Lampard backs Robinho to shine

Chelsea's Frank Lampard says Robinho's talent will "light up the league" when the Brazil forward signs from Real Madrid.
Chief executive Peter Kenyon is confident of wrapping up the deal for Robinho, with Chelsea's official website pre-empting the move by taking orders for kits with the 24-year-old's name printed and the number 'to be confirmed'.
Despite Real president Ramon Calderon insisting "the coach and the sports director want the player to stay and I am sure he will", Robinho's departure from the Bernabeu appears inevitable.
And Lampard is among those excited by the move.
"He is a fantastic player, I saw a lot of him last season watching the Spanish games. He had a very good season until he got injured and it broke his season up a bit," Lampard said on official Chelsea website www.chelseafc.com.
"He has great flair, and something that would be nice to bring into our team. We have flair players already but he is another option and he could light up the league.
"He will have to get used to it because it is different to Spain, but he showed he is a world-class player both at Madrid and for Brazil, and world-class players adapt."
Meanwhile, Chelsea face a trip to play Romanian outfit Cluj as well as being drawn with Roma and Bordeaux in Group A of the Champions League.
Chelsea club secretary David Bernard told Sky Sports News: "The Romanian team is of interest to us because I'm not aware of them at all.
"Any team that reaches the group stage of the Champions League deserves respect so we won't underestimate them.
"I think the boys are focused on the Champions League. They are completely focused on reaching the final again this year."

by www.espnstar.com/football Friday 29th August 2008

Roddick joins forces with Davis Cup captain McEnroe

AFP/File Photo: by news.yahoo.com

NEW YORK (AFP) - Patrick McEnroe has donned yet another tennis hat during the US Open as he tries to return Andy Roddick to greatness.

Not only does the busy 42-year-old younger brother of seven-time Grand Slam winner John McEnroe serve as US Davis Cup captain, he also works for the USTA while doing part-time broadcasting. In addition, his wife is again pregnant.
Roddick made the call earlier this month after amicably letting big brother John Roddick off the hook as the elder sibling grew tired of travelling.
Patrick McEnroe will be working with the 2003 Open winner for only this fortnight in hopes of helping Roddick polish a lagging big game which has failed to do major damage in the past few seasons.
"I obviously respect his opinion, and we get along great, and we're pretty close," said Roddick, seeded eighth and into the second round after beating Fabrice Santoro.
"I know his family well, and his baby girl and his wife. But at the same time, he captains our Davis Cup team. So who knows if that's a conflict of interest in any way, shape or form with the other players."
Roddick, who parted company with Jimmy Connors in February after 18 months together, knows that McEnroe can only serve as a short-term solution.
"There's no way he can be Davis Cup captain and coach against one of his (other) players, that's just impossible," admitted Roddick. "It (a permanent arrangement) is not really even worth discussing, because I don't think it's in the realm of possibility."
Roddick said he needed a quick fix, "someone who knew my game, knew my personality."
"It was pretty obvious who would be the best fit to help me out for this, just this tournament."
Roddick is hoping that a gamble to skip the Beijing Olympics in favour of playing North American hardcourt events would pay off big in New York.
"I'll probably get to that decision (on a permanent coach). I have a fair amount of time after this to figure it out."
Roddick said he and his brother parted without rancor. "John's been feeling the effects of the road for a little while. When we first got together, it was temporary.
"He was kind of just helping me out and was going to help, and then all of a sudden it's two and a half years later. I think he was spent, and I was struggling, and so it was an easy conversation. He was just like, 'I'm kind of tapped.'
"It's pretty intense day to day, and I'm pretty intense day to day. But he's been here the whole time, and we've been hanging out, so it's not too big of a deal, and we'll always be brothers."

Man City re-sign Wright-Phillips

Manchester City have completed the signing of their former winger Shaun Wright-Phillips from Chelsea.
England's Wright-Phillips, 26, has signed a four-year contract at the City of Manchester Stadium having rejoined for an undisclosed fee.
He told the club's website: "Obviously I'm delighted to come back to City and I can't wait to get started again."
Manager Mark Hughes added: "I've always admired Shaun and he's been a target of mine since I came to the club."
Wright-Phillips left City to join Chelsea for £21m in July 2005, but struggled to hold down a regular place in his three years in London.
He made only 43 Premier League starts, scoring four times, as he fell out of England reckoning too. To actually secure the deal and bring Shaun back home is a fantastic coup for us," said Hughes.
"I'm sure the supporters will be just as excited as we are to have him back at Manchester City."
In his previous spell at City, Wright-Phillips made 181 appearances and scored 31 times.
He is expected to be presented to the media at a press conference at the City of Manchester Stadium tomorrow.

by http://news.bbc.co.uk

Liverpool captain Gerrard to undergo groin surgery

AFP Photo by England (AFP) , news.yahoo.com

LIVERPOOL, England (AFP) - Steven Gerrard will on Thursday undergo surgery on a groin problem that will keep the Liverpool captain out for ten to fifteen days.


