Portuguese super-agent Jorge Mendes has claimed that only Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has the ability to replace Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, according to reports from the Guardian.
Mendes has questioned United’s decision to hire Louis van Gaal last summer, insisting that only Mourinho could have continued Ferguson’s successful 26 year reign at Old Trafford.
The agent, who represents Mourinho and some of football’s top players like Cristiano Ronaldo, spoke to the BBC and stated that executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward can help bring success back to the red side of Manchester, but it would be almost impossible to replace Sir Alex.
He said: “At the same time, he has just one problem – it’s completely impossible to find someone like Sir Alex Ferguson because he’s a god, he’s a genius and to find a genius is very difficult.
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“You have one in England – José Mourinho. Having Sir Alex Ferguson ensures at this moment you have 12 or 15 points more. He’s finished his career, but he’s someone that makes the difference.”
Mendes also said that Mourinho is looking to replicate what Ferguson did with Man United at Chelsea, and that he will be in charge at the London club for years to come.
“José will stay for sure. He will be the Sir Alex Ferguson of Chelsea Football Club. He loves the supporters, he loves the city and I think he will stay there for more than 10 years,” he added.
And Mendes also admitted that his client David de Gea, who has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid, is expected to stay with the Red Devils for at least another year.
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“He has one year left on his contract and I think that he will stay in Manchester. The player will decide, but he’s happy there, at the moment.”
We’re not so lucky in England as the Americans are to have four major sports on offer throughout the year, five if you want to include Nascar. But even then, the fortune of living in a winning market comes with the penalty of inflated ticket prices.
New York is one of the obvious markets, you’re going to pay big to go and see the Knicks, the Rangers or the Yankees. The Toronto Maple Leafs charge the highest prices in the NHL, while season tickets can be bought in Florida for the same price as one ticket to see the Leafs.
In England, it’s football or nothing. I’ve yet to come across a fan who shows as much passion for rugby or cricket as they do for football. And therein lies the problem. Leagues and clubs are not going to waver on prices just because a few don’t fancy paying it. If you’re a student or someone from the local area who struggles to go to at least five games a season, forget it, clubs will look to their foreign audiences and the injection of cash tourists bring. It’s no bother to them if local fans can’t get to games: largely stadiums will fill close to capacity.
I don’t blame Manchester City fans for sending back those tickets for the trip to Arsenal on the weekend. Some might argue that they’re playing with the big boys now and need to pay big prices. Others will argue that London prices warrant the inflated price for going to matches, as Arsene Wenger did in his pre-match press conference. But even then, the Arsenal manager shuffled uncomfortably before answering the question on ticket prices. He eventually did land on the matter that concerts in London are priced higher than those around England and specifically up north. But I’m not totally convinced that argument holds water.
I’ve been to big concerts in London and at arenas like Wembley, the O2 and Earls Court. The price is based on the fact that you pay for what you get, and I’ve rarely been disappointed when going to a big gig in London.
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But you get the big stadium atmosphere, you get the impressive stage production, the explosions, the fact that it is a big name on the music scene. Is that always the case for football? With Arsenal, you can certainly argue that you’re not getting what you pay for. I’ll also make the same argument for the New York teams and the Maple Leafs. The Leafs are the wealthiest team in the NHL but haven’t lifted the Stanley Cup since the 1960s – they’ve also failed to make the playoffs for the last eight seasons. New York? Well the Yankees are one of the biggest baseball teams in the MLB, but the Knicks are useless in the postseason and the Rangers haven’t wont the cup since 1994.
With clubs like Arsenal, the production is there with the big stadium, but there are no explosions, no performances that leave you breathless and more than willing to shell out the next time they come to town. And that’s another argument: going to see acts like Bruce Springsteen is totally different from going to watch a sports team every other weekend for nine or 10 months of the year.
Football matches have been lumped into the same entertainment category as going to concerts or the theatre, with the obvious case being that you’re going to pay big for the big names. Well that shouldn’t be the case. Football and sports on the whole is not and should not be seen in the same category as the rest of the entertainment industry, quite simply because it isn’t.
Arsenal have not created the tiered ticketing system themselves, however they surely think of themselves as a club who should be placed in category A. But that doesn’t represent the product many are paying to watch, and it hasn’t done for quite a few years. Yet unlike fan groups in America who are trying to persuade supporters to boycott games (especially in the case of the NHL now that the lockout is over) Premier League fans will never turn their back on the only sport they have. For that, clubs will take their time in attempting to lower prices, they’ll try to justify the reasoning as purely for the health and growth of the club financially or the need to pay wages. It’s nothing other than masked exploitation.
