1. Former Romania international Daniel Prodan, who was signed by Rangers but never made an appearance for the Glasgow club, has passed away after suffering a heart attack at the tender age of 44. He was capped 54 times, including games in the 94 World Cup and Euro 96. Our thoughts are with his friends and family.
2. Joey Barton may currently be without a club since being released from his Ibrox contract, but that hasn’t stopped the Scottish Football Association from giving him a one-match ban for breaching betting rules.
3. A clause in a contract between the two parties means that if Manchester United don’t qualify for next season’s Champions League they stand to lose up to £20m in sponsorship from sportswear giants Adidas. It would come into effect because it would be the second consecutive season that the Old Trafford club would have been absent from the tournament.
4. Manager Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin will be out of action for four weeks with an ankle injury sustained during the 1-1 draw in the North London derby against Tottenham.
5. Premier League officials have agreed to reopen talks about introducing so-called ‘safe standing areas’ in grounds. Since the Hillsborough disaster and the findings of the Taylor report, stadia in the top two divisions have to be all-seater.
6. Bulgarian Stylian Petrov has revealed that when he first arrived in England he was so concerned about being about learning the language he worked in a burger van in order to get a grasp on conversational English (Mirror).
7. John Salako recently posted a tweet comparing former Crystal Palace team-mate Gareth Southgate being in contention to take over as England manager to Donald Trump’s campaign to become the American president. One Eagles fan wasn’t best pleased with his childhood hero (Joe).
8. Harry Redknapp famously signed Marco Boogers for West Ham after seeing him on a video. However, that pales into insignificance compared to the story of Liverpool’s Brazilian star Roberto Firmino. The midfielder was signed by former club Hoffenheim based on his performances on the Football Manager computer game (AS.com).
9. A Carlisle United fan has been so impressed with his team’s start to the season he has had a tattoo of the Cumbrian club’s manager, former Manchester City defender Keith Curle, etched on his skin forever (WhoAteAllThePies).
10. And finally…Not to be outdone by the Carlisle fan, a 59-year-old grandmother has had ‘Ms Jose Mourinho’ on permanently emblazoned on her chest. To us the most bizarre part is ‘Ms’. Surely, if you’re going to get such a thing done, you’d get ‘Mrs’ (SWNS.com).