The Suffering

Tevez is at it again. This is someone who's agent/owner told us that, after an offer had been on the table for ten day, he needed more time to think about it:

"My family knows how much I suffered at United. I could not arrive home after a match or a training session and forget my pain. It was not good and I transmitted all my sadness to them."

Sounds like he could have made a pretty instant decision. Considering Tevez's upbringing I'm a little puzzled that being left on the bench can make him use words like "suffering" and "pain".
Antonio Valencia is looking like a done deal, The Guardian and The Independent suggest he'll be having his medical today, The Mirror claim he passed it yesterday.
The Sun tell us that Van der Sar will retire at the end of the season.

Forwardirektion:

An actual thing in the papers today. Something tangible. An interview with Wayne Rooney in The Times. It's a good interview as well. There's a lot of good quotes in it, so well worth reading in its entirety. I've often complained about the way the papers go overboard about Rooney's behaviour on the pitch and there's an interesting bit in the interview which might help explain that:

Ferguson’s concern when he signed him as an 18-year-old was that the media wanted to turn Rooney into “your next Beckham, your next Gascoigne, your next George Best”, which is to say a figure whose life is played out on the front pages. But, if Rooney has been a disappointment to anyone, it is to the editors of tabloid newspapers, who reluctantly acknowledge that he and Coleen, his childhood sweetheart, are just a happy, normal, young married couple, albeit with a large disposable income.

“As a professional footballer, you try to stay out of trouble,” Rooney said. “And the older you get, the more you try to set a good example rather than a bad example. My family and Coleen’s family both help us keep our feet on the ground. Becoming parents is a big thing for us. It’s something that you go through as you’re growing up and I’m delighted that I’m going to be a dad. We don’t know what we’re having yet, but we’re really looking forward to it.

“Anyone who knows me knows I’m a quiet guy. After training or after a game, I just go home, play on the Xbox, watch TV or whatever, just stay out of trouble. On the pitch I’m a competitor and when you’re playing in the biggest league in the world, especially when I was starting at such a young age, there are a lot of emotions.

“I’ve worked on that. Sometimes I get a booking or do something and it’s all over the papers or on the news or whatever. I see other players doing ten times worse and nothing is mentioned. But I understand it"

The disappointment that he doesn't misbehave off the pitch translates to an obsession with projecting misbehaviour onto him on the pitch.

There's also a good bit where, after saying he's "still gutted" about the Champions League Final, he looks forward to next season:

“For me personally, next season could be the season that transforms me from someone who could be a great player into someone who is a great player,” Rooney said. “That’s what I’m hoping. It’s a massive season for the club and for me personally, with the prize at the end of it being the World Cup. It’s a season which I want to grab with both hands.

“I want to play in the position where I feel I’m best. A lot of people think I’m best as a centre forward. I think I can fill the gap left by Cristiano and Carlos Tévez and I’m sure that, if I can play in my right position, I will do that.

“To play in a Champions League final and to play week in, week out for Manchester United is a privilege and it’s something I’m very lucky to be doing, but I don’t think playing on the wing I can express myself as much as I like to.”

Tevez should have been saying this type of thing instead of moaning about not being treated in the special way he seemed to think was his right. Rooney is played out of position but still gives his all, and looks forward to meeting the challenge of next season.

I also like this bit:

Rooney is asked whether he felt like he had been asked to do Ronaldo’s dirty work, a drone to his former team-mate’s queen bee. “I wouldn’t say dirty work because Cristiano is such a talent, he can score from anywhere, so you try to accommodate him as a team,” he said. “As a team, we accommodated him because we knew he could win matches for us. Now that he has gone, we will have to score more goals between us, but I feel like I’m capable of scoring a lot of goals.”

It reminds me of when Van Nistlerooy left and everyone wondered where the goals would come from, but it turned out that it was a blessing in disguise because instead of the team being set up to provide for one person to score, the whole team took on the responsibility of scoring and we became better for it. The loss of Ronaldo could well prove a similar blessing. And again Rooney's casual acceptance of the challenge is refreshing.
And now onto the usual rubbish... Not sure what to make of this in The Mirror, not seen it anywhere else, but they sound pretty confident:

Luis Antonio Valencia flew in last night to complete his dream £16million move to Manchester United - and end Sir Alex Ferguson's wait for a first signing of the summer.

Ecuadorian ace Valencia cut short a break back in his homeland to make the trip and will have a medical at Old Trafford today while his contract details are sorted out.

Guess we'll see. And just before I hit the "publish" button I check Sky Sports News, who describe the move as "imminent" - a paper getting something right...
Benzema, Villa rubbish from The Daily Star.

Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore

I'm getting used to a certain amount of stupidity in the papers every day this summer, almost yearning for the halcyon days when we just had Ronaldo to Real rumours everyday, but today's stories reach new levels straw-grasping.
Sick of peddling tales of which superstar us and Chelsea and Madrid and Man City are chasing - there's only so many days you can repeat the same nothing stories before they get really tired (though to be fair the papers have managed a good month out of the same nothing), today we have Arsenal entering the fray for not only Benzema but Ribery as well...
Elsewhere, recycled from last weekend, we're after Jack Rodwell. The Mail on Sunday bring us news that we're interested in Aguero, really? that's new...
It's not only news that's being recycled, Mark Ogden in The Telegraph remixes an article he wrote 4 days ago and places it before us again today. It wasn't worth reading the first time and nothing's changed today...
Most extreme bias of the day goes to the News of the World who headline this story:

FIFA president Blatter will introduce a rule to prevent big clubs selecting top kids from abroad until they are 18.

"FIFA crackdown on United."
Yawns - and that's the papers... well worth it.

I've Been Trying

Lifting my not-talking-about-Ronaldo-or-Tevez embargo for a day. For Ronaldo because of these statements:

A statement on Madrid's website read: "Real Madrid and Manchester United have signed a final agreement for the transfer of the rights of Cristiano Ronaldo from July 1.

"The player will be tied to Real Madrid for the next six seasons and will be presented on July 6 at the Santiago Bernabeu."

United said on their website: "Cristiano Ronaldo's departure is all but done and dusted after Real Madrid and Manchester United finalised the agreement for his transfer on Friday evening.

"The Portuguese winger was the subject of a world record £80 million offer from the Spanish club on Thursday 11 June. He has since been on holiday but a return to work with new employers now beckons, with the sale set to be completed on Wednesday 1 July."

For Tevez because he's quoted in the papers today about his reasons for leaving - I'll quote the meat:

"Ever since Berbatov was signed, I felt like I was being left aside.
"He arrived and he had his place in the starting line-up guaranteed."

A few facts (cribbed from here) - In his first season Tevez started 39 games. In his second 34. In his first he started 6 European games, in his second, 4. Berbatov started 36 games this season, 5 in Europe. Not really much difference is there? Yes Tevez played less Premier League games in his second season than his first season, and less than Berbatov. But to say that Berbatov somehow prevented him playing, like it didn't matter what Berbatov did. His previous complaint about not starting big games, couldn't Berbatov make the same complaint (6 players started 10 or more European games)? The rest of the quote is equally silly:

"When I arrived at United, I knew I had to adapt and fight for my place.

"We won many things. But in the second year, I had a problem and I had to travel to Buenos Aires.

"I went back to Manchester and we played Liverpool.

"I started alongside Berbatov and we also had Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo. I scored our only goal but we lost 2-1.

"The following week, they all started and I was benched. I felt from that moment on, Ferguson started to relegate me in the pecking order.

