“I think there are a number of signs now that the bubble in the Premiership is beginning to burst,” said Clarke.”At the weekend, Manchester United had tickets on general sale for the first time in many years. The Premier League were adopting a “wait and see” approach to the news, which comes in the wake of disappointing crowds at Sunderland, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Blackburn, plus Newcastle’s first struggle to sell season tickets in years.

League officials consider it too soon to judge whether empty seats in Premiership stadiums will become a common sight, but the chairman of the Football Supporters’ Association issued a stark warning.Malcolm Clarke directly correlates the slow sales with Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon’s pre-season claim that “the winner of the title will come from a small bunch of one”.The cheapest seats on sale at Chelsea today were £48, with others available at £60. We have made a fantastic offer – there is a limit on how much you can spend on one player.”. Chelsea, the Premiership champions, were on the hard sell yesterday before the latest leg of football’s “one-horse race” after revealing thousands of seats remained unsold for tonight’s match against West Bromwich Albion at Stamford Bridge. The Magpies made what they believed to be their best possible offer for the 27-year-old Deportivo La Coru?triker yesterday, only to have it rejected, and have now revealed they will look elsewhere.”We are still pursuing, we are still active in certain areas,” said Souness. Asked directly about his targets, he replied: “You can ask, but I am not telling you.”I understand that yesterday our final offer was rejected, so I think that one is finished, unfortunately.

The 81-year-old revealed he had knocked down Liverpool from their original asking price of £7.5m after talks with his counterpart, David Moores. Ellis said: “I suppose, in comparison to what Chelsea do, it is a very cheap deal. Liverpool had an £8m offer from Lyon and they were obviously anxious to take it.”But Milan insisted on coming to Villa and Liverpool accepted my offer despite the fact they were asking for £7.5m. We are paying £6m and then Liverpool will receive another £500,000 if Milan plays 50 matches for us.”The Newcastle manager, Graeme Souness, has gone back to his summer wish-list after admitting his move to bring Albert Luque to the Premiership appears to be dead. I think the manager, David O’Leary, was first interested in me two years ago so since then I have always followed their results and they have always just finished outside a European place.”The team is good and I hope we can achieve Europe next season I think we are capable of it. The manager said I am the type of player he was looking for and I hope I can repay his faith.”Baros will provide much needed competition for the out-of-sorts striker Juan Pablo Angel and the summer signing Kevin Phillips following the departure of Darius Vassell to Manchester City for £2m.Baros was flanked by the Villa chairman, Doug Ellis, who is still recovering from heart surgery. Milan Baros yesterday completed his £6.5m move from Liverpool to Aston Villa and insisted he had no problems with Rafael Benitez, the manager at the Anfield club.

Baros, who has signed a four-year contract which will keep him with the Midlands club until the summer of 2009, was also a target for the French club Lyon – managed by the former Liverpool manager G?rd Houllier – who offered £8m for his services.

But Baros, 23, made it clear he wanted to remain in England and now he wants to help Villa fulfil their potential as he prepared to make his debut in Saturday’s home Premiership match with Blackburn.Baros said: “It is never easy to leave Liverpool but it was made easier by the fact that Aston Villa is a big club. Villa is a club with history and a great stadium, and a strong squad, and they were also very straight with me. Substitutes not used: Murphy (gk), Robinson, Caldwell.Manchester City (4-4-2): James; Mills, Jordan (Onuoha, 75), Dunne, Thatcher; Barton, Musampa (Jihai, 80), Reyna, Sinclair; Cole, Vassell. Substitutes not used: De Vlieger (gk), Sibierski, Wright-Phillips.Referee: P Walton (Northants)..