Mourinho wants official's apology

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho says he wants referee's assistant Peter Kirkup to apologise after the official disallowed a strike by Salomon Kalou.

TV replays suggested the Ivorian was behind the line of the ball when he sidefooted home in the second half of Saturday's 0-0 draw with Blackburn.

"I can't understand it. If the linesman wants to explain, then maybe it would be a good thing," said Mourinho.

"I told the linesman I would be waiting for his phone call to apologise."

Referee Howard Webb disallowed the goal - a decision which sparked anger on the touchline with Mourinho berating the fourth official Peter Walton and urging him to look at TV replays.

Mourinho added: "We scored a great goal. Only the linesman can tell us why he disallowed the goal."

Blackburn boss Mark Hughes disputed Mourinho's version of the Kalou 'strike'.

"The goal was offside. He was only about half a yard or so, but he was offside," he said.

"From our point of view we are happy that it was offside. It would have been difficult for us to come back into the game if we had conceded at that point.

"But the assistant referee immediately put his flag up and that usually means he is pretty certain himself.

"Obviously Chelsea won't be too happy with that but if you watch it again, I think you will see it is offside."

Mourinho praised his side's display after the point which was enough to keep the Blues in the top four in the Premier League.

"The game is over and we lost two points. I have only good things to say about my players. A team without big ammunition, without the two target strikers, Didier Drogba and Claudio Pizarro," he said.

"A team without a top scorer like Frank Lampard and without that kind of ammunition, the team still played well against a team that fought a lot to keep a clean sheet and go home with a point.

"Blackburn are a team I respect because they fought a lot. But Chelsea were the best team, my players were brave and we scored a great goal.

"Blackburn started the game very well but Chelsea pushed them back. In the last 20 minutes, our attacking was massive."

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Shevchenko given Desailly backing

By Mandeep Sanghera

Former Chelsea defender Marcel Desailly insists the club's misfiring striker Andriy Shevchenko will come good.

Desailly says Chelsea must win the Champions League this season - and the France legend believes Shevchenko will be key to that ambition.

"Shevchenko is a top player and does not need to prove himself," Desailly told BBC Sport.

"For the moment, he is not performing. Let's wait and I'm sure he will help Chelsea win the Champions League."

He added: "Shevchenko has Champions League experience. He likes to be the one that everyone is focused on.

"I'm sure that with the Champions League everyone will look at him and the motivation can come from there.

"Also, he feels like he came to Chelsea to win things. Last year, although it was good, they only won the two cups domestically and he needs more."

Shevchenko made his first outing of the season for Chelsea against Blackburn on Saturday and showed little sign of improving on the disappointing form of last term.

The Ukraine international scored just four Premier League goals and three in the Champions League during last season following a £30m move from another of Desailly's former clubs, AC Milan.

On Saturday he missed two gilt-edged chances against Blackburn as Chelsea drew 0-0.

Desailly believes restoring Shevchenko's confidence is key to getting the best out of him.

"It is very difficult to leave AC Milan because it is a family club," added the former France international, who has been organising a charity match between a Marcel Desailly XI and Chelsea select team to be played at Stamford Bridge on 10 October.

"When you leave a club like that you need time to set up psychologically and he had a lot of problems to adapt himself to the English game and a new club.

"Even if you are a top player you might lose a bit in terms of you condition.

"As soon as he gets his confidence you will see the difference. He will be a different player."

Chelsea begin their Champions League campaign against Rosenborg on Tuesday and Desailly believes the club need to win the competition to rubberstamp their status as one of the world's biggest clubs.

"The consideration of Chelsea now around the world is that they are a club who have already won the Champions League but it's not the case," stated Desailly.

"Chelsea have not won the Champions League once and we are giving them too much consideration. That's why this year they have to win it.

"For the last two years they have reached the semi-finals but it is not enough. We are expecting more with the quality of the team they have.

"I don't know if they can win it this year because there are plenty of major teams in the competition.

"We cannot say anything at the moment because Chelsea are not at a high level yet. They are not at the level to make the difference. But let's wait."

Former England skipper Alan Shearer believes Shevchenko is underperforming because he "does not feel loved" at Chelsea.

"We don't know whether he was the manager's signing or not and he's having a tough time," Shearer told BBC1's Match of the Day programme.

"He's come in and is certainly not the player we saw at Milan a couple of years' ago.

"Just have a look at the reaction of Mourinho (when Shevchenko missed a second-half chance against Bleckburn) - this is what tells me he's not loved at Chelsea.

"He's just not happy with him, is he? The problem is he doesn't feel loved at Chelsea."

BBC pundit Alan Hansen says he does not ever expect Shevchenko to come good.

"He can't run, that's the problem he's got," Hansen said. "If you can't run as a centre forward, you're in trouble."

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Usmanov ups his stake in Arsenal

Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov has increased his stake in Arsenal to become the second largest shareholder at the Premier League club.

Red and White Holdings Limited, which is co-owned by Usmanov and business partner Farhad Moshiri, now have a 21% of shares.

More soon.

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Denmark scores 2 goals on set plays to shut out New Zealand

By ANITA CHANG
Associated Press Sports

Sept. 15, 2007

WUHAN, China (AP) -Set plays have kept the Danish team in contention at the World Cup.

Katrine Pedersen and Cathrine Paaske Sorensen scored off free kicks to lead Denmark to a 2-0 win over New Zealand on Saturday in a match between two teams that were at the bottom half of Group D.

The victory improved Denmark's chance of reaching the quarterfinals. New Zealand has a long-shot chance at moving on.

Denmark controlled the pace and the ball for most of the game, but did not score until a free kick in the 61st minute after Maiken Pape was taken down at the top of the box as she charged the goal.

New Zealand keeper Jenny Bindon got her hand on the ball as she leaped to make a save, but was not able to block Pedersen's shot into the top left corner.

Paaske Sorensen added another five minutes later, using her head to knock in a free kick that Pedersen sent across the penalty box.

The game got off to a slow start, with neither team able to string together more than a few passes for the first 15 minutes. But Denmark took control soon after, repeatedly attacking with long passes toward the goal.

"We played too slow in the beginning and so we decided in halftime (to) put more pressure on. We put some long passes behind the defense and put on some pressure and that worked,'' coach Kenneth Heiner-Moller said.

Denmark played without Heiner-Moller on the sidelines. FIFA, soccer's world governing body, announced hours before the game that he was suspended for two games for "physical contact'' with an assistant referee at the end of the match against China on Wednesday.

Denmark's best chance of scoring in the first half came in the 18th minute, when Paaske Sorensen's long range shot ricocheted off the crossbar. The midfielder's leaping header seven minutes later sailed over the top of the goal.

New Zealand, which had three teenagers on its starting roster, was unable to create any significant offensive threat and the game was mostly played in the Kiwis' half of the field.

"Our little players ... they gave it everything and unfortunately their very best at this moment isn't enough,'' New Zealand coach John Herdman said. "The free kicks ... you're going to get punished for it and we did.''

