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Carlo Ancelotti will be bitterly concerned by the fitness of his Everton squad after Gylfi Sigurdsson joined James Rodriguez in missing training on Wednesday.

That’s according to the Liverpool Echo, who note that neither of the Toffees’ creative midfielders were involved in the action at Finch Farm as Ancelotti readies his squad for Saturday’s clash with Burnley.

Rodriguez has missed the Blues’ last three Premier League fixtures with a minor knock, but Ancelotti had hoped to see the Colombian passed fit for the Clarets’ visit to Goodison Park.

Everton are yet to disclose the precise reason behind Rodriguez’s absence, sparking fury from former Colombia star Ivan Valenciano, who claimed Ancelotti is “lying from every point of view” as the Italian tactician will not reveal how long he will miss.

Sigurdsson opened the action in place of Rodriguez at home to Southampton and away to Chelsea, and came off the bench to assist the winner over West Bromwich Albion having initially been rested at The Hawthorns.

Ancelotti is expected to state why the Iceland playmaker was not present for training on Wednesday when he addresses the media later this week, with the reason for his absence also unspecified at this time.

Rodriguez and Sigurdsson were not the only players to be missing from the pre-Burnley sessions, either, with Abdoulaye Doucoure and Jean-Philippe Gbamin not involved.

Doucoure was ruled out until, at least, following the March international break after sitting out Monday’s loss to Chelsea with a suspected fractured foot, which could see the £20m summer signing from Watford miss up to eight weeks.

Gbamin has not featured for Everton since making only his second appearance in royal blue at home to the Hornets in August 2019, having been hampered by an Achilles tendon injury during his initial rehabilitation from two rounds of surgery and two setbacks.

Ancelotti will be bitterly concerned by the prospect of facing Burnley without either of Rodriguez or Sigurdsson on the field to pull the strings, with the midfield pair two of Everton’s most creative options.

Only Lucas Digne has assisted (6) more goals for the Toffees in the Premier League this season than Rodriguez (4) and Sigurdsson (4), who also rank third and fourth in terms of the club’s top scorers too, with five and four goals respectively – behind just Dominic Calvert-Lewin (13) and Richarlison (6).

Rodriguez further provides a team-high 1.7 key passes per top-flight game this term, ahead of Digne (1.4) and Sigurdsson (1.1) as the only Blues players to provide more than one an outing on average, per WhoScored.

Doucoure’s absence will also deprive Ancelotti of his fifth-most creative option, with the 28-year-old providing 0.8 key passes a game – just behind Bernard (0.9), who has only played 393 minutes of Premier League football this season.

Burnley may be leaking goalscoring chances this season, with only West Brom (15) allowing more shots per game than the Clarets (14.4), but Ancelotti will surely fear the prospect of facing Sean Dyche’s side without a visionary, creative player in the Toffees’ midfield.

AND in other news, Everton face a £33.5m asking price to sign a sought-after 24-year-old talent…

Speaking to Mundo Deportivo, via Sport Witness, intermediary and football agent Josep Maria Minguella Jr has dropped a transfer admission surrounding Brazilian forward Malcom and his move from Bordeaux to Barcelona in 2018 – with the intermediary revealing a €62 million (£53.7 million) offer from Tottenham at the time.

Minguella Jr, in an interview with the Spanish outlet, was asked about his role in the Malcom transfer to Barcelona – coming after Cadena SER (via Sport Witness) claimed that he received €10 million (£8.6m) commission for facilitating the move.

Tottenham transfer admission emerges

Rubbishing this report, Minguella Jr states his ‘real commission’ was ‘just over one million euro’  – going on to drop a revelation involving Tottenham.

He says that Spurs lodged an offer for Malcom worth £53.7m before he completed a move to Barcelona in 2018.

“Barça hired me to make possible an operation that initially cost about €62m, which was the offer that Bordeaux had from Tottenham, and we managed to get him to stop going to Roma, get off the plane and change course to Barcelona,” Minguella Jr said.

“The operation was closed for €41m plus the 8 of intermediation that could make this operation possible.”

Transfer Tavern take

An interesting claim, it lifts the lid on Levy’s attempted coup for ex-Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino during a time when there were few transfer dealings in north London.

