EDEN HAZARD could be the man to replace Neymar at Barcelona, according to the bookies
The Chelsea star has been linked with a switch to the Spanish giant’s rivals Real Madrid this summer.
Spanish outlet don balon, sensationally claim Hazard will betray Real as he is tired of waiting for them to make their moves.
And they go on to say the 26-year-old has not hesitated in telling Barcelona he is ready to play for them.
The Chelsea ace is said to see this as the idea opportunity to move to La Liga and make an impact in Spain.
As it stands, Eden Hazard could be on his way to Barca with odds tumbling following the recent depature of Neymar to Paris Saint Germain.
Hazard recently had his hand on the premier League for the second time
Image: Skyports
BetStars Director of Trading, Ian Marmion said: “Neymar’s record-breaking move to PSG has put Barcelona on high alert to find a world-class replacement.
“Chelsea’s Eden Hazard looks like he could be the man to step up to the plate in a move which could see Barca hijack the long-term target of their El Classico rivals.
“The Belgian midfielder has been one of the Premier League’s stand-out players and has a similar skill-set to the PSG-bound attacker as well as the experience on the left wing to slot into Neymar’s position in a like-for-like swap.
he odds have been cut from 10/1 to 6/1 overnight for the Belgium international to join the Catalans this summer.”
Neymar has recently completed a whopping £199m move to PSG leaving Barca with a massive void to fill.
Another name being linked with a switch to the Nou Camp is Liverpool star Philippe Coutinho.
Jurgen Klopp is adamant he will keep the Brazilian at Anfield though
He said: “It’s nice that Coutinho is so highly rated but they can save their energy.
“In this moment it is about transfers and I have nothing to say.
“I cannot talk about this just because a Barcelona guy starts talking.
“Did he say they come to Liverpool and do business, something like this? They want to come over, they are funny. I don’t want things like this.
Can John Obi Mikel hand Nigeria another Africa Cup of Nations title?
Two heads are better than one, so they say. But in the context of the Super Eagles goalkeeping situation you may want to ask what was wrong with the first head?
The word “more” should be an hero. It’s a principle that if you want to find something new, look for new.
You’ve been wanting to experience being a vegetarian, then try it. No one is guaranteeing you liking it.
Failure might be resounding but then you risk it. You either fail or succeed; you fail, you learn and get a fulfilment of trying, you succeed, you still get fulfilled.
Neymar jr
Image: getty images
Neymar who recently embraced the PSG turning his back to Barcelona FC that has been his sports family for a while.
He wants challenge and as a sportsman, that’s a good drive.
He had challenges in Barca but he wants more and now he’s gunning for it. He’s living his more.
Who knows if he’d be fulfilled positively or negatively at the end?
I’m sure he doesn’t care because that’s not all that matters.
What really matter is understanding what decision making is about.
Knowing there is no fixed agenda for the universe; once you make a decision, it works around that decision.
There’s no right, there’s no wrong, only a series of possibilities that shift with each passing thought, feeling and action that you experience.
The young man definitely got advice from different people against stabbing his loyalty for his former club, including his own father. But he didn’t heed, a very wise thing to do when there’s conviction of more deep down.
It is not safe to entrust one’s future in another person’s hands… The best thing is always pull your own rope.
Neymar jr
Photo: getty images
If tomorrow, he gets the challenge he was out for in PSG then he’d happily say he made it and maybe add milestones and if not, he won’t still say he didn’t make it, not with the whooping worth placed on him in his new club.
Or do you still regard it failure that all 180million Nigerians would pay #444 (four hundred and forty-four Naira) each to buy just one man?
I’m sure you don’t regard that a fail.
Life itself is a risk; it’s impossible to live without taking risks. We do things on the impulse, not knowing what we’re doing; other times we decide to do something knowing well it might not even end well. But we do it anyways.
I can jump down an high-rise building with a mind of supernaturally getting wings or getting saved by superman or The Flash before I reach the rock bottom; if you ask me, that’s some cool way to live.
You can ask me alright because I might hit the rock bottom but it’ll definitely be on my feet.
He has run the 100 metres this year faster than Usain Bolt. Wayde’s in the category of extraordinary. There is no doubt he is the most complete sprinter of all time. Even Michael Johnson and Usain Bolt can’t argue with that.” says Roger Black
He holds the world records for both 300m and 400m which previously were the property of Michael Johnson.
