The winner, is Milan legend Poalo Maldini. Ballack has a mere 12 runner up medals. The legendary Italian, who of course is very good at winning too, has picked up an incredible 17 runner up medals in his Milan carrer. These are:

Three Champions League Finals
Three World Club Cups
Two Coppa Italias
Three Supercoppa Italias
One Uefa Super Cup
A World Cup (1994)
And Euro 2000
Three Seasons Milan have finished Serie A 2nd.

An incredible record, and just shows that when it comes to losing, the German Midfielder can’t even get that right!

The main inspiration for his inclusion is that while many footballers, who on the face of it would seem unavaliable are being stalked for months (Kaka’, Ronaldo, Lampard, Even Gareth Barry) Eto’o, who is being kicked out the door at Barca doesn’t appear to be wanted by anyone. Except for in Uzbekistan

A free scoring centre forward, Eto’o is widely considered the best African footballer of his generation. All time top scorer in the African Cup of Nations, Three time winner of African Footballer of The Year, first African footballer to make the final three of the World Footballer of the Year. At Barca, he’s won a number of honours too - including the Pichichi (La Liga top scorer) two La Liga’s and a Champions League trophy. He won the Copa Del Ray with Mallorca.

His goalscoring record is also mightily impressive. According to Wiki he has 168 goals in 334 appearences throughout his carrer. As any striker will tell you, one in two is the target at the top level, and Eto’o has better than that. More impressive is perhaps he record in Catalonia - 77 goals in 108 appearences for Barcelona.

So, with Barca trying to build a new team, why does nobody want to take a chance on him? At 27, he should be at his peak.

It could have something, of course, to do with his attitude off the pitch. He has the tendancy to say, and do incredibly stupid things. His mood swings back and forth, going from gracious to selfish. He seems to want to leave every 20 minutes, and then change his mind every 10.

He allegedly headbutted a journalist while on international duty. He famously divided the Barca dressing room with his fued with then-teamate Ronaldinho. There have supposedly been occasions where he didn’t want to come off the bench to play. His famous outburst after Barca won the title from Madrid caused a massive fine. He supposedly threatend to kill his agent, and in a seperate incident a Mallorca journo.

This mean streak is tempered a little, not only by his ability, but by the fact that he can on occasion be quite nice. When at Mallorca he bought fans travelling to the Copa Del Ray final a meal, to the tune of 30,000 Euros. After becoming top scorer in La Liga he dedicated the award to his teammates.

So Eto’o. He’s a pain, but he’s also a damn good striker. He needs a manager who can get the best out of him, and settle him off the pitch. Fergie once did with Cantona, if he can’t get Berbatov, then maybe he might want to rise to the challenge with Eto’o.

I leave you with a moment of individual brilliance - and I ask you, is Eto’o worth the off the field stuff, for his on the field ability?

Imagine for a second, that Chelsea’s £60m offer had been accepeted, and Kaká was now standing around Stamford Bridge holding up a Chelsea shirt with his name and number on it. I figure that these days a football shirt is about £40 new, in the shops, with a name and number on it. Which means that to make £60m, Chelsea would have to sell 1.5m shirts (if my maths is wrong, and it probably is, correct me in the comments).

It sounds like a big ask - 1.5m shirts. But over say, 4 seasons, considering that Chelsea have a new shirt as well this season so the masses would flock to get the Kaká one - and factoring in the ‘new’ markets of the east, and lets be honest, football seems to be growing a bit in the old USofA, I don’t think its a big ask to imagine that he would sell that many shirts.

That isn’t of course factoring in the other Kaká tat that the Chelsea shop would sell - Brazil flags, Kaká flags, Brazil shirts, I belong to Jesus on everything and so on. Plus the demand for tickets would shoot up - look at what happened when Milan signed Ronaldinho.

The counter argument of course, is that the people buying shirts with Lampard or Terry on would just buy Kaká ones instead, so they wouldn’t make as much money - but I think that Kaká is big enough to compensate for that.

In fact, he’s probably the most sellable player in the game at the moment - Beckham might be selling Sharpies but he’s way past his prime, C-Ron is too Divisive, and Ronaldinho’s stock has plunged in the last two years. Messi comes close, but he’s not yet the name that Kaká is. I mean, he was on the Time 100 list! He’s the reigning World Footballer of the Year too.

I don’t mean to suggest that Chelsea are buying him purely for financial reasons. He is a bloody fantastic footballer. He is an attacking midfielder though, and they currently have Deco, Micheal Ballack and Frank Lampard all on the books. Now Lamps might well be on his way out, but that still leaves three players if Ricky was signed to compete for what could be one position. Unless, Ballack drops back to replace Makélélé in DM but that isn’t where he’s best.

