That Was The Week That Was

TAFKATAFKAP (IE, PRINCE) AND TAFKACR

In football there's too much modern slavery. I'm always in favour of protecting the player. If he wants to leave, let him

By Citizen Correspondent Sir Stephen

Date Posted: 07/11/08

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That was the week that The Artist Formerly Known As Cristiano Ronaldo and Sepp Blatter decided that getting paid millions of pounds to play football is almost exactly like being a slave. Happily, no-one else agreed with them...

MONDAY

Wimbledon got a new champion and Lewis Hamilton mastered a wet Silverstone, but we football fans are still lumbered with Frank Lampard and Cristiano Ronaldo. Ain't summer great eh?! At least there's one positive for us to doggedly cling onto: the Lampard thing seems to be heading into some kind of endgame. Inter Milan have revealed they have offered £6.5million for the England midfielder in a deal which would reunite him with his former manager Jose Mourinho. Awwww, bless.

No such luck with the Ronaldo saga. Still lumbering on with all the pace of an ailing snail, this insufferable epic is still no closer to coming to its conclusion. The latest news is that Ramon Calderon, having sent out confusing and contradictory messages this weekend, is now dead set on signing the Portuguese star, calling it the "transfer of the century" and insisting that United should be "happy and proud" to sell him. I imagine they'd be happier to keep hold of him, Ramon...

Meanwhile, Peter Crouch looks like he might get to play some football next season because he's on the verge of moving to Portsmouth. Poor old Crouchie only got about a game and a half from Rafa Benitez last term, but Harry Redknapp is set to team him up with Jermain Defoe in the Pompey attacking line for a fee of £11million, perhaps helping Rafa fill his poor, beleaguered wallet enough to be able to put in a decent offer for Gareth Barry and end that irritating saga. Well, we can dream can't we!

TUESDAY
It's like an episode of 24 today. Just with less explosions and Kiefer Sutherland, obviously. Frank Lampard is at the heart of this particular heart-stopping thriller, with the Chelsea man's link to Inter Milan being confirmed and then denied with about half a day.