Alan Hutton has been in stellar form for Aston Villa this season, but it appears that his future is elsewhere.
Manager Steve Bruce recently revealed that Financial Fair Play rules mean that the club are not in a position to offer the right-back a new contract, reports the Birmingham Mail.
The publication states that Hutton recently approached the club about extending his current deal, which expires at the end of the season.
However, he was met with the news that there is no possible way at the moment for the club to give him what he wants.
The situation could change if the Villans earn promotion to the Premier League come May, but if they remain in the Championship then Hutton will be released.
As it stands, the Midlands outfit are third in the league table, one point adrift of an automatic move to the top tier.
Hutton, who has started 16 of the club’s last 18 Championship games, joined Villa in 2011 from Tottenham Hotspur.
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Fans have been tweeting their thoughts on the predicament.
Signing on Deadline Day in the summer for a reported £2million from Werder Bremen, Marko Arnautovic’s performances appear to have gone somewhat under the radar. But in acquiring the controversial Austrian, did Stoke City actually make one of the signings of the season?
With just one fixture left in the Premier League, Arnautovic has scored four and assisted seven in twenty nine league appearances. Often deployed out on the left, the Austrian is level in the assist charts with the likes of Phillippe Coutinho, Eden Hazard and Jesus Navas. Bizarrely at the age of 25, the forward has just been rewarded for his contribution in his debut campaign by being named as the club’s Young Player of the Season.
Stoke City’s break from the Tony Pulis era is perhaps best epitomised in the signing of Arnautovic. A technically proficient and talented individual without the stature of a rugby player, the now Crystal Palace manager would never have taken a chance on the eccentric Austrian and his almost legendary attitude.
So far though, Arnautovic hasn’t hit the headlines as often as the English media would have hoped for. Upon signing for Stoke, many headlines dubbed the forward as “Mario Balotelli Mark II” in the expectation that he would produce similarly barmy stories. Unsurprisingly, the pair were actually good friends from their time at Inter Milan.
Despite signing the player for just £2 million, Mark Hughes was still seen to be taking a gamble. From his time in Milan, Jose Mourinho labelled Arnautovic as “a fantastic person but with the attitude of a child.” At FC Twente, where the Austrian first showcased his talent, Steve McClaren claimed that he was the craziest player that he had ever worked with.
Up until this season, controversy seemed to follow the Austrian wherever he went. In Milan, Arnautovic was dining in a restaurant when the Bentley he had borrowed from Samuel Eto’o was stolen. The forward once injured his knee ligaments playing with his dog whilst he believes he failed to impress Mourinho at Inter due to the fact he was going out five times a week.
Signed by Bremen as the replacement to Marko Marin, bridges between the club and Arnautovic were finally burnt last season after a training ground bust-up with Sokratis Papastathopoulos. The forward had been dubbed “Arrogantovic” by sections of the German club’s supporters.
A month after signing for Stoke, Arnautovic was sent off for his country after an ugly clash with Sweden’s Johan Elmander. The forward has bemoaned the fact that he is viewed as the “bad boy” of Austrian football whilst Bayern Munich’s David Alaba is seen as the “golden” child.
However, in interviews upon his arrival, Arnautovic claimed that fatherhood had mellowed his eccentricities and that he was no longer the “bad boy” of Austrian football. After a slow start to life in the Premier League, Hughes’ gamble on the Austrian has definitely paid off. Fans’ posts on the club’s fanzine The Oatcake reveal that many believe if the forward worked on his finishing and displayed a greater level of consistency, the former Bremen star would be snapped up by a bigger team in no time.
Arnautovic took slightly too long to adapt to the demands of English football to genuinely be credited as the signing of the season. In November of last year, German newspaper Bild mocked the attacker for a remarkable winless streak that stretched to nineteen matches at both Bremen and Stoke. The wide man had only netted twice in Stoke’s colours by March. The likes of Wilfried Bony, Fernandinho, Dejan Lovren and Alvaro Negredo all arguably boast stronger and more consistent cases for that particular title.
