Tag Futebol

Insider ExWHUemployee has claimed that Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) are looking to invest in a football club and a side such as West Ham United could fit the bill.

What’s the word?

As per Sky Sports, it was recently reported that Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy and QSI head Nasser Al-Khelaifi met last week and the subject of investing in the club was discussed among other topics – although Spurs have denied such reports.

QSI own PSG and recently took on 23% of Portuguese side Braga and are said to be looking at ‘football investment opportunities’ around the globe.

In a new update on The West Ham Way podcast, Ex has now explained that the group are looking to acquire a football club with land that could be developed.

He then explained that West Ham fall into that category though there have been no talks between QSI and the Hammers’ ownership at this stage.

He explained: “Qatar Sports Investment is something worth keeping an eye on. They’ve apparently had talks with Spurs about taking over them.

“They’re said to be interested in acquiring a football club or acquiring a football club that has land that could be developed. Of course, West Ham fall into that category.

“And in 2023, I think from April onwards, the board will not face a fine if they sell the club. Now, at the moment, there has been no offer.

“There’s been nothing that’s even looked like being an offer for West Ham. And it’s not even known whether we would actually entertain an offer with [Daniel] Kretinsky now there and [David] Sullivan, still enjoying what he’s doing.”

Time for a change? 

As Ex makes clear, there is no guarantee that West Ham would even be considered as an option for QSI and so fans shouldn’t start to jump to any conclusions just yet – although, Simon Jordan did predict last year (via West Ham Zone) that the club might be sold in 2023.

As well as that, following the recent passing of joint-chairman David Gold, it would be wrong to speculate heavily on what direction the club will take in the near future at this stage.

It will be interesting to see what steps QSI take over the coming weeks though as they seek out a new project to invest in. Of course, Manchester United and Liverpool are both potentially up for sale and so those two Premier League giants may be viewed as more attractive options.

Tottenham Hotspur wouldn’t have a problem convincing Kyle Walker-Peters to re-join, according to Pete O’Rourke.

The Lowdown: Spurs struggles

Tottenham may move to re-sign their former academy graduate Walker-Peters with their terrible defensive form potentially looking to be resurrected in the January window.

Antonio Conte’s side slumped to a 2-0 defeat against Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday night, the tenth game in a row they’ve conceded the first goal.

Unlike their previous encounter against Brentford, they were unable to overturn this two-goal deficit and failed to reclaim a top-four place after Manchester United leapfrogged them on Saturday.

The Latest: Walker-Peters touted

One glaring area for improvement at Spurs is the right wing-back role with Djed Spence a completely forgotten man with only four league appearances all season and Emerson Royal and Matt Doherty flattering to deceive.

The Athletic reported that the Southampton right-back would be a realistic signing, with O’Rourke telling GiveMeSport that he’d be ready to return.

“Southampton look like they’re in a real relegation dogfight now, so I think if Spurs did come calling for Kyle Walker-Peters, even though he’s already left the club once, he would find it hard to turn down the opportunity to return to the club.”

The Verdict: Get him in

Walker-Peters left Spurs on an initial loan deal that soon became a £12m permanent move with the Lilywhites bringing Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg the other way.

After being stuck behind both Serge Aurier and Kieran Trippier whilst in North London, the 25-year-old has flourished on the south coast with him by far one of their best players as he was rewarded with his maiden England caps last season.

With the Saints embroiled in a relegation scrap, KWP would prove an interested and smart acquisition back at Spurs with him in the top 3% for dribbles completed amongst full-backs (via FBref), proving his attacking prowess in that role.

QPR appear to have struck gold when signing Kenneth Paal on a free transfer in the summer, as the left-back’s value has rocketed since his move to Loftus Road.

The Hoops announced the signing of Paal on a three-year deal in June after he agreed a mutual termination of his contract with Dutch side PEC Zwolle, with the defender signing on an £8k-per-week contract with the west London outfit.

The 25-year-old, who progressed through PSV Eindhoven’s academy, had enjoyed an impressive spell with Zwolle, contributing three goals and seven assists in 106 appearances, so it was perhaps always going to be a smart piece of business by the English Championship club to bring him in on a free.

He has certainly proved his worth at Loftus Road so far this season, notching one goal and four assists in 21 appearances and averaging a strong 6.97 rating from WhoScored for his performances.

