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Leeds could land a potentially perfect centre-back partner for Diego Llorente in Manchester City youngster Taylor Harwood-Bellis.

Reports in recent days have suggested that both Marcelo Bielsa’s side, and Premier League rivals Brighton have been closely tracking his progress ahead of a potential move for him in the summer transfer window.

Standing at an imposing 6 foot 2, Harwood-Bellis has earned rave reviews for his performances whilst on loan at Ewood Park, with Rovers boss Tony Mowbray, saying: “What I see is a lad who needs some buttons pushing because when you challenge him he generally stands up to the challenge.

“You can feel the fire in his belly and the bigger the name that plays in front of him the higher he’s going to rise in his career. The big games are what are going to get his juices flowing and I like his character, he’s one I would call an old school central defender who wants to go to war, but he can play football if that’s the game in front of him.”

Dubbed as a “powerful central defender also blessed with excellent skills on the ball”, Harwood-Bellis looks like the archetypal player for Bielsa, both being strong in the tackle and composed in possession too.

In fact, a profile piece by The Athletic, hailed the teenager’s commanding presence, noting: “Kompany’s are big shoes to fill, but Guardiola may see similarities in Harwood-Bellis’ leadership qualities. The precocious youngster was the U-15 captain when Pep arrived in Manchester, and he wore the armband for England at the U-17 European Championship. Harwood-Bellis has confidence, superior technique, aggression, physicality and the ability to command from the back.”

And, given how Harwood-Bellis has predominantly played as the left-sided centre-back at Ewood Park this season, and Diego Llorente has played more on the right, the ingredients are already there for the former to just slot in alongside the Spaniard.

Having that balance of the two centre-backs playing on their preferred side can have a huge impact on how well they perform, and ensure they aren’t taken out of their comfort zone.

Harwood-Bellis would be the perfect compliment for Llorente, and with his own ability to play out from the back, would ease the pressure on the Spaniard when it comes to starting moves from deep.

Leeds could well build a formidable centre-back partnership by signing the City starlet this summer.

Meanwhile, Leeds must reignite their interest in this star…

In an exclusive interview with Football FanCast, former Leeds United player Carlton Palmer revealed his surprise over Marcelo Bielsa’s contract situation at Elland Road.

Bielsa, who guided the Yorkshire club back to the Premier League after a 16-year absence, is out of contract in the summer and does not yet appear to be any closer to putting pen to paper on a new deal.

Currently on 35 points, Leeds look set to retain their status as an outfit in English football’s top flight, a further display of just how well the Argentinian has done since succeeding Paul Heckingbottom back in 2018.

Given that success, Bielsa’s contract dilemma has left Palmer scratching his head. Speaking on the matter exclusively with FFC, the ex-Leeds midfielder said:

“I’m a little bit surprised given he’s got them promotion – and, you know, they’re 11th in the Premier League – that he hasn’t been tied down to a longer contract. I’m a little bit surprised.

“But maybe on both parts, you know, I would think that Bielsa would be looking and saying this – if he’s going to kick on, he’s going to need funds available to do that. And maybe they’ve said to him, listen, or both parties have said, listen, let’s wait and see where we are at the end of the season.”

Bielsa appears settled at Leeds, with his time at Elland Road being his longest reign at a club. Considering that, and how well he has done in the dugout overall, a contract extension looks to be in everyone’s interest.

And under the former Lille boss, there is no reason why Leeds cannot continue to grow. The Whites have really impressed in the Premier League this season with him at the helm, boasting a very good record in front of goal.

Southampton centre-back Jannik Vestergaard is reportedly attracting interest from Tottenham Hotspur ahead of the summer and if Ralph Hasenhuttl wants to keep him on the South Coast, then the club should consider offering him a new deal as soon as possible.

The Danish international’s contract with the Saints is set to expire at the end of next season, meaning that if Spurs did make an approach for the six-foot-six defender in the summer, then it is unlikely that Southampton would be able to demand a significant fee, despite his impressive performances this season.

