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Leeds United could find it hard to keep hold of Raphinha after his impressive form for Brazil, according to Sky Sports pundit Kevin Phillips.

The Lowdown: Raphinha on fire for Brazil

The 24-year-old has been fantastic for the Whites over the last year and his form earned him a call-up to Brazil’s squad during the current international break.

Raphinha made an immediate impression on his Selecao debut, registering two assists in his country’s 3-1 win away to Venezuela on Friday, showing exactly what he is capable of producing.

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The Latest: Leeds exit soon?

Speaking to Football Insider, Phillips admitted that the winger’s performance will only increase the chance of him moving on from Leeds eventually, with elite clubs sure to be eyeing up a transfer. The former Sunderland striker said:

“His stock is rising, big time. To perform like that for Brazil, it doesn’t really get any better.

“We know the impact he has had on the Premier League. He has been amazing. But, to do it for Brazil is just brilliant. It puts his stock even higher.

“A performance like that has pros and cons for Leeds. On one hand you think, ‘Brilliant. He’s improving all the time.’

“But, on the other hand you fear that there will be a lot of interest from other clubs next year. They might try and nick him.

“It is great news for Leeds that he will come back buzzing and full of confidence though. Hopefully he can keep up that level of performance.”

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The Verdict: Tough to keep hold of him

Much like Kalvin Phillips, in an ideal world Raphinha would stay at Leeds for the rest of his career – he has been hailed as ‘incredible’ by Phil Hay – given how important he is to Marcelo Bielsa. He is their leading scorer this season with three goals and, as per WhoScored metrics, is their best-performing player by a distance.

In reality, the Whites may have to accept that a fresh challenge could appeal to the 24-year-old in the near future, with the Brazilian perhaps keen to play for a Champions League club or a team challenging for league titles.

Whether or not it is as early as next summer remains to be seen, but as Kevin Phillips has hinted, it is difficult to see Raphinha staying at Elland Road in the long-term if he continues to thrive for club and country.

In other news, Phil Hay has provided an update regarding Leeds’ January transfer business. Read more here.

Liverpool will be without Thiago for their Premier League clash against Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon following Jurgen Klopp’s recent update.

What’s the story?

Speaking about the 30-year-old in his pre-match press conference ahead of the Carabao Cup match against Arsenal in midweek, Klopp revealed: “Hopefully, he will be in full team training after the international break, to prepare for the Cardiff game.”

Big miss for Liverpool

The Spaniard has had his fair share of injury problems this season for Liverpool as he struggles to get consistent game-time under his belt – his longest run of action saw him make seven appearances in the Premier League consecutively between November and December.

However, that run illustrated signs of Thiago being back to his absolute best, with the midfielder starting in six successive games and seeing the Reds rattle off win after win – Klopp’s side scored 17 goals and conceded just twice in that time.

As per WhoScored, his average match rating of 7.07 ranks him as Liverpool’s second-best performing midfielder this season in the Premier League behind only Fabinho.

It’s therefore no surprise that Noel Whelan has recently admitted an early return for Thiago would be a huge boost to the Reds. He said: “It’s in those sorts of times where you perhaps turn to a player like Thiago with his bags of experience.

“A quick return would certainly be a timely return from Liverpool’s perspective. Players like him are the ones with the voices in the dressing room and out on the pitch.

“They’ll need to dig deep to win games without players like Mane and Salah, and if he can come back then it’ll be massive to have a wily old fox like him available.”

Alas, the news that he will still be missing against Crystal Palace is sure to be a blow for Klopp, and will also leave Reds fans gutted ahead of Sunday.

Meanwhile, Liverpool are still monitoring this Premier League star…

Wolves have been trying desperately to sign a new player on transfer deadline day but sadly for Bruno Lage, it’s looked unlikely.

They’d made a late dart to sign Sven Botman and had also looked at Renato Sanches. However, neither are set to walk through the doors of Molineux.

What’s the word?

Wolves have discovered some alternatives to those two players in the last few hours with Hamza Choudhury believed to be of interest.

However, a fresh rumour has emerged from France where it looks as though they’ve submitted a bid for Marseille defender Boubacar Kamara.

That’s followed up by David Ornstein who reports that Wolves are working on a late deal to sign the midfielder/defender.

He claims that a permanent move could be done before the deadline with the 21-year-old out of contract next summer.

Lage must get him

After moves for Duje Caleta-Car and Botman fell through in the final days of the window, Wolves must ensure they get at least one centre-half in before the market closes.

They have been after Fulham’s Tosin Adarabioyo too but given the potential in Kamara’s locker, he looks like a sensible signing.

Touted as a player who should cost in the region of £50m by scout Jacek Kulig, the youngster is one of the most promising young players in France.

Called an “exciting” talent by Kulig, Kamara was incredibly impressive in the French top tier last season.