As in its 5-0 loss to Brazil, New Zealand successfully defended its quicker opponents for the first part of the game. But the team eventually ran out of gas and gave up the late goals.

Denmark plays Brazil on Wednesday, while New Zealand takes on China.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Canada strolls past Ghana 4-0 to revive quarterfinal push

By CHRIS LINES
Associated Press Sports

Sept. 15, 2007

HANGZHOU, China (AP) -Canada improved its chances for a quarterfinal berth by eliminating Ghana from the Women's World Cup with a 4-0 win Saturday, and captain Christine Sinclair broke her nation's World Cup scoring record.

Sophie Schmidt and Martina Franko also scored for Canada, while veteran Andrea Neil came on as a late substitute to become the player with the most international appearances in team history.

Two losses from two games means Ghana cannot progress, while Canada's fate will rest on the outcome of its last Group C game against Australia on Wednesday.

Sinclair's two goals took her to five in World Cups, passing the previous mark of Charmaine Hooper.

"It's a huge honor,'' Sinclair said. "It just goes to show the improvement our national team has made over the past few years, we are able to score goals and I am just part of that.''

The four goals could prove important to Canada, as it exceeded by one the margin by which Australia beat Ghana, and that may be decisive if group standings come down to goal difference.

But coach Even Pellerud did not ask for a big margin before the game.

"This time we had the aim to win the game only,'' Pellerud said. "To say to my players we should score four, five or six goals it's not fair, it's too much pressure.''

Ghana was exposed by the strength and directness of Canada. Exasperated coach Isaac Paha was even warming up a reserve goalkeeper in the closing stages in an effort to stem the flow of goals.

"There are certain things in which other teams are far ahead,'' Paha said.

"I believe we can achieve those goals. If it's not in this competition then we go back and prepare well.''

Canada's took the lead in the 16th minute. A cross to the far post found Sinclair, whose looping header could only be palmed over the line by the backpedalling Ghana goalkeeper.

Ghana came closest in the last seconds of the first half when a shot rebounded off the bar.

Canada went two up in the 55th minute. A corner was headed off the line but into the path of Schmidt, whose header on goal went in off the head of a Ghana defender.

It was 3-0 in the 62nd minute, as goalkeeper Memunatu Sulemana rushed off her line to try to steal the ball off the boot of Kara Lang, but she skipped clear and squared the ball to Sinclair, who knocked it into the unguarded net.

The final goal came by a goalkeeping error in the 77th minute. Sulemana failed to grasp a corner and Franko nodded in the loose ball.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Brazil blazes to another World Cup win

Marta’s 2 goals highlight 4-0 victory vs. China country aimed toward semis

Sept. 15, 2007

WUHAN, China - There’s fast. And then there’s Marta.

The FIFA player of the year shimmied a loose ball past a diving goalkeeper and whipped another shot behind two defenders to lead Brazil to a 4-0 win over host China on Saturday in the Women’s World Cup.

Brazil established itself as the overwhelming favorite to win Group D, which would give the South Americans a clear path to the semifinals and — perhaps — a shot at winning its first Women’s World Cup.

China coach Marika Domanski-Lyfors seemed convinced of Brazil’s chances, calling her eighth-ranked opponents “the best team in the world” during a post-game news conference.

“If before we thought we should beat Brazil, yeah, that was a dream of course,” she said.

The match between the Group D rivals was among the most physical in the World Cup, with players battling for possession as the teams launched waves of attacks and counterattacks. Five players were given yellow cards.

Marta has scored four goals in two games, and she also assisted on her team’s two other scores Saturday. She leads all tournament scorers with four.

“I’m the striker, so I try my best to look for scoring chances,” Marta said. “Usually if I have a chance I will shoot myself but if my teammates have good chances, I kick the ball to them. I think our win today comes from great combinations and cooperation on the field.”

Brazil outshot China 16-4 and dominated possession time.

Marta’s goals displayed all the skills that make her one of the most exciting players in women’s soccer. In the 42nd minute, she raced up the left side toward a bouncing loose ball, and used the outside of her right foot to slip it past diving goalie Han Wenxia, coolly slotting in it with her left foot.

As the second half opened, she assisted on back-to-back goals, with help from an error by the Chinese goalie. Han wanted to throw the ball to a teammate in the 48th, but it went to Marta instead. The Brazilian player passed it to Cristiane at the back post, who one-timed it in with her left foot.

That followed a goal just one minute earlier, also with Cristiane scoring off a pass from Marta.

Marta’s second goal, in the 70th minute, was the most impressive. With two defenders on her heels, she ran away from the goal, then turned quickly and launched a shot with her left foot from 15 (meters) yards.

China tried to counter Brazil’s quick game by sending long passes behind the Brazilian defense.

But that tactic was no match for Brazil’s free-flowing style of give-and-go, fancy fakes and fleet footwork. They played their quick game in front of China’s goal, threading passes through three or four defenders.

“It’s not only Marta on Brazil, they have many small Martas too,” Domanski-Lyfors said. “They have good qualities, every player.”

The Brazilian defense held Chinese strikers Han Duan and Ma Xiaoxu to a quiet game. Han launched a shot past two defenders in the 58th minute but her attempt went wide.

The home crowd at the Wuhan Sports Center Stadium cheered and sang throughout the game, waving flags. Near the end of the match, with China trailing 4-0 and the starters leaving the field, the near-capacity crowd of 54,000 began singing the national anthem.

The loss leaves China tied for second place in Group D with Denmark, which beat New Zealand 2-0 earlier Saturday night. China can advance to the quarterfinals with a win over the underdog Kiwis, while Denmark will have to beat Brazil in its final first-round match.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Emre says sorry for gestures at Turkish press box

By Gordon Tynan
Published: 15 September 2007

The Newcastle United midfielder Emre has issued a public apology after his furious tirade at the Turkish media. The 27-year-old made hand gestures and shouted towards the press box after his country's first goal in their 3-0 Euro 2008 qualifier victory over Hungary in Istanbul on Wednesday evening.

Reports from Turkey suggest he had been angered by criticism of national coach Fatih Terim following the 2-2 draw with Malta, as well as stories linking him with a move back to Galatasaray. Emre said: "This action was not for everybody, but only one person in the press – he knows it."

The former Internazionale star returned to Tyneside with a knee injury that is likely to keep him out of Monday night's Premier League trip to Derby County.

In Sao Paulo, meanwhile, the former Colombia international Freddy Rincon, facing an extradition request from Panama over money laundering charges, has been released from prison in Brazil.

Rincon, who played in three World Cups for his country, was granted the right to await the hearing at liberty by Brazil's top court, the Supreme Federal Tribunal. He will have to surrender his passport and cannot leave Sao Paulo, where he lives, without judicial authorisation, a court spokesman said.

Rincon had been held at the federal police's Sao Paulo headquarters since May. Rincon played for Brazilian clubs Corinthians and Palmeiras, as well as Napoli and Real Madrid in Europe. He captained the Corinthians team which won Fifa's inaugural Club World Cup in Rio de Janeiro in 2000.

The 41-year-old Rincon has been trying to break into coaching and had a brief spell earlier this year with provincial club Sao Bento.

