All posts by n8rngtd.top

West Ham United fans are eager to sign Danny Ings after it was revealed by ExWHUemployee that the Hammers are interested in the striker.

Ings is out of contract at Southampton at end of next season (Transfermarkt) and the 28-year-old is reportedly reluctant to put pen to paper on a new deal at St. Mary’s Stadium (Dan Sheldon) – he is said to be looking for European football. As it stands, West Ham are fifth in the Premier League table and just two points off the Champions League places (Sky Sports).

According to ExWHUemployee (via the West Ham Way podcast), the Hammers are interested in the forward. Ings has a fantastic track record, having scored 22 goals for the Saints in the top flight last term, while he has seven in 16 matches this time around. Throughout his career, he has 96 goals.

The news was relayed by Twitter account @WHUFC_News, and it seems the club’s supporters want him at the London stadium. They took to the social media platform to share their thoughts.

Let’s see what the fans had to say about the Ings news below

“I’m on my knees”

Credit: @1bbyWHU

“This would be a dream absolutely love Ingsy great ST seems like such a good bloke too”

Credit: @olliebruton

“Throw every cheque book we have at him”

Credit: @NickMarrable

“I would take him in a heartbeat mate? I think he would be a great signing for West Ham.”

Credit: @richpickering4

“What a signing it would be if we can keep him fit”

Credit: @ScoutSoucek

“Would love him at West Ham. Him or Bamford.”

Credit: @mitchelchilds

In other news, ExWHUemployee has revealed another of West Ham’s summer transfer targets.

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has admitted that his squad are carrying several knocks ahead of the London derby with West Ham at Selhurst Park on Tuesday night.

The Palace boss faces late calls on the fitness of Wilfried Zaha and Cheikhou Kouyate ahead of the game with David Moyes’ side. Zaha missed the match with Manchester City while Kouyate, who has made 18 top-flight appearances in the Premier League this season, was also absent from the matchday squad after he picked up a knock against Arsenal.

Hodgson said in his post-match press conference on Sunday evening: “Wilf, unfortunately, picked up a knock in the game against Arsenal.

“The turnaround has been quite quick, and we haven’t been able to turn him around in time.

“Every time Wilf doesn’t play it’s a miss, that’s been well documented. We’d have loved to have him here – and we’d have loved to have had Cheikhou [Kouyate] here – but these things happen in a game of football and we’re fortunate that with a couple of days between the games we haven’t picked up more injuries than the one Wilf picked up.”

The manager will be without Jeffrey Schlupp for the game on Tuesday as he continues his rehabilitation after suffering a hamstring injury against Sheffield United and is expected to be out until at least March.

With all that in mind, here is Football FanCast’s predicted starting XI for this evening, which sees Hodgson make four changes from the humiliating trip to the Etihad.

Hodgson is expected to ring the changes for his side’s crunch Premier League clash with West Ham on Tuesday night. The Eagles changed their back four for the game against Manchester City which backfired almost immediately after John Stones scored two goals either side of the break.

Palace managed to start without Patrick van Aanholt, Nathaniel Clyne or Scott Dann last Sunday, but all three should be back this evening. This means that Gary Cahill, Tyrick Mitchell and Joel Ward will have to drop to the bench, the latter having endured a night to forget at the Etihad.

Eberechi Eze, James McArthur, Luka Milivojevic and Andros Townsend started on Sunday, and we’re backing the quartet to start again today.

We have resisted the temptation to bring back Zaha as we feel this game may come too soon for the Ivory Coast international, meaning Christian Benteke will start for the first time since the draw with Arsenal at the Emirates.

Benteke was rested against Pep Guardiola’s side after he was left as an unused substitute on the bench, but we reckon he will be back today, joining Jordan Ayew up front.

Hodgson will be hoping that Benteke can rediscover the form that saw him score three goals in three games last year, including a goal against West Ham at the London Stadium last time around.

AND in other news, Crystal Palace still want to sign Ismaila Sarr despite Watford demands…

With just hours left in the January transfer window, rumours and speculation continue to fly. Celtic find themselves linked with a number of potential targets to help with damage limitation in what can only be described as a disappointing season.

According to Sheelagh McLaren, Celtic are trying to squeeze in a last-gasp defensive signing today. They are reportedly looking to snap up a centre-back on loan, which would be a smart bit of business from Peter Lawwell and co.

