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Southampton have been linked with a move for Sporting Lisbon winger Jovane Cabral in recent weeks and if the Saints can sign him, he could be the man to replace Nathan Redmond in Ralph Hasenhuttl’s squad.

According to Portuguese news outlet A Bola (via Sport Witness), both Southampton and West Ham remain interested in the 22-year-old, with the Hammers having fallen short with a bid during the summer transfer window.

So far this season, the Cape Verde international has made six appearances in the Liga NOS for Sporting, in which he has contributed two goals and one assist, resulting in a solid average rating of 6.76 (per WhoScored).

The youngster performed superbly in the Portuguese top-flight last season, as he scored six goals and contributed two assists in just 16 appearances. He also earned four man-of-the-match awards in that time, which led to him averaging a superb 7.17 rating, so it was no surprise to see the likes of Southampton and West Ham credited with an interest in him.

Cabral’s former teammate, and current Manchester United star, Bruno Fernandes, certainly seems to be a big fan of the young winger, as he revealed in an interview with Canal 11 (via Inside Futbol) that:

“I didn’t teach him anything. What he did in the game is down to his quality, his ability.

“What I did was simply text Jovane before the game, talked to him a little.

“I had already told him after the game in Guimaraes that I wanted to talk to him.

“Jovane in the past has had his ups and downs, many ups and downs, and I think it was always due to the fact that he stayed a little moonstruck when things went well and very low when things went wrong.

“So I tried to have a conversation with him in such a way that he kept his focus, that he did not get carried away by the fact that in Guimaraes he had a good game.

“In my opinion, he did not have a great game because I know Jovane’s quality and I think he can give more.”

If Southampton were to sign the £9 million-rated Cabral and if he were to have anywhere near the impact that Fernandes has had since joining Manchester United, then he would surely prove to be a very good signing indeed.

With WhoScored suggesting that Cabral has a lot of attractive strengths for a winger, including his ability to finish and play key passes, it would perhaps not be a surprise to see him replace Redmond in Hasenhuttl’s squad, considering the Englishman has failed to contribute a single goal or an assist so far this season.

It will be interesting to see whether Southampton are able to see off interest from West Ham to bring Cabral to the club in the January transfer window.

Wolverhampton Wanderers star Adama Traore is a wanted man this summer but Nuno Santo could clinch an instant upgrade with one mooted replacement…

What’s the word?

According to Sky Sports, the Midlands outfit are interested in Europa League winner Lucas Ocampos as a potential successor to the speedy Spaniard should he depart Molineux before next season.

It’s claimed that despite a £62m release clause, Sevilla would be open to accepting an offer around £40m but Wolves would only be able to afford such an amount if Traore or any other key asset is sold.

Several other top-flight teams are also keen, though no bid has been made for the winger just yet.

Finished end product

Whilst the departure of Traore would be a bitter pill to swallow for fans and Nuno alike, replacing him with the Argentina international could actually be a little upgrade in the role.

Over the past few years, the 24-year-old has been lamented for his lack of final product and even though that has improved tenfold under the stewardship of the Portuguese, it’s still nowhere near the level at which Ocampos possesses.

Both Liverpool and Man City have been linked to a transfer tussle over the Wolves star by the Mirror.

Traore scored six goals and provided nine assists in all competitions with his dribbling ability his main threat, averaging a whopping 4.9 per game, via WhoScored.

But Ocampos has notched a colossal 18 goals and four assists, including a strike to knock Wolves out of the UEL this campaign and while he may not possess the powerful wing play of Traore, he evidently knows where the onion bag is.

He also averaged 2.7 shots and 2.2 dribbles per game, which isn’t poor whatsoever.

The Athletic’s David Ornstein labelled him an “exciting” talent in a recent Q&A and that’s exactly what Wolves would be getting.

If Jeff Shi can land the 6 foot 2 speedster, then it would be one hell of a statement to make as it suggests that the Midlanders are wanting to stick around with the big boys at the top end of the table.

AND in other news, Fabio Capello tips Wolves star to make a switch to Italy…

The Premier League did not kick off as Manchester United would have wanted as they lost 3-1 to Crystal Palace at Old Trafford, therefore their next game against Palace’s M23 rivals Brighton and Hove Albion is crucial.

The Red Devils will have a little bit more confidence as they comfortably beat Championship side Luton Town 3-0 during the week. Here is the TT predicted XI, which sees Ole Gunnar Solskjaer make eight changes from the Carabao Cup victory against the Hatters.

