The second part should be easier to predict as Rafa has already been linked with a move to Inter Milan as replacement for Jose Mourinho, and while I imagine that is the most likely destination I also wonder how much Benitez will rue missing out on a return to Spain with Real Madrid, now that he is a free agent.

As for his replacement, Kenny Dalglish does not appear to be in the frame at all, but favourites in the press are Martin O’Neil, Roy Hodgson and Guus Hiddink, despite the latter signing a contract to coach the Turkish national side.

Former Manchester City boss Mark Hughes has been mentioned as a candidate in the past and would, I expect relish the opportunity of joining Liverpool, if only to settle old scores with rivals City.

In his favour there would be no compensation to pay out for his services, he is honest and hard working and expects the same from his players. He has also handled business in the transfer market pretty well prior to joining City, where the wheeling and dealing was taken on by the board.

He will feel he has something to prove after the way he was treated by City and his incredible record with Blackburn Rovers on a tight budget proved that he can get the best out of his players as a team.

And right now team spirit at Liverpool appears to be at an all time low, ensuring that the time was right to dispense with Benitez and inject some new blood into the managers hot seat.

I am sure Liverpool could do a lot worse than offering the vacancy to Mark Hughes, but let us know who you would like to see take over at the club.

Looking for a new manager to take them to the next level, and backed by Roman Abramovich’s millions, Chelsea was very quick off the blocks to offer Jose Mourinho the chance to earn and spend big money. Following his arrival in 2004 he won the Premier League two seasons in a row in 2005 and 2006. This was a great achievement and nothing should be taken away from what is an exceptional man manager & football tactician with his minute attention to detail.

But its often overlooked that in the proceeding season Claudio Ranieri took Chelsea to second place, missing out on winning the Premier League title for the first time in Chelsea’s history only by an amazing unbeaten season by Arsenal; a feat never before or since achieved.

Furthermore, it was the likeable Claudio Ranieri who built the foundations of Mourinho’s winning Chelsea team as he was the manager who signed Frank Lampard, Claude Makele, Joe Cole, Petr Cech, William Gallas and Arjen Robben among others, as well as nurturing the young John Terry.

After being sacked by Chelsea in September 2007 he joined Inter Milan in 2008.  But again, the team he inherited was a successful one as Robert Mancini had led them to three consecutive Serie A League titles. Absolutely amazing to think Inter Milan sacked Robert Mancini.  That is until last week when Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan won the treble (European Champions League, Serie A League Title & domestic cup) for the first time in their history.  It was Inter Milan’s first European Cup/Champions League victory since 1965.

So now Jose Mourinho is about to move to Real Madrid to complete what seems to be his destiny: to win league titles in England, Italy and Spain.  But Mourinho will inherit a side low on morale, with no big team spirit and a trophy cupboard that has been gathering dust while their bitter rivals, Barcelona are winning silverware and fans alike for playing the beautiful game.

Jose Mourinho will inherit a side high on flair and low on defensive duties.  Players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka are not known for their work horse attitudes and unselfish work for the good of the team.  It will be very interesting to see how long the Real Madrid president, and indeed the Real Madrid fans will give Jose Mourinho to deliver results.

Personally, I think this is going to be the hardest challenge of Jose Mourinho’s career. If he fails to win the La Liga title at the very least next season he will probably be sacked for the second time in his career.  If he brings European success back to Real Madrid then he will rightly earn the self anointed title of “The Special One”.

Florentino Perez and Jorge Valdano should surely know that this man will not lie down and be told who, or indeed how to play. He is his own man, much to the chagrin of Roman Abramovic, whose own ego couldn’t allow Mourinho to dictate matters at the club Roman so lovingly bought with his ‘dirty money’.

Moratti in a sense was the perfect owner for Mourinho, a powerful, yet understanding owner who knew when to open his wallet to keep Jose happy, and knew not to tamper in personnel issues on the pitch; are you listening Berlusconi, concentrate on embarrassing your people and leave Milan alone.

Alas the Italian press, combined with Mourinho’s satisfaction at having done all he can do at Inter Milan, means Mourinho will go from a situation where the club, owner, players and supporters loved him; to a situation where only the supporters and some players will love him.

As far as Perez sitting back while Jose does his thing, don’t think for one second Marca won’t get on his back and wedge a rod between manager and board. This is the same paper who forced the removal of Manuel Pellegrini, even though Real Madrid achieved a record number of goals and points this season.

Only Barcelona’s near perfect performances kept them from winning La Liga. They had decided long ago that Pellegrini should go, and they didn’t want to lose face by changing their minds. Marca are so narrow minded, that even if Real had brought home the league; they would have still called for his head, and Perez is too weak not to listen to the press.