The Hoops have all but handed over their Premiership title to Glasgow rivals Rangers, who top the table with a mammoth 23 point advantage. Celtic’s lacklustre Europa League spell has also put heavy strain on Neil Lennon’s position, which is being called into question. The Scottish giants have found themselves linked to the likes of Rafael Benitez and Frank Lampard as Lennon’s chances of staying at the club look doubtful.

However, if the Irishman was ever going to buy himself some more time at Celtic, it would be today. The Bhoys are in desperate need of some new defensive options and if Lennon can get a deal over the line before the January window shuts, he could stall his impending sacking.

[snack-amp-story url=”https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/read-this-weeks-celtic-transfer-news” title=”Read this week’s Celtic transfer news!”]

Summer loan signing Shane Duffy has been a huge disappointment since moving to Parkhead. Talks have even emerged over his deal being cut short this month. Indeed, should the Brighton man make a shock early exit, Lennon will need recruits.

Christopher Jullien has been victim of ongoing injuries this season, missing out on a total of 29 fixtures due to back and knee problems. The Frenchman also missed three further games due to self-isolation, according to Transfermarkt. This has had a huge impact on Celtic, who have even resorted to fielding youngster Stephen Welsh to fill in during absences.

Should Lennon make a statement by bringing in a new centre-back, he will be showing both the club and the fans that he has intent to right his wrongs from this season. By recruiting personnel Celtic desperately need, the manager could buy himself more time at the club and give himself the best chance of returning to action in 2021/22 and snatching the title back from Rangers with an improved squad.

In other news, Olivier Ntcham loan move could be beginning of the end…

West Brom will be looking to make it back-to-back victories on the road when they head to east London to face West Ham United this evening.

Sam Allardyce recorded his first win as Baggies boss on Saturday afternoon as Albion defeated arch-rivals Wolves 3-2 at Molineux, and now he heads to a former stomping ground with the aim of steering his side to safety in the Premier League.

The Irons are unbeaten in five matches in all competitions, so will pose a tricky test for the 66-year-old and his squad at the London Stadium.

But what sort of lineup could we see tonight? Will Big Sam stick or twist with a winning XI?

Here’s what we are predicting, along with the latest team and injury news…

There could be as many as three changes to the side that conquered the Old Gold at the weekend.

First-choice shot-stopper Sam Johnstone is likely to still be out after testing positive for the virus and while he’s now back in training, this game could be too early for an instant return, so David Button continues between the sticks.

The first alteration could be to the backline as Darnell Furlong comes in for Dara O’Shea at right-back.

He’s the natural option in the role. The young Irishman may have been deployed to counter the threat posed by Pedro Neto but the former QPR man offers more of an attacking option, having contributed to three goals this term.

He’ll join Kieran Gibbs, Kyle Bartley and Semi Ajayi in a traditional back four.

In midfield, Chelsea loanee Conor Gallagher is available after serving a one-match suspension and we think he’ll come straight back in, meaning Romaine Sawyers faces the chop.

The arguable Player of the Season so far will surely partner skipper Jake Livermore with Saturday’s goalscoring hero Matheus Pereira continuing in the no.10 role.

Callum Robinson was deployed as a striker up at Molineux, but we may see him revert back to a natural left-wing position with Robert Snodgrass starting his second-ever Albion game.

It’ll be his first return to the Hammers since leaving them at the start of the month.

As the 25-year-old goes back to the flank, we could see Hal Robson-Kanu in the forward position to start his first match since September. The £30k-per-week ace had been out with a fractured arm until his 21-minute cameo on Saturday.

He’s surely in line to start tonight.

Allardyce will still be without Conor Townsend and Karlan Grant, who are more long-term absentees, whilst Grady Diangana and Matty Phillips have been ruled out too, as per BirminghamLive.

AND in other news, prolific 11-goal marksman could bring shades of Salomon Rondon back to the Hawthorns

Crystal Palace’s progress has been stopped in its tracks by the embarrassing defeat to Liverpool at Selhurst Park earlier this month.

Jurgen Klopp’s side utterly dominated proceedings from start to finish, leaving the Eagles trailing in their way as they surged to the top of the table.

With Leicester City on the horizon, Roy Hodgson faces some tough decisions to avoid a repeat of the 3-0 defeat at the King Power Stadium towards the latter stages of last season.

