There Is Only One Sinnacle

France have appointing former Bordeaux head coach and former captain of the National team Laurent Blanc as their new head coach after the World Cup. You can’t agrue over the appointment of Laurent Blanc and compared to Raymond Domenech the France public would be happy with just about any coach given the job.

The timing is curious however, I don’t recall any team winning a Euro/World Cup (could be wrong) naming a new coach prior to the current coach being moved on. (looking at you England 2006) Needless to say I just don’t get the logic even if in this case I do understand as Blanc couldn’t committ to his Bordeaux job knowing he was leaving and once he did quit well it pretty much confirms what everyone already figured about Blanc taking over after the World Cup.

By the way wonder if someone will ask him if he would of chosen Karim Benzema if he got to pick this World Cup side?

Manchester United are ready to make a £28m bid for Aston Villa midfielder James Milner. Villa have already turned down a £20m bid from Manchester City for the 24-year-old who is currently with England at their pre-World Cup training camp in Austria. caughtoffside.com

With Fabio Capello supposely banning players from transfering clubs during the World Cup it should be a long summer for Aston Villa who will have to wonder what the future will hold. 28 million would cause me to pack Milner’s bags. It;s not like Aston Villa would be lacking depth with Ashley Young and Stewart Downing still on board.

Barcelona are preparing to launch a £70m bid for Liverpool’s Fernando Torres after signing David Villa, his strike partner in Spain’s national side, from Valencia. Daily Mirror

Perdo would then become the best 3rd striker in football. Few players can say no to Barcelona.

Catalan side’s hopes of luring Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal to the Nou Camp could be hit by Yaya Toure’s reluctance to move in the opposite direction. The Ivory Coast midfielder is said to be attracting the interest of Manchester City. Daily Mail

If I was Yaya Toure I wouldn’t want to move either. It’s a like for like switch, if Toure played a different position then ok but those are huge shoes Yaya Toure would be asked to fit. He’d be almost sitting himself up to fail.

Barca have decided they will not pay more than £30m for Fabregas, which could also put the deal at risk. Daily Star

It’s not like Arsenal want to sell Fabregas so Barcelona want to buy him they will need to pay above market value.

Arsenal are looking for £80m before they allow their talismanic skipper to return to his former club.
Full story: Daily Mail

I’m sure Arsenal would be looking at 80 million. Fabregas is worth more than 30 million but much less than 80 million.

Manchester City will need to pay Benfica £43m if they want to bring Brazilian defender David Luiz to Eastlands. Full story: the Independent

I know David Luiz isn’t quite worth 43 million but Porto got over 30 million out of Real Madrid for Pepe. Manchester City or any other club would at least need to offer that amount for Benfica to listen.

Sunderland manager Steve Bruce is planning a major spending spree after being told he has “an open chequebook”. the Sun

Steve Bruce got lucky last summer with Darren Bent failing in his lap. Wonder if Steve Bruce can get another quality player to drop in his lap.

Birmingham City are considering a £2.5m bid for Fulham full-back Paul Konchesky. Daily Mail

The Blues have also joined the race for Burnley striker Steven Fletcher as their hopes of landing Fulham’s Bobby Zamora fade. Daily Mirror

Paul Konchesky is a dime a dozen type player but I do like Steven Fletcher who I feel can turn into a 10-15 goal scorer in the EPL.

Sol Campbell has welcomed Celtic’s interest and made it a clear a bumper two-year deal could tempt him to reject a one-year offer from Arsenal. the Sun

It’s all about the dollar for Sol Campbell.

Manchester United failed in a last-ditch attempt to sign Spain international striker David Villa, who joined Barcelona for £34m. Mirror

Between Barcelona and Manchester United I’m picking Barcelona too.

The Red Knights consortium’s hopes of taking over United from the Glazer family looks set to fail because of internal wranglings. Full story: Guardian

It looks set to fail because they are dumb. You are not going to convince anyone to sell by pissing them off. If I was the Glazer family I’d thumb my noses at this “Red Knight consortium.”

After flirting with Rafa Benitez for the last couple of weeks Juventus have named former Sampdoria coach (and just about every other Italian club) Luigi Del Neri head coach. After a dissapointing run with Roma, and getting fired before the season even started with defending Champions League holders Porto at the time Del Neri gets what is most likely to be his final kick at the can coaching a top club.

Del Neri may not of been Juventus first choice but he can be the one to lead Juventus back to the top of Italian football. He has done outstanding jobs with Sampdoria last year, leading them to a Champions League spot next season and previous to that Atalanta who he guided to mid table safety every year and then got regulated the season after he left. It may not mean much with Jose Mourinho about to leave for Real Madrid but it does help that Luigi Del Neri has had a better record than most mangers when going up against Jose Mourinho.

On a personal note I wonder if he’ll make it over for Juventus tour of North America next week? Wouldn’t mind seeing him in action as I’m going to watch the Juventus vs Fiorentina friendly at the Rogers centre.

