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Despite having an average squad age of 26, Southampton have a handful of players who are in and around the twilight years of their careers.

One of those is 30-year-old midfielder Oriol Romeu, who signed for the club back in 2015 from fellow Chelsea for an undisclosed fee.

Since then, the Spaniard has made a total of 221 appearances for the Saints prior to their Premier League clash against Burnley this afternoon, scoring six goals and providing four assists in the process.

With the midfielder’s current contract at St Mary’s set to expire in 2023, we feel there’s a chance that Romeu could leave the club by that point, but we also believe that the Saints could already have an ideal replacement for him if he does leave.

That man is 18-year-old Ryan Finnigan, who has been described as an “excellent” player by the club’s academy director Matt Hale. A product of Southampton’s youth system, he has made 15 appearances for their under-18 side, scoring one goal, with one assist in seven games for the Saints’ B team.

Saints manager Ralph Hasenhuttl is apparently a big fan of Finnigan, who has made one senior appearance for Southampton, which came during their 2-0 win over Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup back in January.

Moving forward, if the teenager can continue developing in Southampton’s youth sides and make the most out of any future opportunities he gets in the first team, we think he could well go on to become a regular for them in the future as a potential long-term replacement for Romeu. That might save the club millions of pounds in potential transfer fees trying to sign a new midfielder, as well as seeing him join a long list of players to come out of the club’s youth academy to go on and have big careers in the Premier League.

In other news: Southampton could already have their next Gareth Bale in “quality” 17 y/o starlet

David Moyes’ West Ham United side ease themselves back into first-team football with a trip to Kidderminster Harriers in the fourth round of the FA Cup this afternoon, a fixture in which the 58-year-old Hammers boss will undoubtedly be looking to rotate his side.

Indeed, the Scotsman recently suggested that he could be set to hand Alex Kral – the Spartak Moscow central midfielder West Ham signed on a season-long loan deal last summer – just his third start since his temporary switch to east London, while the club’s only recognised centre-forward, Michail Antonio, is also unlikely to feature having only landed in England on Friday following his international duty with Jamaica.

So, how many changes will Moyes make to the side that started the 1-0 loss against Manchester United last time out? Here’s how we think West Ham could line up against Kidderminster, along with the latest team and injury news…

With the greatest of respect to Kidderminster, a National League North side should not be giving a team chasing a top-four finish in the Premier League a great deal of trouble this afternoon, something which leads us to believe that Moyes will make nine changes to the team which lined up at Old Trafford before the winter break.

Fours of these changes come in defence, with Ben Johnson taking the place of Vladimir Coufal at right-back, Arthur Masuaku starting ahead of Aaron Cresswell at left-back, while Issa Diop and 21-year-old Aji Alese – who West Ham podcaster Tom Edwards dubbed “gold dust” – being given the nod ahead of Kurt Zouma and Craig Dawson at centre-back.

In the middle of the park, the rarely-seen £24k-per-week Alex Kral is indeed awarded a start, as is club captain Mark Noble, with both Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek being rested ahead of the visit of Watford on Tuesday.

In attack, Said Benrahma makes a return to the XI following his early exit from the Africa Cup of Nations with Alegria, taking the place of Jarrod Bowen on the right, while the £69k-per-week Nikola Vlasic gets the nod ahead of Pablo Fornals on the left – with Manuel Lanzini retaining his spot in the number 10 role.

Finally, the £100k-per-week Andriy Yarmolenko is given a chance to impress in the absence of Antonio up top, with Moyes certainty hoping for a clinical display from the 154-goal forward against Kidderminster – after the manager failed to bring in a backup striker for the first-choice Jamaican during the January transfer window.

In other news: “All I can say is”: Moyes finally addresses transfer failures, WHU fans won’t be happy

Many Everton fans have been left to fume as an update emerged on their remaining fixtures for the 2020/21 term in the Premier League.

As per the official website of the Goodison Park faithful, the Merseyside club’s rearranged game away at Aston Villa will be played on Thursday 13th May at 8pm live on Sky Sports.

They will then play Sheffield United at home on Sunday 16th May at 7pm live on BT Sport, before playing Wolves at home between 18th-20th May.

It means that Carlo Ancelotti’s team may potentially only have one or two days of rest in between the matches against the Blades and the Wanderers, which is not ideal at all for a side chasing qualification for European competition, especially considering the injury issues suffered at Goodison this term.

Everton fans on fixture schedule

These Toffees supporters fumed upon reading the news fixture schedule after it was shared on Twitter, with one Blues fan even going as far as to claim that it was a ‘joke’:

“2 days rest … seems fair !! How the club stands for this I’ll never know !!”

