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Wednesday’s Manchester United transfer roundup consisted of an update on Paul Pogba, news on a Belgian international and a 26-year-old’s desire to move to Old Trafford. Today’s edition revolves around an enquiry made for a Serie A defender, an offer prepared for that aforementioned Diables Rouges player and the pursuit of a Premier League midfielder.

Milenkovic enquiry made

Gianluca Di Marzio is reporting that United have recently made an enquiry to Fiorentina for Nikola Milenkovic. The 21-year-old Serbian made 38 appearances for La Viola last season.

Inter ready with Lukaku bid

Inter are ready to present their bid to the Red Devils for striker Romelu Lukaku according to The Guardian. The Nerazzurri will ask to take the former Everton forward on an initial two-year loan followed by an obligation to buy. The overall package would be worth €70m (£63m).

Longstaff latest

According to The Manchester Evening News, Newcastle’s Sean Longstaff has been that there are a few players ahead of him in the club’s attempts to sign a central midfielder. However, it appears that may be a somewhat misguided negotiating tactic.

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Amid all the talk of Romelu Lukaku’s possible departure to Serie A giants Inter, Marcus Rashford could be the biggest beneficiary at Manchester United.

The England international could well be United’s first-choice striker for next season and he has certainly started pre-season on fire.

The academy product’s latest goal in the 4-0 win over Leeds took him to two in two games, and United fans took to Twitter to share their thoughts on Rashford’s display.

Watch Manchester United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

Many supporters of the Manchester side urged the 21-year-old to carry on his good form into the next campaign and start producing these kinds of display in competitive games.

A few United fans however were slightly more reluctant to get carried away and urged caution surrounding Rashford’s form in pre-season; indeed, some even felt that his good start would only see him fizzle out once the Premier League season got under way again, and would struggle to net more than ten goals.

Check out some of the divided reaction of United fans below:

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Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly closing in on a move to sign Real Betis attacking midfielder Giovani Lo Celso.

Earlier this week The Daily Mirror claimed the club could secure the Argentina international for a fee of between £54m and £60m.

And just at the point when optimism surrounding the transfer market was returning to Spurs fans, the rumour mill threw up a link from the footballing stratosphere.

Indeed, according to The London Evening Standard, contact has been made with Juventus over a potential record-breaking swoop for Paulo Dybala.

Any such deal for either Lo Celso or Dybala will follow the acquisitions of Jack Clarke from Leeds United and Tanguy Ndombele from Lyon.

The signing of the latter broke the club’s transfer record and a deal for either of the South American targets could well see that broken for the second time in one transfer window.

Spurs, though, have a chequered history when it comes to buying Argentine players.

There are a number of tiers involved for players brought in from an elite footballing nation.

Football FanCast takes a look at the list of Argentines to strut their stuff in north London, excluding Mauricio Pochettino who, obviously, has never pulled on a Spurs shirt.

Still, he’d probably be quite high up if he had.

[snack_break title=”Appalling tier – Federico Fazio”]

Signed from Sevilla for £8m to add some solidity to the Spurs backline, Fazio did pretty much the exact opposite.

He made 32 appearances for the club despite not really knowing how to tackle and also having a turn of pace that makes the largest of container ships look positively rapid.

In those games, Spurs kept a clean sheet just eight times.

Fazio was eventually sold in 2017 after two loan spells, first back to Sevilla and then to Roma, where he made the move permanent.

Spurs haven’t missed him. Not one bit.

[snack_break title=”Rotation tier – Juan Foyth, Paulo Gazzaniga”]

Juan Foyth is a young defender who could yet blossom into an excellent one. At the time of writing, however, he’s made just 25 appearances for the club.

It would be unfair to put him anywhere else on this list.

The same, really, can be said of Paulo Gazzaniga. Signed as a back-up to Hugo Lloris, he has performed reasonably well whenever he has been called upon but that has not happened all that often.

Indeed, he has made a total of 12 appearances for the club, though he is a good shot-stopper and a calm presence between the sticks.

If he continues to play and impress he’ll rise.

[snack_break title=”Polarising tier – Erik Lamela”]

This one is controversial.

Erik Lamela has been almost ever-present in the Spurs squad since his move to the club in the wake of Gareth Bale’s departure.

