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Rangers failed to capitalise on Sunday afternoon with their arch-rivals not in league action, though Steven Gerrard’s side are four points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership after the opening four games of the season.

The Light Blues struggled to find a way past Livingston at Almondvale Stadium, drawing 0-0 with the winless SPFL outfit.

On the face of it, Gerrard’s men dominated in terms of possession (79%) and total shots (23) but when digging deeper, only three of those attempts at goal were actually on target and nearly half were from outside the penalty box – it’s no wonder they failed to score.

Much of the Ibrox faithful were quick to hammer midfielder maestro Ryan Jack following the full-time whistle. He was labelled a “waste of a jersey” as well as “shocking” whilst one supporter went as far as claiming that he had “done nothing” for months.

Well, this doesn’t appear to be the case whatsoever. In fact, the 28-year-old ran the show in the heart of the pitch, picking up a squad-high 7.8 rating.

Per SofaScore, Jack also made a whopping 128 passes at an accuracy rate of 90%, two of which were key passes and even recorded two tackles, two interceptions and won 100% of his duels.

Therefore, the blame should be attributed elsewhere as the engine room were clearly creating opportunities.

For example, Alfredo Morelos had a rare off day, failing to record a single effort on target from five attempts and likewise with Gerrard’s two new strikers that were introduced in the second half, Cedric Itten and Kemar Roofe, who both failed to even have a shot at goal.

Jack’s midfield partner Glen Kamara has been linked with an exit since the 19/20 season finished prematurely – according to 90min, Premier League duo Everton and Newcastle are keen on the Finland international.

Perhaps fans should get used to seeing their Scotsman as clearly he’s going to be able to continue in Kamara’s absence should he depart Ibrox before October.

He certainly deserves less flak than what he got post-game.

AND in other news, Rangers could give Gerrard a different threat in young sensation dubbed the next Arjen Robben…

Glasgow Rangers are set to settle for a fee between £12m and £15m for Alfredo Morelos as a late-window sale becomes increasingly likely, according to Football Insider.

The Colombia international was thought to be close to a move to Lille, with the two parties reportedly agreeing personal terms.

However, their interest has diminished following the capture of Jonathan David, and it now seems that a deal could be done later on in the window. As such, the Ibrox outfit may be willing to settle for a fee below what they were previously asking for.

There was a time when the 54-time Scottish champions’ asking price was said to be at £20m, but the figure continues to decrease as time goes by. A fee of £12m would be someway off what they were originally looking for, and it would be a blow to the club to lose him for such a fee – given he has a record of 79 goals in 141 matches for the club, and with a Transfermarkt value of £13.5m, he is surely worth more than that.

Worryingly, it seems that the Gers are panicking, and may be concerned that he does not leave at all. Indeed according to the report from Football Insider the Ibrox club need to make a big sale to balance their books, otherwise they risk a financial black hole.

The double signing of Cedric Itten and Kemar Roofe indicates that Steven Gerrard is prepared for the eventuality that Morelos does depart, but of course the boss will not be too eager to lose his star player. Quite frankly, unless the 24-year-old makes the situation difficult and demands to leave, they may be better off waiting another year and making a real tilt at the Premiership title rather than underselling themselves.

Let us know what you think below!

Key information about Meadow Lane

Meadow Lane was built in 1910 and is now the home of National League’s Notts County. The ground is located in Nottingham, England and is actually only 300 yards away from the City Ground, Nottingham Forest’s stadium.

Its current capacity soars up to 21,388 and the pitch measures 104m by 70m. The field is not surrounded by a running track but the surface is covered with natural grass, albeit they don’t have undersoil heating installed just yet.

The record attendance is 47,310 as people flocked in to watch Notts County yield a 1–0 victory to York City in the FA Cup Sixth Round on 12 March 1955.

A history of Meadow Lane

Before they finally moved to Meadow Lane in 1910, Notts County were actually playing their football across the River Trent at Trent Bridge as a tenant of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club. Needless to say, this was far from an ideal situation since the pitch was mostly used for cricket rather than football and this forced the club to play their fixtures either far too late in the evening or far too early in the morning to avoid overlaps.