Hodgson’s side have rarely been so badly humiliated but they were put the sword as the Reds ran riot over their helpless defence.

Vicente Guaita was called into action almost immediately from the get-go but the veteran goalkeeper was largely forced to sit and watch as Liverpool took an astonishing 14 attempts on goal, including eight shots on target, as per SofaScore. The final score finished 7-0 with the 33-year-old failing to register a single save or punch a single shot on target.

However, he can’t be solely to blame for their problems at the back, as Gary Cahill, Nathaniel Clyne and Cheikhou Kouyate were mostly at fault for the poor defensive performance. Clyne particularly caught the eye for all the wrong reasons as he was caught out of possession time and time again by Sadio Mane and Mo Salah, losing 100% of his duels overall.

There’s no denying the fact that Palace need to stop the rot from spreading even further, at least until new summer recruit Nathan Ferguson has recovered from his latest injury setback.

Hopefully cooler heads prevail and Hodgson hands Joel Ward his second consecutive start to face the Foxes, as they arguably need all the experience they can get to shut up shop and plug the gap in their leaky defence. The Eagles have conceded more goals than Burnley, Brighton and Premier League strugglers Sheffield United so far this season which makes for pretty grim reading.

Although he started against Aston Villa, Ward, 31, is an experienced campaigner who knows what it takes to stop the Foxes in their tracks. After all, he has won four and drawn one out of nine games in the top flight against the one-time Premier League champions, via Transfermarkt.

Standing at 6 ft 1 in, he’s certainly a force to be reckoned with, but has made just six starts across all competitions this season so far, and was left as an unused substitute on the bench as Palace were dispatched by Liverpool.

Valued at £2m via Transfermarkt, in six appearances in the Premier League so far, Ward is averaging 1.8 tackles, 1.7 interceptions and a staggering 4.3 clearances per game, via WhoScored.

WhoScored lists some of his strengths as his ability to intercept the ball, win individual battles in the air, and his strong tackling, which shows that he is armed with the tools to deal with the likes of Harvey Barnes and Jamie Vardy, and is more than can be said for Clyne, who has done very little to justify his valuation. Transfermarkt value him at £3.6m.

Granted, Hodgson doesn’t exactly have the best of options, but it’s now up to the Palace boss to put his faith in Ward and unleash him on the right flank as he will have a tough task trying to contain the attacking duo who have scored 14 goals between them in the Premier League at the time of writing.

AND in other news, Steve Parish must look to cash in on Crystal Palace defender James Tomkins in January…

In an exclusive interview with Football FanCast, former Premier League striker Dean Windass has backed Charlie Austin to be handed his first Premier League start for West Brom this evening.

The 31-year-old had fallen out-of-favour under former Baggies boss Slaven Bilic, but the Croatian was sacked earlier this week and quickly replaced by survival veteran Sam ‘the firefighter’ Allardyce.

His first game in charge will be tonight as Albion host arch-rivals Aston Villa at the Hawthorns.

Austin only made the bench twice in West Brom’s opening 11 matches before Bilic called upon him as a substitute in his final two matches in charge.

Windass believes that Big Sam could turn to him in their time of need…

He told FFC:

“Charlie’s a born goalscorer. Any balls in the box, you know where he’ll be.

“He’s coming towards the end of his career as well, but Sam will look at that and say ‘Yeah, I need goals. Yes, I need to stop goals, but I [also] need to start scoring goals,’ so Charlie could go straight in there [vs Villa].

“He knows he will get them a goal, so yeah, that could be a massive plus for Charlie now. A new manager has come in, and he’ll say ‘Go on then, go and prove to me [that you should be starting].

“Charlie’s a proud lad and is very good around the changing room. He’ll have been hurt when not playing.”

Albion paid £4m for Austin during the 2019 summer transfer window, and he finished as their top goalscorer in all competitions on their way to promotion despite only starting 18 times in the Championship.

Bilic landed a key target in Karlan Grant before the domestic deadline, but he’s yet to truly deliver on his £12m price tag having bagged just once in nine starts.

As Windass claims, it could be a wise decision to turn to Austin as the veteran has played 108 times in the Premier League alone, contributing to a total of 44 goals.

Big Sam has been known to play two up-top, so there is also a chance we see both feature this evening.

AND in other news, Exclusive: Sam Allardyce tipped to bring Premier League striker to West Brom in January

Not even the most ardent of Aston Villa fans could ever have imagined the kind of start they have enjoyed to the new Premier League season.

