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As per Football.London correspondent Alasdair Gold’s latest update, Tottenham’s top target, Inter defender Milan Skriniar, is ‘very keen’ on a north London move, but the clubs remain some £10m apart in terms of valuation over the Serie A star’s signature.

Skriniar, who played a huge role in Antonio Conte’s attempted title challenge last season, starting 30 games and averaging a 92% passing accuracy out from the back as per WhoScored, is now at the top of Tottenham’s transfer wish list as deadline day looms.

Indeed, reliable Tottenham journalist Gold has confirmed that both the Lilywhites and Inter Milan are in talks over a deal but, as it stands, both clubs remain on different wavelengths when it comes to payment.

The Italian giants value Skriniar at around £45m but Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is hoping for a fee closer to £32m plus add-ons for the Slovakian colossus.

However, while the clubs are still locked in negotiations with just two days of the transfer window left, Spurs fans can take hope in reports that Skriniar is reportedly ‘very keen’ on a Tottenham move and is willing to make the switch to north London.

Therefore, if both Inter and Spurs can meet halfway on a valuation, there shouldn’t be any trouble in bringing the 25-year-old to the Premier League, with a centre-back now Jose Mourinho’s final puzzle piece.

It’s been a stellar window for Tottenham with six signings having already come through the door in Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Joe Hart, Matt Doherty, Sergio Reguilon, Carlos Vinicius and the sensational return of club icon Gareth Bale on loan.

If Mourinho can add a top-quality defender to his roster ahead of a gruelling and congested 2020/21 campaign, this could be deemed Spurs’ best window in years.

Spurs fans, should your club put the cherry on top with a Skriniar deal? Have your say in the comments down below…

Juan Foyth’s agent has suggested the Tottenham ace will make a decision on his future when the Premier League season finishes. 

Foyth has featured just twice for Jose Mourinho since the Portuguese replaced Mauricio Pochettino as Spurs boss last November. The Argentine, who was once considered a Mauricio Pochettino prodigy, has fallen out of favour with his successor.

Earlier this month, El Dia claimed that his representatives are considering offers from a number of clubs amid interest from Barcelona, Leeds and a couple of Serie A teams.

His agent Claudio Curti has now provided an update on his client’s future in north London, via Passione Inter, as per Sport Witness. Curti told the Italian outlet: “We are currently waiting for the season to be completed. Then we’ll talk to the club [Tottenham] to evaluate the best solution for Juan.”

The versatile defender, who can play at centre-back or on the right flank, has struggled for game-time this season.

Indeed, he has only played seven times up until now, including four appearances in the Premier League, and finds himself below his teammates Davinson Sanchez, Eric Dier and Toby Alderweireld in the pecking order.

While Foyth has largely failed to convince Mourinho so far, he is still an experienced professional and Marcelo Bielsa has contacted Pochettino to discuss the Argentina international.

The defender’s compatriot has a history of developing young talent as he has transformed Leeds by giving players like Kalvin Phillips a chance to prove themselves.

Recent reports have implied that he is on his way out the door despite suffering a knee injury, and this may benefit Mourinho in the end. Even if Bielsa can’t convert Foyth into a top-class defender, the Portuguese may be able to recoup some funds if the club attach an option-to-buy as part of the deal.

Tottenham fans, do you think Juan Foyth should move to Elland Road? Let us know in the comments below!

One of the heroes of that great Leeds team of the early 2000s, Ian Harte more than most would have been chuffed to bits at seeing his former side clinch their return to the Premier League.The Whites secured their top-flight status thanks to rivals West Brom slipping to a surprise 2-1 defeat to Huddersfield Town on Friday night, meaning that they have guaranteed a top-two spot in the Championship and automatic promotion.And Harte was quick to take to Twitter to share his thoughts on Leeds’ Premier League return.

Having played in the Premier League in his time with Leeds, Harte will know all about the kind of magic that Elland Road can inspire when hosting top-flight football.

In what has been a long and drawn-out campaign, Marcelo Bielsa’s side have completed their main goal of finally getting out of the Championship, and they’ve done it with some games to spare too.

No more play-off heartbreak, and no more worrying about a late meltdown. The job is done, and now it’s time to celebrate.

Many Wolverhampton Wanderers fans are loving a tweet from Raul Jimenez after he shared a video on his official Twitter page about his new baby girl.

The caption was in Spanish but this did not stop many Wolves supporters flocking to the post. In the video, you can see people dressed up as wolves in the black and gold shirts delivering a baby wolf to his door. Whilst the footage is meant to be amusing, the underlining statement is that Jimenez has had a baby with his partner, which many fans congratulated him for.

