Premier League club, Hull City, have confirmed that Phil Brown has been relieved of all duties as the club’s manager.

Brown was struggling to keep Hull in a competitive position in the Premier League table and it seems the time has come for the side to move on in a last bid attempt to try and prevent relegation.

Brown had managed the club for a long period of time and had seen the club survive in the Premier League when many people expected them to go down last time around.

A statement read: “Hull City AFC confirms that Phil Brown has been relieved of his managerial duties at the club and has been placed on gardening leave with immediate effect. Brian Horton and Steve Parkin will take charge of first-team duties until further notice.”

“We would like to place on record our sincere thanks to Phil for the major success achieved during a period of four seasons in charge at the club and wish him every success for the future.”

“Promotion to the Premier League in 2008 and retention of our status on the last day of the 2009 season are unique events in the history of Hull City AFC and both were achieved under Phil’s stewardship during a period which will never be forgotten by all connected with the club.”

“However, retention of Premier League status is paramount and the board believes that a change in managerial direction is the correct option at this time. The club will complete supporters up-to-date in respect of any managerial appointment but, in the meantime, Brian Horton and Steve Parkin will prepare the team for our important game at Portsmouth next Saturday.”

Hull are a club that has a very big fan base and is unfortunate to be struggling in the Premier League. However, this is just the way of the world as many newly promoted clubs often see off relegation and then get relegated in the very next season. Just ask Reading.

The search for a permanent manager has already started and it may be some time before a new appointment is made. This is because the club want to get the next decision right and they may have already accepted the fact that relegation is a certainty.

This means a new boss may be better served if he comes in after the current season and looks to build Hull back up as a club. A number of players could leave as they have previously said that Brown is the only reason they were there in the first place.

The club just need to sit back for a little bit and then move onto the next manager who should be able to guide them in the right direction. Once they have done this they can come back at the Premier League in a much stronger and exciting fashion, which will impress and deceive many.

There’s plenty of off-pitch action still going on in England. Gareth Barry has finally left Aston Villa, but has gone to Manchester City and not Liverpool, for £12m. The 28-year-old England international signed a five-year contract with City after spending 12 years and playing over 400 matches for Villa. It’s thought that he’ll pull in about £80,000-a-week at his new club.

Barry originally said he wanted to play for a club in the Champions League, so somebody better tell him it’s City he has signed for, not United. Mark Hughes’ squad had a brutal season and finished six spots and a whole 22 points behind this season’s top four. City was so far out of it, they were quite close to the relegation zone at various points of the season.

Over in the capital, Chelsea has signed 32-year-old German international Michael Ballack to a new one-year contract that will keep him at the London club until June 2010. The midfielder moved to Stamford Bridge from German Bundesliga team Bayern Munich in 2006 and has won two FA Cups and a Carling Cup so far with Chelsea. But he’s also missed quite a few games through injury in that time. I think it’s a good move as Ballack still has quite a bit to offer the team. I just wonder if new manager Carlo Ancelotti was consulted on the signing.

Also in London, Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp has been questioned by the Old Bill again as “a mere formality.” It seems the police want Redknapp to help them in their ongoing investigation into alleged corruption in English football. It’s reported that the 62-year-old manager was grilled by City of London Police officers and tax investigators.

The cops are looking into several transfers that were made at Redknapp’s former clubs, Portsmouth, and Birmingham. A spokesman for Spurs said it was a mere formality relating to a tax issue. That may be true, but it’s not the first time Harry has been the guest of the police. In May last last year, he and his missus were awarded £1,000 in damages against the City of London Police after High Court judges ruled the police raided their home in an unlawful manner. After the raid, Redknapp said he believed he had only been busted because he was a high-profile figure. Apparently, the police investigation is continuing.

Up in Hull, it looks like manager Phil Brown is cleaning house as he’s unloaded a ton of players including team legend Dean Windass, who’s 40 years old now. Windass scored the goal in the Championship League playoffs that propelled Hull City into the Premier League last year. Hull got off to a good year in the top flight, but Brown wouldn’t play him. Windass wasn’t too happy about it and made it known to the press. He was sent out to Oldham on loan, but things didn’t work out there either and he ended the season in the reserves.

Other players that are being shown the door include midfielder Ryan France, former Sunderland and Leeds striker Michael Bridges, John Welsh, James Bennett, Joe Lamplough, Matthew Plummer and Tom Woodhead. You’re forgiven if you’ve never heard of any of them.

And further north, Blackburn has signed midfielder Elrio van Heerden from Brugge in Belgium on a free transfer. The 25-year-old South African international has signed a two-year contract at Ewood Park. He was signed to help fill the gap left after Aaron Mokoena went to Portsmouth and Tugay retired. Van Heerden started out at FC Copenhagen in Denmark, in 2002 before going to Brugge four years later. He’s been capped 25 times by South Africa. So he could help the Rovers out, provided Sam Allardyce doesn’t leave him on the bench.

UEFA has started disciplinary action against Chelsea following the club’s actions at the end of their Champions League semi-final against Barcelona a couple of weeks ago.

It appears that the club, along with players Jose Bosingwa and Didier Drogba, will have to answer for their behaviour after the match on May 6th, and will then be dealt with on June 17th.

