'Yanks' alot - England receive kind World Cup draw

England manager Fabio Capello would have came away from Cape Town a very happy man after seeing his side paired with USA, Algeria and Slovenia in the group stage for the 2010 World Cup draw in South Africa.

England begin their campaign against the US in Rustenburg at high altitude, ironically the town where England will be training over the course of the tournament. Easier fixtures against Algeria and Slovenia follow in a group that Capello would expect to qualify from in comfortable fashion.

England will play in Cape Town at sea level for the match against Algeria and Slovenia on the east coast of Port Elizabeth, so expect many ups and downs ahead, literally, for Capello’s men.

Should England proceed to the next round, one team out of Germany, Australia, Ghana and Serbia will meet Capello’s men. Meeting Germany in the second round will be not what England fans would quite hope for given the country’s history with them in major tournaments. The Italian will also be happy that his team will not meet pre-tournament favourites Spain, Brazil nor Argentina, until the semi-finals at least.

Elsewhere, the World Cup draw’s ‘Group of Death’ sees five-time world champions Brazil drawn with Didier Drogba’s Ivory Coast side, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal and North Korea.

A Latin-American flavour lingers in Spain’s group, featuring Chile, Honduras and Switzerland in a draw that is expected to pose very little trouble for the European champions.

Meanwhile reigning world champions Italy, like England, have been given a favourable draw pairing with New Zealand, Paraguay and Slovakia. The Italians have looked in poor form in recent times, needing a last-minute goal from striker Alberto Gilardino to qualify for South Africa at the expense of Ireland in October.

The Netherlands, currently without talismanic Arsenal striker Robin van Persie, will play Japan, Cameroon and Denmark. The side, which also boasts the talented Klaas Jan-Huntelaar, Arjen Robben and Dirk Kuyt, will be perennial dark horses come June.

Diego Maradona’s Argentina will face Nigeria, South Korea and Greece. Maradona, who scored against Nigeria in a 1994 World Cup group match, will be relying on the recently crowned European Footballer of the Year Lionel Messi to provide the inspiration and magic, just like his manager did over two decades ago.

And to round off the draw, hosts South Africa will open the World Cup tournament with a match against Mexico. Get ready for luminous tribal dancing and Mexican waves on 11 June! The Bafana Bafana side will also contest against Uruguay and a disjointed France side, managed by Raymond Domenech.

Man City sack Mark Hughes, appoints Roberto Mancini as new boss

Mark Hughes' time at Manchester City has to come to an end (Sky Sports images)


Over the festive period, it looks like there is going to be an Italian job undertaking at Eastlands as former Interazionale manager Roberto Mancini takes over the reins as Manchester City manager in place of Mark Hughes.

Mancini enjoyed sustained success at Inter - winning the Scudetto on three consecutive seasons and two Coppa Italias from 2006 - albeit two of the league titles from controversial circumstances from Juventus' Calciopoli match-fixing scandal.

The 47-year old has had a glimpse of English football with Leicester City, playing four games for the Midlands outfit. He was quoted in the Sunday 20th December edition of the News of the World saying he really enjoys the English style of football. He must have really enjoyed his four games there!

Mark Hughes was always under pressure from delivering consistently good results, whilst instilling an entertaining brand of football to keep Man City fans and owners, especially, leaving very happy. While he most certainly provided the latter, the results never fell his way, and ultimately the seven straight draws from October into November proved his undoing.

Spending some £217m on players during his stay left lingering high expectations of breaking the 'big four', and from the offset - with four victories at the start in as many games - it looked like Hughes could fulfil the huge targets the Arab owners had initially set. But players became disillusioned by the odd Premier League performances over the autumn and seemingly lacked total confidence in the manager.

It can also be argued that he was never in his comfort during his tenure at Eastlands. His reputation as a manager that gets the best out of a small pool of players with a small budget to work from was where he crafted out his success. Instead, he comes to Manchester knowing under the ownership of rich Dubai-based businessmen Nayran family, he will have a bottomless pit of money to invest in players.

