Oh yes it's a truly wonderful morning here with a glorious sunny day in Switzerland. This has been helped by the success of the birthday present buying (though not helped by the slow postal service from the UK) yesterday. So with that in mind let's have a look at the French and Swiss press this morning...

Unfortunately, since I thought today L'Equipe would have a quiet "after a rest day" Le Tour coverage, they have announced another doping case. Moise Duenas from Barloworld has tested positive from the 4th Stage and (unlike Liquigas) his team have withdrawn from the race too. It's going to take a little while longer but the teams are finally taking the problem seriously.

On the footballing front (I apologise for the cycling stuff but some of you have other interests outside of football too!) obviously the Ronaldinho transfer takes most of the front pages. Yet it's a strange scenario really, will the old Ronaldinho return to grace the San Siro or have Milan bought a duff on the basis of historic performances. One thing is for certain, he won't be gracing the Champions League this year. One small story that caught my attention is the fact that Mark Bosnich is going to try to resurrect his career with the Central Coast Mariners at the age of 36, though he looks about 10 years older these days...

20 Minuten is still plunging in with more Adebayor rumours, or in this case those concerning the transfer of Etoo that would enable Barcelona to bid for the player. Apparently some team in Uzbekistan want E'too - somehow even by silly season standards this doesn't really stand up to the test of minimal intelligence.

Whilst writing this blog I'm acutely aware of the lack of time I'm leaving myself to buy my wife's birthday present. So if any mishap should befell my marriage I hope you all will be sympathetic to my plight.

The daily rumours from L'Equipe are the normal rubbish,  mentioning Ronaldinho's 72 hours to decide his future, that ill-fated USA teen sensation Freddy Adu could go to Monaco and some back tracking by Arshavin's agent about how his client loves Arsenal (that being the same love he had only for Barcelona last week - tsh!!).

The local paper, 20 Minuten, has stories regarding Beckenbauer having a strong belief in the World Cup takin gplace in South Africa in 2010 despite various scare stories.With the Swiss League due to start later this month ex-Nati goalkeeper, Jorg Steil, gives his opinions on the managers of the Axpo Super League teams and sees Christian Gross unsurpsrisingly as the best in the league.

Well guess what ...NO!

Even Arseblogger is considering writing rumours himself - though I'm not sure I can go along with his whole "Eboué in a Bear suite eating Hleb" theory, even if it does have some postives. You'ld think that a weekend of sampling fine French wine would chill me out and leave me in a relaxed state concerning the silly transfer season and, you know what, I am.

So I got back in time to watch those mad "grimpeurs" climb the Tormalet and Hautacam in the Tour de France today and it set my mind thinking as to how our beloved professional, pampered, spoilt brats of footballers would cope with the truly enormous physical and mental fatigue of such a day. Oh and how does playing 90 minutes once or twice a week for zillions really hurt these days  - eh boys...

Oh anyway some blah blah from L'Equipe et al....

L'Equipe is reporting tonight that Ronaldinho has 72 hours to decide his future - Man City or Milan (can that really be a choice - no disrespect Blues fans) -  or go cap in hand back to Barcelona.

Oh and L'Equipe also mentions our small increas in Season Ticket prices but yet again (like all other papers) that our tickets are the most expensive BUT fails to mention it includes 7 cup games (total of 26 games) unlike other ST prices at other clubs that are just for Premier League games. Yes we're expensive but get the bloody facts right and compare apples with apples and not dog turds or something like that.