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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Loan Watch series, which takes a closer look at those players who are aiming to galvanise their careers away from the spotlight of their parent club.

Not all La Masia products are meant for greatness and certainly not all make it into Barcelona’s senior team.

Of course, the golden generation with the likes of Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets is probably one you get once in a million years but that doesn’t mean the famous Catalan academy has stopped producing talent altogether.

Some, like left-back Marc Cucurella for example, have their obvious qualities but seeing how Barcelona’s senior squad is already stacked with talent at most positions, the 21-year-old’s loan deal to Getafe has proved fruitful.

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And Cucurella seems to be enjoying his stay away from the Catalan capital, recording multiple brilliant performances already, with the latest coming against Real Sociedad in La Liga.

Indeed, Getafe won the game 2-1 against a remarkably tough opponent.

The former La Masia talent recorded two key passes during the match, attempted three crosses and tallied 58 touches, second-highest in the team and only behind Damian Suarez.

But Cucurella was effective going the other way as well, recording a team-highest three interceptions and one tackle under his name in the process.

By all accounts, the young La Masia ace certainly impressed and it does beg the question as to why he was sent out on loan if he already possesses enough quality to compete in La Liga.

Of course, Barcelona ended up buying a new left-back, in the form of Junior Firpo, to relieve Jordi Alba in his time of need but maybe Cucurella could’ve been a cheaper and equally effective choice himself.

We’ll have to wait and see how both players continue performing in the future and whether Barcelona will regret their summer decision or not.

The stopper shared an image on social media of him posing with Ross Barkley and Mason Mount in training.

Based on the smiles on the players’ faces it seems that Henderson has almost immediately settled into life as an international footballer.

If the 22-year-old continues to improve at the rate he has over recent years, he may well be an England regular one day, so it’s good to see him embracing this experience in the camp.

Ernesto Valverde is hardly the most popular figure at Barcelona at the very moment.

The Basque coach has lately become the biggest target for harsh criticism at the club and many of the Blaugrana fans want him out sooner rather than later.

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The latest proof of that came after Valverde’s pre-match press conference ahead of the clash with Eibar.

Barcelona’s boss talked about their opposition, praising them for how they can make every team’s life difficult due to their obvious qualities.

And of course, upon hearing their coach’s words, many of the Barcelona faithful decided to swarm social media and Twitter with their negative comments.

They bashed Valverde for being a useless and brainless coach and also stated that it’s, in fact, him who makes their lives difficult and not the opposition they will face this Saturday.

Needless to say, they weren’t happy with what their manager had to say before the game.

You can see some of their reactions and comments down in the tweets below.

Check them out…

Leeds United are reportedly preparing a loan bid for Chelsea’s Reece James, who has raised eyebrows since he joined Wigan Athletic on loan last season. 

However, the complications of another homegrown player arriving at Elland Road has got some fans speculating as to how the club could respond to James’ potential arrival.

After an impressive spell at Wigan in the 2018/19 campaign, James returned to Chelsea where he has slowly emerged into the first-team picture under manager Frank Lampard, appearing in the Champions League group stage – although the 19-year-old is yet to make a Premier League appearance so far this season.

With Leeds having won just one of their last four Championship fixtures, the potential arrival of James in January has excited some of the club’s fanbase, though some fans have speculated that his arrival could pave the way for Jack Clarke – on loan from Tottenham Hotspur – to depart back to north London.

Given James’ ability, it’s no surprise that this rumour has got fans talking on social media.

Here’s what some of the Whites faithful had to say about Clarke and Nketiah in light of the recent report…

This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…

It was a bad day at the office for Liverpool on Sunday.

The Reds were far from their best as they scraped a 1-1 draw against Manchester United at Old Trafford. Adam Lallana scored the crucial equaliser with five minutes to spare after falling behind to a Marcus Rashford strike in the first half. There were some reassuring performances from Andrew Robertson and Lallana. However, there were also many poor showings on the day and one player stands out more than the rest.

