The under-pressure Kenny Dalglish said yesterday that he was going to sleep on it. Not a valium, but whether to risk giving Alan Shearer his first game after six months out with an ankle injury.
Having Shearer on the bench at home to Bolton today would certainly help ease the Newcastle manager's headaches as his team slip close to the foot of the Premiership, and with the transfer of Faustino Asprilla to Parma expected to be completed on Monday.
Shearer's return two months ahead of schedule will also boost England's World Cup hopes, though Dalglish was being cautious yesterday. "No decision will be made until Saturday. It may depend on how I sleep."
Asprilla arrived in Milan last night ready to complete his £6 million-plus transfer and the Colombian star immediately drove to Parma to undergo an extensive medical.
A spokesman for the Italian club said: "No contract will be signed before Faustino completes the examinations."
Newcastle manager Kenny Dalglish admitted earlier: "We agreed a fee with Parma on Thursday evening and now it's just a case of him passing his medical."
Tottenham's head coach Christian Gross has switched from the stick to the carrot in his efforts to galvanise the team after his strict training regimes coincided with Spurs' slump to second-bottom in the table, he now plans a string of social events to instil team spirit.
After today's must-win game at home to West Ham, Gross plans to take the squad to Cirque du Soleil at the Albert Hall, to a top eaterie and to pop concerts, though, in keeping with the club's season, they have so far failed to procure tickets for the sold-out Cirque du Soleil.
Meanwhile, Gilbert Gress was confirmed as the new national team coach by the Swiss Football Association (ASF) yesterday, a job Christian Gross had been linked to. Gress's contract runs until June 2000 and it is hoped he will stop the country's rapid decline since Roy Hodgson departed for Blackburn after he had taken the tiny country into the world's top 10 teams.
It was finalised when the ASF agreed to let the former French international finish out the current Swiss league season with relegation-threatened Neuchatel Xamax, the team he has coached for the last 15 years.
