A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Senna turns down Swansea

SPANISH midfielder Marcos Senna has rejected an offer from Swansea to stay at Villarreal. The 34-year-old, whose existing contract expired earlier this summer, has agreed a one-year extension to stay at El Madrigal.

Senna held talks with Swansea about a possible move to Wales, but the midfielder has opted to stay in Spain.

Swansea full back Neil Taylor could be on his way to Newcastle who had a €1 million bid rejected earlier this week.

Duration of game may be changed

FIFA could allow matches at the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar to be played over three 30-minute periods if temperatures in the stadiums became dangerously high for the players, a senior stadium engineer told delegates at a conference yesterday.

Michael Beavon, a director of Arup Associates who helped to develop the zero-carbon solar technology that will cool the 12 stadiums, told delegates at the Qatar Infrastructure Conference in London that the air-cooling would maintain a temperature of around 24 degrees Celsius in the stadiums.

“There is a moderate risk of heat injury to the players between 24 degrees-29 degrees but if you go above that you have high and extreme risk of injury.

“The one thing Fifa do say, although it is for guidance, is if it’s 32 degrees they will stop a match and play three 30-minute thirds rather than two 45-minute halves. The reason would be to re-hydrate the players before they could carry on playing.”

Stoke closing in on Birmingham duo

STOKE chairman Peter Coates thinks Stoke are close to striking a deal with Birmingham for Scott Dann and Cameron Jerome.

The clubs have spent weeks locked in negotiations over defender Dann – despite the defender missing the entire second half of the season – and striker Jerome, and Coates believes they are now close to agreeing.

However, the Potters chief warned the club has yet to talk terms with either player and that there was still a chance the moves could fall through. “We have made an offer and are hoping to do a deal that will satisfy both clubs,” said Coates.

“It is my understanding we were very close to a deal, but then you still have to sort things out with the players. These things can take forever.

“You have to have other irons in the fire because so many things can go wrong. Sometimes you think you have a deal and it doesnt happen.”

Bruce moving closer to deals for O'Shea and Brown

MANCHESTER United defender Wes Brown had a medical at Sunderland last night as manager Steve Bruce edges closer to another summer signing. Bruce is also confident of persuading Brown’s club-mate John O’Shea that his future lies at the Stadium of Light. The 30-year-old has made almost 300 starts for United and has five Premier League titles to his name, while he has become a stalwart of Giovanni Trapattoni’s Ireland defence.

But while Brown and O’Shea may be close to joining, question marks remain over Darron Gibson, who has also attracted interest from derby rivals Newcastle.

Bruce will hope for positive developments over the next 24 hours after a busy summer already, with Ahmed Elmohamady having made his loan move permanent and Connor Wickham, Craig Gardner, Ji Dong-won, Keiren Westwood and Sebastian Larsson having joined the club.

Atletico hopeful Aguero will stay

ATLETICO Madrid remain hopeful Sergio Aguero will still be at the club next season despite the Argentina international’s recent declaration he wants to leave. Aguero announced in a statement on his personal website in May that he wanted to move on after five years with Atletico and the 23-year-old has since been linked with possible moves to Real Madrid, Juventus and Manchester City. However, Atletico are determined not to let their prized asset leave and hope the striker, who has scored over 100 goals for the club, can be convinced to stay once his participation in the Copa America is over.

Atletico are also unwilling to enter into negotiations with other clubs regarding Aguero, who has a buy-out clause of €45 million in his contract.

City complete signing of Savic

MANCHESTER City have completed the capture of Montenegro defender Stefan Savic from Partizan Belgrade on a four-year contract.

The 20-year-old has been granted a work permit by the British Home Office and becomes City’s second signing in three days following the arrival of Gael Clichy from Arsenal.

The value of the deal is believed to be €6.7m, but could eventually rise to €10m with appearances.

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LIVERPOOL defender Glen Johnson has signed a contract extension, the club have confirmed.

The England international, who moved from Portsmouth two years ago, has agreed a deal which commits him to Anfield “for the long term”.

Johnson endured a difficult start to last season through injury only to come back and excel on the left of defence under new manager Kenny Dalglish.