Headlines

At last, some bad luck for Man United. While Chelsea and Arsenal have had to cope with the loss of key players at various stages of the season, United have tootled through the season relatively unharmed. Until now. Because Alex Ferguson’s men have now suffered not one, but two massive setbacks. First Nemanja Vidic got crocked. Now Rio Ferdinand is out. That’s both of United’s centre-backs ruled out within a few days of each other, just as the season reaches its critical juncture.

The effects of being without these two for any length of time could be disastrous. Minus Vidic, United looked vulnerable at Middlesbrough, conceding two goals. Ferdinand limped off towards the end of that match, and the duo will …

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It’s official, after six years of dating Jay-Z has finally made an honest woman out of bootylicious Beyonce in a private ceremony in New York this weekend.

In the most anticipated wedding since the last celebrity wedding (whatever did we do before celebs started selling weddings to the  highest bidder?), Miss Knowles became Mrs Jay-Z  when they got hitched in an Egyptian cotton lined marquee pitched on the Roca Wear rappers Tribeca apartment roof top. Refreshingly this is one wedding you won’t be seeing spread across Hello, or Hip Hop Connection for that matter.

The Roca Wear star wanted a totally private affair but wedding bells hit the rumour radar last Tuesday when the pair got their license. Unfortunately, the delivery of £750,000 …

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Anyone else bored stiff by the FA Cup semi-finals? The first half of the West Brom v Portsmouth game was like a very slow and uneventful death. I got more excited by the Grand National, and I don’t even follow horse racing!

And even though I didn’t see the other semi-final in full, I saw the ‘highlights’. If that’s what you’d call them.

Meanwhile, everything else looks a bit more exciting. Although saying that is a bit like saying that eating chocolate is more fun than chewing shards of glass. Manchester United looked uncharacteristically shaky in defence against Middlesbrough, which underlines just how important Vidic is to them. I’d still tip them for the title, but it might be slightly more difficult …

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The K-Fed v Spears battle is back in full swing with Camp Spears challenging K-Fed’s excessive spending habits.

It seems K-Fed hasn’t been totally honest about his earnings. He’s claiming $800,000 in business expenses for the K-Freeloading empire and under-estimating his earnings by $200,000.

There is also a dispute about the extraordinarily high tips for food and beverages e.g. $1,100.76 tip on a $2,782 bill, $200 tip on a $371.29 bill and a $2000 tip on $365 bill. We’d like a job where K-Fed dines, it seem likes a nice little earner.

His lawyer Mark Kaplan responded with the following baffling statement: “The bottom line is that Mr Federline has stepped up to the plate in a major way. More often than …

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American Jason Mercier has become poker newest dollar millionaire by winning the EPT San Remo on Saturday. His reward for winning the five-day tournament is a cheque for €869,000 ($1,364,330) and a seat at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo next week.

Haling from Fort Lauderdale, Jason was training to be a maths teacher when he stumbled across the head-turning delights of online poker. He forged a lucrative career at the tables and won a seat for the event online. As he had been dumped out of his first live tournament on its opening day, he nearly decided to cash in his seat for the EPT, join his friends in Amsterdam and give the event a body swerve. Lives can …

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Tiger Woods enters Augusta as the hottest favourite since Goliath belly laughed before squaring up to David. Word is a few Israelites took a chance and grabbed some of the 100/1 available on David and their ancestors are still dining off the proceeds. Fair play to them.

Back to Tiger. We´ll hear plenty of sound bites this week from bookmakers of how they are running scared of the great man (cowards) – but an industry average of EVEN money for a guy who has only won once here since 2002 is tantamount to robbery.

The Grand Poobahs at Augusta have spent every waking hour “Tiger proofing” Augusta since he annihilated the field by 12 blows in …

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Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Say again? Ronaldinho to… Manchester City? Ha ha ha ha ha! Well, stop laughing for a second, because it could actually happen!

Why? Because a move might make sense. For one, the buck-toothed Brazilian’s brother was spotted at the City of Manchester Stadium on Saturday, watching City lose to Chelsea in the company of Pini Zahavi, an agent who is renowned for making ‘big things’ happen.

Two, Man City’s owner, the wonderfully-named Thaksin Shinawatra, has pots of cash to spend and doesn’t mind chucking it about, willy-nilly. He certainly wouldn’t baulk at giving Ronaldinho £100,000-plus a week.

Three, Ronaldinho may be more gettable than you might think. He’s 28 now, has suffered …

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If you listen to the likes of Richard Keyes, Jamie Redknapp and Andy Gray you’ll be convinced this year the FA Cup has re-found its magic. But for everyone else watching the semi finals this weekend that was anything but magic. Two drab, nervous 1-0 wins. All sides involved were overawed by the big stage of Wembley, and their football suffered as neither side wanted to make a mistake.

So now we have Portsmouth v Cardiff. Brilliant. 1-0 anyone? Let’s be honest, no one would begrudge Harry Redknapp a medal after keeping the Premier League entertained after so long. Looking at their league status Pompey are competing for a UEFA Cup spot anyway so it’s only fair they complete the formalities.

I …

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Saturday at The Aintree Grand National Meeting 2008 wasn’t only about the Grand National. Here’s our round-up of the day’s action…

1345 Extra Smooth Handicap Hurdle

A smooth win by the very versatile Pearl King. Trained by Philip Hobbs and very well ridden by Richard Johnson he took it up at the last and won with plenty in hand. He did not have a hard race and could well go in again carrying a penalty off his current mark.

1415 Maghull Novices’ Chase

There was plenty of pace on here set up by the mare Kruguyrova. Takeroc looked like collecting until the pushed along Tidal Bay loomed up between the last two and went on to win easily. The winner will now be a …

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