"I suffered a lot during this last season. I feel they didn't respect me. But I always had a great relationship with Ferguson. He called a few days ago and told me he wanted to have me for next season."

First season he knew he had to fight for his place, there was no guarantee. Why in the second season doesn't he recognise the same? Why does he think that he should have a guaranteed place. Is that why he was down "the pecking order"? Because he wasn't trying? And the "I suffered a lot?" Jesus. Drama queen. He's probably better suited to a club where he won't have to "fight for his place" because there's less quality there, Man City seems like a perfect fit, he wouldn't want to "suffer" by having to compete with Drogba and Anelka would he?
And here's a very stupid "story" from The Independent - how to report nothing whatsoever -

Sergio Aguero's agent claims he knows nothing about Manchester United's supposed interest in the Atletico Madrid striker. ...

"I have no information about this offer from Manchester United," Segui told Calciomercato.it. "I have not been contacted by anyone, nor by other teams.

"I have not read president Cerezo's comment, the only thing I can say with certainty is that the player wants to stay at Atletico.

"Inter? I have not had any conversations with them.

"Honestly, I don't know if Atletico have met other clubs."

Papers make up stories and then express surprise when there isn't any fact in their story...

As a special bonus, because choosing the post title reminded me just how amazing the tune is, here's The Impressions, "I've Been Trying" -



Keep on trying...

The Great Gig in the Sky

Nice video compilation of the highlights from last season. Some pleasant memories, one thing in particular I was reminded of, Nani scored a couple of great goals. He's still got potential On the downside, it reminds me of how good Ronaldo is...
Anyway. Enjoy...

News and Tributes

Yesterday I blamed the lack of stories on the fact that I'd posted late the day before and covered some of them then. Not sure what the reason is today but everyone seems to have the same stories I was running with yesterday. Let something new happen soon. Please...
The Daily Star run a Benzema story which is absolutely baseless, we're "closing in" on him apparently...
The Mirror run "Man Utd closing in on David Villa" - everyone else runs "Villa says he's staying in Spain".
The Mirror also make up a story about us offering Nani to Wigan in (part) exchange for Valencia.
The Sun run with Ribery going nowhere.
New kit unveiled - The Sun tries to stoke up controversy.
And finally something worth reading. In a tribute to Steven Wells, who died on Tuesday, The Guardian looks back at some of his sport writing which includes this incredible description of Rooney at 16 -

"The most disgusting thing I've ever heard on the radio was this explorer type recalling how he and his chum got a bit peckish up the Amazon one day and so decided to off a crocodile-like beast called a broad-snouted caiman. So they popped a cap in the mother's ass and dragged the corpse to the shore. Where it twitched.

"So they cut the head off with a chainsaw. And still it twitched.

"So they hauled the brute up and started to skin it. But every time the knife made contact with the scaly skin, the decapitated monster scratched desperately at the wound with one of its hideous claws. So - with mounting horror - they whipped out the chainsaw and carved the beast into handy kebab-sized chunks. And guess what? Yes, that's right - every single steaming piece of freshly butchered flesh carried on twitching!

" I can't help thinking about that monster every time I gaze upon the face of young Wayne Rooney.

"Look at his eyes! Have you ever seen deader eyes? Even on a dead person? Even on, like, a dead person with no eyes? They say that the eyes are the windows of the soul - but looking into Wayne Rooney's reptilian pits is like staring into Nietzsche's abyss. There is no humanity there, or compassion. There's only the message, beamed loud and clear: "I outlived the dinosaurs and I will outlive your kind too, human. And my offspring will lay their eggs in your children's flesh-stripped bones. Now come a bit nearer the water's edge so I can bite yer frickin' legs off."

Days like this I wish more sports writers could write like this...

Small Steps Against Inertia

As if there isn't scarce enough stories to write about, the fact that I've stopped writing about Ronaldo and Tevez means there's even less to write about. Add the fact that sleeping in yesterday and not writing the round up till late means I covered some of today's stories yesterday and today is a very quiet day.
Covered yesterday, Valencia to decide where he's going when he gets back off holiday.
Substance of the story covered yesterday, Atletico want a boatload of cash for Aguero.
Two stories which might mean we have a boatload of cash going spare for Aguero - Ribery wants to join Real according to his agent:

Bayern insist Ribery is not for sale, but Alan Migliaccio claims his client has not given up on a move to the Bernabeu this summer.

"Ribery would prefer to play for Real Madrid than Barcelona," he told RAC-1. "The player has talked with Zinedine Zidane and he wants to play for Los Blancos for him.

"But at this moment everything is blocked because the people at Bayern are on holiday until the end of this month.

"I can't say anything else until we meet them in the next few weeks."

And Real are joining the "race" to sign Benzema:

Real Madrid are set to hijack Manchester United’s bid to land Karim Benzema after claiming they have given up the chase for Valencia’s David Villa.

Lyon striker Benzema is considering whether to leave France or stay and maintain his excellent form in World Cup year.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson is a huge admirer of his talents and has been for some time. Madrid had made Villa their No.1 striking target as club president Florentino Perez continues his relentless march towards packing the Spanish side with Galacticos.

But Valencia maintain they will not sell Villa unless they receive a massive offer and Real Madrid are unwilling to pay above £36million

On the other side of the transfer stories, Sir Alex recommends Hull to Frazier Campbell:

[Phil] Brown said: ‘Sometimes a young lad’s head can get turned by interest from other clubs but the beauty of the whole deal is that I firmly believe Sir Alex Ferguson has the lad's best interests at heart.

'For him to recommend to Fraizer that Hull City is the best move for him speaks volumes for us. Hopefully he’ll take a lot of notice of that advice.’

And that's the lot.
No, wait... Just noticed another in the nick of time, on Douglas Costa:

The 18-year-old Brazilian is a target for Sir Alex Ferguson, who had been keen to see the player in action before sanctioning an £18m bid.

United have been tracking Costa for some time and wanted to bring him to England for a 20-day trial period. However, Gremio's president, Duda Kroeff, has rejected the idea, insisting he is too good for such a proposal.

"We have said to them [Manchester United] that this will not happen," said Kroeff. "Douglas is not at the stage where he would go through such a situation."

Douglas has played fewer than 20 first-team games for Gremio, but he has shone for Brazil at youth level, which has seen him attract interest from a number of clubs in Europe.

Memo To Pricey

A new figure emerges in the transfer rumours today - Atletico Madrid's Sergio Aguero:

Sir Alex Ferguson has turned his sights on the young Argentine star after giving up on Valencia’s David Villa, who is expected to join Real Madrid.

Aguero – nicknamed Kun – has scored 37 leeague goals in the last two years for Atletico and is only still 21.

Chelsea have already made contact over the talented striker, but were put off by his £200,000-a-week wage demands.

But Fergie is hoping that Aguero will lower those as he would get the chance to play for one of the biggest clubs in the world.

The £80m United will get for Cristiano Ronaldo is starting to burn a hole in Fergie’s pocket.

United would be prepared to offer Aguero, who is married to Diego Maradona’s daughter, a five year deal at £120,000 a week, but again hope the lure of Old Trafford would be enough to attract him.

The Telegraph suggest he may be expensive, and not just in the wages department, saying that Atletico

will not sell sublime Argentine Sergio Aguero for less than £50million. ...

Atletico president Enrique Cerezo admits he is powerless to stop his best player leaving if a bid matches his buy-ouy clause, which, with taxes, is almost £55m.

United will want to knock at least £10m off that figure but Cerezo has a mandate from his board to stand firm and they are well aware that the English club will have £100m to spend when Real Madrid complete the £80m signing of Ronaldo in the next few days.

