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In an exclusive interview with Football FanCast, former Premier League forward Dean Windass has backed Tottenham Hotspur to secure an “unbelievable” return for ex-midfielder Luka Modric.

Earlier this week, reports emerged in Spain claiming that Spurs boss Jose Mourinho had spoken to the 35-year-old Real Madrid star over a potential reunion back in north London.

Modric was signed by the ‘Special One’ at the La Liga giants for £30m back in 2012 and has been there ever since, though his current contract at the Bernabeu is set to expire at the end of the current season.

Although, it is thought that the Croatian veteran is in talks over an extension, so Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy may need to act quickly if he’s to tempt the “terrific player” back to the club.

And Windass believes it would be a smart move to make…

He told FFC:

“Say no more. That would be unbelievable, wouldn’t it?

“That would strengthen the side. Would he come back? I don’t know what relationship he had [with Jose]. I watched the Tottenham thing on Netflix when Modric was there.

“Listen, he’s a great player isn’t he, wow. Hopefully yeah, we all want to see the best players in the Premier League, and he’s certainly one of them.”

Modric has still proven to be a valuable player for Zinedine Zidane despite his advancing years, starting 11 of 13 matches in the Spanish top-flight this season.

Per WhoScored, the World Cup runner-up and 2018 Ballon d’Or winner has averaged 1.6 key passes, 1.6 dribbles, 1.2 tackles and 0.8 shots per game. He’s certainly still got it.

The 35-year-old played 160 times for Spurs before making the move to Madrid eight years ago. Gareth Bale’s come back, so why not Modric?

AND in other news, Pundit baffled by contract situation of £120kp/w Spurs “liability”…

In an exclusive interview with Football FanCast, former Hull City marksman Dean Windass has revealed what his son, Josh Windass, has told him about the current Sheffield Wednesday squad as they battle to stave off relegation this season.

The Owls were slapped with a 12-point deduction in the summer (since reduced to just six points) following the sale of Hillsborough Stadium to owner Dejphon Chansiri.

And after a poor start to the campaign, the Thai businessman pulled the trigger on Garry Monk after over a year in charge.

Ex-Stoke City and West Brom boss Tony Pulis soon replaced him, but the Yorkshiremen have managed to win just one game under the 62-year-old since he was appointed last month.

Windass’ son Josh is currently their top goalscorer with three goals from 15 starts, as per WhoScored, and he has claimed that they’ve got a good enough squad to beat the drop this term…

Dean revealed to FFC:

“Josh thinks so. Josh says they’ve got a good squad.

“They shouldn’t be down there. The 12-point deduction killed them at the start of the season. [The] confidence is quite low when it’s like that but that’s just the way it went.

“Josh has said they’re a good side, you know when they’re on their day.”

Wednesday will be looking to build on their 1-0 victory over Coventry when they head to Blackburn Rovers on Boxing Day, a side that has won just once in their last five league outings.

The win on Saturday moved the Owls off the bottom of the Championship table on goal difference, though it still leaves them four points from safety after 20 matches with both teams in front of them having an extra game to play.

Without the deduction, Pulis’ men would be 20th – safe, but by no means comfortable.

Only time will tell on whether Windass’ words will ring true.

AND in other news, Exclusive: Pundit drops huge revelation over Sheffield Wednesday boss Tony Pulis…

Emil Krafth betrayed Steve Bruce by producing an invisible performance at right-back in Newcastle United’s FA Cup third round defeat at Arsenal on Saturday night.

Bruce recalled the Sweden international to his starting line-up as one of a raft of changes from the Magpies side which lost at home to Leicester City a week prior, having decided to initially hand current favourite DeAndre Yedlin a rest at the Emirates Stadium.

But Krafth’s night lasted just 68 minutes before being replaced by Jacob Murphy, having ghosted around the field in north London without leaving any impact on proceedings.

Krafth had proven to be Bruce’s favoured right-back in the cup competitions by starting three of the Toon’s four Carabao Cup ties, yet had struggled to establish himself in the Premier League with three starts in four appearances from a possible 16.

Bruce will have no immediate plans to trust the £3.5m-rated dud after his shocking display at Arsenal, where he could not create a thing going forward and looked entirely off the pace when retreating towards Martin Dubravka’s goal.

Joelinton could also be tarnished with the same brush as Krafth during the Brazilian’s 81 minutes at left-midfield, with Newcastle hero Alan Shearer blasting his former side’s £40m record signing for “offering nothing”.