He completed 86.7% of his passes and also won 1.9 aerial duels per game. For context, only four regular starters at Molineux were more successful when it came to passing. As for headed battles, he’d have ranked fifth.

What is most impressive about Kamara is his tackling rate. The centre-back won a whopping 2.5 challenges per match last term which is bettered by no regular starter at Wolves in 2020/21.

On that evidence, he’d be a fantastic late addition for the Old Gold and one that would surely delight supporters after previous deadline day heartbreak.

AND in other news, Fresh twist emerges at Wolves on transfer deadline day, Lage will be delighted…

Nottingham Forest have seen a third bid for Lee Buchanan rejected.

What’s the talk?

That’s according to a claim made by Alan Nixon, with The Sun journalist revealing in a post on Twitter that, after submitting an improved offer for the Derby County left-back, the Rams have once again rejected their rival’s advances.

However, Nixon continues by stating that the summer transfer window is far from over, suggesting that deal could well be struck regarding the defender, as well as claiming in a further tweet that the offer made by Forest is more than fair in the current climate.

He said: “Forest. Latest offer for Buchanan at Derby bigger and with decent add ons. Derby say no just now. But window far from shut,” before adding “the Forest bid is not an insult. Pretty fair in current climate.”

Fans will be buzzing

While Derby’s rejection of Forest’s latest bid will undoubtedly come as a blow to Dane Murphy and his side, the fact that it seems as if an agreement for the 20-year-old could be found if the Reds keep pushing should well give fans of the club hope.

And, considering Chris Hughton’s lack of depth in Buchanan’s position, as well as the sheer amount of potential the England U21 international seems to possess, should Murphy manage to convince Derby to part with the defender this summer, it would have to go down as something of a masterclass by the new Forest CEO.

Indeed, over his 35 Championship appearances for Wayne Rooney’s side last season, the £2.25m-rated starlet helped his side keep seven clean sheets, as well as making an average of 0.9 interceptions, 1.6 tackles and 2.3 clearances and winning 6.1 duels per game.

The man Rooney dubbed a “top player” also impressed in a creative capacity, providing three assists and creating four big chances for his teammates, in addition to making an average of 0.4 key passes per match.

As such, the addition of Buchanan would very much look to be a fantastic deal for Murphy to get over the line for Forest this summer, not only as he would solve Hughton’s issues at left-back, or that he is a player who boasts a great amount of talent, but pinching one of the Garibaldi’s rival’s brightest stars would undoubtedly have the City Ground faithful buzzing.

In other news: Forest transfer news confirmed on “talented” £2.5k-p/w gem, Hughton will be buzzing

Everton are set to receive a big injury boost ahead of their Premier League encounter with West Ham United following the international break.

What’s the word?

Toffees manager Rafael Benitez has confirmed he’s hopeful that multiple players will be available to return from injury after the current pause in Premier League action.

Although Everton have made a fast start under their new boss, the Spanish tactician was unable to call upon the services of Seamus Coleman, Andre Gomes, Fabian Delph, Alex Iwobi, Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin for the draw against Manchester United last time out.

And while Benitez hasn’t given any specific information about when his injured stars will be ready to return, he does expect to have a stronger squad for his side’s game against the Hammers at Goodison Park a week on Sunday.

“Hopefully, we can rest some players (during the international break). We can recover some players who are a little bit tired – and then the others, if we have one or two coming back, we will be grateful, because we need legs,” the 61-year-old said (as relayed by the Liverpool ECHO).

“I am really pleased with the players we have at the moment, but if you have two or three players that will come back and help the others, then hopefully, it will be very useful for the team.”

Benitez will be delighted

Benitez’s arrival at Everton over the summer was a controversial one given his previous history with local rivals Liverpool, but the Champions League-winning manager is quickly winning over the fanbase.

A healthy total of 14 points from their opening seven top-flight fixtures has left the Toffees in fifth position at this moment in time, sparking genuine hope of a European push.

The fact they’ve managed to achieve that despite having a number of their star players on the treatment table, therefore, is quite incredible. They haven’t missed the goals of Calvert-Lewin who had netted three times in his opening three outings with Andros Townsend and Demarai Gray hitting the ground running so well in Merseyside.

Gray has four goal involvements to his name while Townsend has five strikes and three assists in ten outings.

Therefore, if you combine that sort of form with returning players like Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison, the Toffees should become even better in the weeks to come.

Benitez will no doubt be delighted that several of his injured players are nearing a return to full fitness as the visit of West Ham will be a tough test for his threadbare charges.

And, in other news…Bought for £26m, left for £0: Everton endured transfer nightmare over 32 y/o flop 

Former All Leeds TV pundit Joe Wainman insists that Helder Costa simply isn’t good enough to play for Leeds United.

