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Peter Lawwell retired after 17 years as the chief executive of Celtic this year and left Parkhead having overseen countless title wins and trophy lifts with the Hoops.

Over the years, he was able to pull off some masterstrokes in the transfer market, bringing Virgil van Dijk to the club for example, but not every transfer works and one of his last pieces of business was to bring Ismaila Soro to Celtic in January 2020.

Soro was playing for Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv in Israel prior to arriving at Celtic, making 64 appearances for the club in three years after leaving Belarus-based outfit FK Gomel. His form in Tel Aviv seemingly prompted Lawwell and manager at the time, Neil Lennon, to take a gamble on him.

Celtic reportedly forked out a sizeable £2.07m for the defensive midfielder, which came as a phenomenal rise in value for him two years on from his move to Bnei Yehuda from Gomel. Transfermarkt valued him at £90k in January 2018, with Celtic paying a 2200% increase on that initial valuation.

This suggests that he was improving as a player and heading on an upwards trajectory in his career, which could be why Lawwell decided to pull the trigger on signing him. The young Ivorian may have been seen as a prospect who could develop at Celtic Park and either go on to become a top player for the club in the long-term or be sold on for profit, like the aforementioned van Dijk.

Unfortunately, Soro has been unable to kick on since arriving at Celtic Park, despite a positive first few months at the club. In the 2020/21 campaign, he completed 90% of his passes and made 3.1 tackles and interceptions per game for the Hoops in the Premiership. However, he only won 52% of his duels as a defensive midfielder, which meant that he was not dominating games in the middle of the park.

His form has taken a turn for the worse this term, with an average SofaScore rating of 6.63 in six Premiership appearances. He has made 1.4 tackles and interceptions per game, losing a whopping 64% of his duels on the pitch – including 75% of his ground battles.

Soro has started just once in the league, with the other five outings coming as a substitute, which shows that Ange Postecoglou does not trust him to play from the start. His horrific success rate in duels could be a major factor in his decision, with Soro failing to adjust to the physicality of the Premiership, allowing opposition players to come out on top of him more often than not.

At the time of writing (07/10/21), Soro’s market value on Transfermarkt is £810k. This means that his price has plummeted 60.8% from the £2.07m Celtic paid for his services less than two years ago, showing that Lawwell had a disaster with this piece of business as he overpaid for the 23-year-old.

Soro has not been able to establish himself in the starting XI and his value is continuing to drop as he flops on the pitch. The move, at this point in time, has not worked out and Postecoglou could have a decision to make on his future unless he turns things around quickly.

AND in other news, Ange must ruthlessly axe 26 y/o dud who left Celtic “livid”, he’s not good enough…

Even though Aston Villa currently have a strike duo of Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings, who have scored a combined total of nine Premier League goals so far this season prior to today’s clash at Everton, it hasn’t stopped the Midlands club from keeping an eye on other potential attacking transfer targets.

In a recent report for The Athletic by Gregg Evans, Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah has been “considered” for a potential move to Villa Park during the January transfer window.

With this in mind, Villa manager Steven Gerrard has the chance to turn the 22-year-old, who is currently picking up £17k-per-week according to Salary Sport, into the club’s next version of former loan star Tammy Abraham.

Villa signed the latter on loan from Chelsea in 2018 when they were still in the Championship.

During his spell at Villa Park, the striker racked up 26 goals and three assists in 40 appearances under Dean Smith, helping them to secure promotion back to the Premier League before he returned to Chelsea.

As a young English attacker from one of the top Premier League clubs in London, Nketiah could follow in the footsteps of Abraham by making a move to Villa and testing his talents there given that regular game-time in Mikel Arteta’s side has been hard to come by this season.  The 22-year-old has just eight appearances under his belt across all competitions despite scoring 69 goals in his career at senior and youth levels.

While he might not be a regular starter every week for Villa if he were to make the move this month or even in the summer, when his current deal at Arsenal expires, he would have a better chance of getting more minutes competing against the likes of Watkins and Ings than he is enjoying at Arsenal.

