He threw the javelin for Britain’s Under-21 team as a prot? of Fatima Whitbread’s coach, Wilf Paish; played on the wing for the Tykes; and worked for Castleford Tigers rugby league club before joining Hancock at Elland Road in 1998.”Bruce was an extremely fit individual,” Hancock recalls “For instance, he’d done a sub-50 second 400 metres. There has been interest from Premiership clubs – I’ve recently received calls from three Premier League club chairmen and I’ve promised to keep them informed.”Although Camara is for sale, we will not be pushed into a corner when it comes to our valuation for him, either because we’ve already received loan fees or because of the controversy he caused last summer.”The Ipswich goalkeeper, Kelvin Davis, is prepared to miss Saturday’s vital Championship promotion clash at Leeds to attend the birth of his second child. Even when death was stalking him, Bruce Craven lived his sporting life to the full One Thursday he completed a six-mile run. Friday night was spent watching Leeds Tykes, for whom he once played rugby union.
On Saturday, when he would normally have been working as part of Leeds United’s medical team, he travelled to Dublin to see the Six Nations showdown between Ireland and England. If players were on three months’ notice there would be no identity to clubs, team-building would be impossible. The rich clubs would sign everyone.Or would they? The post-Bosman reality is that players, and their agents, already have the upper hand Witness the moves of Sol Campbell and Wayne Rooney. Yet Henry and Patrick Vieira have stayed at Highbury, prizing contentment above (further) riches. Ashley Cole may yet do the same.Certainly last night he did not look like a player torn by split loyalties. He never hid from the ball, he never shirked a challenge, one crunching tackle on Joe Cole reverberating around the ground. Maybe he will go to Chelsea, but there are no guarantees for him.
For every Frank Lampard there is a Scott Parker, or Hernan Crespo And it could be the making of Ga?Clichy.. Striking the crossbar one minute, clearing off the line the next, the 2002 Footballer of the Year was everywhere. The French international has had a quiet couple of seasons since his injury but he has come back into form. Who knows, perhaps he will soon receive an invitation to dinner from Mourinho and Kenyon.And if he did? Tapping up is nothing new.
The only difference with Chelsea is the blatant nature of their alleged approaches. Traditionally it is done with a phone call or through an agent, an international team-mate, or a journalist.It is this apparent arrogance which grated with Ars? Wenger but Arsenal’s position on the moral high ground is shaky. There is something unsettling about the way they have scoured the youth academies of Europe to lure players such as Nicolas Anelka, Arturo Lupoli and Cesc Fabregas from the clubs which first discovered their talent. It is a free market, they will argue, but in that case Cole has the right to talk to Chelsea, and Chelsea to him. Few of the 40,000 at Stamford Bridge labour under such employment restrictions.But football is different, it is argued to employment lawyers. And who will he be playing for next season? Not since Alan Kennedy scored Liverpool’s winner against Real Madrid in the 1981 European Cup final has a left-back been the focus of such attention. One reason Chelsea came into the game without winning a League match against Arsenal at the Bridge since 1995 is that Nigel Winterburn and Silvinho both scored critical, sensational, late goals here.Cole kept a lower profile.