Rangers forward Alfredo Morelos has signed with a new agency, as reported by The Daily Record’s Scott Burns.
The lowdown
The Colombian joined Rangers from Finnish outfit HJK Helsinki in 2017 for a fee of just under £1.1m. He penned a contract extension in March 2019, but that £33,000-per-week deal is due to expire in less than 18 months’ time.
According to Transfermarkt, the £11.7m-rated Morelos is Rangers’ second-most valuable asset behind £12.6m-rated Ryan Kent.
The latest
As per The Daily Record, Morelos has parted company with World In Motion, the agency which negotiated his move to Rangers.
He is now represented by Footfeel and Echo Sports, whose biggest clients are Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez and Paris Saint-Germain’s Achraf Hakimi.
They will be ‘rolling out the red carpet’ for Morelos and trying to generate buzz through social media, while Burns wrote that the news is a ‘concern’ for Rangers ahead of the expiry of the 25-year-old’s contract.
The agency have the required connections to secure a dream move for the Colombian to one of Europe’s top five leagues.
The verdict
Morelos has been open about his desire to take what he feels is the next step in his career. Back in September, he said that he hoped ‘the opportunity to leave will be given’ after Rangers failed to reach an agreement with interested parties (via The Daily Record).
It could hurt to lose the 25-year-old, who is Rangers’ top scorer this season with 19 goals in all competitions and who brings a ‘brave’ mentality, according to Borussia Dortmund boss Marco Rose.
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In the short-term, Giovanni van Bronckhorst will just hope that this latest twist doesn’t prove to be a distraction as he prepares his players for the second leg of their Europa League round of 16 tie against Red Star Belgrade on Thursday night.
In other news, this Rangers man is attracting Championship interest.
It’s a simple question and one had I asked at the very beginning of the season, would have seemed like a no-brainer in favour of the Mexican.
Last season Chicharito was arguably the biggest positive in United’s entire campaign bursting onto the scene with a series of memorable and important goals that quickly established him as one of the world’s most lethal young strikers.
While Chicharito was bagging goals with aplomb for United, Danny Welbeck was busy impressing, albeit to a lesser degree at Sunderland. The Mancunian may not have set the scoring charts alight but he did bag some important strikes and proved he could hack it in the Premier League, a lesson United took heed of.
This season, Welbeck has stepped it up a gear, scoring freely and linking up with the likes of Cleverley, Anderson, Nani and Rooney to give United the sort of football that’s often been missing these past couple of seasons. Meanwhile Chicharito, recovering from a head injury picked up in pre-season, hasn’t been able to enjoy a real run in the side yet, although he’s still managed to bag a brace of goals at the Reebok.
Welbeck’s actually played one less league game than Chicharito- mainly due to a hamstring picked up against Arsenal, but has shone since his return bagging two goals against Basel and a late nerve calmer in the last league game versus Norwich.
The question then is who should start against Liverpool at Anfield a week on Saturday? Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez , who took the Premier League by storm last season or Danny Welbeck, who’s done something not too dissimilar this season?
Personally, I think you should start the form player in a game that should United win, would give us the boost to make our start to the season almost unreal. Welbeck couldn’t have done much better this season and while Chicharito is definitely a big game player, I feel he’d be more useful coming off the bench should he be needed than Welbeck would.
It’s a great problem for Sir Alex to have to wrestle and either way there’s no real wrong answer, tell us which young striker you’d start against Liverpool?
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Liverpool attacker Luis Suarez has stated that it will be very difficult for his side to win the Premier League title due to the strength of Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City.
The Uruguay international has had a scintillating time at Anfield since moving from Ajax in January, but despite his form, and a 2-0 win over Everton at the weekend, he feels Liverpool cannot finish top of the pile.
“We have no limit and want to stay in the top four. But winning the Premier League is now very difficult. The main reason why it is so difficult is because the two Manchesters and Chelsea are unreachable. But we can win the cups,” he told Mirror Football.
