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Tottenham have confirmed that manager Harry Redknapp has left the club by mutual consent.

The north London side finished fourth in the Premier League last term, but missed out on Champions League football due to Chelsea winning the 2011-12 tournament.

With only one year left on his contract at White Hart Lane, Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has confirmed that Redknapp has left his post.

“This is not a decision the board and I have taken lightly,” a statement on the club’s official website reads.

“Harry arrived at the club at a time when his experience and approach was exactly what was needed. This decision in no way detracts from the excellent work Harry has done during his time with the club and I should like to thank him for his achievements and contribution. Harry will always be welcome at the Lane.”

Redknapp has spoken of his sadness at leaving the role, and wished the club well in the future.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Spurs and am proud of my achievements. I have had a fantastic four years with the club, at times the football has been breathtaking.

“I am sad to be leaving but wish to thank the players, staff and fans for their terrific support during my time there,” he concluded.

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Everton’s David Moyes is the early favourite to be Redknapp’s replacement.

By Gareth McKnight

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Swansea City manager Brendan Rodgers is under no illusions as to the challenges his club faces in the English Premier League.The Swans became the first Welsh side to reach the Premier League after gaining promotion via the Championship playoffs at the end of last season.

Reaching the top-flight completes a fairytale story for the Welsh side, who nearly dropped out of the entire Football League just eight seasons ago.

But Rodgers knows the hard work is only just beginning.

“It’s the most competitive league in the world,” he said.

“I’m just happy that I was able to help bring that football to Wales, in particular to Swansea. There’s no doubt that it’s going to be really tough for us. Certainly, we’re going to give it our best and continue to play how we play.”

“It’s important that we’re creative and attacking in our football. The difference in the Premier League is that when you lose the ball there’s a better quality that can hurt you.”

Swansea have taken a measured approach to strengthening their squad ahead of the new campaign, having lost goalkeeper Dorus de Vries (Wolves) and midfielder Darren Pratley (Bolton) after their contracts expired.

One-cap Portugal goalkeeper Jose Moreira joins from Benfica, while Rogers splashed out a club-record 3.5 million pounds for Watford striker Danny Graham. Tottenham defender Steven Caulker joins on a one-year loan deal.

Rodgers’ men face a tough start to life in the top flight, travelling to Manchester City for their opener as well as to Arsenal and Chelsea inside their first six games of the season.

“They’re all tough games,” Rodgers said.

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“It’s obviously a start away at a club that isn’t even in comparison with ours in terms of budget.”

“I think last year, looking at the Premier League, a lot of teams in the middle to bottom took a lot of points off the top teams.”

“I think (the big teams) be stronger next year. It’s going to be very, very competitive and every game will be a cup final for us. We understand that – home or away – every game will be tough.”

It is FA Cup third round replay time this week and Sven Goran Eriksson will get to make his return to Eastlands as Leicester face Manchester City tonight. Eriksson would love to get one over his former club and book a fourth round tie with another team that the Swede has managed in the past – Notts County. To do that Leicester will have to pull of one of the shocks of the round, but do they have the players to do it?

When these teams met nine days ago, it was Leicester who made a stunning start to the tie, with Sol Bamba incredibly scoring with his first touch in football. The odds are obviously against something similar happening again, but it has been known for lightning to strike twice. Leicester then went behind before Andy King scored the equaliser to send the tie to a replay, but neither King nor Bamba may be the wisest choice for your Picklive trio.

One man who has scored 67 points in his one Picklive match to date is Richie Wellens. Wellens would be a sound selection, and given Darius Vassell is injured and Yakubu is  ineligible for the match, so would Steve Howard. The experienced striker will prove to be a nuisance for the Manchester City defence, but will he get his name on the score sheet and pick up big points this evening?

The majority of LIVE fantasy football managers will be playing it safe tonight and plumping for a selection made up purely of City players. The difficulty with your selection will be that Roberto Mancini is likely to rotate his team, so you can’t be sure who will be playing until his starting eleven is announced.

On the back of his two goals against Wolves, Tevez simply has to make your Picklive trio, if he starts of course! James Milner is likely to be recalled to the starting line-up, and having scored in the original tie, you wouldn’t put it past the former Aston Villa midfielder to add to his FA Cup tally this season.

