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OCTOBER 2000 Chelsea Sign Gronkjaer Chelsea have signed Danish winger Jesper Gronkjaer from Ajax for £7.8 million. The player is currently injured and will arrive in January, 2001. FA Confirm Eriksson As New England Coach The FA have appointed Sven Goran Eriksson as new coach of England. He will take charge from 1 July 2001 on a 5 year (ha!) contract. Eriksson is a bad choice, not because he isn't English, because he's tactically naïve and isn't a good coach. Despite spending close to £200 million on players, despite having an incredible squad, Lazio had to rely on Perugia to give them the scudetto last season. Lazio also play a terrible long ball game. FA Admit To Talking With Eriksson "Meetings have taken place over the past 24 hours with Sven-Goran Eriksson and representatives of his club Lazio." England FA executive director David Davies Chilavert Leaves For Europe Paraguayan goalkeeper and free kick expert Jose Luis Chilavert is expected to join either Nantes or Strasbourg later in the week. 29 OCTOBER 2000 New England Coach - Eriksson According to Italian press reports Lazio coach Sven Goran Eriksson has signed a contract to coach England from 1 July 2001. The FA will hold a press conference later this evening where they are expected to make Eriksson's appointment official. Transfer Rumours There are a few ridiculous including Recoba going to Milan in a £25 million, £100,000 per week deal but given there are two days left until FIFA and UEFA present their 'new transfer system' to the European Union there's no point in listing them. Dida In Trouble Dida is the latest player to be caught with a fake Portuguese passport. Milan could be in trouble for fielding him in Champions League games as a EU player. Maradona Coach Diego Maradona has been appointed coach of Argentinean first division club Almagro. 28 OCTOBER 2000 Zidane Banned UEFA have given Juventus midfielder Zinedine Zidane a five game ban for head butting Hamburg's Jochen Kientz during Tuesday's Champions League tie. Cesar Joins Milan Real Madrid's Brazilian defender Julio Cesar has joined Milan on loan. 25 OCTOBER 2000 Malesani Given Last Rites Parma coach Alberto Malesani has been given a warning over his future by Enrico Fedele, one of the clubs directors. "Let's say we are worried and disappointed. Traumatic solutions are important when the malaise of the team is clear. But the situation we are in must reflect on everyone, including the players and we the directors and we must all feel responsible. The only medicine is results.". One Less Passport To Worry About? Roma midfielder Emerson, currently sidelined with a knee injury, has been granted Italian citizenship. His wife's family have 'Sicilian origins'. Chelsea Sign Young Player! Ajax's Danish winger Jesper Gronkjaer is expected to join Chelsea later in the week at a cost of £7.5 million. Quotes Espanyol Striker Raul Tamudo : "They (Espanyol) were forced to try and sell me. I don't want to play for Rangers and I want to forget all about them." Middlesbrough Coach Bryan Robson : "If things haven't improved and we don't have a good season then I might have to see if the chairman might be better off looking elsewhere.". 24 OCTOBER 2000 Leverkusen Tell DFB To Find New Coach Following the sacking of Cristoph Daum, Bayer Leverkusen are refusing to allow Rudi Voeller to continue as coach of the German national team beyond the end of the season. Blazevic Resigns Croatia's national team coach Miroslav Blazevic has resigned. Football? Indian! India will host a 16 nation event from 10 January - 25 January 2001. Teams scheduled to compete are : Bahrain Cameroon Chile Colombia Iceland India Iraq Jamaica Japan Jordan New Zealand South Africa Trinidad & Tobago Uruguay Uzbekistan Yugoslavia 22 OCTOBER 2000 England Appoint Part Time Coach The FA has appointed Leicester City coach Peter Taylor as Caretaker coach of the England national team. Manchester United assistant coach Steve McLaren will be Taylor's assistant. The pair will work part-time and continue with their duties at club level. The FA will probably appoint a full time coach at the end of the season. Lazio's Sven Goran Eriksson is favourite to succeed Kevin Keegan. Daum Sacked Leverkusen have sacked coach Christoph Daum. Daum was alleged to be a heavy cocaine user and indulged in sex parties with prostitutes. In a spectacular error of judgement Daum offered to take a drug test to clear his name, he failed. Daum was scheduled to take over as German national team coach at the end of the season. Interim coach Rudi Voeller may now be offered the position on a full time basis. 21 OCTOBER 2000 Juve Not Interested In Recoba Juventus director Luciano Moggi has dismissed persistent claims linking the club with a move for Inter playmaker Alvaro Recoba. "We will do nothing against Inter because a similar action towards a Juventus player would cause me a lot of pain. For Recoba, therefore, we will do nothing." Grimandi and Mihajlovic Banned Arsenal midfielder Giles Grimandi has been given a three match Champions League ban for punching Diego Simeone in the face during Tuesday's Champions league match away to Lazio. Lazio defender Sinisa Mihajlovic was given a two match ban for racial abuse. Lazio were also fined £26,000 due to the behaviour of the fans. Arsenal were fined £7000 for arriving late. Pineda Loaned To Napoli Udinese have loaned defender Mauricio Pineda to Napoli. In other Napoli news Portuguese midfielder Vidigal is out for three months with an injury. Boro Get Ehiogu Middlesbrough have finally completed the signing of defender Ugo Ehiogu from Aston Villa for £8 million. Rangers News Striker Michael Mols will need a third operation on his knee. Mols first picked up the injury following a heinous foul by a Bayern Munich player in last season's Champions League competition. Meanwhile Rangers will delay the signing of striker Raul Tamudo from Espanyol after discovering the player is injured. 20 OCTOBER 2000 Viera - I Will Not Play In Serie A Patrick Viera made the following comments after Arsenal's clash against Lazio in Rome earlier this week. "A lot of Italian clubs would like to sign me but there's no way. The atmosphere in Serie A is so racist, it's unbearable. If it comes from the fans it's stupid but from a player (Mihajlovic) it is unacceptable.". Arsenal's black players were booed and taunted by fans throughout the game and Viera was apparently called a black monkey by Lazio defender Sinisa Mihajlovic. Mihajlovic claimed Vieira called him a Gipsy shit. Several Lazio players including captain Alessandro Nesta, apologised to Viera for the comments made by Mihajlovic. Brazil Name New Coach The CBF has named Emerson Leao as the new coach of the Brazil national team. Leao was previously in charge of Gremio and Sport. Weah Signs For Marseille George Weah has returned to France to join Marseille having been released earlier in the week by Manchester City. 17 OCTOBER 2000 Recoba's Future At Inter Inter will hold a meeting with Alvaro Recoba's agent, Paco Casal, over the players future. Recoba, like Baggio under Lippi, found himself out of the team despite several outstanding performances over the past two seasons. Recoba has been continually linked with a move to Juventus which doesn't seem feasible as the Turin giants already have two playmakers in Zidane and O'Neill, three if you consider Del Piero a playmaker. Neighbours Milan are also said to be interested in Recoba. Robson Will Help England After much prompting Newcastle coach Bobby Robson stated that he would be willing to help England in a joint coaching capacity alongside Leicester City coach Peter Taylor. He said in an interview with Sky Sports : "If there was anyway that I could help England to retrieve the situation and scramble for points and I could have my job at Newcastle and help in some way then I would have to speak to my chairman about that.". Peter Taylor had tremendous success with the England U21 team, winning 7 successive games before controversially being fired when Kevin Keegan took over as England coach. He has hinted that he would be willing to coach England on a part-time basis. |