Watch a Liverpool fan discover the internet and get a nasty surprise in the video below…

Trent Alexander-Arnold has certainly had better games in a Liverpool shirt, and the 21-year-old will want to move from this game in a hurry. Usually, his flexible box-to-box play on the right-hand side for Liverpool has a fine balance of excellent attacking credentials and resolute defending. On Sunday, his balls to the attackers were wayward on many occasions and the front three were left isolated due to his poor delivery.

The 21-year-old’s passing was out of character for someone who racked up 12 assists last season in the Premier League. Alexander-Arnold had more of the ball than any Liverpool player on the pitch with 112 touches as manager Jurgen Klopp made it very clear that he was targeting the defensive weakness of the Manchester United skipper Ashley Young.

The Liverpudlian only made two successful crosses in 11 attempts during the game and only five of his long balls were accurate out of the 13 that were attempted. In total, the youngster accumulated a pass success rate of just under 74%, which was way below his opposite number Andrew Robertson on the left-hand side.

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Defensively, the Melwood academy graduate was very ineffective as he did not make a single tackle during the 90 minutes. He was dribbled past on one occasion and could find himself becoming unstuck against better sides in the Premier League and Europe if his performances fail to improve.

After a sensational campaign last year, he has shown that there are elements of inconsistency to his game that he must work on. However, with Alexander-Arnold at the age of just 21, he is destined to improve as he ages and matures.

Leicester City fans on Twitter genuinely believe that they can win the league after they thrashed Southampton 9-0 at St Mary’s on Friday night.

You can’t blame the Foxes fanbase for having this line of thinking either. A scoreline of 9-0 is the joint biggest win in Premier League history.

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Normally, if a fanbase of a team of Leicester’s stature started talking about winning the Premier League title you’d put it down to delusion, but we’ve been here before, haven’t we?

Of course, nobody needs reminding of what happened in the 2015/16 season when Claudio Ranieri guided the East Midlands outfit to the most unlikely of title wins.

Could lightning strike twice? The Foxes are playing some fantastic football, and they moved to second in the table with the thrilling win at St. Mary’s.

Whether or not Leicester can challenge for the title this season remains to be seen, but after Friday night’s showing, anyone would be a fool to write them off.

Here’s what the fanbase have been saying on Twitter…

This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more… 

Sheffield Wednesday are holding their own amongst the Championship playoffs currently as they sit in fifth place, only three points off league leaders West Bromwich Albion.

Garry Monk’s men earned a draw against local rivals Leeds United last time out, which was only a measure of how well they are doing under the 40-year-old – to be precise, they have only lost the one match and have recorded 15 points from a possible 24.

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The Owls will be looking to continue that rich vein of form when they head to Blackburn Rovers this weekend.

Monk is hopeful that Massimo Luongo will be available for selection after missing last Saturday’s stalemate, and if he does indeed pass all injury worries, then there are no doubts about why he should be starting this match.

On the Chalkboard

Right before kickoff, Monk was forced into making another late change as Julian Borner pulled up in the warm-up, which meant Sam Hutchinson dropped into defence with Joey Pelupessy deputising in central midfield.

Fans were left fuming with his performance while the 30-year-old looked right at home in his new role, so there will be no major problems if the German remains absent on Saturday.

Luongo was just beginning to turn a corner in his Wednesday career before picking up an injury during the Stoke City match.

He had to wait until game week 11 to make his first start in the blue and white stripes, and since then, the 27-year-old has scored two goals in three matches – both of which coming in 1-0 victories.

Therefore, it isn’t unfair to suggest that the Owls seriously missed the Australian against Leeds because they just simply couldn’t find the net, even despite registering 11 shots against the division’s best defence.

Monk has been far too reliant on Steven Fletcher for goals, but Luongo was starting to dispel that with his performances trending in the right direction.

The £4.5m-rated (Transfermarkt) man is a must to start against Blackburn on Saturday if deemed fit enough to play. Monk would be foolish if he didn’t play him.

