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According to a recent report from The Daily Mirror, Tottenham are interested in a move for attacker James Maddison. The 22-year-old currently plays his football at fellow Premier League side Leicester City and has done so since leaving Norwich City last year, with his fine start to life in the top-flight seemingly attracting the interest of Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino.

And that’s because a recent report from The Daily Mirror suggests that the North Londoners are eyeing up a move for the Englishman in preparation for the possible exit of Christian Eriksen – and were Maddison to indeed make the move to Tottenham, he could be the man to make Dele Alli even better.

The Breakdown

Ultimately, 22-year-old Alli has undertaken a quite sensational rise ever since making the move to Spurs back in January 2015, what with the young midfielder going from a League One regular at MK Dons to one of the most effective attacking players in the Premier League, and indeed for England.

And that’s because the 22-year-old has bagged 53 goals and laid on 45 assists in only 171 appearances for Spurs in the last few years, 42 goals and 30 assists of which have come in the Premier League to help Pochettino’s men become one of the best teams in England – clearly, Alli has played a key part in their ascent.

And with seven goals and four assists in all competitions this time round prior to suffering an injury against Fulham last month, the midfielder looked set for another fine campaign for Spurs in that advanced central role – a role Maddison has also made his own at Leicester this season.

And given the ability the Foxes ace has in the final third of the field, a move to Spurs would not only give them a possible replacement for Eriksen, but it could go some way to making Alli even better given he’d have someone breathing down his neck in pursuit of that attacking midfield position.

Ultimately, 22-year-old Maddison has been an absolute revelation since making the move to Leicester last summer, what with the attacker since then netting five goals and laying on four assists in just 23 Premier League games for Claude Puel’s side – only Jamie Vardy (ten) has directly contributed more in the league than his compatriot.

And his impressive start to life in the Premier League is very much comparable to how well Alli did upon his first few months in the top tier, and with Maddison certainly possessing the attacking quality needed to succeed in the top-flight, he’s a player that could seriously push Alli for that role in Pochettino’s team.

And that could be exactly what Alli needs to reach an even higher level in times to come, as failure to continuously deliver in that position, as he did for a time last season in a testing run of form, could see him come under pressure from the 22-year-old – in fact, it wouldn’t necessarily just be at Tottenham in which they would be battling for position, it could be for England as well.

As such, not only would Maddison’s arrival go some way to minimising the impact of Eriksen’s possible Spurs departure, but he could be the man to make Alli even better at the Premier League title contenders.

Tottenham fans… what do you think? Let us know!

Naby Keita has faced his fair share of criticism from the Liverpool fans this season.

Indeed, the midfielder has largely struggled to show his best form for the Reds.

It would be fair to say that there have been signs of improvement in recent weeks, though, particularly in the 3-0 win over Bournemouth last time out.

Pl>ymaker FC’s Matchday with Max caught up with Jamaica’s women’s team. See what happened when he met the history makers in the video below…

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was certainly pleased with Keita’s showing against the Cherries, with the German paying tribute to the central midfielder.

The Liverpool fans have been reacting to Klopp’s comments on social media and it would be fair to say that a number are in agreement.

Keita’s talent was never really in question, but there were fears that the 33-cap Guinea international would not be able to fully adapt to the Premier League.

The Liverpool fans have been frustrated in recent weeks after watching Manchester City move to the top of the table, but many are delighted with Keita’s recent form.

A selection of the Twitter reaction to Klopp’s comments can be seen below:

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Since Jurgen Klopp’s arrival at Anfield in October 2015, the Liverpool manager has transformed the club’s squad. The arrivals of the likes of Alisson Becker and Virgil van Dijk, along with the emergence of Joe Gomez and Trent Alexander-Arnold, have made the Reds solid at the back.

On top of that, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah have both arrived to help make the Merseyside club’s attacking force one of the most feared in Europe. So far in the German coach’s tenure Liverpool have reached a Champions League final and are currently in the thick of a Premier League title race.

However, if Klopp is to continue taking the club forward, there are improvements to his squad that must be made this summer. At the top of the list of issues to address should be the lack of quality squad depth. The club’s attacking contingent, for instance – outside of the main three of Salah, Mane and Roberto Firmino – leaves plenty to be desired.

Mixed fortunes for English sides in the Champions League so how far off are they from dominating Europe’s top table? The Pl>ymaker FC squad discuss in the video below…

Daniel Sturridge is an experience centre-forward, but he can no longer offer the club what they need, even as a back up option. This season at Anfield has to be his last. 