Yet Joelinton had at least been full of running up and down the left-channel and held the ball up well to bring other United players into the action, which could not be said for his teammates who often left the 24-year-old isolated.

Krafth had no excuses for his torrid night in north London and firmly betrayed Bruce entirely through his own doing, leaving the £58,000-per-week dud left to face yet another spell out in the cold.

The 24-cap Sweden international contested a mere four duels during his time on the field, winning two, while turning over possession on eight occasions and making a single attempted dribble, per SofaScore.

He further misplaced two of his three attempted crosses, was dribbled past as often as he completed a successful tackle, made one clearance and offered a measly 10 accurate passes from 13 attempts.

Krafth’s performance ensured there was no doubt in his number being shown at some stage as Bruce looked for a way to beat Arsenal in their own backyard, and it will likely be some time yet before his name next features in a Magpies starting line-up.

AND in other news, Steve Bruce has no alternative but to perform a U-turn and tie a £4.5m-rated Newcastle star down with a new deal now…

Sam Allardyce will surely be overjoyed after he picked up his first three points as West Brom boss with a come-from-behind victory over arch-rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday afternoon.

However, once he and his side come down from the euphoria, he’ll be hit by the fact that he still has it all to do if he’s to turn around the Baggies’ fortunes.

After all, Albion remain three points from safety after picking up just their second win all season, and they certainly had the rub of the green with two penalty decisions – the first of which looked to be outside the box.

The home side dominated possession (68%) and recorded 11 more attempts at goal than West Brom, per SofaScore, so they can count their lucky stars that decisions went in their favour.

Big Sam’s side were rather ineffective in attack once again, only further exposing the need for a new striker this January transfer window.

Unlike last weekend, the 66-year-old turned to a player who has played the role before in Callum Robinson, but that only proved to be another failed experiment having deployed Matheus Pereira as a false nine last weekend.

This whole situation will have Allardyce fuming as there’s very little he can do – Karlan Grant is absent for the foreseeable future with a broken foot whilst Charlie Austin has been sent to QPR on loan.

Their attempts in the market thus far have fallen short, as per Sky Sports, their bid to sign Hoffenheim striker Ishak Belfodil stalled earlier in the week.

He needs a new striker this month.

Robinson had fewer touches (26) than nine of the Baggies’ starting XI, including the goalkeeper David Button (43) which only goes to show just how little he was involved throughout the 90 minutes he was on the pitch.

The 25-year-old, who is valued at £9m, was also rather weak against Wolves’ suspect backline, meaning the particularly error-prone Willy Boly and Conor Coady had the better of the forward despite the pair conceding the two dubious penalties.

He won just three of his nine duels (33%), including zero aerially, per SofaScore. He was simply dominated by the Old Gold duo.

Indeed, in Joseph Chapman’s post-match ratings for BirminghamLive, he claimed that the 15-time Ireland international ‘had a tough time of it’ upfront on his own.

With Grant expected out for another five weeks at least, the need to bring in a new forward is only going to get more and more desperate as the month goes on.

At the end of the day, Albion may have put three past Wolves, but none of those goals came from open play and that still ranks them as the third-worst in the division for such a metric, per WhoScored.

Robinson, a natural winger given he’s played 42% of Transfermarkt recorded matches in the role, isn’t the long-term striking solution and that showed tenfold at Molineux.

AND in other news, Dowling heading for an unforgivable West Brom disaster over £30k-p/w monster…

Tottenham Hotspur are running out of time to make any major additions as less than ten days remain in the January transfer window.

It’s only been a mere three months since chairman Daniel Levy pulled off a phenomenal summer of business, signing the likes of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Matt Doherty on bargain deals, as well as securing the sensational return of Gareth Bale to north London alongside impressive left-back Sergio Reguilon.

But will any business be done before February 1st? Only time will tell.

Spurs have been linked to a vast array of names, but what is known is that manager Jose Mourinho is longing for a new pacey central defender and a box-to-box maestro, according to The Sunday Times’ Duncan Castles, before the month is out.

So, here’s how the Special One’s XI could look in time for their derby clash against Chelsea in two weeks time…

As the north Londoners find themselves still remaining in all competitions this term, we predict that Levy may well open the chequebook in the desperate attempted to pull them into lifting their first trophy since 2008.

With that in mind, Mourinho could get those two additions he’s desperate for.

