Paolo Maldini looking forward to teaming up with Beckham

AC Milan veteran Paolo Maldini backs Beckham's imminent loan move to the Italian club as not just a means of keeping fit but that he is still hungry for success at the very highest level. Despite the deal being not completely signed and sealed it looks on the cards that he will be joining Kaka, Ronaldinho and other big footballing stars.

"Beckham is coming here to train, to remain in good form and to still be an important part of his national team," Maldini said.

"Milan has no reservations signing veteran players and has always taken into account the image and communication factors.

"As long as you have image and technical values together, all is well."

NEW Football Betting Tips

I would hate anyone to lump on seriously with any Football Tip I give. Why? Because I have the kiss of death when it come to gambling on anything. However I want to try out a theory which is if I give football tips but don't gamble on them, does my record improve? It may become obvious therfore that I am superstitious when it comes to this stuff but anyway here goes.

On Wednesday there is a full premiership programme (shown below) and I would go for Arsenal to beat Spurs at the Emirates, Aston Villa to beat Blackburn at Villa Park, Chelsea to beat Hull and Sunderland to beat Stoke. Lets see now how good my predictions are....

Wednesday 29th October 2008
Arsenal	vs.	Tottenham	20:00
Aston Villa	vs.	Blackburn	19:45
Bolton	vs.	Everton	20:00
Fulham	vs.	Wigan	19:45
Hull	vs.	Chelsea	19:45
Liverpool	vs.	Portsmouth	20:00
Man Utd	vs.	West Ham	20:00
Middlesbrough	vs.	Man City	20:00
Stoke	vs.	Sunderland	19:45

Harry Redknapp replaces European style management team at Spurs

Well, as a loyal Spurs fan I must admit that I am completely speechless afer this weekend's developments. The madness started with Daniel Levy sacking Juande Ramos, Gus Powet and Damien Comolli being sacked late last night (26th October 2008) after a series of tragic results underpinned from some tragic player acquisition at the Lane. I awoke to a text message at 8.15am from an old friend who is a Bradford City fan telling me that Harry Redknapp was our new manager. With a mixture of shear disbelief and excitement I scrambled for the trusty Sky Digital remote control to go on to SSN. Then the news unfolded. After taking 2 points from a potential 24, this premiership campaign had gone terribly. The disharmony from Ramos and Camolli was so blatant; here was a Spanish coach who wanted to demand his player choices stuck but then had more than a thorn in his side with Levy having a bias towards the Sporting Director's views.

After a decade of trying to force a square peg into a round hole with the Director of football two-tiered management structure, Daniel Levy has hit rock bottom and ate Humble pie at the lowest ebb of Tottenham Hotspur's Premiership history. Ramos was the man that Levy and Camolli both gambled on with great confidence, prizing him away from Spanish side Seville after Martin Jol's results took a downwards turn. With relegation staring Gus Poyet and Jaunde Ramos right between the eyes, something had to give.

"The results are what counts in football and we all know how this world works," Ramos said. "Now we just have to see if this decision is the best one for the team to recover and have a good season."

Harry Redknapp joins Tottenham Hotspur from a very successful second spell in management at Portsmouth. After winning the FA Cup and getting Pompey into Europe, Redknapp hinted that the £5 millon that Levy offered was too tempting a payment for Portsmouth to take. However, emotionally this move to Spurs had been on his mind in previous years and his willingness to succeed came from connections with the club on many levels.

"I could have come here maybe 18 months ago, in all honesty," said Redknapp. "I nearly came here, it was a long story but things happened.

"I nearly went to Newcastle and people said I didn't want to take on the challenge of a big club. I felt that once this happened (with Spurs again), I would have regretted it for the rest of my life.

Whatever will happen at the Lane next? A great start today with a 2-0 victory against Bolton with Pavlichenko and Bent scoring, but relegation is still a huge threat to Tottenham Hotspur - the table does not lie. Either way, today was a huge step forward for the Spurs. Harry Redknapp is the best English manager that we have and shows the strength and resilience that Tottenham need to either get out of the bottom three or to bounce right back into the big time.