Suarez scored one of the goals in the Merseyside derby victory on Saturday, and is quickly becoming a fans favourite, similar to others who have wore the number seven jersey for The Reds.
“I didn’t know the history of my No.7 shirt at Liverpool. I picked it because it was one of the few numbers available.
“Now that I know the story I am proud to wear the ‘7’ and I try not to feel the burden of its heritage,” he concluded.
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Liverpool’s pedigree will be put to the test in their next game, as they host champions Manchester United at Anfield after the international break.
AC Milan and Rubin Kazan are set to battle Tottenham for the signature of Sevilla hit man Alvaro Negredo in January talkSPORT understands.
The Spaniard has had storming start to the season at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán scoring three goals in five games with his form alerting Milan head coach Massimiliano Allegri who is in the market for a new striker.
According to reports coming from Italy the Rossoneri are prepared to submit a £12 million bid for the 26-year-old when the transfer window reopens in January.
That could thwart Spurs boss Harry Redknapp’s plans to sign the in-form frontman after failing to secure his services in the summer eventually loaning Emmanuel Adebayor from Manchester City.
Redknapp is still keen to bolster his frontline with Adebayor unlikely to remain at White Hart Lane beyond the length of his temporary deal and will move for the former Real Madrid man in the summer.
Sevilla aren’t keen on selling Negredo during the current campaign which will give Spurs hope of signing him at the end of the season and thwart Milan’s plans to capture him in the new year.
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Striker Nicklas Bendtner is just one of many Arsenal names linked with an exit from the Emirates this summer. Bendtner has joined a number of Arsenal’s stars in expressing his desire to leave the club but just why has the far from prolific frontman been attracting so much attention in England when he has failed to live up to the hype at Arsenal?
The 23-year-old Danish international is clearly a gifted talent with the statue and pedigree that should have meant he could make an impact in the Premier League but frustratingly for Arsenal fans they have failed to see the best of Bendtner since he joined the club back in 2004. Bendtner endured another frustrating season last year when he was limited to 17 league starts, only scoring twice in the Premier League.
Despite his failure to live up to expectations Bendtner has an ego that often greatly surpasses his achievements on the pitch. Claiming you are one of the best strikers in the world is a perplexing claim from a striker who has often been limited to a peripheral role in the team under Arsene Wenger.
The obvious need for change at Arsenal has meant Bendtner has been pinpointed as one of the squad players to depart this summer. Whilst Bendtner would obviously attract attention from other clubs, reports of a three-way battle for a striker that has never set the league alight is surprising. Stoke, Sunderland and Newcastle are reportedly interested in the striker whilst there has been reported interest from a number of European teams. But what would the English clubs gain by taking a risk on Bendtner?
A fee of around £8million would represent not a huge spend in today’s transfer market whilst despite his failings, Bendtner would arrive with plenty of Premier League and European experience whilst only still being 23 years old. In defence of the Dane you could also claim that his progress at Arsenal has been hampered by Wenger’s desire to put him out wide rather than in the heart of the attack where arguably Bendtner would be a greater goal threat.
But in search of a regular goalscorer I think the likes of Stoke, Sunderland and Newcastle would be better to look elsewhere. Bendtner has spent enough time at Arsenal to make his mark whilst his attitude means he rarely enamors himself to fans in this country. European clubs Sporting Lisbon and Borussia Dortmund have also been linked with the striker so Bendtner may soon be leaving England for a fresh start in Europe.
Despite looking for a move, another option for Bendtner staying in England is remaining with the Gunners and fighting for his place in the attack. Wenger has responded to speculation about his striker’s future by insisting he could still stay but Arsenal may be better off letting Bendtner go. In what has been a turbulent summer for the Gunners, they desperately need team players. Bringing in replacements for stars like Fabregas and possibly Nasri would also require trimming the squad of unwanted squad players, a list that should include Bendtner.
