Independiente Denies, Sun Apologises

Independiente secretary of sport Leandro Battafarano has denied that Nicolas Mazzola is at West Ham.

"As far as we are concerned, we have not been told about Mazzola going to England," he said. "He is having pre-season training with the first team in Mar del Plata now.

This does not necessarily contradict Alan Curbishley's account of the teenager having trained with the West Ham squad, it just means he has now returned to South America.

However it does appear that Independiente are not going to let Mazzola go on the cheap,

"We haven't set a transfer fee because we are not planning to sell him anywhere," continued Battafarano. "We want to enjoy his skills in the first team here."

"I cannot say now whether there was an official West Ham offer, but he is a very good player and a lot of teams have made different offers.

"Several of them were English clubs, and there was not just one."

In other news The Sun has been forced to apologise for lying about a bust up between Alan Curbishley and Craig Bellamy. They printed this apology today:

"In our article of August 18, we reported that Craig Bellamy had a dressing-room bust-up with his manager Alan Curbishley one month after joining West Ham.

We have been asked to point out the reported incident did not in fact take place. We apologise for any misunderstanding and are happy to set the record straight."