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In a recent interview, Glasgow Rangers centre-back, Leon Balogun, discussed his immediate future at Gers, as well as suggesting he could be open to a move away from Ibrox.

Having signed for Steven Gerrard’s side on a free transfer last summer, Balogun has gone on to prove himself a rather crucial part of the Gers’ backline this season, with the 32-year-old making an average of 1.2 tackles, 1.4 interceptions and 1.7 clearances over his 19 Scottish Premiership appearances, as well as averaging an impressive WhoScored match rating of 7.06 – ranking him as the club’s ninth-best performer in the league.

As a result of these fine displays, with the Nigeria international’s contract at Ibrox set to expire at the end of this season, it is widely expected that Rangers will activate a year-long extension to his deal, something which, in a recent interview with SportBILD (via Sport Witness), Balogun suggested is a formality, although he also claimed that he could be tempted by a move to the Bundesliga.

When asked about the chance of his contract being extended, Balogun said: “That’s just a formality, I don’t have to worry about that – I definitely want to stay.”

However, when asked whether he could be tempted by a move to Germany, he said: “Sure! Germany is my home. I’ve sacrificed many moments with my family to pursue my career. If there was an opportunity to be closer to them again, I would listen to it.”

Transfer Tavern Take

While Balogun’s comments are somewhat contradictory, with Rangers having the option to extend his current deal at Ibrox for another year, it would indeed appear as if the centre-back will be wearing the famous light blue for at least another season.

However, should the 32-year-old receive interest from the Bundesliga come the summer of 2022, it would seem as Rangers could face something of a battle to keep the £14,00-per-week defender on their books.

In other news: ‘He wants to extend’ – One pundit dropped a hint on this ‘fantastic’ Gers star’s contract amid PL interest – find out more here!

Six of Everton’s Premier League rivals have signed up to become founding members of a European Super League (ESL).

Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal have been threatened with a ban from the English top flight if they go ahead with their plans, under which they would be guaranteed annual European qualification.

Everton already given green light for £500m arena

Everton have committed to the building of a new 53,000-seater stadium at Bramley Moore Dock in time for the 2024/25 season, but the future of the game is now shrouded in uncertainty (via The Guardian).

The construction of the stadium is expected to cost £500m and inevitable, concerns about the project have been raised in light of the ESL announcement, as club fan channel Toffee TV released a video discussing how the Super League might ‘kill’ the new stadium.

Everton confident Super League will be nipped in the bud

However, The Athletic correspondent Patrick Boyland reported that Everton remain hopeful. The Toffees are optimistic that the plans for the new competition, which are ‘light on detail’, will unravel before they even ‘get off the ground’.

Boyland added that the new stadium is intended to be a ‘catalyst for a renewed assault on the Champions League places’. Intriguingly, JP Morgan, who are set to fund the Super League, have been enlisted by Everton to back the Bramley-Moore Dock project.

Transfer Tavern verdict

Everton fans probably don’t need to worry, as there has already been some encouragement on Tuesday morning,

Sky Sports journalist Kaveh Solhekhol revealed that some of the executives involved are getting ‘cold feet’, with ‘strong differences of opinion emerging in private’.

The united front could soon break down.

In other news, Gary Neville had this to say about Everton’s Super League stance.

In an exclusive interview with Football FanCast, ex-West Ham striker Frank McAvennie has urged his former team to go all out in their attempts to sign Craig Dawson permanently this summer.

The experienced defender, who’s currently on loan at the London Stadium for the rest of the campaign from Watford, made a slow start to life in the capital, but has been one of the Hammers’ standout players in recent weeks.

Dawson wasn’t involved in any of West Ham’s first 11 Premier League games following his arrival, but since breaking into the team and replacing the injured Fabian Balbuena, the on-loan centre-back has ever-present in the league, playing a major part in David Moyes’ team pushing towards Europe.

With Dawson in the side, West Ham have kept six clean sheets in 13 matches, with the on-loan Hornets man adding three goals which have helped his team suffer just three Premier League defeats since Christmas.

And McAvennie has praised the 30-year-old for transforming a Hammers defence that had managed just four shut outs prior to his inclusion.

He told Football FanCast: “The biggest thing for me with West Ham is the defence, it’s solid.

“The biggest signing they will make is Dawson. They have got to get that boy’s name on the paper, he’s been outstanding.

“For £3million for a centre-half like that, he complements the other defenders because the other defenders want to play football and look good, and he just puts his body on the line, gets in front and it’s good balance for the team. That’s the biggest signing that I think will happen this year.”