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Similar to Michu though last season, albeit to a lesser extent, Arnautovic has made his £2 million price tag seem a snip and surely the Austrian’s transfer is the bargain of the season. In a season where £30 million Erik Lamela and £27.5 million Marouane Fellaini have failed to impress, the former Bremen attacker has proven to be a reliable creator for his team-mates throughout the entire year.
Hughes was seen to be taking a gamble when he sanctioned the signing of “Mario Balotelli Mark II” back in September. However, the Stoke manager has more than been rewarded for the faith he has shown in the eccentric and controversial Austrian forward.
Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer believes that last season’s Tyne/Wear derby was the pivotal moment in two managers’ careers, as he told the Sun.
Shearer felt that despite already being up against it, Steve Bruce’s fate was on the wall after their home defeat to arch rivals Newcastle last season, and todays clash could well end with the same fate.
“Last season Newcastle went to the Stadium of Light in the second match of the season,”
“Newcastle won 1-0 and the Sunderland fans never forgave Brucey.
“I genuinely believe he was already up against it at Sunderland purely because he was a Geordie.
“But after losing that derby he won only another two games up until his sacking in December.
“Conversely, the result provided a massive boost for Alan Pardew as Newcastle went on a 10-game unbeaten run laying the foundations for a fifth-placed finish in the league.
“That is what a result in this game can do for either club.
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“Let’s not forget this fixture also proved the final act for Ruud Gullit at Newcastle in 1999 when he decided to leave me on the bench until late on and we got beat 2-1 at home.”
As reported by The Daily Record, new Rangers boss Steven Gerrard is set to decide on the future of club captain Lee Wallace this week after the player’s high profile falling out with the hierarchy at Ibrox.
What’s the story?
Wallace was suspended and fined for his part in a dressing room bust-up with manager Graeme Murty after a Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to Celtic, something which he has subsequently appealed with the SPFL.
Now his playing future at Ibrox is set to be resolved this week, say The Daily Record, with manager Steven Gerrard expected to come to a decision after meeting with Rangers officials this Wednesday.
Will the 30-year-old have opportunities at the Light Blues next season, or is he on his way out?
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Would Rangers miss him?
Wallace has been a devoted servant to Rangers up to this point, staying with the club even as they made their way up through the lower leagues after financial calamity in 2012.
With over 250 appearances for the club, there are some who may say he deserves a second chance at Ibrox after his ill-discipline.
However, even if his relationship with decision makers at the club was 100% healthy, his place in the Ranegrs starting eleven is questionable after the emergence of Declan John last season.
The signing from Cardiff City impressed consistently throughout 2017/18 and is well placed to retain his starting spot in the team next term.
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Gerrard won’t want members of the dressing room undermining his authority either, meaning Wallace’s future is in serious doubt at Rangers.
Injuries have been a major problem for West Ham United in recent weeks.
The East London outfit have Andy Carroll, Manuel Lanzini and Marko Arnautovic currently on the treatment table.
Carroll has been in and out of the team all season due to injury problems, and the striker is now facing a further three months out after undergoing surgery.
Lanzini is expected to be on the sidelines for a month with a hamstring problem, while Arnautovic is also suffering with a similar injury.
On Saturday, the Hammers were damaged further when Pedro Obiang was stretchered off just after the half-hour mark after being on the receiving end of a challenge.
At the time, the Hammers were trailing 1-0 to Wigan Athletic in the fourth round of the FA Cup at the DW Stadium.
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After Obiang was taken off the field, West Ham fans tweeted their dismay at the latest injury setback.
Liverpool and Arsenal are ready to fight to sign Lazio winger Antonio Candreva, reports the Express.
Manchester United are also monitoring the winger’s complicated contract talks along with the two Reds. Candreva is partly owned by Udinese, who have spoken to Lazio about buying out the Rome club’s part of the contract. But talks have not gone well, with disagreements over if the money should transfer over in payments or a lump sum.
Candreva will enter his final contracted year at Lazio in the summer, and the three English clubs are interested in making a move for the Italian in the next few months. They hope to tempt Lazio selling now, instead of risking losing the winger for free next season.
