rafael benitez assured that he can spend cash from ryan babel sale

rafael benitez, the liverpool manager, has received assurances that he will be able to reinvest some or all of the proceeds from the potential sale of ryan babel, the striker, should a suitable replacement be available. liverpool’s transfer strategy for this month had been to sell high-earning players deemed surplus to requirements because of their limited involvement in the first team and to keep their spending down with money being retained for the summer, a time when the club’s hierarchy believe that better-quality players will become available. in keeping with that policy, andrea dossena and andriy voronin have already departed for combined fees of about £6 million and maxi rodriguez is expected to complete his protracted transfer from atletico madrid on wednesday. benitez, however, had made it clear this month that babel, who could fetch up to £11 million, would not join the exodus because of a concern that the manager would not be permitted to recruit a replacement immediately. on tuesday, tom hicks, the liverpool co-owner, had underlined the club’s position in an e-mail to a fan in which he admitted that money would not be made available to benitez until the summer. “january is a poor-quality market,” hicks wrote. “the summer window will be big.” but with manchester city having illustrated their determination to win a place in next season’s champions league, liverpool can ill afford to allow their squad to be further depleted by the possible departure of babel, who is interesting several european clubs, without benitez being given the go-ahead to find a replacement.

roberto mancini uncorks the red wine to shake up manchester city diet

... and the road ahead is long

arsenal put their faith in sol campbell again

sol campbell will complete a remarkable return to arsenal today by signing a contract at the emirates stadium until the end of the season. the former england defender played in last night’s reserve-team match against west ham united at upton park and then revealed that talks about a permanent contract are already at an advanced stage. it was campbell’s first appearance in an arsenal shirt since may 2006 and he coped well before coming off at half-time.

barry ferguson breaks duck – and nottingham forest's fa cup hopes

... cameron jerome pulled down sebastian larsson’s long through-pass only to turn and shoot into lee camp’s hands with christian benítez better placed, but then birmingham went ahead in the 62nd minute

time for kevin pietersen to get in touch with his swaggering former self

... is there a lingering resentment at the way he was treated by his employers when all he was doing, in his estimation, when he “got rid” of peter moores, was putting the interests of the team ahead of his own? all these are the added complications, layer upon layer, of a career in the spotlight

wounded eagles wary of falling prey to the cup curse

... coached by local man faouzi benzarti, who was snapped up after being sacked by libya, tunisia are seeded to go through with group favourites cameroon ahead of zambia and gabon

anfield up for grabs- liverpool fans rage over new stadium naming rights

... 'liverpool will press ahead with building work once an initiative to raise £120m extra investment is concluded in the next couple of months

japan looking forward to tough korea and china tests

... with japan travelling to europe and africa in recent months looking for tough tests ahead of the 2010 world cup, a chance for some competitive games at home is just what coach takeshi okada ordered

fa cup match preview/stats/thread: newcastle utd v plymouth

... hughton has hinted that he may play kevin nolan giving him some match time ahead of their next league game against west brom

hughton calling on nolan for cup success

... " looking ahead at the plymouth replay tomorrow night he said; "it will be an experienced team that plays tomorrow night