Banks, who quit as sports minister three months ago and is now the Government’s ambassador for the 2006 World Cup campaign, says he has issued writs against the newspaper in question and also Jarvis Astaire, the former deputy chairman of Wembley plc, who made a similar allegation in his biography published earlier this year in which he wrote of the “close relationship” between the Chelsea fan Banks and Bates.
Astaire, a millionaire socialist and boxing and business entrepreneur, also says he once told Banks, who was having dinner with friends at Stamford Bridge, that he was “a disgrace to the Labour Party” over his support of Dennis Wise after the player’s trial on charges of assaulting a taxi driver.”The story that I wanted to keep athletics out is a complete fabrication,” Banks told me. Robbie is more experienced, but Michael is a very strong-willed character as well. Once this part is overcome, they will get back to their best.” And the team’s sudden solid appearance at the back can only help.. For the first time in his short career, Owen has been getting a less than glowing press, with his booking for diving during the defeat at West Ham that ended a seven-match unbeaten run, helping to tarnish the once pristine golden-boy image.Houllier insists Owen stumbled trying to avoid a tackle, rather than attempting to milk a penalty, and he is equally convinced that his strike force will be as effective as ever once back on the field at the same time.”After the difficult parts of life, you get more strength out of it,” said Houllier “That’s what Robbie and Michael will get. Fowler is sufficiently recovered from a stubborn ankle injury that has seen him miss 12 of the last 13 games to have played most of a reserve match in midweek, but Houllier was undecided whether to start with him today.One team-mate who will surely welcome him back more warmly than most is Owen, because, in his partner’s absence, the full attention both of opposing defences and critics has concentrated on him. “We’re halfway through the season and Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler have played just 60 minutes together,” he said.They are likely to add to that tally today, although by how much is uncertain.

“I still have a lot to prove.” Not to Houllier, for whom it must be something of a turnaround to reflect that his remaining problems are – largely due to factors beyond his control – at the other end of the field.Not only has he lost the services of his captain, Jamie Redknapp, until March following knee surgery, but Houllier has problems up front. “Because nobody had heard of me, there was not so much pressure,” Hyypia said. “The only pressure was to prove I could play football.” His successful partnership with Stephane Henchoz at the heart of the defence – the two have conceded just three league goals in eight games together – evoked memories of pairings featuring Hansen, Lawrenson and Houllier’s assistant, Phil Thompson, which Hyypia still feels are premature.”It’s nice to have those comparisons made, but it’s still early days,” he said, with a commendable grasp of the relevant English footballing idiom. Liverpool were first alerted to his potential by a television cameraman “We followed it up and tracked him for some time. We weren’t the only club after him,” Houllier said.When Liverpool won the contest to sign him, for a relatively modest pounds 2.6m, his was not exactly a name to set pulses racing on Merseyside.

Few knew how to pronounce his surname, let alone anything else about him, and accusations that Houllier was signing “foreign nobodies” were directed at Hyypia as much as anyone.He believes that has worked in his favour. It reached Hyypia, a Finnish international playing for Willem II in the Netherlands. “I’d heard something about them conceding a lot of goals,” said Hyypia, a childhood Liverpool fan whose heroes were not the defensive kingpins, but forwards such as Kenny Dalglish, Kevin Keegan and Ian Rush.Hyypia started as a midfielder before moving back as his career developed. “A year later, we’ve got a much better standard and we’ve won a player of the month award – and he is a central defender, would you believe?”
Word of Liverpool’s frailties at the back was not confined to Britain. “It’s ironic that a year ago we were being made fun of because of our defensive record,” Houllier said. Liverpool, in action against Sheffield Wednesday this afternoon, had become a byword for defensive insecurity, with each new combination at the back apparently more porous than the last.

You have to hark back to the days of Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson for the last time they collected such plaudits at Anfield, but the selection of Sami Hyypia as the Carling Premiership player of the month for November could mark a turning of the tide for Gerard Houllier and his side. THEY SHOULD have been humming “Yesterday” on Merseyside this week, with news of Sir Paul McCartney playing The Cavern again and of an award for another nostalgic specimen – a high-class Liverpool defender. The top scorer Antoine Sibierski is the French club’s main hope, but the young keeper Michael Landreau, another graduate of Nantes’ youth academy, will be using the match as a shop window to win a move to England.. However, Spartak are renowned on the road – as Blackburn remember from a 1-0 defeat at Ewood Park in that ill-fated Champions’ League campaign.NANTES V ARSENALARSENAL WERE flattered by the 3-0 first-leg scoreline which has put this tie in the bag and if Nantes had not squandered so many chances, the trip to Stade de la Beaujoire might have been less jolly for the Gunners. Roma are dangerous away from home, as they proved last season at Leeds, but it’s not the Toon that interests the Italians so much as the city – Roma plan to follow rivals Lazio with a stock-market share flotation.LEEDS UTD V SPARTAK MOSCOWTHE COLD war between these two seems even chillier than the temperatures in Moscow and after Thursday’s trek to Bulgaria, it is safe to assume that Spartak, who lead 2-1, will get the frostiest Yorkshire welcome Elland Road can muster (well, they do play in Man Utd red). The Bundesliga defeat to lowly SpVgg Unterhaching does not augur well.NEWCASTLE V ROMASHUT YOUR GOB 2: Alan Shearer will be advised to keep his distance from defender Antonio Zago, who has been given a three-game domestic ban by the Italian FA for spitting at Lazio’s Diego Simeone.