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Everton could discover their new Wayne Rooney in the upcoming January transfer window after they were linked with a move for Derby County midfielder Jason Knight.

What’s the story?

According to Football League World, the Toffees are set to target the 20-year-old over the coming months as new manager Rafa Benitez looks to bolster his engine room options.

However, Everton will have extensive competition for Knight’s signature, with up to seven Premier League sides believed to be interested in his services.

The report states that: “Knight has emerged as a target for a host of Premier League clubs, with FLW sources indicating that Everton, Wolves, Crystal Palace, Leicester, Leeds, Burnley, and Newcastle are all keen.

“ExWHUemployee has now revealed that West Ham are also in the race for the Republic of Ireland international, who has one and a half years left on his current deal at Pride Park.”

Everton could discover their new Wayne Rooney

Despite his tender years, Knight has already made 94 appearances for the Rams in all competitions and made an instant impression on current boss Rooney.

After the Everton academy graduate joined Derby on an initial player-coach deal, he showered the Republic of Ireland international in praise, even comparing him to a younger version of himself.

“I’ve been really impressed with the way they’ve trained, particularly Knighty,” revealed Rooney. “His energy, his attitude. He almost reminds me of myself when I was younger in terms of no fear.

“And he’s got an aggression about him, not in terms of how he’s tackling, but in terms of how he runs, how he gets about the pitch. I’m looking forward to seeing how they do as I feel he can give us a lot of energy and a lot of creativity.”

His current teammate Graeme Shinnie has also been impressed with the form of his youthful colleague as the pair continue to strike up a healthy partnership in the Derby County engine room.

“He has a massive expectation of himself and he demands a lot which is really good as a young player, and his attitude is first class, so it shows a lot about him,” said Shinnie. “He works very hard, as well, which is extremely good, especially for a young player.”

With the Midlands outfit in need of a cash injection following their ongoing financial woes, Knight could be available in a cut-price deal during January, and Everton may well be able to pick up their next talisman for a bargain fee.

He might not quite represent the impeccable offensive threat that Rooney was during his time in Merseyside – bagging 28 strikes – but he’s certainly a young man with swagger, aggression and exuberance to his game; three areas the now Rams manager typified at times.

And, in other news…”Understand” – Patrick Boyland delivers Digne update that’ll leave Everton fans fuming

Many Glasgow Rangers fans have slammed the performance of Ryan Kent in their 1-0 win at Hibernian in the Premiership on Wednesday night.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s team managed to nick all three points at Easter Road in the end thanks to a late penalty from Keemar Roofe, which puts them firmly in pole position at the top of the table.

However, while some players impressed in a Light Blue shirt, Kent did not have his best game, as he lost out on nine of his duels and was unsuccessful with all three of his shots on goal (SofaScore).

The 25-year-old was also guilty of giving the ball away on 17 different occasions in the match, the joint-second most out of his teammates (SofaScore), in what was a frustrating night for him individually.

Rangers fans slam Kent

These Rangers fans slammed Kent’s performance on Twitter, with one Gers supporter going as far as to claim that he was a ‘passenger’ last night:

“Ryan Kent is an absolute passenger so far.”

Credit: @FarvaRangers

“Ryan Kent has been awful for a number of games now – others deserve a chance to prove themselves”

Credit: @RobertsonGreig

“What is the point of Ryan Kent?”

Credit: @mullanmcm

“Ryan Kent having an absolute stinker”

Credit: @BigMoLoyal1872

“Why is Ryan Kent still on this pitch?”

Credit: @StephenMcGarry3

“Ryan Kent still being on the pitch is mind boggling, worst game he’s ever played.”

Credit: @dylanblack23

In other news, find out whose display against Hibs was also slammed by many Gers fans

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

An update has emerged on Viv Solomon-Otabor, regarding Sunderland’s interest in the Wigan forward.

What’s the talk?

According to Nigerian Soccer, as relayed by the Sunderland Echo, Wigan winger Viv Solomon-Otabor is attracting interest from a number of sides. Sunderland, Charlton, Portsmouth, Blackpool and Blackburn are all said to be monitoring his situation ahead of a potential swoop.

The report claims Solomon-Otabor is stalling on an extended contract with Wigan as he is hoping for improved terms from the League One outfit. He is currently set to become a free agent at the end of the month unless Wigan are able to pin him down to a new deal.

Fans would be fuming

Kristjaan Speakman must avoid an error with Solomon-Otabor as Sunderland fans should be fuming if the club signed him this summer. The winger flattered to deceive in League One for Wigan and would not be a great addition to Sunderland’s ranks heading into next season.

He would not be an upgrade on their existing options in attack and this is why Speakman must retract the club’s interest in him.

Solomon-Otabor averaged a dismal WhoScored rating of 6.55 for Wigan in League One. That score would have placed him 21st in the Sunderland squad for the 2020/21 campaign, behind ten other midfield/forward players for the Black Cats.

