| England v Montenegro: Darren Bent primed to partner Wayne Rooney for Euro 2012 qualifier Darren Bent is the clear favourite to partner Wayne Rooney in a new-look England strike partnership for Tuesday's Euro 2012 qualifier. telegraph.co.uk |
Goal: Singapore Billionaire Makes Rival Bid for Liverpool A businessman from Singapore made a $509 million bid for Liverpool Football Club, trying to scuttle a deal with the owners of the Boston Red Sox to buy the storied English club. feeds.nytimes.com |
Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson refuses to get carried away by victory over Blackburn Roy Hodgson admits his side need to follow up Blackburn win before they can start thinking season has clicked into gear. telegraph.co.uk |
Successor to Paul the Octopus Is French The successor to the World-Cup predicting Paul the Octopus is French. feeds.nytimes.com |
The Fiver | More embryonic than the season itself | Barry Glendenning Click here to have the Fiver sent to your inbox every weekday at 5pm(ish), or if your usual copy has stopped arrivingTHE KIDS ARE NOT ALL RIGHT You know that green-screen thingummy-bob where players from each Premier League squad waste a valuable day of pre-season training sashaying up to the camera, putting their hands behind their back and gurning so that Sky can gussy up their pre-match line-up graphics and make Sundays even more super? The Fiver's often wondered how Arsenal manage it, what with so many of their younger players being more embryonic than the season itself when the director shouts 'action'.Sadly, it seems those of us expecting to see their squad sheet for tonight's match against Newcastle enhanced by the customary 11 swirly black and white Carling Cup first trimester ultrasound scans are set to be disappointed, as Arsene Wenger has promised Gooners he'll pick a number of older, recognised first-team players that are more than just a gleam in their fathers' eyes for the fourth-round tie.Theo Walcott, Nicklas Bendtner and notoriously-tricky-to-type goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny are expected to be among the experienced senior citizens in Arsenal's side tonight, liver spots and degenerative bone diseases permitting, while Cesc Fabregas, Maroune Chamakh and Samir Nasri are expected to be given a night off to catch up on their Matlock box-sets. While they were getting the false teeth out and the Werther's Originals in, their manager has been busily rabble-rousing, shouting about people who dare criticise his side for not winning a trophy in five years. "You just have to look around Europe to see just how difficult it is to be consistently at the top, as we have been," he thundered, apparently making the schoolboy error of mistaking "the top" with a completely different place slightly below it.Meanwhile at Kevin Nolan's house [which he's renting off Steve Harper, who'll no doubt be delighted at his graffitied garage door - Fiver Ed], the Newcastle captain's wife has been continuing her impression of Pippa from Home and Away, busily packing lunches for the men in her life as her husband and the couple's court-imposed foster child Andy Carroll prepare to repeat their heroics of Saturday night against different London opposition. "We all want to play – and go through," declared Nolan, strapping his young team-mate into his highback booster seat and reversing past the smouldering, burnt-out shell of the Range Rover clogging up the driveway. "Yeeeeoooooooowwwwww, that hurt!" he continued, as a slippery bottle of formula slipped out of his giggling passenger's hand and hit him upsides the head.• Join Scott Murray from 7.30pm for live MBM coverage of Newcastle 1-2 Arsenal.QUOTE OF THE DAY"I didn't ever imagine that I would come to England and be asked to do such a thing. Some of the staff at the club think I look a bit like a tall Michael Jackson so we thought it would be funny to do it to promote the game" - Southend's 'spooktacular Halloween-themed matchday' for Saturday's visit of Rotherham ropes in defender Bilel Mohsni to undergo a Thriller transformation as part of its promotion. Theme nights still to come at Roots Hall this season: Cartoon (4 December), Kung Fu (26 February), Love (2 April) and Non-League (7 May).WIN! WIN! WIN!Want VIP tickets to watch England v France at Wembley on 17 November, a new England home shirt and a digital camera worth £500? Then click here to