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Robbie Keane and Joleon Lescott are perhaps the most notorious players to emerge from the Wolves Academy, with recent graduate Morgan Gibbs-White aiming to develop into a player of that esteem.

Though, the Old Gold have a new kid on the block, who has been compared to Manchester City and England star Phil Foden, by Wolverhampton Wanderers U23’s coach Jamie Collins.

Cundle’s recent performance for Wolves in their U23 match against Newcastle United left the head coach full of admiration for the 19-year-old:

“We took a little risk with the change of shape and the ‘false nine’ with no centre-forward.

“We played Luke (Cundle) up there, ‘Phil Foden-esque’, and I thought he played really well.”

The praise will be welcomed by Cundle, though he will surely be used to the plaudits after becoming one of Wolves’ most highly rated academy prospects of late.

The number 39 is a regular for Wolves’ Premier League 2 side but has made six appearances for the Old Gold first team with two of these appearances being Premier League starts against Spurs and Newcastle United respectively.

The Old Gold starlet had Bruno Lage waxing lyrical over his performance in the Premier League against Spurs in mid-February.

On Cundle, Lage said: “Maybe Luke [Cundle] can be a key man because it allows us to play with four midfielders.

“It was the way we play here and with the kid from the academy. He is just 19 and I am very happy with him. The most important thing is the confidence he gives to us. He was there against top players playing like he is in the playground.”

You cannot get much higher praise than that, which is why Wolves fans are eager to see more of their starlet, in what could turn out to be the West Midlands side’s greatest ever academy prospect.

In other news: Adama 2.0: Lage must now finally unleash Wolves 22 y/o “ridiculous talent”

West Ham United will throw the chequebook at Declan Rice in a bid to keep him at the London Stadium for the foreseeable future, according to Irons hero Frank McAvennie…

What’s the word?

During an interview with West Ham Zone this week, the former Hammers striker – who enjoyed two spells in east London – claimed the club were prepared to pay “big bucks” to tie him down for the long-term.

“Listen, from what I’m hearing the club want to keep him and they’re willing to pay big bucks.

“Now, I don’t know if he’s wanting to go somewhere. [But] I think this team [and] this squad of players, could be challenging for the Champions League for the next two or three years. I think they’ve got a decent squad, keeping everyone fit. They’ll buy more players in.

“From what I’m hearing, the owners are willing to give Declan pretty much on a par with everyone else in England, so that’s a good thing.”

Encouraging news

The 22-year-old midfielder has been continually linked with a move away in recent transfer windows, with the likes of Chelsea and both Manchester giants mooted with interest.

All three of these teams made a final of last season’s European competitions. The Blues defeating City in the Champions League, whilst United were beaten by Unai Emery’s Villarreal in the Europa League.

They can clearly offer Rice a better chance of achieving silverware sooner than West Ham can, so it would be no surprise to see him keen to join any of these teams.

During the summer, the £63m-rated star was said to have rejected fresh contract advances from the Irons’ hierarchy and according to the ever-reliable ExWHUemployee, this was because his salary was not in line with some of the club’s highest-earners, such as the rarely-seen Andriy Yarmolenko, who is thought to earn a whopping £115k-per–week in east London.

However, offering the England international a new deal that would see him match similar quality players in his position is certainly a positive step in the right direction, especially after Ex’s revelation.

Rice is believed to be on just £60k-per-week at the London Stadium, which is poor considering he has now amassed 26 caps for the Three Lions since his debut in March 2019, whilst he continues to be a major influence for West Ham under David Moyes.

Last season, he ranked amongst the Hammers’ four best performers and he has continued that form into the new campaign, where he has already registered two assists in seven starts and averaged a squad-high two interceptions per game, via WhoScored.

He’s also managing the best passing accuracy in the team (92.7%), by quite some margin, too.

If the club are indeed prepared to pay him what he wants and deserves, then it should leave much of the Irons faithful absolutely buzzing as there is the intention to put right their previous offers.

Whether he wants to stay or go remains to be seen, though given he is under contract until 2024, he’s likely to remain for at least the next season or so.

AND in other news, Newman could become an instant hit at West Ham by signing £36m-rated “world-beater”…

Celtic are interested in signing Tottenham defender Cameron Carter-Vickers on deadline day, according to Sky Sports’ Paul Gilmour.

The Lowdown: Carter-Vickers links

Links to the Spurs defender emerged back in June, with Celtic in talks over a deal for the USA international.

As we know, Celtic have added to their defensive ranks with Carl Starfelt, Liam Scales and Osaze Urhoghide.

Carter-Vickers was keen on a move to Parkhead earlier in the summer, and it seems as if a move to Scotland could be on the cards late on deadline day.