This suggests that the 25-year-old would be one of the worst players in the Sunderland squad in terms of overall performances at League One level, which does not hint that he could improve Lee Johnson’s side with a transfer to the club.

The £1.5k-per-week dud provided Wigan with two goals and four assists in 28 League One appearances in the season just gone. 11 Sunderland players matched or bettered his goal return and four players were able to produce four or more assists for the club, with Aiden McGeady’s return of 16 assists from the wing a standout in Johnson’s team last season.

McGeady is reportedly on the verge of signing a new contract for Sunderland and that could alleviate any need for a player like Solomon-Otabor, as he could be the starting left winger for another year.

This shows that Solomon-Otabor does not have the quality in his end product or his overall performances to be a good signing for Sunderland and that is why Speakman must pull out of the race for his signature.

Fans will be livid if the club wastes resources on a player who is not, on paper at least, an upgrade on their existing first-team options given his displays for Wigan. Consequently, the Mackems must look elsewhere in the market for new additions.

AND in other news, Speakman must avoid Sunderland blunder over £7k-p/w flop, Johnson won’t want him…

Aston Villa will consider loaning out exciting 18-year-old Aaron Ramsey in January, according to The Athletic’s Gregg Evans. 

The lowdown

Two developments this week underlined Ramsey’s potential. First, he was nominated for the Premier League 2 Player of the Month award for August, having netted two goals in their first three matches (via avfc.co.uk).

He has now been directly involved in 18 goals (scoring 12 and setting up six) in just 24 appearances for Mark Delaney’s youth side (via Transfermarkt).

He then earned a call-up to the England under-21 squad, jumping up from the under-19s following injuries to Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott and Tottenham Hotspur’s Ryan Sessegnon.

The latest

According to Evans for The Athletic, Villa thought about loaning Ramsey out during the summer window, but with some ‘key senior players’ either injured or ill, they decided against such a move. However, the possibility is expected to be revisited during the next transfer window.

Villa are ‘carefully mapping out a pathway’ to the first team for the attacking midfielder, who has been ‘highly thought of for years’.

The verdict

Ramsey is a serious talent, and his record at under-23 level suggests that he’s more than ready to make the step-up to the men’s game.

You’d imagine that he’ll be sent to the Championship, but it’s about finding the right team, the right manager and the right style of play to ensure that it’s a productive loan spell.

Look at Elliott, whose injury led to Ramsey’s England promotion. He has now made his breakthrough at Liverpool after a move to Blackburn Rovers last season proved to be a perfect fit, making 18 goal contributions in 42 appearances at Ewood Park. His is an obvious case study for the Villa starlet to try and emulate if he is loaned out in the winter.

In other news, many Villa fans were left fuming by this news.

Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa has made a decision about Sam Greenwood amid speculation linking him with a move away.

What’s the story?

According to Football Insider, six Championship clubs, including the likes of Swansea and Bournemouth, tried to sign the teenager before transfer deadline day, only for Leeds to reject that interest.

It’s added that a Leeds source has revealed that Greenwood wanted to stay at Elland Road, and that was part of the reason behind why a decision was made at Thorp Arch for the Whites not to pursue a new striker in the summer transfer window.

Leeds fans will be buzzing

In his first season with the club, Greenwood managed 12 goals in 18 games, playing in a number of different roles, including up front, behind the striker and further back as a central midfielder.

The Athletic’s Phil Hay has previously been very vocal in his praise of the youngster, saying: “He’s started really well at Leeds and he was very well thought of at Arsenal, and they weren’t rushing to get him out (of) the door this summer. From what we’ve seen of him so far, his movement and his finishing and everything else, he looks like a very natural striker.”

Meanwhile, Leeds Live’s Joe Donnohue said: “He may have hit the ground running at Thorp Arch, but he has only been here for a matter of months. His start may have been excellent, so imagine how much better he could be with consistent football.”

A better pathway to the first-team is surely one of the things that the Whites would have offered Greenwood when they initially signed him, and they can live up to that end of the bargain right now, especially now they’ve made the statement of turning down offers for him.

Given how Leeds fans are already on board with the 19-year-old, it’s surely the right call from Bielsa to keep him in his thinking at Elland Road and potentially give him a taste of first-team action.

Meanwhile, Leeds United have another academy sensation in this teenager…

Swansea City are interested in a deal to bring Neco Williams to the Liberty Stadium this summer.

What’s the talk?

That’s according to a report by TEAMtalk, who claim that Steve Cooper’s side, along with a host of other Championship and Premier League clubs, are interested in taking the Liverpool right-back on a season-long loan deal in the upcoming transfer window.

It is reported that, at present, Jurgen Klopp is unsure whether or not he would be willing to part with the 20-year-old ahead of next season, however, if he eventually does sanction the temporary departure of the £7.2m-rated man, it seems like he will not be short of suitors.

Cooper must move

Having been thrown into an injury-ravaged Liverpool side at times last season, Williams turned in a number of impressive performances for the Reds in particularly challenging circumstances.

