For Jacqui....

[Obri]

All the Premiership scores from the weekend...

Bolton Wanderers 1 Tottenham Hotspur 0
Arsenal 2 Everton 1
Liverpool 3 Leeds United 1
Birmingham City 1 W.B.A. 0
Chelsea 5 Manchester City 0
Manchester United 3 Fulham 0
Newcastle United 5 Blackburn Rovers 1
West Ham United 2 Sunderland 0
Southampton 2 Aston Villa 2
Middlesbrough1 Charlton Athletic 1

[Obri]

And the League table. Everyone has 7 games left.


http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/football/fapremiership/standing/full_standing.html

[PissedPrincess]

:kissyou:

Rock on Obes. I was just about to get on you about my updates!

Brilliant! Any juicy gossip?

[Obri]

Yeah, I almost forgot, this happened just before the weekend....

Venables leaves lacklustre Leeds
Ex-Sunderland manager Reid to take over at Premiership struggler

LONDON - Manager Terry Venables has left Leeds United, the struggling English Premiership club said yesterday.

The 60-year-old former England coach had been in charge at Elland Road for only eight months. His departure follows a poor run of one League win in eight games.

Peter Reid, fired by Sunderland in October, will take over till the end of the season.

'Leeds United today announced that Terry Venables, manager of Leeds United FC, has left the company,' Leeds said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange.

Reid will be the interim manager for the rest of the season and a permanent replacement will follow in the off-season. A news conference was expected later yesterday.

Venables' departure followed talks with Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale, who has been under fire from the club's supporters. Leeds is 15th in the 20-club League.

Media reports said Venables' assistant Eddie Gray would take charge for tomorrow's match at Liverpool.

Venables replaced David O'Leary at Leeds in July last year, signing a two-year contract, but his relationship with the Leeds board deteriorated quickly.

The sale of England defender Rio Ferdinand to Manchester United for £30 million (S$83.5 million) two weeks after Venables' arrival signalled the start of a selling spree by Ridsdale.

Strikers Robbie Keane and Robbie Fowler and midfield pair Olivier Dacourt and Lee Bowyer all left and the club's results on the field suffered, with the team making an early exit in the Uefa Cup.

But it was the sale of defender Jonathan Woodgate to Newcastle that especially angered Venables, who said he had been given assurances the England international would not have to leave.

The former Barcelona and Tottenham coach decided to stay on after talks with Ridsdale, despite voicing serious misgivings. But the team's results failed to improve.

Last month, it lost an FA Cup quarter-final against Division One side Sheffield United. Then came Saturday's 2-3 home loss to Middlesbrough, meaning Leeds had won only one League game in eight and was only three spots and seven points above the relegation zone.

Gray, who managed Leeds between 1982 and 1985, is a contender to take up the post permanently.

Nottingham Forest manager Paul Hart, a former Leeds youth team coach and player, and Celtic's Martin O'Neill have also been linked with the post by the media.

'The company expects to appoint a permanent successor in the summer, and intends to announce the appointment of an interim manager to supervise the first team for the remaining games of the season,' Leeds stated.

Venables may be leaving Elland Road but Leeds, with debts which have risen to almost £80 million, wants to hang on to one of his signings, according to The Sun.

Swedish international defender Teddy Lucic was signed from AIK Stockholm by Venables on a season-long loan after he succeeded O'Leary.

Now Leeds is keen to make Lucic, 28, a permanent capture after his impressive form throughout a troubled campaign for the Yorkshire club.

AIK wants around £2 million and the clubs are set to open talks soon.

[Obri]

Venables later confirmed that he had been sacked, he did not leave by mutual consent as originally stated. He was in fact preparing to buy a house in the area.

I'll just go and fetch the report from last night's FA Cup Quarter Final replay......

Arsenal brush aside Chelsea

Chelsea 1-3 Arsenal

Arsenal remain on track for a second successive Double after negotiating their way past derby rivals Chelsea in their sixth round FA Cup replay.

Two points clear of Manchester United in the Premiership, Arsenal now face a semi-final against Sheffield United at Old Trafford on 13 April.

Having established a 2-0 lead in the first-half thanks to an own goal from John Terry as well as a superb Sylvain Wiltord strike, Arsenal proved to have too much defensive nous for Chelsea, even after having Pascal Cygan sent off.

With 12 minutes to go John Terry guided a header past Stuart Taylor, but Arsenal quickly re-established their two-goal cushion through a Lauren goal.

Initially Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri deployed a five-man midfield, but that part of his team went missing for Arsenal's first-half goals.

