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Steve Bruce has offered an insight into Newcastle United’s strategy, as reported by The Chronicle.

What did he say?

The January transfer window may have passed, but transfers are still on the tip of tongues throughout the Premier League.

That is no different with the Magpies and Bruce has been speaking about what they look for in a possible recruit, offering examples to highlight that.

As quoted by The Chronicle, he said: “Rose and Bentaleb couldn’t wait to get here, for obvious reasons for both of them. Bentaleb because there had been a change in manager and he suddenly wasn’t playing, same for Rose. Lazaro took a bit of time because we had to beat off teams like RB Leipzig who are top of the Bundesliga.

“He wanted to play in the PL which helped, but we had a bit of work to do. All of them, for some reason, have something to prove and have all to play for.

“We want hungry players. One of the better players this season has been Jetro [Willems] on loan and he had a point to prove.”

A point to prove

Bringing in players such as these, who have a point to prove, can be very useful for Bruce’s side as it may create a siege mentality amongst the squad.

This is especially telling with Newcastle due to their defensive style of play, having maintained an average of just 39.4% of possession across Premier League games, before facing Arsenal on Saturday.

The mentality hinted at by Bruce is especially epitomised by Bentaleb, as the Algeria international had not made a single appearance for Schalke, before moving to St James’ Park until the end of the season in January.

Is life under Ashley really that bad? Maybe this quiz will change your minds, Newcastle fans…

Rose also had issues with getting on the pitch, as after Jose Mourinho’s arrival at Tottenham Hotspur, the 29-year-old only managed 100 minutes in the league, from a possible 1080.

While they cannot solely rely on players who have been shunned by other clubs, this is seemingly working out for Bruce, as they went into the weekend’s action 12th in the league.

Meanwhile, Newcastle fans react to their transfer link.

Liverpool have been dealt a blow as Jordan Henderson has been ruled out for three weeks.

Jurgen Klopp confirmed in his West Ham pre-match press conference that the 29-year-old will be out of action for the next few games. The captain has been in fantastic form so far this campaign – some people have even suggested he could win Player of the Year – and this could mean he is absent for the big Champions League return match against Atletico Madrid at Anfield.

No clues: Can you name the season these iconic Liverpool images belong to?

The club’s supporters, as you would expect, have been reacting in their droves, and it has not gone down well with many of them.

Given his form, it is not the best news for Klopp, and he will be hoping he can return as soon as possible.

Others have made reference to the 2013/14 season when the former Sunderland man also missed some of the action.

As the Reds looked to win the title that campaign, Henderson missed three games at the end of the term. In two of those matches, Liverpool lost 2-0 at home to Chelsea and drew 3-3 away at Crystal Palace – those results ended up costing them the Premier League.

There are plenty of supporters, though, who see this is as an opportunity for Naby Keita to shine.

The Guinea international has struggled to make his mark at Anfield since joining in 2018, but he has shown glimpses of his ability this term with the three goals he has managed. This may be the moment for him to prove his true worth.

Meanwhile, Liverpool eye this 23-year-old with 10 goals in 21 matches this term.

Tottenham Hotspur fans have been sent into an uproar this week after Danny Rose’s latest comments about his temporary departure from the club.

The 29-year-old left on loan to Newcastle United last month, ending a seven-year spell amongst the Spurs first-team setup, and here’s what he has said per Last Word on Spurs:

Rose has played 214 times for the club but still has over a year to run on his current contract, so it remains to be seen whether he has much of a future in north London past the current season.

You can find more on this and other top stories via the Tottenham Hotspur News page.

Here’s how fans have been reacting…

Several supporters blasted him for being an attention seeker, claiming that the left-back has got “serious issues” whilst another questioned whether he thought he was a club legend – clearly in the mind of this fan, he wasn’t.

Watch Tottenham Hotspur Videos With StreamFootball.tv Below

Others asked him to simply stop talking as it’s all they have heard from his mouth in the past month.

A further member of the Spurs faithful told him to focus on his new side, Newcastle, and one supporter stated he was sick of hearing his name and because he was no longer at the club, he was no longer interested.

