Around the World of football.

It’s been another dramatic week in the world of football with Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney, Paolo Di Canio and Luka Modric all making the headlines for numerous reasons some good, some bad.

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi celebrates another victory

Barely 10 days ago, EPL league leaders Manchester United, were in pursuit of the treble, and now after a loss to Real Madrid in the Champions league, then a dramatic 2-2 draw against Chelsea in the FA cup after having a comfortable 2-0 lead at halftime, and rumors of star player Wayne Rooney departing. Everything doesn’t seem so rosy. United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said that all is well, and that Rooney is going nowhere, (which was the same thing he said about Ronaldo by the way), even though there are numerous rumors of offers and signs of interests from the likes of PSG and Barcelona.

Elsewhere Reading manager Brian McDermott was sacked after a run of poor results as Reading are now joint bottom with QPR. With less than 9 games to go, it’s a strange time to be hiring a new manger. It’s ironic because barely a month a ago McDermott picked up manager of the month award. The flamboyant Italian, Paolo Di Canio’s name has been tossed about as a candidate, after he recently departed Swindon after falling out with the Swindon board after 20 fantastic months of success.

In Champions league action, Barcelona star Lionel Messi, showed why he’s the world greatest player. With his side having lost the first leg 2-0 to AC Milan, he came out with the bit between his teeth and set a torrid pace, scoring two sublime goals to give Barcelona a 2-0 halftime lead on th way to a 4-0 win.

Messi destroys Milan in yet another outstanding performance.

In other Champions league action, Arsenal won 2-0 on the night over Bayern Munich, but it was not enough to overcome the 1st leg deficit, going down 3-3 on aggregate on the away goals rule.
Coupling it with Manchester United getting knocked out by Real Madrid last week, it marks the 1st time since 1996 that no English Premiership team has advanced to the quarter finals.

And to cap it off, even after his goal sank Manchester United in the Champions, rumours are rife that Real Madrid’s Luka Modric will be on his way to Old Trafford to join United in the summer. Modric has not settled well in Spain and has been used as a big part player at best.

Watch this space…..