In goal, club captain Hugo Lloris is likely to continue as the no.1 despite reported interest from former manager Mauricio Pochettino, as per The Sun.

A back four could see Toby Alderweireld partnering a new centre-back in another Madrid man, Eder Militao. The 23-year-old Brazilian is heavily out-of-favour under Zinedine Zidane, and according to Mundo Deportivo, he’s a player that interests Mourinho.

Indeed, he could fulfil the ‘pacey central defender’ requirement as he’s also been deployed as a right-back in the past too. An average of 0.7 dribbles per game over the course of his career is testament to that too as it shows he’s not afraid to bring the ball out from the back.

Sport (via Sport Witness) believe he’d be a loan arrival rather than a permanent one.

Both Sergio Reguilon and Serge Aurier are likely to continue as the first-choice full-back pairing in the league.

In midfield, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Tanguy Ndombele remain as part of the starting XI, but the addition of that box-to-box star is going to cause trouble for several players.

£22.5m-rated Harry Winks, linked with a loan move to Villarreal by Sky Sports, could indeed be shipped out temporarily as a result.

Whilst forgotten man Dele Alli is likely to be shipped to PSG. That decision currently lies firmly in the hands of the stalling Levy, according to Fabrizio Romano “everyone is waiting” for the Spurs chairman to sanction any exit.

There’s also no place for £55m attacking midfielder Giovani Lo Celso as he’s been out injured for over a month.

Instead, we could see Spurs seal a move for Marcel Sabitzer – German transfer expert Max Bielefeld told Sky Deutschland that the north Londoners were keen on the Leipzig captain, and The Athletic believe he could command around £30m, which would be in their budget.

A front three of Heung-min Son, Harry Kane and Steven Bergwijn is likely to be the go-to for Mourinho despite having Bale fit and available.

AND in other news, £45m “warrior” could take Spurs onto the next level…

Liverpool have been linked with Ajax centre-back Perr Schuurs in recent months and after a superb display for the Eredivisie side at the weekend, you could definitely argue he would be a strong addition to Jurgen Klopp’s side.

It was suggested last month that the Reds were readying a £27 million bid for the 21-year-old but he seemingly ruled out the chances of him making the move to Anfield but he later responded to those rumours, suggesting that he wanted to stay with Ajax to win trophies before even considering a move away.

The young defender joined Ajax from Fortuna Sittard in January 2018 and in the three years since he has gone on to make 46 appearances for the senior side, contributing two goals and one assist.

Schuurs showed his class at the weekend against his former side, helping Ajax to a 2-1 win away from home with an excellent all-round display, which perhaps suggests that he is destined for a great future.

As per SofaScore, the centre-back would earn a solid 6.9 rating for his performance on Sunday, which was the joint-fourth highest of any Ajax player.

The 21-year-old would make two clearances, three tackles and two interceptions in the 90 minutes, significantly more than his experienced centre-back partner Daley Blind.

He would also play double the amount of passes than the former Manchester United man, with 62/66 of his efforts finding an Ajax shirt, resulting in an impressive 94% accuracy rate.

The six foot three centre-back would also complete 5/7 of his long balls, which suggests that he would fit well into Liverpool’s style of play, as Van Dijk’s long passes have been a feature of the Reds’ play in recent seasons.

The three tackles Schuurs made against Fortuna Sittard was impressive considering he normally averages 1.2 tackles per game in the Eredivisie.

However, that is double the number of tackles made on average by Van Dijk both this season and last season (0.6), which again suggests that he could be a good partner for the Dutch international in the future, at both club and international level.

After Schuurs impressed in the 1-0 defeat against Liverpool in the Netherlands earlier this season, Rio Ferdinand said:

“The young centre-back Schuurs was very, very good.”

With Liverpool looking weak at the back right now, Michael Edwards should definitely consider a swoop for the £10.8m-rated Schuurs in the future. His performance on Sunday was just one of many impressive displays this season, and he looks as if he has a huge amount of potential.

And, in other news… Liverpool should sign “technically outstanding” teenager; he’s better than Elliott

Liverpool will undoubtedly be reeling from their shock defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion last time out in the Premier League. The Reds struggled immensely to make any sort of impact in the final third and as such, Robert Sanchez had quite an easy evening.

The Seagulls scraped through with a gargantuan three points thanks to a goal from Steven Alzate to go ahead just after half-time. Liverpool suffered the defeat on home soil, breaking the myth that Anfield is, and will remain a fortress.