For anybody who’s not familiar with the events, Chelsea went tumbling out of the Champions League after Barcelona scored in injury time on their only shot of the game to go through to the finals on the away goals rule. Neither team was happy with Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo, who was brutal throughout the match. Ovrebo sent off Barcelona’s Eric Abidal and then proceeded to turned away several legitimate penalty claims from Chelsea, including a handball in the box on the last kick of the game.

The players’ frustration got them better of them understandably when the final whistle blew as they surrounded Ovrebo to argue and Drogba swore into the television cameras to say Ovrebo’s performance was a disgrace.

Bosingwa was charged because after the game he said: ”I don’t know if he’s a referee or a thief. I don’t have any words to describe that man that was on the pitch. We have nothing against Barcelona’s goal but the penalties that he didn’t give us and his way of managing the game weren’t right at all. This referee should never referee a game again. What happened was a disgrace. It was a well contested game but the referee came to spoil our game,”

Bosingwa retracted those comments the next day though.

Drogba might be suspended for about five games for telling the truth, will probably be handed a stiff fine. The club itself will also face a substantial financial penalty.

In other Chelsea news, England midfielder Frank Lampard has become the first Chelsea player to win the club’s Player of the Year award for a third time. Lampard also won it in 2004 and 2005. Michael Essien’s left-foot volley at home to Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final, was voted Chelsea’s Goal of the Season by supporters.

England left-back Ashley Cole won the Samsung Players’ Player of the Year. The Young Player of the Year award was presented to English youngster Michael Mancienne, who turned 21 and made his Chelsea first-team debut this season. Mancienne’s a defender and an England Under-21 regular. He also received a call-up to the senior squad during the season.

Back to the  disciplinary front, the English  Football Association said that Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas won’t face  any action over an alleged of spitting incident where Hull City’s assistant manager Brian Horton was supposedly spat at following an FA Cup tie with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on March 17.

Fabregas was injured for the match, but joined his team mates on the pitch at the final whistle. Hull manager Phil Brown accused him of spitting during a TV interview after the game. Fabregas denied the incident and the FA have let it drop as there is no evidence that it ever took place.

In off field news, Everton has signed defenders Phil Jagielka and Joseph Yobo to new five-year contracts with the club.

Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips will miss England’s World Cup qualifying games against Kazakhstan, and Andorra on June 6th and 10th due to a knee injury. Middlesbrough’s Stewart Downing will also miss the games as he’s out for the next three months because of a foot operation. Goalkeeper David James of Portsmouth is also out of action for the games.

Another huge English Premier League weekend kicks off on Saturday (April 25th) with the biggest games being league leaders Manchester United taking on ninth-place Tottenham Hotspur at old Trafford. Liverpool will be hoping United slip up while they travel over to 16th place Hull, who are only three points above the relegation zone. Liverpool will again be without their injury-prone skipper Steven Gerrard. Third-place Chelsea, who seem to be out of the title race now, will visit seventh-place West Ham in a London derby.

At the other end of the table, last place West Brom are at home to 16th spot Sunderland, second-last Newcastle, who are fighting to survive in the EPL take on 14th place Portsmouth in a huge match on Monday, 18th place Middlesbrough will have their hands full in London when they play Arsenal on Sunday, and 17th place Blackburn will try to keep afloat by taking on 11th place Wigan in Manchester.

There’s quite a bit of news of the pitch in England too as Chelsea’s John Mikel Obi has been banned from driving for 15 months for drinking and driving. The 21-year-old was stopped in London on Jan. 24th. His teammate Frank Lampard got into a heated on-air argument with a radio DJ as Lampard was being criticized on air about his personal life. Lampard phoned the station and went at it with the DJ in a 15-minute rant.

Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas has been charged with improper conduct by the FA over a spitting incident during a fifth round FA Cup tie with hull at the Emirates Stadium on March 17th. Fabregas allegedly spit at Hull’s assistant manager Brian Horton after the game in which Fabregas didn’t even dress for. Hull manager Phil Brown was also charged for his tirade at referee mike riley in the same game. Brown and Fabregas have until May 12 to respond to the charges.

The pitch at Wembley is to be dug up again and replaced after the sorry state it was in for last weekend’s FA Cup semi finals. The multi-purpose venue hasn’t had a good pitch since it opened two years ago, so a different type of turf will be used this time to see if it does the trick.

Over in Italy, Inter Milan striker Adriano got his wish as the club ripped up his contract. Brazilian international Adriano failed to return to Italy after a World Cup qualifier for Brazil earlier this month and the 27-year-old, who has suffered personal problems in the last few years said he wanted to take a break from football.

In France, Marseille captain Lorik Cana received a one-game ban after being sent off following a battle with Lorient’s Arnaud Le Lan in last weekend’s Ligue 1 match. The two players went at it on the pitch after arguing over a throw-in in the 88th minute of the game. Cana will now miss the league leader’s visit to Lille on Sunday.

In Spain seventh-place Atletico Madrid’s European hopes for next season were damaged yesterday (April 23rd) as they were hammered 5-1 at Racing Santander in the Primera Division.