Gerrard played the full game in his side's extra-time Champions League qualifying round victory over Standard Liege on Wednesday night despite having been troubled by the injury for some time.
Manager Rafael Benitez revealed after the game - settled by Dirk Kuyt's volley three minutes from time - that the midfielder had been told he needed the operation before the clash but opted to play despite being in pain.
Benitez said: "Gerrard will have an operation tomorrow on a groin problem. We knew this would happen. He had a problem and now he will have an operation and he will be out for 10 or 15 days. It's not a big problem but he had pain and it was difficult.
"The injury wasn't affected by the period of extra-time. When he went away with England we knew he had a problem, and we knew he had a problem before the first leg in Belgium two weeks ago. Yesterday he spoke to the doctor about the situation and he said 'okay, I'll play with pain and after have the operation'.
"He was playing with pain before and he kept going today because he knew he was going to see the surgeon tomorrow. It's not serious, it's a minor operation, but we needed to do it."
Benitez admitted his side had struggled to overcome the Belgian champions who continued where they had left off in the scoreless first leg tie.
But the Spaniard insisted he could see signs of improvement in his side and believes they will get stronger as the opening weeks of the season progress.
He added: "We knew it would be difficult because they played well in the first game and we had to work really hard until the end. For me the most positive thing is we played a little bit better against a good team who are sharp now. We scored right at the end that showed the team was working really hard.
"When you play these kind of games, the other team is playing and training just thinking about this game. But we have been bringing in players from things like the Olympic games and now we can start working as a group.
"For us to have the possibility to play for the chance of winning trophies it's amazing and really important. And also in terms of money it's the same. If you play at this level you will have more options of winning trophies and of getting money."

MLB spends $2.5M to give umps 2nd look at homers

By RONALD BLUM, AP Baseball Writer

NEW YORK - Baseball's replay central is an 18-by-24 foot room on the fifth floor of a former baking factory in Manhattan's Meatpacking District that's crammed with so many computers and television screens that it looks like NASA's Mission Control.
Five monitors stretch across the top of the wall, and beneath are eight, 46-inch screens split into two rows. Each television can show one picture, or be split into nine, 16, 25 or 100 angles at once.
In the third row are two white Macintosh computers with 19-inch screens, each adjacent to a 26-inch TV. And, finally, below that are dozens of buttons on a router panel. Some are blue, some green, some red, some yellow. This is where the technicians and supervisors will sit.
The room is called the NOC — the Network Operations Center for MLB.com. It's where video from the 30 major league ballparks is already being collected, and will be made available to umpires starting Thursday to help them with home-run calls. Technicians can zoom in on replays, run them at any speed.
"Pretty soon, we'll wonder how we got along without it, and it won't even be noticed," Jimmie Lee Solomon, executive vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner's office, said as reporters got a tour Wednesday.
Baseball spent $2.5 million and two months installing fiberlink lines, monitors and dedicated telephones to link every ballpark with the NOC. Major League Baseball Advanced Media will now collect both teams' video feeds from each game and send them here.
For the 20 to 30 games each year with no telecast, MLBAM already is sending its own production truck, with six-to-eight cameras. And just in case there's a power failure at the NOC, the control room has emergency battery power just behind the wall and a generator on the roof with at least 12 hours of fuel.
The transformation is dramatic for a site where Oreos, Mallomars and Animal Crackers used to be cooked up — and the change is about as radical for MLB.
Baseball was the last replay holdout among the major U.S. professional leagues, one so conservative that National League president Len Coleman chastised umpire Frank Pulli for consulting a monitor in May 1999 before awarding Florida's Cliff Floyd a double rather than a home run in a game against St. Louis.
"You can slow a picture down so much that you can see the grains of sand and the clay around the bag. You can see whether or not a person has shaved that day," Solomon said. "The commissioner has come around and he's embraced it, because the technology is undeniable. I'm sure there was a time when all of us watched baseball on black and white TVs. Now I bet you everybody in the room has a high-def TV."
For now, umps can use replays to aid decisions only on whether potential home runs cleared fences, were fair balls or were interfered with by fans. MLB estimates it will take 2 minutes, 30 seconds for replays to be reviewed, and that so far this year about 18 calls would have sparked video checks.
Solomon said MLB will never expand the types of decisions replays can be used for. But what happens if there's a blown call on the bases in the postseason, such as when Don Denkinger called Kansas City's Jorge Orta safe in Game 6 of the 1985 World Series? It gave the Royals a leadoff runner, and they overcame a one-run deficit to win the game, then went on to beat the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7.
If a similar botch were made today, there would be an outcry for commissioner Bud Selig to expand the use of replay.
"The commissioner has been very clear. We're not going any farther than we've gone," Solomon said.
Umpires will have access to all video collected by networks and by teams' broadcast partners. Is it possible a broadcaster would withhold a video that's unfavorable to its club?
"Of course you cannot tell them what to do," Solomon said. "But we don't expect anybody is going to impact the game in that fashion. If it were true, that something like that did happen, we'd impact them very quickly from the commissioner's office, without a doubt. But we don't have that fear, not at all. Everybody's going to want to show the play."