Bendtner’s future in England remains uncertain and whilst talks of tugs of war between a number of Premier League clubs for a far from prolific striker are surprising, Bendtner may still get the chance to get prove he is a good (but probably not the best) Premier League striker.
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Do you think Premier League teams should try and sign Bendtner? If you want to read more of my bite size, 140 character views and thoughts follow me on Twitter @jennyk5
It’s almost a year since Chelsea broke the British transfer record to bring Fernando Torres to Stamford Bridge and by way of an anniversary present the forlorn Spaniard has recently repaid the Blues backing by breaking a longstanding goalscoring record.
Unfortunately though, another blank at the weekend against Norwich means Torres’s haul of no goals in his last fourteen club appearances represents his worst trot as a professional and even aside from the paucity of goals, the former Liverpool hitman remains a pale imitation of the player that once terrorised Europe.
Statistics have long stopped being kind to Torres, so much so in fact that Chelsea fans have taken to consoling themselves with the number of assists their number nine has conjured up as a faux-replacement for his lack of finishing things off.
Without the presence of Didier Drogba looming over his shoulder Torres has been granted a sustained opportunity to find his feet, but even against the fertile opposition of Portsmouth, Sunderland and most recently a Norwich side previously without a clean sheet all season, the ailing assassin has again failed to register.
The Canaries were roundly lauded by their faithful and the press for earning a rare shut out but in truth – one fine John Ruddy save from Torres apart – Paul Lambert’s men had to do nothing more than defend studiously and with concentration to keep an insipid Chelsea at bay.
Quite whether Torres is the problem or the service to him is the route of the strikers travails really is chicken or the egg and to be brutally honest both are contributory factors merging to cause a conundrum with no obvious solution.
There is no doubt that a fit and firing Torres has the capability to alleviate some of the pressure on Andre Villas-Boas but with every next heavy touch, sluggish slalom and convictionless strike both parties struggles become more exasperated.
With Drogba away at the African Nations for the next couple of weeks, Torres theoretically has another window of opportunity to try to begin to right some of the year long wrongs, but with his performances in part impeding Chelsea’s form, is it time for AVB to swing the axe.
Drogba’s absence should not mean an automatic inclusion for Torres, especially given that the opportunity so far has hardly been seized upon. Instead, would the mini-me Drogba-esque Romelu Lukaku be a better bet to try to imitate the big Ivorian’s muscular presence?
Lukaku has barely figured since being procured for the princely sum of £18m from Anderlecht in the summer despite his prolific form in the Jupiler League. The Belgian international has averaged a goal every other game since making his debut for Anderlecht shortly after his 16th birthday yet this goalscoring prowess has been given few opportunities to flourish at the Bridge aside from a trio of Carling Cup starts and a few substitute appearances in the league.
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For anybody that has watched Lukaku at close quarters, the word ‘raw’ would be a suitable adjective to describe the hulking teenager. Indeed, shortly after signing him, Villas-Boas stressed that the purchase centred around the players potential rather than having an instant impact but perhaps inadvertently the 18-year-old’s unknown quantity and quality could stir things up for the Blues.
Lukaku is far from the finished article. His touch lacks finesse and his leggy style is uneasy on the eye but armed with pace, power and a desire to run the channels, Lukaku could in some way replicate unsettling style that Drogba has long since brought to the Chelsea ranks.
His phenomenal goalscoring record albeit in Belgium must also be taken into consideration. Plenty of players have come to these shores with impressive returns in the lowlands but few have flourished. However, Lukaku’s goals at such a tender age suggest a natural ability to find the back of the net and at the sake of losing all credibility, if you chose to peruse youtube to see his collection of strikes with Anderlecht, Lukaku does seem to possess an innate penalty box prowess and coolness in-front of goal which few can be taught.
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Given that Fernando Torres is approaching a half-century of Chelsea appearances but has notched in just four of those games, Lukaku would do well to do worse. Whether Villas-Boas opts to throw in the unproven and largely untried talent ahead of his expensive but misfiring star-turn depends on his motives for the remainder of the season.