In fact, Hasenhuttl could potentially lose him on a free transfer next year, with foreign clubs free to approach him with the view to signing him on a Bosman transfer in January 2022.

Considering how important the 28-year-old has been in the Austrian’s side this season, the club should surely be looking to tie him down to a longer deal to ensure that he isn’t prised away from them too easily in the future.

In 21 appearances this season, the former Borussia Monchengladbach man has averaged an impressive 7.09 rating for his performances, which is second to only James Ward-Prowse in the Southampton squad.

Therefore, he is clearly a key figure in this Southampton side and should be rewarded with a new deal, as his current deal sees him earn £60k per week at the South Coast club.

Arguably, the club should be focusing on the Dane more than Danny Ings, with the club currently in ongoing negotiations with the England international over a new deal, with his contract also set to expire at the end of next season.

However, despite his impressive performances in recent seasons, the former Liverpool man has suggested that he sees his future with a Champions League side, so it is difficult to see his long-term future with Southampton.

Although Vestergaard will likely share the same dream, he hasn’t openly admitted to it, so there’s no reason to think he can’t finish his career at the top with Southampton by signing a new long-term contract.

Therefore, Martin Semmens should perhaps forget about Ings and instead focus on delivering a new contract to the Danish international, as his performances this season certainly warrant him earning a new deal.

And, in other news… Semmens can deliver Saints’ Ings replacement with swoop for in-demand 24 y/o

This season was meant to be all about Celtic’s tenth SPFL crown in a row. Though, for various reasons, that has fallen by the wayside.

The Hoops are 23 points behind Rangers and it looks as though their pursuit of ten in a row is falling flat in the dirt.

This has been a disastrous campaign and it’s rather surprising that Neil Lennon is still in the job. With the likes of Odsonne Edouard and Kristoffer Ajer repeatedly linked with moves away, times could get even tougher for the Northern Irishman.

Edouard is attracting interest from the Premier League while Ajer has been touted with a switch to AC Milan.

It’s clear why the former is such a pillar for Celtic – he scored 28 times and registered 19 assists last season. Ajer, however, seems to coast through games with undoubted solidity in the backline.

Signed for a grand total of £0, Ajer arrived as a free transfer when he was just 17-years-old in 2016. Since then, he has come on leaps and bounds, establishing himself as a leader and stalwart of Lennon’s side.

The very fact Celtic valued the centre-back at around £20m last summer is a testament to what they’ve done with the player and indeed, how impressive the business has been.

Since heading to Scotland, the 22-year-old has played on 159 occasions for the Hoops and along the way, has earned comparisons to a certain Brazilian legend in Cafu.

Of course, Ajer can play at right-back and as a holding midfielder as well, but it’s in the middle of a back four where he’s looked the most comfortable. He has become an impenetrable wall on his way to winning three consecutive Scottish Premiership crowns.

Though, most impressive is the fact that even during tough times, he’s stood out. Celtic’s defence has been woeful this season, conceding 19 in six Europa League outings and shipping 11 more goals than Rangers in three fewer games in the league.

That being said, Ajer has still been a rock.

John Hartson commented earlier this month: “He’s grabbing the bull by the horns and he’s almost dragging the team through, even to these draws. You see him making these lung-bursting runs forward, he’s marauding with that big stride, he’s challenging, on his backside, making blocks, in the opposition’s penalty area.”

Hartson continued: “He’s a credit to the rest of the players. They should all look at him and if they’d all adopted the same attitude as Ajer then might have made a better fist of it in terms of holding on to the title.”

[snack-amp-story url=”https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/read-this-weeks-latest-celtic-manager-stories” title=”Read this week’s latest Celtic news!”]

That’s about as good as praise can get, but let’s analyse the statistics too. The Norwegian has won more tackles per game (1.5) than any other centre-back in the squad this season, while his pass success rate of 89.2% is the fourth-highest of Celtic’s regular starters.

