It is not exactly breaking news that Leeds United fans love Pablo Hernandez.
The 32-year-old has been a class act during his time in the English game, and has contributed two goals and three assists in 16 Championship appearances this season.
The former Spain international scored Leeds’ opener in their 2-1 win over Middlesbrough last time out, and was keen to pay tribute to the club’s supporters when interviewed after the match.
Hernandez, who is valued at £2.3m by transfermarkt.co.uk, will actually see his current deal at Elland Road expire next summer, but the Leeds fans are desperate for him to sign another one-year contract.
It is not exactly the worst tactic in the world to hail the supporters following an important win, but Hernandez was already an incredibly popular figure in the eyes of the fans.
If the former Champions League semi-finalists are to challenge for promotion this season, Hernandez will have a big role to play.
A selection of the best Twitter reaction to Hernandez’s interview can be found below:
Being a young footballer is as much about seizing opportunities as talent. It’s almost impossible to fathom the number of prodigious English forwards as talented as Harry Kane who simply didn’t get the chance to usurp two high-earning strikers with proven scoring records like Emmanuel Adebayor and Roberto Soldado.
Multiply that across every position and every club in England’s top four divisions and that’s a gigantic number of young talents who simply never got the opportunity to show what they’re capable of.
That’s an indictment on the modern game in England, the causes and underlying factors of which remain a discussion for another occasion. The consequence is simple though; young players hoping for a professional senior career must take the opportunities that come to them, even if they’re not in their favoured positions and even if it requires modifying their games.
When gaps open in top teams, regardless of which area of the field they’re situated, it’s up to the young players to prove they can adapt enough to fill them.
With Oumar Niasse suspended for Everton’s next two games, pending appeal, and the failure to bring in a star striker during the summer an undoubted cause behind Ronald Koeman’s departure, that’s an important reality check for Ademola Lookman to bear in mind.
The 20-year-old is more support act than front-man, more inward-cutting winger than central focal point – rather tellingly, just one of his 13 senior goals have come when deployed as a centre-forward – but his pallet of raw attributes contains enough to provide a short-term solution to what has been Everton’s problem position throughout 2017/18. From there, his career well could springboard to the levels expected of League One’s most expensive export of all time.
The first and arguably most pivotal attribute is Lookman’s speed. He’s always been a frightening quick forward both with and without the ball, but that is of particular significance for an Everton side lacking pace in most departments.
Nowhere is that more evident than in the No.10 role, where Wayne Rooney, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Davy Klaassen have all struggled to provide the necessary dynamism this season. Lookman’s natural speed would compensate for that, creating the space those players need to show their quality by stretching the opposition. Should they manage to consistently thread them through, it would provide them with a go-to pass into the channels as well – the kind of areas where Lookman’s dribbling and delivery comes into play.
Secondly, Lookman can be a clinical finisher when given the opportunities. 45 league appearances for a Charlton side that plummeted out of the Championship during that time provided ten goals – a total that would likely have been far higher in a more talented team with greater confidence – and it was his scoring record for the south east London outfit’s youth system that saw him surge through the U18 and U21 age groups into the first team – just a year after being signed from non-league outfit Waterloo.
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That leads into Lookman’s third key attribute; his character and willingness to improve and learn. Signs of that at Goodison Park have been limited thus far, largely due to the lack of opportunities that have come his way, but this is a Premier League footballer who wasn’t even plying his trade with a professional club three years ago. Lookman has transformed exponentially during that time and risen to the challenges put in front of him; becoming Everton’s new goalscorer is just the latest of obstacles that once seemed insurmountable for the 20-year-old.
It remains an unusual route of progress for a young Premier League attacker. The common practice, as we’ve seen from Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial to name a few, is to prove they can impact the scoreline from out wide before being trusted as the central forward. But once again, it’s a question of what gaps in the first team are available, and a willingness to adapt to fill them.
Lookman’s already shown he can be an incredibly fast learner; it’s now down to whether he can hone his skills quickly enough to put himself in the reckoning to start up front in Everton’s next few games. For starters, he’ll have to rise above Dominic Calvert-Lewin – another young forward who is arguably a better candidate for the central striking role through his 6 foot 1 frame.
