Quinn's contract talks delayed

Niall Quinn's contractual dispute with Sunderland will not be resolved for another three weeks. Quinn's agent-solicitor Michael Kennedy had his first negotiations with Sunderland last weekend but was told that the club's present priorities lie elsewhere and that he should return toward the end of March.

It is thought that manager Peter Reid and Quinn's strike partner Kevin Phillips have created the delay and uncertainty over Quinn's future by not yet signing the new deals they have been offered.

Quinn is peeved by this but also by the perception that he is stalling over whether to accept a pay increase, a situation he thinks has arisen because he shares the same negotiator as Roy Keane.

"It's not a question of me doubling my wages," Quinn said yesterday. "I've had a word with the club's financial director and been told that they wanted to delay things because they had more pressing contracts to sort out.

"It's a matter of me keeping my form up. The board are perfectly entitled to turn around and say that I haven't been doing it in the Premiership. I feel like I'm on trial. The next few weeks are very important."

Sunderland's approach is all the more curious as Quinn has been instrumental in their rise and, as club captain, is hugely popular with the fans.

Meanwhile, Bertie Vogts, for reasons best known to himself, has applied for the job of Celtic manager. A World Cup winner as a player, if Vogts is appointed he will become the first German to take charge of a British side.

It will certainly meet with the approval of fans who insisted that the appointment of such an inexperienced figure as John Barnes was a major error.

Vogts has impeccable credentials and the matter may now rest with Kenny Dalglish, whose willingness to team up with the German will be crucial.

The long-anticipated transfer of Emile Heskey between Leicester City and Liverpool could well happen early next week after the Merseyside club increased their bid to £12 million.

The clubs have an agreement designed to guarantee the 22-year-old England international forward a move to Anfield for £10.75 million at the end of the season, but Liverpool have been attempting to bring forward the deal for some time.

As Everton agreed terms with Arsenal's Stephen Hughes yesterday their veteran defender Richard Gough agreed to sign a new, two-year contract which will keep him at Goodison until he is 40.

The Belgian international striker Luc Nilis is due to have a medical at Aston Villa today and discuss terms over a summer move. Nilis (32) can leave PSV Eindhoven at the end of the season on a free transfer.

West Ham's defender Neil Ruddock, out of first-team favour since January, has signed for Portsmouth on loan until the end of the season.

Broadcaster BSkyB have widened their influence within the Premiership with the acquisition of a 9.9 per cent stake in Chelsea for £40 million.

Former England full back Jimmy Armfield led the tributes at Sir Stanley Matthews' funeral in Stoke yesterday. Armfield, Matthews' former team-mate, said: "The game of life has lost a treasure." Thousands of mourners stood silently outside St Peter's church as the service was relayed to them via loudspeakers.

Three women players have been charged by the English FA with misconduct after failing random drug tests. All three tested positive for cannabis.