Martin Jol was replaced Juande Ramos at Tottenham in 2007
Martin Jol is set to be named as Fulham's new manager later this week, BBC Sport understands.
The 54-year-old Ajax coach has had preliminary talks with the London club but will speak to Fulham officials later this week to negotiate a deal.
Jol managed Tottenham between 2004 and 2007 and will replace Roy Hodgson, who joined Liverpool on 1 July.
Ivory Coast coach Sven-Goran Eriksson had also been linked with the vacancy at Craven Cottage.
There will be no official appointment before the Fulham squad leave for their 10-day pre-season tour to Sweden on Monday but Jol is expected to fly out to join the party.
United States coach Bob Bradley and Switzerland's Ottmar Hitzfeld were other names in the running, but Hitzfeld ruled himself out of contention and a statement from the United States Soccer Federation outlined its intention to extend Bradley's current contract.
Jol, who was sacked by Spurs in October 2007, still owns a house in England and reports have suggested the Dutchman would be given rolling contract.
Although Fulham reached the Europa League final in May, Ajax will be playing Champions League football in September providing they come through qualifying.
They were pipped to the Dutch league title last season by FC Twente, who were managed by former England boss Steve McClaren.
Eriksson is thought to have held talks with Fulham but the Swede revealed last week that he was considering a lucrative offer to stay on as Ivory Coast head coach.
Roy Hodgson has reportedly
offered Joe Cole a bumper £90,000 a week in a bid to make the midfielder
his first signing as Liverpool boss.
Hodgson is working with under a strict budget at
Anfield and most of the transfers his summer are likely to be outgoing
ones, with Emiliano Insua the latest fringe player set to be moved on.
Hodgson has vowed to fend off any interest for Fernando Torres
and Steven Gerrard, however, and although Javier Mascherano could move
on, his aim is to strengthen his first XI.
Cole has already attracted interest from Arsenal and Tottenham
this summer and the Reds may face a battle to lure him north, but the
News of the World claims his representatives have met with Liverpool
officials.
The Merseysides hope a significant signing on fee and the promise
of guaranteed first-team football could persuade Cole to sign the
three-year contract on the table.
It is also claimed Hodgson could make a move for Fulham's Paul
Konchesky to replace the outgoing Insua.
Barcelona captain Carles Puyol
believes Arsenal would be wrong to deprive Cesc Fabregas of returning
"home" to the Nou Camp this summer.
Fabregas has been linked with a move back to Barca
for some time now and speculation has reached an all-time high this
summer that he will soon return to Catalonia.
A number of Barca players have spoken of their desire to team up
with the midfielder but Arsene Wenger has called for an end to the talk
after insisting Fabregas will stay put.
Puyol does not expect his Spain team-mate to go public in his
desire to make the move, but he does feel the Gunners should respect
their captain's wishes.
"Cesc is a really nice guy and desperate to become a Barcelona
player," Puyol said in the Daily Star Sunday.
"But he is not the sort of player to be ruthless and start using
the media to get him the move that he wants.
"There are many
players who would try all sorts of tricks to make it impossible to ever
play for Arsenal again but that is not his style.
"I think
Arsenal need to respect his class and show the same class by giving the
guy who has given so much to them the move that he and his family want.
"He
isn't just being deprived of moving to the best club in the world. More
importantly, he is being deprived of coming home.
"He has tried
everything to win trophies at Arsenal and when he sees the success so
many of his Spanish team-mates are having at Barcelona, it's only
natural that he should want to be a part of that."
Puyol may have
to wait to team up with Fabregas at club level, but he is confident of
doing so at some point in the future.
He added: "He is the future of Barcelona and Arsenal can't do
anything to stop that. I have just spent six weeks with him and there is
only one club he wants to be at.
"The worst-case scenario is
that we have to wait another 12 months for him to join us - but Arsenal,
Barcelona and Cesc know that is the very worst-case scenario."
Former
Gunner Thierry Henry, meanwhile, has said he would understand if
Fabregas wants to return to his homeland.
"It is hard because the guy is from Barcelona. I wouldn't like to
be in his shoes that's all I can say," Henry told Radio Five's
Sportsweek programme.
"I wouldn't like to be in his position because he is from there
and he loves Arsenal.
"I don't know what to say about this, because I don't want to
talk for him.
