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Aston Villa’s academy has produced some great talents, and there is now another prospect in their ranks already attracting interest from some of England’s biggest sides.

The latest on an Aston Villa talent

According to The Times, Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool are some of the clubs monitoring Villa wonderkid Carney Chukwuemeka.

None have yet made an approach to sign him, but the report claims there is even competition for his signature from Europe too, so this will definitely be a player to keep an eye on as the rumours heat up.

Villa need to keep hold of their prospects

The club clearly understand the potential Chukwuemeka has, with Chief Executive Christian Purslow piling massive praise on him last year as he said: “We need to be higher in recruiting the best eight-year-old, nine-year-old, 10-year-old, 11-year-old, 12-year-old, 14, 16, one a year that makes it and gets a professional contract at 16.

“I want that player. We have one right now, probably the best 16-year-old in England, Carney (Chukwuemeka). Absolutely no debate, he’s starting for the U23s.”

He is now 17, but he clearly is already impressing, and he is a key asset in the U23 side already, featuring eleven times in Premier League 2 and twice in the EFL Trophy this season (Transfermarkt). He has picked up two assists along the way.

To be already playing at the highest youth level at such a young age emphasises his potential, as does the fact that United, City and Liverpool are interested in him. Therefore, Villa need to do everything in their power to keep him at the club as they could have another amazing Premier League star who can follow in the footsteps of captain Jack Grealish.

In other news: Aston Villa fans flocked to this update by Gregg Evans, find out more here.

Tottenham Hotspur suffered a fourth defeat in five league outings on Saturday night after they were well-beaten by Premier League leaders Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.

Jose Mourinho’s men were more than holding their own until the 23rd minute and once again, a defensive mistake swung the game against them completely.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg brought down Ilkay Gundogan inside the area before Rodri stepped up to slot home the opener despite Hugo Lloris getting a palm to it – the German would go onto complete the rout with a second-half brace.

The Spurs boss kept his faith in Erik Lamela after an encouraging pair of matches in the past week – indeed, the Argentine had been a rare positive amid their rotten form but the 28-year-old winger failed to repay his manager as he put in an abysmal showing in Manchester.

Lamela drew the second-lowest rating of any player to feature in the match, being graded a 6.1 by SofaScore, and it’s easy to see why.

No Spurs player lost as many battles as he did.

The €30m (£26m) ace could only win three of 11 duels at a success rate of 27%, which means he was largely dominated by the City midfield as he was initially deployed in the no.10 role before switching to the right at half-time.

Every City player on his side of the pitch was graded at 7.5 or better by SofaScore and that tells the whole story.

Though he wasn’t just lightweight and weak – at times, you could be forgiven for thinking that Lamela was playing in blue instead of Spurs’ dodgy undertones of green.

Lamela committed four fouls, which was double what anyone else on the pitch could manage, meaning he proved to consistently be a liability as he was handing City golden opportunities from set-pieces.

As described perfectly by the Evening Standard’s Dan Kilpatrick, it was a ‘typically chaotic and infuriating Lamela display’ – both he and football.london’s Alasdair Gold rated him a measly 5/10.

Given the 25-time Argentina international is among the club’s highest earners at a whopping £85k-per-week, he really should be doing better, especially as he was trusted to start only his fourth league game of the campaign.

Lamela badly let Mourinho and Spurs down on the night with an absolutely shambolic display.

AND in other news, £60k-per-week Spurs calamity endured nightmare display vs Man City…

Tottenham Hotspur have been handed an encouraging boost after it was confirmed that two players returned to training this week…

What’s the word?

Ahead of the second leg of their Europa League Round of 32 clash with Wolfsberger AC tonight, Spurs boss Jose Mourinho delivered a positive update in his pre-game press conference, where he revealed that both Serge Aurier and Giovani Lo Celso were nearing a comeback.

