There Is Only One Sinnacle

Chelsea are ready to offload striker Didier Drogba after his furious reaction to the club being knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona. (Various)

Drogba exit rumours are nothing new and seem to always spring up after a Champions League exit. Last year this occurred after his red card in the finals against United as a recent example. Can’t see Chelsea wanting to get rid of Drogba over this. It was a heat of the moment reaction, it’s not like he physically assaulted Tom Henning Ovrebo.

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez has quashed talk of midfielders Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso leaving the club this summer. (Various)

Just tell Mascherano that Carlos Tevez is coming and I’m sure he’ll be happy. Besides how many clubs are out there that are better to play for than Liverpool? Even if you can count past one hand how many of those clubs would cough up the cash to sign a player like Mascherano (who never met a crossbar he couldn’t strike a ball over) and Alonso.

Barcelona’s players applauded John Terry and sang his name after he congratulated them on their progress by going into their dressing room and shaking hands with each of them. (The Sun)

Classy

But the Catalan side wasted little time rubbing salt into Chelsea’s wounds with right-back Daniel Alves saying: “football has won over strength.” (Various)

This, not so much.

Alan Shearer has enjoyed management more than he thought and will stay on as Newcastle boss even if the club are relegated. (Various)

If that is the case I’m sure Shearer will be in ecstasy once he is finally able to lead Newcastle to victory.

Shearer faces a crucial game against relegation-rivals Middlesbrough on Monday and is set to recall striker Michael Owen to his starting line-up. (Daily Telegraph)

Would be nice for some if Owen can leave Newcastle with the parting gift of staying up before leaving for greener pastures come the summer.

Juventus To Swap Gianluigi Buffon For Milan’s Christian Abbiati – Report

Juventus are considering swapping Gianluigi Buffon for Milan shot stopper Christian Abbiati during the summer transfer window.

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It’s well known that Buffon hasn’t been happy with life at Juventus as of late with their slide down the Serie A table. Another interesting point is during the whole Kaka-Manchester City mess Buffon flat out said if Manchester City offered him a mega deal he’d take it. With all that being said Juventus would be foolish to sell Buffon to A.C Milan and risk the chance of him haunting his former club for years to come. Timing of this is also suspect with the Juventus-A.C Milan coming up this weekend.

Van Basten: I lacked qualities to manage Ajax

The 44-year-old quit as the Amsterdammers’ head coach less than a year into his four-year contract, following the club’s failure to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

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Still feels weird seeing Ajax not in the Champions League. Sad to see some storied clubs fall on hard times but bad management over the last ten years is largely to blame. With van Basten walking away from Ajax, wonder what his next move is going to be or will he just take a step back from football and enjoy retirement?

Magath admits quit decision was ”all about money”

Magath confirmed he would walk away from the Wolves at the end of the season having “reached all the goals” he set when he took over nearly two years ago.

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Magath had some really interesting opinions in this article.

“We are in professional sport and it is all about money,” Magath admitted. “Everything else is a load of tosh.”

The above I don’t necessarily agree with.

“Wolfsburg is not the first club I have taken forwards,” he said. “But in the past, I have often been shoved out of the door after a successful start.

“From this experience, I no longer believe in promises that you can work long-term in football.”

Hard to argue that point however. One minute you are on the rise and the next you could be out of a job. Loyalty is usually a one way street in professional sports. A couple of bad results and fans are quick to want to run you out of town.

Everton manager David Moyes hopes to outbid Stoke in the battle to sign Cardiff’s £6m-rated midfielder Joe Ledley, 22. (Daily Mirror)

With Cardiff failing to make it to the Championship playoffs, losing out to Preston North End on the final weekend look for Ledley to make the step up and play for an EPL team next season.

Striker Marlon Harewood is looking for a new club after returning to Aston Villa from his loan spell at Championship winners Wolves, where he failed to score. (Daily Mirror)

Aston Villa will be hard pressed to get back the 4 million they paid West Ham for Harewood’s services two summers ago. The term surplus to requirements comes to mind.

Park Ji Sung has been promised a place in Manchester United’s line-up for the Champions League final against Barcelona in Rome on 27 May. Park was left out of the squad for United’s victory over Chelsea on penalties last year. (Daily Express)

Included this for Sweeper. Good for Park who never complains and always gives it 100% when given playing time.

