Aston Villa have accepted a takeover bid from American Billionaire Randy Lerner.
Lerner, who owns the Cleveland Browns American Football team, will pay €92.90
million. The takeover will bring an end to the deeply unpopular reign of the club's
controversial owner ‘Deadly' Doug Ellis. Ellis became chairmen of the club after
they were crowned Champions of Europe in 1982. In the 24 years since Villa have
‘only' won 2 League Cups in 1994 and 1996.

Lerner said :

"It is my belief and the basis for my bid that Aston Villa can compete at the
highest level within the Premiership and in Europe. The club has a rich history
and a long tradition of passionate fan support."

Beckham's England Career Is Over
 
David Beckham's international career appears to be over after new England coach
Steve McClaren didn't include him in the squad to face Greece in next weeks
friendly :

"I told David I was looking to change things, looking to go in a different
direction, and he wasn't included within that. It was always going to be
difficult. It was always going to be a big decision but I felt it was one I had
to make."

Beckham won his 94th cap against Portugal at the World Cup and while he would
probably be useful to England in a substitute role his negative influence within
the squad is probably the main reason his England career is over. It's rumoured
that Beckham's team-mates weren't happy with the longball game that was being
played to suit his strengths – due to his close relationship with the inept
sycophant Sven Goran Eriksson. The off the field embarrassment caused to the England team by the ‘WAGS' (wives and girlfriends), spearheaded by David's abomination of a wife, the talent-less Victoria, is almost certainly a contributing factor.

A source close to the FA said :

“The WAGs provided a lot of entertainment with their designer clothes, fake
tans, hair extensions and heavy drinking in the bars but Steve seems to think
that it was all a bit over the top and could affect the way the team performs."

The WAGS will be banned from all future tournaments.

McClaren To Break Sven's Defensive Shackles

Steve McClaren implied his predecessors defensive strait jacket was the reason
the players rarely performed for their country as they do at club level :

"We need to get the team coming together so everybody has responsibility and
everybody has a say. These are the kinds of things you need to get you through
those little moments that might go against you. We need to get rid of the fear,
to get the shackles off and get them playing football for England like we see
them week in  week out."

"I've got great respect for Sven and I built up a great friendship with him. He
gave me the opportunity to work with these great players and I am where I am
because of him. I'm just different. I like pace and directness. I like to see players beat other players and in this squad I've introduced quite a few who can do that.  That's a little bit of difference you can see straight away, just looking at it on paper
but there are all kinds of way to win football matches. We just have to pick the
best one on the day."