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Wolves have rejected a third offer from Sunderland for striker Steven Fletcher.

The Championship side have previously turned down bids of £10m and £12m for the 25-year-old, and this latest offer falls short of Wolves’ £15m valuation.

Fletcher submitted a transfer request earlier this month, following Sunderland’s £12m offer.

“We want to keep our best players,” said Wolves chief executive Jez Moxey. “If our valuations are not met then they will remain at Wolves.”

Fletcher, who scored 12 goals in 26 Premier League appearances as Wolves were relegated from the top flight last season, has two years left on his Molineux contract, with an option for a third.

His former club Burnley will be due 15% of any profit Wolves make on a player they paid £7m for in 2010.

Fletcher missed Saturday’s Capital One Cup tie against Aldershot with an ankle injury and, with Wolves due to start their Championship campaign at Leeds on Saturday, Moxey is eager to bring the transfer saga to a close.

“All parties need to draw a line under this matter, which has now dragged on for more than a month,” he said.

“We need to focus on the season ahead and these disruptions to the squad’s preparations are unhelpful.

“We cannot allow this speculation to drag on indefinitely up to the closure of the transfer window.”

Sunderland are short of attacking options following the departures of Asamoah Gyan and Nicklas Bendtner, and boss Martin O’Neill has made Fletcher his prime attacking target this summer.

No Sunderland player reached double figures in goals last season, with Bendtner and Stephane Sessegnon the top-scorers with eight.

O’Neill believes Fletcher, who scored seven headers last season, will give Sunderland’s attack much-needed potency.

Fletcher has suffered Premier League relegations with Burnley and Wolves during the past three seasons, but his goals-to-games ratio is better than one in three.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Kelly Smith says it would be a shame if the Great Britain women’s football team did not compete at the Rio Olympics.

The Football Association has said it is unlikely because qualification can only come from the Women’s World Cup in 2015, in which home nations take part separately.

“That’s a shame because you see the exposure we got at these Olympics,” Arsenal striker Smith told the BBC.

“I’m praying that in 2016 in Brazil there is a women’s team.”

The FA has already said that Great Britain will not send a men’s team to the 2016 Olympics because they would need to qualify via the European Under-21 Championship.

In the women’s case, Britain would have to be one of the top three European teams at the Women’s World Cup in 2015.

Both the men’s and women’s team qualified for London 2012 only because of their host status.

The desire within the FA, including manager Hope Powell and the players, is to compete in Rio, but unifying the homes nations for World Cup qualifying would signal the end for the chances of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to compete individually.

Those political issues come after the British women’s team made a real impact at the London Olympics, despite being knocked out at the quarter-final stage by Canada.

A record British women’s football crowd of 70,584 saw the host nation beat Brazil 1-0 at Wembley in their last group game.

And Smith, who is England’s record goalscorer, wants women’s football to build on that success.

The 33-year-old added: “We got a tremendous amount of exposure. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. To play in [front of] record crowds, to get people to come out and support women’s football was fantastic.

“Hopefully now we can build on the momentum of that and see more crowds at women’s football. I’ve played in four European Championship and two World Cups, so to add this now to my playing career, it’s up there.

“I’ve played in America for a number of years and the Americans view that [the Olympic experience] as the ultimate, so why can’t we have a GB team?”

Smith will be aiming to help England qualify for the 2013 European Championship in Sweden when Powell’s side take on Croatia at Walsall next month.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

There’s no guarantee that Rangers will still be in existance by August/September time when they are due to go head-to-head with Celtic again.

In fact, it’s very difficult to see Rangers participating in next season’s SPL no matter what happens given events this week.

It says something that Sunday’s Old Firm match at Parkhead is almost meaningless for those in blue. The most important thing for them is that their club survives.

For those in green it’s a chance to celebrate their title success in their first home match since securing the championship at Kilmarnock as well as an opportunity to deliver another blow to their rivals.

Rangers may have won the last derby clash at Ibrox against the odds, but they are 4/1 to take the three points again with Celtic odds-on across the board.

Celtic will want to gain revenge for their recent defeat at Ibrox and morale in the visiting camp must be at an all-time low, and not just because of financial matters.

Kyle Lafferty was suspended this week by Ally McCoist for a breach of discipline suggesting all is not well, although the Gers have showed admirable spirit since going into administration, particularly recently, picking up four successive wins.

But Celtic have won 14 of 16 at home in the SPL and have lost only six goals in the process.

And they will be looking to give their fans a lift after losing to Hearts in the Scottish Cup semi-finals two weeks ago, which ended their chances of winning a double.

Celtic are little value at a best of 4/5 unless you are a big hitter. Although they have already won the title, the fact they lost at Ibrox and the furore over Neil Lennon’s sending off that followed, I think Celtic will be well up for this and will want to put their rivals back in their place.

I reckon backing Celtic to win by three goals or more at 5/1 may pay dividends.

Elsewhere, I like the look of Joe Ledley to get on the scoresheet at anytime.

The midfielder has scored nine times this season, a tally which is more impressive given he has filled in at left back on a number of occasions.

One of his nine goals came against the Gers earlier in the season at Celtic Park and he was on target in the title-winning match at Kilmarnock.