Indeed, the 29-year old is something of a fan favourite at the Midlands club, due to his relatively impressive record in front of goal. The Mexican international has scored 22 times and provided 10 assists in 44 appearances so far this season, according to Transfermarkt.

The striker has proved that he can do it consistently as well, netting 17 strikes and making eight assists in the same number of games in the previous campaign, as per the website.

Nevertheless, these WWFC supporters loved his post:

Wanderers, what do you think of Jimenez? Comment below!

Six points adrift of 17th with eight matches left to play, Norwich’s Premier League survival hopes are still intact but time could soon be running out on their top-flight status.

Last Friday’s home clash against Southampton offered them a chance to pile the pressure on the teams immediately ahead of them but instead they gave a feeble display in losing 0-3 at Carrow Road and ended up being grateful that West Ham, Bournemouth and Aston Villa all subsequently lost.

While nobody in Daniel Farke’s team had a game to remember, it was a particularly off-colour evening for Emiliano Buendia, whose damning statistics from the Saints defeat encapsulated how poor Norwich were as a whole that day.

The winger failed to register a shot in the whole game and completed just 20 of his 35 passes, while only two of his 10 crosses found a team-mate and he came out second best in 14 of his 23 duels. Perhaps the most glaring indictment of the 23-year-old’s performance, though, was that he lost possession no fewer than 31 times – the most of anyone who featured in the match. [via Sofascore]

Buendia has been a hugely valuable contributor to Norwich’s attacking play this season, with his tally of seven assists by far the highest in Farke’s squad. However, having scored eight times in the Canaries’ promotion-winning 2018/19 campaign, the Argentine still hasn’t found the net this term, a very surprising statistic given how brilliant he has been as a creative source.

The winger has the highest average WhoScored match rating of any Norwich player in 2019/20 and, as per the same source, has been man of the match more often than any of his team-mates. Indeed, he was even reported to have attracted the interest of runaway league leaders Liverpool in January, according to The Athletic.

Jurgen Klopp’s champions-elect were unable to find a route to goal against Everton on Sunday. If Norwich are to have any hope of succeeding in that mission tomorrow, and indeed in their subsequent seven games as they battle for their Premier League lives, they need to see Buendia at his best rather than the ineffective and wasteful version that we witnessed against Southampton.

Norwich fans, how crucial will Buendia be to the Canaries’ fading hopes of beating relegation? Comment below with your views!

Serge Aurier put in an all-action performance for Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday night as Jose Mourinho’s side booked their spot in the last-16 stage of the Champions League.

The London club recovered from 2-0 behind to run out 4-2 winners over Olympiacos, which was enough to secure a position in the first knockout round of the European Cup.

Aurier actually provided the assist for Dele Alli to halve the deficit in the closing stages of the first 45 minutes.

And the Ivory Coast international then scored himself to send Mourinho’s team 3-2 ahead, before Harry Kane notched his second in the 77th minute.

According to WhoScored, as well as his goal and assist, Aurier had a pass success rate of 88%, whilst he won two aerial duels during his 90 minutes on the field.

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It has not always happened for the right-back since arriving from Paris Saint-Germain.

However, his performance in the Champions League on Tuesday night made a really good impression on the Spurs supporters.

Here’s what they had to say…

Earlier this month, it was reported that Spurs could listen to offers for Aurier when the January transfer window opens for business.

Loads of Newcastle fans have been reacting to a tweet from The Telegraph’s Luke Edwards, who slammed Premier League clubs placing their staff on furlough.

Liverpool became the third Premier League club to place a number of non-playing staff on the government’s job retention scheme this weekend, angering many in the process.

Newcastle were of course the first top-flight outfit to take this measure, something which is hardly surprising given who is in charge at St. James’ Park, and Tottenham were not far behind.

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And although Liverpool have opted to top up their employees’ wages to 100 per cent, Edwards shared his disappointment with clubs taking advantage of the scheme.

Toon fans were in full agreement with the journalist, as one Magpies supporter said it is “disgusting” while another said clubs who use it should be banned from making transfers.

Check out some of the best Twitter reactions down below…

Some Toon fans are still fuming at something that happened in 2017…

This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…

They won in spite of him, rather than because of him.

That’s possibly the best way you can describe Ryan Yates’ contribution to the victory on Saturday. Yates has been making his way back from an operation on his knee that has kept him out for the early part of the season.