On Aurier, he said: “Serge is almost there, I believe for the weekend and if not the weekend, Fulham next week, but Serge is coming.”

And on Lo Celso, Mourinho added: “Gio is not coming back, but coming back to training with the team, which is a big step and a very important one. Even today, he was training for the first time, of course, with lots of protection in relation to what he could or could not do.

“It’s good news. It’s maybe a couple of weeks to play, but let’s say if everything goes well, we are on the countdown.”

Mourinho will be delighted

Given the run of form Spurs find themselves in at the minute – six defeats in eight – it will be a welcome boost to have two players back capable of making an impact for the rest of the campaign.

At right-back, it is becoming increasingly clear that Mourinho does not trust £15m summer signing Matt Doherty and reports have surfaced, via ESPN, suggesting that his future past the summer could be in serious doubt.

Indeed, Aurier has usurped the Irishman despite all of his own worries. The Spurs boss revealed during their Amazon ‘All or Nothing’ docuseries that he was scared of the former PSG star’s defending, so it speaks volumes that he’s started more times (13) than Doherty (nine).

Japhet Tanganga was preferred to the 29-year-old on Sunday, too.

Whilst Lo Celso is capable of injecting much-needed influence further up the pitch. As we’ve seen in recent matches, Mourinho has given chances to wide duo Erik Lamela and Lucas Moura in the no.10 role, with Tanguy Ndombele playing a little deeper.

This surely means the Argentine playmaker could slot right back in, eventually.

On the face of it, a return of only one goal and one assist in the league isn’t anything to scream about but Lo Celso’s importance shouldn’t be understated.

He sits third to the impressive partnership of Harry Kane and Heung-min Son for key passes per game (0.8), which means he’s creating more chances than everyone but Spurs’ two biggest goal threats.

Whilst of all players to play ten or more league games this term, Aurier (0.24) and Lo Celso (0.21) are only behind Kane for expected assists per 90 minutes, via Understat, only reinforcing their importance to this side picking up results.

In the two games without Aurier, Spurs have scored just once, whilst since the turn of the year, the north London outfit have only surpassed two goals in one game on two occasions, which isn’t good enough for a side that was sitting top of the table in mid-December.

Clearly, the return of the pair will be a major boost for Spurs, and that should ultimately have Mourinho absolutely delighted.

AND in other news, Forget Alli: Jose must unleash “special” £18m-rated Spurs star who’s “full of quality” TONIGHT…

Many Aston Villa fans are reacting to the very positive news that Matt Targett could have a chance of being called up to the England squad in the near future.

According to @MirrorFootball and tweeted out by @villareport, Three Lions manager Gareth Southgate is considering giving Targett an England call-up during the next international break this month. Following this news, one fan said: ‘He’s been fantastic.’

Villa are a team that the Three Lions boss should be looking at closely as they are only six points away from the Champions League spots with two games in hand (SofaScore). They also have 13 clean sheets this season (Premier League) and this is the second-best in the division – their entire first-choice back-four are all English.

This would be a huge achievement for the left-back. He has improved massively this campaign, managing 2.2 tackles, 1.6 interceptions and 2.1 clearances (WhoScored) per game. The 25 year-old would also be making his club and supporters proud, and they could not contain their excitement following these reports.

Here is what they said following the news:

“What he deserves”

Credit: @Catrinedwards18

“MY GOAT”

Credit: @avfc_jf

“He’s been fantastic this season”

Credit: @RonAldoRMFC2016

“He’s been fantastic all season for us and most improved Villa player this season imo”

Credit: @UTVilla

“So he should.”

Credit: @jeanstshirt

“You just love to see it”

Credit: @enstrod

In other news, fans have flocked to some of Dean Smith’s latest comments!

Dean Henderson was afforded a rare opportunity in the Premier League on Wednesday evening as Manchester United drew 0-0 with Crystal Palace.