Only Ilias Chair and Chris Willock have earned higher average ratings from QPR’s squad, while Paal also ranks in the top five players for tackles, interceptions and clearances for the R’s, which emphasises how important he has become to the west London outfit.

After impressing on his first appearance under Neil Critchley at the weekend, providing the assist for Jimmy Dunne’s goal in the 1-0 win over Preston North End, it seems clear that Paal will continue to be crucial to the Hoops under their new manager.

Should QPR decide to sell the 25-year-old in the near future, they look likely to make a significant profit on the Surinam international, as his Transfermarkt value has rocketed since his arrival at Loftus Road.

When he came to west London, the website valued him at only €700k. His valuation now stands at an impressive €2m, which represents an incredible 186% increase in just six months.

It also sees him ranked as the 10th-most valuable player at Loftus Road, so QPR chief executive Lee Hoos deserves a huge amount of praise for bringing him in on a free transfer during the summer, as it has proven to be a masterstroke from both a financial and footballing perspective.

Chelsea are eyeing a swoop for Leeds United goalkeeper Illan Meslier as Graham Potter aims to strengthen his squad.

What’s the news?

That’s according to Simon Phillips who claims that Chelsea are keeping tabs on the Leeds ‘keeper as Potter aims to bring in his own goalkeeper.

Meslier is currently valued at €40m (£34m) and Leeds will surely expect this sort of fee should Jesse Marsch want to sell him.

Potter doesn’t seem to be 100% convinced about either Edouard Mendy or Kepa Arrizabalaga and a new number one could be the main priority during the January transfer window.

Potter can ditch Kepa

Meslier has kept just two clean sheets this season, however, at just 22 years of age, he is one of the Premier League’s youngest keepers and starring at the highest level shows extreme levels of maturity.

The Athletic’s Phil Hay has described him as a “rare talent” and he will surely be on the move from Leeds sooner rather than later with his potential.

Last season, the Frenchman made 142 saves, the most out of any stopper in the top flight, yet his save percentage was just 66.4% ranking him in the bottom three. If he moved to Chelsea however, a better defence would likely mean he faces fewer shots over the course of a season.

Kepa has been at the club since a £71m move in 2018, but Thomas Tuchel favoured Mendy during his tenure in charge.

The Spaniard has been limited to just 40 appearances since the start of 2020/2021, keeping clean sheets in nearly half of his matches (19) during this time period.

Journalist Nizaar Kinsella has dubbed Kepa as “special” this season while he begins to repay the massive outlay Chelsea spent on him four years ago.

Potter looks like he might be in favour of youth when looking at a new long-term number one, with Meslier six and eight years younger than Kepa and Mendy respectively.

The World Cup break will give the 47-year-old some time to think about the direction he wants to go in, however, he might have to break the bank in order to bring the Leeds ‘keeper to Stamford Bridge, something that may well grant them the license to ditch Kepa or Mendy.

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery could bring Villarreal trio Nicolas Jackson, Pau Torres and Yeremy Pino to Villa Park.

The Lowdown: £152m

The trio were all seemingly important players under Emery at Villarreal and all have release clauses totalling €175m (£152m).

Forward Jackson’s termination clause is thought to be the cheapest of the three at €30m, whereas Torres’ is €65m and Pino’s the most expensive at €80m after recently agreeing on new terms.

NSWE are set to hand Emery a ‘huge’ January budget, though, despite spending over £400m since their return to the Premier League.

The Latest: All named

According to one Spanish source, Emery wants to bring all three Villarreal players to England.

Their report adds that Villa are preparing ‘a millionaire investment’, with the trio’s respective release clauses named in the update.

[web_stories_embed url=”https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/web-stories/aston-villa-latest-news-3/” title=”Aston Villa latest news!” poster=”” width=”360″ height=”600″ align=”none”]

The Verdict: Exciting

Emery enjoyed success with the La Liga side during his two-year stint, winning the Europa League during the 2020/21 season.

Torres was a regular at the back under Emery and is set to represent Spain at the World Cup later this month, whereas Jackson and Pino appear to be two exciting young forwards who could go on to become future stars.

Therefore, with the club after a new centre-back, potentially ending Tyrone Mings’ time at Villa Park, and also needing to add goals to their squad, a raid for the three Villarreal gems could be a shrewd move, but also fairly expensive.

After Saturday’s disappointing result against Leicester City and the three injuries that Frank Lampard noted after the game, tonight’s EFL Cup fixture with Bournemouth seems to have lost a level of importance to Everton.

