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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

Sky Sports claim Arsenal and Tottenham have been “given a boost” after Real Madrid midfielder Dani Ceballos was left out of the club’s squad for the International Champions Cup, per the official ICC website.

What’s the word?

Ceballos has been linked with both Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal this summer.

Indeed, Football FanCast understands that Spurs are in talks with the Spanish club over a deal that would see Ceballos move on loan to north London, though they would like to include a purchase option that stands at £45m.

And now a Sky Sports transfer blog entry on Friday (July 12, 07:55) claims that both clubs have been given a boost as they look to secure Ceballos’ signature.

The Spain international, who played for the Under-21s as they won the European Championship this summer, is keen on a loan move away from Santiago Bernabeu, per Sky.

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A red herring

This is business as usual from Real Madrid.

Ceballos participated in the Under-21 Championships and, as such, is likely being given an extended rest; this is probably absolutely nothing to do with transfer negotiations.

Indeed, Jesus Vallejo, his Spain Under-21 and Real team-mate who played five times in La Liga last season, has also been left out of the travelling squad.

While certain outlets like to get a little bit over-excited in the summer, and although there is a distinct possibility Ceballos could move to the Premier League in the coming weeks, this looks like a red herring for both Spurs and Arsenal fans – something that’s, at best, coincidental.

This saga could well have a few more twists and turns yet.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

Following the exit of Ander Herrera, and the uncertainty surrounding Paul Pogba, Manchester United’s midfield could be set for a revamp ahead of the upcoming season. But, if reports are to be believed, the Red Devils could be set to bring in an international quality star to remedy that.

According to Le Parisien, Manchester United are interested in making a swoop for Juventus midfielder Blaise Matuidi this summer.

Whilst the report adds that the Bianconeri have no interest in selling the 32-year-old, if United could tempt their Italian counterparts into letting the France World Cup winner go, then they could be getting a man for the big occasions.

On the chalkboard

As United have long been witness to, certain games against the club’s toughest rivals and opponents needs a game-plan and a set-up designed to frustrate. You can’t be playing pretty, attractive football all the time.

It was why Sir Alex Ferguson used to love throwing the likes of Darren Fletcher and Park Ji-Sung into games, because he knew more than anything, they would be up for doing a ‘job’ and cancelling the opposition out.

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Though not necessarily limited to someone of that ilk, Matuidi is certainly cut from the same cloth of being able to play in different positions and different roles as the game or manager demands. The Frenchman has picked up incredible experience in his time with PSG and Juventus, and has achieved virtually everything in club and international football.

Whilst Matuidi is a bona-fide central midfielder by trade, his tactical versatility makes him a manager’s dream. In his 42 appearances last season, the ex-PSG star played 33 times in his favoured role, scoring three times and assisting a further two.

However, in the seven games Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri used him in a left-midfield role, the Bianconeri remained undefeated, and what is particularly telling is the teams those games were against.

The Frenchman played as a left-sided midfielder away against Napoli and Inter, and at home to Atalanta. Those three sides finished directly below Juventus in the Serie A standings at the end of the season.

Matuidi’s defensive discipline, work-rate and sheer selflessness means he can carry out the dirty tasks that nobody else wants to do in the big games. Hustling the opposition, tracking back, making tackles – 1.9 of them per game to be precise.

The Frenchman’s relentlessness is exactly what United need, and his ability to fulfil certain roles in the crunch games make him the ‘big-game’ signing that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could really do with.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

Jordan Hugill has left West Ham United on loan.

The striker has joined QPR until the end of the season, dropping back down to the Championship as he looks to reignite a career that has gone stale in recent seasons.

Signed for £10m by the Hammers when David Moyes was manager, Hugill has been an unmitigated disaster of a signing for the Irons.

He has played a total of three games and has failed to score a single goal. That works out at £3.3m recurring per game for a player who never once appeared comfortable in east London.

To drill deeper, one sees that Hugill played a total of 22 minutes of football for the Hammers. A £10m investment for 22 minutes of football works out at £454,546-per-minute. That’s £7,576-per-second, and we aren’t even mentioning his wages.

Indeed, to look at his statistics is to see a striker who has struggled in the Championship, never mind the Premier League, and it really brings into focus how appalling a deal this has been for the Hammers.

He remains on the books and will return at the end of the season if QPR decide against buying him and, let’s be frank, the signs aren’t good.

In the second-tier, Hugill scored 29 goals in 137 games, at a rate of 0.2 goals-per-game.

That is quite simply atrocious. At Middlesbrough last season, Hugill netted seven times in 41 outings. He has only ever hit double figures for one club – Preston – where he netted 30 goals in 114 games. That’s a rate of, again, 0.2 goals-per-game.