Indeed, Tottenham did not make a single signing, free or otherwise, in the summer of 2018 – but Minguella Jr’s admission has shed light on an attempt at the very least.

In other news: Julian Nagelsmann claim emerges in news for Tottenham, find out more here.

Celtic suffered heartbreak in the January transfer window when the tale of Ben Davies took a dramatic last-minute turn.

The defender looked certain to be making the move to Scotland as talks between the two parties reached an agreement. However, some late negotiations from Liverpool coaxed Davies to join the Premier League champions on deadline day.

It looked like a massive loss for Celtic at the time as they have been struggling immensely across their backline this season, leaking 22 goals, some 14 more than the league leaders.

However, Davies is currently out of action due to injury, just weeks after signing for his new club. Liverpool are suffering a similar defensive crisis and this news will have infuriated the fanbase.

In the last two seasons, the 25-year-old has had three recurring hamstring injuries which resulted in him missing a total of 94 days with Preston North End.

For Peter Lawwell, he can feel glad that he didn’t reach into his pocket and splash £1.6million on the centre-half.

The Hoops are limited in their defensive options, especially at centre-back. Shane Duffy has disappointed with his loan spell from Brighton and Christopher Jullien has been injured for a total of 29 matches so far this season, playing next to no role in their holding Premiership campaign, according to Transfermarkt.

Celtic have recruited Jonjoe Kenny on a temporary basis to plug some of their backline leaks.

But it’s not been enough to see the Bhoys to a tenth consecutive title win this season. They have shipped plenty of goals in the league this season as mentioned, which is already more than the 19 they conceded throughout the 2019/20 campaign.

The Glaswegians can return to the transfer market in the summer to hopefully bring in a new defender, but for now, the peace of mind that they didn’t sign the injury-prone Davies will be a weight off Lawwell’s conscience.

In other news, Lennon must prioritise starting Ismaila Soro over Scott Brown…

Chelsea have sacked club legend Frank Lampard after 18 months in charge following a mixed bag of results. His final game was the Sunday’s fourth-round win over Luton in the FA Cup.

Roman Abramovich has never been one for hanging around as former Paris St-Germain boss Thomas Tuchel has been named as Lampard’s immediate successor and he will be in charge when they play host to Wolves at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.

Here at Football FanCast, here’s what we think the starting XI will look like for the big game.

We’re backing Edouard Mendy to keep his place in goal for the Blues this evening, having played most Premier League games this season.

In terms of defence, things look rather straightforward, with much of Lampard’s former side remaining intact. Tuchel will most likely stick with the tried-and-tested partnership of Kurt Zouma and Thiago Silva, who played under the German at Paris Saint-Germain.

Reece James will probably keep his place at right-back while Cesar Azpilicueta will be forced to settle for a place on the bench, and Ben Chilwell will almost certainly replace Emerson Palmieri at left-back.

The new coach knows he needs to get Timo Werner and Kai Havertz firing again, with the dup having initially struggled for form since the start of this season, which partly led to Lampard’s sacking.

Using Havertz as a No.10 makes most sense, so he’ll probably resort to using Mason Mount and Mateo Kovacic as the holding midfielders whilst N’Golo Kante recovers from injury.

Out wide, the options pretty much pick themselves, as Tuchel is set for a reunion with his former charge Christian Pulisic, with Callum Hudson-Odoi on the opposite flank. Don’t be surprised to see Hakim Ziyech feature at some point in the second half, though.

Liverpool did well to strengthen their biggest problem area during the January transfer window thanks to Michael Edwards’ work on signing Ozan Kabak and Ben Davies. The two new centre-backs should be enough to see the Reds through their reigning title season, where they’ll push to secure another major honour.

However, as displayed during their shock 1-0 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion, Liverpool’s attack is also under a lot of strain. With super signing Diogo Jota out with a knee injury, the Premier League winners have been missing his tenacity and pace on the pitch. Because of this, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane have been working overtime to conjure up creative play and find the back of the net.

