Such rare spine from an organization that continues officially to refer to the South as ‘Korea Republic’ and the North as ‘Korea DPR’ (Democratic People’s Republic, for heaven’s sake?) in one of its typical political fudges of the sort that still sees Taiwan known as ‘Chinese Taipei’ and China as ‘China PR’ - and we all know Sepp Blatter loves a bit of PR.

***

Although you have to wonder who was advising the FIFA president in that department when he referred to Manchester Utd’s insistence that Cristiano Ronaldo respect his (extremely lucrative) contract as ‘slavery’. A more injudicious word for the circumstance scarcely exists in the whole of the English language.

The whole saga is a bit like the Fayed v Hamilton libel case in 1999 in that it is difficult for any neutral onlooker to adopt anything other than a ‘plague on all their houses’ stance. Manchester Utd have unsettled plenty of other teams’ players in the past (Owen Hargreaves, anybody?), Ronaldo’s greed and preened self-image can invite little other than contemptuous ridicule while Real Madrid remain a club on whom the notions of loyalty, dignity or class are entirely lost. Blatter’s comments, as well as being distasteful, are also wrong in spirit.

If any party deserves sympathy it is the Manchester Utd support base who quickly forgave Ronaldo after the 2006 World Cup quarter final to-do with Wayne Rooney and egged him on to produce two of the best individual seasons Old Trafford has seen since George Best was in his pomp.

Still, the United fans need not be too downhearted. Ronaldo played well in fits and starts against Turkey and the Czech Republic at Euro 2008 but was as anonymous against Germany in the Basel quarter final mayhem as he was over-egged in the 2006 World Cup. And Nani, brought on as a substitute, did more to unsettle the German defence in twenty minutes than Ronaldo did in ninety.

***

Is Scott Carson the future of English goalkeeping, or will he forever be the hapless figure beaten by two hopeful, improbable long-range punts from Niko Kranjcar and Mladen Petric at Wembley last November? We will certainly find out next season if his expected £4m sale to Stoke City goes through; there will be fewer more demanding jobs in the Premier League next season than that of Potters goalkeeper.

At least Stoke are showing a little ambition and foresight in his acquisition; the two things every promoted side need to move heaven and Earth to sign are a decent goalkeeper and a striker capable of scoring fifteen goals or more in a season. Derby County had neither last season.

***

In the hope that you’ll have forgotten my assertion last week that Ronaldinho will not be joining Manchester City - the Eastlands side now appear to be favourites to sign him - let us instead concentrate on Barcelona’s peculiar decision to attempt to block him from playing for Brazil in the Olympics. The gold medal remains the only major international title Brazil have never won and is consequently taken very seriously in the South American nation. Barcelona may have UEFA Champions League qualifying games in August, but why they are threatening to withhold the services of a player they are trying desperately to flog to the highest bidder only they know, but it should be none of their business who an international side call up for a competitive tournament.

FIFA do not, technically, award the men’s Olympic football competition full international status as squads are limited to only three players over the age of 23 - a rule that remains a relic of the decision to allow professional footballers to take part from the 1984 Games onwards, the age restrictions coming in in 1992. During the amateur era, eastern European sides dominated as their state-sponsored athletes ran rings round non-professional sides from the rest of the world. 23 of the 27 football medals between 1938 and 1980 went to Eastern Bloc. This time around it should be more open, with Brazil, Argentina, Italy and the Netherlands hopeful of success while Belgium and Serbia both have youngsters with plenty of potential.

Some Premier League sides will lose players for the opening games of the season to the tournament in China; Manchester Utd will be without Anderson, Blackburn Rovers without New Zealand defender Ryan Nelsen while Liverpool could lose the services of three players, Brazil’s Lucas, Argentina’s Javier Mascherano and Dutchman Ryan Babel. Babel missed Euro 2008 through injury enabling him to join the Netherlands squad in China as the Dutch FA have ruled that no member of the European Championship squad can also be called up for the Olympics.

Peter Crouch moved to Portsmouth for £11m

Portsmouth’s acquisition of Peter Crouch is further proof of their impressive progress in the 30 months since Alexandre Gaydamak bought the club in January 2006.

Under Harry Redknapp, they are building an impressive side, characterised by players, young and old, who have a point to prove. Joining a list including Kanu, Sol Campbell and Jermain Defoe is Crouch.

