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Glasgow Rangers midfielder Joe Aribo faces a nervous wait to be fully fit for Nigeria’s African Cup of Nations qualifier against Lesotho on Tuesday.

Gers’ Aribo faces fight to be fit

£3.15m-valued Aribo (Transfermarkt) started against Benin on Saturday as the Super Eagles prevailed 1-0.

However, it has now emerged that Aribo is struggling with a stomach bug, and manager Gernot Rohr has revealed that he may not be available to play in the country’s next match (via allnigeriasoccer.com).

Short-term

This is no doubt a blow to Rohr and the national team. After all, Aribo has started every one of Nigeria’s qualifiers (Transfermarkt) as the Super Eagles sit top of their group, unbeaten in five matches (Goal.com). In fact, they have not lost any of the seven matches in which Aribo has played on the international stage so far.

However, a stomach issue should not be a problem for Steven Gerrard and Rangers. By the time this international break is over, he should be available to play between now and the rest of the term. While the Premiership trophy has already been sewn up, the Gers are still competing in the Scottish Cup, and even in the league they can still go the whole season unbeaten (BBC). Given Gerrard called him “fantastic” earlier this season (via The Athletic), Aribo could well play an important role in both before the term is out.

In other news, Rangers fans are livid at this billboard vandalism.

Another game, more points dropped and another defensive mistake. That’s very much been the tale of Tottenham Hotspur’s tumultuous season.

On Easter Sunday, Jose Mourinho’s side squandered the chance to move back into the Premier League’s top four after Newcastle United fired home a late equaliser at St James’ Park.

This time, as it often has been, it was Davinson Sanchez who made the critical blunder as he clattered into central defensive teammate Joe Rodon, allowing Joe Willock to ghost in unmarked to score just five minutes before full-time.

It’s now time for Mourinho to give him the ‘Eric Dier’ treatment…

On the Chalkboard

Spurs have now lost 15 points from winning positions over the course of the 2020/21 season. Had they seen out those matches, the north Londoners would be sat behind league leaders Man City in second place and four points ahead of Manchester United in third.

The majority of this boils down to errors in the backline and, according to the ever-reliable Alasdair Gold at football.london, Mourinho is after a defensive leader as a top priority in the summer transfer window.

He also claims that ‘there has been a clear lack of cohesion at times in the backline and leadership’ and, despite being the most vocal of all Spurs’ options, Dier has found himself now out of favour.

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Indeed, the 27-year-old England international is no longer first choice and has actually been snubbed from the starting XI in their last six league outings. It seems as if the West Ham defeat was the final straw for Mourinho.

However, it’s clear now that Dier was not the problem, or at least isn’t an anomaly.

Against the Magpies, Sanchez was the only player to grade worse than a mediocre 6.5 rating, as per SofaScore figures.

Just last month, ex-Sheffield United midfielder Curtis Woodhouse took to Twitter to launch a scathing attack on the Colombian, claiming that he’s “just not a very good defender” and that he “probably costs you 20 goals a season.”

Similarly, pundit and former Spurs midfielder Jamie O’Hara suggested that Sanchez was part of one of the worst defensive partnerships in the division following their north London derby defeat, soon after slamming him as “disgraceful” and the “worst player” despite scoring in the Everton FA Cup loss.

The latest criticism came after this weekend’s fiasco, as former Republic of Ireland captain Kenny Cunningham dubbed him a “real liability” when he’s at his worst when speaking on the OTB podcast.

It’s unfair that Dier continues to be ostracised when these game-altering mistakes keep cropping up from the Colombian. It’s also farcical that Toby Alderweireld has been overlooked despite the uncertainty over both the Englishman and Sanchez.

The £31.5m-rated South American must now get the same treatment as Dier. He has no business starting for the club heading into the summer, especially if Spurs land a new defensive arrival.

AND in other news, Exclusive: Spurs legend reacts to new Dane Scarlett deal

According to recent reports, Tottenham Hotspur are plotting a summer move for Nick Pope should Hugo Lloris leave at the end of the season.

The report by the Daily Mail claimed that, with the Spurs captain being heavily linked to join Mauricio Pochettino at Paris Saint-Germain this summer, Jose Mourinho’s first choice to replace Lloris would be Burnley shot-stopper Pope.

Wolfsburg goalkeeper Koen Casteels is also mentioned as a potential target, but a move for the 28-year-old would only be likely to materialise if Spurs were priced out of a move for Pope, for whom Burnley are thought to be demanding a fee of around £30m.

