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West Ham United are edging closer to their first signing of the summer, albeit one for the youth set-up…

What’s the word?

Last week, the ever-reliable ExWHUemployee claimed that the Irons were set to sign Pierre Ekwah Elimby in the next few days. He told his Patreon page:

“Pierre Ekwah Elimby, who had been on trial at West Ham from Chelsea, is hoping to secure a move to the club in the next few days. It was claimed that he could be lured to the London Stadium, but the cost of the deal may have been a problem. It looks like the two clubs have reached an agreement and he is due to sign in the next few days.”

This has since been confirmed by Sky Sports’ transfer centre (via The Sun), who claimed that the Hammers had reached an agreement with Chelsea over a deal for the 19-year-old.

Rice 2.0?

Ekwah is a highly-rated youngster in the Blues’ youth ranks, so this move will be considered quite the coup for West Ham – one that could draw some similarities to that of Declan Rice later down the line.

The versatile French defender has been capped 13 times at U16 level and can play either centre-back or in holding midfield, a bit like the Hammers’ star man himself.

Rice joined Chelsea’s academy aged just seven but was released only seven years later at 14, and The Athletic have since revealed why they gave up on his potential.

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One reason was that he was thought to be not strong enough, another was interestingly his versatility, with one source claiming “one week he was left-back, the next he was at right wing.” And finally, the arrival of Joshua Colley from abroad put his place at risk.

The 22-year-old has since gone onto prove them wrong in abundance as he’s not only emerged as a reliable captain in the absence of Mark Noble, but a potential £70m signing amid interest from many of the Irons’ Premier League rivals.

It took him just a year to receive his first professional deal at the club and the Hammers will surely be hoping that Ekwah can follow suit.

Moyes has even reportedly taken a keen eye on the 6 foot 2 prospect’s performances during a trial, which will only bode well for his chances of replicating Rice in the near future.

Given that West Ham could be involved in a 50-plus game season next term, there’s every chance he becomes involved if he continues to impress the Scotsman.

If so, then the club’s hierarchy may have repeated their Rice masterstroke.

AND in other news, Hammers suffer blow in pursuit of “incredible” 30-goal target, Moyes will be fuming…

Marcus Bent has exclusively told Football FanCast that Everton might struggle to keep Tom Davies if he keeps performing at his current level.

Davies, who’s a product of the Toffees academy, burst on the scene as a teenager and made his debut as a 17-year-old against Southampton at the end of the 2015-2016 campaign under Roberto Martinez.

Less than 12 months down the line, the midfielder scored against Manchester City to enter the top-10 for Everton’s youngest Premier League goalscorers behind the likes of James Vaughan and Wayne Rooney.

Ever since that memorable strike against Pep Guardiola’s team, Davies has been something of a regular in the Everton side, and has occasionally worn the armband in the absence of both Seamus Coleman and Gylfi Sigurdsson.

Despite being on the bench for the win at Arsenal and loss against Aston Villa, Davies has already racked up 149 Everton appearances before his 23rd birthday.

And Bent told Football FanCast that if the former England U21 star keeps improving, interest will no doubt come his way:

“Technically good for his age – very aware, very mature. I think he’s got a long career at Everton, but if he carries on the way he’s going there will be a lot of clubs that want to take him. I’m not saying Everton are a top-six club, but now they’re kind of pondering away from that.

“Davies will want to play in the top-six, so if he carries on doing what he’s doing he will want to be successful and start winning trophies.”

David Moyes is set to receive a massive boost to his summer transfer budget at West Ham United, according to one club insider…

What’s the word?

Claret & Hugh claimed that the 58-year-old could have a war chest of around £85m at his disposal ahead of the upcoming window after the Irons qualified for the Europa League on the final day of the season.

It’s thought that their sixth-placed finish has earned them in the region of £35m, which will be added to the funds Moyes retained during the January transfer window as he looks to pursue new targets this summer.

That £85m is also said to be before any income from player sales and whether the club’s ownership group GSB decide to add additional finances to the pot.

Huge boost for Moyes

This will come as sensational news to Moyes as it allows him to bolster the squad ahead of next season without having to worry about bargain hunting, as he normally has done.

The Scotsman has lead the Hammers to their highest Premier League finish since the 1998/99 campaign, when Harry Redknapp’s side ended in fifth place.

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It is no secret that the east London outfit need plenty of additions in the transfer window if they are to stand a chance at not only repeating this season’s exploits but also improving on that and subsequently challenging in Europe.

One position which will undoubtedly be resolved is centre-forward, where names like Tammy Abraham, Ivan Toney, Adam Armstrong, and Abdallah Sima have all been linked. Some of these will cost the Irons in excess of £25m, maybe £40m – especially in the Chelsea man’s case.