Some mentioned former manager Mauricio Pochettino, whose sacking supposedly led to Rose knowing his time was up at the club.

The Argentine was Rose’s “security blanket” according to one fan while another believes the ex-Spurs boss kept far too many players who weren’t good enough.

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And in other news, Spurs fans left REELING by Mourinho’s latest striker comments…

Celtic fans have taken to Twitter to react after a journalist asked Neil Lennon a pretty strange question.

During the 48-year-old’s pre-match press conference before his side go head-to-head with Livingston on Wednesday, Lennon was asked if it would be considered a failure if the Hoops don’t go on to secure a ‘quadruple treble’ this season.

After sweeping up all three domestic honours for the third season running last term, Celtic are looking in good shape to do the same again for a fourth campaign in a row – they are 12 points ahead of Rangers in the Scottish Premiership, and are also in the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup having already won the Scottish League Cup.

Naturally, it goes without saying that Lennon was asked a very stupid question.

How could it possibly be deemed a failure to not pick up all but one – maybe a couple – of the domestic trophies available to a club over the last four years?

Perhaps a more fitting argument would’ve been one related to the Hoops’ European ventures, as they crashed out of the Europa League at the Round of 32 stage – even then, that would’ve been harsh.

Let’s see how the Celtic fans on Twitter reacted to the question…

To kick off the reaction, these three supporters all felt that it was a genuinely terrible question from the journalist who asked it.

One mentioned that Lennon handled the question well – in fairness, the Celtic boss did take it quite professionally, merely stating that he wasn’t happy with the question, but that his remit is to carry on Brendan Rodgers’ fine work and also wondered how anyone could see the current situation as a failure.

Lastly, these three fans simply took aim at the journalist who asked the question.

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To be honest, a question such as that one just wastes everyone’s time, and Lennon would surely prefer not to have those types of things asked.

In other news, Neil Lennon has revealed what he’d do with Odsonne Edouard “tomorrow” if he was Peter Lawwell…

For the first time in 19 La Liga appearances, Guido Carrillo scored for Leganes.

The 28-year-old joined the Spanish on loan until the end of the season in the summer but had failed to net in any of his first 18 league appearances for the club this term. It was against 19th-placed Deportivo Alaves that he ended his goal drought, which explains his struggles.

Despite him finally breaking his duck, it is unlikely to convince Leganes to attempt to keep him beyond this season.

Of course, his loan spell came after he failed to make the grade at Southampton. He made just 10 appearances and failed to score a single goal. What is even more shocking than that is that he cost the club £19.2m – he is the fourth-most expensive signing in their history according to Transfermarkt.

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His arrival at St. Mary’s Stadium in 2018 was overseen by Les Reed, the then director of football. He spent eight years at the club from 2010 to November 2018 and, whilst he may have helped them become a sustainable Premier League club, some of the recruitment during his tenure was downright abysmal. The very fact Carillo was his first foray into the market after receiving £75m for Virgil van Dijk sums things up.

There have been plenty of examples of players who have cost the south-coast club considerable amounts but have failed to meet the required standards. Jannik Vestergaard, for example, cost the Saints £18m, yet made just 23 starts last season in the top tier and just 13 to date this term.

Sofiane Boufal, meanwhile, cost £16m, yet has just five goals and five assists in 82 matches after scoring 11 times in Ligue 1 in his final season with Lille. Mohamed Elyounoussi, Mario Lemina and Manolo Gabbiadini are others who cost £14m or more yet failed to make long-term impacts at the club. Elyounoussi, for instance, is now on loan at Celtic.

Following Reed’s departure and the exit of Ross Wilson to Rangers, Matt Crocker has taken over the role, and Carrillo’s struggles in Spain should be a timely reminder of what to avoid. Crocker’s only signing so far is Kyle Walker-Peters from Tottenham on loan, but new permanent arrivals should be expected in the summer. Hopefully, he will fare better than one of his predecessors.