We spoke on FFC previously about how Yates needed to take his chance now that he has been given a spell in the first team, and after his display on Saturday, it’s fair to say that perhaps this wasn’t his best performance in a Nottingham Forest shirt.

His numbers on the day weren’t all that impressive and he found himself being shown up by his midfield partner Tiago Silva (all stats from WhoScored).

He only had 40 touches during the game, so it’s clear to see that he went missing for large parts of the game, compare that to Silva who had 74 and you can tell who was running the show that day.

With a pass completion percentage of 59.3%, it was the worst of any of the starting XI for both teams. Add to that he was dispossessed two times and it provides evidence of a meagre display from the Forest man.

Again if you compare that back to Silva who had a pass completion percentage of 75.5%, to say that his performance overshadowed Yates’ would be an understatement.

He didn’t contribute much in terms of defence either, managing just 1 tackle and failing to register an interception either. For Silva those numbers were 4 and 3. You can see a pattern developing here.

Competition for places in central midfield is incredibly tight at the City Ground, with Sabri Lamouchi having plenty of options to choose from, especially when the likes of Alfa Semedo and Samba Sow return from their respective injuries.

So whilst this game might be a bit of a blip for him, he’s going to have to show something in training during the international break to show that it really was a clip rather than something that could become a trend in the future.

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

Jose Mourinho joining Tottenham Hotspur has been the big talking point of the week and what better time to appoint the Portuguese man than just days before a derby match against West Ham United.

However, the game shouldn’t be seen as a topic of interest purely because of Mourinho’s arrival or even the rivalry between the Hammers and Spurs.

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Another layer of intrigue can be added to the weekend context when you consider the feud between Mourinho and West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini.

The pair have faced off 14 times in their careers so far, with Pellegrini coming out on top in four games, Mourinho winning seven and three other matches ending in a draw.

There has been a war of words between them in the past, as The Express quoted Mourinho as saying: “If Madrid were to fire me, I wouldn’t go to Malaga. I’d go to a top-level team in Italy or England.”

He then followed that up when both were in the Premier League by stating: “Because I wouldn’t. Because I’m in a situation where I can choose. Some people can’t choose.”

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Pellegrini has also taken a shot at Saturday’s opponent in the past, saying: “I don’t like coaches who are only interested in results. The concepts of spectacle and creativity are fundamental to me.”

There was even a time when he refused to shake the Portuguese tactician’s hand because he “didn’t want to” after Jose Mourinho jumped in the crowd to celebrate a Fernando Torres winner in 2013.

Both managers are in the top 10 in Premier League history for points per game from those who have taken charge of more than 50 matches.

The most recent time the two managers met was at London Stadium last season, when West Ham beat Manchester United 3-1.

West Ham are on a run of 7 games without a victory in all competitions and Spurs are enduring a winless streak of 5 matches in the league, so there is another added incentive for the two managers to outdo each other.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets… 

Will Grigg’s move to Sunderland has fallen short of expectations so far but his display against Tranmere on Tuesday shows he has the potential to be a real success this season.

The Northern Ireland international scored his first league goal of the season in the 5-0 rout but his all-round display hinted that a change in manager could see a different striker donning the red and white stripes from now on.

Phil Parkinson’s first home game in charge coincided with a change in approach from the Black Cats, moving away from a negative style of play which saw them draw 19 matches last term and find the back of the net just 16 times in 11 league games this campaign.

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The new lease of life led to more chances being created and it was no surprise that Grigg was able to profit, and now both his manager and the fans will hope he can keep it up, since the striker has previously drawn criticism for his performances.

However, he showed that could all be behind him now there is a new dawn at the Stadium of Light, adding quality to the tireless effort he showed throughout.

That commitment contributed to Grigg completing two tackles, allowing the Black Cats to pen in Rovers and apply pressure on their defence which made victory an inevitability, evidenced by their 16 shots.

According to SofaScore he also made four key passes, an aspect of his game which makes up for his lack of goals since arriving in January – with seven in 36 Sunderland appearances.

With such a record it is fair to say he has been a flop so far, particularly as he arrived for £4m – an eyewatering sum which makes him the most expensive League One signing ever.

Nevertheless, he still has a lot to offer and could be key to promotion success this year. He already had four of those under his belt from spells at Wigan, MK Dons and Brentford, and now he has a manager willing to be more adventurous and daring in attack, he could really flourish.

He finished as the top scorer in League One in 2015/16 too which shows he has the quality to be devastating at this level, suggesting it was perhaps a fault of Jack Ross that he failed to deliver.