Cerezo said: 'We will not sell. We have a good team and we will strengthen it in every way that we can.

'We are absolutely calm, not afraid of anything or anyone. We have contracts that we respect and we hope others respect them.

More likely seem the arrival of Valencia, with the Mail having some words from Dave Whelan:

Latics chairman Dave Whelan confirmed he has received 'acceptable' offers for the Ecuador international but no talks have been held yet.

'United and Real Madrid both know he is away,' said Whelan. 'We can't do anything until he gets back. Where he goes is entirely up to him.

'It's no good me saying he is going to Manchester United because he is the boss and we'll be listening to what he says. We have had offers that are acceptable to Wigan Athletic, around the £14-18 million mark but what we will finish up with eventually I don't know.

Casillas doesn't appear to be coming, which is a surprise...

Reports in the both the Spanish and English media suggested United were looking to invest some of the £80m they are set to receive from Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo on Casillas. However, Casillas was quoted by AS as saying: "There is absolutely nothing, neither from United nor another club. Neither my agent nor Madrid have informed me of any offer, and nobody has called me either."

The 28-year-old has been a regular for his hometown club since making his debut in 1999. In February 2008 he signed a new contract, tying him to Real until the completion of the 2016-17 season, and the Spain captain insists he is looking to see the deal through.

"I have a contract with Madrid until 2017 and what I'm thinking about is completing it. Everybody knows Madrid are in my heart and that I'm a White until I die. I joined Real Madrid as a child and Madrid is my home."

Mark Ogden, in The Telegraph, has two articles, both of which I had to check the date of, just to check they weren't from a couple of weeks ago. First one suggests that Tevez might not have been worth £25 million. Second one suggests that finding a striker might not be too easy. Neither is really worth reading, just rehashing everything that's been written in the last couple of weeks.
Finally, a non transfer story - Jack Rodwell looks up to Rio Ferdinand:

“The person I look up to is Rio Ferdinand.

“I have always played at the back and from a young age I have always looked at him and wanted to play like him.

“As I have come to this age I have started to play in midfield and I believe that Rio did the same when he was younger then moved back to centre-half.

“I have heard the comparisons between me and Rio. It’s brilliant to be compared with such a player as that and I try to base my own game on the way he plays.”

Way More Brazil

Today Ronaldo has completed his Real Madrid medical, which you can read about here, I've decided that seeing as Ronaldo has all but gone I'll stop writing about him or quoting him, unless there's something concerning Man United there.
The only stories of note today are concerning Brazilians. Douglas Costa being one of them, The Times reporting:

Manchester United have opened talks with Grêmio about signing Douglas Costa, their highly rated Brazil Under-20 attacking midfield player, as Sir Alex Ferguson steps up his search for the new Cristiano Ronaldo.

Douglas, 18, has been closely monitored by United for more than a year, but despite interest from a host of leading European clubs including Real Madrid and Inter Milan, Ferguson is confident of signing the player this summer as the Barclays Premier League champions continue to look to Brazil for potential stars of the future. ...

Douglas is rumoured to have a £21 million release clause in his contract with Grêmio, which has four years left to run, but United hope to secure him for less than that. Any deal would be dependent on the player getting a work permit. ...

“There have been informal conversations and I believe United would match those values,” Cesar Bottega, Douglas’s agent, said yesterday. “At the end of the Brasileirão [the South American league championship that ends in December], Douglas will be worth at least twice that.”

Other papers (The Telegraph for example) have the same story but have it as we're being "priced out" of a move for him.

Both the above stories say that "it is reported" that we've done a deal for Dodo, Brazilian defender, who'll arrive in January, the reports say.

The Mirror have us in for a Brazilian striker, Nilmar:

Brazilian striker Nilmar is being tracked by Manchester United as they weigh up a £20million bid.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson badly needs to strengthen his attacking options after losing both Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez this summer.

And the exciting Nilmar, 24, is one option as they look to revamp their squad.

And that's the lot.

Stop the Nonsense

Very quiet day today. Sir Alex is back from his holiday soon though so I guess we can expect some movement, or at least more rumours of movement in the coming days.
The most interesting story today is on Tevez in The Mirror:

Carlos Tevez agreed to join Manchester City TWO WEEKS ago - and will complete the £47.5 million transfer in the next few days.

Tevez decided to quit Manchester United long before the end of the season because he felt Sir Alex Ferguson did not fancy him enough to be a 'first pick' and his handlers sorted out terms with their rivals.

City agreed to pay the £25.5 million asking price of his 'owners' and will also hand the Argentinian forward around s100,000-a-week for the next five seasons in a staggering pay day.

Tevez's agents have admitted privately that the City move was thrashed out in top-level meetings in the Middle East and in Manchester well in advance of United's final attempt to keep him.

United came up with the asking price and made a contract offer, but the Tevez camp did not even ask for more cash as they had already made up their minds to go.

The United negotiations have been merely window dressing, with the Old Trafford club also keen to be seen to be making the effort - even if they were fearing the outcome was inevitable.

We have to be careful about the veracity of anything in the papers so I guess it's a case of can we believe this? Yes, I would say. Whether the content of this is true, it strikes me as true that he had already made up his mind to go before the offer from us was made. On the one hand the Tevez camp says he wanted more time to consider our offer, on the other hand they say he was unhappy about his treatment and not playing the big games. The two don't really fit easily together. If he didn't like our treatment of him then that would lead one to suspect that he didn't want to stay, especially if it's not about the money, as the Tevez camp is so fond of telling. The only way the two things fit together is if he wanted more time to consider our offer alongside other offers, to see what money was being offered where. Of course I'm biased in the matter, so I choose to believe the worst case scenario...
The other "major" story is on Benzema. The Mirror has us ready to make our move:

SIR Alex Ferguson is ready to rebuild his shattered strike force with a £30million bid for French star Karim Benzema.

The Manchester United boss returns from holiday this week and will try to patch up his depleted squad with his biggest summer transfer splurge ever.

Fergie wants to do a Benzema deal quickly after losing Carlos Tevez at the weekend when the Argentine rejected a new five-year contract.

He also has to do the impossible and replace World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo.

Benzema is United’s prime target and despite publicly resisting a transfer, Lyon are already making moves to replace their 21-year-old striker.

Lyon have made a £10m bid for Paris saint-Germain striker Guillaume Hoarau in readiness for a mega-money deal with United

Hoarau has scored 17 goals in 32 league matches last season, earning a France call-up and is a natural replacement for Benzema.

Which sounds pretty positive for us. But then The Telegraph weigh in with some words from Benzema's agent:

But the player's agent, Karim Djaziri, has warned Ferguson that he faces a battle to persuade the Frenchman to move to Old Trafford this summer after admitting that Benzema is reluctant to leave Lyon before next year's World Cup.

"Karim is on holiday at the moment and he is not thinking of moving," he said. "He wants to stay in France for another year so that he can prepare for the World Cup and I think that Sir Alex knows this. Perhaps he wants to make an offer to Lyon. If that happens, then Karim will think about it, but as things stand, Karim wants to stay with Lyon for another year."

Perhaps this is just the agent trying to get a better deal for his player, by playing the, "but he don't really want to leave, make him an offer he can't refuse," card. Don't really see what difference it makes in which country he prepares for the World Cup in. It'll probably be better preparation playing with our quality, against better opposition, than staying in France (I say that acknowledging I know little about Lyon or French football generally). After that the article goes really downhill, making a ridiculous comparison:

When Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andrei Kanchelskis disappeared through the Old Trafford exit door during the summer of 1995, a Manchester Evening News phone poll asking "Should Fergie be sacked?" resulted in 56 per cent of respondents answering "yes".

