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As reported by The Daily Mirror, Ronald Koeman is set to make the coming January transfer window Everton’s biggest yet with moves for 5 players that could change the look of the Toffees’ team.

What’s the word?

Everton are struggling to keep up with the top 6 sides in the Premier League this season and need a big January transfer window if they’re going to push on and bag a European qualification place.

The Mirror reckon they’re working hard to that end and could spend big next month as Koeman continues his efforts to bring the Goodison Park club to the next level.

They say Koeman is interested in bringing five players to the club when the window opens. Ademola Lookman, Morgan Schneiderlin, Virgil van Dijk, Memphis Depay and another central midfielder.

The final bill could go north of £45m, according to the paper.

Squad overhaul

Bringing in five first team players would be a massive statement from Koeman about his happiness with the current squad at the Toffees.

Two of Koeman’s summer signings have made a fantastic impact on the Everton side, Idrissa Gueye and Yannick Bolasie, so fans will have faith any he brings in January will be the right fit.

Everton were stung by a long-term injury to Bolasie last month so a move for a wingers such as Depay or Lookman make sense. Although it’s unclear whether Lookman could make the step up to Premier League football without a transition period.

Virgil van Dijk is obviously a player familiar to Koeman, it was the Dutch manager who signed the defender from Celtic in 2015. Would he go to Everton though? Although a bigger club, it may be a sidewards move for him in terms of ambition from fellow mid-table regulars Southampton.

Is such a large squad overhaul needed though? And are these the type of players than could see Everton pushing for a top 4 position?

Time will tell on that but what’s sure is that the Everton hierarchy are set to back Koeman massively next month and that’s significant in itself with some fans already showing reservations about his ability to lead the Toffees forward.

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Manchester City haven’t quite had things go the way they would have hoped under Pep Guardiola, with the Citizens sitting third in the Premier League and a fair way off current leaders Chelsea.

Whilst the Catalan boss has been praised for getting the best out of particular players at the Etihad Stadium, with Raheem Sterling amongst those to benefit from the guidance of the world-class coach, Michael Owen believes there has been negative impacts elsewhere.

Speaking on BT Sport, Owen argued that Kelechi Iheanacho has regressed since Guardiola came in and looks void of any confidence.

“Iheanacho isn’t the same player he was once. His confidence has taken a hit, I think he plays with lot of pressure as he is unsure what could happen next unlike when Pellegrini was in charge.”

“He is surrounded by players he knows have the trust of the manager unlike during Pellegrini’s reign where he has the trust of the manager and knows it. He has regressed under Guardiola. He is under pressure.”

Scoring four goals in 14 appearances this season, Iheanacho has completed ninety minutes in the Premier League just once this season and has had to accept being a bit-part of Guardiola’s plans.

The FA Cup this weekend could hand Iheanacho a rare start, and the opportunity for push for more regular first-team football, but the pressure upon the young Nigerian has definitely left it’s mark.

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TV pundit and former Arsenal forward Charlie Nicholas believes that Manchester City are capable of pipping Chelsea to the Premier League title.

Antonio Conte’s side are favourites for the crown as they currently have a five-point lead and suffered just one defeat in their last 14 top-flight matches.

City reside seven points adrift in fourth place after 20 games, and manager Pep Guardiola still seems to be struggling on what his best team is.

Despite the North-West outfit being just off the pace in the title race, Nicholas believes that the two-time Premier League champions are capable of climbing up the table, but only if they buy new players this month.

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The defence has been heavily criticised this season, with Nicolas Otamendi not seeming up to par, while John Stones is still finding his feet following his summer move from Everton.

City are also struggling in the full-back positions, with Pablo Zabaleta and Aleksandar Kolarov disappointing in the first half of the season.

Nicholas, though, believes that if Guardiola can rectify the issue by bringing in new signings this month, they are well within a shot of title glory. He told Sky Sports:

“I think Pep Guardiola will definitely hit the market and if he does improve his defence then I’m going to stick with them.

“My only concern is that he is as stubborn as me in my prediction and he clearly doesn’t see the problem with [goalkeeper] Claudio Bravo, who is struggling. He also needs to bring some full-backs in and a top central defender.”

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According to reports from The Daily Mail, Middlesbrough are considering a late January swoop for Aston Villa’s talented attacking midfielder Jack Grealish, of passed-out-on-a-pavement-in-Tenerife fame.

