Jack high for Hoops
CELTIC could land a £2million windfall if Jack Hendry makes his move to Ostend permanent.
The Hoops loaned the defender to the Belgians after he suffered a knee injury in Australia with Melbourne City.
He has impressed as Ostend have mounted a surprise charge up the league and are now in the hunt for a Champions League spot.
Hendry has just 12 months remaining on his current deal with Celtic and there is an option to buy that is pegged at £2m.
Ostend could trigger the clause – and then flip the deal with Premier League clubs Wolves, Newcastle and Burnley all monitoring the situation.
CROCKED McCarthy’s KO’d by groin problem
ROY HODGSON has delivered an injury blow to the Republic of Ireland by declaring it would be “impossible” for James McCarthy to be involved in this month’s World Cup qualifiers.
The Crystal Palace boss revealed the midfielder, 30, suffered a recurrence of the groin strain that sidelined him for a month. McCarthy limped out of last Wednesday’s 0-0 draw with Manchester United and Hodgson expects him to be in the treatment room for at least another four weeks.
That would rule the former Everton ace out of the opening qualifier in Serbia on March 24 followed by Luxembourg’s visit to Dublin three days later.
Hodgson said: “It is a definite [groin] strain, there’s no question of that. It’s not an easy strain, either, because it’s a recurrence of the injury that kept him out for such a long time before.
“To suggest it would be anything other than three to four weeks I would think would be unbelievably optimistic.
“If you’re asking from the Irish point of view will he be fit and ready in 10 days’ time or whatever it is to go and join up with Ireland I would say that’s absolutely impossible
“But that will be up to the doctors to decide. Our doctors, the Irish docs, and if they say ‘you’re talking out of your hat, there’s nothing wrong with the lad’, no one would be happier than me.
“But I think that’s pie in the sky to be believing that.”
being heralded as a genius, Solskjaer refuses to copy his methods.
Solskjaer said: “No one has invented any style by themselves. Every manager builds a team around a club’s culture – and we have a culture at Man United that we want to stick to. Traditions – built by Sir Matt and Sir Alex – of pace, power and quick attacks.
“I have taken a lot of my football philosophy from the time I was here at Man United and, to be honest, in Norway. I feel we are improving and getting closer to winning things.”
United go into today’s 185th derby trailing the Blues by 14 points – and are set to finish below City for an eighth successive season. Solskjaer added: “I have always believed in my way of playing football.
“Sometimes you look at other managers and think you’ll adopt one little thing from his way of playing or one little thing from another.
“I was the same as a player. I couldn’t be the same as David Beckham, but I always wanted to cross the ball as well as Becks.
“I couldn’t be the same player as Ryan Giggs, but I liked to dribble as good as Giggsy and be on the front foot.”
United have just announced
that the club’s debts have risen to almost £500million after revenues dropped by £118m during the pandemic.
And Solskjaer warned fans earlier in the week that there is unlikely to be a huge transfer spend in the summer. But he refuses to accept that the gap to City cannot be bridged with the right kind of planning.
He said: “I know Pep and all the managers say it all boils down to players. It’s all about having the quality out there on the pitch. We’re working as hard as we can every day – and that is everyone at Man United, from the scouts to the cleaning ladies and the people in the kitchens.
“I know our fans are impatient for success, but everyone is working to get us to where we belong – and that’s the top.”