Alan Smith’s Expert Predictions: World Cup Semi Finals & Premier League Transfers

Julian Alvarez Linked

Well, he’s a mature centre forward; it’s not so much a punt in terms of his ability. I think he’s been nursing an injury out here, actually, but he got that blinding goal against Switzerland. Shows his quality, and he’s got a great work ethic, which would appeal to any manager. So, yeah, I’d like to see him at Arsenal. I can’t think of many others that might be able to do that kind of job. So you hear that maybe they’re getting closer to it, Arsenal. I think that’d be a really good signing.

Bruno Guimarães for £80m

Well, he’d be an addition, most definitely. Whether he’d be in that starting lineup, if he’s going to sign, he’d have a good chat about that, wouldn’t he? About Arteta’s plans for him. 80 million, listen, Mateus Fernandes went to Spurs for something similar, didn’t he? The prices are mad at the moment, but he’s an established Brazilian international, and he’s a leader as well. Newcastle fans love him. They’d be absolutely gutted to lose him if he does go. So if you have to pay it, Arsenal probably will. That’s just the market at the moment.

Would Guimarães Signing End Lewis-Skelly’s Time at Arsenal?

I hope not. Norgaard probably is the obvious one. He came in, and you’re thinking he would have got more game time than he actually did. So I would expect him to leave. So, yeah, you still want Lewis-Skelly to be amongst those choices for midfield.

Max Dowman – Loan or Stay at Arsenal

I think he’ll stay. I think he’s too good to be loaned out because he showed last season that he can really contribute. Another year on, more experience for him. Of course, he’s not going to be starting too many games, but no, I think they’d want to oversee his development at close quarters at Arsenal. He’s a special talent. And I know we see young lads go out on loan and maybe toughen up and what have you, but I don’t think he needs that. I think he’ll stay at Arsenal.

Why Do Targets Keep Choosing Other Clubs

I can’t speak for the players, but maybe they don’t see Newcastle as a club that’s on the up, as it was, as I think people viewed it a few years back with the Saudi takeover and the money available. Everybody thought, “Oh, they’re going to challenge now consistently for Champions League spot”, and that they’ve fallen away for various reasons.

So maybe it’s just not as attractive a club as it used to be for these players. Money, of course, always comes into it, but you really do feel for Newcastle.

Danger of Mid-Table Obscurity

I think things feel so flat on Tyneside. And Eddie Howe must be thinking, wow, how am I going to get a tune out of a squad where we’ve lost the heartbeat of our team in Tonali, maybe Guimarães. So I don’t know whether they, I mean, they had a really poor season, finished in the bottom half.

I think they’ll do a little bit better. They don’t have the Isak stuff, but we’ve got the Guimarães stuff now, haven’t we? But no, I don’t think they’re going to be fine for Europe, unfortunately, just below that.

Yankuba Minteh as Top Target

The fans might be disappointed, I don’t know. Sometimes a player that comes from outside of the league and you don’t really know too much about, but everyone’s talking about him, oh, he’s going to be great, blah, blah, blah, and it doesn’t always work out that way.

Minteh knows the Premier League. He’s done well. He’s still only 21. He’s been around a bit. Still only 21. So he’s ripe for development, I think, and Iraola, if he gets him, he could be the man to do that. So I don’t think that if he does come to Anfield, Liverpool fans should be too disappointed.

Is Iraola the Right Manager for Conor Bradley?

I think very good managers can bring any sort of player on. Maybe Conor Bradley’s not quite in the mould of Kerkez and Truffert, who kind of, I mean, they’re very similar players in terms of bombing forward, great energy, swinging balls into the box.

But Conor Bradley’s still fairly young, and he’ll be hoping that the new manager can bring him on, develop him. It’s maybe a spot that’s open to somebody to nail down there. So you wish him well, hope he can steer clear of injury, Conor Bradley.

Carlos Baleba Deal Falling Through

I don’t know what’s happened there. I know he had an injury, didn’t he? And his performances fell away from where they were. So it might be that he does stay at Brighton, which wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, but he might have been anticipating a big money move and getting a bit excited and maybe losing sight of what he should be doing on the pitch.

I don’t know. He could have taken his eye off the ball, but he’s got to try and find, for him, get back to how he was in those early days at Brighton, if indeed he stays there.

Troy Parrott Linked

You’re not going to survive on trying to eke out clean sheets, are you, in this league, in the Premier League. You need to be able to have a cutting edge and get some goals. Troy Parrott, it looked like he found a home at AZ Alkmaar. He did really well last season, got 30 goals.

So it might be that he’s ready to make the step. He’s had so many loans in his career, but it would be a punt for Coventry. They’re in that kind of area where they do need to make kind of gambles in terms of the signings because they can’t really go out and buy a ready-made Premier League striker. So perhaps Parrott could be one.

Fikayo Tomori Linked from AC Milan

Obviously, Lampard knows him well, knows him well. At Chelsea, he didn’t really look like a player who was going to go on and do ever so well, but he’s got England caps. And then he’s been at Milan a good, what, five years, I think he’s been there a while now. So that speaks of somebody who’s knuckled down, in a different environment, and has learnt his trade. So I think he’d be a different player to the one that we saw at Chelsea, and Lampard, I’m sure, has had a good look, so that might be a possibility.

Harry Wilson to Leeds – Can They Finish Top Half?

Have they got any doubters? I don’t know. They’re trying to build on things, aren’t they? They were five points from tenth from the top half last season. So could they kick on with good signings? Maybe, yeah. Harry Wilson will be a good signing, there’s no doubt about that.

Shea Charles could be too; people like Dominic Calvert-Lewin have got to keep going, scoring goals, leading the line. But they’re in a good spot, I think, and Daniel Farke would hope that they can finish a few places higher than they did last season.

Can They Finish Above Newcastle Again?

Five points ahead of the old rivals last year, which was a hell of a shock. Can they do it again? I always thought it might be a bit of a second-season syndrome type thing for Sunderland. It wouldn’t be as easy. They took teams by surprise to a certain extent.

But the fact that the hardest part is keeping the players that have done well because their agents would have been getting busy in the summer, having people like Brian Brobbey, having done ever so well for club and country. But yeah, they’ve kept them all together. So we’ll see.

I hope they can do it again because they’ve been an exciting team to watch. And it might be that they’ve got a feel-good factor, and certainly Newcastle haven’t. So it might be that they can finish above them again.