This was of course deemed unacceptable by the Football League and the club was asked to either relocate or negotiate more favourable terms with their ‘landlord’. Shortly after that, they leased some land on the other side of the river and constructed a stadium there and got it ready for the beginning of the 1910/11 season.

The first game played there took place on 3 September 1910 and the grand opening was celebrated with a 1-1 draw against old rivals Nottingham Forest, watched by 27,000 supporters. Even though they would still face some problems with the lease, they settled at Meadow Lane and started with the upgrades in the early 1920s. The first of those was the expansion with earth banks and a newly built main stand. This was followed by the addition of another stand in 1923 that saw the old Sneinton Side replaced with the County Road Stand.

Further renovations were necessary after World War II since Meadow Lane was badly damaged by the bombing and there were no fixtures played during the 1942 campaign. Interestingly, in times of need, the stadium would also host their rivals, Nottingham Forest, on two occasions when their own ground was unavailable first after the war and then once again in 1968.

In 1978, the club also demolished the Meadow Lane End and subsequently replaced it with a building which housed new dressing rooms, a social club and a variety of other facilities but around that time, their capacity dwindled to only 24,000 places, a far cry from their plateau that was reached in 1955 when 47,310 supporters watched Notts County face York City.

Meadow Lane was modernised in the 1990s, which was also a reaction to the Bradford City stadium fire and Hillsborough disaster with the Meadow Lane End, County Road Stand and Spion Kop all getting replaced in 1992 by the Family Stand, the Jimmy Sirrel Stand and the Spion Kop Stand respectively and the main stand by the Derek Pavis Stand two years after that.

In 2002, the stadium was briefly called Aaron Scargill Stadium due to sponsorship reasons but that couldn’t last and after the deal fell through, the ground’s name reverted back to Meadow Lane. Over the years and in modern times, there were several changes but none too drastic.

The Derek Pavis Stand now has a number of conference and function facilities to complement their Broken Wheelbarrow bar which is located behind the Family Stand. And the Family stand also got renamed to the Haydn Green Family Stand in 2007.

Tickets to watch Notts County at Meadow Lane

All the tickets to watch Notts County at Meadow Lane can be found on the club’s official website. The price range will vary depending on the seat you choose and the time of the purchase but you can find tickets for around £22-£24 for adults.

They also offer season tickets to their fans with the price for adults and seniors previously being £276 and £184 respectively. More information can be found on their website.

Related links

https://www.nottscountyfc.co.uk/ – Official website of Notts County

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.

Manchester City scored in stoppage time to be crowned champions for the first time in 44 years as they beat Queen’s Park Rangers to snatch the Premier League title away from Manchester United on goal difference.

If you cast your mind back to 2012, Tottenham Hotspur were firmly in contention for the title, although history has long since forgotten them.

Tottenham began the campaign with a pair of disappointing defeats to both Manchester clubs before bouncing back with a remarkable run of 31 points from a possible 33 which spurred the Lilywhites into life.

Ultimately they came up short, as back-to-back defeats to United and Arsenal triggered a collapse in February which all but ended their hopes and dreams, yet this was a season where legends were made.

After arriving from Real Madrid on deadline day in 2010, Rafael van der Vaart’s Spurs spell was short but sweet. Daniel Levy made a surprise move to sign the midfielder just two hours before the transfer window closed and he managed to get the deal over the line, although this wasn’t without controversy.

Technology problems caused a discrepancy, which led to a nervous wait. However, the club were reassured after the Premier League sanctioned the signing following an investigation into the claims.

Van der Vaart’s arrival coincided with the club’s first ever Champions League campaign. It is fair to say the 27-year-old carried the burden of expectations on his shoulders, as he had just helped his country to reach the World Cup final.

Harry Redknapp had developed a habit for getting the best out of players who were arguably past their prime – Paolo di Canio being an obvious example. In a bizarre twist of fate, Van der Vaart had been deemed surplus to requirements by then-Madrid boss Jose Mourinho, who is now in charge of Tottenham.

