A round-up of today's other stories in brief
City run the rule over Lille striker
A Manchester City delegation, including coach Roberto Mancini, his assistant David Platt and administration officer Brian Marwood, flew to France to watch Lille attacker Eden Hazard in action at the weekend.
The 21-year-old Belgian scored one goal and created two in his team’s 4-0 win over Valenciennes yesterday.
Arsenal, Manchester United, Tottenham and Chelsea are also interested in Hazard, who has a €39.6 million release clause.
Russian FA to investigate Samba racist incident
THE Russian FA have launched an investigation into a possible racist incident involving a banana and Anzhi Makhachkala’s Congolese defender Christopher Samba at a league match at Lokomotiv Moscow on Sunday..
“The incident with Samba was simply outrageous and I’ve instructed our ethics committee to look into this,” RFU chief Sergei Fursenko said. Media reports indicated that a banana was thrown at Samba from Lokomotiv’s VIP box at the end of the match, won by the home team 1-0.
Samba (27), who joined the wealthy club from the volatile North Caucasus last month, picked up the banana and threw it back. "Im very sad that was seen by kids," Samba told Anzhi's official website ( www.fc-anji.ru).
This was the latest racist episode in Russian soccer. Anzhi’s Roberto Carlos was the victim of banana attacks at venues in St Petersburg and Samara last year. Lokomotiv president Olga Smorodskaya denied any wrongdoing by her club’s fans.
Suarez keen to spend years at Liverpool
LUIS Suarez has dismissed speculation about his future by insisting he is happy at Anfield and is looking forward to many more years at the club.
In recent weeks the Uruguay international has been linked with the newly rich French league leaders Paris Saint-Germain, while clubs in Italy have also been reportedly interested.
There has been much speculation that he would be driven out of English football by opposition fans or, alternatively, the club would try to offload him.
However, Suarez has dismissed such suggestions: "I have spoken with people at the club and they know that I want to stay and that I am enjoying myself and am very happy here," he told liverpoolfc.tv. "I'm going to carry on playing my football here at Liverpool."
Klinsmann rules out a return to Spurs
FORMER Tottenham striker Jurgen Klinsmann has ruled out returning to White Hart Lane as a replacement for Harry Redknapp.
With Redknapp favourite to be named England manager ahead of the European Championship, United States boss Klinsmann has been linked with taking his place.
The 47-year-old is quoted in the Sun as saying: “It’s just a wonderful club. But I am extremely proud and privileged to be US national team coach.”
He added: “Hopefully we will have, after qualification, a great World Cup in Brazil.
“Then, in soccer, just like in any other environment, you never know what will happen.”
McCoist hopeful Lafferty will return
ALLY McCoist is hoping that he will have five senior first-team players back for the visit of Celtic on Sunday, including Kyle Lafferty.
The Northern Ireland striker has not featured since the 3-0 win over Motherwell on January 2nd after he suffered a torn hamstring. It was initially thought that he would be out of action until the end of February before a setback which meant he was expected to be sidelined until early next month.
However, the lanky striker is making good progress and the Rangers boss has confirmed he could play a part at the weekend.
McCoist should also see a host of defenders return to his threadbare squad, which was so depleted for the 2-1 Premier League defeat against Dundee United at Tannadice on Saturday that he only stripped five substitutes.
The Rangers manager was forced to play midfielder Rhys McCabe at right-back, give Andy Mitchell his debut in midfield and pair veteran utility player Lee McCulloch and Ross Perry in central defence.
Regular centre-back pairing Carlos Bocanegra and Dorin Goian will be available again after they served suspensions.
Sympathies from Celtic over death
CELTIC have offered their condolences to the family of Kilmarnock midfielder Liam Kelly after his father died at the end of yesterday’s Scottish Communities League Cup final.
Jack Kelly (59) suffered a suspected heart attack in the stands at Hampden within moments of the final whistle. He received emergency treatment after his son had helped his team to a 1-0 win over Celtic.
“Celtic Football Club would like to offer its sincere condolences to the family of Kilmarnock midfielder Liam Kelly whose father Jack tragically died following Sunday’s Scottish Communities League Cup final at Hampden,” the Celtic statement read.
Kelly (22) was told the news as he and his team-mates celebrated on the pitch and was visibly distraught. Kelly travelled to the nearby hospital where his father was taken as quickly as possible, but his father died shortly afterwards.
“Given what happened it feels like we actually lost the cup final,” said Kilmarnock captain James Fowler.
