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Your support makes all the difference.Markus Babbel took a swipe at Manchester United last night after being offered just half of the pounds 1.5m a year wages he is looking for. The Bayern Munich centre-back would not accept the terms on offer from United despite the clubs agreeing on a pounds 5m fee for the 24-year-old.
Instead Babbel flew off on holiday with a blistering farewell remark about the way the talks had gone - much to the frustration of United's manager, Alex Ferguson.
Babbel said: "I am already at a top club. I don't have to go begging on my knees to anyone." The German defender - an international regular - wants pounds 30,000 a week from United on a three-year contract that would take his total cost to them to almost pounds 10m. However United's negotiator, solicitor and club director Maurice Watkins, is understood to have offered Babbel pounds 14,000 a week and a four-year deal.
Watkins stayed on in Munich after the initial talks broke down but the signs are not good for United. Although the Old Trafford club are likely to increase their offer when Babbel comes back from his holiday, there is a huge gap in their figures. United also want Babbel to commit himself for the peak years of his career, but he has his eyes set on a further move at 27, when he could go for nothing.
Rangers have spent pounds 3m on a player who recently said that does not like football. Sergio Porrini, the Juventus central defender who signed a four- year contract yesterday, gave an interview earlier this year in which he said that when his contract in Turin ended in 2001 he would give up the game. "It is a world I don't like," he said. "It is a world where one doesn't say what one thinks."
Rangers, who signed Porrini despite competition from Manchester United and Parma, are still trying to keep Brian Laudrup. The Ibrox manager, Walter Smith, telephoned the 28-year-old striker at the Denmark training camp on Saturday before their World Cup qualifier against Bosnia, though Laudrup later confirmed his desire to leave.
With Ajax and Manchester United heading the queue to secure his services, Smith adjourned a family holiday in France to team up with Murray at his Jersey summer home yesterday, where they were due to meet Laudrup and his agent.
The former manager of Southampton, Graeme Souness, could become coach of the Italian Serie B club Torino on Sunday, after a week of talking with the club. "We are ready. We have to finalise the details of the contract and we hope to sign next Sunday," a Torino spokesman said.
Sunderland are facing a pounds 600,000 bill for pulling out of the signing of Israeli striker, Ronen Harazi. The 27-year-old international took the club to Fifa, world football's governing body, which backed his claim that he signed a binding agreement, and he is now looking for compensation from Sunderland on a four-year contract that was worth pounds 3,000 per-week.
Sunderland, who are to appeal, called off the signing when they discovered that Harazi was carrying an old injury and had a pin in his foot from a childhood accident.
However, Harazi had already signed a contract after impressing Sunderland's manager, Peter Reid, in training, and Fifa does not recognise the English system of making transfers subject to medicals
Harazi is now playing again and helped his club, Beitar Jerusalem, become champions while Sunderland were dropping out of the Premiership. Sunderland may also face separate action from the club, who missed out on a pounds 500,000 transfer fee when the deal collapsed.
Ian Crook is set to leave Norwich City for a contract worth around pounds 600,000 a year with the Japanese side, Sanfrecce Hiroshima. The midfielder has been unsettled at Norwich for some time, and signed for Ipswich last summer before changing his mind and returning to Carrow Road. Hiroshima reportedly wanted Aston Villa's veteran Andy Townsend, but he was too expensive for them.
The Football League officially release its fixture list for the 1997- 98 season on Monday, and is in agreement with the Premier League that Middlesbrough's relegation from the Premiership stands - despite the continuing threat from the Teesside club of legal action after having three points deducted for failing to turn up at Blackburn last season.
Chris Hull, a Football League spokesman, said: "As far as we are concerned Middlesbrough will be one of the 72 clubs in the Nationwide Football League."
A club source at the Riverside Stadium said: "The signs are that they are gearing themselves up for the First Division."
There will be an additional 1998-99 Uefa Cup place for English clubs, after England came top of the Uefa Fair Play table, which is based on players' and fans' behaviour.
Manchester City's Peter Beagrie is ready to join Swindon in a pounds 300,000 deal. Paul Hart, who resigned as Leeds United's youth team coach last week, has joined his old club Nottingham Forest in a similar position.
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