Furthermore, he ranks in the same place for interceptions per game (1.3). This isn’t a player who hides away and he has shown as much this season. The fact he stepped up and slammed home the winning penalty in the Scottish Cup final is evidence.

Considering they didn’t pay a penny for him, this has been outstanding business. The £10k-per-week earner is a vital cog in the machine at Parkhead.

AND in other news, Desmond eyes “ambitious” Lennon successor, he could fix Celtic’s biggest problem…

With Leeds’ first season back in the Premier League an unquestionable success, attentions may already be turning towards how Marcelo Bielsa’s side can improve for the next campaign.

The Whites are still in the hunt for European football, so the Leeds boss will no doubt be fully focused on that, but the club’s hierarchy should already be drawing up plans on how to potentially reinforce this squad.

And, according to Spanish publication Deportes Cuatro, the Yorkshire club are one of a number of sides interested in signing Real Madrid winger Lucas Vazquez on a free transfer.

The 9-cap Spain international has established himself as a cornerstone of Madrid’s first-team squad this season, playing 25 games in all competitions, including playing the full 90 minutes in five out of the six Champions League group stage games Los Blancos were involved in.

With two goals and five assists, Vazquez is more of a creative wide-man than someone who’s going to bag ten goals a season – from the 2015/2016 campaign to the 2018/2019 one, the Spaniard broke double figures for assists in each year, including an impressive 16 assists during Madrid’s Champions League winning year in 2017.

His boss at Real Madrid, Zinedine Zidane, has waxed lyrical about the kind of team player that he is, and that should surely be further music to Bielsa’s ears.

Speaking after a 2-0 win over Celta Vigo just last month, the French icon said: “What he’s doing right now doesn’t surprise us. Not only do I like him, we all like him because he is always on the job and reliable. He always gives everything on the pitch and we appreciate that. I congratulate him.”

And when you look at his defensive numbers from this season, it’s clear to see why he’d be perfect for Bielsa. He averages a hugely impressive 2.4 tackles per game in La Liga, which would actually rank him fourth in the entire Leeds squad – only Liam Cooper, Kalvin Phillips and Luke Ayling have averaged more than him.

He also shows that doggedness and intensity when it comes to the 50/50 challenges, winning 5.6 duels per match – a stat that’s better than any of Leeds’ current wide players.

Vazquez sticks to his defensive task diligently, and given Zidane’s comments on how he “gives everything” for the cause, seems tailor made to be another stand-out Bielsa player at Elland Road.

When Marcelo Bielsa picked his team to face Crawley Town on Sunday afternoon, he will have been looking towards his senior players to lead by example.

Starting alongside the less experienced players in Ian Poveda, Jamie Shackleton and Leif Davis were likes of Kiko Casilla, Kalvin Phillips and Pablo Hernandez.

However, all three of them failed to put in a performance of any merit.

Casilla was disastrously bad between the posts and was at fault for the first two goals, letting the ball through his hands for the opening strike and then somehow allowing it to squirm through him for the second.

Yet, Phillips was also laboured and lacking confidence. A host of his passes went astray and the England international allowed Nick Tsaroulla past him far too easily when Crawley took the lead.

The blame can’t be directed entirely at the defence, though. Going forward, Leeds wasted numerous chances in the first half which considering they had a £43m duo in Rodrigo and Helder Costa up front, simply wasn’t good enough.

The supply line from Hernandez wasn’t particularly good, however, and he deserves the brunt of the criticism. He has started just twice in the Premier League this season and his performance at Crawley summed up why he hasn’t played more often.

Hernandez has been a wonderful servant to Leeds but on Sunday, the 35-year-old was particularly poor, putting in a display that was described as “rusty” by Leeds Live journalist Beren Cross at full-time.

It’s hardly surprising that was the case. The Spaniard hasn’t started a game of football since the 4-1 defeat to Leicester at the beginning of November and it showed.

