It would be fair to say that the Liverpool fans are excited about the potential of Rhian Brewster, who certainly has the tools to become a future star for the club.
The 18-year-old, who fired England to success at the 2017 Under-17 World Cup, spent six years with Chelsea’s youth system before joining Liverpool in 2014.
The centre-forward is yet to make his first-team bow for the Reds, but has managed five goals and seven assists in 11 Premier League 2 appearances for Liverpool’s Under-23 team during the 2017-18 campaign.
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It was actually Brewster’s 18th birthday on Sunday, and Liverpool’s Twitter account retweeted a message from the teenager on Monday afternoon.
Jurgen Klopp is unlikely to call Brewster into the first team in the final weeks of the 2017-18 campaign, but the Liverpool fans are hopeful that they will see the forward in action for the Reds, who are currently being strongly linked with Watford midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure, next term.
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A selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:
Football and beer go like bangers and mash or steak and chips. Often the perfect football experience is accompanied by a pint, or any other measurement you deem fit, of the good stuff, whether that be in the pub before the game or from the comfort of your very own living room. And the good people over at Sportingbeer have thought up a new and exciting way to mix your football and beer experience which may well add a new dimension to the whole event. Take the current Capital One Cup for example, the guys have put together this little box of joy…
So what is it?
For too long, sport (and football in particular) has been associated with large continental lagers which offer little character. Due to the recent rise in craft beer production in the UK, there are now over 1,000 breweries, found in all corners of the country. Sportingbeer aims to pair these great beers with their nearest football clubs to be enjoyed by supports as they watch their team play.
Sportingbeer are set to launch is a subscription pack for the Premier League season. For every Premier League game your team plays, you’ll receive two beers through the post (delivered in four quarterly boxes to your home or work). One will be brewed in a brewery near your club (sometimes a stone’s throw away); one will be brewed in a brewery close to your opponents that day. By drinking beers brewed locally to your club and your opponents club, you’ll be supporting British breweries instead of lining the pockets of huge brewing companies.
As well as delivering you some storming brews to drink, getting a Sportingbeer subscription will also allow you to rate the beers, using scorecards. Your ratings will be used to shape a league table of beers; at the end of the season, the 3 lowest-scoring beers will be relegated and the highest-scoring beer will be crowned champion. With one lucky subscriber winning a case of the beer for free!
Sounds good, right? We think so, and if you’re interested head over to their website to get involved or give them a follow on Twitter @sportingbeer_.
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Bottoms up!
Sportingbeer: Pairing fantastic, local beer with your favourite sporting events.
Arsenal have been offered the chance to sign Lyon midfielder Yoann Gourcuff on loan and are also mulling over an approach for Celtic enforcer Victor Wanyama, according to the Daily Mail.
The French playmaker has struggled for fitness and form during his two-and-a-half year spell at the Stade Gerland and hasn’t featured for Remi Garde’s side this season.
And the cash strapped Ligue 1 club are now keen to shift his £80,000-per-week wages in order to ease their dire financial situation.
Despite seeing his career blighted by injuries, the 26-year-old is still highly thought of in his native land and Arsene Wenger is reportedly preparing to take Les Gones up on their proposal to bring him to the Premier League on a temporary deal this month.
The Gunners boss is also pondering whether to reignite his interest in Wanyama this month with Chelsea and Manchester United thought to be monitoring the 21-year-old.
Since moving to Parkhead from Antwerp-based outfit Beerschott in July 2011 the Kenyan anchor man has come to the attention of the Premier League’s leading clubs after his dynamic performances in this season’s Champions League.
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Wenger has been linked with a number of midfielders in January, namely Marouane Fellaini, Yann M’Vila and Mohamed Diame, but reportedly sees Wanyama as the natural replacement for Alex Song.
Leeds fans are absolutely delighted with the news that Pablo Hernandez has started discussions about extending his time at Elland Road.
It’s been a while since we’ve had some good news to share with Leeds fans, but the fact that fan favourite Pablo Hernandez has entered contract negotiations will be music to fans ears.
According to Sportsmail, the winger has started discussions and the club are hopeful he will agree to stay beyond the summer. Manager Paul Heckingbottom is a big fan of Hernandez.
The Spaniard will be 33 by this summer, but is nonetheless one of Leeds’ best players and certainly their most creative outlet.
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In a season that has gone from decent to terrible in dramatic fashion, Hernandez has still managed four goals and seven assists despite missing some time through injury.
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There hasn’t been much to cheer about at Elland Road since Boxing Day, but tying up Hernandez to an extended deal would be the first step in preparing to right the wrongs next season.
Some of the best Twitter reactions can be found below…
Roma are not considering selling Kevin Strootman to Manchester United or Chelsea and president James Pallotta is “angry” with the rumours surrounding his star midfielder, according to general director Mauro Baldissoni.
The Netherlands international has been heavily linked with a move to Old Trafford since Louis van Gaal took over the Red Devils, while Jose Mourinho’s Blues have been aligned with the 24-year-old in recent days.
