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.

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?

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.

It just seems mad to me, that Kenyon would rather let Lampard go for a free next season, than take 8m now. Add to that the fact that they would have to pay Lampard his 100,000 a week wages from now till then, it just doesn’t seem worthwhile.

I appriciate that Lamaprd is a big part of Chelsea, and that he is well loved, and indeed sells alot in shirt sales, but if he wants to go, you aren’t going to get the performances out of him anyway. And indeed with Deco now signing for the club in Lamps position, why bother paying him if crazy wages when he isn’t going to play every week?

There’s also the small matter of the Webster Clause, which Lampard could invoke if he so desired at this point, Inter could chuck him the money, and he could pay Chelsea and make his way to Italy, whether they like it or not. A big player like Lamps would cause chaos though, and I don’t think it’d be particuarly good for any club, Chelsea included.

So they should just let him go, no? Disagree? Let me know in the comments.

We heavily praised Avram Grant’s ‘Wishbone’ midfield here at the Champions League offside, which allowed Lamaprd and perennial runner-up Micheal Ballack to play in the same midfield. What I’m not sure about is if he wants Lamps to stay, how Scolari is going to fit a midfield which includes Deco into that formation, as all three play in pretty much the same position.

My only speculation can be that Ballack is going to start dropping deep at the expense of Chelsea favourite Micheal Essien, and Deco is going to slot into the role Ballack played last year.

It is still quite surprising if Lampard does stay. As I said, he probably would like to hook back up with José at Inter, and he could have a whole new side built around him, which is where he’s best. Fans in England have also turned against him (He went from being voted England’s best player in 2005 to ‘Fat Frank’ after the 2006 World Cup) so it might be a good idea for him to go abroad. And it’d give Don Fabio an excuse to go back to the motherland now and then.

All in all, I think a move to Italy makes sense for him. I understand that he’s come to represent the post-Roman Chelsea in a way, he very much is an icon of the side. But this is the last chance he’ll have to try his hand abroad. It doesn’t always work (see Thierry Henry). But he might go from Chelsea icon to rotated player unless Scolari has something magic up his sleeve.

At first it seems something to immediatly dismiss, hell I did. But apparently – I can’t find an offical source for it yet I’ll put it here if I Do – Kaka’ was on Milan radio this afternoon and had this to say:

“I love Milan. I’ve had a great time here, won the Champions League and some great memories. But football is all about challenges and I feel I’m ready for a new one.”

While that last sentence will undoubtedly strike fear into the fans of the many Milanista here, it doesn’t exactly get better as the interview goes on.

“I’m young and at the peak of my football and want to play at the biggest level. The Premier League is the best league in the world and it’d be fantastic to be a part of that. And obviously Manchester is the best place to be at right now. They are European Champions, so it’s fantastic no?”

Even Kaka’ thinks the Prem is the place to be at the moment. He hasn’t exactly had a good season in Serie A, and with Milan not in the Champions League, it sort of makes sense. He almost talked himself into it by the end of the story by saying;

“United have some great players. Giggs and Scholes are legends. Then there’s Rooney. And also Anderson who is a good friend of mine, how can anyone say no? They are European Champions. It will be a dream come true.”

To almost drive the stake home – an South American newspaper is apparently running the story tomorrow that Milan will accept the offer so they can get Drogba in. This is all conjecture untill I can find an official source, but I can’t think of a season where two of the worlds best players have moved at the same time – it would be incredibly exciting if this comes off. Who knows? As I said I can’t find a source beyond internet hearsay at the moment, maybe it’ll all come up tomorrow – if it doesn’t please don’t shoot me there’s a long way to go yet.

With reports a few weeks back that Liverpool couldn’t actually afford to keep El Nino, its not quite as unfathomable as it might first seem that Torres could make a move that would frankly upset Liverpool fans everywhere. It does seem unlikely, but it was probably worth a go from The Blues. Grant even reportedly got involved by talking to his ‘good friend’ Yossi Benayoun. They must be friends of course because they are both from the same nation.

It seems that even if Liverpool were to sell El Nino that it would be to a club abroad, they can’t really let thier most valuable asset (I include Gerrard in that) jump to a rival club. Its just whether a club abroad could afford him. Anyway for the time being, Liverpool have turned down Chelsea’s offer.

