Hull could offer Owen a last Premier League chance.

Hull City could be set to offer Michael Owen his only chance to make a Premier League switch from Newcastle United. Owen was Newcastle’s highest paid player and was said to be growing increasingly frustrated by his failure to secure a move away from St James’ Park.

Well the 34-page document that was released about himself seems to not have been a bad move as Phil Brown is interested in signing him. Hull will be looking to add both experience and calibre to their squad as the narrowly avoided relegation last season at the expense of Owen’s current employers.

They will want to do everything they possibly can to eradicate the chance of this happening again and a fit and healthy Michael Owen would be a fantastic signing for one of the smaller Premier League sides. This is the key though as Owen so often gets injured or picks up little niggles that mean he misses a set of games.

The financial side of any deal could be the thing that stops the move altogether. Owen will want a large chunk of the plus £100,000 per week that he was on at Newcastle. He surely understands now that he needs to take a pay cut to get back to the Premier League but it is highly unlikely that Hull can get any where near these sort of wages demands. It could mean that Owen goes elsewhere or chooses to stay at Newcastle for the financial benefits.

Phil Brown said: “He has a proven track record as a goal scorer and that’s an area that we are keen to strengthen. It would have to be on the right terms. It’s been sounded out as a possibility but there has been no offer put to him.”

As already mentioned in a number of stories over the last couple of weeks, Owen will want to try and get back into the England side under Fabio Capello. Capello was the manager when Owen was playing at Real Madrid and he did not impress the Italian then and will want another chance. There is no way he will get this chance if he stays at Newcastle and cannot get himself fit on a regular basis.

Owen does not appear to be an egotistic sort of individual and never has done during any point in his career. Therefore he could fit in well with what Hull City are all about. A small community run club that likes hard working and honest players who will sweat blood for the side every time they run out onto the pitch. It could be the perfect chance for Owen to revitalise his career and make sure people remember him for all the right reasons instead of staying at Newcastle just for the money and having no ambition.

He is one of the very few players that is accessible to Hull who could make a real difference in the current side and take the club forward. They will not break the bank for him and a sensible move for all parties concerned needs to be worked out before he decides something else.

Valencia do a u-turn on their best player.

Valencia have performed a u-turn over the decision to sell their best player, David Villa. The Spanish Football club now look like they have taken down the ‘for sale’ sign that had attracted the interest of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea and Liverpool. It seems that Valencia want to try and keep their most dangerous weapon regardless of the financial problems that have forced the club to sell off a number of main assets.

Villa was on the verge of going to Real Madrid for roughly £45 million however Valencia have pulled out of the deal at the last minute, which will come as a welcome relief to a number of the club’s fans. Villa would have probably not wanted a move but accepted it as an eventuality so the news could well please him.

It will also mean some revitalised hope for Liverpool, the only English club that Villa has said he would join, who were not able to match the financial power of any of the clubs that were set to be interested in Villa. The Merseyside club can now sit back and reassess the situation before deciding if they want to be the first club that goes back to Valencia and asks if they want to have a change of mind again.

Villa’s agent said: “Valencia have changed their minds and they are telling us they don't want to sell the player after, as everyone knows, having talks with three of the four top clubs. They have put us through a situation that is, sadly, very unpleasant because this is no good for anyone.”

Villa is one of the most highly rated strikers in Europe and forms Spain’s strike force with Fernando Torres, which basically propelled the country to European glory last summer. If Valencia want to have any hope of being able to get through their current problems and push out on the other side then this is the precise player that they need to keep.

Villa seems to love Valencia as a club and it is where he made his name as one of the best attacking players in the world. There is nothing the other clubs can do if Valencia want to box him back up again and you would have thought that if all parties were happy with the way things were going then a deal would have already been struck by now.

The failure to secure this deal may be down to the player’s own dissatisfaction. He may have a specific club in mind that he wants to join and it may not necessairly be Real Madrid or Barcelona. This makes things very difficult when the clubs that are trying to sign someone are not the actual clubs that the player may want to join. Therefore it is pointless trying to do a deal over a player who will turn out unhappy and will not justify the millions that would ultimate changes hands on his sale.

No doubt the clubs will keep nagging away to try and sign him but the decision to keep him now looks set in stone and unless the player throws his weight around to get a move it seems that him and Valencia are both happy.

Support our England under-21s

You may not realise it but English Football really has something to shout about. Our England under-21 squad have reached the semi finals of the UEFA European U21 Championships. What an achievement for the team and for manager Stuart Pearce. But is the whole country applauding them? Well, they would if the good news was being shared a bit more.

If England’s first team had reached the semi finals of such a big tournament, it would be splashed all over the newspapers and the bunting would already be out. Union Jack sales would have soared through the roof and we would all be pouring over our diaries to make sure we were free for both the semi final clash and the finals. There are, of course, die-hard fans who have been supporting the under-21s in their quest to lift the European U21 crown, a prospect which is looking more and more likely.

