Wolves chief executive Jez Moxey has said that manager Glenn Hoddle will have his position reviewed at a board meeting in May following the club’s failure to reach the Championship play-offs this season.

With Wolves fans calling for the manager’s head, Moxey has indicated that change could be on it’s way despite a potential 7th position league finish still being a possibility.

Moxey wrote in his programme notes: “Our season is done and, although we will hopefully finish in seventh place just outside the top six, such is the disappointment that we may as well have finished 21st.

“Some people will be surprised that I am writing in such a fashion and no doubt I will be criticised for doing so.

“However, I am speaking from the heart and for everyone at Wolves when I say that we are devastated at finishing outside the play-offs.

“Understandably, supporters will and are calling for a change in manager, directors, players and others. That is to be expected. Fans are as upset as we are and they have every right to feel that way.

“However, there will be no rash decisions. It is easy to sack someone but not so easy to find suitable replacements, especially for the unique task of bringing success to Wolves.

“Glenn Hoddle and I have had preliminary discussions and there is a board meeting planned in May to discuss the 2005-2006 campaign and the way we move the club forward.”

Glenn Hoddle has viewed the season differently and considers it far from a disaster, pointing to the slew of big clubs who have been relegated from the Championship over the past few seasons as being examples of real disasters.

Only time will now tell for the former England and Tottenham Hotspur coach as he continues to struggle to repair the damage to his reputation those previous jobs and his outspoken personal views have done.

Former World Cup winning England rugby union coach Sir Clive Woodward has said that he expects a long and fruitful reign from George Burley at Southampton to force him to look elsewhere to fulfil his ambitions as a football manager.

Woodward was instrumental in his role of director of football at St. Mary’s in bringing the experienced Burley into the club and says he harbours no secret wishes to oust the Scotsman from his job despite feeling restricted with his own job as administrator.

Woodward said: “I’m confident George is going to be here for a long time, and the club needs that sort of stability.

“I do want to manage a football club, but if George is successful that means I won’t get the chance here.”

The current power struggle in Saints boardroom doesn’t help Woodward’s long term plans as major new shareholder Leon Crouch has vowed to remove the director of football from his post if he gains control of the board.

Woodward’s high profile arrival at St. Mary’s hasn’t exactly went to plan so far with the club being relegated under his and Harry Redknapp’s control and then Redknapp jumping ship to return to hated rivals Portsmouth. This season in the Championship hasn’t borne much fruit either and with the sale of teenage prodigy Theo Walcott, Southampton are doing a good job of stripping their own assets and making the difficult return to the top flight a currently impossible dream. (more…)

Everyone’s favourite Geordie big club, Newcastle United, have announced losses of ?6.3m for the six months up to 31st January 2006, a deficit of ?16m compared to their profits of ?9.7m for the same period a year previous.

Big money signings such as Albert Luque, Scott Parker, Emre and Michael Owen have all failed to push the club’s fortunes on the pitch despite a late rise in form under caretaker manager Glenn Roeder.

Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd said: “The current season has been disappointing, with performances on the pitch falling well below the levels we expected.

“Since his appointment, Glenn Roeder, capably supported by Alan Shearer, has overseen a significant improvement in team performances.

“We want this positive trend to continue while our search for the best possible team manager takes its course.”

(Now I’m going to sit back and see how many Geordies are still reading State of the Game after the “Newcastle a Big Club? Don’t Make Me Laugh” article and which one bites first on them still being a big club )

The owners of The Sun and News of the World newspapers have agreed to pay Wayne Rooney damages of ?100,000 over false allegations they printed of him having slapped his girlfriend Coleen McLaughlin in a Chesire nightclub last year.

It took a trip to the High Court for the newspapers to admit that their “story” was false despite a year of protestations from Wayne Rooney and his legal advisors and with the World Cup less than two months away all parties concerned will be glad to get another potentially embarassing situation cleared up.

A statement from the two newspapers said: “With only 58 days to the start of The World Cup, The Sun and The News of The World are pleased to have reached a settlement with Wayne Rooney.

“We can now put this case behind us and focus on a great tournament.

“We wish him and the England team every success in Germany and look forward to welcoming them back with the World Cup trophy.”

A bit rich seeing as they made the whole thing up between them but it wouldn’t be like either of those two newspapers to let the truth get in the way of a good soundbite or headline, even when it’s their liking for unconventional “reporting” that has led them into the situation where they need one.

The owners of Burberry needn’t start expecting a windfall from the ?100,000 damages the Manchester United striker has received though, he’s very thoughtfully decided to donate it all to charity.

We’ve had punters stake their claim for Manchester United, Liverpool and Leeds United so there are plenty of clubs still waiting for a guest columnist and we want it to be you, yes you, sitting there reading this post and thinking maybe you aren’t a good enough writer or don’t know enough fancy words.

We really don’t care.

We want passion, an insight into your club and it’s issues and we want it straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. Football fans are becoming the forgotten men and women of European football and at State of the Game we’re desperate to reverse that trend.

If you think your chairman is a c*nt, your manager is a t*at or your star striker couldn’t hit a cow’s a*se with a banjo, get in touch with us. We might have to temper your language a bit but we won’t restrict your passion for your club and the game.

That’s a promise.

I’m publicising this petition called Reclaim The Game which has been started to campaign for the elimination of cheating and a return to general levels of decency and fair play amongst the fat cats who run our game and play it at the highest level.

Reclaim The Game’s Manifesto: ” WE, the undersigned, strongly believe cheating within the game has now reached pandemic proportions.

