Sir Alex Ferguson not Appealing

Sir Alex Ferguson will not appeal against the FA misconduct charge he picked up after he was sent off in Manchester United’s 1-0 loss to Bolton in the English Premier League at the weekend.

The Man Utd boss was charged with abusing/using insulting words towards the referee, after he exchanged words with Saturday’s referee Mark Clattenburg at the Reebok Stadium.

Sir Alex Ferguson was upset that Clattenburg had failed to show any sort of protection to his players after several clashes between Bolton striker Kevin Davis and Man Utd left back Patrice Evra, which upset Ferguson more than any other incident.

While Ferguson said he will not challenge the decision he did say that the refereeing standards in the English Premier League and football in general had dropped considerably.

Other English Premier League News

Rafa Benitez has said that the relationship between him and the club’s owners is fine, and that the supposed row they had was ‘nothing’.

Newspaper headlines over the past week have been written stating that Rafa Benitez and the club’s new owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett have fallen out, but the Liverpool manager said there had been no rows. Reports suggested that Benitez was unhappy about the American owners not backing him with his transfer ideas.
When the owners come over to England on December 16^th, Benitez plans to talk with the men and try to find a solution to the supposed row. Benitez states he has no reason to have a problem with the new owners.
Liverpool are back in Premier League action this weekend as they take on Bolton on Sunday.

Reports that Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce could lose his job if results don’t pick up have been labelled as ’stupid’ and ‘idiotic’ by Blackburn Rovers manager Mark Hughes.

Newcastle have been poor since Allardyce began his reign at the club at the beginning of the season and this has led to many fans calling for his head. There last two home games have resulted in heavy defeats; the most recent against Liverpool were they were beat 3-0 in the English Premier League.
Since the start of the season, 6 English Premier League managers have been sacked, and Hughes was disappointed to read that Allardyce could become the next man to be sacked if results don’t improve.

Chelsea flop Andrei Shevchenko will not try to force his way into the Chelsea team by demanding he be played by new manager Avram Grant.

The 31 years of age Ukrainian striker has been on the bench in the past few weeks after disappointing performances.
Russian owner Roman Abramovich had hoped Shevchenko’s form would pick up since Grant became manager but this has yet to happen. And Shevchenko insists he will fight for his place rather than demand to be played in the team.

O’Neill calls for Realism from Fans

Martin O’Neill has told the clubs fans to be realistic about their expectations for club, after Aston Villa beat Blackburn away from home in the English Premier League to record three straight away wins.

The three wins have taken Villa into sixth place in the Premier League table but O’Neill has called for the fans to not get too carried away with their expectations. Villa haven’t lost in their last five games and have won their last four games and have moved up to a UEFA Cup spot in the English Premier League.

Villa’s good form started when they beat Derby at home 2-1, and then took the form into away games with rivals Birmingham, Middlesbrough and last night when they thumped Blackburn 4-0 at Ewood Park.

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After he was arrested and questioned by police yesterday Harry Redknapp denies any involvement in the ongoing police investigation into football corruption.

Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp, along with five other me were all arrested yesterday in connection with football corruption. Redknapp’s house was raided by police at 6am in the morning while he was away in Germany.
Among the 5 men arrested were former Portsmouth owner Milan Mandaric, and Portsmouth executive Peter Storrie.

Steve Bruce has placed pressure on Kevin Kilbane at Wigan as he is searching for a new left back.

Kilbane, a Republic of Ireland international has filled the left back spot in the English Premier League but Steve Bruce’s arrival means Kilbane could be given competition for the spot, as Bruce believes it is not Kilbane’s best position.
Since taking over Wigan as their new manager on Monday Bruce was quick to point out that a new left back was needed to strengthen the squad and this means that Kilbane will be fighting to keep his place.

Michael Owen is ahead of schedule in his bid to return from injury according to Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce.

Owen picked up a torn thigh muscle when he was with England on international duty, and the injury he picked up could have kept him out for up to six weeks.
However, Allardyce believes that Owen’s injury does not look as serious as it was first feared. Allardyce also hopes that Owen will be back before Christmas and to have the striker firing on all cylinders.