Moyes revealed to the Daily Mirror on Monday that the reason for Hugill’s signing was cover.

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He said: “Our plan was to go in and work with the players we had and get them through the season. We brought in one centre-forward, Jordan Hugill, to cover Andre Ayew and Diafra Sakho, who had gone [in the January window].”

He was brought in to add depth to the striking department but one has to believe that he was not thoroughly scouted.

Indeed, if Hugill added anything, it was genuine embarrassment. He has been one of the worst signings in the club’s recent history.

They had better hope QPR take a shine to him and ultimately rid the Irons of their burden.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

Vincent Janssen has been the latest victim of Tottenham Hotspur’s striker curse.

The club have allowed the Netherlands international to leave, with Janssen linking up with Mexican side Monterrey.

It could be regarded as a step down for a Premier League striker but he’s been nothing short of terrible in north London.

The Netherlands international was a hot prospect when he arrived at Spurs for a fee of £17m. He had scored 32 goals in 49 games for AZ Alkmaar and, really, looked to be an odds-on bet to provide excellent support for Harry Kane.

In 42 games for Spurs, though, he scored six times.

Compare Janssen with the club’s most recent three striker signings, excluding the Dutchman: Fernando Llorente, Roberto Soldado and Emmanuel Adebayor.

Llorente netted 13 goals in 66 outings, Soldado scored 16 in 76 and Adebayor, after making his move permanent following an initial loan spell, scored 25 in 91.

Perhaps Kane is actually sucking the life-force out of these players.

Indeed, since his debut in 2011/12, when he played 90 minutes in a Europa League encounter against Hearts, he has scored 164 goals in 253 games.

The quartet of Janssen, Soldado, Adebayor and Llorente made a combined 275 appearances and scored 60 goals. That’s less than half of Kane’s tally alone.

Kane averages a goal every 0.6 games, or one in two, while the other four averaged a goal every 0.2 games or one in five.

Perhaps it is merely that the England captain, who has also scored 22 goals in 39 games internationally, is a goalscoring phenomenon, a genuinely world-class striker who is at the very height of his profession. That is probably true.

Watch Tottenham Hotspur Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

And perhaps it is also that Spurs have absolutely lucked out with the development of the 25-year-old because they are frankly atrocious at buying strikers. That can be true too.

Janssen is yet another example of this.

He can score goals and he did, in the Netherlands, but at Spurs, his form deserted him.

He has the ability to resuscitate his career and he will hope to do just that in Mexico.

He is the latest victim of Spurs’ striker crisis; the club had better thank their lucky stars they have Kane on their books.

Declan Rice and Carlton Cole were amongst those to send messages:

Adrian will challenge Golden Glove winner Alisson for a starting berth next season and has already dedicated himself to making Klopp’s job of selecting his no.1 as difficult as possible.

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Aston Villa’s chief executive Christian Purslow gave a sensational interview on Monday evening to Sky Sports News as he looked to defend the club’s summer of high-spending.

Villa boss Dean Smith brought in 12 new signings for a total fee of around £144.5m after winning promotion to the big time via the Championship playoffs in May.

Of all the Premier League sides, only Manchester United spent more this summer though Villa had a higher net spend, and their attempts had previously been likened to Fulham who were immediately relegated last season following a net spend of £100m.

Four new arrivals started the game against Tottenham on Saturday evening as Villa succumbed to a 3-1 defeat in North London.

Purslow appeared to impressively swat away every single question fired at him by the Sky Sports presenter which has caused a reaction from a number of fans at Villa Park.

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He said: “It is a lot of money, and I’m incredibly grateful to our owners, but a couple of important points. Firstly, at the end of last season we had 12 players leave Villa, so we would have been starting with 10 players had we not bought.

“With or without promotion, Dean Smith and Jesus Garcia Pitarch came to Aston Villa with the certain knowledge we would be rebuilding our club this summer.”

One supporter labelled him a ‘class act’ whilst others called him ‘very reassuring and genuinely honest.’

A further fan added that Purslow is possibly the best signing the club have made which was backed up by another who believes the club is in the best hands it has ever been in and that they are building something special.

Here’s the best of the reaction:

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It is still hard to comprehend exactly how Borussia Dortmund didn’t lift the Bundesliga title last term. At the half-way point, they led Bayern Munich by six points, and when that gap went to seven with 14 games to play, it all looked a little too easy for Die Schwarzgelben. In the end, though, the inevitable happened: the Bavarian juggernaut went on a 14-game unbeaten run to end the campaign, whilst BVB crumbled under the pressure. Once all was said and done, it was just not to be for Lucien Favre and co. This time around, however, will be a very different story.