Strootman has been out of action with a serious knee injury for much of 2014 – he missed the World Cup – and has only just returned to first-team duties with Roma – who he signed for last year from PSV Eindhoven.
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Even with his fitness still a worry, rumours have suggested that £30m+ offers will be considered by the Italian giants, but Baldissoni has revealed that this is not the case, and that the speculation is annoying for the club:
“Our (club) president (James Pallotta) has already spoken about this and he gets angry with the rumours that link him (Kevin) to Manchester United,” Baldissoni said to Italian radio station Radio Anch’Io Lo Sport: “Our policy is that of investing in players that have quality but have room for improvement.
“Kevin is a young player with experience, and we want to build our future with players like him.”
Roma were recently eliminated from the Champions League at the group stage, which has led to talk that the financial hit may force them to sell players of Strootman’s value and quality.
But, Baldissoni is adamant that there is no truth to such suggestions thanks to their careful planning:
“We were cautious and we did not include the revenue of a possible progression to the last 16 of the Champions League on our books,
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“Hence, we have no need to put our books in order. Everything is correct and we are in no need to sell.
“We will evaluate the market based on what the team needs from a technical standpoint because our first mission is that of winning games.”
Kolo Toure has urged Manchester City to offer him a new contract, by insisting that he wants to stay at the club.
The Ivorian defender joined the Sky Blues from Premier League rivals Arsenal as one of the first stars to arrive under the reign of Sheikh Mansour three-and-a-half years ago.
After captaining the club in his first season, Toure has struggled for game time of late, with Vincent Kompany and Matija Nastasic appearing to be Roberto Mancini’s first choice centre-back pairing.
Despite this, the 31-year-old hinted that he wants to stay, and extend his contract which expires at the end of the season:
“I like it in England. I have been here for all my career and it’s great to play in England.” He told SkySports.
“I really enjoy it, that is why I brought my brother (Yaya) here!
“There are challenges coming and there are changes in life, and I will deal with that if it happened. I wish to stay, but you never know.”
Toure received a six-month ban for doping last season, and believes that he owes City for their decision to stick by him:
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“The club has been here for me. Even through my tough time, everyone was behind me – the people and the staff at the club, everybody, the chairman, everybody.
“To have this support is great and that is why it would be much more difficult to leave.”
Trent Alexander-Arnold has enjoyed a tremendously impressive breakthrough season at Liverpool but last weekend, against Manchester United, he received the first proper chasing of his career.
Jose Mourinho had clearly identified him as a weakness in the Reds ranks and ruthlessly set out to exploit him.
Long diagonal kicks from David De Gea were angled towards Liverpool’s right-hand side, Romelu Lukaku had the beating of Dejan Lovren and that left Alexander-Arnold exposed against Marcus Rashford.
England international Rashford took full advantage, scoring two goals that were almost carbon copies and ultimately putting the game beyond Liverpool.
That result put United five points ahead of their bitter rivals but Jurgen Klopp’s men have a chance to cut that deficit to just two against Watford this weekend.
Alexander-Arnold’s Old Trafford performance has given Klopp a selection headache and we asked you whether he should keep the faith or bring in Joe Gomez instead?
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The numbers were close but, ultimately, Reds fans want Gomez – who has just been called into the England squad for the forthcoming friendlies against the Netherlands and Italy – to get the nod. Check out the full results of the poll below…
For a manager who is on the cusp of a supposed legacy-ending season, Arsene Wenger will probably be able to afford himself a wry smile at the headlines Fleet Street’s finest conjured up for his Arsenal side this morning.
After a week in which the world and his wife were seemingly putting the finishing touches upon the Frenchman’s managerial obituary, following the now infamous League Cup defeat to Bradford, last night’s stirring 5-2 victory over Reading proved a fitting retort.
The old story that begins with Arsene Wenger under almost unscrupulous pressure from all angles following a torrid run of form, has an ending that we’re all too familiar with. Whether or not the Gunners do eventually attain a fourth placed finish remains to be seen, but more often or not, Wenger always seems to overcome the odds in North London.
Yet of course, while one humiliating cup upset doesn’t spell the doomsday scenario for Wenger, neither does a convincing win over serious relegation candidates, right all of the side’s wrongs. The fickle finger of the English football will ensure that despite many of real issues that continue to reside at the Emirates, both club and manager will be afforded a relative amount of reprieve. All of which can just as quickly change, with an unfavourable result away to Wigan this Saturday.
But even within the reactivity of some of this morning’s press, you can sense a common theme in the emotiveness that one notion in particular, continues to evoke more than any other.
Such are the emotions stirred within the Arsenal support upon a hypothetical discussion upon an Arsene Wenger departure from the club, it’s become one of the most toxically divisive subjects within the Premier League. And it’s a topic that appears to have become increasingly partisan in that divisiveness.
In recent weeks, it’s seemed very much you’re either ‘Wenger Out’, armed with seven years of trophy-less frustration and counting, or you’re ‘Wenger In’, preferring to focus your current disdain towards boardroom level. There are many of course, who focus a more collective blame towards the club’s regression away from anything resembling a title challenge. And then you have the realists bemoaning the shifting plateau of ambition that petromillion fuelled foreign owners have cultivated.