We are currently at the stage where cheating has almost become ‘part of the game’ and gained widespread acceptance.

We represent a broad cross-section of football fans and we urge the domestic and international governing bodies to take the firmest action possible in arresting the decline of our national sport as a matter of the utmost urgency.

Football is guilty of setting the worst possible examples of behaviour to our children who look up to their footballing heroes and copy their behaviour wherever they play. This must stop.

We believe the pursuit of financial gain has deflected the focus away from fairplay and decency on and off the pitch and we suggest a raft of new punitive measures be implemented to correct the imbalance - measures stringent enough to dissuade further transgressions by players, managers, and coaches at all levels of the game.

The insidious practice of ‘tapping up’ or ‘unsettling’ players of other clubs needs to be stamped on as it completely undermines the ideas of fairplay and decency and, in that regard, managers and coaches have an extra degree of responsibility.

We further believe that financial penalties are largely meaningless to the biggest and richest of clubs and points deduction for those clubs found guilty of cheating is an option which must be seen to be used.

Individual players found guilty of cheating on the pitch should be named, shamed and fined, not up to a maximum of two weeks wages but perhaps up to 10 weeks, coupled with a one or two match ban. This would dissuade players from trying to gain unfair advantage during the game, knowing any such transgression would result in such penalties.

It is our firm belief that ultimately we all want the same thing. A cheat-free world game. A game free from diving, feigning injuries, mobbing referees, constantly appealing for throw-ins, freekicks, corners and penalties when it?s clear there should be no such award.

Perhaps only the two captains should be allowed to approach the referee at any time, as in Rugby Union.

We are encouraged by the overwhelming support from fans up and down the country for cheating to be stamped out of the game worldwide.

PLEASE LET US GRASP THIS OPPORTUNITY TO RECLAIM THE GAME FROM THE CHEATS WHO HAVE STOLEN IT FROM ALL OF US.

We will be sending this petition after the World Cup Final to Fifa, Uefa and The FA.”

Click through here to Reclaim The Game and sign the petition to give us our football back.

In a surprising announcement, Guus Hiddink has said that he is extremely close to signing a deal to take over as coach of the Russian national team after he leads Australia into the World Cup in the summer.

Hiddink will also leave his day job as manager of PSV Eindhoven following the World Cup after leading them to their 19th Eredivisie title last week, their sixth under his control over two spells as manager. Having also led Holland to the World Cup semi-finals in France in 1998 and South Korea to a similar position in 2002, Hiddink was widely tipped to be a forerunner to replace Sven Goran Eriksson as England head coach but has surprised the footballing world by turning his sights east to the burgeoning football power of Russia.

Hiddink told Holland Sport that the deal he was negotiating would allow him to continue to live in Amsterdam and only travel to Russia for a few days or weeks at a time when necessary, a situation very popular in international management these days and also employed by California based Germany coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

With Hiddink now off the “potentials” list, English football fans can sense a growing feeling of unease over who will actually finish up wearing the blazer with the three lions on it once Sven is gone.

We’re expanding on our guest columnist section and inviting readers and football fans from everywhere to apply to be State of the Game’s very own columnist on your own football club.

We only have room for one person per club so get your responses in quick and beat the rush. Over the last six months we’ve quickly grown to be a very well read, popular football blog and football article website and with the quality of submitted articles being so good we want to make sure more of you get a chance to get involved and spread the gospel of your own clubs, the highs and the lows, to as wide an audience as possible.

You’ll only be required to do at least one quick round-up per week (more if you want) and there is no limits to what you write on as long as it’s about your club.

Couldn’t be easier.

On the back of Malcolm Glazer’s gaffe to reporters when he called Manchester United “a great franchise”, United finance director Nick Humby has spoken out in support of the club’s average 12.3% increase in season ticket prices for next season.

Despite the price of tickets at Old Trafford rising to between ?23 and ?38, Humby has said that United as a club (or franchise) still believe that their tickets offer the best value in the Premiership.

With London clubs like Chelsea and Tottenham charging up to ?70 for their top priced tickets, Manchester United find themselves sitting around mid-table in the ticket price Premiership league.

“We do not know what most of our rivals will charge next year, but even a price freeze across the rest of the Premiership would mean that next year only seven clubs will have a cheaper ticket than ?23 and nine clubs will have a top price over ?39 - in some cases almost double,” said Humby.

With Old Trafford recording it’s highest ever league attendance against Arsenal at the weekend and in line to reach a capacity of around 76,000 for next season, it looks like being another bumper year at the turnstiles for the Glazer family.

Bayern Munich coach Felix Magath has written off Rangers chances of signing Bayern Munich youngster Bastian Schweinsteiger in the summer and warned the Glasgow giants that Munich are not in the habit of selling their best young players.

Schweinsteiger is apparently unhappy in Munich following some heated arguments with Magath but the German coach feels that a move to Rangers wouldn’t be right for him despite the regard incoming Ibrox boss Paul Le Guen has built up for the 21 year old midfielder.

Bastian Schweinsteiger burst onto the international scene at the 2004 European Championships with several starring displays for Germany but has failed somewhat to live up to the potential shown there since. Maybe a move to a lower standard of football such as the Scottish Premier League would give him the necessary boost for a year or two to get himself back on track although it’s difficult to see how any young player could see moving from Bayern Munich to a Rangers side sitting third in the SPL behind Cletic and Hearts as a positive career move, regardless of their relationship with their coach.