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Aston Villa have taken young midfielder Taylor Clark on trial, according to Ashley Preece.

The Lowdown: Clark profiled

Clark is a midfielder who currently plies his trade with Suffolk-based Needham Market.

Described as an ‘unbelievably talented’ player by Needham manager Kevin Horlock, the 17-year-old has progressed through the club’s academy and recently started against Yeovil Town in the FA Trophy.

Villa bolstered their academy ranks in January with the acquisition of Kerr Smith from Dundee United, and although the deadline has now passed, it seems as if a cut-price move for Clark could be on the cards.

The Latest: Villa trial

Preece shared a story for Birmingham Live on Monday evening regarding Villa and Clark.

He stated that the youngster is set to train with Sean Verity’s under-18 side and will play in two academy games at Bodymoor Heath.

The Verdict: Interesting

It’s good to see that Villa are always on the hunt for young talent, and if Clark can impress sufficiently, he might just become the latest addition to the Midlanders’ ranks.

You’d expect that Villa may have to pay the non-league side a fee for the teenager should they wish to offer him a contract, but it could be a nominal sum due to his age and status with the lower league club.

It looks set to be one to watch out for over the coming weeks, with Villa potentially making a head start on their summer academy business.

In other news: ‘Hats off to the board’ – Sky Sports pundit purrs at ‘amazing’ out-of-the-blue Villa transfer news

Wolves and every other Premier League club only have hours left to conduct any late business before the 2022 January transfer window closes.

However, it seems as though Wolves fans can forget about seeing their club sign one player in particular that has been mentioned with a move to Molineux in the past few weeks that will be a very familiar face to a lot of Premier League followers.

What’s the news?

In a recent post on BBC Sport’s deadline day live update tracker, journalist Simon Stone had this to say on Wolves’ reported interest in signing Juventus and former Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey.

He said: “There have been rumours of a Wolves move for Juventus midfielder Aaron Ramsey. Ramsey has been frozen out in Italy and is open to returning to the Premier League. But I have been told Wolves are not one of the clubs expressing an interest.”

Having racked up 371 appearances for Arsenal in which he managed to score 65 goals and provide 65 assists, the 31-year-old joined Juventus in the 2019 summer transfer window.

Since then, the midfielder has made 70 appearances for the Serie A side with six goals and six assists under his belt but has now found himself apparently looking for a new club with Juventus aiming to move him on.

Fans will be gutted

Taking into account the amount of experience the Welshman has in terms of playing in the Premier League and the Champions League as well as winning trophies throughout his career, there will be some Wolves fans out there that will be gutted to hear that their club aren’t looking to bring the midfielder back to England.

After all, this is someone who would not only improve their depth in the centre of the pitch, but add a considerable amount of quality too. He has 40 goals and 51 assists during his Premier League career, suggesting he’d be a big signing for Lage and co.

However, with Wolves having the unflappable midfield duo of Ruben Neves and Joao Moutinho in their squad as well as having Leander Dendoncker and Luke Cundle as backup options, there is an argument to suggest that this isn’t the worst news in the world.

With that in mind, the club may be better off looking at other options if they do want to bring a new player in before the deadline.

In other news: “Wouldn’t surprise me..:” Journo drops Wolves deadline day claim, fans surely gushing – opinion

Tottenham Hotspur insider John Wenham has claimed that Fabio Paratici could complete a swap deal with Villarreal for Pau Torres, with Giovani Lo Celso going the other way.

The Lowdown: Lo Celso impressing at Villarreal

After joining the La Liga outfit on loan in January, the 26-year-old has gone on to make a great impression with his new side, having been awarded player of the match in Villarreal’s shock 1-0 win against Bayern Munich in the Champions League last week.

As a result, a number of rumours have arisen linking the Argentina international with a permanent move to the Spanish club.

This comes amid Spurs’ interest in Torres, after the north London club failed in their pursuit of signing the centre-back last summer.

A recruitment source recently revealed to Football Insider that, once again, the 25-year-old is on Tottenham’s radar ahead of a potential summer swoop.

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The Latest: Wenham’s claim…

Wenham has suggested that Tottenham and Villarreal could come to an agreement over a swap deal for the two players.

Speaking with Football Insider, he claimed: “I think Villarreal are likely to agree a deal for Lo Celso. They actually have several players who are of interest to Tottenham.

“There is no clause in that [Lo Celso] deal but Fabio Paratici likes a swap deal so I’m sure we could work something out there.

“There is previous interest in Pau Torres, he is someone who we have looked at before.