The 23-year-old was selected between the sticks for the Red Devils, with regular stopper David de Gea dropping out due to “personal reasons”, according to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

With Henderson’s stock still high from his performances on-loan with Sheffield United throughout the past two seasons, he sent a message to manager Solskjaer that he should remain in goal for United for the foreseeable future.

Whilst it is true that he wasn’t called upon too often at Selhurst Park, making just two saves and claiming one high ball throughout the 90 minutes according to WhoScored, it is another clean sheet to add to his impressive tally and he did make a game-saving save late on to deny Patrick van Aanholt.

In his 14 appearances for the Red Devils in all competitions, the £18m-rated stopper has managed to accumulate nine shutouts. This means that a huge proportion of 64% of Henderson’s end without him having conceded a goal – an impressive record.

Meanwhile, de Gea only has 10 clean sheets in 29 matches in all competitions – giving him a clean sheet rate of 34%.

It could be implied that Henderson has been coming up against lower quality opposition in cup competitions, but he has still secured clean sheets against fellow Premier League sides in the form of West Ham United, Brighton & Hove Albion and Everton.

Following the match against Crystal Palace, United boss Solskjaer praised Henderson for his performance, saying that he is “growing” into his position at Old Trafford. This was exemplified by the key save late on to deny Van Aanholt, despite it being a relatively quiet night.

As it stands, Henderson deserves a run in the side to prove that he’s the man to count on as he’s not let United down at all.

And in more news, take a look at how Manchester United could potentially offload Phil Jones in the summer…

Sunderland are building momentum at just the right time. Their 2-0 win over Portsmouth on Tuesday night took them to within five points of top spot in League One.

It’s hard not to get ahead of ourselves at the moment but it feels as though this could finally be the campaign where the Mackems get promoted.

They have won seven of their last eight games and now even have a Papa John’s Trophy final to look forward to. This has been nothing short of an exceptional turnaround from where they were under Phil Parkinson.

Lee Johnson has turned his team into a force to be reckoned with and not even a plethora of injuries can halt their progress. Grant Leadbitter’s dislocated shoulder has meant that Carl Winchester has now started three games in a row in the middle of the park.

The midfielder was a rather understated signing from Forest Green in January but he’s now beginning to prove his worth to the Black Cats. Against Pompey in front of the television cameras on Tuesday, he was nothing short of phenomenal.

It’s taken a while to see the best of Winchester in red and white but he has now well and truly come to the party.

Speaking at full-time, Johnson said: “Carl is going to be that kind of slow burner in terms of appreciation, but over 100 touches, 1,000 touches, you will see the quality he has got, the calmness and the composure.”

He added: “This is a big club and Winch hasn’t played at a club this size. The more we can encourage and support him, I think we will start to see more really good performances like tonight.”

Moving clubs in January is always tough and Winchester found life difficult initially. He started among the subs for a number of weeks before finally getting his chance.

He has taken it in his stride and has formed an eye-catching partnership with Josh Scowen. The duo were both incredibly influential in midweek, winning a combined 12 defensive duels.

Though, it was Winchester who arguably stood out more. The midfielder completed 100% of his take-ons and was assured with his passing, demonstrating enormous composure.

[snack-amp-story url=”https://www.footballfancast.com/web-stories/latest-sunderland-news-and-gossip” title=” Latest Sunderland news and gossip!”]

He completed 82% of his passes and was particularly strong in the tackle. No one won more than his four ground duels throughout the entire match, a statistic that tells you just how good he was at Fratton Park.

This feels like a landmark moment for Winchester. He dominated one of the strongest sides in the division and did so with relative ease.

Johnson will surely be buzzing with his performance. After all, the Sunderland boss has rated him highly ever since they were together at Oldham in 2014.

They seem well suited to each other and it wouldn’t be a surprise if we see even greater displays from the Northern Irishman between now and the end of the season.