However, with £85m in his pocket, Moyes could well land two of these strikers to help the injury-prone Michail Antonio up top, whilst also having funds left to add strength in depth in other areas, such as central midfield and at left-back.

Those are two positions where Claret & Hugh also suggests that the West Ham boss would like cover as he plots a summer spending spree from his office at Rush Green.

All in all, the Hammers could have some serious money to spend this summer, especially if they sell some players, and this should leave Moyes absolutely buzzing as he nears a three-year contract extension.

He’s finally getting backed by the board, so surely the only way is up at the London Stadium.

AND in other news, Forget Fornals: “Brilliant” West Ham beast who won 87.5% duels was Moyes’ unsung hero vs Saints…

From a defensive point of view, this season has been a rotten one for Wolverhampton Wanderers.

After all, when you concede four goals to a Burnley side who often lack attacking inspiration, it doesn’t bode particularly well.

They can, of course, rue injuries to players like Willy Boly and Marcal throughout the season, but Nuno Santo’s tried and tested three-man defence hasn’t always served him well in 2020/21.

During a run of 13 games between November and January, the Old Gold kept just a solitary clean sheet in all competitions.

It was a dismal return as Nuno began flirting with the idea of a four-man backline. However, he hasn’t found consistency with that formation at all this term.

On the chalkboard

One player who featured heavily throughout that run was Max Kilman. The 23-year-old has enjoyed a breakthrough season with Wolves, playing 18 times in all competitions.

Unfortunately, his campaign has hit a stumbling point in recent months. The centre-back has fallen out of favour with the manager and has featured for just nine minutes in the league since the beginning of February.

Kilman has gone from a promising young defender to a man now on the verge of being sold. Reports a few months ago dictated that Nuno was ready to axe him from his plans entirely.

If that does happen, Wolves must look to their academy for reinforcements.

Menacing Marques

Christian Marques appeared on the substitute’s bench during the 1-1 draw West Brom and should be a player who earns regular first-team minutes next season.

The 18-year-old hasn’t played yet for the senior side but he is highly thought of at Compton.

Quickly dubbed “outstanding” during initial scouting, he became the club’s record signing from an academy perspective.

Wolves beat Bayern Munich to his signature and since penning terms, he has captained the Old Gold at U18 and U23 level.

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Marques has played in the Conor Coady role as a sweeper for the youth teams and it would appear that they’re grooming him to be the captain’s natural successor.

That said, they shouldn’t be hanging around to hand the teenager a chance. That’s because the Swiss is so close to being first-team ready.

Speaking to The Athletic, elite player development coach, Darren Ryan waxed lyrical about the centre-back: “It’s rare for a youngster coming from another country to show such leadership,” he started.

“That Coady role is so important in a 3-4-3 or a 3-5-2 but like Coady, he’s a leader, he’s driven and has a great mentality,” Ryan concluded.

Nuno is already providing a pathway to the matchday squad and if Marques keeps impressing, it surely won’t be too long before he’s considered ahead of Kilman.

AND in other news, Bye-bye Neto: Wolves must swoop for “exciting” 12-goal gem with “dazzling dribbling”…

Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray has invited ‘ridiculous’ offers for former Newcastle United striker Adam Armstrong this summer.

The lowdown

The 24-year-old finished the season with two hat-tricks in three games to post a tally of 28 league goals for the campaign. That left him second in the Championship scoring charts, just three adrift of another former Newcastle player in Ivan Toney.

Armstrong made the permanent switch to Ewood Park in 2018, having racked up 21 appearances in black and white without getting on the scoresheet.

However, Newcastle inserted a 40% sell-on clause into their agreement with Rovers, and Armstrong is now valued at £14.4m by Transfermarkt, even though he is about to enter the final year of his contract.

Intriguingly, it has also been reported that the Magpies are considering an attempt to bring him back to St James’ Park.

The latest

After Blackburn’s 5-2 victory over Birmingham City on Saturday, Mowbray sent a message to Armstrong’s suitors.

“They’re not doing their job if they’re not looking at Adam Armstrong,” he told the Lancashire Telegraph.

“That’s out of my control. For Adam’s sake, let’s hope the phone rings and someone offers us a ridiculous amount of money, we shake him by the hand and we say go bang in loads of goals in the Premier League.

“We’ll use some of that money in the team and can find another striker who can bang loads of goals in.”

The verdict

According to The Athletic, Newcastle have discussed the possibility of signing Tammy Abraham this summer but have been put off to Chelsea’s £40m price tag.

If that’s an indication that they’re after a striker, Armstrong would be a far cheaper, but still prolific, option.

You could argue that it’s a win-win situation anyway. If they don’t pursue the move, they could still net somewhere around £5.76m (40% of £14.4m) from a sale to another Premier League club due to the aforementioned sell-on clause.

