Such is the nature of his standing on the South Coast, Jose Fonte is undoubtedly one of the most popular players at Southampton in recent years.

For a side who often see their top talent depart on an annual basis, the Portuguese’s stoic presence in the backline has been a reassuring sight for those at St. Mary’s across a number of years now.

Captaining the side, the former Crystal Palace man has been a major part of their meteoric rise through the leagues, developing into one of the most competitive in the top tier.

He’s earned his reputation as one of the most solid in England throughout his seven seasons with the club and is on the crest of a wave after winning Euro 2016 with Portugal.

However, a relatively slow start to the campaign has had the Saints fans on Twitter venting their feelings about the player, with many suggesting his heart is no longer in it.

Linked with a move to Manchester United over the summer, Fonte’s perceived change in attitude has invoked the ire of Saints on social media.

Pep Guardiola is all too familiar with Tuesday’s opponents, Barcelona, where he created one of the greatest football teams in the history of the game. The Spaniard also represented the club for eleven years as a player but will need to ensure his new City side enable five key components to beat his former team.

After such an impressive start to the season, Guardiola’s new-look City  stagnated and failed to secure a victory in six matches before last Saturday’s victory over West Brom. Except for Tottenham, no team outplayed City during that period, and self-inflicted issues have caused their downfall.

The Champions League suffers no fools and Barcelona are an entirely different animal to what Guardiola faces weekly in the Premier League. Any sloppiness or costly errors will be capitalised on by Barcelona and to ensure this doesn’t occur, Pep has to make sure City comply with these five things.

Individual errors

Individual mistakes are killing the Blues’ chances of dominating the Premier League at the moment. Likewise, in Europe, City ‘s silly errors are costing them goals at crucial stages.

Kolarov against Celtic, Stones against Southampton, the list goes on. If they are to beat Barcelona they must ensure mistakes are kept to a minimum, as the deadly trio of Suarez, Messi, and Neymar will punish Guardiola’s men.

If City can achieve such a pure performance, then it increases their chances of victory drastically.

Keep their discipline

City have now suffered four red cards in their five meetings with Barcelona, and each time the red card has proved significant in the balance of the match.

Nolito, in particular, will be highlighted as the Spaniard recently returned from a three-match ban for violent conduct.

If City are hoping to ensure victory, Guardiola’s players must leave the field with eleven players. They have always matched Barcelona when they are adequately represented.

Key players performing

Far too regularly against Barcelona, City have had key players go missing at crucial stages. For City to achieve a victory, Guardiola’s players must prove their status as some European football’s best.

You can guarantee Barcelona’s marquee players produce at their highest level, and City will need to match them to gather three crucial points in Group C.

Sergio Aguero, Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne looked inspired against West Brom and Guardiola hopeful they can bring that form into tonight’s clash at the Etihad Stadium.

Attack in numbers

At the beginning of the season, City were averaging three goals per game. Hwever, since their recent slump, that figure has dropped to 2.3.

Recent home games with Southampton and Everton have witnessed City become stagnant in front of goal, but against Barcelona, they must ensure they are clinical when attacking with numbers.

Barcelona’s infamous MSN trio will damage City if they receive the right service. City will need to counteract the trio, by ensuring their deadly quartet of Nolito, De Bruyne, Sterling and Aguero hurt Barcelona when presented with the opportunity.

Defend better than usual

If you wish to contain Barcelona, you must first ensure the defence is solid – Messi, Suarez and Neymar are the deadliest trio ever witnessed in Champions League football.

City have thrown away crucial points this season because of dodgy and sloppy defending, which is very unlike a Guardiola team.

Since Pep has reverted to three at the back, City have looked a better team defensively, and Guardiola must ensure they continue their recent form in that regard.

There’s one team in this season’s Championship that really aren’t getting the credit they deserve after a rip-roaring start to the campaign, and that’s Birmingham City.

Under Gary Rowett, the Blues have had an extremely solid start and following the international break, they sit sixth in the division.

20 points from their opening eleven fixtures means they’re in a good place going forward and there seems to be a buzz of optimism going around St Andrews, which is richly deserved.

Rumours of a takeover are circulating once again and if that finally goes through, this could be an extremely exciting chapter in the history of Birmingham City.

With all this in mind, we think there is no reason why the Blues can’t continue their strong form all the way until the end of the season.

So here’s THREE reasons why Birmingham City can continue their play-off pursuit in a bid for promotion to the Premier League.

