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Everton could be set for a big blow over the coming months after it was revealed Arsenal have set their sights on star striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

What’s the word?

According to reports, the Gunners have identified the highly-rated 24-year-old as a possible replacement for wantaway forward Alexandre Lacazette.

The France international is expected to depart the north London outfit either in January or as a free agent next summer following the expiration of his current contract, and Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has already begun the search for his successor.

He’s reportedly in the market for a young goalscorer with Premier League experience to continue his policy of building a new squad around youth, with Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins the alternative target.

However, the Toffees are expected to put up a fight for Calvert-Lewin, with the report stating: “Ambitious Everton will fight tooth and nail to keep top scorer Calvert-Lewin, who has established himself as Harry Kane’s England back-up over the past year.

“He signed a long-term Goodison deal worth £75,000-a-week last year, and it would cost upwards of £50million to prise him away from Merseyside.”

Everton fans will be gutted

Calvert-Lewin has become a key player for Everton in recent seasons, scoring 32 Premier League goals in 72 appearances since the beginning of 2019/20.

Thus, losing their star striker and top scorer would be a seismic blow to any ambitions they have of qualifying for Europe next term.

His outstanding performances at club level have seen him become a regular member of Gareth Southgate’s England squad, where he’s the first-choice backup to captain Harry Kane.

Although he only made two substitute appearances throughout the summer as the Three Lions reached the Euro 2020 final, his presence as the only natural alternative to the Tottenham Hotspur star illustrates just how highly Calvert-Lewin is thought of.

The 6 foot 2 target man returned from his international exploits in emphatic form at the start of the current campaign, bagging a goal in each of Everton’s opening three top-flight fixtures before a broken toe sidelined him.

Calvert-Lewin’s departure would be a significant setback in the Goodison Park outfit’s plans under new manager Rafael Benitez, and the Spanish tactician will be hoping his key man remains on Merseyside for many years to come.

With Salomon Rondon struggling for goals, it only elevates the England international’s importance at Finch Farm; they simply have to keep him.

And, in other news…Report reveals exciting Everton transfer update, fans should be buzzing 

Celtic could make on-loan winger Jota their fourth and final January addition, according to Football Scotland’s Mark Hendry.

The Lowdown: Japanese trio

The Hoops have already begun working on their January business, with Ange Postecoglou looking to add three Japanese players to his injury-hit squad.

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Terms have reportedly been agreed for midfielders Reo Hatate and Yosuke Ideguchi, whereas Celtic also want to bring in forward Daizen Maeda and are confident of doing so.

The club’s early 2022 business may not stop there, though, with rumours of Jota’s loan possibly becoming permanent surfacing earlier this month.

The Latest: Permanent Jota move?

Football Scotland journalist Hendry shared a Celtic-related transfer update on Wednesday morning, suggesting the Hoops are not interested in Gremio midfielder Fernando Henrique.

Within their report, they reiterated that Celtic want to bring in Hatate, Ideguchi and Maeda before facing Rangers on January 2, with Jota’s permanent Parkhead move possibly their fourth and final winter window addition.

The option to buy fee for Jota, labelled as a ‘game-changer’ by Alex McLeish, stands at £6.5m, which could see him become the club’s most expensive signing under Postecoglou ahead of Kyogo Furuhashi’s £4.86m summer switch.

The Verdict: Enough?

Celtic have plenty of attacking injuries to deal with at this moment in time, one of which is Jota, with full-backs Josip Juranovic and Adam Montgomery playing on the wing against Ross County on Wednesday. [SofaScore]

Postecoglou has also relied heavily on Callum McGregor, David Turnbull and Tom Rogic in the middle of midfield, so two new additions should be enough for the second half of the season.

Four permanent signings in January would continue Postecoglou’s Parkhead rebuild after 12 additions in the summer and should give him plenty of options to choose from as Celtic look to chase down rivals Rangers.

In other news: Devlin shared exit news hours before Ross County; ‘first class’ Celtic gem could now go

Everton are reportedly now eyeing a move for Everton Soares in the summer transfer window.

The Lowdown: Champions League struggles

Everton played for Benfica in their 3-3 draw away at Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday night, but unlike some of his teammates, seemed to struggle at Anfield.

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Rated as their worst player on the night, the winger lost out on a team-high nine of his duels, while he also failed to record a shot on target, and had a mere 34 touches of the ball in total, fewer than his own goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos (SofaScore).

However, the Goodison Park faithful do not seem to be distracted by his performance, judging by a fresh transfer update.

The Latest: Everton lurking

Writing in his latest piece for TEAMtalk, transfer insider Graeme Bailey has revealed that the Merseyside club are now ‘looking’ at a deal to sign Everton in the summer, with the futures of both Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison uncertain.

