All posts by rastrear-estafeta.com

As confirmed by the club, Liverpool starlet Layton Stewart has signed a new long term contract after a highly impressive 2020/2021 season in the youth academy – prompting many supporters to rave over this ‘brilliant news’.

The teenage forward started this campaign in fine form, scoring an incredible 15 goals in just 10 appearances for the Under-18s side (Transfermarkt) and turning heads as one for the future.

Indeed, Stewart’s electric run prompted promotion up the ranks to Barry Lewtas’ U23s later in the year – with the 18-year-old quickly bagging for his two strikes for them as well (Transfermarkt).

He has been with Liverpool since the age of seven and put pen to paper on his first professional deal in February 2020.

Despite his season ending due to a serious knee injury sustained in March, the club have now seen fit to extend his professional contract on Merseyside due to his brilliant performances beforehand.

Flocking to this update, it’s little wonder supporters raved as this ‘brilliant news’ was confirmed – find a flavour of their best social media verdicts down below.

Liverpool fans rave as club confirm Stewart new deal

“Great news”

Credit: @famz7ii

“Good news, looks a big talent!”

Credit: @kat_lfc13

“What a player!!!”

Credit: @GerrardThings

“Scouser he’s like a combination Robbie Fowler and a Fernando Torres when I watch him play. Recover well and you’ll be back stronger than ever Layton.”

Credit: @velvet_thunder1

“YESSSSS! Who needs Mbappe?”

Credit: @Jasonftbl

“Yesss brilliant news”

Credit: @LewYNWA

“Things you love to see…”

Credit: @JenLFCWallbank

“Our Future number 9”

Credit: @lfcjohnnie

“Yessss”

Credit: @mightyreds321

In other news: Liverpool fans also flocked to ‘great news’ shared by James Pearce, find out more here.

Rangers fans on Twitter have been reacting to a report from The 4th Official that the appointment of Giovanni van Bronckhorst as manager is now imminent. 

The outlet claimed ‘really really positive’ talks were held between the Dutchman and the club on Saturday.

As of Monday evening, an announcement within 24-48 hours seemed very possible, according to their sources.

GVB a fan favourite

Van Bronckhorst has emerged as supporters’ ‘clear’ no. 1 choice for the role in the days following the departure of Steven Gerrard, according to The Daily Record.

He spent three years at Rangers as a player, joining from Feyenoord in 1998 in a £6.75million deal. And during that time, he helped the Gers to win back-to-back Scottish titles.

Later in his career, the left-back would lift the Premier League, Champions League and La Liga trophies.

If indeed Van Bronckhorst is to be appointed, his first game in charge is set to be Sunday’s Scottish League Cup semifinal against Hibernian at Hampden Park.

Winning could set-up a potential showpiece against arch-rivals Celtic, who face St Johnstone in the other semi.

These Rangers fans excited by GVB news

“We’ve not even been managerless for a week, the fact we’ve already interviewed and look set to hire someone is remarkable. Especially when you consider how we used to do things”

Credit: @garryhood1872

“He’s coming home”

Credit: @NickyTay55

“Buzzing like an auld fridge here… Time to bring out the oranges”

Credit: @BillyMckie3

“Just seen an orange on a table at glasgow airport. IT’S HAPPENING TROOPS”

Credit: @big74davy

“here we go”

Credit: @kyleshort_

“Oh well, good to see that Ross Wilson & The Board saw my tweet earlier today & acted”

Credit: @StorrieBill

In other news, fans were buzzing over this international development.

If Thursday night was a trial, then mooted West Ham target Paul Onachu would have hardly passed with flying colours.

In fact, his performance may be enough to put new Irons head of recruitment Rob Newman completely off making a move as the 27-year-old struggled against the east London outfit in the Europa League.

The Hammers dominated Belgian outfit Genk and came out on top with a 3-0 victory at the London Stadium to maintain their 100% record in the competition.

According to the Daily Mail, West Ham are among many clubs interested in a move for the Nigeria international, who is thought to be valued at around £20m.

There is said to be competition from Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton, whilst Borussia Dortmund and Atletico Madrid have also been linked by the report.

Well, luckily for David Moyes and co, they got to witness his credentials firsthand, and on that basis alone, he could struggle to have much of an impact in England as the Irons absolutely silenced him with their two backup central defenders.