So while Kaká is obviously younger than any of those three, there is an argument that right now, they don’t really need him. So why else would they spend all that money on him? They must think he’s profitable. Which shows there is waaay too much money in football these days.

I need to lie down, all that thinking about money has given me a headache.

*The pub debate was with an accountant. And I have no idea about money. So I could be on the wrong side of the argument. But its interesting anyway.

Chelsea had a bid of around 50m turned down or him. Then awhile later, Milan had a 60m offer turned down. Since that Milan offer, Leo Messi has risen, and Ronaldinho’s relationship with Barca soured spectaculary, to the point where they sold him on the cheap to Milan this summer.

So as Real Madrid’s stupid money comes in for Cristiano Ronaldo, now arguably the best player in the world, maybe Manchester United should look back on history and take the money.

Ultimately its a hell of alot of money, and Ronaldo hasn’t made himself look brilliant. As good as he’s been for United the last couple of seasons - and theres no counting against 40 goals in a season however you look at it - he’s hardly conducted himself in an endearing way to the fans.

If he stays at United this season, he isn’t going to want to be there, and we might experience a fall from grace similar to Ronaldinho’s. Its not a given, and CR7 has risen against a bit of hatred before (He wasn’t that loved in Manchester circa World Cup 2006) and he does appear to thrive on it in a way that The Dhino never does.

While he has the potential to bounce back, he isn’t going to be a Man United favourite in the way some of the other controversial players to have worn the Number Seven are, just because its obvious he wants to play in Madrid some day. If it doesn’t happen now, it will next year, or the one after.

So maybe its time for United to heed Barca’s lesson, and take the money while the money is good. I’ll be happy to be proved wrong if he has an amazing season at United though. If anyone could drag it out of him its Fergie.

I mean looking at it that way, thats a few first choice midfielders that Wenger has lost. However, statistically speaking, Hleb only manages an assist one every nine games. That isn’t good enough for an ambitious attacking midfielder. I like Hleb, he’s a bit crazy, but I like him. But I don’t know how much Arsenal will miss him.

Flamini wasn’t supposed to be big. He was back up to Gilberto Silva, untill the latter threw his dummy out the pram and went to pieces as he wasn’t made cap-i-tan. (the reliable and unemotional William Gallas was…) This time last year, there was talk of him going out on loan to Middlesbourgh. The partnership he formed with Cesc Fábregas though was immense.

Fábregas is the key to the Arsenal midfield, if they don’t loose him - which is doesn’t look like they will - they should be dandy. They’ve bought in Samier Nasri, who despite Euro 2008 is a well loved and regarded player. They’ve made a couple of other sneaky signings, Ramsey was a great steal from under Manchester United’s nose. And Theo Wallcott is more than ready to fill that wing berth that Hleb is vacating. So if Rosicky can stay fit for more than 5 minutes, they have a decent midfield there of Rosicky, Nasri, Cesc, Theo.

The other big one is Adebayour. Before last season he looked rubbish. The second half of last season he couldn’t hit a barn door in the league (though he suddenly came good in the Champions League) but the first half of last season, best player in the league, Ronaldo included. But if Barca are offering the crazy money in the press (I do think Milan weren’t interested they were just trying to get Ronaldinho’s price down) I think they should take it. No-one’s worth that after one good season.

So although alot is changing at Arsenal, they aren’t letting players go that can be replaced. They have a brilliant left-winger in their youth side apparently, its only a matter of time before he fills Rosicky’s injured boots. They also have young Carlos Vela, who might be ready to play centre-forward next season. And they have Eduardo coming back.

Its not looking that bad for them is it?

Linfield 0-2 Dinamo Zagreb
Valletta 0-2 Artmedia Petržalka
Dinamo Tbilisi 3-0 NSÍ Runavík
Santa Coloma 1-4 Kaunas
Murata 0-5 IFK Göteborg
Llanelli 1-0 Ventspils
Anorthosis Famagusta 1-0 Pyunik Yerevan
Inter Baku 0-0 Rabotnički
Tampere United 2-1 Budućnost
F91 Dudelange 0-1 Domžale
Dinamo Tirana 0-2 Modriča
Aktobe 1-0 Sheriff Tiraspol
Drogheda United 2-1 Levadia
BATE 2-0 Valur

Quiz answers will also be very up shortly in the comments thread of there.

1. Which UEFA member enters no teams into the Champions League, as it in fact has no club teams?

2. Liverpool, and which other side went through all three rounds of qualifying in 2005/6 to reach the Champions League group stage?

3. Since the advent of the group stage, which side has won the Champions League the most times, including once from the qualifying round?

4. Alania Vladikavkaz were beaten spectacularly at this stage back in 1996/7 10-3, over two legs. Who beat them?

5. In the 1995/6 Qualifying Round (it was singular then), Dynamo Kiev won thier match, but thier opponents Aaolborg replaced them in the Group Stage, Why?

