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Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere is making good progress in his rehabilitation from an ankle injury, and has stated that he hopes to be back playing soon.

The England international midfielder picked up the knock in pre-season, and has missed The Gunners’ terrible start to the 2011-12 campaign, as he tries to get back to full fitness.

Wilshere was initially believed to be sidelined until November, but his latest post on Twitter may give Emirates fans hope that their star man may make an early return to the Premier League fold.

“Good day at football today! In the gym again! Ankle feeling a lot better hope to be back playing soon,” he stated on the social networking site.

With the summer loss of Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas, the Arsenal midfield has looked bereft of it’s usual quality, and the return of Wilshere will be sure to be a big boost for the side.

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Wilshere is set to miss a number of further games as Arsene Wenger will not want to bring him back before he is ready, but Arsenal need the playmaker as they are languishing in 17th in the table after being beaten 4-3 by Blackburn on Saturday.

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Eredivisie league leaders PSV Eindhoven gave the chasing pack something to cheer about on Saturday, slipping to a 1-0 home defeat to ADO Den Haag.

Substitute Charlton Vicento’s cross found Wesley Verhoek unmarked at the far post in the second minute of injury time and his cool finish helped lift ADO into fifth place in the Eredivisie.

The result means reigning champions Twente trail PSV by just a single point and can overhaul the leaders if they beat Utrecht on Sunday.

Elsewhere on Saturday, relegation battlers Excelsior shocked AZ Alkmaar after coming from behind to post a 2-1 home win.

Kolbeinn Sigthorsson gave the visitors the lead after 10 minutes but Tom Vincken equalised with a penalty on 65 minutes before a freakish free-kick from Jordy Clasie sealed the three points.

Clasie’s floating free-kick from long-range deceived everyone, including Alkmaar goalkeeper Sergio Romero, and bounced inside the penalty area before crossing the line.

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VVV Venlo remain entrenched in the relegation zone despite cruising to a 3-0 win over 10th-placed NAC Breda, while Heerenveen and NEC Nijmegen played out a goalless draw at the Abe Lenstra Stadion.

Goalkeeper Jose Reina has admitted Liverpool may have to lower their targets for next season following the uncertainty at Anfield.

The Reds will compete in the Europa League next season after finishing a lowly seventh in the Premier League table this term.

Meanwhile, the club has been put up for sale by American co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett and so are unlikely to spend big in the summer transfer market.

The club's hierarchy and manager Rafael Benitez have vowed to retain their star players like Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard, but keeper Reina has offered a downbeat assessment of their targets for the new season.

Reina was speaking from Spain's training camp ahead of the World Cup finals.

"As long as we build a competitive squad we do not have to fear anybody," he said.

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"But it is looking like we will not yet. We have to be less optimistic than the last few years and get ready for setting another kind of target.

"(The owners) have to move quickly and anything that happens has to be right now."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Newcastle have reportedly made a bid of £3.15m for Twente defender Douglas, Sky Sports claim.

The Tyneside club are eager to strengthen their squad ahead of the 2012-13 season, and will look to build on their fifth-placed finish from last term.

With Romain Amalfitano already been added to Alan Pardew’s squad, a commanding defender is next on the Geordies’ radar.

Douglas has impressed for the Eredivisie side over the last number of campaigns, and as such has been linked with a move to one of Europe’s big leagues consistently of late.

The Brazilian centre-half has also admitted that he is ready to leave the Enschede-based side for a new challenge, but manager Steve McClaren is said to be eager to recoup a handsome price for the South American.

As yet there has been no news on whether the bid has been accepted, with Newcastle looking to build on their acquisition of Cheik Tiote, who also move to the north east from Twente.

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By Gareth McKnight

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With the final day of the transfer window drawing nearer the mad rush for that big last minute deal will soon commence. The window officially shuts at 11pm Wednesday evening and this late finish means that clubs will undoubtedly be doing their business late into the night.

Whilst fans regularly enjoy the excitement of Sky Sports News excellent deadline day coverage, for the clubs the pressure to get the right players at the right prices often means they leave their business to the last day.