And so talented is he that the World Championships schedule has been changed to allow him a shot at the 200-400m double.
Little wonder the search for the successor to Bolt has stopped at the door of South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk.
South African Track king, Wayde
Image: Oudtshoorn courant
“He’s in the category of extraordinary,” said British 400m great Roger Black. “There is no doubt he is the most complete sprinter of all time. Even Michael Johnson and Usain Bolt can’t argue with that.
“That isn’t a rash statement. Michael never broke 10 seconds for the 100m and Usain didn’t come close to running under 44 for the 400.
“Wayde’s statistic of breaking 10, breaking 20 (for 200m) and breaking 44, probably soon to break 43, is nothing short of incredible. No-one has ever done that.”
Bolt says Van Niekerk is the man to replace him, predicting: “He will take over, without a doubt.”
And nobody who saw the 25-year-old break the quarter-mile world record from lane eight in Rio would argue that the future is his.
But Van Niekerk is too respectful of Bolt to make any bold claims while the king of the sport is still on the throne.
His attitude to athletics might be pure Bolt, saying of records: “I long time don’t believe in unbeatable any more.”
Usain bolt
Image: Mirror
But as for filling the Jamaican’s shoes, that’s another thing altogether.
“That’s a massive responsibility. I have to be honest, as an athlete I’ve still got quite a long way to go before I even get close to the heights Usain has reached.
“Hopefully I can reach those heights and maybe even come close to the times he has run, but now we have to give him the respect he’s due.”
Matching feats achievements on the track is only half the deal, emulating him as a showman also comes with the job description.
“Slowly but surely I’m opening up,” said the quietly-spoke Capetonian. “But I find it extremely difficult to come even close to what Usain has represented in his charismatic ways.
“Usain has set the bar quite high! I’m going out to showcase who I am but I need to be me. Hopefully I can win hearts over as I am.
The transfer window has ticked into its final month, Real Madrid C.F remains one of the clubs still in the hunt for reinforcements. We will be looking at the chances of a probable transfer of Kylian Mbappe to Real Madrid this summer.
Madrid are the side who everyone has their eyes on, with the biggest club in the world ready to move forward with their interest in Monaco forward Kylian Mbappe.The debate over the French teenager is whether he trades regular football in a relatively easy league for a bit-role at the Bernabeu in a league that will chew him up and spit him out if he fails to make the cut.
Neymar’s impending move to Paris Saint-Germain has shocked European football, and the madness of the transfer market is likely to intensify in the next few weeks as French publication L’Equipe reports Monaco sensation Kylian Mbappe is ready to push for an exit.
Barcelona, who appear vulnerable after losing a third of the “MSN”, will be desperate to acquire another superstar to appease their disgruntled fans and lead the race, according to the report.
As straight replacements go, the Blaugrana could strike it lucky, though the 18-year-old may have his heart set on Real Madrid, given neither club is likely to offer him a starting role as a centre-forward with Luis Suarez and Karim Benzema so well established.
A meeting has already taken place between the France international’s entourage and the Catalan giants, though Los Blancos will surely enter the race, if only to deny their rivals from acquiring the best young player in Europe
Football writers are already discussing the prospect of other clubs rising from the lower ranks to join the European ‘Super Clubs’ at a time when Paris Saint-Germain prepare to shake up the apple cart and sign Neymar from Barcelona for a world record £198m.
Brazilian attacker, Neymar jr is on his way to Paris to become the world’s most expensive footballer, joining Paris Saint-Germain for a monumental £198m from Fc Barcelona.
The Brazilian superstar was given permission to miss training with the La Liga side on Wednesday morning to complete his move to the Parisians, with his agent already in the French capital awaiting his arrival.
The 25-year-old was tipped to take over the throne from Lionel Messi in the forthcoming years but now there needs to be another young pretender for the Argentine at the Nou Camp.
So who can replace a player with the profile, stature and talent of Neymar jr?
