With yet another Old Firm victory under their belt, Celtic are cruising towards lifting the Scottish Premiership trophy once again this season, which is still a top achievement that fans are very proud of. 10 in a row is on, guys. It really is. 

Clearly, it has been a very topsy turvy season but Celtic have already claimed one piece of silverware, that will surely at least, be joined with one other trophy come the end of the season. Neil Lennon – whether he’s there next season or not – has so far done a good job in keeping everything ticking over at Celtic Park although the summer could incite a number of changes at the club.

With a new permanent manager waiting to take to the hot seat and a host of new players to follow him in after, it could be a very exciting campaign for Celtic next season. One player who certainly oozes quality and would be influential signing for the Hoops is Mexico international Edson Alvarez.

Alvarez, (who is valued at £6.7 million on Transfermarkt) is a versatile player that would do wonders for a team like Celtic, who were linked with by the Scottish Sun.

The 21-year-old is without a doubt one of the most promising young players in Mexico and now he even operates as a defensive-midfielder, a position he has also thrived in. Scott Brown – much as you all love him – can’t go on forever and a succession plan must be made.

Edson Alvarez operates with real confidence and has fantastic attributes that could make him a good centre-back or defensive-midfielder for Celtic. Indeed, he’s exactly the kind of player Paradise would love.

Equally, his position may be decided based on who leaves Celtic Park this summer although his performances for Mexico in the 2018 World Cup presented his top-level passing ability and general ability to get around the pitch, which could suggest Celtic would benefit from playing him in midfield.

Do you agree that the Mexican international would make a good signing? Join the discussion by commenting below…

أجرت بعثة فريق الكرة الأول بنادي الزمالك مسحة كورونا في مطار القاهرة الدولي، عقب وصولها من المغرب مساء اليوم.

وكان الزمالك قد حل ضيفًا على نظيره الرجاء المغربي في ذهاب نصف نهائي دوري أبطال إفريقيا والتي حسمها الزمالك بهدف دون رد بمركب محمد الخامس في الدار البيضاء.

طالع | فرجاني ساسي يعلن سلبية مسحة كورونا.. ويعود لـ الزمالك في هذا الموعد

وقرر الجهاز الفني للزمالك بقيادة البرتغالي جايمي باتشيكو خوض الفريق تدريباته غدًا الثلاثاء استعدادًا لمباراة العودة أمام الرجاء.

ويخوض الزمالك مباراة العودة أمام الرجاء بالقاهرة السبت المقبل، ويكفيه الفوز بأي نتيجة أو التعادل لحسم التأهل لنهائي دوري أبطال افريقيا.

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That Moussa Sissoko is widely fancied to win Tottenham’s player of the season award speaks volumes about how far the once ritually lambasted midfielder has come this season, but has Victor Wanyama shown him that another level can still be reached?

On the chalkboard

Sissoko’s transformation has been as compelling as it has been stunning. Simply put, nobody saw this coming, nobody. In seasons gone by it seemed the France international had no excuse for consistently underperforming in Lilywhite without the fallback of inexperience to explain his abject displays.

But the beginning of the current campaign and a move into central midfield has seen the all-action midfielder become a hub at the heart of Tottenham’s free-flowing system.

The 29-year-old now patrols the centre circle with a swagger and sense of authority which is a mind-boggling far cry from the frightened and nerve-jangling figure who used to strike every ball as if his basic liberties as a human being were at stake.

Yet the transformation does not feel complete.

This is a player who is able to flick on the jets and rapidly switch a canter into a gallop to breeze past his opponent, but one who also fails to fully utilise this skill.

Victor Wanyama, however, making a rare start for Spurs on Saturday, showed Sissoko how to perfectly time a run into the penalty area by striding forward to latch onto a loose ball, bypassing the goalkeeper with ease and tapping the ball into a gaping goal.

If anyone needed to learn a lesson from this moment of undisputed class, it was Sissoko.

Sissoko could and should score more

The manner in which Wanyama ghosted into the box was (sorry Spurs fans) almost Lampard-esque.

Timing of the run is everything, and that’s an area where Sissoko must improve to utilise every aspect of his footballing repertoire.

For a player with his speed and energy he ought to be running free of his marker and arriving in the box unmarked and ready to find the net, but he seldom finds himself in a goal scoring position.

Wanyama, valued at £22.5 million by Transfermarkt, is hardly famed for his goal scoring prowess or the intelligence of his running into the area but he still managed to showcase that side of his game against the Terriers.

If Sissoko wants to full complete his turnaround and become a truly devastating talent in central midfield, he needs to find tune that side of his game.

The West Brom manager situation is an utter mess, and one that could, and should, have been, handled much better.

Sacking a manager in March, while your team is still comfortably in the play-off positions, and having only appointed him on a permanent basis in the summer, seems like a strange decision.

But to do it, seemingly without a contingency plan is unfathomable.

Rumours have been rife about Slavisa Jokanovic being spoken to, or Alex Neil being considered, but the fact is, no one really knows.

