ARSENAL BUT FOR Dennis Bergkamp's missed penalty and a defensive aberration at Leeds, Arsenal could have been celebrating a double Double instead of rueing a season of unrewarded effort. The 35-year-old played centre-back for the Victoria club last year.St Johnstone's Northern Ireland international defender Danny Griffin is having a trial loan period at Charlton which may become permanent.Japan's Nagoya Grampus Eight have refused to release their Yugoslav captain, Dragan Stojkovic, for a Euro 2000 qualifier against Croatia on 18 August because they need him for a league fixture.. The former 27-year-old Southampton defender has suffered with injuries since last November.The former Crystal Palace defender Jeff Hopkins has been appointed as the new coach of the Australian National Soccer League side Gippsland Falcons. West Ham, meanwhile, have had a pounds 1m bid for Gary Charles rejected by the Portuguese club, who have completed another deal that has seen Pembridge's international colleague, Dean Saunders, move to Bradford.Saunders has moved on a free transfer and is understood to have signed a two-year deal worth pounds 12,000 a week.Manchester City's manager, Joe Royle, hopes to make Danny Granville a full-time signing from Leeds after an impressive loan spell, and is understood to be willing pay pounds 1m for the former Chelsea defender.Birmingham's left-back Simon Charlton will miss the first month of the season following a groin operation. If they do not, or if the consortium fail to produce the money they have promised, the directors' consortium might have a chance to have their bid - also worth around pounds 10m - reconsidered.Elsewhere, the Welsh international Mark Pembridge was last night due to complete his pounds 800,000 move from Benfica to Everton, after a medical at Goodison. Before the deal can be completed, the club's creditors must approve the takeover, probably within a month.

Goldberg has admitted that he organised the group, but what his future role at Palace will be remains unclear.Officially, the League has said that it will not object to his involvement if the club can be saved In private, it would rather he was no longer in the picture. Having considered two bids for the club - one by a group of Palace directors, the other by City investors organised by Goldberg - Paterson decided that he will recommend that the latter is put to the club's creditors, according to Palace sources. It is understood that the City consortium have offered to inject around pounds 10.4m into Palace, but the identities of the consortium's members remain secret. Simon Paterson of Moore Stephens met with officials from Palace and the Football League yesterday to discuss the club's future. CRYSTAL PALACE'S administrator is expected to announce today that he has approved a takeover bid for the financially troubled club led by Mark Goldberg, the chairman who took the First Division side into administration with debts of pounds 20m. Some senior players were said to be unimpressed with his bullish attitude before the Denmark match at Anfield.Hughes was considered a safer option by the FAW, even if critics believe it has given control of the squad to the "millionaires' club", the name given to senior players like Hughes, Gary Speed, John Hartson, Ryan Giggs and Dean Saunders..

Ian Rush, Hughes' former strike partner, could also become involved.It is, however, believed that Hughes will distance himself from the joint- caretaker manager role he undertook with Neville Southall for the Denmark game immediately after Gould's resignation.The former Everton goalkeeper's future involvement in national team affairs is now unclear. "His experience is second to none as a player, considering the people he has worked with, like Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and Terry Venables when he was at Barcelona."It's impossible to say whether anyone, great player or not, is going to be a successful manager but Mark has a great head start and as good a chance as anyone."Hughes will need a coach to help him run day-to-day matters while he is still playing for Southampton, and an appointment could well be announced when the new manager names his first squad in a fortnight, for the Belarus game.Names in the frame include Peter Shreeves, who was Terry Yorath's No 2. But his decision to stand down for the next two games - he would certainly have played in both had Bobby Gould still been in charge - casts a doubt over whether he will ever represent his country again. The FAW's secretary general, David Collins, said: "Mark has intimated to us that he will run the team from the bench and not play in these next two games."If Wales manage to salvage a place in the play-offs for the European Championships, Hughes' two matches will have been a great success and he would therefore be unlikely to recall himself.Should Wales fail to qualify, they would have just a couple of friendly matches before next summer and Hughes' chances of being included by a new manager would not be great.Hughes' appointment has received approval from the former Wales captain Barry Horne. Hughes, who will be 36 in November, has represented his country 72 times and is currently the equal third-most capped player in Welsh history, alongside Peter Nicholas, and behind Ian Rush (73) and Neville Southall (92).

The Southampton striker, who was appointed the new Welsh manager on Tuesday, for their next two Euro 2000 qualifiers, has told officials at the Football Association of Wales that he will not be a player- manager for the games against Belarus next month and Switzerland in October, but will take up the traditional managerial place on the bench. They achieved a surprise group victory over once-mighty Germany and a narrow defeat to the recently crowned Copa America champions Brazil.. MARK HUGHES is on the brink of ending an illustrious international playing career. Paul Bravo scored the first goal for the United States in the 27th minute by squeezing the ball past the near post after the Saudi defender Mohsin Harthi had inadvertently deflected a cross from Gregg Berhalter. The United States were reduced to 10 men in the second half after the Paraguayan referee, Ubaldo Aquino, sent off their midfielder Matt McKeon for a second yellow card.But Saudi Arabia were unable to break down a disciplined American defence to create any opportunities for their goalscoring sensation Marzouk Al Otaibi, who is the tournament's joint top scorer with the Brazilian Ronaldinho on six goals.Brazil were due to face the host nation in the tournament's final in the Aztec Stadium late last night.An unmarked Brian McBride clinched victory for the United States in the 78th minute with his second goal of the tournament when he headed in a long cross from Eddie Lewis.Playing their fifth game in 10 days, Saudi Arabia's roller-coaster tournament contained a final twist when Aquino at first awarded a first-half goal to Abdullah Bin Shehan before consulting with his linesman and then awarding a free-kick to the US for a handball by Bin Shehan who received a yellow card.With a repeat of its third-place performance in the 1992 four-nation Confederations Cup, the squad brought together by the new American coach, Bruce Arena, completed a highly successful tournament. THE UNITED States bounced back from Sunday's semi-final golden goal defeat to the host nation to clinch third place in the Confederations Cup tournament with a 2-0 victory over Saudi Arabia in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Tuesday.