Hull City manager Steve Bruce has revealed that provisions have been made to protect the club should they suffer relegation to the Championship.

Bruce s men sit fourth-bottom of the Premier League with six games to go and are only outside of the drop zone because of a marginally superior goal difference to Leicester City.

The Yorkshire club s demotion to the second tier back in 2010 left Hull on the brink of financial collapse before current owner Aseem Allam stepped in and took over.

But, speaking ahead of Saturday s visit to Crystal Palace, Bruce said: We re a newly promoted club which has been in the division practically 20 months, we always knew we were up against it.

Everybody concerned takes a huge reduction in salary, the club has had a really, re…

Genoa starlet Alexander Merkel believes AC Milan have lost a lot of quality, but insists the club will continue to compete at the highest level.

Both Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva left San Siro for Paris Saint-Germain in July, but while the former Milan midfielder lamented their departures, he said the side were too big to struggle without the prized pair.

Milan have certainly become weaker. They ve lost two fundamental players in Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva, Merkel told Sky Sports.

However, we should not forget that Milan are a big club. They will also do well without these two players.

Merkel left Milan for Genoa on a permanent basis earlier in the year, but admits he would have been happy to stay put.

It would have been great to sta…

Jose Mourinho makes an emotional return to Porto on Tuesday and, not for the first time this season, he will seek some Champions League solace to make up for Chelsea s patchy Premier League form.

Mourinho famously led Porto to Champions League glory in 2004 before moving to Stamford Bridge for his first stint in west London.

After reaffirming his standing as one the world s best coaches during spells at Inter and Real Madrid, Mourinho returned to Chelsea in 2013, and won the Premier League title comfortably last season.

But Mourinho has endured a miserable start to 2014-15 domestically, with Saturday s 2-2 draw at Newcastle United leaving Chelsea with just eight points from seven league games.

Mourinho described Chelsea s first-half showing at St James …

Chelsea are lining up a bid for Stoke City goalkeeper Asmir Begovic, .

The Blues are on the lookout for a replacement for Petr Cech, who is set to move on this summer after eleven years at Stamford Bridge, and have identified Begovic as the man they want as back-up for first choice Thibaut Courtois.

The Bosnia and Herzegovina international has been at the Britannia Stadium since January 2010, and has so far racked up one hundred and seventy-two appearances for the club, and even scored a famous goal in a famous 1-1 draw with Southampton in November 2013.

He has forty-one caps for his country, and was part of their squad that went to last summer’s World Cup finals in Brazil.

Jose Mourinho’s men begin the 2015/16 campaign at home to Swansea City, a…

There must be dozens of coaches who would love to work with Jose Mourinho just once. Arguably the most successful man to step into the dugout in the last 20 years, he has won league titles in four countries, as well as two Champions Leagues, while blazing trails and scorching the earth at almost every turn.

He is a divisive figure, but indisputably one from whom so much can be learned. He knows how to win, how to bring down those who won before, how to pick his battles on and off the pitch. 

Jose Morais, a man lucky enough to work with Mourinho for much of his career, perhaps sums him up best.

He s a guy who knows things, he says.  Sometimes before everybody!

Morais has certainly come to know plenty about successful coaching at Mourinho s side. He wa…

Former Swansea City striker Michu will seek to regain fitness playing with Spanish fourth-tier club Union Popular de Langreo after leaving the Premier League side.

Swansea announced on Monday the 29-year-old forward s contract, which was due to expire at the end of this season, had been rescinded by mutual consent.

Michu, who netted 22 goals in all competitions during his first season at the Liberty Stadium, winning the 2012-13 League Cup in the process, has struggled badly for form and fitness in recent years due to a long-running ankle injury.

He initially underwent surgery in December 2013 and spent last season on loan at Napoli, where he made just three Serie A appearances, two of them starts, and failed to score.

The one-cap Spain international trai…

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp insisted midfielder Jordan Henderson would remain as captain of the Premier League club.

Henderson s position has been questioned with Naby Keita set to arrive from RB Leipzig in the off-season and another midfielder potentially heading to Anfield with Emre Can likely to exit.

The England international, 27, was appointed as Liverpool captain in mid-2015, replacing Steven Gerrard.

While Virgil van Dijk was recently appointed Netherlands skipper, Klopp said he had no plans to make a change at Liverpool.

Hendo is doing an incredible job here. If you ask me, Am I thinking about giving the armband to someone else? then no, he told reporters.

Captaincy feels like a joy in the first moment and then from that moment on it …

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Burnley are set to welcome Chelsea to Turf Moor on Saturday evening in a game that will be a part of the 10th round of the 2019/20 Premier League season.

Burnley

The Clarets have established themselves as a regular feature of the Premier League by now since they were last promoted in 2016. They are known as a tough, physically strong and well prepared team under the leadership of manager Sean Dyche, and though their approach to the game is usually more defensive than anything else, it usually produces results.

They re entering the round sitting in eighth place, belonging to a group of teams that have gathered 12 points from the previous nine games, also consisting of Tottenham Hotspur, Sheffield United, Bournemouth and West Ham…

Simon Kjaer insists he is happy at Milan, but revealed he is yet to receive the offer of a new contract from the Rossoneri.

The Denmark captain s current deal with the club is set to expire in June 2022.

Kjaer, who arrived from Sevilla on an initial loan deal in January 2020, has made 63 appearances for Milan in all competitions for the Serie A giants.

Four of those appearances have come in Serie A this season, with his assured performances in the heart of defence helping Stefano Pioli s side into second place after their opening seven games.

Though he is yet to receive a formal offer, the 32-year-old is hopeful of extending his stay at San Siro.

I am extremely happy to be here [at Milan], the centre-half said.

I am not closer to a ren…

Tottenham managing director of football Fabio Paratici said in-demand Fiorentina star Dusan Vlahovic is not part of the Premier League club s transfer plans.

Vlahovic will not re-sign with Fiorentina and the Serbia international – out of contract at the end of 2022-23 – has been linked to the likes of Tottenham, Manchester City, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Arsenal, Liverpool and Inter.

The 21-year-old forward scored 21 Serie A goals last season. Of players aged 22 or under in Europe s top five leagues in 2020-21, only Borussia Dortmund sensation Erling Haaland (27) scored more top-flight goals than Vlahovic.

Vlahovic – who also became the first player born after the year 2000 to reach 20 Serie A goals – already has four league goals in seven appearances th…