Not only had Ferguson lost three hugely influential and popular players, his critics among the club's supporters suggested he had also "lost the plot" with his plan to replace them with untried youngsters by the name of Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes and David Beckham.

Only a little over the top, I'm sure if there was a similar poll today, there'd be a pretty large majority in Sir Alex's favour. The paper's seem really keen to portray Tevez leaving as some sort of huge loss on the scale of Ronaldo going. It isn't.

The Mirror has Marcel Desailly praising Ribery, advising us to buy him no matter what the price:

“I would put him in the top two wingers in the world. It’s Cristiano Ronaldo and then straight away after it’s Ribery.

“He has the same style as Ronaldo because he can dribble past you. He will be less of a show-off than Ronaldo but when you put him in a collective he will make a difference.” ...

“We are talking about talent and there’s no price on that. If tomorrow you are going to pay £150m for a player it would not be a problem because football is continuing to grow worldwide.

“At the moment he’s one of the best and there are only two in the market. One is available. I would pay, no matter the price.

“Look, Manchester need him. Scholes is getting older, Giggs is getting older. They need another player to replace Ronaldo.

“Playing at Bayern gives Ribery potential but not like playing in one of the top three leagues. Let’s give him the opportunity to show he’s capable of delivering performances in the Premier League.”

Stupidest "article" of the day goes to this in The Mail (it's on the website anyway, whether its in the paper I don't know, I'd hope not...):

Manchester United last night stepped up their attempt to sign France’s Karim Benzema in a £35million deal.

Sir Alex Ferguson has been tracking the Lyon striker for four years and expectation is growing in France that he is ready to move.

Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas said last week that his club will struggle to hold on to 21-year-old Benzema and club adviser Bernard Lacombe admitted: ‘If United
want to buy Karim then what can you do?’

And that's the story. All of it. So where in the last 2 paragraphs is the evidence to support the statement that we "last night" (note how specific that is) "stepped up" our "attempt to sign" Benzema. There's nothing but a quote from "last week" from Lyon. It makes absolutely no sense. Which is not much of a departure from standard Daily Mail practice I guess...

I Love Cash

The Sunday Times has an article on Tevez and a good round-up of possible replacements. Though in an effort to make his loss sound greater than it is the writer is led to saying some stupid stuff:

United now have more than £105m to spend, principally to cover the gap left by the depature of Ronaldo and Tevez. They leave a big gap, too. Sir Alex Ferguson operated last season with four front-rank strikers — Tevez, Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov. Now he’s down to two. For a team whose third consecutive Premier League title was widely credited to their having a more profound and varied squad than either Liverpool or Chelsea, United now look sparse up front. Between them, Ronaldo and Tevez scored more league goals last season than the combined efforts of Rooney and Berbatov — and that with Ronaldo injured for a significant period and Tevez complaining that he did “not feel part of the family”.

I like this tagging of Tevez onto Ronaldo coat tails. Ronaldo is certainly a loss, but Tevez? The very next paragraph gives the lie to this one:

Tevez scored just five goals in the Premier League, but was valued for his industry and his unselfishness. It can be assumed United reached their threshold in negotiations with MSI confident that they can find better value up front.

The Independent make the interesting point that even Tevez must have realised he wasn't good enough:

United's desperation to tie up the deal, which they had agreed to in principle a year ago but allowed to slip, was apparent in the revelation that Gill had offered Tevez and Joorabchian the £25m transfer plus a £110,000-a-week salary that would, in a five-year deal, put him alongside Rio Ferdinand among the club's highestpaid players.
That Tevez should have sacrificed all that shows he was unconvinced that he would be given a leading role at United next season – despite the impending departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid.

He's such a loss that he wouldn't have played a central part in the team next season...
So maybe Tevez didn't want to stay because he knew next season would be the same for him as last season, his owner/agent/whatever, prefers the narrative of the past, and us screwing him over:

Tevez wanted time to consider the offer, Joorabchian said, but when the club insisted on an immediate answer Tevez decided to walk away. “If it was, let’s say, Wayne Rooney’s contract finishing six months before, or Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract, would they have offered a better deal to them at that time or would they have tried to secure their services a bit sooner? He has that little bit of a feeling that maybe he wasn’t the most wanted person at United.
“United made a fantastic contribution to try to secure him with a last-ditch offer but it was a little bit too late and there wasn’t enough time for Carlos to think about it. Over two years there was a lot of talk about signing him but we never actually got to the point of receiving any offers. The United offer came about 10 days ago. It was the loan price of £9m plus the final option price of £25.5m. They made him a good contract but Carlos needed time.”

Ronaldo's just left the club, so why does he bring that into it? And then there's the disparity between the offer being made 10 days ago and Tevez, after ten days, wanting more time. And that's to stay where he is. Not to make an active decision, but a passive one. And it's not about money...
And so to Ronaldo who's given the first interview since the transfer became reality. The News of The World seems to have the most extensive coverage. With excerpts on Rooney/Man Utd/Sir Alex, going to Madrid and fans, and then the stupid headline grabbing story, shock, horror, Ronaldo decided to go last year:

"When did you know you would be going to Real Madrid?"

His reply will astonish United fans: "After we won the European Cup."

United's penalty shoot-out victory over Chelsea in Moscow was on May 21, 2008. Yet on May 24, 2009 - a year later - he insisted: "Manchester United is my home. Even when I say my heart is here people still make things up. But this is where I want to play."

Ronaldo told us: "After we won the European Cup I thought there is no more I can achieve here. And when you have done all you can, you know it is time for a new challenge. I stayed one more season and it was nice to make it three titles in a row but it was my dream to play for Madrid."

Now we didn't know that did we? There was no saga last summer about Ronaldo wanting to leave was there? Ronaldo never ever said he wanted to play for Real Madrid did he? This type of article is just plain daft, trying to find shock where there is none, it even quotes Ronaldo at the end saying:

"Anything that has not been right with the move is my fault and nothing to do with Real Madrid or Manchester United. I opened my mouth and that is what caused the problems between the two clubs who both acted in the correct way. Yes, I would have handled things differently and not been so public."

So in an article telling us what a shock it is that Ronaldo decided to go last year, we have Ronaldo telling us he was wrong to come out publicly as wanting to go last year. If you go down the road of faux-shock, at least don't put in the contradictory quotes. And as there's 2 more stories with quotes from Ronaldo, why didn't they put that quote in of the others?
The other stories contain some good quotes from Ronaldo, who says all the right things. I'll quote the best from the 2 stories - on Sir Alex:

He says: "I have said many times that it is the relationship a son has with a father. He respects me and I respect him and when one of us is talking, the other ones listens. It is not a one-sided relationship. We both hear each other out and that is why we have got on so well.

"He taught me everything about football and I have never met a man who is so passionate about the game after so many years.

"He instilled that passion into me and he made me a winner. The most important thing he taught me is that second place is not an option.

"He also taught me lots of things in order to make me a better person and people might not understand how much time he invest in players off the pitch. But he really does and he cares about each and everyone of us.

"In an ideal world. I would like him to be my life coach and for me to never leave him but that is not possible and I just have to continue my journey and hold on to what he has taught me."

On Rooney:

"Without a doubt, he can become the best player in the world. There are lots of players who are a delight to watch but how many make it look as easy as him?

"We had a great relationship and that is the sort of quality of player you want to be playing with. In training, he can volley a ball from 30 yards away and miss your head by one inch every time.

