By Michael Sinnerton

Amir Zaki, football's Mr Unprofessional, wants to return to the Premier League. He may well still be able to do so but perhaps returning late from International duty five times in a row, might come back to haunt him. I kind of hope so.

Zaki has today claimed Aston Villa failed with an £11million bid to sign him in January. If that's true it casts some doubts on Martin O'Neill's judgement but it may well be just an attempt to get him some headlines at a time when it looks more likely he will be playing football for a lower league French club than anyone with profile in the Premier League. Zaki's arrogance and lack of respect towards Steve Bruce is enough to put any manager off, let alone his huge dip in form which points to Premier League defenders working him out. Good riddance to bad rubbish? Or a waste of talent that could prosper under the right guidance?

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Are Man City completely mad or genuinely onto something? Signing John Terry from Chelsea, to me seems an utterly impossible task. When Steven Gerrard almost moved from Liverpool to Chelsea he was moving from a team who he loved but were 4^th to a championship winning and potentially league dominating team. Terry, arguably more associated and in love with his club than Gerrard, would be almost moving in the other direction.

Perhaps City are just stirring and I don't think Terry would be move but it's strange that he hasn't come out to distance himself and end the speculation. At least Hughes and they owners have changed tack from simply attempting to buy any decent striker on the market. If they do manage to sign a couple of top-quality defenders, I still think City have the possibility to give the Big Four (possibly now the big 3 and a half) a real battle.

By Michael Sinnerton

Had a very busy day so sadly haven't managed to do a proper football blog today. Instead I thought I'd take the time to pay tribute to the greatest tennis player ever.

How lucky we are to live at a time when Roger Federer struts his imperial stuff. 15 grand slams tournaments in just 6 years; it took Pete Sampras 12 years to get his phenomenal 14. Federer returned to world number one today, admittedly partly in the absence of Rafael Nadal through injury, but also after coming back from two heartbreaking five set defeats to the same man. Those two defeats at Wimbledon and the Australian Open could have led to Federer retiring early, instead he battled back and won the French Open title for the first time and regained his Wimbledon crown.

A clay court legend, whose name sadly escapes me, rates Federer as probably the third or fourth best player on clay ever. He is just unfortunate to have met the best clay courter of all time in final after final at the French. When time judges Federer though, having survived Nadal's onslaught to win more grand slams he may be held in even higher stead than had he won three or four French Opens. Andy Roddick's name must be mentioned here, so wonderful was his performance today. Though it will be of little consolation to him, he won many friends today and even the harshest of judges wouldn't begrudge him success next year (or at the US).

Those of us of English or Australian nature have the Ashes to look forward to this week as football takes a slight back-burner but it won't be long before football's back on our front pages as Franck Ribery is forced to move to Chelsea or David Villa makes Barca's dream team that little more special.

By Michael Sinnerton

As Manchester City eye-up a new set of world-class strikers in a Real Madrid-lite move, should Arsenal fans be worrying about their position in the top four?

If City do line up with Eto'o, Tevez and Robinho next season then their fire power doesn't seem far off Arsenal's, a slightly weaker back-line and attacking midfield is countered by a much stronger goalkeeper and huge strength in depth in defensive midfield - one of Kompany, Barry or De Jong could make a huge difference to the balance of Arsenal's midfield.

Having a look at two feasible line-ups for next season:

Arsenal: Almunia; Sagna; Vermaelen; Gallas; Clichy; Nasri; Song; Fabregas; Rosicky; Arshavin; Van Persie

Man City: Given; Zabaleta; Richards; Dunne; Bridge; Ireland; Barry; De Jong; Robinho; Eto'o' Tevez

My combination line up would see: Given; Sagna; Gallas; Dunne; Clichy; Nasri; Barry; Fabregas; Ireland; and then any of the strikers interchangeably. So four City players to five from Arsenal. Of course this does depend on City signing two world-class strikers but the potential strength in depth at City, with Elano, Johnson, Kompany, Wright-Phillips, Petrov and Santa Cruz all not making my potential first XI above, is frightening.

As a Liverpool fan I find myself more often than not worrying about dropping out of the top floor than whether we can make a title charge. I hoped this year would be different, and if we can sign one more world-class player without losing anyone I could be right. It seems pretty unlikely that City have what it takes to win the title just yet but their strength in depth given a few more top quality signings is already good enough to match the top four.