Everton is a player that their scouts have ‘worked hard on’, and even though he has a contract at Benfica until 2025, he could be sold for the right price.

The Verdict: Avoid

Everton is clearly someone that the Toffees have now looked at for a long time, as former manager Carlo Ancelotti even reportedly wanted him back in 2020 before he signed for Benfica.

Back then, he was making a name for himself at Brazilian club Gremio, where he scored 47 goals and made a further 17 assists in 179 matches in total over all competitions (Transfermarkt).

Former Gremio and Brazil head coach Luiz Felipe Scolari even went as far as to claim that Everton ‘reminds’ him of Cristiano Ronaldo, but he seems to have lost his way a bit since then.

Now 26 years of age, he has only managed lost his place in the Brazil squad.

Nonetheless, the Blues already have a number of wide options, and so should instead focus on strengthening other areas of the pitch first of all, namely through the spine of the team.

In other news, find out which ‘exciting’ speedster has now ‘quietly left’ EFC here!

West Ham United are currently in the middle of a quite wonderful season.

A trophy might not be on the horizon for David Moyes’ side but they have made enormous progression under the Scot who has steered them to a top-five position.

A defeat to Arsenal ensured they slipped out of the top four over Christmas but judging by the club’s wretched injury crisis, they have done well to even remain in the conversation for Champions League football.

The Hammers are currently without the likes Kurt Zouma and Angelo Ogbonna while Aaron Cresswell has had his issues too.

The left-back’s absence from the Irons squad has opened up a space in the team that Arthur Masuaku has grasped with both hands, at least until now.

He scored a fluke goal against Chelsea a few weeks back but on Thursday night vs Spurs, demonstrated why he’s such an expendable asset for Moyes.

During that context, Masuaku struggled significantly, so much so that he was described as “terrible” by one Irons analysis account on social media.

Indeed, it’s simple to see why that’s the case as the raw stats don’t paint him in a very pleasing light.

As the Hammers crashed out of the Carabao Cup to Antonio Conte’s team, it was Masuaku who let them down during the 2-1 loss to Tottenham.

Clashes between these two sides should be a meaningful derby but it was understandable that as we drove closer to Christmas, the match was going to have less riding on it than normal.

Despite that, Masuaku very much showed that if a certain Santa Claus was a West Ham fan, very few presents would be coming his way.

During the contest, the full-back was extremely poor in possession, surrendering the ball on no fewer than 23 occasions.

Someone with his offensive threat will always lose the ball more often but it was a concern that he performed very few positive actions in the game, completing just 50% of his dribbles and failing with an enormous eight crosses – a failure rate of 88.9%.

Furthermore, Masuaku was only successful in winning 2/5 of his aerial contests.

All of that saw the defender somehow still earn a respectable SofaScore rating of 7.1, worse than Nikola Vlasic whose uninspiring time at the London Stadium was summed up this week.

He claimed an assist for Jarrod Bowen’s strike but that came from the attacker’s scuffed shot, rather than trying anything productive for his teammates.

As such, it would be a wise idea for Moyes and his coaching staff to not only axe Vlasic from the team, but immediately jettison the club’s stand-in left-back too.

Cresswell cannot return soon enough.

AND in other news, ExWHUemployee drops big injury update that will have West Ham fans buzzing…

Many Everton fans have been left buzzing over some manager news involving Jose Mourinho.

As per Italian football journalist and transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, the former Tottenham Hotspur manager will not leave Roma this season, and the vacant job at Goodison Park is currently ‘not in his plans’.

Sky Sports broke on Tuesday evening that Mourinho was ‘under consideration’ to become the next permanent boss on Merseyside following the departure of Rafa Benitez, with Duncan Ferguson only in temporary charge for now.

However, it looks as if it is very unlikely that he would take the job with the Toffees given his desire to stay at Roma, meaning that the board will now have to look at other candidates.

Of course, Mourinho has succeeded in English football, winning the Premier League title no fewer than three times with Chelsea, but he is arguably not the manager he once was, having left both Spurs and Manchester United midway through campaigns while outside of the UEFA Champions League places.

Blues supporters may not like his pragmatic style of play either, and so it is no surprise to see them feeling as if they have dodged a bullet.

Everton fans on Mourinho manager news

These Evertonians buzzed as the manager news was shared on Twitter:

“Fantastic”

Credit: @EvertoniaMatt

“Best news I’ve heard. Now tell me Lampard got lost on the M25 driving up to his ‘interview'”

Credit: @Tw1ttr1

“Happy days”

Credit: @Pablo_Beezo

“Thank heavens for that.”

