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Raphinha could yet stay at Leeds United this summer as a fresh twist has emerged…

What’s the word?

The 25-year-old’s future has been subject to a lot of speculation in recent weeks with his agent, Deco, thought to be in advanced talks with LaLiga giants FC Barcelona but according to Eurosport transfer insider Dean Jones, the Whites may be able to talk him into staying.

Speaking to GIVEMESPORT this week, the journalist revealed a behind-the-scenes update, where he claimed that the Brazilian’s representatives have stated that they are open to him remaining at Elland Road, also adding:

“We’re not going to rule out the fact that he might leave Leeds but at the same time, if they could talk him into staying, then he might stay.”

Fresh twist in the tale

The Catalan outfit aren’t the only side keen on Leeds’ leading talisman.

As per the Mirror last month, the likes of Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Liverpool and even Newcastle United were named in the long list of potential suitors.

The same source suggests that Leeds have slapped a £60m price tag on the winger and have attempted to tie him down to a new deal.

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His current £63k-per-week contract expires in the summer of 2024, having joined in a £17m deal from Stade Rennes in October 2020, which puts him as the third-highest earner at Thorp Arch behind Patrick Bamford and Rodrigo.

The west Yorkshire side have heavily relied on the £40.5m-rated dynamo, who has now been capped seven times by Tite’s Selecao, this season. He’s bagged a squad-leading ten goals and created more chances (58) than any other player too, via WhoScored.

Dubbed a “magician” by teammate Dan James earlier in the season, it would be absolutely huge if Leeds could keep hold of their star man, even if it’s just for one more season as he could continue to be a crucial influence under manager Jesse Marsch on that right flank.

It’s not as if the American head coach is littered with options in the role, despite links to both Ryan Kent and Brenden Aaronson.

This latest twist from reliable transfer insider Jones will provide many supporters with hope that this season isn’t the final time they see the hugely impressive Raphinha in a Leeds shirt.

AND in other news, Time’s up: “Non-existent” Leeds star loved by Bielsa must never play for Marsch again…

Crystal Palace posted their official squad photo for the 2021/22 campaign on Twitter on Wednesday.

And a number of Palace supporters were quick to interact with the official club post, sharing their positive thoughts.

The Eagles made plenty of changes over the summer, bringing in Patrick Vieira as manager to replace Roy Hodgson.

Palace backed Vieira in the transfer window, bringing in six permanent additions at a cost of just over £66m.

Conor Gallagher also arrived on loan and has starred at Selhurst Park, winning the club’s Player of the Month award for August.

All seven signings, along with Vieira and his backroom staff posed for the official squad photo, with players wearing the home kit. 25 first-team members were on show, with the image available to view here.

Palace fans react

Palace relayed the photo on their official Twitter page with the caption ‘The Palace’. This is what these Eagles fans had to say in reply, with one labelling it as ‘beautiful’.

“Bring on Monday……”

Credit: @redandbluesite

“Love it. My palace. My football club”

Credit: @benh199225

“Up there with one of our best ever squads. What a team, buzzing that these lads are representing our club! Big season ahead for the boys ”

Credit: @kade_bladeSE25

“What a beautiful bunch of lads they are.”

Credit: @WillCPFC03

“Our most talented squad of all time.”

Credit: @J_CPFC

“Best Palace squad I’ve seen in my lifetime”

Credit: @TheJakeWarren

In other news: ‘Miracle’ – Lots of Palace fans go wild at Eze update.

Former Premier League defender Steve Howey is happy with Sunderland’s start to the season and the transfer business they have completed so far.

The Black Cats have brought in seven new first-team players this summer, with Alex Pritchard, Corry Evans, Callum Doyle, Dennis Cirkin, Frederik Alves, Nathan Broadhead and Niall Huggins all joining Lee Johnson’s Stadium of Light project.

Johnson’s side have clicked and gelled quickly, too, picking up three wins in four League One matches and have progressed to the third round of the Carabao Cup after beating Port Vale and Blackpool in the opening two rounds.

And Howey believes that Sunderland have made a decent start and seem to be making the right moves in the transfer window, exclusively telling Football FanCast: “I think you’re looking at Sunderland and they’ve bought in a couple of young lads, a lad from Everton, one from Tottenham and a couple of other ones that have come in, they seem to be doing it right.

“Listen they’ve got the finance but obviously they want to do it the right way. 

