Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger remains hopeful of signing Russia playmaker Andrei Arshavin before the transfer window closes tomorrow, despite the failure to agree a fee with Zenit St Petersburg.
“We are always confident, we try our best and respect our budget,” Wenger said on Friday. “If we can find an agreement, we will do it. If we cannot, we will not overspend what we have planned to do. These kind of stories sometimes develop in the last minute on the final day of the transfer window. It is very difficult to predict.”
Sam Allardyce risked the wrath of Blackburn Rovers fans in his determination to be reunited with Senegal striker El-Hadji Diouf.
Diouf, who joined on Friday from Sunderland, has been jeered at Ewood Park since diving to win a penalty that gave Allardyce’s Bolton Wanderers side a 1-0 victory in January 2005.
“And nobody has ever done that for Blackburn in the past, have they not?” Allardyce hit back after the £2 million (US$2.9 million) move was completed. “If he goes and plays to his best then they [the fans] will soon take to him because he is talented.”
Diouf has had an unhappy seven months with Sunderland since leaving Bolton.
“He can be a little wayward, as everybody knows, but hopefully I’ll be able to control him as much as I did when I was at Bolton,” Allardyce said. “If I can do that, then I’ll get the best out of him. In the time I spent with him we always finished in the top half of the Premier League, no lower than eighth, and we played in Europe.”
Diouf could still feature up front with Roque Santa Cruz after Rovers rejected Manchester City’s latest bid, reportedly worth £18.5 million.
“He is extremely disappointed and I can see that, but it hasn’t affected his training, nor on the pitch when he has played for us,” Allardyce said. “You have to say he is a rare breed in the game at the moment. In the summer it’s a possibility [he will move]. There is a release clause in his contract and if someone hits the right mark then we would no longer be able to say no.”
City are facing a double rejection after Newcastle United manager Joe Kinnear described their £5 million bid for goalkeeper Shay Given as “derisory.”
Kinnear persuaded owner Mike Ashley to release £4 million to sign Kevin Nolan from Bolton on Friday to plug the gap left by an injury to midfielder Joey Barton, who has been ruled out for 10 weeks with a broken foot.
“I think he is going to be a very valuable player for us and someone who can help us climb back up the table,” Kinnear said.
The 26-year-old English midfielder, who signed a four-and-a-half year deal, made 323 appearances for Bolton following his debut in 1999.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but