TOP 100 SOCCER SITES
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| Wenger happy ahead of Arsenal's meeting with Villa Arsenal hosts Aston Villa on Sunday with manager Arsene Wenger insistent that his current four-year spell without a trophy represents the most satisfying period of his time in the Premier League. cbc.ca |
West Ham bid 'being prepared' by London financiers Intermarket • Intermarket to submit bid for Hammers on Monday• CB Holding to consider offer on behalf of StraumurA London-based financial services company has said that it is preparing to make a takeover bid for West Ham. Intermarket are believed to have signed a non-disclosure agreement with Rothschild, the bank which is acting on behalf of West Ham's parent company, CB Holding, to secure investment in the club.David Byrne, Intermarket's company secretary and joint founding director, told the Telegraph: "We'll be making a bid on Monday". He added that Intermarket expected to hear back soon whether the offer is viewed favourably by CB Holding, the company formed by creditors and headed by the Icelandic bank Straumur which runs West Ham.Intermarket is thought to value the club at close to £100m, taking into account debts said to be in the region of £49m and payments owed to Sheffield United over the Carlos Tevez affair, as well as other outstanding transfer-related instalments.Straumur has already turned down an approach from the former Birmingham City co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold, and the bank is said to be in no hurry to complete a deal having been granted a moratorium on its debts until September 2010.The continuing uncertainty may however force the manager, Gianfranco Zola, to offload some of his star names in the January transfer window, in order to generate funds for new players.West Ham UnitedPremier LeagueAlan Gardnerguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
The Fiver: Swooning Like Victorian Ladies Overcome By The Vapours, and Togo's request rejected | Barry Glendenning Subscribe here to receive a daily copy of the Fiver delivered to your inboxYOU'VE GOT MAILIf the Fiver was forced to apologise and resign every time we sent an ill-advised email to recipients who found them objectionable, production of the world's most tea-timely newsletter would have ceased moments after its maiden excursion more years ago than we care to remember. Luckily, our audience is more tolerant than Liverpool supporters' union Spirit of Shankly, who showcased the fabled Scouse sense of humour by swooning like Victorian ladies overcome by the vapours when a board member from "their" club responded to a series of emails from a disgruntled fan by inviting him to "Blow me, ****face".The carefully worded email sent by Tom Hicks Jr, Dallas-based businessman and adult son of Liverpool owner Tom Sr, prompted howls of faux outrage and wounded indignation from Spirit of Shankly, who despite all their protestations to the contrary, were almost certainly beside themselves with delight that a fan had managed to prompt such a juvenile response from the Liverpool boardroom.Having called for, and subsequently secured the resignation of Hicks Jr, who has since apologised for sending the email, SoS posted a statement on their website this afternoon. "Spirit of Shankly welcomes the resignation of Tom Hicks Junior from the board of Liverpool FC and its parent company," it chirruped. "This club has standards – on the field, off the field, on the terraces and in the boardroom." As luck would have it, the group made no mention of its own standards, which are so low that last year's end-of-season party climaxed with this rousing ditty making fun of the Munich air disaster.While it could be argued that the raucous, mob-handed celebration of a plane crash in which 21 people died is considerably more offensive than some dumb Yank losing his rag and sending a chippy email, it's interesting that SoS chose not to disband or call for mass resignations from among their own rank-and-file in the wake of the notorious sing-along.The Fiver is as wholeheartedly in favour of football fans sticking it to The Man as the next beret-wearing promoter of people-power, but we find it bewildering that the high standards expected from all connected with Liverpool FC "on the field, off the field, on the terraces and in the boardroom" evidently don't apply to those most anxious to see them rigidly enforced.QUOTE OF THE DAY"You have frozen feet, the public are cold and there's no one at the stadiums - that's what I regret the most" - Bordeaux coach Laurent Blanc enthusiastically looks ahead to tomorrow's Coupe De La Ligue tie at Le Mans.TOGO'S REQUEST TO RETURN TO ANGOLA TURNED DOWNTogo's request to play in the Africa Cup of Nations has been turned down by the tournament's organisers. Flags flew at half-mast in the west African nation today as the country began three days of national mourning. The squad flew home yesterday in the wake of Friday's gun attack, which killed three people; the side's assistant coach, its press officer and the Angolan bus driver.The country's sports minister had asked the Confederation of African Football to allow the team to take part after the mourning. But CAF, which initially wanted Togo to remain in Angola, has turned down the request and will officially disqualify the team tonight.Togo's prime minister Gilbert Huongbo has hit out at the organisers. "Management did not give us enough assurance," he said. "We would leave our team being exposed to similar risks. Therefore we decided to pull our team out of the competition against our will. Our analysis is that they want it [the shooting] to be seen as a non-event and the show must go on