In hindsight, it was a clever piece of business they struck with Blackburn three years ago.

In other news, this Newcastle youngster has reportedly been offered to Premier League rivals.

Following a recent development that Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy will be working on a £25 million sale for Dele Alli (Football Insider), nearly half of his January price tag, pundit Gabriel Agbonlahor expects him to leave this summer.

Indeed, speaking in an interview with Football Insider on Wednesday evening, the same outlet who reported Alli’s price drop, Agbonlahor believes that Alli will ‘100%’ be leaving north London at the end of the season following this news.

Levy, according to the report, valued him at around £45m last year but has since changed his stance – with Tottenham apparently willing to offload him for just £25m.

Agbonlahor expects Alli exit from Tottenham

Reacting to this development, Agbonlahor believes his exit is now a certainty.

“I think he 100 per cent leaves,” Agbonlahor told Football Insider.

“It would suit both the player and the club. He’s not getting much game time, Mourinho doesn’t look like he’s having him.

“For £25million, there will be a lot of clubs after Dele Alli. I just hope he gets the move he deserves.

“There will be a lot of clubs looking to sign him.

“His next club will get the best out of him because he’ll be hungry when he leaves.”

Alli has been out of favour under manager Jose Mourinho for large spells of the campaign, with the Englishman barely making a league appearance over the first half of this season.

Transfer Tavern take

That prompted a January transfer saga between the Lilywhites and Paris Saint-Germain, who wanted to sign Alli on loan, but no deal could be agreed without a replacement (Fabrizio Romano).

News that Levy is willing to offload Alli for less than the permanent fee wanted in January could be an indication that an exit this summer is extremely likely, as expected by Agbonlahor.

Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville (via the Focus) called Alli an ‘outstanding player’ even despite his poor form but insisted he must do more, and only time will tell whether it will be with another club.

In other news: Alasdair Gold dropped a big Tottenham stadium naming rights update, find out more here.

Sheffield Wednesday suffered yet another blow in their bid for survival in the Championship on Tuesday night, and several of Darren Moore’s key Owls stars badly let him down at Hillsborough Stadium.

The south Yorkshiremen are heading towards League One at a canter as they looked feeble in front of goal against promotion-chasing Swansea City.

Indeed, Wednesday managed just one shot on target throughout the 90 minutes, with Jordan Rhodes hugely struggling to make any sort of impact on the side, despite being kept in the starting XI – unlike top goalscorer Callum Paterson.

It’s no wonder Moore, who was back in the dugout for the first time since the international break, hooked the 31-year-old talisman off just after the hour mark.

In 64 minutes, Rhodes managed a measly 22 touches, the worst of any starter across both teams – even Owls goalkeeper Keiren Westwood (29). It means he saw the ball just once every three minutes, and when in possession he was careless, weak and hugely wasteful.

The out-of-contract club-record signing made just 50% of his 14 passing attempts, losing possession 11 times, via SofaScore.

[snack-amp-story url=https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/read-the-latest-sheffield-wednesday-news-transfer-rumours-and-recent-gossip” title=”Read this week’s latest Sheffield Wednesday news, latest transfer rumours and more!]

Rhodes struggled to deal with the aerial threat of Ryan Bennett or the strength of Marc Guehi, as he won just one of his five duels (20%), both on the ground and in the air.

This was comfortably the weakest showing from any Owls player on the night, even the error-prone Tom Lees won 87.5% of his battles against the likes of Jamal Lowe and Andre Ayew, which speaks volumes.

The only chance that Rhodes did have, he fluffed it big time. Barry Bannan whipped in an inch-perfect cross to find the Scotsman, unmarked in space, but he could only head over the bar.

No player has scored more goals since Moore’s appointment than Rhodes, but Wednesday were never going to find the net against the Swans with their leading striker in such poor nick.

The Owls can ill afford their star man hitting the back burners at this point in the season, with only five games left to play, the Yorkshiremen remain seven points adrift.

League One could be confirmed as early as next week.

AND in other news, Wednesday dealt devastating injury blow as Owls star likely out for season…

Many Everton fans have been left to slam Josh King as Football Insider have reported that they are set to snub a long-term deal for the Norway international.

As per the news outlet, the Goodison Park faithful are set to pursue other transfer targets in the forward area in the summer window, with Carlo Ancelotti deciding not to take up the option of signing King permanently.

The former AFC Bournemouth man has still not yet started a game for the Merseyside club since his move in January, and has only played in a mere eight matches in total in the Premier League (Transfermarkt).

Thus, with him not getting much time on the pitch, it may be a wise idea by the Toffees to potentially look at bringing in other strikers.