Dean Smith’s side have flown out of the blocks this campaign, and made a complete mockery of the fact they only just survived relegation back to the Championship on the final day of last season.

Demolition jobs of Liverpool and Arsenal have been the icing on the cake for Villa, with the side just six points off fourth and with two games in hand on almost all of the sides that are above them.

The pundit and naysayers will no doubt all be out in force over the coming weeks and months to insist that the Midlands club can’t continue to keep up their form, and that an inevitable slide is on the cards.

And of course for every Leicester or Wolves success stories over the past few years of sides breaking up the Premier League’s big six, there are so many more examples of teams falling away after racing off to a great start.

That’s exactly why Villa’s co-owners of Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens must back Smith to the hilt in the January transfer window, and give them the extra firepower needed to make sure their incredible first half of the season is backed up for the second.

Smith has already admitted that Villa face a challenge in keeping up their momentum, and almost threw down the gauntlet to the club’s hierarchy over making sure he’s given the tools to ensure they do so.

He said: “We’re always planning for the next window but only time will tell if (our squad depth) is strong enough. We believe it’s certainly stronger than last season and in a much better place.

“Our start to the season has proven that already but we’ve got to sustain that. It’s a tough league to play in week in, week out. We feel we’re stronger this season with the additions we’ve made and the experience we’ve got from last season. We have to go and sustain that.”

It would be such an unforgivable disaster if Villa threw away all the hard work they have done by just taking a much more laid-back approach in the January transfer window.

This is the exact moment where they simply cannot rest on their laurels. Sawiris and Edens hold the key to Villa hitting the jackpot this season.

Liverpool suffered a surprise 2-0 defeat to Atalanta in the Champions League on Wednesday night to bring an end to their perfect start to the 2020/21 European campaign.

The Reds had won all three of their opening games in Group D, including a 5-0 win against the Serie A side away from home.

However, Gian Piero Gasperini’s side were clearly out for revenge on Wednesday night and produced a superb display to take all three points, after goals from Josep Ilicic and Robin Gosens.

One man’s performance that will have concerned Jurgen Klopp was that of Neco Williams, with the Welsh international struggling throughout the game.

As per SofaScore, the 19-year-old picked up a 6.5 rating for his display, with only Sadio Mane, Divock Origi and Konstantinos Tsimikas rated lower of the Liverpool players who started the game.

The right-back lost possession a remarkable 27 times during the game, which was the most of any Reds player on the pitch.

Williams has established himself as a trusted member of Klopp’s side in recent seasons, having made 16 appearances (ahead of Wednesday’s game) for the first-team now, in which he has contributed no goals and two assists (per Transfermarkt).

Considering Trent Alexander-Arnold is currently sidelined through injury, Williams is likely to have a lot more game time in the coming weeks, but he will need to improve on this performance if he wants to keep his spot in the starting 11.

The Welshman saw a lot of the ball against the Italian side but was unable to have much impact going forward, as none of his three crosses on the evening found their mark, whilst only two of his 11 attempted long balls found a Liverpool shirt.

54 of Williams’ 70 attempted passes found their target, resulting in a pass accuracy rate of 74%, suggesting that his passing could have been a lot better on the night too.

The right-back wasn’t too bad defensively, however, as he won five out of nine of his ground duels, whilst he also made five interceptions during the 90 minutes.

Alexander-Arnold was full of praise for the academy talent earlier this year, saying:

“Neco is an amazing talent, he is someone who we all look to as being someone who can play for the club for a long amount of time and will have a bright future no matter what.”

“I think he is on the right path, for sure. Mentally, he’s ahead of people his age, he’s getting the right experience in training; playing against the best players in the world can only improve you.” (per Liverpool FC)

However, he did little to repay the England international’s faith in him on Wednesday night and it will perhaps not be a surprise if Klopp opts to start James Milner at right-back in the Reds’ next game, after his impressive performance in the win against Leicester City last weekend.

Everton loanee Moise Kean suffered a step back in his start to life with Paris Saint-Germain against FC Nantes on Saturday, with Thomas Tuchel forced to haul the Italian off at half-time.

Kean joined PSG on a one-year loan this summer that features an agreed €20million (£18m) option to buy at the end of the season, after struggling to establish himself at Goodison Park following Carlo Ancelotti’s appointment.

