 | Yeovil boss Gary Johnson - said no to Derby |
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The news was made up mostly with who didn’t want or get the jobs at the Den and Pride Park as much as the ones who got them. We know that Brian Little shunned any talk of him going to Derby whilst Yeovil boss Gary Johnson pulled out of the running after being given permission to speak to them.
Down at the Den the new Millwall chairman claimed to have got the man he wanted in Steve Claridge yet it appears every man and his dog were approached before the failed Weymouth boss was given the chance.
George Burley and Lennie Lawrence were amongst those who flitted in and out of the running whilst Franchise boss Danny Wilson has now revealed he turned down the chance to go there. Surely even Millwall would have been an improvement.
Whilst on the subject of Franchise, thankfully no longer worthy of a regular mention at this level of football, it looked as though Luton were all ready to come in for some stick in this column this week after agreeing to a pre-season friendly against them.
Well done though to Luton chairman Bill Tomlins who listened to his fans and after announcing the friendly on Thursday he then announced on Friday that they had called it off following protests from fans’ groups. Good on you Bill Tomlins, you made a mistake but had the courage to admit it and make it right.
Luton have also been boosted with the news that Steve Howard has signed a new two year deal to stay at Kenilworth Road where it looks as though there could be new music for the players to run out to. In remembering former director Eric Morecambe it looks as though the new entrance music for the Championship will be ‘Bring Me Sunshine’.
Coventry are another club celebrating the news that players have agreed to new contracts. Following the news that Gary McSheffrey had committed his future to the club, despite interest from a number of other clubs including Burnley, they have also signed up Claus Jorgensen, Andy Morrell and Stephen Hughes in the last seven days.
 | Coventry's new Ricoh Arena will not be ready for the start of the season |
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They will also be playing at home and away on the opening day of the season. Their request to start with three away games, with the new Ricoh Stadium not available until 20th August, was turned down by the Football League and they play Norwich at home on the opening day.
Norwich though have come to their rescue and agreed to switch the two fixtures with Coventry and it will now be played at Carrow Road. So Coventry have got exactly what they wanted, three away games to start the season.
“There are no players leaving Norwich,” Delia cooked up this week and immediately Dean Ashton said he was going nowhere. That might not be the case for goalkeeper Robert Green who, having missed out on a move to Fulham, is now interesting Portsmouth.
Norwich did strengthen their squad this week with the capture of Wigan midfielder Jason Jarrett who opted to move despite being offered a new deal at the Concrete Jungle.
Their rivals Ipswich have been busy plugging the gaps left by departing players and LBJ has signed two new strikers. The first was Nicky Forster who has been released by Reading and then he won the race to sign Swindon’s much wanted Sam Parkin for a fee of £450,000.
It wasn’t all good news down at Portman Road, as Tommy Miller followed goalkeeper Kelvin Davis and signed for Sunderland, newly promoted to the Premiership.
 | James Quinn - left Sheffield Wednesday |
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Two strikers signed there and no sign of Neil Warnock, I’m sure he wanted both though. It’s been a quiet week in the steel city with both clubs failing to add to their squads. Wednesday have in fact lost a player with news that James Quinn has turned down a new deal because it was late in arriving.
Another striker on the move is Mamady Sidibe who has joined Stoke from Gillingham after Tony Pulis arrived back from holiday and finding half of his squad heading up the M6 towards East Lancashire. He’s also hoping that goalkeeper Ed de Goey will sign a new deal but given Stoke’s recent record in retaining players you cannot hold out much hope for him.
If things continue like this at the Windy City then I really cannot imagine Delilah is going to be able to take any more.
In May a manager was told by his chairman that he has to lose two members of his backroom staff after relegation and so both Jim Smith and Steve Wigley left Southampton. Harry Redknapp said he fought as hard as he could to keep Smith in particular.
So what is going on at St Mary’s with news that Dave Bassett and Sir Clive Woodward of Egg Chasing are joining the club? It does take some working out and I’m not so sure ‘Arry will be all too happy about it.
He lost a player too last week with the news that his son Jamie has had to retire through injury. It’s hardly a surprise the injuries seem to have been going on for years now. Peter Crouch is not going to get out that easily though with Redknapp claiming that he owes Southampton.
As he looks to strengthen his squad he could be set to bring in Steve Stone who has somewhat surprisingly been released by Portsmouth. That should help to increase the animosity between the two clubs.