The winger has been with the Whites since 2019, coming in on an initial loan deal, before arriving permanently for a fee of £16m from Wolves.

During his time in the Championship, Costa made 43 appearances and scored four goals, while also laying on six assists.

In the Premier League last season, though, he made 22 appearances, but just 13 of those were starts, and he scored three goals and assisted three more.

Costa was not included in the squad for any of the final five games of the season, and Wainman does not believe he has the ability to be a genuine first-team player under the management of Marcelo Bielsa.

Indeed, he has expressed his concern around the prospect of Raphinha sustaining an injury, with the only other back-up being Ian Poveda within Bielsa’s first-team.

The JustJoe Football Show host said: “I don’t think he’s good enough, personally. I want him to be but I just don’t think he’s quite there.

“We have Poveda as well, who there is still question marks over long term for me. So I think if Raphinha was to get injured, then I’d start to worry, of what’s underneath that.

“We need a little bit more, better depth, for me.”

Despite currently sitting in fourth place in the Championship table and just four points off the top spot, West Brom have scored the fewest number of goals out of any of the top five teams in the league at the moment with 30 scored in 23 games.

With this in mind and the fact that the January transfer window is close to opening, this could provide the Midlands club with the opportunity to strengthen their squad to put themselves in the best possible shape to attack the second half of the campaign and push for promotion.

In recent days, it has been reported by The Athletic that Barnsley striker Cauley Woodrow is “under consideration” for the Baggies to sign in January, which could be just what they need to progress.

The 27-year-old originally joined Barnsley on a loan deal from Fulham back in the 2018 summer transfer window before signing on a permanent basis in January 2019.

Overall, the striker, who is currently valued at £2.7m according to Transfermarkt, has made 151 appearances for Barnsley across all competitions, scoring 53 goals and providing ten assists along the way, showing how much of a goalscoring threat he could be for the Baggies.

With 42 appearances under Valerien Ismael during the duo’s time together at Barnsley, Woodrow managed to score 12 goals and provide six assists, showing that the West Brom manager knows how to get a tune out of the player and why it would make sense for them to reunite in January at The Hawthorns.

Labelled as a player that “carries a goal threat” by former Huddersfield Town boss and pundit Danny Cowley, Woodrow could be a great January signing for West Brom if he’s able to hit the ground running in terms of scoring goals and push the Baggies to promotion back to the Premier League.

However, with the striker playing the full 90 minutes in all but one of the 22 Championship games he’s appeared in so far this season, it could be tough for the Baggies to get Woodrow out of Barnsley based on how important he clearly is to their team.

Although, with Barnsley in the relegation zone with just 14 points on the board, a chance to secure promotion and play in the Premier League with West Brom could be rather tempting for Woodrow and possibly give hope to the Midlands club that they would be able to work out a deal to sign him in January.

In other news: Lai still wants to sell the Baggies

West Bromwich Albion have only been able to score more than 50 league goals in just two of the nine Premier League campaigns they’ve been involved in since the start of the 2010/11 season.

Looking back down the years, one player the Baggies were linked with but didn’t end up signing that could have been a massive goalscoring threat for the team is Robert Lewandowski.

According to the Express & Star, former West Brom manager Tony Mowbray wanted to bring the then 20-year-old striker to the club in January 2009 when he was at Lech Poznan.

Having ended his time in Poznan with 41 goals in 82 appearances, it’s easy to see why the centre-forward was on West Brom’s radar.

The Polish side apparently wanted a fee of £2.6m for the striker, but Albion reportedly had no money to spend on him.Since then, the Poland international has shown with every season why the Baggies should have exhausted every financial possibility to be able to bring him to the Hawthorns when they had the chance.In the 2010 summer transfer window, the striker joined Borussia Dortmund for a fee of £3.7m where he then went on to score 103 goals and provide 42 assists in 187 appearances.The attacker then joined fellow Bundesliga side Bayern Munich in the summer of 2014 on a free transfer.During his time with the German giants, the 33-year-old has unbelievably found the back of the net 340 times in 369 appearances across all competitions.To highlight what an elite player he has become since moving to Germany, the veteran has won a combined total of 25 team titles and individual awards including nine Bundesliga trophies and one Champions League trophy.Labelled as a “breathtaking” player by Owen Hargreaves, Lewandowski has racked up a phenomenal total of 637 goals and assists throughout his illustrious club career.On the international stage, the former Poznan starlet has scored 75 goals in 129 appearances for Poland, showing just how much of an icon he is for his country.Taking all of this into account, it’s evident that had the Baggies been able to somehow finance a transfer deal for the striker, then they would have had a player in their side that could have been a vital figure for them.In other news: West Brom: Grady Diangana struggled in defeat to Stoke City…

With their 3-2 defeat against West Ham United now behind them, Liverpool’s next Premier League clash sees them take on another tough opponent in Arsenal who are not only one place and two points behind Jurgen Klopp’s side in the league table, but they are also unbeaten in the league since August.

