Bentley tells Ince he wants to leave

David Bentley has wasted no time in spelling out his intention of leaving Blackburn to the club's new manager Paul Ince. The England international had a meeting with Ince at the club's training ground on Wednesday, when he told him that he wants Rovers to sell him despite the new manager's insistence that he was not prepared to part with any of his star names.

Bentley had not made any secret of his desire to leave the club prior to Ince's appointment as manager last Sunday. However, the speed with which he confronted Ince has surprised those at the club.

Blackburn are privately resigned to selling the player if one of the four Champions League sides makes an offer but, despite some preliminary interest from Liverpool that has not been followed up, there is no evidence that the player is in demand.

Ince made keeping Bentley and the striker Roque Santa Cruz his priority when he gave his first press conference in the job on Tuesday. "If the players tell me they want to go and I say no, they will have to knuckle down and help this club go forward," Ince said at the time. Bentley has been told that he can leave if a big four club make an acceptable offer, but otherwise he will be obliged to toe the line that Ince set out in his first day in the job.

The problem for Bentley is his decision to sign a new contract last year that ties him to the club until 2011, not exactly establishing for himself the strongest negotiating position. The discussion over him rejecting a new deal this summer was pretty academic, as all that was on offer was improved terms. With three years left on his deal it is the club who believe they have the upper hand with the 23-year-old.

Liverpool are close to signing their long-term replacement for John Arne Riise, the Italian left-back Andrea Dossena whose arrival on Merseyside has been trailed for some time. The club's chief executive, Rick Parry, said that the Udinese left-back was close to signing.

"We are now ready to confirm the signing of Dossena," he said. "The deal should go through next week after finalising the paperwork."

At a club where transfer deals tend to take all summer, the signing of Dossena, who has been capped once by Italy, has occurred relatively quickly. With the Switzerland right-back Philipp Degen earlier signed on a free transfer, the Liverpool manager, Rafael Benitez, has now replaced both his full-backs. Steve Finnan signed a new three-year deal only one year ago and may regret that decision, given how limited his prospects of first-team football now seem.

The key money-raising deal for Benitez this summer, the sale of Peter Crouch, does not look any closer to completion after the rejection of Ports-mouth's £9m bid last week. Despite reports linking the England international with Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester City, there have been no firm indications to the player that any of this interest is concrete, much less that a bid has been forthcoming.

l The Iraqi Football Association has dissolved the national team and dismissed the coach after a 1-0 defeat to Qatar four days ago ended the country's hopes of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. "It was decided to disband the team, with all its players and coaching staff, including [head coach] Adnan Hamad," the Iraqi FA said in a statement. Tareq Ahmed, a senior federation official, added that Hamad "is no longer useful to our team". He said that a new coach, as yet unnamed, would choose players for a new national team. "We think that the team needs new blood and new young players will strengthen it," Ahmed said.

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