Derbyshire Hopes for Improvement

Matt Derbyshire thinks Blackburn Rovers have a great chance of moving up the English Premier League table but need to get back to winning ways.

Derbyshire a striker for Blackburn will be hoping he and his side can put there poor form of no wins in three games behind them as they take on Aston Villa tonight. Blackburn are sitting ninth in the Premier League and will be hoping a win tonight will help their position improve.

The game tonight is the beginning of 3 games played at Ewood Park in succession. Blackburn and Derbyshire will be hoping that they can put in a good display for the home crowd and start a good run of form to boost their league position.

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Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate is hoping to dip into the January transfer window but believes he won’t have the funds to buy quality players.

Southgate signed a collection of new players during the summer including Jon Woodgate, Mido, Aliadiere and Luke Young as well as a few more.
However Middlesbrough sold Yakubu to Everton, and James Morrison, and made more than £15 million from selling players but Southgate thinks he won’t get much of that cash to spend. Middlesbrough currently lie in 17^th in the English Premier League and need a few new players to freshen things up.

After seeing his side humiliated away at Everton in the Premier League at the weekend, Sunderland boss Roy Keane holds himself responsible for the heavy defeat.

Sunderland were thrashed 7-1 at Goodison Park and Keane admits he is responsible for the shocking defeat, and says he picked the wrong team.
Keane will now be looking at his side to put the Everton game behind them and look towards the next English Premier League match with Derby, who are struggling in the Premier League, lie rock bottom of the table and have just lost their manager.

The City of London Police Force have made 5 more arrests following the investigation of corruption in football.

The Cities economic unit led the search, this is the same enquiry that saw Tottenham defender Pascal Chimbonda arrested and quizzed in early September.
We can now tell you that 5 more men have been arrested following raids held by the London Police force. The men are aged between 30 and 70 years of age.

McSheffrey wants McLeish

Birmingham City players and Gary McSheffrey say they have not really took much notice of the recent rumours flying around St Andrews.

Birmingham are in the hunt for a new manager after they lost Steve Bruce to English Premier League rivals Wigan last week. The Blues are also waiting to see if they will be taken over by new owners, Carson Yeung a Hong Kong businessman.

McSheffrey says whoever comes in will do a good job but hints at been excited by the prospect of Alex McLeish managing him.

Birmingham have had a tough week. As well as losing their manager they also lost caretaker manager Eric Black and he looks likely to go to Wigan to re-join Bruce.

And rumours coming out of St Andrews are saying that the club will appoint Alex McLeish in the next few days to lead their Premier League battle.

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Spanish side Racing Santander will launch a bid to sign Wigan’s Ecuadorian loanee Luis Valencia.

Valencia is officially tied down to Spanish side Villarreal but hasn’t played for the club since 2005 and signed for Wigan in the English Premier League in 2006/07.
22 year-old Valencia signed for Villarreal in 2005 making a few appearances before he was shipped out on loan to Recreativo for the rest of that season.
Wigan came in for the winger in 2006 and signed him on a season long loan. His loan contract was extended after he impressed on his first loan, he was given an extended 12 month loan dal at the JJB.

Birmingham caretaker manager Eric Black has left the club and is strongly linked to join up with former Birmingham manager Steve Bruce at Wigan.

Steve Bruce left Birmingham last week to take charge at English Premier League side Wigan and Black was put in charge of the Birmingham team.
After Steve Bruce left Birmingham he expressed his desire to bring his assistant with him to the JJB but Black’s move was delayed as he had to take charge of the first team duties at St Andrews.

Newcastle defender Claudio Cacapa has told the press of his desires to win some silverware at St James Park.

Cacapa joined The Magpies in the summer from Lyon in the French Ligue 1, and he wants to repeat his former successes with Lyon at Newcastle.
So far Newcastle have yet to show their threat in the English Premier League, and their latest defeat came at home to Liverpool at the weekend as they lost 3-0. The pressure on manager Sam Allardyce is incredible and the fans have already called for him to be sacked, despite only been in the job for six months.