Where they lack at the moment is go-to-guys, the players who seem to win your club most of their points. Liverpool, of course, have Torres and Gerrard; Chelsea have Lampard and Drogba, and Arsenal Fabregas. With Manchester United selling their main go-to-man the title race is wider open than it has been in the few seasons. At the moment City do not have that player, Robinho has shone in patches but mainly when they have dominated while the same could probably said of Stephen Ireland (who probably comes closest to filling this role).

Without this kind of player City may find themselves struggling to crack the top four but if someone at the club steps up, or one of their world-class potential singings really comes off then the Champions League elite could see a newcomer making waves quicker than we think.

By Michael Sinnerton

Sepp Blatter's latest attack on the Premier League comes at a very strange time given Real Madrid's spending power. Blatter has expressed concern over the huge amount of money being pumped into English clubs by rich foreign owners. He claims the amount of cash in the Premier League gives our clubs an advantage over their European rivals.

"In France, Germany and Spain there are by-laws that say owners must be from the same country. This does not exist in the Premier League and it is a problem we must address." said Blatter.

Why? Why is foreign ownership something we must address? I'm all for having a better ‘fit and proper persons' test but surely the nationality of the owner(s) is the least relevant question of all? Given that Blatter himself admits that nothing can be done, "we (FIFA) have no right to interfere in economic movement", this seems to be another attack on the Premier League for little or no reason.

Whilst Sepp may have a point that there is too much financial clout in the game, surely FIFA should be spending their time working towards aims they can achieve. Introducing accurate goal-line technology seems to be such a simple thing to do yet Blatter claims the current technology is not accurate enough - something, which if true, highlights the slow progress made by FIFA.

Finally, whilst Real Madrid can claim to be Spanish owned, surely the fact that in the current financial climate they can have credit of up to £800m is more of a concern than whether a consortium comes from England, France or Dubai.

By Michael Sinnerton

Barcelona are in talks with Palmeiras over £12.8m rated striker Keirrison, something which raises several interesting talking points. Firstly and perhaps most obviously it seems to increase the possibility of an Eto'o to Manchester City story (City have just made a £25.5m bid). Personally I would rather see Eto'o stay and have one more, probably, glorious season with the new ‘dream team' but presuming he adapts to the Premiership ok there's no doubt he'll be a great signing (and will force Craig Bellamy out).

Secondly £12.8m is a huge amount of money pay for a 20 year old that has no experience of European football. On the plus side Keirrison was last year's top scorer in the Brazilian championship with 20 goals, has career stats of 89 goals in 158 games and has been linked with the big clubs before. Personally I hope that if Barca do sell Eto'o they sign David Villa as a replacement and use Keirrison as a replacement as I don't think Bojan is ready to step into the main role. Alternatively of course they could switch Thierry Henry to centre forward and bring in Franck Ribery.

The other interesting thing about this transfer is that it has cost the Palmeiras coach, Vanderlei Luxemburgo, his job. "Keirrison showed a lack of professionalism and respect towards me and the squad so, while I'm coach, he will no longer play for Palmeiras," Luxemburgo had said on his blog. Palmeiras were knocked out of the Libertadores Cup last week and Luxemburgo was sacked.

All this points to a further increase in player power given Luxemburgo is the most successful coach in the Brazilian championship (5 titles, 2 previously with Palmeiras). As if this small transfer story didn't have enough Keirrison is 80% owned by Traffic Sports Marketing so Palmeiras will only get 20% of any transfer fee. Perhaps some of it will go to Luxemburgo as a compensation package meaning the club will be nearly back where they started only without a manager and their best player.

Unfortunately for Brazilian clubs this process of 2 steps forward, 2 steps back shows little sign of abating.

By Michael Sinnerton

Is FIFA's 6+5 rule beginning to take effect even before it's formal acceptance?

The objective for those who don't know is to have an incremental implementation at the beginning of the 2010/11 season to give clubs time to adjust their teams. Once the ruling is in place clubs must field 6 players eligible to play for the national team of the country of the club. In 10/11 teams must have a 4+7 system, in 11/12 a 5+6 system and then a 6+5 system from 2012/13 onwards.