Squad depth is good

Post-February was a really poor spell for Birmingham last season as they lost too many games. They dropped into mid-table come the end of the campaign.

That was very much down to a lack of quality throughout the whole of the squad but this time around, you feel Rowett has much more depth at his disposal.

The likes of Reece Brown, Diego Fabbrini, Paul Caddis and Stephen Gleeson are all struggling for game time when in seasons past, they’ve featured pretty heavily.

That is a really good thing for the Blues – the fact they have players of this quality to come on to change the game.

Summer signings look strong

You’ve got to give Gary Rowett lots of credit for the way he conducted his side’s summer transfer business.

Despite an extremely limited budget in comparison to other sides in this division, the likes of Che Adams and Ryan Shotton have been absolutely fantastic.

There is plenty more to come from Diego Fabbrini and Greg Stewart, who are both pushing for first-team starts.

The summer signings have made a real difference to the quality of this team.

Optimism from supporters

In the very recent past, it’s safe to say Birmingham City fans haven’t had a massive amount to cheer about.

There has been turmoil off the pitch for years now but more recently, the team are giving the supporters plenty to cheer about.

It feels like matters on the pitch are taking precedence for a change and that is always a good thing when it comes to football.

If they can triumph over Aston Villa later this month, it could get even better for the Bluenoses.

Celtic are flying high in the Scottish Premiership under the guidance of Brendan Rodgers. In Europe, things have been less rosy albeit against the best the continent has to offer.

It’s all about development and progress under the new regime and despite current success the manager won’t rest on the squad in place if there are improvements to made.

With that in mind we expect Celtic to do some business in the transfer window, either bringing in experienced, proven talent or bringing in young players that can not only impact the first team right away but become a star of the future.

Here are five players Rodgers should look to sign in January…

Jordan Mutch

Having been unable to bolster the central midfield position in the summer, it’s well known that Brendan Rodgers is on the lookout for players with the ability to compete with the likes of Scott Brown and Nir Bitton.

Jordan Mutch, of Crystal Palace, represents the kind of player that could prove tempting for Celtic this January. The £2.5m-rated midfielder is reported to be a target of the Hoops boss.

Mutch fits the profile of signings coming into Celtic so far, proven talent that have made a name for themselves in English football. With 75 appearances in the English Premier League across his career, Mutch has shown he can compete at the top level.

He’s struggling for first team football at Palace right now and as we’ve seen with Sinclair, there are gems out there that could be revitalised under the set-up at Celtic Park.

Ezri Konsa

During the recent international break, Brendan Rodgers was spotted taking in a Swindon Town vs Charlton Athletic match with QPR Director of Football Les Ferdinand. In the days after, it was reported he was there looking to personally scout Charlton defensive prospect Ezri Konsa.

Rodgers has shown he’s not afraid to put faith in youth with Kieran Tierney and Moussa Dembele being key players for the Hoops this season. The highly rated centre-back is just 18 but is already attracting interest from clubs in the divisions above League One.

With Liverpool and Arsenal also rumoured to be interested in him, Celtic would perhaps be considered to have a tough battle on their hands to attract him to Glasgow.

However, with the rise in profile of Dembele since the summer, perhaps regular first team football and the guidance of Rodgers himself is exactly what the young Addicks man needs.

James McCarthy

McCarthy to Celtic was one of the stories that rumbled on throughout the Summer but ultimately a deal could not be agreed for the midfielder, either permanently or on loan.

The Irish international’s first team prospects at Everton have not improved since then, he’s only made one start for the Toffees this campaign.

He’s the calibre of player that could take the Bhoys to the next level, especially as a well known Celtic fan. Fans spotted him at the recent Scottish League Cup semi-final against Rangers at Hampden, cheering on his boyhood heroes.

This is a signing that would create huge fan interest and with Scott Brown entering the latter stages of his career, would be a perfect replacement in the eyes of many Celtic supporters, a player they feel should have been signed while he was still at Hamilton Academical as a teenager.

Robbie Keane

At 36 years of age, you could be forgiven that Robbie Keane’s time has passed for a move to a club like Celtic. However, his scoring record at LA Galaxy hasn’t faltered since his move to America in 2012. He’s scored over 100 goals for Galaxy in 165 appearances, with 10 coming in the most recent campaign.

Keane’s previous stint at Celtic was a case of right player, wrong time. His sensational loan move from Spurs in January 2010 was a great success for him personally, scoring 16 goals in 19 appearances. However, that coincided with a disastrous Tony Mowbray reign that ended with no trophies that season.