Onuachu may have bagged 11 goals in 15 appearances beforehand, providing a total of 56 goals in only 85 games for the Jupiler Pro League outfit, but there is a vast difference in the quality of opposition.

The £19.8m-rated forward, who was once dubbed a “goal king” by former Wimbledon star John Fashanu, looked rather poor against the Irons.

Both Issa Diop and Craig Dawson dealt with his 6 foot 7 stature and usually impressive aerial ability (he has won 3.6 aerial duels per league game this term) with aplomb.

Onuachu was hooked after 73 minutes, having failed to make any sort of impact. As per SofaScore, his two attempts on goal were fired off target, with one of those a particularly weak effort with what was a golden chance for the visitors, whilst the towering striker also won only 50% of his battles in the air and managed just one successful dribble from three attempts.

It’s no secret that Moyes needs another frontline addition to help provide backup to Michail Antonio, who was not even in the squad on Thursday night, but on that midweek showing, the answer may not be the Genk talisman.

Newman must steer West Ham clear of the 27-year-old or else risk making a major transfer blunder.

AND in other news, Moyes handed fresh injury blow to key West Ham star ahead of Spurs…

Many Glasgow Rangers fans have been lauding a goal scored by Tony Weston for the club’s B team on Saturday.

The striker opened the scoring for the young Gers away to East Kilbride in the Lowland League, but it was not enough as the hosts eventually won 2-1 in the end at K-Park.

Nonetheless, it was yet another goal for Weston, who had scored five goals in eight games across all competitions this season prior to his latest strike (Transfermarkt), as he really starts to hit top form.

If the 18-year-old keeps on scoring goals for Rangers B, then he will surely catch the eye of Giovanni van Bronckhorst, who may want to start thinking about promoting him to the first team sooner rather than later.

Rangers fans laud Weston goal

These Gers fans were left lauding Weston’s goal as news of it was shared by the club’s Academy channel on Twitter, despite the team’s loss:

“It’s that man again”

Credit: @JM5472

“What a season the kid is having.”

Credit: @RangersBanter17

“Main man doing main man things”

Credit: @HeartandHutts

“To the surprise of nobody, well in Tony”

Credit: @grumpyhaggissss

“Goal machine”

Credit: @LBeattie92

“Get in there Tony”

Credit: @harryhastings

In other news, find out what injury news has been bemoaned by many Gers fans

Dean Windass has exclusively told Football FanCast that he doesn’t think Chris Wilder would turn down the Celtic job.

Wilder’s five-and-a-half year spell in charge of his boyhood club Sheffield United came to an end on Saturday after he was relieved of his duties with the Blades sat rock-bottom of the Premier League and a huge 13 points from safety.

But the Bramall Lane outfit have been at the foot of the standings for the majority of the campaign, with a breakdown in his relationship with the club’s owner cited as the reason for Wilder’s sudden departure – with United’s relegation back to the Championship almost inevitable.

Wilder took Sheffield United from midtable in League One to their highest Premier League finish last term, working on one of the smallest budgets in the topflight.

Just hours after the 54-year-old left Bramall Lane, a flurry of bets saw him backed into the favourite to become the next Celtic manager following the sacking from Celtic Park last month.

And Windass reckons that Wilder would jump at the chance to make an instant return to management, especially with the Glasgow outfit just one victory away from securing a place in next season’s Champions League, providing Celtic safely navigate their way through the qualification stage.

He told Football FanCast:

“I think he will be looking to get back on the horse as quick as he can. If Celtic come knocking, Chrissy would never turn down the opportunity to work, especially after the year everyone has had. I’m sure that he’ll want to get back to work as quickly as possible.

“Who would turn Celtic down? If he got asked the question, I don’t think he’d turn it down.”

No Premier League player has been a more clinical finisher than Liverpool’s Diogo Jota this season, with one statistic outlining his ruthlessness for the Reds.

The Portuguese joined the Reds from Wolves last September, in a transfer that seemingly came from nowhere.

Jota immediately made himself a hero at Liverpool, though, scoring nine goals before he was struck down with a knee injury in December.

The 24-year-old’s winner at Molineux last week took his tally to 10 for the Reds, with his return acting as a big boost in a season where Jurgen Klopp’s attack has misfired too often.