A subject that separates a lot of the Liverpool fanbase is Roberto Firmino’s input to the team. Whilst he is highly regarded as a player that does a lot of work off the ball and who grafts hard to support his teammates, his direct goal involvement stats are questionable for a striker.

Although four goal involvements in his last five appearances is a huge step up from the more recent norm, the Brazilian has suffered long droughts in front of goal. According to BBC Sport, Firmino has just six goals to his name this season, a long way off the likes of Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy and Merseyside derby rival Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Teammate Salah leads the way as the Premier League’s top scorer so far. He has consistently outperformed the striker in terms of goal numbers since he arrived at Anfield. This has led to Liverpool being linked with several new options in the No.9 position and Kylian Mbappe is undoubtedly one of the biggest names being linked.

The French superstar has been linked to Liverpool for several months now, but a recent report from Canal + (relayed via Get French Football News) states that Jurgen Klopp has been pressing Mbappe’s entourage to get his client a move to Merseyside.

Indeed, if the Reds pull off the unthinkable and sign the World Cup winner, Klopp could be looking at this kind of lineup next season…

Being able to deploy a natural goal-machine like Mbappe could make Liverpool one of the most deadly teams on the planet. His natural, effortless ability to find the back of the net is exactly what the Reds are missing right now. However, it’s unlikely Klopp will choose to drop Firmino completely.

The 29-year-old’s lack of goals is made up by his work ethic and passion for the club. His creativity would do wonders for Mbappe as he adjusts to the Premier League and he would also benefit from having Thiago Alcantara manning the engine room behind him.

World Cup winner Mbappe has been heavily praised over the years, with the likes of Cesc Fabregas branding him a “phenomenon” of a player. Certainly, his 134 career goals so far speak for themselves, but Liverpool must be willing to meet his whopping £378,000 per week wage packet – which could be easier said than done given his current PSG contract runs out next year.

This would be one of the biggest transfers in history if it happens, as Klopp pushes Mbappe’s representatives to get him to Anfield. If the German manager gets his wish, he could be in charge of one of the all-time great attacking trios.

In other news, Exclusive: Rob Lee drops verdict on Liverpool return for Danny Ings…

West Ham United would be throwing money away if David Sullivan were to sanction a mid-season loan for FC Barcelona outcast Junior Firpo.

What’s the word?

According to Calcio Napoli 24, Firpo’s representatives have been in contact with a clutch of potential suitors to sound out their interest in signing the left-back in the January transfer window.

West Ham have reportedly not responded to the approach as of yet, but if they do want to sign the player, they will face competition from SSC Napoli, who Gianluca Di Marzio adds have asked for further information on the terms of any temporary deal for the £38,000-per-week defender.

Firpo is believed to favour a move to the Premier League if he is to leave the Camp Nou this winter, but Napoli remain in the hunt in case they manage to offload one of Kevin Malcuit, Elseid Hysaj or Faouzi Ghoulam.

West Ham were credited with an interest in signing Firpo last month following Arthur Masuaku undergoing career-saving knee surgery, with it noted at the time that Barcelona were eager to offload the defender as they strive to reduce their enormous wage bill.

Firpo has continued to live life on the fringes under Ronald Koeman since the Irons’ interest was previously claimed, playing just nine minutes of La Liga football in 2021 to bring his record over 10 appearances to 351 minutes across all competitions.

The last of his league outings even came at right-back as a late substitute for Sergino Dest, to continue a trend of playing out of position with no appearances in his natural left-back role during a La Liga game thus far this season.

Throwing money away

West Ham moving to sign Firpo on loan in the January transfer window would likely only serve to see Sullivan throw his money away by taking on the Barcelona outcast’s wages, as David Moyes already has options at full-back who warrant minutes.

Koeman was willing to field Firpo in his natural left-back role during stages of Barcelona’s Champions League Group Stage campaign, which saw the 24-year-old offer just 0.2 key passes and 0.4 shots while completing a mere 0.6 dribbles and making 0.6 successful tackles, per SofaScore.

Moyes would struggle to see those type of numbers match up and better those of Aaron Creswell at the London Stadium, who has put his initial rustiness to the side to begin shining at full-back once more in place of the injured Masuaku.

