One of the Republic of Ireland's most respected international players for almost two decades, Don Givens, is to be the new manager of the national under-21 team, writes Peter Byrne.
Givens, who has accepted the offer of a full-time appointment by the FAI, replaces Ian Evans, who will assist Mick McCarthy with the senior team.
Givens has been closely associated in recent times with Arsenal, where he assisted Liam Brady in the administration of the club's youth programme.
His arrival in the under-21 post is designed to improve a disappointing record in this grade over the last 15 years. "We believe that Don has all the credentials to make a success of the job and in a very real way contribute to the development of our international teams," said the FAI president, Pat Quigley.
"I see my job as one of the biggest challenges of my career," Givens said. "But I am familiar with most of the players in the current squad and will be looking forward to getting a good result in our first game against the Czech Republic later in the month."
Stan Collymore's stormy stint with Aston Villa is about to come to an end as he looks set to join Leicester. Villa boss John Gregory believes a deal will be completed on Monday when the financial terms are agreed between the two clubs.
Former Leeds striker Tony Yeboah looks set to end his career with Hamburg after he agreed to extend his contract for another year.
UEFA president Lennart Johansson last night revealed he still hopes to persuade the European Union to overturn the Bosman Ruling and treat football as a special case.
Johansson also aims to introduce a European-wide wages ceiling to enable clubs to compete on a more equal footing.
Liverpool will turn to the veteran Belgian international Luc Nilis to solve their well-documented goalscoring problem if they fail to persuade Leicester City to part with Emile Heskey.
The Merseyside club have lined up a Stg£500,000 deal with the 32-year-old's Dutch club PSV, which could see him move on a two-year contract.
Benfica's Jorge Cadete has arrived in Bradford for talks on a proposed move to the premiership strugglers.
Italian international captain Paolo Maldini (31) laughed off a newspaper report yesterday that he would move to Chelsea after the Euro 2000 championship.
Maldini was quoted in the Mirror as saying: "I would love to move to England and, in particular, Chelsea".
But on AC Milan's official website, the defender denied the report. "I'll say now as I have on previous occasions that it gave me a good laugh," Maldini said. "I want to finish my career at Milan," he added.
Meanwhile, Gabriel Batistuta has said that if he ever left Fiorentina he would like to join Manchester United.