Scroll through the gallery at the top of the page with who The Independent understands are top of Barcelona’s list – as well as some other stars whose transfer could actually turn this into a good summer transfer window
1/5 Pablo Dybala (Juventus)
Pablo Dybala tipped to replace outgoing Neymar
Photograph: Dailymail
The other player revealed by The Independent to be top of the list of replacements is Dybala. The 23-year-old is one of the hottest young players on the planet and is tipped for a big future with the likes of Real Madrid and Manchester United also keeping tabs on him. However, Barca may use his relationship with Lionel Messi to persuade him to come to the Nou Camp. Dybala and his Argentine teammate are close friends off the pitch and often play video games together.
2/5 Ousmane Dembele (Borussia Dortmund)
Ousmanne Dembele tipped to replace outgoing Neymar jr
gettyimages
The Independent revealed on Tuesday that Dembele was at the top of Barcelona’s list of Neymar replacements. The 20-year-old looks like he is pushing for a transfer out of the German club after a training-ground bust-up with teammates further fuelled the rumours. He is a natural replacement for Neymar as a wideman with pace to burn and at five years his junior, he has bags of potential.
3/5 Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool)
Phillipe Coutinho is been tipped to replace outgoing Neymar jr
photograph: Liverpool
Coutinho has already been the subject of one rejected bid from Barca this summer and expect them to go back in for another one. The Brazilian has been part of the standard Barcelona trademarked recruitment campaign with current and ex-pros saying how suited he is to the Catalan club. The Independent has already revealed that Coutinho’s people are “70 per cent” sure that the move will go ahead once Neymar leaves.
4/5 Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid)
Antoine Griezmann also tipped to replace Neymar jr
Photograph: Goal.com
Catalan-based daily Sport revealed this week that Griezmann would be the man Barcelona will go for to replace Neymar. The Frenchman is a commercial goldmine as well as already being proven in La Liga as playing in a variety of attacking roles. His purchase would also weaken a rival but given the way he rejected Manchester United earlier in the summer, it would take a monumental offer to persuade him to leave.
5/5 Kylian Mbappe (Monaco)
Monaco’s French forward Kylian Mbappe has also been tipped to replace Neymar jr (Photo credit:VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images)
The 18-year-old is the best young player around, with it seeming last week that Real Madrid had beaten the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool to his signature. However, with £198m in the bank now, on top of the rest of their existing transfer budget, Barcelona could blow Real out of the water with another world-record move. To take a player of Mbappe’s quality from under the nose of their biggest rivals could only be seen as a good transfer window, even with Neymar’s exit.
Culled from independent.co.uk
Liverpool will contest the Audi Cup final against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday after they beat hosts Bayern Munich 3-0.
Jurgen Klopp’s side, who had already tasted victory in Germany this summer after beating Hertha Berlin at the weekend, spent long spells of the game holding off Bayern’s sustained possession before striking in deadly fashion on the counter.
Sadio Mane opened the scoring with little more than five minutes on the clock, latching onto a through-pass from Roberto Firmino and hammering home on the angle, while Mohamed Salah doubled the lead 10 minutes before the break.
Salah, Liverpool’s record signing, has wasted little time in showing his prowess for goal and nodded home his fourth of pre-season from close-range after Mane had shown great technique to set the overlapping Alberto Moreno free down the left channel.
Marko Grujic saw his finish perhaps harshly ruled out after a tremendous run from Ryan Kent, with an offside call against Adam Lallana, stood in front of the goalkeeper, loudly jeered by the travelling support.
A late deflected Robert Lewandowski free-kick and a low strike by Mats Hummels off the ensuing corner was as close as Bayern came to finding the net on home soil, before Daniel Sturridge wrapped up things in style with a lobbed finish — though appeared to injure himself in doing so.
Here are five things we learned from the Reds’ win at the Allianz…
(1) Sturridge the constant question mark
Even before kick-off there was a noteworthy point to reference: in a formidable-looking attacking line, Daniel Sturridge’s name was conspicuously absent. A strong showing thus far in pre-season from the striker and more than a few positive soundbites about him from the manager doesn’t seem to have changed one simple fact: he’s not in what Jurgen Klopp would likely consider his strongest XI.
It’s never wise to read too much into pre-season lineups, and in a two-day event there may be an element of mix-and-match in selections, but it will still be seen as reflective of an order of preference for Klopp when Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino all managed to find a place in the side and Sturridge didn’t.