China have appointed former Yugoslavia international Vladimir Petrovic as national coach until after next year's Beijing Olympics, state media reported yesterday.

Former Dalian Shide coach Petrovic signed a one-year contract to replace Zhu Guanghu, who was sacked last month after failing to get China beyond the group stage at the Asian Cup.

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Keane demands winning tribute

By Damian Spellman
Published: 15 September 2007

Roy Keane is backing the spirit of 1973 to help Sunderland turn around their Premier League campaign today.

Memories of what was one of the greatest days in the club's history will echo around the Stadium of Light ahead of the visit of Reading and Wearside will rise to pay its respects to its FA Cup final hero, Ian Porterfield.

Porterfield, the man whose goal at Wembley proved the beating of Don Revie's Leeds side 34 years ago and wrote him into the city's folklore, died at a Surrey hospice on Tuesday evening. Ten of the men who walked out alongside him that day at Wembley – Micky Horswill, Jim Montgomery, Bobby Kerr, Dick Malone, Ritchie Pitt, Ron Guthrie, Dennis Tueart, Billy Hughes, Vic Halom and David Young – will join players from both sides on the pitch to observe a moment of applause in recognition of a career which also took him to Reading as both player and manager.

Keane will not allow his players to be caught up in the emotion of the tribute, but will tell them that there could be no better way to celebrate the life of a club legend than ending a run of four successive defeats with three precious points.

He said: "Over the years, there have been many occasions where you give a minute's silence or there's a minute's applause.

"It's a case of showing your respects, but the other side of it is you are a professional footballer and you have got to switch on pretty quickly.

"It's important that the club make the effort and the players and we all show our respects, of course. But when the whistle goes, you have to stay focused on the job at hand – I'm sure that's what Ian would have wanted.

"You pay your respects and then you get focused on trying to win the game of football. That would be the best way to pay our respects, by winning."

Porterfield's death after he finally lost his battle against colon cancer put a difficult week for Keane into perspective.

The former Ireland captain has lost both first-choice wide men with Kieran Richardson joining hamstring victim Carlos Edwards on the sidelines, in his case, for up to three months with a stress fracture of the back.

In addition, new signing Andrew Cole will have to delay his senior debut for the club for several weeks because of a calf injury, and with Dean Whitehead and Stanislav Varga both out for several months, a squad boosted by 12 summer arrivals has been depleted once again.

That, coupled with successive league defeats by Wigan, Liverpool and Manchester United either side of the Carling Cup humiliation at Luton, has left Keane – who has never in his career experienced a run of four defeats – in uncharted territory. However, he is refusing to be bowed by the task which lies ahead.

Keane said: "You stay positive and stay focused on the job in hand. The priority, of course, is our league matches – we try to write off the cup game, as much as it was a disappointment.

"It was always going to be a difficult start for us, but you stay focused, you look at the people you are working with, you look at the support we have, I look at the players, and it's quite easy to stay positive, I have to say.

"The players are not daft, of course they know that if we want to be anything as a football club, then we have to win a lot of our home games.

"The players are well aware of that, but like last year when every game seemed to be a must-win situation, I never picked up any sort of tension or nervousness from the players, and I haven't done that either at this moment in time."

Porterfield's funeral will take place in Surrey next Thursday afternoon. The service will be held at St Anne's Church in Church Road, Bagshot, at 2.30pm, and be followed by a private cremation at Woking Crematorium.

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Benitez warns Torres that goals may get harder

By Simon Stone
Published: 15 September 2007

Rafael Benitez has warned Liverpool's club record signing Fernando Torres that life in the Premier League will not always be as easy as this.

Torres has made a flying start to life in England, netting three times in four league games for the Reds so far, including a double in the six-goal hammering of Derby which swept Liverpool to the top of the table prior to the international break.

After spending a reported £26.5m to land the 23-year-old, Benitez must be quietly satisfied with the outcome, especially as a number of his other expensive imports over the past couple of seasons have taken time to settle. But the Liverpool manager is cautioning against an early analysis of Torres' talents.

For, while he claims never to have been concerned at the ability of a player described "El Nino" to settle into English life, he feels it will be another couple of months before a judgement can be passed.

"Yes, Fernando should be pleased but we also have to tell him to keep working hard," Benitez said.

"It is not always going to be as easy as he thinks it is at the moment and we need to wait and see what happens in a month or two.

"He will find out there are some very difficult central defenders to play against but the fact he has scored already is important because goals give all strikers confidence."

Elsewhere, the Uefa president Michel Platini insists his plans to revamp the Champions League are in the moral interests of a sport increasingly governed by profit.

In an interview published yesterday by the French sports daily L'Equipe, Platini defended his plans to revamp the competition despite fierce opposition from managers such as Arsenal's Arsène Wenger and Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson.

The former France and Juventus midfielder wants Uefa's executive committee to reserve four places in the group phase of the competition for domestic cup winners in 2009-12.

"We have to moralise football," Platini said. "Our generation has contributed in bringing money, and today, people are arriving to make some cash."

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James Lawton: Dein's devotion pales next to those men who saw value in football beyond price

01 September 2007

There is no question David Dein did well for Arsenal, and may do so again in the future. Identifying the talent of Arsène Wenger, then protecting it fiercely while the Frenchman made successful, and beautiful, football was a brilliant contribution indeed.

However, he is in danger of pushing beyond the threshold of credibility if he bangs on much longer about his divine mission to fuel Arsenal's future with roubles and dollars or any other loot that is waiting to be picked off the financial tree of Babel.

For some, anyway, the more he strikes an altruistic pose, the more he tells us about his life-long passion for the club, the less likely they are to forget that if he has done well for Arsenal, it is not half so well as he has done for himself.

Dein invested a little less than £300,000 in the club 24 years ago. This week he cashed in his chips to another passionate Arsenal fan, the Russian steel mogul Alisher Usmanov, for £75m.

No one, with the exception of Martin Edwards, whose stake in Manchester United came from his father Louis, has waxed fatter on England's national game than Dein, though you could say that picking out the ability of Wenger meant rather more than Edwards' own claim to fame at United, the stunning innovation of executive boxes.

The point is that while we bemoan the fast-approaching total foreign colonisation of English football, we should remember precisely why the game has slipped so profoundly out of domestic control.

It is that in the more significant reaches of the English game you can count literally on three fingers the big money men who came to their favourite football clubs with one hand in their pockets and the other on their hearts.

Jack Walker did it for Blackburn Rovers and won a title. Sir Jack Hayward did it for Wolves and lost a substantial part of his fortune. Steve Gibson continues to do it for Middlesbrough despite years of discouragement that would have sent so many of his contemporaries running for cover.

Elsewhere, the stories of "passionate" owners whose love was handsomely repaid in their bank accounts is so long it reduces rather sharply the mystery of why foreign control is now so near to being absolute.

English football's misfortune is that it has failed to attract more than a smattering of big money men whose devotion to the game transcends their own profiles and income. You could say that David Moores was besotted by Liverpool, and was generous with the fortune he inherited from the profits of Littlewoods football pools before selling out. You can say that the Everton chairman, Bill Kenworth, is a true zealot, but of course he cannot produce the financial clout of the American invaders from across Stanley Park.