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I really can’t look back to days when tickets could be bought on Saturday afternoons and terracing was the norm — I’m too young. But how many of those fans, youngsters especially, grew up believing and knowing they had a club to support, a club which they could readily gain access to? How much of that is the case now?
And people shouldn’t be dismissed as moaning over something which will never change; the point is that ticket prices should never have reached these levels in the first place. Yes there’s inflation and various other factors that would necessitate the rise in ticket prices, but there is absolutely no way a club can justify charging over £100 for 90 minutes of football.
According to Belgian media outlet Het Laatste Nieuws (HLN), Tottenham Hotspur have admitted defeat in their bid to keep contract rebel Toby Alderweireld at the club and are ready to sell him this summer, and Spurs fans have been quick to react to the rumour.HLN report that the gap between what the north London outfit are willing to offer the 29-year-old and what he is demanding is a gap that is too big to bridge, and they could let him go if they receive an offer of €50m (£44m) this summer, with the Wembley faithful reading between the lines that this latest development was on the cards.The Belgium international spent three months on the sidelines with a hamstring injury between November and February – before suffering a setback after making two appearances in the FA Cup – with Davinson Sanchez and Jan Vertonghen forming a strong partnership at the heart of the defence since.Tottenham supporters took to social media to give their thoughts on the story, and while one offered a solution to Mauricio Pochettino and Daniel Levy by telling them to “literally get rid of Sissoko and Llorente and pay Toby”, another said “he definitely wants out”.Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…[ad_pod ]
We’ve been scoring interviews like Sergio Aguero does goals at Football Fancast recently, but this just might be our greatest scoop yet. Whilst Chris Waddle, Ray Parlour and Jaydon Gibbs, brother of Arsenal’s Kieran, to name a few, were all insightful and entertaining, there is only one Jeff Stelling.
A living legend amongst British football fans for his blend of intellect and banter as host of Soccer Saturday, we jumped at the chance to get to know the man at centre-stage every Saturday afternoon, courtesy of Carlsberg’s Christmas Campaign, which will see Jeff address the nation at midday on Boxing Day on CarlsbergFanSquad.co.uk.
Having now served as the charming ring-master of Sky Sports’ Saturday coverage for two decades and their Champions League productions since 2011, not to mention presenting Countdown for three years on the side, Stelling’s popularity amongst the British public is now a given.
But it’s been acknowledged in more official terms too; he’s won five consecutive Sports Broadcaster of the Year awards and earlier this month was announced as Britain’s most popular pundit by a Carlsberg poll, winning a monolithic 24% of the vote despite not actually being a pundit at all. In your opinion Jeff, why are the public and the critics so receptive to you?
Well, you’ve got to take all these things with a pinch of salt haven’t you? I guess I’m just a football fan who’s got lucky and got the dream job where I can watch football with my mates on Saturday afternoon and get paid for doing it. So we have a bit of fun with it and treat it seriously when it needs to be treated seriously.
And also the fact I’m no threat; everybody knows I’m a Hartlepool fan. If I was a Manchester United fan the chances are that Manchester City and Liverpool fans would hate me. If I was a Spurs then Arsenal fans would hate me. But look, I’m a Hartlepool fan so I’m no threat to anybody. I think that’s probably it – I’m just a football fan, and a fan of a team that poses no immediate threat.
Of course, the popularity of Soccer Saturday, Stelling’s weekly score-line coverage of all the Saturday afternoon action in the company of his cheekily opinionated punditry team, Matt Le Tissier, Paul Merson, Charlie Nicholas and Phil Thompson, is a significant factor too. On the surface, it’s just five friends having an entertaining chat about football whilst onomatopoeically reacting to live in-game events – but there must be more to it than that. Does more work go into the humour side of things than meets the eye?
Well, you’re right in the first instance that it’s just five mates together – a footballing version of Loose Women if you like – just chatting through stuff, albeit the other four having a bit more expertise than me. On the humour side, it comes from mostly events during games and things you can’t plan for, like Paul Merson’s mispronunciations. For instance, at the weekend he called Esteban Cambiasso ‘Cameronaesi’, so that became a running gag over the course of the afternoon.
