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Bradford sacks Hutchings Berger to miss most of season; Twin Towers doomed
LONDON (Reuters) -- Struggling English Premier League club Bradford City sacked manager Chris Hutchings on Monday after he had been in charge for just 12 league matches. Hutchings, 42, who was only appointed in June following the departure of Paul Jewell to Sheffield Wednesday, was warned two weeks ago by chairman Geoffrey Richmond that he faced the sack unless results improved. Since then Bradford has drawn 1-1 with Leeds in the league, lost 4-3 to Newcastle United in the League Cup and lost 2-0 at Charlton Athletic in the league on Saturday. It is currently 19th in the 20-team division. Hutchings, who was at Bradford as coach or assistant manager for four years, was expected to be replaced by club skipper Stuart McCall, who will be named as player-manager later on Monday. Hutchings had signed controversial striker Stan Collymore in a last-ditch id to revive the club's fortunes. Collymore scored a spectacular goal in a 1-1 draw at home to Leeds. But Bradford was then knocked out of the League Cup by Newcastle last Wednesday. "The board felt that the time for a change had now come to give the future manager as long as possible to change the fortunes on the field," Richmond said. "We wish Chris every success in the future." Hutchings' finest hour came with a 2-0 win over Chelsea at Valley Parade on Aug. 22. But it was the Bantams' only league victory of the season so far. "Obviously it is a great disappointment to be relieved of my duties," Hutchings said. "However I recognize the club's future prospects are the most important thing to the board and they feel change is the best way to do this. "I have had almost five years at the club and I still feel I have got a lot to offer the world of football. I hope to get back and be involved in the game as quickly as possible." Liverpool's Berger to miss most of seasonLONDON -- Liverpool's Czech midfielder Patrik Berger is likely to miss most of the season after a recurrence of a knee injury at the weekend. Liverpool said on Monday that Berger, who twisted his knee during the English Premier League club's 4-3 defeat at Leeds on Saturday, would have surgery in the United States and was expected to be out until at least February. Scans revealed Berger had suffered cartilage damage. He suffered a similar injury on the opening day of the season against Bradford City. The club said Berger will fly to Colorado to be operated on by Dr Richard Steadman, the specialist who treated him when he suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury at Borussia Dortmund. Charlton announces lossesLONDON -- Charlton Athletic announced a 2.8 million pounds (US$4.04 million) loss for the last financial year on Monday but said a return to the Premier League this season will help turn around the club's fortunes. The London club was relegated to the first division after the 1998-99 season and that contributed to a net loss to June 30 compared with a net profit of 1.2 million previously. Operating losses increased to 4.2 million pounds, before depreciation, transfers and player amortization. "This level of operating loss, while unsustainable in the long term, was considered necessary to secure our immediate return to the Premiership," said Chairman Richard Murray in a statement. "Our No. 1 priority is to retain our hard-earned Premiership status," he said. Not only did Charlton return to the top flight at the first attempt but it is enjoying a great start and is currently ninth in the standings. The significant revenues available from the new television deals next year, as well as the enhanced commercial opportunities available in the Premier League would help Charlton continue its club development and commercial infrastructure, he said. Charlton club sold Danny Mills to Leeds United for four million pounds in July 1999, a club record that enabled Charlton to strengthen its squad with the purchase of Irish international goalkeeper Dean Kiely and Swede Mathias Svensson. Murray said Charlton had received planning consent for the construction of 6,000 extra seats at the club's Valley ground, which would boost capacity to just under 26,000. The club's board was currently considering timing and finances for the project. Shares in the 16 million pounds club were unchanged at 44-1/2p at 1415 GMT. Twin Towers doomedLONDON -- Wembley's famous Twin Towers will be demolished with the rest of the stadium. The stadium's chief executive Bob Stubbs confirmed on Monday that a bid by Halton Council in Widnes in northern England to save the towers had failed as it was too expensive to relocate the structure. Halton had planned to take approximately the top 35 feet of the towers to pieces and move them to Widnes to form part of a rugby league museum. Rugby league is one of several sports hosted by Wembley over the years. "There have been many reports of bids to save the towers and almost all of these could be described as self-promotion rather than conservation," Stubbs said. "Wembley National Stadium has always been clear that it would cooperate with any efforts to save all or part of the towers as long as it did not place a financial or time burden on the new stadium development. "However, with the appointment of a contractor for the new stadium, it has become clear that staging a demolition in such a way as to temporarily retain the towers would add in excess of 10 million pounds (US$14.46 million) to the cost of the new stadium. "Halton have made it clear they could not meet such a cost," Stubbs added. But council leaders Tony McDermott said: "This is such a huge disappointment to us here in Halton, especially as we had the funding in place and have tried our best to progress contractual negotiations with Wembley for a considerable amount of time." The current stadium will be replaced in 2004 by a new one with 90,000 seat capacity. Fulham seeks KollerBRUSSELS -- English first division side Fulham has made a formal offer of six million pounds (US$8.7 million) for Anderlecht's Czech international striker Jan Koller, La Derniere Heure reported on Monday. But the Anderlecht general manager Michel Verschueren told the paper the Belgian champions would not countenance selling their six-foot, seven-inch (2.06 meter) center forward. "Firstly, Fulham aren't valuing Jan Koller at his true worth -- we'll never let him go for so little," Verschueren was quoted as saying. "Apart from that, our Czech deserves better than to develop in [that] division. Of course Fulham are right up the top of the league, but all the same... "Finally, we need him. Anderlecht are on the point of qualifying for the next stage of the Champions League. It would be suicide to weaken ourselves by selling him," Verschueren added. Ambitious Fulham is currently second in the English first division behind Watford. The imposing Koller has nine goals in 11 league appearances for Anderlecht this season. Despite his height, he is more than just a target-man, showing an impressive turn of speed, considerable skill on the ball, and has been a key element in Anderlecht's surprising Champions League run, which sees the team top of Group G.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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