Why he has to go

The 29-year-old’s current contract is set to expire at the end of this season. Last summer, the 26-cap England international striker spoke of his desire to earn a new deal with the Reds, as reported by the Telegraph. However, to offer him any new terms would be a mistake on the part of the club.

Sturridge is too injury prone to be reliably available and simply hasn’t got the quality to compete at the level that Liverpool are now operating at. The greatest difference between Liverpool and their current rivals for the title, Manchester City, is quality squad depth.

Whereas Pep Guardiola has either Sergio Aguero or Gabriel Jesus to call on to lead the line, Klopp has Firmino or Sturridge or Divock Origi. Beyond Firmino, both are underwhelming options. Alternatively, he can play Salah out of position through the middle, but that only creates another gap elsewhere. 

If Liverpool are to sustain this period of success at the club, they must have greater reserves of talent to call upon in their squad. That can begin this summer with the exit of Sturridge, and the signing of an upgrade on him.

A bitter reality check struck Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend, as they were bullied and battered by a physical Burnley side.

The Argentine manager surprisingly lost his temper at the end with referee Mike Dean for questionable decisions in the game.

While Pochettino quickly retained his gracious nature to admit his mistake, there’s no need for him to play the nice guy anymore. In fact, he needs to be tougher on his players and make them teach them to be stronger when opponents try to crumble them.

Indeed, the Argentine’s three-man defence line was compromised multiple times against Burnley, whose resilient attack overpowered them. Everything was far too nice and being nice simply doesn’t win a league title.

Chris Wood and Ashley Barnes worked in tandem to deconstruct Spurs’ defensive solidity, confusing players with their movement, while often rattling them with physicality. It’s not that Spurs’ defenders aren’t strong enough, but Pochettino doesn’t train them to stick up to and occasionally even stick into opponents who try to derail them.

Pochettino might believe in the beautiful side of the football, often exhibited in Spurs’ attractive style of football, but he needs to instil some old-school, English values into his team. They need to implement a sense of brutality in their game to keep sides from bullying them time and again.

The Argentine needs to realize that poets really don’t win anything in football.

In order to inherit a winners mentality, Pochettino needs to inherit the adaptability of playing rough when circumstances require it in order to grind past difficult oppositions.

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According to the Scottish Sun, Arsenal are planning a £25 million bid for Celtic left-back Kieran Tierney.

The defender has been one of the Hoops’ standout performers this season, and it’s unsurprising that he’s attracting plenty of interest. Losing the 21-year-old would be a major blow for the Bhoys, but they will struggle to retain the Scot’s services should the Gunners come in with such a huge bid.

Celtic boss Neil Lennon should already be planning for life without Tierney at Celtic Park.

Watch how to cross the road like a boss with freestyler Ben Nuttall in the video below…

On the chalkboard

Celtic will struggle to buy in a replacement for Tierney of the same quality. However, they may not have to sign anyone at all. 18-year-old Scotland under-19 international Daniel Church may be ready to make the step up to the first team.

The youngster signed a new contract with the club in September and is a highly-rated prospect. It would be a bold move, but bringing Church into the first team, to work alongside veteran full-back Emilio Izaguirre, could pay off. Extending Izaguirre’s current contract so that he is available to compete with Church next season would be a wise move.

A change in style

The loss of Tierney would likely also mean a change in the way Celtic play. The 12-cap Scotland international contributes a lot in an attacking sense. He has already racked up five league assists this season. The Bhoys may struggle to find someone who can replicate his output in the final third. 

Celtic may, then, revert to a more traditional system, with a more defensively-focused left-back. This would increase the pressure on the likes of Scott Sinclair to deliver from the wide areas but would make Tierney much easier to replace.

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Mauricio Pochettino has pleaded for help from English football’s governing bodies after Borussia Dortmund were given one day more to prepare for the second leg of their Champions League last-16 clash on Tuesday.

Spurs played Arsenal on Saturday and drew 1-1, while Dortmund lost to Augsburg on Friday.

What’s the word?

Spurs hold a 3-0 lead going into the second leg after dismantling their German opponents at Wembley.

Goals from Son Heung-Min, Jan Vertonghen and Fernando Llorente sealed a scintillating victory but the club’s form since has dipped considerably.

Losses to Burnley and Chelsea have derailed their title challenge, while a draw with the Gunners came about only after Hugo Lloris saved a last-minute Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang penalty.

Pochettino, then, is perhaps right to question the amount of time his side have been given to prepare, particularly with the cauldron of Signal Iduna Park awaiting.

Quoted by BBC, he said: “It’s strange that no-one has said anything about that.

“It’s impossible that one team has 24 hours more to prepare. It’s massive.

“We need help from the FA, we need help from the Premier League.