It’s good to see that Leeds haven’t missed out on the week’s transfers, heaven forbid that their squad size doesn’t increase. It’s American diving champion Eddie Lewis this time who has turned Preston down to move to Elland Road and the cast of thousands.
 | Jeff Whitley - has become Dave Jones' first Cardiff signing |
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Sunderland’s Jeff Whitley has become Dave Jones’ first signing as Cardiff manager and he’s now set his sights on new strikers. Geoff Horsfield is believed to be a target and it looks as though they will be joining Crewe in a battle to sign Juan Ugarte after the Spaniard appears to have turned down an offer from Barnsley.
Poor Crewe, Dario G admitted this week that his club couldn’t compete with the bigger clubs in the division when it came to transfers, specifically with his attempts to sign Parkin. Worryingly for the Crewe fans he included Watford as one of the bigger clubs.
He’s now looking to bring Eddie Johnson in from Manchester United on loan whilst bigger club Watford are celebrating a £1.3 million windfall from the Elton John concert at Vicarage Road.
Whilst his mate Rod Stewart was playing in front of just 12,000 at Pride Park, Elton packed 23,000 into Vicarage Road and said he wanted the money raised to go to bringing in new players.
It won’t, it is going to a fund to buy back the ground (grounds shouldn’t be owned by outsiders) but he’s promised to return in two years and this time every penny will go to the manager for players. Whether that will be Adrian Boothroyd is anyone’s guess, I suspect not.
Brighton have already changed one of their fixtures, a home game in December against Hull will now be played on the Friday night. Part of the agreement to play at the Withdean prevents Saturday games in the build up to Christmas. That must be a worry for them given that for some retailers Christmas now starts in September.
Whilst on the subject of fixtures it is reassuring to know that supporters up and down the country are considered as much as they are and it was welcoming to hear the Football League’s Fixture Secretary David Cookson say, “One thing we have always tried to do is minimise travel around holiday periods.”
 | Rufus Brevett - signed for Plymouth |
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He must have paid less attention than I did in geography lessons because Norwich and QPR away over the Christmas and New Year period is hardly what I would call minimising travel. No wonder Steve Cotterill was fuming with news of our programme. Still they have given us a home match on Boxing Day, only our second in eight years.
West Ham’s Rufus Brevett has joined Plymouth, one of the two Scottish clubs in the league but they have also lost a player with the unsettled Steven Milne moving to St Johnstone in the real Scotland.
They were also supposedly selling former Blackpool striker Scott Taylor to Oldham, that is according to the Oldham Chronicle who claimed he was in talks. Both clubs are mystified with the story and the Oldham club have slated their local player. The player remains with Argyle.
Crystal Palace have lost one player and are fighting to hold on to another. Wayne Routledge has joined the English only youth club at Spurs but Palace chairman Simon Jordan, fresh from slagging off Chelsea, has said he will not sell striker Andy Johnson.
Johnson will surely go before the closing of the transfer window, and probably before the start of the season, after claiming he wants to play in the Premiership to enhance his international hopes.
Palace are already preparing for his departure and look to be lining up another one of the international divers from Deepdale, Ricardo Fuller. I sincerely hope we are not going to get lumbered with him in our league again, surely reserve team football at Portsmouth would be better.
They have got a new coach at Palace with Bolton’s first team coach Neil McDonald becoming Iain Dowie’s right hand man. They’ll have no coaching staff left at Bolton soon. One coach not moving is Terry Connor who has opted to remain with Wolves despite receiving an offer from Bristol City.
 | Geoff Thomas - raising money for leukaemia research |
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Darren Powell of Palace has been linked with a move to Reading, Woking striker Raphael Nade is interesting both Millwall and Brighton, whilst Hull remain keen on Falkirk’s Darryl Duffy.
And Preston are now in talks with 19 year-old Port Vale striker David Hibbert but any rumours of the deal having been completed are very much premature.
We’ll end this week with a mention for former England international Geoff Thomas whose career came to and end at Crewe after he was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia. He’s in remission now having had a bone marrow transplant thanks to his sister last year and has launched a fundraising event to hopefully raise £200,000 for leukaemia research.
He’s cycling the ‘Tour de France’ route and has already raised close to £60,000. It all started yesterday with a short time trial and gets underway in earnest today. Click HERE to visit the tour web site, and Clarets Mad would like to wish Geoff the best of luck, it really is fantastic what he is doing.