Arsene Wenger's greatest ever Arsenal XI: Henry & Bergkamp lead the line
Who have been the Frenchman's best servants during an iconic 22-year reign in north London?
Who have been the Frenchman's best servants during an iconic 22-year reign in north London?
David Moyes should urge West Ham United to sign Blackburn Rovers striker Adam Armstrong and acquire the perfect weapon to pair with Jesse Lingard this summer.
According to Claret & Hugh, Armstrong has been identified as West Ham’s primary option to fill the void Sebastien Haller left after his £20m move to AFC Ajax in January.
The Irons are expected to focus their efforts on bringing Armstrong to the London Stadium at the end of the season, having opted against a move for the 24-year-old during the winter market.
Moyes weighed up an £8m approach but held off in favour of continuing to build a scouting report on the forward, who Rovers are said to value at £25m after scoring 20 goals in 32 Championship games this season.
Blackburn believe Armstrong is worth a figure in that region after Ollie Watkins sealed a £28m move to Aston Villa last September, having ended the 2019/20 campaign as the second-tier’s joint top-scorer with 26 goals in 49 games.
Rovers may have to accept a slightly lesser sum as Armstrong will enter the final year of his £17,000-per-week contract in the summer, but cannot go too low as Newcastle United will be due 40% of any profit on the £2m they paid the Magpies in 2018.
Moyes has previously been claimed to have carried out personal checks on Armstrong’s progress at Ewood Park, and does not appear to have been put off by his run of four games without a goal before missing Blackburn’s last three with a hamstring injury.
Armstrong emerging as West Ham’s top striker target would suggest Moyes has been pleased with the forward’s efforts despite Blackburn’s downturn in form, which has seen only six of the Championship’s 24 sides claim fewer points since the turn of the year.
That record would be just five of the 24 sides without Armstrong’s winning effort at home to Luton Town on January 30th, the last win the West Denton-born forward was involved in before losing six of the following seven league games.
Rovers boss Tony Mowbray has continued to praise Armstrong’s efforts, despite his side’s result, noting last month that the 5 ft 8 forward is “really special” and has “Premier League quality”.
Mowbray has previously lauded the attacker for his “speed and dynamic movement” that allows Blackburn to play into space, knowing he can attack the ball and create problems for opposing sides to try and contain.
West Ham taking that on board next season could see the Irons acquire the perfect weapon for Lingard to operate in-behind, should the Manchester United talent remain at the London Stadium beyond his loan deal as Moyes currently hopes will be the case.
Only Aaron Cresswell has averaged a higher number of key passes (1.5) per Premier League game for the Hammers this term than Lingard (1.2) has since his winter arrival, but 0.8 of the defender’s chances created have come from corners or free-kicks, per WhoScored.
Of Lingard’s, just 0.2 have come from set-pieces, while Michail Antonio has offered the second-most shots per game (2.2) under Moyes with fewer attempts on goal than Armstrong (4.7) is producing in the Championship as the division’s third-top scorer.
If Moyes can pull off deals with Blackburn and Manchester United this summer, then, West Ham could have an exciting attack next season in Armstrong and Lingard.
AND in other news, West Ham face a £51.5m asking price to sign a dynamic star who grew up learning from Frank Lampard…
West Bromwich Albion manager Sam Allardyce has slammed the Premier League’s decision to schedule the Baggies’ match against Everton on Thursday between two matches against their relegation rivals.
West Brom’s clash against the Toffees will now take place on March 4th – five days after their match against Brighton and less than three days prior to their meeting with Newcastle.
This decision angered Allardyce, and he was not shy in voicing his opinion ahead of this weekend’s match with Brighton. He said (via Birmingham Live):
“We have a big week to follow this week with having the Everton game thrown in the middle which we could have done without when we had such big games against Brighton and Newcastle. We could have done without playing Everton when Newcastle don’t play a game at all. Unfortunately we have to cope with it.
“I don’t want to get myself in trouble. We tried, we did try, we felt it was very irresponsible to pick the game on Thursday from the Premier League.
“Yes, throw us a game in we will accept that but put us at Wednesday – get it into Wednesday based on what we are trying to achieve and what we are trying to do.
“We have two of the most important games against two of the teams who are down there below us and you throw a game in against Everton and don’t throw it in at the right time. If it was Wednesday I would have less of a complaint but when they threw it on Thursday I thought that was very disrespectful personally.”
Of course, this scheduling change will have affected the Baggies’ planning – they will have been hoping to have a full week’s training between the two matches. Putting the game on a Thursday instead of a Wednesday is also peculiar and will not help the Midlands outfit’s cause.
