Maguire, McTominay and Martial could be sold as soon as possible.

I have learned that Manchester United are planning a big sale of some senior players who are not in Erik Ten Hag’s long-term plans.

Harry Maguire, Scott McTominay and Anthony Martial are all being pointed toward the exit door as soon as possible.

The Glazer Brother owners are working on the sale of the club and I understand several parties are in discussions.

In particular, a Qatari investment Group has prepared a huge takeover plan worth £ 6 billion.

There is a mid-February deadline for offers. However, the Qatari Group has to be careful as they have a controlling interest in Paris Saint-Germain, and therefore, if they also owned United both teams would not be able to compete in the Champions League under current rules.

As a result of possible new owners arriving, Ten Hag has already informed the board of several players he wants to bring in to strengthen the squad although he has not yet confirmed publicly who they are. Three other players joining the exit are likely to be Alex Telles, Donny van de Beek and Eric Bailly.

*If the Qatari Group is successful it would mean that Manchester United, Manchester City and Newcastle would all be owned by Middle Eastern investment groups.

Man City getting it wrong with Haaland

Once again Pep Guardiola turned on his team following the Tottenham defeat because, as I wrote three weeks ago, the wingers and midfield are not feeding enough balls through to Erling Haaland. Put the ball in front of the striker or at his feet and he will score goals.

Instead, he is being starved of service and Guardiola is not a happy man. The game against Tottenham was played around Haaland but did not involve him.

He didn’t have one shot during the whole game and did not even touch the ball inside the opponent’s penalty area for the first time since he joined City.

Haaland was disconnected from his team. Time and again he ran forward to collect a pass that never came. In a way, Guardiola brought this defeat on himself.

Why asked so many supporters, did he leave out the one player who delivers for Haaland regularly? Kevin de Bruyne watched from the bench and when he came on it was too late and he managed only one pass to his striker.

The only players who delivered two or more passes to Haaland were Ederson (the goalkeeper!!), Rodri and Nathan Ake.

Guardiola, once again, called his players together in the training room on Monday and went through what went wrong.

However, he needs to look at himself, as a master coach and tactician who is currently getting things wrong. He used a 4-4-2 format which just didn’t work against Tottenham because Rodri and Bernardo Silva were overrun in midfield.

He needs to go back to the drawing board, get his team sorted out, possibly bring back Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte, work on Grealish supporting Haaland and make sure his players get more balls to the feet of their lethal striker.

How Dyche secured surprise win over Arsenal

Even in their wildest dreams, Everton supporters did not expect the Toffees to beat Arsenal last weekend.

As it worked out, new coach Sean Dyche won his first game and is looking to move Everton up the table and out of the relegation zone.

There is much to do for the ex-Burnley coach. Responding to intense training, motivational pep talks and honest appraisal of their recent performances, the Everton players certainly responded and displayed aggression, fast pace football and were a tigerish unit on the hunt. They gave Arsenal a tough match despite not having the majority of possession.

Without a win in fourteen games and no success since October, Everton suddenly have a new belief in themselves.

That Amadou Onana and Abdoulaye Doucoure collapsed at the final whistle through total exhaustion went to show their commitment which was lacking during Frank Lampard's tenure. 

On the training ground, Dyche had worked on his wingers' attacking options and insisted on strenuous hard work.

He had spent time during his short time in charge working with his wingers to deliver good quality balls into the box and Dwight McNeil’s corner led to Tarkowski’s winning goal and Seamus Coleman’s crosses from the right troubled Gunners' defence.

Prior to the game, fans staged another protest against the board of directors, who once again did not attend the game,  but to a man, the fans all united behind Dyche at kick-off.

They sang his name and cheered him on and off the pitch. The dressing room had fallen apart at the end of Lampard’s reign and an example was the fallout between Doucoure and Idrissa Gueye which resulted in Doucoure being forced to train alone.

All was forgotten and forgiven when Dyche arrived and last weekend highlighted how he has turned things around in just one week.

