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With the awaited match for Hamburg the match against Manchester City on 16th April has prompted rumours that Martin Jol is all set to replace Mark Huges the manager of Manchester United.

On one side the defeat from Fulham has really upset the supporters of Manchester City and their chants that Mark Hughes did not know what he was doing when they went down 3-1 in spite of the fact that they were leading by one goal in the initial stages of the match. While on the other side Hamburg had a fantastic season.

Martin Jol however denied any truth in this matter and said that he has opted for tradition over money. Praising his club and his employer he said that Manchester City is a great club and he really admired the fans. He added that he was very upset with these kinds of things as he was not even giving even the slightest thought to this aspect and he really liked his present employer. He said that he wished to stay here for a longer period.

With the match of Hamburg against Manchester city if City is not able to recover from the previous defeat Martin will get the first hand experience of the discontented city’s fans at their home ground.

Another issue that adds the pressure for Mark Hughes is the fact that in this week’s match Khaldoon Al Mubarak the chairman of the club is flying specially to watch the match. However this visit was scheduled prior to the defeat on Sunday against Fulham.

At 11.30 am when the gates of St James Park were opened thousands of fans gathered for the opening session of the training of the players of Newcastle. It became a grand affair as they cheered their players over the training session. It was schoolchildren’s Easter holidays and thousands of them gathered making the crowd number to 7500 as the 38-year old Alan Shearer manager of Newcastle marked the beginning of one of the toughest survival battle on a day with warm sunshine.

The crowds watched as Shearer and Iain Dowie his assistant started the shooting practice supervision. Meanwhile Mark Viduka and Joey Barton who were absentees for a long term worked jointly recovering from the injury. The crowed cheered their players each time the ball crossed over to the net something the crowed desperately wants to it to happen more frequently in the near future.

The highlights being when the manager could not resist the repetition of his past after his first in the double he claimed in the game. Meanwhile Michael Owen the Captain also joined in practice for shooting. With the crucial match on Saturday of the Premier League coming up the defenders Sebastien Bassong and Steven Taylor were not to be seen as they are still battling with the groin injury and ankle injury.

It was a pleasure to watch Shearer pass on his experience of a record 206 goals and his 20 years of football life and serve his club of his home town. The training session included close range shots that peppered Fraser Foster and Steve Harper the goalkeepers ahead of the tough challenges to be faced by them in the seven games remaining in the season. Admittedly, the training could have been said to be tough or extreme, and no one was forced to run countless laps or spend extra time on a treadmill like the Tunturi T85. With that said, no one can question Shearer’s desire to propel Newcastle back to winning form and save his former team. The determination of Shearer could be seen by the extraordinary struggle he has to make to save the relegation of the club where he would use everything and everyone who are at his disposal.

On Friday Sir Alex Ferguson was quoted saying that Chief Executive of Manchester United David Gill is considering staggering of the games. Ferguson in the past was in favour of a shut-down similar to the continental style during the middle of the season and justified the winter break as beneficial which would come immediately after New Year fixtures.

However Ferguson is also aware of the fact that the acceptance of this concept is not there in England although there was a situation when all the top clubs voted in favour of having a winter break but were not able to decide on how to schedule the same.

Now the Manchester United boss is considering the extension by one more week of this current season as he wants to accommodate the qualify games of the world cup for England to be played in June against Andorra and Kazakhstan and this he feels would more than justify having a winter break. He further added that due to the lack of rest, injuries suffered by the English players are much more common than their counterparts in Europe. Most continental European players have a break to take off their Adidas, Nike or Puma football boots and recover from the rigours of regular season play. Ferguson further emphasised that the figures support his observation that the English players play with a lot of troubles and sprains and as they approach the months of late February or early march many play with injuries.

Meanwhile David Gill is expected to put up a proposal to spread one round of fixtures of the Premier League in January over a period of three weeks which would satisfy broadcaster requirements and at also providing two weeks break to all the 20 clubs players so that they could re-charge themselves.

According to reports from the media, Alan Shearer is going to be named as the manager of Newcastle until the end of the 2008/09 Premier League season. This 38 year old efficient footballer is anticipated to take charge over the team for the last eight matches of the campaign. He would help the Magpies stay off demotion, especially because their present boss, Joe Kinnear, has undergone a triple heart bypass operation.