Whilst watching the two sides last season, one of the main differences between the squads was the levels of experience. In Bayern’s, there were players such as Mats Hummels, David Alaba, Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben and Robert Lewandowski, men who have been around the block more than once and know all about what it takes to win.

Dortmund, meanwhile, were led by standout performances such as those from 20-year-old Achraf Hakimi and 19-year-old Jadon Sancho. The only player aged 30 years or more to make 10 or more appearances was Lukasz Piszczek. In fact, the Poland international was only one of three players over 29 in the whole squad.

Of course, that has not changed during the off-season, but the Dortmund men have learnt a valuable lesson: the pain of defeat. This in itself is almost as important during a career as the victories.

They have also been clever in the transfer market and did all of their business very quickly. Nico Schulz, who performed well enough with Hoffenheim last season to earn a Germany call-up, joined in defence, whilst Thorgan Hazard and Julian Brandt were brought in to boost an attack that already did so fantastically last time around – Götze, Reus, Paco Alcacer and Sancho racked up 88 goals and assists in the league between them.

BVB’s pre-season form is another strong indication of improvement. They have won every single warm-up match, including a 3-2 victory against Champions League-winners Liverpool. They then followed that up with a 2-0 triumph against Bayern in the German Super Cup on Saturday, which will be another psychological boost for Die Schwarzgelben.

Above all, though, there is a confidence coming from the top that it is their time. Comments from the club’s managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke show just that. In an interview with German outlet Zeit, he spoke about why last season’s performance has given the club a “platform” to take the next step. Whilst last term the title challenge came as a bit of a surprise, the goal ahead of the new campaign is simple: win the Bundesliga.

As it stands, Bayern are still the champions and, after having been so for the past seven seasons, there are still remnants of that aura of invincibility about them. But the times are changing in Germany. The Bavarians are not the force they once were, and Dortmund are ready to step up and take their place at the very top.

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After six long years playing for the Merseyside club, Daniel Sturridge has left Anfield and embarked on an entirely different journey.

Liverpool will definitely be a big part of his career, considering he played a total of 160 games for the Reds, scoring 68 goals and tallying 26 assists under his belt in the process.

Watch Liverpool Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

But after being officially released by the club during the summer, Sturridge has now completed a move to Trabzonspor in Turkey.

And now, he has quickly taken to

/B1ldELmAMuf/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link” data-lasso->Instagram to share the first video of the brilliant reception he got upon the arrival at his new home.

He quickly thanked all the fans for the reception and the love they have already shown him in these first days at the club.

Trabzonspor, however, are big dogs back in Turkey as well.

They’ve been the champions of the domestic league six times so far and they finished fourth in the most recent campaign.

It’ll be interesting to see whether Sturridge can help them reach the top once again.

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Having arrived from Belgian side Club Brugge in a £22m deal earlier this summer, Wesley has immediately become first-choice under Dean Smith.

The Brazilian may not have been a prolific goalscorer in his time in Belgium, but he certainly had a respectable record in his final campaign at the club with 17 goals in 48 games.

But having drawn a blank in Villa’s first two Premier League games of the season, the 22-year-old got his campaign up-and-running with a clinical finish to open the scoring against Everton.

After seeing Smith’s side go on to clinch a 2-0 victory at Villa Park, fans of the Midlands side took to Twitter to hail their big-money summer signing.

Watch Aston Villa Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

Many Villa supporters hailed the 6 foot 3 striker’s hold-up play against the Toffees’ centre-backs, and one suggested he was simply “unplayable”. The Brazilian won two aerial duels and provided two key passes as the striker ran Everton’s defence ragged.

Indeed, another fan insisted that whilst Tammy Abraham’s numbers in the Championship were impressive last season, Wesley is “exactly the type of striker” the side needed.

Check out some of the reaction of Villa fans below:

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Following a statement last week in which Bobby Duncan said he was desperate to leave Liverpool, his permanent move away appears to be nearing completion.

According to The Daily Mail, Fiorentina are edging closer to finalising a deal for the 18-year-old which would see him make a £1.8m switch away from Anfield.

It is the latest development in a saga in which Duncan’s agent, Saif Rubie, made claims about bullying and mistreatment of the youngster by the club, suggesting their refusal to allow him to leave was of detriment to the player’s mental health, a claim which the club denies.

As a result, Liverpool fans are more than happy to see the back of Duncan, whom they believe has blown a great chance to play for his boyhood club.

Duncan joined the club only a year ago and has been keen to play first-team football, but the decision to join Fiorentina in order to pursue that goal has puzzled some fans.

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Here are the reactions from some irate Liverpool fans.

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