CHRIS WADDLE has finally returned to the Premiership - joining relegation threatened Sunderland for £75,000. The 36 year old former England winger will leave Bradford City to join the club he supported as a boy until the end of the season.
The move to Peter Reid's Sunderland comes after a bid by Nottingham Forest to take him to the City Ground last week fell, through. Waddle's first game in a Sunderland shirt is likely to be the crucial relegation clash against Forest at Roker Park on Saturday.
Waddle, in Monaco ahead of Newcastle's UEFA Cup quarter final second leg tie tonight, where he will be a match summariser for the BBC, said: "I am back in the Premiership, back in the north east and I am really looking forward to it."
The ex Newcastle star's move to Forest broke down over a contract dispute with Bradford. He thought he had a clause in his contract enabling him to leave if a Premiership club came in for him but Bradford insisted he was under contract to them until the end of the season.
Tony Yeboah's brief and tempestuous love affair with Leeds United will almost certainly end with a move back to Germany this summer. On Saturday, the Ghanaian international forward infuriated both his club's management and support by petulantly throwing his shirt to the ground after being substituted towards the end of the Premiership game against Tottenham at White Hart Lane.
It is clear that 30 year old Yeboah will now only play first team football for Leeds again if the club was to lose several senior players to injury and suspension. Yeboah is also to be fined two weeks wages - around £20,000 - which is the maximum permitted under FA rules.
Graham will definitely sanction his departure at the end of the season but he will seek a fee of around £2 million for a player who cost £3.4 million when he joined Leeds from Eintracht Frankfurt in January 1995.
Manchester United yesterday took the first steps towards setting up their own full time school of excellence with the announcement that they are to plough £100,000 into a local school.
The Old Trafford club are supporting an application by Ashton on Mersey High School in nearby Sale to become a Sports College - and, if successful, their investment will be matched by the British government.
United have decided to link up with the school to cater for the educational requirements of the club's apprentices.