A round-up of today's other stories in brief...
Cabaye set for Newcastle
FRANCE midfielder Yohan Cabaye looks set to join Newcastle United from French champions Lille, according to coach Rudi Garcia. “Yohan told us, to me then to the squad, that he had decided to join Newcastle,” Garcia was quoted as saying in sports daily L’Equipe yesterday. “It’s a choice I respect.”
The 25-year-old’s contract runs until 2013, but it does contain a €5 million buy-out clause.
Elmander joins Galatasaray
BOLTON striker Johan Elmander has signed a three-year deal with Galatasaray.
The 29-year-old, who was out of contract at the Reebok Stadium, had already agreed a deal in principle with the Istanbul side and was in the Turkish capital yesterday to finalise the move. “Elmander has signed a contract valid until the end of 2013-14 football season,”Galatasaray said.
Bellamy surprise favourite to succeed sacked Jones
CRAIG BELLAMY has been installed as the favourite to take over as the new Cardiff City manager after Dave Jones was sacked yesterday, bringing an end to his six-year reign in charge of the Championship club.
Jones was informed that his contract had been terminated after a second successive season culminated in play-offs failure.
Bellamy, who spent last season on loan at Cardiff from Manchester City and has already spoken of his desire to return to his hometown club next term, is the early frontrunner and would be a popular choice among many of the club’s supporters.
Sources close to Bellamy have, however, dismissed the idea that he will succeed Jones as unrealistic. He has one year remaining on his €103,000-a-week contract at Manchester City and the Premier League club also have an option to extend that deal for a further 12 months.
Bellamy is unlikely to be part of Roberto Mancini’s plans for next season but City will be reluctant to sanction another loan move
Cardiff are expected to explore other options, including Chris Hughton and Roberto Di Matteo. Both are available and have won promotion to the Premier League with Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion respectively in 2009-10.
Owen wants to stay at United
MICHAEL OWEN has told Manchester United he has no desire to leave the club. The 31-year-old striker is out of contract next month and has started just one Premier League game for the champions this season and made 33 of his 48 appearances for the club from the bench. ““We have great players, great staff, a great manager and great fans. Hopefully it can continue,” he said.
Atletico looking to keep De Gea
NEW Atletico Madrid sporting director Jose Luis Perez Caminero is not giving up hope of persuading Sergio Aguero and David De Gea to remain with the club.
Goalkeeper De Gea has been lined up by Manchester United as a replacement for the retired Edwin van der Sar, while Argentina striker Aguero, the subject of perennial speculation over his future, last week issued a statement expressing his desire to leave the club.
Caminero told AS: “Aguero is still an Atletico player and my intention is to keep him here. I want to talk with him, see what he thinks and make a decision from that point, but today he is an Atletico player and a player everybody wants.”
On De Gea, he added: “He remains an Atletico player.”
Berbatov makes United’s parade
MANCHESTER United striker Dimitar Berbatov was part of the club’s rain-sodden English Premier League trophy parade yesterday.
Berbatov was surprisingly omitted from manager Alex Ferguson’s squad for Saturday’s Champions League final defeat to Barcelona at Wembley. It has raised huge question marks of the Bulgarian’s Old Trafford future and many wondered whether the 30-year-old would be in Manchester for the open-topped bus journey from the city centre to Stretford. However, Berbatov was amongst the squad that assembled at Manchester Arena this morning, along with the rest of Ferguson’s squad.Along with Berbatov, Paul Scholes and Michael Owen were also present despite huge uncertainty over their futures.
Germany duo out of qualifiers
FORWARD Miroslav Klose and midfielder Marco Reus are out of Germany’s Euro 2012 qualifiers against Austria and Azerbaijan due to injury. Klose hurt his ribs in the 2-1 friendly win over Uruguay on Sunday, while Reus was injured in Borussia Moenchengladbach’s relegation play-off first leg against VfL Bochum and further aggravated the problem when he scored the deciding goal in the return match.
It is the third time the talented Reus (21), who has yet to win his first cap, has been picked in the squad and dropped out through injury.
Klose’s knock opens the door for Bayern Munich team-mate Mario Gomez to lead the attack after the Bundesliga top scorer made the most of a rare start by netting Germany’s opening goal against Uruguay.
Germany, who top their Euro qualifying group with five wins in as many matches, meet Austria on Friday before taking on Azerbaijan four days later.
