Wednesdays Football Headlines

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Wednesday's football gossip and transfer rumours (February 27 2018)

Everton manager Sam Allardyce is under plenty of pressure if you believe the rumours in Wednesday's Papers.

DAILY MIRROR

Manchester United are bracing themselves for defeat in their attempts to keep Marouane Fellaini, who is out of contract at the end of the season.

Alan Pardew has told West Brom he wants to stay on as boss and attempt to lead them back up if they are relegated.

Manchester City's defence will cost them the chance to be crowned kings of Europe, says Louis van Gaal.

DAILY MAIL

Jose Mourinho is unhappy at how long Manchester United are taking to offer new contracts to his players.

Wales boss Ryan Giggs wants to see Aaron Ramsey sort out his future quickly as the Arsenal midfielder approaches the final year of his contract.

DAILY TELEGRAPH

Luis Enrique's hopes of succeeding Antonio Conte at Chelsea could rest on whether or not he is prepared to accept a significantly lower wage than he was paid by Barcelona.

Alex McLeish is due to hold talks with Scott McTominay at Manchester United's training ground this week in a bid to persuade him to pledge his international future to Scotland.

Everton's majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri must decide whether to stick or twist with Sam Allardyce going into next season.

DAILY STAR

Juventus have given Liverpool midfielder Emre Can a seven-day window to agree terms with the Serie A outfit.

Everton are drawing up a shortlist of potential candidates to replace Sam Allardyce in the summer.

Antonio Conte's job as Chelsea boss is safe for now as Luis Enrique doesn't want to take charge until the end of the season.

Max Meyer has reportedly rejected a new contract at Schalke, giving Liverpool and Arsenal a huge boost in the race for his signature this summer.

Liverpool have become front-runners alongside Juventus for the signing of Napoli midfielder Jorginho.

THE SUN

Real Madrid have switched their attention to Chelsea and Manchester United target Robert Lewandowski after Spurs rejected them flat out over Harry Kane.

DAILY EXPRESS

Liverpool are reportedly ready to reward Mohamed Salah with a new contract and the Egypt international will happily sign.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid are ready to offload midfielder Dani Ceballos to Liverpool in the summer.

Lionel Messi is reportedly unhappy with Barcelona's pursuit of Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann.

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Football news and talking points:

Duo to the rescue for Peterborough, Lewandowski in demand and Luis Enrique at stumbling block with Chelsea (February 28 2018)

We take a look at the top football stories dominating Wednesday morning's headlines.

Morais and Taylor to the rescue for Posh

Junior Morias and Steven Taylor were the heroes for Peterborough United in their 2-1 victory over Walsall on Tuesday night, but not in the way you’d expect.

With heavy snow battering large parts of the UK this week, football has seen a number of postponed fixtures across the leagues.

The game at London Road went ahead, but snow continued to hammer down throughout the course of 90 minutes.

Referee Lee Swabey was happy to allow play to continue, on the basis that he could see the white pitch markings.

Step up, Steven Taylor and Junior Morias. The pair, including a number of others from the Peterborough set-up, picked up a shovel and moved heavy snow off the pitch in a desperate attempt to conclude the game and secure the three points for their side.

David Oldfield, in temporary charge of Peterborough after Grant McCann’s departure at the weekend, said: “When the referee stopped play, he told us that we had five minutes to clear the lines of snow.

“Everybody leaped into action from office staff to stewards and from ground staff to players. It showed the togetherness this football club has.”

Enrique has to accept lower wage to manage Chelsea

Former Barcelona manager Luis Enrique’s hopes of succeeding Antonio Conte at Chelsea could rest on whether or not he is prepared to accept a lower wage than what he was on at the La Liga club.

The Telegraph says that Enrique is keen on taking up the role at Stamford Bridge as he looks to kick off his Premier League managerial career.

It’s reported that Enrique earned in the region of £16.5 million-a-year by the time he stood down from his Barca role at the end of last season.

He won two La Liga titles, the Champions League and three Copa del Rey trophies in his time at the club.

Chelsea currently pay Conte £9.5m-a-year in wages after they rewarded him with a pay rise for winning the Premier League title last season.

Enrique’s fee is even more than Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho earn at Manchester City and Manchester United.

Conte is the highest-paid manager in Chelsea’s history and the club will not want to pay his successor more than £9.5m-a-year before they have achieved anything with the club.

Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski is gaining interest from a number of clubs, with Real Madrid reportedly turning their attentions to the Polish forward after Spurs refused to sell Harry Kane.

The 29-year-old is also interesting Chelsea, who may be preparing to move for him in the summer.

Lewandowski has 29 goals in 34 appearances in all competitions this season, including five goals in six Champions League games.

It’s reported that Madrid’s iconic trio of Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo is reaching the end of its time together.

The Spanish giants are looking at Lewandowski and the world’s most expensive player, Neymar, as their next generation of forwards.

A positive for Real is that the Bayern forward has recently swapped agents and upgraded to Pini Zahavi.

Zahavi has helped secure some of football’s biggest transfers and has a strong working relationship with Real and president Florentino Perez.

Tottenham v Rochdale:
Mauricio Pochettino missing Belgian duo for FA Cup replay

Tottenham will be without central defenders Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld for the FA Cup replay against Rochdale.

Vertonghen misses out with an ankle injury but could return to face Huddersfield on Saturday, while Alderweireld remains on the sidelines with a hamstring problem.

Michel Vorm returns in goal while Kieran Trippier, Danny Rose, Harry Winks and Son Heung-min are also set to start.

Meanwhile, Mauricio Pochettino insists Harry Kane is happy at the club and can fulfil his desire to win silverware in north London.

Former Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas this week claimed England striker Kane would have to quit the club if he wants "trophies and notoriety".

But current Tottenham chief Pochettino hit back by saying: "We are here to develop, to help the club achieve and win titles.

"Harry is happy here and of course he wants to win titles here like all of us do, but I respect all opinions."

And finally…
Van Gaal says City can’t become kings of Europe


Former Manchester United boss Louis Van Gaal has said that runaway Premier League leaders Manchester City won’t become European champions, because of the side’s defence.

The 66-year-old was in charge of United for two seasons, where he won the FA Cup in 2016.

As quoted by the Mirror, Van Gaal said: “There is no way another team will claim the Premier League title this season. The quality of Pep’s players is just too high for them to slip up now.

“But I have concerns over the Manchester City back line. I watched them against Arsenal and Aubameyang could have punished them. He should have scored.

“The big teams, who dare to play a pressing game against City and who will put their central defenders under pressure, can put Pep’s team in trouble.

“Arsenal should have played with more flair. If they would have put more pressure on those central defenders, I don’t think City would have been able to cope.

“In the first half of the final at Wembley, Arsenal seemed in control and they did press a number of times. It was clear for me that Man City could not play themselves out of that situation.

“I know why, because they don’t have the right central defenders to get out of situations with a lot of pressure.”