Arsenal join Man Utd in race for USMNT goalkeeper as Newcastle eye move for Aaron Ramsdale
Arsenal could compete with Manchester United for a highly-rated MLS goalkeeper if they sell Aaron Ramsdale this summer, according to reports.
The England international is keen to play consistent first-team football again after losing his spot in the Gunner’s starting XI to David Raya.
Ramsdale has made several blunders when he has been given chances this season, which hasn’t earned him any favours with Mikel Arteta.
Several clubs are thought to be considering giving Ramsdale an escape chance, with Newcastle being the latest Premier League side to be linked.
Arsenal are planning to make Raya’s loan from Brentford a permanent deal at the end of the season, but if they sell Ramsdale they will look to bring in another goalkeeper in addition to him.
READ MORE: Arsenal tipped to cash in on 14-goal striker despite Arteta signing doing ‘very well’ this season
According to The Daily Mail, Arsenal are eyeing a move for Columbus Crew shot-stopper Patrick Schulte to replace Ramsdale.
They will have to compete with Man Utd for the talented 23-year-old, however.
Patrick Schulte eyed by Arsenal, Man Utd
As reported by TEAMtalk, the Red Devils have identified Schulte as a target in case their second-choice keeper, Altay Bayindir, leaves this summer.
They signed the Turkey international for £4.3m last summer but he has made just one appearance so far; in a FA Cup fourth-round clash against Newport County.
Related video: Arteta calls for passion and enthusiasm from Arsenal stars in ‘most beautiful part of the season’ (Dailymotion)
Bayindir is ‘frustrated with his situation at Man Utd‘ and could look to move elsewhere in the coming months.
With that in mind, we could potentially see a bidding war take place between Arsenal and Man Utd for Schulte.
READ MORE: Ratcliffe ‘ready’ to sign next Man Utd superstar with ‘big fee’ to blow Liverpool, Arsenal out the water
He has made 66 appearances for Columbus Crew to date, conceding just 79 goals and keeping 19 clean sheets in the process.
Schulte’s suitors believe he has what it takes to shine in European football and Arsenal and Man Utd are at the front of the queue for his signature.
He has come on leaps and bounds in recent months and was rewarded with his first international cap for the United States in January.
Schulte will be out of contract at the end of 2024 which suggests that a deal could be done at a relatively low price this summer unless he extends his stay with the Crew.
DON’T MISS: Man Utd ‘pressing ahead’ with signing of sublime defender as club prepares to ‘green light’ sale
Five Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City fringe players ready to prove Arteta right about ‘history’
Mikel Arteta told fringe Arsenal players to ‘be prepared to play any minute in any moment’. The same goes for Liverpool and Manchester City squad members.
With the games starting to come both thick and fast at this, the business end of the season, it could be that the Premier League title race is settled by someone on the Arsenal, Liverpool or Manchester City sidelines stepping up.
“Sometimes you just need a second to change the history of a football club. You don’t need 100 minutes to play football,” Arteta said. And this lot have it in them to be decisive despite barely featuring all campaign.
Reiss Nelson (Arsenal)
“Look at the example of Reiss,” Arteta said. “His best moment for Arsenal, it’s a moment where he played a few minutes and made a huge impact and it’s one of the best days in his life as an Arsenal player. Nobody remembers if he started or if it was off the bench.”
The last point was a little laboured – Nelson quite obviously not only did not start that match, but hasn’t started a Premier League game for Arsenal since July 2020 – yet the general message was logical. The midweek-to-weekend grind will be pretty constant for each title contender from here on in and the supporting cast will be needed.
It is a call to arms Nelson has heeded before. That late and obviously over-celebrated but actually Keys-approved Bournemouth winner sticks in the memory but a substitute hour against Nottingham Forest earlier last season produced two goals and an assist.
A new four-year contract in the summer has not translated to more opportunities, with Nelson starting only in the domestic cups and a Champions League group-stage dead rubber. But Arteta will know he can be relied upon when all seems lost.
