Tim Howard made more than 350 Premier League appearances for Everton between 2006 and 2016, before leaving to join current club Colorado Rapids.
The United States international made 45 Premier League appearances for Manchester United before joining Everton – initially on loan, before making the move permanent in the summer of 2007.
The 39-year-old enjoyed a brilliant career at Goodison Park, and it was not long until he became a favourite with the supporters due to his all-action style of goalkeeping.
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It was Howard’s birthday on Wednesday, and Everton’s official Twitter account took the chance to have a look at some of the great saves that the American made during his time with the Merseyside club, who have recently been lasted by a well-known pundit for their current struggles.
As expected, the Everton fans were on hand to hail the experienced goalkeeper, who is still going strong in the professional game despite his advancing years.
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A selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:
Mason Holgate has become the first casualty of the international break, after it was revealed the young defender will need ankle surgery.
Every football fan fears the international break, when their favourite players go off around the world and often come back fatigued or worse.
Everton fans won’t be enjoying this two-week pause in the Premier League action, as Mason Holgate has withdrawn from the England Under 21 squad to have minor ankle surgery.
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Whether or not Holgate sustained the injury on international duty is not clear, but either way it leaves the Blues terribly short of options at the back.
Phil Jagielka’s recent return to the side was a massive boost for the Toffees, but Michael Keane hasn’t exactly wowed fans since arriving and Ashley Williams is becoming a bit of a villain at Goodison Park.
Holgate has started 13 Premier League games this season, averaging 1.5 tackles per game, 1.5 interceptions and 5.5 clearances.
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The 21 year-old is a handy tool for Sam Allardyce to have because of his versatility, and will be hoping to return to the action as soon as possible.
Everton fans, let us know your thoughts on the international break in the comments below…
It’s been a season of immense ups and downs for Arthur Masuaku, starting with a performance in the 4-0 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford that had pundits questioning his professionalism and commitment. That was, of course, followed by the infamous spitting incident during an FA Cup tie with Wigan in January.
Yet, since David Moyes took the helm and moved Masuaku out to left wing-back, the Frenchman has enjoyed a telling impact on the Irons’ results.
In the Premier League this season, the east London club have averaged 0.6 more points and 0.8 more goals per game with the 24-year-old at left wing-back, and the Hammers fittingly picked up a huge win against Southampton last Saturday upon Masuaku’s return to the starting XI.
With that in mind, we asked West Ham fans earlier this week whether Masuaku is now the club’s most important player in terms of results, and although opinions were relatively split, 59% of those who took part in our poll voted yes.
Have you forgiven Masuaku for his sending off against Wigan, West Ham fans? Let us know by commenting below…
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Andy Carroll has only made 12 Premier League appearances during what has been a frustrating 2017-18 campaign for the West Ham United forward.
Carroll missed the beginning of the season with a groin problem, and has been on the sidelines since the start of 2018 with an ankle injury.
It is thought that the centre-forward, who is valued at £9m by transfermarkt.co.uk, could return to action later this month, which would be a welcome boost for a West Ham team that are not yet safe from the drop.
Carroll has managed 32 goals and 18 assists in his 128 West Ham appearances since joining the London club from Liverpool.
He actually scored seven times in 18 Premier League appearances last term, but has managed just two league goals this season, and cannot seem to stay fit.
The West Ham supporters have been debating the future of the 29-year-old, and it would be fair to say that many want the striker, who was linked with Chelsea during the January transfer window, to be sold at the end of the season.
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A selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:
This evening will determine whether Manchester City or Liverpool make it into the semi-finals of the Champions League.
At the moment it is advantage Liverpool as Jurgen Klopp’s side have a 3-0 lead from the first leg at Anfield.
City were favourites heading into the tie due to their dominance in the Premier League and the fact that they had only lost once in the division prior to last Wednesday’s encounter.
However, they knew that they could not underestimate the Reds given that Klopp’s team were the only ones to inflict a league defeat on City, who suffered their second top-flight loss at the weekend in a 3-2 defeat to Manchester United.
In 31 minutes, Liverpool blitzed through Pep Guardiola’s team, with Mohamed Salah, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sadio Mane getting on the scoresheet.
City had no response, but they have another 90 minutes tonight to turn their fortunes around, and they have the home comforts of being at the Etihad Stadium.
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Sky Sports pundit Charlie Nicholas believes that Guardiola’s men will win tonight’s match, but Liverpool will progress into the final four.