At 27, Crouch is a player who should be entering his peak years. Considering this, and the current exorbitant rates of footballers, £11million represents a fair sum; and, if all goes well, could yet be another example of a Redknapp bargain.

Crouch can certainly feel more than a little aggrieved by his treatment at Liverpool; and above all during his final season. Was he really any worse than Andrei Voronin and Dirk Kuyt? Voronin struck six times in nineteen starts last season, Kuyt 11 in 36. Alongside those two, Crouch’s 11 goals in 21 starts and 15 substitute appearances are impressive indeed. Yet Rafa Benitez was never able to grant him the trust of a significant spell in the side.

While there are justifiable doubts over whether Crouch had the skills to be the leading striker at a club of Liverpool’s stature, that is not to say he could - and should - not have had a major role to play within the Liverpool squad. With his sheer physical presence, aided by his skills in ball close-control, Crouch poses problems for even the best defences. His outstanding hat-trick against Arsenal in 2007, along with a wonderfully-taken goal against them this year and an FA Cup winner against Manchester United in 2006 are all highlights of his Anfield career. They illustrate that Crouch does indeed have the ability to trouble the best teams, making Benitez’s apparent lack of trust in his talents all the more mystifying.

We can only wonder what might have been had Crouch been afforded an extended opportunity alongside Fernando Torres. But, either way, he can look back with a certain pride on his three seasons at Liverpool. They began nightmarishly, with his first goal not coming into December of his first season. Thereafter though, it was clear he had much to offer, and a tally of 40 goals is not insignificant, especially when one considers how often he was used form the bench or not at all.

So Crouch will leave Liverpool with no little regret, but with his head held high. His partnership with Jermain Defoe promises to be an intriguing one. It is an alliance of two fiercely hungry players, eager to prove they should not have been reduced to the periphery at their former, and ‘bigger’, clubs. Yet it also represents a return to the most classical of footballing strike pairings.

For they constitute the archetypal ‘little and large’ pairing, with Crouch’s ability to hold up the play and aerial prowess complemented by Defoe’s pace and finishing ability. Add in Crouch’s considerable talents with the ball at his feet - which, when focusing on his sheer height, are easy to overlook - and Portsmouth clearly have a partnership with the goals to take them into the top six. European defences will not relish facing them, either, as Pompey prepare for their inaugural season in Europe. In adding Crouch to what is already a strong squad, Redknapp is ensuring another season of upward mobility awaits.

Emmanuel Adebayor is heading to AC Milan or Barcelona

Matthew Day says Arsenal would be mad not to accept £15m for Emmanuel Adebayor as AC Milan and Barcelona eye up the Togolese forward.

Arsenal were playing the fool of the show when demanding £35m for Emmanuel Adebayor as AC Milan came sniffing.

Having halved their demands, however, Arsène Wenger may yet rid of the Togo forward for as much as £15m - a sum that should immediately be accepted by Arsenal.

Adebayor has frequently frustrated Arsenal fans with his poor finishing and equally pitiful attitude, though he showed numerous glimpses of brilliance last season, suggesting he could yet become the next Shevchenko. Milan are hoping for as much.

At 24, Adebayor still has age on his side but Wenger clearly believes that he has not progressed at a satisfactory rate. Cesc Fàbregas and Samir Nasri are two shining examples of talent that blossomed at an early age; meanwhile, Adebayor has stagnated as Arsenal search for a predator in front of goal to replace Henry.

With Barcelona also registering their interest, Arsenal might be looking at a tidy figure for a striker who has never managed to prove himself in the Premier League.

Arsenal could go for Roque Santa Cruz as a replacement - with the Paraguayan reportedly ready to leave Blackburn following manager Mark Hughes’s defection to Manchester City. Originally a target for Manchester United, Santa Cruz now looks London-bound after Sir Alex Ferguson reignited his interest in Tottenham hitman Dimitar Berbatov.

A summer of striker switching is set to commence.

Since his takeover at the Merseyside club, the Spaniard has filled the Liverpool squad with a total of 18 different nationalities. The best eleven available to Benitez last season was made up of players from seven different countries, with the only regular starting Englishmen being Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher.

This approach has found marginal success with the club regularly competing in the latter stages of the European Champions League, if not achieving the desired results in the domestic Premiership.

During the close season Benitez has recruited a couple of foreigners and lost the services of Peter Crouch, although the club has also been linked with several Englishmen. The media has reported that Gareth Barry, David Bentley, Stewart Downing, Nicky Shorey and Aaron Lennon have all interested Benitez.