Meanwhile, Southampton must avoid a Christian Eriksen situation with this current star.

The Athletic’s Celtic correspondent Kieran Devlin has heaped praise on Kristoffer Ajer amid a claim from Tore Pedersen – the centre-back’s agent – revealing that his client will leave the club this summer.Â

Pedersen said that his client will “not extend” and “disappears” from Celtic Park at the end of the season when speaking to NTB (Sporten) on Thursday, which is untimely news for Neil Lennon ahead of the Old Firm derby.

In the comments thread of his tweet relaying this Ajer update, Devlin stated that he thinks the Norway international is the Hoops’ best centre-back, and makes the difficult stuff looks easy.

This opinion is an unpopular one, it turns out.

A number of Celtic fans on Twitter reacted to Devlin’s claim in disagreement with the journalist, as you can see.

The 21-year-old has made a huge 49 appearances for the Hoops this season, and has adapted well to becoming a defender having initially arrived at the club as a midfielder – despite his admirable transition, these supporters still aren’t happy to find praise for Ajer.

You can see Devlin’s unpopular claim below:

In other news, a reunion with Brendan Rodgers would be very attractive for this Celtic star according to a pundit…

After guiding Crystal Palace back into the Premier League, Ian Holloway had a huge job on his hands.

The ex-Blackpool boss would have to embark on the Eagles’ return to top-flight football without his star man Wilfried Zaha, who left for Manchester United, as well as his 31-goal striker Glenn Murray, who suffered a serious knee injury in the Championship playoffs.

One particular gamble which Holloway made in an attempt to alleviate this crisis was his decision to sign Dwight Gayle from Peterborough.

Why was it a gamble? Well, the forward has been playing non-league football shortly before he joined Peterborough, rising from the lower regions of England’s footballing divisions to the very top in just 12 months.

For £4.5m – which made him Palace’s club-record signing at the time – it was a risky move from Holloway, but one that definitely paid off.

Gayle made 74 appearances for the south Londoners, scoring an impressive 25 goals which works out at an average of slightly better than a goal every three games. The London-born forward also put his name up in lights with two goals against Liverpool in the now famous 3-3 draw which ruined the Reds’ title hopes.

Aside from his healthy goal record in SE25, the signing of Gayle was also a brilliant one from a financial sense.

When Alan Pardew decided that he no longer needed the striker, Newcastle swooped in to sign him for £10m, meaning that Palace made a cool £5.5m profit on the man who was signed, scored a fair amount of goals, and then improved the Eagles’ bank balance when leaving.

In total, each of Gayle’s goals only cost Palace £180k, and he proved to be a fine investment and also well worth the gamble.

Calling all Eagles fans: Can you get 90% on this quickfire Palace quiz?

Coming from non-league to the Premier League in such a short space of time is surely tough, although the striker did well to vindicate Holloway’s throw of the dice.

In other news, Dougie Freedman is wrong to be put off by this valuation on a player who “makes the game look easy”…

Liverpool target Jude Bellingham is a little bit different to your average 16-year-old.

He is already a regular in professional football, having made 35 appearances already this season for Birmingham City in the Championship. It’s worth remembering that this is his first-ever season at senior level.

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Given the quality of his displays, he has been targeted by a number of clubs across Europe, including Liverpool.

Unfortunately for the Reds, though, it looks like they will lose out on his services. Despite having an offer on the table from Anfield outfit, he is set to turn them down along with Arsenal and Manchester City, leaving Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund to fight it out, per Daily Star.

His meteoric rise is reflected in his Transfermarkt value.

Before October last year, he didn’t even have a registered value, but that number is already said to be at £10.8m – that means he has the highest value of any player at Birmingham and places him in the top 100 English players, whilst only Rayan Cherki is worth more than him amongst players born in 2003.

With that in mind, Football FanCast take a look at three reasons behind his sharp increase that give Liverpool reason to rue his transfer stance…

2018/19 breakout season

As mentioned previously, the teenager had never made an appearance in football before this term, but he made history in August last year.