Attention now shifts to their next league hurdle. The reigning champions will take on the season’s leaders in Manchester City and it will be a juicy watch for the neutrals.

Pep Guardiola and his men are unbeaten in their last 20 matches and have won the last 13 in a row, according to Sofascore. They are in blistering form despite not having Sergio Aguero and will be hungry to further upset Liverpool and their reigning season as champions.

After losing three of their last five fixtures, the Reds will be desperate to make a swift comeback against rivals City. But to do so, Klopp must reconsider the options he fielded against Brighton.

Starting Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain would be a bold but strong move from the German gaffer. The loss against Brighton showed that Liverpool rapidly ran out of options when it came to their creativity. According to Sofascore, Gini Wijnaldum had a poor performance in midfield, managing just 36 touches before he was hauled off the pitch. This is less than Caoimhin Kelleher put in, which is a concerning stat for a creative midfielder.

Indeed, Wijnaldum looked a shadow of the man who showed up against West Ham to grab himself one of Liverpool’s three goals.

For this reason, Klopp must consider his options and start the more elusive Oxlade-Chamberlain. The England international enjoys taking a crack at goal from outside the box, which could be exactly what the Reds need to thwart Guardiola’s tight defence.

The £21.6million-rated midfielder scored a goal of this nature against City before now. His wonder strike back in 2018 in the Champions League is undoubtedly one of his career highlights and arguably one of the goals of the competition.

The former Gunners ace has the raw pace and power of a winger, but brings it into a more central area, and that directness is what saw him average more shots and key passes than the Dutchman in the Premier League last season.

Having someone who can take a player on and beat them with a quick change of direction when defenders are camped back could be game-changing, with others having to desperately come back in and leaving their own man open. And then, you’ve got Oxlade-Chamberlain’s blistering pace to consider if Liverpool win the ball back and look to counter themselves.

If Klopp deploys the 27-year-old over Wijnaldum on Sunday, he has more chance of Liverpool finding their past a City side that has conceded just two goals in their last ten fixtures. It could be a real game-changer for the Reds.

In other news, Exclusive: Rob Lee drops verdict on Liverpool return for Danny Ings…

Leeds were handed a defeat in the Premier League last night at the hands of a merciless Arsenal side. The struggling Gunners were 3-0 up before half-time even struck, thanks to a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang brace and a strike from Hector Bellerin.

Aubameyang struck again in the second half, just two minutes after the restart but Leeds shifted up a gear in a desperate attempt to claw something back.

Pascal Struijk and Helder Costa found the back of the net but it was only enough to half the deficit. It was an overall disappointing performance from this Leeds side, with Illan Meslier receiving the brunt of the stick for letting four goals past him and conceding a spot-kick. One man who also heavily let the side down was Ezgjan Alioski.

Ezgjan Alioski vs Arsenal

Sofascore gave him a match rating of 5.9 which was the worst of any outfield player on the night, and when you look at some of his underlying numbers, it’s easy to see why. He made just 23 passes at an accuracy of 70% (only Klich fared worse), and was much lower than his 55 passes and 81% accuracy against Crystal Palace in the match prior.

He also failed to register a single block, interception or clearance and made just the one tackle, which isn’t good enough for a defender and significantly lower than his season average.

This campaign, Alioski has averaged two tackles per match in the Premier League, while he also has come up with 0.7 interceptions and one clearance per match too.

And that’s not all. As a full-back, the revolutionised role sees them contribute heavily to the attack as well as the defence. Alioski contributed two key passes and completed 100% of his crosses in the 2-0 win over Palace, but in his performance against Arsenal, he failed to put in a single cross and managed just one key pass.

Leeds have now slipped into 11th place after Arsenal leapfrog them and go two points ahead. For Alioski, his position at the club hangs in the balance. Talks have swirled around a potential exit for the £55,000 per week left-back as he finds himself linked to Galatasaray on a permanent contract.

Poor performances will only further nudge the North Macedonian out the door and force Marcelo Bielsa to bench him in favour of other personnel.

One of the big talking points ahead of the game was about Alioski coming up against Nicolas Pepe following the Ivorian’s sending off in the reverse clash at Elland Road earlier in the season, with Patrick Bamford openly revealing his teammate was looking forward to Sunday’s game.

Pepe of course didn’t come on, but Alioski’s awful performance will certainly not have made Bielsa happy. Bukayo Saka ran rings around him with his pace and movement, making seven dribbles and winning five fouls, both of which were game-highs.

