All posts by h716a5.icu

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Leeds United are currently on the verge of securing a return to the Premier League after a fifteen year absence. The Whites are in the automatic promotion places with just nine Championship fixtures still to go.

They could give their hopes a huge boost on Saturday when they take on fellow promotion-hopefuls Sheffield United at Elland Road.

It’s a potentially season-defining encounter for both clubs and the pressure is very much on. Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa is remaining calm in the build up to the game though and has given his views on how well equipped his side are to handle the occasion.

What he said

As quoted by the club on Twitter, Bielsa has asserted his opinion that Saturday’s match is not the be-all and end-all, saying: “No win is more important than any other at this stage.”

It is undeniable, however, that his team will be aware of the significance this match holds in the eyes of the fans.

Centre-back Pontus Jansson has already referred to the upcoming fixture with the Blades as “the biggest game of our lives”. It is vital that the Argentine coach doesn’t let the occasions overwhelm his squad.

He is confident that his team can rise to the challenge though, saying: “For me the emotion you get from big games is important, and our players have enough experience to manage this kind of situation.”

Are fans being priced out of the Championship as well as the Premier League? The angry Bolton fan in the video below certainly believes so…

Will they crumble?

Bielsa has only said what you’d expect a manager to say ahead of a big game. However, Leeds’ ability to cope with such pressure can legitimately be called into question.

Earlier in the campaign, when they faced a similarly pressurised match against title-chasing Norwich City, they crumbled. Leeds slumped to a 3-1 defeat against the Canaries at Elland Road which allowed Daniel Farke’s side to gain on them in the table. Norwich now hold top spot ahead of then-leaders Leeds.

There are certainly grounds for concern there, as pointed out by some fans in response to Jansson’s aforementioned tweet.

Leeds fans, are you feeling calm and confident like Bielsa ahead of Saturday’s clash? Have you got any fingernails left? Drop us your verdicts in the comments below…

[ad_pod ]BBC broadcaster Adam Pope spoke to Leeds United defender Gaetano Berardi this week and has issued an update on his future on Twitter, with the 30-year-old telling him that promotion is the priority over that right now.

What’s the word, then?

Well, Pope was responding to a message from a Whites fan on the social media platform having interviewed the Swiss player, who has just over a year remaining on his contract at Elland Road which is due to expire in June 2020, this week.

However the versatile star, who has only recently returned from a long injury lay-off, apparently doesn’t seem too concerned about that right now as he instead looks to help the Yorkshire outfit secure a long-awaited Premier League return.

Will he get a new contract?

It’s difficult to say and much could depend on what division Leeds find themselves in next season.

Should they stay in the Championship it would be no surprise to see him get a one or two-year extension given how clearly he loves the club and the effort he puts in when he is on the pitch, but it could be a different story if they do go up.

The 30-year-old is getting no younger and if his injury issues persist, Marcelo Bielsa may feel that he would be better off cashing in on the summer rather than letting his deal run down into a campaign where he may not feature too much at all anyway.

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At the weekend, Luton Town became the first team outside of the Premier League to score 50 goals at home this season.

Only Manchester City, under Pep Guardiola, have done likewise in 2018-19, with the record achieved in Luton’s 4-0 win over Doncaster.

But how exactly have the League One leaders gone about it?

Football FanCast breaks down the stats below!

Top goalscorers

James Collins has scored 12 goals at home this season and is, far and away, the club’s highest goalscorer at Kenilworth Road.

In second place, Danny Hylton has scored seven, while Elliot Lee has netted six.

A total of 14 separate goalscorers have found the net, with four of the strikes coming from the penalty spot.

Behind Hylton and Lee, Harry Cornick has scored four goals. Three players have scored three, four have scored two and two have scored one. There has also been one own goal, scored by Fleetwood Town’s Craig Morgan in a 2-0 defeat.

The breakdown

Luton’s home record is frightening.

They have scored in every game at Kenilworth Road bar one, a 0-0 draw with Barnsley. They are also unbeaten at home, only dropping points five times, in draws with Sunderland, Charlton Athletic, Barnsley, Coventry City and Gillingham.

They have scored three goals or more on nine occasions, and have won by a margin of four a total of four times.

Indeed, per footystats, Luton average 2.5 goals per match at home, compared with just 1.37 away from home.

Their home form has been key to their challenge for promotion – they last lost a match at home in March of 2018, when they fell to a 2-1 loss to Accrington Stanley. Stanley, of course, finished first in League Two last term while Luton ended the season second.

Interestingly, Luton often score late; footystats report that 24% of their home goals are scored between the 76th minute and the 90th, more than any other time.

Too good for League One

Luton are surely set for a second successive promotion.

They have not lost, home or away, in 26 matches and are five points clear of second-placed Barnsley in League One.

The statistics bear out the fact that they are, quite simply, too good for the division.

They have scored the most goals – unsurprisingly, given their seemingly bionic home form – and have the highest goal difference by a significant margin.

