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Crystal Palace have considered appointing former Arsenal midfielder Freddie Ljungberg as Roy Hodgson’s successor this summer.

The former England boss announced his upcoming exit from the south London outfit earlier in the week after enjoying a relatively successful four-year stint at Selhurst Park.

Hodgson has overseen a string of mid-table finishes throughout his tenure with Palace, but it’s set to be a frenzied few months for the Eagles following his departure.

Over a dozen first-team players are approaching the end of their current contracts with the capital club, with left-back Patrick van Aanholt expected to be the first to follow Hodgson out the exit door.

It’s going to be a summer of upheaval for Palace chairman Steve Parish, therefore, and the 55-year-old would be digging his own grave in appointing someone as inexperienced as Ljungberg to help him oversee this transitional period.

The Swedish boss only has a handful of senior games under his belt as a manager, all coming during an unsuccessful spell as Arsenal’s interim head coach following Unai Emery’s sacking.

Ljungberg oversaw six matches in the Gunners dugout, with a solitary win over West Ham United offsetting draws with Standard Liege, Norwich City and Everton, and defeats to Manchester City and Brighton.

Despite this poor record giving the 44-year-old a miserly 16.67% win rate as a Premier League boss, Sky Sports are reporting that Parish is potentially interested in hiring the former Arsenal youth coach as he searches for a boss who can bring a new progressive identity, attacking football and a history of developing young talent to Palace.

However, taking a punt on Ljungberg is a decision that the Palace chairman may come to regret. In an interview with Sky Sports, he admitted the club have a plan ahead of the upcoming window but that it’s an unpredictable market, given the impact of the ongoing pandemic.

“We have a plan, executing it is never and easy as we would like it to be. It’s going to be a difficult market this summer. As we move through the summer, there might be keener sellers, I’m expecting less movement,” he said.

“Some clubs can spend whatever happens, for most of us, that is not the case. What are the right wages, what is the right price? It will be difficult for people to find the level; there will be some confusion.”

By Parish’s own admission the coming months are set to be testing for the south London outfit, and appointing a manager with only half a dozen senior games under his belt in the dugout is a far from advisable strategy as in this of all years, it seems like having a more experienced manager in terms of acting in the transfer market would be much more beneficial.

And, in other news…Parish masterstroke: Palace must appoint history-making manager with 12 major honours

Everton have received a potentially significant boost in their pursuit of Inter midfielder Ivan Perisic, with the January transfer window fast approaching.

What’s the story?

The Toffees were first linked with a move for the highly-rated 32-year-old last month when they were named amongst his possible destinations should terms on a new contract at San Siro not be agreed.

And now, according to Italian outlet Tuttosport, Perisic has decided to call time on his Inter career, opening the door to an imminent exit.

The original report states that: “The winger has long ago made it known that he is not interested in extending the contract expiring on 30 June: for him the most probable horizons would be the return to Germany or the landing in England.”

Brands could find Everton’s James heir

Enticing Perisic to Goodison Park over the winter window would be a significant coup for director of football Marcel Brands, but it would also secure the additional creativity that Everton require in the middle of the pitch.

James Rodriquez’s late departure for Qatari club Al Rayyan back in September has left Rafa Benitez’s charges void of the guile and imagination needed to carve elite-level defences open, and that’s a problem that Perisic could certainly solve.

Throughout his career, the hard-working winger has racked up a plethora of major honours, winning one Champions League crown, two Bundesligas, one Serie A title and three DFB-Pokals.

He was lauded as a “top-quality player” by compatriot Dejan Lovren prior to playing a pivotal part in Croatia’s run to the World Cup final in 2018, before then joining Bayern Munich on loan a year later.

Perisic enjoyed a fabulous 2019/20 at the Allianz Arena, with the £125,000-per-week beast featuring 35 times in all competitions as Hansi Flick’s charges pulled off an incredible treble-winning campaign.

Since then, the 6 foot 1 attacker has re-established himself as a key player at Inter, starting 20 league games as the Nerazzurri claimed their first Serie A title in 11 years last term, ending Juventus’ dominance.

Despite his age, Perisic would provide a much-needed injection of creativity to Benitez’s out-of-form charges, and his arrival could be the catalyst required to revive their stuttering season.

And, in other news…Brands could be on the verge of repeating Everton’s awful Thierry Small disaster 

Following on from their dramatic 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid in the Champions League, Liverpool will now be turning their attention back to the Premier League with a big clash against Manchester United at Old Trafford on the horizon for Jurgen Klopp’s side.

The Manchester club were also in Champions League action in midweek for their 3-2 victory over Atalanta after finding themselves 2-0 down at half time.

