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Celtic have reached an agreement regarding a deal to bring Reo Hatate to Parkhead this January.

What’s the talk?

That’s according to a report by Japanese media outlet Hochi, who claim that the Bhoys have found an agreement with Kawasaki Frontale regarding the transfer of the midfielder, who now looks set to complete a switch to Glasgow in the coming weeks.

Earlier reports suggested that Celtic and the 24-year-old had already come to an agreement concerning personal terms of his contract with the Premiership side, with the transfer looking as if it is all but officially confirmed by Ange Postecoglou’s transfer team.

Ange will be buzzing

With Hatate having been one of the stars of the J League season this year, the news that Celtic have all but landed the signing of the midfielder is sure to have left the 56-year-old Bhoys boss buzzing.

Indeed, Postecoglou has openly stated that he would be returning to the Japanese top flight in the January transfer window following the success Kyogo Furuhashi has had since his £4.6m move from Vissel Kobe this summer.

And, considering how impressive Hatate was for Frontale this time out, it is easy to see why the Celtic manager is so keen to bring the 24-year-old to Parkhead.

Over his over 30 J League appearances this term, the £720k-rated central midfielder scored five goals, provided two assists and created three big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of two shots and making 1.1 key passes per game.

These returns saw the £625-per-week man earn a seasonal SofaScore match rating of 7.16, ranking him as his club’s fifth-best player in the league – while his impressive performances also saw him take a spot in the J League team of the season.

As such, it would appear that Hatate will make a very useful addition to Postecoglou’s current Celtic squad, with the latest news from Japan very much looking to give Bhoys fans the green light to get excited about the 24-year-old’s arrival this January.

In other news: Postecoglou drops 12-word Kyogo update ahead of cup final, Celtic fans will be furious

Basel striker Arthur Cabral would be an ideal signing for West Ham in the January transfer window, according to former Premier League man Kevin Campbell.

The Lowdown: Cabral on fire

The 23-year-old is having a magnificent season for Basel, scoring 14 Swiss Super League goals in as many starts in 2021/22 to date.

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In fact, that means Cabral has scored more times than Jarrod Bowen, Said Benrahma and Michail Antonio combined (13) in the Premier League.

The Brazilian has been linked with a move to the Hammers in the past, as David Moyes looks to bolster his squad next month.

The Latest: Hammers urged to sign striker

Someone who thinks Cabral would be an ideal January signing is Campbell, who told Football Insider that he sees him as a perfect understudy to Antonio:

“They’ll have to be clever with Antonio, and Cabral could be that answer.

“He’s so physical, so all-action, strong, aggressive, and quick. But if he gets injured, they are seriously going to miss him.

“Getting someone else in who can take the strain off Antonio if you wanted to rest or rotate him at times, oh my, that would be a really shrewd move for David Moyes in January.”

The Verdict: Perfect January acquisition

There is no doubt that a striker needs to arrive at the London Stadium next month if West Ham are to mount a genuine top-four bid, as well as go far in the Europa League.

At the moment, there is too much onus on Antonio, who at 31 can’t play every game and has had injury problems in the past.

Cabral would represent a hugely exciting young alternative – someone who can add squad depth, quality and goals from the bench, and also be a long-term signing with great potential, given his goalscoring exploits this term at the age of just 23.

In other news, a fresh West Ham transfer claim has emerged. Read more here.

Leeds United may have to battle La Liga giants Barcelona and Real Madrid in the race to sign Agustin Alvarez in January, according to Mundo Deportivo, translated by Sports Witness.

The Lowdown: Alvarez profiled

Alvarez is a 20-year-old centre-forward who currently plies his trade for Uruguayan side Penarol.

He’s scored 33 goals for his current employers and one for Uruguay, with his Transfermarkt valuation rocketing in 2021 from £270,000 to £4.05m.

Leeds currently have Patrick Bamford and Rodrigo out injured, and it appears as if Victor Orta and Andrea Radrizzani could spend in the New Year as a result.

The Latest: Update emerges

Sports Witness relayed claims from Mundo Deportivo’s print newspaper in a story on Monday regarding Alvarez.