Purchases like Glen Johnson at Liverpool, whilst obviously made mainly for footballing reasons, are being looked at more and more by managers as a long-term solution to the 6+5 ‘problem'. It's perhaps the reason why Benitez was willing to ‘overpay' and I know it is something he has been conscious of in the past. It may also be the reasons for seemingly strange transfers like Ross Turnbull to Chelsea and could be a factor if Alex Ferguson decides to only sign one striker to replace Carlos Tevez, thereby allowing Danny Welbeck more playing time.

The rule has been described as illegal by the EU and was rejected by the European Parliament but the Institute for European Affairs found that the rule "can be implemented in line with Community law." Assuming the ruling does come into being, the England team should logically benefit through having a greater number of players to choose from but on the downside may well push the prices of English players up in the meantime.

Would you like your club to sign more English players anyway? Or are you worried that the rule will promote on the basis of nationality rather than quality? I worry that it could mean a decrease in quality as youngsters are over promoted, although in the long-term things should even themselves out. Also what will the rule mean for the hundreds of Brazilians who move to Europe every year?

By Michael Sinnerton

To rehash a theme started by Martin Samuel, I wonder whom we should be copying now. When the French won the World Cup along with the Euros in quick succession the FA told us that the French model had to be followed. This is an extract from Paul Hayward in the Telegraph in 2000:

"Thirty-four years after they last reached the final of a major competition, England have resolved not to be the cave dwellers of the world game, the sick man of Europe. This week, Eriksson's assistant and trusted ally, Tord Grip, visited the Under-17s in the Charlton dressing room before their 1-0 victory over France, who now provide regular opposition for England's teenagers under the informal Anglo-French accord. From now on, Grip's presence seemed to say to the eager starlets, you are part of a system which binds each tier of international representation together, and which reflects the urgent need to produce skilful, intelligent and tactically aware young England players."

Wilkinson's staff have scoured the world for inspiration, but it was the shortest journey of them all which provided the best source of organisational wisdom. Gerard Houllier, a former technical director of the French federation and now manager of Liverpool, was the cross-channel fixer and go-between. "After the 1998 World Cup, I spoke to Aime Jacquet [the World Cup winning coach], and they told us everything they do," said Les Reed (director of technical development) at an Under-17 training session on Monday. "Since then, Howard and I have met Roger Lemerre [Jacquet's successor]. He did a technical seminar for us and let everybody have all the information."

In England's victory over France the goal scorer was Michael Chopra who said: "Yeah, that's what Les is trying to teach us. One-touch passing and good movement off the ball. That's what France do. They're strong and full of running." Isn't this just basic youth development? Why do we need the French to tell us that movement and good passing are the key to (attacking) football? Ah but we don't now I hear you say, we've got the Spanish to teach us. Now that Spain have ended years of ‘hurt' without an international trophy, we don't need the French anymore.

Trevor Brooking in February:

"What we've got to try to do is make some of our youth development coaches understand that you have got to spend years on our grass-roots programme to be up there where Spain are now.

"Spain have been doing it for the last 10 years. But we've got to start now. And in 10 years' time we might have a chance of being close to that as far as the depth of our development is concerned."

Given that Spain have just lost to the USA, presumably whoever's the FA's next ‘director of technical development' is will focus on producing big, lucky brutes (not to take away from the Americans who were very good on the day). The point is that we really should be taking the good ideas from throughout Europe and South America whilst perhaps adding our own at youth development rather than desperately trying to keep up with the Jones', the Henry‘s or the Xavi‘s.

By Michael Sinnerton

Dear Chelsea, please don't sign Andrea Pirlo.

I'm fed up with Premier League clubs signing slightly over-the-hill superstars. Singings like this create two problems, firstly the player having taken a season or so to acclimatise to a new league is generally too old or out of favour and therefore branded a failure and secondly the player is generally signed two or three seasons too late and is therefore well past their prime anyway.

This has happened at Chelsea, with varying degrees, to both Deco and Andriy Shevchenko and arguably to Juan Sebastian Veron at Manchester United and Fernando Morientes at Liverpool. My main problem with the signings, as well as the fact that they often turn out to be a waste of money, is that they convince the average fan that the Premier League is all-powerful. When Deco or Pirlo fail, fans who aren't up-to-date with football in Europe mark them out as average players who have succeeded because La Liga or Serie A is ‘weaker'.