On the chalkboard

Looking ahead to the match at Old Trafford on Sunday, one Liverpool player that Klopp included in his starting XI in midweek that we feel should not be in the team to face United is Naby Keita.

Even though the midfielder managed to open the scoring for the Reds against Diego Simeone’s side, Keita was actually incredibly disappointing in the middle of the park.

Per SofaScore, he failed to make any key passes, crosses or accurate long balls and lost possession on nine occasions during what was a sloppy evening on the ball. That meant he actually surrendered the play once every five minutes in a very sloppy showing.

Furthermore, he only won one of the nine duels he was involved in and got dribbled past three times, ultimately earning himself a rather poor overall match rating of 6.5/10, making him the joint-lowest rated Liverpool player that started the match according to SofaScore after being subbed off at the break.

In addition to this, Keita’s performance also caught the attention of former Liverpool player Dietmar Hamann who described the midfielder’s latest outing for the Reds as “hugely disappointing” and that he is “simply not good enough.”

Since joining the Merseyside club back in the 2018 summer transfer window after Liverpool secured a deal with German club RB Leipzig in 2017 worth a reported fee of £52.75m, the 26-year-old, who is currently valued at £28.8m according to Transfermarkt, has made 84 appearances for the Reds across all competitions in which he has managed to score nine goals and provide four assists along the way.

The midfielder has suffered his fair share of injury issues since becoming a Liverpool player which has significantly impacted his playing time at the club.

Looking ahead to the United match, we feel that Klopp must take Keita out of the starting XI to give his side the best chance of beating the Red Devils at the weekend.

However, with Thiago Alcantara, Harvey Elliott and possibly Curtis Jones all out injured, Klopp’s hand may well be forced on the Guinea international on this occasion.

In other news: Imagine him & Thiago: Klopp must secure LFC move for “incredible” £36m-rated machine – opinion

Tottenham are interested in a deal to bring Matthijs de Ligt to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the January transfer window.

What’s the talk?

That’s according to a report by Spanish publication Sport (via Sport Witness), who claimed that both Spurs and Chelsea have launched an offensive for the 22-year-old centre-back, with whom Juventus are reportedly willing to part next month due to their dire financial situation.

The report added that Barcelona are also interested in the Netherlands international, although it is believed that the LaLiga club’s own financial difficulties look to have given the English duo the advantage in the race to sign the defender.

Finally, Sport went as far as to suggest that the bidding for De Ligt has started, while Sport Witness added that both Spurs and Chelsea have made contact with the centre-back’s agent Mino Raiola ahead of a potential move in the winter window.

Conte’s next Skriniar

Considering the sheer amount of talent and potential De Ligt quite clearly possesses, should Fabio Paratici be successful in his bid to land the 22-year-old this January, he could well have unearthed Antonio Conte’s next Milan Skriniar.

Indeed, Maurizio Sarri signed the £76m-rated defender with the intention of including him as part of a three-man defensive “wall” at Juventus alongside legendary centre-back duo Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci.

With this formation being the setup that Conte has implemented at every club he has managed, De Ligt could well go on to become the Spurs manager’s next Skriniar, who highly impressed on the right of the 52-year-old’s back three in the Nerazzurri’s Scudetto-winning campaign last term.

It would certainly appear as if the £200k-per-week Dutchman has the ability to do so, as he has been in colossal form over his 15 Serie A appearances so far this season. He has helped Juve to keep seven clean sheets and scored one goal, as well as averaging 0.9 tackles, 0.9 interceptions and 53.4 passes per game and winning 60% of his duels.

These returns have seen the player who Raiola dubbed an “oil tanker” average an impressive SofaScore match rating of 7.11, ranking him as Massimiliano Allegri’s joint-fourth best performer in the Italian top flight.

As such, it is no surprise to learn that Conte is interested in a move for the Dutchman this winter, as De Ligt easily possesses the ability to become the platform on which the Italian and Spurs can mount a serious charge for a top-four spot this season.

In other news – Bye-bye Dele: Spurs must seal deal for “fantastic” 29 y/o who’s an “incredible talent”

Ahead of the summer transfer window, Tottenham Hotspur have been linked to an array of strikers.

It’s becoming increasingly unlikely that Spurs will activate Carlos Vinicius’ £36m option-to-buy when his loan finishes at the end of the season as they do not want to pay that much for him, as per the Daily Mail.

The Brazilian has chipped in with a few goals – scoring ten times – whilst playing second fiddle to Harry Kane, but there are still doubts over his ability and potential to ever be on a similar level to the Englishman.

Granted, that’s a hard task for a mere back-up but the majority of his goals have come against lower calibre opposition, including a hat-trick against non-league Marine.