Credit: @owendeasha

“Panic over”

Credit: @Day89

“Siuuuuuu”

Credit: @blue_toffees

In other news, find out what other manager update has EFC fans buzzing here!

According to The Mail Online, Crystal Palace are interested in signing Everton’s James McCarthy on loan before the end of the transfer window. 

The article also explains that Palace manager Roy Hodgson is keen to add reinforcements in the midfield at Selhurst Park, and the Republic of Ireland international seems like a great option given how out of favour he is at Goodison Park this season under Marco Silva.

McCarthy is yet to play a game for The Toffees in the Premier League this season, and would surely be keen on a move away to help his career. Moreover, Crystal Palace would be the perfect place to do this.

The Eagles’ midfield currently comprises of Luka Milivojević, Cheikhou Kouyaté and James McArthur. While the Serbian’s place seems guaranteed under Hodgson, McCarthy has a great chance to fight for one of the other two spots.

Why this would be such a good move is that Crystal Palace are currently in a worse position than Everton, so are more likely to play than the 28-year-old, but are not playing that badly. The Eagles have already beaten Man City this season in the league, pushed Liverpool all the way and recently beat Tottenham in the FA Cup. He would not be joining a horror-show of a club, and could, therefore, impress his parent club. Their performance against Spurs also showed that they are defensively resolute, meaning McCarthy has a great platform to impress.

This is a move that must happen if McCarthy does not want to waste his career.

After humiliating Manchester United 5-0 in their latest Premier League match, Liverpool now have a different challenge on their hands in their next game with a clash against Championship club Preston North End at Deepdale in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday evening.

On the chalkboard

One player that wasn’t involved in the victory at Old Trafford that we think should be in the starting XI in midweek is 26-year-old winger Takumi Minamino.

Minamino has only made two appearances for Liverpool across all competitions so far this season, one of which came during the Merseyside club’s previous Carabao Cup match which saw them beat fellow Premier League side Norwich City 3-0, with Minamino scoring two of them.

Taking this into account, we feel that Minamino would be a good option to start against Preston given the fact he hasn’t played that much but has shown he is capable of putting in a decent shift when given the chance as he did against Norwich.

In that match against the Canaries, in addition to scoring two goals, Minamino managed to earn himself an overall match rating of 8/10 from the Liverpool Echo who said that he was “always a danger” in the match, showing how useful he can be when called upon even though he hasn’t played regularly so far this season and how he could destroy Preston with his attacking talent on the pitch.

Liverpool signed Minamino, who has been described as “outstanding” by Jurgen Klopp in the past, back in December 2019 from Austrian club RB Salzburg after they triggered his £7.25m release clause.

Since joining the Merseyside club, the 26-year-old, who is currently valued at £10.8m according to Transfermarkt, has made just 33 appearances for the Reds across all competitions, scoring six goals and providing two assists in the process.

Back in February, Minamino joined fellow Premier League side Southampton on a loan deal where he managed to net two goals in ten matches before returning to Merseyside.

Looking ahead to the Preston clash, we feel that this game could be another good opportunity for the £72k-per-week earner to show what he is capable of and why he deserves to be in the Liverpool squad rather than away on another loan deal.

In other news: Never mind Salah: “Intense” £90k-p/w LFC gem who made 2 key passes was vital yesterday – opinion

Celtic have been dealt a big setback in their bid to bring Reo Hatate to Parkhead in the January transfer window.

What’s the talk?

That’s according to a claim made by Dan Orlowitz (via Everything Celtic), with the Japan Times journalist revealing that, despite reports suggesting that the player’s contract with Kawasaki Frontale is set to expire in January, the 24-year-old is actually contracted to the J League club beyond the end of the current campaign.

Subsequently, in recent comments cited by the Daily Record, Orlowitz went on to reveal that that Frontale are commanding a fee in the region of £2.4m in order to part with Hatate this January, something which is reported to be a stumbling block in Celtic’s move for the midfielder.

Speaking about the Bhoys’ interest in the player, Orlowitz said: “I’ve heard that Frontale want £2.4m for Hatate.”

Fans will be gutted

Considering just how impressive Hatate has been in Japan this season, the news that Celtic will not be able to land the midfielder on a free transfer, and may even end up missing out on his signing if they do not meet Frontale’s asking price, is sure to have left Hoops fans gutted.

Indeed, over his over 30 J League appearances this term, the £720k-rated man scored five goals, registered two assists and created three big chances for his teammates, as well as taking two shots and making 1.1 key passes per game.