Roman Abramovich at Chelsea, Sacha Gaydamak at Portsmouth, the Glazers at Old Trafford, Thaksin Shinawatra at Manchester City, and now, if he should take control at Arsenal, Usmanov have moved to take over English clubs for various reasons, ranging from amusement to investment, but they are united in at least one way ... all have benefited from the lack of disinterested passion and financial strength in those who ran so many of the major clubs.

Consider some of the men who have had the biggest boardroom profiles in English football over the last decade or so. Martin Edwards, in two sales of his shares, amassed a profit of £80m on the back of the work of Sir Alex Ferguson, a man he once accused of not knowing about money. In the early days of Ferguson's regime Edwards was ready to sell United to Michael Knight for a fraction of his own eventual share sale profits.

Sir John Hall was known as Mr Newcastle but when he sold out he made a huge profit, as did one of his successors, Freddy Shepherd. When Ken Bates sold debt-ridden Chelsea to Abramovich, he made a cool £17m for himself.

Sir Alan Sugar waged war against Terry Venables, the man who had recruited him to help save Tottenham, and sometimes could scarcely contain his contempt for football, once notoriously throwing down the shirt of the White Hart Lane favourite Jürgen Klinsmann. But when the time came he too was happy to make his profit.

English football is so largely foreign-owned simply because there are not enough rich Englishmen who care enough about the game.

There is nothing to do about it. There is no Lord Kitchener to get on a poster and point a finger and say, "Your country needs you". Who really cares if a deposed Thai prime minister who has drawn the censure of human rights organisations and is wanted at home on charges of corruption takes over one of the nation's most beloved old football clubs? Football is in the marketplace and it goes to the highest bidder, whoever he is and whatever his origins and motives.

Perhaps, though, as ancient mist begins to surround the days when English football was owned by Englishmen, and the men who played the game were largely treated with the dignity normally given to serfs, we could do worse than remember the meaning of men like Walker and Hayward and Gibson.

The late Jack Walker, the now disillusioned Hayward, and, still, Gibson, represent all those who have ever wanted to repay football for what it gave them in their youth and their spirit. They didn't attach ties or clauses and they certainly were not looking to augment their fortunes. Men for whom football had a value that was beyond price. It is a distinction that David Dein, for all his understanding of the dynamics of the modern game, might ponder the next time he decides to lecture us on the way forward.

Ohuruogu's glory should not conceal blinkered attitudes to drug testing

Many column inches, you don't have to be clairvoyant to know, will this weekend be devoted to the glory and the innocence of Britain's World Championships heroine Christine Ohuruogu, who won 400 metres gold in her fifth race after serving a year's ban for missing three drug tests.

Some of this coverage will no doubt help to shape the decision of the British Olympic Association when it reaches a verdict on Ohuruogu's appeal that, against the association's regulations, she should be allowed to compete in next year's Beijing Games. Ohuruogu herself set the tone that the athletics establishment seems certain to apply to anyone who has raised doubts about the integrity of her triumph. She said: "People in the sport are supportive. They understand the system. Many have missed tests. It is those outside the sport you have to educate."

But in what exactly? Complete disregard for all that has gone before, presumably. If we are to believe that Ohuruogu is such a scatterbrain that she cannot remember one of the basic duties of a modern athlete to inform drug testers of her whereabouts on specific days, surely her coach and management are guilty of terrible neglect. Missing a drug test should, in the climate that has been created by years of the most relentless cheating, be the equivalent of failing one. Harsh, draconian, unrealistic? Only in the minds of those who wish to forget that the scandal of the drug factory known as Balco was uncovered not by anti-doping procedures but the information of a defecting coach.

Ohuruogu's problem is not the ignorance of those outside the athletics "system". It is precisely the opposite. It is the caution that comes from being lied to so many times. It may not be her fault, but then nor is it the public's. In this case the identity of the true victim has to be a moot point.

Dare Galaxy heed Marsh warning?

It has fallen to Rodney Marsh, formerly of Fulham, Queen's Park Rangers, Manchester City and Tampa Bay Rowdies, to capture most completely, however unconsciously, the absurdity of the latest chapter of the David Beckham story.

Writing from the American shore where he knew popularity as a ball-juggling star of what was always doomed to be a minor league sport, Marsh declares: "David is being treated like a piece of meat, pushed and pulled in every direction. Everywhere he goes there's a TV camera in front of him and a microphone under his nose.... He is such a smashing lad. He will sign every autograph and pose for every picture." Marsh adds that the American league programme is demanding – "and this is before you take in his England appearances".

LA Galaxy have guaranteed Beckham £24m. Only a sadist would send them the Marsh piece.

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Crystal Palace 0, Charlton Athletic 1: Pardew laments Addicks' fall into relative obscurity

By Conrad Leach
Published: 03 September 2007

"You don't come and see me any more, you Premier League snob," said Alan Pardew in a tongue-in-cheek aside to a journalist after his side's win at Selhurst Park. It was meant in a jokey way, and taken as such, but there was truth in what he said.

Now Charlton have dropped out of the top flight, they are less in the public eye. Press conferences are more sparsely attended, pre- and post-match, and Pardew knows it. He likes being in the spotlight and enjoys talking to the media. That was the case when he was on the way up with Reading and he basked still more in the attention when he took West Ham to the Premiership in 2005.

Things turned sour last season, when he was sacked as the Hammers' manager in December. He quickly re-emerged at Charlton, only in a similar place: the relegation zone. Unfortunately for him, there was no Carlos Tevez figure in his Addicks squad – despite Darren Bent's £16m price tag – and they slipped out of the top flight, finishing above only Watford.

Even if Charlton never paid out huge transfer fees for top players in order to stay up, the rules of attraction have tilted even more against them now they have dropped a division. Last week they brought in Danny Mills. He is on loan from Manchester City, although there is no conceivable way he will return to Eastlands and play under Sven Goran Eriksson.

The right-back's last game in England, prior to this south London derby, was for Hull against Wolves last November and that absence showed in his distribution and awareness on Saturday. Pardew made it clear he was not happy in the first half with the player who made it to the 2002 World Cup with England.

Crystal Palace could have attacked down either flank, as they were Charlton's obvious weak points with Chris Powell, 38 this week, on the other side to Mills. Yet Peter Taylor's side forced only two saves from Nicky Weaver, although that did not stop the Eagles manager professing his disappointment at the defeat.

In a largely sterile game, Svetoslav Todorov helped himself to the only goal. Thanks to a misjudgement by Julian Speroni in the Crystal Palace goal, the Bulgarian lofted the ball over the goalkeeper and tapped it in. It was a useful result, but it will not exactly get those press conferences full again.

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Watford 2, Ipswich Town 0: Saturday all right for Elton in Boothroyd's no-frills approach

By Evan Fanning
Published: 03 September 2007

It had been 16 months since Elton John last took in a game at Vicarage Road. The last occasion Watford's honorary life-president was in attendance his side were about to enter the play-offs, which ultimately saw them gain promotion to the Premier League, where they spent the majority of their stay stuck to the bottom of the table. He picked a good period to stay away.