The Latest: Sky Sports claim

Gilmour, reporting from Tottenham’s training ground, shared Celtic’s late interest in Carter-Vickers on-air.

Cited by Football Daily, Gilmour said:

‘We’re being told Celtic loan interest in him, but a difficult deal to do’.

The Verdict: McKay set for a late-night?

With Sky Sports sharing links to Carter-Vickers this afternoon, Dominic McKay could be in for a late-night at Parkhead.

Expected deals for Georgios Giakoumakis and Filipe Jota are yet to be announced, so you’d expect those would be a priority before Carter-Vickers with Odsonne Edouard and Ryan Christie heavily linked with exits.

If they are finalised, McKay could then put all his efforts into signing Carter-Vickers, but it looks like it could go down to the wire given all the business left to sort out in Glasgow.

In other news: ‘Race against time’ – Sky Sports reporter’s ‘huge’ deadline day transfer news involving Celtic. 

Watford lost for the third time in four games as they were beaten 3-1 by Championship side Stoke City in the League Cup on Tuesday night.

The Hornets came into the game off the back of a 3-1 win over fellow newly-promoted side Norwich at the weekend, but had lost their previous two Premier League matches to Tottenham and Wolves without scoring.

Xisco Munoz made a host of changes to his XI from the win over the Canaries and was let down by some of the players he selected. One player, in particular, who struggled was right-back Jeremy Ngakia.

For the opening goal, Ngakia tried to hold the ball near the corner flag and was ultimately robbed by a Stoke player, who then threaded it across the six-yard box for Nick Powell to convert from close range. He also failed to get close enough to Sam Clucas to block his attempted cross, which inadvertently skewed over Rob Elliott and into the back of the net.

Per SofaScore, he also lost five of his seven ground duels and made one tackle in the 90 minutes, whilst being dribbled past once. He was too lightweight to deal with the physical challenge posed by Stoke, which was highlighted in the opening goal as he was robbed of possession far too easily.

On the ball, his display was just as worrying if not worse. Per SofaScore, he lost possession of the ball a whopping 28 times during the match, whilst completing just one of his nine attempted crosses and 76% of his passes. This shows that he did not have the quality in possession to cause Stoke any problems, handing them the ball back frequently to allow them to attack the Watford goal.

He let Munoz down with his performance as he was not able to impress with or without the ball. As a full-back, Ngakia is required to be a solid defender whilst also offering an outlet in possession down the right and the aforementioned statistics show that he was unable to meet either of those requirements.

If he wants to force his way into the starting XI in the Premier League then he will need to show serious signs of improvement in training as this display may have set him back.

The nature of his mistakes could start to sound the alarm bells in Munoz’s head, because if he makes similar errors against higher-quality players, then he will be punished even more.

Manchester United suffered one of the most humiliating defeats in their history over the weekend after fierce rivals Liverpool handed out a 5-0 thrashing at Old Trafford.

A clinical Mohamed Salah hat-trick, plus goals from Naby Keita and Diogo Jota piled even more pressure on under-fire manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, as the gulf in class between the two sides was ruthlessly exposed.

It was a humiliating afternoon for everyone associated with United, but one that had been coming since the second game of the season.

Performances have been hugely underwhelming following the opening-day victory over Leeds United and now Solskjaer must find the answers to the Red Devils’ struggles or face an unbearable onslaught for his departure from all angles.

However, the Norwegian manager wasn’t solely to blame for one of the darkest days in the 20-time Engling champions’ history.

No United player left the Theatre of Dreams with any pride on Sunday afternoon after they were all left hopelessly chasing shadows for the entire 90 minutes, yet left-back Luke Shaw arguably endured the biggest nightmare of them all.

The England international was left exposed for Liverpool’s first goal, clumsily collided with Harry Maguire in the build-up to their second, was far too slow to react to a rebounded ball for the third, got dragged across the pitch for the fourth, and was nowhere near Salah for the fifth and final nail in the coffin.

Shaw has looked a shadow of the player that lit up 2020/21 in recent weeks, but his performance against the Reds was shocking, to say the least.

As per SofaScore, the left-back was awarded a match rating of just 6.1 out of 10 after he made just one tackle, two clearances and no interceptions throughout the 90 minutes.

Although goalkeeper David de Gea conceded five goals, it’s clear he got no protection from his porous backline, and it’s the men in front of the Spanish shot-stopper who are really to blame for the chastising defeat.

Shaw was not only underwhelming in his defensive duties, though. The 26-year-old lost possession a whopping 13 times, was unable to find a teammate with four of his six crosses and achieved a passing accuracy of just 78%.

It was a day to forget for the stocky defender, and with fixtures against Atalanta, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City to come, there could be some desperate weeks ahead for Shaw and his United colleagues.

