I bet that idea has already passed through Alberto João Jardim's mind, haha. But, unfortunately, Portugal's team has a lot more issues than just Ronaldo.

I'm glad to see the back of Ronaldo too. I wonder how much of that £80m will be given to Fergie to spend, given the massive debt Man U are in.

At what point will Real Madrid go bankrupt?

theyve had new presidential elections havent they? Theyve got this wonderful democratic system where the chairman is voted in, so theoretically anyone can run (as long as they have several million million million in the bank).

I think next season will be the one where we find out if Berbatov is the player hes cracked up to be, without the goofy portuguese crutch to lean on Man U might have to rely on him for 20-25 goals rather than 10.

jeez they are spending a lot over in spain, how much was it for kaka? anyway, if man u lose tevez too i really dont think they will be as much of a threat for the title next season. i know they will do well (they always do the c*nts) but it might be a season off for them.

I thought Tevez had gone, I suppose they can pay whatever it is for him now. He obviously wants to stay so now the cash is there its hardly worth spending a similar amount on someone who hasnt played in England before

The idea of keeping Berbatov while getting rid of Tevez is just bizarre to me. They're both about as good as one another on their day but I've never seen Tevez give anything other than 100% while Berbatov is notoriously moody and can disappear during games.

think they will go for ribery or someone else but 80m!!! its just so stupid the amounts of money that are floating around nowadays.

Football fans love pointless effort

Bayern Munich have said that they're not remotely interested in selling Riberry. I know all clubs say that but Bayern are financially secure and Riberry seems happy there. I really think Man U will struggle to get any kind of replacement. Ronaldo was unique in his ability to act as a top striker, top winger and dead ball specialist. They'd need three players to compensate for Ronaldo going.

I wonder if Robben might end up being a makeweight in the Ronaldo deal when it eventually gets done, Fergie has always liked him

and Real have been looking at Ribery for a while

Robben is a good call. He'd surely be sidelined within Real by Ronaldo's arrival and he's proven within the premiership.

he is a good player but with the cash that they can spend just about anyone is in line.

i remember when chelsea first splashed the cash. they played wigan and the players chelsea had just on the bench were worth more than the whole of wigan football club as a whole.

Ribéry's interested in leaving, but not for England, as the weather is too similar to Germany. Or so was it reported. Money spending Madrid would be keen on him, and he'd be keen on them.
He says he doesn't know whether he'll stay or go. He had the same approach in 2006/07 at Marseille. And he left.
His word at 3:20.
His joy at 2:17 (you don't need to know French for that part)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RkV5...eature=related

Ronaldo waving bye bye will be pretty much stimulating for Fergusson. He'll like it.

Yeah, but when you're talking about the kinds of players in the same category as Ronaldo you're talking about maybe half a dozen, all of whom are secure within big clubs already. They can't afford Messi, Kaka has already moved to Real and neither Riberry or Ibrahimavic look like they're going anywhere.

In that case Real may be where he's going. they've already hinted that they're going for one more big player this summer and riberry may just be the one.

real wanna be careful not to 'do a leeds' and end up with nothing having spent big and with a massive shortfall.

Agreed, but they've been there before and been bailed out.

A few years back their local council bought their training ground for a few hundred million.

Apparently not:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...cle6478713.ece

i know. i am a leeds fan so i feel the pain every day haha. we are gonna buy it back though, we got a really nice lawnmower the other day too.

possibles:

http://www.teamtalk.com/football/sto...374965,00.html

Torres possibly?!?!

Kaka was €65 million, Ronaldo €94 million.

Perez said he has €300 million to spend, so he's still got €141 million left. David Villa, Franck Ribery, Xabi Alonso... supposedly Real have already offered around €40 million for Villa.

I could easily see Ribery going from Bayern Munich to Real Madrid and then 1-2 Dutch players going the opposite way.
Louis van Gaal is crazy enough to create a Dutch colony in Munich like he did before in Barcelona.

I dreamt about ronaldo last night, or more accurately he was in my dream. How depressing.

i'm depressed at the reality of so many weekends ahead without any football.

This is made to feel worse because there's no F1 this weekend.

I'm in a total sport-less void right now, and it's horrible.

demon..... btcc all day tomorrow.....
le mans 24 hours now and tomorrow...
wexford v kildare in gaa football now (ok cancel the last one)

Thanks.

It's not perfect but for this weekend ITV4 is my friend (Le Mans highlights and TT racing)

I read that as Morrissey singing the line from Reel around the Fountain, the next line would be "and he fell on his arse twice"

Well, there's always the Confederations Cup (starting today) if you're really desperate....
http://www.fifa.com/confederationscup/index.html
It's like methadone maintenance treatment for people like you.


*shrugs and wonders why the hell all the games are being broadcast live on dutch public television*

*Shrugs and wonders whether I should move to Holland for a couple of weeks*

Do it, or you'll have to live the rest of your life knowing you've missed the live coverage of New Zealand v Iraq.


(it's streaming on the BBC website as well, though)


edit:
Torres hattrick vs New Zealand within 17 minutes of kick-off!
http://www.soccerclips.net/videos/sp...zealand-torres

Oh boy, the Kiwi defending is just appalling, especially at the 4-0 and 5-0.

they sell man u tops in urban outfitters i discovered earlier today.

Anyone been paying any attention to the Confederations Cup at all? I haven't watched any full games yet, but I'll probably watch Brazil v Italy tonight.

It's going to be a loud World Cup next year with the South African fans blowing the vuvuzelas for 90 minutes every game.

But the most exciting football news this week was that after South Korea, North Korea have qualified for the 2010 World Cup as well, for he first time in 44 years.

It's going to be a massive party in Pyongyang I'm sure




I really hope they'll get drawn in the same group as the United States (should they qualify) and I wouldn't mind seeing The Netherlands v North Korea too.

I hope and pray that if North Korea get England or USA the opposition fans start singing "Im so Ronerey" during the national anthem.

I can't decide between watching Italy v Brazil or Egypt v USA. I sort of need to be able to support a team in order to watch a match and I really don't care enough about seeing either Italy or Brazil win or lose. I'd love to see Egypt beat the USA though.

Ah yes, Egypt beat those Italians by 1-0 the other day!

HOMOS!!!




... that's the name of the goalscorer I mean, I wasn't referring to the Italian players
http://www.soccerclips.net/videos/eg...0-italy-homos3

I can definitely foresee a few hefty tackles being aimed at the Americans.