Sunderland's rivals Birmingham City hope for fresh takeover deal as chairman of EFL club launches astonishing verdict on players

There is plenty of news from around the Championship and EFL ahead of the next round of league fixtures.

Birmingham City takeover latest

Birmingham have revealed other interested parties have approached the club over a proposed takeover after the collapse of a bid by businessman Paul Richardson and Maxi Lopez.

Richardson and his partner – former Barcelona player Lopez – had been in talks with the current owners of the Sky Bet Championship club for five months.

However, last week, Richardson said that after extensive due diligence it was not possible to continue with their proposal, which was backed by Maxco Capital.

On Wednesday morning, Birmingham issued a statement confirming that deal was no longer on the table, but stressed there were now other interested parties moving forward.

“The club can confirm that the proposed deal for investment by MaxCo has come to an end following the club’s owners’ exercise of their right to terminate the deal,” Blues’ statement read.

“As supporters will appreciate, for legal reasons, the club is restricted in what it is able to say publicly at this time.

“Since media reports on Friday December 2, the club have been approached by other interested parties.

“We wish to reassure supporters that all and any official developments will be published on the club’s website and official social media channels.”

Former Stoke City boss back in management

Michael O’Neill is back as Northern Ireland boss a little over two and a half years after leaving the job for Stoke.

The 53-year-old has signed a five-and-a-half-year contract which will run until Euro 2028 – a tournament Northern Ireland hope to partly host under a joint UK and Ireland bid.

O’Neill’s return will have Northern Ireland targeting a return to major tournaments again themselves as he ended a 30-year wait in his previous spell by leading them to Euro 2016.

Peterborough United chairman has say on player under-performance

And finally Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony has accused his players of lacking hunger in a revealing interview.

As reported by the Peterborough Telegraph, ‘The Posh co-owner was appalled by his side’s ‘abject’ display in losing 2-1 at home to League One rivals Barnsley.’

Speaking on MacAnthony’s ‘Hard Truth’ podcast, he said: “The worst thing was we had 30 minutes to get back into the game after going 2-1 down, but we didn’t even manage a shot on target. Where’s the hunger?

"Barnsley had an answer for everything we did. They forced us into a Plan B and we didn’t have one.

"It was abject. We shouldn’t be losing nine games in this league before Christmas, never mind by the start of December. We don’t need to be arrogant, but we should be playing on the front foot in this division.

"The players are spoilt rotten. We have the most expensive management team I’ve ever recruited. The players have everything they need. We’ve even hired an assistant chef now! Maybe we should knock spending £5k on away trips on the head and remind them how hard life used to be.”