The Dutchman, affectionately known as ‘Rafa’, didn’t allow this to deter him and subsequently scored on his home debut against Wolves. He went on to score three goals in his first four Premier League games. He finished his first season at White Hart Lane with 15 goals to his name, forming a potent partnership with Peter Crouch, who had created eight of those efforts.

Van der Vaart missed his chance to write his name in the history books after he saw his penalty saved in the club’s first home game in the Champions League against FC Twente, but quickly made amends almost immediately after the break to set Spurs up for a famous 4-1 victory.

This sparked a memorable run in the competition, including the iconic back-and-forth games with Inter Milan, opening the scoring in the second game at the Lane before Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko added the extras. Gareth Bale gets most of the credit for that night but it was actually his teammate who got the ball rolling.

He established himself as a cult hero at the club as he developed a penchant for scoring against Arsenal. In fact, he ended up bagging four goals and three assists against the Gunners in as many games in the Premier League.

Van der Vaart scored another 13 goals in the 2011/12 season before returning to his former side Hamburg.

The fact he achieved so much in such a short space of time is quite remarkable, as it was reflected by his market value, which skyrocketed from £13.5m in August 2010 to £22.5m by February 2012 (stats provided by Transfermarkt).

While his time at Tottenham was ultimately cut short, as it was inextricably linked to Redknapp’s sacking in the summer of 2012, fans will never forget his heroics in front of the home crowd for many years to come.

Levy, forever the businessman, managed to sell him for £10.3m, making a tidy profit in the process.

All things considered, signing Van der Vaart turned out to be a fantastic decision by the Spurs chairman, as he played a key part in several priceless moments in the club’s history during a two-year stint, before being sold for £2m more than what they initially paid for him.

Tottenham fans, do you think Rafael van der Vaart was a shrewd signing by Daniel Levy? Have your say by commenting below!

However, this video might come as a surprise to supporters as the club tried to re-sign the Kenyan international this season, according to the Daily Mail and The Sun, but the player chose Montreal Impact, where he has only managed one appearance at Thierry Henry’s club before football was postponed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The player has also spoken about wanting to return to the Hoops, according to The Athletic, via celticbible, as he said: “I want to play for Celtic again before I finish. I have unfinished business there. I love that club.”

Wanyama made 91 appearances for the Hoops, managing to score 13 goals and grab nine assists, whilst winning the league twice as well as the Scottish Cup once (as per Transfermarkt) before moving to the English Premier League to play for both Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur.

It will be interesting to see whether he will be welcomed back with open arms if he does return to Parkhead.

Celtic fans, what are your thoughts on Wanyama’s post? Comment below with your views!

Name: Ethan Laird

Club: Manchester United

Date of Birth: 5 August 2001

Position: Full-back (Right, left)

Ethan Laird – his career so far

Ethan Benjamin Laird has been a part of Manchester United’s family ever since a young age and has progressed through the academy ranks and into the development squads, impressing the right people and turning some heads along the way.

The academy graduate became a regular presence as he broke into the squad in the season 2017/18 as a first-year scholar. That marked the beginning of a great journey full of success and impressive feats in the process as well.

Interestingly enough, despite being the youngest player in Man United’s academy intake for the year 2017, he ended up with 19 appearances under his belt and also featured for their U23 squad and in the UEFA Youth League as well.

Still, he continued his stay with the U18s throughout 2018/19, which was unfortunately marked with an unlucky injury that prevented him from registering meaningful minutes across some parts of the campaign, and would then explode in the following season, staking his claim once again.

Apart from scoring his first EFL Cup goal in a win at Rotherham United, he would also bounce back from another injury setback to finally make his full senior debut in the Europa League match against Astana in Kazakhstan at the end of November. That one would be followed up by his second first-team appearance in a 4-0 victory over AZ Alkmaar not even a month later.