And, in other news…0 duels won: Man Utd lightweight who always gets “bullied” let Ole down v Atalanta

Kieran Devlin has confirmed Celtic’s interest in Hibernian striker Kevin Nisbet.

The Lowdown: Player-plus-cash reports

Celtic signed Josip Juranovic from Legia Warsaw on Saturday, however, that wasn’t the only transfer development regarding the Hoops.

Reporter Peter Martin revealed that Celtic are keen on Nisbet and are prepared to offer Hibs Leigh Griffiths plus cash for the £52,000-a-year forward.

Georgios Giakoumakis is another forward seemingly on Dominic McKay’s radar and Devlin addresses links to both on Wednesday.

The Latest: Devlin claim

Devlin, Celtic’s correspondent for The Athletic, shared an in-depth piece on where the Hoops need to strengthen Ange Postecoglou’s squad.

When it came to forwards, he said that the club’s interest in Giakoumakis could be due to a possible Odsonne Edouard departure or a lack of faith in Albian Ajeti and Griffiths.

Devlin then went on to add that the Hoops have a longstanding interest in Nisbet, who was described as ‘excellent’ by Ally McCoist.

The Verdict: Room for two?

Should Celtic agree personal terms to sign Giakoumakis and then part ways with Edouard, it would be interesting to see if the club would consider another attacking addition.

Postecoglou could end up having Giakoumakis, Ajeti and Griffiths as centre-forward options, and with Nisbet a long-term target and Griffiths not featuring, they may well look to get the Hibs man through the door.

If they decide to do so, McKay will need to act fast, as there are just six days remaining in the window.

In other news: Celtic now looking at late swoop for ‘fantastic’ defender alongside Liam Scales move. 

Everton have been long suffering an injury crisis which has nearly forced Rafael Benitez to field makeshift teams over the last few weeks, facing the prospect of adding academy talents into the squad just to have enough players to see out fixture commitments.

The injury issues have piled up, with key players missing for large chunks of the Premier League season so far, and these issues have contributed to the poor form and performances we have seen from the Toffees over the course of the first half of the season, with Benitez’s side currently 15th in the table.

One man who has been out with a long-term injury is star striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who was sidelined in September with an injury sustained to his quadriceps, with a setback in October rendering him unavailable ever since – until now.

The £72k-p/w striker was spotted in training on Friday when Everton posted images of the 24-year-old on their official Twitter channel, and many fans were ecstatic with the long awaited return, as was his manager when he spoke about his return to action in the pre-match press conference on Friday ahead of the weekend’s fixture against Brighton.

Likening the forward’s return to a new signing, Benitez gushed: “He’s a massive signing for us in the second part of the league.

“We are considering all of these things but he is training really well and he is really happy because he is with the team and is ready to play and score goals.”

The striker’s return will be a welcome one as Richarlison remains injured, and fellow long-term injury victim Jean-Philippe Gbamin just can’t cut it as a prolific scorer for the Merseyside club, with no goals or assists from his four appearances so far this term.

Calvert-Lewin’s presence on the pitch will surely offer far superior attacking prowess, more creativity, intimidation of opponents thanks to his 6 ft 4 stature, and of course, most importantly, goals.

The match against Brighton is the first the Toffees have played in over a fortnight, and although the postponements are annoying for keeping up consistency and match fitness, it has given the 24-year-old some extra time to work on his fitness in training without risking another setback.

It is unsure as to whether he will actually start for Everton this weekend, but he will likely be in the squad on the bench at the very least, as Benitez will be desperate to get three points on the board in the Toffees’ first game of the new year.

Considering the continued absence of Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin’s return could be just what the Blues need in terms of offering a threat in the final third, with the team netting just four goals over their last seven matches.

In other news: Benitez teases Everton’s transfer window plans

A big summer transfer claim has emerged that will impact Rangers’ plans for the upcoming window at Ibrox…

What’s the talk?

Sky Sports journalist Rob Dorsett has confirmed that Gers’ transfer target Sam Johnstone is set to leave his current club at the end of the season.

Gio van Bronckhorst and Ross Wilson are reportedly interested in bringing the shot-stopper to Glasgow and they will now be able to snap him up for nothing if they can win the race for his signature, amid stiff competition from other teams.

Dorsett Tweeted: “#mufc and #thfc to battle it out for the signature of goalkeeper Sam Johnstone in the summer. Johnstone won’t sign a new #wba contract, when it expires at the end of the season, as he seeks a return to the Premier League. Bruce said on Saturday he expects him to leave.”

Good news for Rangers

This is good news for the club for multiple reasons.

Firstly, this claim means that the Gers will not have to pay a penny in transfer fees for Johnstone. His deal with West Brom runs out later this year and he will become a free agent, which means that no club will have to deal with the Baggies to agree a fee.

