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Manchester City’s pursuit of a long-term replacement for Fernandinho has been the most pressing transfer issue for Txiki Begiristain and Pep Guardiola to dissect in the past twelve months. 

This time last season the Citizens were heavily linked with a move for Napoli’s deep-lying playmaker, Jorginho. A transfer failed to materialise in January and the consensus was that City would return to finally complete a deal in the summer – but those presumptions were based on false grounds.

Chelsea swooped in to steal the Italy international and City have been left pondering over potential transfer targets ever since, with the likes of Tanguy Ndombele and Frenkie de Jong both at the heart of the growing speculation.

But a recent report from Italian media outlet Calcio Mercato  has detailed a different narrative altogether, as they claim City are set to return to Napoli once again for another midfield lynchpin, Allan.

Napoli will be growing sick of the sight of a club who have troubled them both on and off the field in recent years, and naturally they will do everything they can to ensure Allan remains in Naples.

But the pulling power which Guardiola command in the modern era will certainly give Allan plenty to think about in the next two transfer windows.

Fernandinho has been marshalling City’s midfield in recent weeks with a typically supreme level of authority which was absent during the early openings of the campaign, but the Brazil international is set to turn 34 in May and Guardiola cannot go another season without securing a long-term replacement.

Like Fernandinho, Allan is agile in-front of the back-four and possesses the awareness and anticipation to do the dirty work in midfield. Not only is Napoli’s tough-tackling midfielder an excellent defensive asset, he is blessed with a shrewd eye for a forward-thinking through ball and an extensive range of passing which would enable him to make a seamless transition into Guardiola’s side.

The prospect of signing Ajax’s hottest property, De Jong, will be filling the Citizens faithful with excitement, but Allan represents more of a like-for-like replacement for Fernandinho than the Dutch wonderkid, and that factor could be telling in the transfer market.

Manchester City fans – thoughts? Let us know below!

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Tottenham Hotspur’s next three matches are pretty big, to say the absolute least.

Indeed, Mauricio Pochettino’s side will be looking to make it five straight wins in all competitions when they host Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday.

Spurs will then host Inter Milan in the Champions League next week as they look to keep their hopes of making the last-16 stage of the competition alive.

There is then the small matter of a trip to Arsenal in the Premier League at the start of December, and that one needs no build-up.

It is perhaps a bit much to say the next three matches are season-defining, but the Inter game will determine whether they are still in the hunt for a spot in the knockout round when the final group fixture comes around.

Meanwhile, the clashes with Chelsea and Arsenal will be huge when it comes to analysing what Tottenham can actually achieve in the Premier League this season.

Watch Playmaker FC’s Thogden react to England’s dramatic second-half comeback against Croatia in the video below…

The Tottenham fans have been on social media predicting the outcome of the three matches, and it would be fair to say that there are some differing opinions.

A selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:

[ad_pod ]On Monday, Aston Villa announced that Lewis Brunt had signed his first professional contract with the Championship club.Brunt is an 18-year-old central midfielder who has made six appearances in the Under-18 Premier League this season.The teenager is very much one for the future, but it seems that the Villa fans believe that Brunt could turn out for the first team sooner rather than later.Villa have a number of talented youngsters in their squad at the moment, and it will be interesting to see whether Brunt can make the breakthrough into the first team.For now, the teenager will continue to turn out for Villa Under-18s with the view to progressing to the Under-23s and onto the first team in due course.Playmaker FC’s Matchday with Max caught up with Jamaica’s women’s team. See what happened when he met the history makers in the video below…Monday proved to be a huge day for Brunt and his family, and the Villa fans were on hand with a number of positives messages.A selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:

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Plenty of Everton fans have been giving their verdict on the future of Nikola Vlasic, and a whopping 94 per cent of fans want Marco Silva to give him another chance.

Vlasic played himself back into the minds of many Everton fans last weekend, as the young Croatian absolutely bossed Ross Barkley at Wembley.

Croatia fell to a 2-1 defeat courtesy of a late fight back from Gareth Southgate’s side, but Vlasic’s display at the number ten position was a sight to behold.

[brid autoplay=”true” video=”334357″ player=”12034″ title=”Watch Fixture in Focus Tottenham v Chelsea”]

The 20-year-old provided the assist for the visitors’ goal, completed two key passes, two dribbles and also won three tackles.

After being stuck out on the wing by Ronald Koeman and Sam Allardyce, the youngster has excelled in a central position on loan at CSKA Moscow.