But some of the jokes, the odd one-liner, yes. Sometimes you look hard for them, the corny lines. There’s a guy at Chesterfield for example, Sam Clucas – when Chesterfield go behind and he scores, it’s a can of Clucasade! I waited and waited and waited for that to come up, until he actually scored. So some of it, of course it’s pre-planned, but most of it’s off the cuff because of the nature of the show .
Are there any pundits you’ve struggled to build that sort of rapport with over the years?
Not really because if there’s anybody you didn’t build a rapport with, they just didn’t survive. The Saturday team is well – it’s exactly that, a team! You’ve got to fit in. Just as a football team can’t get by without a goalkeeper, a centre-half or a striker, we couldn’t get by with somebody who firstly wasn’t very perceptive and secondly didn’t feel a part of the team or wasn’t a team player. Some of the boys will say to you that it’s the nearest thing you can get to recreating a dressing room situation and that helps once they’ve retired from the game. That’s the way I see it really – and if your face doesn’t fit, you just don’t last.
If you were trapped on a desert island with one of the team, who would you choose?
Kirsty Gallagher! Does that count?
We like your thinking Jeff but it’s got to be one of the lads.
I don’t know, god help me – whoever’s the best boat builder, I guess! Six hours on a Saturday is great fun. Six days, six weeks or six months? Not so sure. I couldn’t pick any of them, honestly. They’re all good boys but by the end of Saturday we’ve all have quite enough. As much as we all get on brilliantly and we’re all best mates, we’re happy to call it quits on Saturday evening.
Along with chairing the studio banter, Stelling provides an incredible amount of statistical knowledge to flesh out the scores on-screen, giving them added meaning. How long does it take to absorb all that information for any given show?
It’s like the old cliché about painting the forth bridge, it never ends really. As soon as one show is finished I watch Football First, Match of the Day and Goals on Sunday and I sit there with my notepad jotting stuff down. On Saturday afternoon I only get see bits and pieces of games, I never to see the whole thing, so I make as many notes as I can and that goes on throughout the week until Thursday and Friday. Thursday is the main day where I’m doing stats and I’ll tend to do that between nine and six, and then Friday I’m going through websites and newspapers, catching anything I might have missed. So It’s probably somewhere between 20-25 hours for every show in terms of my individual prep.
Stelling wasn’t always the face of Sky Sports. Despite rarely mentioning it in the studio, he was once a regular footballer, albeit at amateur level, on the tough streets of Hartlepool. I understand you were known as ‘The Chopper’. Would you care to elaborate?
Well, I was a Sunday morning footballer and – as with most players at any level – as the years rolled on I was gradually moved further and further back. I started off as a No.10 type, then I went into midfield and then I went to full-back.
And as what limited pace you’ve got disappears, there’s not much you’ve got left to resort to but hacking people down. In my day, it was a case of more often than not you could get away with it too – so I guess that’s where it came from. Hey – Sunday morning in Hartlepool particularly, you had to be able to stand up for yourself. You learn a lot about survival on those Sunday mornings.
Do the Sky Sports team ever have a kick-about? Perhaps in the Sky car park?
Not really, because they’ve all been through long careers. Tommo and Charlie particularly, they were in an era where you’d play regardless of how fit you were. You’d be in the starting Xi week after week and that takes its toll. Our major sporting contests these days would be on the golf course rather than the football pitch.
The story of the week, at least in punditry circles, is that former Arsenal and Barcelona striker Thierry Henry, the joint-fourth all-time goalscorer in Premier League history, has joined the Sky Sports family after hanging up his boots at New York Red Bulls. Has he got what it takes to become a top pundit?
Yes, definitely. I’ve worked with him a couple of times already for the Champions League and he just has this aura about him. If you didn’t know he was a successful guy, you immediately get that feel. Not because he’s arrogant or anything like that but he has this magic about him as a person, let alone as a player.
Again, he’s wonderfully articulate and measured. He’s got everything it takes to be a top pundit and from a Sky perspective, I know other channels would have loved him so I’m delighted we’ve got him.
Do you think his expertise in foreign leagues offers something a little different?
I don’t know if that matters when you’ve played the game at the highest level, as all our boys have. Whether it be the Champions League guys or Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher or Jamie Redknapp, even if they haven’t played out of England, they’ve all played international football for their country. My view is that if you’re going to criticise somebody or have the right to criticise others you’ve got to have done it yourself – you’ve got to be able to show your medals. Everybody at Sky Sports can and Thierry certainly falls into that category as well.