Over his six appearances in the Premier League, the defender made an average of one interception, one tackle and 0.5 key passes per game, with these returns seeing Williams earn an overall seasonal SofaScore match rating of 6.66.

The £7.9k-per-week man also impressed over his four fixtures in the Champions League, providing one assist and creating two big chances, as well as making an average of 1.5 interceptions, 1.8 tackles and 0.5 key passes per game, seeing him average a highly impressive SofaScore match rating of 7.13.

As such, it would very much appear as if Williams could be an excellent addition to Cooper’s Swansea side ahead of their upcoming Championship campaign, in which the 41-year-old will undoubtedly be aiming to go one step further than the Swans’ play-off final appearance this season by securing promotion to the Premier League.

However, with a whole host of clubs interested in the Welsh international, whom Ryan Giggs once dubbed an “outstanding” talent, Cooper should move sooner rather than later for the right-back, or else he risks missing out on the signing to one of the Swans’ Championship rivals.

In other news: Alan Nixon drops massive Swansea City update which is sure to leave fans buzzing

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”

Leeds United must now turn their attention to signing a central midfielder who can compete with Mateusz Klich, according to Noel Whelan. 

The one-time striker, who played for Leeds between 1993 and 1995, was speaking to Football Insider.

The lowdown

As they look to push on from their ninth-placed finish in 2020/21 to the race for Europe next year, Leeds have already completed a pair of signings.

Firstly, they made Jack Harrison’s loan move from Manchester City permanent for a fee of £11m, and then on Tuesday they confirmed a £13m deal to sign Junior Firpo from Barcelona.

A central midfielder could be next on their agenda, with a report from Italy suggesting that Leeds could indicate whether they intend to pay Nahitan Nandez’s €36m (£30.8m) release clause this week.

Leeds shelled out £95.2m last summer ahead of their return to the Premier League, and their top-half finish earned them a £23m boost to their coffers.

The latest

Whelan says that Leeds should have learned a lesson from what he called a ‘dull stretch’ for Klich last season. He feels that better depth is required in the middle of the park and hopes that it will be at the forefront of Director of Football Victor Orta’s thinking.

The 45-year-old told Football Insider: “The next one we need is a midfield player to compete with Mateusz Klich and other players who play in that real central midfield position.

“Maybe not so much Kalvin Phillips’ position. I do feel we’ve got players, like Koch, who can come in and do that job.

“But in that central midfield player, we needed options. We needed better players to come in and help when certain players, like Klich last season, are going through a dull stretch.”

Whelan added: “I’m sure Victor Orta’s working very, very hard. He’s obviously seen the fact we need more help in that midfield, and how important it is to dictate games in that area.”

The verdict

With Leeds looking to elevate their squad, this does stand out as an area of relative weakness. Kalvin Phillips was outstanding at the base of the midfield and Stuart Dallas can thrive in front of him, but Klich is less consistent.

There were games when the Poland international looked excellent, but Leeds can’t ignore his mid-season slump.

If they’re are in a position to spend a similar amount to last summer, which isn’t guaranteed after almost a full season without gate receipts at Elland Road, then perhaps allocating a sizeable chunk of their resources to a new central midfielder, as Whelan has implored, would be a smart move.

In other news, read this update on a long-term Leeds target.  

Fulham look on course to secure a deal that would bring Ethan Horvath to Craven Cottage this summer.

What’s the talk?

That’s according to a claim made by talkSPORT journalist Alex Crook, who revealed in a post on Twitter that Marco Silva’s side look to have won the race for the former Club Brugge KV goalkeeper.

Crook goes on to state that Tottenham Hotspur, as well as a host of Championship clubs, had been linked with a move for the USA international this summer, however, the 26-year-old now looks set to join the Coattgers in the coming days.

Silva will be buzzing

Aside from Fulham appearing to have pipped Spurs to the signing of Horvath, the fact that the club look on course to land a ‘keeper who has highly impressed during his time in Belgium, both domestically and in European competition, is sure to have left Silva buzzing.

Arguably the American’s best season for Brugge came back in 2018/19, with the £1.08m-rated man keeping 11 clean sheets and conceding 30 goals over his 28 Jupiler Pro League appearances, playing a key role in helping his side secure a second-place finish in the top flight of Belgian football.

The man Edwin van der Sar dubbed an “ambitious” player also impressed over his three appearances in the Champions League that year, making an average of 3.7 saves per game and keeping three clean sheets in the competition, seeing him earn an average WhoScored match rating of 7.34.

As such, with a wealth of both top flight and European experience behind him, the £6.3k-per-week 26-year-old would very much appear to make an impressive addition to Silva’s options between the sticks at Craven Cottage next season.

And, with it being reported that the Portuguese manager looks set to offload the £45k-per-week Fabricio Agosto this summer, bringing in Horvath as his replacement would be the holy trinity. He’s an upgrade on the ability of Fabri, a much cheaper option than the Spaniard and a player with a far greater resale value than the veteran shot-stopper.

In other news: Fulham dealt transfer blow over “quality” £6.3m-rated dynamo, Silva will be gutted