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Grant Leadbitter smashed Phil Parkinson’s criteria for what the veteran midfielder can offer Sunderland this season with an instrumental display at home to Ipswich Town.

The 34-year-old opened the League One clash on Tuesday night in the core of Parkinson’s engine room beside Lynden Gooch and Josh Scowen, and offered the Black Cats a superb enforcer as he held down duties on the half-way line to protect Tom Flanagan, Bailey Wright and Connor McLaughlin.

Leadbitter kept his cool in the closing stages to convert from the spot after Mark McGuinness was penalised for a handball, too, striking what proved to be the match-winning goal for his second of the season to move Sunderland to within a point of the automatic promotion places.

Sunderland have now won back-to-back League One fixtures following their first defeat of the season at home to Portsmouth and a draw with Rochdale, keeping the Stadium of Light natives inside the Play-Off positions and with the division’s joint-best defensive record after allowing just seven goals in 10 games.

Leadbitter re-joined the Sunderland first-team for pre-season training this summer having left the group for personal reasons earlier in the year, and delighted Parkinson with what he brought to the field when the 34-year-old made his first competitive appearance of the campaign against Aston Villa’s U21s in the EFL Trophy in September.

“He’s a big plus for us from pre-season because he’s come back in great shape, both mentally and physically. He’s a good player, we know that, he’s played to a very high standard in his career,” Parkinson said, via quotes by the Sunderland Echo.

“He’s got a desire to be in and around the team. He wants to play and that’s great to see. I do feel there’s a really important role for Grant to play as club captain as the young players will look up to him.”

Parkinson opted to leave Leadbitter among the substitutes in Sunderland’s following League One meeting with Bristol Rovers, but has since started the £1.44m-rated veteran in eight of the Black Cats’ subsequent nine third-tier fixtures.

Leadbitter’s importance on the field was on full display at home to Ipswich on Tuesday night, as the Chester-Le-Street-born midfielder dictated the flow of proceedings with Sunderland’s most passes completed (46) and most interceptions (three), per SofaScore.

Only centre-half McLaughlin attempted a greater number of passes (53) than Leadbitter (52), who further won a ground duel and aerial contest, found teammates with three of five long balls, made one clearance and took his side’s third-most touches (58).

He may have been dribbled past twice and committed two fouls but, along with slotting home the decisive penalty, Leadbitter also drew the foul that saw Peter Wright show Andre Dozzell a straight red card, while making a goal-saving interception on the stroke of half-time and only losing possession six times.

Leadbitter’s performance smashed Parkinson’s criteria for setting an example for young players to follow, and solidifying the veteran enforcer’s place in the starting line-up ahead of facing Mansfield Town in the FA Cup this Saturday.

AND in other news, a Sunderland ace Phil Parkinson labelled as “accomplished” has delivered the Black Cats a fraught reminder.

Leeds United can have very few complaints about how their transfer window went.

They broke their transfer record, signed a number of international players, and brought in stars from Europe’s top leagues, but one thing that could be a slight issue is their failure to bring in a central midfielder.

It wasn’t for the lack of trying, as United were known to be in for both Rodrigo De Paul and Michael Cuisance, but after the deadline, it emerged that one midfielder United were reportedly in for was open to making a move.

Indeed, Julian Draxler was one player Leeds were linked with throughout the summer, and the German has now admitted that he would have happily left PSG in the window.

We don’t know what lengths Leeds went to in their attempts to sign Draxler, but they should be ruing the fact that they didn’t manage to get that one over the line.

The German international is undoubtedly a better option than someone like Cuisance, he blows him out of the water statistically averaging more key passes, tackles and interceptions per game, while also being spoken about incredibly highly.

Draxler was a young prodigy once upon a time, being described as an “exceptional talent” at a young age, and you don’t get a move to PSG in this day and age if you aren’t a fantastic footballer.

The German could have come in and immediately taken Leeds to that next level, he’s got experience at the very highest level, he’s a World Cup winner, and despite seemingly being around forever, he’s only 27, meaning that the best years of his career may still be ahead of him.

Unfortunately, Leeds didn’t get this deal done, and it’s one that they should be regretting after hearing his recent quotes. Perhaps they could reignite their interest in January.

In other news, have Leeds made an error with one of their loan deals?

