Tuesday football
25 September 2007
by Jerrad Peters
RONALDINHO has agreed personal terms with Chelsea. The 27-year-old Barcelona and Brazil superstar, should he move to Stamford Bridge next summer, would earn 11.6M-pounds per-season for five years. The wage-hike would essentially price him 90,000-pounds per-week ahead of teammates John Terry and Frank Lampard. They player has yet to formally request a transfer from his current club and the agreement is merely a word-of-mouth consensus between his brother and agent, Roberto de Assis, and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. Ronaldinho's buy-out clause at Barcelona calls for a pay-out of 85M-pounds. Abramovich, however, is confident that the Catalans would accept approximately 70M-pounds. Still, the move to Chelsea is hardly a formality. With the blues having set the wage and transfer bar, other clubs are sure to test the waters. AC Milan remain intruiged by Ronaldinho; although at 223,000-pounds per-week, he is hardly an affordable commodity, even at the San Siro. There would be obvious reprecussions if the move to north London was completed. The arrival of Ronaldinho would be sure to upset Chelsea's already ridiculous wage structure; and those players who supported the now-ousted regime of Jose Mourinho -- namely Terry, Lampard, Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba, and Florent Malouda -- would surely consider an exit of their own.
Martin Jol has already agreed a severance package with Tottenham Hotspur. Despite the club's claims to the contrary, crisis talks were, in fact, held between Jol and the board of directors, yesterday. The Dutchman met with chairman Daniel Levy and a handful of club officials at the Chigwell training facilities and settled on a 4M-pound compensation deal. Jol will remain at the helm of Spurs until a replacement is formally hired. Should Levy continue his attempts at luring Sevilla manager Juande Ramos to White Hart Lane, Jol could, conceivably, remain in charge until the summer. Of course, a disastrous result against Middlesbrough in the Carling Cup, tomorrow, could change all that. So, come to think of it, might a good one.
A mob or armed and violent Lazio supporters were arrested, Sunday, and briefly held in police custody ahead of the Roman club's match against Atalanta. In all, authorities detained 66 fans, many of whom were equipped with knives, machetes, and clubs. No charges have been pressed to date; and their swift release bears testament to the reluctance of Italian authorities in clamping-down on hooliganism in that country.
Steve Sidwell could be headed back to Reading. The 24-year-old midfielder left the Majdeski Stadium in the summer via free transfer to Chelsea. Since his arrival at Stamford Bridge, however, he has failed to make an impression and did not feature among the club's 16-man squad on Sunday at Manchester United. Furthermore, Sidwell's fortunes are not helped by the fact that new manager Avram Grant does not hold him in high regard. Reading manager Steve Coppell would happily take his former midfield general back into his squad during the January transfer period.
John Carew will miss up to six weeks after damaging knee ligaments in Aston Villa's 2-0 win over Everton on Sunday. The 27-year-old Norway international has been central to manager Martin O'Neill's renaissance at Villa Park.
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