On Saturday, as a guest of the manager, Aidy Boothroyd, Sir Elton sat in the dressing room before the game and then watched Watford defeat a below-par Ipswich and move to second place in the Championship. This came at the end of a week where the club did some spending that even he would be proud of, breaking their transfer record in signing Nathan Ellington from West Bromwich Albion for £3.25m.

Their new signing started on the bench, but put in an impressive 20-minute cameo, hitting the post and nearly scoring another. Boothroyd claims that the striker had "lost his way a little bit", but added, "I've got big hopes for him and I think he's going to be a terrific player for the club."

Ellington, who converted to Islam three years ago, paid tribute to his new club and manager. He described Boothroyd's approach as "different", and said: "He's clued up about everything. He makes sure your mind's right, your body's right and everything is right for the game."

Saturday's contest was a contrast between two teams seeking the same goal but with different ways of going about it. Watford started with relish and determination which, coupled with their all-action style, at times makes them resemble a prison team in a grudge match against the guards. This does them some injustice, however. With Jobi McAnuff and Tommy Smith, they have players who can make a real difference in the final third of the pitch.

Ipswich's passing game did not come together until the second half, at which point they already trailed to a Darius Henderson goal after six minutes. Henderson could have had at least two more before Smith deservedly secured Watford the points, cutting in from the right-hand side and curling a beautiful left-footed shot into the corner with 15 minutes to go. After a comprehensive three points against one of their main promotion rivals, Watford must be hoping that Sir Elton comes along more often in the future.

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Stoke City 0, Wolves 0: Eastwood's optimism survives day of scarce opportunity

By Amar Azam
Published: 03 September 2007

Asked if these two teams would be vying for a spot in the Premier League come next spring, the Wolves manager, Mick McCarthy, said: "Not if you have to score goals to go there."

His comments were born of a desperate afternoon in which his team failed to unlock tough opponents who, like themselves, were in the top four at the start of the day and have promotion aspirations. The goals McCarthy needs to repeat last season's surge to the play-offs will, he hopes, come from Freddy Eastwood, his £1.5m summer purchase from Southend United.

It was a difficult afternoon for Eastwood, who has scored four goals so far. "We outplayed them and were a little bit unlucky not to score," he said. "We want to get in the play-offs this season. We have a very good squad. One of the main reasons I came to Wolves was the chance to play in the Premiership."

The 23-year-old, who was released by West Ham in his youth, knows he could soon be making a welcome return to the Boleyn Ground. He said: "I still get on with [West Ham defender] Anton Ferdinand and a few of the other lads there when I go back occasionally to watch them play, when they sort me out tickets. Hopefully, I can let them know later on in the season that I may see them soon."

Eastwood's every move was carefully monitored by a solid Stoke defence which had the captain, Dominic Matteo, the former Liverpool and Leeds defender, in a deep-lying midfield role in front of it.

The bulk of the chances fell to Stoke, with Liam Lawrence and Richard Cresswell coming close. Eastwood, however, always looked a threat and two minutes after the break he lashed a shot from the edge of the area just wide of goal. It did not get much better for him as both teams settled for the point.

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Coventry City 2, Preston North End 1: Dowie finds quality when shopping for bargains

By Khudael Ashraf
Published: 03 September 2007

After watching Coventry maintain their impressive start to the season with victory over Preston, their manager, Iain Dowie, allowed himself a pat on the back for taking decisive action in the transfer market early this summer.

An American consortium was poised to take control of the club throughout the close season and, though Coventry's financial position was shrouded in uncertainty, Dowie moved to strengthen his squad with a string of free transfers.

The new Coventry team have gelled quickly and this win, featuring excellent goals from Dele Adebola and the captain, Michael Doyle, kept them a point clear at the top of the Championship.

Dowie said: "We had to make a difficult decision at one stage when we were wondering whether to wait until the takeover happened or act in the free market and we decided to do the latter.

"If we had not acted in the free market, we would have lost players like Arjan de Zeeuw, Julian Gray, Ellery Cairo and Gary Borrowdale and I'm pleased that we've got those players."

Dowie's team started the game brightly but Preston took the lead in the 16th minute after a poor clearance from Coventry's goalkeeper Dimi Konstantopoulos was headed down by Kevin Nicholls into the path of Patrick Agyemang, who calmly slotted home.

However, the home side were not deterred and continued to create chances. Marcus Hall clipped the bar with a header but it took until the 80th minute for Adebola's superb turn and finish to bring Coventry level. Five minutes later Doyle smashed a left-footed drive into the top corner for the winner.

The result confirmed Coventry's best start to a season for 14 years and Adebola was quick to acknowledge the part Dowie has played in moulding a squad with promotion potential.

"The gaffer has created a brilliant atmosphere at the club," he said. "We have got an excellent spirit here and all the lads are really pleased for each other when they score or do well.

"We are a very fit squad," Adebola added, "and there's loads of quality going forward."

As Dowie and Coventry enjoyed the warm glow of victory, Preston were left to lick their wounds as they struggle at the wrong end of the table. The loss of last season's top scorer David Nugent has obviously hit Paul Simpson's side hard – Agyemang's goal was Preston's first in the league this season.

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Book of the week: You'll Win Nothing with Kids: Fathers, Sons and Football, By Jim White

Reviewed by Mike Rowbottom
Published: 03 September 2007

The sight of three grown men struggling in an upturned five-a-side goal might appear, on the face of it, ludicrous. But this occurrence, which disrupted preparations for a final in which a junior team coached by Jim White were about to play, had its own internal logic.

You see, Jeff, whose son J J was a niggling, unsettling presence in the team, had taken issue with Rory, who had taken exception to Jeff's criticism of Lee, who hadn't passed to J J. And obviously Rory's father had become involved and, in attempting to part the two, the coach had lost his balance and pulled all three down on to the back of the goal.

So yes, on the face of it, this was lunacy. But when you know the story – and White's loving book evokes all the obsessional doubts and hopes involved in running an Under-14 side who manage both to reach the cup final and face relegation in the same season – well, you can understand it all.

As any writer does, White logs and re-presents the details that he knows will work on the page and, as any father does, he questions who ultimately benefits from the twin pursuits of running his son's junior team and writing about running his son's junior team. The question is never conclusively answered, but it is honestly raised.

What makes this book a pleasure to read is, in the phrase once employed by a former sports editor, the quality of the reportage. White has a sensitivity to the rhythms of conversation and a lovely turn of phrase.

After his keeper, Max, has performed nobly in a penalty shoot-out, White notices that he is shaking – "Shaking like Shakin' Stevens's trousers." On the subject of a former keeper, Tiny Tim, White recalls: "On a couple of occasions I saw him swivelling his hips like a matador, just to ensure there was absolutely no contact whatsoever between him and that hard, hurty thing heading in his direction. Boy, did he move well."