All at Chelsea are clutching to the hope that a few goals will bring the old Fernando back again but with that notion drifting further away with every passing chance, the best way for them to win games immediately may lie with going with the lad with little to lose.
Ok, so I am going to contradict myself ever so slightly here. Last week I made the point that Tony Pulis’ next challenge is to alter the style that Stoke play football, add a central midfielder who can pass the ball, a couple of genuine full-backs who can push on and a goal scoring striker. These would all definitely improve the team, and make Stoke a far harder opponent for the sides who come to the Britannia aiming to settle for a point, Stoke don’t like being the team who take the initiative and have this season found themselves losing at home to the likes of QPR, West Brom and Sunderland, while drawing with Wigan and Aston Villa.
But against the better sides, I am all for the robust style we employ every week. Quite simply it works. This season Stoke have managed a 0-0 at home to Chelsea, 1-1 with Manchester United, 1-1 with Manchester City, and have beaten Liverpool 1-0 and Tottenham 2-1. Arsenal is still to come, and the Potters always turn up against Arsenal.
After deservedly earning a point against Man City on Saturday Roberto Mancini lambasted Stoke’s style of play, and even sent assistant David Platt to do the post-match interview in case Roberto said things that might see him end up in trouble. The way I saw it Stoke played hard but fair, and with the night rolling in, in front of a packed Britannia Stadium which had as ever an electric atmosphere, it was a truly exciting match. The likes of Man City and Arsenal are fresh meat entering the den in an atmosphere like that, it creates a similar atmosphere you would have thought to the Rome Coliseum.
I can’t see how the game wasn’t exciting for the neutral, of who most would have been supporting Stoke. We saw one of the greatest goals you are ever likely to see; the equaliser wasn’t too bad either. We had pantomime villains in Tevez and Ballotelli, Crouch the hero, Huth and Shawcross the courageous soldiers who survived many periods of intense City pressure.
And Stoke played exciting football; it is a huge contributor to the electric atmosphere that surfaces most weeks in the Britannia, especially against the bigger teams. Is David Silva’s playing a 10 yard clever pass, actually more exciting than Robert Huth making a thundering last gasp slide tackle. Silva may be more effective, but Huth’s gets you on your feet. It stirs the emotions, and that in turn spurs the team forward. I would argue that every team should alter their style against the big teams, Everton play at 100mph and look at their success against Chelsea, Man City and Tottenham in recent weeks.
Some of the purists will think I am talking absolute rubbish (especially Arsenal fans), how can we enjoy this football, how can we bare to cheer when a crunching tackle, but the fact is that Stoke don’t care, we enjoy it and you hate it. This makes us enjoy it even more.
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Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has admitted that his side are building a winning mentality, and admitted that they want to be as good as European champions Barcelona.
Roberto Mancini’s men have been in impressive form, recording seven straight victories in all competitions by beating Villarreal 3-0 on Wednesday night, and Toure has compared the Etihad Stadium outfit to his former employers.
“That’s what we want – to have the same mentality as Barcelona. And everybody is getting that winning mentality,” he told Mirror Football.
“The mentality we have in the squad is fantastic and if you want to win things, you need that.
“We had it at Barcelona and as players you need to be able to work, concentrate for 90 minutes in each game and then recover quickly to play again in three days.
“Every game we go out to play, we have to put pressure on ourselves to be winners. With the team we have now, everybody has that and everyone is improving.
“The team is evolving. Everyone enjoys themselves on the pitch and if we continue like this, it will be a fantastic year for us,” he concluded.
City hold a five point lead at the top of the Premier League, and will hope to keep this gap by maintaining their winning form against QPR at Loftus Road on Saturday.
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With a third of the Premier League season now gone by, the table is starting to find its level and supporters are starting to get a better understanding of where their respective clubs are at this season and the challenge that faces them in the coming months. Once again the Premier League has been broken up into three tiers, with each team facing their own private battle.
