David Ginola has pledged to win his fight against injury and resume hostilities with Wimbledon manager Joe Kinnear as quickly as possible in what now appears a bitter personal feud.
Tottenham's charismatic French star, condemned by Kinnear for "diving around right left and centre" appealing for penalties during a Premiership clash at White Hart Lane two weeks ago, looked daggers at Kinnear in response to a curt remark when he was limping off with hamstring injury in Wednesday night's Worthington Cup semi-final first leg.
Kinnear claimed after the game - which, just like the League clash, finished goalless - that he was merely inquiring of the Tottenham player: "How's your hammy?"
But Tottenham fans seated close to the touchline dug-outs insist that former Tottenham star Kinnear used much more provocative words.
Kinnear has complained that due credit was not paid to Wimbledon defender Kenny Cunningham, whom Kinnear believes has restricted Ginola to only a cameo role in the three games between the two sides over the last 12 days.
Kinnear was also irritated, at least, when he saw referee Dermot Gallagher ask for, and receive Ginola's shirt at the end of the Wimbledon-Tottenham FA Cup clash at Selhurst Park last Saturday.
Now Ginola is struggling to be fit for the replay of that FA Cup encounter at White Hart Lane on Tuesday, but insists: "I will be back as quickly as I can. It is a pulled hamstring and normally, with this kind of injury, I do not take long to recover." He will, however, miss Tottenham's Premiership trip to Blackburn on Saturday after receiving his eighth yellow card of the season against Wimbledon two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, with two episodes of the Tottenham-Wimbledon saga to go, Republic of Ireland international Cunningham admits there is growing tension between the teams. "There is certainly tension out there because there is so much at stake and there are sure to be times when people fall out and criticise each other.
"That's only to be expected because we are all professionals and want to achieve as much as we can. It gets people very motivated but so long as it is all forgotten once we get back in the dressingrooms then there's no problem."
Meanwhile, Cunningham's fellow Irish international Jason McAteer has revealed he left the club of his dreams to join Blackburn because Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier did not rate him.
McAteer ended his three-and-a-half year stint with the club he supported as a boy when he completed his £4 million move to Rovers.
He admitted it was a huge wrench to leave Anfield, but claimed he felt he had to move on after Houllier was given sole control when Roy Evans left. Houllier quickly made it clear to McAteer that he did not figure in his first-team plans.
"Leaving Liverpool was a very big decision," said the 27-year-old, who has agreed a four-and-a-half year contract. "It's not something you wake up and just do and leaving was the biggest decision of my life.
"It had been a dream move for me when I joined them from Bolton and I have a lot of friends there. But with the new manager coming in at Liverpool and Roy going, I felt my chances would be very limited.
"I had to think about what's right for Jason McAteer and I felt Blackburn Rovers was right."
McAteer was unhappy at being played out of position at Anfield and Rovers manager Brian Kidd claims he will deploy him in his favoured central midfield role.
Meanwhile Alex Ferguson has admitted defeat in his bid to strengthen his Champions' League squad before Sunday's UEFA deadline. United face Inter Milan in a quarter-final in March, but Ferguson's possibility of signing new talent was severely limited because any player who has already played in Europe this season is ineligible for the Champions' League.
Arsenal are confident of completing the signing of Bordeaux striker Kaba Diawara (23) today.
Juninho is set to sign for Aston Villa early next week in a £10 million move with his British representative Gianni Paladini "90 per cent certain" that the deal will go through. The contract will be worth a basic £5 million over five years - an average of around £20,000 a week.