They suggested that both Barcelona and Real Madrid are keen on the forward, with a €12m (£10.2m) fee thought to be enough for Penarol to sell. Leeds, led by Orta of course, have reportedly already made contact for Alvarez and could make an offer in 2022.

The Verdict: Time to swoop?

Marcelo Bielsa’s attacking options are limited at this moment in time with Bamford and Rodrigo sidelined, with winger Dan James the latest to occupy a centre-forward role in the 7-0 defeat to Manchester City.

Tyler Roberts and teenager Joe Gelhardt have also been used, but bolstering the club’s attacking ranks with Alvarez could prove to be a shrewd move in both the short and long term.

A £10.2m fee should be in Leeds’ reach as well, compared to a £25m figure Blackburn want for Ben Brereton Diaz, and a few winter window additions could prove to be the difference in the club’s battle to avoid relegation in what could prove to be Bielsa’s final season.

In other news: Leeds now back in for summer target who is ‘like a beast’ – reliable journalist. 

Leeds United are considering a bid for John Swift ahead of the January transfer window…

What’s the word?

That’s according to The Star, who claim the Yorkshire giants are amongst several sides weighing up a move for the Reading maestro, with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Burnley also keen on his signature.

The 26-year-old’s contract is set to expire at the end of the season, so if the Berkshire outfit want to cash in on him whilst they still can, then they will have to do so this winter.

It remains to be seen how much the former Chelsea youngster would cost, with Transfermarkt currently valuing him at just £3.6m.

Shades of Saiz

Swift has been in electric form for the Royals this campaign, having provided the 16th-placed side with a whopping eight goals and seven assists. Only five other players in the division have scored more goals, which is surprising given the fact he’s a midfielder, whilst he ranks second overall for the latter.

Earlier this week, One Leeds Fan YouTuber Conor McGilligan urged the Whites hierarchy to sign the 6-foot playmaking genius.

“I’ve watched this individual play a couple of times now, and he’d fit the system – John Swift. We’ve talked about him several times with summers gone by. He, for me, is the perfect Leeds signing.

“An absolute grafter, someone who’s worked his way up the football pyramid, someone who, for me, has the technical ability that would sort of replicate a Pablo Hernandez, a Samuel Saiz in tight pockets.

“Someone who is not afraid to drive at the defence; someone who is happy to pick the ball up in uncomfortable situations; someone who, when there’s a throw-in on the left, a throw-in on the right, will go and collect the ball, and then he’ll recover the ball, he’ll rotate – and I think that cycle is what Leeds are missing.”

Indeed, Saiz was a key figure in attacking midfield for Marcelo Bielsa as he provided both goals and assists for the club. Across 58 appearances, he delivered ten goals and 12 assists – one contribution every 192 minutes, via Transfermarkt.

It can be argued that United have lacked such a presence in the final third since their promotion to the big time. Only Stuart Dallas (eight goals) scored more than four times from all of Bielsa’s central options last season, whilst this season, no midfielder has found the net more than once.

Since the start of the 2019/20 season, Swift has averaged a direct contribution every 167 minutes, which is a slightly better rate than Saiz during his time at Elland Road and that makes him an even better candidate to fill that void in the near future.

Meanwhile, this season his average of 2.8 key passes per game would see the player dubbed “super talented” by manager Veljko Paunovic rank comfortably atop the standings in Leeds’ squad, with Raphinha ranking first (2.2 per game).

Whites director of football Victor Orta could well secure Bielsa his next Saiz in Swift, he should ultimately look to clinch a move in January, if not the summer when he may be available for nothing.

AND in other news, “What I’m told..”: Phil Hay delivers exciting 49ers claim…

Manchester City star Jack Grealish has waxed lyrical over Wolves winger Adama Traore, admitting that he is an ‘unbelievable’ player to watch.

The Lowdown: Traore hit-and-miss for Wolves

The Spaniard has had a curious Wanderers career in many ways, standing out with his blistering pace but not always performing consistently.

Traore has failed to register a single goal or assist in 11 Premier League appearances so far this season and has recently lost his place in the team.

