Ronaldo offered the highest wages of all time.

New Real Madrid signing, Cristiano Ronaldo, has been offered the highest wages in history for any single player. Ronaldo is set to earn roughly £106 million over a six year period with wages of over half a million pounds per week at the peak of the deal.

He actually starts on the staggering sum of £183,000 per week, which easily surpasses the £160,000 that Robinho is currently on at Manchester City. The news simply acts as further proof that Real Madrid are looking to invest their way back to the top.

No doubt the news will anger thousands owing to the fact that Ronaldo will be earning £50 minute and over £3,000 per hour. These are stupid sums of money and will not win the Portuguese star any admirers. It would be difficult to find any other club in the world that would be willing to pour so much money into one player. It also creates a huge pressure and risk and maybe actually does justify the calls from some Manchester United fans that he is not worth that level of investment.

It is difficult when you listen to Ronaldo talking about Madrid to understand how he feels it is a better proposition than playing at Manchester United, the club where he made his name and the club where he has had all of his success. It is very easy for people that do not admire him too much to say that he has simply moved to Spain in order to increase his already substantial wealth and fortune.

If the latter is the case then football is declining as a game and it just goes to show that even the best players can be swayed from venture to venture via the nature of their bank balance. However, none of us would blame him. If anyone else were offered such huge sums of money to go and play football in an appealing part of the world it would take a dishonest man to say he wouldn’t be interested.

The whole affair puts to the back of the line the criticism that David Beckham received when he joined LA Galaxy for roughly half of what Ronaldo will be earning. The news of the wages should also act as an incentive UEFA and FIFA to work quickly in proposing a type of budget system in football that would mute these massive financial influences. What Ronaldo will earn in a week could buy a brand new squad for a League One or League Two side in this country.

The mind boggles at how Madrid can keep this financial push going as they seem to have more money at the moment than sense or the government of a small country. Kaka will be on a good deal, as will David Villa if he completes his move from Valencia. Madrid should be very wary, these amounts of money could make an ego that is already quite large, one of epic proportions and there could come a case where Ronaldo feels he is the main man at the club and the person who should run the show.

Ronaldo saga finally ends.

The Cristiano Ronaldo saga is finally over as it has emerged Manchester United have accepted an £80 million bid from Real Madrid for his services. The news comes after Real had pursued Ronaldo for well over a year and United have granted the two parties permission to talk in a deal that looks all but done.

It seems that United probably got a bit tired of the whole affair and once again Sir Alex Ferguson has proved that no one player is bigger than his football club. The amount United will get also breaks the new world record fee that Real created only days ago.

They will be able to use that vast sum of money to bring in maybe two or three high quality players to replace the Portuguese ace. Many will be glad to see the back of him but there will be United fans who will be upset after Ferguson stated he would rather let Ronaldo rot in the stands than sell him to the vultures at Madrid.

A statement from United read: “Manchester United have received a world-record, unconditional offer of £80 million for Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid. At Cristiano's request - who has again expressed his desire to leave - and after discussion with the player's representatives, United have agreed to give Real Madrid permission to talk to the player. Matters are expected to be concluded by 30 June. The club will not comment until further notice.”

The news is sure to anger many that will hate the fact that a football club such as Real Madrid can spend up to £140 million on two players considering the current economic crisis in the world. However, as it has always been seen, money matters little in football and it was only a matter of time before Real managed to get their foot through the door.

This news should also prompt the people at Fifa to work a bit harder to think up some sort of budget cap system to be introduced into the game. £80 million for one player is a stupid amount of money and personifies everything that is becoming wrong with football.

Needless to say Ronaldo will probably be offered a silly amount of money to play each week for Madrid, which could make the deal even more lucrative than it already is. How much money Real have left to spend is unknown but it had been thought that Kaka was the early replacement for Ronaldo, however this was not the case.

Madrid’s president, Florentino Perez, seems as though he is making good on all the promises he made in the run up to his election but there will be many hard feelings created towards him with this news.

United should not be down that they have let their best player go. Ferguson attracted a lot of criticism when he let the likes of David Beckham and Ruud Van Nistelrooy leave, both of whom also went to Real Madrid. The Scot is likely to use the cash to rebuild key areas and United will probably feel relieved that Ronaldo has finally gone.

Manchester United take a slight advantage into the second leg of their Champions League semi-final with Arsenal

Manchester United will go into the second leg of their Champions League semi-final with a one-goal advantage, following their victory over Arsenal last night.

John O’Shea struck from a Michael Carrick cross to give the current European Football champions the most fragile of first leg leads as Sir Alex Ferguson expressed his disappointment at not killing off the tie last night.

United will be disappointed as they dominated the game from start to finish. Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez both had good chances to score but the brilliance of Arsenal goalkeeper, Manuel Almunia, meant Arsenal are still in with a fighting chance.

Football took the centre stage in this match as opposed to the aggression and passion we saw in Tuesday’s encounter between Barcelona and Chelsea. Both sides looked a little tentative and the match up did not really produce what all of the previews were predicting.

Arsenal’s inexperience in defence was plain and it could have been a different story if Cesc Fabregas had the ability to put the ball into the corner of the goal as opposed to along the ground and into Edwin Van Der Saar’s arms.

Ferguson said in his reaction, as reported in The Times: “We had good chances and their goalkeeper has had some fantastic saves, our performance level was very good and we have given ourselves a very good chance, but the tie is not over, of course.”

Carlos Tevez did himself no harm with a splendid performance. The Argentine never stopped running from the first whistle and shook his head in obvious disappointment when he was replaced in the second half. The Old Trafford crowd shouted consistently the familiar chants of ‘Argentina,’ and Tevez can be pleased.

The only set back for United is an injury to defender, Rio Ferdinand. Ferdinand left the pitch holding his ribs and despite apparent enthusiasm to return to the field of battle he was promptly sent for an x-ray to determine the severity of the damage to his cracked ribs.

For Arsenal the mood must be fairly bouyant. They could easily have left this tie at a three or four goal disadvantage but were able to stay relatively compact and concede just the one.

At the Emirates Arsenal are capable of doing just about anything so it will be interesting to see how they play and risk the chance of an away United goal in going for the win.

Wenger said: “They started stronger than us and in terms of clear-cut chances they were on top. But I am convinced you will see a very different Arsenal team at the Emirates and I am convinced we can reverse this result. We have the quality to do it and we believe at home we can do that.”

It all makes for a mouth watering clash on Tuesday but both teams have important Premier League duties to take care of before hand. These cannot be overlooked as the Champions League story for this season turns one page closer to its ending.