Football: Parker resigned to moving on: Midfielder has talks about his future at Villa Park

(First Edition)

GARRY PARKER, who won a place in the England squad last season, is resigned to finding himself a new club now that he is unable to command a regular place in Aston Villa's midfield.

The former Nottingham Forest player, who has made only four full appearances following the summer signings of Andy Townsend and Gordon Cowans, yesterday saw Villa's manager, Ron Atkinson, for talks about his future. 'I don't really want to leave but if I'm not getting many games, there doesn't seem much point in staying,' Parker said.

The Tottenham midfield player, Jason Dozzell, had good news about the knee injury he suffered during a reserve match against Arsenal on Tuesday. X-rays showed there was no ligament damage and he may not miss any matches because of the blank weekend coming up ahead of England's World Cup match against San Marino. During the break Tottenham do have an appearance to worry about - in court. They return to the High Court on Monday when the agent Eric Hall will claim that he is owed pounds 25,000 by the club.

Stoke City yesterday confirmed that Joe Jordan would be their new manager. The 41-year-old former Scottish international striker, who made his managerial name at Bristol City, was in charge at Hearts before moving to Celtic as Liam Brady's No2, but he left after Brady was sacked, leaving the way open for Lou Macari to vacate the Stoke job and take over at Parkhead.

Eric Cantona, who faces the prospect of a lengthy ban from European competition for remarks made to the referee of Manchester United's European Cup match against Galatasaray last week, gained backing from an unexpected source yesterday. Sam Hammam, the Wimbledon chairman who has energetically defended Vinnie Jones any time his midfielder's actions have been questioned, has written to Gerhard Aigner, the general secretary of Uefa, pleading for leniency for the Frenchman. The explanation for Cantona's outburst, he said, clearly lay in frustration and was made in tne heat of the moment.

Reggiana, who are struggling in their first season in Italy's Serie A, have signed the Portuguese international Paulo Futre from Olympique Marseille.

Ertugrul Saglam scored twice as Turkey ended Norway's unbeaten record in World Cup qualifying group two with a 2-1 victory in Istanbul yesterday. Lars Bohinen pulled one back for Norway four minutes after the interval.

Romania's manager, Anghel Iordanescu, is taking no chances with his side's World Cup qualifier against Wales, even though they need only a draw to reach the finals. He has called up nine players based outside Romania and has recalled Marius Lacatus to strengthen the attack.

Australia's captain, Paul Wade, should recover from an ankle injury in time to play against Argentina in the second leg of the World Cup qualifying play-off in Buenos Aires on 17 November. Wade marked Diego Maradona in the first leg, which ended in a 1-1 draw.