“I don’t know whose fault it is. I don’t know whether it is the FA, the Premier League, the club or the TV [who] wanted the matches to be on those days.”

Scheduling a disgrace, but unlikely to matter

An English club last won the Champions League in 2012, when Chelsea completed an unlikely triumph, and it seems that the governing bodies of English football care little about ending that drought.

Spurs have a golden chance to head into the quarter-finals for the first time under Pochettino’s management but they have been hamstrung by a bureaucratic decision that has merely served the interests of BT Sport and Sky Sports, who broadcast all three of their Premier League games across the past week.

At the end of the day, it is unlikely to matter against Dortmund, such is the stranglehold the north London outfit have established on the tie.

But it may be a deciding factor in a potentially tight quarter-final.

Pochettino has appealed directly for help; he is unlikely to get any – such is the money involved in the television rights’ deals – but he certainly should.

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Celtic fans will be absolutely fuming at club legend Davie Provan, who has slammed fans for criticising Brendan Rodgers.

Celtic were left stunned by the timing of Rodgers’ departure, bringing in Neil Lennon on a temporary basis to replace the now Leicester boss.

While most fans accept that the Premier League is the greatest height a footballer or manager can reach, the manner of the boss’ departure left a sour taste in a lot of mouths.

Provan, who made 206 league appearances for Celtic, scoring 28 goals and winning four league titles, has now hit back at Rodgers’ critics, insisting that the 46 year-old made the right decision.

Provan’s reasoning for his verdict though, is downright absurd.

Former Wigan & Fulham man, Jimmy Bullard recently showed that he’s still got it! Check out the video below…

What’s he said?

Speaking in his column for The Scottish Sun, Provan said: “Those accusing Rodgers of betrayal need to wise up. He’s taken a better-paid job in a stronger league while escaping Glasgow’s sectarian cesspool at the same time.”

Later in the column he discussed crowd violence: “Already, Gerrard must survey our football landscape and wonder why he’s here.

“Yeah, the English game has its share of bonehead supporters, but nothing like the coin-throwing, foul-mouthed sectarian mob currently killing our game.

“You wouldn’t dream of taking your wife or kids into their company.

“And if Rodgers has spoken warmly of his time in Scotland, he must be relieved he’s rejoined civilisation at Leicester.”

Completely out of touch with reality

To be frank, the 62 year-old is about as far away from the mark as you possibly could be.

In fact, for a man so connected with Parkhead, he seems to have completely missed the point of why Bhoys fans are unhappy with the former boss.

No one will begrudge a relatively young manager the chance to perform on the biggest stage, but to leave on the brink of a league title and potentially even a “treble treble” shows cowardice.

On top of that, to suggest that crowd violence is a Scotland problem rather than a football problem is truly bizarre, as if Jack Grealish and Chris Smalling weren’t attacked on English football pitches this very weekend.

All in all, Provan has managed to completely miss why fans are angry with Rodgers while simultaneously branding all Scottish football fans responsible for the actions of a few idiotic rule-breakers. His comments are completely nonsensical.

What a missed opportunity that was! Manchester United had the chance to reach an FA Cup semi-final where only Manchester City looked a threat, but they blew it and it proves how right United are not give Ole Gunnar Solskjaer the job just yet.

The attacking football has been exciting. It’s fast, it’s dynamic and it does what Jose Mourinho failed to do in his tenure, get the most out of their wealth of forward-facing talent. However, when they lose the ball, the whole United side looks at sea and that’s down to Solskjaer’s careless nature.

There’s a reason he didn’t succeed at Cardiff, and that’s because they weren’t organised enough to deal with playing against teams who had more of the ball and were better than them, which was probably every team in the Premier League at the time. This weakness is shown less at United because they’re on the front foot in most games, but it rears its head on occasions.

Wolves are confident on their home turf, and it showed in their ability to retain the ball and attack with intent. That will have been encouraged by their knowledge that Solskjaer’s side are there for the taking if you go at them. PSG at Old Trafford and Arsenal last week proved this.

It’s clear United need investment at the back in the summer. Jose Mourinho obviously knew it, and that seems to be the reason why he didn’t feel he could attack with the freedom the current manager is doing. If he did, then United would struggle to defend the large spaces they leave at the back, just as they did against Wolves.

Mourinho would most probably have won that game on Saturday, and it once again shows that United must be cautious not to make a romantic appointment and bide their time to see if the Norweigan wises up defensively between now and the end of the season.

Man United fans, do you think the Wolves defeat was Solskjaer’s fault or his players’? Join the discussion by commenting below…

Transfer deadline day is without question one of the most entertaining 24 hours on the football calendar.