"It might not sound a big thing but that is how accurate he is all the time. He will be one of the world's best for many years. The natural talent is there but he cares as well and will never give up."

On Man United fans:

"I really could not have asked for any more from them. There were times when the whole of England was against me but they stood strong in their support and belief for me.

"While opposition fans' hate made me stronger, the love of the United support also made me stronger.

"I just want to say thank you for all their support. I will never forget them and I hope I have given them memories that will always be with them."

And on Man United:

"It would not feel right to play for anybody else in England apart from Manchester United. They have been my home for so long and it would feel like I was cheating if I played for anybody else."

He also tips us to win the league next year.
Onto the transfer rumours. Benzema is available if the money is silly, according to Lyon:

"Benzema is with us, but nobody knows what will happen. We didn't think Michael Essien would leave at the time, but when Chelsea arrived with the cheque . . .

"If Manchester United, who as we know have plenty of cash available, want to buy Benzema, then what can you do?"

What that figure is though is open to speculation, the above story says:

Lyon have admitted that a £25m offer would be enough to tempt them.

Which, given the quote they didn't. But I like that figure more than The People's figure:

The French club suggested a £40million bid for the striker, 21, would be accepted. It would be some compensation for United after the bitter pill of losing Tevez.

The Times suggests Ribery may be available for a figure less than the previously reported figures, but warns about the Madrid factor:

Ribery has pace, clever ball control, imagination and courage. Like Benzema, he would be raising the level of his week-in, week-out game by coming to England, but he is keen to move on somewhere, although the destination may well be Spain. Bayern will sell Ribery if the price exceeds £40m but the question they want to hear being asked around United, Chelsea and Barcelona is whether, or when, Real Madrid will gazump their best offer.

The Daily Star say we want Eto'o. The People say we don't want to pay his demands:

Manchester United's bid to land Samuel Eto'o could fall apart with the player demanding a staggering £12.5million signing-on fee.

The Barcelona star (above) wants to cash in on any move away from the Nou Camp, with his contract having only one year left to run and the transfer fee at £22million.

But the huge golden handshake could easily dissuade United.

The People also link us with Everton's Jack Rodwell:

Manchester United are targeting Everton and England Under-21 star Jack Rodwell.

United scouts have kept a close eye on Rodwell, and boss Sir Alex Ferguson has received glowing reports about the versatile 18-yearold, who is on duty with Stuart Pearce's squad at the European U21 Championship in Sweden.

With FIFA keen to pursue the '6+5 rule' - at the start of each league match, clubs must field at least six players eligible to represent the national team of the country in which the league is based - Fergie wants to maintain a core of English players at Old Trafford.

Sensing Rodwell's huge potential, Everton moved quickly to upgrade his contract and the teenager recently signed a five-year deal.

That will not deter Ferguson - just as it didn't put him off clinching a £27million deal to capture Wayne Rooney from Goodison five years ago.

And with cash-strapped Everton still vulnerable to attractive offers for their stars, the Southport-born youngster has emerged as a serious United target.

Vidic's going to get a pay rise according to the News of The World:

The player is contracted until 2012 and currently earns around £50,000 a week.

United will move quickly so that Vidic, 27, joins the likes of Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov on around £75,000 a week.

A United insider said: "The club recognise Nemanja's current standing within the team and want to put him further off limits."

Inter want Macheda so say The People:

Alex Ferguson faces a summer battle with Jose Mourinho over the future of teenage star Federico Macheda.

Inter Milan boss Mourinho is ready to rock old rival Ferguson with a sensational raid on Old Trafford to capture the 17-year-old Italian attacker, nicknamed Kiko.

Friends close to Macheda's family already believe that the Rome-born youngster will move back to Italy in the next few weeks.

The Daily Star tell us Hargreaves is on course for a return:

It was reported the England midfielder would not be back in action until January after knee surgery last November.

But Hargreaves will report with the rest of the United squad next month and announce he is ready to return in October.

And The Sunday Mirror report that Paul Scholes won some money on the horses...

Tuck your shirt in

Very quiet today. Following on nicely from my last post, there's an interview with Zoran Tosic doing the rounds today. Selected quotes from The Guardian, on Ronaldo:

"I spoke with him," said Tosic. "He told us that it's enough to be here. He'd won all the awards in England and he wanted to try something else. I think he's going to be again the best player in the world [at Real]. This season was not the best because last season he scored 42 goals, this time 25, and they all said it's the worst season. He scored 25 goals and it's not enough! I think that in Madrid he will be again the best."

On moving his career forward:

"My first six months at the club were for me to prepare, to get stronger," said Tosic, "and in the next six months it's important to try and break into the team and prove that I'm a United player. To be honest, I think that probably Cristiano was the best player in the team and so someone will come in to take his place.

"These games at the Under-21 championship are very important for me and then, when we go on pre-season tour, I hope I'm going to get a chance. I played three games [as a substitute] this past season but I was adapting. Next season, if I get a chance, I am ready."

And on being a United fan:

"I was a United fan as a kid since we won the 1999 European Cup," he said. "From that moment I was a United fan. I remember when I was just starting to train, I saw a picture of the Serbia national team up in the changing room and I said to the coach, 'I am going to stand there one day and I am going to be a Manchester United player. Those are my two wishes.'"

On the subject of Ronaldo, The Mail say that the Real Madrid deal has overcome its hiccup. In the same story they report on the only shirts Real Madrid are selling at the moment:

Given the uncertainty of who will be playing at Real next season, the only shirt numbers available to buy are those of Iker Casillas (No 1), Sergio Ramos (4) and Raul (7).

Which seems to rubbish the Casillas to Man United rumours, despite the whole profile on the Man Utd website thing.
There's an article by Henry Winter on football and money. It's a bit over the top. The only bit I'll pick up on is this:

Football has never known a summer like this, when the "silly season'' has burst into life so quickly. Even in football's traditionally stormy waters, Ronaldo's deal has simply caused even bigger waves, affecting a range of clubs like Wigan Athletic, who should receive £17 million for Antonio Valencia as United seek replacements. Valencia is not worth £17 million but there is a Ronaldo premium now.

Which isn't true. Look at this, which I reported on at the time (May 19th:

Steve Bruce has thrashed out a £21.5million deal with Real Madrid for Antonio Valencia - but challenged Sir Alex Ferguson to match the valuation if he wants the Wigan winger.

So there you go - Valencia was worth £21 million then - now he's worth £17 million - not much of a premium there...
And the breaking news on Tevez - he's leaving. See ya.

Senior Twilight Stock Replacer

Nice bit of skill by Tosic against Belarus in the European Under-21 Championship:



Perhaps we have Ronaldo's replacement in our ranks already (he says optimistically...)

Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements

Not a lot around today. The problem is heightened by the impossibility of actually believing anything that's in the papers at the moment. I mean its always a problem but just now, transfer rumours everywhere, it's even worse.
So, with that in mind, here's The Sun telling us about Tevez's demands:

GREEDY Carlos Tevez has told Manchester United: Make me your highest-paid player — or I go.

The Red Devils have agreed the £26million asking price to make the Argie striker’s loan move permanent.

But they have still to match the personal terms of £110,000 a week that stars Rio Ferdinand and Dimitar Berbatov earn.

It is a fairly believable story though, especially if one believes the previous stories about Man City offering him £140,000. Time will tell I guess.
The main problem with transfer stories is the refusal of anyone to take responsibility for them. The reports are always, "it is rumoured," or "there is speculation," never, "we are saying," or "we have information." So when it doesn't happen they don't have to say, "we were wrong," they get to say:

Victor Valdes has ended speculation linking him to Manchester United by signing a new contract at European champions Barcelona.