"But as an Arsenal fan, for me, I want him to stay at Arsenal,
but I would also understand if he goes back home."
Henry is preparing to begin a new chapter in his life after he
signed for Major League Soccer side the New York Red Bulls this week.
The 32-year-old is likely to finish his career in the United
States after he signed a "multi-year deal", but revealed when his
playing days are over he would like to return to the Emirates Stadium in
some capacity.
"What I want to do is when I retire, I don't know how, but I want
to come back to Arsenal," he added.
"I have just come here (New York) to play and to compete and win
another title. After everything is done then I will think about it.
"Whatever it is I want to come back (to Arsenal), maybe as a
waterboy, I just love this club."
Coincidentally, Henry's first game for New York could be against
the Gunners' north-London rivals Tottenham, with the teams to meet in a
pre-season friendly on Thursday.
"I'm trying to get back in shape (for the match)," he added.
"I've not done much since the World Cup. I don't think I will
play long, but we will see."
Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas has thanked Arsenal for helping make him into a World Cup winner, but his future at the Emirates Stadium continues to look uncertain.
Barcelona target Fabregas was forced to wear the shirt of the Spanish giants while in Madrid celebrating Sunday's World Cup final victory with his international team-mates.
Barca pair Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique ambushed the Arsenal skipper and pulled the shirt of his boyhood club over his head while he was on stage addressing Spanish fans.
Fabregas has already been the subject of one unsuccessful bid from the Catalan club this summer and is reported to have told manager Arsene Wenger of his desire to leave north London after seven seasons.
The 23-year-old looked embarrassed to be the victim of the prank, but his future in England continues to look uncertain despite admitting he owes a debt of gratitude to the Gunners and Wenger.
"This is for the Arsenal players, the Arsenal fans, for the manager and all his staff," said Fabregas.
"I have had lots of texts and Blackberry messages. My phone is full.
"I had a text message of congratulations from Arsene Wenger. He said I deserve it. I just think this is for everyone at Arsenal who helped me get to where I am now.
Rio Ferdinand . . . 'I don't do the celebrity magazine stuff. It's not my game'. Photograph: Christopher Thomond I've only just arrived in Alderley Edge, the village in Cheshire where Premier League footballers live in pavilioned splendour, when some bloke in an Audi sports car charging out of the car park at 70mph almost mows me down. Welcome to Wag Central, where the Range Rovers all have tinted windows and only the toughest and brashest survive.
The Wags are out in force in the Village Café (next to a boutique called POSH): improbably thin, with luxuriant hair, cradling coffees and small children. I'm here to meet Rio Ferdinand, but the injury-plagued England captain has gone to see his osteopath and put our meeting back two hours, so I wait, drinking sauvignon in the Bubble Room bistro.
It's a tense time to be doing this interview. The papers are full of worries that Ferdinand's chronic back injury will mean he has to restrict his appearances for both Manchester United and England, prompting concerns about his involvement in the World Cup in South Africa in the summer. Even more pressingly, the England left-back Wayne Bridge has announced this morning that he no longer wishes to play for his country, because it would mean playing alongside John Terry, his former friend and team-mate who broke football's code of honour by having an affair with Bridge's former partner, Vanessa Perroncel. I wonder whether Ferdinand will show up.
The meeting has been brokered by the designer Ian O'Connor, who is launching a range of footwear and bags called Five by Rio Ferdinand: "A fashion/lifestyle brand for people that aspire to be like Rio." As footballers go, Ferdinand is a Renaissance figure. He has his own digital magazine, also called Five (his shirt number at Manchester United); he owns a record company; last year he co-produced a film called Dead Man Running; and he will now have what O'Connor calls a "hands-on role" in developing the new brand. Move over David Beckham.
Ferdinand is a further hour or so late, but then there's a blur of activity as he pulls up outside in a sleek Audi – happily, not the one that almost hit me earlier. Ferdinand has presence – I am struck by his bulging biceps – but he doesn't swagger. He is wary, especially when he hears O'Connor has brought a camera crew along, but seems as grounded as those who know him claim. He plonks his orthopaedic cushion on the seat next to me and we can begin, the rules of the game dictating that I show a passionate interest in his new brand before raising thornier subjects.