“They got beat against Burton, but they won at the weekend, it’s a decent start from them to be quite honest. I think it’s a great opportunity for these lads.

“Yes, its League One, but Sunderland is not a League One setup, it’s a Premier League setup. Sunderland’s training ground is absolutely amazing, the ground’s amazing.”

Sunderland host promotion hopefuls Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday afternoon, with the Chairboys looking to maintain their unbeaten start to the new League One season.

According to Calciomercato, West Ham United could now agree fresh terms for yet another player as they share a development involving Angelo Ogbonna.

The Lowdown: West Ham in contract spree?

The Irons have been linked to offering new deals for a plethora of first team stars recently.

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Indeed, according to club insider Claret & Hugh, fresh contracts are in the pipeline at West Ham with talks continuing over a new deal for defender Vladimir Coufal.

They could also offer fresh terms for Tomas Soucek and Declan Rice, and according to a fresh report, manager David Moyes and GSB may not be done there.

The Latest: West Ham could now agree Ogbonna deal…

According to Calciomercato, defender Ogbonna has become the latest West Ham man at the centre of a potential new contract at the London Stadium.

The Italian’s current contract expires in 2022 and is free to leave on a free transfer next year as it stands, it is explained that the 33-year-old now ‘deals with the extension’.

While the report doesn’t go into much more detail than that, it appears West Ham aren’t quite resigned to losing him just yet.

The Verdict: Get it done…

Lauded as ‘phenomenal’ by James Collins for his performances last season, we believe the Irons should certainly tie him down despite his age.

A one-year extension could certainly suffice, giving West Ham time to find a suitable replacement for Ogbonna whilst also potentially allowing them to sell for a fee before then, with Kurt Zouma gradually stepping into his shoes over the next year or so.

In other news: ‘No brainer’ – Sky pundit reacts as West Ham eye ‘massive signing for Moyes’, find out more here.

The Athletic journalist Greg O’Keeffe doesn’t think that either Rafael Benitez or the Everton board will be keen on signing Donny van de Beek. 

The lowdown

The Manchester United midfielder’s agent said in September that he had tried to find a new club for his client and that his search had ‘ended up at Everton’. He claimed that talks were held over a possible transfer, only for United to intervene and block any deal.

Van de Beek has been on the periphery at Old Trafford this season, playing just five minutes across the Red Devils’ first seven Premier League fixtures, and the Dutchman’s estimated transfer value has fallen to £22.5m as a result, having been just shy of £50m less than two years ago.

The latest

In a mailbag for The Athletic, O’Keeffe said that his ‘understanding of the situation’ is that Everton sporting director Marcel Brands was ‘made aware’ of Van de Beek’s availability late in the transfer window and ‘may have inquired’ about a possible move.

However, he doesn’t think the 24-year-old ‘is a player who fits into Benitez’s plans’ and explained that Brands’ role is seemingly to ‘source and present options’ to the board and the manager.

O’Keeffe suspects that they would have declined if Van de Beek was on the table, saying that ‘there’s a feeling he wouldn’t fit into the system’ given that two of Everton’s existing attacking midfield options, Richarlison and Demarai Gray, are ‘quicker and more dynamic’.

The verdict

Van de Beek demonstrated his class at Ajax, starring in their run to the Champions League semi-finals in 2019, but concerns about whether Everton would be a good fit for him are not misplaced.

Realistically, Richarlison, Gray and Dominic Calvert-Lewin are all part of the Blues’ strongest XI, and in a 4-4-1-1 formation, that doesn’t really leave any room for Van de Beek.

Why would he move elsewhere in the Premier League when he could just be adopting a rotational role there which wouldn’t be much different from his current place on the Old Trafford periphery?

In other news, this announcement from the club had lots of Everton fans buzzing

James Ward-Prowse would not turn down a move to Tottenham this summer, says former Southampton midfielder Carlton Palmer.

Ward-Prowse has been heavily linked with a transfer to Aston Villa, with Sky Sports reporting last month that the Midlands club had a £25m bid rejected for the player.

And now, according to The Telegraph, Tottenham are also interested in signing the 26-year-old before the transfer window slams shut.

Southampton have already lost key players in Danny Ings – to Villa ironically – and Jannik Vestergaard and Palmer believes Ward-Prowse could follow them out of the St Mary’s exit door if Tottenham make an acceptable offer.

