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In what promises to be one of the long drawn-out sagas of this summer, the battle to sign Harry Maguire is beginning to hot up.

Reports in recent weeks had suggested Manchester United were competing with the club’s rivals Manchester City over the England international’s signature, and it now appears the Red Devils have stolen a march.

According to Sky Sports, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side put in a second bid in the region of £70m for the 26-year-old, but the Foxes turned the new offer down.

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After hearing that their side had not quite convinced their Premier League rivals to sell, United fans took to Twitter to share their thoughts on the matter.

Many felt slightly frustrated that the Foxes hadn’t given into the club’s latest bid and felt that United were getting exploited in the transfer market once again by having to pay top dollar for a British talent.

However, some expressed their relief at the bid being turned down and suggested that the club take the hint and go after alternative options like Tottenham’s Toby Alderweireld and West Ham’s Issa Diop.

Check out some of the reaction of United fans below:

أشاد الدولي الغاني توماس بارتي، لاعب وسط فريق آرسنال، بزميله الجديد داخل الجانرز، الدولي النرويجي مارتن أوديجارد، والمُنضم حديثًا لصفوف الجانرز قادمًا من ريال مدريد.

أوديجارد انضم إلى آرسنال مُعارًا من ريال مدريد، في يناير القادم، وحتى نهاية الموسم الجاري.

اقرأ أيضًا.. ديلي ستار: آرسنال سيضطر لبيع محمد النني في الصيف

وقال أوديجارد في تصريحات نقلتها شبكة “سبورتس مول” البريطانية: “أوديجارد؟ من الصعب أنّ تلعب ضده”.

وأضاف: “أتذكي أنني لعبت ضده عندما كنت في أتلتيكو مدريد، إنه ذكي جدًا، ويملك سرعة هائلة، ولا يمنحك فرصة للفوز بالكرة”.

وأتم تصريحاته قائلًا: “إنه لأمر رائع أنّ يكون هُنا، أتمنى أنّ يتمتع بموسم رائع ويصبح قادرًا على مساعدتنا في تحقيق ما نريد تحقيقه”.

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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…

Reports from Football Insider on Thursday stated that Marcelo Bielsa is at loggerheads with the higher-ups at Leeds United due to the timing of the club’s pre-season tour in Australia.

Of course, travelling to the other side of the world less than a month before your season gets started isn’t ideal, but the Argentine has known about this for months now, so he needs to just get on with it.

We’ve all known that Leeds were heading down under since November last year, and Bielsa seemed quite happy with the arrangement back then.

“I am pleased that we have been given the opportunity to take the team over to Australia to help us prepare for the 2019/20 season,” the Argentine said.

It’s understandable that any football manager wouldn’t be happy with his squad travelling such a distance so close to the start of the season, but in this case, Bielsa has no grounds to be kicking off with people in charge at the club.

Causing a stir achieves nothing, Leeds will be going to Australia no matter what, and the reported problems have seemingly reached the press which could cause further strain on the relationship between Bielsa and club officials.

The 63-year-old would have been better off just biting his tongue and getting on with it while making it clear that he doesn’t want the same situation to arise next season.

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Managers can sometimes get lost with what’s happening on the pitch, but the directors know what’s best for commercial gains and a tour of Australia could bring in a wealth of new supporters which could provide the club with a financial boost.

With Leeds’ apparent struggles with FFP compliance, this tour could be vital in terms of extra income, and while it may cause problems with fatigue, Bielsa’s complaints won’t change anything.

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Yesterday was a big day for many of the Liverpool youngsters.

As the Merseyside team started their 2019 summer pre-season with a match against Tranmere Rovers, Jurgen Klopp decided to make dreams come true, including their coveted young star Bobby Duncan.

Duncan is still officially a part of the Reds’ Under-18 team but he was granted his senior team debut earlier this week, and it’s safe to say that he grasped the opportunity with both hands.

Liverpool ended up winning the game with an impressive six-nil scoreline and Duncan was among the goalscorers.

After the game the 18-year-old up and coming starlet quickly took to Instagram to share an emotional message with the fans and his teammates alike.

Even though he has only been a part of the Liverpool family for a year, he has rapidly established himself as a big part of the youth setup since he arrived from Manchester City.

Just last season he played a total of 36 games across all competitions, scoring 25 goals and assisting eight.

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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…

If you were an Arsenal fan and you didn’t know who Takuma Asano was, then you would be forgiven. The 24-year-old has been on the club’s books since the summer of 2016, but has failed to register a single competitive appearance for the Gunners.

At the time of his signing, Arsene Wenger proudly declared that Asano was a “talented young striker and very much one for the future”. Perhaps even the iconic French manager could not have envisaged a scenario whereby three years later, the Japanese ace would still not have taken to the field at the Emirates.

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As is unfortunately the case when it comes to signing players from Asian outfits, the pre-conception is that clubs do it to boost their marketing profile. The likes of Park Ji-Sung and Son Heung-Min have done well to dispel that notion somewhat in recent history, but Asano’s failings leave another black mark on clubs opting to sign talent from Asia.

