Leeds United winger Wilfried Gnonto is still a target for Everton despite the Toffees signing Jack Harrison on loan

By Simon Jones for the Daily Mail and Ed Carruthers For Mailonline

Published: 20:21 EDT, 13 August 2023 | Updated: 20:46 EDT, 13 August 2023

When it emerged that Liverpool had offered £21million for Fluminense midfielder Andre, there was a collective murmuring among many Kopites: ‘who?’

This has not come out of nowhere. Mail Sport reported in July that Liverpool were among a host of European clubs interested in him. 

All the same, he is a relative unknown, and he was no high-profile target until recent days.  

With Jordan Henderson completing his move to Al-Ettifaq for £12million, Fabinho joining Al-Ittihad for £40m, and Southampton rejecting Liverpool’s second bid of £41m for Romeo Lavia all in the last week, this is not a time for studious patience. 

Liverpool need a new defensive midfielder very soon. Perhaps one, perhaps more. With Brazilian option Andre entering the fray, it’s worth answering the burning questions: who is he, and what could he bring? 

Overview 

Andre Trindade is only 22 but he has already acquired a strong amount of experience.

He first appeared on Fluminense’s radar at the age of 12, when he was playing as a striker in a youth tournament. Seven goals in eight games was enough to convince the scouts to pluck him from his home and bring him around 1,000km away to the Brazilian capital. 

It wasn’t an easy start for him, according to Breaking The Lines. Having no relatives in Rio made the transition hard for the youngster and he was not overly pleased when he was moved into midfield.  

Fast forward several years, and the defensive midfielder isn’t looking back. With 145 appearances under his belt for one of South America’s most prestigious clubs, playing in front of an adoring Maracana crowd, he has already achieved a fair amount of success. 

In 2022 and 2023, he won successive Taca Guanabara and two Campeonato Carioca titles with Fluminense – regional championships in the state of Rio de Janeiro – accolades which hold some weight in Brazil. 

His performances last season bagged him a spot in the Brazilian league’s team of the year. With 61 appearances throughout 2022, he also proved his endurance and is used to balancing domestic fixtures with continental clashes. 

In June, he received his first cap for Brazil, coming on as a substitute in a 4-2 friendly defeat to Senegal. 

Fluminense are desperate to hang on to him. According to A Bola, the Portuguese outlet who have been covering Sporting CP’s pursuit of the youngster, Tricolor Flu Fluzão do not want to let him go until at least January, after the current Brazilian league season is over. 

With Fulham, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Spurs, and West Ham all reportedly interested, there could be a scuffle for his signature.

A deeper look  

The risk with assessing any player in a less familiar league is that it is easy to overhype or underestimate them. Information sources are often unreliable. 

A quick scan of clickbait-titled YouTube highlights reels only reveals so much. One ten-minute video on Andre, tantalisingly subtitled ‘Insane Goals, Skills & Assists’, proceeds to show no goals and no assists.

That said, compared against his peers in Brazil’s top flight, he has the requisite qualities to play a variety of midfield roles, particularly for his passing and ball-carrying qualities. 

Some of his statistics are remarkable. According to stats site Fbref, no player in Brazil’s Serie A has completed more passes this season. No player has completed a higher percentage of their passes attempted. 

Just four players have had more touches of the ball, and only five have carried it further. He is only dispossessed around once every three games, despite being in the top 2% for the number of times he receives the ball. 

The caveat to that is that Fluminense have had more possession than anyone – 59.6% – and are a highly ranked team. So naturally you’d expect a man in the heartbeat of that team to see more of the ball and do more with it.

Defensively, he is strong in the Brazilian league. Only one midfielder has made more interceptions. He ranks in the bottom half of his peers for attempted tackles, but most of those attempts are successful. 

Collectively, he makes more tackles in Fluminense’s defensive third than the other two thirds of the pitch put together, indicating that he typically intervenes in opposition attacks at quite a late stage. This might contrast with what he would be expected to do at Liverpool, as Klopp likes to win the ball back quickly high up the pitch, and it would be interesting to see if he could make that transition 

His heat map places him in a typical No 6 position: directly behind the centre circle. But his movement is more eclectic than that, seeing him crop up regularly on the left side of the opponent’s half, suggesting he would fit into an expansive and fluid system. 

At Fluminense he is playing among footballing royalty in the form of Marcelo and, to a lesser extent of regality, Felipe Melo – old sages who he can learn from.  