Although the most fervent flashpoint amongst the club’s current plight, has undoubtedly surrounded Wenger and the perceived direction that the Frenchman is seeking to carve out for his side. And after 16 years in North London, during which time he’s become the club’s longest serving and most successful manager, a touted departure is never going to catalyze anything less than a surge of contention amongst the Emirates support.
Yet between the polarizing opinions of those who sit either side of the Wenger debate, there is perhaps a less fervent and consequently less contemplated middle ground. Is the Frenchman simply just coming to the end of his cycle?
Barcelona’s Dani Alves is hardly going to do gown as the Friedrich Nietzsche of his time, but there was something wonderfully fitting in his sentiments during the penultimate year of Pep Guardiola’s reign at the Camp Nou.
Alves, like the rest of the Barca team, were desperate for Guardiola to stay ahead of the 2011 Champions League final, amidst rumours that the Spaniard was growing increasingly weary in the managerial hotsteat. Yet while the full-back was hopeful of a stay, he wasn’t detached from reality:
“Everyone has their cycle and one day his will come to an end,” he said, before suggesting that he couldn’t imagine a Barca without Guardiola.
And one year later, that cycle did end for Guaridola at Barcelona. Yes, his four years comes some way short of the longetivity that Wenger’s remarkable reign has encapsulated over a decade and a half. But be it two years, four years or 16 years – every cycle must eventually come to its conclusion.
Be it the need for a new direction, a change of circumstance or extrinsic forces that one simply cannot control, no managerial reign lasts forever – but that doesn’t mean the potential end of Wenger’s needs to be portrayed so negatively.
Like Guaridola, Arrigo Sacchi and Vicente Del Bosque cultivated two of the most successful club sides in the last 25 years at Milan and Real Madrid respectively. Their cycles combined don’t even touch Wenger’s reign at Arsenal. And some will point to the mixed fortunes of those two European superpowers when they let go of their managers. But would they necessarily have enjoyed sustained success had they stayed for 16 years a la Wenger? History suggests perhaps that might not be the case.
Wenger, alongside Sir Alex Ferguson, are anomalies. Managerial cycles either on these shores or abroad, simply do not last as long as what we’ve seen at Manchester United and Arsenal. Yet even then, it’s only been Ferguson who’s managed to really repeat the trick of winning trophies over that timespan. Has Wenger had the sort of resources available to Fergie? No, and the economic difficulties the Frenchman has had to endure shouldn’t be underestimated.
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But equally, do the successes of over seven years ago, leave Arsene Wenger bulletproof and immune from a potential remit for change?
Wenger’s time isn’t up just yet. They’ve advanced in the Champions League, they’re still on course to finish fourth and besides, who would replace him? Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp might improve the club but seem unlikely to arrive, in which case, why would the club settle for a downgrade?
Yet either way, sometimes in football, a club does just simply need a change of direction, a fresh way of looking at things and ultimately, the beginning of a new cycle. Whether we are or aren’t looking at the end of Arsene Wenger’s at Arsenal, his time will eventually come to an end. Because for all the issue affecting the Frenchman’s quest to push the club on, as in all walks of life, sometimes things simply run their natural course. Wenger’s Arsenal career isn’t any different.
Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane may have provided both goals in the 2-0 win over Newcastle but in truth, Liverpool’s front three barely exceeded second gear at Anfield on Saturday compared to the impeccable standards they have set themselves this season. Rather, it was the engine room that had a decisive influence on the match.
While Newcastle’s middle foursome settled for simply containing Liverpool as much as possible by clogging up space and cutting out passing lanes, the Reds’ midfield truly imposed themselves on the opposition – providing a platform that the Magpies rarely breached on the counter-attack and that the Reds’ attacks were all spawned from.
That perhaps rings truest with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who burst through from midfield to supply Salah for the opening goal. But the 2-0 affair on Merseyside also highlighted what Jordan Henderson, an underrated and often maligned figure amongst Liverpool supporters despite donning the captain’s armband, truly brings to this side.
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The England international’s influence in the holding role can be summarised as winning the ball back and making the right pass forward, but Saturday proved just how important that services is, even if it often comes across as simplistic in nature.
Henderson made the most interceptions and second-most tackles of any Liverpool player, while ranking third for touches of the ball and passes. That latter return of 100 is particularly significant; more than Oxlade-Chamberlain and Emre Can, it was Henderson fizzing balls forward to Liverpool’s attack on Saturday.
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It maintained Liverpool’s rhythm and pressure on the opposition in a match where Newcastle tried to slow them down as much as possible, and Reds fans will appreciate how crucial that is for Jurgen Klopp’s side who have often come unstuck in these kinds of games against attritional and pragmatic-minded teams.
The spotlight is rarely placed on deep-lying midfielders, and Henderson’s form hasn’t always been so impressive this season, so perhaps it’s understandable that the 36-cap England man often escapes acknowledgement for what he brings to the team. But there has been plenty of scrutiny of the Liverpool skipper this too this season, so do you think Reds fans have unfairly criticised him throughout 2017/18? Let us know by voting below…