Sunderland v Newcastle United result 25th October 2008

Sunderland 2 Newcastle United 1 Attendance 47,936

This midday Premiership fixture was a mouth watering North East derby and lived up to the expectation with both teams showing lots of commitment in the tackle and desire to win. Cisse scored first in the 20th minute stabbing home a Melbranque cross. Shola Amoebi then made it even only ten minutes later with a well worked move finished off with a firm header from the Nigerian.

But it was in the second half that Kieran Richardson made the Stadium of Light erupt with a thunderbolt free kick hitting the top corner of the net. This was a wonderful goal showing superb techinque to bend and swerve the ball at high speed - Shay Given had no chance.

Newcastle's performance was stronger and are showing more signs of improvement currently from Spurs but Joe Kinnear will feel the pain of losing a local derby whilst being in the bottom 3.

Everton v Manchester United result 25th October 2008

Everton 1 Manchester United 1 Attendance 36,069

Darren Fletcher opened the scoring 22 minutes in at Goodison Park from a Ryan Giggs assist. Man Utd then dominated the possession with slicking passing and movement. In the second half Everton were subjected to more pressure from the Red Devils but then in the 63rd minute Everton turned the game on its head with a counter attacking football spell beginning with great passing move involving a Phil Neville cross which Fellaini headed home to make it 1-1. Quickly after this Yakubu then hit the post from a narrow angle at close range. Anderson came on for Park in an attempt to take some pressure off of the Manchester United defence. Everton played with style and aggression in attack with Yakubu putting heavy pressure on Ferdinand and Vidic. The game evened out and although Fergie will see this match as two points lost in the premiership battle, Man Utd could have easily dropped all three.

Iain Dowie sacked at QPR

Chairman Flavio Briatore has sacked Iain Dowie after only 15 games from his managerial role at Queen's Park Rangers. With 8 wins, 3 draws and 4 wins this year. This is the second time that Dowie seems to have been prematurely sacked after 12 games. There have been rumours that Briatore has been trying to tinker with the QPR team selection and there have been board friction with the sporting director Gianni Paladini and vice chairman Amit Bhatia.

Terry Venables, Darren Ferguson, Roberto Mancini and Alan Curbishley have all been linked with the positon.

Premiership preview 24th October 2008

The big game of the weekend is on Sunday 26th October as Liverpool travel to Stamford Bridge taking on in-form Chelsea. Despite missing Torres through a hamstring injury, Liverpool have displayed good team cohesion and depth in squad this season. Benitez seems to have got the core to his team right and must have more focus on the leagure than ever before. In their victory against Manchester United in September they proved that they can now be competitive with the big boys without Gerrard and Torres. Catch this big game on Sky Sports 1. That said, the one team no-one wants to face currently is Scholari's men...

Manchester United are away at Everton and will be hoping that Wayne Rooney's explosive, prolific form continues. The England striker is chasing his 100th League goal of his career - he only needs one more!

Down at the bottom, Juande Ramos faces the Trotters at White Hart Lane. Bolton will be looking to capitalise on Tottenham Hotspur's low confidence and lack of discipline which has been illustrated by 2 red cards in the last games - as well as unforced errors leading to losses.

Tottenham 2 Udinese 0

Tottenham Hotspur's dreadful start to the season worsened with a 2-0 away loss to Udinese. Udinese's first goal was an unforced error from goalkeeper Gomes who failed to deal with a run of the mill back pass and brought down italian striker Fabio Quagliarella for a penalty kick. Di Natale converted the spot kick in the 24th minute. Spurs looked good in the first half but struggled to capitalise from their possession. Luka Modric had a good game but during the second half was let down by team mate Jamie O'Hara who received 2 yellow cards in a minute to be sent off. However after this, a Darren Bent assertively headed a superb cross from Giovani goalwards which was superbly saved from closs range. In the 87th minute Udinese add to Spurs woes by making it 2-0 with a cool finish from substitute Simone Pepe.

Chelsea 1 Roma 0

Chelsea 1 (John Terry) Roma 0

Match report to follow

Athletico Madrid 1 Liverpool 1

Athletico Madrid 1 (Simao) Liverpool 1 (Keane)

Match report to follow