Soccer Digest

Today's other soccer stories

City keep spending

Sven-Goran Eriksson is to follow up the arrival of three more foreign recruits yesterday with another spending spree in the next week that could take Thaksin Shinawatra's outlay at Manchester City beyond €74 million, writes Daniel Taylor.

Thaksin's spending was taken close to €59 million yesterday as Elano Blumer, Brazil's Copa America star, completed an €11 million move from Shakhtar Donetsk to join his fellow new signings, Javier Garrido and Vedran Corluka. Garrido arrived for a cut-price €2 million as he was in the final year of his contract at Real Sociedad while Corluka signed from Dinamo Zagreb.

Guardian Service

Celtic face qualifying

Celtic have been denied the comfort of an automatic place in this season's Champions League and will be hoping for a favourable outcome in today's draw for the third round of qualifying. However, they are seeded, which means they cannot be drawn against Liverpool, Arsenal, Sevilla or even Rangers.

In brief . . .

Striker Eduardo Da Silva scored his first goal for Arsenal in a 2-1 win over Lazio in the opening game of the Amsterdam tournament yesterday. Danish midfielder Nicklas Bendtner put Arsenal in front but Goran Pandev levelled before half-time . . . Liverpool and Ireland defender Steve Finnan has signed a new two-year deal . . . Birmingham will complete the signing of Aston Villa defender Liam Ridgewell today . . . Chelsea defender Alex and Arsenal striker Eduardo Da Silva have been granted work permits . . . . . . Reading have signed Emerse Fae from Nantes . . . Everton midfielder Tim Cahill will miss the start of the season after damaging the area around the metatarsal he broke in March during Tuesday's friendly against Werder Bremen.