Alan Shearer time after time denied information linking him to the St James Park post even though the assumptions fumed during the whole of last year with the come back, and then the departure of Kevin Keegan, the ‘fellow toon legend’. However, it is believed that the previous captain of the club, who is presently working as a ‘television pundit’, has been lured into an ephemeral stretch in charge for the reason that it represents an expedient move towards management. After all, though a legendary player, Shearer has no managing experience past Football Manager 2009, and Newcastle will likely want to shop around for more experienced talent to fill the post. Alan’s deal with the Newcastle football team is a temporary agreement. It began with the call of third placed ‘Chelsea’ on Saturday in the Premier League. However, there are a lot of rumours saying that the owner, Mike Ashley may even put a longer termed role of coaching for the ex England striker on the table, but that us only if he succeeds in keeping the club (presently 18th placed) among the higher ranks.

Alan Shearer will be disclosed to the press and public on Thursday morning on Tyneside.

Ricky Sbragia has been appointed as the manager of Sunderland and he succeeds Roy Keane who had put in his resignation two months ago. He has signed the deal for 18 months with the hope that if the club is able to safeguard its status in the Premier League, a new contract would be signed. He remarked that if he stayed, he will again talk regarding the contract in summer. He said his approach and all his planning will be of a long term basis as he cannot think of planning recruitment on short term basis.

He further added that the long term continuity approach was missing at the top, but he will be able to sort out the situation as his communication is very good with Chairman Niall Quinn that will make things easy for him. He further added that he will be meeting with Niall on Wednesday for recruitment and the road ahead and was hopeful of putting things in place and develop the concept of continuity.

Sbragia who is 52 said he was greatly influenced by the Sir Alex Ferguson manager of Manchester United, where he was a reserve team manager for three years and learnt to create the right approach. He said he really enjoyed the work there and the atmosphere there was like one family of staff and the players. He further emphasised the importance of continuity and said people have been staying at Manchester United for 15 years. He further added that though he was pleased with 31 points, but remarked they have to achieve much more.

On the possibility of return of Peter Reid former manager of Sunderland as Director of Football for the club, he said though it was discussed with Niall; however it has been left for the summer.

When Manchester United travelled to Milan they had certain defensive problems with Jonny Evans facing an ankle injury and John O’Shea having a fitness test because of the heel problem. However their mental preparation for the match on Tuesday night was excellent as they wanted to enjoy the game remarked Sir Alex Ferguson manager Manchester United. After Manchester United goalless draw with Inter, Sir Alex Ferguson was very relaxed and in fact was happy and said that it was more important for him that the players are enjoying the game. He also believes that though Manchester United failed to score in the match, he was confident that they stand a great chance in the Champions League.

The Red Devils dominated in the first half and tested Julio Cesar many times, but could not succeed in passing through him. In fact to put it more blatantly, they kept on squandering one chance after another. The second half of the match Inter came back into the game and improved their performance to a great extent. In fact the first 15 minutes Inter dominated the match. Finally the match ended in a goalless draw.

Expressing his views on the match Ferguson said that overall performance of the team was very good and his team displayed maturity and played well. Despite not winning, the every player wearing a Nike Manchester United Away Shirt 2009 could feel good about their team’s performance. Except for the 10-15 minutes of the second half where they were dominated and a bit under pressure, the rest of the match was dominated by them. Those initial moments after the first half he added were as per their expectations and which was also discussed by him at half time. Other than those moments, he said his team played outstandingly well, Of course without any goal.

Rafael Benitez’s present contract expires when the next season ends. Though he has been offered new contract of four years, he has till date not accepted any of the four drafts offered to him and through reliable sources it appears that despite his demands of getting full control of recruitment and transfer policy of Liverpool’s academy being met by the club owners, the deal has reached a breaking point.

When he was asked if there was any possibility of sorting out the dispute, he avoided a direct answer and remarked that he just wanted to concentrate on football.

Howeve,r he will have to further increase his concentration and make a right decision in terms of Steven Gerrard’s fitness against Real Madrid for Champions League, especially after Manchester City pulled off a 1-1 draw with Liverpool. This has let to a drop of two points for Liverpool resulting in further faltering for the title challenge. Any fan wearing the Adidas 08-10 Liverpool home shirt could not have been happy with Liverpool’s draw against the struggling Manchester City, as Liverpool needs every win it can get to pull ahead of Man U.

Benitez agreed that it was a bad outcome as he felt they could have won the match even after equalisation. On the other hand Mark Hughes’ of the opposite side appreciated the determination and the drive of his team specially Robinho who had an impressive session.

Benitez further added that now their lifeline lies on their old Trafford trip on March 14 and said it was very importance to win matches against Sunderland and Middlesbrough and then develop the future strategy.

He also stated that he was aware of the fact that some people did not want them to succeed. A lot of bad and good things have been going around though most of them are not relevant he further added.