No Valdes, but we are going to buy Casillas instead...

Manchester United are ready to give back some of the £80 million they will revceive from Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo for Spain goalkeeeper Iker Casillas.

Whatever...
Benzema transfer has something actually new about it, if you count Lyon president making a comment about it new...

He said: "Karim has said that he wants to stay another year at Lyon.

"But I think that Kaka or Ronaldo maybe imagined remaining with their respective clubs.

"There is a tsunami called Real Madrid which provokes reactions at Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United.

"So it is very complicated to say that he is non-transferable. Today, it's obvious we want to keep him.

"There is more chance he'll be at Lyon next season than that he won't be.

"I won't hide from you the fact that he has been approached. For the moment, I managed to convince them not to go further."

As you were then...
The Daily Star manage to omit the, "more chance he'll be at Lyon next season than that he won't be," line to make the story more exciting, and as an afterthought put in a pretty ridiculous transfer rumour:

Ferguson ... was last night rumoured to have entered the chase for £18m England and Portsmouth right-back Glen Johnson.

Liverpool thought they had seen off Chelsea. Now, a third club is in the frame – and Manchester City denied it was them.

Because we really need a right back... And there are no other clubs in the world are there?
Elsewhere, aside from the Bobby Charlton "vulgar" comment which I reported yesterday (and why did all the papers pick up on that word, rather than the other things he said about Ronaldo?) there's just this story on the worth of our "brand" (which seems a trifle more "vulgar"...):

Manchester United have been rated the eighth most valuable sports brand in the world in a new study which for the first time has assessed the comparative worths of 200 brands across the sporting spectrum.

Brands from the United States head the list compiled by SportsPro magazine, with the National Football League's value of $4.5bn (£2.75bn) ranking it No1, ahead of Major League Baseball ($3.936bn), and the National Basketball Association ($2.344bn).

United are valued at $1.495bn, three places and £200m behind the Fifa World Cup, worth $1.7bn.

Pay the Price

Today I am mainly imagining what the headlines would have been had a Manchester United player got a 4 game ban (or 6 if we must include the 2 suspended games) for acting like Drogba did. Think they'd be along the lines of this, "Man United player escapes with 4 game ban." With Chelsea though we get this, from The BBC as well: "Drogba given lengthy European ban."According to The Guardian "Chelsea reel from toughness of bans..." And comes up with this paragraph:

The bans effectively rule Drogba out of two-thirds of next season's group stage in the Champions League and Bosingwa – who had attracted the interest of Bayern Munich – out of three of the six games. The Ivorian had anticipated a three-game ban, with a further two matches deferred, after re-entering the playing surface at the end of the game to berate Ovrebo before screaming repeatedly "It's a fucking disgrace" at a television crew broadcasting live. His protests continued in the tunnel.

Putting as "two-thirds of the group stage", might make it sound long, but it's the group stage, the easy stage, the stage before everything hots up. And then, "he anticipated a 3 game ban," and he got an extra game. It's hardly that much longer than expected then is it? Jesus. And having a brief google, I came upon this (emphasis on brief, the link is to a mobile version of story, I'm already running late today, so can't find time to find proper links...):

Both Drogba and Chelsea are now expected to be charged by UEFA, with the Sunday People reporting that the striker may receive a hefty six-month ban.

The British tabloid claims that UEFA are treating the incident very seriously and have warned Drogba to expect a sizeable punishment.

So there you go, from the doomsday reports from when it happened, to shock at the punishment when they're handed down...
Transfer stories keep on coming, and keep getting sillier. Today Van Persie is linked with us...

Sir Alex Ferguson is aware the £20million-rated striker is yet to commit to a new contract at The Emirates.

And the United chief's interest has intensified after Van Persie admitted prizes mean more to him than money.

Whatever.
The Ribery reports come back based on this quote from Beckenbaur:

who indicated that the Bundesliga club will now listen to offers for the winger.

He said: “We discussed the issue at our last board meeting and we all agreed that, if he really wants to leave, then we will deal with the issue.”

On a day of mixed signals, Bayern later confused the situation further by stating that Beckenbauer was not speaking on behalf of the club’s board of directors.

The Telegraph say that we want a resolution over Tevez. I think we can all agree with that...
The Mail link us with Roma striker Mirko Vucinic:

Montenegro international Vucinic told Italian media last week that he had only heard rumours of United interest via the newspapers but he has since told team mates United are genuine and is hoping the Old Trafford club follow up with a firm offer.

And The Independent have us in for Victor Valdes:

United continued to be linked in Spain with the Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes, whose contract talks have stalled over disagreement about his desire for wage parity with some of the European champions' highest-paid outfield players. Xavi earns £150,000 a week compared with Valdes's £100,000. There are persistent reports from Spain that United have made an offer for Valdes to join them the end of next season and may be willing to meet his demands because he would be available on a Bosman free transfer. His agent, Gines Carvajal, has rejected links between Valdes and other teams, though admitted that the contractual issues are proving complicated.

There are reports on Ronaldo's contract demands - he wants a lot apparently - everyone seems confident the deal will still happen (The Mirror reporting he's started selling his cars)so I won't quote from these reports. Read about them here.
Bobby Charlton has some words on the transfer:

Charlton insisted the transfer was "a good deal and a fair deal" for United. "It is an enormous amount of money and it sometimes [seems] a little vulgar," he said. "Nevertheless that is business, I am afraid. We have responsibilities as a company.
"It's a lot of money. It seems crazy really, but the more the money the players cost, the more the television companies appear to be able to contribute that little bit more, too. It is a little bit of soul searching. You wonder if you made the right decision. We shall never know until the season starts.

General consensus is that the fixture list has been kind to us. Ian Herbert in The Independent starts Liverpool's excuses early:

Liverpool are the ones who may feel conspiracies are at work, with their sixth successive away game on the opening day – this one at Tottenham Hotspur, against whom they concluded their last campaign. The Merseyside derby at Goodison Park follows the fifth Champions League group game on November 28, when Arsenal will also host Chelsea.

The rest of the paragraph really doesn't match the beginning does it? Liverpool have it tough - having to play Spurs on the opening day, and actually Chelsea and Arsenal have it tougher...

Verses From The Abstract

I made some brief comments in a recent paper round up about Ronaldo and postmodernism which set me thinking. This is the result: a tribute (of sorts) to Ronaldo, via the medium of critical theory. The intention is twofold, firstly, to look at some ideas of postmodernism in relation to football; and secondly to shed a kinder light on Ronaldo. Lacan says one always has to ask, "What is the analyst's desire?" Even in the, seemingly, most objective study, the desire of the writer is always present, and here, while making broader points, my desire is always to forgive Ronaldo. What follows presupposes the notion that football is Art, not just "the art of football", but football as Art to rank with painting, film, music etc.. Perhaps this isn't such a controversial idea anymore, but it is still a point worth making. This is not the place to ask, with Tolstoy, What Is Art? It is enough to point out the aesthetic pleasure that one can gain from football; the fact that such beauty as can be gained from football is created, rather than natural (it is not some form of natural beauty but the intentional creation by an agent). It is also important to point out that football can have affects in wider society. To take but one example of this here's a quote about France's World Cup win in '98:

a Socialist political kingpin in the Montpellier region sparked fury — and possible expulsion from the party — by lamenting that France's national soccer team fielded "9 blacks out of 11" starting players. "I'm ashamed of this country," in which "the whites are lousy," he groused, and would soon be fielding teams "where all 11 players are black." That echoed a comment a year earlier by philosopher AlainFinkelkraut , who — seeking to explain the 2005 rioting by youths descended from immigrants in France's suburbs — made allusion to France's "white-black-Arab" soccer side that won the 1998 World Cup and became an icon of French social integration. " Today, [the team is] black-black-black, and it's the laughingstock of Europe," Finkelkraut complained.