Mick Harford’s side have enjoyed a simply unstoppable season and, with seven games of the season remaining, it appears as though the run could go on for a little while yet.

With 83 points currently on the board, Luton could end the season with 104 points if they win out, which would set the record of the highest tally ever achieved in League One. The current holders are Wolves, who took 103 points en route to promotion in 2013-14.

Claims that Rafa Benitez has demanded funds of £75 million to spend on strikers if he is to stay, appear to be how some people interpreted his post-match comments following the defeat to Arsenal on Monday.

But if you listen to what he actually said, it is not exactly the point he was making.

A report in the Daily Mirror yesterday suggested that it was some sort of ultimatum, which is not how it appeared to us.

They report Benitez said: “The final third, we have been speaking all season… the final third you have to spend £40m, £50m, £75m.”

He is quite right, too.

The point he was making is for a team to be able to compete week in, week out, and challenge the top six sides, they would need to spend those sums of money.

But Rafa has consistently maintained that he does not want, or expect, Newcastle to be transformed overnight into a title-chasing club, or even to be perennial Champion’s League contenders.

He wants to be given a budget that will see the club pull away from their annual relegation scrap, consolidate themselves as a top half team, and if results go better than expected, could push for a top seven or eight finish.

After two or three seasons as an established squad, maybe then they could increase the budget, due to higher prize payouts, and look to kick on towards Europa League places.

To suggest that he is demanding ridiculous amounts for the next transfer window is mischief-making.

It is misinformation like this that gives fans in other regions of the country the wrong impression that Newcastle fans expect success, when all they have ever wanted is a team they can be proud of, that wears the black and white stripes with pride, and makes them excited for Saturdays to arrive.

Do you expect Newcastle to entice Benitez to stay? Do you think it would take a huge budget to convince him? Let us know…

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According to The Sun, Manchester United are ready to begin contract talks with Paul Pogba amid interest from Real Madrid, although the midfielder is demanding an eye-watering £500,000-a-week to stay at Old Trafford.

What’s the word, then?

Well, the Frenchman returned to Manchester from Juventus in a then world-record deal worth £89m, and was put on wages worth £300,000-a-week which made him the club’s top earner before the arrival of Alexis Sanchez.

The Chile international earns a staggering £505,000-a-week, making him by far and away the Red Devils’ highest earning player.

Watch the video below to find out what Jesse Lingard is like off the pitch in the latest Match Of The Bae with Emma Conybeare…

Pogba’s agent, Mino Raiola, is aware that United are desperate to keep their academy graduate at the club and is reportedly going to push to club all the way when contract negotiations do commence, which may leave the 20-time Premier League champions in a difficult position.

How should United go about this?

Sell him. Plain and simple. The World Cup winner’s demands won’t do anything to help the current salary crisis that the club are going through thanks to Sanchez’s astronomical earnings, which have seen David de Gea and Ander Herrera make extraordinary requests.

It has been reported that Solskjaer is plotting a huge transfer swoop this summer, with Callum Hudson-Odoi, Declan Rice, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Jadon Sancho at the top of his wishlist.

Obviously, these players are going to cost a lot of money. A lot. Chelsea turned down a bid of £35m for Hudson-Odoi back in January, and the player’s stock has certainly increased since then having made his England debut.

Also, the Hammers are reportedly unwilling to sell Rice for less than £100m, whilst Wan-Bissaka is valued at £40m – Sancho should also cost in excess of £100m.

The reported fee that Real Madrid are willing to spend on Pogba is set at £125m, which would go some way to helping United acquire the aforementioned targets.

Additionally, getting him off the wage bill would free up more funds to spend on those targets’ salaries; United must cut their ties with Pogba for the sake of a much needed summer rebuild.

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Sheffield Wednesday’s season has been shrouded with injuries and the latest man to join the treatment table is Newcastle loanee Rolando Aarons.

The winger was due to start for the club against Stoke last weekend but hobbled off in the warm-up and is now a major doubt for the Owls’ clash against Aston Villa on Saturday.

Reacting to the news on Twitter that he could miss another game, Wednesday fans were busy debating who may replace him.

Some supporters explored the option of playing Fernando Forestieri on the left, a role he has played previously in his career.

However, a few fans were keen to stress that they didn’t want George Boyd to play. The former Burnley man started for the Yorkshire club in place of Aarons last weekend but struggled to have the same sort of impact as his fellow teammate.

The 23-year-old arrived on loan from Rafa Benitez’s Newcastle in January and has helped transform the way Wednesday attack with his willing runs, making 1.6 dribbles per game. In nine matches he’s scored one goal and claimed one assist too.

Therefore, missing a player like him could be huge in terms of the club’s promotion hopes. Steve Bruce’s men face a massive seven days, taking on Villa, Nottingham Forest and Leeds in the space of a week.

Here’s the best of the reaction.