Labelled a “goalscoring machine” in the past by Arsenal youth development figure David Court, Nketiah has the ability and time ahead of him to fight for a regular starting place in Villa’s side in the near future, making a potential transfer swoop for him worth a shot, especially if they can get him as a free agent in the summer.

In other news – “Not happening..”: Preece drops crushing Villa transfer update, Gerrard will be fuming

A key update has emerged on the fitness of Sheffield Wednesday beast Massimo Luongo, regarding how long he is set to be out for.

What’s the latest?

Sheffield Wednesday boss Darren Moore has allayed fears that Massimo Luongo will be out until 2022, confirming that he should be out for weeks instead of months.

He told the Sheffield Star:

“Massimo is just going to be out for weeks… He won’t be out until the new year, he’ll be back with our medical team next week. And then he’ll start working and doing his rehabilitation. He’s got a hamstring string pull, which is unfortunate, he did it in the last kick of the game at Rotherham.

“We wanted to get him into a specialist to get another view, and that’s what he’s done. He’s been given a programme to follow, and we’ll have him back in weeks as opposed to the reports that said he’ll be out until the New Year. We expect him back before that.”

Fans will be buzzing

Wednesday fans will be buzzing with this news as it means that Luongo will not be out until 2022 with his injury, as was first feared. It would have been a major blow to Moore’s squad had the Australian international been out for a number of months, as he is a quality member of the team and a player capable of putting in excellent performances.

The 28-year-old was restricted to 12 games in the Championship last season, averaging a solid WhoScored rating of 6.65. He averaged an impressive 2.4 tackles and 1.3 interceptions in the second tier, showing that he was adept at winning the ball back off the opposition.

In his first league appearance of the current campaign, Luongo showed exactly what he is capable of doing at this level with a stunning display against Rotherham in a 2-0 win. He achieved a WhoScored rating of 8.33 as he won two aerial battles, seven tackles, one interception and made three clearances and a block.

Along with the defensive side of his game, the midfield beast also completed three dribbles and one key pass to push his team up the pitch in transition and help to create chances at the top end.

Ex-Owls boss Garry Monk hailed Luongo last year and claimed that he was one of the best players in the side.

He said:

“I think he has been one of our best performing players in terms of consistency across all the games that he has played so far. He is a great lad. He is a quiet leader.

“I have asked more of him vocally to come out of his shell. I think you have seen in some of the games that he is no afraid to say what he wants to say. We need that and I have tried to encourage that.”

This, along with his showing against Rotherham, highlights the impact that he can make on Moore’s side in League One.

Wednesday fans will be over the moon that his injury is not as serious as first thought and that he could be back fit and firing within a few weeks, rather than months.

Hopefully, he is able to get back as quickly as possible to contribute to the Owls’ promotion charge.

Former Manchester City player Steve Howey believes that Oleksandr Zinchenko is a prime example of Pep Guardiola’s ability to improve players.

Zinchenko featured 32 times in all competitions for City last season and took his total number of games for the club to 100. The 24-year-old has become an important player in Pep Guardiola’s side at left-back, but has operated as a defensive midfielder, central midfielder and as a left midfielder during his time at the Etihad Stadium.

The Ukraine international helped City to win both the Premier League and Carabao Cup last term and he took his fine run of form into the Euros, putting in some really good performances for his country, getting a goal and an assist and helping his national side reach the quarter-finals.

And Howey believes that Zinchenko is the perfect example of Pep Guardiola’s talent when it comes to improving players at City, exclusively telling Football FanCast: “I think you just look at the players that Pep’s improved over the last couple of seasons.

“You look at someone like Zinchenko for instance, Ruben Dias when he’s come in with John Stones, because John Stones had a dip and then came back.”

Pep Guardiola has had a knack over the years of giving players the right number of minutes and getting the best out of them, which has led to him being so successful as a manager at every club he has been at.

Celtic appear to have found their replacement for Odsonne Edouard in the form of Japan international Kyogo Furuhasi.

The summer signing has scored four times in four starts in the Scottish Premiership and eight goals in 11 appearances overall this season. He has been able to showcase his quality in the final third and looks set for a sublime campaign for the Hoops.

His form will surely come as a welcome relief to Ange Postecoglou, who inherited a misfiring striker upon his arrival at the club – Albian Ajeti.

