Tottenham Hotspur this morning unveiled their new signing David Bentley, who has joined from Blackburn Rovers in a deal that will cost them an initial £15m, potentially rising to £17m. Bentley, who first made his name as a youngster at north London rivals Arsenal, revealed his pleasure at completing a move to White Hart Lane, and immediately set out his desire to see Spurs challenging the dominance of the big four.

"It means the world to join Tottenham," he said. "[Paul Gascoigne] Gazza was my favourite player, all my mates are Tottenham fans and there's a piece of my heart at this club. I didn't think they would be interested in me and when it became available there was nowhere else I wanted to go."

When asked whether his time at Arsenal could affect his relationship with fans of his new side, he replied: "That's in the past, I grew up through the Arsenal youth team but it's not a problem for me, all my heart is at Tottenham and all my passion will be tunnelled into doing well for Tottenham."

01/04/08 - Reuters

Liverpool Football Club have announced that manager Rafael Benitez is to leave his position with immediate effect. The club state that he is leaving by mutual consent, but Benitez claims otherwise.

Blaming the internal affairs of the club for his departure, the spaniard claimed that unrest between Co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks has made it "impossible to go about my work from day to day".  He continued "I cannot plan for the future when the club does not know where it will be in 2 weeks".

It is widely believed that former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho will be announced as the next Liverpool manager.  A press conference this afternoon is expected to confirm his appointment.