As host, Stelling remains ever-impartial in the studio, but this interview is a rare opportunity to gain an insight into his opinions on the current season. Who are you backing for the Premier League title?
It’s not very original but I think Chelsea will win it now, with Manchester City in close pursuit – they’re the two best defensive sides. I don’t mean they play defensive football, but they can defend when required. I’m not sure too many other Premier League sides can do the same and that will be the big difference.
How about the Champions League – can you see an English side winning it this year?
I think Chelsea have a very good chance. Obviously they’ve got PSG in the next round who are no pushovers by any means, but they beat them twelve months ago and I think Chelsea are much stronger than they were twelve months ago and PSG are weaker than they were twelve months ago – so I think they’ll get through that. They’ve got quality in every area of the field, they’ve got good back-up and they’ve got Jose Mourinho. So it’s a combination of events. Nobody’s going to want to play Chelsea, that is for sure. Given the right draw, the right circumstances and bit of luck along the way – you always need that – there’s no reason why Chelsea shouldn’t win it.
And it’s not been the best of starts to the season for your beloved Hartlepool, currently bottom of League Two. Are you envisaging better times ahead?
I am. On Tuesday we had a takeover at the club; we’ve got new owners as of Wednesday, we’ve got a new manager as of Wednesday, we will have some new players as of January and we’ve got five months left – we’ve got time to save ourselves. There’s something like 78 points to play for so if we can get 39 of those we’ll just about be ok.
Which brings us onto the small issue of Football Fancast’s world-famous segment, Fantasy Five-Aside. It’s caused Chris Waddle and Ray Parlour a few problems in the past, so it’s rather fortuitous Stelling’s a little more switched on.
So the first player – the best pundit you’ve ever worked with?
Oh, that is so hard. Let’s just say Gary Neville.
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And the best pundit you haven’t worked with?
Alan Hansen.
Your footballing role model growing up?
A bloke you’ll never have heard of. He’s called Frank Casper, as in the friendly ghost, and he was a striker at Burnley.
Of course we’ve heard of Frank Casper Jeff, the Clarets’ star centre-forward from 1967 to 1976! Somebody playing now you think would make a great pundit when they retire?
Didier Drogba
And finally, any goalkeeper.
Any goalkeeper?
Yes Jeff, Football Fancast is famed for its liberal views on goalkeeper selection.
Peter Schmeichel
Thanks Jeff, you’ve been even more delightful than we expected, as if that’s possible.
If Carlsberg did Christmas speeches…. Head to CarlsbergFanSquad.co.uk at midday on Boxing Day to watch Jeff Stelling’s ultimate review of the year. Follow @CarlsbergFooty for Barclays Premier League ticket giveaways and more from the Carlsberg Fan Squad.
The stage was set for another audition soaked in scrutiny, as Crystal Palace faced Huddersfield Town under the bright lights of the television cameras. With the January transfer window less than a fortnight away, young starlet Wilfried Zaha was once again the talk of the town.
The match commenced in a nightmare fashion for the Eagles when Damien Delaney saw red for an ugly lunge on James Vaughan after just 10 minutes. However, the home side embodied the fading cliché that it’s harder to play against ten men and deservedly took the lead when Zaha combined with his partner in crime Yannick Bolasie to score his fifth goal of the season.
A disappointing 1-1 scoreline failed to disguise another promising performance that saw Zaha awarded Sky Sport’s Man of the Match. After his comments on the game itself, attention swiftly turned to his ambivalent future at Selhurst Park and while the club will be reluctant to let their prize asset leave, could a deal that sees Zaha return on loan be the best option for all parties concerned?
The interest in the 20-year-old is set to reach fever pitch next month with an extensive list of potential suitors growing by the day. Palace chairman Steve Parish has insisted the player will not be sold while the team are pursuing promotion and with the boundaries between success and failure often coming down to the smallest of margins, Zaha’s individual brilliance could well prove the deciding factor.
The £20m valuation may have caused the football community to collectively roll their eyes but the club are finally in a position of financial security in which it doesn’t want or need to sell their best players. The potential for a bidding war is an increasing possibility – especially if Liverpool enter the fray – which means that now could be the perfect opportunity to conduct a lucrative sale, without technically losing the player.
