Wilkins insists Sinclair to stay

Ray Wilkins insisted again yesterday that Trevor Sinclair is staying at relegated Queen's Park Rangers despite reports circulating in the north that he will join Leeds on Thursday.

The Leeds managing director, Bill Fotherby, is said to be ready with a new pounds 6m bid which he will table today, having already apologised to QPR after the West London club's chief executive, Clive Berlin, threatened to report them to the Football Association for conducting transfer negotiations "through the press".

Wilkins, QPR's player-manager, determined to keep his best players on board in an attempt to get straight back into the Premiership, and boosted by Chris Wright's pounds 10m takeover at Loftus Road. said: "I find all this very interesting. I spoke to Howard Wilkinson, the Leeds manager, only today and Trevor's name did not even come up.

"Howard has registered an interest in buying the player but Leeds have come nowhere near our valuation and Trevor is not going anywhere.

"People seem to think we are just saying that, but I can assure you it is the truth. He is under contract and he is happy. His behaviour in circumstances that could unsettle him has been impeccable."

Wilkins refuses to reveal if there is a price at which Rangers would even be tempted to sell but, last season, he valued Sinclair at pounds 10m to try to deter potential buyers.

It is reported, however, that a clause in Sinclair's contract at Rangers says he can talk to any would-be purchasers provided they meet the club's valuation. But another possible sticking point is that QPR must pay Blackpool 20 per cent of any fee they receive for him above pounds 650,000.

PSV Eindhoven beat Ajax 3-0 yesterday in the Dutch Supercup helped by two goals from new signing Marc Degryse.

The season curtain raiser, renamed this season the Johan Cruyff Cup, is played between last season's Dutch league champions, Ajax, and the winners of the domestic cup competition.

Arrigo Sacchi will stay on as Italy's national coach at least for the rest of 1996 which includes two World Cup qualifiers. Raffaele Pagnozzi, the new temporary head of Italy's national football federation, had agreed to retain Sacchi for the games against Moldova and Georgia scheduled for 5 and 9 October.

Italians had called for Sacchi to be sacked after Italy were eliminated in the first round of Euro 96 in England, but the former Milan coach has refused to resign and has a lucrative contract that expires in 1998.