Having first heard about Ronaldo's move from a man walking down the mountain he was struggling to climb, Pete Gill returns from his summer jollies to muse all manner of randoms on the biggest transfer ever
Few of Stuart Pearce's charges will be going to South Africa next year but their success should give us hope - for this is Fabio Capello's blueprint we are seeing in action now in Sweden...
It might be nonsense but the fact that people are even rumour-mongering about Robin Van Persie joining United show just how far Arsenal's star has fallen. A pivotal summer lies ahead...
The new fixtures are out. The shape of 2009-10 is starting to form. And yet it feels like 2008-09 is still dragging on. After the finals came Gareth Barry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, England...
And finally - after focusing on the rest of the Big Four - Philip Cornwall looks at Liverpool and Man United and wonders about the last time an Anfield boss got under the skin of Sir Alex Ferguson...
Attention turns at last to Chelsea and Arsenal and things look a bit doom and gloom for both, with a title challenge unlikely. And Philip Cornwall thinks they're getting restless at the Emirates...
The beady eye of Philip Cornwall turns towards the pretenders. And there's a longer list of what went wrong for free-falling Villa than what went right. Everton are fine as long as Moyes stays...
On the final day they were both chasing seventh, but Fulham and Spurs are very different clubs indeed. So does the future look brighter for Roy Hogson or Harry Redknapp? You can decide...
Whether you're a player, a fan or a journalist, the whole of Team England is getting better. Philip Cornwall sampled a party atmosphere at Wembley that was a world away from how it began...
It would have been difficult to look poor against Andorra but who caught the eye? Well, Glen Johnson looked pretty handy, but is he a better midfielder than full-back? We judge Fabio's boys...
Rating and slating (but without numbers) England's simple win in Almaty...
We're not talking about the weather forecast but the fact that England could be just one win away from the World Cup. It wasn't like this back in 1999 when Philip Cornwall was miserable...
Three very different clubs - West Ham, Manchester City and Wigan - and Philip Cornwall worries for the future of the Latics, while the Hammers have Zola and Man City have big wads of cash...
They're not the sexiext clubs - we're talking Stoke, Bolton and Portsmouth - but they'll all be in the Premier League again next season. Philip Cornwall looks at where it went right (and wrong)...
We focus on Blackburn, Sunderland and Hull and suggest that things are looking relatively rosy for two of those clubs. But Phil Brown really needs to use the summer to calm down...
Victory for David Moyes, who now consistently overachieves given the relative resources at his disposal, would be one last triumph for old football, says our Toffee for a day Philip Cornwall...
Nine out of ten for Barcelona after the demonstration that possession is nine-tenths of the law...
Plenty of things (including a dentist's appointment) flashed through Philip Cornwall's head at full-time, but the strongest thought was that both Alex Ferguson & his young team will be back...
Philip Cornwall looks ahead at tonight's CL final by considering exactly what is at stake for both clubs, and wonders if the certainty of Sir Alex¿s longevity is already his greatest achievement...
Philip Cornwall begins his team-by-team review of how each Premier League outfit fared during 2008/09 with a look at the bottom three. Somewhat inevitably, then, it's grim reading...
Hull are bad, but not quite as bad as three other teams heading out of the most lucrative league in the world...
With a quick reminisce about events in F365 Tower when we had a Tower to speak of, Philip Cornwall explains why he hopes that Burnley restore top-flight status on Monday...
Arsene Wenger has built a club in his image, argues Philip Cornwall. But is that healthy when other clubs - even Manchester United and Liverpool - could now flourish without their main man?
Not the tit-for-tat stuff that's played out in the media, but the battle to stay mentally tough when you have one game to save the club and possibly your job. There'll be tears on Sunday...
Liverpool close the gap to give United the incentive to stay ahead...