Leeds United have been handed a major boost ahead of their Premier League clash against Aston Villa, with Jack Grealish ruled out with an injury.

The Villa talisman missed the game against Leicester last week, which of course sparked the whole FPL controversy when news of him missing out against the Foxes was leaked well before kick-off.

Now, Dean Smith has confirmed in his pre-match press conference that Grealish will once again be missing from Villa’s squad, revealing: “He won’t be ready. He had some discomfort, so he went to see the doctor and they decided that he needed a period of rest. I believe that he’s very close to being pain-free.”

The £45m-rated star has once again been the source of Villa’s inspiration, racking up seven goals and providing 12 assists in all competitions this season.

Former Villa man Kieran Richardson has waxed lyrical about the England international, saying: “Jack Grealish, he’s a phenomenal talent. When I was there (Villa) playing he was coming through and you could see from the get-go he was a top, top player.

“The way he can just ghost past players, he’s so strong, he rides challenges. Even if you knock him down he’ll get back up and keep going, he won’t shy away from anything. He’s very confident on the ball, he’ll take the ball whenever he can. Do you know who he reminds me of? Ginola, where he just goes past players, he can do that all day long, he’s got a great change of pace as well.”

When Grealish’s potential absence was put to Bielsa, the Leeds boss insisted that he rather the Villa star was fit and available, saying: “I always prefer that opponents have their best players available because even if that fortifies a team and makes them more scary to face, it’s also a stimulus for us to face such players and to try to neutralise them.”

While Bielsa may have been sincere about it, there’s no questioning that Leeds’ chances of victory have been significantly boosted by Grealish’s absence. It’s a bit of pre-match news that will surely have the Whites boss secretly buzzing.

Celtic are no longer Scottish champions; that sentence has been unthinkable over the last decade. The Hoops took home nine consecutive league titles to Parkhead but their dominance is now well and truly over. Thanks very much, Neil Lennon.

You can blame a number of factors. Of course, Lennon will take much of the responsibility. His side lacked quality this term but a number of his players made countless individual mistakes.

You can also blame the hierarchy and their inability to recruit adeptly or sack Lennon when things first started to go wrong.

There is also the James Forrest factor. The attacker has been missing since September and the Bhoys have hardly coped well since.

He returned to action in the 0-0 draw with Dundee United on Sunday but failed to inspire the win that would have left Rangers waiting at least a few more weeks to wrap up the title.

A number of players were poor at the weekend. Odsonne Edouard wasn’t his ruthless self while Diego Laxalt missed a simple chance and was caught out plentiful times defensively.

However, in the thick of it, a certain Ryan Christie disappointed again. The winger has been playing in a more central area of late but despite getting into the right areas, his end product was deserting him.

The thought of a move to either Arsenal or Leeds, something that was touted last January, seems dumbfounded now. The Scot has scored just twice in his last 25 matches, with one of those goals happening to be an absolute peach in the Scottish Cup final.

He was influential on that day but he has been abject since. Commenting after his performance against Aberdeen last month, Frank McAvennie called Christie “non-existent.”

Indeed, it’s hard to argue against that notion. The 26-year-old has been letting his team down for a number of months now and has become a huge problem, not only to his colleagues but also the club’s hierarchy.

[snack-amp-story url=”https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/latest-celtic-manager-hunt-stories-wagner-marsch-martinez-lennon-news” title=”The last stories on Celtic’s hunt for a new manager!”]

Against Dundee United on Sunday, he picked up some nice pockets of space to provide four key passes. Yet, beyond that, there was a lack of threat. Most of Celtic’s play came from wide areas where Jonjoe Kenny and Mohamed Elyounoussi were keen to get on the ball.

That meant that Christie’s influence was ultimately limited with Dundee United crowding out central areas. They played with a low block which meant he only attempted one dribble. On top of that, both of his shots towards goal were pretty tame.

What summed up the winger’s day was his wastefulness. Only a few weeks ago Christie spurned four chances in Celtic’s 1-0 defeat to Ross County. On this occasion, it was his touch and passing that let him down.

He finished the match with a pass success rate of just 68%. Of those to start the game for the Hoops, only Edouard had a worse percentage. Furthermore, Christie surrendered the ball on no fewer than 20 occasions. That happened to be the worst number on the pitch from a player in green and white.

For someone who scored 20 goals in 2019/20, the attacker has been nothing short of abysmal this term. He has become the scapegoat for when things go wrong but he’s doing himself no favours.

With James Forrest in contention to play in the Old Firm derby, Christie’s spot should be under threat.

