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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…

According to Italian publication La Repubblica (via Sport Witness), Manchester United remain interested in Fiorentina centre-back Nikola Milenkovic.

What’s the word?

Reports in recent months had suggested the Red Devils were interested in signing him in the summer as a potential alternative to Harry Maguire.

Now, La Repubblica reportedly claim that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side are still interested in securing his signature, with his current team valuing him at “over €40m (£34.2m)”. It adds that both United and Atletico Madrid have already moved for him and are following his progress, although Fiorentina are understood to be reluctant to let him go anytime in the near future.

Perfect partner for Maguire

In the summer, it was seemingly deemed a case of either Milenkovic or Maguire. But having ended up signing the latter for a world record fee for a defender, it may be the best time to revisit their interest in the Fiorentina defender.

Standing at an imposing 6 foot 5, the Serbia international would make for quite the physically intimidating partnership with Maguire. The duo would be massive units that opposition players may fear getting into a tussle with, and that could be the kind of psychological advantage that could pay huge dividends for the Red Devils.

Maguire’s current partner at Old Trafford, Victor Lindelof, has not been in the greatest form this season either. As per Whoscored, the Swede has an average match rating of just 6.62 in the Premier League – the lowest of any domestic campaign in his entire career. His tackling numbers have dropped from 1.3 to 0.8 per game, whilst his pass accuracy has similarly fallen by 4.1%.

It therefore makes United’s continued interest in Milenkovic perfectly understandable, and that should perhaps provoke them into taking transfer action on their long-term target.

This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets… 

Everton’s Moise Kean has struggled immensely since he arrived on Merseyside and has failed to secure a starting role within Marco Silva’s squad.

In fact, the Italian has started only twice in the league and averaged a dismal 6.18 rating in the nine league games he has played.

Now, the former Juventus man may have finally got the attention of the Everton boss with a magnificent performance for his country on Tuesday.

Kean scored twice for Italy U21s against Armenia U21s, which is the first time the forward has hit the back of the net for club or country in over two months. Indeed, his last goal whilst he has been at the club was also for his nation, as he bagged against Luxembourg U21s.

On Tuesday, however, the 19-year-old registered a 9.0 rating, as per SofaScore, and he seemed to pick up some threatening form in this game.

Kean also made three key passes in the match and managed to complete five out his seven dribble attempts.

Whilst the opposition were far from a formidable one, the fact Kean netted twice will surely have a great impact on his confidence.

Clearly, with his poor displays so far, the Italian has suffered from adapting to English football and perhaps he needed this performance just to boost his confidence and serve as a reminder to sceptics that he is a talented player.

Kean still has a lot to prove away from the pitch as well, after he was reportedly dropped for the game against Southampton for turning up late to a team meeting again.

However, the youngster may have an ideal opportunity to breathe life into his Everton career, with the club set to play eight games in the month of December, which includes an EFL Cup quarter-final.

Given his poor form, the recent disciplinary issue and the upcoming schedule, the teenager has chosen a good time to remind Silva of his quality.

Following Saturday’s 2-1 win at Bournemouth in the Premier League, Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Nuno Espirito Santo lavished praise on Adama Traore.

And now the Wolves fans have hailed the former Barcelona youngster for his display in the impressive victory against Eddie Howe’s side.

The Europa League team made it three straight victories on Saturday as first-half goals from Joao Moutinho and Raul Jimenez proved enough to secure all three points.

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Traore played the full 90 minutes for the visitors, and in addition to providing the assist for Jimenez’s goal, the attacker won two tackles and boasted a pass success rate of 77% at the Vitality Stadium, according to WhoScored.

And many of the Wolves fans were keen to praise the 23-year-old, who has also contributed two Premier League goals during the 2019/20 campaign, in addition to three assists in the Europa League.

A selection of the Twitter reaction from the club’s supporters can be seen below:

It’s difficult to find enough superlatives to describe Anfield on a European night, but we’re going to give it our best shot.

Real Madrid had Cristiano Ronaldo, Manchester United had Fergie time and Barcelona have Lionel Messi. Liverpool have Anfield.

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Every club has a secret weapon behind their greatest European nights, but perhaps none are as powerful or intimidating as Anfield under the lights. Just take a look at the video down below…

Pep Guardiola, who of course witnessed his team capitulate on Merseyside in the Champions League clash back in April 2018, admitted last summer: “The motto ‘This is Anfield’ is no marketing spin. There’s something about it that you will find in no other stadium in the world.