Ian Holloway is clearly growing weary of recycled speculation and may decide to cash in simply to give his tongue a rest, but then again he’s hardly the strong, silent type. No, he is a manager that thrives in the transfer market, sourcing potential bargains to build a team from revived rejects and forgotten talent. If Holloway can attract the likes of Charlie Adam on a shoestring budget, imagine what he could achieve when the purse strings are a little looser.
Much like Lionel Messi, Zaha has enjoyed an extraordinary year and attracts a similar number of terrified defenders every time he receives the ball. His confidence levels and newfound ruthless streak has propelled him into position as the Championship’s finest talent.
However, he has faded slightly since his recognition at international level, a victim of his own success, who is still trying to cope with the expectation and pressure of modern football. Perhaps therefore a confirmed Premier League destination could alleviate the shackles that come with constantly trying to impress, without being thrown into the deep end midway through the season. The discarded talent of players that have moved too soon are littered in every top-flight reserve squad in the country.
Maybe it’s best if Zaha departs the club altogether to make room for the numerous other attacking youngsters lurking on the outskirts of the first-team. The names Jonathan Williams and Kyle De Silva may not resonate on the conscious of the average football fan but they are next in line to carry the homegrown torch at the club.
If or rather when Zaha achieves his big money move, it should make Crystal Palace far more desirable when trying to tie down potential stars. With the threat of the Elite Player Performance Plan, it will be crucial that players understand they too can achieve first-team football and walk a familiar route to the Premier League via the club’s youth academy. Maybe, the term ‘feeder club’ won’t be a negative label one day, especially if the Eagles can build a reputation for selling players at the right time, for the right price.
It seems obvious that any transfer bid received in January will be made infinitely more attractive by the option to keep Zaha until the summer. However, it’s difficult to draw up a list of appealing destinations that would be willing to offer such a clause.
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Arsenal are perhaps favourites given the player’s affinity with the club and Arsene Wenger’s act of public admiration. However, he’s likely to be drafted straight into the senior squad, especially if ‘contract rebel’ Theo Walcott departs, but when have the Gunners ever spent the money needed to acquire a high-profile signing? Andrei Arshavin is one name that springs to mind but that move has essentially ended in tears.
Likewise, today’s tabloids suggest Spurs have made the first official contact, which makes this whole affair sound like a boring episode of Star Trek, but Daniel Levy is unlikely to offer a fee north of £10m, which makes his interest rather futile. Manchester City on the other hand have the bank balance to meet the player’s soaring estimation, but why would any youngster even consider descending on Eastlands since watching Adam Johnson’s and Scott Sinclair’s careers grind to a halt.
Manchester United appear the most feasible candidates, given their existing plethora of attacking talent both on the flanks and up front. Sir Alex Ferguson is clearly striving to build a bright future as his retirement date looms ever nearer and I can think of no brighter prospect than Wilfried Zaha.
Jake Livermore’s presence in yet another England squad, despite not even being a guaranteed starter for a West Brom side on course to finish rock bottom of the Premier League this season, sums up how dire the situation has got in the Three Lions’ midfield, and how Gareth Southgate has inevitably had to think outside of the box to find a solution.
The key problem is how compartmental English midfielders appear to have become, especially with Southgate seemingly keen to at least attempt a 3-4-3 setup at some point during the World Cup.
While the likes of Jordan Henderson, Eric Dier and Livermore offer energy, physicality and defensive protection, the creative elements of their passing games leave much to be desired. Likewise, although Adam Lallana, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jesse Lingard can add much more to England going forward, they can easily become lost in deeper capacities and lack the same level of proven discipline.
What England truly need is a deep-lying midfielder who can hold shape well but also start attacks from the base of the engine room. That’s where Jack Wilshere, a 34-cap international who hardly got a kick at Euro 2016, suddenly becomes so important to the England cause.
Criticised for lacking output for such an offensive-minded player in his younger years, Wilshere’s influence on attacking play now seems more obvious, not least because he’s currently enjoying arguably his best form for Arsenal since that stunning breakthrough season in 2010/11.
The 26-year-old’s greatest gift is how he links attacks by driving forward from deep midfield positions, and Arsenal’s 3-1 win over AC Milan last night provided even more evidence of that, completing four dribbles and 95% of his passes in another impressive performance – albeit that resulting in just one chance created throughout the ninety minutes.
That’s precisely what this England side needs next to Henderson or Dier; rather than an unspectacular workhorse like Livermore, someone prepared to take the ball from deep and deliver it to an England front line that – assuming all will be fit – boasts as much quality and promise as any other that will be involved in the tournament in Russia.