But this is our England side of the future we are talking about. Stars like Theo Walcott and James Milner. There should be more publicity and more support. All football fans should be behind them and wishing them well. Moreover, the matches should be on terrestrial TV. Let’s face it, until Fabio Capello took over as England manager, watching the under 21 squad was often more entertaining than watching their elders. They certainly put in a scintillating performance against Spain to reach the semi finals with a convincing 2-0 win in Gothenburg.

A huge surprise was Pearce’s decision to leave out Theo Walcott from the starting line up. Reading between the lines, he obviously wanted to give Walcott a test of character and it must have been quite a shock when his name went down as a sub on the board.
But as Pearce later explained, he treats every player the same and gives no one special treatment, no matter what their ability. His tactic seemed to work. Pearce was delighted with Walcott’s reaction. He wanted him to come out and fight for his place and he did. “I saw what he was about as a man and a player,” said Pearce.

Walcott came on in the second half as part of a double substitution with Frazer Campbell. England had played well in the first half but Spain could have taken the lead but for Neduon Onuoha over-hitting a back pass which had to be cleared off the line by Joe Hart. Milner then opted to take his own penalty after being fouled in the box but goalkeeper Sergie Aseyo went the right way.

The Newcastle merry go round continues to spin.

If Newcastle United fans were waking up in the hope that their club may finally announce a little bit of good news then they will be disappointed today. The take over at the club from current owner, Mike Ashley, will not be completed until the end of this month, meaning the search for a manager goes on and there will be less time for the club to restructure playing staff ahead of the new season.

As soon as the club were relegated from the Premier League, Ashley put the for sale sign up again after failing to find a buyer for the broken machine earlier in the season. The identity of the people buying the club is at the moment unknown and for some reason being kept a secret.

So the fans do not know what their club is heading for and they do not know who will be in charge. Someone at Newcastle better act pretty quickly as there are links appearing on a daily basis that say Alan Shearer is going elsewhere due to the joke way that his appointment at Newcastle has been handled.

It is senseless why he has not been allowed into the club to talk to the very few players that the side may actually be able to keep. He has no control over the players that are talking to various agents and the further delays in this take over deal mean he will have to wait a bit longer to find out if he still has a job.

You have to admire his passion and love for once club because a lot of people would have become tired and fed up by now and just moved on from the whole scenario altogether. You would have thought that being relegated from the top-flight of English football would have been the kick up the backside the club needs in order to start making decisions more efficiently but this is Newcastle United we are talking about.

There are a core group of maybe three or four players that Shearer wanted to keep if he was going to stay on as boss but two of this group are already in negotiations with other Premier League sides and it could mean that Shearer has to create a team from scratch within a month if the take over is completed on schedule and every thing else goes to plan.

If there are any more delays and Shearer has even less time to get things right then it could mean the immediate future of the club is dented for the next few years. Some pundits have already written off the club and are saying that they won’t get back into the Premier League within the next decade.

The fans will be hoping that this new owner is some form of Arabian oil billionaire who will come in and save the blushes. However, for the low people who are actually enjoying Newcastle’s demise, it would pain them to see the club propelled back to greatness when they have provided us all with laughs on a regular basis for a long time.

Huge costs up at City so far.

Manchester City have added almost £160 million in bills since Mark Hughes has been working under the financial backing of new owners. It is a staggering amount when you consider that the only real high profile star that City have drafted in is Robinho.

The wage bill has almost doubled and the news may very well come as a shock to many as it proves just how easily a massive football club can spend cash if there are not strict regulations in place to stem the amount of expenditure.

This figure will rockets City are bound to make a number of summer signings and have already added Gareth Barry to the squad for a £12 million fee. No player at the club in the first team earns less than £44,000 per week, which may seem small in comparison to other clubs, but when bigger signings are likely to arrive, the number of contract upgrades that will be demanded is slightly worrying.

However, City insist that they are a well run business like club that likes to boast value for money on all fronts. Chief Executive, Gary Cook said: “The story is completely without foundation. Robinho has always been a highly valued member of our team and that continues to be the case. Reports suggesting that he will leave the football club, either on loan or on a permanent deal, are absolutely untrue.”

Robinho himself earns ten per cent of the entire City wage bill each year and many pundits criticised him for joining City because they saw it as a purely financially motivated move. They believe that now City have proven to not be as good as the Brazilian would have hoped, that he is trying to jump ship in order to save his own career and maintain his international chances of becoming a Brazilian legend.

The point is that City’s figures are already quite high, especially for a club that is not in the top six. How much they are likely to increase again depends a lot on the manager and the freedom that the chairman and owners will give him to make better signings. However, it will increase to heights that the club would have never thought were possible.

