Pay no attention to Ronaldo rumours..

According to United's spin doctors Real Madrid are wasting their time preparing a £45m summer bid for Cristiano Ronaldo. The fact is if Madrid offered that sort of money make no mistake the Glazer family would consider it, not only that what does the player himself want to do, would he fancy joining Madrid? Last summer Ronaldo was talking about leaving United, so this will be a transfer story that will run and run right up and until the summer window closes.

Abramovich in Israel to meet new Chelsea manager?

According to The Times, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is in Israel over the new few days for a six team tournament which on the face of it has little meaning in football terms.

However, it is also claimed that among others Guus Hiddink the current Russian team manager will also be in attendance and the Dutchman is being strongly linked with replacing Jose Mourinho at Chelsea, further to this Sunday tabloid reports claim the current Blues boss will receive an £11m pay-off from the club. Roman set to meet his disciples

United ease past Pompey in FA Cup...

United beat Pompey by the odd goal in three today at Old Trafford courtesy of two second half goals by substitute Wayne Rooney, both goals were excellent, the first was a good team goal with Larsson laying the ball out wide to Giggs who found Rooney inside the penalty area and unmarked on the edge of the six yard box, Rooney finished with ease. Just a few minutes later the former Everton man scored one of the best goals of the FA Cup so far this season with a great chip which left David James standing and watching so good was the execution. Rooney controlled Gary Neville's pass with one touch, turned and then gently chipped the ball as if he was playing a sand iron out of a bunker, the ball sailed over James who could only admire Rooney's work.

Kanu pulled a flukey deflected goal back late on for the visitors, but in truth Portsmouth deserved nothing from the game as they came to defend using negative tactics. Added to which in the first half United had a good goal chalked off by ref Mike Riley, Vidic's header from the corner clearly went over the Portsmouth goal line, but the ref got that decision wrong. In the second half Larsson had another good United goal ruled out for offside which clearly it wasn't. United are now in the draw for the last 16 and the Reds could even afford to rest Ronaldo and Saha. Looking good.

Real to offer United £35m for Ronaldo...

Reports claim that Real Madrid will offer United £35m for Ronaldo, whether or not that deal will go through will depend a great deal on the player himself and Ferguson, the man who stood by the player following his summer run-in with the gutter press and the Neanderthal England fans following his fall out with Wayne Rooney in the World Cup. Everyone in the media appeared to be ready to slaughter Ronaldo this season, calling him a serial diver and a cheat, etc,, but following a superb season the revisionists have been busy at work, even the BBCs Gary Lineker said recently that actually he seems like a decent lad.

In my opinion Ronaldo should stay at United as Madrid are a club in something of a mess. No doubting the Glazer family would take Real's money faster than you could say £660m debt, but what do they know about football?

Mourinho and Co. almost certain to leave Chelsea..

According to reports Jose Mourinho and his coaching staff are almost certain to leave Stamford Bridge this summer. For the second time in a week Romam Abramovich did not attend a Chelsea game when the Blues despatched Wycombe Wanderers en route to the Carling Cup final - the suggestion is that the gap between the manager and his employer is now unbridgeable - a parting of the ways looks inevitable.

Further to this The Times is claiming that Chelsea have made no attempt to talk about new terms with Jose’s coaching staff, which consists of Steve Clarke - coach, (has 20 years service at the club), Baltemar Brito, assistant manager, Silvino Louro - goalkeeping coach, Rui Faria - fitness coach, and André Villas Boas - chief scout.

The Times also claims that the blues are looking at replacements for Mourinho, names in the frame include Guus Hiddink, Didier Deschamps - Juventus coach, and Juan de la Cruz Ramos - Seville coach.

It is being reported that Mourinho will not tolerate internal meddling with regard to who his assistants are and over the last few weeks it has been reported that the Chelsea power-brokers would like to see Steve Clarke replaced. On this issue Mourinho is clear “I choose my assistants, if I am not happy, I tell the club to sack them or to change them. But my coaching staff is my responsibility. That’s not a quote, it’s a fact.”

From the outside looking in you do wonder how it has come to this, Chelsea appeared to have the almost perfect set-up, they have arguably the best young manager in the world, backed by one of the richest men in the world. The fall-out will be interesting to say the least and this situation must hinder the Blues chances of winning the Champions League and domestic honours this season.

Heinze to invoke new rule and leave United?

Oliver Kay of The Times newspaper claims that Gabriel Heinze could be set to invoke a new FIFA rule this June which would allow him to leave the club after 'buying out' his contract, in reality his new club would do the buying of course. Heinze has become frustrated at his lack of opportunities this season and United have been linked to another left sided defender in Gareth Bale. The Argentine star has admitted that AC Milan are interested in him.

The new FIFA ruling stipulates that a contract ceases to be protected after a period of three years if the player was under 28 when he signed. A number of stars could take advantage of the ruling including John Terry, Ricardo Carvalho and Frank Lampard all of Chelsea, Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia of Liverpool and Gilberto Silva of Arsenal. Under the terms of the regulations United would recoup around £6m for Heinze as he still has two years to run on his contract.

News of the move has surprised Fergie as he wasn't even aware of the impending exit and the new ruling, which sums up how poorly the United regime is on important rulings of this nature - the finger is most definitely not on the pulse. On hearing about this Fergie said: 'I went diving for my file, I was sure this wasn't right'. But apparently it is right...

While not being a great footballer, Heinze is a great defender and many say he's better at centre-back rather than a full-back, but he's never been given the chance to shine in that position, if he goes he'll get a great send-off from the fans who love him. £6m is a fair price too.

Rugby man goes one better than Cantona..

Ouch!

Trevor Brennan who is a 17 stone, 6'5" Irish rugby player jumped into the crowd against Ulster at the weekend, he then walked up eight rows of steps and then flattened an Ulster supporter for allegedly abusing his family. So much for all those followers of Rugby who say 'we dont see things like Cantona jumping into the crowd and bad behaviour from the fans'...

Irish fists of fury

Incredibly the incident took place before Brennan went on as a substitute and following his crowd blitz he still took to the field of play to take part in the game!

Comment of the day belonged to a Toulouse police spokesman who said "it was a private matter between two people" adding that they did not know "what all the fuss is about". Arf.

Martin O'Neill gambling like never before and feeling the pressure?

I have been watching developments at Villa Pak with interest since the arrival of Martin O'Neill, the Ulsterman is always linked to United every time talk of Fergie retiring arises.

Further to this one quite surprising fact has emerged in that his biggest player acquisition in terms of the size of the fee during his lengthy managerial career so far took place this week with the signing of Watford's Ashley Young, he's signed for Villa for £9.75m, it isn't a huge amount, but Young lacks experience and so eyebrows have been raised slightly, so much so that O'Neill must be feeling the pressure if this quote is aything to go by 'Arsene Wenger and Ferguson can spend all of the time, am I supposed to stay down?'..

IF O'Neill is feeling the pressure because of spending at Villa - how on earth would he cope at a club like United???