A further helping of transfer gossip, rumours and damned lies

Samuel Eto’o is going to snub Manchester City
Today’s papers are filled with talk of Eto’o moving to Eastlands for a pay packet ranging between £180,000-a-week and £250,000 depending on which tabloid, if any, you choose to believe. However, the striker’s agent has said: ”If there is not a 180-degree turnaround then he will stay with Barcelona.”

The Spoiler truth-o-meter: It looks like the 28-year-old isn’t interested in missing out on Champions League football in favour of more money, which is impressive considering he was linked with a move to Uzbekistan last summer.

Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid
The Liverpool midfielder is keeping his cards close to his chest regarding his future. The Spaniard told Don Balon magazine that he is happy to stay at

Another claret-and-blue team break Sheffield United’s hearts

Sheffield United chairman Kevin McCabe laughably claimed before the Championship play-off final that they would be a top-half Premier League side now were it not for only picking up 38 points in 2006-07 Carlos Tevez.

However, Burnley were the team who showed top-flight quality at Wembley and deservedly won with a brilliant 13th minute goal by Wade Elliott. Having beaten Fulham, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and West Brom this season and seen Sunderland and Hull stay up despite being dreadful, Owen Coyle should be confident that the Clarets can survive their first Premier League campaign.

Kevin Blackwell, as you would expect of a former assistant of Neil Warnock, struggled to be gracious in defeat and insinuated that Mike Dean’s performance

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Tigers lose the right to ever complain about being unlucky again

The FA Cup Fifth Round replay between Hull and Sheffield Utd ended in controversy last night, thanks to the ropey decisions of referee Peter Walton.

Sheffield Utd manager Kevin Blackwell failed to ask why his defender Kyle Naughton was aiming a bullet header at his own net, but was outraged when the man in black awarded an own goal for an effort that clearly never crossed the line. His hyperbolic rant has been playing on Sky Sports News all morning:

“Managers can lose their jobs over things like this.

“If we had been struggling, this defeat could have cost me my job and I have a wife and kids to support.

“We knew the ball wasn’t over the line. Everybody did.

“That decision could have got someone promoted or relegated. If it was one of my players he would be dropped for the next game.”

Thanks to the ref’s bad call, Sheffield Utd missed out on the opportunity to face Premiership slayers Burnley, or Arsenal, the team who gave the Blades a massive FA Cup headache in 1999 when Nwankwo Kanu failed to recognise the concept of good sportsmanship.