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Noel Whelan has offered his thoughts on Kurt Zouma’s possible move to West Ham this month.

What’s the talk?

Former Premier League forward Noel Whelan has suggested that West Ham could be an ideal destination for Chelsea’s Kurt Zouma. Whelan has said that the Hammers being in London and playing in the Europa League could make them the perfect place for the ‘dominant’ centre-back.

He told Football Insider:

“It’s a club in Europe, a club that, whatever he would be paid, (he) would be one of their first-choice centre-halves.

“The transition is already there when it comes to English football. He’s been here a long, long time now. He is a very dominant centre-half, there’s no doubt about that.

“A very powerful player, very good in the air and dangerous and committed in both areas, going forward and defending.

“I think it’d be an easy transition. He’s probably not going to be needing to move home.”

These comments came after Sky Sports reported that West Ham and Tottenham are keen on a deal for the defender, who is reportedly valued at £25m by Thomas Tuchel’s side.

Moyes needs him

GSB needs to get this deal done before the end of the window. They need to pay up the £25m and pounce on this opportunity to add Zouma to David Moyes’ squad as he could be a phenomenal addition to the team.

The French international is experienced and proven in the Premier League, whilst also still relatively young by centre-back standards at the age of 26. This means that he could come in and have an instant impact on the team whilst also having the potential to develop further and become a key player for the club for many years to come.

Last season, Angelo Ogbonna was West Ham’s highest-rated centre-back on WhoScored. He achieved a rating of 6.73 for his performances, putting him ahead of Fabian Balbuena (6.71) Craig Dawson (6.67) and Issa Diop (6.64) in the pecking order.

The Italian won 2.3 aerial battles and made 1.1 interceptions per game in the Premier League. Zouma, meanwhile, averaged a WhoScored rating of 7.07 as he won 3.6 aerial battles and made 1.2 interceptions per game. This suggests that the Frenchman could come in and be an immediate upgrade on what Moyes already has at his disposal.

Moyes also needs Zouma because of his age and the age of his other options. Balbuena, Dawson and Ogbonna will all be 30 or older by the end of the month and Diop, 24, only started 15 matches last term.

This means that the Scot is in need of a younger defender who can come in and be a regular starter for the next four or five years, as the other options in the squad begin to enter the final years of their career. At the age of 26, Zouma would be exactly what he needs.

AND in other news, Get it done: GSB must complete West Ham move for 22-goal marksman, Moyes needs him…

West Ham United are said to be close to signing Chelsea defender Kurt Zouma, with personal terms believed to be the ‘final details’ of the deal according to Fabrizio Romano on Twitter.

Enjoying a solid 2020/21 campaign, the 26-year-old registered five goals in 36 fixtures as he helped the Blues win the UEFA Champions League [Transfermarkt].

Now, he looks set to be on his way to East London following recent reports from Romano.

Speaking to his large Twitter audience, the Italian transfer guru reported that West Ham only have to agree the small details on personal terms with the Frenchman before a deal can be completed for Zouma to join the Hammers.

It has been suggested by Romano that a deal could even be completed on Wednesday, via Twitch.

In light of this news, no wonder loads of West Ham diehards took to Twitter to express their opinions on latest developments.

West Ham United FC fans react:

Replying to multiple different outlets, here is what some Irons supporters had to say about the situation:

“Happy days”

Credit: @_ghzst

“Believe it it is fabrizio”

Credit: @MythicalOli69

“If fab says, then it’s a done deal. He doesn’t mess about”

Credit: @AdamTuckTuck

“Can’t wait to shout zoooooouma zoooooouma when he scores from the Trevor brooking stand”

Credit: @Chef_Haswell

“What a time to be a hammer”

Credit: @JesseLarch

“Please”

Credit: @Reece_WHU_

In other news, West Ham fans are loving a transfer update. Find out more here.

Sheffield United have reportedly rejected Nottingham Forest’s attempts to sign Blades defender Max Lowe on loan this summer.

The Lowdown: Lowe struggles for playing time

United were relegated from the Premier League last season, but Lowe did not play much of a part in that wretched campaign. The 24-year-old was limited to just seven starts in the league, with Chris Wilder not deeming him a key player for his struggling side.

He is also yet to make an appearance in the Championship this season, which suggests that he has no real future at Bramall Lane under Slavisa Jokanovic either.

The Latest: Blades reject bid

Nonetheless, Football League World claimed that the Blades have turned down a loan bid from Forest for the left-back, potentially due to their lack of options in that area.

It is ‘not yet known’ whether Chris Hughton’s side will make another bid for Lowe, who has also been linked with Reading and Swansea.