Jota among Premier League’s most ruthless finishers

Jota’s clinical nature in front of goal has now been highlighted, with the Portugal international scoring once every 0.26 shots he has taken this season, as pointed out by playmakerstats on Twitter [via Empire of the Kop].

He is level at the top with Manchester City star Ilkay Gundogan and Tottenham’s Gareth Bale, putting him in some illustrious company.

Transfer Tavern take

This perfectly illustrates not only how good Jota has been for Liverpool, but also how much he has been missed during his long injury absence. During the Wolves match last Monday, Sky Sports (via Twitter) showed that the Reds had scored just twice from their last 70 open-play shots, a conversion rate of just 0.03, meaning the rest of the squad was over eight times worse at finishing in that stretch than Jota when he’s been fit.

His return to the fold can have a huge impact on the rest of the campaign, as they look to seal a top-four finish and clinch Champions League glory.

In other news, some Liverpool fans have been reacting to an obscure Reds transfer rumour. Read about who it is here.

Sunderland have dropped out of their position in sixth following a draw with Plymouth Argyle on Monday night, with the League One play-off battle extremely tight, the Black Cats can’t afford to drop any more points.

Following the loss to their play-off position rivals, the top six has changed yet again with Wycombe Wanderers matching the Mackems for points on 77 with one more game played in sixth, whilst Sheffield Wednesday and Plymouth take place in fourth and fifth matched for 79 points.

With that in mind, Alex Neil must consider the changes needed in his squad and the impact needed to ensure that his team can secure a chance at promotion to the Championship at the end of this season with just three games remaining.

After the defeat to Argyle, the Black Cats manager came out to respond to concerns over Ross Stewart’s lack of goals in the last eight games:

“We’ve flogged Ross Stewart in particular into the ground this year.

“To expect a lad to come to this level and churn that out repeatedly for that amount of time, having done what he has done for us already, you are asking a lot of anybody.”

The £2.7k-per-week striker who has been claimed to be “fatigued” by Echo journalist Phil Smith, is the club’s top goal-scorer so far with 22 goals, starting every single league game only being subbed off four times in the second half over the entire season, so it is no wonder that there are concerns about the Scotsman being tired.

It would be a huge risk and a bold call to drop their star man, but if Neil does decide to axe Stewart from the starting line-up for the next game against 12th place Cambridge United on Saturday afternoon, it could ultimately pay off in the closing stages of the season.

Should Sunderland find themselves successful in finishing in the top six, there will be three huge additional games on top of the last three league games to secure promotion, so surely resting the striker against Cambridge United could be Neil’s last opportunity to allow Stewart to revive his goal-scoring form.

AND in other news: Speakman howler: SAFC may now be on the verge of repeating brutal Hugill disasterclass

If you cast your minds all the way back to the extended summer transfer window, you will remember Ross Wilson embarked on a big spending spree in a bid to stop Celtic’s ten in a row.

Rangers recorded a £10.35m net spend in the last window, per Transfermarkt, as Wilson brought in the likes of Cedric Itten and Kemar Roofe on four-year deals.

They also secured the signing of Bafana-Bafana midfielder Bongani Zungu on an initial loan deal with the option to buy. But it hasn’t quite worked out for him at Ibrox, as he has been limited to mostly substitute appearances from the bench.

Just because a player is a fully-fledged international, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will succeed in the Scottish Premiership; a league that has become known for its physicality.

Rangers also stumbled across former Brighton centre-back Leon Balogun, who has turned out to be a rare gem of a find.

Now, however, they have missed out on the chance to sign a player who was once considered to be the ‘New Gazza’ – 34-cap England international Jack Wilshere.

Rangers had a legitimate interest in signing the free agent after his £100,000-per-week contract was terminated by West Ham on transfer deadline day but a move didn’t materialise and he recently re-joined Bournemouth instead.

There’s no two ways of saying this – this has to be one of Wilson’s biggest regrets in recent memory. Steven Gerrard was on the hunt for a new central midfielder in the summer and he ultimately brought in Zungu as backup for Steven Davis.

However, it’s fair to say that they still arguably lack a technical operator in the midfield who can play second fiddle to Davis, as Zungu has failed to register a single goal or assist so far this season.

