- SUNDAY TELEGRAPH/Clive White - QPR unsettle neighbours Chelsea So in the end all that separated the haves and the have-soons was an own goal. Rangers' new billionaire owners could be excused for thinking that success in this football business could come wonderfully cheaply, if the laboured efforts of their supposedly upper class West London neighbours was anything to go by here. Make no mistake, the FA Cup holders were hanging on at the finish against the lowly Championship side. They even had to bring on three of their biggest players, Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack and Joe Cole, to ensure that they were not subjected to the dubious pleasure of a replay at Loftus Road.  read more »

Liverpool at the crossroads: will it be greatness or disaster?  read more »

Manchester United brushed aside
Bolton to move three points clear of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League. Stand-in skipper Cristiano Ronaldo was in brilliant form, shooting home from a corner before striking a sensational free-kick that moved through the air.
Bolton, who have lost their last five league games, might have equalised but [...]

EURO 2008 Group A Czech Republic Portugal Switzerland Turkey Cristiano Ronaldo has spent nine months establishing himself as the best player in the world. Euro 2008 could be his coronation. Can the Portugal star, full of flair, bravado and immense talent, be contained?  read more »

Real Madrid to bid 50M for Man Utd's Ronaldo tribalfootball.com - January 01, 2008 Manchester United face a challenge to keep hold of Cristiano Ronaldo after it emerged Real Madrid are set to make a 50 million bid for the Portugal international. The Telegraph reports that Real have reportedly made Ronaldo their top summer target, with Chelsea striker Didier Drogba also linked with a move to the Bernabeu, as the Spanish champions seek to underline their status as the world's most glamorous footballing power. The Spanish champions have attempted to sign Ronaldo before but were snubbed by the winger, who instead signed a new five-year deal with United to become the highest paid player in the club's history on 120,000 a week.  read more »

Cristiano Ronaldo helped Man U to a 3-1 home win over Tottenham Hotspur by scoring two out of
the three goals.

The goals from some other FA cup games.Liverpool vs Havant & Waterlooville 2 (here) and Chelsea
vs Wigan (here)

Liverpool 4-2 Arsenal (5-3 agg)
Wow. That was a hell of a game.

Rafa surprised everyone by switching things up and giving Peter Crouch a start alongside Fernando Torres, with Ryan Babel left on the bench. Crouch certainly deserved a chance after his performance against Arsenal last weekend, and he combined with Torres for Liverpool's second goal, but even so I wonder if it was a mistake to change from the formation that they were used to and that had been working so well. With Steven Gerrard nominally on the left, it meant that they had one fewer player in centre midfield, which is always dangerous against a team like Arsenal that can pass around you, and certainly for the first half-hour Liverpool were being overrun.

Emmanuel Adebayor was giving the defence problems from the start -- although fortunately he kept being flagged offside -- but it was Abou Diaby who scored the opening goal, beating Pepe Reina at the near post. Up front for Liverpool, Torres wasn't seeing much of the ball, and it took a set piece for them to equalize, as Sami Hyypia broke away from Philippe Senderos at a corner to power in a header. The goal seemed to give Liverpool confidence, and they started to get more of a grip on the game -- helped by Mathieu Flamini being forced off with an injury just before halftime.  read more »

How this for salarys !  read more »

According to a recent poll run on Football Corner, Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo will stay at the club next season despite interest from Real Madrid. It was without doubt the the closest poll ever run on the blog. Ronaldo has been linked with a move to Real for several weeks now and it is still unclear wheter or not he will indeed join the La Liga giants. It is rumoured that Ronaldo could pocket a massive 150,000 a-week, nett. Here are the results of the poll: He will stay at United - 479 (55%) He will move to Real Madrid - 405 (45%) Total Votes: 884. I would like to thank everyone who voted in the poll and I would encourage everyone to vote in our latest poll, who will be the next Chelsea manager.

I'm watching Fox Soccer Report right now and new Chelsea boss Felipe Scolari referred to himself at the "so-so" coach in responding to a question about whether he would call himself "the special one" as the former Chelsea manager had.  He definitely was working the press perfectly.

His record didn't seem all that impressive to me from what I saw, but what makes it even more interesting is that the rumors surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo and his move from Man U to Real Madrid.  It appears like they're off now, but according to FSR, Scolari was pushing Ronaldo to join RM.  Scolari flatly denied it.

What do you think of the move?  Good one for Chelsea?  Bad?  Indifferent?  read more »