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Danny Drinkwater has broken his silence over his unsuccessful move to Chelsea. 

The England international moved to Stamford Bridge from Leicester in 2017 for a fee of £35m. Since his debut, he has played just 23 matches across all competitions but his last appearance in blue was back in 2018 (via Transfermarkt).

Drinkwater has certainly become a forgotten member of the west London club and he recently shed light on his Chelsea struggles.

“Look, I know my Chelsea move hasn’t worked out how anybody would have wanted and I’ve made mistakes, but it’s not as simple as me just not playing football or picking up a wage,” the 30-year-old told The Telegraph.

“Money doesn’t solve anything. The pay cheque doesn’t really help at all, you don’t even think about money.”

In the current Chelsea roster, Drinkwater is one of the club’s highest earners. He is currently on a wage of £100,000 per week, which is considerably more than the likes of Mason Mount and Cesar Azpilicueta (via Spotrac).

With Mount establishing himself as one of Chelsea’s most talented midfielders, along with new signing Kai Havertz, the team has well and truly moved on without Drinkwater.

There has been no recent talks of any move away from Stamford Bridge, but it’s highly unlikely that Frank Lampard will decide to give the Blues castaway a chance in his team.

Do you think Danny Drinkwater should be given another chance at Chelsea? Have your say in the comments below…

Chelsea have been linked with a surprise move for Manchester City’s John Stones this summer.

According to Football Insider, the Blues are on the hunt for a new centre-back and the England international has appeared on the radar.

Despite their blistering attack, Chelsea have leaked goals throughout this Premier League season, almost causing them to miss out on a Champions League spot. Kepa Arrizabalaga has shouldered most of the blame, but the Blues seem to want to bolster their defensive options across almost all positions.

Lampard has been unable to settle on his ideal centre-half partnership, with Kurt Zouma, Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen almost constantly being changed throughout this term.

Stones has gathered dust towards the back end of this season after falling drastically down Man City’s pecking order. His career could be salvaged though, if Chelsea decide to take their interest in his services up a notch.

Lampard enjoys working with English talent and has done well to develop the likes of Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham and Reece James. Adding another England international to the mix could be another exciting project for the 42-year-old to take on.

Stones has made just 16 Premier League appearances this season and 24 across all competitions. Pep Guardiola left the 26-year-old out of the senior squad 13 times in the league without any explanation (via Transfermarkt). After City’s second place finish, they will want to return to action next campaign and reclaim their crown, so Stones could slip even further out of mind.

A move to Chelsea could benefit both parties, with the Englishman desperate for game time, he will want to prove himself in front of a ruthless manager like Lampard. Chelsea are in need of a fixer-upper in defence and a man hungry for minutes and the urge to impress could be the right fit.

City signed Stones from Everton in 2016 for a fee of £47.5million, a world record fee at the time (via BBC Sport). However, given the current financial climate, the Citizens may accept a lower amount, perhaps closer to his Transfermarkt value of £32.4m.

Would you like to see Chelsea sign John Stones this summer? Join the discussion in the comments below!

Football.London reporter Alasdair Gold has dropped a major transfer claim this week as Tottenham Hotspur gear up for a busy summer of activity.

What’s the word?

According to the Spurs journalist, the north London outfit have Norwich City midfielder Todd Cantwell on their radar following the Canaries’ relegation from the Premier League.

It’s also believed that Jose Mourinho could test the water with the Championship newcomers with young right-back Max Aarons also a player that the Portuguese manager admirers.

What sort of fee the English talent would command very much remains to be seen – Transfermarkt value Cantwell at £18m whilst the Daily Star have mooted £10m amid interest from Sheffield United.

Eriksen successor

Spurs have plenty of positions that are in need of revamping but Mourinho still hasn’t found a true number ten akin to Christian Eriksen at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

He’s often gone to Giovani Lo Celso, who seemingly is better suited to a box-to-box role, and Dele Alli, who has been in and out of the side since the 57-year-old’s appointment in November.

Cantwell can be the man to fill that void, especially as he’s been dubbed the next Alli.

And it’s easy to see why.

Per WhoScored, the 22-year-old has provided six goals and two assists whilst averaging 1.3 dribbles, 1.1 shots and 0.9 key passes per game for a side rock-bottom in the PL. Imagine what he could do with the likes of Heung-min Son, Steven Bergwijn and Harry Kane around him.

In a similar vein to Spurs’ Englishman, Cantwell is often the man to provide late bursts into the box – another trait that was akin to Eriksen, who bagged ten goals in his final full season in north London.

The promising attacking midfielder has regularly received raving reviews, ranging from being the “most gifted” in Norwich’s system to having “god-given” abilities.

At just £10m, it presents extremely low-risk, so Daniel Levy would be foolish not to make the most of another’s misfortune here. Cantwell would be a most welcome addition in north London.

AND in other news, Spurs can land £10m bargain in reported striker transfer target…

Speaking on Sky Sports, Jamie O’Hara has slammed Tottenham’s players over their lack of action amidst the controversy surrounding the club.

What did he say?