However, there is no point in Allardyce letting this get to him. It almost seems as if he is looking for an excuse before the match has even been played. West Brom are 19th in the table for a reason, and all they can do is attack every game with 100% effort regardless of when they are played.
In other news, West Brom fans want this former player to replace Luke Dowling as Technical Director.
In an exclusive interview with Football FanCast, Carlton Palmer has expressed his concern about the relative inaction over a contract extension for Crystal Palace left-back Patrick van Aanholt.
Roy Hodgson has carefully crafted his side over the past four-and-a-half years with limited resources, in no small part thanks to a number of astute signings sanctioned by Steve Parish.
Van Aanholt can count himself among that number – since his arrival in 2017, the 30-year-old has gone on to make 122 appearances for Palace across all competitions, per Transfermarkt.
However, concerns are beginning to mount, with the Dutchman’s contract at Selhurst Park expiring in five months time, which has been heighted by the fact that talks have reportedly broken down between the club and his representatives over a contract extension.
Whilst the emergence of 21-year-old Tyrick Mitchell has also continued to cast doubts about his future at the club, his potential departure would leave Hodgson desperately short of options on the left-hand side of the defence.
Palmer, when speaking to Football FanCast’s Tom Ward, believes Palace may be reluctant to tie the veteran defender down to a long-term deal as he points towards a total shift in transfer policy.
He told FFC:
“Well, a lot of that will depend on wage demands. And you know, they’re looking, I think, more and more now with Parish and the way they’ve got the recruitment set up there.
“They’re trying to get the balance of youth and experience again, and they’re going for younger players, as you’ve seen with the signing of Jean-Philippe Mateta. They’re going for that quality and that youth and that exuberance, and that energy and that pace, and Roy Hodgson’s noted for that.
“If they were going to renew his contract, I think they’d have done it by now. So that tells you everything you need to know.”
Indeed, it’s easy to see why Palace may have opted for a different approach after the emergence of Mitchell, who has burst onto the scene this season, which has attracted interest from local rivals Arsenal.
The Eagles have also been targeting a number of potential replacements should Van Aanholt depart Selhurst Park, with Chelsea’s Marcos Alonso and Marseille’s Jordan Amavi believed to be in the frame.
Hodgson recently admitted he is concerned by the number of Palace players who are out of contract at the end of the season but expects a complete overhaul of his ageing squad in the summer.
AND in other news, Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson must unleash Jean-Philippe Mateta against Wolves…
Craig Dawson was lucky not to be punished defensively by Aston Villa having let boss David Moyes down in West Ham United’s 3-1 win on Wednesday night.
The Watford loanee has become a pivotal cog in the Hammers backline in recent weeks, with his no-nonsense style proving tenacious beside Angelo Ogbonna.
The pairing restricted Dean Smith’s Villans to only two shots on target during the midweek affair at Villa Park, of which both come in the final 35 minutes.
Aston Villa relentlessly found themselves restricted in the final third as West Ham took control of the game to record the double over their fellow claret and blue side, an accomplishment last achieved in the 2005/06 season.
But the tone was almost set on the other foot in the 27th-minute, when Jack Grealish pounced on a miscontrol from Dawson and played a brilliant reverse pass through to Ollie Watkins. The striker could only bend his shot around Lukasz Fabianski and onto the outside of the post, though.
Watkins’ effort came moments after Michail Antonio had failed to break the deadlock and minutes before Ross Barkley sent a good chance wide from a Villa set-piece, and either of those strikes nestling in Fabianski’s goal would have placed the Villans in the ascendancy.
Instead, West Ham rallied with Aaron Cresswell, Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal all having attempts on Martinez’s net, before Antonio thread Soucek in to score early in the second period and Jesse Lingard hit the first of his debut double to take the wind out of Aston Villa’s sails.
Dawson’s first-half error was a rare misstep from the £40,000-per-week brute, who was Moyes’ hero at Everton on New Year’s Day in a 1-0 win that sparked West Ham’s run of four straight Premier League victories.
He continually got his body in the way of shots as the Irons beat West Bromwich Albion 2-1 last month, as well, and there was little more the 30-year-old could do to prevent Liverpool from winning at the weekend.
But his poor touch that freed Grealish to play Watkins in during the first half was not Dawson’s only error. He also turned over possession in dangerous positions a few times that on another day, could have seriously cost West Ham had Villa made the most of their opportunities.
And had those chances been taken by Villa, Dawson would not have been able to atone for his off moments by producing two vital stops in the second period, with a block and a pivotal diving challenge to deny Watkins a brace.
At worst, his off night resulted in Dawson committing his first error in claret and blue that led to a shot being taken on goal, per SofaScore. And Moyes will be keen for Wednesday’s performance to be a rare blip and not a tone-setter ahead of Saturday’s London derby with Fulham.
