Dowie bows out at the Palace

Eagles boss doesn’t rule out Charlton switch

Lippi given World Cup all-clear

—– Iain Dowie leaves his post as manager of Crystal Palace by mutual consent.
Eagles chairman Simon Jordan explains the parting of the ways is due to Dowie’s desire to move closer to his family in the north-west.
Keen observers of body language are more likely to believe rumours of a bust-up between the explosive duo is a more viable reason.
Although sat next to each other, at no point during a half-hour press conference do they glance in each others direction.
In contradiction of his chairman’s statement, if asked if he was interested in taking over at Palace’s London rivals Charlton Athletic, Dowie revealed: “Unlike Simon, I’m not independently wealthy, so I would like to be in a job. I need to work for a living and I need to consider everything that is on offer.”
There again, maybe in a Freudian slip, the Palace owner actually says that Dowie wants to move to the north-east with his family - which may explain why Middlesbrough have distanced themselves from speculation that former Eagles manager Terry Venables is about to replace the departing Steve McClaren as the new Boro boss.
The 41 year-old former Northern Ireland forward took charge at Selhurst Park in December 2003 and, although he immediately took them up to the Premiership, he was unable to repeat the feat this term after relegation last season.
Meanwhile, Jordan also stated that Bolton Wanderers have made an £8million bid for their England striker Andy Johnson, and that Everton and Wigan Athletic have also expressed their interest.

—– Italy head coach and former Juventus manager Marcello Lippi is given the all-clear to travel to next month’s World Cup in Germany after he was given a three-hour grilling by magistrates on Friday regarding the corruption scandal that has rocked Italian football.
He was quizzed about his involvement with the GEA World football agency which is currently under investigation for ‘unfair competition with use of violence and threats’.
A number of phone calls between him and his ex-Juve general director Luciano Moggi, which have been made public, suggested that Moggi had tried to influence the coach to pick players for the Azurri from GEA, which is run by Moggi’s son Alessandro. Lippi’s son Davide also works for GEA.