Even the much-maligned Scott Brown is performing better at the moment. His Celtic career looked dusted a few months ago but he has bounced back well. Christie must be craving a similar revival.

AND in other news, Imagine him & Turnbull: Celtic must swoop for 35-goal star who’s “impossible to beat”…

Speaking exclusively to Football FanCast, Wolves legend Steve Bull has suggested that Leander Dendoncker is more suited to midfield than defence.

Since joining the Midlands club from Belgian outfit Anderlecht in the 2018 summer transfer window, Dendoncker has played at the back and in the middle of the park under Nuno Espirito Santo.

This season, the 25-year-old has mostly been deployed in midfield, making 14 starts there in the Premier League (per WhoScored), and Bull believes that is where he belongs in this Wolves side.

Discussing Dendoncker’s best position in an exclusive interview with FFC, the legendary Wolves striker said:

“I don’t think he’s a centre-back. He’s not slow, he just doesn’t read the game as quick as a defender should. In midfield, you have time to get the ball, turn left, turn right, to play, but when that ball’s coming into the box and the striker’s running across and you’re a midfielder, by time you’ve got your head [in the correct position], the striker has gone in front of you.

“So, to me, I’d rather play him in midfield rather than centre-half, but he’s a very good stand in. He’s a very good stand in if we need him.”

Aside from £28.8m-rated Dendoncker, Nuno has captain Conor Coady, Romain Saiss and Willy Boly to call upon when it comes to selecting central defenders for his back three. The latter, however, has had his problems with injury this season, making it little surprise that Nuno has continued to utilise Dendoncker’s versatility.

Next up for the Belgium international and Wolves is a home fixture against West Ham when the Premier League returns after the international break.

In recent comments made on Twitter, Ben Jacobs discussed the latest on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s 2021-2025 plans for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the body that failed with a takeover of Newcastle United last year.

In Jacobs’ tweets, the journalist revealed that the Public Investment Fund Twitter account disabled comments on a video of Mohammed bin Salman unveiling his future plans for PIF due to the replies being ‘flooded with NUFC takeover talk’.

He continued by stating that this was in no way in relation to the potential resurrection of the takeover deal, but more the ‘social team’ of PIF ‘playing it safe to avoid any negative PR’.

And, when questioned by a fan as to why PIF decided to choose now as the time to disable comments, having never seemingly done so previously, Jacobs confirmed that ‘this is a big new phase of their plan’ and that they don’t want to ‘pull attention away from their main message’.

Transfer Tavern Take

With The Sun recently claiming that a ‘peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Qatar’, which was agreed earlier this month, could bring an ‘end to the piracy’ of BeIN Sports in Saudia Arabia, something which could ‘pave the way’ for the takeover deal to go through, the disabling of comments on PIF’s recent video, according to Jabobs, is not something that Newcastle fans should be worried about, it would seem as if there is indeed still the hope of the deal being resurrected at present.

In other Newcastle news, find out who has been named as a potential suitor for a transfer to NUFC here!

What a strange time this is for Sunderland.

The Black Cats are at the centre of a potential takeover and they have just hired a new manager in Lee Johnson.

However, they now won’t play for a fortnight with their next three games were postponed.

On the chalkboard

Just as the positivity had been reinstalled at the Stadium of Light after their 4-0 win over Lincoln, proceedings in the north-east have become rather depressing again.

Because of an outbreak of COVID-19 within the squad, the Academy of Light has been shut until December 27th with a variety of players now having to self isolate.

Four players have tested positive for the pandemic which has only added to an ongoing list of fitness concerns within the squad.

Denver Hume is currently out injured while Luke O’Nien has a dislocated shoulder and is out until the New Year.

However, they received another damaging blow this week when Johnson revealed that Josh Scowen could miss as many as seven weeks with a shin injury.

It really does feel as though Sunderland players are dropping like flies at the moment.

The solution

Fortunately for the Black Cats, they do have a number of midfield players available to them. With Max Power ruled out against Wimbledon, George Dobson came back into the XI and was paired next to the ever-reliable and ever-consistent Grant Leadbitter.

Though, with Scowen missing they needed to find another midfielder from somewhere.

That happened to be Elliot Embleton, a man who usually prefers to play in more advanced roles. The 21-year-old had a serious hamstring injury last season which meant he didn’t play at all for Sunderland and to this day, he has still only featured on 16 occasions for the first-team.

He’s never truly had a consistent run to establish himself as a regular but now with a host of players out and lacking fitness, his chance could arrive.