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Ovice-presidente de futebol Bruno Vicintin foi o responsável por justificar as saídas deCeará, Charles, Júlio Baptista e Leandro Damião do Cruzeiro. De acordo com o dirigente, o clube não negociará a renovação de contratos dos quatro atletas exclusivamente pela questão financeira.

A adesão do Cruzeiro ao Profut, programa de refinanciamento das dívidas e de saúde financeira dos clubes, obrigará a diretoria celeste a enxugar a folha salarial do elenco para a próxima temporada.

Bruno Vicintin explicou que a maneira mais simples de fazer a redução é não renovar com os jogadores que estão em fim de contrato, caso de Damião Júlio Baptista, Charles e Ceará.

O diretor lamentou a saída dos atletas e agradeceu aos serviços prestados ao clube durante suas passagens.

-O Charles é muito querido no clube, tem muitos serviços prestados ao clube. O Damião é baita profissional, fez 18 gols pelo clube, é uma pessoa 100%. Ele tem imbróglio entre fundo de investimento e o Santos. O Júlio Baptista também teve muitos serviços prestados ao clube. Conversei com ele, e ele entendeu. O Ceará foi uma decisão muito difícil, ele tem caráter excepcional. Infelizmente, temos três laterais com contrato. Decidimos não renovar com ele para manter os mais novos – declarou.

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One Premier League agent has tipped Southampton to be a no-brainer move for Manchester United youngster Brandon Williams.

The left-back has been linked with a loan move to the south coast following Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s signing of Alex Telles. Speaking to The Athletic, the unnamed agent has stated that the 20-year-old would be “absolutely mental” not to join a side like Ralph Hasenhuttl’s.

“Younger lads that didn’t go on loan will force a move,” the agent said. “Brandon Williams doesn’t want to be No.3 left-back at United. He would be absolutely mental to not go somewhere like Leeds or Southampton. Or a top-half Championship club.”

Could Williams join Southampton?

Although the transfer window has now closed, Southampton would benefit from snapping up the United defender in January, who may become unhappy with his lack of game time. With a loan move not coming to fruition so far and Telles now challenging Luke Shaw, it’s likely Williams will becoming frustrated very quickly as he slips down the pecking order.

The Man United Academy graduate is now at the age where he needs to showcase his abilities with regular game time. Solskjaer certainly values the Englishman, branding him an “outstanding” player in a recent interview. However, with senior personnel to compete with, big chances for Williams will now be few and far between.

The 20-year-old’s hunger to play would inject the Saints squad with energy moving forwards as well as across the backline.

Putting pressure on Walker-Peters and Bertrand

Southampton would hugely benefit from adding a player like Williams to their ranks. Hasenhuttl currently has just two fit left-backs, with one being 20-year-old Jake Vokins, who has played just one game of Premier League football so far.

Not only will the England youth international challenge Ryan Bertrand on the left, but he could also put pressure on new addition Kyle Walker-Peters. As highlighted by Transfermarkt, Williams can play on either side of the defence, which makes him a double threat for Southampton’s current wing-backs.

The friendly competition could healthily stack Hasenhuttl’s squad, with the Saints looking to gradually climb the table as each season goes on.

In other news, Southampton target Kristoffer Ajer can be Salisu’s long-term partner…

انتظم أحمد رفعت، لاعب المصري البورسعيدي، في تدريبات فريقه، وذلك بعد انقطاعه خلال الفترة الماضية.

وكان محمد الخولي نائب رئيس النادي المصري كشف عن وجود أزمة بين النادي وأحمد رفعت بسبب تلقي الأخير عرضًا من فيوتشر، ورغبته في الرحيل لأن المقابل المادي أكبر مما يحصل عليه في الفريق البورسعيدي. طالع التفاصيل.

وعلم “بطولات” أن أحمد رفعت عاد لتدريبات المصري مرة أخرى، بعدما حصل على وعد من مسئولي النادي بمناقشة أي ناد سيقدم عرضًا رسميًا له، ووضع القيمة المالية المناسبة لرحيله عن الفريق.

وقدم فيوتشر إف سي عرضًا رسميًا لضم أحمد رفعت، وطلب مسؤولو المصري 30 مليون جنيه للاستغناء عن اللاعب.