“You wouldn’t say no to Tottenham if there was a bid made and accepted,” the ex-Southampton player said to TT in an exclusive interview. “A player of ambition, you’re looking at Southampton, they’re selling their best players and they’re not replacing them.

“If an offer comes in at £35m, he will be gone to either Tottenham or Aston Villa.”

It will be interesting to see how this one ends because Ward-Prowse has four years left on his contract, while manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has also told reporters that he expects the England international to remain at St Mary’s.

However, the Saints have often shown that none of their assets are untouchable if the right offer comes in.

Now that the 2022 January transfer window has opened, this will spark a flurry of potential transfer deals across a range of clubs as they aim to strengthen their squads.

At Aston Villa, it has previously been reported that manager Steven Gerrard will be given the backing from the owners to make whatever changes to the club that he thinks will benefit them in terms of bringing new players in.

With this in mind, it could prove to be a very busy month for the Midlands club, on and off the pitch.

After making just nine Premier League appearances for Villa since joining on loan from Manchester United back in August, and with just eight minutes of league action since Gerrard’s took over from Dean Smith as Villa’s manager in November, it seems as though Axel Tuanzebe could be on his way out of the club.

Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano recently shared a post on his official Twitter account claiming that a deal has been worked out between United and Napoli that will see Tuanzebe spend the rest of the season on loan with the Italian club.

Taking this into account, it could be worth Villa bringing a new defender in to take Tuanzebe’s place in the squad so they aren’t depleted in that area.

Having been linked with a transfer move for Liverpool centre-back Joe Gomez in recent weeks, this update about Tuanzebe could now pave the way for Villa and Gerrard to finally secure a deal for the defender, who is currently picking up a weekly wage of £85k-per-week according to Salary Sport, and bring him to Villa Park.

With a total of 82 appearances in the Premier League, Gomez would certainly bring a decent amount of experience with him to Villa as well as an elite winning mentality having won the Premier League and Champions League during his time at Anfield.

Labelled as a “sensational” player in the past by Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, Gomez has found regular game time in the Premier League hard to come by this season with just three fairly short substitute appearances under his belt so far, which could result in a move to Villa being quite tempting for him if he’d get regular playing time under Gerrard’s guidance.

Moving forward, if Tuanzebe is set to leave Villa in the coming days, the club should be turning their attention to securing a deal for Gomez as soon as they can so the team doesn’t suffer should any of their other defenders end up with injuries or a positive virus test.

In other news: Forget Trezeguet: NSWE dropped AVFC transfer clanger with “horrible” £5.4m-rated dud – opinion

Newcastle United suffered a third successive Premier League defeat on Sunday, going down 5-1 away to Tottenham Hotspur.

Fabian Schar had put the visitors in front on 39 minutes, but goals from Ben Davies, Matt Doherty, Son Heung-min, Emerson Royal and Steven Bergwijn ultimately made it an emphatic victory for Antonio Conte’s side.

The result leaves Newcastle 15th in the table, still nine points clear of the relegation zone.

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Here at The Transfer Tavern, we delve into the three worst-rated starting outfielders for the Magpies as per statistical specialists SofaScore, with players required to feature for at least 45 minutes to feature. Collectively, this trio lost 71% of their ground duels and mustered a crossing accuracy of just 17%.

Joelinton – 5.8/10

Joelinton made his second consecutive start after missing a couple of games with a knock last month, but he only lasted 59 minutes before Eddie Howe took him off.

The manager may not have been impressed with a performance which saw the Brazilian lose six out of his seven ground duels, commit two fouls and pick up a yellow card.

Joelinton lost possession nine times overall, failing to complete the single cross and dribble that he attempted.

Dan Burn – 5.9/10

On a run of eight successive starts, the towering defender was also cautioned yesterday and didn’t fare much better than his Brazilian team-mate.

The 29-year-old lost all three of his ground duels and was also penalised for fouls on two occasions. In addition, he turned the ball over eight times and couldn’t find a team-mate with either of his long passes.

Matt Targett – 6/10

Targett has been selected every time that he has been available since making a loan switch from Aston Villa in January, but he completes the below-par trio of Newcastle players from Sunday’s defeat in north London.

He performed better than the aforementioned duo when it came to ground duels, winning three out of four, but he failed to enhance his team’s attacking threat, with four of his five crosses going astray on a less than stellar afternoon for him or his team. He was also guilty of losing the ball on seven occasions.