We can not consider football as an entirely separate realm without political and/or social significance, pure beauty as it were. To bring this round to the subject of postmodernism, we only need look at Zidane, a 21st century portrait, directed by postmodern artist Douglas Gordon, as evidence of the relationship between the two worlds. Much of the criticism of Ronaldo comes from a belief in football as the last bastion of modernist Art. Whereas the rest of the world has moved on from such ideas, football is still viewed from the nostalgic perspective of a now lost world. By placing Ronaldo in a postmodern context, his transfer, his on-field "antics", his character, can all be seen to be simply a product of the world around him, rather than as the wilful perversity of an egomaniac.
Postmodernism is one of those terms which can be mean just about anything, depending on who is using it and the context it is used in. To start with I shall look at several of these ideas and how they can be applied to football and Ronaldo specifically. To begin let us look at Frederic Jameson's definition:

Postmodernism is what you have when the modernisation process is complete and nature is gone for good. It is a more fully human world than the older one, but one in which “culture” has become a veritable “second nature.” … So, in postmodern culture, “culture” has become a product in its own right … modernism was still minimally andtendentially the critique of the commodity and the effort to make it transcend itself. Postmodernism is the consumption of sheer commodification as process. [I'm not going to provide citations here, if anyone desires any please feel free to leave a comment and I'll post the relevant citation there]

Postmodernism here is the notion that an artwork cannot transcend it's commodity status, a belief that is associated with modernism, now everything is a commodity: JeanBaudrillard : ‘it is no longer possible to posit use value as an alternative to exchange value.’ Football is obviously a great example of this, the buying and selling of men as if they were nothing but commodities, the logical end to capitalism (in many ways the obverse of the beginning of capitalism, where slavery had to be abolished so man could give his work freely - man is again nothing but commodity, but at least he gets handsomely rewarded for it - so in some waySepp Blatter was completely right to compare Ronaldo to a slave). Exchange value becomes the measure of the artwork, and so Ronaldo is entirely correct to link his position as world's best player with the being the most expensive player - this is the only way to judge worth. He could have stayed at Man Utd for the rest of his career, leaving the judgement of who's the best player in the world to the subjective whims of football writers and players, or he could be judged in the objective field of money, cold hard cash which never lies. Ronaldo fully accepts, even actively embraces, his status as commodity, he is a "product in his own right" and his awareness of this fact makes him postmodern - he does not play the game of "no one is worth that money", or paying lip service to loyalty, he wears his price as a badge of excellence. This commodification of the footballer renders "loyalty" an outmoded concept. If everything is a commodity in competition with all other commodities then there is no place outside of this for loyalty to exist. Put another way loyalty becomes just another aspect of the commodity affecting its price, in a similar way that popular music uses rebellion to sell records (whether the artists themselves are "rebels" is beside the point), it is the effect of that rebellion in the market that matters - there is nothing but the market - so in football, there is no place outside of the market from which one could be loyal. Lawrence Grossberg says "authenticity is seen as just another style" in the postmodern world, to paraphrase this in the context of football, loyalty is just another style, if one is loyal then this can just be used to raise the price of the commodity/footballer. We shall look at the possible exceptions to this later on, but let me briefly mention Tevez here, who seemed to use loyalty as a bargaining chip, indeed he confuses the very notion of loyalty, loyal to the fans but not the club... Jean-Francois Lyotard's famous definition of postmodernism as 'incredulity towards metanarratives,’ also comes in here. Lyotard's point is that all narratives have equal weight, there is no ultimate narrative - for instance religion, political system etc.. It is postmodernism as the end of ideologies, the rise of pragmatism, grabbing bits from here and there, without living life via a guiding authority - for instance Tony Blair's New Labour project, a hotchpotch of ideas from all over the political spectrum, rather than adhering to the dogmas of Old Labour. In the football concept we can immediately see the connection. Why be loyal to a football club? All football clubs are essentially equal, the choice of club is relative, what does it matter whether I play for x or y, they both have their history, both have their fans, why should x be better than y? Chopping and changing at will becomes the norm. In the same way that in the wider world of work there is no longer any reason for loyalty to a firm, short term contracts become the norm and freedom of worker movement and trade allow anyone to work anywhere, so football, is the same, even if there is still a residual attachment to the older model among the fans. Again we shall return to this. The lack of historicity in postmodernism is linked to this, in postmodernism one is not tied to a particular style, one can pick and choose between all previous art and juxtapose them in the same piece, indeed this is one of the pleasures of postmodern art. In football we can see how Ronaldo chooses to represent himself as following the traditions of Manchester United while at the same time being fully immersed in the traditions of Real Madrid - he picks and chooses what he wants to represent himself as, with no grounding in any particular history. Where all this leads us is to a position of postmodernism, and Ronaldo is exemplary in this, where everything is done at one remove, there is self-awareness about everything. There is no attachment to any particular thing, we can pick and choose between any number of relative positions, histories and traditions and therefore we have a hyperawareness of the choices we do make. Jameson argues that the difference between modernism and postmodernism is in the lack of ‘a certain minimal aesthetic distance … the possibility of the positioning of the cultural act outside the massive Being of capital, from which to assault this last.’ What we replace this "aesthetic distance" with is a critical distance, what Slavoj Zizek calls cynical distance:

If our concept of ideology remains the classic one in which the illusion is located in knowledge, then today’s society must appear post-ideological: the prevailing ideology is that of cynicism; people no longer believe in ideological truth; they do not take ideological propositions seriously. The fundamental level of ideology, however, is not of an illusion masking the real state of things but that of an (unconscious) fantasy structuring our social reality itself. And at this level, we are of course far from being post-ideological society. Cynical distance is just one way – one of many ways – to blind ourselves to the structuring power of ideological fantasy: even if we do not take things seriously, even if we keep an ironical distance, we are still doing them. … For example, they know that their idea of Freedom is masking a particular form of exploitation, but the still continue to follow this idea of Freedom.

Can we not see this attitude in Ronaldo's reaction to his transfer? The modernist footballer's reaction to this would have been to say something along the lines of, "I know no-one is worth this money, I am humbled that Real have shown such faith in me and I will try and live up to that faith." Immediately distancing themselves from the figures. Ronaldo's reaction is to accept the distance within himself, "I know very well that no one is worth £80 million but I will accept it, I am the greatest footballer in the world and this money, while arbitrary, is a reflection of that greatness, I shall wear it as a badge of pride, call it historical." Isn'tRonaldo's entire way of playing an example of "cynical distance" He plays not simply as a great player, but as a player who knows he's great. Past (modernist) great footballers just played, Ronaldo plays as if watching himself at all times. Take this quote from Ronaldo:

"I'm already among the best of the best and I want to continue to write many more beautiful pages. I really want to rewrite the history of football."