The Verdict: Keep hold of him

United have made a poor start to the season and they need as many options as possible in the coming weeks and months. For that reason, it makes sense for Jokanovic to keep hold of Lowe, especially as Yuri Ribeiro, Tyler Blackett and Nicholas Ioannou have all moved on.

The hope is that the £2.7m-valued defender can play a positive role as the season progresses, reaching his full potential after joining from Derby County in 2020.

In other news, some Sheffield United fans have criticised one player after their latest defeat. Find out who it is here.

Dean Smith may have just suffered an Aston Villa howler on transfer deadline day after allowing Frederic Guilbert to join Strasbourg on loan.

What’s the story?

Reports emerged early on Tuesday that the Frenchman could be set for a return to the side he spent the second-half of last season on loan at, and that news was then later confirmed by the Midlands club themselves.

The Express and Star’s Matt Maher added: “Guilbert has not featured in the Premier League for Villa since the 2019-20 season and has been allowed to leave in order to find more game-time.

“Though his exit leaves Matty Cash as Villa’s only recognised right-back but with Ezri Konsa and Axel Tuanzene both able to play the position, boss Dean Smith is confident he has ample cover.”

Deadline day howler from Smith

Seeing a second-choice right-back leave on loan doesn’t seem like the most worrying thing to happen, but given the genuine lack of natural cover for Matty Cash, the decision to let Guilbert leave is a worrying one for fans.
The Frenchman enjoyed a fine half-a-campaign at Strasbourg earlier this year, scoring once and providing another four assists in just 13 games for the club.
As well as looking a dangerous threat going forward, he also averaged an impressive 2.8 tackles and 2.5 interceptions per game in Ligue 1 – to put that into context, no Villa player got even close to matching those numbers in the top-flight.
Guilbert also took his only real chance of this season with both hands against Barrow in the Carabao Cup, scoring one and making one en route to a very fine performance.
Writing in his post-match player ratings for The Birmingham Mail that night, Preece gave him an eight, saying: “Always keen to provide an outlet down the right, Guilbert didn’t always get it right – but when he did, the goods followed. One low cross in the first half was too close to the keeper, but his stood up ball for El Ghazi’s second goal was on the money. Took his goal superbly.”
Guilbert showed in that game and on loan at Strasbourg last season the real benefits of having a natural right-back playing in that role, something the likes of Ashley Young, Axel Tuanzebe and Ezri Konsa cannot really offer given their age and respective positions.
Were Cash to get injured, and even miss a few games or even more than that, Smith’s decision to let Guilbert will be looked back upon with a real sense of frustration.
It’s news that is sure to have Villa fans worried.
Meanwhile, Ashley Preece has confirmed this Aston Villa starlet will sign a new contract…

Sheffield Wednesday’s transition from the Championship to League One has gone swimmingly so far and they currently sit second in the division during the first international break of the season.

Darren Moore’s side have shown few signs of a relegation hangover from their poor 2020/21 campaign, with three wins, one draw and one defeat in their first five League One matches.

The Owls beat Fleetwood, Doncaster and Rotherham, whilst drawing with Charlton and suffering their only loss against Morecambe in a 1-0 defeat.

With these strong results, Sheffield Wednesday have had a number of players who stood out with impressive performances on the pitch in the league. However, we believe that Moore’s key man in August was defender Sam Hutchinson.

The experienced enforcer averaged a sublime SofaScore rating of 7.20 across his three starts in League One, facing Charlton, Doncaster and Fleetwood. He missed the last two matches of the month due to injury, but the fact that Wednesday’s only loss came in those two games merely emphasises his impact on the team.

Hutchinson was near-perfect defensively throughout August as he proved himself to be a rock at the heart of Wednesday’s defence. As per SofaScore, he won an eye-catching 72% of his duels on the pitch, including a whopping 77% of his aerial battles. This highlights his dominance over his opponents, with the defender winning the majority of his duels to stop opposition players from gaining an advantage over him.

He made two interceptions and three clearances per game in League One, whilst he did not allow a single player to dribble past him in any match. Perhaps most impressively, Hutchinson did not make a single error leading to a shot or goal, showing how reliable he was at the back for Moore.

Sheffield Wednesday conceded zero goals in his three League One outings before going on to lose 1-0 to Morecambe with Hutchinson missing through injury. Given his excellent displays in the other matches during August, Moore’s side may have come away with a better result had the 32-year-old been fit for action.

His stonewall defending was key to the Owls starting the season strongly, which was important to build positive momentum following on from such a disappointing campaign in the Championship. This is why he was perhaps Moore’s key man during August and hopefully will continue to be for the rest of the campaign.

AND in other news, Moore makes claim on free agent market, it’s the right call…

An update has emerged on free-agent manager Steve Cooper, regarding Southampton’s interest in his services.

What’s the talk?

