Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

Cardiff pursue Ravel Morrison and Wilfried Zaha in transfer window
Everton hope new Baines offer will head off United interest
Liverpool's Brendan Rodgers wants more goals from Coutinho and Sterling
Agüero boosts City's quadruple quest
FA Cup third round replays – as they happened
Sheffield Wednesday 4-1 Macclesfield | FA Cup third-round replay report
Peterborough 2-3 Kidderminster
Bournemouth 4-1 Burton Albion| FA Cup third round
Fulham 3-0 Norwich City
Peterborough 2-3 Kidderminster
Transfer roundup: Hull closing in on Nikica Jelavic and Shane Long
Blackburn Rovers head to Manchester City with a little sanity restored | David Conn
Jack Wilshere is a cause for excitement again, for Arsenal and England | David Hytner
Stephen Ireland joins Stoke City on long-term deal
The Fiver | Gold!
Bobby Collins obituary
Football quiz: the Ballon d'Or
Grant Holt completes loan move to Aston Villa from Wigan
Seedorf to take over as head coach at Milan
Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini on Samir Nasri's injury – video
Manchester United's David Moyes delays Wilfried Zaha's loan move
Sergio Agüero back in Manchester City squad for Blackburn FA Cup tie
Cull the Tigers and I quit, says Allam
Manchester United's share price mirrors form under David Moyes | Owen Gibson
Bradley and Defoe unveiled in Toronto

Cardiff pursue Ravel Morrison and Wilfried Zaha in transfer window

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 02:59 PM PST

• Fulham have had a bid rejected for Morrison
• Ole Gunnar Solskjaer keen on Zaha, too

Cardiff City are targeting West Ham United's Ravel Morrison and Manchester United's Wilfried Zaha as the new manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, seeks to continue strengthening his squad during the January transfer window.

Solskjaer is aware of Morrison's abilities as the Norwegian was on the coaching staff at Old Trafford at the same time as the midfielder was starting his career at the club.

Cardiff, though, are competing with Fulham, whose manager, Rene Meulensteen, has confirmed that his club has had a bid rejected by West Ham. Meulensteen also knows Morrison from the Dutchman's own time working as a coach at United.

The 20-year-old is open to either option because of these connections. Morrison has 18 months left on a contract that earns him £15,000 a week and, should West Ham receive a bid of £10m, they have to sell or raise his salary to £60,000 because of a clause in his contract. If an offer of £5m or more were to be tabled, the east London club might be tempted to cash in.

Meulensteen, speaking after Fulham's 3-0 win over Norwich City in the FA Cup, admitted Fulham have had a bid for Morrison turned down by West Ham but claimed the midfielder wants to exchange east London for west during the January transfer window.

The Fulham manager did not confirm whether the club would increase their bid but confirmed there is strong interest. Asked if Fulham had made a bid for Morrison, he said: "Yes we did. It got knocked back, it got rejected so we need to review it and move on.

"I left it with Alistair Mackintosh [the chief executive]. I've explained how I think about the situation so we'll have to wait and seen what happens. I make my desires clear and then leave it with those people to deal with it. We will review it, because I don't know the ins and outs about how it has been rejected."

Asked if Morrison was keen to join Fulham, Meulensteen added: "Yes. Because I've known him for a long, long time. [He has] youthfulness, energy, unpredictability, attacking strength, loads of things."

With Morrison wanting markedly improved terms even to consider committing his long-term future to West Ham the midfielder may well leave before the window's close. Manchester United are not interested in taking Morrison back.

Although Morrison is nursing a groin problem that has ruled him out of action since 5 January, West Ham hope he may be available to play in Saturday's home match against Newcastle United.

Solskjaer, since succeeding Malkay McKay at the start of the month, has signed Magnus Wolff Eikrem and Mats Moeller Daehli, who were formerly on Manchester United's books.

Solskjaer's links with Old Trafford are also making Cardiff favourites, ahead of Stoke City and Newcastle United, to land Zaha, should David Moyes decide to allow the 21-year-old to go on loan once the manager has weighed up his options in wide positions because of the injuries to Ashley Young and Nani.

Moyes has Adnan Januzaj, Antonio Valencia and Shinji Kagawa as three players who can operate in the position and, with it being unclear when Young, who has a shoulder issue, and Nani, a hamstring problem, may return, the Scot is yet to decide if he can afford to lose Zaha for the rest of the season.

Moyes wants regular Premier League football for Zaha along with a guarantee that the coaching he will receive can best help develop the winger, who has struggled to establish himself at Old Trafford.

Jamie Jackson

James Riach

Everton hope new Baines offer will head off United interest

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 02:30 PM PST

• Breakthrough in contract talks will frustrate David Moyes
• Nikica Jelavic set to join Hull City for initial £5.5m

Everton are hopeful of ending the uncertainty over Leighton Baines's future, and with it David Moyes' interest in a reunion at Manchester United, by securing the England international on a new long-term contract.

Baines was the subject of several thwarted bids by United last summer and, though the Premier League champions have not made a renewed approach in the current transfer window, Moyes' admiration for the 29-year-old remains.

The left-back will have 12 months left on his existing Everton contract at the end of this season, when Patrice Evra is expected to leave Old Trafford as a free agent, and United will look to secure an established replacement. But, after protracted negotiations, Everton are believed to have made a breakthrough on a new contract for Baines in recent days and hope to secure the influential defender's services before he enters the final year of his current deal.

Goodison Park officials proposed a contract extension for Baines at the end of last season but that was put on hold amid persistent interest from United. Everton rejected several bids from their former manager's new employers, including the "derisory and insulting" joint £28m offer for Baines and Marouane Fellaini that valued the former at £12m.

Baines is one of several key players that Everton are looking to secure on a new contract, a list that includes Ross Barkley. The club have confirmed the England midfielder has suffered "a small fracture" of a toe on his right foot but have not put a timescale on his recovery.

The manager, Roberto Martínez, put Barkley's likely absence at three to six weeks after the win over Norwich City on Saturday and that has not altered. Everton hope warm-weather training in Tenerife – where Barkley has accompanied the first-team squad this week – will aid the 20-year-old's recovery process.

Everton's striker Nikica Jelavic, meanwhile, is expected to complete an initial £5.5m transfer to Hull City on Wednesday. The Croatia international agreed to the move and personal terms on Friday but has been unable to finalise the deal due to a work permit issue. That should be resolved on Wednesday. Martínez had said Jelavic would be allowed to leave to improve his World Cup prospects only if Everton had a replacement signed. There is interest in Kenwyne Jones, among others, but no offer has been made for the Stoke City forward.

Andy Hunter

Liverpool's Brendan Rodgers wants more goals from Coutinho and Sterling

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 02:30 PM PST

• Manager calls on duo to up push for Champions League spot
• Luis Suárez confident of securing top-four position

Brendan Rodgers has challenged Philippe Coutinho and Raheem Sterling to enhance Liverpool's Champions League claims by bringing more goals to the team.

Liverpool are the second highest goalscorers in the Premier League this season, thanks in the main to the remarkable form of 22-goal Luis Suárez. The Uruguay international and Daniel Sturridge are responsible for 32 of Liverpool's 51 league goals so far.

The Liverpool manager is understandably content with his team's quality in front of goal but, with his midfield supporting cast of Coutinho, Sterling and Jordan Henderson providing a combined six league goals, he concedes there is room for improvement. "The responsibility has always been the team but we always want more," said Rodgers.

"When you play in those attacking positions it's your job to create and score goals. A player with their quality will say they want more goals and obviously I will demand more goals from them. We have also been the top scorers over the last calendar year, so I still think we have enough of a goal threat but in order for Raheem to develop and improve he needs to create and score more.

"I think Coutinho will get more too. I look at him as a [Luka] Modric type. And when you look at Modric over four years at Tottenham he got 13 goals [in the league] but his influence was massive and Coutinho is of that type. He will naturally get more goals but he is a wonderful player for us, he is a key who opens up many things in a game."