Transfer Tavern Take

Despite Burnley’s lowly league position, Pope has impressed over his 29 appearances for Sean Dyche’s side so far this season, with the 28-year-old helping his side to keep nine clean sheets and making a total of 107 saves, culminating in an average SofaScore match rating of 7.08 – ranking him as the Clartes’ third-best performer in the top flight.

In fact, comparing this rating to that of Lloris’ average of 6.91 would appear to indicate that, despite the Frenchman plays for a ‘big six’ club, Pope has actually been outperforming the 34-year-old this season.

Indeed, following a 1-1 draw with Liverpool last season, Jurgen Klopp heaped a considerable amount of praise on the England international for his string of fine stops at Anfield, describing Pope as “sensational”.

As such, should PSG make good on their apparent intention to sign the £100,000-per-week Lloris this summer, and should Spurs go on to replace him with Pope, the Frenchman’s departure could actually be something of a blessing in disguise for Mourinho’s team.

In other news: ‘It may be’ – Spurs target drops huge hint on transfer; Mourinho fascinated by ‘remarkable’ star – find out more here!

Frank McAvennie has slammed Alex Rae’s suggestion that Glasgow Rangers’ Ryan Kent is worth over £25m.

McAvennie slams Kent claim

Former Gers player Rae previously suggested Kent is worth over £25m (via The Daily Record).

Speaking to Football Insider, McAvennie is shocked by this claim and has shared his disagreement. He said:

“Oh my god, I’ve told him a million times not to exaggerate when it comes to Rangers players.

“He’s boosting Kent up there, it was around £8million they paid for him and he’s a good player. 

“You’re worth whatever someone pays for you. Kent couldn’t hack it in England so he came up here and fair play to the boy he’s been magnificent and you can see the talent he’s got. 

“£25million for a midfield player? I don’t know but nothing surprises me in the transfer world any more. I give up, that’s enough for me.

“I can’t see him going for £25million even if Rangers sold him tomorrow, with the rest of the season to go.”

Astonishing suggestion

It is hard not to agree with McAvennie – in what way is Kent worth £25m? The Gers paid £7.5m to take him to Ibrox from Liverpool in 2019 after a season on loan with the 55-time Scottish champions (Sky Sports). In 123 games for the club, he has 26 goals and 26 assists (Transfermarkt), which is far from a poor record. However, it is not good enough to suggest the Gers could attract a profit of more than 200%.

Clearly, Ross Wilson and Steven Gerrard value him. They turned down £10m from Leeds United last summer (RTE), and now with a Premiership title to his name, they could definitely command a slightly larger fee if they were to sell. However, as McAvennie says, £25m may be a step too far.

In other news, Kevin Phillips says this man must take a pay-cut if he wants to stay at Rangers.

When the summer transfer window opens, Wolves will need to sign some attackers.

Without the injured Raul Jimenez, their strikers have been pretty non-existent in front of goal, scoring just four times between them all season.

Fabio Silva’s £35.6m move from Porto has pocketed just three goals while Willian Jose had to wait until the middle of April for his first strike in Old Gold.

With that in mind, it feels unlikely that Nuno Santo and Jeff Shi will utilise their option to buy the Real Sociedad forward in the summer.

One alternative could be Sheffield United’s Oliver McBurnie. Wolves are looking to take advantage of their relegation by prising the striker away from Yorkshire in a few months time.

The Sun claim a fee of £15m could be enough to tempt the Blades into selling.

However, with only seven goals in 65 outings for Sheffield United, he hardly looks like he’d be a wise investment.

Instead, Wolves could save themselves a bucket load of cash by unleashing Rafa Mir next season.

If that sentence had been used at the start of the campaign you’d have been laughed at. Though, such is the Spaniard’s impressive season on loan at Huesca that he deserves another chance at Molineux.

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Mir’s time in English football has been nothing short of a disaster so far. He’s not scored for Wolves and didn’t beat the goalkeeper during a temporary stay at Nottingham Forest either.

That being said, he is beginning to flourish in Spain and is now among the top scorers in La Liga.

The 23-year-old is enjoying the best spell of his career so far and has 15 goals in all competitions this term, 12 of which have come in the Spanish top-flight. That puts him seventh in the rankings ahead of the £107.6m Antoine Griezmann and the £113m Joao Felix.