But it gets worse, players like Cristiano Ronaldo don’t do defensive football, and Mourinho had Samuel Eto’o tracking back all the way through the Champions League final; and all season for that matter. Here is a proven goal scorer who has been relegated to a defensive wide forward playing under Mourinho. Sure he did it, but can you see Ronaldo and Kaka chasing down opposition full backs in their own half?  Come to that, as football fans, do we want them to?

These are gifted attacking players who provide magic and get you goals, but not for Mourinho.

Things are about to get very tense in the Madrid, and given that I don’t see Portugal going far in the World Cup this summer, there is going to be one unhappy Real Madrid number 9 come the start of the season, and if Mourinho doesn’t manage things just right, one of them will have to go; and given Real Madrid’s record with managers, Jose Mourinho might find himself back in the English Premiership sooner, rather than later.

where now for juande ramos?

Former Spurs manager Juande Ramos has been sacked by CSKA Moscow after only seven games in the Russian League, following the 3-1 defeat to rivals FK Moscow on Sunday.

Ramos who has enjoyed most of his managerial career in Spain accepted the CSKA job following a six month temporary spell at Real Madrid where he replaced Bernd Schuster.

His most succesful time was with fellow La Liga team Sevilla, where he won the UEFA Cup  in his first season in charge by beating Middlesbrough in the final in 2005. Sevilla also won the UEFA Super Cup with an emphatic 3-0 win over Barcelona in the same season.

Sevilla went on to win the UEFA Cup again in the following season as well as the Copa Del Rey and finished third in La Liga.

Having been made an exceptional offer to become manager at Spurs in August 2007, Ramos siad he would remain with Sevilla until the end of that season. But the sacking of Martin Jol at White Hart Lane hastened proceedings and after resigning at Sevilla on October 26th, Ramos was named as the new Tottenham manager the next day.

In his first season at Spurs Ramos led the team to the Carling Cup final where they produced a magnificent display beating Chelsea with a Jonathan Woodgate goal in extra time.

The future looked rosy for the Spaniard, but in the following 2008/09 season the team endured a dreadful time securing only two points from eight games and on October 25th Ramos was sacked along with his coaching staff, including Gus Poyet.

Ramos replaced the hapless Bernd Schuster at Real Madrid in December 2008 and for a while it appeared the magic was returning as Ramos led Madrid through seventeen games in which they picked up 49 points out of a possible 51.

However in the ‘El Classico’ game between rivals Madrid and Barcelona at the Bernabeu, Real were thrashed 2-6  and subsequently lost the following four games, finishing nine points behind La Liga winners Barcelona.

As his contract expired with Real Madrid at the end of the 2008/09 season and took up his post in Moscow in December.

The striker now faces a further six weeks out with the left thigh injury. There was some good news for the Dutch striker though as he showed that he has lost none of his goal scoring skills by grabbing one in the 5-0 Real Madrid win.

It was while scoring the goal that Van Nistelrooy picked up the injury.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored two as Madrid thrashed Xerez, Guti and Benzema each getting one apiece. It is the first time ever that Xerez have been in the top league in Spain and for seventy odd minutes the minnows had kept Madrid’s awesome attack at bay.

With fifteen minutes to go the floodgates opened Xerez conceded five.

Five was what Barcelona had managed against Atletico Madrid on Saturday, a game in which Barcelona played the most dreamlike football ever. Andrea Iniesta is back and how Barcelona and Spain have missed him. He is the player that allows it all to come together for club and country and frankly is irreplaceable at either level.

It is beautiful to watch Barcelona particularly at their fortress Camp Nou and they were majestic at times in the 5-2 win against Atletico. Lionel Messi scored twice, Ibrahamovic, Alves and Keita added the rest.

Real Madrid

On the other side of Liverpool, Everton’s Joleon Lescott has followed Alonso’s initiative by handing in a transfer request to get his move to Manchester City. Everton have meanwhile been holding talks with Phillipe Senderos of Arsenal as a possible replacement for Lescott.

Everton are expected to complete the signing of American forward Cody Arnaux on a years contract, in the next few days.

Lyon have fought off suitors such as Manchester United and Chelsea for 21 year old Benzema all through the summer transfer window, but the lure of playing for his favourite team has proved to much for the French club to hang on to their prized asset.

It is thought that Real Madrid senior advisor Zinedine Zidane was instrumental in identifying the player to club president Florentino Perez after talks broke down between  Madrid and Valencia striker David Villa, who now looks certain to join La Liga rivals Barcelona in yet another snub toward the Premier league.

Manchester United had been the media favourites to sign Benzema although Lyon have repeatedly denied having received any firm offers for the player.

But why is it that when Man City offered £100 million for Kaka, the majority of English football pundits, commentators and overpaid ex-footballers shook their heads and frowned at the idea that Manchester City were prepared to pay such a large amount of money for any one player.  But £80 million for Cristiano Ronaldo between Real Madrid and Manchester United has not received the same level of criticism?