Amid all these positives, it is worth clarifying what Andre is not. Based off current evidence, the 22-year-old is not your typical playmaker. While he may complete most of his passes, only a handful of those are progressive passes. Most of his duties involve picking a safer option and moving the ball on to a more creative player. 

There’s nothing wrong with that – in fact, that was one of Fabinho’s strengths – but it is worth bearing in mind that he does not contribute much on the attacking front. A record of three goals and three assists in his entire career could be much improved, even for a defensive midfielder; Fabinho managed to chip in with eight goals in 2021/22. 

There’s only so much stats can say, though. Not only is their gathering vulnerable to human error, but they fail to account for so many factors. A high number of interceptions, for example, could be explained by a team-mate applying pressure to opposition players and causing them to mess up passes. 

And so one finds those YouTube clips all the more tempting, allured by the romance of trying to decode a player with one’s own eye, to come up theories about what he might be capable of. 

He is certainly impressive to watch. What stands out to the naked eye is his determination to dive into the tackle, to battle through the men around him, to get first to a stray pass. There is also an elegance to the way he sprays his passes and how he drifts through the midfield with the ball.  

The problem is that any professional footballer can do that at the right level for them. It’s not rocket science. Clearly Andre Trindade stands out in Brazil, and he has earned the chance to prove himself in Europe.  

Whether he can translate being dominant in his homeland to controlling the midfield of an elite European club is another question that only time will answer. Should Liverpool fans allow themselves a glimmer of excitement, though? Absolutely. 

Inter Milan ‘make Arsenal and USA striker Folarin Balogun their No 1 target’ after backing away from move for Atletico Madrid’s Alvaro Morata

• Inter Milan have made Arsenal’s Folarin their top target in pursuit for new striker
• Balogun scored 21 goals in 37 appearances on loan at Ligue 1 Reims last season  
• The Serie A side have backed out of a deal for Atletico Madrid’s Alvaro Morata 

By Ash Rose For Mailonline

Updated: 07:44 EDT, 29 July 2023

Megyn Kelly slammed Target for launching ‘tuck-friendly’ bathing suits because women ‘don’t have penises,’ as the chain-store pulls Pride displays after backlash. 

Kelly, 52, has joined in with the wave of others who have taken offense to Target’s new pride collection, especially the ‘tuck-friendly’ swimwear that can be found in the women’s section. 

‘[Target] decided to willingly partner with this clothing manufacturer to make pride month gear that includes bathing suits that are quote ‘tuck-friendly’ that have extra material around the crotch, which no woman needs because we don’t have penises down south in Rio,’ she said on her show on Wednesday. 

‘We don’t need extra material and we don’t need tuck-friendly, but the Target CEO is out there defending this saying: “Look, the extra crotch wear and the tuck-friendly bathing suits are important, that this whole line in the pride department is a good business decision. it’s the right thing for a society.”‘ 

Despite facing sharp criticism for the release, which also includes items for babies and children, CEO Brian Cornell told Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast he approved of the campaign.

‘When we think about purpose at Target, it’s really about helping all the families, and that “all” word is really important,’ he said. ‘Most of America shops at Target, so we want to do the right thing to support families across the country.’

Kelly also slammed the company for partnering with Abprallen, who has made Satanic clothing in the past. 

‘So Target turned to them to make their new line of clothing, including baby onesies with rainbow patterns, and at one point, selling their Pride related merch that read things like: We belong everywhere across the trans flag, too queer for here, cure transphobia not trans people, and so on,’ the journalist said. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom has slammed Target for ‘selling out LGBTQ communities’ after it walked back some of the products from its Pride collection amid growing backlash. 

In a tweet, Newsom fumed and claimed ‘black, Asian, Jewish’ people and women would be ‘next.’ 

‘CEO of Target Brian Cornell selling out the LGBTQ+ community to extremists is a real profile in courage. This isn’t just a couple stores in the South. 

‘There is a systematic attack on the gay community happening across the country. Wake up America. 

‘This doesn’t stop here. You’re black? You’re Asian? You’re Jewish? You’re a woman? You’re next,’ he said. 

California has more Target stores than anywhere else in the country with 317 – around 16 percent of all stores in the country. 

Cornell’s remarks came as he was pressed on criticisms the company faced in the aftermath of its rollout.