Mir is very quickly defying the doubters and his good form, along with the high ceiling he still possesses, should lead to a second chance at Wolves.

He has evolved from a young striker lacking confidence and maturity to a forward with the world at his feet.

He’s even earned comparisons to one of the most bullish forwards around; “He’s a little bit like Diego Costa,” Spanish football write Richard Dunne told The Athletic.

“He’s aggressive, he likes running the channels, he holds off defenders, he’s athletic and strong.”

Dunne continued: “He’s not exactly technically gifted but he has an unorthodox running style that works for him, he can keep the ball, he’s got a powerful strike, he’s quick and he’s good in the air.”

Having become a regular goal scorer in one of the most reputable leagues in world football, Nuno should consider bringing him into the first-team group next season.

He has scored more goals than McBurnie this term and he’d prevent Fosun from shelling out needlessly on £15m.

AND in other news, Forget MGW: Wolves must unleash rarely-seen 18 y/o who creates “things out of nothing”…

Relaying comments made by interim Tottenham Hotspur boss Ryan Mason, journalist Dan Kilpatrick of the Evening Standard has relayed rising hopes that Harry Kane could be fit in time to face Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final (Twitter).

Tottenham gifted possible Kane boost

Indeed, dropping an update on the Englishman ahead of the crunch clash this weekend, Mason says there is ‘hope’ he might be on the training pitch by the end of the week.

Kane has been missing since the 2-2 draw away to Everton last Friday having picked up another ankle problem, with fears emerging surrounding his inclusion for this weekend.

Tottenham have just the Carabao Cup to play for in terms of silverware this season having been knocked out of both the Europa League and FA Cup.

Transfer Tavern take

They’re still in with a shot of finishing in the top four and qualifying for the Champions League this season, but a medal could really see off what has been a bizarre season on the right note.

Mason, providing an update, explains that there is hope Kane will be back in training by the end of the week in a possible boost for the final at Wembley this weekend.

Kane is by far Tottenham’s most important player, scoring 21 goals and assisting 13 others in the league alone (WhoScored), and even the slightest possibility he could feature against City comes as a massive boost.

In other news: Tottenham source reveals Mourinho information, find out more here.

West Ham United could make their third signing from Slavia Prague in the space of 18 months.

According to a report from insiders Claret & Hugh, Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal ‘could easily be joined’ by striker Abdallah Sima this summer.

19-year-old Sima has scored 19 goals in all competitions this season. Four of those goals came during Slavia’s run to the last eight of the Europa League, in which he scored at the King Power as they stunned Leicester at the end of February.

‘Clubs notice’ talents like Sima

Premier League legend Petr Cech claims ‘there aren’t many players like’ Sima in Europe.

“When a player appears who, at such a young age, succeeds in senior football, starts scoring goals and produces in Europe, clubs notice,” he said, speaking to iSport.

The Senegalese international is valued at £9.9million by Transfermarkt, and Manchester United are also said to be monitoring him.

Transfer Tavern verdict

It’s clear that West Ham are looking to repeat the trick here – Soucek and Coufal have both been revelations since they moved to the London Stadium.

The former made his move permanent in the summer for a fee of £15million and he’s impressively netted 12 goals from defensive midfield in 49 appearances for the club (via Transfermarkt).

Coufal joined at the end of the window for just £4.5million and the right-back has been almost an ever-present, playing 90 minutes in all but one match, and has contributed five assists (via Transfermarkt).

Breaking The Lines’ James Lloyd wrote that the right-back could be considered ‘the bargain of the summer’.

The Irons may just have hit on a hugely effective recruitment strategy.

In other news, West Ham have made an enquiry for this ‘keeper.

Marcus Bent has exclusively told Football FanCast that he’s been reliably informed that Everton won’t revisit their interest for Wilfried Zaha this summer.

The Crystal Palace winger has been a long-term target for the Toffees, and reports last season believed that the south Londoners were going to listen to offers for their talisman, having slapped a £100million price-tag on the former Manchester United man.

12 months earlier, Zaha handed in a transfer request at Selhurst Park amid interest from the Toffees and Arsenal.

However, the Gunners ended up signing Nicolas Pepe from Lille, which allowed Alex Iwobi to move to Goodison Park, meaning Zaha ended up remaining at Crystal Palace.

Iwobi has struggled during his time on Merseyside, whilst another winger, Bernard, could also leave Everton at the end of the season.