Udinese and Lazio wil have to rush their ownership talks however, with both clubs wanting the matter to be solved before the World Cup, which starts in June. With Liverpool and Arsenal both currently inside the top 4 and looking to play Champions League football, the pair are hoping to tempt Candreva away from Rome ahead of the next season. Lazio are currently 8th and outside the Champions League places.
And whilst United don’t look likely to be able to offer European football, David Moyes believes the addition of Candreva will help stop the Red Devil’s decline down the Premier League table.
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Arsenal have started the season fairly well in the league but talk of a title challenge has reared its ugly head again and some perspective needs to be attached to how they’ve begun the new campaign, with expectations already been laughably raised to a ridiculous level.
Arsene Wenger’s side currently sit in eighth in the league table after six games having picked up nine points. They’ve not had the easiest of starts to the new season but they’ve picked up a point away at Stoke and Manchester City and all three at Liverpool, while destroying newly-promoted Southampton 6-1 on home turf, which appears to have been the result which has sparked all of the premature title contender talk.
Much like Joe Hart is proclaimed as being world-class simply because he’s better than David James and Paul Robinson and Paul Lambert has been eased in at Aston Villa after a tricky start as Alex McLeish’s predecessor, this Arsenal side appears to be benefiting in the main from the fact that they’ve started the season better than last year.
In their opening six games last season, Arsenal picked up seven points from their opening six league games, which is only two less than this season. The club’s fans are well-known from ranging between ‘the sky is falling down’ to ‘in Wenger we trust’ brigade and while every set of supporters has its extremes, Arsenal’s just appear to be more vocal than most.
The pressure was well and truly on last season after the side’s 8-2 humiliation away at Old Trafford against Manchester United, while they also lost 2-0 at the Emirates to Liverpool and inconceivably 4-3 to Blackburn. They scored nine goals while letting in an alarming 14 which compared to this season’s tally of 10 scored and four conceded is certainly a step in the right direction.
While the result at Old Trafford proved the nadir of last season, it’s worth remembering just how poor defensively the hosts were on that day too and Arsenal, with better finishing in front of goal, could have easily have finished the game with five or six goals to their name too. It was an absolutely crazy, somewhat bizarre match during which Wenger was forced to field a hugely inexperienced back four which struggled to cope with United’s pace and movement.
Of course, Newcastle and Manchester United away, Liverpool at home is far from the easiest of runs to begin your season with, but it was made even worse by the fact that both Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri both decided to leave the club late on in the transfer window. Wenger’s big mistake was simply not planning for either of them leaving, so he was left with a mad supermarket sweep trolley-dash on deadline day to pad out his squad and Jack Wilshere’s injury absence didn’t help matters either.
This summer he appears to have learned from that gross error of judgement which deeply effected the side’s shape, confidence and rhythm earlier on in the campaign by compensating for the inevitable loss of Robin van Persie with the acquisitions of both Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud, even if the latter hasn’t quite found his scoring boots yet.
The result has seen them become a much more rounded side, no longer relying solely on van Persie to carry them through big games but there’s been a temptation to get carried away with their results so far, more out of surprise that they haven’t started the season as badly as last year and that they seem to be coping a lot better post-van Persie than they eve did Fabregas and Nasri.
We shouldn’t forget that Arsenal have still only won two league games so far this season, less than Fulham, West Brom and West Ham and the same as Swansea and Newcasle and their start simply hasn’t been as exceptional as first assumed.
While the performance away at champions Manchester City and the maturity of their display at Anfield against a Liverpool side in transition will have enjoyed greatly by the club’s supporters, they were still out-played for prolonged spells by rivals Chelsea at the weekend and they’ve failed to break down both Sunderland and Stoke on home soil.
Indeed, the nature of the club’s defence has been praised to such an extent that Steve Bould is now no longer just a former player with a sound knowledge of how to organise a back four, he’s the messiah. Keeping clean sheets against Sunderland and Stoke, two sides who showed little to no ambition to attack is nothing to write home about, while keeping another against a toothless Liverpool side is hardly surprising either.