The attraction of buying English players who are used to playing in the Premiership and need little time to adjust is obvious, just look at the squads of Manchester United and Chelsea, both packed with English talent.

It is the valuation of these players that price many clubs out of the market. Shaun Wright-Phillips cost Chelsea £21 million, the same figure Liverpool reportedly paid for Fernando Torres whereas United splashed out £18 million for Michael Carrick, a fee similar to that paid for Argentine regular Javier Mascherano.

It has only been the top two clubs in recent seasons that have been prepared to pay a premium for the best English players. This could all be about to change should Sepp Blatter and Fifa get their way.

The proposal for each domestic starting eleven to include six players from the clubs’ home nation may revolutionalise not only the Premier League but also the global transfer market. The value of mediocre domestic players could rocket as clubs are forced to fill their quota.

Although the quality of football on display each week in the Premiership may deteriorate at first, in the long term this must be a good thing for the National team.

Premier League clubs will be forced to abandon the recent trend of bringing in young foreign talent into their academies whilst reverting to the development of home grown youngsters.

Despite the likelihood of most clubs opposing these plans, the biggest threat to the ambitions of Fifacould be the European Law that is opposed to the restriction on player movement.

Only time will tell if Blatter can begin his revolution.    

He is to football what George Bush Jr. is to politics. And ,like Bush, you wonder how on earth he has retained his job for so long. For this alone, Blatter must surely be applauded. He’s managed to stay at football’s top table, unchallenged, for years. Amazing. Whatever happens to dear Sepp, he can surely guarantee continued prosperity by penning a book entitled ‘Keeping A Top Job When You Haven’t Got a Scooby’ or just ‘Sepp Blagger – The Farcical Years’ .

If his latest comments are genuinely designed to protect players then why didn’t he pipe up when Owen Hargreaves wanted to leave Bayern a couple of years back? Why didn’t he come out in defence of Gareth Barry when he recently signalled his desire to move to Anfield? There are so many examples of players wanting to leave their clubs but Sepp has spoken up now. Why? Possibly because he dislikes English football? Possibly, he craves the limelight that the use of the words ‘Cristiano Ronaldo’ will bring? Who can really say with any confidence what goes on inside his head?

If he didn’t already sound ridiculous by getting involved in the Ronaldo affair he further disgraced himself by likening football players to slaves! What sort of slavery is this then? And where can I sign up? It must be hell doing an hour of hard labour on the training pitch 5 days a week. As if that wasn’t enough you are asked, no ordered, to play up to two games a week! Then there are the multitude of willing women that gravitate towards you because of the slavery. The cars, the sponsorship deals. I shudder to think about the daily horrors of a footballer’s life. I could go on, but Blatter’s words are so ridiculous, not to mention tasteless, that they don’t need my sarcasm to highlight the point (not just yet anyway). How we’d laugh if a tabloid could set Sepp up in some kind of Max Mosley style situation. How much pleasure would that bring to the football world? Shall we do a poll?

Would you like to see Sepp caught up in a sex scandal with some mature women dressed in ‘tight’ football kits and ornamental slave chains.

If anything could make us feel better about the credit crunch that would surely be it.
Blatter is the epitome of a man whose power has gone to his head. No longer bound by concerns over making a mockery of his organisation, he just spouts whatever passing nonsense comes into his head at any given time. The other employees at UEFA and FIFA must spend the majority of their time undertaking damage limitation exercises. ‘Oh no, what’s the old, mad codger said now’, must surely be a regular comment amongst his peers. If he hadn’t been quoted apparently making exactly the opposite point about player-power a few years ago, his sentiments might carry a little more weight. Not much, but a little. And if he hadn’t alienated half of the world population by commenting that female footballers should wear tighter kits to better show off their bodies, we might say that this is just a blip, a moment of madness.

But you join up the dots and realise that Blatter is a bit of a nut job. So let’s start a discussion about getting someone more responsible into the hotseat of world football - the game that we, the public, spend so much money to enjoy. Why should we have to put up with this nonsense? The issue isn’t slavery, it’s insanity. Meantime, let’s imagine what these afflicted players must go through day to day.

The Diary of a modern slave/footballer

Monday – They made me get up at 0830 to be at the ‘training ground’ at 1000. That’s what they call it here. A ‘training ground’. We work right through until midday, then we’re told to leave, without so much as a thank you. The downright cheek of these people is what most riles me and my slave brothers.

