Football Dispatch

Thursday Football
07 June 2007
AC Milan and Liverpool are set to lock horns over the signature of Samuel Eto'o. The 26-year-old Cameroon and Barcelona striker has been at odds with Ronaldinho throughout the season and did himself no favors when he exposed significant infighting within the corridors of the Nou Camp this past February. With Milan already faced with the impending exit of Alberto Gilardino, they are sure to have significant impetus for signing a big-ticket striker to partner Ronaldo in attack. Liverpool, on the other hand, have lacked a pure goal-scorer since Robbie Fowler's heyday in his first stint at the club. Even the arrival of Andriy Voronin from Bayer Leverkusen has not filled the hole; and neither Dirk Kuyt nor Peter Crouch are capable of producing the 25 to 30-goals expected of a front-line striker. Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez, however, has already been beaten to the punch by his Italian counterpart. Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani has formally expressed interest in Eto'o and will contact Barcelona upon the conclusion of the Spanish season. If he succeeds in snatching the African Player of the Year from under Liverpool's nose, it will be just the third such occasion in the past few days. Chelsea are positioning themselves to scuttle Liverpool's plans to sign both Daniel Alves and Florent Malouda. Both have been targets of Benitez for some time.

Mike Ashley is gearing-up to gain full control of Newcastle. The 42-year-old businessman initially purchased 41.6% of the club from Sir John Hall for 55M-pounds and now looks poised to pay chairman Freddy Shepherd 37.6M-pounds for his 28.06% stake. Ashley's holding in the football club is now just over 70% and he is prepared to offer 101p for each of the remaining shares. The ownership change is just part of a massive, top-to-bottom overhaul at St. James' Park, this summer. New manager Sam Allardyce has already purged the club of its ineffective players and signed both Joey Barton and Mark Viduka to contracts. Viduka was unveiled at the club earlier today.

Real Madrid are closing-in on Chelsea winger Arjen Robben. The 23-year-old Dutchman had a falling-out with manager Jose Mourinho over his penchant for injury; although Robben was offered a contract extension at the end of the season. Madrid President Ramon Calderon confirmed his interest, stating, "We are in talks with Chelsea and the player... We hope to sign him." Officials at Stamford Bridge, however, have denied that they have received any formal approach from their counterparts at the Bernabeu. Instead, Peter Kenyon has charged Madrid with tapping-up Robben in hopes to pry him from his contractual obligations at Chelsea.

Scott Parker sealed his 7M-pound move to West Ham, yesterday. The 26-year-old midfielder's exit from Newcastle was hastened by the arrival of Joey Barton at St. James' Park. In London, Parker will be reunited with Alan Cubishley -- his manager while playing for Charlton Athletic. In 2004, Parker bolted The Valley for a lucrative 10M-pound transfer to Chelsea. After failing to crack the starting-XI, however, he departed for Tyneside the following year.

Miroslav Klose will be a Bayern Munich player. The timing of the move, however, remains in doubt. With one year to play under his contract with Werder Bremen, the 28-year-old is hoping to force a transfer before the start of next season. If a sale is not completed, he will play-out the remaining year at the Weserstadion before moving to Bavaria on a free-transfer next term.

Klose's impending arrival is just the latest, big-money squad alteration to occur at Bayern in the past two weeks. Franck Ribery's move to the Allianz Arena was finalized last night and Fiorentina's Luca Toni agreed terms late last week. Bayern will be hoping to regain their Bundesliga title and place in the Champions' League with a strong campaign next season.

Gremio will make up one-half of the Copa Libertadores final. Despite falling 3-1 to Brazilian giants Santos at the Urbino Caldeira, yesterday, they have qualified for the showdown with either Boca Juniors or Cucuta by virtue of the away-goals rule. Rentainho's brace paced Santos to the victory in the second-leg; although Diego's crucial away-goal in the 24th-minute sealed Gremio's place in the final. Boca Juniors will host Cucuta Deportivo at the Bonbonera, tonight, to determine the other finalist. Cucuta currently hold a 3-1 advantage in the tie.

France are 1st-place in Euro 2008 Qualification Group-B after a pair of wins. Samir Nasri scored the only goal for the 2000 European champions in their 1-0 win over visiting Georgia, yesterday. Bolton Wanderers hit-man Nicolas Anelka struck a brace over the Ukraine at the weekend, ensuring that France's 18-points were enough for top-spot in the group. Italy, after wins over Lithuania and the Faroe Islands, are in 2nd-place with 16-points. Filipo Inzaghi scored twice in a narrow 2-1 win over the Faroes, Saturday; and Fabio Quagliarells popped two in Lithuania, yesterday. Scotland are also in the running for a place in next summer's tournament. They are in 3rd-place with 15-points.

Germany scored 8-goals over two qualification matches against San Marino and Slovakia, respectively. Thomas Hitzlsperger's 43rd-minute tally was the match-winner over the visiting Slovakians, yesterday, after Jan Durica and Christoph Metzelder traded own-goals in the opening 20-minutes. Germany remain atop Group-D with 19-points. The Czech Republic are second with 14-points and the Republic of Ireland are in 3rd-place with 13-points.

Bosnia-Herzegovina, Turkey, and Norway are joint-second in the competitive Group-C. The Norwegians hammered visiting Hungary, Wednesday. Steffen IVersen and Daniel Braaden each tallied for the hosts and Aston Villa's John Carew scored twice within 12-minutes to seal the convincing win for the Norwegians at Ulleval Stadium in Oslo. Elsewhere, group-leaders Greece doubled Moldova 2-1. Nikolaos Liberopoulos scored the winner after 5-minutes of second-half injury-time. Bosnia-Herzegovina's European dream also remained alive after a narrow 1-0 over visiting Malta. Zlatan Muslimovic scored the game's only goal in the 6th-minute.

Finally, David Beckham made two of England's three goals before being substituted in the 68th-minute with an apparent knee injury. Joe Cole, Peter Crouch, and Michael Owen tallied for the visitors as England defeated Estonia 3-0 in Tallin. The match was Beckham's final international appearance before moving to America to begin a 5-year stint at Los Angeles Galaxy. Still, the former captain was reflective on his situation. He remarked, "I'm sure that LA Galaxy will do everything possible to make sure I can play for England." When questioned as to why England's fortunes seem to have turned around following his re-call, he stated "So far it's two games and no defeats since I returned. Hopefully that is a good sign."