Name: Troy Parrott

Club: On loan at Millwall from Tottenham Hotspur

Date of Birth: 4 February 2002

Position: Centre-forward

TROY PARROT – HIS CAREER SO FAR

By now, even though he is only 18 years old, Troy Parrott is a name most football fans are aware of. The young centre-forward is largely believed to be one of the be hottest prospects that Tottenham Hotspur currently have in their squad. Still, with there being a huge need to give him much more playing time than Jose Mourinho can currently offer, Parrott was sent out on loan to Millwall for the upcoming 2020/21 season.

The Dublin-born talent started his youth career at Belvedere, one of the local clubs, but was scouted and signed by Spurs really quickly. So in 2017, he moved over to London and two years later, upon celebrating his 17th birthday, he would sign the first professional contract with the club. It was also that same year that he made his senior appearances for the club, the first of which came during Spurs’ tour of Asia in July 2019, having previously trained with the first-team on numerous occasions throughout 2018/19.

And since we are talking about an extremely talented young man, he wouldn’t exactly have to wait for too long to get his debut. It arrived in the Carabao Cup third-round tie at Colchester United, just a couple of months after his first appearance for the seniors ever in pre-season friendlies. And this is when things finally started happening for the now 18-year-old starlet.

In November, he was called up for a Premier League clash for the first time and ended up sitting on the bench as Spurs drew 1-1 with Everton. Some time later that same month, he would also debut for Northern Ireland, even recording an assist along the way. But it’s in Spurs’ youth squads that Parrott shined the most.

He played 14 games for the U18s, scoring 17 goals and assisting three. After that, he appeared 14 times for the U23s as well, tallying five goals and one assist on the side. The best stint, however, was probably with the UEFA U19 team, as he became the U19 UEFA Youth League top-scorer for the 2019/20 campaign, ending his stay with the team with nine goals in nine appearances in total.

In December 2019, Parrott would finally get his Premier League debut as he came off the bench in a 5-0 routing of Burnley at home. The most recent thing to happen was, of course, the decision to send him out on loan to Millwall for the upcoming season, where he’ll hopefully get enough game time and return back a much-improved player.

TRANSFER LATEST

At the moment, there don’t seem to be many transfer news or transfer rumours circulating around Parrott. Of course, that was not the case just a couple of weeks earlier. The 18-year-old had been linked with a potential loan deal away from Spurs and it was finally announced that he would join Millwall for the upcoming 2020/21 season.

There are no other Tottenham Hotspur transfer rumours that would suggest a major twist in this story as he is very much expected to return back home and eventually slot right into the first-team, competing in the Premier League.

For now, however, we’ll be watching the youngster in the Championship.

PLAYER PROFILE

Just a simple glance at Parrott’s earlier stints in the academy and Spurs’ U18 and U23 squads is enough to see the young striker is as lethal as they come. He combines great movement and anticipation with a lethal strike and will always be a nuisance and danger in the opposition’s box. Naturally, some of his best attributes do include good shooting and dribbling abilities.

Combined, these two traits make Parrott a very tricky player to mark, especially when he’s constantly moving across the box and the final third as a whole. His main zone of operation seems to be the penalty area but he likes to drift just outside of it where he can link up with his teammates and potentially unbalance the opposition’s defensive line by dragging markers out of their position.

This part of his player profile is largely underrated because despite often setting his teammates up for a shot at goal, he doesn’t necessarily record exceptional assist tallies. Still, he seems to be much more than just a fox-in-the-box.

According to Football Insider, Chris Hughton has told friends that he is set to take the hot-seat at Bristol City, meaning that Glasgow Rangers’ Steven Gerrard is all but out of the picture.

Gerrard, who has now been at Ibrox for two seasons, had been linked with a move to the English Championship side along with the former Brighton boss, with him emerging as a shock target for the club’s billionaire owner Steve Landsown. However, if Hughton’s reported latest words are anything to go by, the former Liverpool man will not be moving on from his current job any time soon.

There would have been plenty of reasons why a move to England would be appealing to Gerrard. After all, that is likely where he will want to end up in the long term, and the Championship is a very competitive league. Also, he would have more funds available to him – for example, last term the Ashton Gate outfit spent £29.39m, whilst the 54-time Scottish champions have not spent that much in the last two seasons combined.

Having said that, Gerrard still has unfinished business north of the border – he is still without a trophy at the Gers and, although there have been some positive signs, such as their progression to the Europa League round of 16, the only real success that will count, at the end of the day, is silverware.