Leicester are looking to prise Gaston Ramirez away from the Riverside Stadium and a departure looks likely after the Uruguayan midfielder handed in a transfer request, provided Leicester up their previous offer to £15million.

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Aston Villa and Boro have an interesting relationship in the transfer market; four players have moved between both clubs during the last two transfer windows, with three heading to the Premier League side.

It appears Aitor Karanka is hoping to use that connection again, this time to seal a deal for Grealish – who was rated as one of English football’s most promising youngsters when he first broke into the Villa senior team under Tim Sherwood in 2015.

The 21-year-old’s career hasn’t quite taken off just yet, but the stats suggest he’d be a solid replacement for Ramirez, who has been Boro’s chief creator in the Premier League this term with 1.4 key passes-per-match.

Indeed, as our infographic shows, Grealish averages around one created chance, one dribble and one shot-per-appearance, scoring three in the Championship and laying an assist for one of his team-mates.

That may not seem so resounding for a second-tier player billed as such an enormous talent, but let’s not forget Grealish has played the full 90 minutes on just 13 occasions this season. In fact, his actual time on the pitch, 1,464 minutes, works out as just 16 full outings.

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Mark Warburton leaving Rangers has caused quite the stir in Scotland. While the club’s details of his departure seem to be disputed by Warburton himself, the fact remains that the Ibrox side need a new manager to take over from inexperienced caretaker boss Graeme Murty.

One of the names linked with the vacant position at Rangers is Aberdeen’s Derek McInnes who has insisted he is focused on the Dons amid questions from the Scottish football press about the role.

As we know, things change quickly in football and it’s unlikely that speculation around McInnes and Rangers is going to go away anytime soon. McInnes has taken a struggling Aberdeen and made them into consistent second place finishers behind Celtic in the Scottish Premiership, after all.

It’s not like he’s unfamiliar with Ibrox either having spent five years as a player there in the 1990s.

However, is this the step McInnes should take, or should he stay Aberdeen longer still?

Here are THREE reasons why he should not be tempted by the Rangers job…

Aberdeen are still the second best team in Scotland

If Wednesday night’s thrashing of Motherwell proved anything it’s that Aberdeen are most certainly still the second best team in Scotland, despite Rangers’ promotion last summer.

Three points ahead of the ‘Gers and with a vastly superior goal difference, it’s clear that McInnes is maintaining Aberdeen’s tag as ‘best of the rest’ behind Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic.

Making the League Cup Final boosted those credentials too and with the Dons also favourites to make it into the Scottish Cup semi-finals, they could have more dates at Hampden before the end of the season.

That’s got to be a positive for McInnes, who with an inferior budget is showing Rangers that there is no replacement for discipline, determination and team spirit in the Scottish top-flight.

Why leave Aberdeen when his best chance of silverware as a manager lies at Pittodrie? The future is bright at the club too with plans in place to build a new 20,000-seater stadium that could take the club to the next level.

Unfinished business

Reaching the next level? Aberdeen have been threatening to do that for years now under Derek McInnes but the club only have one Scottish League Cup to show for it.

That may have been their first trophy since 1995 but a club the size of Aberdeen should be at the pointy end of competitions every season.

In that sense, McInnes has unfinished business at Aberdeen. A much desired Scottish Cup will be at the top of that list but so will progression in Europe with a place in the group stages of the Europa League not beyond the realms of possibility.

Before Rodgers arrived there was even the hope of sustained Scottish Premiership title bids and while that may just be a twinkle in McInnes’ eye right now, you get the impression it is his ultimate aim at Pittodrie.

The Aberdeen manager should only move on when he feels like that he’s taken the club as far as he can, and he hasn’t done that quite yet. He has the potential to be a Dons legend and leaving for one of their bitter rivals would colour that massively.

Unrealistic expectations at Ibrox

Whatever the scenario is at Aberdeen, moving to Rangers right now appears to be a poisoned chalice. There’s no doubting that the Ibrox side offer one of the most prestigious roles in British football, but if it’s a job doomed to fail from the start then is it worth taking?

Right now, expectations are still ridiculously high at the club with many supporters expecting, or at least hoping, they can challenge Celtic again in short order.

The reality is that could take years and unless a new manager can convince the supporters of that then they’re going to be under immense pressure to deliver a success that might be unattainable.