Rodgers insists there is no pressure on the players to alter their game, however. He added: "There's no doubt they will want to improve it but I don't want to put pressure on to do that. They know what their job is. If you put too much pressure on a creative player it can stifle them and can affect their overall performance."

Suárez believes this season has shown Liverpool are worthy of a return to the Champions League, having failed to qualify since 2009. The striker said: "We know that in the last two years we haven't demonstrated that Liverpool can play in the Champions League. Now we are playing very well and we have the level to play in the Champions League. We have really good players and if we continue at this level, we can do it."

Andy Hunter

Agüero boosts City's quadruple quest

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 02:30 PM PST

• Leading striker returns to face Blackburn in replay
• Manuel Pellegrini revels in club's strength in depth

Manuel Pellegrini's quest to lead Manchester City to an unprecedented quadruple is boosted by Sergio Agüero's return from injury for the FA Cup third-round replay against Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday, with the manager shrugging off the loss of Samir Nasri for six weeks by pointing to the strength of his squad.

City are the only club who can still win the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and Capital One Cup. Pellegrini pointed to his side's exceptional form in Agüero's absence because of a calf injury as a sign that they have the mentality for this challenge.

The striker had been City's standout performer with 19 goals in 20 appearances until he suffered the problem following the 6-3 win over Arsenal on 14 December. In the subsequent eight games City have won seven and drawn the other, the first tie at Roverso, scoring 22 goals and conceding only seven. The forwards Álvaro Negredo, with six goals, and Edin Dzeko, with four, have stepped up to ensure Agüero has not been missed.

With Pellegrini stating that Nasri may be kept out by a knee injury for less than the eight weeks predicted by the midfielder on Monday, the manager said: "Sergio will always be an important player for us, not only because of his goals but he gives us a lot of play during the match.

"Negredo is doing very well and we have Edin Dzeko as well who is a very important striker for us. When Sergio was injured Edin started to play often and he scores a lot of goals for us. All of the players in the squad are very important."

Of how the manager hopes Agüero will play on his return Pellegrini said: "You never know but I hope that he will come back the same way as before he was injured. He was in a good moment and maybe he needs two or three games to return to that level but Sergio will do it."

Nasri was injured when Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa hacked at him in Sunday's 2-0 win at Newcastle United. The Frenchman has been one of City's majort performers this term and Pellegrini said: "He's a very important player but I hope he can come back in five or six weeks. It's important for the rest of the squad but it's the same thing that happened when [Vincent] Kompany, Agüero or [David] Silva were injured. We always had another player that replaced him and we will try to do that with Samir but he was in a very good moment."

Nasri is not happy with Yanga-Mbiwa. "Of course he's very upset because he has to stop at this moment for six weeks with a serious injury. He cannot be happy but these things happen in football," said the manager. "It's important that you can complain because we are not ice men, so of course we have to complain about some decisions but not every decision. The referee made a mistake and nothing happened. It was a pity for Samir."

Nasri's injury will not affect City's strategy during the current window. "No, it has not changed our philosophy," Pellegrini said. "We know exactly what we are going to do in the transfer window."

The 60-year-old is conscious that to win the quadruple is not easy. "It's very difficult but we will try – it's important to have the mentality at least to try," he said. "During the season with injuries and the amount of games we have to play it's very difficult and that's why no one's done it before. But you must have the mentality to at least try to do it and that's what we're trying to do at this moment.

"We're not thinking about winning the four competitions, we're just thinking about Blackburn in the FA Cup and then to try and win against Cardiff on Saturday because until the end of the season we are going to be with five or six teams fighting until the end and it will just be decided by one or two points."

Yaya Touré and David Silva are not available because of minor injuries. Each is expected to return against Cardiff and of the Ivorian Pellegrini said: "Yaya has the last two weeks played with a problem with his back, so it is a risk to continue doing that way. It is better for him to rest for two or three days."

Jamie Jackson

FA Cup third round replays – as they happened

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 02:23 PM PST

Minute-by-minute report: Non-league Kidderminster booked a date with Sunderland in the fourth round, while Fulham comfortably beat Norwich

Michael Butler

Sheffield Wednesday 4-1 Macclesfield | FA Cup third-round replay report

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 02:17 PM PST

Sheffield Wednesday 4-1 Macclesfield

Non-league Macclesfield made themselves an FA Cup nuisance once more as in-form Sheffield Wednesday required three late goals to seal a date at Rochdale later this month. Jacques Maghoma, Jermaine Johnson and Miguel Llera all scored in the last 15 minutes to eliminate the Cheshire club, who pushed last year's winners, Wigan, hard 12 months ago.

The portents for a shock were mixed: although the greasy pitch and incessant rain provided the archetypal Cup leveller, Wednesday came into the contest on the highest high in memory in these parts. Shoehorned between the original drawn tie and this replay was the small matter of a six-goal humiliation of Leeds.

Those populating Hillsborough may still have been discussing the magnitude of their current Yorkshire bragging rights, or even how they would rather have been in their usual seats on the unopened Kop when the Championship side took the lead. The replay was not yet three minutes old, in fact, when the Macclesfield full-back Andy Halls' failure to cut out Jérémy Hélan's speculative ball down the flank proved fatal. Chris Maguire gathered it in his stride, drifted inside and beat the goalkeeper Rhys Taylor at the foot of his right-hand post with a shot that glided across the surface.

But Macclesfield, mid-table in the Conference and the lowest ranked club remaining in the competition, did not buckle despite the disappointment and restricted their hosts to long-range efforts thereafter. Kieran Lee rifled one effort narrowly past the angle while Maguire was spectacularly denied a second when his deflected goalbound effort from wide on the left edge of the area was kicked away by Joe Connor.

Buoyed by his goal in the league at the weekend, and his early effort here, Maguire sprang to life every time his team-mates found him deep in opposition territory and he would have been disappointed to be foiled by a diminishing angle after seizing on a knockdown from his giant strike partner Atdhe Nuhiu.

However, twice before the interval Macclesfield drew similar collective gasps of breath with their own attacking endeavours; first when Jack Mackreth abandoned his apparent fondness for the right touchline to meander infield and fizz a drive into the midriff of Damián Martínez, the goalkeeper on-loan from Premier League leaders Arsenal, and then when their Jonjo Shelvey doppelganger Danny Whittaker's low drive skipped wide.

Wednesday could have killed the tie at the start of the second period but lacked the predatory instincts to do so. Hélan's dinked chip drifted too high with Taylor marooned outside his six-yard box, while the Macclesfield goalkeeper saved his team seconds later by charging down Maguire after Halls had made a mess of an attempted chest trap.

Macclesfield made the most of those let-offs just after the hour when Wednesday half-time substitute Joe Mattock was penalised for handball and Scott Boden rolled in the equaliser.

That lifeline was so nearly developed further by John Askey's minnows 20 minutes from time when Scott Kay ghosted in at the far post to see an initial volley palmed away by Martínez and his rebound rattle the crossbar. In the end, though, Wednesday's superior ability told.

Richard Gibson

Peterborough 2-3 Kidderminster

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 01:59 PM PST

Peterborough 2-3 Kidderminster

A second half during which the action swung wildly from end to end saw Kidderminster Harriers of the Conference score three times to beat Peterborough United and go through to a lucrative fourth-round tie at Premier League Sunderland.

Much had happened since these clubs played out a goalless draw 10 days ago, when Peterborough, of League One, hit the bar three times in a last minute goalmouth scramble of extraordinary proportions.

Being out of the Conference play-off places on goal difference and just one good result away from a money-spinning trip to Wearside did not protect Steve Burr from being sacked and replaced as Harriers' manager by Andy Thorn, who is no stranger to Cup upsets having been a member of the Wimbledon team which beat Liverpool in the 1988 final, and he came into this game having overseen a 3-0 win over Salisbury in his first game in charge last weekend.

He was also able to include Joe Lolley in his starting line-up, albeit almost certainly for the last time. The 21-year-old striker, who scored all three goals against Salisbury, is expected to sign for Huddersfield later this week after being a target for a number of league clubs – including Peterborough.