With his contract expiring with LA Galaxy, a move to Celtic could prove successful for both player and club with the Bhoys needing greater depth beyond Dembele and Griffiths in attack.

Conor Hourihane

Barnsley captain Conor Hourihane’s contract runs out this coming Summer and he is attracting interest from a host of British clubs, including Celtic, after impressing consistently for the Tykes.

He led his side to promotion from League One last season and hasn’t faltered in the Championship winning the division’s Player Of The Month award in August.

Hourihane is known to have a preference for the Hoops and could provide competition that is badly need in the midfield area. A move to Glasgow would take his career another level with big derbies, big nights in Europe and the potential to break into the Republic of Ireland first team all on the cards.

It’s that time of year again, folks. No, not the time of tedious Christmas specials and grotesque amounts of overly rich food, it’s nearly transfer window opening time, the period in which the rumour mill goes bonkers and every player who has had a good half-season is now going to be signed for £500 million.

One of the players who has been rumoured as ‘set to be on the move’ of late is Andre Silva. Linked with both Liverpool and Arsenal, among others, Silva is a striker currently playing for FC Porto. At just 21 years of age, the Portuguese forward would fit the profile of both clubs’ recent investment, so the rumour at least kind of makes sense.

He grabbed headlines against Leicester in the Champions League recently, too, and his stats were pretty impressive…

Considering his career trajectory so far, and the fact that not many people from these shores will have ardently followed the Primeira Liga, Silva is a relatively unknown quantity for many. Fortuitously, we have compiled a little fact file on the striker and it reveals a few reasons why two such enormous clubs could be after him…

Free Shots!

Shooting for the sake of shooting isn’t a good thing, let’s just get that straight. So, you can interpret this stat in a number of ways, depending on your mindset.

Silva has averaged more shots-per-game than any other player in the Portuguese top flight to date this term, averaging 4.2-per-match. In fact, no other player has averaged higher than 3.3-per-match.

Either he shoots too much, he’s got a good amount of self-belief or Porto have been creating barrel loads of chances. Without other information, it’s not all that helpful, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Second top finisher

He may only be 21, but Andre Silva is the second top scorer in the Portuguese top flight. Having found the net ten times in 14 starts this season – including two goals last weekend and one on Thursday night vs. Maritimo – he is proving his ability at the top level.

For all the doubters of the quality in Portuguese football, prolific scoring of that calibre should not be ignored. Some moves may not have worked out, but for every failure, there has been a massive success.

Hat-trick hero

Having been a regular for the Portuguese national team throughout youth football, Silva made his debut for the European Champions’ senior team in September of this year. Early season form was rewarded with a place in the squad and he already has four goals to his name.

Three of which game in a thrashing of the Faroe Islands. An international hat-trick, that is. Okay, it is against the Faroe Islands, but it’s still a nice badge to have and a decent thing to stick on the CV.

International football has been a doddle for Silva, really, as he boasted prolific records at U-19 and U-20 levels too.

Turbulent development

Moving around as youth player is not uncommon. Andre Silva, however, seemed to try out a fair few clubs. Starting with Salgueiros, before spells at Boavista and Padroense followed, split by a brief return to Salgueiros.

Eventually, Silva ended up at Porto – whom he joined in 2011 – where he finished his development as a striker. He broke into the first-team for his debut late in 2015 having spent a couple of seasons playing for Porto B.

Way out

Andre Silva signed a new contract with Porto this year, but that isn’t necessarily bad news. As ever, signing a contract means that any buying club will just have to splash out a bit more cash.

In August of this year, Silva scribbled his name down to a five-year contract that puts his release clause up at €60m (£50.3m). So, should Arsenal or Liverpool fancy pursuing his signature, they know how much it’s going to cost them…

Victory over West Ham on Monday saw Manchester United start their New Year with a celebration, making their top four chances a real possibility come the end of May.

Jose Mourinho masterminded his team’s victory at the London Stadium with some inspired substitutions, Juan Mata and Marcus Rashford proving the difference from the bench – but where does that win leave their top four aspirations?

To guarantee the Red Devils finish inside the much coveted Champions League qualification positions, the club must continue making strides on and off the pitch over the course of the next few months.

Throughout his entire Premier League career, Jose Mourinho has never finished outside the top four when managing to last a full season at a club,  but will this record continue during his first year in the Old Trafford hot seat?