It’s finally happen, many years after people said it would happen but David Villa is finally sold by Valenica as Barcelona have paid €40 million Euros for Villa’s services in the first major transfer of the season. While Valenica are a very good side there is a step up in class for Villa to make next season but he has no trouble excelling with the National team for unlike a certain Swedish striker David Villa should have no troubles getting use to playing football the Barcelona way.

If your Thierry Henry you are already packing your bags stateside, if your Zlatan Ibrahimovic you are calling your agent asking what happens next? You can easily see Barcelona recoup most if not all of the David Villa transfer fee but selling Zlatan Ibrahimovic after one sub par year.

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez admits his dream is to coach Spain but reiterates his immediate future is at Anfield. “Right now I have four years left in my contract with Liverpool and I am very happy there,” he told www.as.com. “But, of course, in a few years, once [Spain coach Vicente] Del Bosque ends his work, I would like to be Spain coach.” (1329 BST) Full story: www.as.com (in Spanish)

Considering the events of the last two years coaching Spain would be a nice change of pace for Rafa Benitez. Also have a feeling it’s the Liverpool owners dream for Rafa to be coaching Spain as well.

Arsenal defender Sol Campbell wants to remain with the Gunners after returning to his old club on a short-term deal in January, but admits approaches from Celtic are flattering. “I worked very hard to get back to my best and to play in the Champions League again, and I would love the opportunity to continue at Arsenal,” Campbell said. www.espnsoccernet.com.

Sol Campbell didn’t do himself any harm during his time at Arsenal last season. Sign him up and make him play the role Mikaël Silvestre has the last couple of years.

Juventus will take Liverpool’s Alberto Aquilani back to Italy in a swap deal involving Felipe Melo (1300 BST). mirrorfootball.co.uk

Would be a transfer of two of the biggest transfer busts of the season. I do still like Aquilani, Melo not so much.

Manchester United are prepared to allow Anderson leave Old Trafford in a player-swap-plus-cash deal to land £38m-rated Benfica winger Angel di Maria. Daily Mail

Not going to happen. Anderson isn’t even better than the player who Benfica currently has playing in midfield. Ramires is a Brazilian international, Anderson is not.

Manchester City have entered the race to sign Bayern Munich’s £50m-rated winger Franck Ribery. Barcelona and Real Madrid have dropped out because of the player’s personal problems, thus leaving City and Manchester United as the only serious interested parties. Footylatest.com

As Mr T would say I pity the fool who pays 50 million for Ribery.

Ajax have told Manchester United that it will cost £35m to persuade them to sell Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez this summer. Daily Mirror

Quotes like these are why Sir Alex Ferguson has hit out on the transfer market yesterday. Can’t blame Ajax however for putting that value on Luis Suarez.

The potential stumbling block surrounding the return of Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona could involve the transfer fee, with Arsenal not prepared to accept less than £50m. Footylatest.com

Nor should they. Hope Arsenal gets every penny coming to them.

Barcelona are ready to spend £70m to thwart Chelsea’s interest and bring Liverpool’s Spanish international striker Fernando Torres to the Nou Camp. Daily Express

Did some Arab Oil man take over Barcelona in the last couple of weeks? Ahhh no. it’s presidential election season.

Liverpool are preparing a double swoop for Manchester City’s Stephen Ireland and Chelsea’s Joe Cole. The Anfield club are confident they have sufficient funds to finance both fees, and hope to persuade Cole to take a lower wage. Footylatest.com

Keep liking all the players Liverpool are being linked with. Both Stephen Ireland and Joe Cole would be a great fit.

Owen Hargreaves wants showdown talks with Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson to know what he told England boss Fabio Capello about his fitness, after the midfielder was left out of the England World Cup squad. The Sun

Owen Hargreaves hasn’t played in nearly two seasons. Pipe down and start repaying the massive transfer fee Manchester United paid for your services.

Given myself a couple of days to think about it and ultimately it’s hard to view Real Madrid’s season as anything other than being disappointing considering the money they have spent. On one hand that is cruel to say about a team who did manage 96 points in La Liga but are they the best team to go trophy less in a season or the worst 96 point team in history?

The answer as it is in most cases is somewhere in the middle. In any other league that didn’t have Barcelona in it Real Madrid would of had a cape walk to the league title and Manuel Pellegrini wouldn’t need to update his resume. On the subject of Pellegrini in some ways it’s cruel that he’ll most likely be the one to pay the price by losing his job. Coaching the likes of Villarreal and Real Madrid are two very different things but a period of adjustment is not exactly how Real Madrid do things.