The job for City is trying to make sure that the club can still offer value for money to its players and its fans. The only reason Robinho is on such high wages is because it was probably the only thing that would have got him to switch to City from a move to Chelsea. So long as the club is run efficiently, there is no reason why the finances of the side and everything else to do with the club cannot be managed in a productive way.

They also need to echo the chairman’s comments from earlier in the week and make sure that they are not taken advantage of as a club. If they allow this to happen then it is likely that the number of subclauses in player contracts will see wages and bonuses rocketing to epic proportions, which could be the downfall of the club.

Drogba to face a whopping five-match ban.

Chelsea will lose the services of striker Didier Drogba, after it is likely to be confirmed that he will be banned for five matches when the Champions League starts next season. Drogba came under a UEFA investigation following his antics after the semi-final loss to Barcelona last season.

Drogba, quite literally, went mad and started swearing and screaming at television cameras as well as the referee for that game, Tom Henning Ovrebo. Drogba had been upset that during the important match against Barca, the referee quite blatantly refused to give the London side a penalty on more than one occasion.

His frustration was shared because some of the appeals were quite obviously justified but the way he dealt with the proceeding situation was not admirable and now means that Chelsea will be without one of their best players when the biggest competition in European football starts up again in a few months time.

There will be a further meeting today to see whether or not a number of other Chelsea players should be fined or banned. Defender, Jose Bosingwa, could also be out for a couple of matches after the referee reported that he had been called a ‘thief’ by the Portuguese star.

Chelsea could also pick up a rather substantial fine for not being able to control their players during a match and even though the frustration was widespread and justified on the part of the players, they still had responsibilities and had they seen out the match it would not have been a problem. However, any financial punishment dealt out to the club is unlikely to be that great and they would be able to pay a fine with little difficulty.

Chelsea will just want the whole matter to be over. It clearly is not something they were proud of and it would have embarrassed a lot of their playing staff and coaches. Furthermore, Carlo Ancelotti will want to start a fresh and create a new regime of discipline and strictness that means Chelsea would be the last side you would associate with such goings on if there was ever a repeat incident in the future.

Drogba did not cover himself in glory on that occasion and should be looking to make amends for his actions when his ban is over or lifted. Chelsea could appeal against the likely decision but it would be pointless. One of the biggest principles that UEFA hold their guidelines on is the respect that is shown to fellow players and referees. On this occasion it was breached in epic proportions and the club should not risk annoying the officials who have the power to make the situation a lot worse than it already is.

That evening was a very strange occasion when the football ended up not being the main talking point. Chelsea have learnt their lesson and everyone should move on from the whole affair. If Drogba wants to eradicate the embarrassment then he should keep his head down and under the radar although this is not in his nature.

Fernando Torres says something that we have all heard before.

Fernando Torres has come out with an ‘I will never join them statement’ in the light of the news that Sir Alex Ferguson has been preparing a mega bid for the Liverpool star. It may be just a rumour but it is a strong one and it has been said that United will be willing to risk up to £60 million of the Cristiano Ronaldo money in order to get the Spanish international.

It is also further evidence that Carlos Tevez is on his way out of the club but Torres seems to insist that he would never join one of Liverpool’s main rivals. It would be one of the biggest coups in football if the move came off but it will be difficult to achieve as Liverpool probably won’t listen and the player doesn’t seem to have any intention of going anywhere.

Torres said: “I don't know anything about United, just that it has been in the newspapers. Listen, my team is Liverpool and this is very clear to me. This club has it all - the history, the prestige, the organisation. Liverpool Football Club is a phenomenon, with millions of fans who totally identify with everything the club stands for.”

“It's a big responsibility to give the fans here the success they desire, but the challenge is always exhilarating and this is why I was delighted to sign a new contract. We need to win the big trophies and we can trust Rafa Benitez to keep the momentum going for us. [He] makes the signings and I’m sure those who coming will improve us - if it were me I would bring David Villa but that may not be possible.”

There is also the added point of this very contract that Torres talks about. It would seem senseless for Liverpool to waste so much money on the contract if the player was suceptible to a move away from the club. They clearly don’t want to sell him and he clearly doesn’t want to go anywhere.

However, Cristiano Ronaldo said before the Champions League final that he would be a Manchester United player next season and he is on the verge of completing a move to Real Madrid. Sol Campbell said he would never move to Arsenal and he did and Wayne Rooney said he would always bea n Everton player and now he is at United.

The point is that for all of the loyalty and words that are spoken in football, money can so often talk in much greater volumes. United would not get an idea of how stubborn both parties were likely to be until they made some form of offer for the striker. It would also be likely that the club could raise a large sum of money at short notice which could substantiate any advantage taking that Liverpool may deploy.

For example, they may have a silly idea in mind that United may just be willing to pay. They need someone who is going to come in and make good the influence of the player they have just let walk through the exit door and Torres is clearly one of those people. He has taken to the Premier League like a duck to water and in the right side he could quite clearly become the league’s best scorer on a season after season basis.