He is closing in on 200 appearances for the club and yet he has never really nailed down a spot in the starting XI.

He has scored 29 goals and registered 41 assists, but is not anywhere near as important as the likes of Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen or Heung-Min Son.

Lamela is a quick and skilful and has an excellent eye for a pass but is still regarded as nothing more than a squad player.

He can’t be any higher here, because his contributions must also be weighed against his £25.8m fee; he has not lived up to it.

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[snack_break title=”Understated tier – Mauricio Taricco”]

Signed by George Graham, Mauricio Taricco was a dependable presence on the left side of the Spurs defence.

He made 143 appearances for the club in total, scoring two goals, and was always steady, allying robustness in the challenge to a desire to sprint forward and join the attack.

He is far from the most spectacular Argentine acquisition a Premier League club has ever made but he never once let Spurs down.

Taricco may not make it into too many of these lists but his contributions should not be forgotten.

[snack_break title=”Legend tier – Ricky Villa, Ossie Ardiles”]

The duo that started it all.

Ricardo Villa came into the club and is remembered for scoring perhaps the best ever goal the club has seen, setting them on their way to victory in the FA Cup final replay of 1981 against Manchester City.

A mazy dribble that saw him beat numerous defenders before slotting home, Villa was awarded the Wembley Goal of the Century award in 2001.

He spent a total of five years in north London, while Osvaldo Ardiles spent a decade at the club, helping them win both the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup.

Ardiles, of course, came back in 1993, managing the club to a 15th-placed finish.

It is fair to say that his spell as a player was far more successful and he is remembered as a diminutive, skilled midfielder who helped take the club to great heights alongside his Argentine compatriot.

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Manchester United are preparing to make a move for Olympique Lyonnais star Moussa Dembele, according to French newspaper L’Equipe (via Sky Sports).

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The France youth international was impressive during his club’s pre-season game against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium as he scored twice in a comeback victory.

It is thought that a bid in excess of £40m would be needed to tempt Lyon into selling their striker.

The move for Dembele comes off the back of summer long reports linking Romelu Lukaku with a move to Serie A clubs Juventus and Internazionale. The Belgian striker is said to be unhappy at the prospect of playing second fiddle to Marcus Rashford, who signed a new contract worth a reported £200,000 per week.

Hence, links with Dembele moving to Manchester United have strengthened over the last few weeks with Sky Sports reporting the Old Trafford giants were thinking of making the 23-year-old a target.

Dembele was in fine form last season, scoring 23 goals and assisting a further six as Lyon finished third in Ligue 1. His goal tally was higher than both Lukaku and Rashford’s, with the pair scoring 15 and 13 goals respectively.

Dembele should be made a priority if Lukaku does indeed leave, with the Belgian posting a cryptic tweet which suggested he could be on his way out of Old Trafford this summer. If Ole Gunnar Solskjaer doesn’t get a striker to potentially replace Lukaku then he faces having the 20-year-old Rashford as his only out-and-out striker for next season.

With Lukaku possibly on his way out, it would be stupid not to target a replacement. Dembele is a star striker who has scored a bundle of goals throughout his career, and with Manchester United scoring the fifth most out of the top six clubs in the Premier League last season, they could use Dembele as another choice alongside Rashford.

Manchester United fans, would Dembele be a good Lukaku replacement? Let us know your thoughts by commenting below!

Liverpool had made an enquiry to Egyptian club Al Ahly about the possibility of signing goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy prior to signing free agent Adrian this week.

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Read Liverpool reported that the Champions League winners had made contact with Al Ahly about a possible transfer for the 30-year-old Egypt international, who could be available for as little as £3.5million.

According to Read Liverpool, two other Premier League clubs had also shown an interest in El Shenawy, with Arsenal and Aston Villa both monitoring the goalkeeper.

It has been a busy week in the Liverpool goalkeeping department, with Adrian joining shortly after Simon Mignolet ended his six-year stay at Anfield by leaving for Club Brugge.

El Shenawy has spent his entire career in his homeland, turning out for Al Ahly, Tala’ea El Gaish, Harras El Hodoud and Petrojet.