Following the sale of Edouard to Crystal Palace, Ajeti was left to fill his boots and has scored three goals in 12 games in all competitions in the 2021/22 campaign.

How did Ajeti get to this point though?

The forward enjoyed a terrific season with Basel in his home country during the 2018/19 campaign. He scored 21 goals and provided 11 assists in all competitions, earning himself a £10.17m transfer to Premier League side West Ham.

This is where the struggles began for Ajeti as he never adjusted to life in England. He failed to score in 12 games for the Hammers the following season, including nine appearances in the Premier League, as he averaged a SofaScore rating of just 6.46.

Following his horrific debut campaign for West Ham, Ajeti was sold to Celtic in the summer of 2020 for a fee of £4.95m. Transfermarkt valued him at £4.32m at the time of the transfer, which was already £5.85m less than West Ham paid for him a year prior.

In his first year at Celtic, Ajeti scored six goals in 20 Scottish Premiership appearances. He averaged a SofaScore rating of 6.85 and lost 65% of his duels on the pitch throughout the campaign, suggesting that he was too weak to compete physically in the division.

At the time of writing (04/10/21), Ajeti is valued at £2.88m by Transfermarkt. This means that his value has dropped dramatically by £7.29m in just two years of football, with one of those being at West Ham and the other at Celtic Park in Scotland.

He needs to turn his form around soon or his career could be at risk. At the age of 24, he is exiting the potential stage and beginning to move towards his prime years where he should be expected to be at his best.

If he fails to deliver consistent end product sooner rather than later, it could put other clubs off wanting to go near him – leaving Ajeti to waste away at Celtic or be forced to drop down to a lower standard of football to play regularly.

His value continuing to drop since leaving Switzerland is proof of his faltering career and highlights the downwards trend that he’s on. Hopefully, the attacker will be able to find his feet in Scotland and start to show why he was bought for £10.17m only two years ago.

AND in other news, Postecoglou provides fresh injury update that should excite Celtic supporters…

This has been a topsy-turvy campaign for Celtic after appointing the bullish Australian; Ange Postecoglou.

The Hoops were knocked out of Europe’s premier competition but they have bounced back well, securing a win in the Europa League and then smacking their opponents for six in the league last weekend.

On the chalkboard

Celtic’s triumphant 6-0 demolition of Dundee in front of the home supporters brought the good times back.

For a brief period of 90 minutes, everything from the last 12 months was forgotten about as the Bhoys welcomed supporters back to Paradise in perfect fashion.

Kyogo Furuhashi scored a hat-trick while the likes of Ryan Christie and Callum McGregor were back to their best behind him.

It was difficult to find fault with anyone in green and white last Sunday but after beating Jablonec 4-2 just a few days before, it has now given them the license to rest players on Thursday night.

Celtic face the Czech opposition again this week as they entertain them in Glasgow during the second leg of their Europa League third-round qualifying tie.

However, one player who has let them down over the last 12 months and under Postecoglou too is Greg Taylor.

If there was one area where there is still a concern during the transfer window, it would be at full-back.

Taylor came into the campaign with criticism under his belt. Tony McLaughlin from Celtic Trends described him as “very limited” player last term while this week About Celtic said on Twitter that he “clearly” wasn’t the answer at left-back.

Therefore, with a healthy first-leg lead, now feels like a good a time as any to give someone else a chance in the side; potentially Adam Montgomery.

The Scottish defender has never been the best from a defensive point of view but his attacking qualities have also been questionable in 2021/22 so far.

He has lost possession 57 times across four Champions League and Premiership outings, a statistic that showcases one of the £8.2k-per-week earner’s biggest weaknesses.

Taylor isn’t strong enough on the ball and despite playing 2.5 key passes per match in the league this term, is yet to register an assist in any competition.

For a team who have scored ten goals in their last two matches, that speaks volumes about his end product and desire to get down the left.

Outshone by Christie down that flank last weekend, now might be a good time for Postecoglou to axe Taylor from his starting XI.

A solid and reliable performance from Montgomery on Thursday could take a lot of pressure away from the manager in the final weeks of the transfer window.