AND in other news, West Ham eye future swoop for prolific £30m striker with “absolutely superb” movement…
We are now just a day away from the craziness that is the January transfer window.
Of course, Wolves spent big in the summer on the likes of Nelson Semedo and Fabio Silva so it remains to be seen how much money is left in the bank for Jeff Shi and co to spend.
Wolves have one primary focus in January – to sign a new striker.
With Raul Jimenez still recovering from a fractured skull he sustained against Arsenal, they are light in a central attacking area and thus, need to sign some cover.
Divock Origi had been linked but that rumour has now gone quiet. Real Madrid’s Luka Jovic has also been touted with a loan switch but now a new name has emerged on the scene.
According to The Sun, that’s former Chelsea striker Diego Costa. They report that Wolves are contemplating a move for the Spaniard who has recently been released from his contract with Atletico Madrid.
That means that Shi could land the experienced forward on a free transfer if Wolves can agree on contract terms in January.
Costa would be able to join immediately, rather than next summer as originally anticipated.
The Serbian striker may have scored 27 goals in one season for Frankfurt two seasons ago but he has just two strikes to his name since joining Real Madrid.
Jovic has immense potential but in terms of discovering someone for the short-term, there would surely be no better than Costa.
He is a mightily powerful forward and has a proven track record of scoring goals at the elite level and crucially in the Premier League.
Capped 24 times by Spain, Costa has found the back of the net on 52 occasions in just 89 Premier League outings. That’s a fabulous record, one that earned him the title of an “animal” according to Jose Mourinho.
If any word typified the Brazilian born attacker, it would be that.
His natural aggression is incredibly eye-catching and despite now being 32, he’d still be an exceptional addition – especially on a free transfer.
Costa is a colossal battering ram and would add plenty to this rather young Wolves side. His availability has come at a perfect time for the Old Gold.
This would be a superb start to the new year.
Everton are currently undergoing a revolution under Carlo Ancelotti.
They signalled such intentions during the summer when director of football Marcel Brands and the Toffees decision-makers pretty much secured the Italian an entirely new-look midfield, bringing in the likes of Allan, James Rodriguez and Abdoulaye Doucoure in one window.
However, plenty of ghosts from former reigns are still haunting Goodison Park – even dating back to the Ronald Koeman era in 16/17.
Whilst the Dutchman is now in charge of his former club, Barcelona – its anyone’s guess on how he managed to clinch that – one of his mega-money signings continues to fester away in the depths of despair.
That, of course, is £25m winger Yannick Bolasie.
The 31-year-old has gone out on loan three times since 2018 alone and now finds himself an outcast under Ancelotti. In fact, his time in Merseyside is pretty much done as he was left out of their Premier League squad of 25 for the current campaign.
Now it is on Brands to deliver once more. They need to get him out of the club considering he’s earning a reported £75k-per-week, via Spotrac.
That is quite the sum for a player that has not featured for Everton since a 3-1 defeat to West Ham in May 2018.
It means the winger has cost the club in excess of £41.25m to this day, an extortionate and truly shocking amount of money – all for 32 appearances, two goals and four assists, per Transfermarkt.
When you break it down, Bolasie has cost around £1.2m per appearance and £20.6m per goal.
Bolasie may well be a “lovely” and “genuine” character, as Palace chairman Steve Parish once said, but it’s ever so clear to see that his time at Goodison Park has reached its end.
It’s time for Bolasie and the Toffees to part ways this January, and any departure must be a permanent one otherwise he’ll continue to bleed Farhad Moshiri dry.
AND in other news, Everton boss Carlo Ancelotti could revitalise £62.5m-rated “freak of a talent” with Jan swoop…
According to 90min, Manchester City are interested in re-signing Aston Villa midfielder Douglas Luiz.
Since signing him for a reported £15m back in the summer of 2019, Luiz has established himself as a mainstay of Dean Smith’s side, and his impressive performances have even earned him his first caps for Brazil.
But with City holding a buy-back clause in the deal that initially took him to Villa Park, there has always been that lingering doubt that Pep Guardiola could come calling.
And as per 90min, that day could be soon. It’s suggested that the former Premier League champions are giving “serious thought” to exercising that buy-back clause in 2021, and that with an ageing midfield in the likes of Ilkay Gundogan and Fernandinho, they understand a need to potentially rebuild.
Make no mistake about it, Luiz is one of the first names on the team-sheet for Smith at Villa Park. The Brazilian is a permanent fixture in the engine room, playing every single Premier League game this season, and journalist Gregg Evans was quick to wax lyrical about his huge development over the summer.
