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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

David Healy has tipped Kyle Lafferty to move on from Rangers this summer, as reported by The Scottish Sun.

What’s the story?

Northern Ireland legend Healy has spoken about Lafferty’s future under Steven Gerrard at Ibrox, and the Linfield boss believes it’s time for Lafferty to move on from the Gers.

Healy said: “If you speak to Kyle he will probably say he he hasn’t done enough when given the opportunity.

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“Others will say he wasn’t given enough chances by Gerrard, but I think Kyle has had enough chances at Rangers.

“I hope it works out for him at a new club where he can settle down and get back to his best.”

Time for Lafferty to leave

Lafferty only rejoined the club in August of last year but has struggled to tie down a consistent starting spot. The striker has faced stern competition from Alfredo Morelos and Jermain Defoe over the season and has seen his game time restricted.

The 31-year-old completed 90 minutes just five times in a Rangers jersey last season, meaning his potential loss won’t be felt nearly as much as Morelos’ would be, someone who also been linked with a move away from Ibrox this summer.

At 31 Lafferty will still want to be playing regular football and this is something he won’t get under Gerrard this season. With Defoe and either Morelos or a new signing (if the Colombian goes) preferred, Gerrard simply won’t need Lafferty’s services.

Check out the below above to see football played as you’ve never seen it before… in a maze!

The veteran target man still showed glimpses of the quality that has been present throughout his career last season. He was brilliant in the Gers’ 2-2 draw with Villareal in Spain, scoring a goal and leading the line well.

However, his pathetic return of just five Premiership goals throughout Gerrard’s debut campaign left a lot to be desired and Healy has got it spot on – he’s had more than enough chances.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

According to Sky Italia, via Football Italia, Wolves are trying to land German veteran Sami Khedira this summer.

What’s the word?

Wolves will play their first competitive football on Thursday night when they welcome Crusaders to Molineux with a slim squad.

Just 12 senior outfield players were taken to China for the Premier League Asia Trophy so it’s clear more depth needs to be added to the side.

In recent weeks, moves for Patrick Cutrone and Ruben Dias have been touted but they’re also in talks for another European star.

Per Sky Italia, via Football Italia, Wolves have asked Juventus about signing midfielder Khedira.

The 77-cap German has been the subject of discussion between Juventus’ director of sport Fabio Paratici and Wolves after he was in England on Wednesday.

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Huge statement

Wolves have made some major plays in the transfer market since arriving in the Premier League, signing Raul Jimenez for as much as £30m.

He didn’t necessarily arrive with European pedigree, however, as they’ve made permanent moves for the likes of Jonny and Leander Dendoncker.

If the club landed both Dias and Cutrone it would be a big sign of intent but by bringing Khedira to Molineux too, it could well be one of Nuno’s largest statements yet.

The fact is that the 32-year-old is a serial winner and proven among some of the biggest clubs in Europe, having enjoyed a spell with Real Madrid as well as Juventus.

If you don’t know the words to the Joao Moutinho chant in the video below, are you even a real Wolves fan?…

Joao Moutinho, who is also 32, was snapped up last season and questions may have been asked about his age.

Indeed the same fears could arise surrounding links with Khedira but this is a player who has proven his quality time and time again on the biggest stage.

He’s a World Cup and Champions League winner, having appeared in the latter competition 72 times throughout his career.

The midfielder has amassed serious numbers in some of the top five divisions in the world, playing on over 100 occasions in La Liga whilst racking up 98 Bundesliga and 87 Serie A appearances.

Possessing the ability to play as a central midfielder and in more of a holding role, this would be a smart signing for Wolves and would add a wealth of experience that could prove key in Europe next term.

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Former Leeds star Noel Whelan believes Alfredo Morelos’ attitude is the reason no clubs are in for the striker, he told Football Insider.

What’s the story?

The ex-Leeds United man hit out at the Colombian for ruining his own chances of earning a shot at the big time this summer thanks to indiscipline. Morelos was sent off five times and booked a further 16 times in his 48 appearances for the Gers last term.

Whelan has told Football Insider he thinks this is why there are no clubs in for Morelos: “When you’ve got a player with an attitude like Morelos at Rangers, they want to get rid of him because of his attitude.

