Soccer Digest

Today's other stories in brief

Spurs line up Ramos

Juande Ramos has declared his readiness to resign as Sevilla coach and become the new Tottenham manager, with the White Hart Lane board hopeful of closing the deal this week.

Ramos met Tottenham secretary John Alexander and vice-chairman Paul Kelmsley in Seville last Friday. And although both parties tried to downplay the significance of the meeting, insisting that it was entirely coincidental, Martin Jol's position at Tottenham has seemingly become untenable.

Jol's relationship with the board and with sporting director Damien Comolli has deteriorated. Spurs believe that Jol has taken the side as far as he can and that they need a new coach to challenge for a top-four finish.

Guardian Service

Makelele signs

Claude Makelele has signed a one-year extension to his Chelsea contract to keep him at Stamford Bridge until 2009. The 34-year-old's current deal had been set to expire at the end of the current season and he would have been able to negotiate a move away from January.

However, the French World Cup finalist has extended his stay in west London by 12 months, by which time he will be 36.

Meanwhile, Sevilla full-back Daniel Alves has revealed he is no closer to joining Chelsea but remains "hopeful for some closure on this subject." Chelsea were expected to increase their offer last week after the Spanish club rejected an initial bid of €38 million.

Baird to captain North

Fulham defender Chris Baird will captain Northern Ireland for the Euro 2008 qualifier against Liechtenstein tomorrow at Windsor Park. Birmingham midfielder Damien Johnson (hamstring) and Manchester United defender Jonny Evans (groin) have failed to recover from injuries in time for the match.

In brief . . .

Sunderland's Roy Keane will take his summer spending to almost €44 million this week by signing Stoke City defender Danny Higginbotham for €3.5million . . . Bolton striker El-Hadji Diouf has told Bolton to sign five quality players - or let him leave for a club with Champions League ambitions . . . Manchester City have ruled out Bulgarian striker Valeri Bojinov for "at least five months" after confirming he damaged the lateral and anterior cruciate ligaments of his left knee in Sunday's Premier League win against Manchester United.