One name that has been mooted is Southampton star Danny Ings, who would certainly add further quality and more importantly, a proven record in the Premier League.

Eurosport’s Dean Jones claimed in January that Spurs are monitoring the 28-year-old’s situation on the south coast ahead of a potential bid whilst further fuel has been added to the fire, with Carlton Palmer suggesting exclusively to Football FanCast that an agreement may have already been struck.

Ings has scored nine goals this season but regular injury problems have crept back into his game. He’s missed nine games in all competitions, ranging from knee and hamstring issues, to just a knock.

His long list of injuries should have Spurs worried, which is why they may be better going for the cheaper alternative, Schalke 04’s Matthew Hoppe.

According to Transfermarkt, the north Londoners are among several clubs taking a keen interest in the American forward. He could be available for as little as €10m (£8.5m) this summer, and that’ll be right up Daniel Levy’s street.

Especially as he’ll have to pay over four times that to secure Vinicius – and there’s no way of knowing how much the Saints would want for their star man.

Intriguingly, Hoppe has modelled his game on Kane, so who could be better in firstly, replicating his style as a back-up and then secondly, one day replacing him.

The 20-year-old told OneGoal last year: “I didn’t really have a specific team that I would support. But I looked up to Harry Kane a lot, and since I’ve been in Germany, I’ve tried to model my game after (Erling) Haaland and (Robert) Lewandowski.”

Hoppe has been a rare bright spark in an abysmal season for the Bundesliga outfit, scoring five goals in only 16 appearances, via Transfermarkt.

The 6 foot 3 forward has even been tipped to become the German league’s best-ever American, whilst there have even been comparisons made to Robert Lewandowski.

Former Schalke boss Christian Gross was left dazzled by his work-rate, he said: “I’m impressed with how much effort Hoppe gives for the team, how he gives 100 percent for Schalke.”

And he went onto add: “He’s a boy who’s unbelievably ambitious, has tremendous commitment and only thinks about Schalke. He wants to do whatever it takes to get us out of this situation. He really is a model professional. Even though he’s still very young, he doesn’t shy away from working extremely hard.”

Obviously, at just 20, he’s still very raw but sometimes hard work defies talent and that is something Mourinho will absolutely love. He’d only have to become half the player of a Kane or Lewandowski to make an impact.

Considering he’s reportedly available for a bargain seven-figure price, Hoppe would come fairly low-risk. He ticks the boxes for those key figures in the Spurs hierarchy. Levy should get this one done.

AND in other news, Spurs star dealt “significant” injury blow on international duty…

Everton are open to selling Yerry Mina this summer, according to Football Insider.

Their report claimed that the Blues may sanction a £20m exit for the Colombian to partly fund a move for an elite centre-back.

This follows a claim from talkSPORT last week that Carlo Ancelotti was eyeing up a reunion with Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly, whom he previously described as “the best defender in the world”.

Football Insider added that Ancelotti is impressed by Mina’s physicality but considers him too erratic.

Mina’s Everton career to date

Mina joined Everton in the summer of 2018 for a fee of just over £27m. He has gone on to make 72 appearances for the Toffees and this season he started 22 of the club’s first 24 Premier League matches.

Everton journalist Greg O’Keefe wrote in January that he had ‘found something lacking since his arrival… consistency’. However, the 26-year-old was dropped to the bench for the 3-3 draw at Manchester United at the start of the following month and, having suffered a calf injury, he has not been selected since.

Transfer Tavern verdict

Everton will require a top-level central defender if they are to pursue their ambition of becoming a Champions League club.

This year, it looks as if they’ll have to settle for a place in the Europa League given their inconsistency – see the home defeats against relegation-threatened sides like Fulham, Newcastle and Burnley.

Showing Mina the door would be a little ruthless, but many Everton fans would probably applaud that mindset. However, they would surely struggle to fetch £20m for a defender of Mina’s calibre in this declining transfer market, as he’s about to enter the final two years of his deal.

In other news, some Everton fans weren’t happy with this transfer update.

Manchester United are potentially eyeing a move for Erik Ten Hag’s current Ajax starlet, Jurrien Timber.

What’s the word?

That is according to journalist Rudy Galetti, who took to his Twitter page to issue a statement regarding incoming Manchester United manager, Erik Ten Hag.

Galetti said this in his tweet: “Manchester United’s first signing of the Ten Hag era will most likely be a centre-back.”

[snack-amp-story url= “https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/read-the-latest-man-united-news-transfer-rumours-gossip-and-more-nunez-ten-hag-nkunku-richarlison” title=”Read the latest Man United news!”]