Fans point to Diego Forlan's scoring record in Spain as a sign of weaker defences but fail to acknowledge the vast improvement in Fernando Torres' ratio when moving the other way. Some players will thrive in different leagues and some will take longer to develop. Simple points but ones that are perhaps worth remembering when discussing the attributes of different players and different leagues.

Andrea Pirlo used to be one of my favourite players, but his form this season has led to some poor performances for both AC Milan and Italy with one guardian columnists describing him as the biggest disappointment of 2008.

The point of this article is not to criticise Pirlo, but to praise him as one of the best midfielders of a generation and a unique and gifted playmaker. Any move to Chelsea though could see him remembered by some as another foreigner who moved to late and by others as a player who ‘just couldn't cope with the Premier League'.

By Michael Sinnerton

41 goals and 61 goals. That's the total number of goals contributed by Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez to Manchester United over the last two seasons. It's not the newest of debates, but how the hell do you replace that? Benzema and Ribery are all very well but goal tallys of 23 and 14 respectively, whilst more than respectable, are perhaps not enough to convince fans and pundits just yet. Given that their 37 (and 50) goals match neither seasons tally from Ronaldo and Tevez, this despite being up against supposedly weaker defences in the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 (this argument of course doesn't take into the account how much better the players are they would be playing with at United).

Ribery and Benzema's scoring exploits are more than credible though, and whilst Ribery is already a world-class player, Benzema certainly has the potential. Perhaps the short-term problem for United then is the pace of the Premiership which seems to cause adaptability problems for more than half its newcomers. Both Tevez and Ronaldo, for instance, took time to acclimatise to the league and reach something approaching their best. United have of course been linked with Antonio Valencia, a player with Premier League experience but one who scored just 3 goals this season.

A switch to 4-4-2 with Rooney and Berbatov up front could solve the problem of goals with both players likely to notch more than last season, but more goals would still be needed from midfield/out-wide. Anderson in particular has the quality to score more than just from the penalty spot, perhaps his attacking ability is compromised in United's current system? There still must be concern though that Macheda and Welbeck aren't good enough back-ups should Rooney or Berbatov suffer a long-term injury. A striker like Jermaine Defoe, Robin Van Persie or dare I say it Michael Owen, all of whom are proven in the Premier League might be a better bet (although of course 2 of the 3 are injury prone). If only they hadn't got rid of a striker who has 58 goals in his last two seasons in Europe's best league. Diego who?

By Michael Sinnerton

As a big Michael Owen fan, few stories have depressed me as much this summer as the ‘Owen Brochure'. If you've missed it, the former European player of the year has had to send out a brochure hunting for suitors because seemingly no-one particularly wants him.

The top four aside there I don't see how there can be many doubts about his ability. Despite all his problems he still scored 10 goals for Newcastle last year and has 30 in 65 starts (and 13 substitute appearances) for the Magpies. I think you'll agree that those are pretty good stats for someone available on a free and proven in the Premiership, albeit at high wages. And at 29, and having played less games than most 27 year olds there should be legs left in little Michael.

The problem, combined with the wages, is an injury record that makes Darren Anderton look like Daley Thompson (I think that just about works). Here's the solution I suggest, not ground-breaking, but a reasonable twist on an old favourite. Owen should sign a contract whereby each week he is unavailable for selection he is paid £20,000/£30,000 and each week he is available for selection he is paid £60,000.

There are a few obvious advantages here; firstly if Owen is injured you only end up paying him a fraction of his value/as much as a fringe squad player. Owen should be willing to sign the contract because if he envisages himself being fit most of the year then there are really no drawbacks. If the manager doesn't fancy playing him or opts for a different tactical system he gets a normal wage, and he isn't hugely reliant on his own form - which to me seems a big drawback of the pay-as-you-play system generally mooted. Knowing you have to score to maintain your livelihood seems to be a lot of pressure (albeit finances shouldn't be his chief concern).

The amounts suggested above are obviously fairly plucked out of the air and a real value would depend on the club and the actual demand for Owen. Any other suggestions for minimising the risk on signing injury-prone pros?