It was a day for nostalgia at the homely old Cottage by the banks of the Thames. At lunchtime, Mohamed Al-Fayed, the Fulham chairman, unveiled a statue of Johnny Haynes, three years to the day after the ultimate passing of the man Pele hailed as "the best passer of the ball I've ever seen"

When Paul Duffen said on Saturday evening, "Hull has been through some tough times," he was referring to the city rather than the City, where he is club chairman. Hard times for both were the norm for a long while, however, and the hope on Humberside now is that regeneration of one will go hand-in-hand with the other.

Fulham have completed the signing of Switzerland goalkeeper Pascal Zuberbuhler on a one-year contract.

Fulham are close to making two more signings as they overhaul their squad for the start of the new season. A £4m bid has been lodged for the Australian international midfielder Vincenzo Grella, while the Swedish right-back Fredrik Stoor will complete his £2m move to Craven Cottage at the beginning of next week.

Roy Hodgson's rebuilding programme at Fulham continued with the signing of Iranian defensive midfielder Andranik Teymourian on a free transfer from Bolton.

Fulham has finally completed the free signing of midfielder Zoltan Gera from West Bromwich after the Hungarian passed a medical yesterday. Gera, 29, who turned down a new contract at The Hawthorns, scored 25 goals in 155 games for the Midlanders, including 10 strikes in their latest promotion campaign. He cost them £1.5m when signed from Hungary's Ferencvaros in July 2004. He has won 53 caps for his country and has often captained them. He is manager Roy Hodgson's third signing of the season – after goalkeepers Mark Schwarzer on a free from Middlesbrough, and David Stockdale, who joined for a small fee from League Two Darlington.

Fulham manager Roy Hodgson has snapped up Mark Schwarzer on a free transfer after the Australia goalkeeper decided to leave Middlesbrough. Schwarzer has signed a two-year contract at Craven Cottage having rejected approaches from both Juventus and Bayern Munich. Hodgson has made shoring up his defence his first priority, but Schwarzer's arrival could mean the departure of the former Finland international keeper Antti Niemi, although he still has a year left on his contract. Kasey Keller, who has recently replaced Niemi as first choice, is out of contract and is expected to retire.

Martin O'Neill, having blamed the weekend's FA Cup surprises for cutting Aston Villa's chances of playing in Europe next season, watched his side do themselves no favours last night when they had to be satisfied with a fortuitous point in a match they needed to win.

What with the locals waving their miniature Brazilian flags and the public address system blaring out music of a samba nature, this particular Premier League fixture could well have been 5,888 miles away in Rio de Janeiro rather than on the banks of the Rio Tees.

Australia began their first World Cup qualifying campaign through Asia with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Qatar at Docklands Stadium in Melbourne yesterday.

The message to Mansfield's players and supporters was spelt out in capital letters in Saturday's match programme. The club's assistant manager, Paul "Dutch" Holland, wrote: "ENJOY SATURDAY, BUT MORE IMPORTANT THINGS ARE TO COME!"

They are still proud but not so loud at Pride Park these days. The town's fine old club reached the Premier League last season too soon for their own good and the reward for Billy Davies, the manager behind that triumph, was to be sacked after winning only one of the first 14 games in this campaign.