Unlike previous years there has certainly been some stability on the managerial front with only Steve Bruce succumbing to the bullet so far, as clubs look to show patience with their managers to turn around their current plights. The managers may not be so patient with players at their disposal and may look to make significant changes in the January transfer window.
The January transfer window is loved and loathed in equal measures, with many managers and supporters alike welcoming the opportunity to freshen things up, while others see it as a source of distraction. History shows it is a renowned place for panic buying, as last January certainly proved, but there have been notable successes in the past that shows it can be a significant period to turn around a club’s fortunes. I feel the African Cup of Nations and the unprecedented amount of long term injuries we have seen will force many club’s hands and subsequently we can expect to see another expensive month for many Premier League chairman.
So how do you feel about Newcastle’s fortunes so far this season and would you look to see changes made in January? Who would you like to see brought in and ultimately who would you like to see moved on in the up and coming window?
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Forget all the Wesley Sniejder/Luka Modric/Samir Nasri rumours and transfer sagas, they’ve merely distracted from the real problem at the heart of the United side: the lack of a tough midfield enforcer.
Anyone who watched Barcelona run riot against us in the centre of the park for the second time in three seasons will know that buying another ‘creative’ type isn’t gonna fix the dilemma which led to a second successive Champions League final defeat. What United need is someone to “get hold of the ball and give it to a red shirt” as Roy Keane wrote when speaking about the instructions Brian Clough gave him at Nottingham Forest.
So with that in mind who are the players Sir Alex should be looking at? Well here’s five men who I feel could be ideal for breaking down the opposition and adding a bit of steel to United’s silk in central midfield.
1. Lassana Diarra .
Real Madrid’s French international is one of the more underrated players in Spain -not least of all by Jose Mourinho who at times doesn’t seem to rate him all that highly. Diarra knows the Premier League having played for Arsenal, Chelsea and Portsmouth and obviously has European experience. The only problem could be his on/off relationship with Mourinho who could either give him away for nothing, or refuse to sell him altogether, depending on what day you ask the Special One about ‘Lass’ such is the fickle nature of their relationship.
2. Daniel De Rossi .
Yes I know he isn’t a DM as such and has even been touted as a possible successor to Paul Scholes such is his attacking play, but the sheer box to box capabilty of De Rossi means that if Fergie did take a chance then there’s no reason he couldn’t give United the edge we’re lacking in the centre of the park.
At aged 28 he’s coming into his best years although it may still take a large transfer fee to wrestle him from Roma where he’s something of a fan’s favourite having spent his entire career there.
If he were available I’d love to see him at Old Trafford but the likelihood is he may be unobtainable regardless of the money we offered.
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3. Scott Parker
Don’t laugh, just ask yourself the simple question ‘this season could he do a job for United?’ Personally I think he could, after all he’s got Premier League experience, is pretty fearless, can tackle, runs his heart out and would no doubt love the chance to play alongside the likes of Nani and Wayne Rooney, rather than Carlton Cole and Mark Noble.
Parker may be 30 but there’s no reason why he couldn’t do an enforcer type job for United, for at least one season or even two while the likes of Ryan Tunnicliffe and Paul Pogba develop.
4. Mathieu Flamini
Although tempting Milan to part with one of their most influential players last season may be difficult, if there was a price they were willing to sell him for then I’d say go for it. Flamini has Premier League experience from his time at Arsenal, is at the age of 27 nearing his prime and has undoubted talent.
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One could argue that Arsenal have never looked the same since he left and if he were in United’s side then I feel he could add that bit of defensive class that’s missing from our midfield men.
5. Owen Hargreaves.
Yes I realised we’ve just released him but hear me out. If Hargreaves goes to West Brom -or anywhere else -on a pay as you play deal and excels then is it such a bad idea to get him back for the remainder of the season?
We know what he can do when fit and if he proved his fitness then he could be the player he was for us in 2008 when incidentally we happened to win the double beating Barcelona en route to the final.
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