Having come on as one of the many second-half substitutes, Sturridge looked to immediately make his case by driving down the left channel and striking wide, but it was in the dying minutes of the match when he produced possibly the most brilliant and vexing moment of all Liverpool’s pre-season.
Freed into space once more, Sturridge coolly lobbed the ball over goalkeeper Sven Ulreich and into the net for the Reds’ third… yet immediately hobbled to the sidelines and was promptly subbed.
It’s a huge part of the reason why he remains outside Klopp’s first-choice line-up.
(2) Salah and Mane set to light up the Premier League
While Mane was many fans’ best player for Liverpool in 2016/17 and the signing of Salah is justified cause for excitement, there were questions over how they would operate in the same side, given they both played on the right side last term.
At the Allianz, it was the Egyptian who started on the right, Mane on the left, and it took them less than a quarter of an hour to confirm there was plenty of potential in the alignment.
Such a move might have been made with the expectation of enabling both players to attack in-from-out on their favoured foot, but Mane’s opener came with his left and Salah scored with his head.
Regardless of finding the net in pre-season, their ability to open up defences with rapid and repeated movement behind the defence would have pleased Klopp most of all, as well as the way they linked with each other in long-distance fashion. Bayern, playing high upfield for much of the first half, couldn’t cope.
(3) Karius still in Klopp’s thoughts
gettyimages
Whether or not the team is substantially altered for the second day of the Audi Cup, it was clear from the outset that this was extremely close to a full-strength Liverpool side.
With that in mind it might have been expected that Simon Mignolet, excellent at the end of last season, might have been the goalkeeper of choice, but instead it was Loris Karius who took his place between the sticks.
Karius didn’t have too much to do in the first half as the Reds’ fairly low defensive block stymied Bayern, but twice his good starting position allowed him to claim lofted passes from deep over back four as Robert Lewandowski looked to latch onto them.
As has been the case with the German stopper, though, a heart-in-the-mouth moment was to follow as he allowed a back-pass to slip under his boot on the sodden turf. He recovered, but Mignolet has been entirely error-free in his most recent run in the team, and if Karius wants the No1 spot for himself that’s what he’ll have to match.
(4) Questions remaining at full-back
With James Milner and Nathaniel Clyne hampered by summer injuries, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alberto Moreno filled the full-back slots once more.
The English youngster has impressed hugely since making his breakthrough, but Klopp has spoken at length about him needing to defend with more maturity before becoming a regular starter. Here, he was given an almighty test, up against an elite combination in David Alaba and Franck Ribery, and Klopp spent the majority of the first half directing not just Alexander-Arnold, but the more senior members of the team playing on that side of the pitch to help protect him.
Emre Can, on the right of the midfield three, was called into action to cover repeated runs in behind, while another switch saw Salah remain up front out of possession with the ever-willing runner Firmino drafted in to cover Alaba’s surges forward.
It was a difficult night for Alexander-Arnold, and in spells he did extremely well to stop crosses coming in, but it’s also worth noting he won’t be up against this sort of class anywhere near every week in domestic action.
On the opposite flank, Moreno has had his future questioned for some time but he put in a largely accomplished performance this time out, being especially involved in the Reds’ first-half counters after the ball was won in midfield. Moreno tested Ulreich with a curling free-kick, and soon after it was his acceleration past Mane which opened up Bayern and led to the second goal.
Time may still be running out for Moreno at Anfield, but he’s at least showing Klopp that, given the right circumstances, he has something to offer.
(5) Coutinho the No8
While Liverpool might have been disappointed in their attempts to snare Naby Keita this summer to bolster the midfield, switching Coutinho from his usual left-sided role into the centre of the park has given the team a new-ish dimension to their play.
In Brendan Rodgers’ reign it was not uncommon to see Coutinho operate as a No 8, and this summer has seen the schemer operating in that deeper area with some regularity once again.
Quick to accelerate into space — with or without the ball — after transitions, Coutinho’s body swerves and ability to send opponents the wrong way instantly opens up the pitch for Liverpool.
More importantly, there is now a huge amount of pace and movement ahead of him to send constant, imaginative passes forward, and this change might be the one which benefits Liverpool in 2017-18 more than any signing might have.
karl Matchett