It has been confirmed that former Sheffield United owner Kevin McCabe’s lawyers are seeking leave to appeal a court ruling from September which granted full ownership of the club to his former business partner Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz al Saud (via @JamesShield1).

McCabe and Prince Abdullah went head-to-head in a lengthy court battle for sole ownership, with the ruling going in favour of the latter (BBC Sport).

Mr Justice Fancourt ruled that McCabe must sell his stake to his former business partner for £5 million.

The lifelong Sheffield United fan was left disappointed by the ruling, and expressed his “deep misgivings about the suitability” of the Saudi prince as the Blades’ custodian (via BBC Sport).

It looked as though that was that however, and that the ownership battle had come to a conclusion. However, that now appears not to be the case as McCabe is set to lodge an appeal against the decision.

This is likely to mean that the battle for control of the club drags on even longer, something which most Sheffield United supporters are not happy about and don’t want. Here is what some said on Twitter after finding out that McCabe was set to appeal…

Sheffield United fans, should Kevin McCabe accept defeat in his ownership battle with Prince Abdullah? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below…

Tottenham fans have taken to Twitter to react after it was reported that the north Londoners are eyeing up a £35m move for Ajax goalkeeper Andre Onana, but it seems that they aren’t too happy with the link.

Onana – who has eight caps for the Cameroon national team – has made 159 appearances for the Dutch giants at the age of just 23, and starred for the side on their way to the Champions League semi-final last season.

The young glovesman kept a clean sheet in the first leg against Spurs, but it was his spilled save that saw Lucas Moura gobble up the ball and fire home to kickstart the three-goal comeback win in Amsterdam for Mauricio Pochettino’s side.

Interestingly, the report states that Spurs will need to sell Hugo Lloris before making a move for Onana, as the Frenchman will not want to be second choice in between the sticks.

Despite Onana’s impressive pedigree in goal at just 23 years of age, this transfer rumour doesn’t seem to be one that excites Spurs fans on Twitter.

Let’s take a look at some of the tweets…

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

Wolverhampton Wanderers, the side that’s lost fewer games than Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, the same as Chelsea and Manchester City, yet they occupy 12th position.

That’s the story of their season so far. They just draw too many matches. It’s three straight 1-1 stalemates since their stunning scalp of the reigning Premier League champions.

In that time, the club have been dealt a devastating blow with integral squad member Willy Boly suffering a severe injury during training, which will keep him out for the foreseeable future.

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To fill his void, manager Nuno Santo firstly tried Matt Doherty at centre-back, but that lasted only one half, then last time out against Arsenal, midfielder Leander Dendoncker played the full match in the role.

He didn’t perform poorly at all, aside from the error for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s 21st-minute strike. The Belgian recorded six clearances, three interceptions but didn’t manage a tackle, per SofaScore.

It seems likely that Dendoncker will continue to deputise there until Nuno deems otherwise, just like with his failed Doherty experiment that lasted only 45 minutes.

There’s nothing wrong with this, of course, but these recurring decisions are starting to send a different message, particularly to his fringe and youth players.

The Portuguese native has two centre-backs primed to go on his bench in Jesus Vallejo and Max Kilman.

Now the Spaniard has certainly struggled to adapt to life in England, as seen by some of the Molineux faithful slamming his performances this season.

However, he still won the Euro U21 Championship this summer as captain, and Real Madrid thought enough of him to hand out a six-year deal.

So the potential is there to be unearthed.

Check out a hilarious review of Wolves’ new ‘Mexico’ kit in the video below…

While Kilman was pinched from non-league outfit Maidenhead United, but he has barely been given a sniff, making just five senior appearances.

What must the pair be thinking –  a diminutive right wing-back and now a midfielder have been selected ahead of them. It could be a pure confidence destroyer.

It is also just insulting to both of them, even more so Vallejo, who had built up an excellent reputation as mentioned above before arriving in the west Midlands.