What Rangers need is small steps and gradual forward progress, only then will they start to get to the top of Scottish football. Until the perception of fans matches that reality, it’s a tough ask for any manager, not just McInnes, to achieve what they’re hoping for.

Tottenham Hotspur surged to their third big win over Stoke in a row with a 4-0 drubbing at White Hart Lane on Sunday. Mark Hughes’ side were unable to compete with a wonderful first half performance from the Lilywhites with Harry Kane in particular proving that when on top form is absolutely unplayable.

Kane scored his third hat-trick in nine matches, punishing the Potters with clinical precision and ruthless finishing. Dele Alli also got himself onto the scoresheet, making sure the game was over at half-time.

The win moves Spurs up into second, although they have now played a game more than Manchester City in third.

It was an important win for Mauricio Pochettino’s team given their demoralising exit from the UEFA Europa League midweek and they can now look to challenges ahead with confidence.

For Stoke it’s simply one to forget and they must think long and hard before they play Spurs again. Losing 4-0 each time is simply not acceptable.

Here are the FIVE lessons we took from the match…

Stoke must hate playing Spurs

For three matches now Stoke simply haven’t been able to cope with Spurs, with Dele Alli or with Harry Kane. The fact they’ve suffered three consecutive 4-0 defeats must infuriate supporters, seemingly unable to even turn up when Mauricio Pochettino’s side face them.

Whether it’s simply shaping up more defensively or going for a more ambitious attacking style against Spurs, Mark Hughes must do something to reverse the trend.

Supporters will be hoping this doesn’t spark a slump. Heavy defeats often do and after the last 4-0 defeat to Spurs, Stoke didn’t win for a month.

Harry Kane is getting better all the time

Harry Kane appears to be getting better every season and it’s left many wondering about just how good he can be in a Spurs shirt. Injured for fair part of this season, he’s still managed to keep pace with his goal tallies of previous seasons and has a decent chance to score his highest ever one season total for the White Hart Lane side.

His second goal on Sunday was particularly beautiful and showed that he really can score goals of all types. Tap-ins, volleys, headers, penalties, free-kicks; he has it all.

Dele Alli has character

After his more than justified sending off in the UEFA Europa League mid-week, all eyes were on Dele Alli on Sunday to see just he would react to the dismissal and the reaction afterwards. He was much criticised following his horror tackle.

However, he didn’t let any of that get to him and put in a solid display, scoring his first goal for almost a month and being a constant threat to Stoke’s backline, especially in the first half.

Eriksen is returning to his best form

After a five match spell of no direct goal contributions, Christian Eriksen has really stepped up his game recently in the wake of criticism from supporters.

In his last three matches he has five assists and a goal, putting in man of the match performances against both Fulham and Gent.

If not for Harry Kane’s hat-trick, he would have undoubtedly won that accolade against Stoke. He was superb throughout, a constant danger in the final third and also providing two assists across the 90 minutes.

His uptick in form is a massive boost to Spurs’ chances of finishing second in the table and even having a go at the FA Cup.

Pochettino’s man management is superb

Name the exact same XI to the side that crashed out of the UEFA Europa League mid-week sent the message to the squad that Mauricio Pochettino wanted to see a reaction from them. He certainly got that with Spurs putting in one of their finest halves of the entire season.

It was classy and effective man management and showed he knows exactly how the mentality of his squad works and how to subsequently get the best out of them.

Though they played their football at the opposite ends of the pitch, you would be hard pressed to find two Premier League players as highly-regarded as Alan Shearer and Peter Schmeichel.

Famed for his impressive shot stopping ability, Schmeichel was arguably the greatest goalkeeper of his generation, whilst Alan Shearer’s Premier League goalscoring record remains on a pedestal despite the fact that he retired over 10 years ago.

Both players optimised the hard work and dedication necessary to reach the highest totem pole in the Premier League, with the pair enjoying success throughout their storied careers.

Certainly, Alan Shearer may think that he has the edge over his Danish rival, with his memorable goal against Aston Villa in 2001 not an easy one to forget. But Peter Schmeichel might just get his chance to get his own back on Shearer this summer, with the pair facing off at Icons of Football 2017 event, hosted at The Belfry.

Team captains Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke will be hoping that the historic duo will be half as good with a club in their hands as they were with a ball at their feet, with both the English team and the Rest of the World team looking to secure victory at the end of June.