I believe there are equal measures of hypocracy and snobbery.  It’s okay for Real Madrid and Manchester United  because they are two of the biggest clubs in the world.  As Alex Ferguson likes to tell the media when playing mind games against Chelsea, ‘Manchester United has history!’

And like when Roman Abramovich made Chelsea the richest club in the world with his own money, the Manchester City owner and member of the Arab Abu Dhabi royal family, 38 year-old Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has unfairly been discrimated against as the richest clubs in the world have always paid large sums of money to prize the best players away from other teams.  It’s just not fair that someone can bully Ferguson and Manchester United around, is it?

There is an obvious elitist factor at play. Furthermore, surely it’s more acceptable for Manchester City and Chelsea to pay large sums of money for top players in this current climate than it is the likes of Manchester United.  Afterall, the Glazer Family bought Man United with borrowed money and have saddled that great club with allegedly £511 million of debt.  The sale of Ronaldo will not even pay 50% of this year’s interest repayment on Manchester United’s loans which allegedly stands at £45.5 million.

Kaka is one of the best players in the world.  But £56 million paid to AC Milan for the young Brazilian midfield playmaker, compared to £80 million for Ronaldo,  is a bargain.  Bayern Munich’s Frank Ribery and Liverpool’s Xavi Alonso were also on Florentino Perez’s wishlist at a recent press conference.  Those players have also been courted by Chelsea and Arsenal, respectively.

This summer’s transfer market has just got exciting.  Real Madrid have the money and the history to buy more top players, while Manchester City are going to find it more difficult to persuade the best players in the world to join them unless they are pushing 30 and are content with a massive weekly pay check and no European medals next season.

Manchester United will I assume look to replace Cristiano Ronaldo, maybe with someone like Frank Ribery; and if Carlos Tevez leaves Old Trafford they will most definitely need another striker to play alongside Wayne Rooney.  How about Stewart Downing and Jermain Defoe?

Arsenal need to strengthen their squad if they are prepared to put up a reasonable fight to stay in the ‘big four’ and Chelsea will have offered Carlo Ancelotti a reasonable amount of money to rebuild an aging team, if they are to mount a serious challenge for the Premiership or the Champions League.

Exciting times ahead this summer.

Perez arrived with his first aquisition, fans favourite Zinedine Zidane as an advisor and immediately set about installing a new coach to replace the departing Juande Ramos at the club. Villareal coach Manuel Pelligrini who is the longest serving coach in Spain’s top flight having spent the previous five seasons with the ‘Yellow Submarines’ has been announced as Ramos’s replacement.

The 55 year old Chilean will cost Real Madrid around 4million euros in compensation to Villareal.

Madrid have been a poor second best to Barcelona this season, the Catalan giants winning trophies on three fronts, while last seasons La Liga champions have struggled to find their game.  Perez is anxious to return Real Madrid to their previous glory and has promised fans that he will move heaven and earth to bring the worlds best players to the Bernabeu once again.

On Spanish TV last night, Perez spoke about his love of Kaka, Xabi Alonso, Frank Ribery and of course Cristiano Ronaldo, but was also realistic enough to suggest that Madrid would need to sell up to ten of their squad to enable them to bring in six new players.

Surprisingly the new Real Madrid President added that despite his love of Ronaldo who would be a ‘model signing’, he is unaware of any contractual agreement having been made by the player and former president of the club.

Real Madrid

Real Madrid have had a torrid time since the departure of  the greats Zidane, Carlos Alberto, Beckham, Figo, etc  and the loss of Robinho pre season has left a lot to ask of the remaining players. The la Liga title last season was ground out rather than won and this season the team have relied on the form of a few players, notably Raul and Casillas to keep them close to rivals Barcelona.

At Anfield Madrid did not even get going. While the first two Liverpool goals were controversial to say the least, they were well deserved as Liverpool went for the Real Madrid jugular and frankly buried them.

Rafa Benitez has come in for more than his fair share of criticism, mainly from Liverpool fans, over his often obscure team selection, but last night was more about his tactical ability than choosing the right players.  The Liverpool team appeared to be in fast motion throughout the game and breached the awful Madrid defence at will, rendering the  experienced international defenders Heinze, Pepe and Ramos as next to useless as they flapped and threw themselves into  challenges.

Playing against the pace of the Liverpool attack and midfield, it is not wise to play the offside trap, especially as far up field as Real tried, even more so when Torres appeared to be on a mission to maybe make up for not scoring against Real during his time with Madrid rivals Atletico.

Liverpool’s 5-0 aggregate win sends out a very strong message to the remaining teams in the competition, but they will be hoping it provides the perfect stepping stone for this weekends Premier league clash with Manchester United, where only a win will be acceptable if they are to remain a serious challenge to the runaway leaders.