Tuesday – You guessed it. We have to do the same all over again. I feel so tired after the session that driving my Ferrari home holds no pleasure whatsoever. I go for a pedicure but that really hurts too. It’s beyond degrading. I feel ashamed to show my face in Starbucks. There is no joy. No laughter. No peace.

Wednesday – We are told we don’t have to ‘train’ today (that’s what they call it – ‘training’). Of course, it’s not a day off, as such, because we have to play a game in the evening, which involves covering every blade of grass on a huge pitch for 90 minutes whilst 70,000 people scream your name like you’re a piece of meat. I’m not sure how much more I can take. I don’t write this because I want your pity, I’m doing it because people need to know what it’s truly like. The world must never be allowed to forget what is happening here.

Thursday – I’m effectively running on empty but this means nothing to the bosses, and we are expected to ‘train’ all over again for two hours, with only a few minutes every now and then to recover from the perennial torture. There really is no respite. Of course, I take it all out on my supermodel girlfriend when I get home. I try to explain that my fatigue and bad mood is due to the way I’m treated, but she isn’t interested and leaves me. I’m left with no alternative but to call a top quality escort agency and order a new woman. Evil seemingly knows no bounds.

Friday – Exhausted from my travails in the bedroom, I am ordered to ‘train’ once more. My hamstrings are like jelly and my feet are killing me. They don’t even allow us to drink water. Instead we are forced to consume expensive ‘energy drinks’. That’s what they call them – ‘energy drinks’. God only knows what’s in them. There surely must be some law against this. It’s 2008 for the love of sweet Jesus! I go for lunch at the best place in town but my scallop starter and fillet steak do very little to interrupt the overriding feeling that I’m just a badly oiled cog in a brutal machine. The steak isn’t even cooked properly. Don’t these idiots know the meaning of the word ‘rare’? There’s blood on the hands of the industry but none on my plate. It’s like everyone is in on the joke. But I’m not laughing, I can assure you.

Saturday – Five day week? You’re having a laugh aren’t you? Saturday just brings more pain, more baying crowds. More, more, more. In the entire week they have paid me just £100k after tax. Where is the humanity in the world? Where is the compassion? Why am I being persecuted? Why me? If there is one person that can bring an end to this horrendous plight, it’s that extremely coherent bloke, Sepp Blatter. But, far from being heralded as the hero that he is, people are laughing at him, making a mockery of his intelligent and brave words. Has the whole world gone mad? Please help me Sepp.

Sunday – You won’t believe this but we were actually told to rest today. Many weeks they will make us ‘play’ on The Sabbath but this week they have relented. I decide to cheer myself up by spending a huge chunk of my risible wage on the basics – namely £50k on diamonds. They can take my life, but they will never take my earrings!! That’s a clever reference to Braveheart. You see? They haven’t broken my spirit just yet. The animals.
If anyone is reading this, if it makes the slightest bit of difference and brings this torture to an end one day sooner then it will have been worth it. At least then my suffering will not have been in vain. Oh god I’m tired. I’m going to have to pop to Waitrose and get loads of Deli. I’ll probably be too tired to eat it. The horror. The horror. The Horror.

If (when?) UEFA confirm that Euro 2016 will have 24 competing teams, they will do well to append an intention to use the format of the 1982 World Cup in Spain, when there was a second group stage involving four pools of three, the winners of which would procede to the semi finals. The 1986-1994 World Cups allowed four of the six 3rd placed teams to remain in the tournament, with hardly any of them deserving to do so. I recall the words of BBC commentator Gerald Sinstadt at the Uruguay v South Korea match at Italia ‘90; “Uruguay have scored the goal which, I’m sorry to say, will take them into the second round.” Uruguay’s Daniel Fonseca had just scored a last minute winner in a turgid match which ended 1-0, ‘earning’ the unwatchable and conservative South Americans a place in Round 2, where they were duly - and thankfully - beaten 2-0 by Italy.