As such, it is a big boost for the club that Gerrard looks as though he will be staying put – clearly, he is still hungry and believes that he may not be too far away from reaching his goals.

Let us know what you think below!

Thursday marked 15 years since the infamous fight between Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer, and loads of Newcastle fans have been reacting to George Caulkin’s post about the incident.

“The day the fists flew, the day it all fell apart for Newcastle United,” Caulkin described in a piece for The Athletic, detailing perhaps one of the craziest matches in Premier League history.

After all, who needs the Magpies’ epic 4-4 comeback against Arsenal or Manchester City’s 6-1 demolition of Manchester United when you can witness three of the most bizarre red cards of all time.

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Indeed, then-manager Graeme Souness could only watch on as his side fell to pieces in a 3-0 loss to Aston Villa. Steven Taylor was the first man sent off for a goal-saving handball, after which he tried to con the referee in hilarious fashion.

An argument over Dyer not passing the ball to Bowyer then escalated, with the latter approaching Dyer in what the Charlton manager later described as a “moment of madness”.

You can find some of the best Twitter reactions down below, where loads of fans have responded to Caulkin on Twitter…

Check out what the Toon Army thought of the latest takeover update…

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Charlton Athletic manager Lee Bowyer has jumped to the defence of Naby Sarr, who has been widely criticised for his performance against Millwall, as reported by London News Online.

What did he say?

Sarr had a bit of a shocker against Millwall, as the Lions’ goals in their 2-1 win came from the 26-year-old being easily beaten in the air from set-piece deliveries.

Fans were far from impressed with him on social media following the game, feeling that he cost them the points on the day.

However, Sarr, who recently got his first call-up to the Senegal national team, has received the public support of Bowyer: “We have to remember how far he has come, when I first took over 18 months ago he was in a bad place.

“Yeah, it was a shame he was at fault [against Millwall] but he has played a lot of games for us.

“So you can’t just get caught up in that game. All players make mistakes at one time or another.

“Once you come away from it and have had a couple of days to calm down you have to look at the bigger picture, that’s all I’d say. And that is how far he has come in the time that I’ve been in charge.”

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Unacceptable form

Regardless of whether or not Sarr has improved, Charlton can’t afford for the centre-back to carry on putting in performances like the one against Millwall.

He did provide the assist for Jonathan Leko’s goal, but his defensive showing was very suspect during the game, as shown below:

It should also be noted that the 26-year-old was hooked off at half time in the previous match against Preston North End, having failed to make a tackle, interception or clearance.

The defender has shown that he can give solid performances in the Championship, as in October he was given a WhoScored rating of 8.4 in Charlton’s 3-0 win over Derby County.

This came from a performance in which he made 6 clearances, 1 tackle, 3 clearances and scored a goal.

He needs to get back to defensively solid performances like this to prevent further questions being asked about his place in the team.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

Clearly, the tensions are running high between Liverpool and Manchester City players following the Reds’ 3-1 victory over the Citizens.

In the England camp, there was an incident involving Joe Gomez and Raheem Sterling. The latter had a bee in his bonnet with the Anfield outfit’s defender following their clash on Sunday, and asked him if he thought he was “the big man”.

He is also said to have attempted to get him in a headlock. As such, he will play no part for the Three Lions against Montenegro on Thursday.

A lot of the discourse since has been aimed at Sterling’s side of the situation. It seems, though, that few have questioned why Gomez is even in the squad from a footballing point of view.

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The 22-year-old may be a popular player for Southgate – he has seven caps under the current boss – but it is hard to justify his inclusion. So far this campaign, he has made just seven starts in all competitions. In those matches, Jurgen Klopp’s side have conceded 13.

England may not be blessed with centre-backs, but there are surely some who are more worthy at this current time.

The one that stands out the most is Chris Smalling, who is excelling at AS Roma on loan from Manchester United. He has an average WhoScored rating of 7.26 in Serie A, having played ten matches in all competitions already. James Tarkowski, who has helped Burnley keep four clean sheets in the first 12 matches of the campaign, is another name to consider.

Southgate has previously mentioned he is unhappy with the number of English players starting regularly, yet he has ignored those who are in favour of one who has spent most of the campaign on the bench.

He has the potential to become a star player, but right now, £31.5m-valued Gomez does not deserve a place in the squad.