But just how well do they stack up against each other? Leading the way with trophies is, of course, Peter Schmeichel – with his tenure at Man Utd proving fruitful when it came to silverware. Schmeichel also leads the way with international caps, with 126 a tough number to beat.

Alan Shearer certainly has nothing to be ashamed of, though, with the striker making an astonishing 441 Premier League appearances during his career – not to mention the 260 goals that he picked up along the way.

Significantly, it is also Shearer that leads the way on the golf course, with his impressive handicap of 6 beating out Schmiechel’s 10 – which could be absolutely vital in June.

Tickets for Icons of Football 2017 are available now at icons-series.com

Arsenal avoided any embarrassing slip-ups in the FA Cup on Saturday with a comfortable 5-0 thrashing of non-league Lincoln City at the Emirates.The win ended Lincoln’s romantic journey through the rounds of the competition, one of the footballing stories of the season, but Arsene Wenger’s men only care about winning trophies and did the job necessary to book their place in the semi-finals.The visitors impressively held out until just before half-time when Theo Walcott opened the scoring and ensured the Gunners had the platform to go on and score a few more in the second half.Those goals in the second 45 minutes came from Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey, an own goal and predictably Alexis Sanchez.Sanchez kept up his incredible direct goal contribution this season with yet another goal. As this stat from Squawka shows, his average of a goal contribution every single match makes him completely indispensable to this Arsenal side.

It’s frightening to think where Arsenal would be without the Chilean attacker this season. Whether playing through the middle or on the left flank, he’s pops up with the big performances necessary to help the Gunners cause.

Supporters must be hoping that the contract stalemate with the player comes to an end soon. Life without Sanchez isn’t doesn’t bear thinking about.

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Speaking exclusively to The Evening Times, Ronny Deila has made a bold claim about new Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha’s reign at Ibrox.

What’s the story?

Ronny Deila left Celtic last year after supporters grew tired with his Celtic team underperforming in Europe and in the domestic cup competitions, most notably losing against Rangers in last season’s semi-final of the Scottish Cup.

Despite having the biggest budget in Scotland by a distance, Celtic suffered some poor results under the Norwegian manager, even letting Aberdeen get closer than fans would have liked in the league.

As Pedro Caixinha embarks on a new experience for him in British football, Deila reckons that the Portuguese has it a lot easier than he did when he arrived in Scotland.

As quoted by The Evening Times, Deila said:

It is of course a totally different thing to come in when the club is No 3 or No 4 in the SPFL. When I came in, Neil Lennon had won three or four leagues so the expectation was much higher. I think it is much easier for Pedro to come in to these circumstances. But at the same time I don’t know what kind of money he will get to change the team around.

While admitting himself the difficulty of the task at hand also depends on what budget Caixinha has to play with, it’s an interesting take on the challenge facing the Rangers manager.

How difficult is Caixinha’s job?

Pedro Caixinha is coming into a club that, while currently 3rd in the Scottish Premiership, has a fanbase that expect them to be competing at the very top of Scottish football both in the leagues and in the domestic cups.

That makes the task at hand extraordinary difficult. If the perception of success to Rangers supporters is different to reality then it’s almost impossible to make people happy.

Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic have streaked ahead in the league this season, not losing a single game and closing that gap is both the priority and extremely difficult at the same time.

Deila did come into a pressure cooker situation himself and winning every match is tough regardless of your budget but was it harder than Caixinha’s job? We’re not so sure.

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Aston Villa owner Tony Xia has received backing from fans on Twitter after publicly hitting back at rumours surrounding the future of Jonathan Kodjia.

A report in The Mirror newspaper recently suggested that Everton and Stoke City are tracking the 27-year-old.

Kodjia has been in positive form this season, scoring 19 goals in 33 Championship appearances.

Naturally, players in his situation are going to get linked to so-called bigger clubs because his current one is unlikely to challenge for a playoff spot as they sit 11th in the table, 11 points adrift of the top six.

Kodjia is only in his first season with the Villans following his switch from Bristol City last summer.

Xia has attempted to quash the speculation by drawing attention to the rumours on Twitter – a platform he regularly uses to interact with the fans.

The Chinese businessman hit out at football agents and media outlets for fuelling the speculation, and the fans have echoed his sentiments.

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