But Calvert-Lewin’s been given chances already this season and has struggled to look the part. He’s proved influential in moments, but the Toffees’ all-round play has remained dysfunctional. There are more causes than simply Calvert-Lewin, but he’s only sparingly provided the nous and goal-threat to consistently lead the line. Lookman, likewise, would change the dynamics with a greater emphasis on speed and attacking the space behind defences.
A few months ago, such a significant role for Lookman seemed incredibly unlikely, following a solid if unspectacular first half-season on Merseyside and a summer in which Everton set a string of club records in the transfer market. But David Unsworth knows the youngster – who Transfermarkt value at just £4.5million – well from the development team, has placed a huge emphasis on youth during his caretaker spell and issued Lookman a start out wide against Crystal Palace last weekend.
If anyone is going to give Lookman a chance up front, it’s surely Everton’s temporary incumbent.
Liverpool will be looking to pick up their third successive Premier League away win when they face Brighton and Hove Albion at the Amex Stadium on Saturday, and Reds fans want Joe Gomez to get the nod at centre-back after Joel Matip was ruled out for a month.
The Merseyside outfit come into the clash against the Seagulls on the back of 4-1 and 3-0 successes on the road against West Ham United and Stoke City respectively, and the in-form Mohamed Salah became the top goalscorer in the top flight after netting his 11th and 12th of the season as a substitute against the Potters.
Gomez has largely been used at right-back this season in the absence of the injured Nathaniel Clyne, but he could be moved across to the centre of the defence this weekend with Matip missing.
Liverpool supporters were quick to have their say on the England international via social media, and while one said ‘surely he has to come into the CB position’, another said “Gomez has to be his replacement”.
Sheffield Wednesday fans have been discussing making a shock swoop for Leeds target Matej Vydra, and nearly two thirds of fans are backing a big move.
Derby County are expected to offload some first team players this summer as the Rams look to trim their wage bill, and Vydra could be the first out the door.
The 20-cap Czech international, valued at £7.2m by Transfermarkt, has been heavily linked with a move to Leeds, and The Telegraph claimed this weekend an £11m switch to Elland Road is edging closer.
Marcelo Bielsa needs a proven goalscorer if he’s going to get Leeds moving towards the right end of the table, but they are also interested in Abel Hernandez, and Owls’ fans are clearly hoping they swoop in and steal Vydra while their rivals are hesitating.
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Wednesday already have Gary Hooper and Atdhe Nuhiu, and their first priority this summer should be a creative playmaker rather than a goalscorer, but £11m for last season’s top scorer is simply too good to pass up.
Fans clearly agree, as 61 per cent said they should make a move for Vydra, and we suspect a few Leeds fans might have influenced the poll in the other direction as well.
Either way, you can find the full poll results down below…
The Leeds United fans in the Transfer Tavern are hoping their club can return to the Premier League next season under the watchful eye of Marcelo Bielsa, but recent reports suggest that the Argentine is looking in all the wrong places in the transfer market.
The Breakdown
It’s no secret that Leeds United are in the market for a new centre-forward this summer as rumours circulate regarding a handful of potential targets. The likes of Abel Hernandez and Baghdad Bounedjah have been heavily linked with a switch to Elland Road, but a recent report from The Sun suggests that the club have added a Premier League striker to their wish list, namely Jordan Hugill of West Ham United.
After enjoying an impressive opening to the 2017/18 season with Preston North End, Hugill earned a chance to prove himself in the Premier League as West Ham paid £9.2 million to bring him to the London Stadium last January.
However, Hugill made just 3 cameo appearances totalling 22 minutes of competitive football in a thoroughly underwhelming opening to his career in East London.
Leeds’ interest is rather misplaced considering how miserably he failed to break into a team which was hardly firing on all cylinders in the final-third.
His record of 8 goals from 27 appearances for Preston prior to his transfer was hardly groundbreaking either, and if Leeds want to genuinely challenge for promotion next season they will need to aim much higher in the transfer market.
A natural target man by trade, Hugill is far from a good fit for Bielsa who has generally favoured mobile strikers in his career so far and, with that in mind, the recently-appointed manager would be wise to turn his attention towards alternative targets this summer.
In idly standing by as Liverpool completed a bargain £13million swoop for Xherdan Shaqiri, Tottenham have missed a trick that may not only see the Reds leapfrog them in the Premier League compared to last season’s final standings, but could also propel Jurgen Klopp’s side towards genuine title contention in 2018/19.