Truth be told, he has never managed a world-class pool of players as large as he experienced at Man City, and juggling to keep all his wealthy players happy proved an insurmountable task in the end, even if he had such a short time to make a huge impact.

And invest he did. He purchased players with experience in playing in the Premier League, for instance with Carlos Tevez, Gareth Barry, Emmanuel Adebayor, Shay Given and Kolo Toure to name a few. But most of the players purchased never have never won major honours at their previous clubs, with possibly the exception of Tevez. Whilst the players Hughes bought were very talented, they were psychologically linked as the 'nearly' men, and often at times during this season Man City lacked the ruthlessness to kill off weaker teams at home, such as Hull and Fulham.

While two defeats in 17 league seem Hughes can do no wrong, the huge pressure of expectation set quickly caved in on him.

Sullivan and Gold bid £50m to buy West Ham as Hammers look for a change in fortune

David Gold (left) and David Sullivan (Daily Mail)

Second from bottom after a 3-1 defeat at Bolton, West Ham are slowly emerging as a club in desperate crisis. Cue come former Birmingham City owners David Gold and David Sullivan, who have tabled a £47 million bid to buy the club from Icelandic company Hansa, owned by CB Holdings.

The duo have great business acumen. Gold purchased Birmingham City for a mere £1 in 1992, selling the holding company along with Sullivan for around £83m last month to new owner Carson Yeung. Gold also is a passionate Hammers fan, and lived just yards away from the Upton Park stadium when he was a kid.

The pair have made it clear their intentions if they take over the Hammers. Gold will leave aside £20m in transfer funds for manager Gianfranco Zola to spend, in which he added great emphasis will lay on strengthening their defence and up front.

Hansa, who are in severe finncial trouble due to the Icelandic banking collapse, has a court case on Friday in Reykjavik to determine whether they can have a moribidum approved which effectively would give them 9 months breathing space from paying off debts to their creditors. If the courts approve Hansa's case, then there is every chance that they may reject Gold's and Sullivan's bid. And if they do, the duo are unlikely to increase their offering.

West Ham have had an unlikely time this season. The squad is ravaged with injuries to instrumental first-team players, namely Carlton Cole and Matthew Upson, while Dean Ashton recently confirmed his retirement. Kieron Dyer started Tuesday's match against Bolton, only to break down after 21 minutes due to a groin strain.

The reliance on unproven strikers Alessandro Diamanti and Guillermo Franco is a worrying indictment of West Ham's vulnerability in their forward line. They are both not physically strong enough to go to windswept locations like a Reebok stadium or Birmingham's St Andrews stadium and grab the all-important goals and rescue games.

To be fair, Diamanti and Franco have shown glimpses of sparkle and quality, but the keyword here is glimpses. Diamanti scored on Tuesday, but that was only his second goal for the club since joining at the beginning of the season. He has also struggled for full match fitness, and as a consequence, Zola has used him sparingly in Premier League games.

Coupled with the problems in defence, especially with the form of Robert Green where his form has proved at best, erratic. The back line has struggled, and have missed leaders such as Upson and Lucas Neill, who left the club last summer in a dispute over his pay and contract length.

So the club has hit serious trouble, on and off the field, and a two figureheads like Sullivan and Gold, are needed to give the club much needed stability and financial security.

The past month's sporting action

Chelsea and Manchester United stuttering in the Premier League, Liverpool out of the Champions League, Tottenham scoring 9 in one match, Silverstone sealed to host the British Grand Prix for 17 more years, Tiger Woods's indefinite break from golf, Michael Schumacher's imminent return to Formula 1: these last four weeks have produced a number of astounding news stories in the sporting world.

