Gerrard picked for Uefa team
Steven Gerrard was one of four Barclays Premiership players to be voted on to the Uefa team of the year. The England midfield player was joined by Luis García, his Liverpool team-mate, and John Terry and Petr Cech, of Chelsea, but Thierry Henry, of Arsenal, missed out. José Mourinho, was named coach of the team for the third year in a row, after more than 1.5 million votes were cast on the European football governing body ‘s website.
TEAM: P Cech (Chelsea); Cafu (AC Milan), J Terry (Chelsea), C Puyol (Barcelona), P Maldini (AC Milan); L García (Liverpool), S Gerrard (Liverpool), Ronaldinho (Barcelona), P Nedved (Juventus); S Eto’o (Barcelona), A Shevchenko (AC Milan). Coach: J Mourinho (Chelsea).
Jewell appeal
Paul Jewell has called for an end to FA Cup replays as he prepares his Wigan Athletic players for their eleventh game in five weeks. Only 48 hours after suffering a third consecutive defeat in the Barclays Premiership, Jewell’s team play Leeds United this evening in a third-round replay at Elland Road.
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“Replays should be scrapped,” Jewell, who is without seven players for the match, said. “We’ll have played 14 games in 40 days by the time we’ve played Arsenal in the Carling Cup semi-final, second leg next week.”
Nelsen’s plea
Ryan Nelsen, the Blackburn Rovers defender, has requested a personal hearing from the FA after pleading guilty to a charge of improper conduct for comments he made about Mark Halsey, the referee. Nelsen said that Halsey had “a nice track record of sending off Blackburn players” after the referee dismissed Andy Todd during the match against Everton last month. Nelsen is facing a fine rather than a suspension after admitting the charge.
Finnish start
Roy Hodgson, the former Blackburn Rovers manager, will begin his job as Finland coach immediately instead of in August, the Finnish FA said last night. Hodgson, 58, who has also coached Inter Milan, Switzerland and most recently Viking Stavanger, of Norway, will have Jyrki Heliskoski, who had been caretaker coach, as his deputy, starting away to Saudi Arabia on January 21 and South Korea four days later.
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Long-term Tuttle
David Tuttle appears certain to remain as Millwall manager until the end of the season after talks with the club. Tuttle took over from Colin Lee last month, since when the team have picked up eight points from five matches but remain in the bottom three in the Coca-Cola Championship. “It’s up to me and Tony Burns (assistant manager) to get the club out of trouble,” he said. “We are all determined to escape the position we are in.”