Other soccer news in brief.

Hunt responds to Kop's cut

AS YOU know one of the major talking points in English football has been Stephen Hunt's hair-do.His Reading manager, Steve Coppell, has drawn attention to the Irishman's lengthy locks on more than one occasion and even expressed concern they had been responsible for Hunt missing a few chances of late. "He'd claim his hair wasn't getting in his eyes but I'm not so sure," said Coppell.

When Hunt turned up for training last week with a new, shorter hair-do Coppell insisted he hadn't instructed the player to have those locks shorn. He did, though, note "there aren't many who get called a 'scruffy bastard' by Liverpool's Kop", as Hunt had been on his last visit to Anfield. We're guessing Coppell wouldn't mind Hunt returning to the barber who looked after his hair in his Brentford days.

Quotes of the week

"David Bentley is David Bentley - he ain't bloody Maradona. He plays for England and hype comes with England. People don't go on about Damien Duff and Robbie Keane every day so they need to get a life." - Stephen Hunt.

"It would be hypocritical of me to say I think I'm ugly. I feel good about myself and that's the most important thing." - Steve Bruce. Kiddin'. Cristiano Ronaldo, need it be said?

"Gary Neville is the club captain but has been injured for the best part of a year now - and Giggsie's taken on the mantelpiece." - Whether Rio Ferdinand said this we don't know, but we very much want to believe the BBC Online reader's claim that he did.

"I'd compare myself to Zinedine Zidane in ways. He's just a humble guy who happened to be the best." - Self-effacing Nicolas Anelka.

"Mascherano is amazing. I could feel his breath on my neck all the time." - Cesc Fàbregas after 90 minutes in the company of Javier last Wednesday.

"Our season has not been disastrous because people expected us to be between 10th and 12th at the beginning of the season, so we are beyond expectation." - Arsène Wenger after Saturday's draw with Liverpool. Hands up who expected Arsenal to finish 10th or 12th? Any one? No?

"I saw London Irish the other week and there were 20 lads boxing and the ref just said 'stop the handbags' and everyone got on with it. In football the police would launch an investigation into it and we'd be on Sky Sports News and called a disgrace. Everyone just needs a bit of common sense." - Kevin Doyle calls for calm. At Sky Sports News that is.

"I have recently been doing Spanish lessons and getting private tuition." - Steve McClaren sensing there might be a vacancy at Barcelona soon. Does he have any experience of working in a ticket office?

"Once we have made sure we are safe for next season we will go through the squad with Kevin and see where the rebuilding is required." - Newcastle chairman Chris Mort appears to be promising to buy Kevin Keegan 22 new players.

Keegan: so glad you are back

WHEN JOSE Mourinho left Chelsea we feared for the future of our Quotes of the Week section, but then Kevin Keegan returned to Newcastle and it was like the sun had come out again. As goalkeeper Steve Harper put it, "he just walks into a room and a player grows by 20 per cent", although as one observer put it at the time, "it's a good job Peter Crouch doesn't play for the club".

Any way, like Harper, Quotes of the Week has been walking tall since Keegan's return; he never lets us down - our favourite so far, his response to Newcastle's first win since he took over:

"Us winning that game might stop people saying 'Newcastle have not won under Kevin Keegan'." It will Kevin, it will. Is it any wonder we love him so?

Pointing finger at Russian chiefs

FOR 84 minutes in the game between his club Vitiaz and Torpedo Moscow Cameroonian player Tchuisse, who's been playing football in Russia for 11 years, endured racist abuse from the crowd, according to the website thespoiler.co.uk. He'd finally had enough when the Torpedo supporters took to chanting "Go home, monkey", so he gave them the finger. Naughty, of course, but it was probably the very least they deserved. The upshot? Tchuisse was sent off "for responding to the racist taunts of the Torpedo fans with a vulgar gesture," according to the referee's report. No other upshot. Looks like the 'Kick Racism out of Football' campaign is going well in Russia, then.

Roy Keane's week

Reporter:"Apart from his linguistics skills what can Liam Brady add to the new set-up?"

Roy Keane:"I haven't got a clue what he's going to add. I haven't got a clue . . . I don't think he will add anything to it, he's just a translator."

Reporter:"Any preferences on who Bertie's successor should be?"

Keane:"John Delaney?"

"If I'm trying to distract from Sunderland's results that would be very hard to do because they were that bad. I would have to give the press conferences naked to take the attention off the results." - Somewhat rejecting Delaney's suggestion he was having a go at the FAI to take the attention off Sunderland's woes.

"I knew Andy was a good player. I had to carry him in a few games for Ireland, but I knew he had a chance . . . he's not six foot four, I don't think he ever will be." - "Eh, thanks, Gaffer," Andy Reid no doubt replied.

"We shouldn't be dancing in the streets after winning three games in a row." - Keane rules out an open-top bus ride through Sunderland after nine points out of nine.