However, £100m signing Grealish has huge regard for the 25-year-old, who has been afforded the luxury of playing both with and against him numerous times.

The Latest: Grealish hails Traore

Speaking on the Premier League’s YouTube channel on Thursday, the City maestro explained what it is that makes Traore such a unique player, saying:

“Adama Traore, he is the fastest person I have honestly ever seen. I remember his first game at Villa, he came on at right-wing and I’ve never seen anything like it. He ran down that right-wing and smashed it across the box and one of their defenders hit it into the goal and it was obviously an own goal, but it all came from him.

“Adama, the way he moves, like I said earlier, it’s unbelievable, I don’t know how he can run that fast.”

The Verdict: Non-stop entertainment value

Traore certainly can’t be accused of being a dull player to watch and he is thrilling when he is in full flow, being described as ‘undefendable’ by Jurgen Klopp and clocking Premier League-leading speeds.

The main issue for the Spain international is his end product, as highlighted by his aforementioned statistics this season, with the wide man scoring just 10 goals in 144 appearances for Wolves overall.

It is this reason which has seemingly led to Bruno Lage dropping him and he could even leave in January, which wouldn’t seem a great surprise given how little involvement the 25-year-old has had of late.

In other news, Tim Spiers has made a big Wolves transfer claim. Read more here.

Sri Lanka’s promising left-arm fast bowler Thilan Thushara hopes to step into Chaminda Vaas’ shoes one day following a successful first day against Pakistan

Sa'adi Thawfeeq in Colombo20-Jul-2009

Sri Lanka’s promising left-arm fast bowler Thilan Thushara hopes to step into Chaminda Vaas’ shoes one day following a successful first day against Pakistan in Colombo. Thushara, who took 3 for 77, has nine wickets in the three-Test series at 27.33 so far and was happy to be playing a full series for the first time in his career.”This is only my sixth Test and although I played in the West Indies and in Pakistan I did not play regularly,” Thushara said. “This is the first time I have been able to play in an entire [three-Test] series and take wickets.”This series has shown a vast improvement in Thushara’s approach as a bowler and he put it down to hard work at the nets. “We do spot bowling concentrating on line and length under the watchful eyes of the coaches. Even at practice we have to put in 100% effort like bowling in a match. That could be the difference why our performance levels have improved.”Thushara and Nuwan Kulasekara have proved to be an excellent pair of new-ball bowlers for Sri Lanka, taking 23 wickets between them in the series. “Not only in this series, but I have bowled in partnership with Nuwan in several one-day internationals and we have been successful,” Thushara said.”The SSC wicket is a bit slow and with the second new ball you can swing it both ways. In the previous two Tests it was with the second new ball that we were able to make the breakthrough. The wicket is slower than we thought and the ball came nicely on the bat for the batsmen. Compared to the Galle and Oval wickets, this wicket is more batsman-friendly.Thushara said the Pakistan lower order was vulnerable against the new ball. “We hope to take the balance wickets early morning the ball is still new. I feel we had a good day today taking seven wickets and we don’t regret inviting Pakistan to bat first.”

With Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic side heading into Tuesday evening’s Europa League tie knowing that nothing but a win would keep their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages of the competition alive, it would appear a fair assumption to make that the 56-year-old Hoops manager would have been extremely nervous ahead of kick-off.

However, despite failing to open the scoring, a dominant first half will undoubtedly have calmed Postecoglou’s nerves, before an extremely well worked Kyogo Furuhashi goal gave the Bhoys the lead early in the second half of the fixture. An 81st minute Balint Vecsei own goal then sealed the much-needed three points in an impressive 2-0 win over Ferencvarosi TC at Parkhead.

And, as is to be expected after such a result, a number of Postecoglou’s side turned in extremely impressive displays against the Hungarian champions, with eight of the 11 Celtic starters earning a SofaScore match rating of 7.00 or above.

However, despite the positives, one player who will more than likely be disappointed with his performance on Tuesday afternoon is Israeli winger, Liel Abada.