Lolley came into the game having scored 10 goals in 24 games for Kidderminster this season but spent most of the first quarter of this game behind the ball as the hosts dominated possession, though not, on a heavy pitch, to any great effect. It was the visitors who had the first shot, Lee Fowler bursting into the penalty area before volleying wide.

In fact, Kidderminster looked to be weathering the storm comfortably until Danny Kearns crossed from the right and the Peterborough captain, Tommy Rowe, looped a header towards the far post. The Kidderminster goalkeeper, Danny Lewis, seemed certain to paw the ball away but, back-pedalling, he lost his footing and could not prevent the ball hitting the inside of thepost and bouncing over the line.

Forced on to the offensive, Kidderminster looked much the better for it. Amari Morgan-Smith, played in by Michael Gash, should have done much better than shoot straight at Bobby Olejnik in the Peterborough goal, and soon afterwards Lolley curled a shot too high. It did mean, however, that Peterborough began to find more space going forward and, with half-time approaching, Shaun Jeffers put an excellent chance just wide.

The miss was quickly made to look expensive. Three minutes into the second half a sweeping Kidderminster move ended with Danny Jackman crossing from the left and Gash, coming in at the far post, heading down and past Olejnik.

The hosts almost went straight back into the lead, Mark Little shooting against the outside of the post. Instead it was the visitors who turned the game on its head when, within four minutes of equalising, poor marking gave Jack Byrne time to turn and shoot past Olejnik's weak attempt to save.

The Peterborough manager, Darren Ferguson, who had lost main playmaker Rowe to injury during the first half, sent on the experienced Grant McCann and Danny Swanson. It looked to have paid off when Lee Vaughan brought down Britt Assombalonga in the area and the Peterborough striker sent Lewis the wrong way from the spot. But Lolley ensured the game ended the right way by firing an angled drive from outside the penalty area low and hard inside Olejnik's near post.

Richard Rae

Bournemouth 4-1 Burton Albion| FA Cup third round

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 01:57 PM PST

Bournemouth earned one of the more intriguing ties of the FA Cup fourth round after seeing off Burton Albion in their delayed third-round tie on Tuesday night. They will play Liverpool at home, in front of the cameras, on 25 January and Luis Suárez is assured a warm welcome. If not quite a David v Goliath clash, Bournemouth do have giant slaying history in the Cup. It was 30 years ago that, as a side bottom of the third tier, they defeated holders Manchester United 2-0 at Dean Court.

Bournemouth have already faced big-name opponents this season – and they do not come much bigger than Real Madrid. The Spanish giants took in the delights of the south coast in a pre-season friendly in July, with Cristiano Ronaldo – crowned the Ballon d'Or winner on Monday – scoring twice in a 6-0 romp.

Eddie Howe's team have experienced similar beatings in the Championship this season, as they have adjusted to life at a higher level, and have lacked consistency. A 3-0 defeat away by Wigan Athletic on Saturday ended a four-match unbeaten run and left them in 16th position in the division.

Burton, 34 places behind them, have been going great guns in League Two – they lie second behind leaders Scunthorpe United – and had built an undefeated sequence of 11 games in all competitions. Before the journey to Bournemouth, they had seen off Hereford United and Fleetwood Town, after a replay, in the earlier rounds of the competition. Two hundred Burton fans had made the trip for the original tie on 4 January but the match was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch, with only 90 minutes until kick-off. The 300-mile round trip is an ordeal in itself, let alone with no football to talk about on the way back home.

At least their return, albeit in midweek, was made more palatable for the hardy 200, with a group of Bournemouth supporters generously clubbing together and raising almost £3,000 to help pay for their travel costs. Four coach loads travelled down from Derbyshire.

Driving rain greeted them, although not the waterlogged pitch of last time, and they might have quickly regretted taking up the freebie offer. Burton were totally outplayed for most of the first half by a Bournemouth side expertly guided by Eunan O'Kane from midfield and Tokelo Rantie up front.

Harry Arter had already had a firm shot well saved by Burton goalkeeper Dean Lyness when Bournemouth went ahead in the fifth minute. Rantie, the South Africa striker, created havoc in the area with a surging run, Matt Ritchie crossed from the left and Brett Pitman tucked the ball home past Lyness. It was as easy as shelling peas – and Burton were shelled time and again. Adam Buxton did cut through from the left, forcing Bournemouth goalkeeper Ryan Allsop to save well with his legs but it was a solitary raid amid wave after wave of swift Bournemouth attacks.

Rantie was at the heart of everything and brought a flying stop from Lyness with a rasping 25-yarder. Charlie Daniels volleyed wide and Rantie burst clear of the Burton defence, only for Lyness to hack the ball away from danger. Ritchie also tried his luck, thumping his shot into the turf and up and over the crossbar.

Then, out of the blue, Burton equalised, in the 35th minute. From one of their few meaningful thrusts forward, Jimmy Phillips took aim from 20 yards and watched in delight as the effort fortuitously deflected past Allsop. The Bournemouth players could barely believe their ill-fortune.

However, on the stroke of half-time, with Lyness having done well to deny Pitman and Daniels, Bournemouth deservedly regained their lead. Daniels was involved as usual and, from his drilled cross, home captain Tommy Elphick flicked the ball home. Justice was done. As the rain continued to swirl around the stadium after the interval, Bournemouth maintained their dominance. Simon Francis released Pitman but his low, angled drive, with Lyness beaten, struck the base of the far post. Pitman again caused the Burton defence problems, with his direct running and saw Lyness produce a superb save to keep out his fierce 20-yarder.

It was all Burton could do to keep it to 2-1. Their dreams of facing Liverpool were fading. However, Adam McGurk did give them a glimmer of hope when he slung over a deep cross from wide out on the left. Several Burton bodies appeared late in the area but none was able to turn in the ball.

Bournemouth breathed a collective sigh of relief. They had already once lazily squandered a one-goal advantage but they almost made it 3-1 towards the end when Arter saw his long-range effort blocked by Phillips. Bournemouth finally made sure in the 85th minute when Ryan Fraser, a substitute, ran through alone before cleverly chipping the stranded Lyness. Pitman then slotted in a penalty three minutes later after Phil Edwards had fouled Arter.

Russell Kempson

Fulham 3-0 Norwich City

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 01:50 PM PST

Fulham can breathe easy, at least for a little while. This victory, courtesy of goals from Darren Bent, Ashkan Dejagah, and Steve Sidwell, ensures a trip to Sheffield United in the fourth round but perhaps more significantly allows the gloom that has threatened to engulf their Premier League campaign to be forgotten for a few days.

How Rene Meulensteen will be glad of it. Next up for Fulham is a trip to the Emirates before games against Swansea, Southampton, Manchester United and Liverpool. For now, though, Meulensteen can reflect on an evening where his team played coherently and with spirit, even if the challenge posed by the opposition was barely recognisable.

This was not arguably a vintage display from Fulham, but it did not need to be. Norwich were extremely poor. This defeat made it no wins in eight attempts for Chris Hughton's side, who while one point above Fulham in the league table, looked bereft of confidence and lacking ideas.

It was an indicator of Meulensteen and Hughton's priorities that there were a combined 15 changes from last weekend's league meetings. As both sides continue to fight for safety this season, this competition may be of secondary importance, but that will not have made this result easier to stomach for Norwich.

Both sides made major alterations to their starting XIs following respective league defeats at the weekend. Muelensteen brought Brede Hangeland back into the team after a three-month absence – the most significant of his nine changes – while Hughton also tinkered.

It was the third time the two sides had met in a matter of weeks, with Norwich having failed to beat their opponents in their previous 14 attempts. However, it was Hughton's side who started on the front foot and they were inches from taking the lead in the third minute.

Joshua Murphy, Norwich's teenage winger whose twin brother Jacob was on the substitutes' bench, cut inside from the left flank and evaded two markers before slipping the ball through to Nathan Redmond. His low shot across goal was saved well by Maarten Stekelenburg, making his first appearance since December, but the ball eventually fell to Robert Snodgrass whose vicious shot from outside the area dipped and swerved onto the crossbar.

