With the Barclays Premier League 2013/14 season just around the corner, Ashley Cole could be forgiven for making sure he basked in the bright sunlight of the Spanish climate right till the end before he started pre-season training this week. The footballer, currently plying his trade for Chelsea FC is on a holiday with his mates in Marbella. The fashion conscious among you would have spotted his weird combination of underwear beneath his Gingham swimming shorts.

As is custom among the young, rich and single footballers of the modern game, none of them can escape the glares of the media, as well female attention wherever they go, and this holiday was no exception. No one can blame the 32 year old Ashley for taking full advantage of his current relationship status and chatting to as many bikini-clad ladies as he possibly can.

“Ibiza here we come!” Chelsee Healey whisks her good friend Tulisa away on holiday as they bid to put the X Factor star’s recent troubles with the law behind her. Supermodel Heidi Klum brightens her Twitter followers’ day by tweeting a cheeky picture of her in a strapless bikini whilst on a beach during her holiday

No doubt it was a celebratory occasion for Ashley Cole and his friends as evidenced by them taking a couple of large alcohol bottles with them into the Ocean Club. For his sake, we hope the girls he was speaking to had not mistaken him for Daley, a contestant on the current edition of Big Brother, but rather the fact he is a footballer.

Last week the star tweeted his frustration at being constantly mistaken for the Big Brother contestant: “Apart from his thick eyebrows, Daley looks nothing like me”. He was one of the most played members among his colleagues after making 51 appearances in all competitions for his club last season. His return this week will coincide with the return of the Special One as he aims to the highs of their premiership prowess.

 

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In an extraordinary development the Newcastle United manager for the 2008-2009 season, 66 year old Joe Kinnear has been appointed the Magpies’ new director of football for recruiting players. Joe is much admired by owner Mike Ashley and MD Derek Llambias for his turbulent spell in Newcastle which was aborted due to ill-health. Whether manager Alan Pardew is involved in this restructuring or feels undermined by Joe’s influence in assembling the squad, remains a matter of intrigue.

Newcastle was seen struggling last season and it is expected out of Pardew to see them get a top 10 finish. Pardew’s reaction is awaited. Kinnear confirms with Sky Sports News that the deal is sealed with owner Mike Ashley and he intends to meet Pardew during the course of the week. Newcastle, who finished fifth from bottom last campaign, are yet to announce Kinnear’s appointment.

The former Wimbledon manager said his intention was to improve the team, tactfully adding that he would not interfere with selection or tactics. He considers himself a good judge of players and a better tactician. Having been involved with anything and everything to do with football, he intends to make Newcastle way better than the present state of affairs they are in.

Kinnear continues that when he sees a good player, he knows a good player. Should the present crop of players in the club not be good enough in his judgement, he would skilfully allow them to move on. On a positive note, he feels that there would be no nagging issues between him and manager Pardew. Kinnear’s intention is not to pick the team. The sole purpose of his appointment is to make sure Newcastle gets the best possible team on the field.

The first time Chris Brunt had met Sir Alex Ferguson was during his schoolboy days at a trial. At that time Ferguson was the boss of the Red Devils. Chris was then representing a team from Belfast and they had come for playing in England at the United’s former training ground.

Brunt , it appears, had always been a fan of the United club and so overawed was he at meeting up sir Ferguson that he could not recollect the exact words the legendary star had said. Vividly he recalls it all to be about United and Rangers that he had spoken.

Chris Brunt today plays for Middlesbrough. He is also a team member of the Northern Ireland international team.  His knowledge about Sir Ferguson and United dates back to the age of when he was two and Sir Ferguson the manager of United.

Chris Grant mentioned that he had been in the scout when he had met Sir Ferguson and that taking an autograph was something that was not a done thing then. In the process he had missed out that opportunity when the great legend would take the scouts into his office and speak to them one to one.

Sir Ferguson would be appearing on the field for the final time on Sunday and the event is being prepared for by the authorities. Chris Brunt, who would also be playing indicated that the plan of Albion players forming a guard of honour for the match is something he does not appreciate.

The match itself was very important in the words of Chris Brunt and not just because it would be Sir Ferguson’s last appearance at the field in an official position. Their team would need to win the match and get 50 points to secure the eighth position he mentioned. It would be Sir Alex’s desire to win this last match as manager of Manchester United and it was up Chris Brunt and his team to make sure that his dream did not come true.

 

The trouble began when Kenwyne Jones found a pig’s head in his locker at the training ground. Jones was sure that it was Glenn Whelan who was  responsible for this prank and ended up smashing the wind screen of Glen’s car. The issue is currently being investigated by the Stoke City club officials.

The team has their final match lined up on Sunday with Southampton, so team officials are going to need to talk to both the players before that. A social media site carrying a caption “Locker room banter gone wild” posted the picture of the pig’s head. The post was by another team member, Brek Shea.

Kissa Abdullah, Jones’ partner, tweeted that humour which hurt someone’s belief and more so religious beliefs was not at all an accepted norm anywhere. Whelan, who is from Republic of Ireland and takes the teams mid-field position is whom she also accuses of placing the pig’s head wrapped up in Jones’ clothes in his locker.

The club officials have officially announced that investigations have begun and that the incident was completely unbecoming of whoever committed it. The club also mentioned that disciplinary action would be initiated against the perpetrator(s) of the act. They have however included that both acts of placing the pig head in the players locker as well as the player reacting and breaking the windscreen to be warranting disciplinary action. The investigation is being taken on by chief executive of the club Tony Scholes.

Kenwyne Jones hails from Trinidad and first played in the England league matches for Southampton in 2004. He moved to Stoke three years ago for a contract amount of £8m. He rarely speaks to the camera and has a principle of “put god first” which he had mentioned during one of his rare interview. Whelan on the other hand has been with Stoke since 2008 and is one year older than Jones. Whelan had also been named by Michael Owen as his suspect for an incident where his car had been covered with eggs and flour.

 

Chelsea has been stricken by a host of rumours that one of their players WAG’s was guilty of an affair with another squad member. Belgian magazine ‘Story’ broke the story that Kevin De Bruyne dumped girlfriend Caroline because she was caught having an affair with Thibaut Courtois the goalkeeper. Both of the men are Chelsea players; which explains how it could have happened, but at the moment they are both out on loan.

De Bruyne the 21 year old received £7m for signing in January of 2012, but is playing at the moment with Weder Bremen the Bundesliga side. Courtois on the other hand was signed out to play for Athletico Madrid.

The two men are Belgian national team team-mates and both used to play at Genk. According to the magazine while De Bruyne was training in Turkey at a Bremen training camp Caroline drove to Madrid and visited Courtois. It went on to explain that De Bruyne heard about the affair and Caroline was then told she had to move out.

It is believed that the two days off that De Bruyne received from training at the beginning of March were likely to be as a result of the affair. He reacted by deleting all photos of Caroline from his Twitter. A source reportedly told the magazine that she cheated on Kevin in the house in Madrid, but Kevin did not know anything about the affair so when it came to light he was thoroughly shocked.

Bild, the German newspaper, stated that he attempted to contact De Bruyne but they were told that he did not want to make a comment. The scandal is very similar to the 2010 scandal that emerged when it was discovered that John Terry had an affair with Wayne Bridge’s girlfriend and also the mother of his child.