Leeds’ full-back struggled to cope, and it was no surprise that Saka won his side a penalty (that was overturned by VAR) with a darting run infield that Liam Cooper had to come across to deal with because Alioski didn’t.

Meslier may take the headlines for his gaffe in the build-up to Arsenal’s legitimate spot-kick, but Alioski hardly covered himself in glory either, and Bielsa will be surely disappointed with him.

In other news, Gaetano Berardi injury news may not be the boost many believe it is…

With just one defeat in their last six league outings, this was the ideal opportunity for Wolves to lay down their credentials.

By all accounts, this has been a torrid campaign for the Old Gold. Nuno Santo has rarely had many difficulties in his Molineux tenure, but this season has been full of them.

With injuries aplenty and his attack misfiring, Nuno’s men have been closer to relegation than achieving their ultimate goal of European football.

Against a timid Newcastle side, it was a performance that demonstrated everything that’s gone wrong with this Wolves team. Last season, they surely would have pushed the Magpies aside.

Their quick counter-attacking style of football would arguably have been no match for a rigid Steve Bruce team. Though, his side stood firm on this occasion and even took the lead.

It took Ruben Neves’ fourth goal in ten matches for Wolves to take a solitary point after drawing 1-1, but if there was a positive beyond that, it had to be Adama Traore.

In an otherwise tame display, the winger was rampant and is now beginning to creep towards his best form again. The Spaniard caused the goal against Leeds just over a week ago, thundering a fierce effort off the bar that came off Illan Meslier and then found the net.

Although he failed to score at St James’ Park, his performance typified the skills he’s brought to the Premier League since joining from Middlesbrough.

We know Traore has what it takes to beat a man but even he defied his usual standards on Saturday evening. In total, the 25-year-old succeeded with a total of 14 dribbles from 19 attempts. That tally happened to better his season’s best of nine dribbles in a game.

He had Toon right-back Emil Krafth in a spin as he was surpassed past on no fewer than four occasions by the rampant Traore.

It was a day to forget for the Swedish defender who found life incredibly difficult against the Spain international.

That wasn’t the sole positive from his outing, though. Traore set the tone for a remarkable display with four key passes leading to goal scoring opportunities, a tally that once again happened to be his best of the campaign.

The forward is often a bulldozer on the wing and he used his frightening levels of strength to maraud his way past opponents. During the contest, he won a colossal 19 ground duels, a tally that surpassed Wolves’ next best player (Jonny) in this department by a total of 13.

This was a mesmerising outing from Traore, one that signified he is now well and truly back.

All the Wolves star needs now is to find the back of the net. Amazingly, he is yet to do so in the Premier League this season.

AND in other news, Forget Gibbs-White: Nuno must unleash rarely-seen Wolves 18y/o who “scores every week”…

According to club insiders Claret & Hugh, via West Ham News, it would be a ‘huge surprise’ if January loan signing Jesse Lingard did not sign permanently in the summer – prompting many Irons to flock to this potentially promising claim. 

Lingard has been a revelation since putting pen to paper on a loan deal with West Ham United in January, scoring three goals in four Premier League starts already (WhoScored) – including a winner against London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

Now, C&H have dropped a promising claim on Lingard’s situation – going on to state it would be a ‘huge surprise’ if he didn’t sign permanently at the end of his loan spell.

Flocking to this statement on social media, some West Ham fans displayed excitement at the prospect of keeping Lingard indefinitely – with one Hammer even describing it as the ‘best thing’ he’s seen all day.

Meanwhile, other Irons had a variation of verdicts – find all of their best comments down below.

West Ham fans flock to Lingard claim

“Best thing I’ve seen all day”

Credit: @WHUFC_joseph

“Music to my ears”

Credit: @JackkWHU

“Good to hear”

Credit: @_ollybrett

“Lingard and Dawson have to be made permanent.”

Credit: @at67435

“We need to negotiate now, get it done before other teams start sniffing”

Credit: @whujeff

“Really hoping we manage to get him. I’m sure he would like to play for us but I’m aware he has family ties in Manchester and cares for his younger siblings so not sure if he’d move long term? We can hope”

Credit: @GeoffWilkinson_

“This is West Ham we are talking about!!”

Credit: @Bunny88509334

In other news: West Ham are eyeing this ‘proper leader’ for Moyes, find out more here.