With only hours left a transfer story can break and even though there looks to be no time left to complete a deal, those final hours and minutes can be crucial in a teams’ season. But what are the top ten deadline day swoops of past seasons?

Click on Luis Suarez to see the top 10 deadline deals

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Do you agree with the top ten? Have I missed an amazing last minute deal? If you want to read more of my bite size, 140 character views and thoughts follow me on Twitter @jennyk5

Borussia Dortmund ace Shinji Kagawa could miss the rest of the Bundesliga season with a broken foot.

Kagawa, 21, has scored eight goals for his club this season as they continue to take all before them, currently sitting 11 points clear of Bayer Leverkusen at the top of the Bundesliga.

But the Japanese midfielder broke a bone in his foot while playing for his country in an Asian Cup semi-final against South Korea, which they won on penalties after the sides were locked at 2-2 at the end of extra time.

The loss of Kagawa will be a blow to Japan, who face Australia in Saturday’s Asian Cup final, but the news will hurt the Bundesliga table-toppers more, with a recovery expected in the final stages of the season at best.

“The news is bad. He was a prominent figure for us in the first half of the season,” Dortmund press-officer Hans-Joachim Watzke told SID.

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“The end of the season (in Germany) is three-and-a-half months away and a broken foot needs time to heal. It will be close (whether or not he plays again this season).”

While the world patiently waits for the new Premier League season to arrive, a flurry of activity relentlessly flows through every club, with players arriving and departing in equal measures. While there has yet to be a bank-breaking, marquee signing this summer, the media is awash with rumours of big name stars searching for new employers. Many of the players who receive the most coverage are star strikers. The men who pose the greatest goal threat for their respective teams are often the players held in highest regard, demanding lucrative transfer fees and generating excitement around any club. Whilst there are no doubts that there will still be a considerable amount of movement and new additions to the Premier League, these 10 players may be the most likely to claim the golden boot when next May arrives.

This list includes previous winners of the prized top scorer trophy, new signings that are untested in this league and outside bets who have shown enough talent in finding the net to acquire a place in this group of stars. While some performed admirably last campaign, some had relatively quiet seasons. Have a look at this list and see if you agree whether one of these players will add an individual trophy to their career come the seasons climax.

Click on Papiss Cisse to unveil the 10 candidates

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Cesc Fabregas looks to finally have got his dream move to Barcelona and a medical is taking place as we speak. It has been arguably the biggest transfer saga of the past two years and Arsenal have decided that the time is right to cash in on their talented Spaniard. £35m is the fee and the Gunners support will be hoping that Arsene Wenger will look to use the funds to strengthen the rest of the squad.

Elsewhere in the papers Roberto Mancini has called on fans to be realistic; Sir Alex Ferguson has called on critics to lay off De Gea, while Villas-Boas accuses Stoke of underhand tactics.

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Arsenal and Barcelona finally secure terms for Fábregas deal – Guardian

Mikel’s father in suspected kidnapping – Guardian

Touré to train at City before ban ends – Guardian

Mancini: fans must be realistic – Daily Telegraph

QPR need cash injection – Daily Telegraph

Record signing Carroll vows to repay Liverpool boss Dalglish’s faith – Daily Mail

Keane in race against time to join LA Galaxy after Tottenham accept £1.8m bid – Daily Mail

Liverpool line up shock swoop for Celtic’s ‘Derry Pele’ McCourt – Daily Mail

Sir Alex: Lay off De Gea – Mirror

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Villas-Boas accuses Stoke of underhand tactics – Mirror

Wenger rules out swoop for Joey – Sun

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A Danny Allsopp brace all but booked Melbourne Victory’s spot in the finals as the home side defeated Gold Coast United 2-0 at AAMI Park.

In a preview of a likely-first week final, Melbourne dominated the play and thanks to Allsopp’s well-taken goals either side of half-time have moved within touching distance of a confirmed spot in the finals.

Allsopp, who only re-joined the club at the start of January, is now the form striker in the league, having managed five goals in his past four matches.

