Manchester City are the latest club to join the growing list of admirers of young Hibs striker Steven Fletcher. Fletcher, a product of the youth academy at Easter Road, was also linked with a £4m move to Real Madrid in the summer. Middlesbrough, Bolton, Everton and Aston Villa are among the other Premiership clubs that have kept track of the striker’s progress.
Fletcher was part of the Scotland U-19 team that lost to Spain in the final of the European Championships two years ago. He made his debut for Scotland in a friendly against Croatia in March 2008.
On a poor day for the Premiership’s big four, Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool were held to a goalless draw at Anfield by Fulham, who, prior to this game, had picked up just one point from their trips away from Craven Cottage this season. But because Chelsea and Manchester United had similar results against Newcastle and Aston Villa respectively, Liverpool are still on the same number of points as the Blues.
Fernando Torres started for Liverpool, and was easily their best attacking player of the afternoon. Robbie Keane looked short on confidence, and neither Dirk Kuyt nor Albert Riera were at their best as Liverpool desperately looked for a way to break Fulham down. With skipper Steven Gerrard out of the squad with an injury, Liverpool were unable to deliver the killing blow to Roy Hodgson’s side, for whom a stalemate was as good as a win.
Torres was easily Liverpool's best player on show ( Photo : Philip Gabrielsen)
With Gerrard unavailable Benitez surprised one and all by starting with Lucas Leiva, and relegating in form Xabi Alonso to the bench. The Reds started off fairly well, although there were plenty of misplaced passes floating around. The best chance of the first half fell to Robbie Keane after Fabio Aurelio’s ball had taken deflections off both Torres and Jimmy Bullard, but Australian keeper Mark Schwarzer did well to get his face in the way. In his Spurs days, you would have probably seen Keane loft it over the keeper rather than smash it into this face.
Italian side Juventus have insisted that goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon is not for sale, not even if Manchester City are willing to spend a whopping 60 million pounds for the 30 year old.
Wanted- Man City are reportedly willing to offer Buffon £240,000 a week
However Juventus coach Claudio Ranieiri and president Jean Claude Blanc have said that the 2006 World Cup winner will stay in Turin, and will not move north to the City of Manchester Stadium. If the Telegraph is to be believed, Buffon reportedly said earlier this week that if such an offer did come along, then ” he would himself make the deal happen ”