According to Alan Nixon of The Sun  (12.09.21, pg. 64), via The 72, former Swansea head coach Steve Cooper is Southampton’s number one choice to replace Ralph Hasenhuttl.

The report claims that the Saints have identified Cooper should they need to replace the Austrian, whether that be because they decide to relieve him of his duties or because another club comes calling for his services.

Nightmare

Southampton owner Gao Jisheng must avoid a nightmare scenario by forgetting about any move for Cooper. The Saints chief must veto any deal for the ex-England youth head coach as it would be a terrible decision by the club, given how things went for his Swansea team last season.

His Swansea team rarely left fans excited as they went for a pragmatic, defensive, approach to Championship football. They ended the 2020/21 campaign in fourth place, but only scored 56 goals in their 46 league matches – compared to Brentford’s 79 and Norwich’s 75.

This ultimately played a hand in their failure to secure promotion, with his side winning just four of their last 14 matches – including a disappointing 2-0 defeat to Brentford in the play-off final as they failed to lay a glove on the Bees.

So, why would Southampton want to bring in a manager who was unable to produce good football in the second tier and is unproven as a coach at the top level? It could be a disaster situation for the Saints and one they must avoid, although it must be stressed that there is no suggestion Hasenhuttl will be going anywhere any time soon.

Hasenhuttl has averaged 1.31 points per game across 118 Premier League matches in charge of the Saints, compared to Cooper’s 1.61 points-per-game across 105 Championship games.

Given the gulf in quality between the two divisions and with Southampton battling relegation whilst Swansea fought for promotion, these statistics do not suggest Cooper would be an upgrade on the Austrian.

Hopefully, Hasenhuttl will remain at the helm for the foreseeable future and Gao will not need to be in a position where he needs to make a decision.

However, if such an occasion does arise then they could benefit from looking elsewhere instead of going for Cooper.

AND in other news, Fewer touches than McCarthy: Saints dud who lost 85% of his duels let Ralph down badly…

Many Wolves fans have hailed South Korean attacker Hwang Hee-chan after footage emerged from the weekend of his skillset.

The centre-forward was brought on at half-time as Wolves were 2-0 down at home to Brentford but was unable to add to his goal scored at Watford the week prior as the Bees hung on for all three points.

Hwang replaced centre-back Romain Saiss and joined Francisco Trincao, Raul Jimenez and Adama Traore in Bruno Lage’s attacking line, but they only managed to muster eight shots all game, not a single one hitting the target.

However, there was one moment of sublime skill by summer signing Hwang in the second half, where he audaciously clipped the ball through Pontus Jansson’s legs before cutting it back into the penalty area.

The footage from Wolves Fancast on Twitter shows the Brentford defender lunging for the attacker and the Korean could have gone down, but he didn’t and managed to find room on the by-line to cross.

Wolves fans praise Hwang

These Wolves fans have taken to Twitter to hail Hwang for his “cracking bit of skill”.

“Cracking bit of skill but should have gone down”

Credit: @Ben1988Harvey

“Was the only bright spark from yday, hopefully starts Wednesday so can see a good 90 mins of what he can offer us”

Credit: @Hayden_Millsy

“I like Hwang – we use him properly he’ll be a very good player for us”

Credit: @Hadenwoof

“Has to start against Southampton. One of the few players who had something about him Saturday”

Credit: @BC1877

“Hwang was maybe the only highlight from yesterday”

Credit: @Wolvesblogger

“Watch that in rewind”

Credit: @jackthenewee

In other news, many Wolves fans blasted the performance of one man on Saturday. Find out more here.

Tottenham Hotspur return to Premier League action this afternoon and they’ll be looking to bounce back after a week of disappointing results.

Nuno Santo’s side saw their unbeaten start to the 2021/22 campaign ended at the hands of Crystal Palace last weekend and then in mid-week, they had to come from behind to salvage a point against Rennes in the UEFA Europa Conference League.

The Portuguese head coach has had to deal with plenty of injury and team selection troubles for both matches but ahead of kick-off in today’s London derby against Chelsea, he has been given a timely boost.

He has been without the services of his three South Americans – Giovani Lo Celso, Davinson Sanchez and Cristian Romero – after spending the last ten days in Croatia in a bid to avoid the UK’s quarantine regulations following the international break.

The trio arrived back in the country on Saturday, just in time for this massive encounter.

Spurs are short on centre-backs heading into the match, so Nuno may well need to turn to the pair of them despite not training with their teammates for around three weeks.

Eric Dier is dealing with an injury problem, whilst Japhet Tanganga is suspended after being sent off at Selhurst Park. It leaves Nuno with the inexperienced Joe Rodon and the aforementioned duo.

