Middlesbrough defender David Wheater has ended speculation over his future by signing a new deal at the club.

Wheater’s existing deal was due to expire at the end of the season, but the club have moved to tie him down to a new three-and-a-half year contract.

The powerful defender has been a revelation for Boro this season, with Wheater establishing himself as a key member of Gareth Southgate’s starting XI.

His towering performances have even alerted England coach Fabio Capello, who has tipped him as a future star of the national team.

A number of Boro’s Premier League rivals were thought to be monitoring Wheater’s situation at the Riverside, but the 20 year-old has pledged his future to his hometown club. The news is a massive boost to Boro ahead of this weekend’s clash with Reading.

Javier Mascherano has put the speculation about his future to bed and has signed a four-year contract to stay with Liverpool on a permanent basis.

The Argentine midfielder told the club’s official website: “I am very, very happy and now I can concentrate just on playing football,” Mascherano told Liverpoolfc.tv.

“I said all along that I wanted to stay at Liverpool and now that I have signed I can say this is the best and the biggest moment in my career so far.

“From the first day I arrived at Liverpool the feeling was good and I knew this was where I wanted to play my football. It’s good news for me and my family that everything is sorted and I know where my future is going to be. I just want to do my best for the fans and the people of the club.”

Javier’s future with the English Premier League side has been of major speculation in recent times, after the rift between manager Rafa Benitez and owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

Newcastle are closing in on a move for Senegal defender Lamine Diatta. Diatta is available outside the transfer window as he is a free agent having bought himself out of his contract with Besiktas.

The powerful defender is believed to have travelled over to England earlier this week as he seeks to secure a move to the Premier League. Birmingham and Wigan have been linked with the 32-year-old, but it appears Newcastle have jumped to the head of the queue.

Magpies boss Kevin Keegan is keen to shore up his leaky defence as he looks to arrest their slide down the table and he is believed to be ready to offer  a short-term deal at St James’ Park.

Diatta has a wealth of experience having played for Toulouse, Marseille, Rennes, Lyon and St Etienne in France before making the move to Besiktas.

John Terry has again insisted that he wants to stay with Chelsea for the rest of his career. The Stamford Bridge captain was involved in a training-ground bust-up with first-team coach Henk ten Cate the day before Sunday’s Carling Cup defeat by Tottenham.

But he has been quick to reiterate that he wants has no plans to leave and is determined to guide the club to more silverware after two months out with a fractured foot.

He said: “I really can’t see myself leaving and I signed a new contract earlier in the season. I love the club, and I’m so passionate about Chelsea. I just want Chelsea to succeed. I like to think I know what the fans go through on a weekly basis. I don’t just come in, train and go home and forget about things, I take it home with me.”

“I am fortunate to be in the position I am at an amazing club like Chelsea, and to enjoy the things that come with being a professional footballer. I have been here on £45 per week and worked my way through to being where I am today. I appreciate everything and work hard every day.”

Terry also admitted that Avram Grant’s squad must use the defeat at Wembley to spur them on to glory in the remainder of the season. “It’s hard to take any defeat, let alone a final, The boys worked their socks off to get to the final, and it’s the worst time to lose, but we have to pick ourselves up, and we’re still fortunate enough to be in all three competitions, and we’re still very much in contention.

“The Premier League is still close, and we have a great chance in the Champions League and FA Cup, which is our trophy so we need to stay positive. Over the last three or four years we’ve got into a mode where we’ve been dominating things and we’ve been in the final stages and had a taste of success.”

“There have been a couple of occasions where we’ve lost out and that is not a nice feeling, and I think no-one likes to lose, we didn’t want to, but we have to use it as a positive and be more hungry in the future. Having that taste of defeat is not a nice feeling to have, and there are things out there we can win, like the Champions League that we still haven’t won.”

Tunisia’s  insists talks over his future at Birmingham City are on hold until the end of the season. The midfielder’s current contract expires at the end of the season although it is understood a 12 month option could be taken up.

Birmingham boss Alex McLeish has expressed a desire for Nafti to remain with the club.

“I don’t want to talk about my future until the end of the season and just concentrate on football,” said Nafti. I don’t think about my future at the moment.”

“I think about football, enjoying every minute I am on the pitch, and trying to keep Birmingham in the Premier League. My future we will see about at the end of the season. It is not in my mind now and I am happy at the moment.”

Nafti has had a run in the Blues first team of late, and is expected to play the next three games after Martin Taylor was banned for three matches after he broke Eduardo’s leg.

Middlesbrough and Sheffield United had to fight 200 minutes in order to produce a goal, when they last night replayed their FA Cup meeting that ended with a draw a few weeks ago.

This time the match was hosted at the Riverside stadium, but things didn’t change for the regular 90 minutes.

The scoreboard showed again a goalless draw, as it did in the previous attempt. The FA Cup rules state that in case of a second draw, the winner will be decided after extra time and if needed after the penalty-shootout.

The first half of extra time went on and it ended with no change on the scoreboard. It was clear for everyone that this game will be decided from the penalty spots. But the 114th minute came, lucky for Boro and cruel for Sheffield.
The visitors keeper, Patrick Kenny, who pulled a nice performance until that moment, managed to score a stupid own goal that granted Middlesbrough’ş tickets for the last eight. Mido shot from the edge of the box, his shot got deflected into the post and rebounded towards Kenny. Even stranger, Sheffield’ş keeper was facing towards the ball when it came to him. Kenny tried to clear the ball, but his clumsy attempt sent the rebounding ball into his own net.
You can watch this stupid goal in the following football highlights and see how the over 28,000 attendance reacted to this rare seen own goal. Live online football from the quarterfinals of the 07-08 edition of the FA Cup can be seen with the help of the live streams and the p2p technology.