The Toffees fell to 16th with their last result, and on the weekend once again travel to the Vitality Stadium to face a side that sits just one point below them.

Instantly the Premier League has regained full focus, as there will be a fear of falling into a similar position that led to such dramatics last season.

With that in mind, Lampard will have a fine balancing act when it comes to the cup game, to put out a side that is competitive but allowing his more important players to rest for the bigger repeat fixture on Saturday.

Both James Tarkowski and Conor Coady have played nearly every minute for Lampard in the league, so it is likely that at least one of them will drop out.

Especially with the recent news that Yerry Mina is back in contention for the match, following his injury sustained in their opening-day defeat to Chelsea.

Although the Colombian would have a tough task displacing either of the aforementioned stalwarts at centre-back permanently, before their summer arrivals he was regarded as the best defender at Goodison Park when fit.

The only issue was, and clearly remains, that he was never fit.

Last season, despite missing large parts of the season, the 28-year-old boasted a 36% win percentage, up from 19% in his absence.

Paddy Boyland outlined this in his tweet, where he claimed that the: “Defence looks much more solid when Mina is there.”

During this time, he averaged 0.9 tackles and 2.8 clearances per game whilst boasting a 67% success rate with the duels he would compete in, via SofaScore.

There is clearly a fine player in there, as outlined by journalist Luis Miguel Echegaray who labelled him “special” as Barcelona completed the deal to sign him.

In the past Everton have been reliant on his fitness to save their defensive woes, but with these newcomers, this burden is somewhat lifted.

Perhaps now he could have the platform to finally build up some fitness without the necessity to rush him back, starting with tonight’s first game of the week against the Cherries.

Glen Kamara is reportedly ‘a doubt’ for Glasgow Rangers ahead of their game at Ibrox in the UEFA Champions League tonight.

The Lowdown: Must win

The match at home to Liverpool tonight is already looking like a must win for Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side if they have any chance of carrying on their European journey beyond the group stages.

They are currently six points behind the Premier League outfit in the table, but could close the gap to three with a win, which would put them in a decent position to qualify out of the group, especially if Napoli beat Ajax.

The Latest: Kamara concern

Taking to Twitter, Gers reporter for The Athletic Jordan Campbell has shared that while there are no new injuries ahead of the Liverpool clash, Van Bronckhorst has confirmed that Kamara is ‘a doubt’ after picking up a knock:

“Van Bronckhorst says there are no new injuries for the game against Liverpool, although Glen Kamara is a doubt as he picked up a knock.”

[web_stories_embed url=”https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/web-stories/rangers-news-5/” title=”Rangers news!” poster=”” width=”360″ height=”600″ align=”none”]

The Verdict: Not ideal

Although there are no other new injury concerns going into the match, Kamara being a doubt is certainly not ideal.

In the Champions League so far, the Finland international has ranked highly among his teammates in terms of average interceptions, blocks, key passes and pass success (WhoScored), and the Light Blues could do with his experience in such a huge game at Ibrox.

Nonetheless, Van Bronckhorst will be hoping that his latest injury is not serious enough to rule him out of the squad altogether, and perhaps the 26-year-old could be called upon from the bench if needed.

West Bromwich Albion were heavily linked across the summer with Reading striker Lucas Joao, and the Portuguese star could have represented an important coup given their reliance on Karlan Grant to score all the goals.

Reports late in the window suggested the Baggies had made a move to sign the Royals marksman, but that seemed to fall through and Steve Bruce was left scrambling to sign Salford City striker Brandon Thomas-Asante last minute.

Had he managed to sign Joao instead however, despite the latter’s fine start to life at the Hawthorns, perhaps his side would not be in as much peril as they currently are.

West Brom sit in 20th, with just one win from nine Championship games. This marks abysmal form for a side that had dreams of a promotion push. Things are yet to get easier too, as tomorrow they travel to second-placed Norwich City.

A big issue with their season has been their toothless nature. This was foreseen after their January signing Daryl Dike was ruled out until after the World Cup.

He was not replaced in the summer, and now Bruce’s side have scored 14 goals in nine appearances. However, five of those goals came in one game against Hull City, which papers over the cracks somewhat.

Joao already has three goals this season in just six appearances, including a match-winning brace in his side’s 2-1 win over Stoke City.

