Michael Darragh Macauley shuffles lazily into Dublin’s DCU training HQ with his Michael Jackson t-shirt, adidas boot runners, impossibly baggy trousers and the promise of good copy trotting along obediently in his wake.

CHELSEA and their title dreams were wiped out by a Manchester Untied tidal wave of attacking football at Old Trafford and it’s fair to say Carlo Ancelotti’s hopes of staying in his job have been swept away with them.

PESSIMIST that I am, it seemed obvious to me that the Gunners would blow a rare opportunity to capitalise on a Chelsea defeat.

THE stars strutted their stuff all through the weekend and, God love me, I cannot resist the linkage between the excitement of the red carpeted Oscars in Hollywood and the electric spills of the hurling and football productions on the green carpets of the Four Green Fields.

ANOTHER Leinster final, another trophy for Kilkenny.

Albertus Maximus has won the inaugural running of the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile under a cool ride from Garrett Gomez.

ANTICIPATION and expectation gave way to awe and amazement as the incredible Zarkava confirmed herself a genuine champion with a stunning success in the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp yesterday.

Egyptian navy boats, civilian divers and a helicopter today searched the Red Sea for four scuba divers missing for 48 hours.

Three foreigners and an Egyptian were missing today after they went scuba diving in the Red Sea.

Hundreds of relatives of passengers drowned on a Red Sea ferry attacked the offices of the owners today, throwing its furniture into the street and burning the company’s signboard.

THEY will wait until sundown and the end of the Sabbath before kick-off in tonight’s game. With the weekend that’s in it, it’s hard to ignore the Biblical analogies.

THE Gresham Hotels takeover saga finally reached its endgame yesterday as the company's major shareholder moved to accept an improved offer that valued the group at €117 million.

THE bidder for the Gresham Hotel group has extended the deadline for shareholders to accept the offer until July 6.

THE Irish Takeover Panel plans to investigate further whether there are any links between two of Gresham Hotel Group’s largest shareholders.

A BID by three property developers to gain control of the Gresham Hotel Group has attracted acceptances from just 28.3% of shareholders.

The consortium behind the Gresham Hotels bid is expected to give shareholders two more weeks to accept its offer after failing to secure 54% of the company.

THREE Irish businessmen yesterday launched a €113m takeover bid for the Gresham Hotel group. The long-threatened takeover bid for the Gresham Hotel Group finally came yesterday afternoon.

The ISEQ index was 28 points higher at 5,357 today, helped by a near 8% rise in Elan shares after a broker upgrade.

SHARES in the Gresham Hotel group dropped by nearly 7% last night after it rejected a takeover offer.

IRISH stocks again drifted lower yesterday. Shares in Dublin ended the week 29.11 points lighter at 5329.06.

Dublin's ISEQ index closed down 23 points to 5329, with gains clocked in Anglo and losses weighing in at over 5% Ryanair.

Gresham Hotel has said its largest shareholder, Israeli group Red Sea , who holds a more than 20% stake, rejected a revised approach of €1.35 a share for the company that had been made by a consortium of investors.

GRESHAM HOTEL GROUP, currently in the grip of another round of takeover talks, has announced it has boosted pre-tax profits by 40% to €1.7 million before exceptionals for last year.

IRELAND'S season is back on track.

Wales coach Steve Hansen has pledged to ignore the ‘hysteria’ that will surround his side’s comprehensive defeat in Dublin today.

LONG-SUFFERING shareholders in Gresham Hotels continued to inch towards the exit yesterday as the consortium preparing a takeover bid was granted another week to make an offer.

THE takeover of Gresham Hotels edged closer yesterday after it emerged that the consortium that made the approach have dropped the precondition that 80% of shareholders accept the offer before a formal approach.

SHARES in the Gresham Hotels were flat yesterday ahead of today’s deadline for a mystery bidder to declare its intentions for the group.

THE impasse at Gresham Hotels took another twist yesterday when the company revealed that a recent approach from a potential buyer had been rejected by its major shareholder.

RORY KINSELLA has it all figured out. Well almost. In so far as it is possible to analyse a game accurately, he is convinced the key to winning Sunday’s Guinness All-Ireland hurling semi-final in Croke Park will be in stopping Cork’s half-backs.

GRESHAM HOTELS will announce the result of a poll held to decide the fate of four of its directors.

ANNUAL General Meetings in Ireland are rarely fractious affairs. Save for Eircom, and lately Smurfit, very few are dominated by serious questions from the floor and very few motions are defeated.