And he should turn to Romero as he will certainly know about the threat on offer from the Blues.

Last season’s Serie A ‘Defender of the Year’ is yet to start a Premier League match since arriving on an initial loan from Atalanta in the summer but he has experience up against Romelu Lukaku, who has already bagged four goals in four games this season.

In two matches against the Belgian colossus last season, the 23-year-old managed to stop the former Inter Milan talisman from scoring, which is certainly a positive sign.

Romero led the league for interceptions (3.1) per game, so he certainly has an impressive ability to read the game and then act, so given Spurs’ recent defensive issues – conceding five in their last two matches – he should come straight into the starting XI.

Lauded as “phenomenal” by Italian football expert Conor Clancy to This is Futbol, the £31.5m-rated Argentinian colossus must be unleashed at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium today as he could be the man to help stop the free-scoring Belgian.

It could be a risky but game-changing call from Nuno.

AND in other news, Forget Skipp: Spurs could finally replace Dembele with “devastating” £36m-rated beast…

One of Tottenham Hotspur’s managerial targets before the arrival of Nuno Santo has spoken about Italian sporting director Fabio Paratici in a recent interview this week.

And it’s not going to go down well with the supporters…

What’s the word?

Spurs spent several months trying to find a successor to Jose Mourinho after he was sacked in mid-April and held talks with several different names, including Chelsea’s former title winner Antonio Conte and even their former manager Mauricio Pochettino.

However, ex-Roma head coach Paulo Fonseca was inches away from being appointed as the new Spurs boss before Paratici was hired.

He had verbally agreed on a two-year contract but the move broke down as the former Juventus chief wanted to go in a different direction to what chairman Daniel Levy and Steve Hitchen were planning.

Speaking to The Telegraph, the Portuguese revealed:

“The agreement was done. We were planning the pre-season and Tottenham wanted an offensive coach. It wasn’t announced but we planned pre-season players.

“But things changed when the new managing director arrived and we didn’t agree with some ideas and he preferred another coach.

“I have some principles. I wanted to be coach of the great teams but I want the right project and a club where the people believe in my ideas, my way to play, and this didn’t happen with the managing director.”

Fans won’t be happy

This damning revelation could not have come at a worse time as the north London outfit have struggled for form in recent matches.

After three straight 1-0 victories to kickstart the 2021/22 league campaign, Nuno and his side have lost 3-0 in back-to-back Premier League games and drawn 2-2 across both the UEFA Europa Conference League and the Carabao Cup.

Indeed, the numbers suggest that things have been much, much worse than they appear.

According to The Athletic, Spurs have the lowest expected goals (xG) of any team in the English top-flight (4.42) after the first five matches of the season. They are also second-lowest for total number of shots and have created just two big chances.

It would appear that Fonseca’s claim about a more defensively-minded coach is ringing true, on the evidence we’ve seen so far.

That will not go down well with the Spurs faithful, many of whom were never behind the appointment of Nuno and are very much still against it amid recent performances on the pitch.

This won’t do the atmosphere around the club any favours heading into this weekend’s north London derby.

AND in other news, Nuno handed huge dilemma by 5 ft 9 Spurs “machine” who was “bossing it” against Wolves…

Aston Villa youngster Louie Barry has been out of action for Ipswich Town recently due to a nasty tooth abscess, according to Ashley Preece.

The Lowdown: Barry’s loan

Barry was one of 10 Villa youngsters to head out on loan in the summer, with the 18-year-old’s move to Ipswich Town one of the more high-profile transfers of the bunch.

However, the forward has only made three starts for the Tractor Boys in all competitions and is yet to score for the League One side.

He hasn’t featured in the last six third-tier fixtures, and Preece has explained why that has been the case.

The Latest: Preece’s post

Preece shared a story on Twitter on Monday, looking at Kaine Kesler’s impressive loan spell at Swindon Town.

The reliable reporter was then asked by a Villa fan about Barry, to which he said:

“He’s been out with a nasty tooth abscess, believe it or not. Barry was back in match action for Ipswich’s U23s earlier. Villa will address Barry’s loan in January. He desperately needs a run of games.”

As Preece’s reply was direct to a supporter, it went under the radar with a fraction of interaction (two retweets) compared to the post on Kesler.

The Verdict: January recall?

With Preece suggesting Villa will address Barry’s temporary stay in the New Year, a January recall could well be on the cards.

As the journalist mentions, the whole point of Barry heading out of Villa Park was to get a string of first-team games under his belt.

One league start in nine isn’t ideal for the forward who Dean Smith hailed earlier this year, so it could make sense to bring him back to the Midlands in the winter window and go from there, depending on how he fares once fit.

In other news: ‘Good god’  – Many Villa fans go wild at Sky Sports footage.