As I sit in front of my tv watching South Africa take us apart in the cricket, I've begun to wonder about the effect that the sale of Ronaldo (assuming it goes ahead) will have on the rest of the league. There's been a lot of chat about the impact on United, but it's pretty obvious that this is going to effect the rest of us as well.
Impact on Chelsea's chances in the league:
The Good: Ronaldo leaving makes Utd a worse side. In the 08/09 season he scored in the League, Cup and FA Cup at a staggering rate of more than one every two games. Not such a great record in the Champions League, but four goals in 12 games is hardly disappointing. And we all know the previous season was even better: he scored 31 goals in just 34 League appearances, and eight goals in 11 games in Europe. This is a man who will be missed. Replacing that many goals (not to mention those he creates) is going to be hugely difficult. Beyond that Ronaldo is a remarkably versatile player to have in your squad - he can play upfront and on either wing.
The Bad: Ronaldo just wasn't interested in playing for United any more. And as Sir Alex has done so many times before, they're going to cash in at exactly the right time, and fill the transfer kitty for probably the next couple of seasons. Just think of who you could buy for £80M. Drogba, Anelka, Essien, Cech for instance. Or, as one newspaper suggested, you could probably get yourself a 55,000 seater training ground in the north-east of England. The cash is certainly going to help them shore up a couple of weak spots.
Result: We're going to have to wait to see how this plays out. For now it's a score-draw.
Impact on Chelsea's chances in the Champions League:
The Good: If United do end up a weaker side that obviously works in our favour, and Barcelona having to concentrate on the League at least occassionally is probably not bad news either.
The Bad: To state the obvious, Chelsea (and every other side in the Champions League) is going to be facing a significantly improved Real Madrid next season. We're going to have to see whether they stay true to form and neglect their defence, but no doubt they're going to get goals, and plenty of them. Jose's going to start working his magic on Inter at some point too. Good for the Champions League (and no doubt Platini will be thrilled that it's a proper club spending stupid money as opposed to unwanted upstarts like us), but it's gonna get a lot tougher for us to crack this nut
Result: Uh-oh. Definitely bad news.
Impact on the transfer market:
The Good: Difficult to find a single reason for this move to go down as good. Maybe (surely...) it runs down some of Madrid's cash. Looking at the Premier League, the transfer might be good news if Utd spend the cash in England. There are lots of clubs who could use the money if Utd identify one of their players as the next big thing. Not sure how likely this is though, at the moment it looks like the money's much more likely to end up at Bayern Munich or Valencia.
The Bad: Where do I start? Madrid are massively inflating prices this season. Kaka's worth £56M? Ronaldo's worth £80M? Well in that case Ribery's worth £65M. Any wonder we can't afford him? They're totally pricing us out of the market for players that in the last couple of years (if Roman had wanted to splash the cash) we might have been able to entice. Then there's the fact that United are now cash rich. And with the last three Premier League titles and a Champions League trophy from 2008, they've got the pulling power too (unlike their cash-rich neighbours). As I mentioned earlier, rumour has it that they're now chasing Ribery. Can we compete?
Result: Almost as bad as being an Andorran defender...
All in all, not sure this is looking like good news for us. We can hope that Utd won't spend the money well (or won't spend the money at all), and that Real Madrid will play lovely attacking football every time they play, but always concede four. But somehow it all seems a bit unlikely. None of this has touched on the really good news though. There's a lot we really won't miss about Ronaldo: his preening, spoilt-child imitations, play-acting, show-boating, and that ridiculous run-up for free kicks... Funny that lots of Utd fans are saying the same thing now he's off...
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