Fulham manager Roy Hodgson will earn a £750,000 bonus from owner Mohamed Al Fayed if he guides the Cottagers into Europe this season. (Daily Express)

In a weird way it would of been better if Hodgson steered Fulham away from the drop as he got a cool million for avoiding regulation last year.

Newcastle players have backed manager Alan Shearer over his feud with Joey Barton. Shearer has told Barton to stay away from the club until the end of the season. (Daily Mirror)

Couldn’t possibly think of a reason why anyone would back Barton over Shearer in this mess.

West Brom supporters are to wear lifelike masks of boss Tony Mowbray in a show of support at the club’s final Premier League game this season. Organiser Dean Walton will distribute 1,800 masks to Albion fans travelling to the match at Blackburn. (The Sun)

Good to see fans back the coach through thick and thin. Rare to see in modern football.

Brazil striker Adriano, who last month agreed with Inter Milan to terminate his contract, has rejoined Flamengo, the club said on Wednesday.

“Flamengo announces the signing of the forward Adriano,” the Brazilian club where the striker began his career said in a statement, adding he would be officially presented on Thursday.

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It would of been some kick to the teeth for Flamengo fans if Adriano pulled a Ronaldo and signed for another top Brazilian club. Hopefully the vices that will surround Adriano at Flamengo won’t catch up to him and he can regain his pre 2006 form.

Can’t be that realistic as Nani is shown playing in this commercial.

Chelsea 1 – 1 Barcelona

A stunning first-half volley from Michael Essien looked to have earned Chelsea victory and set up a repeat of last year’s Champions League final against Manchester United.

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This wouldn’t please my high school English teacher but I’m going to break this down point form style.

- What a rocket on Michael Essien goal. If there is a team in the world who wouldn’t start Michael Essien I’d love to see it. Even in an all World starting eleven you’d be hard press to leave Essien out in the holding midfielder role.

- One game a career does not make but Dani Alves you have had better games. Man was his crossing poor all game long.

- Guess there is no need for Alex to worry about picking up that yellow card and missing the Champions League final.

- Onto the important part, yes it’s easy to blame the referee and quite frankly Ovrebo had a poor game but Chelsea were playing with fire trying to hold off Barcelona and simply got burnt. Chelsea could of produced more chances while up a man but couldn’t score, if they had that killer instinct all this ref talk wouldn’t be an issue.

- Below are some of the calls Ovrebo got wrong.

- If you are going to call a foul on Dani Alves against Florent Malouda it should of also been a penalty since it was inside the box.

- Another bad red card, this time for Eric Abidal. Foul I could see but both players tripped over the others foot and even then replays showed there wasn’t much contact.

- How Pique doesn’t get called for hand ball in the box is beyond me. When you have your arms out wide like that bad things can only happen.

- Back to other moments in the game. I don’t like swearing on this site so forgive but Michael Ballack is a bitch. Not for his screaming at the referring when Chelsea’s hand ball appeal was turned down late in the game. If you watch again on Abidal red card Ballack jumps right in there about to talk too the referee before Overbo hands out the red card. Few things annoy me more than a player trying to get another player carded. Unless you are the captain you shouldn’t be able to say anything to the ref unless it directly effects you. Besides Ballack’s a jinx anyway, Chelsea would do well to get rid of him. There is a reason why most people in Germany think he is a loser due to the times he has been the bridesmaid but never the bride.

- If Didier Drogba was mad about being subbed off he shouldn’t of spent the previous 10 minutes acting like he’d been shot.

- Unless you are a Real Madrid or Espanyol fan it’s really hard to hate Barcelona. Just about everything they do is first class. Looking at Pep Guardiola on the 88th minute down by a goal smiling and having a playful embrace with Guus Hiddink is not something you see in such a pressure filled moment.

- Oh what a piece of quality by Iniesta. It really takes something special to be a world class player yet still be under rated which is largely the case with Iniesta and Xavi who have always conceded the spotlight to the likes of Ronaldinho and Messi.

- Fitting the two best teams play in the Champions League final and the Messi vs Ronaldo subplot will engage some hot debate over the next three weeks. Some may say it’s fitting cause UEFA wanted it that way but if that was the case would Overbo send off Abidal?

- I’d be shocked if this Manchester United-Barcelona final doesn’t set ratings records for most watched Champions League final broadcast. Just a dream matchup for any non Arsenal/Chelsea football fan.