We now sit 10 days on from Darren Moore’s sacking, and the Albion fans are no nearer knowing the next man in charge than they were when the announcement of his departure was made.

To make the best of a poorly handled situation, would have been to have the next boss in place prior to this international break, giving him time with the majority of his squad, allowing them all to get to know each other and have two weeks to work on what is expected.

But that is not the Albion way.

An interim boss was mooted, to the dismay of many fans, who must have been united in the ‘been there, done that’ mindset.

With time running down on the season, fans now seem resigned to a short-term appointment, with a consensus agreeing that there is simply not enough time for a new regime to get his staff in place and influence the remainder of the season.

It’s a sorry state of affairs for the loyal fans, who show up week in, week out, and deserve an appointment that can match their commitment and ambition.

A Baggies fans’ Twitter account asked the simple question “who does everyone want as the next Albion manager?”.

Here are some of the replies:

Interestingly, a new name cropped up in the replies, Swansea City manager Graham Potter. His style of play would certainly suit Albion, and it is surprising that he has not been rumoured as someone under consideration.

What are your thoughts on the situation West Brom fans? Who would you like to see replace Moore? Let us know below…

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Southampton’s academy is widely regarded as one of the best in England, having produced stars such as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Luke Shaw, Theo Walcott and Gareth Bale.

All four have gone on to great successes but none quite so far as the latter, who has been lighting up La Liga and the Champions League since completing a then-world-record move to Real Madrid in 2013.

Despite now being at the pinnacle of European football, the Welsh star hasn’t forgotten his humble roots and paid homage to the Saints as he featured in BT Sports’ What I Wore series. Here’s what the 29-year-old had to say:

“I remember my first game, I was so nervous! I felt like I didn’t want to go out on the pitch to be honest, I was 16 at the time, had been playing in the reserve team and doing well and to be honest I wasn’t really expecting to be called up to the first team.

“I remember one of the boys my age said ‘I have heard that you might be going to the first team’ and I said ‘no, don’t be stupid!’ and I remember just having the chat and training and it was surreal.

How much money could you make busking for a week as a freestyle footballer? Find out in the video below…

“I loved playing for Southampton, the fans are incredible and I will always be in debt to them.”

The winger made his debut in front of the St Mary’s Stadium at the age of just 16 – in a victory over Millwall – and hasn’t looked back since. Initially a left-back, the speedster has developed into a brilliant winger and is now considered among the world’s best in his position.

Having chalked up five goals and 12 assists in 44 appearances for the south coast outfit, Bale secured a move to Spurs for just over £13m and was then sold to Los Blancos for almost seven-times as much six years later – the first of many times Southampton would be stung in the following decade.

Despite being an elite player now, it’s nice to see that the powerful forward remains thankful to club that was his stepping stone to stardom.

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Yerry Mina. A player who, apart from his three-goal haul at the World Cup last summer, has never truly set European football alight with his performances.

His performances for Palmeiras earned him a dream £10.5m move to Barcelona, where he lasted just half a season before ending up at Everton for almost three times that figure.

The Toffees have a track record of being particularly naive in the market in recent windows. Their expensive, and miscalculated, captures of Davy Klaassen and Morgan Schneiderlin have proven to be awful pieces of business, and their erratic swoop for Mina is starting to look just as bad.

In this era of ‘big 6’ dominance, has finishing 7th become as good as winning a trophy? The Pl>ymaker FC squad have their say in the video below…

Signed after his excellent World Cup campaign, as aforementioned, Mina arrived on Merseyside carrying a slight foot injury – Marco Silva had targeted the 16th September for the Colombian’s debut, although it took until the 11th November for Mina to make his full debut.

Since that debut against Chelsea, Mina has managed to make just 12 appearances throughout the Premier League season as injury issues have defined his maiden campaign in English football.

Recently, the 24-year-old has come back into Silva’s starting XI, and has put in some impressive performances, but those came before the international break where Everton received some extremely frustrating news.

Mina sustained an injury to his hamstring during his country’s match against South Korea, a blow which has been described as ‘serious’ for the club and for the player himself.

To spend around £30m on a player who hasn’t even truly proven himself in European football – he made just six appearances for Barcelona – was a truly ludicrous decision by the Toffees and one that is beginning to look extremely foolish.

That isn’t to say that Mina hasn’t impressed when he has made it out onto the pitch, although those showings are becoming too few and far between for Everton to consider their purchase a successful one.

It has been a fantastic season to be a Leeds United supporter, hasn’t it?

After years of mediocrity and underachievement by the Whites, Marcelo Bielsa’s arrival in the summer has transformed the club’s fortunes. Second in the Championship, the Yorkshire-based outfit are now within seven games of achieving promotion to the top tier.

The Argentine manager’s influence on his squad has seen the likes of Mateusz Klich, Liam Cooper and Kemar Roofe make marked improvements in terms of their developments yet the same cannot be said unfortunately for Stuart Dallas.