As a whole, Laird registered 28 appearances for the U18s, scoring three goals and assisting further seven as well. Across 14 games he played for the U23 squad, however, he mustered one goal and three assists.

Of course, he would also feature in the UEFA Youth Cup, tallying 11 appearances and three assists once again. Unfortunately, he is yet to register another senior team game after the initial two in November and December of 2019.

But given his talent and ceiling, that could still very well be on the agenda in the not so distant future for the youngster.

Transfer latest

Laird’s current contract is still viable until 2023 and the youngster seems to be in the Red Devils’ plans for the future at the very moment. At least that’s what some of the recent transfer rumours surrounding his teammate Diogo Dalot could suggest if we try to read between the lines.

Reportedly, Dalot is linked with a move to Paris Saint-Germain and just the fact that the transfer is a possibility could be a big sign for the young 19-year-old full-back. If Man United were to be deprived of another wide defender, that could possibly suggest they do have faith in their academy graduate as well, otherwise there’d be no chance of that going through.

Of course, no Manchester United news can actually confirm Laird is in Solskjaer’s plans for the future but there’s also nothing out there among the transfer news that would suggest otherwise.

One way or the other, the following season could be a huge one for the young full-back.

Player profile

Laird is a pacey full-back who has always excelled defensively but has managed to add more attacking flair to his profile over the years of his development at Man United’s academy. When he does enter the final third, either with or without the ball, he has the ability to link up with his teammates well and even threaten the goal himself.

But it’s his ability to keep the defence organised and ticking that makes him a huge asset in the backline. Apart from being quite solid in duels as well as a commanding presence on the pitch, his work rate and determination could be what makes the difference further down the line of his career.

And Laird can also boast with good technical abilities which make him cool in possession and secure on the ball. Overall, he has the makings of a great modern defender who can excel in both the attacking and the defensive phases of play.

Having signed from Turkish giants Besiktas back in January 2018 for a fee in the region of £27m, Cenk Tosun has spectacularly failed to deliver on the expectations that were placed upon him.

Then Everton manager Sam Allardyce lauded him for being “strong mentally” and hailed his “talent and goal-scoring” too. Sadly for both the Toffees and the striker himself, that has not proven to be the case.

In the 48 games he has played for the club, he has managed just ten goals as per Transfermarkt. And on Saturday afternoon against Norwich in the Premier League, the Turkey international produced a largely anonymous display.

As per Sofascore, the 28-year-old couldn’t convert any of the four attempted shots he had, whilst he only managed a measly 29 touches of the ball.

After seeing his poor performance, Everton fans flooded to Twitter to voice their thoughts on their centre-forward.

Many supporters of the Merseyside club couldn’t quite believe Marco Silva continues to play him, and insisted he simply isn’t good enough to play for the side.

Check out some of the reaction of Everton fans below:

This week sees the launch of Football Beyond Walls, an initiative that pairs young people and professional footballers for a game of FIFA and a meaningful conversation about their lives in lockdown.

Ahead of the launch, Fulham’s Cyrus Christie spoke to Football FanCast about his involvement in the initiative and his thoughts on mental health and Fulham’s promotion chances.

It’s a very strange time for a lot of us right now, but there are still some things that remain the same, the joy of FIFA bringing people together.

Now the popular video game is being used as a tool to help people open up about their mental health and how they can deal with the stresses of the lockdown whilst at the same time coming together to talk about their problems whilst with the comfort of a controller in their hands.

Speaking to FFC, the Fulham defender talked about how the idea of using FIFA to inspire teenagers to open up about the subject came about.

“I spoke to Jasper [Jasper Kain, Director of Football Beyond Borders] and I was speaking to him about running a FIFA tournament that I was running, which is still ongoing now. I was speaking to him in the build up to it and I was saying that maybe we can partner with him and do it. And then he mentioned that they’ve also been speaking about a thing for FIFA and they said “Are you interested in playing FIFA against some of the kids and talking to them.”