That may come across as a hyperbolic notion, because for all the Switzerland international’s undoubted quality, which resulted in him clinching a career-best eight goals and seven assists in the Premier League last season, he still doesn’t seem like the right fit for the profile Klopp’s created at Anfield, one of selflessness and industriousness.
Whereas Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah – not to mention the midfield and defence behind them – made Liverpool Champions League finalists for 2018 through their ability to combine lethal flair with relentless energy, Shaqiri’s a far more docile presence, closer to Mesut Ozil than Alexis Sanchez.
Last season, playing for a Stoke side that averaged just 44% possession and made the third-most tackles of any Premier League club, Shaqiri managed just 0.7 tackles per match. Playing for a Liverpool team that record 58% possession, Mane and Firmino averaged one tackle and 1.8 tackles per match respectively.
Quite a chasm. But in many ways, that’s the real genius of Liverpool’s swoop for the former Potters talisman – the fact he doesn’t fit the system at all – and it’s something a likeminded manager in Mauricio Pochettino can learn from. It seems a strange thing to say about a side that reached a European final and scored 84 Premier League goals, but there were times last season when Liverpool became painfully one dimensional.
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Carlos Carvalhal’s quip about putting a Formula 1 car in London traffic still rings true; when Liverpool are allowed to play at their speed in their style, they’re pretty much unstoppable. But when the opposition slow them down or force the game to be played around different dynamics, the Anfield outfit often come unstuck. See disappointing defeats or draws against Burnley, Newcastle, West Brom, Everton, Swansea and Stoke in the top flight alone for crucial evidence.
Tottenham have a similar kind of problem. When they can close down, press teams and break with speed, they can give any team in Europe a run for their money. When circumstances aren’t so accommodating and the challenge changes to unlocking a desperate defence though, Spurs don’t always find a way through.
While he may not encompass the ideals that have made Tottenham and Liverpool amongst the most exciting teams in the Premier League over the last few years, that’s what Shaqiri offers – the ability to unlock a defence, to do something uniquely special in tight spaces, to remove the backline from the equation entirely by ripping in a curler from long range – and through that modest relegation release clause he was certainly there for the taking this summer.
Perhaps that’s what the north Londoners see in Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish – he can jink past a defender, play a delicate pass or hit the net from distance too – but Shaqiri is the Premier League-proven model and one that cost Liverpool less than what Spurs will most likely have to pay for the promising young Englishman. £13million for Shaqiri, compared to a potential £30million-£40million for the Villa prodigy, at least according to the Championship club’s valuation.
And what this says about Liverpool and Klopp’s intentions for the new season shouldn’t be overlooked. Spending a world-record sum on a goalkeeper while bringing in two new central midfielders is statement enough of Liverpool’s intent, but signing Shaqiri suggests Klopp’s looking at the whole picture – not necessarily how to improve the Reds against the top teams, but how to give them the cutting edge against the clubs that always seem to get at their Achilles heel. It’s a 38-game multi-dimensional approach, and that’s what every club needs to sufficiently challenge for the title.
Suddenly, £13million seems like an incredibly small price to pay to solve those issues, and an incredibly big opportunity missed for Spurs. While Liverpool are completing signings to take them to the next level by increasing their consistency over a whole campaign, Tottenham remain just one of three Premier League clubs yet to make any signings this summer.
Should Spurs have swooped for Shaqiri? Let us know by voting below…
Newcastle should be back in the market for a centre midfielder after Mikel Merino departed the club.
The Spaniard spent last season on loan at St. James Park and made 24 appearances as the Magpies ended the campaign in tenth. Rafael Benitez triggered the clause in the contract to make his move permanent when the summer transfer window reopened. However, just weeks later, Merino was sold to Real Sociedad.
Benitez will be back in the market for a midfielder and has been linked with a move for the former star, Georginio Wijnaldum. Prising the Dutchman from Liverpool will prove costly, and Mike Ashley is surely unlikely to fund a deal with Wijnaldum’s wages totalling around £90,000-per-week.