David De Gea will most likely return in between the sticks as Solskjaer sees him as the number one choice, however it was a landmark moment for Dean Henderson, who made his senior debut for the the club at Luton.

Meanwhile, right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka now has match fitness, so should start his first Premier League match this season, with Luke Shaw on the other flank replacing Brandon Williams. Despite Eric Bailly putting in a great performance midweek as he picked up an 8.1 rating and won five ground duels, per SofaScore, he will most likely be dropped for Victor Lindelof as Solskjaer prefers the Swede. The future of Bailly has also been speculated, so it would be quite surprising to see him start.

£35.1m summer signing Donny van de Beek looked good in the first Premier League game as he scored on his debut against Palace after coming on as a substitute, and with United desperately needing a win, it is very likely that we see the Dutchman link up alongside Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba.

Despite Anthony Martial putting in a very poor performance against the Eagles as he picked up a 5.9 rating, per SofaScore, there is no doubt that he will return to the starting lineup for the Brighton game.

Similarly Marcus Rashford also only picked up a low 6.3 rating last weekend, however he came on against Luton in the last eleven minutes and picked up a goal to get his tally started for the campaign. Mason Greenwood also came off the bench at Kenilworth Road and just like Rashford he scored despite only playing for twelve minutes in the Carabao Cup. The 18 year-old also picked up an 8.7 rating, per SofaScore, which was the best rating on the pitch.

United will be hoping all three are firing on the weekend and supporters will hope that the club can pick up their first win of the Premier League season.

United fans, what are your thoughts on this starting eleven? Comment below!

Glasgow Rangers continued their fantastic pre-season form on Wednesday in their latest warm-up match.

The Gers played Motherwell at Ibrox – albeit after a two-hour delay as the 54-time Scottish champions waited for their test results to come in – and they put their rivals to the sword with a 4-0 victory thanks to goals from Ryan Kent, Ianis Hagi, Joe Aribo and an own goal. This win follows their success in the Veolia Trophy, where they beat Lyon and Nice 2-0, whilst they also defeated Hamilton 2-1 before their visit to France.

In this game, Aribo was in stunning form, and his goal was fantastically well taken – he showed his impressive control inside the box before he coolly slotted past the keeper. The Gers fans were clearly taken aback by his display overall, and they were quick to wax lyrical about the 24-year-old – one fan even said he was worth £20m whilst another compared him to fellow midfielder Paul Pogba, suggesting he is the ‘player Paul Pogba wants to be’.

They took to Twitter to share their thoughts, and you can see some of the best comments from the social media platform below.

Let us know what you think!

Livingston have reportedly rejected a bid for Glasgow Rangers target Lyndon Dykes, according to the Daily Record.

The ‘Gers had been linked with a move for the Australian but Barnsley were the first side to make a bid for the forward.

That initial offer was rejected and now another bid from a Championship club – believed to be the Tykes – has been turned down. The sum was reportedly £1.2m but Livingston are looking for a fee of closer to £2m.

The ‘Gers had been in the market for a new striker but that potential problem for Steven Gerrard now looks to have been solved – he has added Cedric Itten and Kemar Roofe to his squad in the past couple of weeks, which gives him plenty more options up front even if Alfredo Morelos departs as speculation surrounding his future continues.

As such, the ‘Gers may have moved on from trying to sign Dykes this summer and, with just 12 goals last season in all competitions, he is not exactly the most prolific forward. Also, Livingston are clearly not ready to let one of their star players leave for a small fee – as such, perhaps the ‘Gers have been astute in already exploring other options.

‘Gers fans, will you be disappointed if Dykes doesn’t come to Ibrox? Let us know what you think by commenting below!

Luka Jovic’s £58m move to Real Madrid was supposed to be a huge step in his career.

The 21-year-old Serbian was brilliant during his stay in Germany, wearing the colours of Eintracht Frankfurt.

In his last season in the Bundesliga, Jovic managed to score 27 goals and assist further seven across all competitions, with ten goals scored in just 14 Europa League clashes as well.

Los Blancos’ eventual approach did not really surprise that much and the young forward looked like a certain bet for the future. But fast forward a couple more months and Jovic is struggling to find continuity of any sorts at the Santiago Bernabeu.

With just one goal to his name and a mere 405 minutes of game time spread across 13 games suggests Zinedine Zidane doesn’t really count on his young talent and for that reason, exit links have certainly been coming.

Fichajes recently reported that West Ham are among the teams who would be interested in his services and Real Madrid would seek an exit deal for their struggling Galactico. This is also reinforced by another claim from Calciomercato that stated Zidane is looking to make a possible separation only temporary via a loan deal.