He has proven his credentials as a match winner, something which West Brom are clearly lacking.

Grant also has three league goals, but in nine matches instead. To add competition for his place would surely have forced better performances out of the 24-year-old, and if not then the lethal Joao could have taken his place.

In fact, he has been a consistent Championship goal scorer all across his 213 appearances. He has scored 67 times and chipped in with a further 27 assists.

With Paul Ince having labelled the 29-year-old a “great finisher”, it somewhat mocks the Baggies as that is exactly what they need. Against Birmingham City, they had 66% possession and 18 shots, yet still ran out 3-2 losers.

Joao is exactly the type of player they needed, but they let him get away and are paying the price because of it.

Newcastle United have been gifted an injury boost before they play Manchester City at home in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon.

The Lowdown: Tough ask

Despite their good start to the season, from which they have collected four points from their first two games in the Premier League, getting anything out of Man City will be a tough ask for the St. James’ Park outfit.

City have also started the season off strongly, with maximum points from their first two matches, and look hungry to retain their top-flight title once more.

The Latest: Fraser update

Speaking to the media in his pre-game press conference ahead of the match, Eddie Howe has revealed that he hopes that Ryan Fraser will be ‘fit and available’, after he was withdrawn from the squad that drew 0-0 away at Brighton and Hove Albion last week:

“Ryan Fraser we hope will be fit and available. He had a back spasm late last week so he was a late withdrawal from the Brighton game.”

The Verdict: Boost

The North East club will need all of their experienced players available to give them the best possible chance of getting anything from City, and so having Fraser back would be a boost.

The Scotland international picked up a handy two goals and three assists in the Premier League last season, and ranked highly among his teammates in terms of average key passes and crosses per game (WhoScored).

His delivery could be key against Pep Guardiola’s side, especially if Chris Wood is thrown on from the bench late on.

Arsenal have been tracking Yeremi Pino ahead of a potential move before the summer transfer deadline…

What’s the word?

That’s according to Italian transfer guru Fabrizio Romano, who revealed the exciting claim to GIVEMESPORT this week.

He said:

“They are one of many clubs that have been following him for a long time. He’s doing great with Villarreal. At the moment, there is still no bid or nothing advanced for Pino.”

GOAL recently claimed that the Gunners were interested in signing the 19-year-old sensation but the Yellow Submarines were holding out for a fee in the region of €45m (£38m), despite having an €80m (£67m) release clause in his current €57.7k-per-week (£48.5k-per-week) contract.

Arteta’s own Jarrod Bowen

The Spanish teenager, who has now been capped four times at senior level for his national side, has been a key player for former Arsenal boss Unai Emery at the Yellow Submarines over the past two years as they clinched the Europa League trophy over Manchester United in 2020.

It was a true breakthrough year for Pino last season, though, as he delivered seven goals and four assists across 40 appearances, via Transfermarkt.

That level of form has certainly attracted the interest of technical director Edu Gaspar as he looks to bolster Mikel Arteta’s squad with another winger, having missed out on Raphinha to Villarreal’s LaLiga rivals, FC Barcelona.

The 19-year-old, who Romano even lauded as a “special talent” earlier this year, has an interesting profile for a winger with FBref highlighting some likeness to West Ham United star Jarrod Bowen, who too has been linked with a switch to the Emirates Stadium this window.

Not only is he delivering in the final third but Pino also tracks back to help out his side defensively, which is always a bonus – when compared to fellow wingers across Europe over the last year, the youngster ranks inside the top 1% for blocks (2.62 per 90) and the top 24% for tackles (1.79 per 90), also via FBref.

Meanwhile, last season in LaLiga alone, he was within the top 2% for shots on target, the top 5% for goals per shot and the top 10% for non-penalty expected goals and assists, showing a similar sort of pizzaz to the West Ham star in the final third.

Bowen returned a whopping 12 goals and 12 assists in the Premier League for the Hammers last season and seems unlikely to be sold, particularly this late in the window, so in Pino, they could have a really viable alternative.

£38m may be a sizeable investment for a teenager but it’s some way off the premium fee it would take the Irons to sell. He thought to have an eye-watering £75m price tag.

As such, Edu and his recruitment staff should look to sign Pino before September 1st as Arteta could get his very own Bowen, which is a mouthwatering prospect along that right flank.

AND in other news, Arsenal have “genuine interest” in £25m “phenomenon”, could be a dream Arteta signing…