Peter Moores can now forget about his disappointment at being sacked from the job of England coach and look at performing well in his new assignment as Lancashire coach. He has now been appointed the head coach by the Red Rose County.

Moores played first class cricket as wicketkeeper for Worcestershire and Sussex and was the captain of the latter in 1997. After retiring he took up coaching and led Sussex to County Championship in 2003. He was involved with cricket in varying capacities after that including briefly coaching England ‘A’. Finally in April 2007 he was appointed the coach of England national team.

He took up the reins at very troubled times and made many changes with the composition of the team. His troubles started after England’s tour of India where they lost in both Test as well as One Day matches. As per the media reports after the tour, the then England captain Kevin Pietersen is supposed to have asked the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to take a look at Moores’ role with the team.

It was a downward slide after that. There were allegations, misquotes, and every thing else in the media that only made the whole scenario more confusing. Finally, Moores was sacked and KP quit captaincy.

Since then there has been a lot of speculation as to the future of Peter Moores. But after a gap of just five weeks since he was sacked from his last job he has been appointed the head coach of Lancashire. In the process he has also beaten some strong choices like Geoff Marsh to the post, who must be some what disappointed now. Lancashire has always been a strong team and a favourite of mine to play as in games like Cricket 07, so Peter Moores can definitely be thrilled with his new post. There are a lot of expectations from him and he has received all round support. From former captains to former players everyone has come out in his full support and he can be expected to have a challenging and satisfying time at his new job.

On his part Peter Moores told Sky Sport as far as his tenure with England is considered he had, “no regrets.” He further stressed that he was looking forward to coaching Lancashire now.

Tony Adams has left the training ground and said his final goodbyes to his days at Portsmouth. Those were some very painful days especially for the fans. The 42 year old won only 2 out of 16 Premier League games as the manager for his (now ex) club. And he was subsequently sacked but he still is, “a little bit surprised” as he told BBC radio some time back.

But his sacking has meant that there is a lot of activity going on at the Fratton Park. There is a long and interesting list of possible future managers. And with each passing day a new name is getting thrown into the ring.

But before going into those names, let me first take you through the present state of affairs at Portsmouth. The current owner Alexandre Gaydamak has presently put the club up for sale. Subsequently there is no positive movement towards the construction of new stadium and training complex. They even had to sell two important players in January this year.

The search for a coach in such a scenario is not going to be an easy one. Still there are some of the top names in news for the high profile job along with some others. The top three names in the running are Sven Goran Eriksson, Avram Grant and Alan Curbishley. The Swede Eriksson is presently in charge of Mexican national team and ruled himself out saying he has, “contract with Mexico until 2010.” Crubishley quit West Ham last year and is available but his legal dispute with his last club could be a dampener here.

The frontrunner though is Avram Grant. He is himself out of job after having unsuccessfully led Chelsea to Champions League final against Manchester United last season. What really makes him a certainty is, one he is ex football director at Portsmouth and two, has close links with the club owner.

There are some other names too doing the rounds viz. Terry Venables, Slaven Bilic, Roy Keane and Glenn Hoddle. But as of now the consensus seems to be on Avram Grant unless they are looking forward to throwing another surprise.

Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Chelsea coach, is feeling the pinch with his team failing to make any headway in the Premier League, and if anything it is only going downhill. Such has been the decline of Chelsea in recent times that the critics are calling for the coach’s head. Many are even commenting that the appointment of the Brazilian to the sensitive post was a gross mistake, and that his exploits as the coach of the World Cup winning Brazilian team is over hyped, as, given the talent of the Brazilians, just about anyone could have done it.

It is definitely harsh on the Brazilian, but he is unruffled and is determined to prove his detractors wrong. And it is a bit too far fetched to comment that the coach has no role to play in the Brazil’s rise. Indeed, simply handing Ronaldinho a Nike Brazil football shirt does not guarantee victory. Lovers of the game need to realize that having the best players doesn’t guarantee victory, especially in low scoring games. What is important in such situations is equilibrium between attack and defense, which cannot be achieved unless you are guided by an imaginative coach, who is also a good reader of the game.

Most of the time people have the false impression that Brazil plays carefree football, obviously motivated by that famous “samba beat”, and that they doesn’t care whether they concede three goals or four as they can always score one more. It cannot be more off the track, as if you check the World Cup records of Brazil and Germany, it is crystal clear that the former conceded the lest number of goals. There is no doubting that Brazil is the pioneer of the modern back four, which it famously unleashed in the 1958 World Cup.

Moreover, if people still doubt Scolari’s credentials they should do well to take a leaf out of his spell with Portugal, when he almost single-handedly managed to transform the individualistic brilliance available in the team to a cohesive force.