Francesco Guidolin has finally confirmed he has received an official offer to manage Queens Park Rangers.
Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone, the men taking over the West London club, want the Italian to guide the team up the Championship table.
After denying the story for so long, the former Palermo boss has conceded he is on the brink of moving on - even though a contractual issue is believed to be holding things up as he is still tied to Palermo despite leaving in May.
"Yes [the Briatore offer is concrete]," he told L'Espresso.
"But we are still far from saying that there is an agreement and I am ready to head for London. Also, on this, I will say that on Sunday I will be at Stadio Friuli."
Palermo are at Udinese for their next Serie A assignment and this comment would suggest any switch to England will not take place until the following week.
English tabloid speculation has indicated that the new man will be handed a £20 million transfer kitty with Alessandro Del Piero of Juventus rumoured to be an ambitious target.
05 October 2007
Antonio Di Natale will not play in Atalanta-Udinese after the sudden death of his mother. 'There are more important things than football.'
The forward has been on sensational form of late with a series of decisive and spectacular goals for both Udinese and Italy.
He was set to take a leading role in Saturday's trip to Bergamo, but Coach Pasquale Marino and the club have released him on compassionate leave.
'There are more important things than football,' said Marino. 'Toto was not put under any pressure and we are close to him.'
In fact, if he feels up to it, Di Natale can still be added to the squad ahead of the 17.00 UK time kick-off at the Stadio Azzurri d'Italia.
'As for the tactical situation, we have valid alternatives like Antonio Floro Flores. He is in good shape and once he scores that first goal, he will get even better.'
The Friulani have won three of their last four games, interrupted by a surprise 3-2 defeat at Genoa.
'We are looking for consistency. That is why, even though we will play our usual attacking style, I will ask my team to be particularly wary of their dangerous strikers.'
Russia coach Guus Hiddink named a 19-man preliminary squad Friday for his team's European Championship qualifier against England.
Hiddink dropped Udinese midfielder Viktor Budyanskiy and Spartak Moscow half back Vladimir Bystrov from the 23-man squad named for matches in September.
The list, however, can be extended after Russian league matches this weekend.
The team's first practice is scheduled for Wednesday. Russia, which is idle on Oct. 13 when England hosts Estonia, will have a week to prepare for the crucial match against the English.
Russia is third in Group E with 18 points from nine matches, two points behind England. Croatia leads the standings with 23 points.
To qualify for the Euro 2008 tournament in Switzerland and Austria, Russia must win its remaining three matches against England, Israel and Andorra.
Squad:
Goalkeepers: Vyacheslav Malafeev (Zenit St. Petersburg), Anton Shunin (Dynamo Moscow), Vladimir Gabulov (Kuban)
Defenders: Alexander Anyukov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Alexei Berezutskiy (CSKA Moscow), Vasiliy Berezutskiy (CSKA Moscow), Sergei Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow), Denis Kolodin (Dynamo Moscow)
Midfielders: Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (Lokomotiv Moscow), Yuri Zhirkov (CSKA Moscow), Ivan Saenko (FC Nuremberg), Igor Semshov (Dynamo Moscow), Konstantin Zyryanov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Dmitry Torbinskiy (Spartak Moscow)
Forwards: Alexander Kerzhakov (Sevilla), Andrei Arshavin (Zenit St. Petersburg), Pavel Pogrebnyak (Zenit St. Petersburg), Roman Pavlyuchenko (Spartak Mosocw), Dmitry Sychev (Lokomotiv Moscow)
