Frank Arnesen will step down from his position as Chelsea’s sporting director at the end of the current season.

The former Denmark international joined Chelsea’s staff in 2005 and played a key role in bringing players including Salomon Kalou and John Mikel Obi to the club under former coach Jose Mourinho.

His departure comes just two weeks after assistant coach Ray Wilkins abruptly left the club when his contract was not renewed.

“It has been a privilege and an honour for me to work for such a big club with so many great people,” Arnesen told the Chelsea website.

“After six wonderful years I have decided to seek a new challenge.”

Moyes offers Beckham loan deal

Everton coach David Moyes yesterday offered David Beckham a route back into English football by saying that he would be prepared to offer the England superstar a loan move to Goodison Park.

Beckham recently finished the Major League Soccer season with the Los Angeles Galaxy, but he spent the last two winters on loan at Italian giants Milan in a bid to prove his form and fitness to England coach Fabio Capello.

“I hope that if David wanted to come he would give me a call. He only needs to call me or Phil Neville,” said Moyes.

“We would have to look into it financially. But if he came and said to me ‘I would like to come and play’ then I would have to go to the chairman and ask if we could make it work by selling enough replica shirts.”

Man. United sign keeper Lindegaard

Manchester United yesterday confirmed the signing of Danish international goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard from Aalesunds FK on a three-and-a-half-year contract.

The 26-year-old, who arrives for an undisclosed fee, is expected to be groomed as the long-term successor to United’s 40-year-old former Dutch international goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.

Lindegaard agreed terms with the Premier League giants after passing a medical in Manchester.

City striker Tevez tired of football

Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez has raised fresh doubts about his future in football after admitting he is “tired” of the game.

The City captain has previously expressed a desire to retire from football at a relatively young age and his club-mate Roque Santa Cruz claimed recently that the Argentina international was homesick.

“If you ask me, I would love to have my old life back in my neighbourhood of Fuerte Apache (in Buenos Aires). I don’t want to play any more,” Tevez reportedly said.

“I’m tired of football but I’m also tired of people who work in football. Football is only about money and I don’t like it.”

“The young players think they have won something in football because they have two mobile phones and a house.”

Dallas quits as Scot’s top ref

The embattled Scottish Football Association is facing further crisis after reports late on Friday claimed top refereeing official Hugh Dallas had resigned from his post as the SFA’s head of referee development.

The SFA is currently negotiating a widespread referees strike, which has forced officials to call in reinforcements from around Europe in order to maintain this weekend’s league programmes.

While those efforts have proved a mitigated success –some referees have agreed to help while others, including those from Poland and Portugal, performed late about-turns – news of Dallas’s resignation has not come as a total surprise.

In midweek the Catholic Church called for the SFA to sack Dallas, a former World Cup referee, if it was proved he passed on a “tasteless message” relating to the Pope’s visit to Scotland in September.

Valdano critical of UEFA charges

Real Madrid director general Jorge Valdano has accused UEFA of singling out the Spanish giants after European football’s governing body launched an investigation into Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso’s red cards in Tuesday’s Champions League match with Ajax.

Ramos and Alonso are alleged to have followed team orders and deliberately picked up second yellow cards for time-wasting towards the end of the 4-0 win in Amsterdam.

“I can’t go into details but there have been many players who have done something similar and were not punished,” he said.

“(Lyon midfielder) Juninho was penalised financially. Ibrahimovic and Samuel, when they were at Inter, did something similar. There is no way to rely on the regulations.”

Vucinic out of Palermo match

Mirko Vucinic abandoned Roma’s training session yesterday after spraining his left ankle and is out of the trip to Palermo.

The Montenegro international was stretchered off during yesterday morning’s training session so that he could seek treatment for a suspected sprained ankle.

He is unable to recover in time to face Palermo this evening and has been left out of the squad.

Also absent is striker Adriano due to a flu virus and the injured Leandro Greco, Rodrigo Taddei and Stefano Okaka, but David Pizarro is expected to start. Nicolas Burdisso sits out a ban.

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