Unfortunately for Norwich, that was as good as it got in a first half dominated by Fulham from thereon in. The danger signs were all too apparent before Bent opened the scoring, Sidwell and Pajtim Kasami granted far too much time to play in opposition territory, while on the Fulham left Alexander Kacaniklic appeared to have the beating of Steven Whittaker.

When it came, Bent's finish was typical of the man, a simple strike from the centre of the penalty area after 17 minutes. Kasami drove to the by-line and swept a low ball across goal that evaded Dejagah, but Bent was in the right place to fire past Mark Bunn for his fourth goal of the season.

Fulham, while not dazzling, were in control for the remainder of the half. Hangeland and his central defensive partner, Dan Burn, making his debut for the club, were relatively untroubled despite that early Snodgrass scare.

Indeed, such was the paucity of Norwich's attacking threat that the away fans resorted to gallows humour when their side earned a corner with five minutes of the half remaining, cheering incessantly.

They were not laughing, though, when Fulham cleared the set piece and broke quickly down the right, Kacaniklic dragging the ball across goal for Dejagah to finish from close range. It was a fitting end to a poor half for Norwich, who looked weak in midfield and vulnerable at the back.

Ricky van Wolfswinkel was introduced at half-time as a replacement for Redmond, with Hughton opting to play with two strikers, but the tactical shift had little impact. Indeed, while Norwich improved and were able to retain possession in the attacking third, they were starved of scoring opportunities. It took until 18 minutes after the restart before they created any semblance of a chance and when it came the threat was comfortably quashed, Sébastien Bassong heading Snodgrass's free-kick tamely into the arms of Stekelenburg.

In defence, they were hapless. Fulham's wide players were allowed to roam free and attack the full-backs at will, and it was no surprised that their third goal came from a cross.

A swift ball in was delivered from the left flank and Dejagah was almost on hand to divert it past Bunn once again, only for Javier Garrido to get the faintest of touches and divert it out to the opposing wing. Garrido's intervention, while impressive, only delayed the inevitable as Sascha Riether then hung up an inviting cross to the far post where Sidwell finished with an emphatic header.

Sidwell was lauded by the home supporters after his withdrawal in the closing stages, as Meulensteen used the opportunity to make a number of changes.

If the Dutchman can get Fulham playing like this in the league then survival is certainly achievable. That, however, remains the real challenge.

James Riach

Peterborough 2-3 Kidderminster

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 01:42 PM PST

FA Cup: Non-league Kidderminster produced the upset of the night to set up a fourth-round tie with Sunderland

Transfer roundup: Hull closing in on Nikica Jelavic and Shane Long

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 12:13 PM PST

• Everton and West Brom strikers on way to KC Stadium
• Newcastle hope to sign Dutch striker De Jong on loan

Jelavic/Long Hull City

Nikica Jelavic is expected to complete an initial £5.5m transfer from Everton to Hull City on Wednesday. The Croatia international agreed to the move and personal terms last week but has been unable to finalise the deal due to a work permit issue. That should now be resolved. Roberto Martínez, the Everton manager, had said Jelavic would only be allowed to leave if Everton had a replacement signed. There is interest in Kenwyne Jones, among others, but there has been no offer made for the Stoke City forward as yet. Hull are also closing in on West Bromwich Albion's striker Shane Long. Andy Hunter

De Jong Newcastle United

Luuk de Jong, the Borussia Mönchengladbach striker, is Newcastle's key transfer target this month, with Alan Pardew hoping to sign him on an initial loan deal. The Holland international has long been wanted by Newcastle but De Jong instead opted to move to the Bundesliga from FC Twente for £12.6m two years ago. Now though the Tyneside club are quietly confident the 23-year-old will end up at St James' Park.

De Jong's arrival would almost certainly signal the departure of Papiss Cissé, the Senegal striker, who is interesting clubs in Qatar. Cissé has lost his place in Pardew's first XI this season. Louise Taylor

Matic Chelsea

Nemanja Matic has confirmed his desire to re-sign for Chelsea after telling Portuguese media he has played his last game for Benfica. The midfielder is due to undertake a medical while the clubs thrash out a deal that is expected to be worth around £22m. Chelsea may include players in part-exchange.

"I have played my last game here," said Matic. "I want to thank all the people at the club and all the supporters. Benfica will forever be in my heart … I want to go to a better league and I want to go to Chelsea, the club which I also love." Dominic Fifield

Holtby Schalke

The midfielder Lewis Holtby could return to his former club Schalke to boost his dwindling hopes of appearing for Germany at the World Cup, according to his agent. Holtby has struggled to make an impact since joining Spurs a year ago. "Lewis is desperate to play, which is why we are looking intensively for solutions," Marcus Noack told Bild newspaper. "Schalke is an interesting option." PA

Seedorf Milan

Clarence Seedorf has announced he is retiring from football in order to become the new coach of Milan. The Dutch midfielder is leaving the Brazilian club Botafogo to replace Massimiliano Allegri, who was sacked on Monday. "I couldn't say no after 10 years spent there [at Milan]," he said. PA

Holt Aston Villa

Wigan's striker Grant Holt has moved on loan to Villa Park for the rest of the season. "Having worked with him for three years at Norwich, I know what he can do, and that's important," the Villa manager, Paul Lambert, told his club's website. "Coming back into the Premier League will rekindle that desire in him to succeed again at this level." PA

Ireland/Guidetti Stoke City

Stephen Ireland has sealed a long-term move to Stoke, who also announced the arrival of the striker John Guidetti on loan. Ireland was on a season-long loan from Aston Villa and his transfer allowed Stoke to bring in Guidetti, a 21-year-old Manchester City striker, for the rest of the season. AP

Louise Taylor

Andy Hunter

Dominic Fifield

Blackburn Rovers head to Manchester City with a little sanity restored | David Conn

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 10:38 AM PST

After a chaotic three years of managerial changes, relegation and acrimony Rovers' Indian owners Venky's appear to have found some stability with Gary Bowyer's young team

Blackburn Rovers arrive at the Etihad Stadium for their FA Cup third-round replay against Manchester City on Wednesday with a young team who stood up spiritedly to City's all-stars in the 1-1 draw at Ewood Park, a rookie English manager, Gary Bowyer, preaching hard work and stability and 4,000 loyal fans expected to travel down the M66.

Rovers' supporters, down in number by several thousand since relegation from the Premier League in 2012, have been cheered by Bowyer's positive, traditionalist approach, learned originally from his father Ian, who started his stalwart career at City in the 1960s, then was part of the side that won the 1979 and 1980 European Cups for Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest. This return match at City, Bowyer says, is a development opportunity for his team, of mostly British Championship signings or graduates from Rovers' academy.

"For us it is about learning about our players in these games; no one expects us to win so we can go there and see what our lads are made of," he said, praising the performances in the first match of the 19-year-old former trainee Adam Henley against David Silva and of Tommy Spurr, a £200,000 signing from Doncaster Rovers last summer, who was "outstanding" marking James Milner.

You could almost believe a model Championship club, solid, steady, careful Blackburn Rovers, are coming to play Sheikh Mansour's £1bn City project, if you mentally will away, as some at Rovers seem to do, the chaos of the first three years under the club's ownership by Venky's, the chicken company from Pune in India. Their ownership has dumped Rovers, well run in the Premier League before the takeover, with a £37m loss made in 2012-13, when wages were running at 137% of the club's whole income. Continuing losses this season are estimated within the club to be around £24m, with several high-earning players signed in the summer of 2012 still being generously paid but seldom playing.

Derek Shaw, the former director of near rivals Preston North End tasked with running Rovers sanely again, has made it clear the club has almost no chance of complying with the Championship's new financial fair play standard when it is assessed in December. The rules, introduced in 2012, will impose a transfer embargo on a club which has lost more than £3m this season; Rovers are currently losing eight times that permitted amount. If a club goes up – Bowyer's and his team's efforts have them in eighth place, two points outside the play-offs – they will be fined by the Football League for having achieved promotion, like so many Championship clubs before them, by making excessive losses.

Any such fine would be a cheque Venky's would be thrilled to write, as only promotion back to the Premier League's TV billions can begin to rescue the fortunes they have bewilderingly lost in their rush of haphazard decisions since they bought Rovers in November 2010.