The striker started just five of his 21 Everton appearances under Ancelotti, with Kean’s compatriot often reluctant to favour the 20-year-old signed from Juventus by Marco Silva in 2019 for £25.1m rising to £27.5m.

Tuchel has been vastly more forthcoming with minutes since Kean’s move to the Parc des Princes, with the German coach starting the Everton outcast in four of his five outings to date.

Kean opened his account for PSG with a brace at home to Dijon FCO last week before netting a double in the Champions League Group Stage away to Istanbul Basaksehir FK, and would have hoped to continue his record at Nantes on Saturday.

Unfortunately, that was not to be the case, as Kean endured a step back in form just a day after Tuchel had called for the eight-cap international to deliver consistent performances, with his up and down displays appearing to be a major flaw in his game.

“The best thing to integrate at a new club and a group for a striker is to score,” Tuchel told PSG’s official website. “The most important thing is that he continues to show the same desire and to put the same intensity on the pitch.

“He has a great physical capacity, [but] he must absolutely continue like this. It’s weighing on the defences, and that’s what we need.”

Tuchel will need Kean to rediscover his form ever more so now, having lost star forward Neymar until after the November internationals to an adductor injury sustained in the Champions League.

Kean endured a torrid evening away to Nantes on Saturday before Tuchel ultimately sought changes at the break, with the 20-year-old failing to register a single shot – on target or otherwise – failed with 50% of his dribbles, misplaced 43% of his mere seven passes, took just 13 touches, lost three of his five duels, turned over possession six times and was caught offside once, per SofaScore.

Tuchel opted to replace Kean with 18-year-old prospect Kays Ruiz-Atil in the hopes it would change PSG’s fortunes at the Stade de la Beaujoire, and while the teenager did not score, the Ligue 1 behemoths eventually secured a 3-0 win thanks to goals from Ander Herrera, Kylian Mbappe and Pablo Sarabia.

AND in other news, an “intelligent” maestro may have played his final game for Everton already after his recent comments.

If we’re being completely honest, we can’t remember the last time that Crystal Palace had one of the best players in the world on their books.

Whilst some will argue that Wilfried Zaha falls into that category, Ian Wright was probably the last truly world-class star who plied his trade at Selhurst Park, before the club’s greatest ever striker ended up signing for local rivals Arsenal in 1991.

However, things may have panned out very differently indeed if they had played their cards right a few years ago.

According to Sky Sports, Palace missed the opportunity to sign Ferland Mendy from Le Havre in the summer of 2017, as it seems the Eagles weren’t willing to pay the same price as Lyon.

The French Ligue 1 side spent a mere €5m plus €1m in additional add-ons to prise him away from Le Havre (£5m), which is hardly a colossal amount, especially when you consider the fact that Palace signed Mamadou Sakho from Liverpool for £26m in the same year.

Obviously, it’s easy to look back with the benefit of hindsight, but if the Eagles had pulled the trigger, they could have had a true world-class talent on their hands.

Mendy is arguably one of the best full-backs in the world at the moment, as he has already won the La Liga title and the Spanish Super Cup with Real Madrid, having made 25 appearances in the Spanish top flight last season, via Transfermarkt.

Once hailed as a very “talented” beast by club legend Zinedine Zidane, the 25-year-old has even started to usurp legendary Brazilian left-back Marcelo – the French international has played more league games than his teammate so far this season.

Mendy averaged 1.3 tackles, 1 clearance and 2 dribbles per league game last term, whilst he scored one goal and supplied two assists, via WhoScored. By comparison, even Patrick van Aanholt only managed fewer than one dribble per game in the Premier League last season, as per WhoScored.

With Tyrick Mitchell working his way back to fitness, and van Aanholt only recently returned from a spell on the sidelines, it looks like Palace missed an opportunity to land an absolute bargain back then who surely would’ve been in contention to start right now.

Steve Parish wasn’t prepared to part ways with such a small amount in 2017, which now looks like it was a terrible mistake, as he’s now valued at £36m via Transfermarkt, and Palace could have signed him for £5m. Even in the unlikely event a transfer hadn’t worked out as well as planned, they could’ve still sold him for a greater profit. It almost doesn’t bear thinking about.

AND in other news, Crystal Palace dynamo Eberechi Eze was Hodgson’s most vital cog against Leeds United…