Chelsea may have landed the Millennium Stadium's "unlucky" south dressing room for Saturday's FA Cup final but they should at least have their strongest team to fill it, with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Graeme Le Saux on course to recover from calf injuries to face Arsenal.
Hasselbaink trained on his own yesterday as a precaution but is expected to return after missing last weekend's game at Middlesbrough. Le Saux is confident of being available for the first time since tearing a calf muscle in the semi-final against Fulham on April 14th.
With Celestine Babayaro, who has not played for five weeks, also training yesterday, the only definite absentee is Mikael Forssell. The striker has a knee injury, so the Carlton Cole will be in the squad after scoring at the Riverside.
Definitely out of the Scottish Cup final, which also takes place on Saturday, is Rangers defender Bert Konterman, who has failed to recover from a broken toe.
The game should see the last appearance in a Celtic shirt for Lubo Moravcik, who has confirmed he will join Japanese JEF United Ichihara when he quits Parkhead this summer.
Celtic, meanwhile, have confirmed they will play Arsenal in a testimonial for Tony Adams on Monday, May 13th at Highbury, with the kick-off at 7.45pm.
West Bromwich Albion chairman Paul Thompson said yesterday that he has no immediate plans to sell his 29 per cent shareholding in the club, indicating that his offer on Tuesday to step down as chairman was not going to be carried out in the short term.
The signs were yesterday that he was opening up a fresh front in the power struggle with his manager Gary Megson at the newly promoted club. If anything, given he has the backing of the board, he was consolidating his position. Megson was not available for comment yesterday.
Thompson has ruled out the possibility of Jeremy Pearce, his boardroom ally who also has a 29 per cent shareholding succeeding him. And, with no other obvious candidate among the directors, the position will be advertised.
He envisaged that the recruitment process could take up to three months, by which time Albion will have begun their Premiership campaign and, with Thompson still in power, Megson's grievances will remain unresolved.
The manager has insisted on playing a more prominent role in the financial side of the club while seeking to retain total control of the playing side.
Sven Goran Eriksson has delayed the naming of his World Cup squad by two days. The England coach had been planning to unveil his chosen 23-man squad next Tuesday. However, he has now decided to wait until after Manchester United have taken on Arsenal in a potential title decider the following day.
Given that Liverpool's game against Blackburn has been moved to the Wednesday from the preceding Sunday, Eriksson will have more than half of his squad involved in those two games.
Liquidator Blair Nimmo yesterday hammered the final nail in Airdrie's coffin - and invited Celtic to buy the defunct club's empty stadium and use it as a training ground.
The Scottish Premier League champions already use the New Broomfield Stadium for reserve matches. Nimmo said he believed the £6.5 million structure would be the perfect ready-made replacement for the club's dilapidated Barrowfield training ground.
KPMG, who yesterday began proceedings to sell off all Airdrie's assets, want at least £1million for the stadium.
The door has also been opened for a bidder to buy Airdrie's name and resurrect the club, which collapsed with debts approaching £3 million, as a going concern.
Deportivo La Coruna closed ranks yesterday over a training ground flare-up in which Brazilian star Djalminha allegedly aimed a head-butt at coach Javier Irureta.
