, he will be able to make a full recovery and return before the end of the campaign.

Hansi Flick heaps praise on Barcelona star Lamine Yamal as Valencia fans applauded Spain's Euro 2024 hero during La Liga clash.

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Article continues below

Article continues below

Flick speaks highly of YamalValencia fans applauded youngsterBarcelona beat Valencia 2-1WHAT HAPPENED?

Barcelona kicked off the Flick era on a winning note as they came back from behind to edge out Valencia 2-1 courtesy of a Robert Lewandowski brace on Saturday in their La Liga opener. After starring for Spain in Euro 2024, Yamal again showed his class on the pitch in the season opener as he assisted Lewandowski's equaliser.

AdvertisementGettyTHE BIGGER PICTURE

The 17-year-old's performance mesmerised everyone including the Valencia fans who applauded the youngster despite a defeat in the match. Blaugrana boss Flick also praised the young attacker's performances after the game while revealing he could deploy Yamal in different positions this season.

WHAT HANSI FLICK SAID

Speaking to reporters, the German manager said, "He is a fantastic player. I was not surprised that he was applauded at the Mestalla. He is a great player and everyone likes a player like that. And therefore it is normal to be applauded."

When asked about Raphinha and Yamal's roles in the team this season, Flick added, "They can play in several positions and at the moment it is necessary to have these solutions. We are focused on next week. It will be a tough match but it is good to have three points to go to the next level."

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Getty Images SportWHAT NEXT FOR BARCELONA?

After securing three points in their opening game, the Catalan giants will be back in action on August 24 as they take on Athletic Club in La Liga.

Newcastle United are already being linked with numerous players ahead of the January transfer window, and now a new update has emerged on a potential target.

What’s the latest?

According to Inter Live, the Magpies are willing to double Lautaro Martinez’s salary in order to secure his signature over their competitors.

As per the report, Martinez currently collects a wage of €7m (£6.1m)  and Newcastle would need to compete with both Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, but there is also a chance he could stay at Inter Milan too.

“Spectacular” trio

With Alexander Isak recently signed and Callum Wilson continuing to still offer consistent goals, the addition of yet another prolific forward such as Martinez would undoubtedly form an extremely deadly attacking trio for Eddie Howe’s side.

Indeed, Wilson has scored four goals and delivered one assist in eight appearances this season – with a goal contribution every 129 minutes – while Isak has scored two in his three appearances for Newcastle.

Meanwhile, the Argentine striker is having a fantastic season in Italy, scoring six goals and registering two assists in Serie A, while he has also netted a whopping 108 goals over his career to date.

However, it’s not just his goal contributions that makes him so impressive.

Martinez has created four big chances, as well as making an average of 1.5 key passes, winning 4.4 duels and gaining possession once per game, proving that there is much more to his game than just scoring goals.

The 25-year-old has earned high praise from one of the greatest footballers of all time and his national teammate Lionel Messi, with the Paris Saint-Germain superstar hailing Martinez as “spectacular” in an interview (via talkSPORT):

“He’s spectacular. He has impressive qualities. You could tell he was going to be a great player and he is showing that.”

“He’s very strong, really good one on one, scores a lot of goals and in the area he fights with anyone, holds it up, he can turn, scrap to win it all on his own.”

As such, it is clear to see that the further addition of Martinez would help to form an extremely spectacular attacking trio at St. James’ Park, leading us to believe that Dan Ashworth and his Newcastle recruitment team must do everything they possibly can to get a deal over the line for the Inter sensation.

Celtic continued their sensational Premiership form on Saturday afternoon, with Ange Postecoglou’s side making it six league wins in a row after a comprehensive 4-2 victory over Dundee United at Parkhead.

Indeed, two Sead Hakšabanović strikes either side of Steven Fletcher’s 12th-minute penalty saw the Hoops take a 2-1 lead into the break, before Dylan Levitt’s 87th-minute equaliser appeared to have snatched a point for The Terrors.

However, two late goals from Kyogo Furuhashi and Liel Ababa would go on to seal a well-deserved win for the home side, with the result moving the Bhoys seven points clear of Rangers at the top of the Premiership table.

And, while Hakšabanović’s two goals and overall performance will likely steal the headlines on Sunday morning, it was undoubtedly the display of Matt O’Riley in the middle of the park that provided Celtic with the platform for their win on Saturday.

Indeed, over his 90 minutes on the pitch, the £4.8m-rated midfielder was near-faultless in the heart of Postecoglou’s side, enjoying 118 touches of the ball – with no player from either side having more – completing 86 of his 91 attempted passes – a success rate of 91% – and finding his man with nine of his 11 attempted long balls and two of his seven attempted crosses.

The 21-year-old also took four shots at the Dundee United goal – three of which were on target – made four key passes and created one big chance for his teammates.

Furthermore, the central midfielder also impressed in metrics more typical of his position, making two tackles, one interception and two clearances, as well as winning two ground duels.

These returns saw the Denmark U21 international earn an extremely impressive SofaScore match rating of 8.2 – the third-highest of any player to feature in the fixture – while Glasgow Live’s Ryan Thom also awarded the playmaker a seven in his own player ratings, as well as stating of the midfielder’s display:

“Another industrious display from the midfielder. Can always be trusted to do a job and makes this Celtic side tick.”

As such, with O’Riley himself claiming that his performances in recent weeks will determine whether or not he is called up for Kasper Hjulmand’s 26-man squad for the World Cup this winter, the Dane’s display at Parkhead will certainly have boosted his chances of sealing a seat on the plane to Qatar – as the youngster well and truly ran the show against Dundee United.