When promoted from the coaching ranks last March, Bowyer became Blackburn's fifth manager in just over two years (plus caretaker stints by him and Eric Black), Venky's having crashed through Henning Berg and Michael Appleton for barely two months each, following the bitter tenure of Steve Kean, who led his team to relegation 18 months after Venky's summarily sacked Sam Allardyce when they took over.

Venky's chairperson, Anuradha Desai, one in the increasing line of new English football club buyers who acknowledge they know nothing about football, said their intention when they bought Rovers was to exploit the game's global popularity to further their own commercial ambitions. "I feel that the Venky's brand will get an immediate recognition if we take over this club, and that is the main reason why we are doing this," she said. The mission of the company, founded in 1972 as an egg hatchery with 8,000 chickens, was stated by Desai's father, Dr Banda Vasudev Rao, as: "To see India on the No1 position on the poultry map of the world."

Shaw, while acknowledging "some difficult times" since he stepped into a club then being run by Venky's "global football adviser", Shebby Singh, now much less visible around Rovers, was reluctant to discuss the club's decline in detail, insisting that now "I think we are getting there; huge credit to Gary Bowyer for bringing in young players, not big signings on big wages. We are heading in the right direction."

Venky's representatives declined to comment but Shaw said of the owners: "There is no talk of them getting out; they know mistakes have been made, they don't dwell on it and they are looking forward. They have an unbelievably big business in India and the Far East, they have backed this football club and continue to do so."

While the centre-back Scott Dann is linked with a return to the Premier League, with Crystal Palace reported to be interested, Bowyer said Venky's are not pressuring him to sell the striker Jordan Rhodes or Rovers' other best players.

"They are OK, they always want better, as we all do," Bowyer said of the owners, "but they are fully supportive of what we are trying to do and the model we are trying to implement."

It has taken three years, at a cost to Venky's of £23m to buy the club and £36m, and counting, in loans, to turn a Premier League club into a sensible Championship outfit, hoping to emerge from the Etihad with some credit intact.

David Conn

Jack Wilshere is a cause for excitement again, for Arsenal and England | David Hytner

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 10:13 AM PST

The Arsenal midfielder, so long beset with injury, is showing the promise that will delight club and country in a World Cup year

Jack Wilshere refers to it as "the good one" and he has done so, on a couple of occasions of late, in order to offer reassurance. "Don't worry," the Arsenal midfielder has said. "It's the good one."

The good one is the left one; the left foot; his favoured foot; the one that has not borne the brunt of all the injury frustration. That would be the right one; the bad one; the one that took away 17 months of his young career and retains the capacity to worry just about everybody connected to Arsenal and England.

It is impossible to consider Wilshere, particularly in World Cup year when everything is ratcheted up that little bit further, without discussing the state of his ankles. When he takes a knock in training or goes down in matches, everyone is thinking the same thing: please, don't let it be bad. Or, please let it be the good one.

The good one has sparked a few scares, most notably at the end of last season when, having overcompensated to protect the right, Wilshere felt it buckle. It put him out for six weeks and he was subsequently able to start only two matches in the final two and a half months. He has taken further bruises to it in recent weeks. But, as he has said, it has been nothing to worry about.

And here is the thing, the really encouraging thing for both club and country. The general fretfulness about Wilshere has been overtaken by excitement, the kind that he inspired during his breakthrough season in 2010-11 and has done, in flashes, since his comeback in October 2012 from the lengthy lay-off. Against Bayern Munich last February, for example, in the Champions League last 16 home leg, he stood tall as others shrunk.

Wilshere has craved a consistent level of performance, rather than mere big-game high spots, and the signs have come to look increasingly positive. He has been the man of the match, or pretty close to it, in Arsenal's past four fixtures – the wins over Newcastle United, Cardiff City, Tottenham Hotspur (in the FA Cup) and Aston Villa.

At the beginning of the season, there had been dark mutterings about Wilshere's game. He had undergone an operation at the end of the previous campaign to remove a pin from his right ankle that had caused discomfort and, although he enjoyed a pre-season for the first time since 2010, he did not look comfortable. He waded rather than glided. Arsène Wenger admitted that he was not fully fit.

The handbrake, to borrow the manager's phrase, is now off. When Wilshere has pressed the accelerator, he has found the response of old and it has been heart-warming to see him zip over the first few yards, past or away from opponents, chest pushed out, with echoes of Paul Gascoigne.

Physical fitness, and confidence in said fitness, is everything and it has underpinned Wilshere's purple patch since he returned from the two-game ban that he received for raising his middle finger at Manchester City fans on 14 December. He missed the derbies against Chelsea and West Ham United but, at least, it spared him the complete Christmas and New Year shake-down.

Wilshere knows that no player can last the entire season, particularly one with a chequered injury history, and he has learned to manage his body. So, too, has Wenger, who is on record as saying that he was guilty of over-playing Wilshere in 2010-11 and 2012-13.

Wenger has rotated him at times this season, although that has been easier to do after the summer signings of Mesut Özil and Mathieu Flamini. The Arsenal midfield boasts formidable strength in depth and, when Wenger makes changes to the department, there is little or no shortfall in quality. The competition has further fired them. Wilshere's form, for instance, has made light of the absence of Aaron Ramsey and the Welshman has been the club's player of the season so far.

Ramsey injured a hamstring at West Ham on Boxing Day yet he is close to a return and it could pose a problem to Wenger. Wilshere has thrived in the past four matches in a central position, either as the more advanced of the two midfielders in front of the back four or in the No10 role.

He has made no secret of his desire to be given a forward-thinking, central brief, rather than be accommodated off the flank and it is clear that his impact is lessened when he plays as a wide midfielder. His game is built on the ability to slide through-balls, to unpick defences or drive directly at them. Then again, so is Ramsey's and he, too, prefers a creative role in the middle. Arsenal, meanwhile, look better balanced with a defensive midfielder and Özil, the principal No10, has to play.

Wilshere's goals have been another boost, he now has five for the season with the touch and finish at Villa Park on Monday night. His tally across his previous seasons at Arsenal had stood at five. The 22-year-old is aware that he needs to contribute more in front of goal and it was interesting to hear him name-check his England team-mates Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard after the Villa game as examples of where he wanted to be.

"I'm not really a defensive midfielder … I'd say I was an attacking midfielder and if you are going to be one of the best, you have to score goals and create them," Wilshere said. "If you look at the best midfielders, your Lampards and Gerrards, they've done that."

Wilshere remains an international rookie, having won only 13 caps and yet the burden on his shoulders at the World Cup stands to be onerous. It is partly because the England team is hardly of vintage quality but also because a fully firing Wilshere is a tantalising prospect. Continue in this vein and hopes would swell. The good one and the bad one are on the right track.

David Hytner

Stephen Ireland joins Stoke City on long-term deal

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 09:26 AM PST

• Midfielder has impressed since arriving on loan from Aston Villa
• Stoke also bring in Man City striker John Guidetti on loan

Stephen Ireland has been handed a long-term deal at Stoke City having impressed at the club since joining on a season-long loan from Aston Villa earlier in the season.

Mark Hughes, the Stoke manager, has also brought in the Manchester City striker John Guidetti on loan for the remainder of the campaign.

Ireland has made 16 appearances under Hughes, including nine starts, and scored three goals. It is the second time in their careers Ireland and Hughes have joined forces, as the 27-year-old played under the Welshman for 18 months from June 2008 to December 2009 at Manchester City.

Speaking to the official club website, Hughes said: "Stephen is a talented footballer and has shown what he's capable of since he joined us.

"We're delighted to have made his switch a permanent arrangement as it also gives us the opportunity to bring in another player on loan."

The Fiver | Gold!

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 08:48 AM PST

Click here to have the Fiver sent to your inbox every weekday at 5pm, or if your usual copy has stopped arriving

WITH NO APOLOGIES TO THE BROTHERS KEMP

Thank you for coming here,
We're sorry for the suit Messi's worn.
Told him last time, damn growth hormone

These are now Fifa days
Slowly taking it all away
Just another play, it's a day
Oh so we're proud of us, but we're proud of us!