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Wilshere’s reminded everybody this season that he can be that lynchpin for the Three Lions; the big question now is whether he can stay fit for when the World Cup comes around.
Manchester City (4-4-2): Hart, Zabaleta, Demichelis, Kompany, Clichy, Fernando, Y Toure, Milner, Nasri, Jovetic, Aguero
Manchester City have finally won their first game in four matches after beating neighbours Manchester United 1-0 in a hotly contested derby on Sunday. The Citizens will now have to turn their focus to making it out of the Champions League group stages with the visit of CSKA Moscow at the Etihad. Once again in the ‘Group of Death’, City are trailing second place AS Roma by two points and will be seeking a win before their next game against group leaders Bayern Munich. Manuel Pellegrini will, however, be without David Silva, Aleksandar Kolarov, and Frank Lampard through injuries.
CSKA Moscow managed to salvage a 2-2 draw after going down 2-0 to Manchester City in Russia two weeks ago, keeping their hopes alive in qualifying for the knock-out stages after two consecutive losses to AS Roma and Bayern Munich. Moscow are currently chasing Zenit Saint Petersburg in the league by seven points with the top of the table clash last weekend finishing in a 1-0 win for Zenit. Leonid Slutsky will now need to switch his squad’s attention to the Champions League and will be thrilled with the return of Alan Dzagoev in the left side of midfield. This means Seydou Doumbia, who scored and earned the penalty last time against City, may well be dropped.
What the fans are saying…
Remember this?
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Seydou Doumbia earned the game-equalising penalty for CSKA last time. Was this a dive?
We all love an underdog story. To see anyone face up to a challenge that seems impossible and yet overcome it provides hope and excitement for everyone. The story of an underdog battle through adversity is no more prevalent than in the Premier League when, on many occasions, a team who is not given a hope of survival, defies the critics and achieves success in the toughest competition in the world.
The 10 stories listed here are heralded as some of the greatest moments in Premier League history. From incredible comebacks and relegation avoiding victories, to unfounded league success and ‘David Vs Goliath’ style victories, all of these moments captured the watching football world and truly indicate why the English game is the most exciting, unpredictable and emotionally resonating in the world.
Click on the picture of a rocking Hawthorns to start the countdown
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Newcastle fans in the Transfer Tavern will be praying that the club can sign some quality players to finally bring a title back to Ibrox.
New Rangers boss, Steven Gerrard has also ready signed a raft of new players and looks set to sign Roma striker Umar Sadiq. It’s not just up front where the Liverpool legend has been looking to bolster the numbers for his squad but also in midfield. One name that Gerrard should be looking to add to his squad is Steven Davis.
The Breakdown
The underrated midfielder has attracted interest from Rangers boss Steven Gerrard this summer according to Sky Sports.
The Northern Ireland midfielder, spent six-years at Ibrox and could well be tempted by back by the new Gers boss. The midfielder played 152 games for Rangers after initially joining on loan from Fulham and won three Scottish titles before he headed south of the border.
This year, however, the midfielder suffered a hamstring injury in the latter stages of the season and as a result, only played one game for new Saints boss Mark Hughes.
If Gerrard could bring the midfielder into his squad, it would be a superb signing. Davis would provide, intelligence, energy, underrated technical ability and excellent experience to the squad.
Moreover, Davis has won titles with Rangers before and could add a winning mentality to the squad.
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With only 12 months left on his current deal with Southampton, bringing Davis in on a cheap deal would be a shrewd bit of business for Rangers.
With centre-back Eric Bailly slowly being nursed back from injury by Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho, conversation has turned to who the best player is to partner up with the Ivorian at the heart of United’s back line.
Mourinho has been unsatisfied with the Phil Jones and Chris Smalling combination that took the field in the 1-0 defeat to Newcastle, and has sought to chop and change his centre-half pairing in recent weeks with Victor Lindelof seeing action in place of Jones for the win over Chelsea on Sunday.
Who is the long term partner for Bailly though? Phil Jones completely lost track of his man against Newcastle on February 10th, allowing Matt Ritchie to claim three points against the Red Devils.
Chris Smalling isn’t exactly Mourinho’s flavour of the month either, with the England international linked with a move to Arsenal in January.
Lindelof is a viable option, but having only played a handful of times this season, the question remains whether he is able to step up to the Old Trafford plate on a regular basis.
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What do Man United fans think? Have your say by voting below…