Able to play at the centre, on the left or on the right, Wilshere could’ve been exactly that. Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola once said: “He’s quality, he’s smart and has the quality on the ball. He has a special quality with the ball, dribbling as a holding-midfielder to attack central defenders — it’s not easy to do that.”

In his last season at Arsenal alone, he took 1.2 shots and made 1.8 key passes per game, via WhoScored, – successfully completing 3.2 dribbles on average.

For context, this would have put him top of the Rangers squad ahead of the likes of Joe Aribo (1.7) and Ryan Kent (1.9). In comparison, Zungu has shockingly only managed 0.1 dribbles per game this season, as per WhoScored.

This sort of attacking threat would’ve been most welcome in the Govan side of Glasgow, as he has shown a willingness to bring the ball out from the back to put his team on the front foot.

AND in other news, Rangers loanee Kai Kennedy showed his class against Hearts…

Celtic have been warned to move quickly or risk losing out on Peterborough United striker Siriki Dembele.

Noel Whelan, formerly of Aberdeen, discussed the potential transfer with Football Insider.

The lowdown

24-year-old Dembele scored 11 goals and provided 12 assists in 45 appearances for Peterborough as they secured automatic promotion from League One.

Overall, the striker has netted 25 times and set up a further 28 goals in 122 outings for The Posh.

Dembele is about to enter the final year of his contract at the Weston Homes Stadium, and the club’s Director of Football Barry Fry doesn’t currently expect him to commit to a new deal.

According to Football Insider, Celtic are one of many clubs eyeing him.

His younger brother, Karamoko, already plays for the Hoops, but arch-rivals Rangers are said to be in the hunt, along with Fulham and Crystal Palace.

Dembele is a supremely versatile forward. He’s just about played the majority of his games as a centre-forward, but has also notched 26 combined appearances as a left-winger and attacking midfielder.

The latest

Whelan reckons it would be good business for Celtic but cautioned that ‘goalscorers don’t hang around’.

“There’s no doubt they need new strikers in there,” he said.

“If you can get a player on the cheap who is a good standard and will do very well in the Scottish Premiership, it’s a no-brainer.

“But they have to get a manager in there to get a deal done as quickly as possible.

“Goalscorers don’t hang around too long and god forbid you don’t want Rangers swooping in there and beating you.

“They need to get things in place before you start buying players. The manager is the priority.

“He can bring his players, you can’t judge him if he fails with someone else’s players.”

The verdict

Dembele probably shouldn’t be viewed as a replacement for Odsonne Edouard, were the Frenchman to leave, because he’s not really an out-and-out number nine.

But his versatility would make him a valuable asset to any of his suitors and he’ll surely be available for a relatively small fee given Fry’s public admission over his contract.

Clubs are bound to pounce on bargains of this nature, but Celtic feel like a club in limbo at the moment, almost paralysed until they finally resolve this managerial uncertainty.

In other news, Danny Mills made this claim about John Kennedy.

Andy Carroll will learn his Newcastle fate on Thursday, according to Chronicle Live journalist Lee Ryder.

The lowdown

The 32-year-old is approaching the end of his contract at St James’ Park, having rejoined the Magpies ahead of the 2019/20 season after being released by West Ham.

Carroll has made 22 appearances in all competitions this season, with his only goal coming in a 2-1 defeat to Leicester in March.

The striker is one of a number of Toon players out of contract in June. The group also includes wingers Jacob Murphy and Christian Atsu, centre-back Federico Fernandez and midfielder Henri Saivet.

The latest

Carroll was an unused substitute as Newcastle beat Fulham 2-0 at Craven Cottage on the final day of the Premier League season, and Ryder speculated that his ‘thumbs up towards the stands’ may have been a goodbye.

The Chronicle Live reporter added that the former Liverpool striker will be told whether he is being released later this week, with Mike Ashley possibly having the ‘final word’.

The verdict

Carroll’s time at Newcastle would appear to be up. He hasn’t made enough of a contribution since he returned to Tyneside two years ago, scoring just once in 43 appearances in that time.

Given that he’s now 32, it’s probably in his interests to be playing regular football in a division such as the Championship rather than occupying a bit-part role at Newcastle.

The priority for Ashley should be to extend the contract of Murphy, whose impressive run of form was instrumental in steering Newcastle to safety.

In other news, Newcastle have reportedly held talks with this Championship defender.