Cresswell has continually been defensively solid over the festive period and strong going forward, particularly from set-pieces with his ferocious power, and helped West Ham to begin setting their own tone at Chelsea after the Blues started the stronger of the two sides.

The £6m-rated star’s efforts have helped him to deliver seven crosses a game in the Premier League when fielded at left-back, with Cresswell finding a West Ham player with two of his efforts, per WhoScored. Comparably, Liverpool’s Andrew Robertson – considered as one of the best left-backs in the world – offers 2.2 accurate crosses from 9.4 deliveries a game.

Cresswell also produces 0.7 shots and the joint-most key passes per league game (1.4) by an Irons player with Tomas Soucek, among those who have played more than five times under Moyes this term.

Defensively, Cresswell is further successful with half of his 1.4 tackles a game, offers 1.3 interceptions – more than Masuaku had (0.5) – and makes 1.9 blocks, while offering at least twice as many assists (4) so far this season than anyone else in the Hammers squad.

Moyes also has Ben Johnson who can provide cover for Cresswell, and he did little wrong when fielded in the FA Cup earlier this month with a solid defensive showing from the 20-year-old.

West Ham might be eyeing new additions this month but a cast-off left-back isn’t needed at this time.

AND in other news, a £4.5m-rated brute was West Ham’s true star of the show vs Burnley.

In an exclusive interview with Football FanCast, former Premier League striker Dean Windass has tipped new West Brom boss Sam Allardyce to swoop for one of his former players in the upcoming January transfer window.

The 66-year-old replaced Slaven Bilic last week on an 18-month contract and suffered an embarrassing 3-0 defeat to arch-rivals Aston Villa in his first game in charge on Sunday evening.

He told reporters that he will be backed next month, and Windass has suggested that Everton outcast Yannick Bolasie could be one to make the switch to the Hawthorns.

The 31-year-old originally joined the Toffees in a £25m deal from Crystal Palace in 2016 under Ronald Koeman but would go onto play more times for Allardyce than the Dutchman.

He scored just once in 17 appearances, whilst 53% of his matches at Everton have come under Big Sam, per Transfermarkt.

The DR Congo winger wasn’t registered for their Premier League squad this season and is expected to leave the club in January as Carlo Ancelotti revealed in October.

And the ex-Hull marksman believes he could end up in the Midlands…

He told FFC:

“Yeah, pace in the wide areas.

“He’s been Everton’s forgotten man but yeah [I’d take him].

“Listen, Sam will know, Sam will have it in his mind who he needs.”

The wide areas have been a problematic issue at the Baggies this season.

Grady Diangana hasn’t been able to continue the form that helped spearhead them to Championship promotion last term, whilst Bilic often went to a back five to mask his lack of trust in a true right-winger – neither Matty Phillips, Kamil Grosicki or Kyle Edwards could nail down that spot.

Bolasie could somewhat solve the issue short-term as he’s vastly experienced in the Premier League having made 119 appearances in his top-flight career.

Although, the £70k-per-week Toffees misfit would arrive with plenty of fitness concerns given he’s not played a competitive fixture this season.

Bolasie’s last senior appearance came in Sporting Lisbon’s 4-1 thrashing by Istanbul in the Europa League back in February.

AND in other news, West Brom exclusive: Pundit drops scathing Luke Dowling claim after Slaven Bilic sacking…

Leeds United and their fans will be delighted with their recent Premier League result which saw them come away from Goodison Park with a hard-fought three points. The victory lifts them higher up the table, just one point behind Manchester City.

It was winger Raphinha who came to the rescue with a late goal to tip the scales in his side’s favour. Marcelo Bielsa was thrilled with his performance and lauded Victor Orta for signing him in his recent post-match press conference.

However, the boss didn’t have praise for all of his players and targeted Liam Cooper, Stuart Dallas and Mateusz Klich for their struggles to keep James Rodriguez in check.

“We made a conscious effort to have someone close to him throughout so that he was not able to do the thing he likes to do the most,” Bielsa said. “And despite the efforts of Dallas, Cooper and Klich, he was a player who was very difficult to neutralise.”