Ranieri safe at Juventus until season’s end

Third-placed Juve failed to win for a fifth straight Serie A game on Sunday when a stoppage-time equaliser gave lowly Lecce a 2-2 draw in Turin.

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This is like my boss telling me on Friday afternoon that my job is safe until the end of the week. If Juventus are defeated by A.C Milan this weekend it wouldn’t surprise me to see Ranieri pay the price for Juventus poor transfer buys these last couple of years.

PSG to part company with coach Le Guen

PSG released a statement on Monday afternoon saying they would not be renewing Le Guen’s contract, which runs out at the end of the season.

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Why does this article mention Le Guen time at Rangers? It was only for half a season where it became clear he was ill suited for Scottish football. Le Guen has had success coaching at Lyon and despite barely avoiding the drop last year at PSG he has managed to get them into a European football next season.

Report: Napoli Ace Ezequiel Lavezzi Keen On Juventus Move

The player’s representatives have allegedly met with the Old Lady directors and ‘El Pocho’ is ready to agree to the transfer.

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You knew when Lavezzi said in an interview two weeks ago that he was uncomfortable living in Napoli it was only a matter of time before Lavezzi became linked with another club. Like many Napoli players he hasn’t built on the success of last year which is a big reason why they are currently in 12th after finishing in 8th last year.

Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor has dropped hints he may leave the club, saying he speaks to AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani regularly and describes the club as “sexy as Beyonce”.

Interesting timing for the press to link an Adebayor move away from Arsenal after losing in the Champions League. The Beyonce comment was last week and quite frankly there isn’t a player at Arsenal who can’t be bought. While expensive if A.C Milan really want Adebayor they could of had him last summer. Besides It isn’t like Adebayor had an outstanding performance in either the two games against Manchester United. With Vela on the rise maybe it’s time Adebayor moves on.

Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce, the man who signed Joey Barton for Newcastle, could be interested in acquiring him for Rovers after the Magpies began moves to sack the midfielder

Hopefully Allardyce won’t be silly enough to pay 5.8 million pounds for Barton like he did while in charge of Newcastle. Allardyce likes to roll the dice and give players second chances but Barton is far beyond that now.

Porto left-back Aly Cissokho claims Tottenham are interested in him. (Daily Express)

Nice to see Cissokho try to keep his name out there after an impressive performance against Manchester in the Champions League.

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez says he will not be put off making big-money signings, despite striker Robbie Keane’s short and ill-fated stay at the club this season before returning to Tottenham. (The Guardian)

Benitez hit the jackpot signing Torres two summers ago and struck out on Keane. These things happen, every manager have a player or two looking back they wish they didn’t sign.

Sunderland have decided against making striker Djibril Cisse’s loan move from Marseille into a permanent transfer. (Daily Mirror)

Too much like Kenwyne Jones. One or the other had to go and with Cisse only being at Sunderland on loan it was easier to cut bait on him if this does become a reality.

On-loan midfielder David Beckham and his AC Milan team-mates, plus former Arsenal stars Mathieu Flamini and Philippe Senderos were in the crowd to watch Manchester United beat Arsenal in the Champions League on Tuesday (The Sun)

We all know which one of the three went back to Milan the happiest. Speaking on Senderos I wonder what happens to him next season after spending this term largely nailed to the bench at A.C Milan?

Ronaldo’s killer brace

A fortuitous opener from Park Ji-sung was followed by a thunderous 40-yard free-kick from Cristiano Ronaldo to effectively book a Champions League final date with Chelsea or Barcelona on May 27 after only 11 minutes.

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Really not trying to kick Arsenal when they are done but some teams are built upon developing players and some teams are built to team and that was on full display yesterday. My heart goes out to Kieran Gibbs for his mistake. When you are a striker or even a midfielder you can score a key goal in the future to make up for a past mistake. Not so easy for a full back as Gibbs will have to live with that mistake for a very long time. The hope here is that the Arsenal fans won’t take out their frustrations on him. Once Ji-Sung Park scored the contest was basically over. When Ronaldo 40 yard free kick found the net three minutes later this contest turned into little more than a friendly. One big question coming out of this contest is what will happen to Darren Fletcher harsh Red card? Can’t see a way UEFA will over rule Roberto Rosetti decision which is a shame really as he did make contact with the ball.