In a 227-game club career, he has conceded just under a goal per game (220) and kept 90 clean sheets (39.6% of club appearances).

He played 31 times for Al Ahly last season, recording 18 clean sheets (58% of appearances) and conceding just 18 goals (0.58 per game). He was only beaten 11 times in 23 league games, a concession rate of just 0.48 per game.

His record at international level is 12 goals conceded in 14 caps (0.86 per game). This is reduced to eight goals in 10 competitive caps (0.8 per game) when friendlies are taken out of the equation.

He was named the official Man of the Match in Egypt’s 0-1 loss to Uruguay at last year’s World Cup, which was only his fourth senior cap. His penalty record is not so flattering, though, with only five of 38 saved (13.1%).

In six years at West Ham, Adrian conceded 215 goals, only five fewer than El Shenawy in his whole club career. The Spaniard kept 43 clean sheets in 150 appearances for the Hammers, conceding 1.43 goals per game and recording a 28.67% shutout rate.

Adrian has the better penalty save record of the two goalkeepers, though, stopping five of 22 spot kicks faced (22.7%) and memorably scoring the winning penalty in an FA Cup shoot-out win against Everton in 2015.

He has made seven errors leading to goals in the Premier League (one per 21.43 games), not a bad record considering that Alisson has had three in 38 league games for the Reds (one per 12.67 games).

While El Shenawy’s figures are clearly better on the surface than Adrian’s, they come with the caveat of playing in Egypt, whereas Adrian has spent his entire career in La Liga and the Premier League.

Also, with Alisson being first choice, Adrian coming on board and Caoimhin Kelleher due to come back from injury, El Shenawy would likely find opportunities at Anfield extremely limited, so there seems no need for him to be added to Liverpool’s squad.

Liverpool fans, what are your thoughts on the club’s enquiries about El Shenawy? Join in the discussion by commenting below!

Rangers fans are drooling over the performance of summer signing Jordan Jones, as he tortured the Hibs defence during Sunday’s 6-1 win.

Supporters at Ibrox yesterday were treated to a goal-fest as the Gers pummeled Paul Heckinbottom’s Hibs.

A Jermain Defoe hat-trick, followed up by a double from Alfredo Morelos and a late Sheyi Ojo strike, ensured the supporters went home ecstatic.

It was the second time already this campaign that Steven Gerrard’s men have hit a side for six at Ibrox, battering St. Joseph’s 6-0 in the Europa League qualifiers last month.

Despite the goal-laden afternoon for the Light Blues’ strikers though, it was the display of Jones that got fans talking after the demolition.

Brought in from Kilmarnock this summer, it was the Northern Irishman’s first real standout display for his new side and supporters are making sure this doesn’t get lost amongst all the goals.

Jones didn’t just get the fans’ approval either, with Football Scotland describing the way he tormented Hibs full-back Steven Whittaker as “a cat toying with a mouse. That. But more cruel.”

And judging from the Twitter reactions down below, the supporters agree with that statement too…

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

Josh McPake has signed a six-month loan deal with Championship side Dundee, in what looks to be the ideal move for all involved.

What’s the story?

The 17-year-old was allowed to choose where he wanted to play his football this season, with many clubs interested in the winger’s services, according to Football Insider.

Steven Gerrard let his prodigious wide-man make up his own mind between a stay at Rangers and several other clubs across Britain.

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Despite the reported interest of St. Johnstone, McPake opted for Championship side Dundee over the faltering top-flight outfit.

McPake joins James McPake’s side until January, having already made his Gers senior team bow. Gerrard gave the starlet a run-out in the 6-0 obliteration of St. Joseph’s in the Europa League, and it was an impressive debut.

McPake, meet McPake

Dundee haven’t opted for the Rangers youngster just because he’s highly thought of at Ibrox. We’ve seen in the opening stages of the season that the Dee are better with more width in the side. In Josh Todd and Declan McDaid, the club’s options were limited, with the Dundee boss McPake opting for a 3-5-2 often in the opening matches of the season to limit the need for talented wide players.

Thanks to McPake’s arrival, the elder McPake can change it up more regularly, in the same way he did in the comeback draw with Dunfermline.