It’s fair to say it’s not been the greatest of weeks for Spurs. The north Londoners came under heavy fire for their decision to furlough some of the club’s non-playing staff, and whilst O’Hara labelled it as “stupid”, he did take aim at the players themselves too.

He said: “I’m disappointed in the players. They’re the money-earners there. Come on now, if you’re a big player at Tottenham you look after your own and for me, it’s the first and foremost thing you should be doing in this situation, so I’m surprised.

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“Maybe Daniel Levy is put in a bit of a situation where he’s waiting for the players to take pay cuts, so he’s got to do something and try to save money as he’s a businessman. If I was there I’d be asking that question and hopefully some of them are, like Harry Kane and Dele Alli. They’re big players at the club and earn a lot of money – they should be looking after the staff.

“Tottenham is not just about the players, it’s about everyone at that football club – the financial team, the corporate side, the marketing, the stewards, the chefs – everything about what makes the club great is all the people that work there, so the players should be the first people to make sure they’re looked after.”

Responsibility

Levy of course will have to take the brunt of the blame that has accompanied his decision, but the players themselves as O’Hara suggests, should be trying to fight the corner of the club’s staff.

With the increasingly ridiculous amounts of money being pumped into football, and the astronomical wages players earn nowadays, the entire profession is just completely out of touch with normalcy.

Situations like these simply reinforce the divide, and it’s why Spurs’ players can send a major statement by publicly voicing their frustrations and taking a strong stance on the matter.

Meanwhile, Alasdair Gold has provided an update on Spurs’ interest in this Premier League starlet.

Former West Ham United striker Carlton Cole has shed some light on his relationship with the club’s fans, in an exclusive interview with Football FanCast.

What did he say?

Cole spent nine years at West Ham between 2006 and 2015, managing 68 goals in 293 appearances in all competitions.

During that time he built quite a relationship with the fans and he remains a supporter himself to this day.

Speaking exclusively to Football FanCast, he said the relationship was at its best during the club’s 2011/12 promotion campaign.

Cole said: “The fans knew I had taken a 50% pay cut just to play that season [2011/12 Championship season] and I knew that if I’d stayed and gave my all they’d respect me for that.

“I always gave my all, I always tried my very best. I wasn’t the captain but I tried to be a captain in my own way, I tried to leave everything on the field and even played through injury. That’s when I think the fans realised I was with them through thick and thin.

“I realised as well, as long as you give your all the pitch for the club, because that’s what any fan would do, then they’ll take you in as one of theirs. It’s all they ask.

“No matter what any footballer says, they always want a home. I’d left West London with Chelsea, that was my main home, but when I came to West Ham I had it good. I put in the years there as well, so I didn’t want the fans to think I was only there for the money – I’ve got too much pride to do that.

“The West Ham fans soon realised I was one of them, I had a good rapport with them. I always tried to speak to them, sign autographs, I did a lot in the community with the locals. I’m one of the fans now and I don’t think that’s ever going to change because I’m like part of the furniture!”

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Just a few days after he suffered the wrath of Sheffield Wednesday fans for his performance against Birmingham, Steven Fletcher well and truly silenced the doubters with an important brace on Saturday afternoon.

The Scotland international opened the scoring against Charlton in their Championship clash, before scoring a penalty in the 80th minute to restore the Owls’ lead after an equaliser from Macauley Bonne.

Atdhe Nuhiu wrapped up the points with a third, but the man on everybody’s lips was undoubtedly Fletcher. As per Sofascore, his 8.7 match rating was the highest of any player on the pitch, whilst he also showed he is more than just a goal-scorer with two key passes too.

And after seeing his fine display, Wednesday fans flooded to Twitter to voice their thoughts about the striker.

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Many supporters hailed the veteran for his goal-scoring efforts, with one fan in particular labelling his first goal as “pure class”.

Check out some of the reaction of Sheffield Wednesday fans below:

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Liverpool fans have been clashing with a number of England fans on Twitter as Three Lions supporters ripped into Trent Alexander-Arnold after his performance against Kosovo.

Fans of the national team didn’t hold back in their criticism of the right-back as they slammed him for his underwhelming showing against the eastern European outfit.

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Below is a selection of tweets about Alexander-Arnold’s performance on Sunday evening.

Understandably, Liverpool supporters didn’t take too kindly to seeing their young star criticised in this way on Twitter.

The Anfield faithful banded together to jump to the defence of the 21-year-old as they fired back claiming that their man is the best right-back in the world.

It was quite endearing to see Reds fans defending their man.

Even though his performance against Kosovo wasn’t his best, it didn’t warrant such a fiery response from England fans.

Here’s what the Anfield faithful have been saying on social media…

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

As confirmed on the club’s official website, Edwin van der Sar has penned a new long-term deal to stay at Ajax.

What’s the word?

Reports in recent weeks and months had linked the Dutchman with a possible move to Manchester United to take up a key role amongst the backroom staff, with a newly-formed director of football role being mooted.

The former goalkeeper then admitted he would be keen on taking up a position at his former side where he won four Premier League titles. However, Ajax have now confirmed that their CEO has signed a contract extension at the club, and thereby ending any speculation he could potentially jump ship to Old Trafford in the near future.