“They score a goal and over the next five minutes you feel that you’ll receive another four. You feel small and the rival players seem to be all over you.”

Barcelona players looked defeated at half-time of their 4-0 defeat to the Reds last season, implying it was as much the pressure and intensity of the night as it was the players on the pitch that bested them, and who could forget the 4-3 win over Borussia Dortmund, after which Mats Hummels hailed the stadium as “crazy” and admitted his side “got the jitters”.

Managers and players come and go, but built all the way back in 1884, Liverpool’s 136 year-old secret weapon never wavers and never gives up.

Liverpool fans have found their Andy Robertson back-up…

Many Manchester United fans have been left stunned by Robin van Persie’s revelation about former boss Louis van Gaal, following the striker’s appearance on the High Performance Podcast.

The 36-year-old opened up in a candid chat with BT Sport pundit Jake Humphrey, and announced he was forced out of Old Trafford by his fellow countryman.

Van Persie told the podcast “I had this chat with Louis van Gaal and he told me: ‘Ok Robin, our ways will part. I’m the coach, you’re the player – you have to go, your time is up.”

“I was like: ‘Yeah but I still have a contract?’ He said: ‘I don’t care’.

He added: “Ruthless. Towards the end of it, I saw something coming but not this ruthless. And the way he said it as well. And then, like a lot of things go through your mind when you get a message like that.”

Having moved to the Theatre of Dreams from Premier League rivals Arsenal for £27.63m in the summer of 2012, the Dutchman picked up the coveted trophy in his first season wearing a Red Devils jersey, before his time in Manchester slowly started to unravel due to the turmoil left by Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure.

Despite the fact he still had a year left on his contract, Van Gaal decided the forward was surplus to requirements, and he was shipped to Fenerbahce for £5.85m in July 2015.

Although Van Persie suffered from a number of injuries during his spell with United, the goal machine still managed to score 58 goals in just over 100 appearances via Transfermarkt.

Predictably, plenty of supporters were shocked by RVP’s comments, and directed their frustrations at the 68-year-old. One fan even described Van Gaal’s actions as a “disgrace” and “shambles.”

Scroll through some of the angriest reactions we could find online…

United fans, do you think Louis van Gaal is the worst manager in the club’s history? Let us know in the comments below!

Tottenham Hotspur are the most valuable Premier League outfit, according to analysis conducted by University of Liverpool football finance expert Kieran Maguire.

Despite a lack of silverware in 2019 and forking out a monstrous £1bn on a state-of-the-art stadium, Spurs have leapfrogged both Manchester clubs due to a combination of many factors.

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Not even their Champions League victors and top-flight front-runners Liverpool can match the financial exploits of the north London side.

Maguire came to the final result by crunching numbers publically available from Companies House and used a valuation method based on the Markham Multivariate Model. He said:

“Spurs are top of the valuation table because in 2018/19 they delivered a Champions League final and a top four Premier League finish on a wage budget that was £100-150 million lower than the rest of the ‘Big Six’. As such they made more profits, and this was reflected in the final valuation number.”

Kieran Maguire, University of Liverpool.

Spurs chief Daniel Levy has overseen a 21% increase in income, rising to £481m against a light 39% player wage cost, which is the lowest ratio in the division.

For comparison, Leicester City, currently third in the Premier League, see 84% of their income eaten up by player wages.

The north Londoners also only spent a net £22m on signings, only Watford spent less whilst their rivals considerably more – Chelsea (£290m), Liverpool (£223m), United (£135m) and City (£87m).

Ultimately, it is Spurs’ tight control over wages and player transactions that set them apart from the rest in the Premier League, especially in comparison to the rest of the ‘top six.’

This campaign hasn’t gone to plan whatsoever with Jose Mourinho’s side out of all cup competitions and have sunk well adrift of Champions League qualification in the top-flight.

Maguire believes this could be a case of their “low cost-base catching up with them”.

If the season does resume anytime soon, the Portuguese boss will be left with it all to do to turn around their fortunes. The fight for fifth is hotly contested and they are some seven points behind fourth-placed Chelsea.

For more on the findings, head to the University of Liverpool’s Management School and to Maguire on Twitter.

AND in other news, Spurs could reignite interest in PL STAR this summer…

This article forms part of our Profit Players feature series, which is where Football Transfer Tavern takes a look at how well a player has fared since being signed or sold, using statistical figures and statements from pundits to prove how good of a deal the club managed to achieve.