These returns saw the 24-year-old earn a seasonal SofaScore match rating of 7.16, ranking him as Frontale’s fifth-best performer in their title-winning campaign.

Furthermore, Hatate’s ability to play at both left-back and attacking midfield is something which would prove incredibly useful for Ange Postecoglou, as Celtic are currently lacking strength in depth in both positions.

As such, it would indeed appear as if the 24-year-old’s signing would be a fantastic one for the Bhoys to get over the line this winter, and why Orlowitz’s latest update could come as a big blow to the club, as well as worrying news for fans.

In other news – Get rid: Ange must now axe £20k-p/w “waste of money”, he’s stealing a living at Celtic

Tottenham Hotspur are gaining momentum in the race to finish in the top four of the Premier League this season, and Antonio Conte will no doubt fancy his team’s chances of doing so.

The north Londoners take on Aston Villa at Villa Park on Saturday evening, and while the Italian may be reluctant to make too many changes, if indeed any, he may consider bringing in Sergio Reguilon to offer a more natural balance on the left-hand side.

The Spaniard’s absence saw Matt Doherty operate on that flank in the 5-1 win over Newcastle United last week, with Emerson Royal playing on the right as the duo both ended up on the scoresheet in a comprehensive performance.

However, Conte offered a very encouraging update on Reguilon ahead of Spurs’ game against Villa on Saturday.

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Speaking in his pre-match press conference, the 52-year-old said: “No new injuries, two good news because Ryan Sessegnon and Sergio Reguilon they had the training session with us.”

The Spaniard had been a permanent fixture in Tottenham’s line-up for the majority of the Premier League season, playing 23 matches in the top flight, scoring two goals and providing three assists in that time, even coming off the bench to find the net against Everton recently.

The 25-year-old’s ability to get forward is something that Conte has actively encouraged, with the left-back talking about the kind of job that the Spurs boss wants him to do.

Reguilon said: “I’ve never played five at the back before. I have to learn quickly. The gaffer has told me he wants me to be solid in defence but at the same moment I have to arrive in the box, help the strikers, score goals, give assists. Now I have more of a chance to score goals and give assists. So let’s work.”

Hailed as a “complete player” by his former Sevilla boss Julen Lopetegui, the Spaniard’s return could leave Villa’s defence terrified, particularly with his pace to get in behind. Steven Gerrard’s side are in a bad run of form lately with three defeats on the spin, and they won’t fancy coming up against a speedster like Reguilon who is constantly trying to maraud forward.

Restoring the £80k-per-week earner to the Spurs starting XI could be an inspired change by Conte this weekend.

AND in other news: Conte can form “dangerous” duo as Spurs plot bids for £156m pair who “really get along”

Everton are experiencing one of their worst ever seasons in the Premier League, currently battling relegation and suffering numerous injuries throughout the season, and now it could be the final straw for one of the players as speculation builds on an exit this summer for one of the fan favourites.

What’s the word?

Transfer insider and journalist Dean Jones has revealed that Richarlison could be set for a move to the south, with rumours circulating about a potential move to the Emirates to join Mikel Arteta’s side this summer.

Jones told GIVEMESPORT;

“I know that Richarlison is one player being pushed in their direction at the moment and I know that is one that has probably got legs.”

Lampard will be furious

Everton have a serious challenge ahead of them in terms of securing their safety in the Premier League next season in the remaining games of 2021/22, and the constant media distractions surrounding key player’s futures in the team will surely leave Frank Lampard furious as he attempts to keep the focus of the team on finishing the season with top-flight football confirmed.

Richarlison has become an important player for the Toffees since he joined back in 2018 and the Brazilian has gone from strength to strength, which has clearly now been recognised by some of the biggest clubs in the country, with Manchester United also reportedly interested in the goal machine.

The 24-year-old has scored 47 goals and delivered 12 assists in his time at Goodison Park, with a goal involvement in every 2.4 of his 142 appearances, becoming one of the most prolific threats at the club thanks to his attacking partnership with Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Thus, losing him this summer could be an absolute nightmare for Lampard.

On the other hand, Everton are in desperate need to start recouping the huge amounts of money that Farhad Moshiri has been recklessly spending over the last six years. The club has recorded the highest financial loss out of all Premier League clubs over the last three years (£372.6m) according to new data reported by chief sports writer for The Times, Martyn Zeigler.

Selling Richarlison for a good profit could be one of the best opportunities the club has to get back on track amid financial troubles. It would undoubtedly be considered an option for the powers at Everton ahead of the summer and will be even more likely if they lose their Premier League status next season.

In other news: Lampard may have found Everton’s new Rooney in “top quality” £7.2m-rated “boy wonder”