Even though binning a player who’s hardly even gotten a chance to prove himself sounds like a foolish move by Florentino Perez and co., maybe a loan spell to the Hammers of all clubs could bode well for the 21-year-old.

After all, West Ham already have one of his teammates, Sebastien Haller, in their midsts.

Last season, Haller and Jovic played together at Frankfurt and both were quite deadly with the former scoring 20 and the latter 27 goals across all competitions.

A football legend: How much do you know about the late, great Bobby Moore? Test your knowledge below…

Not only that, but they also worked quite well while on the pitch together as they had a joint goal contribution of eight, with two goals by Haller assisted by Jovic and six goals by Jovic assisted by Haller.

West Ham are currently struggling to stay afloat in the Premier League with the team sitting in 15th at the very moment. Their star forward has bagged five goals, which is a decent return but not enough for them to get back on track.

Jovic’s potential introduction could really be a win-win scenario for all parties involved.

The Hammers would get a young and prolific striker to partner Haller up front and potentially give them a much-needed boost and Jovic would get a chance to rediscover his form, while Real Madrid would continue the development of their future Galactico.

Granted, West Ham do mostly play with a lone striker up front but maybe Manuel Pellegrini could tweak that to accommodate his potential tandem and get the best out of them, especially considering his latest experiment in a 4-4-2 formation against Southampton yielded them an important victory.

Haller impressed with Michail Antonio next to him in the forward line and as a result, he also bagged a goal for his troubles.

Is it a likely scenario, however? It seems like a difficult battle for the Hammers, as was actually confirmed by ExWHUemployee back at the start of December (via Hammers.News).

But if the deal is possible, West Ham would try and pounce on it.

Let’s see what ends up happening.

Meanwhile, Lyon have to ensure they don’t lose both of their superstars to Liverpool and Chelsea…

Tottenham Hotspur have struggled to find a suitable replacement for Kieran Trippier ever since he left for Atletico Madrid.

Jose Mourinho is short of options at right-back ahead of a busy schedule as the Premier League heads into the crunch stage of the competition.

Serge Aurier fills that position at present, but his conduct has been scrutinised by the club after making a string of high-profile blunders.

Mourinho is now trying to find a replacement because Spurs have had enough of Aurier’s antics off the pitch.

According to The Athletic, as per @Daily_Hotspur, Tottenham are willing to listen to offers for Aurier and want to replace him with Max Aarons.

The Lilywhites have been linked to some of the best players in the world, but none are arguably as exciting as Norwich City’s hottest prospect.

Aarons, who has been praised by Darren Bent in the past, has been one of the few bright sparks in an otherwise abysmal season for the Canaries.

Newly-promoted Norwich have found their return to the Premier League to be a real struggle and are surely destined to drop to the Championship.

Earlier this week, talkSPORT revealed Aarons will most likely not be with them if they do go down, which has given Mourinho a major boost.

Aurier has angered the club’s hierarchy after he repeatedly broke the government guidelines during the nationwide lockdown.

As a results, Spurs are ready to get rid of the £14m-valued ace and replace him with the Norwich City star instead.

Although Aurier has earned a higher WhoScored rating than the 20-year-old this season, Aarons has actually made more blocks per game and drawn more fouls.

Given his young age, Aarons is still at the early stages of his career, and he could become a valuable asset in the future, as his market value will no doubt continue to increase over time if he can maintain his impressive form.

Tottenham fans, should the board sign Max Aarons in the summer? Let us know down below!

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Speaking after Manchester United’s 2-2 draw at home to Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has insisted that the league table is “not the biggest concern” at this moment in time.

What did he say?

The Red Devils arrived on Sunday on the back of a defeat to FC Astana in the Europa League, with Solskjaer making several changes to his starting line-up. Despite going 2-1 up in the second-half, United conceded an equaliser just a couple of minutes later, with the draw leaving them in ninth place in the Premier League.

And even though his side remain eight points behind fourth-placed Chelsea who occupy that final Champions League qualifying spot, Solskjaer brushed off any concerns that they may be falling too far back.

He said (as quoted by Sky Sports): “We are a young team. I don’t want to use that as an excuse because we are Man United and we want to get a run together. As soon as we get a run of three or four games together here now, that’s what we need.

“The league table at this point is not the biggest concern because it’s so tight. What I can say is that so far we’ve had the lead in so many games and we haven’t been able to win those games – six or seven times, I’m sure – and we should be better at turning those games into wins. I think there’s loads of evidence that these boys are closer to winning games than losing games and tipping those margins in our favour.”