as planned; there mustn't be an official change and Togo is causing problems to the festival."But a CAF official told reporters that Togo had been warned that they would be thrown out of the tournament unless they honoured tonight's fixture against Ghana. "Togo have not taken official steps to come back and play the African Nations Cup," the official said. "The referee has received the order to blow the starting whistle and if the Togolese players are not there, they will have lost the match and will be disqualified."FIVER LETTERS"Will Liverpool be able to postpone all their games until Rafa hasmanaged to assemble a better team in the January sales? If they were soworried about icy conditions round Anfield, surely they have plenty oftime to send all their staff out to clear it in the two days before thematch on Sunday" - Adrian Riley."I think we all know the name of Nemanja Vidic's nerve problem, folks. Fernando Torres" - Peter McKnight."Re: Landycakes Donovan story last Friday. If you're on a first-name basis, Landycakes will work, but if not, we tend to refer to him as Prima Donovan here in U-S-A! U-S-A!" - Neale Redington."As Togo is now out of the Africa Cup of Nations perhaps the FAI could write to Sepp Blatter and ask if Ireland could take its place?" - Ross Gorman (and 1,057 others).Send your letters to the.boss@guardian.co.uk. And if you've nothing better to do you can also Tweet the Fiver now.BITS AND BOBSFulham have agreed loan terms for Roma's Italy Under-20 striker Stefano Okaka, who will cover Bobby Zamora for the rest of the season. "We've watched him closely and think he would be able to shout abuse to the Fulham fans after scoring, but we will have to get our fans to rile him online first," Roy Hodgson didn't say. What he really said was: "Okaka has got quality."Ruud van Nistelrooy wants to work with Tony Pulis at Stoke before he finally hangs up his boots. Apparently.Manchester United have announced pre-tax profits of £48.2m which looks like an outstanding effort considering the downturn ... until you consider it includes the sale of Him to Real Madrid for £80.1m.England's future Mastercard Sony Biltong Kudu World Cup 2010 opponents, Algeria, were so inept in their 3-0 defeat against Malawi in the Africa Cup of Nations today that Mr Em will be dreaming about a hat-trick on the biggest stage of them all.And after being unveiled as the new Bolton manager, Owen Coyle could not stop himself from talking about leaving Burnley. "It was a big wrench," he said. "I poured my heart and soul into that [Burnley] job," he said. "It was a difficult decision," he said. But clearly not that difficult.A WORD FROM OUR SPONSORSThe Big Freeze continued over the weekend much to the chagrin of those of us who like a bet and a trip to the pub but hopefully the thaw will kick in this week and the betting fun will return. Manchester United (5-2) and Arsenal (4-1) fluffed their lines on Saturday to keep Chelsea in pole position in the Premier League betting at 17-20. Owen Coyle was presented as Bolton manager this morning and we make them 3-1 to go down this season. The betting on who will take his job at Burnley has thrown up such managerial luminaries as Brian Laws and Lee Clark at the head of the market so erm maybe you want to take a look at the 11/10 that Burnley go down this season.We'll match your first deposit up to £50.STILL WANT MORE?Barney Ronay reflects on 40 years of absolutely nothing happening on a Question of Sport.Ciro Ferrara prepares to get fired and stadiums get set on fire in Paolo Bandini's Serie A round-up.Sid Lowe introduces Sergio Canales, the terrifyingly talented and good-looking 18-year-old who is taking La Liga by storm.And James Richardson and guests discuss Togo's withdrawal from the Africa Cup of Nations and whether AC Jimbo favours strikers who look like him in Football Weekly.SIGN UP TO THE FIVERWant your very own copy of tea-timely(ish) email sent direct to your inbox for free every weekday? Click here to sign up for the Fiver today. And also, heaven forfend, if you want to unsubscribe.CRASH. CRASH. CRASH. SCREAM.Barry Glendenningguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Stoke pull out of loan deal for James • Stoke had set deadline for James deal of midday today• Team insist keeper was only ever one of a number of optionsStoke City have ended their interest in the Portsmouth goalkeeper David James, the club have confirmed. Stoke's manager, Tony Pulis, said yesterday he was keen on bringing the goalkeeper to the Britannia Stadium on loan until the end of the season.They had set a deadline for completing the deal of midday today, however, so that James would be available for tomorrow's game against Liverpool at the Britannia Stadium. Once that had passed, they immediately withdrew from the deal."Stoke City have confirmed that they have pulled out of a bid to sign England goalkeeper David James," read a statement on the club's website. "In confirming his interest in the experienced keeper at his pre-match press conference yesterday, manager Tony Pulis made it clear the attempt to sign James on loan was one of a number of transfer options."It is believed that Stoke's proposed deal hinged on Portsmouth's willingness to pay a portion of James's wages, but Portsmouth's financial situation may have precluded such an agreement.James has been named in Portsmouth's squad to play Birmingham at Fratton Park tomorrow.Stoke CityPortsmouthTransfer windowPremier Leagueguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Wigan 'close' to signing Marco Ruben from Villarreal Wigan and Villarreal have reached preliminary agreement for Argentinian striker to join Premier League club. telegraph.co.uk |