Friday, June 6, 2008

Football News: Liverpool turn to Bentley

Liverpool turning to Bentley as Dosenna signs in
Rafa Benitez is reportedly turning to David Bentley as the solution to Liverpool's right wing problems. His chances of securing Bentley have increased due to Mark Hughes leaving, and Blackburns inability to secure European football next season.

Bentley reportedly sees Champions League football or UEFA Cup football at least, as vital to his ambition to cement his place on the right wing for England, as David Beckhams long term replacement.

Liverpool are involved in a major reshuffle, with Riise, Alonso, Kewell, Crouch, Finnan, Pennant, Carson, and Itandje all going or gone. Benitez is reportedly keen to up his quota of English players given the possibility of the 6+5 foreigners rule.

Bentley to Liverpool would be a great signing for Benitez, and give Liverpool some real balance to the side. He'll be expensive but worth it. Kuyt or Bentley on the right - duh!

Ronaldo: Ferguson not welcome here

Ronaldo's position becoming untenable as he tells Ferguson to stay away
Cristiano Ronaldo Manchester UnitedCristiano Ronaldo's move to Real Madrid seemingly took a step closer yesterday, as he made it known he did not wish to see Alex Ferguson at the Portuguese training camp, to discuss the matter.

Given Ronaldo has now also come out and said he would like to move to Madrid, via a Brazilian website, it all stacks up to the player slowly building pressure on Manchester United, in a bid to engineer his move.

What would be really interesting is if the Glazers and Manchester United stick to their guns and let Ronaldo 'rot in the stands' as Ferguson said this week. Personally I would be ecstatic if they did. How good would it be if just for once, a player was made to stick to their contract. Given Ronaldo only signed his latest four year deal last year, United have every right to feel aggrieved.

However I think its a bit rich for them to complain about Real Madrids tactics. I suspect Sir Alex Ferguson is a past master at such tactics and has been using them for years, in order to get his transfer targets from other clubs!

Depressingly for Manchester United fans, it seems that Cristiano Ronaldo is determined to move to Real Madrid, and it is now turning into the story of the summer. The really fascinating part will be how far the Glazers and Manchester United are prepared to go in standing up to Real Madrid and the modern player power being displayed by Cristiano Ronaldo. Let battle commence!

Ronaldo to Madrid: Looking a shoe-in

The mother of all moves edging closer as Ronaldo admits to wanting move to Madrid
Cristiano Ronaldo Manchester UnitedCristiano Ronaldo admitted yesterday (albeit on a Brazilian website), that he would like to move to Real Madrid. There was no word from Sir Alex Ferguson, though Manchester United's Chief Executive David Gill stated that "Our position on Ronaldo remains as set out last week," referring to Ferguson's insistence that the club would rather let the player rot in the reserves than do business with a club who, in their eyes, have brazenly flouted transfer rules and etiquette.

It all seems like its building up to be the mother of all transfer stoushes, probably ending in the mother of all transfers, with a world record fee of 78 million pounds securing Ronaldo's move to Madrid.

Manchester United and it's supporters will be hugely disappointed with Ronaldo, who it appears is determined to engineer the move to Madrid after only two outstanding seasons. However given his recent comments it can come as no surprise.

Overall the Premier League will be very interesting next season, and potentially there will not be a better time for a club to break into the top three or four. Arsenal have lost Flamini and Hleb, Chelsea look likely to lose Drogba and possibly Lampard, while Manchester United certainly look like losing 40 goals a season in Ronaldo.