He lost the ball a mammoth 31 times, failing to provide a much-needed spark for Bielsa. Hernandez did manage three key passes but he was off his game far too many times.

The experienced midfielder was successful with just 67% of his passes and fired his only two attempts at goal wide of the target.

Because of the way Leeds were chasing the game in the second period, he had to come deeper than Bielsa would have liked. Consequently, he was playing long balls forward rather than short passes. That meant that he tried a colossal 22 long balls – 11 of which were successful.

Hernandez might be ageing but this was the perfect opportunity to show why he is deserving of a place in the Premier League side.

On a day where the manager needed his experienced players to stand up and be counted, one of his star men was anonymous.

The veteran deserves to be benched against Brighton next weekend. Bielsa will not be happy at all.

AND in other news, Worse than Casilla: Leeds star who lost possession 24x massively betrayed Bielsa…

Some West Ham United fans were left slamming the display of Tomas Soucek, despite their club’s 1-0 win over Burnley in the Premier League yesterday afternoon.

Considering the high standards that he has set so far for himself in the 2020/21 term, the Czech Republic international did not have the best of games against Sean Dyche’s team and perhaps had his blushes spared as Michail Antonio grabbed the only goal of the match within the first 10 minutes of the first half thanks to a lovely cross from Pablo Fornals.

The 25-year-old lost out on no fewer than 10 of his duels in the clash, which was the most lost out of any member of the West Ham team on the pitch, and he also lost possession of the ball 17 times, as well as getting himself a yellow card in the 73rd minute of the clash (Sofascore).

West Ham fan reaction to Soucek display

These Hammers fans slammed his performance on Twitter, with one Iron claiming that the central midfield player was ‘clumsy’:

“Soucek has been pretty clumsy today”

Credit: @Tony19753514

“Tbh a poor game from Soucek (with his high standards) this far.”

Credit: @folkestoneiron

“Would like to see us control the game more. Not a great first half from Soucek looks tired”

Credit: @Jamin_78

“Fornals playing well and works with 3 other pacey players up there with him, he doesn’t give the ball away or waste possession that often. Soucek hasn’t stopped giving the ball away annoyingly. Final ball against for us hasn’t been good enough #COYI”

Credit: @Tonker37

“Soucek has been very not himself today must be the effect of not winning POTM. Happened to Fornals too. #WHUBUR”

Credit: @westham_mo

“Only real negatives for me personally, Soucek not having a great game.”

Credit: @IrishIron32

In other news, find out who else was slammed for his display versus the Clarets here!

Crystal Palace will want to snap their losing streak when they travel to the Hawthorns to take on Premier League strugglers West Bromwich Albion on Sunday afternoon.

Roy Hodgson’s side have suffered back-to-back defeats which has seen them slip to 15th in the table, although they are seven points above the relegation zone.

First-team trio Connor Wickham, Nathan Ferguson and Wayne Hennessey have been ruled out due to injury.

However, Palace have been handed a major boost ahead of today’s game, as Hodgson has confirmed Wilfried Zaha is back having missed the last two matches after testing positive for coronavirus.

Here, Football Fancast has worked on a predicted starting line-up for this afternoon, which sees Hodgson make three changes to the team that lost to Newcastle.

Maybe Jack Butland could come in, but we’re backing Vicente Guaita to keep his place in goal for the Eagles this afternoon, as he has been trusted with the gloves for every single Premier League game so far this season.

Hodgson will likely name a mostly-unchanged back four to face the Baggies but Tyrick Mitchell has been so strong since the start of the season that we reckon the young left-back will replace Patrick van Aanholt in the starting line-up.

Sunday’s game may come too soon for Nathan Ferguson, who is working his way back to fitness as he is currently recovering from surgery.

Luka Milivojevic is available for selection once again after serving his three-match ban, although the club captain is unlikely to start, with Jairo Riedewald resuming his burgeoning partnership with James McArthur in the midfield.