Emile Smith Rowe (Arsenal)
That same dramatic Bournemouth victory last March also featured an assist from Smith Rowe, who succumbed to injury soon thereafter and was replaced by match-winner Nelson. Once an equal to Bukayo Saka, the 23-year-old has seemingly overcome those physical problems but finds himself almost exclusively on the bench.Arteta has credited Smith Rowe as the one who “helped shift momentum” in his reign numerous times, but those halcyon days of December 2020 feel like impossibly distant history for player and club.
It has been another deeply frustrating season for Smith Rowe, albeit for more agreeable reasons than any struggle with injuries. His time has instead largely been spent on the bench, save for a couple of Premier League starts in victories over Sheffield United and Nottingham Forest. Arteta has previously explained that “we cannot play every player in every game” but his more recent comments suggest a more effective rotation policy will be deployed soon.Related video: Premier League Title Race: Liverpool Leads, Arsenal Close Behind! (Homestand Sports)
Well, we're not quite there just yet,
Fabio Vieira (Arsenal)
Another who stands to benefit from that rotation policy is Vieira, who has actually already shown a penchant for game-changing cameo excellence this season. The Portuguese won a penalty and set Eddie Nketiah up at home to Fulham in August but the Gunners conceded within four minutes of being given a man advantage, while Vieira also assisted the Gabriel Jesus clincher against Manchester United and converted a spot-kick in a thrashing of Sheffield United.Since undergoing groin surgery in November, the 23-year-old has only played 45 comfortable minutes in another Sheffield United shellacking. Arteta leaned on Vieira as an “insider” who “gave us some important information” in the Champions League against Porto; he might place a different level on trust in him soon.
Stefan Bajcetic (Liverpool)
“He is now in partial training with the U21s, and he will be in full training with the U21s next week because we pretty much don’t train because we play all the time,” said Jurgen Klopp. “Then after that, he will join our training. That’s the plan, and then we will see.”Those final five words felt deliberate. While Juan Sebastian Thiago is unlikely to be factored into any meaningful Liverpool equations when reliability is needed in such a pressurised situation, Bajectic might be considered a wildcard in an important position.
This would have been the perfect campaign for the Spanish teenager to establish himself in a remodelled Liverpool midfield but fate and surgery transpired against him; Bajcetic last made a Premier League appearance so long ago that he was being replaced by Fabio Carvalho and the Reds were fifth after losing to Bournemouth.
More than a year has passed but that recovery time has been used to bulk up and address Klopp’s previous claim that his body was not “ready for the intensity professional football is asking for”. Bajcetic can shoulder some of that Wataru Endo burden soon.
Oscar Bobb (Manchester City)
With his name like an awards ceremony haircut, there has already been one Hollywood ending this season for Bobb. The sublime touch, footwork and finish to secure a late victory at Newcastle in January has kept Manchester City in a title race he might yet help decide.
The following month, Bobb was handed a five-year contract extension and first career Premier League start. But aside from that hour against Brentford, the Norwegian’s only other league game since the Newcastle heroics was his introduction in the seventh minute of stoppage-time against Manchester United.
There is a furious on-pitch Pep Guardiola lecture waiting with his name on it before the end of the season.
Forget philosophies and tactics; who has the personality to replace Jurgen Klopp?
Xabi Alonso’s decision to stay at Bayer Leverkusen beyond the end of the current season struck a blow to Liverpool’s search for their next manager.
The former Reds midfielder had been the clear frontrunner to replace Jurgen Klopp when the German steps down at the end of the season. But with Leverkusen 13 points clear at the top of the Bundesliga and almost certain to become the first champions of Germany not named Bayern Munich since before 4G mobile networks, the London Olympics and Gangnam Style, Alonso has understandably decided to stay for at least one Champions League campaign and a title defence.
Sporting CP’s Ruben Amorim and Brighton’s Roberto De Zerbi are now the names most commonly linked with the soon-to-be-vacant Liverpool job, two young coaches over-achieving against budgetary constraints and mammoth opposition while playing attractive, front-foot football.
But in their rush to find the next-best boss to assume Klopp’s well-worn seat in the Anfield dug-out, Liverpool must learn from how a couple of their Premier League rivals botched it when anointing a successor to their own iconic, long-tenured figureheads.
