Newspaper gossip for Sunday March 20th 2005.
The Sunday Mirror claim that a) Harry Kewell is leaving in the summer, b) Liverpool have launched an investigation into the recent claims from the Ashley Cole enquiry that Steven Gerrard has already signed for Chelsea and c) Chelsea will be charged with an illegal approach for Cole (which means that if point (b) is true they may be charged again.
The News of The World is reporting two stories about Michael Owen. Owen used to be signed to the News of the World during his Liverpool days, although it’s not clear if he spilled the beans himself on these two stories. First of all that he’s joining Chelsea in the summer, and second of all that his wife-to-be has had some "enhancement" carried out in advance of their summer wedding.
Apart from that the Sunday papers are seemingly taking pleasure in linking Friday’s Champions League draw to today’s derby. The angle is basically that Liverpool kept Everton out of Europe after the Heysel disaster, which led to a decline for Everton, and that today’s match might keep Liverpool out of the Champions League next season. Revenge seems to be the implication. One newspaper has managed to find Howard Kendall in a bar and got him to talk about Liverpool keeping him out of Europe. The papers have pounced on this just recently as they do seem to get a kick out of attacking Liverpool wherever possible.