The spectre of improper agent conduct has raised it’s ugly head at Bolton Wanderers with the proposed purchase of midfielder Idan Tal from Maccabi Haifa. Manager Sam Allardyce’s son Craig, a football agent, has been implicated by agent Ronen Katsav who has plans to sue Tal for reneging on a previous agreement that he had secured for him.

Craig Allardyce is reputedly devastated at bringing his father’s name into disrepute while he is being touted as one of the number one contenders to replace Sven Goran Eriksson as England manager and both father and son have strenuously denied any wrongdoing in the transfer.

Craig has now decided to not have any part in transfer dealings concerning Bolton while his father remains manager in an effort to put some distance between the two and avoid any potential embarassing situations like this in the future.

At the end of a disappointing week for Rangers following their Champion’s League exit to Villareal, their fans have something to smile about with news of a mega sponsorship deal and retail agreement with JJB Sports.

The ten year licencing deal will bring the club a minimum ?48m over the term with an ?18m upfront fee being paid to last year’s Scottish champions on 7th June when they launch their new Umbro home kit.

The deal also allows for a guaranteed minimum ?3m to be paid to the Glasgow giants who will need every penny of it as they look to strengthen their squad and give their new manager (rumoured to be Paul Le Guen) something to operate with in the transfer market, a luxury somewhat denied current incumbent Alex McLeish.

The agreement will allow JJB Sports to retail all Rangers’ branded sports and leisurewear in their 439 stores across the UK and as well as the guaranteed ?3m royalties each year, Rangers will also be given additional payments when certain levels of turnover are met by the sports company.

“The arrangement capitalises on our strong current retail trading position and will enhance future revenue streams through greater availability and continuity of the quality and range of Rangers product,” added Murray.

Inevitably there will be some losers from the deal with the current Rangers Shop chain looking likely to close with some 200 job losses. The club have said they are now entering a period of consultation with the affected staff who will derive little pleasure from the thought of the millions of pounds being exchanged for their livelihoods.

Top internet search engine Google has been contacted by lawyers representing Arsenal and England defender Ashley Cole to explain why their search results display a suggestion for results for “Ashley Cole gay” when the player’s name is searched for. Cole’s lawyers want a categoric answer from the technology giants as to whether this is a computer generated suggestion or a manually input editorial decision on Google’s part.

Image from Andrew Johnson’s Web Publishing Blog

Google have previously explained that their search results are based solely on computer algorithms and have no human element to them but in light of Ashley Cole’s recently publicised legal action against the News of the World newspaper amid lurid allegations concerning his private life, this latest internet anomoly could wind up being a very costly problem for Google.

Supermarket chain Morrisons have announced their intention to end their sponsorship deal with the Scottish Football Association but have denied that it has anything to do with the recent poor performance on the field of the national side.

Morrisons inherited the original sponsorship deal when they took over Safeways in 2002 but have decided now to not renew it when it expires on 31st July 2006.

Morrisons spokesman Colin Middlemiss said: “It’s definitely nothing to do with their record. We have enjoyed the benefits associated with the football teams and we wish them all the best in the future. We just felt it was time to return to more established marketing tactics.”

Morrisons marketing services director Michael Bates said: “Although sponsorship of professional sport has never been part of our marketing strategy, we were happy to honour and fully support the commitment.

“We have enjoyed, and benefited from, our association with Scotland’s national football teams and wish them all well for the future.

“We have advised the SFA that we are interested in continuing to offer match tickets through our stores and will be talking to them about the possibility of taking this relationship forward.”

UEFA president Lennart Johansson has issued a controlled warning to both Chelsea and Barcelona as the two clubs get ready to battle it out in the second leg of their Champion’s League clash in Spain.

After a war of words erupted following Barcelona’s victory in the first leg and the controversy surrounding Asier Del Horno’s sending off and Lionel Messi’s supposed diving, UEFA have told the clubs that they are being observed and that they hope to see the match go off in good spirits.

Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard has already been quoted as saying he expects the home fans to applaud their visitors and show how sporting a football crowd they can be although after Jose Mourinho’s spit laden arrival yesterday it’s unlikely that the Dutch coach’s words will have the calming effect he’s hoping for.

Be assured though that if Chelsea do fail to overturn their deficit and Barcelona do go through then Mourinho will have an instant “reason” to explain why they have been beaten. For a man who is in charge of the most expensive football squad in history, he is without doubt the most unsporting manager in European football and usually displays the spin and deflection techniques of a Tony Blair-esque politician when things either don’t go his way or even when they do.