Nothing left to snatch in football
Greed has left us standing so tall

Ball of Gold!
Swiftly divested of soul,
We are the power that knocks,
We're indestructible
Always believe in, our own
Gold!
Glad that you're bound to our term,
There's nothing for us to learn,
We're indestructible, always believe it

Now that the class has gone
We will find a little more time
If you're not caught there's no crime

It's only a week ago
The men with the suits but no face
Decided Qatar was still the place
Because they love riyals, how they love riyals
Never mind the high prison walls
Migrant workers feeling so small

Sold!
Swiftly divested of soul
We have the power to know
Who is expendable,
Always believe in,
Because we are
Bold!
You have no root to return
Something we quickly learned
You are predictable, always believing

Football is now a high prison wall
Your brains and wallets feeling so small

Gold!
Always divesting of soul,
We've got the power to know,
You're just so vulnerable,
Always believe in, because you're our
Gold!
We know you're bound to return,
You simply just cannot learn,
We're indestructible, forever winning.

LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE TONIGHT

Join Michael Butler from 7pm GMT for a clockwatch of the night's FA Cup third-round replays.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"No one on earth is allowed to question my business decisions. I won't allow it. I can give you my CV to give you comfort, for what I do in business, what I have achieved, but for someone to come and question me is not allowed … But if the community say go away, I promise to go away within 24 hours" – owner Assem Allam threatens to leave the KC Stadium with some characteristically calm chat. People of Hull, you know what to do.

FIVER LETTERS

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BITS AND BOBS

Clarence Seedorf has announced that he will be become the next coach of Milan.

Despite winning five trophies with Bayern Munich in 2013, Franck Ribéry isn't sore at losing to Him for the Ballon d'Or. "What more could I have done after winning all those titles," he sobbed.

Former Liverpool and Spain forward Luis García, who was involved in Roy Keane's last tackle as a player, has announced his retirement. "I think the time has come to end this important chapter in my life," he narrated.

Roberto Martínez's maverick January signing policy looks set to continue with the acquisition of Kenwyne Jones from Stoke.

Nemanja Matic has confirmed his desire to re-sign for Chelsea after telling Portuguese media he has played his last game for Benfica. "I want to go to a better league and I want to go to Chelsea, the club which I also love," he cooed.

And Portsmouth are closing in on a deal to sign former Reading midfielder James Harper. "James is a bit Marmite, really," spluttered boss Richie Barker. "He could maybe rub people up the wrong way. You either love him or hate him."

STILL WANT MORE?

Tim Sherwood stars as an Arsenal fan and Robin Hood in this week's edition of The Gallery.

Rob Smyth on Him. Do read.

Meanwhile, check out some of the more extreme voting from the Ballon d'Or Song Contest.

Owen Gibson explains how Manchester United's share price is mirroring the club's form under David Moyes.

From the Vault: Matt Busby's (first) Manchester United retirement on this day in 1969.

And if you missed it, here's the latest edition of Football Weekly.

Oh, and if it's your thing, you can follow Big Website on Big Social FaceSpace.

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'WITH COMPLIMENTS'

Daniel Harris

Bobby Collins obituary

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 08:40 AM PST

Scotland, Celtic, Everton and Leeds footballer described by Don Revie as 'the best signing I ever made'

Bobby Collins, who has died aged 82, had a long and remarkable football career. Changing from a classical, quick and elusive Scottish right winger, he became in due course a notable playmaker, principally for Everton, then Leeds. An international career with Scotland brought him 31 caps, and appearances in all three Scottish matches in the finals of the 1958 World Cup.

At Leeds, he established a formidable partnership with the manager Don Revie, who signed him for £25,000 in March 1962. Revie later described him as "the best signing I ever made. Leeds can never thank him enough for the transformation he brought to the club." Collins recalled: "Don knew that good pros had good habits and I think that's what he was hoping to instil when he signed me. One of the great things about the boss was the way he built up a comradeship. We all loved him because he treated us properly and commanded our utmost respect. He also knew how to build a team."

Within a year or two of Collins's arrival, he said, "some of the kids were coming through who went on to become the nucleus of the great Leeds team. Billy Bremner had already made the first team when I arrived and looked a brilliant prospect." Johnny Giles came from Manchester United as an outside-right and eventually succeeded Collins himself as a general of the midfield.

In the 1963-64 season, Collins captained Leeds to the championship of Division Two, missing just one League game, and scoring half a dozen goals. The following season saw Leeds make a spectacular return to the top division. They finished runners-up, as they also did in the FA Cup, and Collins was voted footballer of the year.

At little over 5ft 3in, but unrelentingly hard, Collins was as abrasive as he was creative. In the 1965 Cup final at Wembley, against Liverpool, he broke the collarbone of the Liverpool full-back Gerry Byrne, who somehow played on (substitutions were not then permitted). Leeds too were diminished by injury to the midfielder Jim Storrie. There was a thrilling climax in the first extra-time period played in a final since 1947. Byrne, despite his injury, pulled the ball back from the goal-line for Roger Hunt to head Liverpool into the lead. Leeds unexpectedly rallied, for Bremner to equalise, but another header, this time by Ian St John, deservedly gave Liverpool the Cup.

Later that year, in Turin, during a European Fairs Cup match against Torino, Collins was the victim of a vicious assault by the opposing defender Fabrizio Poletti, which broke a bone in his thigh. However, Collins managed to return after a complex operation for the last three matches of the season. The following season, he received another injury, and transferred to Bury in February 1967.

Collins was born in Glasgow and worked as a miner and cobbler from the age of 14. He recalled: "Football was a wonderful life, but I found working outside the game interesting and challenging too." Going down the mine, he once remarked, had the further advantage of keeping him out of the army, in those days of conscription. Playing for Glasgow Boys, he was signed by Celtic, making his debut for them on the right wing in the 1949-50 season. His second season with Celtic saw him win his first three international caps. Altogether, he would play 220 League games for Celtic, scoring 80 goals. Crossing the border to join Everton in 1958, he had already modulated into an inside-forward.

In the Swedish World Cup of 1958, he was a member of a Scotland side which, as he later remarked, was bizarrely without managerial leadership, though it did not disgrace itself. Indeed, to draw their first game at Västerås with a Yugoslavia team which had recently thrashed England 5-0 in Belgrade was no small feat. Collins played at inside-left in that game, and inside-right in the second match in Norrköping, scoring Scotland's second goal in a 3-2 defeat by Paraguay.

The third and last game came in Örebro against the powerful French side that would eventually take third place, inspired by the attacking combination of Raymond Kopa and Just Fontaine, both of whom scored in a narrow French victory. Collins that day played in his original role of outside-right.

He stayed productively at Everton until 1961-62, making 133 League appearances and scoring 42 goals. Midway through that season, however, he dropped down a division to join Leeds. He might well instead have moved across the city to Liverpool, whose manager, a fellow Scot, Bill Shankly, wanted him. But the first time Shankly phoned him, Collins was out and his brother-in-law couldn't make out who it was. By the time Shankly phoned again, Collins had agreed to join Leeds.

After leaving Leeds, he helped Bury to reach the Second Division. Later there was a spell in Scotland with Morton, another in Dublin with Shamrock Rovers, and a stint at Oldham Athletic, as player-coach. His subsequent managerial career was varied, and somewhat ill-starred. In August 1974 he became manager of Huddersfield Town, then in the Third Division, but that ended in December 1975, by which time his job had been made impossible by the board's intransigence. It was, he said, "a nightmare".

After Huddersfield, he became chief coach, caretaker and manager, and finally, in October 1977, the manager of Hull City, but the job lasted only until the following February, when he was dismissed. In the interim he had returned to Leeds United as youth coach.

For the next couple of years he was forced on to the dole, then worked variously as principal of a coaching school, "in the rag trade, chauffeuring and being a bit of a messenger boy. I enjoyed that." Finally, his former Leeds team-mate Norman Hunter made him youth and reserve team coach at Barnsley. When Hunter left, Collins became the new manager, after a spell as caretaker, in February 1984.