‘I think those are just good business decisions, and it’s the right thing for society, and it’s the great thing for our brand,’ Cornell said.

‘The things we’ve done from a DE&I (diversity, equity, and inclusion) standpoint, it’s adding value.

‘It’s helping us drive sales, it’s building greater engagement with both our teams and our guests, and those are just the right things for our business today.’

His comments come as some southern Target stores have reportedly been forced by the corporation to move its LGBTQ merchandise from view as customers revolt against the brand.

The Pride product selection includes a variety of clothes and home goods, including a lime green adult romper suit with the word ‘gay’ emblazoned on the back, and a mug with a label reading: ‘Gender Fluid.’

Criticisms were also levied against the company after it was believed the ‘tuck friendly’ clothing was also for children, however a spokesman for the company told the Associated Press the swimsuits are only offered in adult sizes. 

Criminal gangs are invading Britons’ second homes in Spain and taking advantage of lax housing regulations that prevent squatters from being evicted to sell their possessions and charge ransom money.

A movement of squatters, known as Los Okupas, has long advocated for those who are struggling to find and pay for proper housing to move into unoccupied properties on a semi-permanent basis.

But opportunistic gangs have carved out a business model whereby they enter unoccupied holiday homes, change the locks and effectively ‘sell’ the property to squatters.

With the new occupants able to remain in place for months or years at a time, the gangs collect money from the squatters while selling off the real owner’s possessions. 

A Crown Prosecution Service lawyer, who recently travelled to Ibiza with his wife and two young children to find squatters inhabiting their holiday home, described the issue as a ‘legal vacuum’ which sees homeowners almost powerless to regain access to their properties. 

Article 47 of the Spanish Constitution states that ‘all Spaniards have the right to enjoy decent and adequate housing’ – a sentiment that has caused a legal loophole that makes it extremely difficult for homeowners to remove squatters who have entered their properties.

Under Spanish law, squatters who have occupied a home for more than 48 hours and are deemed to have no other adequate housing in which to live cannot be evicted without a court order. 

This process takes an average of 18 months, and can prove particularly costly with plaintiffs having to shell out for legal representation and bailiffs.

In the interim, the only way to remove squatters is to pay squatter removal firms, many of whom charge thousands of pounds to forcibly evict them. 

A recent investigation by iNews discovered that the gangs operating the scam have drawn up a 102-page manual, described as an ‘anarchist manifesto’, which offers Okupas advice on how to successfully invade someone’s home and legal tips for how to extend their stay for as long as possible. 

British lawyer and head of the CPS Extradition Unit Marc Robinson is one of several Brits embroiled in legal battles over squatters.

He is trying to recover the family’s holiday home after flying to Ibiza during the Easter holidays to find that the locks had been changed, Spanish outlet The Objective revealed.

The Robinsons flew to the Spanish island with their daughters on April 4 and found the lights were on and somebody was home at their property in the municipality of San Antonio.

The couple called police who spoke to a man inside said to have admitted he was squatting there with his wife and two children because he ‘didn’t have anywhere else to live’.

Mr Robinson’s wife Sohie told The Objective: ‘It appears they’ve been selling our belongings. We’re certain an expensive bicycle we had in the house is not there any more.

‘When we finally gain access we’ll have to see if we end up accusing them of theft or criminal damage.’ 

A month on from their upsetting discovery, Mrs Robinson’s said their legal filing to have the squatters evicted had not even been admitted for processing.

‘The police report hasn’t reached the court yet and preliminary proceedings to evict them from our house still haven’t been opened,’ Mrs Robinson said.

‘The Civil Guard told us they couldn’t do anything because when they arrived, there was only a man, a woman and two children they couldn’t evict without a court order because they say they’re a family and don’t have anywhere else to live.

‘But we know there are more people in the house and it should be easy for the police to prove it.

‘We don’t understand how it’s possible that there’s a legal vacuum when it comes to squatters in Spain.’

Meanwhile, Londoner Michael Reagan told The Daily Express he found his Barcelona home invaded by squatters in 2021.

He hired a squatter removal agency to evict them and was forced to shell out £1,750.

‘You’re stuck between a rock and a hard place,’ Mr Reagan said. ‘The law is very ineffectual.’ 

Others have taken matters into their own hands, resorting to violence.

Last summer, a group of men were caught on video storming their house in the Spanish region of Murcia, threatening to beat the squatters their with iron bars if they did not leave.