Lost 90% duels

Over the course of his 71 minutes on the pitch, the £2.7m-rated man put on a particularly abject display, contributing very little to the Celtic attack, nor helping his side much in a defensive capacity.

Indeed, the 20-year-old forward failed to hit the target with his one shot at the Ferencvarosi goal, in addition to not completing his one attempted dribble, failing with all five of his attempted crosses and his one attempted long ball and completing no key passes.

The Israel international also won just one of his 10 duels – a failure rate of 90% – ceded possession of the ball on 13 separate occasions, gave away two free-kicks and was dribbled past by an opponent twice.

These returns – or lack thereof – saw Abada receive an extremely disappointing SofaScore match rating of 6.4, by far and away the worst rating awarded to any of the Celtic starters in the fixture.

As such, with both Mikey Johnston and Giorgos Giakoumakis appearing to be close to returning to full fitness – both of whom were introduced in the second half of the game – Postecoglou will certainly have a decision to make as to whether he sticks with the 20-year-old for the visit of St Johnstone this weekend, as the winger quite clearly failed the 56-year-old’s trust on Tuesday.

In other news: Celtic handed major injury boost on £2.25m-rated “monster”, Postecoglou surely buzzing

Nathan Hauritz allowed himself a few contented smiles after his career-best performance in Cardiff but the satisfaction does not include peering more than a game ahead

Peter English in Cardiff13-Jul-2009Nathan Hauritz allowed himself a few contented smiles after his career-best performance in Cardiff but the satisfaction does not include peering more than a game ahead. Despite proving himself as in international bowler, he even said he would understand if he didn’t get picked for the second Test at Lord’s on Thursday.That won’t happen following his high-quality return of 3 for 95 and 3 for 63, which made him Australia’s standout player in the gripping draw, but it shows how fickle life can be as Australia’s main spinner. “I didn’t give myself much chance of even playing [the first Test] at one stage because I hadn’t bowled well at Hove, but I bowled better in Worcester,” he said. “Given the opportunity, I bowled really well here and people have started to think I am a lot different bowler.”England was a tough place for Hauritz during the first stage of the tour. He was being targeted by the local batsmen during the warm-up games and in the lead-up to the Test, one paper said he wasn’t good enough to get a game for a minor county. During the match he was described as a “no-hoper” but following this display, which included the key wicket of Kevin Pietersen, the mood is changing and people are feeling more apologetic to a man they realise can play.”I think there’s always going to be something written about me, that’s part of who I am, and part of the game, you’ve got to deal with that,” he said. “I’m just pleased to bowl well.”I don’t read the papers a great deal because since I’ve been here I don’t think I’ve had one positive word said about me. It’s very hard when you know deep down that you can do the job, but people haven’t seen the best of you.”He came into the Test side last November for the first time in four years after playing a handful of games for New South Wales and was still building confidence following stints in the state’s second XI. He turned out in a couple of Tests at home against South Africa but was not used on the subsequent tour until the one-day series, when he re-impressed his team-mates.”I’ve had a lot of faith shown in me by the selectors and Ricky [Ponting], and it’s been fantastic,” he said. “It was good yesterday to bowl on a turning wicket and people could see I can spin the ball now and again – because everyone says I can’t spin the ball. It was good to show that and see I’m a bit of a threat come day five.”

I had to bowl virtually every ball as straight as I could and if they played and missed, it missed the stumps. On reflection, I’d love to be able to spin the ball the other way, or get a bit more bounce, but there’s not a lot more different I would do.