The action in the Premier League has been intensifying. Not many still has a clue as to who are the favourites to win the title really are. With Arsenal's recent win over Liverpool, the race has become a three-horse race yet again, with the diminutive Russian Andrei Arshavin now becoming a focal point in the Gunners' attacking moves.

And Arsenal have capitalised on Chelsea's and Manchester United's slip-ups over the weekend. Chelsea drew 3-3 against Everton in an error-strewn performance from The Blues, while Man Utd unexpectedly lost against Aston Villa 1-0 at Old Trafford. Gabriel Agbonlahor converted Ashley Young's near-post cross to score the only goal of the game to improve his credentials of slipping into Fabio Capello's squad for next summer's World Cup.

So things are seemingly hotting up at the summit of the Barclays Premier League, while Liverpool look to be having cold feet at the other end. With their recent run - 3 wins in 14 league and cup games - at this rate they will struggle to confirm their spot in the Champions League next season after having the most horrific campaign in a long while this year.

Meanwhile, hot off the press (Sky Sports News source) David Gold and David Sullivan have tabled a £50m bid to take full control of West Ham United. The Hammers have been struggled for the last couple of years financially since Egnert Magnussen left in nonchalent fashion. This could be the breakthrough what most fans and the staff would have wished for to add some much-needed stability and an air of security, since the current owners, Icelandic company CB Holdings out of the Hansa Group, are financially ravaged.

Dean Ashton gave up any hope of a comeback to a claret and blue shirt by announcing his retirement at the age of just 26. Ashton would have been a main contender of participating at the World Cup such was his quality of centre-forward play. Strong, mobile, and technically sound, Ashton certainly had the potential of partnering Wayne Rooney in South Africa. It is a shame to see such potential wasted because of an innocuous challenge in England training in September 2006.

Liverpool's Champions League exit was unexpected and poses more question whether Rafa Benitez is the right man for the Kop job. His past team selections have been nothing short of confusing. His five-year spell, in which he has brought in 73 players to the club, only Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard are currently regarded as the only two world-class players likely to score on a consistent basis. Their league form has too deteriorated in recent times under Torres' and Gerrard's absence.

The Real Madrid - Barcelona La Liga match in November was intriguing to say the least. Million of euros' worth of world-class talent, especially with Madrid who spent over ∊220m over the course of last summer. 1-0 to Barcelona it finished, thanks to Zlatan Ibrahimovic's 56th-minute volley from 6 yards. Cristiano Ronaldo looked physically fit, but has been hindered by niggling injuries early in his Madrid career.

Over to Formula One. New points systems look to be put in place, with the race winner awarded 25 points, second place awarded 20 points and third 15, evidently offering more incentive in winning races.

Silverstone has signed an agreement with the sport's governing body to host the British Grand Prix for the next 17 years. The news is wonderful for British motorsport fans who have witnessed fantastic races there over a number of years. It is still regarded as one of the fastest and toughest courses in the Grand Prix calender, so F1 best drivers still gives the circuit great respect.

Michael Schumacher is expected to team up with Nico Rosberg to form the newly rebranded Mercedes GP team. The 40year old last competed in 2006, nearly winning his eighth title, only to be edged by Ferando Alonso, who ironically now will be driving a Ferrari in 2010. Schumacher's awaited return is due to breathe new light into the sport, with which if his car turns out to be competitive, could face Lewis Hamilton, Alonso, Massa and current World Champion Jenson Button for the Drivers title. We wait with baited breath for Bahrain in March.

Tiger Woods said he will not compete in any golf tournaments for the time being to dedicate his time with his family. He admitted in a press statement on his website (tigerwoods.com) that he committed infedelity, and can only hope he can resolve his personal issues as he is a formidable force in golf and a marketable star. Due to his disgressions, he has lost sponsorships Accenture and has lost much press commitments with Gillette. It is predicted that Woods might not compete in the whole of next season, but US fans hope he can compete in the US Masters, the first major in the golfing season, in April.