Everton fan reaction to King transfer update

These Blues slammed King upon learning of the transfer update on Twitter, with one EFC supporter even going as far to claim that he has been ‘non-existent’:

“Looked overweight and sluggish when he’s played. I know he hasn’t really had a chance but he’s obviously stinking the yard out in training”

Credit: @jayknows23

“Can he take Iwobi with him?”

Credit: @DavepeoEFC

“Makes sense has been non-existent in games”

Credit: @phil_dempsey

“There is a god”

Credit: @PaulMessenger50

“Yea if we’re gonna try an challenge for things next year he’s not the answer”

Credit: @ste_shirley

“Good he’s pony”

Credit: @pmcdowell12

In other news, find out what Ancelotti transfer targets have been lauded by fans here!

Speaking exclusively to Football FanCast, Gary Mabbutt has defended Jose Mourinho despite Tottenham’s recent slump.

Mourinho’s future at Spurs has come under significant pressure in recent days following their brutal Europa League exit, just three days after their top-four hopes were dealt a major blow in the north London derby.

Tottenham responded to those defeats and Hugo Lloris’ post-match comments by comfortably beating Aston Villa on Sunday to go into the international break on a high.

But Mabbutt believes that Mourinho’s managerial stature is the reason he gets unnecessary amounts of criticism, and has backed the former Chelsea boss to deliver the goods at Spurs this season.

He told Football FanCast:

“When you have a manager that’s probably the most famous manager in the world and has 25 trophies under his belt, you’re always going to get scrutiny.

“Yes, you’re going to have setbacks. When things aren’t going particularly well, you’re going to get a kick up the backside. We got that after the Arsenal and Zagreb games, and got the response that the manager and fans were looking for in the Villa game.

“Of course there is going to be scrutiny, it’s never going to change. But at the end of this season, people could be saying ‘what a great year for Spurs’ – top-four, trophy in the cabinet, onto the next.”

It’s a strange situation at Tottenham heading into the final two months of the campaign.

Despite the doom and gloom, a strong end in the league could see Champions League football return to north London next season, whilst there’s the possibility of ending their 13-year trophy drought in the Carabao Cup final.

With the end of the season very quickly approaching, Celtic supporters will be able to breathe a huge sigh of relief. Neil Lennon is finally gone and, with that, they’ll be able to reset ahead of a new campaign.

They are on the verge of losing the Premiership crown to their biggest rivals and thus, a significant change could be on the cards.

Lennon and Peter Lawwell will have departed but their club captain, Scott Brown, may also be heading through the exit door.

The 35-year-old is an icon at Parkhead but his contract is expiring in the summer. We’re yet to receive word about whether he could renew his terms but it’s looking increasingly unlikely.

It could well come down to whoever the new manager is. One man who reportedly wants the job is former Huddersfield boss David Wagner.

Given the style of football the 49-year-old plays, it wouldn’t exactly be ideal for the current skipper. That’s because not only does the ex-Schalke manager like free-flowing offensive football, but he also likes his team to press relentlessly.

Brown has recently enjoyed a mini-revival in the Celtic side. He was superb in the 4-0 win over Kilmarnock last month, scoring and assisting. He also rolled back the years with a commanding display in another 4-0 victory over St Mirren.

Yet, it’s clear that Brown’s overall qualities have diminished somewhat. He has looked sluggish for the most part this season and has been guilty of a number of errors. As the Hoops were battered and bruised in Prague last autumn, the Scot was arguably one of their main culprits.

He was given the runaround in midfield and then reacted far too slowly for the opening goal, failing to clear his lines from a corner. His red card after being on the pitch for just five minutes against Livingston was also a low point.

[snack-amp-story url=”https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/latest-celtic-manager-hunt-stories-wagner-marsch-martinez-lennon-news” title=”The last stories on Celtic’s hunt for a new manager!”]

Judging by his age and indeed some of his performances this term, he would surely struggle under Wagner’s style of play. The German likes his teams to play at breakneck speed, hassling and pressing opponents relentlessly.

It’s a style he has used to his advantage on British shores before, achieving a “phenomenal thing” according to Don Goodman on Sky Sports’ match coverage of Huddersfield a few years ago. Indeed, he managed to get the Yorkshire side promoted from the Championship to the Premier League.

He is bred from the Ralf Rangnick school of football, basing his philosophy on the modern-day press. That requires players to hunt in packs to win the ball back within a matter of seconds of losing it.

For Brown, a man now in his mid-30s, this wouldn’t be perfect. The veteran has already lost a yard of pace and to expect him to play at full throttle each week would be near impossible.

With that in mind, hiring Wagner could finally give the Bhoys the armoury to wave farewell to his playing days.

AND in other news, Celtic gem makes big U-turn on his future, it’s good news for the Hoops…