6. Lyon suffered a shock defeat against which side from Slovenia in the 1999-2000 Qualifying Round?

7. True or False: The Qualifying Section is being rebranded next year, so that the Champions of small countries and runners up in big countries are kept apart to make the competition fairer.

8. How many teams took part in the 1992/3 season Qualifying Round?

9. B68 Toftir are the least successful team in the history of Champions League qualfying, who did they loose to on thier only appearence in the tournament?

10. IFK Goteborg have won thier early kick off in the first leg of the Champions League qualifying this season. By what score?

The same goes for the Adebayour ’situation’. Evidently, R10 was going to cost Milan too much so they flirted with the African striker (a bit like in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, where Robert Downey Jr is being told the only reason he’s there is to bring down Colin Farrell’s price) so that Barca, who were desperate to be shot of the Brazil man, would suddenly drop thier price.

The biggest one of course is CR7. The Ronaldo saga is boring me, and everyone else I’m sure, to tears, I mean if he’s going to go I wish he just, would. But everytime a move is ruled out, some info comes through the next day that he wants out.

When David Beckham made the move from Manchester to Madrid, it did take absolutely eons to be fair. But it was helped by the fact that, every other day another bigish transfer was happening. This summer is seems like Arshavin, Hleb, R10, Adebayour, Frank Lampard et al will never bloody move.

I wish a couple of them would just get on with it, we want to move onto the next exciting transfers boys, your making summer drag.

Of course, it is partly to do with the press. The newspapers the world over know if they can make Ronaldo/Real/Blatter/Fergie/Ronaldo’s mum/Gary Neville say something on the situation they have a story, and with nothing else going on, they need the story.

Its also partly the internet. Its a superfast tool, but with the whole web shouting at once, we’re not getting anywhere.

Of course it is mostly the clubs, who are using these ridiculous new tactics to get a slightly better price and thereby make our summer seem like it takes 1,000 years.

I can’t wait till the football’s back. Incedently, the CL qualifying starts on Wednesday, watch this space for some cool stuff.

Aside from the obvious offensiveness considering the world is struggling with bone fide slavery still, in this day and age, and the small fact that comparing a footballer who is on that kind of money in the first place to it is absolute madness, putting that aside - the whole bloody situation is Blatters fault anyway.

If so many rules that put the power in the hands of the player, rather than the club, were not in place, then they wouldn’t have to tie them to long contracts. Specifically, this whole nasty Webster Clause buisness has done absolutely nothing but scare clubs into giving players insanely long, well paying contracts, that frankly are asking for trouble. Ask Leeds United.

The Bosman Ruling also has alot to do with it as well. Clubs don’t want to loose thier players on a free (as Chelsea are currently facing with Frank Lampard) so of course they aren’t gonna wanna loose an international footballer for free, so they have to tie him to a big contract.

Don’t get me wrong, as a vague socialist, I’m all for the worker having the power over where he plays to a certain extent, but when a player is earning this kind of crazy money, it doesn’t matter so much that he doesn’t play at the weekend right? And surely most players agree to the contracts? So for example Wayne Bridge, clearly he’s happy with being paid 50k a week to warm the Chelsea bench.

Uefa for thier part have shouted down Blatter (it seems to be Michel Platini’s job these days), they had this to say

”It seems that both clubs and players are trying to negotiate an exit before the player is free [at the end of his contract]. It is a consequence of the Bosman ruling - there is nothing we can do about that. It is obvious that today players have a lot more power than they did 20 years ago, undoubtedly, and agents have a lot more power than they did 20 years ago”

Well, quite. Blatter also said that if Ronaldo wants to leave Man United, United should just let him, and United made the point I was trying to make about contracts:

All our players - like at other clubs - enter into their contracts after an open and free negotiation; most of whom do so after taking advice from a Fifa-registered agent. Many do so on a number of occasions and enjoy long and successful stays at Old Trafford

Anyway, where do you stand, Offsiders?

Ronaldinho’s transfer saga is making C-Ron’s looks pathetic, but the Catalonia club are determined that the Brazil man not play in the games.

This is despite the fact that;

i) He’s a bit unfit at the moment and could do with the games
ii) He’s not in the clubs plans so they would hardly miss him
iii) He’s about to run over to Milan if you believe the press stories that appear bi-daily.

Barca however, are adament, because the games do not feature in any FIFA calender, so clubs are not obliged to let thier players play. Obviously, as R10 knows he has no future at the club anyway, he could just give them the finger and play anyway (I hope he does). It seems odd that Barca don’t want to let him go, but they don’t want him either.

Still, lets all recall happier R10 moments eh?

I miss that Dhino.