“That’s the reason these players are going cheap, that’s the reason why Morelos isn’t being looked at by anybody.”

Morelos notched an impressive 30 goals last season and has been mooted as a Premier League recruit this summer. Crystal Palace has been suggested as a destination by Ray Parlour while Newcastle have  been directly linked to the 23-year-old.

Gerrard has spoken about interest in his striker, stating that it’d take a ‘really big offer’ to prize him away from Ibrox.

The cards may be a blessing in disguise

If Whelan is right in claiming clubs like Newcastle have been put off by Morelos’ discipline issues, those bookings and suspensions might well be a blessing in disguise for Rangers.

Morelos was also linked to Borussia Dortmund by Sky Sports during last season, but the German giants might’ve been put off the temperamental striker for the same reason.

Whilst frustrating for Gerrard at the time, the indiscipline could have bought him an extra season to work with the forward and really push Celtic at the top of Scottish football.

With Morelos in his side, Gerrard is more likely to win something given his incredible goal-scoring record, but he could be long gone this summer if he’d cleaned up his act last year. Having shown such promise in front of goal, it does seem to be the only thing holding Morelos back right now.

Gerrard might just look back on a year of frustration as a necessary evil in a 12 months’ time if Morelos fires Rangers to success this term.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

Tottenham Hotspur youngster Tobi Oluwayemi signed for Celtic after being “blown away” by the Scottish club’s plans for him, according to Football Insider.

What’s the story?

The 16-year-old will join Celtic’s Development Squad having signed a three-year deal at Parkhead. The goalkeeper arrives from Premier League side Spurs and has featured for various England youth squads so far in his career.

At only 16 he’s some way from becoming a first-team regular but the keeper was impressed by the club’s pitch to him. Per Football Insider, the sales pitch was led by both academy and recruitment staff and it worked a treat as the exciting prospect signed on the dotted line.

The Celts’ staff made it clear that they see Oluwayemi as a future first-team keeper at the club, something that obviously went down well with the youngster.

An exciting deal on many levels

The former Spurs goalie can’t see a clear route to the first-team just yet – Scott Bain is currently number one ahead of Craig Gordon, who is in the last year of his deal, while young Conor Hazard looks like becoming Neil Lennon’s third-choice stopper this season.

However, there’s hope that Oluwayemi can break into the first-team during his initial three-year contract, says Football Insider’s report, with Lennon perhaps hoping for a long-term battle between the new arrival and Hazard.

More importantly though, the deal shows Celtic can still compete with the biggest clubs in the market. Spurs have become one of the biggest sides in the world since Mauricio Pochettino arrived, falling at the last hurdle in the Champions League last term before splashing out a club-record £53.8m sum on highly-rated Tanguy Ndombele.

Looking past their status as a new super-club, Pochettino has been a champion of youth since arriving in England and hasn’t been scared to give youngsters their chance. This makes the signing of Oluwayemi even more impressive for the Bhoys – he has chosen to leave a manager who is notorious for nurturing young talent.

At Spurs, there’s a clear progression plan with academy products afforded chances at the highest level. Harry Kane was one of their own, in case you’d forgotten.

Yet, Celtic proved a more enticing prospect for the youngster in what could be a much more important deal than it appears on first glance, as it shows once again that the Hoops have massive pulling power and will continue to be able to lure top talent north of the border.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

Ryan Kent will only be allowed to leave Liverpool for a whopping £10m this summer, according to The Liverpool Echo (10:08), severely denting any hopes that he could make a return to Rangers.

What’s the story?

With the English transfer window closing on Thursday, Liverpool have laid down their plans for the 22-year-old. Jurgen Klopp had previously told The Liverpool Echo that Kent wouldn’t be allowed to leave the club on a temporary deal again.

It appears Klopp has now clarified his winger’s position further, with Kent being allowed to leave for £10m, but facing a year of trying desperately to scrap his way into the Liverpool first-team if that evaluation is not met by Thursday.

Kent has been linked, per The Scottish Sun, with a return to the Gers this summer, having won the Young Player of the Year award after impressing in his 43 appearances last season. He is also linked with Leeds.