To ensure that impressive feat remains in tact, United must guarantee these THREE things occur.

Win more games against title rivals

In games against the current top four and United’s potential title rivals, the Red Devils have won just one of five – with three being played at Old Trafford.

Defeats to Manchester City and Chelsea have occurred while draws with Arsenal and Liverpool show how United must improve this record to have any chance of finishing in the heavily competitive top four.

Victories over their rivals could ultimately decide who plays Champions League football next season.

Strengthen in January

During the summer transfer window, United spent well to guarantee the side’s progression from a disappointing 2015/16 campaign.

Nonetheless, for the Red Devils to continue their progress over the coming months, Jose Mourinho must demand more funds to strengthen in the January window.

Players like Marouane Fellaini, and Marcus Rojo are not players good enough to match United’s grand ambitions.

Guarantee Zlatan Ibrahimovic remains fit

Where would Manchester United be without the goals of Zlatan Ibrahimovic?

The Swedish striker has scored 18 goals for the Red Devils this campaign and any chance of securing a top-four spot rests solely on the shoulders of the former PSG forward.

Despite being 35-years-old, Ibrahimovic has shown no signs of ageing in the Premier League as he continues to be a nuisance for opposition defenders on a regular basis.

As the European leagues come back from their winter breaks, and the Premier League is over its bruising Christmas schedule, we are well and truly into the second half of the season now. And this year there is a very different scenario all over Europe.

Last year, Paris Saint-Germain won the French Ligue 1 title by 31 points, finishing on a goal difference of +83 and Juventus won Serie A by nine points despite giving the rest of the league a head start. Bayern Munich ran away with the Bundesliga crown, too.

This year, not only are PSG not winning the league in France, they’re three points behind leaders Monaco who are only ahead of second-placed Nice on goal difference. In Italy, Juventus are leading again, but only by one point (albeit with a game in hand), and the same can be said for Real Madrid, who lead La Liga in Spain by a point, though they too have an extra game to extend their advantage. In Germany, too, Bayern Munich are only one defeat away from finding themselves level on points with newcomers RB Leipzig.

And the question is, how did it come to this?

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Last season, Leicester’s victory in England prompted a sort of bizarrely misplaced jingoistic glee: a league title won by a club whose rightful place really was to be fighting against relegation showed that English football really is the most competitive in the world. And that opinion had plenty of fertile soil to grow in given results from around the continent.

Easy victories for big established clubs helped the narrative, too: why would you want to watch PSG, Juventus or Bayern Munich walk the league when you could watch the big boys falter and lose to Leicester City? Even Spain wasn’t immune – Barcelona may not have had it all their own way in the end, but they were battled only by the two clubs who contested the Champions League final. Hardly an unexpected turn of events.

The bit where that school of thought falls down, though, is probably the bit where Leicester won the league by 10 points themselves. The Premier League wasn’t competitive either, and the fact that everyone expected Leicester to crumble doesn’t mean that it wasn’t comfortable.

But if this season is different, the question is why? Why are all the top leagues in Europe so competitive this season? (Including the Premier League, even if Chelsea are top by a bigger margin than any other league in Europe’s top divisions).

I don’t know the answer, but here is a thought.

How much has a shift in the tactical makeup of the game changed things this season? How important is individual excellence in a game that now seems to be about attacking as a well-drilled unit, hunting in pressing packs, and playing out from the back?

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi still lead the way this season in Spain’s goalscoring charts, but Ronaldo’s 12 goal tally is only one better than Iago Aspas at Celta Vigo and equal to Jermain Defoe’s haul at Sunderland. Messi has 14, only one more than Anthony Modeste of Cologne in Germany. Does this show that the importance of individual performances are being tempered, while tactics and teamwork become more important?

There’s more evidence for this than a glance at a list of top scorers, but most of it is fairly anecdotal and requires a bit of thought and imagination.

Think about the best teams so far in each league, and what they’ve done this season: Real Madrid and Sevilla lead the way in Spain, but Cristiano Ronaldo isn’t hitting the ridiculous tally he often does, and Sevilla don’t have a player who lifts them above their level. Last year we saw Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez do that for Leicester, and Hatem Ben Arfa managed it at Nice.