The book also reflects interestingly upon the idea of coaching junior footballers. A visit to Manchester United's youth academy reveals that, in contrast to the bear pit of local games, top-quality juniors are coached in virtual silence, encouraged to make their own decisions.

And at the heart of things, as the subtitle of the book suggests, are fathers and sons, finding in football a world they can share with endless fascination.

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Thai court issues further arrest warrant for Thaksin

By Gordon Tynan
Published: 04 September 2007

The Manchester City owner, Thaksin Shinawatra, yesterday had a second set of arrest warrants issued against him in his native Thailand. The former Thai prime minister and his wife are the subject of a police inquiry into the couple's alleged violation of stock-trading laws.

Last month saw the country's Supreme Court issue a first warrant after the pair failed to return home to answer corruption charges relating to a land sale. Thaksin is accused of abusing his position by helping his wife buy land from a state agency at a favourable price.

The Department of Special Investigations have also been looking into allegations that Thaksinand his wife Pojaman concealed their assets in a firm, SC Assets Co Ltd. The DSI said a second warrant had been sought as the couple had failed to appear in Bangkok to hear the charges.

Thaksin has not returned to Thailand since he was deposed as premier a year ago. He and his family have denied all allegations, and claims the charges are politically motivated.

Elsewhere, the Arsenal Supporters' Trust have been given assurances by Danny Fiszman over his long-term future at the club following the emergence of Alisher Usmanov in the battle for power at the Emirates Stadium.

Usmanov is joint-owner of Red and White Holdings, and the Trust have requested a meeting with the Russian. Red and White have said they currently have no plans to make a takeover offer, but they will look to increase their shares after buying David Dein's 14.58 per cent stake last week. Dein, formerly the Gunners' vice-chairman, is now chairman of Red and White.

Usmanov said in the Moscow Times: "Regardless of the size of my stake, I am ready to play an active role in the life of the club."

Should Red and White or anybody else eventually look to launch a takeover, Fiszman's 24.1 per cent stake is seen as the key. The club's largest shareholder has previously stated that he would not sell before April 2008 and he has given indications that he wants to stay beyond that date.

Trust chief Tim Payton said: "The Arsenal Supporters' Trust (AST) welcomed Danny Fiszman's reassurances that he intends to continue with Arsenal."

He added: "We would like to meet Usmanov and we will remind him of the responsibility his position now holds. Arsenal is about its history and its supporters. Any action by him must recognise this."

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Footballers going cheap: Picking up the pieces of broken dreams

At the end of every season hundreds of players are discarded by their clubs to face an uncertain future. Glenn Moore reports on how the rejected cope with spending the summer waiting by the phone

Published: 05 September 2007

Andrei Voronin, Mark Viduka, Steve Sidwell, Geovanni. It is amazing what you can pick up for nothing these days. Except, as every manager knows, these free transfers are not free at all, not when they are commanding wages approaching £100,000 a week.

Look a little lower down the leagues, though, and there are footballers going cheap. These are players whose availability has nothing to do with Marc Bosman; they are the rejected, the old-fashioned "free transfer". The cull comes every year. At the end of last season around 750 players, from naïve youngsters to cynical old pros, were "released". The list featured eight former England internationals, including Robbie Fowler, Teddy Sheringham and Andy Cole. All found new clubs. Another notable name, Jerzy Dudek, is now warming the bench at Real Madrid.

So much for the famous few, what of the masses? The Professional' Association keeps a register of available players. This list numbered 196 yesterday. It suggests nearly a quarter of the released will not find work within the game. Football may be the dream career for so many young boys, but it is also a brutal industry.

In June The Independent spoke to one of the casualties, Rhys Weston. A former pupil at the FA School of Excellence, Weston played for Arsenal, was capped by Wales, and made more than 200 appearances for Cardiff City. That is more than most aspiring footballers will ever achieve, but his dream had soured. When we met he was an out-of-work 26-year-old footballer wondering about his future, having been released by Port Vale. "It does make you take stock a little bit," he said then. "You know you won't play football for ever, but normally you don't think about the future until you get to 30."

Weston's concern was multiplied by family commitments. In his quest for work he had spent seven of the previous 12 months living away from home, in addition his stepson, Connor, was about to start senior school.

"If only I had another profession to fall back on, the way I've been feeling about football the last six months, I'd jack it in," he said. "The first thing I will initiate when I get a contract is a business management course. I don't want to be looking over my shoulder again, nicking a year here, a year there, trying to drag it out as long as possible.

"It's not desperation stakes yet but, if it comes to the end of July and I'm still going down the gym on my own every day, maybe then it will be time to start panicking."

Fortunately for Weston it did not come to that. In July he was given a one-year contract by Walsall and is now their right-back. His love for the game has been rekindled – he spent Sunday, his day off, watching Aston Villa v Chelsea at Villa Park with his son.

It was the start of a big week. On Monday the family moved up from Cardiff; yesterday Connor started his new school. "Kay [his wife] and I had a long discussion. It is not healthy living apart for another year," said Weston. "We're renting for six months to see how it goes. I've been told if we're doing OK, and I'm doing OK, there will be a contract review at Christmas.

"This is a good location, geographically. We can get to a lot of clubs in an hour, and if things don't go well we won't need to move again, or change school."

And what about that business management course? "I sent off the enrolment form on Monday. Classes start later this month. They are Monday and Wednesday nights, so I might have to miss a few because of matches, but I intend to give it a go."

The day after Weston was at Villa Park, John Ward was there. As manager of Cheltenham Ward relies on free transfers to build a team, so he was watching Villa's reserves play Fulham's reserves.

"It was not for this season, most of the lads are too young, but there are boys you want to be aware of in case they don't progress," said Ward yesterday. "Martin O'Neill and Lawrie Sanchez [respectively managers of Villa and Fulham] have both brought in a lot of players so it will be difficult for these lads to get a first-team place. Some of them will be released and we may be able to pick them up.

"I say to them, 'We can't pay you the thousands you might want, but I can offer you the second chance'. We tell them we won't stand in their way if an opportunity comes to progress – we've sold three players to Championship clubs in the last six months.

"Michael Townsend is an example. He was released by Wolves and came to us. He's now 21 and he's played 85 times in our first team as a centre-half. That's a difficult position for a young player and I doubt he would have played that many games at a higher level. Now he's at the stage where Championship clubs will look at him and think, 'He's not bad'. Being released is a big blow psychologically for these lads," added Ward. "Townsend was a Midlands lad, Wolves were his team. You have to lift him mentally. The first six months he did not play for us, we just worked with him on the training ground.

"He's now confident, he knows what he can do. You need patience and I'm fortunate here in that the board are happy to give me time to develop players."

Ward knows the pressure of being "freed". It happened to him. "I left Lincoln for Watford when I was 28. Two years later they said to me, 'That's it'. It was a blow. I thought I'd get another year. I was married with three kids, we'd moved down from Lincoln, which was my home town. We then had to move again. As well as the professional aspect it has an effect on your family. I'm always aware of that when talking to players."