His speed with the ball, quick thinking, work ethic and versatility could make him the perfect attacking midfielder in Silva’s system, and a huge majority of fans think he still has a future at Goodison.

With Gylfi Sigurdsson turns 30 at the beginning of next season, could Vlasic be his future replacement? You can view the full poll results down below…

Ruben Loftus-Cheek has had a very tough time of it at Stamford Bridge this season. Despite impressing on loan at Crystal Palace last season, the Englishman has found it difficult to make his mark in blue this term, with Maurizio Sarri generally preferring to utilise the duo of Ross Barkley and Mateo Kovacic in place of him throughout the season.

When he has got a chance, though, he’s almost always impressed – with match-winning performances in the Europa League the most obvious example.

His lack of opportunities have continually raised question marks about his long-term future at Stamford Bridge. After all, he’s good enough to play for a top team, and if Chelsea won’t start him, someone else undeniably will.

So far, those question marks have largely been irrelevant, as Loftus-Cheek was getting occasional minutes and it was always going to be hard for Sarri to drop either Ross Barkley or Mateo Kovacic when both of them were playing so well.

However, that’s no longer the case.

Mateo Kovacic has really struggled over the last few weeks, with the Croatian not really offering much in the midfield. He holds onto the ball well and passes decently, but he rarely makes driving runs forward, whilst he hasn’t registered an assist since September.

Likewise, Ross Barkley has stuttered somewhat for club and country in recent weeks, whilst he also didn’t feature for the Blues on Sunday due to injury.

So, there’s never been a better chance for Loftus-Cheek to make it at Chelsea. His competition is struggling, whilst his performances now are better than they have been in some time, as evidenced by his impact on Sunday.

It’s quickly becoming clear that it’s now or never for him. He’ll never get a better chance to impress, and so it’s down for Sarri to reward him for his form – and it’s down to him to continue to make the most of it.

Thoughts?

Everton needed a stoppage time free-kick from Lucas Digne to rescue a point against Watford last weekend.

The Toffees earned plenty of praise for their performance against Liverpool despite losing in injury time. However, the Blues have since lumbered to home draws against both Newcastle and more recently the Hornets. Picking up just two points will be a massive disappointment for Marco Silva who could have cemented their position in sixth in the standings.

It’s evident that Everton are far too reliant on record-signing Richarlison who opened the scoring against his former club. With Cenk Tosun failing to find the back of the net consistently, Silva has been forced to use the Brazilian in a central role. The Blues need a new number nine desperately to improve their chances of ending the season in a European place.

The perfect signing could be Bournemouth hotshot – Callum Wilson. Valued at £13.5m by Transfermarkt, the forward was instrumental to guiding the Cherries to the Premier League and helped maintain their status in England’s premier division. Despite injuries hampering his progress in recent seasons, Wilson is finally back to his best and has netted eight goals and registered six assists in all competitions already this season.

His impressive form has not gone unnoticed with Wilson receiving his first call-up to the England national team after showing Gareth Southgate just what he is capable of. With blistering pace and lethal finishing ability, Wilson could be the final piece of the puzzle for the Blues. The 26-year-old loves to play on the last defender, and his intelligent runs would have Glyfi Sigurdsson licking his lips behind him. Alongside Richarlison in the attack, Everton would be scoring for fun if they secured Wilson’s services.

He wouldn’t come cheap, but his arrival would finally give the Goodison Park faithful the proven goalscorer they have been crying out for.

Everton fans, thoughts?

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According to the results of our recent poll, the majority of Swansea fans believe that veteran winger Wayne Routledge has a future at the club beyond the January transfer window.

The 33-year-old has been restored to the side by Graham Potter in recent weeks, and he has clearly proven to Swansea fans that he is capable of helping the promotion push to get the Welsh side back into the Premier League at the first time of asking.

At the end of November though things were entirely different. Potter had told BBC Sport that both Routledge and Nathan Dyer were free to leave the Liberty Stadium, as the new boss looked to promote the young talent in his squad.

Routledge though has grasped his chance with both hands recently, and with his contract expiring at the end of the year he will hope that a new deal is on the table soon. His recent winner in the pouring rain against Sheffield Wednesday will have done no harm either.

Check out the full results below, where 67 per cent of Swansea fans wanted Routledge to remain with the club.

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Liverpool need to hijack Everton’s interest in Porto defender Eder Militao – who Marco Silva’s side are keen on signing to replace the declining Seamus Coleman – to sort out their own problems in defence and make sure they don’t allow their rivals to strengthen significantly.

What’s the word, then? 