Inter have been heavily linked with the Belarus winger over the last week or so – to the point where a couple of days ago, Hleb’s agent proclaimed that he would certainly leave Arsenal in the summer. There has been talk of the midfielder invoking Article 17 – the ‘Webster’ Clause, which seems to be what has infuriated Wenger.

“It is not as simple as it looks, this Webster clause, you can’t just come in next day and buy out, there is no rule that says that. And you should not forget what clubs can do. You have to first go to a FIFA tribunal and if you don’t agree with FIFA, you have to go to ACAS. It takes a lot of months. You can be banned for the whole period if it’s not done in a proper way”

It looks as if Wenger is willing to go the whole ten yards on this. But the big question is..well..why? If Hleb is determined enough to leave that he’s prepared to go to court over it, then even if Wenger won and Hleb had to stay with the Gunners, well he’s not going to be happy/playing well/staying long is he? He’d just let his contract wind down and leave the club that way anyway, and you probably wouldn’t get much service out of a player that doesn’t want to be at the club. But you would have to pay him. This is why clubs are utterly powerless now.

In regards to Flamini’s departure, Wenger was apparently more upset at the player’s attitude, and even snuck in a dig at Milan’s slightly scandal-ridden recent past.

“I know the rules in this job, the guy is free, he can go to somebody who pays him more – he said he wanted to stay. If you say, ‘no I want to go somewhere’ that is OK. But you cannot say, ‘I want to stay, but I go. This club here has a history of being built by people of values. I’m not sure that in the history of Milan you’ll find the same values, even if you dig well”

So has this what modern football has come to?

Every coach likes him [Fabregas] but my policy is that it has to be the player who makes the first step for the signing because we don’t want conflicts with any team. Something nice about Cesc is that he is Spanish and this is one of my objectives – to make Real Madrid more Spanish

Is what Raman Calderon, the Real chief had to say, repeating that party line about making Real “more Spanish”. He’s been promising Fabregas since he got elected back in 2006, but the midfielder – who spectacularly came of age this season – is on a long contract at Arsenal (unlike his soon to be ex-teammates, Matthieu Flamini and Alekandiar Hleb) and would require a huge transfer bid from Real.

Of course Real are aware of this, and so want to use the player’s wishes to force Arsene Wengers hand. If Wenger thought that Cesc was content in North London then there is no way he would accept any transfer bid for Fabregas. Of course if Cesc is unsettled, and wants to go back home (leaving aside the Catalonia/Spain debate for a second), then what could Wenger do? So while its very cunning what Calderon is doing, it seems a bit, well, underhand.

Transfers didn’t used to be like this. The problem is, the press is so big and everywhere these days that these tactics can no only exist, but thrive. The added factor of the Webster Clause, which has been in place for ages but only being thought about now Webster actually used it, means that clubs are pretty powerless. Of course it means we’ll have more thrillingly exciting transfers, but it also means the likelyhood of keeping a team together is ever less.

Arsene Wenger knows that feeling. This is likely to be the third time he’s had to rebuild his Arsenal side, from the 98 Double Winners, Through the Invincibles, and now a team who won nothing, but looked exciting for part of a season. In an enviroment where fans demand results yesterday, and managers face the axe unless they win or have won the Champions League, this kind of unsettling of players is bound to be prevelant. And its worse because of those circumstances for Arsenal, who have just had one season that defied expectations, and now all of Europe is thinking of getting themselves a piece of it.

Arsenal fans have also noted, that some of the prospects might not be as attractive as they seem. After just one good season though, the suitors don’t care, they want to bring in someone who could potentially turn the season around for them.

Maybe this new way is more exciting, but I don’t think it helps the clubs any. No side seems to have roughly the same XI for more than two seasons at most, and every season the backbone of teams is completely changed. Its not as if its even as if its changing who wins things every season, as only the select few can afford to buy the players and so it just roughly keeps the quo, highlighted by the ‘Big Four’ in England, but also noted by Real winning La Liga again, with Lyon winning the French again, and look Bayern have won the Bundesliga, Inter have won Serie A again, with Roma second and the two teams will comepete for the Coppa Italia. Again.

Its going to take something big to upset the status quo. Maybe if a side could keep hold of thier players for more than a season eh?