***

Ronaldinho will not be joining Manchester City, despite a rumoured £200,000 weekly wage being on offer. He was presumably dissuaded by the prospect of a trip to face a village team from the Faroe Islands as Manchester City begin their labyrinthine campaign in the woefully badly formatted and bloated UEFA Cup. It turns out he wants to join Milan, as he wants Champions League football… oh, hang on…

***

There will be virtually no live football on the BBC for a year, before they begin their Championship and Carling Cup contract in August 2009. This means less work for Alan Shearer, a wonderful player in his day but a singularly unilluminating pundit. If only Martin O’Neill didn’t have a proper job, Match of the Day might have a top class studio partnership. Shearer, O’Neill, Hansen and co have now returned from their jolly to Vienna along with an army of ‘roaming reporters’ whose expositions from the fan-mile were as superfluous as they were homogeneous. Happy expenses, lads.

***

Another era ending at the Beeb after Euro 2008 is the career - as a live broadcaster, at least - of John Motson, their sheepskin-wearing, stat-wielding principal commentator, who will carry on working with Match of the Day but will not go to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. We await speculation on who will cover that Final for the BBC, though Jonathan Pearce would be a sound choice. His assured, measured style is far preferable to the big-mouth approach he adopted in the early days of Channel Five in the late 90s and is beginning to echo Barry Davies, who remains criminally wasted doing only the occasional tennis match and Olympic hockey or gymnastics competitions. Davies briefly broke the Motson monopoly at the BBC in the mid-90s, commentating on the 1994 World Cup Final and the FA Cup Finals of 1995 and 1996 and remains the finest sports commentator the country has ever produced.

***

Waitakere Utd, the unremarkable champions of New Zealand, will once again compete in the annual FIFA Club World Cup, one of many unwelcome effects of Australia defecting from the OFC to the AFC despite common sense and geography. New Zealand, a country which cares little for football, are consequentially virtually guaranteed qualification to every Confederations Cup, the next edition of which will take place next year in South Africa as a dress rehearsal for the 2010 World Cup. For European champions Manchester Utd, the trip to Japan in mid-December is another distraction from domestic football after they take on Zenit St Petersburg in the UEFA Super Cup in Monaco on Friday 29th August.

Scarcely can a more wrong letter have ever been published in a national British newspaper than one I now recall in last Sunday’s Observer: “For most fans in this country the tournament has been a minor distraction before the serious business for the proper teams in the Premier League begins again.” The correspondent, a fellow Chelsea fan, I regret to say, goes on to describe the Championships in Austria and Switzerland as a ‘pointless European placebo’.

In one sentence, the writer summed up everything about the Premier League that makes me care less about it than the international game. It is serious. Oh dear. It is business. Ho-hum. It has ‘proper teams’; when has anything in sport been anything other than absurd? Simon Barnes of the Times’ ‘golf principle’ is apt - either all sport is ridiculous or none is. What makes Manchester Utd proper and, by implication, Spain improper?

Most English football fans, incidentally, do not support one of the increasingly inelastic Big Four. Most support somebody like Preston North End, or Gillingham, or Portsmouth, or Sheffield Utd. Most care about England. The only ones who are really apathetic towards England are the one-eyed followers of the Champions League teams, for whom Steven Gerrard playing for England is little more than a needless risk of injury just days before that crucial Champions League group match, most of which are now no more challenging than the average league game.

The UEFA Champions League has many fine qualities but it assumes an importance far out of proportion to its actual emotional connection with the population. A glance at ITV’s ratings history confirms as much. Manchester Utd v Chelsea in Moscow: 14.6 million. England v Argentina, 1998 World Cup: 25 million. The Champions League merely massages the egos of a self-perpetuating elite while being little more than a chance for most fans to watch some football without the shortcomings of partiality. If anything is a footballing placebo, then it is the Champions League. It kids us that if the Big Four are alright, Jack, then all club football must be in fine shape. As any Leeds fan will tell you, it isn’t.

I am grateful to José Mourinho for many reasons but none more than the fact that Chelsea finally winning the league in 2005 makes me obsess less about their results. We’ve done it. Twice. Before Abramovich’s arrival in 2003, I would have not expected two titles in my lifetime. Now, it is not the end of the world if Aston Villa get a late equalizer. Life, as Nick Hornby wrote in “Fever Pitch”, is no longer shit because my club is shit. So football is now enjoyable again.

It helps that international football is the ultimate sporting meritocracy. It is often argued that England’s players under-perform for their country; it might have something to do that when Gerrard, Rooney, Ferdinand and friends play against Croatia or Russia, they are facing greatly superior opponents than on most Premier League matchdays.