The Scotsman told Sky Sports:
“I think we’re going to get drama and I can see my good friend Phil Thompson being on the edge of his seat next to me in the Soccer Special studio. I don’t think City will do it though because I see Liverpool scoring. You could see at the weekend again against United that City are defensively vulnerable when they have to take risks.
“This is all about Liverpool scoring one goal to turn City’s need into score five and it will be a major boost if Mohamed Salah is fit. I could see City getting 2-0 up because they should have been out of sight by half-time against United, but as they get desperate I expect Liverpool’s attacking pace on the counter to see them safe.”
At the end of the season, Arsene Wenger will ride off into the sunset having given football more than it has given him in return.
We will remember Wenger 1.0 and Wenger 2.0 differently. It is impossible to erase the last decade, when Arsenal fans were shown the dark side of the moon they conquered during the first period of the Frenchman’s reign. His audacity was to be his constant frustration in the years to come.
Arriving at Highbury in 1996, his loyalty and nobility were plain to see from the beginning. A progressive manager in France, Wenger left Monaco in disgust with the corrupt excesses of 1990s Ligue 1: the best team at the time, Marseille, had been stripped of their title and relegated in a match-fixing scandal. Wenger was the clean cyclist battling vainly for the yellow jersey against a doped-up foe he had no chance of beating.
He exiled himself to Japan, and when Arsenal did eventually come calling, Wenger did not simply pack it all in and join one of the biggest clubs in the Premier League: he waited to see out his contract at the end of the J-League season, only joining up with his new club months into the English campaign.
Arsenal’s French manager Arsene Wenger holds both the League and the FA Cup trophies at a victory parade in London May 17. Arsenal fans lined north London streets to cheer their team who defeated Newcastle United 2-0 at Wembley stadium yesterday.SR/SB
His revolutionary contribution from there on in is known by all: how he changed the dressing room culture; the fluid football his teams began to play; the young boys, unknown to an English audience, plucked from obscurity for a minimal fee and moulded into men by a calm and thoughtful professor.
Revolutionaries are remembered for their achievements, cast in bronze in town squares. Wenger will have his place in footballing history, but his fatal mistake was thinking that he could change the English game twice.
In 2003, Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea and the revolution that Wenger had led in the half-decade before then was about to be hit on the counter-attack. The money the Russian Oligarch injected into the club allowed the Stamford Bridge side to join the elite in a game which was becoming more and more commercial and in a league swept along by globalisation.
Having changed the game once before, Wenger saddled up for the fight a second time. Few men can forge a lightning bolt of revolution like the Arsenal manager did 20 years ago, but fewer still can make it strike twice.
Football – Arsenal unveil their new sigining Francis Jeffers from Everton – Highbury, London – 14/6/01Arsenal Manager Arsene Wenger and new signing Francis Jeffers at the press conferenceMandatory Credit: Action Images / Richard HeathcoteDigital
To call it his downfall would be a mischaracterisation. Wenger didn’t fall, nor did he decline. The Frenchman continued to fight the good fight but it became increasingly harder to do so. First, Manchester United adapted to challenge Chelsea, then Manchester City came along. Barcelona and Real Madrid began the age of the super clubs and Paris Saint-Germain added insult to Wenger’s injury.
But money wasn’t the only revolution. The Arsenal manager’s unshakeable belief in a noble idealism off the pitch shackled him to outdated notions of what should happen on it: it wasn’t cash that beat Wenger, it was a new breed of football.
Wenger’s sides played with a 4-2-3-1 formation for most of his time in England. His two holding midfielders have played behind a pacey striker with the intention of pulling the opposition’s midfield forward and scaring their defence into sitting deep. The aim has always been to create space for a maestro in the middle: from Dennis Bergkamp to Mesut Ozil, the theory has stayed the same.
And yet for all the money that Chelsea spent and all the heartache this caused Wenger, it wasn’t a shiny new signing that did it for Arsenal: it was Claude Makelele who drove the first nail into Wenger’s footballing coffin.
Sitting in the very space Wenger’s creator wanted to occupy, the Makelele role was the revolution he didn’t foresee, nor was it one he acknowledged. Perhaps he saw the two as one in the same: the good versus the bad; the money versus the idea; the team who play to the strengths of their most attractive players versus the team who live only to spoil it for the opposition.
Either way, that’s the moment when Wenger 2.0 arrived.
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There was to be a swansong – an initial fightback which saw the Frenchman dig in and double down on his ideals. He put together a team who went unbeaten over an entire Premier League season and one which reached the final of the Champions League. But the boat was taking on water and it never recovered.