But Bent told Football FanCast, that Zaha isn’t on Carlo Ancelotti’s wish-list this summer:

“I spoke to someone at the training ground, and they did say that it’s probably the wrong time. If it was two or three years ago, they would have taken him, but it’s probably the wrong time.

“They don’t think he’s a fit for the club. That’s not coming from people up top or the manager, that’s coming from people I speak to in the press.

“I do like Zaha, he’s very skilful, but is he a team player? I’m not sure. I don’t see him as an Everton player.”

In an exclusive interview with Football FanCast, Rob Lee, who made 280 Premier League appearances, has claimed that people don’t realise how good and important Kalvin Phillips has been for Leeds United.

Phillips has been an ever-present when fit in Marcelo Bielsa’s side as he operates as the sole holding midfielder in a 4-1-4-1 formation which allows Leeds to get so many players forward.

The 25-year old has already got seven England caps and seems guaranteed to have a place in Gareth Southgate’s side for the European Championship’s this summer, potentially even being in the starting XI if Jordan Henderson fails to recover from his injury.

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Speaking on why Phillips is so important to Leeds and how a lot of people underestimate the work he does for the team, Lee exclusively told FFC:

“Yeah, I rate Kalvin Phillips very highly and I think he’s another player, like Declan Rice, who’s young but does that job which many people don’t realise is difficult to do.

“If you’ve got someone who can sit back, read the game well, break things up, pass it simply and is a good athlete then it helps the team because the other players can get forward and try to score goals, much like Leeds do as they fly forward.”

Leeds have struggled all season when Phillips has been injured and out of the nine games the midfielder has missed, Leeds have won just two.

The Whites have enjoyed an impressive first season back in the Premier League with fears of relegation quickly swept aside with Marcelo Bielsa’s attacking style of play.

Steven Gerrard’s Rangers are now just one game away from finishing the season unbeaten.

The champions earned a comfortable 3-0 win against Livingston at the Tony Macaroni Arena on Wednesday evening, with Gerrard delighted with his team’s performance after the game.

Goals from James Tavernier, Ryan Kent and Ianis Hagi secured the win against David Martindale’s side, although Rangers were perhaps fortunate not to concede, with the hosts hitting the woodwork twice and missing a number of opportunities in the game.

Following the full-time whistle, Gerrard was full of praise for Nigeria international Joe Aribo, who filled in at left-back in the absence of Borna Barisic and Calvin Bassey, with the 40-year-old manager saying:

“A manager can ask a player to do a role and good players can do some and good players can’t do some – but Joe Aribo is a top player.

“Whatever I ask him to do, he goes out and gives it his best shot.

“He’s my man of the match tonight just because, if you think about it, he’s a number 10.

“And he’s just been so comfortable at left-back, cruised it and breezed it.

“That left-back performance is as good as we’ve seen in my three years of being here.

“So well done to him for parking his ego and doing a job for his teammates.”

Although the former Charlton Athletic man is obviously not a natural at left-back and stepped up admirably, Gerrard’s praise for him feels slightly over the top when you consider his overall performance.

Two of Livingston’s best opportunities of the game coming down Aribo’s side, with Jaze Kabia somehow hitting the post when presented with an open goal after Nicky Devlin’s cross, before another cross from the Livingston right-back led to Kabia missing again from just a few yards out.

As per SofaScore, Aribo would earn a 6.6/10 rating for his performance against Livingston, with only Kemar Roofe (6.5) and Jack Simpson (6.4) rated lower of the Rangers players who started the game, which again emphasises that Gerrard was perhaps wrong to call him his man-of-the-match.

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During his time on the pitch, the 24-year-old would lose possession 24 times, which was the joint-most of any player who featured.

Just 32/43 of Aribo’s passes on Wednesday evening were accurate, resulting in a less than impressive 74% pass accuracy rate, which is comfortably below the 84.4% he has averaged in the Premiership this season.

He was also accurate with just one of his five long balls, and none of his crosses found a Rangers shirt, so it is difficult to argue that this was one of the best left-back performances for Rangers, especially considering the form Barisic has shown in that position throughout his time at Ibrox.

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Therefore, whilst Aribo did a solid job out of position on Wednesday evening and he deserves credit for playing there, Gerrard’s post-match comments were way over the top.

And, in other news… Forget Wright: Gerrard can sign Rangers’ next Ryan Kent in £3.42m-rated wizard