Tottenham’s Ange Postecoglou says the club is “pushing hard” to complete their January transfers. After Christmas they will lose Heung-min-Son, Yves Bissouma and Pape Sarr who all leave on international duties. Ange joked that he had sent Santa an early Christmas list and topping his “wish list” is a new centre-half. He also wants to strengthen his squad with a forward and a new midfielder. He laughed, “I wrote my letter to Santa! Like my kids now, I’ve got to see whether I’ve been naughty or nice and see what I get mate.”
Bournemouth defender Lloyd Kelly and Fulham’s Tosin Adarabioyo were both pursued by Tottenham in the summer and they are also watching French club Nice’s centre-half Jean-Claire Todibo. Portugese forward Jota, who has played for Postecoglou at Celtic, is also another possibility and £30million rated Radu Dragusin, who plays for Genoa in the Italian league, is being considered. Dragusin’s agent has confirmed that Spurs have been in contact in order to sign the Romanian international. He is only 21 but has already played 12 times for his country and has appeared in every game in Seri A for Genoa this season.
Nuno is not Mr Popular
Ex-Tottenham and Wolves coach Nuno Espirito Santo has replaced Steve Cooper who was sacked this week by Nottingham Forest. It is a case of Mr Unpopular replacing Mr Popular. Fans still sang in support of Cooper despite Forest being in a relegation battle. Santo is different to Cooper. The outgoing coach believes in man-management, holding day to day meetings with players and bonding closely with them. Santo believes in being respected and for example, when at Wolves he rejected an invitation to attend a player barbecue and was always at arms-length from his team, behaving more like a strict headmaster. Forest have been impressed with Santo’s achievements during a 16 month spell with Saudi club Al Ittihad but as I pointed out, that level of football is light years behind the Premier League despite attracting some star names.
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Even Pep Guardiola is confused
Understanding what is going on at Manchester City right now is difficult. After 17 Premier League games, City currently have their lowest points tally since Pep Guardiola took over. After Crystal Palace stole a draw at the Etihad Stadium last weekend, I saw Rodri leaving with his head bowed down following a lengthy debrief in the dressing room. Rodri always has sleep problems and I doubt he slept on the plane to Saudi for the Club World Cup match. City have conceded four late goals in their last 10 matches in the league and Arsenal and Liverpool now look down on them in the Premier table.
Rodri said, “We have to get better because every team in the Premier League gets better and better.” City, for instance, controlled the game for 70 minutes and yet drew against Palace and it was a similar situation against Liverpool and Tottenham. They have managed to win only four of their last 11 games.
Even the maestro Guardiola is confused and could offer no explanation. “I wish I knew”, he said, “I would like to know. I feel that the last three games we played at the Etihad we dropped points and were excellent.” He is right and City should have won all three games. Even the players are baffled and unlike United, for instance, where players can be blamed for not putting in 100%, that does not apply to City players. They give their all every game.
The weird situation is that Palace had only two shots on target and scored both times, Tottenham had only four shots and three went into the net giving them a 3-3 draw. Liverpool had three on target and got a 1-1 draw. And incredibly Wolves had one shot on target but got two goals and won 2-1.
There are some excuses however, Kyle Walker and Ruben Dias have not been at their best and Phil Foden has been rather sloppy in midfield and gave away a penalty for Palace after kicking Jean-Philippe Mateta. There are calls from inside the club to return to the four centre-halves and that worked very well last season.
Pochettino sets record straight
It was a difficult press conference for Mauricio Pochettino and he tried to put into context something he had said earlier…it sounded to all of us that he said coaching at Chelsea is like sitting in an electric chair!
“No!” he said, “I meant that for every manager the chair is electric, not Chelsea.” With his first six months at Chelsea showing some progress but not enough, it is not the time to upset owners who control your destiny.
Next Pochettino had to defend himself regarding Conor Gallagher. Rumours have been circulating for months that Chelsea will sell their academy graduate midfielder in January.
He used a Shakespeare quote to disassociate himself from the selling rumours and said, “It is a decision between the player and the club, to be or not to be. He is in the starting team nearly every game and one of the captains this season. For me he is the type of player the club needs to have here at Stamford Bridge. He is a really important player and the coaching team all want him in the team.”
The Christmas gift Arteta did not want
If the Gunner’s coach Mikel Arteta had a chance to ask Santa for a special Christmas gift it probably wouldn’t be playing away at Liverpool. That, unfortunately for him, is what he got when he opened his fixtures list for this season.
Arsenal are in the race to sign Brentford striker Ivan Toney after Christmas however I am told they will also keep a close eye on Bournemouth’s Dominic Solanke if the Toney deal does not go through. He has scored eight goals so far this season.
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