I ask what it's like to become a brand. "I'll let you know in a couple of months when the sales come through," he says. "It's exciting to walk into a shop and see a shoe with your name and your stamp on it. My dad was a tailor; he used to have blazers that he'd made, and as a kid I'd be thinking to myself, 'If only he'd had his name initialled on the inside.'"
'Hello! doesn't interest me'
Ferdinand is 31, an age when footballers start to have intimations of mortality, so getting involved in the fashion business may be a way of preparing for life after sport. "I'd love to be able to continue this if it goes well," he says, "but I don't sit there and think this is going to lead me into the next stage of my life. If it continues after my football, then great. If it doesn't, then it's an experience. But in terms of football, I'm not really thinking beyond the next two weeks." He will not say whether fashion is likely to be the core of his life beyond the game. "I don't know; I wouldn't want to pigeonhole myself into just one box. I'm a person that is a free spirit, and I don't like to be put into a box and kept to one thing."
Ferdinand speaks quickly and fluently, with a soft south London accent – he was born and raised on a tough estate in Peckham – and seems genuinely engaged. "I could have done fashion years ago," he says. "I've had lots of offers to do different things, but I never wanted to do it because I don't think I really knew what I liked. Now I've got a better idea of what I like personally." His deal with O'Connor gives him input into the design and an equity stake in the business; he isn't just a frontman.
"I get offered a lot of things, often a lot more financially rewarding than this, but I don't take up 90% of them. I only do things that interest me. Hello! and OK! magazine don't interest me." He made a point of not inviting either magazine to his glitzy, and hugely expensive, wedding in the British Virgin Islands last year, when he married the distinctly non-waggish Rebecca Ellison (she was an accountant when they met). "I don't do stuff like that," he says. "It's not my game."
Product placement negotiated, I ask about his bad back. "I've had a little setback this week, but it's not too serious and fingers crossed I should be OK." He insists the media obits of his career are premature, and that he'll be fit for the whole World Cup. "With injuries, one day it feels bad; the next day the football's great." England fans will hope he's right: the cultured centre-half is a key figure in manager Fabio Capello's plans and, as the new captain in place of the tabloid- tormented Terry, his authority will be crucial. (Ferdinand knows what it's like to be caught in a tabloid storm, after a missed drugs test in 2003 saw him banned from playing for club and country for eight months.)
He is curiously reluctant to talk about being England captain. "I haven't spoken to the manager yet," he says, matter-of-factly. "The team hasn't been briefed on anything. We haven't spoken to the manager; he hasn't spoken to the players; he does it a certain way." I express surprise: surely when Ferdinand was made captain in early February, Capello told him personally? "No, we have to wait until we go with the squad. I found out I was captain from the TV." He has since had it confirmed by the FA, but not by Capello himself. He seems to want to hear it from the boss before it has any reality, and the situation is complicated by the fact that his injury means he won't be playing in tonight's friendly against Egypt. Steven Gerrard will captain the team in his place.
What's the Italian like as a manager? "Brilliant," says Ferdinand. "He's similar to the gaffer we've got at United. The best thing about him is he's black and white. You know exactly what he wants from you before you go out on the pitch, and that's what we've lacked in the last few campaigns. He says, 'This is what I want, this is what I expect, this is what I demand' – and if you can't do it, regardless of who you are, you won't play."
You've lost one of your key defenders today, I say, alluding to Bridge. "Have we?" says Ferdinand. "Yes, Wayne Bridge," I say, "he's not going to play in the World Cup." "Why's that?" "Because of the situation," I say tactfully. The news broke six hours ago, and it seems scarcely credible that Ferdinand doesn't know, but his look of surprise and the way he is blowing out his cheeks suggests that is, indeed, the case. Perhaps Alderley Edge is cut off from the outside world. If he does know and is putting on an act, he should be appearing in movies, not producing them. "I don't want to comment on anything like that," he says, when he has recovered his balance. "I want to speak to him myself before I'll believe it. He hasn't said anything to me."