He also suggested two names that United may be looking to bring in: “To date, on the MUFC list the hot names are Timber (Ajax) and Torres (Villareal).”

Of course, those two names are Jurrien Timber, who currently plays under Ten Hag and Pau Torres, with the latter being linked with Manchester United across the last few transfer windows.

Better than Maguire

As a right-footed centre-back who usually operates on the right in a four-man defence, Timber would not pose a threat to Harry Maguire’s starting spot… would he?

In actual fact, he would. Based on the pattern that Ten Hag has created at Ajax, the right-footed centre-back operates on the right, whilst the left-footed centre-back operates on the left.

When Ten Hag comes in, if he does not opt to bring in a left-footed centre-back, he will most likely hone in on Raphael Varane’s experience for Real Madrid as a left centre-back, a position he fulfilled at times. Varane is also listed as just 60% right-footed, according to FBref.

Timber would partner the France international in what would be a cool, calm and collected backline. Both centre-halves love having the ball at their feet and the potential signing of Timber would offer Ten Hag familiarity in this area.

The 20-year-old boasts some serious numbers that place him in the elite category for the majority of his passing stats, with his average of 76 passes completed per 90 far better than Maguire’s average of 48 passes per 90.

Timber, who has been described as a “top talent” as per UEFA Champions League, also outdoes Maguire in almost all defensive metrics, with the £27m-rated defender having a seamless season in the Eredivisie in which he has made zero errors per 90 – the antithesis of the Englishman this season.

The signing of Timber could see Maguire lacking game time under Ten Hag, and based on this year’s stats, the new United boss would be right to drop him and potentially sell him too, as reports have suggested.

In other news: Ronaldo 2.0: Ten Hag can seal instant MUFC masterclass by unleashing “rampant” 17 y/o – opinion

Jarrod Bowen left West Ham United wanting more quality from their wide forward as David Moyes’ side beat London rivals Crystal Palace 3-2 on Tuesday night.

The Irons started the slower of the two sides and fell behind inside just the third minute through Wilfried Zaha, but rallied quickly with a Tomas Soucek brace to flip the script and go on to claim a sixth straight win across all competitions.

Craig Dawson rounded out the scoring for the visiting Hammers 20 minutes into the second period when he headed home Bowen’s corner, with the former Hull City attacker showing great skill from the dead ball situations on a night his open play actions were off the pace.

Bowen has proven a firm favourite of West Ham boss Moyes since his £22m arrival from the Tigers last January, with the 24-year-old starting 29 of a possible 32 Premier League games, including 19 of 20 thus far this term.

His second-half assist for Dawson’s goal marked Bowen’s third of the top-flight campaign to take his total goal contribution to eight thanks to five goals, as he looks to rediscover his form shown in front of the net from before the festive period.

Bowen never truly looked likely to find a route past Vicente Guaita himself during Tuesday night’s showdown at Selhurst Park, with Gary Cahill doing well to get his body in the way of the £96,000-per-week maestro’s 55th-minute strike.

It proved to be his only shot of the match, with Guaita reacting quickest to scramble over the ball when Michail Antonio’s header from six-yards out fell just short of rebounding to Bowen’s feet.

Antonio also endured a somewhat off night after back-to-back goals to beat Burnley and West Bromwich Albion last week, as the striker should have bagged a brace in the first-half only to see his efforts hit the woodwork on both occasions. Guaita’s close-range wonders also ensured the 30-year-old squandered a glaring opportunity in the second period.

But West Ham were left wanting more from Bowen most of all as the £25m-rated ace, who Hull boss Grant McCann lauds as an “exceptional” talent, was robbed of possession in first-half stoppage time as he sought to break into the Eagles’ box.

Despite his incredible work rate, Bowen often lacked the skill needed on the ball to beat his marker at Selhurst Park, and ultimately left the field in the 81st-minute without a successful dribble to his name after losing out in his only attempt, per SofaScore.

Bowen has averaged 1.2 successful dribbles a game with a 61% success rate in Premier League fixtures this term, but was unable to show that level of talent while matched up with Tyrick Mitchell, who won six of his seven ground duels compared to the West Ham man’s two out of six hit rate.

Moyes further saw Bowen misdirect four of his six attempted crosses, as he carved out more opportunities to cause Cahill and Cheikhou Kouyate issues than he normal can with an average 1.1 accurate balls into the box this term. Yet his efforts came without the accuracy to find Antonio or the marauding Soucek.

West Ham will need Bowen at his best when Liverpool visit the London Stadium on Sunday, as a win over Jurgen Klopp’s Reds will see the Irons solidify their place above the champions in the Premier League table.