“Danjuma is in great form and they have a good young talent in Yeremi. That is definitely an option we could take.”

The Verdict: Could be a great deal for Spurs

Given Torres’ label as the long-term successor for Sergio Ramos at Real Madrid, it is clear that his arrival at Hotspur Way would be an incredible piece of business for Paratici to pull off.

However, a swap deal between the pair seems unlikely given the differences in their respective transfer values. Torres has a current market value of £45m, whereas Lo Celso is worth just £19.8m.

Therefore, unless Spurs are going to cough up a vast sum alongside the midfielder, the proposed swap deal does not appear feasible.

Either way, it appears that Lo Celso will sign a permanent deal with Villarreal ahead of next season, where he appears to be having a better time of things than he did in north London.

In other news: Tottenham Hotspur: Paratici’s scouting mission to see Djed Spence

Celtic winger Liel Abada is already attracting interest ahead of the summer transfer window.

What’s the talk?

That’s according to a report by The Scottish Sun, who claim that, after a sensational start to his Parkhead career, the 20-year-old is already being closely monitored by Premier League outfit Crystal Palace – with Eagles scouts believed to have visited Celtic Park in order to watch the Israel international in action for the Bhoys.

However, the report goes on to state that Ange Postecoglou views the forward as a key player within his Hoops side, both currently and in the future, while the Celtic hierarchy are not believed to be willing to cash in on the youngster so soon after his £3m signing last summer.

Edouard 2.0

While part of Celtic’s business model will undoubtedly be signing lesser-known talents for minimal prices, before selling these players on for a huge profit after their development in Scotland, losing a player with a future as bright as Abada just a year after his arrival in Glasgow would nevertheless come as a major blow to Postecoglou and his side.

Indeed, over his 23 Premiership appearances since joining the club from Maccabi Petah Tikva last summer, the £4.05m-rated winger has been in remarkable form for the Hoops, having already scored eight goals, registered four assists and created a whopping 12 big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 2.6 shots and making 1.8 key passes per game.

These returns have seen the £15k-per-week forward who Yossi Benayoun dubbed a “star” average an extremely impressive SofaScore match rating of 7.10, ranking him as the Bhoys’ 12th-best performer in the top flight of Scottish football – a quite astonishing feat for a player who only turned 20 years of age last October.

As such, should Michael Nicholson go on to repeat Dominic McKay’s £14m sale of Odsonne Edouard to the South London side, it is clear for all to see that, should the club wish to challenge for the Premiership title, as well as get back to playing Champions League football in the seasons to come, selling a player with the ability of Abada would be a repeat of the Edouard blunder for the league leaders.

In other news: Lifeline: Ange’s £8.2k-p/w Celtic passenger a big winner from January transfer window

Celtic saw a massive amount of transfer activity take place during the previous summer window in terms of the number of players that moved in and out of the club.

One player that ended up waving goodbye to the Parkhead club is midfielder Olivier Ntcham.

Having joined the Hoops back in the 2017 summer transfer window from Manchester City for a fee of £4.5m, the Frenchman ended up making 147 appearances for the Bhoys across all competitions.

In those appearances, the 26-year-old found the back of the net 24 times and delivered 13 assists.

After spending a short loan spell with Marseille between February and June last year, the midfielder finally found himself leaving Celtic on a permanent basis as he join Championship club Swansea City on a free transfer.

Since then, the former City youngster has made 33 appearances for the Welsh club in the Championship, prior to their match against Reading.

Despite scoring four goals and providing three assists in those appearances, the midfielder’s overall performances have not been particularly impressive.

Even though he has the second-highest number of shots this season in Swansea’s squad with 55, only 19 of them have been on target.

From a defensive point of view, the £14k-per-week former Hoops gem has only managed to make 12 interceptions and eight tackles in addition to committing 14 tackles and picking up three yellow cards.

His overall performances have earned Ntcham a rather underwhelming season rating of 6.55/10 according to WhoScored, which would put him among some of the lowest-rated players in Ange Postecoglou’s squad to start more than one league game by the same metric.

Having been labelled as a “disgrace” in the past for his performances for Celtic by Noel Whelan, there isn’t much in his time at Swansea that will have made many people at the Parkhead club wish they had kept hold of him.

As well as this, Alan Hutton claimed that the midfielder “downed tools” during the latter stages of his spell with the Bhoys, which also makes it easy to see why the club got rid of him and why they will now be having the last laugh.