Ferdinand is no fan of the Wag scene – likened by Capello this week to a "virus" – and was critical of their omnipresence in Germany in 2006. "The whole circus that followed the England squad last time at the World Cup was a joke," he tells me, "and I wouldn't like to see that again. It's a distraction and is detrimental to our chances. I'd rather go to the World Cup, say to yourself 'Block off four weeks or whatever it is to win the World Cup', and not see your family. I love my kids [he has two young sons] and my missus as much as anybody else, but if it meant me winning the World Cup and not seeing them for four weeks, I'd take that." The Wags will be going to South Africa, but he reckons their profile will be lower – there will be less mass shopping, and Capello won't let them near the players as much as in Germany.
'Two different kinds of captain'
Can England win the World Cup, or will they buckle under the weight of expectation? "I don't really like to talk up our chances – we've done it so many times over the last few tournaments," says Ferdinand. "When Steve McClaren and Sven-Göran Eriksson came in, we said, 'This is a new era, we're going to do this, we're going to do that' – and it does nothing. We get caught up in the hype and euphoria of England, the country expects and whatnot. We're going [to South Africa] to perform, we did well in the qualifying campaign, and if we can take that form into the World Cup we've got a good chance. But to say that we're going to do this or that is, one, disrespectful to our opponents and, two, puts pressure on ourselves."
But how will the supposed "golden generation" – Beckham, Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Ferdinand himself, all now in the latter stages of their gilded careers – feel if they miss out again? "You don't play just to get a cap or to be there. You play to win and to achieve something, and if I was to finish my career with England and not even to have got to a final, I'd be very disappointed."
For Ferdinand there will be the added pressure of leading the team for the first time in a major championship. It seems that only British teams, with their innate faith in command figures, take the issue of captaincy so seriously. "There are different types of leaders," he says. "There's the guy that shouts and screams, and the guy that leads by example. Tony Adams was a shouter; Bobby Moore led by example. They were two different types of captain, but both were successful."
So which will Ferdinand be? "I do a bit of both. I lead by example, but when somebody needs to be told I never shirk that responsibility. I'm normally one of the loudest in the changing room – not only talking about football but in general terms, and I won't be changing. That's the way I am; I've been like that since I was a kid."
What about when Alex Ferguson is giving one of his famously direct team talks – does Ferdinand shut up then? "The manager's the manager and his word is gospel, but over the years he respects anybody who questions what he does to a certain extent. A manager who doesn't allow his players to have an opinion won't be successful – you need strong characters in the dressing room and United have had that over the years, from Roy Keane to Giggsy [Ryan Giggs] and myself. It's the quality of our manager that he allows you to have an opinion and a say in what happens – but he makes the final decision."
In South Africa much will hinge on the form of another strident United character, Wayne Rooney. "On current form he's the best player in the world; there's no one as good as him at scoring goals." Might he be crushed by the burden of being England's talisman? "Wayne plays with that for Man United week in, week out," says Ferdinand. "He's been accustomed to that since he was 16 years old, so the expectation is not a problem."
Ferdinand likes to stress how ordinary his life is – as ordinary, anyway, as it can be when you earn £125,000 a week and are feted wherever you go. "I think I've been on three red carpets in my whole life, contrary to what everybody believes." He rubs shoulders with Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke and rapper 50 Cent, who appeared in Dead Man Running, but says they are associates rather than close friends. "I only really meet people like that through business. James Corden [star of Gavin & Stacey] is probably the only one I'd really socialise with. All the other guys I've met through doing interviews with my magazine or other business ventures."
How do you stay grounded in this soap-opera world? "By staying close to your friends and having a good family around you," he says. "If you surrender those relationships you grew up with and become cocooned in a world where you just go to football, come home, go shopping, go to restaurants, go to clubs, you can easily fall into that trap. But if you get the right people around you, they can shield you from that." Anyway, he says, it's the lesser players who spend all their time in nightclubs – most of the top ones are too knackered.
Ferdinand says he enjoys the adulation of fans – "if someone's not asking me for an autograph then I've got to worry because I must be [playing] shit" – but recalls one unlikely-sounding holiday when it became too much. "We went to Prestatyn a little while ago [for a caravan holiday], but it wasn't a good experience because there were too many people there. I look forward to doing things like that when I've finished football and there's another centre-half playing for Man United, and he's the person in the spotlight."