No return for Kent

With The Liverpool Echo revealing the price of any deal for Kent to be £10m, it could well be curtains for a potential return to Ibrox.

A fee in that region would make the winger the second-most expensive player in Ibrox history and be the first time the club have spent more than £4m since promotion back to the top flight of Scottish football.

Any deal to bring him back to the Light Blues could involve a large expenditure in wages too. With Leeds in the mix and a stay at Liverpool not off the cards, it would take Kent some convincing to make a return.

He’ll know full well he’ll get a great reception at Ibrox, but in a world where money dictates so much, it would be naive to say Kent would come to work under Steven Gerrard for purely nostalgic reasons alone.

With such high figures swirling around the Liverpool forward you have to wonder if he’s really worth it. He did have a good season in Scotland but at £10m would become the most expensive player in the division and would have to deal with the pressures attached to the tag – another season with just six goals would not meet those expectations.

Kent’s one-on-one ability means he gives more on the pitch than those six goals suggest, but Rangers simply need to move on from this one after the Reds’ lofty evaluation.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more… 

Following their opening game victory over Nottingham Forest, Slaven Bilic expressed his desire to add four more signings before close of play on Thursday and he got his wish.

First in the door yesterday was Grady Diangana joining on loan from Premier League side West Ham United then the Baggies were able to secure a striker after a £4m deal was reached with Southampton for Charlie Austin.

The day was then completed when wing duo Chris Willock and Matheus Pereira were announced well past the deadline with the club managing to get the deals done just in time.

The arrival of four attacking players has put the place of Oliver Burke amongst Bilic’s side in serious jeopardy, especially with the Scottish winger being absent from the starting eleven in the Forest win.

Burke spent the second half of last season on loan at Celtic which suggests he wasn’t really fancied under former boss Darren Moore either.

On the Chalkboard

Bilic opted to start Matt Phillips and Kyle Edwards on either wing in the season opener against Forest with Burke occupying a spot on the bench – he was called upon for the final 28 minutes of the match where he struggled to make any impact, scoring a rating of just 5.9 from WhoScored.

In contrast, Edwards was awarded the Man of the Match with a rating of 8.1 and had a goal to his name. On the other side of the pitch, Matt Phillips scored the winner with a rating of 7.3.

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By signing four new attacking players, it only goes to possibly show what the Croatian really thinks about his options in that position – and considering Burke didn’t even manage to start the game then his position must surely be the first under threat.

At times for Celtic last term and during pre-season the 22-year-old played up front so the signing of Austin on top of Kenneth Zohore earlier in the window goes to show that his future can’t lie in leading the line either.

It’s too late for Burke to be shipped out on loan or permanently. Fellow winger Jonathan Leko was sent to Charlton so that may help the Scot marginally but come January his future with the club may well come into question.

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Trabzonspor announced on Wednesday that they had signed Daniel Sturridge on a free transfer, with the striker penning a three-year deal at the club.

The 29-year-old was released by Liverpool at the end of the 2018-19 campaign having fallen out of favour at the Merseyside club.

Sturridge’s future has been the subject of much speculation – particularly over the last week or so. However, Trabzonspor have won the race for the Englishman.

The forward only managed two Premier League goals for Jurgen Klopp’s side during the 2018-19 campaign.

However, he left Anfield with a record of 68 goals in 160 appearances in all competitions, which is far from disastrous.

It remains to be seen whether Sturridge can be a success in Turkish football as it will be a completely different style of football.

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A number of Liverpool fans have had their say on the attacker’s latest move. And a selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Neil Lennon has confirmed that new signings Boli Bolingoli and Christopher Jullien will play in Thursday’s Europa League play-off against AIK in what looks like a massive risk and is worth considering when using your Betfair promotion offer.

What’s he said?

Thanks to a spate of injury doubts, Lennon has backed Bolingoli and Jullien to come into the defence for the crucial tie at Parkhead. With Kristoffer Ajer, Jozo Simunovic and Hatem Abd Elhamed all concerns ahead of the tie, the Celts’ defensive options look even more thread-bare than they already did.

The Bhoys have tried hard to land another set of full-backs this summer but have only added one so far in the shape of Bolingoli, leaving the squad far from complete with just under two weeks of the window left.