Speaking after the announcement, he said (as quoted by The Manchester Evening News): “Our common goal is to join the European top with Ajax. That is ambitious and I love that. Together with the rest of the management team I am happy to continue to get that together as a whole. We are well on the way, but we are not there yet.”

Another Woodward mistake

When rumours were abound that United were keen on appointing someone to a very high-profile position behind the scenes, either as a sporting or technical director, names like Rio Ferdinand and Darren Fletcher were thrown about. Now, whilst the duo were fine players for the Red Devils in their own rights, they have no experience whatsoever when it comes to the actual job description.

Van der Sar on the other hand has forged a burgeoning reputation at Ajax as the Dutch side’s CEO, and their run to the Champions League semi-finals last season certainly provides evidence of the kind of success he has enjoyed there. That level of actual job experience, and his affinity with the Old Trafford faithful from his playing days, would have made him the ideal candidate for Ed Woodward to have appointed.

Instead, United’s executive vice-chairman has since insisted their current approach of working, particularly when it comes to recruitment, is the right one. Woodward should have convinced Van der Sar to join the project in Manchester and lead their revival. But, his pride and ego at wanting to do things his own way has cost the club yet again.

Now, United face the prospect of seeing Woodward once again be at the forefront of the club’s footballing business off-the-pitch, and that’s exactly what they didn’t want.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

Against Montenegro and Kosovo, England can secure qualification for Euro 2020.

A win against either side will be enough to see them guarantee a spot at next year’s tournament. Although there has been an altercation between Raheem Sterling and Joe Gomez, which saw the former suspended for the first of those two clashes, there is still plenty of talent left in this Three Lions squad.

Liverpool have four representatives in Gareth Southgate’s now 26-man group. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Jordan Henderson and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are those to have been selected.

The latter two make up part of a five-man central midfield group quintet with Declan Rice, Fabian Delph and Harry Winks. Looking at these names, Oxlade-Chamberlain surely has to start.

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Rice, Delph, Winks and Henderson are all good players, but they don’t exactly exude creativity. Between them this campaign, they have 50 appearances in all competitions and have a grand total of one goal and one assist.

The former Gunner, meanwhile, has made 14 appearances, managing four goals, of which three have come in the Champions League.

Unfortunately, a serious injury prevented the 26-year-old from making more than four appearances last term, but during the 2017/18 season, he picked up five goals and eight assists. Between them, the rest registered two strikes and four assists.

Southgate has switched between a 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 formation during this qualification process, and the former has clearly been more effective. The latter set-up was used when the Three Lions lost their first qualifier in 10 years against the Czech Republic, and was also in place when they conceded three against Kosovo.

As such, the three central midfielders is far more effective. But surely it cannot be deployed if there is so little attacking threat.

This is where the man the Reds signed for £35m in 2017 comes in. Clearly, he carries a far stronger offensive threat, and that should complement the likes of Jadon Sancho and Harry Kane further forward.

Whilst two of those more defensive-minded players can feature, three would be far too pragmatic. As a result, Oxlade-Chamberlain must be given a chance by Southgate at Wembley on Thursday.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more… 

West Bromwich Albion face a trip to Hull City this afternoon as they look to continue their spell at the top of the Championship table.

Slaven Bilic’s men currently have a two-point cushion over a trio of teams in second place, including Leeds United, who are the only team to put a loss on the Croatian’s record this season.

Watch West Bromwich Albion Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

The Baggies will want to extend the gap at every opportunity, and on Monday, they showed they are more than capable of thriving despite the pressure of needing three points.

Goals from Matty Phillips and Hal Robson-Kanu secured a 2-0 win at managerless Stoke City, and one man highlighted his increasing worth to the team.

On the Chalkboard

Conor Townsend has been very much a forgotten man in the west Midlands at times this season.

Former Arsenal left-back Kieran Gibbs began the season as Bilic’s first choice in the role before his injury saw versatile starlet Nathan Ferguson switch from the right-hand side.

He has impressed since breaking through into the first-team from the academy, so much so that he’s been linked with moves to Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur.

Against Charlton Athletic, he showed signs that he still has a lot of maturing to do as his horror challenge on Chris Solly saw him pick up a red card and a subsequent three-match ban.

In his absence, Townsend has quite remarkably stepped up to the mark, as seen on Monday night.

Per SofaScore, the 26-year-old recorded two interceptions, one tackle, and one successful dribble while contributing to only their third clean sheet of the season.

As the more natural left-back, it would make perfect sense for him to continue to operate in the role until anything significant happens – even on Ferguson’s return.

Townsend hasn’t just impressed against the Potters, as fans noticed with his game-changing impact in Albion’s draw over Barnsley a few weeks ago.

Ferguson should have to fight to regain his place amongst the Croatian’s starting line up as a lesson for such recklessness, especially as summer signing Darnell Furlong has been more than astute at right-back.

He has averaged 1.7 tackles and 1.6 clearances per game, where he ranks third in the Baggies squad for both metrics.

It would just be too harsh to drop Towsend after his surprise rich vein of form – he had only played for 19 minutes on the opening day until featuring in three straight matches, per Transfermarkt.