Davis Leaves Rams

Billy Davis today ended his time as manager of Derby County after he left the club. Derby lie bottom of the English Premier League.

Former Preston and now Derby manager Davis left Derby after seeing his side lose 2-0 at home to Chelsea at the weekend in the Premier League.

Davis brought Derby up last season to the English Premier League from The Championship through the Play Offs. However since gaining promotion they have had nothing but bad luck in their Premier League games. They have won just 1 in 14 matches so far.

And Davis, who planned which players he wanted to bring in during the January transfer window recently has said he will not hold a grudge over the club for ending his time as manager early.

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Aston Villa defender Olof Mellberg has stated he is quietly confident that boss Martin O’Neill will be the manager at Villa Park for the long run.

His comments come after O’Neill was linked with the vacant England’s job. Mellberg did say that O’Neill would make a good England boss however.
O’Neill was revealed by the press as one of the leading candidates to replace the sacked Steve McClaren, after he failed to guide England to the Euro 2008 finals.
But O’Neill has denied any speculation linking him away from the English Premier League saying he is not interested in the England job.

England debutant goalkeeper Scott Carson said the Aston Villa fans were a massive confidence boost for him while they played and beat Middlesbrough 3-0 in the Premier League.

The goalkeeper, 22 years old was given the number one shirt on Wednesday as England took on Croatia. Carson made his England debut and was largely disappointing making a costly mistake that led to the first Croatian goal. After that he looked very shaky.
However Carson thanked the Villa fans for their support throughout the English Premier League match against Middlesbrough.

New Wigan manager Steve Bruce has told his new players that he wants them to show fight and determination to stay in the English Premier League.

Steve Bruce quit Birmingham to take over at Wigan and saw his new side lose at the weekend to two late goals against Arsenal. Wigan have only won twice this season.
Wigan are second from bottom of the Premier League and Bruce is confident and excited by the challenge to keep the club in the Premier League.

Ferguson- Fee in Place for Tevez

Loan signing Carlos Tevez will hopefully have his stay at Manchester United extended as Sir Alex Ferguson has seen enough of the player to think he warrants a reward for his efforts.

The Argentine striker who moved to the English Premier League champions from West Ham United has already become an instant hit with the Manchester United fans. However, his loan at Man Utd comes to an end at the end of next season and Ferguson has already started thinking about extending Tevez’s stay at the club.

Ferguson confirmed that Manchester United chief executive David Gill has already spoke with Kia Joorabchian who is Carlos Tevez’s agent and a fee has been put in place, a cheap fee Ferguson added.

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Aston Villa sensation Gabriel Agbonlahor is set to have his contract at Villa Park extended.

It has been reported that several top English Premier League clubs have expressed an interest in the England Under-21 striker and Martin O’Neill has confirmed that the striker is a key player in his squad and he wants to keep hold of him.
This has led to O’Neill revealing his plans to offer Agbonlahor a new contract and try to fight off competition from other clubs. Arsenal are one of the teams to have expressed an interest in him added O’Neill.

New Tottenham manager Juande Ramos has told goalkeeper Paul Robinson that his future at the club is safe and added he is not interested in buying a new goalkeeper to replace the England international.

Robinson who was left out of the starting 11 for England’s game with Croatia has been poor for most of the season in the English Premier League and for England. His form has led to England fans calling for him to be replaced as England’s number one.
Ramos, who having just joined Tottenham, insists that Robinson is a key and senior player in his team and wants to keep hold of the player.

New Chelsea manager Avram Grant has told the press that his Chelsea team are an easy target for referees after his side’s 2-0 win over Derby last night in the English Premier League.

Grant’s comments came after Michael Essien was sent off in injury time at the end of the game for what looked to be a throw of the arm at Derby’s Kenny Miller. This decision has angered Avram Grant.
Grant told the press that he thought the decision to send Essien off was very harsh and also gave a hint that Chelsea could make an appeal to get the red card overturned.