Ledley is likely to be given license to get forward with Rangers almost certain to set up fairly defensively.

4/1 looks a reasonable price for the Welshman to get on target especially as he is 5/2 in places.

source: www.bettingzone.co.uk

Bayern Munich are favourites for the Champions League after setting up a final clash with Chelsea.

The Germans beat Real Madrid 3-1 on penalties following a 3-3 aggregate draw in their semi-final on Wednesday.

Bayern, available at 22/1 when the tournament began, are now a best of 1/2 with Coral, Betfred and bodog to lift the trophy on May 19 when the final takes place in their home stadium, the Allianz Arena.

Chelsea, who stunned Barcelona with a 3-2 aggregate win in the first semi-final, are out at 15/8 with Boylesports and bodog. 7/4 is more widely available.

The Blues hit 28/1 in the outright market after losing the first leg of their last-16 clash against Napoli 3-1 in February.

As for the 90-minute match betting, Bayern are odds-on at 10/11 with Hill’s.

Sky Bet fancy the Germans even more – they go 5/6 – but they are prepared to offer 13/5 about Chelsea, while they have the draw out at 5/2.

Both sides will be missing key men for the showdown.

David Alaba, Holger Badstuber and Luiz Gustavo all picked up yellow cards against Real which will rule them out of the final.

Chelsea will be missing John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic, Ramires and Raul Meireles due to suspension.

Chelsea, however, have yet to conquer Europe. The closest they have come was in 2008 when they lost the final on penalties to Manchester United.

source: www.bettingzone.co.uk

Side with the South Americans

Valencia were soundly beaten by Atletico Madrid in last week’s Europa League semi-final first leg but a late goal in the capital gave them some hope ahead of Thursday’s return fixture.

Madrid will now only take a two-goal lead to the Mestalla after Ricardo Costa made it 4-2 with his injury-time strike.

While Madrid remain firm favourites to reach next month’s final in Bucharest, the tie is far from over, particularly with two away goals in the bank. They will also go into this one knowing they have not lost any of their last 21 home games in this competition.

Valencia will have little choice but to go for it but the way they were picked apart in the first leg suggests they have a big task keeping their visitors out.

The good news for Valencia is they have managed to do so twice in the Spanish league this season, while going forward they have been scoring plenty of late.

In each of their last three home games they’ve banged in four goals, while they also scored three here against Bayer Leverkusen and seven against Genk in the Champions League earlier in the season, not to mention four against PSV in this competition.

In short, we’re expecting goals but with the layers once again thinking along the same lines and keeping prices low in their over 2.5 and 3.5 goal markets, we’re going to head to the anytime scorer markets in search of profit.

For Valencia, Jonas is the man we’re happy to side with a what appears to be a decent price of 5/2.

He’s netted 16 times in 49 apperances this season, while his recent form is good as he’s netted four times in the last four games, a run which includes one in last week’s first leg and another at the weekend against Real Betis.

The Brazilian looks a decent alternative to his better-known colleague Roberto Soldado, who is odds-on in places.

We’re not going to stop there though.

With Atletico looking more than capable of punishing Valencia at the back, we can’t resist backing Falcao to score for them.

The Colombian has a wonderful record in the Europa League, finishing as its top scorer last season with 17, while this term he’s bagged 10 making him the joint leader in the scoring charts. During the two-year period, he averages exactly a goal a game.

Throw in the fact that he’s found the target 22 times in 30 league games and you begin to wonder why he’s available at 2/1 to net here.

Like Jonas, Falcao has four in his last four outings and scored twice in the first leg.

With his side in good form having won six of their last eight in all competitions, the price looks too big to us.

The other semi-final looks more evenly poised – Sporting Lisbon taking a 2-1 advantage into the second leg away to Athletic Bilbao.

Bilbao, who famously knocked Manchester United out in the last 16, are a best of 8/11 to qualify, which looks about right.

Sporting’s recent away record in Europe is not great but of course they don’t have to win the match to reach the final.

Athletic have impressed in this competition but such has been their stuttering domestic form – they are only sixth in the Primera Division – you can’t help but fear they will throw in one of their shockers in Europe eventually.

We’ll swerve this one and keep our fingers crossed for a goal feast on the east coast where a goal for either Jonas or Falcao will ensure a profit.

source: www.bettingzone.co.uk

Wayne Rooney was the only significant absentee from the open portion of training ahead of Manchester United’s Europa League last-32 decider against Ajax at Old Trafford tomorrow.

There has been no suggestion of an injury to Rooney, although with an important Barclays Premier League trip to Norwich looming on Sunday, manager Sir Alex Ferguson will not want to take any chances with his star man.

The remainder of United’s first-team squad were present, including midfielder Anderson, who has been missing recently.

On a windy day during which temporary fences erected to shield building work at United’s Carrington training complex blew down, long-time absentee Michael Owen was spotted doing some jogging on his own as he tries to battle back from injury.

Owen has not featured for United since suffering a thigh muscle problem in a Champions League group phase match against Otelul Galati in November.

United would appear to be in little danger of early elimination following their 2-0 first-leg win in Amsterdam last week. Victory would secure a last-16 meeting with either Lokomotiv Moscow or Athletic Bilbao next month.

Source sportinglife.com