The 24-year-old has spent the past three campaigns on loan at German sides VfB Stuttgart and Hannover 96, and his time with the latter last season ended in quite farcical fashion.

Having managed 13 league appearances by April – without scoring a single goal – Asano was one appearance away from forcing Hannover to pay £2.6m to make the loan deal permanent. The result? Asano was frozen out from the team for the rest of the campaign so that the German club could avoid taking the Japan international off Arsenal’s hands.

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

Now, reports claim that Partizan Belgrade are close to taking the striker to Serbia for the upcoming season and that they will have an option to sign him permanently after that. Bizarrely though, the 24-year-old’s contract with the Gunners will have expired by then and he could thus leave on a free transfer.

Asano’s signing will go down as one of the most forgettable in the club’s recent history, and serves as a reminder that not all promising stars turn out for the best. Sorry Arsene.

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[ad_pod ]Every fan-base has a player at their club who is misunderstood.Usually they are either under-rated or over-rated by those who only see him in action sporadically or, in certain cases, the media wilfully misconstrue as only they can. It can drive a fan-base mad, frankly because they are close enough to know the truth.In the instance of Gabriel Jesus both of these forms of misinterpretation have come to the fore this summer, first deriving from aÂstory originating in Spain back in April that suggested the 22-year-old striker was unhappy at the club and actively seeking a departure in the close season.Brazil’s legendary striker Rivaldo then stoked the fire, per M.E.N, by suggesting that Jesus’ career would best be served away from the bright lights of Manchester.Then came his successful Copa America outings that included a goal and assist in the final and suddenly two and two were added up to five.Watch Manchester City Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

The first part of the equation had it that Jesus is unsettled in Manchester, discontent at a lack of playing time due to being second fiddle to Sergio Aguero. That that the player himself scorched the story last month by claiming a departure is “out of the question” for both him and Aguero is neither here nor there.

The transfer window is presently open therefore every rumour has some degree of currency.

Fair enough, City fans can take that with a pinch of salt. After all, we’re used now to seeing rumours do the rounds whenever one from Aguero or Jesus endures a lengthy spell on the bench. It’s an easy punch to throw but attempts to disrupt the atmosphere at City have been made in vain thus far.

Furthermore anecdotally – and sometimes too via the press – we’re aware of how settled Jesus is in the North West, in the company of his close friends and mother. We’re aware too of how highly he is valued within the club. “Gabriel is an incredible guy,†Pep Guardiola said in May on his decision to start the former Palmeiras prodigy ahead of Aguero for the FA Cup final. It has recently been revealed that Jesus will be given the number 9 jersey ahead of 2019/20.

Suddenly circumstantial evidence based purely on the forward’s back-up status at City doesn’t look so strong does it?

The second part of the equation is equally a misnomer: a fruitful Copa America is now somehow proof that Jesus is brilliant at what he does after all.

City supporters are already very conscious of this. Last season he scored seven goals and made three assists from eight league starts while his early scoring ratio soon after his arrival in January 2017 had us agape in astonishment.

His work-rate off the ball meanwhile is highly commendable with an all-round attitude to match. He is cherished at the Etihad. He is also viewed as elite.

That didn’t stop some on Twitter however – non-City supporters naturally – having their minds changed by his performances in Brazil this past month…

Every fan-base has a player at their club who is misunderstood. It can drive a fan-base mad.

Sunderland U-23 boss Elliott Dickman has confirmed that the club have turned down signing former Burnley prospect Tinashe Chakwana.

The youth manager admitted to the Sunderland Echo that the 20-year-old striker impressed on trial for the northeast club, but they turned down signing the youngster as Chakwana was too similar to options already available to Dickman in the U-23 side.

Chakwana would have been the fourth youth player to join Sunderland this summer, joining the likes of Ruben Sammut, Michael Collins and Ahmed Abdelkader this window.

Burnley Academy manager Jon Pepper once compared Chakwana to former England international Jermain Defoe (per the Zimbabwe Standard), and this high praise alone could be enough for Sunderland to regret signing the 20-year-old attacker.

As is stated in the aforementioned report, Chakwana is a natural-born goalscorer. Lightning fast and intelligent to spot the right areas of the pitch to get into and exploit, and these attributes were a contributing factor to the striker being Burnley’s U-23 top goalscorer last season (per BSS Fan Forum).

With Will Grigg failing to make much of an impact since his move to Sunderland last January after scoring four goals in 18 League One appearances for the Black Cats last season (per Transfermarkt), Chakwana could have been a different option for Sunderland to utilise heading into the new season.

Jack Ross has already shown in the past that he is willing to give exciting youth players a chance in the first-team, with former striker Josh Maja proving to be one of Sunderland’s most consistent players last year before his move to Bordeaux after scoring 16 goals in 30 appearances (per Transfermarkt) , and Chakwana could have provided something similar.