Andrew Robertson may also be there for the taking at the weekend, after a shoddy showing in the FA Cup against Manchester United on Sunday – winning zero of his five duels and being dribbled past four times up against Mason Greenwood – for his worst SofaScore match rating (5.9) since Liverpool were thrashed 4-0 by Manchester City last July.

AND in other news, West Ham see bid rejected for £13.5m-rated target who’s played just 88 minutes of league action this season…

Nuno Espirito Santo’s stay at Wolves is now done. He is out the door and barring a remarkable set of circumstances, will never return to Compton again.

His farewell on Sunday afternoon was an emotional one as he waved goodbye to the first set of supporters he’d seen inside Molineux for over a year.

His team didn’t earn all three points but it was a magnificent sight to see the stadium rocking in such a manner.

Wolves earned a boost from fans being back inside the stadium but it wasn’t enough to propel them to victory over Manchester United.

Despite Nuno’s exit, it was a timely reminder of how much is needed to be done this summer by Jeff Shi and co. After all, this has been a torrid season by their very high standards.

It feels like Nuno’s departure comes with the team at a crossroads. Since the Old Gold were promoted, this is undoubtedly their worst season.

They finished in the bottom half of the table and are now in need of a manager who can take them to the next level.

Bruno Lage is one of the names Wolves have been keeping an eye on but they’re also interested in Paulo Fonseca according to The Mirror.

The 48-year-old took Roma to the Europa League semi-finals this season but will leave his job in Italy this summer with Jose Mourinho set to replace him.

Fonseca amassed a win success rate of just under 52% but they failed to qualify for the Champions League or Europa League this term.

[snack-amp-story url= “https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/read-the-latest-wolves-transfer-rumours-and-news-soumare-dias-dembele-marques-nuno-santo” title=”Read the latest Wolves transfer rumours and news!”]

It was a difficult campaign for the Portuguese but he could help to revive Wolves.

The Jorge Mendes client is known for playing a high intense brand of football, one that focuses on the attacking element of football.

Nuno was striving to turn Wolves into a more attacking outfit this term but failed to ever transition the side from a three-man defence into a four-man backline.

Speaking at the start of the season, he said: “We have to grow in some aspects of our game. I would like to be more dominant, and I would like to have more of the ball.

“I would like to improve our tally of goals scored, and decrease the goals (against).”

Unfortunately, it never really came off. Wolves kept just two clean sheets in 14 league matches from October to January as the four-man backline ended up costing the Old Gold.

Fonseca, however, could finally help the Molineux outfit to dominate more.

At Roma, his side scored 1.9 goals per game which is considerably more than Nuno managed with Wolves; 1.3 per match.

The former Shakhtar Donetsk manager relentlessly talks about the need to be “brave”, something he installed in his players during his spell in Italy.

“I have my ideas and I want to implement them, but the main thing is to build a brave team. That’s the main objective and I believe with these players, we can build a brave team without any problems against the biggest teams, the small teams,” he once commented.

Fonseca’s philosophy revolves around neat and tidy play at high speed, a style that of football that wowed Pep Guardiola.

After Manchester City faced Donetsk in Europe, the Spaniard remarked: “Before every game against Shakhtar, I have the same feeling.

“The first time we face them in the group stage, my [scouting] team went to see them and they came back saying, ‘Wow.’ They were really impressed. In Barcelona all the time it was, ‘Shakhtar, Ukraine, who cares which players play, nobody knows them.’”

If he can leave someone like Guardiola in awe, there’s no reason why Fosun shouldn’t consider him.

AND in other news, Worse than Saiss: £75k-p/w Wolves liability who won 0 duels ruined Nuno’s final game…

Former Tottenham Hotspur hero Graham Roberts believes Julian Nagelsmann was the club’s first choice to replace Jose Mourinho as manager.

Spurs sacked Mourinho earlier this season after falling as low as ninth in the Premier League table.

The Portuguese struggled to give the club the consistency needed to finish in the top four, as they routinely threw away leads and lost to those clubs above them in the Premier League table.

Spurs are yet to appoint a new boss, having given Ryan Mason the job on an interim basis until the end of the season.

Nagelsmann was touted as a top target in the immediate aftermath of Mourinho’s sacking but he has instead opted to join Bayern Munich from RB Leipzig, replacing Hansi Flick, who has agreed to become the manager of the German national team.

Speaking exclusively to Football FanCast, Roberts claimed that Spurs initially believed they would appoint the German prior to his move to Bayern.

He said: “I think the Nagelsmann one mucked everything up because they thought they were going to get him.

“With the Bayern Munich manager going, it mucked everything up and put everything on the back foot.”