But, just back from taking the players for a holiday in Majorca in what seemed a fruitful spell for the club, he was dismissed once again, with a year of his contract left, in June 1985. "I thought I had done a good job," he said. "At the time, the miners' strike was having a bad effect on the local economy, gates were down, and if you spent £50,000 on a player, it was big money."

Later, he worked with a friend in wholesale fashion, then for some years as a driver for Leeds University. In 2002, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

He had two children, Michael and Julie, with his wife, Betty.

• Robert Young Collins, footballer and manager, born 16 February 1931; died 13 January 2014

Brian Glanville

Football quiz: the Ballon d'Or

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 08:26 AM PST

Today's headscratchers got no votes

Grant Holt completes loan move to Aston Villa from Wigan

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 08:23 AM PST

• Aston Villa confirm arrival of striker for remainder of season
• Holt delighted with 'opportunity I couldn't turn down'

Aston Villa have confirmed the signing of the 32-year-old striker Grant Holt from Wigan on loan for the remainder of the season.

Wigan had previously confirmed that Holt, signed from Norwich City last summer, was undergoing a medical at Villa. The move reunites the 32-year-old Holt with his former Norwich manager Paul Lambert and ends a disappointing spell in the Championship. He scored two goals in 21 appearances for Wigan, both of them in August.

"When I knew Grant had become available it was something I wanted to pursue quickly because he'll add strength and experience to what is still a young squad overall," Lambert told the club website. "Having worked with him for three years at Norwich, I know what he can do and that's important.

"Coming back into the Premier League will rekindle that desire in him to succeed again at this level and, if he can replicate what he did in those three years at Norwich over these next few months here at Villa, then he'll make an impact, that's for sure.

"Grant's got some really strong attributes, he's someone who is tried and trusted and a player I've worked with before. We're looking at one or two other positions as well but this is good business for us and he'll be a really strong influence."

Holt's time at Norwich was the finest of his career, and he scored 53 goals in 92 games as the club earned successive promotions to rise from League One to the Premier League. "It's a massive opportunity for me personally, an opportunity I couldn't turn down," he said of Tuesday's move. "To be able to come back into the Premier League, especially at a club as big as Villa, is fantastic and it's a an opportunity for me to work with the gaffer and his staff again as well. He's able to get the best out of people, there's no doubt about that."

The new Wigan manager Uwe Rösler, who recently indicated that he wanted to get some of the higher earners off the wage bill, has stressed Holt will remain a Wigan player and that both clubs could benefit.

He told Sky Sports News: "This was a great opportunity for him to work under his previous manager when he got the best out of him. Both parties have worked very well and successfully together. It was too good an opportunity for Grant to turn down and we wish him all the best. He's our player and we will see how we'll do and we will see where we are in the summer."

Seedorf to take over as head coach at Milan

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 07:58 AM PST

• Former midfielder to replace sacked Massimiliano Allegri
• 37-year-old has no previous managerial experience

The former Netherlands and Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf will become the Serie A club's new coach after announcing an end to his illustrious playing career on Tuesday.

The 37-year-old Dutchman, who left Milan for Botafogo in 2012, told a news conference that he was retiring as a player. "This isn't a goodbye, we'll meet again," he said at Botafogo's stadium in Rio. "All the experience I have gained in this year and a half at Botafogo is going to help me in my next venture, which will be as coach of Milan."

Seedorf's agent, Deborah Martin, said he had signed a two-and-a-half year contract to replace Massimiliano Allegri, who was fired by Milan on Monday following a dismal run of results for the seven-times European champions. Seedorf said he had not been considering retirement but that the offer to return to Milan was too good to turn down.

"The decision [to sack Allegri] was decisive," Seedorf told reporters. "The call came in the middle of a training session. Obviously, it's a place where I spent 10 years of my life and I have a very close relationship with the president so when he asked me I couldn't say no."

The move to appoint Seedorf, who had a successful 10-year playing career at Milan, is something of a gamble although he is a hugely popular figure at the club and would arrive with a deep bank of goodwill.

The midfielder was the first player to win the Champions League with three different clubs – Ajax in 1995, Real Madrid in 1998 and Milan in 2003 and 2007. He has also represented Internazionale and Sampdoria.

The former Dutch international won two league titles and an Italian Cup to go with the two Champions League victories during his time at Milan, during which he was also awarded the Uefa Best Midfielder Award in 2007.

Milan are currently 11th in Serie A after squandering a two goal lead in a 4-3 defeat at promoted Sassuolo on Sunday night. That left them 30 points behind the leaders, Juventus, and 20 points off the final Champions League berth, currently occupied by Napoli.

Allegri managed just five wins in 19 league games this season and was fired on Monday morning. There has been sympathy for Allegri, who won the Serie A title in his first season in 2010-11 but has since had to deal with the loss of Thiago Silva, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Andrea Pirlo, Alessandro Nesta, Gennaro Gattuso and Seedorf himself during a tough transitional period at the club.

Allegri guided Milan into the Champions League with a late Philippe Mexes goal on the last day of last season but they face a tough prospect in the round of 16 next month against high-flying Atlético Madrid.

Seedorf joined Botafogo in 2012 on a two-year contract the club said was the best ever given to a foreign player. His drive and often-admired professionalism helped turn the club's fortunes around and 2013 was their most successful season in years.

Botafogo won the Rio state championship in May and finished fourth in the Serie A, a placing that took them into the Copa Libertadores, South America's version of the Champions League, for the first time since 1996.

"After 22 years, it was a difficult night," Seedorf said of his decision to retire. "But I am very satisfied with what I've done in my career and with what I managed to do with Botafogo.

"One of the most important objectives was to put them back on top and get them back in the Libertadores for the first time in 17 years. The clubs deserves it, the fans deserve it and the players deserve it."

However, Seedorf had also expressed disappointment at the lack of passion among Botafogo's fans. The club's average attendance was only 13,000, a low number for a city of almost 10 million people.

Like many Brazilian clubs Botafogo suffered from serious financial problems, and players were not always paid on time. The club's new stadium was closed in March, after authorities said the roof was in danger of collapsing in high winds.

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini on Samir Nasri's injury – video

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 07:52 AM PST

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini says Samir Nasri will be out of action for at least six weeks

Manchester United's David Moyes delays Wilfried Zaha's loan move

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 07:30 AM PST

• Cardiff City favourites to agree deal for winger
• Manager waits for injury news on Ashley Young and Nani

Wilfried Zaha may be allowed to go on loan by David Moyes, once the Manchester United manager has weighed up his options in wide positions as he waits for injury news from Ashley Young and Nani.

Moyes has Adnan Januzaj, Antonio Valencia and Shinji Kagawa as three players who can operate in the position and with it being unclear when Young, who has a shoulder issue and Nani, a hamstring problem, might return, the Scot has yet to decide if he can afford to lose Zaha for the rest of the season.

Cardiff City are favourites to sign the 21-year-old, the strong links of the new manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, with United – from his time there as a player and reserve team coach – helping to push his club ahead of Stoke City and Newcastle United in the battle to sign Zaha.

Moyes wants regular Premier League football for Zaha, along with a guarantee that the coaching he will receive can best help to develop the winger, who has struggled to establish himself at Old Trafford.

Jamie Jackson

Sergio Agüero back in Manchester City squad for Blackburn FA Cup tie

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 07:10 AM PST

• Striker has been missing since 14 December
• Yaya Touré and David Silva both out injured

Sergio Agüero will return to the Manchester City squad for Wednesday evening's FA Cup third-round replay against Blackburn Rovers at the Etihad Stadium following a calf problem, though Yaya Touré and David Silva are both out injured.

Agüero, 25, returned to training this week after recovering from a calf injury that has ruled him out since the 6-3 Premier League win over Arsenal on 14 December.

However, Manuel Pellegrini indicated that Samir Nasri's knee injury may keep him out for less than the eight weeks the Frenchman predicted on Monday, with the manager stating that his prolonged absence would not affect City's transfer policy on the current window.