The Palace boss has a big call to make upfront given Michy Batshuayi’s lack of form through the middle, so Jeffrey Schlupp could lead the line after he started the defeat to Newcastle.

Zaha has been cleared to play, which means he will most likely slot into place alongside Schlupp at the top of the pitch. The £9m-rated Jordan Ayew will have to drop to the bench as a result.

AND in other news, Crystal Palace must make cut-throat Mamadou Sakho decision amid Real Betis links…

Leeds United have made an admirable start to their first season back in England’s top flight after 16 years of waiting.

The Whites have already banked impressive results including a win over Everton and a surprise 1-1 draw against Manchester City.

However, Marcelo Bielsa seems to rely too much on star striker Patrick Bamford and this has been made clear on several occasions this campaign.

Indeed, the 27-year-old is the club’s top scorer this term by some margin with eight goals. The next highest scoring Leeds player is Mateusz Klich, who has just two to his name (via BBC Sport).

The gap in stats in worrying for the Whites, who are in need of an extra injection of creativity.

Rob Lee spoke to Football FanCast about this and he believes that Victor Orta must take to the market in January and recruit a partner for Bamford.

“Patrick Bamford has done brilliant, I think he’s done a fantastic job,” the ex-midfielder said. “He’s their focal point, he plays every game, he’s scoring goals – which people probably questioned whether he would in the Premier League. But I think they need someone who can help him.”

Whilst Leeds aren’t in any danger right now, they risk slipping into extremely hot water if Bamford is to pick up an injury at all throughout the season. Bielsa also risks over-working him as he is currently the only source of the team’s goals.

Come January, Orta and Andrea Radrizzani must put their heads together and poach someone who can lighten the load on Bamford’s shoulders and help the Whites develop their attack.

In other news, Signing Dean Henderson will only hinder growth of Illan Meslier…

Wolverhampton Wanderers are making great strides with their academy system, but when it boils down to it, they have very little to show for it.

Morgan Gibbs-White is one that bucked the trend at a very early age but since then, there has been a serious lack of youth bred through into the first-team.

In some ways, you can count Max Kilman following his most recent breakthrough into the starting XI, although non-league outfit Maidenhead United take the majority of the credit there.

Well, if Nuno Santo is on alert, then the Midlanders may have uncovered their best gem since the aforementioned Gibbs-White in fellow midfield prospect Taylor Perry, who continues to light it up in the U23 squad.

Earlier this week, the 19-year-old sensation bagged his fourth goal in his last three matches, banging home a superb free-kick during a 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace U23s – even despite not starting the match.

“I don’t really work on them, it just comes naturally. Whenever you get a free-kick around the box, there’s always a chance and today I pulled it off again, so it’s great for me.”

– Taylor Perry on his goal.

Speaking after the match, Perry’s head coach James Collins said:

“TP’s unbelievably unfortunate not to play really because he’s been excellent as of late, but we felt that with the boys we had back from the first-team group, that was the best way to go

“Those are the great learning things that you don’t see, but are important, so we felt they should play, but TP was unlucky not to start but has come on and scored. He’s probably our best goal threat at the moment.”

A midfield dynamo with phenomenal set-piece ability? That sounds very much like a certain Joao Moutinho and given he’s getting on a bit at 34, perhaps Perry can be developed with the intentions to replace him in the near future.

The Portuguese playmaker is certainly ageing like a fine wine in terms of quality, but it can’t hurt to plan for when that day eventually comes.

Perry has already featured three times for the senior side, the latest coming in last season’s Carabao Cup defeat to local rivals Aston Villa. but the young maestro impressed.

Express & Star reporter Joe Edwards graded his performance a 7/10, and said: “Did not have the best of starts but recovered by showing great determination to win the ball off Luiz and get a shot off, which Cutrone poked in for Wolves’ goal.”

Nuno must look to Perry, his best prospect since Gibbs-White, going forward.

AND in other news, Nuno must unleash £36m-rated Wolves MONSTER against Palace TONIGHT…