Whatever may happen to Pellegrini there are enough strikes on his resume to justify his dismissal. Losing in the Copa del Rey by a score of 4-0 against 3rd division Alcorcon was just the start. As I mentioned in my Inter post the difference between success and failure is holding a 1-0 lead. Real Madird failed to do this against Lyon and were knocked out of the Champions League, strike two. The heart of a champion was missing from this Real Madrid side. It’s hard to pin point it but against Barcelona it was Barca who had the heart of a Champion, they fought tooth and nail to keep their spot on top in Spain and Real Madrid just weren’t up for the fight. You saw it again on display against Malaga in the final week of the season. Once news hit that Barcelona were winning against Real Valladolid, Real Madrid just took their foot of the gas. When you are playing in a league with Barcelona, talent around is not going to get the job done. There needs to be fight, there needs to be a player who will bark out orders out on the pitch or on the sidlines to keep everyone in line. Real Madrid are a team full of leading actors but no character actors. While the movie poster may look good, the actual movie itself would be doubtful to hold up. This sums much of Real Madrid’s just completed season.

Nike has come out with their latest Ads featuring the likes of Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo. Nice to see Wayne Rooney going for the Tank Abbott look in the picture above.

As many of you already know Oguchi Onyewu has made the headlines by asking A.C Milan to extend his contract for another year at no salary due to him missing just about the entire year due to blowing out his knee while on National team duty.

This says a lot about the character of Onyewu asking A.C Milan to play the 2012-2013 season for free. Hopefully whoever takes over as A.C Milan will at least give Onyewu a shot at earning some playing time over this gesture to the team not to mention he is quite talented. On the flip side if Onyewu doesn’t make the cut at A.C Milan in the next two years they may just release him from his contract but that is me just being a prick so I’ll keep my fingers cross and hope Onyewu turns some heads next season once he is fully fit.

Arsenal will move for £12m-rated Lyon and France keeper Hugo Lloris, but could turn to Shakhtar Donetsk keeper Andriy Piyatov. goal.com

Good to see Arsenal being linked with a top class goalie again. Don’t think Lyon would even think about selling Lloris for 12 million however.

Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas could be Barcelona bound, with the Spanish champions officially approaching the Gunners with a bid that involves Yaya Toure moving the other way in part exchange.
Full story: The Sun

Liking trading in your Porsche and getting back a Pontiac in return.

Arsenal are also set to confirm the signing of Bordeaux striker Marouane Chamakh after the 26-year-old Morocco international arrived in London on Monday to finalise the terms of his deal.
Full story: Daily Mail

Good start to the transfer season for Arsenal once they finally put this free transfer to bed.

Liverpool could lose midfielders Steven Gerrard and Javier Mascherano and striker Fernando Torres in the summer, with the three considering their futures after a turbulent season. Daily Mirror

I know Gerrard is a god to Liverpool fans and he deserves that status but all things must pass. If I’m running Liverpool I’d hitch my wagon to Fernando Torres and keep an open mind to anyone else on the club.

Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez is keen for a return to his first club, Boca Juniors, although Real Madrid are also keen on the Argentina striker. Daily Mirror

Tevez better be careful, he has bounced around from club to club basically all his career. It’s time to find the right club long term.

City boss Roberto Mancini could add defender Phil Jagielka and midfielder Jack Rodwell to his squad, with the Italian willing to pay £32m for the Everton pair. caughtoffside.com

Benfica defender David Luiz could be another new arrival at Eastlands, with Manchester City set to bid £21.5m for the 23-year-old. Daily Telegraph

It was nice of David Luiz to say his heart will always be with Benfica this past weekend. I do hope Manchester City pony up the cash and set Luiz up financially for life. Luiz considering his age is in a different class compared to the Lescott’s and Toure’s of the world.

Manchester United are preparing a club record £50m bid to lure Franck Ribery away from Champions League finalists Bayern Munich. Footylatest.com

Even before the whole underage hooker thing came up Franck Ribery wasn’t having the greatest of seasons. It’s Arjen Robben carrying the Bayern Munich show this year. Bayern Munich would love to get 50 million for a player who is a year away from being a free agent.

United are also keen on Inter Milan’s Argentine midfielder Esteban Cambiasso and are willing to pay £18m for the 29-year-old. caughtoffside.com

A little late in the day for Manchester United to make a move for Cambiasso considering his age but no denying the quality.

West Ham will fend off competition from Birmingham and Sunderland to capture France international Sidney Govou, 30, from Lyon on a free transfer. Daily Mail

Not a bad move for West Ham if they can sign French international Sidney Govou on a free transfer.

Inter Milan will make an official approach for Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez if, as expected, former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho quits the San Siro for Real Madrid in the summer. Daily Mirror

Part of me thinks Jose Mourinho would love the idea of being replaced by Rafa Benitez.

Had a feeling that something bad was going to happen to someone during the FA Cup final and sadly the news has been proven true with Michael Ballack being ruled out of the World Cup due to an ankle injury suffered at the hands of Kevin-Prince Boateng. Let the headlines start over what it’s store for Boateng as his Ghana side will take on Germany in the World Cup.

Despite how I feel about Michael Ballack (always rubbed me the wrong way) it must be heart breaking for him to see the finish line of another World Cup, his final one at that only to have it taken away thanks to a dangerous tackle at the hands of Kevin-Prince Boateng.