find out more.GET 66 POUNDS' WORTH OF FREE BETS WITH BLUE SQUAREClick here to find out more.FIVER LETTERS"Re: yesterday's quote of the day. FC United of Manchester don't have their own ground and groundshare with Bury FC, who take a big slice of our gate receipts and matchday income. We are currently raising money via a development fund to build a new community stadium at Ten Acre Lane, Newton Heath. The £67,500 we will receive by switching the FA Cup first-round kick-off to a Friday night is a small price to pay to get closer to our goal. I and all the other members I've spoken to who elected the board have no problem with their decision. If we're unhappy with any decisions they make, we vote them off the board. Try doing that with the Glazers" - Simon Anderson (and 1,056 others)."Can I be the only pedant of hairs or atoms to point out that as the Soviet Union didn't split the atom till the late 40s, and the Chernobyl tragedy happened on 26 April 1986, there were never 50 years of accident-free nuclear power as you claim Pravda claims (yesterday's Fiver) - Joe Lowry (and no other hair and atom pedants)."As an American, I want to apologise for sending the 1-6 San Francisco 49ers and the 2-5 Denver Broncos to London for the annual destruction of the Wembley surface. In return, some equally inept football team should be sent to the USA! USA!! USA!!! to play. Possibly Fabio Capello could schedule a friendly here?" - Christopher Smith.Send your letters to the.boss@guardian.co.uk. And if you've nothing better to do you can also tweet the Fiver.BITS AND BOBSManchester United have bought Nobby Stiles's 1966 World Cup winner's medal for more than £188,200, even though it isn't sure if the Old Trafford museum matches its ambition and is angling for a move to Eastlands.West Germany's 1954 World Cup-winning team may have been boosted by a secret doping programme, according to a new study conducted by the Humboldt University in Berlin. "There are several strong indications that point to the injection of [methamphetamine] pervitin in some Germany players and not vitamin C as it was claimed," declared the report's author Erik Eggers. A German Olympic Sports Union official responded: "These are indications and not proof."In more conspiracy theory news, Jiang Xiao, the director of a forthcoming film entitled Who Killed Paul the Octopus?, reckons the former soothsaying cephalopod had really been dead for months. "I am 60% to 70% sure that Paul died on 9 July [two days before the World Cup final] and the Germans have been covering up his death and fooling us for a long time," she insisted. An aquarium spokeswoman retorted: "It's certainly not true that Paul died in the summer. He died a simple and straightforward death."Sunderland's Anton Ferdinand has been put off the road for six months and fined a total of £1,100 after being convicted of using a mobile phone while driving.Fiorentina coach Sinisa Mihajlovic has revealed that Adrian Mutu apologised to his team-mates after being accused of punching a waiter. "It was a gesture the lads appreciated," parped Mihajlovic. About the apology and not the punch, presumably.Officials are investigating reports that Cristiano Ronaldo was targeted by a "laser" during Real Madrid's 0-0 King's Cup draw at Murcia.The Newcastle Jets have flown out Francis Jeffers to assess him for a flamin' 10-week guest stint with the A-League club.And Dinamo Zagreb are planning to order their 12 foreign players to learn Croatian. "OdluÄili smo uvesti obvezno hrvatske lekcije u bilo kakve buduće ugovore s igraÄima," said Dinamo spokeswoman Morana Durcevic.STILL WANT MORE?Have Queen's Park set the most managers on the road to football success? The Knowledge has the answer.Proper Journalist David Conn reports on the rise and rise of Old Trafford's rebels, FC United.Paul Doyle muses whether Blackburn fans should be cock-a-hoop at the prospect of being taken over by poultry giants Venky's.Russia is stepping up its bid for 2018 with an appeal to Fifa's egos, writes Owen Gibson.And Paul Wilson puts the mockers on West Brom with a piece eulogising their form under Roberto Di Matteo.SIGN UP TO THE FIVERWant your very own copy of our free tea-timely(ish) email sent direct to your inbox? Has your regular copy stopped arriving? Click here to sign up.NO SIGN OF WEIRD UNCLE FIVER?Barry Glendenningguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |