Chelsea are apparently back in with a mega offer for Ronaldinho.

If Abramovich's millions are to benefit the English game, surely it is to bring the game's megastars to the Bridge.

How SGE copes with half of his squad playing Premiership Reserve League South football then becomes an interesting question.

Surely the English players being pushed out will go to clubs like Liverpool, Charlton, Newcastle etc., whilst the 15/16/17 year olds will think again about going through the Chelsea youth team. I guess they'll end up at Spurs, Charlton or West Ham as Arsenal's youth system is full of foreigners.

Interesting news T4E. No doubt he'll almost sign for Spurs by tomorrow .

Chelsea's treatment of Ranieri has been deplorable and the way he kept his dignity as the "Dead Man Walking" over the past few months does him every credit.

Absolutely right Jim. I just hope he doesnt settle for the Spurs job.

He'll 'nearly' sign for them just like other managerial candidates Trappatoni, Taylor, Souness, Hughes, Curbishley et al, and players like Van Bommel, Rivaldo.......................... .

Millwall are reported by the People as preparing a bid for Todd.

Andy Todd joining Kevin Muscat and Dennis Wise ??!! . Jesus that's a frightening thought.

Errr, Spanish is an international language. Virtually all of Latin America speaks it, as does an increasing section of the USA, and maybe even the Phillipenes.

I never thought I'd hear myself saying this, but, FIFA needs to step in somehow and lay down the law against what the Ruski is doing.- at least in the interim. Whilst I think that other forces will ultimately bring down that swine in the long-term, Blather needs to protect clubs against the pig at the trough routine that RomanSKI is performing.

Just like they did against Real Madrid over recent years ?. FIFA love Madrid City Council FC so much that they forbade any games to take place on December 18th 2003, so nothing could distract the football world from a friendly celebrating Real's centinary. So how are Madrid City Council FC, who are constantly propped up by various branches of the government different to Chelsea, who are propped up by a wealthy Russian bloke ?. Should they both be punished, or just the one with the most cash ready right now ?.

I agree. It seems that Abramovic wants to create a 'Harlem Globetrotters', and have every great player at Chelsea, along with some good ones. It is clear he is the driving force behind the signings, not the manager, and knows little about the intricacies of managing players' egos or moulding a squad with a clear tactical plan.

It was interesting to see him at the starting grid of the Monaco GP as well.

now the Style Council ?

what a band  

Gotta love the jam though

I don't. Apart from a couple of songs from Stanley Road, I think Paul Weller's music is crap, and Mr. Weller is grossly over rated.

Having said all I have on this thread, if Tugay stayed, that would also be OK. It would leave a daft number of central midfield players at the club, but when on form Tugay is great. Someone in our squad should perhaps leave in the next season or two though, as any promising young central midfielder would not get a chance. I don't know, perhaps we can't lose either way in the long run.

War of the Worlds-HG Wells

Archangel-Robert Harris

The best Democracy money can buy-Greg Palast.

He had to go really.  They've gone backwards since winning the 3 cups in 2001.  When you look at all of his signings, it's a wonder it's taken so long.....

Jan 1999: Jean-Michel Ferri from Istanbulspor £1.5m

Jan 1999: Frode Kippe from Lillestrom £700,000

Jan 1999: Rigobert Song from Salernitana £2.7m

Feb 1999: Djimi Traore from Laval £550,000

May 1999: Sami Hyypia from Willem II £2.6m

Jun 1999: Titi Camara from Marseille £2.8m

Jun 1999: Stephane Henchoz from Blackburn £3.5m

Jun 1999: Sander Westerveld from Vitesse Arnhem £4m

Jul 1999: Dietmar Hamann from Newcastle £8m Jul 1999: Vladimir Smicer from Lens £4m

Mar 2000: Emile Heskey from Leicester £11m

Jun 2000: Bernard Diomede from Auxerre £3m

Jul 2000: Nick Barmby from Everton £6m

Aug 2000: Christian Ziege from Middlesbrough £5.5m

Sep 2000: Gregory Vignal from Montpellier £500,000

Nov 2000: Daniel Sjolund from West Ham £1m

Dec 2000: Igor Biscan from Dynamo Zagreb £5.5m

Jun 2001: John Arne Riise from Monaco £4m

Aug 2001: Milan Baros from Banik Ostrava £3.4m

Aug 2001: Jerzy Dudek from Feyenoord £4.85m

Aug 2001: Chris Kirkland from Coventry £6m

Sep 2001: Anthony Le Tallec and Florent Sinama Pongolle from Le Havre £6m

Jan 2002: Abel Xavier from Everton £800,000

Jun 2002: El-Hadji Diouf from Lens £10m

Jul 2002: Bruno Cheyrou from Lille £3.7m

Aug 2002: Salif Diao from Sedan £5m

Jul 2003: Steve Finnan from Fulham £3.5m

Jul 2003: Harry Kewell from Leeds £5m

£15m for Diouf and Diao - ouch!

Who the hell is Diomede? Does he even exist?

I was watching Michael Palin's Full Circle, and he started at Diomede Island. A small rock inhabited by a few hundred people in the Bering Strait. Maybe Houllier bought that place to set up a new academy like Ajax Cape Town in order to recruit future Sealinhos.

Maybe the 2nd division was more suited to Douglas' style, so he looked better. I don't know, but Donnolly was very highly rated on this site, and I wonder what, if anything has gone a bit off key with him. Perhaps there is another player in the youth team that could fill the creative role better. I'd say Tugay should perhaps go, because we have many central midfielders already, and that by keeping all of Ferguson/Thompson/Flitcroft/Reid/Tugay/Douglas would mean no chance for a promising 18 or 19 year old to play a couple of games.

Maybe we should let Tugay leave, and ease in a youngster to take the more creative role. Donnolly is highly rated, so maybe he can slowly take a place in the squad over the next season.

I'm not a natural for languages, as my GCSE has shown, but I'd like to give Spanish a go sometime. I'd like to learn another language, but my brian is probably geared to history, politics etc., At least I can understand Jean-Paul Satre's ideas (or at least the English translation). That's something to be proud of.

I believe you have to take a language GCSE (which you do exams in at 16), but you can leave it after that. I did German, and was complete sh_t, and got an F. I couldn't handle all the 'nominative case/accusative case' nonsense and how it changed Der/Die/Das (the equivilent of 'the') into Dienien, Weimar, Monkeynuts or whatever.

Anyway, Norweigen is an obscure language on the world stage, only native to Norway. French, English and Spanish, the latter of which does not seem to be taught in many schools for some reason, are more widely spoken.

Houllier's impending departure is potentially excellent news for Rovers.

That means there will be two fantastic coaches looking for jobs this summer - Houllier, who is already based in the North West, and Ranieri, who has already stated his desire to continue working in England.

I'd love to see either of them in charge at Ewood.

Now comes the difficult bit - have the Rovers board got the gumption to replace clueless Souness, or will they do nothing and leave that decision (which will have to be taken when we run into more problems next season anyway) in the "too difficult" file?

If the board are doing their job properly they should act now.

Well Jim, you'd be happy to look at our recent reputation for hiring ex-Liverpool managers (i.e. Dalglish and Souness), or ex-managers of teams from Liverpool if you want to include Howard Kendall.

Personally, I'd rather not have Gerard here, his teams are dull and I think he'd sign just as much foreign rubbish instead of letting the youth come through.

It's quite interesting putting (real) faces to usernames. This picture caught my eye.

What the hell is going on here ?. Is he a real Bishop ?.

I'm glad there is another person here that doesn't think the sun shines out of his bum. I quite like The Smiths, and his new song is pretty good, but he seems a bit of a tw_t as a person. He was boring and quite arrogant when he was on Jonothan Ross, and hopefully he won't do many more interviews. Morrissey is an idol to anti-social types who want to sit in their bedroom all day and avoid human contact.

I find it intriguing how:

Keegan really admires Cole

and

Souey really admires Fowler

Stop it with that talk !. Stop it now. I'll personally rip out Souness' heart and eat it if a swap happens, and we fail to get a left winger.

Now that he and Stead have struck up a useful partnership I hope he stays for one more year, then goes to the MLS/Qatar or wherever for a last hurrah. I'd have sold him if we didn't get Stead.

Who gives a Peter Reid about Smith ?. He's a hard working, yet over rated angry lad with a bad hair-do.

You forgot the lipstick.

No, you're confusing him with Richie Neville, of boyband Five fame.

Who gives a Peter Reid about Smith ?. He's a hard working, yet over rated angry lad with a bad hair-do. He's a Leeds fan who just wants to play at the highest level. His ambition is slightly higher than his sense of duty to his favourite club. Most football players are like this. Smith wants to play for England, and unless you're calamity James, it's not an option to be in the 1st division putting away goals against Burnley and Rotherham.

It's that tit Man Boobs Viduka who is the real splitter out of the strikers Leeds have. Marc's ego and inflated sense of value has inhibited his role to Leeds' cause much more than Smith. By constantly whining like a spoilt bitch off the pitch, and being so inconsistent on the field, he has caused far more damage than Smith's 'disloyalty'.

Like I said, whoever forks out the £5m+ for the over rated Smith is wasting their cash.

He's like a time bomb waiting to go off?

Bulls****!! Why do people have a go at him, like he is some sort of psycho?

1. Having a punch-up with Stan Collymore after the half/full time whistle blows.

2. Having a punch-up with Dean Kiely

3. Kicking Dugarry up the arse (even if it was funny)

4. Having a punch-up with a Charlton coach

5. Whatever he did at Bolton to get him sacked (probably involved a punch-up)

6. Throwing a wobbler after being told he's on the bench.

These suggest that Andy Todd is somewhat unstable, and is indeed a timebomb. And I think you're still upset that Souness sacked that stale turd Gillespie.

If Taylor plays................7-2 to Blackburn. Stead will rip him a new butthole and get a hat trick.

Personally, I don't care as long as it's an entertaining game.

Rivaldo to Celtic now ?.

And Prso to Rangers ?

Bolton must hate the Old Firm if both of these come about.