Liverpool agree deal to buy Blackpool's Charlie Adam and he scored at Anfield last season in a superb captain's display for Blackpool

Liverpool have reached agreement with Blackpool for the transfer of Scottish midfielder Charlie Adam and the Anfield club said Adam, 25, will now travel to Merseyside for a medical and to discuss personal terms.

In the January transfer window the Reds had two bids of the second worth £6.5m rejected by the Seasiders, who were reportedly holding out for £9m and the Liverpool reopened talks at the end of a season for a player who had only 12 months left on his contract.

Adam, who was on the shortlist of the PFA Player of the Year award last season and joined Blackpool from Scottish Premier League club Rangers for the £500,000 in 2009 and he joins Liverpool, he will become manager Kenny Dalglish's second signing since they finished sixth in the Premier League last season.

Roma's Brazilian goalkeeper Alexander Doni could complete a move to Liverpool in a next 36 hours, according to his agent Ovidio Colucci and the clubs reached an agreement over Doni's transfer last month but the keeper rejected Liverpool's first offer, believing it to be too low.

Didi Hamann has been appointed Stockport County manager on a one-year deal and the ex Liverpool midfielder to begin managerial career in non-league

The former Germany international was on a coaching staff at the MK Dons and Leicester last season and has now chosen to begin his managerial career with non-league County and the Cheshire club saw their 105-year run in the Football League end last season as they were relegated from League Two.

The Hatters will be hopeful of bouncing back at the 1st attempt with a new board now in the place and Hamann being named new boss and ray Mathias had initially been told he would be kept on as manager and the County have now turned to Hamann, who was part of Liverpool's 2005 Champions League winning team and the 37 year old still lives in the area after leaving Manchester City in 2009.

Coaching role for a 62 cap international then had a year away from football before returning in a player coach role with MK Dons last season and the former Bayern Munich and Newcastle midfielder made 12 appearances of the League One club before finishing the campaign as Leicester's first-team coach under his former Man City boss Sven Goran Eriksson and he said at a press conference on Tuesday that he is unlikely to play for County next season but refused to rule it out.

Carlos Tevez nets for Man City at Old Trafford

Manchester City are in no rush to meet striker Carlos Tevez's demand to leave Eastlands and are likely to ask in the excess of £40m to consider selling and the BBC Sport understands Tevez's latest request to leave City has left chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak "sanguine" about developments.

The club believe they are in a position of strength over any potential Tevez transfer and are in no mood to plead with the striker to stay and the Tevez is contracted at City until 2014 and spokesman said: "Carlos is a contracted player to Manchester City for another three years and we have had no offers for him."

Tevez, 27 and he asked City for a transfer in the December and while it now seems inevitable he will eventually move on the City are relaxed about the latest twist and are determined he will only leave when in the time and price is right for them.

City boss Roberto Mancini insisted recently that Tevez would stay after a proposed swap deal with Inter Milan for striker Samuel Eto'o fell through of there is still no great shock inside Eastlands after Tevez made his desire to leave public once again and the argentina international wants to be reunited with his family - with Milan believed to be a favoured destination of there is unlikely to be a swift resolution with City determined not to be railroaded into a deal by the player and his advisors.

England have climbed to a joint high for fourth spot in Fifa's latest world rankings

England have climbed to a joint high fourth spot in Fifa's latest world rankings, while Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have also gone upwards and Fabio Capello's England side have moved above Brazil and Argentina in the rankings, despite only reaching the last 16 in last summer's World Cup, and failing to win two of their last three qualifying matches for next summer's European Championship.

The last time England were as high as fourth was in 1997, when they moved up as a result of a decent performance as hosts of Euro 1996 and the Unsurprisingly, Spain continue to top of a charts ahead of the team they beat in the World Cup final, Netherlands, while Germany have moved up a place to 3rd.

England's points total of 1,146 puts them 16 ahead of fifth-placed Brazil, with Italy, Portugal and Croatia next in the list and Mexico have moved up 19 places to claim a place in the top 10, ahead of Argentina who complete the top 10 and the Republic of Ireland have won their last two Euro 2012 qualifiers and that form has helped Giovanni Trapattoni's team climb three places to 31 in the standings.