It’s unfortunate the youngster never really got an opportunity under Jack Ross or Phil Parkinson. After all, the former held him in high esteem. “Embleton has been terrific since he came back for pre-season. You can see what he can provide in the final third, so I was pleased with that,” Ross commented in July 2019.

Of course, his season was ruined by injury last term but he is now fully fit and has developed nicely.

Against Wimbledon, the midfielder was assured and composed as he completed 88% of his passes, created two chances and had two shots.

If we see more of that, it’s likely Embleton will be in the team more. He definitely deserves a run.

In other news, Johnson must unleash Sunderland talent with “magic feat”…

According to The Daily Mirror, Aston Villa have earmarked Reading starlet Michael Olise as a possible signing in this January transfer window.

What’s the story?

After their flying start to the Premier League season, Dean Smith’s side will no doubt be keen to enjoy as good of a second-half to the campaign as possible, with the possibility of European football even within their sights.

The Daily Mirror now claim that Olise is a transfer target for Villa, and that Smith is keen to add younger players to his first-team squad, and that he will be given the funds to make significant moves this month.

Imagine him and Louie Barry

Hailed as “super talented” by Reading boss Veljko Paunović, the 19-year-old has already earned rave reviews for his ability, with his former manager at the Royals, Jose Gomes, adding: “Michael is really special. He can see, even before receiving the ball, more options than regular players. His technical ability and speed, decision capacity is really, really good.”

Given Olise’s age, he would fit in superbly well with the kind of young talent Villa have got emerging and knocking on the first-team door at the moment.

The FA Cup defeat to Liverpool last time out saw Villa’s kids do the club and entire fan-base proud, with the likes of Louie Barry and Ben Chrisene shining on their first-team debuts.

The £7.2m-rated Olise of course does have a considerable edge over those players in that he’s been playing senior football week-in and week-out for a while now, and his performances with Reading this season have been nothing short of outstanding.

He’s scored four goals and provided a further eight assists in just 24 games, and could be the latest break-out star from the Championship to really set the Premier League alight. Him and Barry could lead Villa into an incredible future in the years to come.

Tottenham Hotspur’s week from hell continued as they were defeated in a second successive Premier League match by Brighton on Sunday night.

First, it was an injury blow to Harry Kane, and then defeat to Liverpool, and now Jose Mourinho’s men have lost again, putting their quest to make the top four in jeopardy.

Spurs were lacklustre in the absence of their leading talisman, but once again, there were underperformers in defence, namely Moussa Sissoko, who massively let his manager down considering his vast experience.

The £90k-per-week star was deployed in an unfamiliar right wing-back role as he was preferred to Serge Aurier – snubbed completely from the matchday squad – and Matt Doherty, which speaks volumes.

Though, that said, Sissoko has still played at right midfield or right-back 139 times, as per Transfermarkt’s recorded matches.

But he endured a nightmare evening at The Amex, and it culminated in the game’s only goal of the game coming from a switch-off defensively.

Pascal Gross was given time and space along the right flank, but Sissoko allowed his man, Leandro Trossard, into the penalty box without following him.

And that’s only half the story…

[snack-amp-story url=”https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/read-this-weeks-latest-spurs-news-and-transfer-rumours” title= Read this week’s latest Spurs news, transfer rumours and more…”]

The 31-year-old was also the most wasteful player on the pitch, from either side, as he lost possession a whopping 23 times. It meant he handed the ball back to the Seagulls once every 3.9 minutes or once every 4.3 touches as he had the second-most touches (100) of anyone on the pitch, via SofaScore.

Given his vast influence in the game, he should have done better.

Sissoko managed to only make one of five crossing attempts (20%) and was rather lightweight in his battles as he won only 50% of his duels, both aerially and on the ground.

Sissoko’s teammate, Steven Bergwijn, has taken a lot of flak on social media since kick-off but the young winger was exposed in a solitary striker role, so he should be forgiven for not having the same sort of impact that Kane would’ve had.

And at the end of the day, he was the only player to have a shot on target for Spurs.

The Evening Standard’s Dan Kilpatrick graded Sissoko a 5/10 in his post-match ratings column and wrote: “Completely ineffectual as a wing-back and effort was unusually lacking on occasion.”

Sissoko was far worse than Bergwijn on the night.

Mourinho may want to think again before he axes Aurier or Doherty – he clearly needs one of them, however bad they may be, in their natural right-back role.

As evident above, the wasteful, inefficient and weak Sissoko massively let Mourinho down.

AND in other news, Levy have struck gold in dream deal for £45m-rated “born leader”…