Blind to reality

Whilst United may have actually gained a point on Chelsea following the Blues’ surprise defeat to West Ham on Saturday, things are beginning to get more bleaker in their pursuit for the top four. Both Arsenal and Tottenham have sacked their under-performing managers this season, with the latter in particular seeing a real upturn in form since appointing Jose Mourinho. The Lilywhites have moved ahead of Solskjaer’s side and into fifth.

The north London clubs have hit the reset button in a bid to rescue their season and faltering Champions League qualifying hopes, whereas United appear content to ride out this long-term project with Solskjaer at the helm. The Norwegian’s declaration that the league table isn’t that important at the moment speaks to someone who is oblivious to the major pitfalls they may encounter in the short-term. If they can’t pull out a couple of wins in the immediate future, then the Red Devils may well be staring at Europa League football once more even at this stage of the campaign.

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Crystal Palace fans have taken to Twitter to react after it was reported that Burnley prospect Dwight McNeil is being lined up as a potential candidate to replace Wilfried Zaha, if the want-away winger gets his wish.

McNeil – who was let go from Manchester United’s academy – has risen through the ranks under Sean Dyche at Turf Moor to become a regular fixture in the Clarets’ starting XI.

So far this season, the 20-year-old has scored once while also recording four assists.

McNeil has also completed 2.2 dribbles per game as well as 1.3 key passes per 90 minutes in the Premier League.

Zaha handed in a transfer request back in the summer amid serious interest from Arsenal and Everton, although Eagles chief Steve Parish rebuffed numerous advances for the Palace talisman.

Following the end of the summer window, the Ivory Coast international has scored twice while recording one assist, getting his head down and performing for the south Londoners despite wanting to leave.

The McNeil news has sparked a discussion amongst the Palace fans on Twitter, with this supporter below stating that he would rather have Eberechi Eze from QPR instead of Burnley’s England U21 international.

Elsewhere, these two fans name-dropped another Championship starlet in Hull’s Jarrod Bowen, who has scored 14 league goals already this season while being linked with a move to Selhurst Park.

One said that McNeil would be a better option than Bowen, whereas another actually thought the opposite through the use of the ‘>’ symbol.

In addition to those opinions, two more Palace fans complimented McNeil, stating that he is a “quality” player as well as a “decent” player.

One felt that the Eagles should “buy him anyway” regardless of what happens with Zaha, whereas another expressed doubt that the club would be able to afford McNeil for the reported £20m fee.

Lastly, one more fan communicated their doubt over this news, stating that there is “no way this is true”.

In other news, this Crystal Palace star continued a worrying trend in the 0-0 draw against Watford on Saturday…

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

QPR’s forwards are in fine form but Mark Warburton showed against Middlesbrough that he isn’t afraid to mix things up, and that means he should try another alteration to bring the best out of his players.

On the chalkboard

Last weekend the R’s boss made the somewhat bold decision to drop Jordan Hugill from the starting line-up, despite the fact he has scored seven league goals, opting instead to deploy Ilias Chair in a more advanced role.

Warburton will believe his change paid off as Chair slipped in Nahki Wells to score QPR’s equaliser, but the striker may have faired even better if he had Eberechi Eze alongside him instead.

The 21-year-old often played in the number 10 role last season and though he didn’t produce the goals and assists – with four and four respectively – Steve McClaren may have hoped for, he did improve and his productivity this term means he would be suitable playing higher up the pitch.

With a pacy and intelligent strike partnership of Eze and Wells, and the freedom they’d both have, the R’s would be a more potent attacking threat, and ensure the club’s better finishers are well-positioned when chances are created.

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Effective partnership

Warburton has got the best out of his attacking players, so it is worth bearing in mind that the style of play he has implemented is likely to lead to chances, but with Eze up-front it increases the likelihood of those opportunities being converted.

Unlike Chair, who has no goals, the forward has contributed six goals and four assists this term, but his all-round game makes him an ideal partner for Wells, and their link-up play could be a great avenue for goals.

Not only has Eze averaged 87% pass accuracy in the league, but also 3.1 successful dribbles per game and, crucially, 1.8 key passes per game.

As a result, getting him as close as possible to the opposition box, and to Wells, has to be the focus of Warburton. Playing in and around the final third is where he will be most effective, and if Wells could build even more of an understanding with him, he’d be sure to add to his impressive tally of 11 goals.

Doing so would also allow Chair to slot into his natural position of centre-midfield, while Hugill could act as an impact sub if Warburton wants to operate with better passers – the 27-year-old managing just 71% pass accuracy this term.