New Blackburn owners Balaji and Venkatesh Rao of India’s Venky Group have stated Sam Allardyce’s dismissal was nothing to do with the defeat to Bolton on Sunday but was part of a long term strategy. But with Blackburn currently in 13th position in the Premier League, five points off the relegation places and only three points off a place in Europe next season, I would have said Blackburn were destined to finish mid-table.  So why wouldn’t they wait until the end of the season when it would be less unsettling to the players and staff and there would be more of an open marketing to buy new players.

My next thought was that if the new owners wanted to make a splash, they would be looking for a big name replacement to show their intent, and if there is money to spend on new players, the transfer window opens in 17 days time.  But speaking to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, Anuradha Desai, chairwoman of the club’s Venky Group owners stated: “It could now be a couple of months before a new manager is put in place.”

I’m not quite sure what Sam Allardyce had done wrong apart from using boring tactics and playing dull football (something that has followed him throughout his managerial career) but I’m thinking Balaji and Venkatesh Rao are looking to entice a big name in world football to takeover and have Blackburn compete with the likes of the ‘big five’.

When Diego Maradona was recently seen at the Fulham v Manchester City game I thought it was a long way for the greatest footballer of all-time to travel just to watch a game of football.  Then following the sacking of Chris Houghton at Newcastle United I expected Mike Ashley to surprise everyone by appointing Maradona.  Now, I am thinking it could be one of two or possibly three well known footballers in the North West.  If not Maradona, imagine how excited Blackburn Rovers fans would be if Alan Shearer or Kenny Dalglish were to return to the North West in a bid to hold aloft the Premier League trophy, as they did before.

Other names are bound to be mentioned.  Martin O’Neill (though his teams play a similar style of football to Big Sam’s), Martin Jol and Frank Rijkaard are currently out of work. But though Jol is favourite with the bookies, following his resignation last week from Ajax, I can’t really see why the owners believe he would do better this season than Sam Allardyce.

In the same way as Mike Ashley wanted to get the fans onside by appointing Kevin Keegan I think the owners are looking to make a big splash and show the world they mean business.

You’d think after barely qualifying for the 2010 South Africa World Cup, Maradona would have enough humility to admit he was wrong, but instead of including the experience and reliability of guys like Zanetti, Cambiasso, Aimar, Lucho Gonzalez and to a lesser extent, Gago, he has opted for more unproven relative unknowns. Sure some are doing well in Argentina but how can this equate to playing against players with European experience and world class ability.

Let’s look at Cambiasso, one of the best in his position and an ever-present in Inter Milan’s historic treble, not to mention Zanetti, who captains that very same team. Then there’s Aimar and Gonzalez, who were both league winners in their respective teams.

Maradona prefers to choose flops like Gutierrez who played in the English second division last season, and his old buddy Martin Palermo from Boca Juniors who has made the final cut.

The reason many Argentines secretly think Maradona should have been fired over a year ago is the public fall-out with Riquelme, a rift which will see Riquelme miss his last chance to take part in a world cup, along with Zanetti, Cambiasso and Aimar. Is it because the AFA are too scared to publicly reject a national treasure? Whatever the reason, Diego Maradona has divided his homeland, while sacrificing their hopes of winning their third World Cup.

Although Dunga has made some curious contradictory decisions, it seems unlikely that it will have the same destructive effect on Brazil’s chances of glory. He has already suggested he expects Brazil fans to be unhappy with his decisions but to be patriotic regardless which I am sure they will be.

Ronaldinho has had a renaissance at AC Milan in the past 12 months. Training well, playing almost every game and contributing assists and goals along with his usual flair and infectious good humour.

Not to mention he has had a significantly better season than Kaka, who does go to South Africa; even though he has barely played since he coincidentally got “injured” just after being criticized for the poor form which got Real Madrid eliminated from the Champions League.

The manager claims he will use the players who have proved themselves for the national team but in Ronaldinho and Adriano’s case, haven’t been given that opportunity even though they have been in fine form for AC Milan and Flamengo respectively. Even the players told the manager they wanted Adriano in the squad.

Meanwhile Alex Pato, a star of the future and a player AC Milan are building their team around for next season hasn’t made the cut because he has apparently had a bad season. I would like to take the opportunity to say that AC Milan only had a chance of winning Serie A because of Pato and it is only since he has been injured that they lost any hope of doing so.

There is no consistency in Dunga’s choices, but unlike his counterpart from Buenos Aries, he has enough strength in the squad to stake a serious claim for the trophy. Just as well, he is going to need it to get out of that group.

By half time the Lionel Messi show was in full swing, and the best player in the world had scored another two goals to put the tie well and truly out of Arsenal’s reach, and in the process scoring his third hat-trick of 2010.

Messi’s fourth goal in the 88th minute was nothing more than icing on the cake.  By then everyone watching the game had surely agreed that this was one of the most amazing performances by any one individual footballer, possibly on par with Maradonna’s single-handed (forgive the pun) defeat of England in the 1986 World Cup Quarter-final.

And for those of you who listen to cricket legend and football pundit muppet, Darren Gough, on Talk Sport, I wonder if he will still be comparing Lionel Messi to Aaron Lennon tomorrow – a good player but not a great player, is his usually comment when asked about Lionel Messi.

I can’t imagine Messi ever leaving Barcelona while he is still in his prime because of the debt he owes Barcelona.  But how I would love to see him perform weekend in and week out in the Premier League.

After tonight’s match Arsene Wenger, Nicklas Bendtner and Manuel Alumina all  said they were simply beaten by the better team, and praised Lionel Messi’s amazing performance.  Wenger added he was the best player in the world “by a long way”.

Wenger knows his onions and tonight I am in total agreement with him.

Barcelona beat Arsenal 6-3 on aggreagate and will play Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan in the semi-finals after the Italian champions beat CSK Moscow tonight 1-0 away from home, 2-0 on aggreagate.

Earrings? I said confiscate his earnings!

This story made me smile, apparently football legend Diego Maradona had his diamond encrusted earrings confiscated during a visit to a health clinic in Northern Italy, where the former player had checked in to lose some weight.

The Italian tax collection agency Equitalia said finance police had taken the earrings worth 4,000 euros to help pay off back taxes that were accumulated while Maradona played for Napoli between 1984 and 1991.

The Italian authorities say that Maradona owes 31million euros in back taxes but the Argentina coach says that the taxes should have been paid by his club Napoli.

It is not the first time that maradona has had personal item’s confiscated, in 2006 two Rolex watches were taken when he appeared for a benefit match and in 2005 his payment for appearing on a TV dance show was seized.