READ: Liverpool, Arsenal and Man Utd among 10 warnings from history for Jurgen Klopp successor
While Klopp is the longest-serving current Premier League manager, his eight years in charge of Liverpool measures only a third of the Sir Alex Ferguson era at Manchester United and less than half of Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal reign. But it’s difficult to dispute that Klopp’s impact since arriving on these shores deserves mention alongside those greats of the Premier League’s past.Related video: Liverpool's Klopp REPLACEMENT (ClutchPoints)
3 managers who would be perfect for the Liverpool job
Guiding Liverpool to a sixth European Cup and a first top-flight title in 20 years took more than a tactics board to accomplish. The story of Klopp’s time at Liverpool will be one of holistic development – of players, of the club and its infrastructure, of a redoubled connection with the fans. Like Ferguson and Wenger before him, he has been a team-builder, an innovator, a willing adaptor, a motivator, a psychologist.
Arriving from Dortmund in 2015, he introduced principles of counter-pressing and ‘heavy metal football’ that had brought him success in his homeland, but also an understanding of how to build a culture within and around a club and inspire everyone under his charge – pillars on which Ferguson’s great United sides were built, principles Wenger used to revolutionise Arsenal.
David Moyes rocked up to Old Trafford in 2013 as Ferguson’s hand-picked heir. There were more exciting alternatives, for sure, but his record at Everton over the previous decade suggested a man who knew what it took to build and to lead. He tried to shape United in his image – stripping out the backroom staff, instructing Rio Ferdinand to watch tapes of Phil Jagielka and installing a style of play seemingly based around infinitely hitting crosses. But Moyes lacked the charisma to earn buy-in from the players and remaining staff, and United plummeted.
Unai Emery came to Arsenal with a stellar track record, having taken Sevilla to three successive Europa League triumphs as well as a Ligue 1 title with Paris Saint-Germain. He was considered one of the Europe’s finest tacticians, too, a reputation to which subsequent spells with Villarreal and Aston Villa attests. But he also lacked the force of personality to thrive in the void Wenger left behind at the Emirates and lasted less than a season and a half.
Although Klopp’s announcement in January that he had decided to leave Liverpool this summer gave the Reds’ brass amble time to line up their next manager, Alonso’s withdrawal from the running at this relatively late stage leaves them little time to identify their best remaining candidate.
It’s shaping up to be a summer of serious significance for Liverpool. This is due not only to Klopp’s departure but also to the fact that they have a new executive structure in the returning Michael Edwards and new sporting director Richard Hughes, who has arrived from Bournemouth.
What’s more, three key players – Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold – will be entering the final year of their contracts. Aside from any big-money incomings, some managerial stability would go a long way towards assuring the club’s current stars that their futures belong at Liverpool.
Any haste on Liverpool’s part in selecting Klopp’s successor is understandable, given the fact this summer is likely to see a demand for top managers across Europe that the supply cannot meet. We know already that Bayern Munich and Barcelona will both be in the hunt for a new coach, with Thomas Tuchel and Xavi leaving their respective posts. Beyond those two continental giants, Manchester United, Chelsea and Juventus could all conceivably join the hunt. Wait too long to make an appointment and Liverpool might be forced to look further down their wish-list than Alonso’s decision has already necessitated.
It’s almost redundant to say it, but Liverpool’s choice of manager is one they cannot afford to get wrong if they hope to keep pace with City and Arsenal in the short term. Avoiding a fall-off like United endured under Moyes – from which they have still not recovered – or the kind of post-Wenger woes the Gunners experienced will require a lot more of Liverpool’s future boss than tactical wizardry or a flavour-of-the-month rise to prominence.
Faced with replacing their own totemic leader, Liverpool have to consider the strength of personality required of their next manager. Klopp traversed the Anfield touchline in big shoes. It’ll take a strong character to fill them.
Spurs wage bill higher than Arsenal last season as they seek new investors
Tottenham are “in discussions with prospective investors” in a bid to “capitalise on our long-term potential”, chairman Daniel Levy has revealed.
The Premier League club’s total revenue for the financial year to June 30, 2023 exceeded half a billion pounds for the first time, with the figure of £549.6million a significant increase on £444m for the previous year.