Warriors G Ellis out 3 months with ankle sprain

By GREG BEACHAM, AP Sports Writer

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)—Golden State guard Monta Ellis will be sidelined for at least three months after severely spraining his ankle during an offseason workout, forcing the Warriors to start the season without the player expected to lead their revamped roster this fall.
Ellis, who got a six-year contract extension worth $66 million on July 24, sprained his ankle and tore a deltoid ligament while working out in his hometown of Jackson, Miss., last Thursday, said Chris Mullin, the Warriors’ top basketball executive.
Ellis underwent surgery Wednesday in Birmingham, Ala., to repair the ligament, and returned home later in the day. Ellis’ ankle will be immobilized for six weeks, followed by at least six weeks of off-court rehabilitation before the guard can return to basketball workouts.
“He’s one of our main guys, but we don’t think it’s a season-ending injury,” Mullin said. “The time frame, it fluctuates, but hopefully with his youth—and he’s been pretty durable and resilient to injury—hopefully he does get back (soon).

“With the offseason moves we made, hopefully we can still play at a high level this year. To me, it’s more something that you look at as a challenge, and you don’t let it defeat you, you deal with it.”
Ellis averaged 20.2 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists last season, all career bests, while emerging as a dependable shooter for the league’s highest-scoring club.
He will miss training camp and the Warriors’ preseason schedule, which includes a trip to China, along with at least the first month of the regular season.
“Training camp was going to be an important part of his development,” Mullin said. “That’s going to be postponed, obviously, but he’s got a lot of development on and off the court that he’s going to continue to do. I’ve got a lot of confidence in him, and now his job is to get healthy.”
Golden State’s training camp opens Sept. 27.
Ellis, the winner of the NBA’s most improved player award in 2006-07, is expected to play a major role this season for the Warriors after Baron Davis’ abrupt departure for the Los Angeles Clippers as a free agent. Golden State showed its commitment with a huge contract extension for Ellis, who is likely to assume Davis’ role as the point guard and catalyst of coach Don Nelson’s uptempo offense.
In Ellis’ absence, new point guard Marcus Williams is likely to get the first chance to run Nelson’s show—although Mullin also will travel to Chicago on Thursday to take a look at former Clippers guard Shaun Livingston, the unrestricted free agent who hasn’t played since injuring his left knee in a game on Feb. 26, 2007.
Golden State acquired Williams in a trade with New Jersey last month to be Ellis’ backup. Williams, the former UConn star entering his third NBA campaign, averaged 5.9 points and 2.6 assists in 53 games with the Nets last season.
“Just in talking to Nellie today, (we’re) talking about maybe spreading that ball around and getting scoring from different areas,” Mullin said, mentioning more shots for Stephen Jackson, Al Harrington and newcomer Corey Maggette. “Marcus is more of a pass-first point guard. If at some point he thought he didn’t get a chance (in New Jersey), he’s going to get a chance now.”
Guard Kelenna Azubuike also is likely to get more playing time with the Warriors, who missed the playoffs last season despite winning 48 games. Golden State shuffled much of its roster in the wake of Davis’ departure, signing Maggette and forward Ronny Turiaf while losing forwards Mickael Pietrus and Matt Barnes.
Mullin wasn’t certain whether Ellis hurt himself in a 5-on-5 scrimmage or a smaller pickup game. Although Mullin still is the same inveterate gym rat he was during his All-Star playing career, he shares most NBA executives’ wariness about their players’ offseason health in such risky workouts.
“I’m all for guys training and getting better,” Mullin said. “Ideally, I’d like everybody here (in Oakland) all the time, but that’s not realistic. I think one thing Monta has done each and every year is improve, and I do believe most improvement is made during the summer. That’s when guys do get better, so I can’t debate that.”