BITS AND BOBS

Last updated : 04 May 2006 By Ed

* Mark Hughes has signed a new three-year contract at Blackburn

* The Guardian:

Arsenal are considering legal action against Dan Smith, the 19-year-old Sunderland defender who has left Abou Diaby facing at least six months out with a fractured ankle and ruptured ankle ligaments after hitting him with a dangerous tackle on Monday. The Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger yesterday described Smith's challenge as one of "wicked stupidity" and said: "If you do that to a guy in the street you go to jail."

Wenger did not call for Smith to face that penalty but said he wanted "justice" for a tackle he believes was made with intent to harm, an accusation strenuously denied by Smith. Wenger is furious that the referee Dermot Gallagher showed only a yellow card and, in the hope of opening the way for Smith to be banned, called on the official to acknowledge that he misjudged the challenge, but the Football Association said Fifa did not allow it to take retrospective disciplinary action.

*Michael Carrick is to be targeted by United in the summer (according to The Sun)