He plays, but at the same time he watches himself play, he writes on the pages of football history, but at the same time he reads those pages, makes notes, edits. It is not that he will change football by the way he plays, but that he will change the way he plays to change football. It is this level of awareness that makes him different - previously history was for historians, now history is for those in its midst. All of which is to say that one cannot blame Ronaldo for these things, he is simply an expression of the society around him. Football clings to the modernist paradigm, hence the misplaced criticism of Ronaldo. However. Is saying that Ronaldo is simply a product of society enough? On the one hand, yes, because why should we expect Ronaldo to rise above the ordinary when it comes to such things when the whole world is money/celebrity obsessed? On the other hand, no, because, Ronaldo is special, so I would have liked him to have risen above, proved he was special. What I want to do now is to find a way out of this conundrum, suggest how Ronaldo could have proven himself special, how he could have taken account of changed times but emerged as a hero - not a simple, yet impossible, return to an outmoded modernist football, but the possibility of going forward. Perhaps we could read all this differently: the playfulness of modern art is often cited as some sort of subversiveness, and so could we not view Ronaldo as a subversive figure, going against the misplaced modernism of football (by refusing to accept the corporate logic, by playing with notions of identity, writing his own history against dominant narratives, etc.)? No, simply because the subversiveness of postmodernism is in many ways a dead end. Slavoj Zizek expresses this well in relation to the film Shrek:

The recent Dreamworks animated blockbuster Shrek (Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, 2001) expresses this dominant functioning of ideology perfectly: the standard fairytale storyline is clothed in jokingly Brechtian ‘extraneations’ …politically correct twists … unexpected reversals of bad into good characters … up to anachronistic references to modern mores and popular culture. … Instead of praising these displacements andreinscriptions too readily as potentially ‘subversive’ and elevating Shrek into yet another ‘site of resistance’, we should focus on the obvious fact that, through all these displacements, the same old story is being told. … the true function of these … subversions is precisely to make the traditional story relevant to our ‘postmodern’ age – and thus to prevent us from replacing it with a new narrative.

And thus with the Ronaldo transfer, "the same old story is being told," the dynamics of capitalism/football remain the same, the inequalities remain, etc.. The question is, how do we actually break out of this? What would a subversive act look like in a football context? Here I'll draw on Alain Badiou's theory of the Event and Slavoj Zizek's political reading of Lacan's "act". To cut a long (and complicated) story short (and simple), they argue that it is only by being faithful to some idea that one can become a subject. We only become "human" via some "inhuman" idea. If we forever live only in the "human" we never fulfill our potential, we simply exist. Badiou, "denounces historicism, relativism, and postmodernist pessimism in favour of a renewed commitment to universal truth and subjective faith" (Carsten Strathausen). For Badiou being a subject is being "faithful to an event", an event being something that changes the "situation": a political revolution, falling in love, artistic innovation, scientific breakthrough. The event is precisely what modern capitalism cannot envisage, parliamentary democracy is there to ensure that (at least on the political level) events do not happen. After this brief preamble, how does this relate to Ronaldo? The striking thing about the transfer is that everyone describes it as inevitable, Ronaldo was always going to go, £80 million too good - impossible - to turn down etc.. What this talk hides is the obvious fact that there is nothing inevitable about it at all. Here we can refer it to capitalism itself, everyone recognises it doesn't work, but everyone accepts it as inevitable, there is no alternative. What I am suggesting is that what if Ronaldo just said "no". What precisely would happen? Wouldn't this be a subversive act? Everyone knows that the transfer is the right thing to do, but what if he said "no?" Slavoj Zizek looks at Bartelby, A short story by Hermann Melville, in which, to every thing his employer asks him to do, he simply replies "I would prefer not to" leading to his employer moving out of the building (if memory serves). Zizek compares this attitude to

aggressive passivity, the standard "interpassive" mode of our participation in socio-ideological life in which we are active all the time in order to make sure that nothing will happen, that nothing will really change. In such a constellation, the first truly critical ... step is to withdraw into passivity, to refuse to participate -Bartleby's "I would prefer not to" is the first necessary first step which, as it were, clears the ground, opens up the place, for true activity, for an act that will actually change the coordinates of the constellation.

The point, Zizek argues elsewhere is

Those in power often prefer even a critical participation to silence - just to engage us in a dialogue, to make sure that our ominous silence is broken. Against such an interpassive mode, in which we are active all the time to make sure that nothing will really change, the first truly critical step is to withdraw into passivity and to refuse to participate. This first step clears the way for true activity, for an act that will effectively change the coordinates of the scene.

If Ronaldo said "I would prefer not to" to the transfer it would be such an amazing thing, no reason, just "I would prefer not to". It would be of an entirely different order toKaka saying no to Man City, which never escaped from the logic of the situation- it was a "no" borne of the status of Man City, and the knowledge of a Real Madrid move on the cards. Whereas Ronaldo saying no would be a no to the biggest deal possible, it would be a no to the very idea of the deal. The deals very inevitability would make the no a brilliant move. Of course I say all that knowing fine well he will only ever say yes yes yes. While all of this sounds fanciful I shall now look at someone who I think can be ranked in this great nay-saying tradition. Eric Cantona. It is no coincidence that he is a legend. Whether Ronaldo or Cantona is the better footballer there can be no doubt that Cantona is a legend that Ronaldo can never even dream of being. As I've pointed out, Ronaldo can hardly be criticised for all the moves he's made, conforming all the time to the reality of the situation, yet the very fact that he can not go beyond this reality makes him simply a footballer (even if a very good one). Cantona achieves legend status by going beyond reality. His Kung-Fu kick, isn't this a great example of refusing the dialogue of reality? He could have gone on record against the treatment that fans mete out to players, racism in grounds, and so on, but nothing would have changed (as we can see from the respect campaign - doesn't Cantona gain so much respect by the simple act of striking out?), instead he aims a kick. A violent act which came as such a shock to the system. Risking his career in one moment. Can one imagine Ronaldo rising above like that? And the press conference remark about Sardines? Can one imagine Ronaldo saying that? Cantona was in a way using the postmodernist agenda, but using it productively, here he has a self-awareness, can view himself from a critical distance as aesthetic object, but instead of using this to justify himself, he uses it to hold a mirror to the journalists awaiting his justification. And then goes silent. He acted and then refused to participate in the dialogue afterwards, refused to negate his act with disclaimer or justification or apology. He remained passive. And his retirement at 29. No transfer, no consideration of the economics of retirement. He simply retired. It could also be argued that his self awareness on the pitch was every bit as great as Ronaldo's but somehow it was different. He was making a display, showing off, whatever, for the pleasure of others, whereas Ronaldo never really seems to be doing things for others, only for his own myth, but a myth which will never enter the consciousness like Cantona's because it is simply too knowing, too tied to reality. And as for loyalty? As noted above the actual content of loyalty is empty as regards the postmodern capitalist economy, hence isn't a loyalty based on "I'd prefer not to" better and more radical than a loyalty based on words which mean nothing? It is a loyalty devoid of greater meaning, a loyalty beyond the economics and the grasp of the club, but withoutTevez's positioning of fan loyalty as a bargaining tool. The club is something greater than than the fans and the institution, it is an ideal beyond the sum of its parts. And here too need we look further than Cantona? Who's loyalty is never really spoken (beyond rumblings about returning as manager, so fantastical as to simply add to the myth) but whose loyalty remains above else. It is loyalty as assuming the risk - that Man Utd is beyond the economic, beyond the everyday economic reality. A gamble on something transcending reality, something great, an ideal. And this is the point, that against postmodern relativism one must fully assume the risk that one's ideals are the truth, there is no guarantee. And this is precisely why this loyalty is better - if there was a guarantee then the loyalty would again be meaningless, because it would not be chosen but imposed. This loyalty is not easy, which is why Cantona is special, a legend, and Ronaldo is a mere mortal. But, well, we can't really blame him can we?