In the film, Christie talks with his FIFA partners about how they are all coping with isolation during the lockdown and when speaking to Football FanCast he talked about how difficult a time like this is going to be for a lot of people given the circumstances.

“In general it is going to be tough for a lot of people. A lot of people obviously are going to be in certain different situations, maybe their home life might not be great. I think the cases of domestic abuse has gone up, and there are obviously people out there that are struggling on a day to day life of being locked in because they have got their freedom that potentially bravely keeps them sane.”

When asked whether or not he felt that there were enough safeguards in place to help people cope with their mental health, Christie felt that the way things were handled so haphazardly by those in charge, there wasn’t really a lot of time put aside to make sure that every single aspect of society was taken care of.

“I think on that kind of aspect, this obviously has not been thought about, but there’s not many measures are in place because we reacted so late to the virus that it kind of all come out at once, so people weren’t able to maybe plan and get themselves right for the potential of what’s happened. So, you know, it’s I think it’s like we said, it’s great that with the FIFA thing that their kids were able to talk and express themselves.”

The good thing about FIFA, and technology the way that it is today, is that it has allowed people to connect with others that they wouldn’t have had before, and Christie notes that for kids today, having this technology at their disposal has opened up great new possibilities that might not have come about if it were not for the lockdown.

“I think really, for a lot of people, especially when you look at the older people, their social life is people coming round to see them and them talking to people so I think you might find that a lot of these old people haven’t got maybe haven’t got the internet to talk to people. Whereas obviously, with a kid, it’s easy to communicate with others.

I think it’s been a blessing that it’s allowed other people to maybe give themselves a mental break and explore different avenues that they’re in, and work on themselves that they might not have had the time to do.”

The first footballer taking part in Football Beyond Walls is Fulham’s Cyrus Christie, who took on two teenagers at FIFA. You can see the results in this brilliant film – https://vimeo.com/415466197/45f135a012

Leeds United fans on Twitter have pulled no punches when discussing Kamil Miazek as the 23-year-old conceded seven goals as the Whites’ U23 side lost 7-1 to Derby County on Wednesday evening.

While we don’t like to see any footballer treated harshly on social media, we can kind of understand why the goalkeeper has been the subject of criticism.

Watch Leeds United Videos With StreamFootball.tv Below

Conceding seven goals in a single game is pretty much inexcusable, and fans have made it clear that they’re far from happy with his performance against the Rams.

If we were going to cut Miazek some slack we’d say that the East Midlands outfit fielded a few players who had first-team experience such as Mason Bennett while Kieran Dowell came on as a late substitute.

The goalkeeper probably won’t want to read any of these comments, but here’s what the Elland Road faithful have been saying on social media after their drubbing…

A selection of West Ham United fans took to social media during their loss at home to Newcastle United on Saturday to share their thoughts on Manuel Pellegrini replacing Mark Noble with Albian Ajeti at half-time.

The Irons entered the break two goals behind at home to the Magpies, after centre-half duo Ciaran Clark and Federico Fernandez fired past Roberto Jimenez.

West Ham had held more of the possession when they returned to the dressing room, but had only turned two of their five shots on target, while the Toon hit six of their seven efforts on target from just 31.7% of the ball, per WhoScored data.

Watch West Ham United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

In search of something to inspire a comeback, Pellegrini made a double change at half-time with Ajeti coming on for Noble and Manuel Lanzini replacing Andriy Yarmolenko.

Only Sebastien Haller and Declan Rice had spent less time on the ball for West Ham from their outfield players in the opening 45 than Yarmolenko, while Noble marginally eclipsed Pablo Zabaleta.

Despite his reduced time in possession, Noble had attempted (26) and completed (21) more passes than almost all of his teammates before being replaced, with Felipe Anderson the only other non-Irons defender to complete more than 20.

Noble rarely made an impact in the final-third, though, as just eight of his passes were made in Newcastle’s defensive part of the pitch, while also offering little defensively with no interceptions or clearances and won just one tackle from three attempts.

Yet West Ham fans were not impressed by Pellegrini’s half-time switch, going by some of the reactions shared…