Their inefficiency in the market and injury doubts has led Lennon to name half of his defence ahead of the crunch tie. As reported by The Scottish Sun, the Parkhead club’s gaffer stated: “Jullien is doing fine. Bolingoli is lacking a bit of confidence, but he’s training well so I’m sure there’s more to come from him. We have to work with them — they will play against AIK, and hopefully, it will be a step in the right direction for them to show what they are really all about.”

A massive risk

By announcing the duo will be starting tonight, Lennon has taken a big gamble – a gamble that he shouldn’t have to take this late into the window.

Declaring to the world that Bolingoli is lacking in confidence is probably not want you want to be doing with your new £3m left-back on the eve of a pivotal tie. Having a go at a player clearly struggling to adapt to a new side and culture for being low on belief doesn’t sound the wisest strategy, and probably didn’t make the 24 year-old sleep any easier last night.

On top of that, Lennon has no one to blame for Bolingoli’s lack of confidence but himself. Dropping him for Callum McGregor in the infamous defeat to Cluj was disastrous on the pitch and looks to have had even more repercussions on the Belgian’s frame of mind.

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In Jullien’s case, he’s not started how you’d expect a £7m signing to kick off his career at Parkhead. He’s underperformed when he’s played and has been left out of the big matches. Far from ideal for such an expensive acquisition.

Yet, the fact that Lennon has to throw them in tonight is worrying. Celtic should have the personnel to absorb slow starts by new signings, but they don’t, thanks to a scrambled approach in the transfer market so far.

So, Bolingoli and Jullien will have to fight through a lack of belief in themselves and a slow start to their respective Parkhead careers to impress tonight, in what is such a crucial game for Lennon and the club. It’s a big risk from the manager and after the shocking defensive display against Cluj, it could well decide the fate of the tie with AIK.

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After lighting up the Emirates against Burnley, Dani Ceballos appeared to have the world at his feet following his season-long loan move from Real Madrid.

The Spain international ran the show against Sean Dyche’s side, and his inclusion from the off against Liverpool at Anfield was understandable.

Unfortunately for the 23-year-old, the game seemed to pass him by and he struggled to impose himself on the Reds’ dominant midfield.

Watch Liverpool Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

The Spaniard was dispossessed four times and managed just 29 passes in the hour that he was on the field.

After seeing Ceballos’ struggles, Arsenal fans took to Twitter to voice their concerns about the midfielder.

Many supporters of the north London side questioned why Emery chose to select him in the starting line-up, and said that he should have known the game may have been “too quick” for him.

Indeed, some fans even suggested Ceballos was out of his depth at Anfield as he endured a really difficult evening against the Reds.

Check out some of the reaction of Arsenal fans below:

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

One of Wolves’ summer arrivals could be on the fringes of the first-team sometime soon, that’s according to their Under-23 manager Rob Edwards.

What’s he said?

The west Midlands club signed Meritan Shabani on a three-year contract from Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich for their youth team, and it appears he’s already been impressing.

The 20-year-old made three senior appearances in Bavaria, two coming in the league and has been capped at Under-20 level for Germany.

His arrival was undoubtedly part of Fosun’s plans to improve the youth setup at the club.

In four Premier League 2 matches this season, the midfielder has scored one goal, shining in the eyes of Edwards, who said:

“Meritan is showing more and more quality all the time, every day.

“We’re excited to have him in the building.

“He’ll get more and more used to English football the longer he’s here, that’s obvious, but we’re really pleased with how he’s performed.”

A viable alternative?

Wolves will surely look to rotate their squad throughout the season, having pulled out all the stops to make the Europa League group stage.

If they advance into the Carabao Cup quarter-finals then two games a week will become normality, if it hasn’t already, as they continue on into 2020.

Joao Moutinho is the club’s only true out-and-out number ten, and his absence against Everton was painstakingly clear, as we have previously highlighted this week.

The form of Shabani for the youth team should at some point catch the eye of Santo, which could give him an alternative option in that role, instead of trying to force his defensive-minded midfielders to play the same way.

The 20-year-old had enough quality to feature in a couple of Bundesliga matches, so he should be able to handle a step up from English youth football to the Premier League.

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