EMMANUEL ADEBAYOR insists he never wanted to leave Arsenal.Adebayor will return to the Emirates on April 24 for the first time since leaving the Gunners in a £25million switch to Manchester City last summer.

ONE of Nigeria’s most enterprising forward, Ike Uche has hailed the appointment of coach Lars Lagerback but warned that the appointment is no automatic guarantee to success. “It is a good thing that we have a new manager but we have to buckle up because time is not on our side”, the player who missed the Nations Cup in Angola due to injury said.

Odense Boldklub (OB) top scorer, Peter Utaka has welcomed the appointment of Lars Lagerback as Eagles coach to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Nigeria’s new Technical Adviser, Lars Lagerback, said in Abuja yesterday that a place in the FIFA World Cup semi-finals is a realistic target for the Green Eagles.

A last minute move by those considered to be members of the kitchen cabinet of ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua , to mount intense pressureon and lobby key members of the Governors’ Forum, made up of the 36 governors of the federation was all that was needed to save Yar’Adua from a looming and imminent resignation and impeachment saga.

Newly unveiled Eagles’ Technical Adviser, Lars Lagerback, has been described as ‘a strict disciplinarian and an organised coach who is ‘not charismatic’.

Going by recent development in the polity,there is no doubt that the on- going power play at Aso rock over the plight of ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has angered the Northern elite who were convinced of ‘hi_tech conspiracy’ to rig the Hausa/Fulani dominated conservative region out of power through the back door.

After almost three hours of deliberation of its Technical Committee, the Nigeria Chess Federation (NCF), has invited 118 chess players for the first stage of the World Chess Olympiad trials which will come up at the National Stadium, Lagos from 21st-27th of this month.

The National Council of Managing Directors And Licensed Customs Agents of Nigeria (NCMLCA), has mapped out strategies aimed at creating a constant liaison with security agencies in the country with a view to ensuring that the nation’s gateways are tightly closed to arms dealers, drug peddlers and fake drugs smugglers. To this end, the Association has selected a special team saddled with the responsibility of exposing the activities of all those involved in such criminal act in the nation’s border posts.

Lars Lagerback, the Eagles’ new Technical Adviser has been granted the permission to visit his family in Sweden. He is expected back in the country next week.