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With Manchester City heading into the match as clear favourites, you’d have to think that the odds of them keeping a clean sheet are pretty low. The likes of Vincent Kompany will be particularly keen to ensure Leicester draw a blank after letting in three goals against Wolves, and Kompany’s Picklive point’s average of 57 makes him an attractive choice.

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With striker Darius Henderson facing a court case in June, the Lions could face the new season without their leading goal scorer from 2010/2011 season, I will be looking at who would be left to lead the Lions attack.

John Marquis- This is Marquis’s first full season in the first team, and he has found it a struggle to adapt to Championship standards, with only one goal scored this season, and that came on the opening day at Reading.

Marquis looks a strong player who likes to put himself around the field, a Neil Harris-esq mould of player if you will, but so far he hasn’t produced, plus a twitter rant after losing to rivals Crystal Palace at The Den won’t help his cause with the fans. Can marquis score goals at this level? Maybe, after a loan or two in the lower leagues but not now, he’s nowhere near the answer.

Josh Mcquoid- The Lions faithful have seen little of Josh since his arrival in January 2010.  An injury kept Mcquoid out when he first arrived but the South Londoners did get too see a glimpse of what he could do, a magnificent strike against Preston which won the clubs goal of the season award.

Since then certain rumours of a fall out with Kenny Jackett came out in the open. He only played 11 games before going on loan to Burnley where he impressed at Turf Moor the playing majority of his games on left wing. He played 17 games scoring just one goal before returning to The Den. He could be the new goal scorer at The Den but KJ may have him in plans for left midfield.

Sean Batt- Batt will just be happy to be playing football again after suffering a horrific injury in pre season of 2010, missing the whole of 10/11 campaign.

He started to make his comeback in January 2012, including two games against his old club Dagenham & Redbridge. He was sent to League Two promotion winners Crawley Town where he played only six games. He was then brought back to The Den for a string of sub appearances, including the final game against Blackpool. With an awkward body to play against and his blistering pace, BATTman, a unknown quantity, could be the answer Jackett is looking for.

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Last but nowhere least is Andy Keogh – Keogh was brought in on transfer deadline day from now relegated Wolves and his first few lions games were played on the wing but Kenny Jackett soon pushed him to a striker. With 10 goals in 19 games since January he’s gone from being in the reserves at Wolves, to being a top, on-form Championship striker and on the fringes of Ireland’s Euro 2012 squad,  another gem found by KJ.

By looking at this the only real quality striker The Lions have is Andy Keogh, so surely another striker to accompany Keogh leading the strike force should be priority for this summer.

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Arsenal manage Arsene Wenger has labelled Barcelona midfielder Xavi as disrespectful following the Spaniard’s latest comments regarding Cesc Fabregas’ potential transfer to the Catalan club.

The Camp Nou midfielder has stated that his countryman is suffering in England, is unhappy and desperate to leave to return to Pep Guardiola’s side.

“I spoke to Cesc in Ibiza and he said he was suffering because he wanted to come. It’s more like, he did everything he could to come and wants to leave Arsenal,” the Champions League winner stated on Barcelona’s official website.

Fabregas’ current boss is not pleased with Xavi or Barcelona’s conduct in the affair, and feels it lacks respect.

“What is important is that Cesc Fabregas is contracted to Arsenal. That is a fact. Arsenal wants to keep him and all the rest is comment,” the Frenchman is reported to have said in The Telegraph.

“If I found Barcelona in exactly the same position, I believe a mutual respect between the clubs should stop this kind of comment. If it is true then it is very disrespectful and it is not the first time that Xavi has been disrespectful to Arsenal.”

The Emirates side have slapped a  £35 million valuation on the Spanish international, but so far La Liga’s winners have only offered £27 million, which has turned down.

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The Carling Cup has lost a certain amount of glitz and glam in recent times, not that it had too much glitz and glam in the first place. News north of the border surrounds ways in which to rejuvenate their current set up, and it got me thinking about the current format of the Carling Cup.

Does anyone really hold the cup competition in high esteem any more? Arsene Wenger in the past has shown little respect to the competition as year after year he has fielded lesser teams against the opposition. However, this season with the club desperate for silverware the Arsenal boss has taken the competition a little more seriously.

With uncertainty surrounding the Carling Cup I was thinking a great way for it to gain back some of its creditability and respectability would be to open it up to teams from Scotland, after all you do have Welsh teams competing year after year.