Ferdinand attributes his level-headedness to his parents. His father, Julian, is from St Lucia; his mother, Janice, is Anglo-Irish. They separated when he was 14, but his father lived closed by and took him to football training. Ferdinand's younger brother, Anton, is also a Premier League player (for Sunderland) and played for the England under-21 team. The estate on which they grew up had a tough reputation, but Ferdinand enjoyed living there. "I wouldn't change it if I had to do it again; I wouldn't change it at all," he says, lamenting the fact that the old community spirit is dying. "The estates now are like ghost towns," he says.
He attended the same school as Stephen Lawrence, the Blackheath Bluecoat school in Greenwich. "I was about four years younger than him, but I used to mess around with him and his mates, and I knew who he was when it all happened. I remember that day vividly – the headteacher calling school off and saying why. The first reaction from everyone was what was [Stephen] doing there at that time of night? It was renowned as a racist area. I wouldn't have walked around there at that time."
Did Ferdinand experience racism? "Yeah, but that's part and parcel of growing up as a kid. Where we were it was a really mixed culture on the estate, but if you travelled to different areas of south London, there was racism. Certain areas of Bermondsey late at night you wouldn't go, but as a kid I didn't think anything of that. It just seemed normal."
If he hadn't been a footballer, Ferdinand thinks he would have been a youth worker, and he has channelled that interest into a foundation called Live the Dream, aimed at mentoring children in deprived areas. "That's definitely something I'll be involved in when I've finished playing football; I'm hoping to get Comic Relief and Sport Relief on board to help me run it and give it a more polished finish." But he only wants to help those who'll help themselves. "There are too many excuses nowadays. I know it's hard to get work in the climate of today, and people say 'It's easy for you to say that', but hard work is always the key to anything. No one gets anywhere without having to work hard and sacrifice something."
That's the lesson he draws from his own singlemindedness as an adolescent. "I always wanted to be a professional footballer, and there was nothing really going to get in my way. I used to leave my mates on the estate – they were messing around and stuff – and take trains and buses to get to West Ham [the club for which he signed at the age of 15]. That was my life when I was growing up."
He had a wild period in his late teens, when he admits he was overfond of fast cars and hot nightclubs, but his parents warned him he would end up squandering his talents. "That's why I left London to go to Leeds [in 2000]," he says. "That summer I didn't get in the England side at the European Championships, and that hit home. I could have stayed in London – Chelsea had matched the bid from Leeds – but I wanted to leave for the benefit of my career." Two years later he moved to Manchester United, the club with which he is indelibly associated and where, despite rumours linking him with Tottenham, he hopes to finish his career. "They'll have to kick me out for me to leave," he says.
And when his playing career finally does end, will he stay in football – or opt for film, fashion and the foundation? "I don't know. Some days I wake up and think I want to be a manager; other days I think, do I really still want to be involved in the intensity of the game and the spotlight?" I remind him that great players rarely make great managers. "That's been the case so far, but it's all for change isn't it?"
Ferdinand is getting restless, but is too polite to suggest we wind up, so the PR woman says it for him. He has been getting calls from his wife and doing some surreptitious texting, and I suggest that the three people he has to respond to are his missus, Sir Alex and Capello. "They ain't got my number, the other two," he says with his lop-sided grin. • For the nearest stockist of Five by Rio Ferdinand call 0844 811 0535.
Atletico Madrid striker Sergio Aguero believes a deal to join Chelsea could finally be agreed this summer.
The Argentina striker has been continually linked with a move to Stamford Bridge during recent transfer windows.
The 22-year-old has been one of the most prolific marksmen in Spanish football in recent seasons, but believes this summer could finally see him join the Blues.
Aguero, who was restricted to cameo appearances off the bench during Argentina's World Cup campaign, is valued around the £25million mark.
"If an offer comes in from the right club and Atletico feels it is the right price, then a deal can be done," Aguero told the Daily Star.
"Of course Chelsea is of interest to me as they are one of the most powerful teams in European football.
"They show their intent summer after summer in the transfer market and more often than not that intent will see them end the season with at least one trophy.
"What I need to consider is where I can win things and I know for sure I can win things at Chelsea.
"You look at their players and you are excited about any future you may have there.
"To be the strike partner of Didier Drogba is a thing many players would love to be.
"But it's not just Drogba - it's Lampard, Terry, Anelka, Essien, and maybe even Fernando Torres.
Henry's transfer is a boost for football in the US, but questions remain about whether the sport can achieve a major breakthrough
By Tim Love
Monaco. Juventus. Arsenal. Barcelona. And now, New York Red Bulls.
