Comment and analysis round up

Quote of the day: “Alexander [Hleb] is preparing to make one of the most important moves of his life [to Inter Milan]. He is leaving Arsenal even though they want to offer him a new long-term contract and better conditions. Only time will tell if leaving is the right decision, but there’s no way back now. Everything will be cleared up in the next two weeks.” - Nikolai Shpilevski.

Runner-up: “If we can’t beat Derby, it will be hard to take.” - Reading coach Kevin Dillon.

Verbal fight of the day: “For [Dillon] to say something like that, I think he must have been caught off guard. It is something I would never do - make a comment about someone else’s team unless it’s positive. I think Kevin Dillon might have been quite right to think it. But to say it was quite wrong. I think the comments lacked tact. You would think Reading had been playing Champions League all these seasons instead of down in the Championship and the Second Division. Will I pin it up in the dressing room? Yeah - I’ve tried everything else.” - Paul Jewell.

Today’s overview: The end of season atmosphere continues to be present in the sports pages, with no particular headline taking focus. Today’s articles cover QPR’s courtship of Zindane Zidane, articles on both the Premier League title race and relegation dogfight and tabloid transfer news surrounding Adebayor and Gerrard.

The bizarre story of the day appears in The Times, Gary Jacobs claiming Zizou could be about to join QPR. “Queens Park Rangers parted company with Luigi De Canio yesterday but could not put to bed rumours that they have lined up Zinédine Zidane as a replacement. The former France captain has been discussed as a successor with the knowledge of Flavio Briatore, the co-owner of the Coca-Cola Championship club, but it is unclear whether the Italian is willing to match his ambition with a significant outlay to try to secure a deal.”

Oliver Brown (Telegraph) is quick to pour water on the Zizou fire. “The appointment of Zidane remains highly improbable and recent reports to this effect have already been discredited.”

Ahead of Birmingham’s win-or-bust match against Blackburn on Sunday, Maik Taylor speaks to Stuart James (Guardian). Money quote: “We have to believe that if we win we will stay up. That’s why it’s essential we throw everything at this last 90 minutes and then pray that the other results go for us.”

Steve Wilson (Telegraph) looks at Reading, Fulham and Birmingham and finds reasons why each of them should go down. On Reading: “Reading are not alone in having adopted the soulless out of town shopping centre approach to building a home. But they excel in making life difficult for travelling supporters who don’t have a car. Motorway access good; shuttle busses back in to town less so. And cabs won’t even go out to pick you up either.”

Tim Nichols (Daily Mail) recalls “the agony and the ecstasy of those last day escape acts.”

Professor Cary Cooper in The Times, who is himself a Man City fan, believes Manchester United will win the Champions League regardless of Sunday’s outcome. “The personality of Ferguson is spewed across the whole side. If they do not win the title, they will still beat Chelsea in Moscow. I would stake £100 on it. United are like a family; they feel like a family and they deal with hardship like a family. If anything goes wrong on Sunday, which I doubt it will, they will do the business in Moscow.”

Speaking to Owen Hargreaves, Mark Ogden (Telegraph) recalls United’s history of final day showdowns. “The United manager has been here before. He has faced three previous final-day title deciders; a draw at West Ham in 1995 handing Blackburn the title before victories at Middlesbrough (1996) and at home to Spurs (1999) denied Newcastle and Arsenal respectively.”

The Telegraph’s Alan Smith and Clive Tyldesley debate whether Avram Grant will keep his job at Chelsea.

Wallowing in self-pity, the Guardian’s Matt Bolton analyses Leicester City’s relegation to League One. “We all saw it coming. The tears shed by the fans caught by Sky’s traditional end-of-season sweep of the ground were not borne of disbelief; they stemmed from hollow resignation. Years of financial mismanagement, kicked off by Peter Taylor’s catastrophic transfer dealings during the post-O’Neill comedown - famously, £5.5m for Ade Akinbiyi, £1m for Trevor Benjamin - finally took their toll.”

In some of the more interesting transfer talk, Wayne Veysey (Telegraph) claims that “Arsenal are preparing to enter the race to sign Gareth Barry and are also considering a bid for £12 million rated Roma midfielder Alberto Aquilani,” while James Ducker (The Times) notes that Everton are chasing “Steve Sidwell, the £3million-rated Chelsea midfield player, and Michael Bradley, the Heerenveen midfield player who would cost about £4.5million.”

The Sun’s Antony Kastrinakis reports on Inter’s failed bid for Gerrard. “A top Inter official confirmed: ‘We need to make a big signing for next season and Gerrard was at the centre of our thoughts. Liverpool gave us the most emphatic response he was not for sale. We have drawn up a list of alternatives. But if Liverpool decide to sell, Gerrard is our top priority.’”

The scare story of the day appears in the Daily Mail, Neil Ashton EXCLUSIVELY reporting that “Adebayor demands an £80,000-a-week deal from Arsenal and threatens to quit if he doesn’t get it.” (Actual quotes from Adebayor’s agent: “Now is not the time to talk about his contract. We’ll wait until next week.”)

Staying on Merseyside, the Independent’s Brian Viner catches up with David Moyes. Money quote: “I think in a lot of ways he’s [Kevin Keegan] right, but I don’t want to believe it and I’m not going to accept it. I can’t turn up at the start of next season believing we can’t be up there [in the top four]. Even this season, until the beginning of March, we had a realistic chance. And if we could have got there it could have changed Everton for a long, long time. We’re probably more ready now than we were three years ago, and if we’d got in I think we could have made the group stages.”

The Sun’s Steven Howard reports on Newcastle’s spending policy. “Kevin Keegan says Newcastle are a million miles away from the Big Four. Well, here’s some news for him — they’re in it! Going back 10 years to the start of the season Arsene Wenger took over at Arsenal, we have some revealing financial statistics. In that time, the biggest spenders in the transfer market, naturally enough, have been Chelsea with an outlay of £475million. Next come Manchester United with £298m, followed by Liverpool on £264m. In fourth place, hang on a minute, that name’s a bit familiar, yes, it’s Newcastle United!”

Jonah Freedman (SI) credits Real Madrid’s lack of superstars for their La Liga championship. “The squad that won Real the title this season contains virtually no world superstars (save for perhaps captain Raúl and brilliant goalkeeper Iker Casillas). Sure, guys like Robinho, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Italian World Cup hero and ‘06 FIFA World Player of the Year Fabio Cannavaro are universally recognized as studs of the game, but they don’t captivate the world with human highlight films the way the Galácticos did.”

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