Indeed, Rodriguez was Everton’s most dangerous player and he caused the Whites a lot of trouble. According to Sofascore, the Colombian completed five key passes and created a big chance for the Toffees to score. He also had two shots on target and was successful in 100% of his attempted dribbles, highlighting just how much of a thorn in the side he was for the Leeds defence.

Bielsa and his men will face Chelsea in their next outing and will need to tighten up their defence if they want to keep the likes of Timo Werner and Tammy Abraham at bay. The Blues pose a huge threat in front of goal and Leeds simply cannot afford to be lax at the back.

Skipper Cooper will particularly be disappointed and he must improve his and his defensive teammates’ game to stand a chance next weekend.

In other news, This Leeds ace was Bielsa’s star man against Everton…

According to The Daily Mirror, Newcastle are one of a number of Premier League clubs interested in signing Burnley midfielder Jack Cork.

What’s the story?

The 31-year-old’s contract expires at the end of this current season, and with the Clarets involved in rumours of a potential takeover, his long-term future at Turf Moor is up in the air.

The Daily Mirror claim that along with Newcastle, the likes of Brighton and Sheffield United are also keeping an eye on developments, with a view to potentially landing him on a free transfer.

He’d be an Isaac Hayden upgrade

Having missed Burnley’s clash against the Magpies earlier this season, the last time Cork took to the field against the Tyneside club was back in February, when the two sides played out a rather drab 0-0 draw at St James’ Park.

One man who stood out was the Clarets’ 6 foot 1 machine, who dominated the midfield battle against Jonjo Shelvey. Playing that screening role against Ashley Westwood, Cork was a constant menace in shutting down the Newcastle engine room, and he finished the game with eight duels won and having made seven defensive contributions.

He completely bullied Shelvey in the middle of the park, who was one of the Magpies’ poorest performers – according to Sofascore, his 6.6 match rating was only better than that of Joelinton. He lost possession 19 times and averaged a shocking 61% pass accuracy, thanks in part to the way in which Cork pressed him non-stop.

Newcastle already have an anchor man in Isaac Hayden, but Cork could be a real upgrade on the 25-year-old. Whilst both averaged similar numbers for the key defensive areas last season in the Premier League, the Burnley man outshone him in possession. He boasted more touches per match, had a far greater accuracy when it comes to forward passes into the opposition’s half, and had a significantly better dribble success rate.

Cork would give Newcastle a solid shield to their back-line, but also offer them a little more in way of moving the ball forwards and starting attacks.

Leeds United’s U23s outfit looks incredibly exciting at the moment.

Last week we discussed how Joe Gelhardt has all the tools needed to be a success at the club, but while we were busy fawning over Gelhardt, his strike partner was picking up a PL2 Player of the Month award.

Sam Greenwood has been exceptional since joining United’s academy, netting five goals in four games, and he more than deserves the recognition he’s received.

Gelhardt himself has one goal this season, taking their combined tally to six goals in four games, but it’s their incredible partnership that has helped them hit this patch of form.

U23s manager Mark Jackson has previously spoken about their brilliant partnership on the pitch as well as their budding friendship off of it.

“Sam and Joffy have got a good relationship in regards to playing together,” Jackson said.

“They’ve done that in the national team, so they tell me anyway. You can see that on the training field. They spend a lot of time together and they have a good playing relationship on the pitch.”

The idea of this budding strike partnership coming through is very exciting to say the least, especially when you consider that Leeds haven’t had a partnership like this for a long time.

Be it down to football tactics moving towards favouring one-striker formations or a lack of quality at the club, Leeds haven’t had a top-class strike partnership since Jermaine Beckford and Luciano Becchio.

A decade ago, Becchio and Beckford were banging in 47 goals between them for Leeds, and since then, the Whites haven’t had two forwards put up those types of numbers.

Ross McCormack and Matt Smith came closest with 42 goals between them in the 2011/12 season, and even then, McCormack was starting a lot of games in a deeper role, and he did most of the heavy lifting towards that tally with 29 strikes, so they weren’t your traditional strike partnership.

Gelhardt and Greenwood look like a strike pairing that can work in perfect tandem, and if that can translate to the first team, Leeds may have something special on their hands.