Hands up those of you who thought that Euro 2008 would have been improved by any of the trappings of the Premier League? Agents? Interminable, pointless transfer speculation? No thanks. Mercifully, Andrei Arshavin does not play for Russia because it is his contractual duty; he does so because he is proud to do so. Now the Euros are over, we are set to be ‘treated’ to weeks of bitter-tasting contract details, transfer fees and media bullshitting as Chelsea, Arsenal and Barcelona squabble for his services. Please wake me up in August.

I love the Premier League but only the bits between kick-off and full-time. This is because I love football. The game of football, where 22 players agitate a bag of wind for 90 minutes. That is enjoyable. The endless transfer rumour mill that happens ever July isn’t. It is like the long snaking queues that must be endured to board a roller-coaster at Alton Towers. European Championships and World Cups are about football and the enjoyment of it. What will we remember about this year’s tournament in years to come? The fabulous skills, the great games, the colour and the atmosphere. We will have forgotten the media’s self-satisfying pontification on Cristiano Ronaldo’s future, Martin O’Neill’s negotiating of Gareth Barry’s transfer fee while with the BBC’s team in Vienna or Luiz Felipe Scolari’s defection from Portugal to Chelsea.

No shirt sponsors by law, no player transfers, no takeover rumours. International tournaments are as close as the game gets to perfection because they are football at its purest. In other words, they are sport. Real sport. And if England’s absence from one competition has helped us realize that we like football - that is, like watching football matches, not following our club sides with such parochial fervour that reason and fair appreciation become alien concepts - then it might just have been worth it.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Real Madrid appears inevitable

Cristiano Ronaldo has brought months of speculation to a head by confirming that he wishes to complete a ‘dream’ move to Real Madrid. Whatever happens in the next few days and weeks, the realists will assert that the gifted Portuguese has indeed played his last game for Manchester United – for now at least.

However much United try to hold on to their star player, Sir Alex Ferguson will ultimately succumb to the fact that it’s virtually impossible to hold players to their contracts anymore. There is of course the chance that the Red Devils’ boss will once again charm Ronnie into staying for one more season, but even that seems unlikely at this moment.

This may just be ‘sour grapes’ but I think that Cristiano is on a dangerous path. The implied irreverence in his comments about making ‘a step forward’ by moving to Spain really sums up the descent of his integrity in recent times. Outside influences have skewed his young mind.

Two years ago, when Portugal were eliminated from the World Cup, Ronaldo’s tears were real. He lived for football and everything else came a distant second. But by the time his side played Germany at Euro 2008, he seemed more interested in checking himself out on the big screen in the stadium than winning a football match. And after the game he almost immediately revisited speculation about his own club future. I still haven’t read any quotes from him referring to his disappointment about crashing out of the tournament. Two good seasons and several love letters from Madrid have apparently turned Ronnie into an egomaniac.

And this complacency could yet prove his undoing. Does he really believe he is moving to a better club than the incumbent European champions?

When the dust settles and Ronnie moves to Spain, let’s see how he feels about playing in the second biggest league in the world, where all the players talk obsessively about the Premiership. Let’s see how he copes in a club that is almost as notorious for animosity and arguments as the Dutch national team – the pioneers of petty squad squabbles.

Ronaldo doesn’t know what he’s got because he doesn’t have anything to compare it to, bar a couple of formative seasons in Portugal. He doesn’t realise how much he needs the stability that United offers. Perhaps these subtle luxuries will become apparent to Ronaldo when he has to deal with a new manager each season and an impatient crowd whose team still have too many other weaknesses to win the Champions League.

I never thought I would say it, but I think it’s time for Ronaldo to leave Manchester. However much he has done for the club, it’s small change compared to the impact of the manager over two decades. In overlooking the debt he owes to Sir Alex, Ronaldo has gone too far.

Improbable as it seems, United can actually improve without Ronaldo, for at least three reasons.

Firstly, United can and will buy two world-class players to replace him. There may be a dearth of top and available quality at the moment, but the manager’s recent transfer record suggests that the money is in safe hands. Any two of Benzema, Berbatov and Ben Arfa could be prized from their clubs with the sort of cash United would be able flash. Stunning talent. And focused rather than preoccupied talent.

Secondly, if United lose Ronaldo, they will be even more desperate to prove there is no better club in the world. There was a definite feeling that United lost their way after the unprecedented treble success of ’99. They never really got near to winning the Champions League again until last season, by which time the squad had been almost entirely renovated. Ronaldo’s departure could well prevent another such hangover.

