City spend most on agents’ fees November 30, 2011 FOOTBALL: Premier League clubs spent a record £71.8m on agents’ fees last year, according to figures revealed yesterday. Free-spending Manchester City topped the list with a total of £9.7m paid to agents followed by Spurs on £7.6m, then Liverpool on £7m. The combined spend eclipses the previous record of £70.7m in 2009.
Stand-by-stand changes at Lord’s November 30, 2011 CRICKET: The MCC have scaled back on their initial plans to upgrade Lord’s, which will now be redeveloped on a “stand-by-stand” basis. Work, likely to begin at the Pavilion End with work on the Tavern and Allen Stands, will take place in stages and on the club’s freehold land only, following yesterday’s committee meeting.
Lucas fears six-month lay-off November 30, 2011 FOOTBALL: Liverpool’s Brazil midfielder Lucas fears he could miss the rest of the season with a knee injury after he was stretchered off during Tuesday’s 2-0 Carling Cup win over Chelsea.
Former Scotland rugby cap can’t pull off India success in Greenland November 30, 2011 “THERE’S a whole ocean of oil under our feet! No one can get at it except for me!” So screams Daniel Day Lewis as Plainview in Hollywood blockbuster There Will be Blood. Sir Bill Gammell, then chief executive of Cairn, must have expressed similar sentiments when he struck lucky in India in 2004. The former Scotland [...]
Boom and bust-up for villain Nasri November 29, 2011 City midfielder involved in tunnel incident with former team-mate Frimpong after helping seal semi-final spot ARSENAL 0 vs MANCHESTER CITY 1 ARSENAL midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong and former Gunner Samir Nasri were involved in a stormy verbal bust-up in the players’ tunnel after Manchester City dumped the north Londoners out of the Carling Cup. A clinical [...]
Chelsea need an anxiety cure, admits Villas-Boas November 29, 2011 CHELSEA 0 vs LIVERPOOL 2 UNDER-FIRE Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas admits there’s no quick remedy to his side’s alarming slump which gathered unwanted momentum following last night’s Carling Cup defeat against Liverpool Second half goals from Maxi Rodriguez and Martin Kelly inflicted on Chelsea a third defeat in their last four games at Stamford Bridge, [...]
Inquest told Speed’s wife found him hanged at home November 29, 2011 AN INQUEST into the death of Wales manager Gary speed was told that the body of the 42-year-old was found hanged at his home in Cheshire by his wife. Detective Inspector Peter Lawless, of Cheshire Police, told Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinber there appeared to be no suspicious circumstances and a post mortem examination found Speed’s [...]
Tindall: RFU made me World Cup scapegoat November 29, 2011 FORMER England captain Mike Tindall remains deeply dissatisfied with the Rugby Football Union for making him “a scapegoat” following the infamous alcohol-fuelled night out in Queenstown that nearly cost him his Test career. Tindall on Monday successfully appealed against his expulsion from the elite squad, thus opening the door to an international return, while he [...]
Administration woe returns to haunt Pompey November 29, 2011 PORTSMOUTH are back in financial turmoil after their chairman, Vladimir Antonov, resigned and the club’s parent company, Convers Sports Initiatives, went into administration. The blow does not plunge the Championship side back into administration – 19 months after they first were – but could lead to a points deduction of between 10 and 25 points. [...]
Redknapp struggling to keep everyone content November 29, 2011 TOTTENHAM vs PAOK SALONIKA TOTTENHAM manager Harry Redknapp has confessed he is struggling to find a solution to keeping the fringe members of his squad content. The likes of Vedran Corluka, Heurelho Gomes, Sebastien Bassong and Roman Pavlyuchenko, who are in contention to start against PAOK Salonika tonight, have all recently voiced their discontent at [...]