AND in other news, Move over Sanderson: “Outstanding” SAFC gem who won 9 aerial duels merits more praise…

Former Aston Villa midfielder Lee Hendrie expressed his concerns over his old club’s struggle to win matches without Jack Grealish, in an exclusive interview with Football FanCast.

Grealish has been a revelation at the Midlands club this season, managing to score six goals and provide 10 assists for Dean Smith’s side. The 25-year-old, however, has been absent of late due to injury, coinciding with the team’s drop in form.

Villa have won just once in their last five games, a 1-0 victory against Leeds United, and Hendrie is worried about the fall off he has seen in Grealish’s absence.

Speaking exclusively to FFC, Hendrie said:

“When he’s not in that team, it’s so evident. I speak to a lot of fans on Twitter and Instagram and they’re saying ‘oh, well Matty Cash’s not involved’ and I said ‘Matty Cash doesn’t create goals, he doesn’t score goals’.

“I totally agree Matty Cash’s a very good player, but it’s the things that Jack does that maybe some fans don’t understand. If he’s quiet in games, it might be because he’s creating space for other players to go and, you know, generate that sort of area. So he’s just such a clever player and without him at this current moment, it just stands out a million miles.”

Ollie Watkins, Bertrand Traore and Anwar El Ghazi are just a few other attacking options Smith has at his disposal, with Watkins in particular having really shown his quality this season.

The English striker has managed to reach double figures in his debut Premier League campaign following his big-money move from Brentford in the last summer transfer window. Furthermore, when looking at the overall quality that the Villans have in attack, perhaps Smith should be getting a bit more out of a Grealish-less XI.

Whatever the case, 9th in the table and in the conversation for European football, the Midlands club are still having a very good campaign.

Plenty of Aston Villa supporters have been reacting on social media to Lee Hendrie’s Villa summer transfer suggestions.

Dean Smith has brought in five permanent additions to his squad this season, totalling £88.34m in transfer fees.

Ross Barkley also arrived on loan, and it seems as if the club will be active in the market once again at the end of the current campaign.

Hendrie’s Fulham trio

Talking to Football FanCast, former Villa midfielder Hendrie was asked who Villa should be looking to sign in the summer.

The 43-year-old picked out Fulham trio Harrison Reed, Ademola Lookman and Bobby Decordova-Reid as possible options, should Scott Parker’s side suffer relegation, with the latter of the three seemingly top of his wishlist.

“If Fulham do go down, I just feel that there’s possibly a couple of players I would certainly look at in that team that would certainly stand out for me. [Harrison] Reed in the midfield, [Ademola] Lookman and Bobby Decordova-Reid, he’s one again that I’d certainly have, and he would play week in, week out.”

Villa fans react

Hendrie’s comments were shared in a story on Birmingham Live, with @AVFC_News then posting the piece on Twitter on Tuesday evening.

Numerous Villa supporters quickly gave their thoughts to Hendrie’s transfer suggestions, with many not impressed.

“Fulham will stay up. I’d rather take a punt at Saint-Maximin once Newcastle have gone down.”

Credit: @stevesanderstax

“Bobby Reid is absolute garbage.”

Credit: @plymavfc

“Lee Hendrie trying to send us back to the Championship? Harrison Reed? Do me a favour.”

Credit: @hughespaul09

“No thanks, none of them are at the level we’re aiming for”

Credit: @JackJenningss_

“Bobby Reid absolutely not good enough”

Credit: @poz_123

“If we were still in the championship then maybe, he’s nowhere near good enough for where we want to be”

Credit: @avfc_jf

In other news: Villa ready to listen to offers for £35k-a-week star with Smith not convinced, find out more here. 

Speaking exclusively to Football FanCast, former Newcastle midfielder Keith Gillespie has backed Harry Kane to break his former teammate Alan Shearer’s Premier League goalscoring record.

Kane’s penalty in Tottenham’s victory over Aston Villa on Sunday took his tally in England’s top-flight to 160 goals, which is exactly 100 behind the ex-England striker, leaving him ninth on the all-time list.