Taking all of this into account, it seems as though it was a masterclass from Postecoglou to sanction this move for Ntcham to join Swansea.

With the Hoops boasting the best attacking and defensive record in the SPFL, it’s hard to imagine many supporters wishing they still had the Frenchman in their ranks.

In other news: Ange can finally axe £10.5k-p/w Celtic disaster with “unbelievable” £5m “terrier”

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The future of Tottenham Hotspur attacker Christian Eriksen remains up in the air.

Indeed, Eriksen will see his current contract with Spurs expire at the end of next season.

A recent report claimed that the London club had made a breakthrough when it comes to the Denmark international’s future.

However, the simple fact of the matter is that the 6ft ace is yet to pen an extension and there will surely be offers at the end of the season.

Eriksen is enjoying another fine campaign, scoring seven goals and registering 12 assists in 33 appearances for Tottenham in all competitions.

Chelsea, Barcelona and Real Madrid have all been credited with an interest, which will be a concern for Tottenham.

Pl>ymaker FC’s Matchday with Max caught up with Jamaica’s women’s team. See what happened when he met the history makers in the video below…

The London club’s fans have recently been on social media commenting on the 27-year-old’s future and it would be fair to say that a number are desperate for some sort of announcement.

A selection of the latest Twitter reaction can be seen below:

Paul Pogba is ‘heading’ for the exit door at Manchester United, The Athletic’s Laurie Whitwell says. 

The lowdown

Pogba’s £290,000-per-week Old Trafford contract is due to expire at the end of June.

United bought him back from Juventus in 2016 for a fee of £94.5million, the biggest transfer in Premier League history before Romelu Lukaku (£101.7million) and Jack Grealish (£105.75million) moved to Chelsea and Manchester City respectively last summer.

Pogba has made 232 appearances for the Red Devils in total, winning the Europa League and EFL Cup in 2016/17 before earning a place in the PFA Team of the Year in 2018/19.

On Saturday, as Manchester United scraped past bottom-of-the-table Norwich City at home, United supporters booed Pogba, who responded by cupping his ear.

The Frenchman isn’t the only player poised to walk on a free transfer come the summer, with Jesse Lingard, Edinson Cavani and Juan Mata all out of contract too.

The latest

Speaking live on Sky Sports News on Sunday afternoon, Whitwell indicated that the ship had sailed.

He says Pogba has shown little interest in signing a lucrative contract, and feels that his reception on Saturday has confirmed the inevitability of his exit.

“It’s heading that way [Pogba leaving at the end of the season],” he said.

“United offered him a very big contract last summer – £400,000 per week – and he’s left that sitting there because they didn’t offer him a contract the year before when he felt like maybe he wanted one.

He later added: “There was some doubt before this [the booing] that he would definitely leave, but I think that puts the underlining score in that situation really.”

The verdict

Will prospective manager Erik ten Hag have played in any role this decision?

Fabrizio Romano reported earlier this month that Ten Hag had asked for ‘100%’ involvement in ‘present and future transfers strategy’, including new contracts.

The Dutchman has since verbally agreed to become the new manager, potentially indicating that those demands have been met.

It’s possible that he’s greenlit Pogba’s exit, or it may be the case that United were already resigned to that outcome.

It now remains to be seen if he intervenes in an attempt to prevent Lingard, Cavani or Mata departing.

In other news, United have held a meeting with this superstar’s agent.

A number of Liverpool supporters have slammed Jordan Henderson’s performance against Arsenal, despite the Reds reaching the League Cup final.

Jurgen Klopp’s men produced an impressive display away to the Gunners on Thursday evening, winning 2-0 at the Emirates.

Liverpool dominated the game barring a slow start, with Diogo Jota twice finding the net to fire his side to Wembley and a final against Chelsea next month.

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There were standout performers for the Reds in north London, from Jota to Trent Alexander-Arnold, but Henderson was again a long way short of his best.

The Liverpool captain played no key passes on the night and lost possession five times, according to Sofascore, lacking his usual energy in the middle of the park.

He was dribbled past once and only registered 39 touches, which was a whopping 20 less than his own goalkeeper, Caoimhin Kelleher.

It is not the first time the skipper has struggled this term, ranking as Liverpool’s 14th-best player for the season on Whoscored.

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Liverpool fans criticise Henderson display

Henderson’s performance wasn’t ignored by some Reds fans on Twitter, who took to the social media platform to lambast his display.