The Wigan-born Zimbabwe youth international has proven to both his former coaches and supporters of the U-23 game that he is a striker who could make the jump to senior football this season, and Sunderland might have missed a trick in not taking Chakwana on a free this summer.

Sunderland fans, will the club regret not signing Chakwana? Let us know!

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Losing to a fellow ‘big-six’ rival is never great news, but when Manchester United suffered a 2-0 defeat to Arsenal in May 2017, a silver lining seemed to emerge for the Red Devils.

Then only 19, Axel Tuanzebe was handed a surprise start in an unfamiliar right-back role and came up against the talismanic Alexis Sanchez. Despite not being able to prevent his side’s defeat, his performance was singled out for some glowing praise by Jose Mourinho.

The then United boss said: “I think he did an amazing job and I think Alexis knows his name because the kid played very well.”

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Two years later however, Tuanzebe hasn’t quite seen his United career kick on, and amidst the club’s big-money pursuit of Leicester centre-back Harry Maguire, this summer feels all the more pivotal for the young defender.

Make or break

Despite enjoying a rather impressive campaign on loan at Aston Villa last season, which culminated in the side earning promotion to the Premier League, there appears to be no guarantees that Tuanzebe will be plying his trade at Old Trafford for the upcoming year.

Indeed, The Telegraph claim that whilst the 21-year-old will be given a chance on the Red Devils’ pre-season tour, Villa are waiting in the wings to see if he will be made available for loan again.

If United are successful in their chase to sign Maguire, then Tuanzebe will likely fall even lower down the pecking order. The Englishman is already seemingly behind the likes of Eric Bailly, Victor Lindelof, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and even Marcos Rojo, and the arrival of another centre-back would be a massive blow.

Despite signing a new and improved contract this summer, Solskjaer’s comments left little to believe Tuanzebe might be given a legitimate chance at playing in the first-team next year.

The Norwegian simply said: “He had a successful time on loan with Aston Villa and has gained a lot of experience from that spell, which ended in promotion to the Premier League. He will come on the pre-season tour with us which will help his development further.”

So whilst he might only be 21, Tuanzebe will likely need to produce some exemplary performances over the course of the summer in order to force himself into his manager’s thinking. If not, another year on loan would see him be out of sight and out of mind. And in this cut-throat world of instant success, his time at United may already be over.

Liverpool will be able to take heart from the fact they worked out how to beat Manchester City despite their penalty shoot-out Community Shield defeat, according to ESPN FC pundit Alejandro Moreno.

Moreno was commenting on the meeting he effectively described as a game of two halves, in which City dominated the first half before Liverpool took control in the second.

Despite City handing Liverpool an early blow in the annual curtain-raiser, Moreno felt that Jurgen Klopp’s side could take some positives despite missing out on success at Wembley.

Moreno said: “What you saw from both teams is the fact that they both got a clear idea as to how they could beat the other. Manchester City in the first half, doing the things that they were doing, were creating chance after chance – and with better delivery, it would have been a different score by half time.

“Then you go into the second half, and Liverpool then showed a very clear picture as to how they can beat Manchester City.

“When you press them, and you force turnovers, Manchester City have difficulties recovering. And the reason they have difficulties recovering is because they are used to having the ball, they commit those numbers forward, [and] by the time they lose the ball, there is no chance to recover – and now you’re defending in 1-v-1 situations with guys who are not comfortable doing it.

“Manchester City will take positives, Liverpool will take positives, and in the end, all of us benefitted from what was a very good game.”

Given his previous comments about the fixture, the German boss won’t be losing too much sleep over the result, with the Premier League getting underway at Anfield this Friday.

And with the Reds not necessarily at full strength on Sunday (with Golden Boot holder Sadio Mane out of the squad), there is even more of a reason to be positive about that result, as they managed to take last season’s treble winners all the way without one of their star players.

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Thursday’s Aston Villa transfer roundup explained the confirmed arrival of an England U21 international, talks for a 24-year-old defender and interest in a Championship goalkeeper. Today’s edition features an agreement reached for a Brazilian, eyes on a 19-year-old and a bid accepted for a Super Lig winger.

Villa agree Douglas fee

It is being reported that Aston Villa and Manchester City have agreed a fee for Douglas Luiz. The Villans will pay £15m for the 21-year-old midfielder, who has spent the last two seasons on loan at Girona and has never played for the Citizens.

Enquiry made for Sessegnon

According to The Telegraph, Villa are interested in signing Fulham’s Ryan Sessegnon this summer. The Midlands club have apparently already made an enquiry for the teenager along with Serie A side Inter.

Trezeguet bid accepted

Aston Villa have had a bid for winger Mohamed Trezeguet accepted by Kasimpasa according to Turkish outlet Hurriyet. The offer is worth €11m (£9.9m). The 24-year-old will soon sign for the Premier League outfit the report adds.