Tottenham announce significant losses
However, operating expenses including first-team costs have risen by 21 per cent to £487.9m, with a loss of £86.8m put down to “significant and continued investment in the playing squad” in the financial results published by the club on Wednesday morning.
Tottenham’s wage bill also rose by 20% to £251.1 million — the fifth highest in the top flight and for the first time more than their north London rivals’ Arsenal (£234.7 million).
Levy – who is the highest-paid club executive in the Premier League – announced in his statement accompanying the results that Spurs were looking for an injection of equity.
He wrote: “To capitalise on our long-term potential, to continue to invest in the teams and undertake future capital projects, the club requires a significant increase in its equity base.
“The board and its advisors, Rothschild & Co, are in discussions with prospective investors. Any recommended investment proposal would require the support of the club’s shareholders.”Related video: Arsenal on track and energised for run-in, says Arteta (Reuters)
Broadly speaking, are you on track?
MAILBOX: Are Spurs a Declan Rice of a transfer away from being Arsenal?
Revenue from match receipts, UEFA prize money, TV and media and commercial all increased on 2021-22, as did the profit from operations which rose from £112.3m to £138.7m.
The club report that their net debt as of June 2023 was £677.4m. Over 90 per cent of their borrowings of £851.2m are at fixed rates, with an average interest rate of 2.79 per cent.
“We expect commercial revenues to rise from third-party events, although this will not compensate for the lack of European football this season,” Levy wrote.
“Additionally, as reflected in these results, we expect the impact of rising costs, caused by geo-political events, to continue to impact all areas of our operations.
“Our ethos is clear – to be far-sighted and run the club sustainably. This involves strict control of our cost base, increased commercial and sponsorship revenues and consistent European participation, all of which are key to our ability to continue to invest in the squad and win top honours.
“Since opening the stadium in April 2019, we have invested over £600million in our men’s and women’s first-team squads.”
Spurs boss wants ‘joystick’ to control a team ‘not the finished article’
Ange Postecoglou felt Tottenham’s 1-1 draw at West Ham was a step in the right direction despite dropping more points in the top-four race.
Brennan Johnson’s early strike was cancelled out by a goal from Kurt Zouma as a frantic London derby ended all square.
Spurs boss Postecoglou: I would love to have a joystick
“I thought for the most part we controlled the game pretty well,” said the Spurs boss.
“They are a big strong team. They sit deep and make it difficult for you. You have to be fairly calm in your approach but also really disciplined because they are a threat from the counter-attack.
“We conceded from a set-piece but the rest of the set-pieces we coped with really well. In the front third we lacked a bit of clarity of thought.
“But they are human beings, it is just football. I would love to have a joystick and put them where I want them, but it doesn’t work like that.
“Sometimes we have more time than we think. There were times when the ball was flashed across the box when we should have been in those areas.
“It is all part of the development. That is why we have coaches, why we develop a system. We are not the finished article and we know that.
“There was enough there tonight for me to say that it is a team still heading in the right direction.”
READ: Spurs grateful it’s only Man United pursuing them as they cheer on West Ham and Arsenal
West Ham should have gone ahead inside four minutes when Mohammed Kudus rolled the ball across goal, but Jarrod Bowen put a simple chance wide.Related video: Postecoglou not aiming for fourth but looking for wins to see where Spurs can go (English Football Channel)
Just over a minute later they were behind when Tottenham put a carbon copy chance away, Timo Werner crossing for Johnson to sweep home.
The Hammers equalised in bizarre fashion in the 19th minute when Bowen swung in a corner.
With Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario rooted to his line, the unmarked Zouma went up for a header and glanced the ball into the net off his back.
Michail Antonio spurned a glorious chance to put West Ham ahead after half-time when he held off Micky van de Ven to go one on one with Vicario, only to fluff his finish.
Destiny Udogie could have won it for Spurs in stoppage time but drilled his shot straight at Lukasz Fabianski.
“It was probably fair in the end, we did a lot of good things and showed much more resilience in defence tonight,” said Hammers boss David Moyes.
“We looked a threat and had to do a good job to stop a very good Tottenham team.”