The Northern Ireland international has only been able to make sporadic appearances for the Whites during the 2018/19 campaign and has failed to make any sort of impression on Bielsa. Dallas had begun the year as a starter for the Leeds but eventually lost his place in the side after fracturing his foot in December. The emergence of Jack Clarke and Jack Harrison in the wide positions had already forced the 27-year-old to relocate to full-back yet the recent form illustrated by Luke Ayling has seemingly closed that particular door.

With Dallas’ last seven games for Leeds have all seen him feature as a substitute which is an indication that Bielsa doesn’t trust him entirely to deliver for the club. If this particular trend continues, it may be beneficial for both parties if the former Brentford ace leaves Elland Road in the summer.

Contracted until 2020 (via Transfermarkt), Dallas’ departure would allow the Whites to recuperate a fee which they could put towards strengthening their squad. It could be argued that the club would be better off securing a permanent move for the impressive Harrison who is currently on loan from Manchester City.

Regardless on whether Leeds find themselves in the Premier League or the Championship next season, it is clear that they should call time on Dallas’ five four year stay at the club if they are thinking of building towards the future.

What do you think Whites fans? Should Bielsa let Dallas leave in the summer? Or does the midfielder still have something to offer for the club? Let us know below.

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After Raul Jimenez put Wolves 2-0 up at Wembley Stadium last week, Watford’s FA Cup journey looked set to end in heartbreak and disappointment, but Gerard Deulofeu’s second-half introduction saw the game flipped on its head.

Having pulled one back for the Hornets in spectacular style, the Spaniard would go on to seize the day and score his second in extra time after Troy Deeney equalised from the spot in the 94th minute.

The former Barcelona man is capable of mercurial moments of outstanding quality but equally prone to going missing when his side need his pace and skill the most. Fortunately for Watford, his performance in the FA Cup semi-final saw much more of the former, although Guillem Balague thinks the speedster can only get better from this point:

“He hasn’t been in a place like he is now. He hasn’t been in a place where he feels like he’s treated differently, where he’s a bit special. The coach has identified that maybe that’s the way to get the best out of him.

“He feels important, he is not a promising player anymore. He is a player who scores important goals, but there is still a lot of room for improvement and he is aware of that.

“It’s good that he knows the most important thing is the next training session, the next game, and with that you will maximise your potential. Some people reach that conclusion when they are 17, some find it when they are 24. He has that now.

“I think you are going to see the best of Deulofeu very soon.”

Indeed, the 25-year-old winger has grown from being ‘one for the future’ into ‘one for the present’ at Vicarage Road and the partnership he has forged with captain Deeney strikes fear into all opposition defences.

Wolves Fan TV place the blame for Wolves’ FA Cup semi-final collapse on John Ruddy in the video below…

Javi Gracia has been able to get the best out of every player, Deulofeu included, and Balague seems to believe that the Watford boss is largely responsible for his countryman’s transformation this campaign.

One thing is for sure, if the Wembley Stadium masterclass wasn’t even the best the electric number 7 has to offer, as Balague says, then Hornets fans are in for a real treat soon enough.

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Loads of Newcastle fans have been reacting to a quite shocking moment from the international break, as Miguel Almiron committed an absolute horror tackle in a “friendly” against Mexico.

International breaks can be pretty dull for European football fans, but South American nations do not know the meaning of an “international friendly”.

Nowhere was that more evident than in Levi’s Stadium in California on Tuesday evening, where Mexico took on Almiron’s Paraguay.

Pl>ymaker FC Exclusive: Jermaine Jenas reveals why Tyne-Wear is a more intense derby than anything London can offer – check out the video below….

Mexico went three goals to the good in just 24 minutes, and the tackles were absolutely flying in throughout the all-action affair.

Almiron came on in the 56th minute with his side down 3-0, instantly played a part in their opening goal to make it 3-1, and was then promptly sent off for a truly woeful challenge.

Newcastle’s record signing planted his studs into the back of Jose Juan Vazquez’s calf, as you can see here.

There is no word yet on if Vazquez did anything to provoke Almiron’s truly heinous tackle, but the Twitter reactions down below are certainly having their say on the matter…

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Christian Eriksen’s future is a topic firmly ingrained into the narrative concerning Tottenham Hotspur’s season so far and the imminent transfer window, and discussion over potential replacements has naturally been rife as a consequence.

Transfer rumours continue to emerge regarding a potential successor to the Denmark international but a recent report from the Daily Mail suggests they are also looking to strengthen in other attacking areas.

The report claims that Spurs have a long-term interest in Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha but the £75-80 million valuation could be problematic.

In response to the report, talkSPORT pundit and former Arsenal star Ray Parlour discussed the merits of the potential deal and suggested he’d be a solid replacement for Eriksen if the playmaker leaves this summer.

His frankly ridiculous transfer claim has been slated by Spurs fans, with plenty eager to point out that they are two completely different players.

Perhaps Parlour was alluding to the scale of the influence he would have at the club rather than the position, but it’s more than likely just a deliberate attempt to grab the media spotlight.

Either way the fans were predominantly in a critical mood, while others indicated they would rather see Isco or Donny van de Beek arrive in north London to replace Eriksen.

Here’s how the Lilywhites faithful reacted to the foolish transfer claim…