Maltese champions Valletta want Usain Bolt

that Gaston Ramirez is set to end his Southampton nightmare in the summer.

The Uruguay international moved to St Mary’s in 2012 for £12m but has failed to live up to his billing.

He was temporarily shipped out to Hull City last season, and has failed to make a league appearance for Ronald Koeman’s side so far this campaign with his only action coming as a substitute in last month’s League Cup third round win over MK Dons.

In total he has played just fifty-one times for the Saints, scoring eight goals while he racked up twenty-two games during his time with Hull.

He has been capped thirty-two times for his country though he has no goals for them and his last match came almost a year ago.

Prior to his move to England he spent two yea…

Chelsea attacker Willian has revealed that compatriots Ronaldo and Ronaldinho served as an inspiration to him in his younger years.

The Brazil international has been in fine form this campaign, scoring 10 goals in 40 appearances in all competitions, and he has stressed happiness is key to his performances.

I always liked watching Ronaldo and Ronaldinho; they were the players who I dreamt about meeting, Willian told the official UEFA website.

They inspired me a lot in my own style of play. I always try to play happily. On the pitch we [Brazilians] tend to forget the things that happen off the field.

I try to focus a lot on what I m doing. I think that for a player to develop fully on the pitch he needs to be happy.

The 27-year-old joined Chels…

West Ham striker Michail Antonio believes their Europa Conference League triumph is just the start of bigger things to come.

Jarrod Bowen’s last-minute goal against Fiorentina ended the Hammers’ 43-year wait for a trophy.

Their 2-1 victory also means West Ham will be back in the Europa League next season, the first time they have qualified for Europe three years running.

“It’s massive, it’s massive,” said Antonio. “Moving forward this is not where we are going to stop, we will see if we can keep carrying it on and keep pushing ourselves and keep doing better.

15 years ago I was playing non league football and now I’m here. Everyone has opinions but ultimately it’s yours that matters the most.

Believe in yourself

— Mich…

Gabriel Jesus is a doubt for Arsenal s trip to Leeds United on Sunday, while Mikel Arteta only foresees his side s fixture pile-up getting worse after the World Cup.

Inspired new signing Jesus had played in all 11 of Arsenal s matches this season before missing the midweek win over Bodo/Glimt due to a knock sustained in last Sunday s victory over Liverpool.

But a rare break on Thursday while his team-mates were in Europa League action was not necessarily enough to see Jesus return at Leeds.

Arteta looked ahead to the Leeds match after full-time in Norway, at which point he was still unsure of his striker s status for the game at Elland Road.

I don t know, Arsenal manager Arteta said of Jesus. Obviously he has some discomfort after the game against Liverp…

Ghana midfielder Derek Boateng scored the winner as Spanish club Getafe came from two goals behind to defeat Almeria 3-2 in a La Liga thriller at the weekend.

Almeria striker Kalu Uche from Nigeria was the only other African on target in the major European leagues with snow virtually wiping out the English Premiership schedule.

FRANCE

CHEIKH DIABATE (Bordeaux)

The Malian striker made an impressive return to action, after almost a year out through injury, against Sochaux. The 22-year-old almost grabbed a winner for the 2009 French champions but his fierce shot was saved by Pierrick Cros. However, his performance drew praise from tough taskmaster Jean Tigana. I was pleasantly surprised by Diabate, who was able to last the whole match after not playing for …

Saudi Arabia coach Jose Peseiro has been sacked following their shock Asian Cup loss to Syria on Sunday.

Saudi Arabia lost for only the second time in 24 meetings against Syria, going down 2-1 in their opening match of the tournament in Qatar.

Nasser Al-Johar has been named as his replacement.

The quality of the players was not as we wished, they didn t play with their hearts. I blame the players and have released the coach, FA president Prince Sultan Bin Fahd Bin Abdulaziz said in a statement.

It is not acceptable for Saudi Arabia. The coach has had enough time, more than a year and a half, to do a perfect job.

Peseiro faced an immediate inquest from the country s media after the defeat and had a long-running battle with the press following h…

Will James Rodriguez leave Real Madrid this summer?

Real Madrid’s No.10 James Rodriguez has endured some difficult moments at Santiago Bernabeu and the summer ahead of us could be decisive when it comes to the future of the Colombia international.

An impressive World Cup showing was more than enough of a recommendation for to pounce for the Colombia international back in 2014 and spend no less than €80 on what had been deemed as both fashionable and high-quality signing from AS Monaco at the time.

Having become the most expensive Colombian footballer and one of the most expensive ones in general at the time, Rodriguez was forced to battle high expectations from the football world.

The bar was raised immediately as Rodriguez was handed the famous num…

Arsene Wenger claims that Arsenal s move to Emirates Stadium in 2006 was the most difficult time of his life.

The Gunners left Highbury for their new 60,000-seater home in time for the 2006-07 campaign after spending more than £400million to construct the state-of-the-art venue.

A loan taken out to finance the ground significantly curtailed Arsenal s spending power in the transfer market, meaning Wenger was forced to watch key players including Ashley Cole, Samir Nasri, Bacary Sagna, Gael Clichy, Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie depart his squad.

Wenger has been widely praised for maintaining their Champions League status until this season, but he has also been criticised for his record of securing no major trophies between 2005 and 2014.

The 67-year-…

Maximilian Wittek s second-half strike condemned an insipid Tottenham to a 1-0 loss against Vitesse in the Europa Conference League.

Spurs had won just two of their last seven away games in European competition before Thursday and their struggles on the road showed in a timid opening 45-minute showing.

However, the visitors were unfortunate to not go ahead after the interval at the GelreDome as Bryan Gil rifled onto the woodwork in an otherwise uneventful first hour of football.

Nuno Espirito Santo s side, who rested Harry Kane entirely for the trip to Holland, were eventually made to pay for their lacklustre performance when Wittek drilled in from the edge of the area to end Spurs unbeaten start in the competition and leave them third in Group G.

Full-ti…