On the chalkboard

With this in mind and the fact that Mikel Arteta’s side have managed to score eight goals in their previous four league games, one player that should be in consideration to be in Klopp’s starting XI on this occasion is centre-back Ibrahima Konate.

Despite only playing in four games for the Merseyside club so far this season after arriving at Anfield during the previous summer transfer window from German club RB Leipzig in a deal worth a reported fee of £35m, Konate has managed to keep a clean sheet in three of those games, including their 5-0 win over Manchester United, keeping Cristiano Ronaldo quiet in the process.

This performance, in particular, not only earned the Frenchman an overall match rating of 7.2/10 from SofaScore but also heavy praise from Reds captain Jordan Henderson who described Konate’s performance against the Manchester club as “outstanding” after Konate made eight clearances, one tackle and won three of the four duels he was involved in.

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Despite this, Konate, who is currently earning a weekly wage of £70k-per-week according to Spotrac, didn’t manage to have a similar sort of impact during their 2-2 draw against Brighton & Hove Albion where the Liverpool Echo said that he was “a little slack on occasion” in terms of his distribution and decision-making.

However, with Joel Matip racking up a fairly disappointing overall match rating of 6.4/10 for his performance against West Ham from SofaScore, this could be a good time for Klopp to give Konate his chance back in the team again and put his shaky display against Brighton behind him.

Looking ahead to the Arsenal match, Konate has definitely shown during his time with the Reds that he has what it takes to step up to the plate in big fixtures such as the match at Old Trafford and dominate opposition attacking players, which he could well do against the Gunners.

In other news: FSG could seal Klopp’s dream transfer with swoop for “undefendable” £27m-rated machine – opinion

Speaking to West Ham Zone, former Irons striker Frank McAvennie has reacted to a transfer development involving Arsenal forward Alexandre Lacazette.

The Lowdown: West Ham in Lacazette chase…

The Frenchman, who’s contract expires at the end of this season, could leave Arsenal for free in 2022 as West Ham eye the possible signing of a new striker for manager David Moyes.

West Ham had been trying to strengthen that weakened position all summer, with Moyes himself admitting he was ‘desperate’ to bring one in over the summer, but the lack of available options ultimately lead to no incoming forward option.

Star striker Michail Antonio’s history of injury problems have been a general concern and there are fears that one bad injury for the Jamaica international could land West Ham in a lot of trouble.

As such, it is arguable that new recruitment chief Rob Newman needs to prioritise the signing of a new striker and West Ham have apparently been targeting Lacazette.

It is claimed by jeunesfooteux.com that the Gunners could look to sell in January and West Ham have ‘already positioned themselves’ to sign the 30-year-old – with contacts made between the various parties.

The Latest: McAvennie reacts…

Speaking to WHZ, despite his prolific record for Arsenal last season, Hammers legend McAvennie questioned whether he is the right man for the job.

“Will he score enough goals or work hard enough off the ball? I don’t know. But they do need a striker,” he explained.

“Would they come in as back-up to [Michail] Antonio? I don’t know. Everyone’s in great favour of this false nine now.

“In David Moyes, we trust. He’s a great believer in getting players from abroad. The two boys he got in from the Czech Republic, Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal, are just magnificent. By all accounts, they’re wonderful trainers and they just go about their business, they never cause any problems, there’s never any hassle with them.

“I think he’ll be asking them about their pals, who’s coming through, who do you think can make it in the Premier League? I think that’s a big thing, they’ll be asking players. Kevin Nolan is there, he’ll be in their ears and trying to get a good one in before they go on the market.

“Lacazette? I’m not sure if he would come in and play second fiddle to Antonio.”

The Verdict: Disagree…

While the aspect of Lacazette coming in to compete with Antonio is a point of contention, we believe the signing of Lacazette would be a real coup for West Ham overall.

Scoring 17 goals in all competitions last season, he also has vast experience competing at the highest level over a career spanning more than ten years.

Averaging 2.1 shots per 90 since making his senior debut for Lyon back in the 2009/2010 season, with only Jesse Lingard and Antonio bettering that figure last season for West Ham, Lacazette is proven at finding the net when given consistent opportunities in the team.

Lauded as a ‘real handful’ by pundit Tony Cascarino to talkSPORT, 90min claimed recently that West Ham are indeed a likely destination for the player due to his openness to the idea of staying in London.

His contract situation, putting West Ham in a really strong negotiating position to sign the player in January, certainly marks him out as a real potential coup.

In other news: ‘Wow’, ‘Finally’, ‘So massive it’s terrifying’…West Ham fans erupt over official development, find out more here.