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It’s become something of a concerted PR effort on behalf of the club to praise Bould of late. Do they look more organised this season than last? They sure do. Are they still defensively sound? The goals that they leaked against Chelsea show they most definitely are not. Just as the praise sent Bould’s way at the start of the season was hugely over the top, equally, he isn’t now rubbish at his job just after one poor defensive performance.
Arsenal still look far from the finished package; while Cazorla and Podolski have adjusted well and Oxlade-Chamberlain, Arteta and Meresacker have all impressed at times, they still look a way off the two Manchester clubs and Chelsea in terms of a title challenge this season. A top four place should still be their ambition and Wenger has shown in the past that he’s fantastic at achieving that level of consistency, but the fawning praise of what is still quite an inconsistent start, simply because it’s better than last year’s, lacks any sort of context and talk of a title tilt is still a long way away in the future.
West ham fans have been discussing last week’s links to Stoke City’s Badou Ndiaye, and it’s pretty clear they don’t want the Senegalese international.
According to reports, West Ham could be set to battle Besiktas and Arsenal for the signature of Ndiaye, who was relegated with Stoke this season.
The wiry midfielder was one of the Potters’ best players after signing in January, after spending three seasons impressing in Turkey.
The 27 year-old, who has 13 Senegal caps, could be seen as a replacement for Cheikhou Kouyate, who has taken plenty of flak for his performances this season.
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While most fans would agree they need an upgrade on Kouyate, they don’t seem to think Ndiaye is that upgrade.
In 13 Premier League appearances for Stoke, Ndiaye averaged an incredible 4.1 tackles per game, compared to just 2.2 per match from Kouyate this season.
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There have been some suggestions that the Hammers could also pursue Ndiaye’s teammate Joe Allen as well, but fans are hoping they aim for bigger and better than the relegated pair this season.
Some of the best Twitter reactions can be found down below…
Newcastle’s Deadline Day was dominated by Islam Slimani’s loan move to Tyneside but on the final day of the transfer window, it was another mid-season loan signing who shone the brightest – exciting young winger Kenedy.
Newcastle signed the prodigious Brazilian last week and he’s already had a positive impact on a side that have averaged less than a goal per game in the Premier League this season, providing an assist for Jamaal Lascelles with a delicious delivery into the box from a corner in a 1-1 draw with Burnley last night.
And that was by no means the 21-year-old’s only telling contribution. As well as creating the most chances and launching the most accurate crosses of any Newcastle player, he also hit the bar early in the first half and won a penalty which Joselu failed to convert.
It was an exciting, confident and dynamic performance from the youngster, who Transfermarkt value at £6.3million, but that in turn raises questions over why exactly he’s been allowed to leave Stamford Bridge when he’s already emerged as the Man of the Match in a Premier League fixture.
Of course, his departure preceded the arrival of Emerson Palmieri from Roma. But why have Chelsea spent £17.6million on a new recruit when their promising young wide-man looks more than capable of contributing to a campaign that won’t see the Blues win the Premier League title?
Surely this final stretch of the season, with not much to play for in the top flight, would have been the perfect opportunity to give Kenedy the game-time he needs – whether it’s at wing-back or further forward – to truly stake a claim for a regular berth in west London.
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Unfortunately, this kind of complaint is nothing new as far as the reigning champions are concerned.
West Ham entertain West Bromwich Albion at Upton Park in this afternoon’s early Premier League kick-off. Sam Allardyce has made two changes from his Hammers side that lost 3-1 to league leaders Arsenal on Boxing Day. Jussi Jaaskelainen returns between the sticks with understudy Adrian returning to the bench, and Razvan Rat comes in for James Collins, suggesting a reshuffle at the back.
Meanwhile, manager-less West Brom make six changes from the starting XI that claimed a draw against Tottenham on the 26th. Gareth McCauley, Billy Jones, Chris Brunt, Youssouf Mulumbu, Nicolas Anelka and Saido Berahino all return.