Both Manchester United and Liverpool are tracking the progress of former Chelsea holding midfielder Lassana Diarra. Hamit Altintop has become a target for Spurs and a host of other clubs including Atletico Madrid as his contract with Bayern Munich is due to expire in a couple of months. With Joe Hart being called back to Manchester City as a result of the injury suffered by Shay Given, Birmingham are now looking at loaning United custodian Ben Foster.

Elsewhere, Wolfburg forward Edin Dzeko has dropped a hint for the Premier League clubs by stating that he would be interested in moving away from his current club at the end of the season. Arsenal have opened talks with Gael Clichy over the possibility of a new deal. Both Real Madrid and Barcelona have been monitoring Clichy’s progress and Wenger would not want to lose the French left back.

AZ Alkmaar’s £5m-rated forward Jermain Lens is attracting a lot of attention from Wigan, Wolves, Sunderland and Newcastle. Sunderland boss Steve Bruce has his eyes on Paraguay international midfielder Cristian Riveros who could well become the Black Cats’ first signing of the new season. And finally, in what could be the biggest transfer of the summer, Barcelona are edging closer to the services of Spanish star striker David Villa.

The likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool were quick to voice their dissatisfaction over the suggestion. Other teams in the top half were considerate enough to give it a thought with Martin O’Neill describing it as “interesting” and one that “people might go for”.

Any change in the current format would have needed the approval of 14 of the 20 Premier League clubs. With the television deal in place for the next three years, any change would have reflected only after the current deal expired.

Also, the general consensus at the meeting was that the team finishing in fourth position after a gruelling season deserved to play in the Champions League. The congestion in the English football calendar did not help the change at all. Premier League bosses feared that this change would reduce the significance of the FA’s other tournaments especially the FA Cup. Why mend something that ain’t broken?

Unlike City, both Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa booked their place in the next round with wins over Bolton and Crystal Palace respectively. Tottenham cruised to a 4-0 win against the Trotters. Roman Pavlyuchenko continued his resurgence and scored twice. Own goals from Jaaskelainen and O’Brien also contributed to Bolton’s downfall.

Aston Villa secured a battling 3-1 win over Crystal Palace. John Carew scored two late penalties for the Villians. Agbonlahor had given Villa the lead late in the first half. But Darren Ambrose equalised from the spot for Palace before Carew took the game away from the Championship side.
In another closely contested replay, Reading progressed to the sixth round with a 3-2 win over a strong West Bromwich Albion side.