The only concern will be his wages, but the lack of a transfer fee will, hopefully, offset any issues with budgeting for his salary. This, therefore, is why the club will be buzzing with this update as it lowers the potential cost of a deal for the England international.

It is also great news for Rangers as they are in need of a new goalkeeper to replace Allan McGregor next season. The 40-year-old has made four errors, three directly leading to goals, in the Premiership this season – costing van Bronckhorst’s side vital points against the likes of Ross County and Motherwell, making two direct errors in the former and being beaten at his near post for the equaliser in the latter.

Meanwhile, in the Premier League last time out, Johnstone made zero errors directly leading to goals as he averaged a SofaScore rating of 7.03. He is also 11 years younger than the current Gers number one and this means that he could be the first choice between the sticks at Ibrox for many, many, years to come – if they are able to bring him through the door.

It is now down to Wilson to make sure he can capitalise on the Englishman’s availability to snap him up ahead of the other interested parties this summer…

AND in other news, From £4.5m to £25m: Wilson had huge Rangers howler over “remarkable” 12-goal gem…

An update has emerged on Frank Lampard, regarding Rangers’ thoughts on potentially appointing him as their new manager.

What’s the talk?

According to Gers media partner Hearts & Hand Podcast, the club are not interested in a deal to bring the ex-Chelsea coach to Glasgow to replace his former England teammate Steven Gerrard in the dugout.

They Tweeted: “Just spoke to club: Lampard and Knutsen not on radar. Gio stuff already broken by Sky. Rangers engage with certain media outlets and not others. Don’t pay attention to the ones on the outside – they haven’t a clue.”

Delight

This update from a Rangers insider will surely leave fans delighted as it means that Ross Wilson has avoided a disaster. We published an article urging the Gers chief to avoid Lampard after it was reported that the club were set to hold talks with the 43-year-old over the role, however, this twist now suggests that was not the case.

His managerial C.V does not suit Rangers’ needs at this moment in time and he would represent a gamble Wilson does not need to take. The Scottish giants are currently top of the Scottish Premiership and need an experienced coach with a history of winning to ensure that they get over the line and are able to build on what Gerrard created at Ibrox.

Gerrard ended Celtic’s dominance of Scottish football by winning the league last season and has left the club four points clear of the Hoops after 13 games in the current campaign. This shows that he has built the foundations of a winning team and bringing in a coach who has not proven that he can win trophies in the dugout could derail their attempts to be the dominant force in Glasgow long-term.

Lampard has only managed two full seasons in his career, one of which came in the second-tier of English football with Derby, and is yet to win a single honour. He lost in the play-off final with the Championship outfit and in the FA Cup final with Chelsea, whilst finishing sixth and fourth in their respective divisions.

This means that he does not have the requisite experience required to suggest that he is the right man to come in and see out the job for Rangers this season. Therefore, fans will be delighted that Wilson is not even considering him as an option.

AND in other news, Davis 2.0: Rangers could sign new metronome in gem who “quietly impressed” ex-EPL boss…

Brennan Johnson features on Newcastle United’s list of potential replacements for Allan Saint-Maximin, The Daily Mail’s Simon Jones reports. 

The lowdown

Saint-Maximin, Jones writes, is expected to leave St James’ Park when the summer transfer window opens. The Magpies will then reinvest the funds from his exit into their planned ‘rebuild’.

Johnson is only under contract for another 14 months with Championship promotion hopefuls Nottingham Forest.

Aged just 20, the Wales international has scored 14 goals and provided seven assists in 39 league appearances this season.

The latest

Newcastle officials, led by Steve Nickson, have already ‘compiled reports’ on Johnson as they run the rule over potential additions on the flanks.

However, Jones does caution that the club will face ‘fierce’ competition for his signature.

Another player on their radar is Bayer Leverkusen’s Moussa Diaby, but he too is highly coveted.

The verdict

It’s no surprise that a multitude of clubs are interested in Johnson. He’s Forest’s top scorer and he ranks joint-eighth overall in the Championship goal charts, despite being a winger rather than an out and out forward.

As for assists, he’s second for Steve Cooper’s side (behind Philip Zinckernagel) and again in the top ten for the division as a whole.

To put those figures into perspective, as of April 9, he boasts at least eight more goal involvements than any other player aged 21 or under in England’s top four tiers.

He’s already earned nine senior caps for his country and will hope to feature at the Qatar World Cup at the end of the year if Wales secure qualification.

Johnson, who’s been mentored by David Beckham, has inevitably earned some reviews. For instance, the ‘old-fashioned winger’ was dubbed a ‘beautiful footballer’ and a ‘super, super talent’ by sports journalist Josh Bunting. Newcastle should be delighted if they win the race.

In other news, Keith Downie has an update on Eddie Howe.