In Germany, it’s the same story at Leipzig. In France, ditto with Nice and Monaco. In England, how many of Liverpool’s typical starting XI would break into Manchester City’s this season? That’s always a loaded question for football fans, but if you’re going on name and reputation alone, it’s probably not that many. And yet no one could – in seriousness – be more impressed with City than Liverpool. The key is teamwork. Whilst Philippe Coutinho and Sadio Mane are excellent individual players, they are playing in a team where you just can’t think about individual parts. You have to think about they all fit together, and that means few standout geniuses. The struggles of PSG, Bayern Munich and Manchester United so far this season bear that out. All have players capable of individual brilliance. None have shone properly, though all remain competitive.

And one final thought is this: how can Chelsea play so badly at the start of the season and then so well for the rest of it once they changed system? The answer surely has to have something to do with how the whole functions, not the individual parts.

Cristiano Ronaldo is coming to the declining point in his career and Lionel Messi is finding it hard this season, too. All of the best teams in the top leagues are being challenged by upstarts, many with no standout ‘best players’ but with great partnerships and tactical abilities instead. There will always be room for stunning individual players and performances that change games, but are we finally coming to a point where the team around them matters ever more?

And if that’s true, is there hope for football yet? Can we start to hope that even the teams with all the money and the players can be challenged by a team with the tactics, the work rate, and the team ethic?

And even if we can’t, wouldn’t some competition be nice at the very least?

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Oumar Niasse’s nightmare at Everton has come to an end (for the time being) after joining Hull City on loan for the rest of the season.

Since signing for the Toffees from Lokomotiv Moscow last February for a reported £13.5m fee, the striker has made just five Premier League appearances, and they were all last season under former manager Roberto Martinez.

In the current campaign, Niasse has not featured once for Ronald Koeman, who later ordered him to train with the Under-23s.

In an interview with The Guardian in October, the Senegal international, who played for just 45 minutes in Everton’s pre-season fixtures, revealed that he no longer had a locker in the dressing room.

Now, though, has the chance to get minutes under his belt and revive his career at the KC Stadium.

Meanwhile, the Tigers have also swooped for Evandro, who has joined from Porto on a two-and-a-half-year deal for an undisclosed fee.

After the news was announced, fans took to Twitter to wish Niasse well, while some Everton supporters used the opportunity to rejoice in offloading him.

Make no mistake about it, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is one of the greatest strikers in the modern game and the Swedish icon has remained consistent throughout his career, from his days with Inter Milan, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain.Now at Manchester United, the veteran has cleared any concerns of him not being able to cut it in the Premier League as he took his tally to twenty goals for the season and continued a fantastic personal record in the process.

As shown in the clip above, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has scored twenty or more goals for the last ten consecutive seasons across European football, with his impressive record for Manchester United standing at 20 goals in 33 games so far.

With a few months remaining in the season, there’s every chance the 35-year-old can continue his excellent run into the latter stages of the season and he’ll be crucial in Manchester United’s attempts to return to the Champions League.

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Manchester United had hoped to make another big wave in the transfer market last summer after lodging a lucrative move for Bayern Munich’s Thomas Muller, according to reports cited by ITV.

What’s the word?

Links between Thomas Muller and Manchester United never seem to go away but many would have expected the Red Devils’ interest in the German World Cup winner to have cooled last year, following the capture of Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, as well as the breakthrough of Marcus Rashford.

However, despite splashing an incredible £89m figure on Pogba, United had ambitions of sealing another huge deal before the start of the current season and saw an astonishing €100m (£85m) bid for Muller rejected by Bayern Munich.

Where Muller would have fitted in at Old Trafford is highly-debatable but would have most likely seen the German play on the left-side of attack, creating a deadly force alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Paul Pogba.

What was said?

Confirming Manchester United’s renewed interest in Muller in comments made to Sport Bild, Bayern’s chief financial officer Jan-Christian Deesen revealed a genuine offer was made:

“There really was such a thing. A fax came from England. For us, however, selling Thomas Muller was never discussed. If a player fits here, we would be stupid to go for the short-term prospect of a record profit only to weaken him.”

Could a move happen this summer?

It’s certainly possible, although Manchester United seem to have their sights firmly set on Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann. If that deal were to reach a dead end though, renewed interest in Thomas Muller would make sense.

A move could also finally emerge successful at the end of the season as Muller has struggled to find form for Bayern Munich this season, with Carlo Ancelotti often overlooking the German World Cup winner altogether when selecting his starting XI.

With the World Cup scheduled for next summer, Muller needs regular football to cement his position in Germany’s audaciously talented international squad and a transfer, alongside promises of regular football, could see a move take place.

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