Ajax are in the Champions’ League but if they go out at the qualifying stages a sale could be arranged within the next six weeks.Slaven Bilic is likely to become the biggest casualty of the cost- cutting purge by Everton’s manager Walter Smith. The Croatian defender can leave for around pounds 3m with Roma already making inquiries.Bilic has not yet played for Smith because of a calf injury he picked up in the World Cup finals, in which his country finished third. Substitutes not used: Phillips, Hold-sworth.Watford (4-4-2): Chamberlain; Gibbs (Gudmundsson, 80), Palmer, Page, Robinson; Bazeley, Hyde, Johnson, Kennedy; Smart (Mooney, 90), Noel-Williams Substitutes not used: Wright.Referee: R Pearson (Peterlee).. BRYAN ROBSON, the Middlesbrough manager, is attempting to lure Ajax’s Finnish striker Jari Litmanen to Middlesbrough, writes Alan Nixon. Robson has approached Litmanen’s advisors about either buying him now or picking him up at the end of the season when his contract runs out and he can move for nothing.
Middlesbrough are willing to pay a transfer fee of around pounds 2m to bring the 27-year-old to The Riverside soon, which is an attractive proposition for the Dutch club. BOLTON WERE hit by a goal at the end of each half as Watford ended Wanderers’ unbeaten start to the First Division season at the Reebok Stadium last night. It was not only a match Bolton should not have lost on the balance of play, but one they should have won with something to spare.

They had any number of chances, but a lack of steadiness, nerve and luck in front of goal left them open to the sucker punch.
When it arrived, five minutes from time from Peter Kennedy, it took Watford above Bolton on the table, which was a reward for their tenacity rather than for their share of the play.Although both sides had a fistful of chances to opening the scoring in a frenetic 15 minutes, Graham Taylor’s men spent most of the match on the back foot after that.Nathan Blake, Arnar Gunn-laugsson and Ricardo Gardner had all gone close for Bolton before they made their breakthrough, Gunnlaugsson shooting low with his right foot past Alec Chamberlain for the 11th goal of his season.Bolton’s more cynical and world-weary followers have already seen enough this season to know that they cannot relax when their side takes the lead.In theory, the return of the most experienced members of their defence, Gudni Bergsson and, for the first time this season, first-choice goalkeeper, Keith Branagan, should have made them more resilient.In practice, after Blake’s header had skimmed the bar, they were wide open to Watford’s counter-attack, Kennedy getting in a hard, low cross and Gifton Noel-Williams hitting his close-range shot into the net.Bolton still made all the running in the second half, coming close to regaining their lead on a number of occasions.The most galling moment of all for their increasingly frustrated supporters came when Gunnlaugssen met Neil Cox’s deep cross with a textbook downward header, which reared up to hit the underside of the bar and bounced clear.Gunnlaugsson, irrepressible throughout and a player, who, more than most, did not deserve to be on the losing side, had a furious penalty claim turned down when he was sent tumbling and the skilful Gardner saw his shot flash past the angle of bar and post.But just as Bolton thought they might have to settle for the draw, Watford came up with the killer blow, Micah Hyde getting to the byline on the right and planting a cross into the vacant section of the penalty area for Kennedy to volley home.Bolton (4-4-2): Branagan; Cox, Bergsson, Fish, Whitlow; Johansen, Frandsen, Jensen, Gardner (Taylor, 84); Blake, Gunnlaugsson. Manchester City’s agonising descent received a further nudge as a 2-1 defeat at Lincoln shunted them from seventh to eighth place.. Craig Bellamy’s 10th goal of the season secured the Canaries’ victory.The Sheffield United manager Steve Bruce lamented costly errors as the Blades were forced to share the points with Stockport at Bramall Lane, Marcelo’s goal enabling them to come from behind to draw 1-1. “If you don’t stop conceding silly goals by eradicating the errors it makes life difficult for you and tonight that’s what happened,” Bruce said.A 2-2 draw against Macclesfield enabled Preston to swap places with Stoke City to lead the Second Division as Brian Little’s men tumbled to a 1- 0 loss at Bristol Rovers.