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According to L’Equipe, West Ham United are considering a summer swoop for Saint-Etienne midfielder Yann M’Vila.

M’Vila moved to Saint-Etienne from Rubin Kazan in January 2018 and has made 30 Ligue 1 appearances for the French club this term.

The 28-year-old has a contract with the Ligue 1 side until the summer of 2022, but L’Equipe have reported that West Ham are interested in a swoop.

The Frenchman has experience of the Premier League having turned out for Sunderland on loan during the 2015-16 campaign.

The West Ham fans have been on social media reacting to the transfer report and it would be fair to say that there are a lot of mixed opinions on the subject.

Indeed, whilst a number are against the Hammers moving for M’Vila, others feel that the midfielder could turn out to be a decent signing for the capital outfit ahead of the 2019-2020 season.

A selection of the Twitter reaction can be viewed below:

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Sunderland fans have been left drooling over the performance of Jimmy Dunne.

The Black Cats beat Doncaster Rovers 2-0 on Friday, moving to within two points of Barnsley in second-place, with Dunne playing at centre-back.

Dunne even provided an assist in the victory, which has left the Black Cats in a fine position to win promotion to the Championship this season.

Sunderland are now third, two points behind Barnsley, but they have a game in hand on the second-placed Tykes.

Dunne, just 21, has won two caps for the Republic of Ireland Under-21s and joined the club on loan from Burnley in January.

Since then, he has played 11 times in League One and has never been on the losing side, even scoring in the 1-1 draw with Oxford United in February.

And fans were in awe of his no-nonsense display on Friday as the Black Cats edge closer to the second-tier.

Take a look at the best of the reaction below!

Was it a 4-4-2? A 4-2-3-1? A 4-3-3? Whatever it was, it cost Arsenal dearly.

The Gunners 3-0 defeat to Leicester City was yet another slip up in what has been one of the worst weeks in the Premier League for Arsenal, who have lost three times, shipped nine goals, and almost handed 4th place to Chelsea in the race for Champions League football.

Although it’s easy to point figures at the players, who have looked disinterested and lazy in the past three games, manager Unai Emery deserves some criticism for this recent run of poor results, and the Spaniard’s constant tinkering of the Arsenal team has some part to play in the latest embarrassing episode for the Gunners.

In the entire Arsenal squad, no player is yet to start 30 times in the Premier League this season, a worrying stat brought up by Sky Sports pundit Alex Scott in the aftermath of the Gunners defeat to the Foxes.

Although you can put down Arsenal’s run in the Europa League as the main reason for this oddity, the constant changing of formation and swapping in and out players has made the Gunners lack the cohesion needed to execute a top-four finish in the league.

Had it not been for everyone else in the race for Champions League football stumbling as bad as Arsenal, the Gunners would be dead and buried, but Emery has a chance to still reclaim top-four for the club, and this time go for it with a set formation with a set group of players to play with that the Spaniard can build upon for next season.

Arsenal fans, what formation should the Gunners stick with for next season? Let us know!

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Speaking to The Debate podcast (29/04), Paul Merson has outlined what he, as an ex-Aston Villa man, thinks they should be fearing the most.

What’s he said?

Villa’s march to the play-offs has been quite something and out of each team currently in with a shout of achieving promotion, their momentum is the greatest.

Before their 1-1 draw with Leeds last weekend, Dean Smith’s men had played out a stunning ten match winning streak.

However, that will of course count for nothing if they don’t then get the business done in the play-offs. A fantastic test of how far they’ve come in recent months presents itself with a clash against Norwich on the final day before the play-offs get underway.

It’s a game with not a lot riding on it for the Villans, but it’s a real opportunity to prove themselves.

At the moment, Villa sit in fourth place and could face Midlands rivals West Brom in the play-off semi-finals. With that in mind, Merson had this to say when speaking to The Debate (45:10):

“As a Villa man I’d rather play West Brom in one game at Wembley rather than two because West Brom have got firepower to hurt you over two games. Even though Villa are on such a good run that’s another thing that frightens me.”

Can Villa keep out a potent attack?

Villa’s defence in recent months has been far better than what we saw throughout the opening half of the campaign. Tyrone Mings has made a phenomenal difference since signing on loan from Bournemouth whilst the two full-backs, Ahmed Elmohamady and Neil Taylor, have both found consistency.

To add to that, even Mile Jedinak has stepped up in central defence with injury and suspension on separate occasions in recent times.

However, they’ll be met with one of their toughest examinations of the season if they meet West Brom in the play-off semi-finals.

Dwight Gayle and Jay Rodriguez are two of the top scorers in the division and against a Baggies side in full flow, it’s incredibly difficult to keep them at bay. As a result, Merson is right to be scared about the threat they pose.

Keeping West Brom quiet for one game is tough as it is, let alone across two legs. Villa, therefore, will have to be at their very best if they’re to seal promotion back to the Premier League.