Whether Jose has to resort to blaming the referee or some other luckless bystander after this game remains to be seen. Lennart Johansson is watching however but, with the usual toothless attitude of UEFA still in place, is in no position to threaten either of these big money clubs and would be better in future keeping his thinly veiled threats to himself until he manages to instill some form of worthwhile disciplinary measures into his organisation.

Shola Ameobi has called for Newcastle United caretaker manager Glenn Roeder to be given the job permanently after he guided the club to another win over Bolton at the weekend.

“Glenn Roeder has been fantastic for me as a player,” said Ameobi, who scored his side’s third goal at the weekend. “He has instilled confidence in each and everyone of us.”

He added: “I think that’s showing through. He will back you all the way and we are all playing for him, and everyone has seen the results.”

The Newcastle board still seem to be looking towards big name candidates Martin O’Neill or Ottmar Hitzfeld as their preferred choices to succeed Graeme Souness in the St James Park hotseat but O’Neill is being very cagey as he looks to manoeuver himself into the Englands manager’s job which would suit his current family situation.

Hitzfeld has been out of the game for around 18 months but has shown minimal interest in the Newcastle job despite claims a few weeks ago that he had flown to Tyneside for talks with Freddy Shepherd.

It’s imperative for Newcastle as a club to make the right choice of manager this time as another wasted couple of years could be catastrophic for the club with a spiralling wage bill and, more often than not, a treatment table which has seen more action than Sven’s four poster this season. Whether Roeder is the man for the job is only something that a courageous appointment by the Newcastle board will show us in time and time is one commodity the fans of Newcastle United are not willing to give to another mediocre managerial appointment.

Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens has been appointed as head of the Premier League’s independent bung inquiry.

Stevens will be investigating allegations of irregular payments in transfer deals since 1 January 2004 and will spend around six months in the position as chair of the independent inquiry.

“I will personally overview the inquiry and ensure that it meets the highest standards of investigation and evidence gathering,” said Lord Stevens.

Quest, the organisation headed by Lord Stevens, will handle the inquiry.

Speaking at a news conference, he went on: “It is our intention to interview all those involved in the transfer process and to examine all transfers during the period.

“In addition, a number will be subjected to a more detailed investigation criteria set by myself.

“I am conscious that there have been persistent allegations in the press, and I would be grateful if those responsible for the articles would provide to my team any supporting evidence or leads that they might have.

“As with all investigations, I shall go where the evidence leads. I can assure both the Premier League and you, that Quest, will not be distracted or diverted from whether or not irregularities exist, and if there is evidence of wrongdoing it shall be highlighted.”

The Premier League have reiterated their hardline stance on any wrongdoing with chief executive Richard Scudamore vowing to enforce heavy penalties,

“We are charged with administering the rule book. If there are breaches of the rules we will deal with it,” said Mr. Scudamore.

“It is a serious inquiry. The absolute bottom line is that the Premier League and its clubs want to know what is going on.

“We will get to the bottom of what is going on.”

Lokomotiv Moscow have been identified as the mystery club interested in taking Chelsea midfielder Alexei Smertin back to his homeland.

In an interview with Soviet Sport, Lokomotiv president Valeri Filatov admitted that they were in contact with Smertin and his agent about a possible move for the 30 year old but that they were only prepared to enter a deal under certain terms.

Smertin had hinted at a Russian club’s interest in him earlier this week, “I’ve received an offer from a Russian club and now my agent is considering that,” he said. “But I can’t say anything definitely.”

Lokomotiv Moscow have been active in the British market this week as their transfer window prepares to shut with Hibernian striker Garry O’Connor undergoing a two-day medical in Germany, ahead of a possible ?1.6million move to Lokomotiv.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has again hit the headlines with controversial plans to reduce the number of top flight team in Europe’s major leagues and to force clubs to use more homegrown players.

In an interview with German magazine Bild, Blatter outlined his vision of bringing the size of Europe’s top leagues down to 16 teams as he feels “the market and the players cannot cope with so much football.” The issue will be put forward to be discussed at the 2007 FIFA Congress and would be sure to cause an outrage amongst some of the lower ranking clubs with the Bundesliga currently having 18 teams, while the top leagues in Spain, England, Italy and France have 20.

Mr. Blatter, however, believes the majority of clubs are tired of playing so many games and sees a reduction in the league size as the main way to combat it. He also indicated that even if the clubs and federations were unwilling to change that a decree from FIFA could still be enforced.