Speaking after his display against Manchester United, Evans said: “He’s an absolute joy to watch now and I never thought I would be saying that. Villa have got a fantastic player in Douglas Luiz now, he looks like an absolute star, he could have played in that Man United team.
“He was better than (Paul) Pogba, I thought. I thought he was brilliant, hardly did anything wrong, hardly put a foot wrong. He won so many interceptions and made so many important blocks. When he gets the ball, he passes it nicely. He’s the best player in that Villa team at the moment because it’s just not working for John McGinn.”
Whilst Villa may be worried about some of the Premier League’s big hitters coming in for Jack Grealish, they should also be just as worried about City poaching Luiz.
A transfer report has emerged linking James Garner with a move away from Manchester United, with Coventry City and Millwall keen on the midfielder.
After a title-winning League One campaign, Sky Blues boss Mark Robins has been busy in bolstering his squad options ahead of the new Championship season.
The likes of Gustavo Hamer, Julien Dacosta and Callum O’Hare have all come in and it now looks like the Sky Blues boss is set to make a move for another talented young player.
Teenage Man United talent Garner has emerged as a potential arrival with the midfielder said to be available on a season-long loan deal.
Highly regarded as one of the brightest talents at Old Trafford, the 19-year-old has so far made seven first team appearances for the Premier League side.
With the new Championship season starting this weekend, Manchester Evening News reported that both Coventry and Millwall are interested in making a move. The report added that Huddersfield Town have already held talks with the youngster, whilst claiming that Blackburn Rovers are also keen.
Robins has worked wonders during the transfer window to improve his squad with multiple additions secured and Garner would add further gloss to that.
Of course, it depends how much pulling power Coventry have against the likes of Blackburn and Huddersfield, offering a potentially tasty transfer tussle.
Do you think Garner would be a good signing for Coventry? Let us know your views in the comments section below…
World Cup winner Mario Gotze can be David Moyes’ new trophy piece in midfield if the Scot turns attentions to the German after Club Brugge captain Hans Vanaken snubbed a potential move to West Ham United.
According to Het Laatste Nieuws, via Sport Witness, West Ham have been unsuccessful in their efforts to lure Vanaken to the Premier League after seeing a bid worth in excess of €15million (£13.5m) turned down.
Brugge felt the sum tabled was insufficient to match Vanaken’s value to the Jupiler Pro League champions, while the limited time remaining in the summer window would have made finding a replacement challenging, with the Belgian’s having no immediate option currently in the squad.
But the Irons would have stood to miss out on Vanaken regardless of Brugge’s stance, as the 28-year-old has no intentions of moving to east London and would have snubbed the chance to play alongside the likes of Pablo Fornals and Tomas Soucek.
Moyes had identified Vanaken as his “dream” option to bolster the creative side of his midfield, as the five-cap Belgium international twice voted Belgian Footballer of the Year boasts an insane record of scoring 10 or more times in a campaign for the last seven seasons.
Attention must now turn elsewhere if West Ham are to sign a creative midfielder this summer, with former Borussia Dortmund ace Gotze one potential avenue the Irons can explore following his release.
Gotze departed Dortmund at the end of last season at the expiration of his contract and remains a free agent having yet to sign for a new side.
Hertha Berlin are said to be lining up the 28-year-old as a late window addition to Bruno Labbadia’s side, with Sport Bild reporting that BSC Sporting Director Arne Friedrich and General Manager Michael Preetz are assessing the viability of a move for the £9.45m-rated creator.
Labbadia has previously stated he is a “big Gotze fan” while Friedrich recently confirmed Hertha’s interest, noting: “Of course that’s a name that we were concerned with.”
West Ham, therefore, would have a slim window to snatch Gotze and bring the 2014 World Cup winner to England, in a deal that would add a true trophy piece to Moyes’ plans despite departing Dortmund following a campaign of scarce appearances.
Lucien Favre only awarded Gotze starting roles in five of his 15 Bundesliga appearances, for an average of 35 minutes per game in 2019/20, yet the five-time Bundesliga champion still achieved an average of 24.7 touches, 15.3 accurate passes, 0.7 key balls and 1.6 duels won, whilst creating three big chances for teammates to score and getting three goals himself, per SofaScore.
Scale those numbers up as a regular starter, and Gotze would be creating chances left, right and centre for the likes of Jarrod Bowen, Michail Antonio and Sebastien Haller to score. Or even from the bench, the German would offer a vastly talented option to rest Fornals and co.
AND in other news, West Ham risk unsettling David Moyes’ plans with a move to sign a 39-cap player once signed for £47.5million.