The Toffees, along with Manchester United, have been keeping a close eye on the Brazilian defender as they look to patch up their respective issues in defence, although Porto are reportedly asking for a fee of around £50m for the Brazilian international defender.

Everton are keen on Militao to replace Coleman, as the 30-year-old has not been his usual self so far this season and appears to need replacing in the starting line-up with Silva setting about freshening up his back line – the 20-year-old can play at either right-back or centre-back, with his versatility a major selling point.

It almost doesn’t need saying that United are desperate for a centre-back, given Jose Mourinho’s well-documented demands for one back in the summer, so Militao is being lined up to play alongside Victor Lindelof presumably.

Why do Liverpool need him? 

Well, like the Red Devils – who are currently missing Victor Lindelof, Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo through injury – Liverpool are currently in the midst of their own injury crisis in defence. Jurgen Klopp is without all of Joel Matip, Joe Gomez and Trent Alexander-Arnold at the moment, and may be forced into an unplanned dip into the transfer market for cover.

Whilst he would be an expensive choice for cover, Militao would most likely end up being more than just ‘cover’ for Klopp’s existing stars – he is one of Europe’s most coveted young players, and one that Liverpool should be all over regardless of their current situation.

The former Sao Paulo man is a mean tackler and a dominant aerial presence, whilst his ability on the ball is particularly commendable for a defensive player; his current ability, but obvious ceiling for improvement, must make him a main target for the Premier League title-chasers.

West Ham fans have taken to Twitter to react to Michail Antonio’s performance against Southampton, in which the former Nottingham Forest man excelled at right-back once again to help the Hammers come from behind to win 2-1.

The English forward has been deployed at right-back on a handful of occasions recently, and has notched a goal against Fulham and the assist for Felipe Anderson’s winner against the Saints from the right side of defence.

Fans of the east London club have noticed an upturn in the 28-year-old’s performances compared to those of last season, and with two goals and two assists in his nine Premier League starts this season, Antonio is looking more like his old self in claret and blue once again.

He was crucial yet again at St Mary’s on Thursday night, so let’s take a look at how the West Ham fans reacted to the versatile Antonio’s performance against the Saints…

When Fernandinho plays for Manchester City their chances of winning increase exponentially, so the theory goes. 

There is something distinct about Fernandinho’s ability to blend the role of a ball-winning midfielder and a deep-lying playmaker which Ilkay Gundogan and John Stones simply cannot emulate. Both of the aforementioned players are lacking fundamental qualities to deputise for the Brazilian: Gundogan is short of the nous required to pickpocket attackers in promising positions and Stones, after building his career as a centre-back, is lacking the energy and positioning sense to thrive in front of the defensive line.

That Fernandinho’s return to the starting line-up against Southampton coincided with a dominant 3-1 win was certainly no coincidence, and his impact was timely with a season-defining fixture against Liverpool set to take place at the Etihad Stadium on Thursday evening.

But City’s over-reliance on Fernandinho could prove to be a narrative which defines their season, adding further pressure on Txiki Begiristain to take decisive action during the January window.

The impact Aymeric Laporte has had since arriving in Manchester proves that a single mid-season addition can bolster the squad without upsetting the balance of the dressing room, and City should use the Frenchman’s success as reason to justify another extortionate transfer plot in the shape of a move for Tanguy Ndombele.

In terms of his suitability to the role of Fernandinho’s understudy Ndombele is about as good as it gets, and at 22-years-of-age he represents a long-term solution to a problem which needs resolving this month if City want to keep their title dream alive.

According to a recent report from Italian media outlet TuttoMercato, NDombele could be available for 60 million euros this month (£54 million) although Lyon are holding out for 80 million euros (£72 million).

In the current market £54 million would represent decent value for a player of Ndombele’s potential, and a club of City’s riches will undoubtedly be entertaining the prospect of forking out for him this month as they look to record back-to-back Premier League titles for the very first time.

Discussion of a move for Frenkie de Jong has also been discussed at length, but Ndombele appears to represent a more like-for-like replacement for Fernandinho and murmurs emerging from Ajax hint that De Jong is edging towards Barcelona.

Ahead of Liverpool’s visit on Thursday, City’s title dream is hanging in the balance. Inflicting defeat on the unbeaten Reds will go some way to injecting a spark back into City’s title bid but even a priceless victory tomorrow night might not be enough to pave the way to top spot if they fail to land a new midfielder this month.

Txiki Begiristian could change everything with the capture of Ndombele.

Manchester City fans – thoughts? Let us know below!