In other news, Keith Downie drops an update on Jonjo Shelvey

With West Brom currently six points behind league leaders Bournemouth and four behind second-placed Fulham, the Baggies have a great chance to potentially close the gap at the top of the Championship table with a home clash against 14th-placed Middlesbrough this afternoon.

Albion’s previous league outing saw them beat Hull City 1-0 thanks to a goal from Karlan Grant at The Hawthorns, putting them in a good position to secure another positive result this time around.

Regarding which players Ismael could select in his starting XI to take on Neil Warnock’s team, who were beaten 3-1 by Luton Town in midweek, we feel that one player who featured in the match against Hull and should be in the starting XI today is Adam Reach.

Why Reach must startAfter replacing the injured Kean Bryan in midweek, Reach had 51 touches of the ball, completed 26 passes (including three key passes), made two crosses, created one big chance, won two duels and completed one successful dribble.  That earned him an overall match rating of 7.1/10 from SofaScore, highlighting how useful he was for the Baggies when called upon.So far this season, the 28-year-old – who is currently valued at £2.52m by Transfermarkt – has made 12 appearances for the Baggies across all competitions.However, he had only played 12 minutes of action throughout his three previous Championship appearances for the Baggies prior to the Hull game, which suggests that his place in the team has diminished somewhat considering that he had a prolonged run in the team between mid-September and early October.Now that he managed to have a good performance against Hull, we think Reach – who has been described as a “top player” by former Baggies boss Tony Pulis when the duo were both at Sheffield Wednesday – should return to the starting XI against Middlesbrough to see if he can deliver another solid showing and start another consistent run of appearances for them.Also, with Reach having made 77 appearances for Middlesbrough earlier in his career, we believe that he may have an additional motivation to show his former club what they are missing this afternoon.In other news: Steve Madeley drops fresh West Brom transfer claim that’ll leave Baggies fans fuming

Gianluca Di Marzio has dropped an update on Tottenham Hotspur’s reported interest in a move for Lautaro Martinez.

What’s the talk?

In recent comments cited by FcInter1908 (via Sport Witness), the Sky Sports Italia journalist revealed that, following earlier reports suggesting that Antonio Conte has made the Inter Milan centre-forward one of his priority targets in the summer transfer window, there is a very good chance Fabio Paratici does make another move for the 24-year-old at the end of the current campaign.

Speaking about Spurs’ interest in the Argentina international, Di Marzio said: “Who will Tottenham go to if they qualify for the Champions League? Surely Antonio Conte wants another striker.

“We know that, even before he arrived in London, Fabio Paratici had tried to take Lautaro Martinez, but then Inter sold Lukaku and could not sell both.

“I expect a possible Tottenham offensive for him. Then it is true that he has renewed, but it is possible that Tottenham could present themselves again and we’ll see what kind of offer they might present.”

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Spurs supporters will love Di Marzio’s update

With backup and competition for Harry Kane having been something of an issue for Tottenham in recent years, with the club’s last permanent signing of a centre-forward being Fernando Llorente back in August 2017 – who subsequently left Spurs for Napoli just two years later – the suggestion that Paratici could pursue a deal for Martinez this summer is sure to be an update the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium faithful will love.

Indeed, the thought of the £63m-rated Argentine and Kane linking up in a front two in north London is an incredibly exciting one – not to mention being a duo that would somewhat replicate Conte’s devastating attacking two during Inter’s Scudetto-winning campaign under the 52-year-old.

Last season, in the Italian manager’s preferred 3-5-2 formation, Romelu Lukaku and Martinez scored 41 goals and registered 17 assists between them in the league, with Lukaku averaging an incredibly impressive SofaScore match rating of 7.32 and Martinez averaging a 7.17 rating – ranking the duo as Conte’s first and third-best performers in Serie A respectively.

As such, it is clear for all to see that the prospect of Kane – who himself has scored 12 goals, provided six assists and averaged a SofaScore match rating of 7.29 in the Premier League this season – taking the place of Lukaku in this tandem will be a thought that terrifies defenders up and down the country.

And, with it being reported that Inter will be willing to listen to offers beginning at €70m (£59m) for the €125k-per-week (£105k-per-week) striker this summer, a deal for Martinez is one that Daniel Levy could very much afford to sanction.

AND in other news: Conte can finally axe “horrendous” liability as Spurs plot talks for £17m “revelation”