Wham! manager signs up Sinead O'Connor

Music mogul Simon Napier-Bell has confirmed reports he has taken on Sinead O'Connor after the Irish singer dumped her manager following an affair with him.

The Nothing Compares 2 U hitmaker parted ways with her svengali last month (Nov14) after briefly falling in love with him, and launched a search for a new manager online.

She wrote, "Have had to leave my manager. Not that we didn't get on well, we got on too well, both fell equally in love. Had a month long affair, but he has a girlfriend, so naturally I gotta vanish. Extraordinarily sad and depressing, but there it is. Another manager bites the dust. So now I need to find a new manager and I haven't a f**king clue where to start."

Napier-Bell flew to Ireland almost as soon as he saw the 'Urgently Seeking New Management' ad.

The British music industry stalwart, whose clients have included The Yardbirds and Wham!, tells Billboard, "We saw that piece which Sinead put on her website, and I said, 'That's really just the right person for us'. The whole thing took four days. Everybody clicked and is very happy about it."

And her new manager insists there's no chance his relationship with O'Connor will be anything more than professional: "She's on safe ground. I'm rather old and gay, so I don't foresee anything particularly wrong in that direction."