Football news

Giuseppe Bozzo, the agent representing Antonio Cassano, told reporters the Sampdoria player will not change club following links with Inter.

Speculation over the weekend suggested that Inter could launch a bid for Cassano as a possible replacement for Mario Balotelli who is likely to join Manchester City this week.

Bozzo said: “Cassano will not leave Sampdoria. And I haven’t been in touch with any Inter officials during this particular transfer window.

“I can guarantee that Sampdoria will not deprive themselves of Cassano, not even if the club don’t qualify for the group stages of the Champions League.”

Sampdoria play Werder Bremen this month in a play-off for a berth in the group stages.

Arnautovic treading fine line at Bremen

Marko Arnautovic could be on his way out of Werder Bremen only a month after joining the club after he upset club bosses with his attitude.

The Austrian striker arrived from Twente for a fee in the region of €6.5 million after spending last season on loan at Inter, where he also had problems with coach Jose Mourinho, but he has not made a very positive impression.

Last week, Torsten Frings invited him to change his ways and now the club’s director of sport Klaus Allofs has spoken in more severe terms.

“We will give Marko a deadline,” he said after Saturday’s 5-1 friendly defeat to Fulham.

“If he does not understand that we can only exist if we work together then he does not have any future with Werder.”

McLeish upbeat over transfers

Birmingham manager Alex McLeish is optimistic of winning the battle to sign AK Alkmaar striker Moussa Dembele in a £5 million deal.

Blues are facing competition from rivals West Brom for the player but McLeish received a positive response when holding talks with Dembele’s agent.

The former Scotland boss said: “I had good vibes from the agent.

“Dembele is a quality player but I never like talking about potential signings until the deal is done.”

Juventus midfielder Mauro Camoranesi also remains on McLeish’s radar and was due to have talks in Birmingham yesterday.

No goals for former Gunners

The first Major League Soccer meeting between former Arsenal team-mates Thierry Henry and Freddie Ljungberg ended in a stalemate as Chicago Fire and New York Red Bulls played out a 0-0 draw yesterday.

Ljungberg made his first home start for Chicago, but the Fire were unable to breach a Red Bulls defence which featured former Barcelona defender Rafael Marquez on his debut.

Henry played for 45 minutes up front for New York, alongside former Aston Villa striker Juan Pablo Angel.

McGeady compounds Celtic misery

Celtic midfielder Aiden McGeady is poised to seal a 9.5 million pound move to Spartak Moscow this week, dealing another early season blow to manager Neil Lennon.

Celtic, who have already been knocked out of the Champions League, lost their final pre-season game 2-1 at home to Blackburn on Sunday with McGeady left out of the starting line-up.

“He was in on Saturday and more or less said his goodbyes really so we’ll see how that develops over the next few days. I would probably think it will be Moscow,” said Lennon.

“He’s going to go to Moscow and get the deal finalised. I’ll be losing my best player and nobody wants to do that, but we also feel it’s good money for a top player.”

Wenger right to keep Cesc – Pep

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola believes Arsenal were right to hold on to Cesc Fabregas. Barca made two bids to sign the 23-year-old midfielder, but Fabregas announced he was staying in north London.

And Guardiola said he would not have allowed Fabregas to leave either if he was in Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger’s position.

“I understand Wenger, I wouldn’t have let him leave either,” he said.

“I just hope Fabregas carries on enjoying what is such a special and competitive league, the Premier. I’m not worried about the deal. The market is open until the end of the month and we will look to see what we can find, but there’s no hurry.”

Real pull out of Maicon transfer

Ernesto Bronzetti, a consultant for Real Madrid, revealed that the transfer to Madrid of Douglas Maicon is definitively over amid reports that Inter supremo Massimo Moratti had also decided to take the Brazil wing-back off the market on Sunday.

“Negotiations never genuinely took off,” Bronzetti, a FIFA agent, said.

“It is true that there was a meeting between Maicon’s agent and Jorge Valdano and another request, which Real considered a little excessive.

“I don’t consider Inter taking him off the market to be a strategic move, as there were no clubs willing to sign him at that price anyway.”

Jose Mourinho was eager to reunite with Maicon after their successful stint together at San Siro, but even Real baulked at the €28m price-tag.