With the inclusion of Celtic, Rangers and co would the competition evoke more interest from the fans? I personally think it would. I think something like this is more likely than to occur than Celtic and Rangers joining the Premier League.

If the competition was opened up to teams from other countries, namely Scotland, revenue within the cup would increase, thus suiting all involved, including clubs and sponsors. I feel that the inclusion of teams form north of the border would be a better idea than the others that have been brought up.

So what do you lot think, would the inclusion of teams from Scotland enhance the competition and put it back on the right track? If you’re not a fan of that idea why not mention ways in which you think the competition could be made more credible.

If you like what I’ve written why not follow me on Twitter

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Use your FREE £20 bet on the festive footy fixtures!

Australia’s FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign remains on track after an entertaining 3-2 win over Equatorial Guinea on Sunday.The Matildas struck through Leena Khamis, Emily van Egmond and Lisa De Vanna but were kept on their toes by a brace from Guinea captain Genoveva Anonma, who put her side within a goal with seven minutes to play having capitalised on two defensive errors.

The win puts Tom Sermanni’s side equal on points with Norway in Group D after they lost 3-0 to Brazil and Australia only need a draw against Norway on Wednesday to progress to the quarter-finals because of their superior goal difference.

Australia made a bright start after their first-up loss to Brazil and Khamis found the opener on eight minutes after neat build-up play.

Van Egmond played a delightful pass over the top to Heather Garriock and although her shot was parried by Guinea goalkeeper Mirian, Khamis was on hand to tap in the rebound.

Khamis went close again after quarter of an hour when she struck the post from close range, and Guinea defender Bruna picked up the rebound with her hands in a bizarre incident.

Bruna then dropped the ball and Mirian picked it up, delivering a long kick up field with officials seemingly missing a clear handball.

Guinea’s Anonma gave Australia two warnings with strikes going wide, and she equalised after 21 minutes.

Servet Uzunlar was dispossessed as she positioned herself for a pass back to shot-stopper Lydia Williams and Anonma took advantage, rounding the goalkeeper before scoring into an empty net.

Although they went into the break level, Australia produced a strong start to the second half and were rewarded with two goals in the space of four minutes.

Khamis worked hard to put in a cross from the left and van Egmond, moving into the area, struck a powerful drive into the corner on 48 minutes.

Substitute De Vanna made it 3-0 when McCallum delivered a pin-point long pass for her to poke home from inside the area.

But they were forced into a nervous finish when Uzunlar was again dispossessed in defence, leaving Anonma free to place into the bottom corner to pull another goal back for Guinea.

In Group D’s other game, Brazil handed Norway a 3-0 thrashing after five-time FIFA Women’s Player of the Year Marta capped off a brilliant display with a brace and Rosana scored the other.

The five-time world champions have already booked a place in the quarter-finals ahead of their clash against Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday.

Chelsea's former assistant manager Ray Wilkins is to take legal advice following his departure from Stamford Bridge.

The ex-England international left the club nine days ago after being told his contract would not be renewed.

But in a statement released by the League Managers Association, Wilkins said:"I'm very disappointed that the board decided that I had no further contribution to make at Chelsea Football Club which has played such a huge part in my life.

"Since rejoining the club, I am extremely proud to have assisted in Chelsea's recent successes.

"I enjoyed a fantastic relationship with the staff, players and the supporters and I now wish them all the very best for the future.

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"The LMA's legal advisors are assisting me in obtaining answers to a number of questions arising from my undoubtedly unfair dismissal, and all efforts are being made to reach an amicable solution. I therefore will be making no further comment at this stage."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez feels that Chelsea will struggle against Barcelona in the Champions League semi-finals.

The Blues overcame Benfica in the quarter-finals to set up a mouth-watering clash with the reigning champions, with the first leg to be played at Stamford Bridge.

Martinez, who takes his relegation-threatened Wigan side to west London this weekend, feels that his countrymen may be too strong for Roberto Di Matteo’s team.

“If the second game had been at their place, Chelsea would have had an advantage,” he told The Sun.

“They need to take at least a two-goal lead to Barcelona to win. Ninety minutes in the Nou Camp is a long period to address things and put them right.

“Barcelona did that against AC Milan the other night. If the second leg had been at the Bridge, Chelsea would be favourites,” he opined.

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By Gareth McKnight

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