The greatest player ever to grace the Scottish Premiership is revealed in the video below…

The 17-year-old will also be in good company at Dens Park this season. The faith the Dark Blues’ coach has put in youngsters is admirable, particularly for a coach in the infancy of his career too. The emergence of Finlay Robertson should be reason enough for the Gers to trust that McPake has chosen the right sort of environment to nurture his obvious talent.

With Dundee expected to be in and around the top of the table come May, the youngster can also experience a comparable pressure to that of playing for Rangers. At Ibrox, there’s an expectation of winning the league, and that can also be said of Dundee this season, as they look to make an instant return to the Premiership.

For someone so young, McPake has made a brave decision and both he and Rangers could reap the rewards down the line.

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David Luiz’s transfer to Arsenal is still taking some getting used to.

The 32-year-old made the switch from Chelsea to the Gunners on transfer deadline day for a fee of £8m after having declared his intention to depart Stamford Bridge the day before.

As such, he is now an Arsenal player, and brings with him years of experience at the highest level. He has also won a plethora of trophies throughout his illustrious career.

AFTV’s Robbie has his say on Arsenal’s owners in the video below…

Such is his track record, Arsenal great Nigel Winterburn has suggested that Unai Emery should give the centre-back the captaincy this season.

“Emery should make Luiz captain for this season. He has the ability to be that Tony Adams figure in Arsenal’s backline,” he said.

“A captain needs to be someone vocal, someone that’s not scared to make people aware of their responsibilities just because they might upset them for five minutes.”

Whilst some Gunners may be happy that the Brazil international has made the move to north London, a lot disagree with the former left-back, and have rubbished the claim that Luiz should be the new leader of the team. They have taken to Twitter to share their opinions, and you can see some of the best comments below.

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Bryce Hosannah has provided an update on his current fitness, posting a tweet with an Instagram photo showing the youngster post-surgery.

The 20-year-old has seemingly started the season in the worst way possible and after sitting out a period last year with injury has suffered another setback.

It was news that left much of the Leeds fanbase gutted as they replied with messages of support, rallying around the defender.

One fan said he’d been so unlucky with injuries and that he would have been in the current team without them. Another supporter labelled Hosannah as a smashing young player.

A further individual said they wanted to see him pushing for the first-team soon as another had their fingers crossed better times were on the way.

Hosannah featured in pre-season for the Whites, replacing Stuart Dallas during one outing after the Northern Irishman sustained an injury himself.

The right-back was one of the names on Leeds’ tour to Australia only a matter of months ago after getting back to his pacey best in the back end of 2018/19.

Here’s some of the best reaction.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

Shock, horror, talkSPORT are at it again.

Adrian Durham, the professional controversy merchant, said on Thursday that Mauricio Pochettino, Tottenham Hotspur’s manager, could walk away after the game against Arsenal on Sunday.

Citing “rumours” that he’d heard – a quick search on Google showed that there were no such rumours doing the rounds in the press – he said that, win, lose or draw, Pochettino could be calling it a day after five years.

Let’s unpack this.

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First of all, Pochettino signed a new five-year contract in 2018. It is reported to be worth over £8m-per-year. To walk away from over £40m would be tantamount to negligence on his part; if he didn’t want to stay, why did he sign the deal?

Sources at the club, when asked about the possibility of Pochettino leaving, laughed it off. Football FanCast was told that there is next to no chance of Pochettino leaving. Those within the club actively snorted at the idea of his departure.

But this is what talkSPORT does.

There is an age-old Hunter S Thompson passage about politicians who concoct a disgusting falsehood about an opponent. They know it isn’t true. But they go ahead with leaking it to the press because it forces their opponent to deny it.

The same is true here.

Think of the swirling stories that will come of Pochettino denying his planned exit. It won’t just be talkSPORT gaining clicks out of it; he’s been asked the question, he’s answered and on the news cycle spins.

It could potentially form the basis of Sky Sports’ coverage ahead of the north London derby this weekend, too.

It is ridiculous, really, and should stop.

Durham can say whatever he likes and get away with it because, as soon as the next show comes on, it’s forgotten about.

It is yet more evidence that they really don’t know what they’re talking about, and simply say whatever they fancy whenever they get near a microphone.

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