From Jim White and his immaculate yellow tie to Sky Sports reporters posted around all the major grounds hoping for something to happen, the drama surrounding the day is something we as football fans love to watch.

A moment in time: Arsenal’s mad 2011 deadline day

The only thing better than watch deadline day is watching your team partake in the manic day, but for Arsenal fans, they got to experience a deadline day like no other.

Following a summer that saw Cesc Fabregas, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri leave the club, fans had been crying out for the Frenchman to replace these vital first-team players, and in typical Wenger fashion, he signed players that didn’t fill any of these roles.

Before deadline day Wenger had signed Gervinho and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, as well as Joel Campbell and Hector Bellerin. It only took an 8-2 implosion against Manchester United for the Arsenal boss to realise that more signings needed to be made, and the Frenchman went nuts.

In the span of 48 hours, Wenger had signed five first-team players for a collective fee of around £26 million, and to say some of these were panic buys would be an understatement.

Amongst the signings were South Korean international Park Chu-young from AS Monaco and left-back Andre Santos from Fenerbahce, two players who have gone down in Arsenal folklore as some of the worst Wenger has ever made as Gunners boss.

As for the other three, they were a lot more successful in north London. The only loan-signing to be brought in on the final day was Yossi Benayoun from Chelsea. The Israeli captain, who’s still playing to this day, didn’t see much game time for the Gunners but scored one of the most important goals of the season for Arsenal during a 3-2 win against West Brom on the final day of the season, a goal that ultimately sent the Gunners into the Champions League.

The other two signings Arsenal made that day were Per Mertesacker from Werder Breman and Mikel Arteta from Everton, two players who would go on to captain the Gunners and end their careers at the club.

The Arteta deal, in particular, was frantic, as David Moyes reportedly rejected two transfer offers from the Gunners for their star midfielder before the Spaniard said he would take a pay cut if it meant joining Arsenal.

In the end, the day was a success for the Gunners. Wenger’s side recovered from their awful early season form to finish third in the Premier League as then captain Robin van Persie won the PFA Player of the Year award for his 30 goals.

And the day as a whole proved to be a big lesson for Wenger, and since then Arsenal has been a team to finish their transfer business early rather than 24 hours before the end of the window.

Arsenal fans, who was your favourite player Arsenal signed on the 2011 deadline day?

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Arsenal are interested in signing Atletico Madrid winger Gelson Martins, per A Bola.

The forward is currently on loan at AS Monaco, having joined Atleti in the summer after terminating his contract with Sporting Lisbon.

Since his move to Ligue 1, Martins has been in excellent form and the aforementioned report suggests that has led to serious interest from the Gunners.

Football FanCast takes a closer look at the Portugal international, who Transfermarkt value at £25.2million, and how he has been performing this season…

What has he done this season?

Martins left Atletico in January after a poor start to the season.

In 12 games for the Spanish club, he scored just once, in a Copa del Rey encounter against lower-league Sant Andreu.

Indeed, across those games, he played 90 minutes once, in that aforementioned cup encounter.

Since his move to Monaco, however, Martins appears to have rediscovered his mojo.

He laid on an assist in his debut against Toulouse and then scored three in three, in games against Montpellier, FC Nantes and Lyon.

A virtuoso performance against Guingamp in the French League Cup saw him lay on two assists in a 2-2 draw, prior to a 5-4 penalty shootout defeat. Martins did not take a spot-kick.

What will he bring?

Martins was the jewel in Sporting’s crown for quite some time, such is his dribbling ability and lightning pace.

Fleet-footed and remarkably adept at going past defenders, Martins played 140 times for the Portuguese club, scoring 27 goals and laying on 30 assists.

His exceptional speed and trickery even saw him likened to Cristiano Ronaldo by Benfica’s president, Domingos Stanislau. That’s a bit like Arsenal’s chairman waxing lyrical over Dele Alli.

Since his move to Ligue 1, where he is free of the confines of Atleti’s more rigid, defensive system, Martins has averaged 2.7 shots per game, 1 key pass per game and 1.9 dribbles per game, per WhoScored.

What must he improve?

He has also averaged a total of 3.4 unsuccessful touches across 90 minutes, while he rarely tracks back; he averages one tackle per game.

Martins is obviously capable of the spectacular and he is clearly trusted by his managers – he has won a total of 21 caps for Portugal – but there are deficiencies in his game.

He would bring searing pace and exciting trickery to Arsenal’s right-hand side but he is perhaps not the most consistent player, nor is he assiduous in defence.

If he is to work under Unai Emery, he may have to sharpen up both in attack and in defence.