“The incident took place well away from the goal and I thought that in the circumstances it was only a yellow card offence,” he said.
It was also a bad night for Ipswich who, in front of 22,000 at Portman Road, went down 1-0 to Norwich in the East Anglia derby. A 74TH-MINUTE equaliser from Swindon’s Ty Gooden cost Birmingham a place at the top of the First Division at St Andrew’s last night. Gooden’s strike levelled Chris Marsden’s earlier effort to earn a 1-1 draw, a result which was enough to move the Blues into second, a point behind Huddersfield. Paul Danson’s dismissal of City’s Simon Charlton after he brought down George Ndah was further cause for disappointment for the manager, Trevor Francis.

Because of the sensitivity of the source of the story, of its existence, to do so would be unfair.”Kelly went on to claim: “However, it is worth pointing out that the very fact that the entire press corps, England management and FA hierarchy are running around talking about a recording that could have only been made by an England player or official and would have had to have been made in the very inner sanctum of the England team’s dressing-room shows the incredible atmosphere that now surrounds the England manager and his team.”"The current hue and cry is probably a welcome distraction from actual happenings in the England camp after the Luxembourg game.”. “We had a call from a friend of Danny Kelly’s who is a top English footballer at the highest level, and he said there is a tape of Alan Shearer and Glenn Hoddle,” Baker had said.After calls from Hoddle and the FA’s director of public affairs David Davies to clarify matters, however, Kelly said: “First and foremost, I cannot confirm or deny the content of the tape, or even the existence of the tape. “He [Hoddle] is entitled to have his contract looked at in the light of what managers of other top international teams are paid and in the light of those performances,” Kelly said.Yesterday another controversy concerning Hoddle looked as if it may be nearer to being resolved when the radio show host Danny Kelly appeared to back down over claims that he and his fellow presenter Danny Baker made about a tape recording which allegedly contains a dispute between Hoddle and his captain, Alan Shearer.Hoddle and the FA have challenged the producers of the Baker and Kelly radio phone-in show to produce the tape, supposedly made after last week’s 3-0 win in Luxembourg and said to include a heated exchange in which Shearer allegedly asks Hoddle if he had ever considered himself to be the reason the side have been underperforming.Baker said a recording had been passed around the England players who were “killing themselves laughing” after listening to it on their personal stereos while on the team coach. In a solution which will placate many critics, up to three-quarters of the extra money on offer will be performance-related, dependent upon results and qualification for the Euro 2000 finals.Last week Hoddle defended his right to a pay rise despite England’s demise since the World Cup by saying he had turned down the chance to almost treble his salary just a couple of months ago if he had agreed to a longer- term deal.

GLENN HODDLE is likely to be given a pay rise of pounds 100,000 a year but the increase will be dependent upon the England coach taking the national side to the Euro 2000 finals. Hoddle is understood to have resumed pay negotiations with Graham Kelly, the Football Association’s chief executive, and the new deal is likely to be finalised when the FA’s international sub-committee, which controls contract and pay negotiations, meets next week.
Talks about Hoddle’s pay were postponed for two weeks due to England’s qualifying matches against Bulgaria and Luxembourg, and England’s poor performances in those games had led to speculation over whether Hoddle would even stay in the job, let alone receive a pay rise.It now appears an outline agreement has been reached that will see Hoddle’s salary increased by 40 per cent from its current level, estimated to be around pounds 250,000 a year. But on third-and-goal from one yard out, Testaverde found Brady to open the scoring. Robert Edwards gained 104 yards on 22 carries and became the first player to score a touchdown in his first six games.Drew Bledsoe was 18-of-30 for 206 yards and a touchdown for the Patriots, who are now equal with Miami at the top of the AFC East..