News - Archive

Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini has dismissed speculation he is set to replace Roberto Mancini at Manchester City.

Mancini infamously cursed when asked about the Pellegrini rumours recently, stressing he was annoyed at the constant discussion over the Italian's position at the Etihad Stadium.

But Chilean boss Pellegrini said Mancini should have nothing to worry about, as the former Villarreal and Real Madrid manager is not looking outside of his Malaga responsibilities.

"I don't care about these rumours. Both the squad and my staff are entirely focused in our duties here," he said. 

Manchester United midfielder Ryan Giggs said Sir Alex Ferguson has a selection quandary for the Champions League clash against Real Madrid.

The 39-year-old made his 999th appearance in United's victory away to QPR on Saturday, and capped a fine individual performance with his second league goal of the campaign.

Giggs came on for the final 26 minutes of the first-leg 1-1 draw at Bernabeu two weeks ago, but has hinted at his desire to start the all-important return tie next Tuesday.

"It is a headache for the manager but a good one," Giggs told reporters. 

"We are not looking too far ahead and we are not getting too excited."

Napoli missed the chance to close the gap on Serie A leaders Juventus after they were held to a frustrating 0-0 away draw with Udinese.

The Naples club only managed to test Udinese goalkeeper Daniele Padelli once in the 90 minutes in a match that lacked goalmouth action, to slip six points behind Juve.

Udinese welcomed back Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu after Ghana's African Cup of Nations campaign while Danilo returned from suspension to take his place in the heart of defence at the Stadio Communale Friuli.

Napoli were unchanged from the side who drew 0-0 with Sampdoria in their last league outing, fielding three former Udinese players - Morgan De Sanctis, Gokhan Inler and Paolo Armero.

Swiss club Sion have announced former AC Milan star Gennaro Gattuso will be put in charge of first-team affairs ahead of coach Victor Munoz.

The Swiss side have been on a poor run of form of late, and the club's board have decided to hand extra responsibility to the players in the wake of their 4-0 loss to Thun over the weekend in a bid to reignite their ambition.

"After the disastrous performance of Sion at Thun and in face of the obvious lack of direction of the team, the management of the club has decided to put the players in front of their responsibilities," a club statement read.

Barcelona assistant coach Jordi Roura has slammed referee Alberto Undiano Mallecano ahead of their Copa del Rey clash with Real Madrid.

Mallecano took charge of Barcelona's only La Liga defeat this season at Real Sociedad, and will officiate again for the semi-final second leg at Camp Nou on Tuesday.

He also refereed the 2011 Copa del Rey final between Real and Barca, won by Madrid, and the Barca assistant expressed his disappointment at the decision.

"He (Mallecano) is the referee we have for tomorrow, we can't do anything about that," Roura said.

Arsenal have announced a pre-tax profit of 20.4 million euros for the half-year ending in November 2012.

The figure was driven primarily by the value of player sales, including that of former striker Robin van Persie, who left for Manchester United before the start of the season, with those departing the Emirates raking in 48.8 million euros for the club.

The accounts also highlight that the club have invested 47 million euros in signing new players such as Olivier Giroud, Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla.

More cash was spent on contract extensions such as the ones signed by Kieran Gibbs, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain earlier in the campaign.

James McCarthy has demanded Wigan treat their 11 remaining Premier League fixtures as cup finals to secure their top-flight safety.

Wigan sit just outside the bottom three, equal on points with 18th-placed Aston Villa, and secured a morale-boosting 3-0 win over fellow strugglers Reading at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday.

The three points lifted Wigan out of the relegation zone, and McCarthy is hoping that they can build on the result.

"It's so important to get out of the bottom three and try and build on positive results like this one and we've got 11 games left to make sure we do that," the Wigan midfielder told the club's official website.