It is the youngsters, those with stars in their eyes but insufficient gold dust in their boots, who suffer most. "Five out of six players who come into the game at 16 are out of it at 21," said Gordon Taylor, the PFA's chief executive. "That's an 85 per cent fallout rate which is not a good take-up for any industry.

"Steve Coppell once described [club youth systems] to me as 'like turtles laying eggs on the beach – they lay dozens because they know most of them are not going to make it'.

"Lads come in with such high hopes. The PFA works to educate them, and try and offer them further education, but when a kid has been dreaming of being the next David Beckham it is a big thing to accept there is a new life he can make outside football."

So spare a thought for those who find themselves rejected, especially those released by a League One club such as Cheltenham.

"There's not many places to go after us," admits Ward. "We try and find them other work in football, like a good non-League club. It is about the person as well as the player."

'It's been a good move for me. I'm playing'

For some footballers a free transfer, and the change of environment it brings, can rejuvenate a career. Julian Gray, once a promising youngster with Arsenal and Crystal Palace, had drifted out of favour at Birmingham City, making only two starts as they won promotion last season. This summer he joined Coventry City under his old Palace manager, Iain Dowie, and now is an ever-present with the Championship leaders.

"It's been a really good move for me," said Gray yesterday. "Now I'm playing, week in, week out, whereas last season I just didn't play that much football at all. It was very hard to train all week and then not feature on a Saturday, travelling to the games and not being part of them. I'd had enough of doing that."

Gray, 27, added: "Steve Bruce [Birmingham City's manager] offered to take up the option to extend my contract, which was good to hear, but if I hadn't played when the team was in the Championship the chances of playing in the Premier League were even less. I'm ambitious and I'm not going to achieve those ambitions if I don't play.

"Some people said, 'You are giving up the chance to be part of a Premier League club', but that wasn't the point, for me. They also say that I must be pleased to have been involved in a promotion team but, although I was in the squad, I don't really feel I made a contribution. It was a relief to leave in the end.

"I believe in my own ability, so it wasn't really a case of worrying whether or not another club would want me. Clubs know what I'm capable of doing and I had a lot of offers. I took my time about making the right decision and spent most of the summer considering them. I wanted to make sure I went to the right place. If I had joined a League One club, then it wouldn't have bothered me if I knew I would enjoy playing there.

It wasn't until the second week of pre-season that I made my decision.

"Not having to move was a bonus. Coventry is just 20 minutes down the road and I didn't have much upheaval, but the main reason I moved was Iain Dowie."

Jason Burt

Where are they now? The Premier League's released players

If no club is shown, player is still available:

ARSENAL

Ryan Garry (24 years old, now at Bournemouth), Arturo Lupoli (20, Fiorentina)

ASTON VILLA

Lee Hendrie (30, Sheffield Utd), Robert Olejnik (20, Falkirk), Jlloyd Samuel (26, Bolton), Stephen Henderson (19, Bristol City), Eric Djemba-Djemba (26), Didier Agathe (32)

BIRMINGHAM CITY

Julian Gray (27, Coventry), Bruno N'Gotty (36, Leicester), Matthew Birley (21), Nick Wright (31)

BLACKBURN ROVERS

Michael Gray (33, Wolves), Andy Todd (32, Derby County), Keith Barker (21), Bryan Hodge (19)

BOLTON WANDERERS

Michael Roddy (18, Lincoln), Henrik Pedersen (32, Hull), Chris Howarth (21, Carlisle), Blazej Augustyn (19, Legia Warsaw), Quinton Fortune (30), Cesar Martin (30), David Thompson (29), Sam Ashton (21)

CHELSEA

Geremi (28, Newcastle), Magnus Hedman (34), Juan Sebastian Veron (32)

DERBY COUNTY

Paul Peschisolido (36, Luton), Richard Jackson (27, Luton), Paul Boertien (28, Walsall), Steve Cann (19, Rotherham), Lionel Ainsworth (19, Hereford), Lee Grant (24, Sheffield Wednesday), Seth Johnson (28)

EVERTON

Scott Phelan (19, Bradford), Richard Wright (29, West Ham), Alan Kearney (19, Waterford United), Alessandro Pistone (32)

FULHAM

Matty Collins (21, Swansea), Mark Crossley (38, Oldham), Tomasz Radzinski (33, Xanthi), Mark Pembridge (36, now coach), Ahmad Elrich (26)

LIVERPOOL

Jerzy Dudek (34, Real Madrid), Robbie Fowler (32, Cardiff), Boudewijn Zenden (31, Marseilles)

MANCHESTER CITY

Trevor Sinclair (34, Cardiff), Stephen Jordan (25, Burnley), Nicky Weaver (28, Charlton), Hatem Trabelsi (30)

MANCHESTER UNITED

No released players

MIDDLESBROUGH

Abel Xavier (34, LA Galaxy), Stuart Parnaby (25, Birmingham), Danny Graham (22, Carlisle), David Knight (20, Swansea), Malcolm Christie (28)

NEWCASTLE UNITED

Liam Atkin (20, Carlisle), Antoine Sibierski (33, Wigan), Titus Bramble (26, Wigan), Craig Moore (31, Queensland Roar), Olivier Bernard (27), Pavel Srnicek (39), Kazenga Lua Lua (16), Kris Gate (22), Lee Clark (34, now reserve coach)

PORTSMOUTH

Andrew Cole (35, Sunderland), Andy Griffin (28, Derby), Jason Pearce (19, Bournemouth), Svetoslav Todorov (29, Charlton), Frank Songo'o (20)

READING

No released players

SUNDERLAND

Tommy Miller (28, Ipswich), William Mocquet (24),

Kenny Cunningham (36), Andy Welsh (23), Tobias Hysen (25)

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

Charlie Lee (20, Peterborough), Rob Burch (22, Sheffield Wednesday)

WEST HAM UNITED

Teddy Sheringham (41, Colchester), Roy Carroll (29, Rangers), Shaun Newton (32, Leicester City), Yaniv Katan (26, Maccabi Haifa)

WIGAN ATHLETIC

David Unsworth (33, Burnley), Arjen de Zeeuw (37, Coventry), Matt Jackson (35, Watford), John Filan (37, Sydney FC), Andy Webster (25), Joey Waterhouse (18), David Owens (18)

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Ferguson will never talk to the BBC again

By Nick Harris
Published: 06 September 2007

Sir Alex Ferguson has launched an astonishing attack on the BBC, saying that the national broadcaster is "arrogant beyond belief", has an "inability to apologise", and does not care about being sued "because they are so huge and have insurance." The Manchester United manager has also reiterated his stance that he will never speak to the corporation again.

Ferguson is not the only football manager who now refuses to talk to the BBC. Newcastle's Sam Allardyce and Portsmouth's Harry Redknapp have both declined to be interviewed by the broadcaster since last year's Panorama investigation into alleged malpractice in football transfers. The pair both featured in that programme but have never been accused of any rule infringement or faced charges for any wrongdoing.

Yet Ferguson's renewed assault – not to mentioned his and the others' conspicuous and ongoing absence from the flagship Match of the Day – has again highlighted the rift between the BBC and some of football's major figures. The BBC did not respond to an invitation to reply yesterday.