AND in other news, Celtic must sign 25-goal “great talent” who could become “better” than Henrik Larsson…

As per Football Insider journalist Wayne Veysey, some news has emerged on West Ham United’s transfer plans for January with a new forward on the agenda in Rubin Kazan forward Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

The Lowdown: Moyes eyeing January…

The Irons are still competing on all fronts with manager David Moyes aiming to bolster his squad in the January transfer window and cope with the increasingly congested fixture calendar.

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Injuries to Angelo Ogbonna and Kurt Zouma have prompted them to also hunt for an emergency centre-half but that hasn’t stopped them being linked to forward options.

Jesse Lingard is thought to be on the agenda, for example, while Moyes and recruitment chief Rob Newman also seek out a centre-forward as back up for Michail Antonio.

Now, some news has emerged on another attacker West Ham are now eyeing.

The Latest: West Ham ‘plotting’ Kvaratskhelia move…

As per Football Insider’s Veysey, West Ham and Everton are ‘plotting moves’ for Russian Premier League winger Kvaratskhelia as the Irons cast their net far and wide.

It is believed the Georgia international, a very highly rated prospect, now has concrete interest from West Ham as Newman and Moyes eye a swoop.

Kvaratskhelia has apparently caught the eye of Hammers scouts after a stellar performance for the Georgians in their 2-0 World Cup qualifying win over Sweden last month.

The Verdict: Exciting option?

Targeted by the likes of Tottenham before, it is clear that the 20-year-old certainly has bags of ability – with journalist Fabrizio Romano taking to his Twitch stream earlier this year and explaining that he is ‘incredible’ (via HITC).

He had many suitors in the summer window also, including Borussia Dortmund, with Sky Sports reporter Max Bielefeld saying that Kvaratskhelia is considered a ‘very interesting, but expensive’ player with a price tag that could reach €20 million (£16.9m).

The Kazan ace has also been dubbed ‘The Georgian Messi’, such is his stellar reputation, but we believe West Ham are better placed prioritising an out-and-out striker right now given Antonio’s poor run of form.

Their central defensive crisis also takes precedent, but a swoop for Kvaratskhelia certainly shouldn’t be ruled out for the future.

In other news: ‘We are back’, ‘What I wanted to hear’…ExWHUemployee’s ‘best news’ has many West Ham fans buzzing, find out more here.

Crystal Palace are enjoying a comfortable season in the Premier League, with Patrick Vieira guiding the side to a potential top-half finish in his first season in charge at Selhurst Park there could be a problem unfolding ahead of next season.

What’s the word?

According to journalist, Pete O’Rourke, Crystal Palace are unlikely to improve the current salary of Wilfried Zaha to extend his contract beyond the current 15 months that he has left at the club.

O’Rourke told GIVEMESPORT: “He’s on a pretty good deal at Palace as it stands right now. I think he’s probably the highest-paid player at the club, so I’m not sure if Palace will be willing to give him an improvement on that.”

Disaster for Palace

Wilfried Zaha has been back to his best this season and surely Palace will want to do everything they can to keep the striker at the club next season, but with rumoured interest from Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal this summer, and the club unlikely to increase his wages, it could spell disaster for Vieira.

As per SofaScore, the 29-year-old hailed “phenomenal by Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, has scored 11 goals and contributed one assist so far this season in the Premier League, with 1.4 key passes and 1.2 tackles per game as well as a pass accuracy of 81%, proving he has become a key component in the progress at Selhurst Park.

The £130k-per-week star has even admitted he would be open to a move in an interview with The Face, which will again only add to the problems the Palace board are faced with in keeping the forward at the club;

“I feel like I can have another shot at the top teams, because my dream is to win things,” he said. ​

“I’m good enough to go out there and compete with the best. If the opportunity came, I wouldn’t turn it down, because I feel like I deserve it.”

Crystal Palace have already made the Ivorian goal machine their highest paid player, so it will be interesting to see if they make any movement on his salary ahead of this summer to secure his future before other clubs begin to make offers, otherwise Vieira will need to prepare for the loss of Zaha’s output going into next season.