And finally, Ronnie’s absence will allow others greater opportunity to shine. Nani has improved with every game and was arguably the best player on the pitch during his limited minutes for Portugal at Euro 2008. He’s a player that could be as good as Ronaldo and will now play a full compliment of games next time out. The extra birth in the attacking midfield area will also mean more exposure for Anderson who perhaps has even greater potential to make the departed Portuguese a distant memory. Many in football circles would also venture that Wayne Rooney has a better chance of kick-starting his upward spiral without United’s current No.7. He does, at times, appear to have a slight inferiority complex regarding Ronaldo.

Sadly, Cristiano Ronaldo has become a man who believes the hype. He tries to disguise his ever-growing opinion of himself by talking about the importance of the team, but in my opinion this is fake humility. He now seems to believe he only has to walk onto the pitch to be the star man. And this is borne from his lack of appreciation of what United and Ferguson have given him - namely the protection and consistency to prosper.

Although the circumstances are different, this situation reminds me of the departure of David Beckham in 2003. By moving to Madrid, Beckham cemented himself as a global sports icon but his football never reached the heights again. And it’s no secret that, more than anything, Becks would have loved to pull on the United jersey again at least once . That’s where he played his best football, where he felt happiest and where he was most adored. I wonder whether, in a couple of years, Ronaldo might also look at his time at United as his halcyon days and yearn for the chance to return. But like Becks, Ronaldo’s perceived irreverence might have closed that particular door forever.

Of course, if Ronaldo can sacrifice his tan for nine more months, he could go some way to appeasing his current employers and followers by giving United and Sir Alex one more season – a parting magic show by way of gratitude. At 24 he could then fill his boots in Spain and still be welcomed back with largely open arms should he ever decide that United is his true football home. This is, of course, the most prudent path but youth and impatience will probably prevail. Kids these days eh?

Whether you believe that United’s response smacks of sour grapes or that Ronaldo is truly a bad apple, you can’t escape the fact that the whole saga has left a really bad taste in the mouth.

Are you one of them?

The winners will get to take part in the ultimate training weekend with the legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson. The competition runs across the whole of July as the hunt for the next Wayne Rooney commences and wannabe footballers get their chance to impress scouts - and possibly even Britain’s best coach, Sir Alex.

So wipe away those tears of disappointment at England and co’s failure to reach the Euros and look forward to the infamous Scotsman training up the next generation of talent. Something certainly needed for the overpaid and underworked English bunch….

Watch the video below as Sir Alex sets out his demands - and visit www.nikefootball.com for much more information.

David Villa is a target for Chelsea, Liverpool and Barcelona

Any lingering hopes Arsenal fans had of capturing Spain’s star striker David Villa have died, with the Valencia man’s transfer market price rising in the millions since his hat-trick against Russia.

That was followed by the winner against Sweden, and Valencia are now in an incredibly strong bargaining position. Los Che are set to ask for up to 40million euros for the former Zaragoza man, ruling out Arsenal who are again to avoid investing huge sums on a single player.

Barcelona, Chelsea and Liverpool now lead the chase for Villa’s signature. Barça are thought to be favourites, and with the likes of Samuel Eto’o and Ronaldinho heading for the exit, the club are looking for a new forward to lead the line and have identified Villa as their main target.

Villa has also told the News of the World that Chelsea and Liverpool interest him. Chelsea are ready to hand new coach Luiz Felipe Scolari an open chequebook while Liverpool’s level of funds is unclear following the splurge a year ago by Rafa Benítez. They would likely hold sway, however, as Villa is close friends with Pepe Reina and has demonstrated at Euro 2008 his great affinity for Fernando Torres. The pair have also formed a fantastic partnership for country.

Failing to capture Villa will leave Arsenal supporters disappointed, especially with Emmanuel Adebayor rumoured to be on the move and Cesc Fàbregas publicly stating that he would like his compatriot to join the club. Gunners fans responded positively to the quotes attributed to Villa last season, when the 26-year-old stated that Arsenal would be his preferred destination. However, with the North London side unwilling to splash the cash, Villa has turned his attention to two other members of the big four.

The bidding war for Europe’s most wanted striker is set to commence upon the end of the European Championships. With Valencia cash-strapped, the highest bid will be accepted despite the club’s obvious wish to keep him. With Villa’s departure virtually guaranteed, the only lingering question is over which of the top destinations El Guaje will eventually select.