The Spurs man has averaged around 23 Premier League goals a season since breaking into the first-team under Mauricio Pochettino back in 2014, which means, providing he remains injury-free and continues at his current rate, he would overtake Shearer in four seasons.

But Kane has spent time on the sidelines with various ankle and thigh problems in recent campaigns, and Gillespie thinks that injuries are the only thing that is going to prevent the Tottenham striker from climbing to the top of charts.

He told Football FanCast:

“There’s no doubt Harry Kane is a fantastic player, he scores all types of goals. Like Shearer, you get a few extra when you take penalties, so that always helps. I think he could do it – five years, 20 goals a season. I think it all depends on injuries as well, because he’s had a few and missed a chunk of games.

“But if there’s a Premier League game and if Harry Kane is fit, he plays, that is just a given, because he’s so important to Tottenham, so he could do it. If there is one person that is going to break it, it’s someone like Harry Kane.

“If there is someone that is going to break it, it’s someone like Harry Kane. There’s a very good chance that he could.”

Despite his recent ankle problem, Kane is looking fitter and better than ever before.

If the Tottenham man remains in the Premier League for the bulk of the rest of his career, it’s difficult to see a situation where he doesn’t leapfrog Shearer.

By Wolves’ very high standards, they have been desperately poor this season. The Molineux outfit are in the bottom half of the Premier League and European football seems a distant dream.

With that in mind, additions in the summer would be timely.

On the chalkboard

One player linked with Wolves this week was William Carvalho.

The midfielder ticks one of the biggest boxes in terms of a Molineux move; he’s Portuguese.

That being said, he isn’t a client of Jorge Mendes and neither is he a player who they can develop much.

The final point there is one of the biggest factors Wolves consider when signing a new player. However, at the age of 28, Carvalho is heading towards the final stages of his career.

The midfield general is in his prime, but unfortunately, his best days already look beyond him. Carvalho has always been an influential ball winner in the middle of the park, something 1.9 tackles per match lays claim to during the 2016/17 season.

At that point, the titanic midfielder was playing for Sporting but his tackle rate has only fallen since leaving for Betis.

In Spain, Carvalho has managed just 0.8 tackles per match this season, registering 0.5 interceptions in the process. He fails to offer much in the final third either, scoring only twice in 80 outings for his current team.

Is there another option?

Bearing in mind Carvalho’s statistics this season and indeed since he moved to La Liga, it doesn’t offer great hope for Wolves that this would be a worthwhile transfer.

As a result, they should look towards developing their own talent instead of spending money they don’t need to.

One of the players who should get a look in instead is Owen Otasowie. The 20-year-old has only been seen in the senior side on six occasions but there are strong hopes for the future.

After all, he’s regularly been in Wolves’ Premier League matchday squad this term. Like Carvalho, however, he has the ability to play as a holding midfield player. Similarly, he’s also got plenty of strength.

Speaking about Otasowie earlier this term, Scott Sellars summed up his qualities perfectly: “His physicality is his biggest strength. He’s really good at protecting the ball and at one-v-ones, with and without the ball.”

Sellars added: “He’s bright, he challenges the norm, which I like about him. He won’t just say, ‘Yeah, that’s OK, I’ll do what you say’. He’s got personality. I’ve had some interesting and very honest conversations with him about where he’s at, which he appreciates.”

Otasowie has only started once in the top-flight but his tackling stats are more impressive than Carvalho this season. The Wolves prodigy has managed one challenge per match, a tally that certainly doesn’t disgrace him.

In the 20-year-old, Wolves have a real talent for the future. They cannot afford to limit his game time by wasting money on Carvalho.

Nuno has a big decision to make this summer.

AND in other news, “I spoke to Conor” – Exclusive: Steve Bull reveals chat with “absolutely gutted” Wolves captain…