In other news: Vieira can unearth CPFC’s next Mitchell in rarely-seen 18 y/o who is “full of energy”

West Brom have now gone three games without a win, which will be extremely frustrating for manager, Valerien Ismael, who has been tasked with the job to get the side promoted this season back into the Premier League.

The Baggies went to the Seasiders with the need for three points to try to close the gap on both Fulham and Bournemouth who are out ahead by a stretch in the automatic promotion places, with Fulham now eight points ahead at the top of the table and a game in hand to play.

Ismael’s side have now not won away from home for two months, and there will need to be questions raised as to what issues need ironing out, or where quality needs to be added to give the Baggies the confidence they clearly need to inject to start winning on away days.

Despite dominating in the early stages of the game, where it looked like West Brom could pressure enough to put a goal past Blackpool, after a string of chances over the course of the game, the side couldn’t break down Blackpool enough to finish them.

The Tangerines had an outstanding defensive performance as they struggled to find a lot of attacking opportunities, which held West Brom to a 0-0 draw in the end.

Speaking after the game Ismael reflected on the performance;

“We need to take what we can get at the minute and getting a clean sheet is a positive. We created a lot of chances, but compared to last Saturday, this time there were more real chances to score. At the minute it’s the final ball, and we need to work on that.”

One player who struggled to offer the presence and confidence needed to get a three-pointer over the line away from home for Ismael’s side, was Cedric Kipre, with the defender having fewer touches (39) than Baggies goalkeeper, Sam Johnstone (40).

The 6 foot 3 defender lacked positional discipline on many occasions, losing the ball a whopping 13 times which led to an awful pass success rate of 59%. The centre-back also gave away a number of fouls (3) throughout the game, which really disrupted the rhythm and flow of the game to get West Brom in a position to build attacking play. This is reflected in a dismal SofaScore rating of just 6.5.

This clear lack of discipline could’ve cost the side goals against a team offering more clinical finishing than Blackpool did last night. Thus, Ismael has work to do to make sure that these kinds of sloppy mistakes don’t cost them later in the week.

West Brom have another challenging game on Friday at home against Nottingham Forest and will be hoping to pick up maximum points by finishing their chances to climb their way back into a title challenge.

In other news: Lawrence could replace struggling Jordan Hugill

Tottenham insider John Wenham has made an interesting claim on Christian Eriksen possibly returning to the club under Antonio Conte.

The Lowdown: Creative issues; Eriksen’s absence

As we all know, Tottenham parted ways with Nuno Espirito Santo on Monday after just 10 Premier League games in charge. Conte has today been appointed as the man to replace him in the Spurs dugout, and one of his first tasks will be to click Tottenham back into gear in an attacking sense.

Spurs rank 19th in the Premier League for goals scored and 17th for xG, and one man who could help to remedy that is Eriksen, who contributed to 159 goals during his six-and-a-half years in north London.

The Latest: Premier League return, Wenham reacts

A report from The Telegraph towards the end of October suggested that Eriksen could go back to the Premier League due to Italian health rules stopping him from making a playing return with Inter Milan following his cardiac arrest during Euro 2020.

This is what Spurs insider Wenham had to say to Football Insider regarding a potential return, seemingly backing Conte to go after Eriksen:

“If Conte comes in, there is one transfer I would love to see.

“I’m just speculating here. Would Christian Eriksen fancy coming back?

“There is a story going around about him not being allowed to play in Italy.

“Obviously it’s amazing that we can even talk about him coming back because what happened to him during the Euros was awful.

“Tottenham should be exploring that and how it could work. If I could bring back one former player from the last 10 years, he’s the man.

“I hope Tottenham are looking into that and have the lawyers doing their due diligence on whether that would be possible.

“I would watch out for this one.”

The Verdict: Smart move?

Tottenham’s first team squad appear to be stuck in a bit of an attacking rut, so bringing in a player who knows plenty of the current squad and has had success in north London could be a wise move.

Eriksen scored 69 times and registered 90 assists for Tottenham, but the 29-year-old is yet to play this season.

On that basis, it could take the attacking midfielder a while to get back up to speed in England, but his arrival could give Spurs a much-needed boost.

In other news: Spurs meet with club of £45m-valued ace with 14 goals in 17 games ahead of possible January move.