The career path of France's top goal-scorer of all time, Thierry Henry, has taken him to some of the world's most illustrious and well-known clubs.
At the age of 32 and with plenty of top European clubs rumoured to be keen on his services, the Arsenal legend has chosen to finish his career playing in Major League Soccer in the United States.
Henry's decision has provided the league with a powerful brand name to add to that of David Beckham, who moved to the LA Galaxy in 2007.
US football is improving - Ferguson
While the former Barcelona striker's arrival was not met with the same fanfare as Beckham's grand entrance three years ago, there has been a very healthy amount of coverage in the saturated American sports media.
"It's highly unlikely that soccer will ever reach the heights of popularity in the US enjoyed by the three major sports; the NFL, MLB and NBA," Jen Chang, Soccer Editor at Sports Illustrated, told BBC Sport.
"However, becoming an established top five sport is certainly within reach, and ultimately I don't see why it can't become more popular than the NHL."
Sunil Gulati, US Soccer Federation President, has overseen a period of very steady growth for football and the MLS.
The league average attendance this season is roughly 16,000 people per game and ticket sales have grown by almost 10% compared to the 2009 figures. Given that the MLS was founded in 1993, the growth of the league is impressive.
"The MLS is not trying to be baseball. It's not trying to be the NFL. These are both sports with major history behind them," Gulati told BBC Sport.
"My favourite catchphrase when people ask me how long it will take for soccer and the MLS to prosper is simple: tradition takes time."
Football is fortunate to have excellent TV exposure in the US. Almost all MLS games are available to watch and the World Cup was a major success for broadcaster ESPN.
ESPN invested more financially in its coverage of the World Cup than any other event in its 30-year history and the viewing figures throughout the tournament were very impressive.
The World Cup gave football unprecedented TV exposure in the US
A total of 19.4m people watched the USA's loss to Ghana in the second round of the tournament and 24.3m people watched the final between Spain and the Netherlands.
This is compared to the 22.3m who watched the decisive games in last year's baseball World Series, while ice hockey's Stanley Cup this year pulled in just 8.3m.
"We don't expect a single event and the viewing figures to change the landscape of our game overnight," explains Gulati.
"But the sport has been on a pretty upward trend for a while now. The difference between 1994 (when the US hosted the World Cup) and now is that we have a 16 team league, 10 soccer specific stadiums, soccer on TV and players who the public know about."
Chuck Culpepper, author and a former sport correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, recounts a conversation he had on a flight recently in which the World Cup became a topic of conversation.
"I sat next to a man who said his 20-year-old son, a student at Auburn University in Alabama (a state synonymous with American Football), would wake early during the World Cup, paint his face and join a gaggle of friends at a bar to watch the matches during breakfast hours."
"If you had told me in 2002, when the United States reached the quarter-finals, that even this nugget would happen in Alabama in 2010, when the United States did not quite reach the quarter-finals, I would not have believed you. The number one reason this happened in Alabama: TV coverage," Culpepper added.
The implication of this story is that there are many casual football fans who have an interest in the sport and who are potential MLS converts. By signing players such as Henry, US Soccer is intending to do just that in both the short term and the long term.
"The challenge is certainly to get people who watch the US national team to watch MLS," said Gulati, who has been in charge of US Soccer since 2006.
"In the short term, Henry is a player who chose MLS over the Premier League. He's a great figure to have on the field and he'll excite people.
"In the long-term, you hope that people might come out and choose to watch Henry for a first time, then a second time, a third time... Hopefully people will see the connection between the 'watercooler talk' and go and watch a game."
Football fever grips USA
It is a view Chang agrees with.
"I think as the years go by, the appetite for ageing foreign retreads will lessen unless those players are still top players, but ultimately Americans want to feel like they are watching the best product and for that, you'll always need to bring in the big names," according to Chang.
"The MLS needs to continue to bring over the big names even if they are at the tail-end of their careers. In Henry's case, he's lost a bit of pace, but I still expect him to dominate and probably be the best player in the league."
What can be said for certain is that the MLS will not collapse like football's first attempt to launch in the US - the North American Soccer League - did in the early 1980s.
But how long is Gulati prepared to wait for interest in soccer in the US to explode?