Of Nasri, the Chilean said: "A very important player for us. He was also playing in a very good moment so we hope he can come back as soon as possible but I think less than six or seven weeks will be difficult.

"No, it has not changed our philosophy. We know exactly what we are going to do in the transfer window."

While Agüero is likely to be a substitute for Rovers' visit, Touré and Silva have minor problems and should be fit for Cardiff City's visit on Saturday.

The striker John Guidetti, meanwhile, has joined Stoke City on loan.

Jamie Jackson

Cull the Tigers and I quit, says Allam

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 07:06 AM PST

• Fans object to plans to rebrand the club as Hull Tigers
• Name change 'key to making club attractive around the world'

The Hull City owner, Assem Allam, has threatened to walk away from the club if the Football Association refuses to grant his application to change the club's name to Hull Tigers.

Allam has formally applied to the FA for the name change, which he believes will symbolise "power" and be key to making the club attractive around the world and earning fortunes from selling merchandise. The change, whose projected impact Allam told the Guardian he had not yet researched, is bitterly opposed by supporter groups campaigning to keep the name City have had since 1904.

Speaking to Sky Sports News, Allam, who made his money building up a generator business, Allam Marine, said of the opposition: "No one on earth is allowed to question my business decisions. I won't allow it. I can give you my CV to give you comfort, for what I do in business, what I have achieved, but for someone to come and question me is not allowed.

"I'm here to save the club and manage the club for the benefit of the community. It will never, never be the other way round – that the community manage it for me. But if the community say go away, I promise to go away within 24 hours."

Assam added he would also go away within 24 hours if the name change is rejected by the FA, whose council has absolute discretion to decide.

"Still the same thing. It's a free country. No two ways about it. Have I ever said something and went back on it? No," he said.

Allam did not explain the terms on which he would walk away, given that the club is heavily indebted to him. Having taken over with the club in financial difficulties in December 2010 and lent £41m immediately, Allam's company loans – charged at 5% interest – were up to £72m by 31 July 2013, the date of the recent accounts. Allam ran a wage bill of £26m in the Championship, despite the club's income totalling only £11m, so achieved promotion to the Premier League making a loss of £26m.

There are fears that if the FA does reject his name-change application he will withdraw financial support. City Till I Die, the fans' group coalition opposing the change, have said in a statement that they: "Remain confident that the FA will make the right decision, and protect the heritage and traditions of Hull City AFC, and those of other clubs whose identities may come under threat."

David Conn

Manchester United's share price mirrors form under David Moyes | Owen Gibson

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 06:56 AM PST

The Premier League club's lacklustre showing on Wall Street highlights the link between the stock market and the top-flight table – past performance is no guarantee of future results

In the Premier League era, it is often hard to tell where the financial section finishes and the sports pages begin. The line between the two has not so much blurred as collapsed. So as relentless scrutiny of his transfers, tactics and team selections has intensified the pressure on David Moyes, so the effect of Manchester United's lacklustre form on their Wall Street share price has been reported as though enunciated by Charlotte Green.

It stood on Tuesday at $15.16, only three cents above its 12-month low, as it continued its drift from a high of more than $19 in the heady days of May as United celebrated their 20th championship. That slide, which has wiped $250m off United's overall value in a little over six months, has refocused scrutiny on the business model and future intentions of the American family that have bitterly divided fans throughout their ownership.

Since the Glazers surprised some analysts by persuading investors to pay $14 a share for a 10% stake in the club on Wall St in August 2012, at a price lower than that initially hoped for but still considered high given the lack of voting rights they conferred, that figure has fluctuated. It initially dipped sharply below the offer level, and hit a low of $12.18 in September 2012, before beginning a steady climb and reaching a high of $19.04 on 2 May as Sir Alex Ferguson celebrated his last, and arguably greatest, achievement in squeezing the last drops from a squad that was creaking at the seams (not to mention their joints).

The announcement of his retirement sparked an immediate fall, followed by a recovery into autumn as the club announced healthy financial results that underlined the further potential for revenue growth. It then fell sharply from mid-December onwards, coinciding with a fresh wave of concern over the Moyes era. The initial public offering (IPO), originally planned for Singapore but then switched to New York and leading to the club's incorporation in the Cayman Islands, was the latest in a series of moves that repackaged, sliced, diced and refinanced the debt that the Glazers had incurred to buy the club in the first place.

It is only in hindsight that the huge debt they owed Ferguson, who saw no contradiction between his socialist Govan shop steward roots and the product of global capitalism that United became, has truly become clear.

Not only did his spat with the Coolmore mafia effectively usher in their takeover bid but his steadfast support in the face of massed fan protest and his insistence that he was never refused money for transfers did much to solidify their tenure when it was tottering. And that is before you consider the feat of alchemy he performed by maintaining a winning streak on a relative shoestring. In doing so he arguably left behind a heap of trouble for his successor, exacerbated by the failure of new vice-chairman Ed Woodward to land the sort of statement signings required to usher in a new era.

Yet it was Ferguson's genius, combined with the acumen of Woodward in minting a commercial model that has become a juggernaut, that allowed the Glazers to pilot a course through a series of risky financial manoeuvres that blogger Andy Green has calculated will have cost the club more than £1bn in fees and interest by 2016.

While picturing what sort of club they may have become under alternative ownership is inevitably an exercise in guesswork, what United might have done with that money instead will always remain the biggest stain on the Glazer era.

Football clubs are notoriously hard to value because they are not like any other business. Nor is it easy to disentangle the fluctuations in United's share price from wider market conditions and it would be wrong to draw a direct line between results on the pitch and the graphs on traders' screens.

But any sensible investor will be keeping a concerned eye on what Ferguson's departure means for the Glazer model, the level of investment likely to be required and what a period of relative underachievement on the pitch – and, in particular, an absence from the Champions League of more than a season – might do for revenue forecasts. United's financial predictions are based on the club finishing third in the league and reaching the quarter-finals of cup competitions – which looks like an ambitious target at this juncture.

As does the promise, made at the time of the IPO, that annual net transfer spend would continue to average £25m to £30m a year. At at time when the need to rebuild the squad looks more urgent with every passing day, significantly more than that may be required. Nor is it quite right to say the Glazers are paying little attention to the share price fluctuations – they will be monitoring them keenly.

In the short term, any plans they may have had to float further tranches of shares and cash out, while retaining overall control, will surely have to be paused until a more attractive "narrative" emerges.

Following the float, the best guess at the future intentions of the ever-silent Glazers – having weathered the riskiest point of their debt-funded model and the stormiest fan protests – was that they would sit back and continue to cash in batches of shares, under no pressure to sell unless they received a ludicrous offer. Clouds of uncertainty over the future put that vision at risk. At the same time, some of the wilder talk of the last few weeks that the Glazers might be spooked into drastic action by a fall in the share price are also well wide of the mark. Beyond this period of instability, they still believe – rightly or wrongly – that they have only begun to scratch the surface of a model that will yield further growth and see themselves as long-term owners.

Gazing west to the US and east to China, and mindful of the potential of technology, they can see further riches even beyond the $1bn they hope for from Nike for a new kit deal and the $559m Chevy shirt sponsorship contract. Meanwhile, they hope financial fair play and rising broadcasting income will further lock in their natural advantage.

The contrast between the gloom surrounding United's performances on the pitch and the upbeat announcement last week of their latest global partner, drinks brand Aperol, was striking. Yet if the rewards of success dry up, all the romance and history of the United "brand" will not stop partners looking to Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich instead. It is only then that you might expect change to be considered in the dugout.

For now, Old Trafford insiders preach patience, point to Moyes's six-year contract and insist he will be given the time and money to drastically reshape his squad in the summer. Those hoping the Glazers, considering the task at hand, will falter in their determination not to sell are likely to be disappointed.

Yet as any student of small print knows, if there is one certainty that links the stock market and the league table it is that past performance is no guarantee of future results. Just as it is too early to judge the Moyes era on the pitch, so it will only become clear in time whether the fluctuations in United's share price are merely a temporary blip or a harbinger of longer-term flux.

Owen Gibson