A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Everton healthy but borrowings rise
EVERTON chief executive Robert Elstone has described the club’s latest set of accounts as “healthy” despite showing borrowings of €56 million, a pre-tax loss of €3.7 million and admitting manager David Moyes will not have a substantial transfer budget this summer.
Accounts for the year ending May 2010 reveal that income from broadcasting and season ticket sales rose at Goodison Park, to €59 million and €22.6 million respectively, while the €93 million in turnover was down €703,000 from the previous year, when Everton reached the FA Cup final.
The club’s wage bill, however, increased to €64 million and 69 per cent of turnover, while net debt rose by €8.2 million to €53 million.
Elstone dismissed claims of a looming financial crisis at Everton as the “agenda of a small minority of fans who seem intent on painting only the bleakest picture”, and stated: “It is a healthy set of accounts.”
Guardiola stays another year
BARCELONA manager Josep Guardiola has agreed a new contract with the Spanish champions.
The deal will take Guardiola through to the end of next season.
The former Spain midfielder had an existing agreement taking him through to this summer, but Barcelona last night announced Guardiola will formally commit until June 30th, 2012, by signing “in the next few days”.
Keys and Gray sign up to talkSPORT
FORMER Sky Sports presenters Andy Gray and Richard Keys have been signed up by talkSPORT.
The pair, who were involved in the Sky Sports sexism row, will host a three-hour show on Monday through to Friday on the commercial speech station. Keys resigned and Gray was fired over row involving off-air remarks about assistant referee Sian Massey and West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady.
The appointment may not come as a surprise to many, as Keys went on talkSPORT to apologise publicly for his remarks.
He told the radio station last month: “Our prehistoric banter is not acceptable in a modern world. We were wrong. It was wrong. It shouldn’t have happened.”
Keys resigned from his job fronting Sky Sports’ football coverage after days of controversy which had also seen the sacking of his colleague Gray.
Reina hints at an Anfield departure
PEPE Reina has hinted he might follow Fernando Torres’s lead and seek a future away from Liverpool if they do not qualify for the Champions League.
The Liverpool goalkeeper insisted he does not foresee a return to Spain but refused to rule out a move to a rival Premier League club and said he wants to compete for football’s top honours.
Meanwhile, Torres, who admitted he is yet to meet Chelsea’s owner, Roman Abramovich, has expressed hope Liverpool fans’ anger will subside and explained his departure by saying he felt darkness had descended on Anfield and Chelsea “opened the door” on a new dawn, leaving him with no other choice.
It is Reina’s comments, however, that will be of most concern to Liverpool’s caretaker manager, Kenny Dalglish. The goalkeeper and Torres were granted release clauses by the club’s former hierarchy last summer; the Chelsea striker for €59 million, in the event of Liverpool not qualifying for the Champions League this season, and Reina for around €23.5 million.
The clauses were designed to give Liverpool one more season to convince the players their ambitions could be met under new ownership and, in Reina’s case, followed firm interest shown by Arsenal.
The Spain international is also aware that Manchester United are on the lookout for a replacement for Edwin van der Sar, who will retire at the end of the season.
“I think it’s hard for me to come back to Spain to play,” Reina said in an interview on the Spanish radio station Onda Cero.
“I think my place is in England – and right now that is with Liverpool.
“Barcelona and Madrid are the two teams you would aspire to in Spain and that’s impossible. Van der Sar is hanging up his gloves and people say Arsenal are looking . . . I renewed my contract with Liverpool last year.
“But what a player wants, logically, is to challenge for titles.”
Reina signed a six-year contract with Liverpool last April.
Bruce plans to 'scour world' for a new striker
SUNDERLAND manager Steve Bruce will spend the next few months scouring the world to find the man to replace Darren Bent.
Bruce was stunned when the 27-year-old England international handed in a transfer request within hours of the 1-1 derby draw with Newcastle on January 16th which led to his €28 million departure for Aston Villa days later.
He resisted the temptation to plough that money straight back into a replacement without having done his homework, despite having loan signing Danny Welbeck and Fraizer Campbell on the injured list.
Instead, he pressed ahead with moves for Stephane Sessegnon and Sulley Muntari.
But the process of finding a man to partner record signing Asamoah Gyan is now under way.
Bruce said: “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know where we are looking to strengthen. We will look from now on. All our attention for the next three or four months will be to scour the world to try to find the right striker.”
