Football news

Liverpool are again in the middle of takeover negotiations with reports saying that owner Tom Hicks held talks with Kuwait billionaire, Nasser Al-Kharafi, who has an estimated £9 billion fortune.

Hicks and co-owner George Gillet took over at Liverpool in 2007 for £218m. Now, it appears they are willing to sell after valuing the club at around £550m.

Reports suggest talks with Al-Kharafi initially took place as part of attempts to finance Liverpool's proposed new stadium in Stanley Park, but turned to a buy-out.

The regime of Hicks and Gillett has become deeply unpopular among fans after early optimism, and the US tycoons have just been given an extra six months to repay a £350m loan from the Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia.

Inter director says Vieira stays

Marco Branca, the technical director at Italy champions Inter, said injury-prone Frenchman Patrick Vieira will not be transferred this month.

The experienced midfielder has been linked with a move to Portsmouth, currently managed by Tony Adams, a former Vieira team-mate at Arsenal. However, Branca denied the reports and went on to put an end to the speculation surrounding Vieira's future.

"Patrick will certainly be staying with us," he maintained.

"We have received several offers for him from English sides, but we haven't even considered them."

Allardyce's massive pay-out

Sam Allardyce and his staff received a pay-out of £4.6m to terminate their contracts with Newcastle United in January last year.

The news emerged from the Premier League club's financial report for the period to June 30, 2008.

The results confirmed owner Mike Ashley has poured £100m into the club and that a £20m loss was made. Newcastle had to pay £4,597,000 after parting with Allardyce. However, there was an increased turnover of £98.8m, up from £87.1m the previous year as a result of the new TV deal for Premier League clubs.

The report also highlights the club received the sum of £6.7m in compensation for the knee injury striker Michael Owen suffered at the 2006 World Cup finals.

Mutu back in 10 days' time

Romanian striker Adrian Mutu will be back for Fiorentina in the next ten days when he completes a full recovery from a dislocated elbow he suffered earlier this month.

Mutu fell awkwardly during the Serie A 2-1 upset at home to Lecce on January 11 and club doctors said he had aggravated an already existing elbow injury.

In midweek, he underwent tests that showed the treatment has been effective.

Fiorentina said Mutu can return to training next week. He skips the matches against Juventus and Napoli but should make it in time for the February 1 clash with Bologna.

Mancini to replace Hughes at City?

Roberto Mancini, the coach who led Inter to successive league titles in the Serie A, is being linked with the job at Manchester City to replace Mark Hughes.

Mancini has been out of work since being sacked by Inter at the end of last season. Lately, he talked about his desire to return to the game, but is still on the Inter payroll, as the two sides never managed to settle the contract dispute.

But with Hughes's position under threat, that could change as Mancini is reportedly the preferred City candidate to coach their team.

Mancini, who is currently studying English, said: "I need some time to think about my future. I won't make any significant decisions yet."

Hull City break transfer record

Hull City broke their transfer record to sign shaggy-haired central midfielder Jimmy Bullard from Premier League rivals Fulham yesterday.

Bullard, who broke into Fabio Capello's England squad this season, has joined for a fee of five million pounds.

Hull have suffered a dip in form over the last two months after making a superb start to their first campaign in England's top division and manager Phil Brown said Bullard would help steady the ship.

"We're trying to improve a squad that has been competing in the Premier League and that just needed a bit of bolstering," Brown said.

"Jimmy is a good player, end of story."

Milan with the best average attendance

Statistics published this week showed that Milan have the highest average attendance in the Serie A with 60,067 fans per game.

A study has shown that Milan, boosted by the arrivals of star players Ronaldinho and David Beckham, are ahead in attracting spectators, better than champions Inter, 51,637, and third-placed Roma, 41,225.

Rome's other club Lazio attract 36,407 supporters per match and Napoli have 38,658 regulars.

Juventus, currently playing at the 25,000-capacity Stadio Olimpico, are near the bottom of the ladder with an average of 22,251.

Siena have beaten perennially under-supported outfit Chievo to bottom place with a meagre average of 10,630 fans. There has been a slight increase in attendances this season with the Serie A average at 24,895 opposed to last year's 24,470.