Credit: @IrishEverton

“What a shock @premierleague”

Credit: @mickybluey

“Absolutely disgraceful behaviour making fans who are successful in the ballot pay v Wolves. The excuse is that next season’s renewal process is underway. We’ve already paid for a third of a season in which we’ve seen no games.”

Credit: @Mick63476247

“Why are we accepting this, two days of rest between games is a joke”

Credit: @Ian_efc81

“Pathetic that the Prem has had months to sort out that Villa game and it’s now causing us to play twice in three days”

Credit: @ConnorBennett14

“Why does the club stand for this? They just do what they want with us”

Credit: @_Aadil_23

In other news, find out what transfer update has been flocked to by EFC fans here!

According to a report by 90min, sharing news on the Tottenham Hotspur manager search, Spurs chairman Daniel Levy remains ‘infatuated’ by Leicester City’s Brendan Rodgers.

The Lowdown: Rodgers heavily linked to Spurs…

The 48-year-old has attracted major interest from Tottenham since Jose Mourinho was starting to feel the pressure, with reports from as far back as February detailing Levy’s interest in Rodgers (Football Insider).

He was quick to play down the reports linking him with Spurs recently whilst openly committing his future to Leicester, but that still didn’t stop speculation in the media. The Daily Mail recently claimed, despite Rodgers’ stance on the Tottenham job, that Levy has no intention of giving up in pursuit of the Northern Irishman.

The Latest: Levy still ‘infatuated’ by Rodgers…

90min disclosed that Levy and Spurs very much remain interested in the former Celtic boss as a top target to replace Mourinho in north London. The report went as far as to say the Lilywhites chairman is ‘infatuated’ by Rodgers and sees him as the ‘perfect’ managerial candidate for Spurs.

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He is also prepared to hand the Foxes boss a huge salary and make him the second-highest earner of any manager in the Premier League bar Pep Guardiola.

However, regardless of his intent, Levy is fully aware that he faces a fight to appoint Rodgers at Tottenham given his public admission over the role.

The Verdict: Rodgers should be number one…

We’re inclined to agree with the Tottenham head honcho on this one, especially given Rodgers’ record of superb man management (Leicestershire Live). The former Liverpool boss apparently has an ‘open door’ policy, with his players free to chat one-to-one at any time.

Rodgers has also been revered by sections of the press for making fringe players feel like they’re more involved, as opposed to a Dele Alli-style shun from the likes of Mourinho.

Five Leicester youngsters have made their debuts under the current manager, with Tottenham said to want someone who has proven experience in developing talent from the academy (The Athletic).

With Rodgers described as one of the Premier League’s ‘outstanding’ manager (Sky Sports), if Levy can pull off this appointment, it could be a real no-brainer.

In other news: many Tottenham fans flocked to this development, find out more here.

The agent of Ruben Neves has provided an update regarding the future of the Wolves midfielder.

What’s the word?

That is according to Sport, via Sport Witness, who claim that the 25-year-old’s name has “been on the table at Barcelona for months now.”

With the Blaugrana reportedly “willing to study carefully” the potential signing of Neves, Jorge Mendes is “working to make it a reality in June.”

According to the outlet, Barcelona have “reactivated” their interest in Neves, after initially discarding him as an option, as they look to secure a long-term successor for Sergio Busquets.

According to Sport Witness, super-agent Mendes has been “convincing Barca’s sports management and Xavi for months.” With Neves said to be “crazy to join” the Catalan giants – even if it’s through a loan deal.

The new Busquets

Mendes clearly wants to afford his client the opportunity to step into the shoes of the legendary Sergio Busquets, who has been the metronome in that Barcelona side for 14 seasons.

Sport Witness claim that “Barca’s sporting leaders have given their approval for his arrival”, though the economic aspect of the deal is yet to be discussed.

In truth Neves offers a more well-rounded service in midfield, with both Nuno Espirito Santo and Bruno Lage’s three at the back systems the cause of this development.

Though Neves’ previous and now current manager opting to use a 3-4-3 formation, Neves has not been afforded the chance to slot into the role of a defensive midfielder.

As such, his numbers reflect this, with his defending stats slightly overshadowed by the Barcelona captain.

And although he shares similar passing numbers on the whole to Busquets, the Spaniard is slightly better when it comes to passes completed, boasting an average of 70 passes per 90 minutes. Neves completes an average of 56 passes per 90.

They are evidently quite similar, both positionally and stylistically, but Barcelona’s gain would clearly be Wolves’ loss.

After all, this is a player who has played 207 times for the Old Gold, helping them achieve promotion, cement themselves in the top-flight, and reach promotion.

He is a vital player to the cause and seeing that Mendes, someone who has been so beneficial in bringing players to Molineux, tout his services to other clubs is likely to leave supporters aghast.

In other news: John Percy: Wolves now eye swoop for the “next Mbappe“, he’s better than Jimenez…