With Archie Thompson and Robbie Kruse set to come back into the side in the next two weeks, Victory will have their best attacking line-up available for the finals.

As temperatures neared 40 degrees Celsius in Melbourne on Sunday, Allsopp scored a cracking goal on 28 minutes from over 25 yards out and then showed his versatility by turning John Curtis in the box and firing accurately 11 minutes into the second half.

The veteran striker could have had his first-ever A-League hat-trick, spurning several chances, but it mattered little as Melbourne made it two wins in a row.

Elsewhere, a first-half goal from Dylan Macallister was enough to give Wellington Phoenix a vital 1-0 win over 10-man Newcastle Jets in Wellington.

Macallister’s goal in the 20th minute secured a club record fifth straight victory at home for Wellington but more importantly the three points lifted the Phoenix to sixth (35 points) on the table and in the process dented Newcastle’s hopes of reaching the play-offs as they stayed in eight spot with 31 points.

The Jets were not helped by the red card shown to Ryan Griffiths in the 66th minute for abusing referee Chris Beath, who also booked captain Nikolai Topor-Stanley in the first half.

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But the Phoenix did not escape either with Andrew Durante, Troy Hearfield, Vince Lia, Ben Sigmund and Manny Muscat all shown yellow cards by the referee.

Sigmund’s yellow was his eighth of the season meaning he will miss the next two crucial away matches against Adelaide and Sydney.

Ipswich Town have had a week of good news and bad news. The bad news is that Paul Jewell’s main transfer target Joel Ward turned down the chance to sign for Ipswich and chose to sign for Crystal Palace.

However, the good news is that Ipswich have now made their first summer signing in Macclesfield right back Elliot Hewitt. The young Welshman turned 18 years old on Wednesday and this signing shows Ipswich are heading in the right direction.

Joel Ward put in some very encouraging performances at the back for Portsmouth last season and at 22 years of age he looked like just what Ipswich needed. Many see the club’s failure to sign Ward as bad news but others are actually pleased that the club failed to lure the former Portsmouth man to Ipswich.

If Joel Ward did sign for Ipswich he would have been joining the club for the wrong reasons. Over the last few seasons the Ipswich squad has consisted mainly of players who clearly don’t care about playing for the club and are only playing for the money. Their lack of passion and desire to play for the club was always clear to see.

It was obvious that Grant Leadbitter never cared about Ipswich because he only started to play well when his contract was coming to an end and he needed to sell himself to other clubs by playing well. Joel Ward is not necessarily in the same category as Leadbitter as he turned down higher wages to join Crystal Palace and be closer to his family. However, if Ward did accept Jewell’s offer it wouldn’t have been for the right reasons and it would have showed in his performances on the pitch.

The great thing about this week has been that Ipswich have signed a player who looks like he will be proud to wear an Ipswich Town shirt. Elliot Hewitt is exactly the right type of player fans have been crying out for. A young lad with the desire to make a name for himself and more importantly a desire to play for Ipswich. Picking the gems out from the lower leagues is a far superior transfer policy to what Ipswich used to do when they only searched for players in Premier League Reserve teams.

It seems that Paul Jewell may well have learnt the lesson that other managers have failed to. If he keeps up this transfer policy then there will be a different atmosphere at Portman Road next season. Fans will turn up to the games and see the team play with passion and determination whether they win or lose. It will be refreshing for the fans to see a new attitude within the team after so many years of seeing failed Premier League players lug around the fine pitch.

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A change in the teams work rate and philosophy won’t come with just one signing though.

It is concerning to think that Paul Jewell once named Grant Leadbitter as his Ipswich captain. At the time myself and most other fans were unhappy with the decision as I can’t think of a worse player to captain the side. It can hardly be inspiring for the team to play under a captain who doesn’t care about the club. Thankfully Paul Jewell did strip Leadbitter of his captaincy later on in the season and all we can do is hope that he has learnt his lesson. The next few signings will shape the team for next season and whilst the signings don’t necessarily need be young they need to want to play for Ipswich.

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