Having struggled to break out of their own half in the opening stages, Arsenal did so to devastating effect on 25 minutes.

After Edu had headed clear, Wiltord picked up the ball and bore down on the Chelsea goal.

Just outside the penalty area he flicked the ball to the overlapping Patrick Vieira, whose cross was deflected into his own goal by the hapless Terry.

Arsenal's second on 33 minutes also involved another swift counterattack involving Wiltord and Vieira.

Picking up possession in the Arsenal half, Wiltord slipped the ball to Vieira, who cut a swathe through Chelsea's ranks.

On the edge of the box, he passed to Wiltord, who having made a wonderfully supporting run, took the ball in his stride and then curled a low shot past Carlo Cudicini.

Throughout Chelsea enjoyed plenty of possession, but were restricted to long-range efforts by some impressive Arsenal defending.

If Vieira played a part in both the Arsenal goals, he was also hugely influential in protecting his defence.

Frank Lampard's low shot drew a competent save from Stuart Taylor, who also did well to tip over Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's deflected free-kick.

Soon after the restart Taylor had to palm away Emmanuel Petit's overhead kick and in stoppage time he bravely denied Eidur Gudjohnsen.

Cygan was red-carded after he hauled back Hasselbaink and it was from the Dutchman's cross that Chelsea hauled themselves back into the match.

Hasselbaink sent the ball over from the left and Terry steered his header past Taylor.

But just three minutes later Lauren broke in from the right and hit a low shot past Cudicini.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chelsea: Cudicini, Melchiot, Terry, Gallas, Le Saux, Stanic (Gronkjaer 34), Lampard, Petit (Gudjohnsen 58), Morris (Zenden 45), Zola, Hasselbaink.
Subs Not Used: de Goey, Desailly.

Booked: Stanic.

Arsenal: Taylor, Lauren, Campbell, Cygan, Toure, Pires (Ljungberg 74), Vieira, Parlour, Edu, Wiltord (Henry 74), Jeffers (van Bronckhorst 67).
Subs Not Used: Bergkamp, Warmuz.

Sent Off: Cygan (66).

Booked: Cygan, Lauren.

Attendance: 41,456.

Referee: D Elleray (Middlesex).

[Obri]

More gossip, as requested.


Real 'plan Beckham swoop'

Spanish giants Real Madrid have made England captain David Beckham their main summer transfer target, according to reports.
The European champions are said to be preparing a £40m bid for the Manchester United midfielder.

Jorge Valdano, Real's managing director and the man responsible for bringing Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo to the Bernebeu, confirmed he was interested in signing Beckham.

"The way Real Madrid have pulled off the biggest transfer market coups of the last few seasons, Beckham looks like the next big project for us," he is quoted as saying in Spanish newspapers.

United take on Real in the quarter-finals of the Champions League next month and Valdano insisted: "I don't want to speak more about Beckham at the moment because we have a huge contest against his team.

"I don't want to be accused of saying things which heighten the tension around these games.

"I would prefer that we only speak about football until these two games are out of the way."

Beckham said it was an honour to be linked with the champions of Europe.

"Any player would be honoured to be spoken about by Real Madrid," he said in The Sun newspaper.

"They have great players and a great tradition."

Reports say that Figo could be offered to United as part of the deal.

Beckham signed a new £70,000-a-week deal with United last season which takes him through to the summer of 2005.

But he has constantly been linked with a move away from Old Trafford and a transfer to Real would net the England captain a six-figure salary.


Jacqui, David Beckham is constantly linked with European clubs fuelling speculation that his wife Victoria wants to leave Manchester for a warmer climate. Don't see it happening though. The guy grew up as a Man Utd fan.

[Obri]

Okay Jacqui, that's all I have for the moment, but i'll keep you updated. However, there is a story about Arsenal's French star Robert Pires saying he would go on strike over the war in Iraq, but he vehemently denied them in this mornings papers, so it's probably no longer relevant. If you want to see it, just say, and i'll post it.

[PissedPrincess]

Great stuff Obes! Beckham to Spain? Holy crap! That would be the equivalent of Pedro to Yanks!:eek:

I can't stand Posh.:barf:

Go the Arsenal!

[BPBlueSox]

Hey dude...give me some Ajax updates!

[Obri]

No problem. It's just slightly harder to find, but i'll find some...

[BPBlueSox]

Thanks, Obes! I've been really busy lately and have barely been keeping up on Sports over here, let alone Holland...

[PissedPrincess]

Originally posted by BPBlueSox
Hey dude...give me some Ajax updates!

Dude look your own crap up. Obes is helping me.:eviltongu :D :D :D