Is it possible to have TOO much money?

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Pepe Guardiola’s Barca side continue their sell out tour of the States with a comfortable victory over the Sounders with Lionel Messi being their chief tormentor with two goals, including a superb long range effort.

The powers-that-be at Eastlands have started clamping down on speculation linking *insert half-decent player* with a move to Manchester City. They are clearly sick and tired of newspapers using their name to sell copies and have produced a better counter-attack against this tabloid than the current team are capable of. [Read the rest of this entry »]

In a league table of truthful newspapers the News of the World would definitely be in the relegation zone – but here at CaughtOffside we like a bit of tabloid tripe every so often. Today’s top transfer tale from the News of The World is that Roman Abramovich is going to flip open his voluptuous wallet and hand over an obscene amount of dosh – £80million – in an attempt to snag Barcelona’s Lionel Messi. So is there any way that this nugget of transfer goss can be anything but an utter fabrication?

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FC Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi says that the Big Four of the Premiership provides the biggest challenge for them in this season’s UEFA Champions League.

Barca are into the last 8 of the competition this time around and so are the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea. While Messi, easily the best bet to become Diego Armando Maradona II, doesn’t rule Barca out of contenstion, he does confess his fear for the Premiership sides.

Messi says:

Manchester United and Milan are very good; Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka are great players who I watch a lot.

The other top English teams – Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool – are capable of success too, because they have special players like Cesc Fabregas, Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres.

The best Premier League clubs also have the experience of doing well in the Champions League.

Indeed Barcelona are the only club who can actually challenge the Premiership sides for this season’s Champions League trophy.

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Kaka might be officially the best player in the world but the arrogant Cristiano Ronaldo believes that he is the best player in the business. Goal.com quotes the 23-year old Manchester United winger as saying that he is convinced that no player in the last 9 or so months has played better football than he has.

Ronaldo says:

I don’t need to demonstrate that I am the No.1 in the world. ver the nine months of the season the work you do will show who really is the best. If I am named the best in the world, it won’t be a surprise to me. I’m 23 now and I never believed I would find myself in such a privileged position in the world of football, playing at the highest level for a club of United’s standing. But now I am fully prepared for the biggest challenges that lie ahead for me as a player. I want to win everything – the Premier League, the Champions League and Euro 2008, because I am very ambitious.

Ronaldo celebrated his 23rd birthday this Tuesday and the Portuguese international is certainly looking in a healthy condition. The former Sporting Lisbon youngster scored 23 goals in all competitions last season and this time he has already racked up an astounding 27. Yet there has to be some reservations on him the best player in the world. He might well be the best in the Premiership but FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and AC Milan’s Kaka are conquering Europe.

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What FC Barcelona can do, Real Madrid can do better. That’s the theme in this Goal.com report that focuses on Real Madrid’s search of the globe for the new Lionel Messi.

Julen Lopetegui is the chief international talent scout for los Merengues and he is a buoyant and optimistic mood when speaking about the chance of discovering another Messi. Although Lopetegui acknowledges that talent and potential in Spain’s youngsters, he says that they have to look afar to unearth Messi-like players.

Lopetegui remarks:

Our youth teams are very good and have various stars coming up. There will be some surprises in four years time. Brazil exports around 500 professional footballers every year. You can find some marvelous surprises that nobody has heard of. They are different, not better. Their style is wilder and has to be polished. They are very technical and they can perfect the rest, like in Africa. Our job is to find the unpolished ones. We study the players that we have been told about first and we watched them. We do not just go to a country blind and have a look about. Our aim is to familiarise ourselves before they become known and the price goes up.

Actually Real Madrid do not have a boast a great history of young players of late but yes, they have produces some fascinating players in the recent past, such as Iker Casillas, Raul and Guti. But the director of Real Madrid’s director of the international scouting system is right in one thing: that for a club as big as Real Madrid, they have the ability to seduce foreign young players to the academy. After all, which promising young footballer wouldn’t like to feature for the biggest and most successful club in the world?

Lucky Kaka to have stepped out of the unlucky 13 mark. So far he had racked up 13 personal awards for the year 2007 and now he has move one better. The only Croatian daily Sportske Novorsk has named Kaka are the best player of last year as reported by Goal.com.

Not that Kaka doesn’t deserve the accolade. Although Premiership followers would rave about Cristiano Ronaldo, the truth is that Kaka was head and shoulders above the rest of his competitors in Europe and was better than even Lionel Messi. He was the chief reason why AC Milan could qualify for the UEFA Champions League this season as he turned out to Milan’s best player yet again. Of course he led the Rosonerri to European success last season and this season too, the 25-year old Brazilian has been at the peak of his form again. Milan have again stuttered in the Italian Serie A this season but no one can doubt Kaka.

Kaka was selected as the best player in the world last season by the Croatian newspaper on the basis of a selection panel comprising of Franco Baresi, Emilio Butragueno and Robert Prosinecki and was presented the award by Zvonimir Boban. Kaka had already won the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA World Player of the year award.

FC Barcelona fanatics: rejoice in the glory of the return of the Messiah. Goal.com reports that El Diego II is back from a five week layoff after a muscular breakdown in his left thigh during Barca’s 3-0 victory over Valencia at the Mestalla last month.

Although Lionel Messi will not start the game since Barca manager Frank Rijkaard wouldn’t be naïve to shove the Argentine international directly into the action from the first minute. Messi will be among the 7 substitutes against Racing Santander in the late Sunday evening kickoff in La Liga but one does get the feeling that Barca’s Messiah will play the last quarter of an hour against a club that is challenging for a UEFA Cup spot.

Messi is easily the most vital piece in the Barcelona jigsaw. Everyone knows that he is the most talented and arguably best player in Europe at the moment and with Ronaldinho gradually heading into the Catalonia sunset, it is towards Lionel Messi that Barca supporters are looking to rescue their season.

He tells the club he wants to leave, then talks about how he and Nicolas Anelka will form a terrifying striking partnership, before flirting shamelessly with Barcelona through the medium of a French newspaper. It’s little wonder that Chelsea are getting teed off with Didier Drogba, and the Daily Mail are reporting that they wouldn’t mind swapping the Ivorian for Barcelona’s talented Lionel Messi.

Drogba has broken his silence, expressing a desire to link up with Samuel Eto’o at Barcelona, which has left his employers fuming.

While sources at Stamford Bridge say they have no desire to lose their best player, they are prepared to open discussions with Barcelona or AC Milan if those clubs will give them a top player in return.

Chelsea would tell Barcelona they want Lionel Messi rather than a fee in excess of £30million for Drogba while they would ask Milan for Kaka.

It’s clear that the Blues can’t find a way of shutting their star striker up. However, the question remains as to whether Barcelona would be interesting in signing him. The Catalan giants already have Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi competing for places; do they want an outspoken Drogba in their ranks as well?

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