“Henderson plays against us now. Man just got the ball off from Fabinho there”

Credit: @LuffyLFC

“Henderson had a very poor game. Really struggling for a bit of form at the minute”

Credit: @ciarano44

“Henderson did nothing all game yet again. Nobody has been good. But Henderson was invisible. He never came back from the Euros”

Credit: @AndyLFC17

“I’m better than Jordan Henderson and I’m 17”

Credit: @JacobSize3

“That was a truly anonymous performance from Henderson there”

Credit: @DollyDevereaux

“Henderson now is so poor in midfield and not improving at all. I miss players like Elliot, Thiago, Keita. Only Jones is doing anything in attack”

Credit: @Horlawale3043

In other news, some Liverpool fans are buzzing over a Reds transfer update. Read more here.

Liverpool kept the pressure on league leaders Manchester City after beating Leicester 2-0 at Anfield on Thursday night.

Jurgen Klopp’s side came into the game knowing that only a victory would suffice, and a brace from Diogo Jota did the job.

While the Reds boss will no doubt be delighted with picking up all three points, one man who blew his opportunity to impress the manager was Roberto Firmino.

The Brazilian has been one of the main benefactors of seeing both Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane head off to AFCON over the last month, but with that tournament over, he knew the clash against the Foxes would be his one last chance to really showcase why he shouldn’t be the man to come out of the starting line-up.

Instead, he fluffed his lines, with Klopp promptly hooking him for a returning Salah early on in the second-half.

As per Sofascore, he lost possession a whopping 17 times in his 60 minutes on the pitch, the second-most of any Liverpool player on the night. He also won just five out of his ten duels as he struggled to get to grips with the pace of the game, finding himself on the periphery of things.

Indeed, his total of 16 passes was actually one less than goalkeeper Alisson who managed 17, and failed to provide any key passes whatsoever or complete any of his two attempted dribbles either.

Writing in his post-match player ratings for The Liverpool Echo, Ian Doyle gave him the joint-lowest score of a six, as he wrote: “Flitted in and around the Leicester back line while linking the play in trademark fashion and forced the corner for the opener. Twice tested Schmeichel, but a little loose on the ball at times. Booked and subbed.”

Having started the past three games in the Premier League, Thursday’s clash against Brendan Rodgers’ side represented the perfect opportunity for Firmino to make that final statement to Klopp before Salah returns to full match fitness and Mane makes his comeback after Senegal’s AFCON triumph.

Instead, the Brazilian forward failed to grasp his chance with both hands.

In other news: “Agreement in place” – Romano drops last-gasp Liverpool update, Klopp surely buzzing

Former Premier League marksman Kevin Phillips has given his reaction to transfer news involving Manchester United and Tammy Abraham. 

The lowdown: Abraham linked with Man United

Since joining Jose Mourinho at AS Roma from Chelsea last year, the 24-year-old has enjoyed a stellar campaign in Italy.

With the futures of Marcus Rashford, Edinson Cavani and Cristiano Ronaldo at Old Trafford all uncertain, the Red Devils were linked with a move for the former Blues ace by Italian news outlet Corriere della Sera.

The report claimed that United would be willing to spend €90m (£75m) on the England international, although Phillips doesn’t believe that it would be a wise move.

The latest: Phillips unsure on Abraham move

Speaking to Football Insider, the 2000 European Golden Shoe winner was asked whether spending big on Abraham at this juncture is a viable option.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Phillips warned against the expenditure, saying: “I’m not sure for that sort of money.

“Credit to the player for going over to Italy and take the challenge on. He is doing well and is scoring goals.

“We saw Lukaku do something similar when he left Man United to go to Inter Milan. He came back as a £100million player but that has not worked. That has not been the great success that we all thought it would be.

“I fear it would be a similar scenario with Abraham, to be honest. The football over there is nowhere near as competitive or as good as it is in the Premier League.

“Tammy found it hard at times when he was here. I’d be very cautious to spend that kind of money on him.”

The verdict: Heed the warning

Whilst the 10-cap England striker has enjoyed a career renaissance in Rome, one swallow doesn’t make a summer and United would be taking a huge risk with this deal.

So far this season, Abraham has scored 23 times and provided four assists. That is an even better tally than the Red Devils’ top scorer Ronaldo, who has 18 goals and three assists to his name in 2021/22.

However, signing the £40.5m-valued Abraham – who is under contract until 2026 (Transfermarkt) and therefore has a very secure future from Roma’s perspective – for the mooted £75m fee would undoubtedly be too big a stretch.

In other news: Man Utd closing in on new manager appointment. Read more here.