Instead, the Magpies should target Zenit St Petersburg lynchpin – Leandro Paredes. Valued at £18m by Transfermarkt, he joined the club last summer in a £20m deal for Roma. He instantly became a key player for Zenit, making 35 appearances in all competitions.
Paredes would be the ideal signing to bring the best out of Jonjo Shelvey. The defensive midfielder is the perfect deep-lying playmaker, picking up eight assists last season and averaging 2.4 key passes per game (WhoScored). He also chipped in with five goals for his side.
The Argentine is also a decent defender who reads the game exceptionally well – averaging 1.9 tackles per game last season. Paredes’ long passing is his biggest strength, no one in the Newcastle midfield averaged more than the 24-year-old.
If Newcastle could lure him from Russia, they would have the next Premier League star on their hands.
Liverpool have not exactly been tightening the pursestrings this summer as they have spent more than £100m on new signings.
The Reds have recruited midfielder Fabinho from Monaco, as well as Stoke City attacker Xherdan Shaqiri.
Naby Keita arrived from RB Leipzig after agreeing to join Liverpool last summer, but the biggest deal for the club so far has been the capture of Roma goalkeeper Alisson.
BBC Sport claim that the Merseyside outfit made the 25-year-old the most expensive keeper in history by forking out £66.8m for his signature.
Despite witnessing their club spend heavy this summer, Liverpool fans have taken aim at local rivals Everton for splashing the cash on Watford winger Richarlison.
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The Toffees confirmed the Brazilian’s arrival on Tuesday, and BBC Sport reported that a £50m fee had been agreed, with £35m being paid initially.
Some Liverpool fans believe that Everton have paid over the odds for a winger who scored five goals and created five assists in 38 Premier League outings last season.
Plenty of supporters from the red half of Merseyside took to Twitter after the transfer was announced.
Liverpool are looking to win the Premier League title next season and have spent big sums this summer as they look to finally get their hands on England’s most prestigious prize.
With Jurgen Klopp at the helm and the likes of Fabinho, Naby Keita, and Allison all coming through the door this summer, expectations will be high amongst Reds fans, who are simply desperate to see success come to Anfield while the German is in charge.
Liverpool already have one of the best first XI’s in world football, and the likes of Mo Salah and Sadio Mane are truly world class players, however, to succeed over the course of a campaign and compete on all fronts, squad depth is going to be key, so a few more additions might well be welcomed.
Experience is always a big keyword in winning teams, and we at the Transfer Tavern think they don’t come much more experienced than German World Cup winner Sami Khedira.
The Juventus ace, still valued at an impressive £22.5m by Transfermarkt, had a slow tournament over in Russia this summer, but the fact remains he is a quality performer on the highest level, and would be a superb addition for the Reds.
While Jordan Henderson impressed for England and new signing Keita is bound to bring a bundle of energy to the midfield, Khedira would bring with him a wealth of experience, knowhow, and a winning mentality which is needed to succeed at the top level.
At 31, he still has plenty in the tank, and after succeeding in both Spain and Italy, he could well fancy the move to the Premier League, making Liverpool the ideal destination.
Liverpool fans, what do you think? Good signing? Let us know in the comments!
Crystal Palace are closing in on the capture of striker Munas Dabbur from Red Bull Salzburg, according to Estadio Deportivo.
What’s the word?
Roy Hodgson managed to guide the Eagles away from the relegation zone last season and finished 11th in the Premier League.
The priority will be to avoid a battle at the bottom, and the coach has recruited a number of players that can help them achieve their main objective.
Cheikhou Kouyate and Max Meyer recently moved to Selhurst Park, while goalkeeper Vicente Guaita is also a new face in the squad.
Now, according to Estadio Deportivo, Palace are hoping to win the race to sign Dabbur from Red Bull Salzburg.
Who is Dabbur?
The 26-year-old has been at the German club since 2016 following a switch from Grasshopper.
Dabbur – valued at £11.25m by Transfermarkt – has spent chunks of his career in Israel and Switzerland, but would be brand new to English football if he were to sign for Palace.
That is a risk for the Eagles, but they are targeting the striker after a very impressive season in which he netted 29 goals in all competitions.
Doubts remain over Wilfried Zaha’s future, but if Dabbur signs, he can take on part of the goal burden, which could make him a crucial part of Palace’s season.
The Israel international can also play just behind the striker or wide left.