On his debut against Swansea City, he became the youngest-ever Birmingham player, breaking Trevor Francis’ record.

Since then, the only way has been up. In 32 appearances, he has managed four goals and three assists, cementing his status as an important member of the Bluenoses’ squad.

Premier League and European interest

It didn’t take long for a long list of clubs to line up to try and add him to their respective squads – and that interest didn’t just come from England.

Whilst the likes of Arsenal, Man City and Liverpool made their intentions known, even German outfit Borussia Dortmund have seemingly thrown their hat into the ring.

So much so, a report a few weeks indicated that the Die Schwarzgelben had even agreed a deal for the prodigy (Sport Bild via Transfermarkt), but a development from Manchester United’s end appears to have put them in the driver’s seat – Bellingham’s parents were pictured at the Red Devils’ Carrington training ground.

Dele Alli comparisons

Whenever a young player bursts onto the scene, there are always comparisons with someone who has tread the same bath before. In this case, similarities have been drawn between Bellingham and Tottenham Hotspur star Dele Alli.

Interestingly, the former MK Dons man did not hit a valuation of £10.8m until he was 19, which is three years older than the Birmingham ace. However, if Bellingham can match what Alli has already achieved – he already has 62 goals in 219 matches for Spurs, and has also played in a World Cup semi-final – he will have done rather well for himself.

The sky appears to be the limit for a player Liverpool look set to miss out on.

Leeds United fans have been fretting on Twitter this week after Phil Hay relayed news about non-league football voiding the season for many of its divisions.

The Football Association has declared that all leagues below the sixth tier of English football are “null and void” while talks are ongoing with the three National League divisions, which hold plenty of full-time teams.

While the EFL and the Premier League have suspended their seasons until the end of April with the intention to try and complete the current campaign, but if that’ll actually be able to happen remains to be seen, for the time being.

Here’s how fans have been reacting to the latest update…

Some were worried by the news and how it might affect the Championship’s end result, which was summed up by two fans’ comments of them being “nervous” and another who was “bricking it.”

Others pondered if it had now set a “dangerous precedent” as it may cause other leagues to follow suit – many at Elland Road would understandably be fuming if their season is declared void.

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They have waited 16 years for top-flight football, and are on the verge of ending that with only nine games remaining, the west Yorkshiremen are sat top of the table with a seven-point cushion to the playoff positions.

A couple of further members of the Whites faithful believed the season should resume whenever it’s safe to do so, hardly a surprise given what is at stake for the league leaders.

Can you get full marks on the Ultimate Leeds Quiz? Test your knowledge below…

AND in other news, Luke Ayling names his best-ever Leeds teammate…

Many Tottenham Hotspur fans have been reacting on Twitter after Spurs fan account Talking THFC relayed comments from Liverpool throw-in coach Thomas Gronnemark, who suggested he could work with the north London outfit next season.

In an interview with Kicker, he claimed he could leave the Reds to join another club in the summer.

He has since clarified his comments on Twitter, saying: “Just to put everything straight. I’m a freelancer. I make new contracts every summer. The mentioned clubs are just random to explain my position as a freelancer.

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“I’m very happy at LFC (Liverpool). Let’s see what the future brings. Stay safe.”

From that we can take it as clear that the Dane was suggesting clubs he could join because of his position as a freelancer, but you do have to wonder if it’s something Jose Mourinho could take an interest in.

As The Daily Mail reports, the Merseyside outfit have successfully used his techniques across both the first team and the academy since the 44-year-old’s arrival at Anfield 18 months ago, and it has helped Jurgen Klopp’s men from an attacking point of view.

It might not be a priority for Spurs right now, but it is surely something that could work for them – and players like Serge Aurier who are committing too many foul throws – in the future.

More than one Tottenham supporter has mentioned Aurier with their reactions to the story, while another said it “sounds ominous”, thinking that it could make them a team that just lump throw-ins into the box.

Here is just a selection of the reaction…

In other Tottenham news, Daniel Levy can soften a major potential exit blow for Spurs by signing a Christian Eriksen replacement in return…