Everton rose to third from bottom, equal on points with Leeds who saw the departure of coach Jesse Marsche this week.

VAR attacked again

VAR was again called into question this week because Manchester United’s midfield general Casimero had been sent off for having his hands around Crystal Palace player Will Hughes’ throat.

On closer inspection from various angles it appears Casimero was trying to stop Hughes from joining in the trouble between several players and in fact had his hands on each side of Hughes’ shirt collar.

Once again, VAR had got things wrong and Manchester United are launching an appeal against the sending-off.

The point is that VAR should have shown the different angles to referee Andre Marriner but they didn’t. Once again United fans believe officials have a grudge against their team.

Referees are not perfect and rely on VAR but the system is failing them. The team watching the screens in a remote room miles away from the game must get decisions right otherwise there is no point in having them oversee matches.

Casimero is a loss to Erik Ten Hag and in upcoming matches against strugglers Leeds and Leicester, they take on teams who will fight for every point.

Leicester finally find Mahrez's replacement

Leicester City supporters stood in the away end at Aston Villa at the weekend and instead of blue and white flags, there were hundreds of green and yellow, the colours of Brazil.

The fans were showing a welcome for their new man Tete and he certainly did not disappoint and even won “Man of the Match.”

In his first match out on the right wing, he impressed his manager Brendan Rodgers who said, “I’ve never seen more Brazilian flags since I was in Rio. Tete is what I have been talking about for 18 months – a right-winger who can take the ball, dribble, pass the ball, look after it, make runs and work. He was really good and because of that, we had a better balance. It allowed Kelechi (Iheanacho) to play into the spaces in front.”

Leicester have been searching for a Riyad Mahrez replacement since he was sold to Manchester City in 2018.

Asensio heading for Premier League

Real Madrid star Asensio wants to play in the Premier League and this week his agents travelled to London and spoke to several clubs about the winger.

The 27-year-old is having a difficult time at Real but the club will not make a decision to let him leave until March.

His current deal expires in four months and Arsenal have asked to meet his representatives. Asensio is looking for a four-year deal with a Premier League club and wants to increase his Real salary to £118k-a-week ((£6million a year). When I contacted Real asking for an assurance that Alensio is still part of coach Carlo Ancelotti’s plans, it wasn't confirmed which explains why the talented winger wants out of the club.

Klopp given vote of confidence by owners

No one foresaw Liverpool’s dramatic drop in form before the start of this season. It is never nice for a coach to hear from opposing supporters,  “You’re getting sacked in the morning!” That is what greeted Jurgen Klopp after Wolves took them apart 3-0 last weekend.

I asked Liverpool the question on Tuesday and was assured that Jurgen still has the backing of the club and its owners. However, he had no answer for the poor performance against Wolves and it is now four games without scoring a single point which has left Liverpool 11 points outside a Champions League qualification place.

I was equally assured that his success with the club and squad over the past six years, which included a title win, has influenced the club’s directors to allow him to rebuild this summer using the next transfer window and the Reds are expected to spend big money.

Next up for Liverpool is a tricky local derby against Everton, where Sean Dyche has started his reign as a coach with a win over title leaders Arsenal.

That win will give Everton renewed belief that they can inflict pain on the top clubs and Dyche has spent this week with his players profiling Liverpool’s strengths and weaknesses. I expect a mighty battle.

Pep’s new favourite: Rico Lewis

Pep Guardiola has his favourites. He spoke of Phil Foden as the best young prospect he had ever coached and that included Barcelona players such as Iniesta and Xavi some years ago.

His latest young prospect is Rico Lewis and Pep has shown his faith in the youngster by starting him in each of City’s last three matches.

Guardiola referred to him as their very own Philip Lahm, Germany and Bayern Munich captain. High praise indeed! Nathan Ake has also been doing a superb job at left-back and Kyle Walker has taken a back seat recently.

Pep has also used John Stones and Aymeric Laporte at the back. Therefore, it should have been obvious to Joao Cancelo that he would not survive at the club when he disagreed with Guardiola over first-team playing time.