“FIFA can stipulate it and it is the wish of many clubs, but the FIFA need to order it otherwise it will never happen.”

Previous calls by Blatter to reduce the size of domestic European leagues were rejected in 2003.

In the same interview Blatter also put forward a proposal to reverse the movement towards foreign players overtaking homegrown players in European leagues. With the problem rife amongst German and English clubs, Mr. Blatter offered the idea that a minimum of six homegrown players in the starting eleven should be enforced in an effort to protect the major countries’ national football future. With cut price foreign players often preferred to more expensive domestic players there have been occassions when clubs such as Arsenal have turned out teams completely full of foreigners, a situation Sepp Blatter rightly views as “dangerous”.

How the European Union would view the restrictions would be another matter entirely and would pose an interesting battle of legal minds if the EU and FIFA did ever square off in the courtroom to decide the issue.

Right, well first of all I’m one of the Newcastle fans who noticed State Of The Game through the erm… shall we call it “well-discussed” topic of the relative size of Newcastle United. I’m not going to dwell on this, however. Nor am I going to dwell on who I want as our next manager, or why, or whether they’ll come, where we’ll finish and so on. This sort of thing has been discussed in great detail elsewhere. What I want to talk about is one particular thing: the character assassination job Glenn Roeder is carrying out on Graeme Souness - I think without even being aware of it.

Firstly, it’s clear that under Souness morale both on the pitch and in the stands was low. It was clear that we were playing poorly and getting poor results. It was also clear that we had a small squad with a lot of injuries which may not have been Souness’ fault.

So what’s happened? Roeder was appointed as caretaker manager, and said that he wasn’t expecting to change much, and he felt sorry for Souness - although that’s how it was in football. Yet over the following month he appears to have managed to demolish what little remained of Souness’ managerial reputation.

In brief, then:

Last four league games under Souness (Middlesbrough, Fulham, Blackburn, Man City): 1 draw, 3 defeats. Goals for 2. Goals against 7. Players missing over this time: Owen, Carr, Taylor, Parker, Dyer, Emre (missed 3 of 4).

First four league games under Roeder (Portsmouth, Aston Villa, Charlton, Everton) : 3 wins, 1 draw. Goals for 7. Goals against 1. Oh, and much improved performances (although still not perfect); morale on and off pitch also much improved. Players missing over this time: Owen, Carr, Taylor, Dyer (missed 2), Shearer (missed 2), Babayaro (missed 2), Bramble (missed 1).

So that’s approximately the same quality of opposition, approximately the same problem with injuries/suspensions and quite a different return in terms of points…

But let’s look at the different management techniques revealed in interviews to find out exactly how Roeder is plunging that knife further into Souness’ back.

Firstly, training. Now, maybe this is because Roeder has special skills, being a former defender, but when talking about the defence, he said he “was surprised the first few times I worked with them because there was no communication” and “I don’t know how you can play as a defender without giving information and covering each other. It’s that simple. We have got them working together and talking to each other.”. As the local Evening Chronicle (www.icnewcastle.co.uk) points out, while Roeder has not directly criticised Souness, the implications of this are fairly clear.

Now, we’ll move onto the alliterative man-management and maintenance of morale. Souness bemoaned his luck with injuries, stating that “The reason we’re not winning games is because we haven’t got our best players on the football pitch.”. Which seems to me to be a somewhat negative approach, and also suggests that he’s telling the players he is sending out that their own manager doesn’t think they are up to it, and they’ll be out of the side as soon as he can drop them.

Roeder preferred to have a more positive attitude “I’ve been a bit fed up with the negativity leading up to this game (Everton) .Apparently, because we haven’t got Alan playing, we haven’t got Michael playing and we haven’t got Kieron playing, the best we could hope for was probably a 0-0 draw. I told the players before the game that was absolute rubbish. I said I didn’t think they’d been shown the respect they deserved.”. Which to me tells the players that he’s got confidence in them, that he believes in them, and - well I’m no psychologist, but I would think it might help morale.

And if that indirect comparison isn’t enough in itself, he goes on to give that knife another little twist : “Don’t forget I spent two years out of the game and I sat and watched and heard managers making excuses before a ball was kicked in some games. What kind of message does that send out to the players?”

Because of the way he’s bent over backwards to avoid mentioning Souness at times, it seems he’s not actually trying to carry out a hatchet-job on what remains of Souness’ managerial reputation… but he appears to be managing it nonetheless.