When Arsene Wenger retires from football management – be that at the end of the season or years into the future – he will remain the only man to have lost in the final of all three European club competitions. He is a man who will be remembered for his revolutionary spirit, but who will also be known as one who allowed his ideals to shoot down whatever chance his club had of success.
He will leave the club in the position he found it – in the top half of a Premier League on the cusp of a new era, but with better teams above it. But he will leave it 20 years older, two decades wiser, and with stories to tell.
As reported by The Daily Record, Steven Gerrard has agreed a three-year deal to become manager of Rangers, with the move set to be confirmed today.
It’s an appointment that is undoubtedly box office and despite concerns about his lack of managerial pedigree, fans are willing to get behind him and show excitement about the future ahead.
Rangers fans recognise more than anyone that giving an untested youth coach the job is a massive risk, but given they have hit rock bottom this season, it’s understandable that they’d be looking ahead with optimism rather than trepidation.
At the very least, the reputation of Gerrard as a player should mean he commands some sort of respect in the Ibrox hotseat initially, which after the disastrous reigns of Pedro Caixinha and Graeme Murty will be more than welcome to supporters.
Whether he can close the gap on Celtic next season remains to be seen, but for certain it’s set to be interesting times in Glasgow with Gerrard and Brendan Rodgers in opposite dugouts.
Fans took to Twitter to share their thoughts on the imminent appointment…
Liverpool are expected to be busy in the summer transfer, like the rest of their Premier League rivals.
The club’s success in the window could depend a lot on how their season ends.
It could be a dream finale for Jurgen Klopp and his team as they could potentially be crowned Champions League winners come mAY 26.
On the flip side, the Merseyside outfit could end up losing to Real Madrid in the Kiev showpiece and also miss out on a spot in the top four of the Premier League.
Even though the Liverpool name carries a lot of weight on its own, having that sixth European Cup in tow is sure to convince players to move to Anfield.
With that being said, one man who has been linked to the Premier League outfit is Napoli midfielder Amadou Diawara.
According to Calciomercato, Liverpool are pondering a £40m swoop for the 20-year-old, while Tottenham Hotspur are also believed to be interested.
The defensive midfielder – valued at £18m by Transfermarkt – has had to play second fiddle to Jorginho this season, which has limited his game time.
In total, Diawara has made 26 appearances in all competitions, including five starts in Serie A.
The majority of Liverpool fans are expecting Emre Can to leave the club , and if he does, Jordan Henderson will be the only player who can occupy the deep-lying midfielder role.
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Taking into consideration the fact that Diawara has not played frequently this season, would he be a good addition at Anfield?
Tottenham Hotspur could end up being one of the busier clubs in the transfer window this summer as they could lose players in both the midfield and defence.
Toby Alderweireld has been heavily linked with a move elsewhere, while Mousa Dembele could also be heading towards the exit door.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino will be determined to gather together a good enough squad that can challenge for top honours next season.
Expectations will be high given that the North London outfit will be competing in their brand new stadium, which has been built adjacent to White Hart Lane.
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According to Foot Mercato, Spurs, who finished third in the Premier League table this season, are keeping tabs on Southampton midfielder Mario Lemina.
The 24-year-old moved to St Mary’s from Juventus last summer for a club-record fee of £15.4m, and went on to make 25 Premier League appearances, 20 of which were starts.
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Lemina – valued at £13.5m by Transfermarkt – predominantly plays as a defensive midfielder, but he also featured a handful of times for the Saints this season more centrally.
After the reports emerged, Tottenham fans tweeted their reactions, and they were fairly mixed.
Wojciech Szczesny became surplus to requirements at Arsenal before he permanently left the club in 2017.
Petr Cech and David Ospina were first and second choice respectively under manger Arsene Wenger, who ended his 22-year spell in charge of the Gunners last week.
Szczesny began dropping out of the team in 2015 when he was sent on loan to Roma, where he spent two years before sealing a permanent switch away from Arsenal.
The 28-year-old moved from Rome to Turin in a transfer to Juventus, but he had to settle for a drop in the pecking order due to Gianluigi Buffon standing in his way.
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Szczesny would have known that he had little chance of breaking through due to the legendary status of his teammate.
However, this week it was announced that Buffon will leave Juve following a 17-year stint with the Italian giants.
The nine-time title winner’s departure frees up the number one spot, and club chairman Andrea Agnelli has confirmed that Szczesny will be promoted to the top spot.
Arsenal fans reacted to the news on Reddit.
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