England manager Roy Hodgson believes Jack Grealish, the Aston Villa player who has six Under 21 caps for the Republic of Ireland, will make a final decision by this autumn over whether he wants to play for England or Ireland at senior level.

Chelsea 4 Cardiff 1

Northampton defender and Professional Footballers’ Association chairman Clarke Carlisle has called time on his playing career.

Aston Villa winger Ashley Young is on the brink of becoming Manchester United’s second signing of the close season after yesterday undergoing a medical with the Barclays Premier League champions.

THIS is it. The day every Irish soccer fan has dreaded. The nightmare scenario.

Coventry have sacked manager Aidy Boothroyd after less than 10 months in charge at the Ricoh Arena.

Birmingham 3 Coventry 2

Central defenders Martin Jiranek and Liam Ridgewell are the only players to keep their places in the Birmingham team for today’s FA Cup fourth-round clash against Coventry.

ROBBIE KEANE’S Tottenham career was yesterday handed a lifeline after Jermain Defoe was ruled out for six weeks with an ankle injury.

LIVERPOOL have signed Portugal midfielder Raul Meireles on a four-year deal from Porto.

Coventry manager Aidy Boothroyd has revealed Celtic have not made an improved offer for Republic of Ireland international goalkeeper Keiren Westwood since the npower Championship club flatly rejected what the Sky Blues manager called a “derisory” bid three weeks ago.

Watford 1 Tottenham 2

IT WAS with a good deal of interest that we saw some English newspapers singing the praises of Billy Beane recently.

AFTER three weeks’ hard labour, the FA got their man last night as Fabio Capello was appointed the new England manager.

STOKE billed this game as a ‘Kids for a Quid’ fixture, but they could now stand accused of cruelty to children after an absolutely abysmal advert for the Championship.

Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate is hoping he will reap the rewards of Adam Johnson’s adventure at Watford.

Sheffield Wednesday have been left furious after Burnley’s unsuccessful approach for manager Brian Laws was leaked to the public.

Cork City 2 Waterford United 0

Watford 1 Manchester United 4

Alex Ferguson has claimed his Manchester United thoroughbreds now have “the bit between their teeth” as they head into the final furlong of the Barclays Premiership title race.

Alex Ferguson has confirmed promising goalkeeper Ben Foster will return to Manchester United in the summer after spending a second year at Watford.

Watford striker Ashley Young was left out of the line-up to face Aston Villa ahead of his expected move to the midlands club.

DANNY WEBBER returned to Watford and scored a vital goal against his former club to hand Sheffield United their second away win of the season.

Watford have signed Hungary striker Tamas Priskin.

Watford have completed the signing of defender Danny Shittu from QPR for an initial fee of £1.6m which could rise to £3m.