HIGUAIN WILL STAY

Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain has reportedly turned down the opportunity to join Chelsea and Manchester City in the summer according to his father.

The Argentine Gonzalo Higuain has been a huge success at Real Madrid, but he has struggled to get first team opportunities of late due to the form of Karim Benzema.

José Mourinho has often resorted to using the French striker Karim Benzema for the big games. It has apparently made Gonzalo Higuain extremely unhappy, which has led to rumours linking him with Premier league clubs Manchester City and Chelsea.

REJA DELIGHTED WITH LAZIO WIN

Lazio manager Edy Reja has expressed his delight at being able to beat archrivals Roma in the most fierce derby in Italy recently.

Lazio and Roma met each other with Lazio ahead of Roma in the table. This fixture has always caused animosity amongst the fans, which was even more evident than in recent seasons. Thankfully, aside from the few incidents made against Roma players, the match was played in good spirit.

Lazio won the match 2-1 and Edy Reja, who has been under pressure up until now, sprang with joy at being able to speak with confidence about the ideas for the future.

CAVANI MAY MOVE ON

Edinson Cavani looks set to join the Premier league in the summer, but it is only subject to the future of Napoli in the Champions League.

Napoli will be taking on Chelsea in the last 16 of the Champions League in two weeks time.

They come into the match at Stamford Bridge with the 3-1 lead from the first leg. Despite this dominant advantage of Napoli, many are thinking that Chelsea will use their home advantage to maximum use to qualify for the next stage of the Champions League.

PRANDELLI KEEPS SQUAD OPEN

Italian national football team coach Cesare Prandelli has said that the door always remains open for the duo of Francesco Totti and Antonio Di Natale.

The future of Francesco Totti and Antonio Di Natale in the international scene has been subject to a lot of speculation in recent weeks leading up to the Euro 2012, which will be taking place in Poland and Ukraine.

BARCA WILL MISS PIQUE

Gerard Pique has been injured in Barcelona’s recent match against Racing Santander. He left the field just 10 minutes into the game due to a right thigh problem.

The game eventually ended up in a win for Barcelona, but, whilst they were happy with the result, the Barcelona coaching team were concerned for their Spanish defender. As always, Messi was in tremendous form, with his skills and clever runs helping Barca to race into a 2-0 lead, which was enough to bring all three points back home to the Nou Camp.

VILLA HOPES FOR EARLY COMEBACK

FC Barcelona manager Josep Pep Guardiola has ruled out replacing crocked striker David Villa during the winter transfer window.

The Spanish international striker broke his leg during the FIFA Club World Cup match against Al Sadd and it was initially believed that the 30 year old striker would miss the rest of the season and could also miss Spain’s defense of their Euro crown in the summer.

But after the surgery, the doctors are of the opinion that Villa might just have a slim hope of returning just before the end of the season, albeit it all depends on the recuperation process.

FERGIE NOT LOOKING TO SPEND

Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager has ruled out making any signings during the January transfer window, saying that he trusts his players enough to not have to make any panic buys in January.

Fergie has never been too keen to bring in players during the winter transfer window and has rarely broken that trend, buying Louis Saha from Fulham, Nemanja Vidic from Spartak Moscow and Patrice Evra from AS Monaco being the rare few occasions when he has brought in players during this time.

AC WORRY OVER CASSANO

AC Milan are worried about their striker Antonio cassano, after the player is believed to have had a mini-stroke on the flight back to Milan from Rome.

AC ended up as 3-1 winners in a hard-fought battle in the Stadio Olympico, and were returning home on Sunday night when Cassano seemingly had a fit. He lost control of his speech and muscles, causing the club doctors and staff to be very concerned for him.

As soon as the flight touched down he was whisked away to a private hospital, where thankfully his condition has improved, and he is set to make a full recovery.

PUYOL RULED OUT

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has confirmed that defender Carles Puyol is almost certain to miss Wednesday's Champions League tie against Arsenal due to injury.

Puyol has not appeared for Barca since a 3-0 win over Racing Santander on January 22 as he has been struggling with a knee injury.

Though he has taken part in light training, the defender is some way short of match fitness and Guardiola told a press conference on Friday that Puyol's chances of featuring at Emirates Stadium are "really complicated".

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