Scotland and Northern Ireland are also on the up and the Scots are now 61st as a result of a 5 place leap with Nigel Worthington's side one of the countries they moved above one place behind them in 62nd and Wales failure to pick up a single point in their 4 Euro 2012 qualifiers to date means they remain 114th in the rankings, level with the Faroe Islands as a result of the latter's 22-place climb.

England's rise is due to the fact that a matches of the World Cup in South Africa last year now count 50% less towards of the overall ranking and the teams that had a strong World Cup but have not had such good results since, such as Uruguay, have experienced a big drop in ranking of those that did not do so well but have had decent results since then such as England,Italy and France have seen a boost in ranking.

Arsenal and France international defender Gael Clichy is undergoing a medical at Manchester City and he has been a regular in the Arsenal defence in recent seasons.

The 25-year-old full-back who joined the Gunners from French club Cannes in 2003, is out of the contract at a Emirates Stadium next summer and he has reportedly told Arsenal he wanted to leave last month, and had been linked with Liverpool and Roma.

The City are rivals for his signature, with the deal reportedly worth £7m and the arsenal boss Arsene Wenger faces an anxious time with playmaker Cesc Fabregas again being linked with Barcelona and the Midfielder Sami Nasri has also been tipped to leave the club, and is thought to be a target for both City and Manchester United.

The Gunners, who return for pre-season training this week ahead of a tour of Malaysia and China, have been strongly linked with a move for Bolton defender Gary Cahill and Wenger recently claimed that it will be late into pre-season before there is significant movement in the transfer market and the We are in a waiting period, everybody is waiting, said the Arsenal boss in an interview with Alsace TV.

International career for Gael Clichy has earned caps with all of France's youth teams for which he was eligible and he was a late participant at under 15 level under coach Luc Rabat and he made his youth international debut on 13 March 2001 in a 3–0 friendly win over Italy.

Clichy appeared in 10 matches as France attempted to qualify for the 2002 UEFA European Under 17 Football Championship and he made his debut with the team on 19 September 2001 in its opening league match of the season for a 1–0 win over Yugoslavia  for a qualifying for the UEFA-sanctioned tournament.

Uefa president Michel Platini opposes technology for a euro chief reckons additional refs have rid the game of most errors

Michel Platini claims the introduction of technology would be bad for football, suggesting the use of additional referees is sufficient in the bid to rid the game of high-profile errors and he says, does not want to see any change beyond the use of additional referees.

England were denied a clear goal in their World Cup defeat to Germany last summer of a Frank Lampard's drive hit the crossbar and came down a yard over the goal-line before bouncing back into play and that was along with a series of other controversial incidents in international games has led to renewed calls for goal-line technology to be introduced.

Fifa has begun running trials to test of a accuracy of goal-line technology but Platini insists Europe's governing body will strongly oppose any moves for it to be introduced and "In my opinion, technology isn't good for football," he told Spanish newspaper Marca.

International career for Michel Platini having first attracted the attention of a national team selectors in the Coupe Gambardella tournament and Platini was selected for the French junior team but, injuries prevented him from playing and he made his first appearance for a French national selection playing for the French amateur side on 26 September 1973 and the Platini began his military service in summer 1975.

Kenny Dalglish won't discuss targets and the he is not worried about quiet start to the summer

Kenny Dalglish has insisted Liverpool will continue conducting their transfer business in a appropriate manner and will not publicly chase players and he was expected to be movement in and out of the Anfield this summer as Dalglish puts his plans in place for what the club hope will be a more successful 2011/12 campaign.

The Reds have been linked with a large number of players since the end of last season and  apart from signing midfielder Jordan Henderson, have so far been quiet in the market and he has played down suggestions that he should be worried about not bringing in many reinforcements during the early part of the summer.

Pre-season has not started and We don't begin until Monday, but obviously transfers are part of football and you get people moving in and moving out of a dalglish told Sky Sports News after receiving an honorary degree from the University of a Ulster in Northern Ireland and Dalglish Staying quiet on transfer business but does not believe fans should be worried.

We are not going to a speculate on the any players we have or any players anyone else has on there has been plenty of a talk in the newspapers and if you read them and believed them and we'd have a squad of about 300 next year.