Ferguson's broadside came late on Tuesday evening at the Citizens' Theatre in Glasgow, where he was the guest of honour at an 'An Audience With...' evening attended by family, friends and fans. For 45 minutes he captivated the audience with a wide range of tales from a life in football, and then spent as much time again answering questions from the floor.

He made it clear that he is still furious about a BBC documentary from 2004, called Father and Son, which portrayed his agent son, Jason, as somebody who exploited his father's influence and position to his own ends in the transfer market. Ferguson jnr was never found guilty of any wrongdoing, and Sir Alex said he would never speak to the BBC again, a promise he has kept.

"I think the BBC is the kind of company that never apologise and they never will apologise," he said.

"They are arrogant beyond belief. I read Alastair Campbell's diaries recently and he's written a fantastic piece explaining the arrogance and their inability to apologise.

"They did a story about my son that was whole lot of nonsense. It all made-up stuff and 'brown paper bags' and all that kind of carry-on. It was a horrible attack on my son's honour and he should never have been accused of that.

"But it is such a huge organisation that they will never apologise. They don't even care if you sue them or whatever, because they are so huge and have insurance. They carry on regardless and it's breathtaking."

Two of Ferguson's answers to other questions in the Q&A session contained replies that might be interpreted as ironic in light of his view of the BBC, and given Jason's job.

First, talking about the late, great Jock Stein, Ferguson spoke in praise of the former Celtic manager, who, Ferguson pointed out, was responsible for introducing the regular post-match press conference in Scotland.

Ferguson said Stein did this to counteract what he saw as a Rangers-dominated media agenda. After introducing press conferences, Ferguson said, Stein had the press "dancing to his tune." Ferguson not only refuses to talk to the BBC, but never attends post-match conferences after Premier League games, despite having a theoretical obligation to do so.

Ferguson also suggested that he feels agents are unnecessary, and implied they demand wages for players that the players do not deserve. "I say to young players 'You don't need an agent'.

"I say 'Speak to Gary Neville, Paul Scholes or Ryan Giggs about what you get paid at Manchester United [when you deserve to].' Sometimes they [young players] take my advice and sometimes they don't."

Beckham's marriage, Rooney's peace deal and the managers to watch out for

Apart from his relationship with the BBC, Sir Alex Ferguson was forthright in his views on a number of other subjects during his Q&A in Glasgow

Ferguson on Beckham

Ferguson said that David Beckham's marriage to his wife, Victoria, changed his professional priorities for the worse. "He was never a problem until he got married. He used to go into work with the academy coaches at night time, he was a fantastic young lad.

"Getting married into that entertainment scene was a difficult thing – from that moment his life was never going to be the same. He is such a big celebrity, football is only a small part. The big part is his persona."

... and the contrast with Paul Scholes and his shyness with the media

"Scholes is a great little guy. He doesn't get any profile because he doesn't want any profile. I love to wind him up by going over to him and saying, 'Sky want to interview you now.' The blood drains from his face! Actually, if Paul had a higher profile, I don't think he'd be the player he is."

On Wayne Rooney's suggestion of making peace in public with Cristiano Ronaldo after their bust-up at the 2006 World Cup, a suggestion Ferguson rejected

"Wayne phoned me on the day of the World Cup final and said he had a great idea. He suggested he could do a TV interview with Ronaldo and they could show everything was fine. I thought it would look stage-managed and said no. Instead David Gill and I flew to Portugal to meet Ronaldo. We told him we'd had a similar experience with David Beckham [after France 98]. Ronaldo was concerned but not afraid [about coming back]. We said we'd put extra security on his house. He said he'd try it and see how it went. It's been no bother."

On why Paul Gascoigne was the player he was most disappointed to have missed out on signing

"Gascoigne was quality. I think he was the best young player to come out of England in the last 30 years at that time."

On why selling Jaap Stam, a move that happened after Stam was critical in his autobiography of Ferguson, was a mistake, in football terms

"At the time he had just come back from an achilles injury and we thought he had just lost a little bit. We got the offer from Lazio, £16.5m for a centre-back who was 29. It was an offer I couldn't refuse. But in playing terms it was a mistake. He is still playing for Ajax at a really good level."

On the managers he rates

"[Alan] Pardew at Charlton has got something about him, he is a good young manager. Roy Keane has got a good chance, he has something about him.

"Of the older ones, Sam Allardyce is a very influential manager. His way of managing is very different. He is very into the sports science, he had about 16 people working behind the scenes at Bolton, analysing every aspect. He transformed Bolton from a little team into what they've become."

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Sunderland FA Cup hero Porterfield dies of cancer

By Damian Spellman
Published: 12 September 2007

The man whose goal produced one of the greatest FA Cup final shocks has died at the age of 61. Ian Porterfield, who fired Second Division Sunderland to victory over Leeds at Wembley Stadium in 1973, died at a hospice in Surrey last night.

Porterfield was diagnosed with colon cancer earlier this year, but carried on with his duties as manager of Armenia's national team until just before his death. His widow Glenda said: "He may have been a football man all his life, but I know him best as a wonderful human being who was liked by everyone he came in contact with."

Dunfermline-born Porterfield made 266 appearances for Sunderland and scored 19 goals before leaving for Sheffield Wednesday in 1977. He later went into management, including a 20-month spell in charge of Chelsea.

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Beresford remains familiar matchday face on Tyneside

By John Nisbet
Published: 13 September 2007

John Beresford has been on a shopping spree since leaving professional football five years ago.

Beresford, who made over 500 appearances with five clubs, now works for BBJ Northern Ltd, a Sheffield-based firm of shopfitters who make sure there is something special in store for customers nationwide.

"When I came out of football, I didn't really have any firm idea of what I was going to do," said Beresford, who made his league debut for Barnsley in 1988 and went on to play for Portsmouth, Newcastle, Southampton and Birmingham.

"Darren Hunt, my best mate from school, had set up BBJ and the business was expanding. He said he needed a front man who could build up the marketing side. Would I be interested?

"I told him I didn't know the first thing about joinery but he said that didn't matter.

"I always enjoyed going out and meeting the fans during my career," Beresford added, "so I was more than happy to give it a go – particularly if it involved a game of golf with potential customers.

"We've done a lot of work for Marks and Spencer, but basically we'll turn our hand to any job anywhere."

Yet while Beresford is no longer involved with the playing side, he has not turned his back on the game he graced from his days as an apprentice with Manchester City.

For he is still a familiar figure on Tyneside, working as a match host at Newcastle and also as a television pundit. "I suppose that of all the clubs I played for, Newcastle will always be my first love," Beresford said.

"I loved Newcastle from the day I arrived and the city grew on me over the years. It's wonderful to be able to go back for home matches.

"Yet I might never have played for them if I hadn't failed a medical at Liverpool. That certainly turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

"When I signed [1992], we were in the old second Division but won promotion under Kevin Keegan as champions and I had five great years in the top flight.

"I have wonderful memories of the people I played with and against and the only downside was that we didn't put any silverware in the trophy cabinet."

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