The only thing he wasn’t able to do was break up the final partnership of Monty Panesar and James Anderson as they held on for the final 11.3 overs to save the game. “It is very disappointing not to get that last wicket,” he said. “I pride myself on bowling well to left-handers and I had the ball for the last eight overs from my end to get those guys out. But full credit to those two, they hung on.”His only regret was not having a doosra so he could have created more danger. “I had to bowl virtually every ball as straight as I could and if they played and missed, it missed the stumps,” he said. “On reflection, I’d love to be able to spin the ball the other way, or get a bit more bounce, but there’s not a lot more different I would do.”The draw felt more like a win to England and a loss for Australia, who probably would have needed only one over to collect the required runs. Players on both sides reflected on the near miss last night and have three days before the re-match at Lord’s.”You can’t really dwell on it for too long,” he said. “It’s in the past already. Obviously we were disappointed because we tried for 90-odd overs to get their 10 wickets, but we had a draw. We played exceptionally well throughout the Test.”In the first innings Hauritz out-thought Pietersen when he saw he wanted to sweep and delivered a ball wide outside off stump. Pietersen continued the premeditated shot, top-edged into his helmet and the catch lobbed to Simon Katich, the back-pedalling short-leg. “With Kevin, he’s such a destructive batsman, on a first-day wicket it’s not going to spin a great deal,” he said. “My job is to minimise him getting on top of me. The best way I thought I could get him out was sweeping.”He expects Pietersen and England to come back hard at him. “It was the first time they’ve ever seen me bowl virtually,” he said. “They’ll have their own plans, Lord’s is a different wicket altogether. They are going to play me differently, I’ve got to work out how I think they are going to play and combat it.”

Queens Park Rangers will be hoping to get back to winning ways when they welcome Nottingham Forest to Loftus Road for their Championship clash this evening.

The Hoops are without a victory in their last two outings in all competitions after a last-minute defeat against Peterborough United was followed by a penalty shoot-out loss at the hands of Sunderland last time out.

Misses from Charlie Austin, Ilias Chair and Yoann Barbet saw the capital club get knocked out of the Carabao Cup last-16 in midweek after their League One opponents held them to a goalless draw in the 90 minutes.

Manager Mark Warburton made several alterations for the Tuesday night encounter, though, and the experienced tactician is likely to recall multiple key names for the visit of Forest.

With that in mind, here’s how Football FanCast expects the 59-year-old to line up in a few hours’ time, with six changes from the side that started against the Black Cats…

In goal, first-choice shot-stopper Seny Dieng is set to keep his place between the sticks despite keeping just four clean sheets in his 16 appearances this season.

Ahead of the Senegal international is likely to be a familiar back three, with Barbet and Rob Dickie partnering the returning Jimmy Dunne to complete QPR’s defensive unit.

However, Warburton is expected the wring the changes in the midfield. He handed out chances to Osman Kakay and Luke Amos against Sunderland, while Moses Odubajo also featured from the off.

But the trio are set to be replaced by Dominic Ball, Albert Adomah and Sam McCallum, with club captain Stefan Johansen completing the engine room.

The promising Chris Willock is also set to take a place on the bench, allowing Ilias Chair to return to his preferred No.10 position, and the £3.6m-rated Andre Gray is set to follow suit, allowing Scotland international Lyndon Dykes to partner Charlie Austin up front.

And, in other news…Lost possession 22x: QPR lightweight who won 0 duels let Warburton down vs Sunderland 

Newcastle United are now reportedly targeting a potential move for Lorenzo Insigne.

The Lowdown: Contract breakdown

As per Il Mattino (via Sport Witness), talks have been ‘difficult’ between Insigne and Napoli over a renewal of his contract, which expires next summer.

It means that he will be able to talk to other clubs in the January transfer window, ahead of a potential free transfer.

The Latest: Insigne targeted

According to Il Mattino (via Sport Witness), the St. James’ Park faithful have now ‘targeted’ Insigne ahead of a potential swoop, but there has been no official contact yet.

Teams in the MLS are also being considered in terms of securing his signature, but it feels ‘unlikely’ that he will leave his native Italy at the moment.

The Verdict: Bargain

Given that he is currently rated at £43.2m by Transfermarkt, signing Insigne on a free transfer would be an absolute bargain.

The Napoli captain would offer leadership to the squad off of the pitch, and lead by example on it, with no fewer than 111 goals and a further 88 assists in 406 games in total over all competitions for the Naples side (Transfermarkt).

Rafa Benitez, once of the Magpies and having recently being linked with a return to the North East from Everton, sung the praises of Insigne when he was manager at Napoli back in 2015, and for both of them to arrive on Tyneside could well be a match made in heaven.

In other news, find out which ‘world-class’ maestro NUFC have contacted here!