It is quite early to discuss next season’s Champions League particularly with the World Cup looming ahead but Inter’s historic treble was much more than a great achievement. It proved once again how difficult it is to repeat as a champion in Europe’s elite club competition. For the Nerazzurri winning the Champions League is the ultimate experience having waited for more than four decades to repeat as champions of Europe.

President Massimo Moratti helped fund the building of the Nerazzurri squad and brought in Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho with the specific objective of bringing European glory to Milan considering the current Serie A title holder have not won the Champions League since the 1960s. Previous boss Roberto Mancini succeeded in breaking the dominance of Juventus and Milan since the early 1990s but failed to combine domestic success with an extended run in Europe’s elite competition as he never guided the Nerazzurri to the Final.

Mourinho succeeded in winning Serie A, Coppa Italia and the Champions League yet he is racing to the exit door leaving the Nerazzurri in a delicate situation following the best season in the club’s history. Players such as Maicon and Diego Milito are now being linked with a move to Real Madrid which is Mourinho’s likely destination. It is only time before Mourinho is confirmed as the boss in Madrid unless he has a change of heart and opts to stay with the Nerazzurri. Other clubs are beginning to assess their chances of luring some of Inter’s key players to leave the peninsula as Arsenal have reportedly shown interest in goalkeeper Julio Cesar while Manchester City are looking to capture midfielder Esteban Cambiasso. These reports might not become reality but all these claims are a major distraction for a club celebrating a historic treble and with some of the star players headed to South Africa 2010.

Assuming Mourinho and some of the players jump ship, the Nerazzurri will be losing some key components while skipper Javier Zanetti is only getting older despite his consistent displays. Zanetti deserves credit for his fighting spirit and for putting in solid performances time and again despite his age. Below is a brief look at some of Inter’s main competitors for next season:

Barcelona: The former holders were ousted by Inter and will be looking to regain their lost title. Barca are one of the most talented teams in the world with Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernandez leading the charge. Barca have added a star name in the shape of striker David Villa while the Catalans remain in pursuit of Arsenal skipper Cesc Fabregas. If they do sign Fabregas then the team will likely start the next La Liga season and Champions League campaign as one of the favourites.

Real Madrid: The record winners of the Champions League will welcome with open arms Mourinho who has made it clear he will only leave the Nerazzurri for Madrid. In Madrid he will have greater individual talent to work with yet less of a cohesive unit and a weaker team spirit. Mourinho will be motivated to turn this team of stars into a strong and unified squad. Los Galacticos already have former Milan idol Kaka and world record signing Cristiano Ronaldo in their ranks but it would not be a surprise if Mourinho asked for Maicon and Diego Milito to be signed from Inter. If they do, then Los Galacticos will be considered as a firm favourite considering they only missed on La Liga title by three points and many forget it does take time for news players to gel together.

Chelsea: Ironically Mourinho was shown the doors at Stamford Bridge because he failed to bring European glory to the London club but he did punish his former employers by eliminating them in the knockout stages of the Champions League by beating them twice home and away. Chelsea hired former Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti and the Italian succeeded in leading the Blues to a historic double by winning the Premier League and FA Cup in his first season in charge. Ancelotti made it clear his main objective for next season is to repeat the domestic double and to win in Europe. While Chelsea have a strong squad with experience and talent, the players as individuals are below the talent level of Spanish giants Real and Barca.

Bayern Munich: Bayern proved they are a solid team after a slow start to the season and the final in Madrid was perhaps a small representation of their season as they only began to show their potential after conceding the first goal to Inter’s hero Milito. The Bavarians will have Arjen Robben (despite rumours linking him with Juventus;  just unlikely to happen for a number of reasons) and French star Franck Ribery will apparently return after missing the Champions League final due to suspension. The Germans are a solid group but like Chelsea they are not on par with Real and Barca if individuals are compared on a position by position basis.

Manchester United: Manchester have one of the best managers in Sir Alex Ferguson but he can certainly be stubborn leading him to make the odd mistake here and there, particularly when it comes to offloading certain players or refusing to bring in the appropriate players to replace outgoing stars. The Red Devils did not replace Cristiano Ronaldo and their challenge for Chelsea in the Premiership and before that in the Champions League tie against Bayern  faltered once it became clear Wayne Rooney is carrying injury. If Manchester do not sign a couple of solid players, in particular one goal scorer to complement Rooney, then they will likely fall short in the early knockout stages with perhaps a quarter-final spot at best.

There are other less likely contenders but the strongest ones would be Italian duo Roma and Milan yet the two sides have a number of limitations such as their restricted budget for bringing in players and in the case of the Rossoneri an aging squad. Milan will need Brazilian stars Ronaldinho and Alexandre Pato to stay and will hope a capable coach will take charge at Milanello to promote a few promising players from the youth sector and sign a number of quality players to reinforce the team. As for Roma they have do not have a deep bench and their first team is often riddled with injuries due to the age of some key players such as Francesco Totti. It is unlikely either squad will win the Champions League but they can play the role of a spoiler if their stars remain healthy and fit.

It is quite hard to repeat in the Champions League as shown by the famous Milan side in the 1990s which dismantled Barca 4-0 in an epic encounter only to loss the next year in the final to Ajax Amsterdam who in turn were defeated the following year by Juventus. The Bianconeri would go on to play in two more consecutive finals yet the curse of repeating would also prove to be their downfall despite having the likes of Zinedine Zidane and Alessandro Del Piero (at his peak).

At our sister site EPLTalk.com and on all the major soccer sites, the buzz is about the proposed purchase of Kaka by Manchester City. Representatives from Manchester City have traveled to Milan and a bid has been made, reportedly in the region of £100 million, for the 26-year-old midfielder. This would more than double the previous world record transfer fee of £46 million when Zinedine Zidane was sold to Real Madrid by Juventus in 2001.

Is this sort of deal possible? Well, certainly the new owners of Manchester City have that sort of money to splash out. That is not in question. However, one has to wonder why Kaka would want to move to Manchester City right now and not in the summer, if he chooses to move at all. He has previously stated that he is happy at Milan and he does have a deal running through 2013. That said, the reported £500,000 a week wage packet being offered might be enough for even someone as principled as Kaka to think about jumping at.

From a football standpoint, it would be a step down for Kaka. Mainly in the fact that Man City are currently closer to the bottom of the table than they are the top and it is looking unlikely that they will secure any sort of European action for next season. He may be willing to become part of a rebuilding project during the summer but I would be supremely shocked if a move occurred in the next couple of weeks.

City need to focus on staying up and can start retooling in the summer once their top-flight status is preserved. I believe this is why Mark Hughes has been going for familiar names and experienced Premier League talent like Scott Parker and Craig Bellamy. They may not be the ones that will have City challenging for Champions League glory but they are quite capable of turning their current season around. I also think that The Citizens could use another defender to shore things up.

Either way, the next couple of weeks will be interesting for Manchester City fans.

Sticking with actual completed deals, here’s a quick rundown of some of the notable transfers thus far.

• Brazilian striker Brandao has joined Marseille from Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk on a 3.5 year contract. Brandao, who is believed to have cost between 6 and 8 million Euros, could make his debut for the club in Saturday’s league clash at home to Le Havre. He is expected to wear the number 9 shirt. Marseille face FC Twente in the UEFA Cup Round of 32.
• Speaking of FC Twente, they have sold defender Rob Wielaert to Dutch rivals Ajax for an undisclosed transfer fee. Wielaert had developed into a key player for Twente and they had hoped to keep him at the club but the lure of Ajax was too strong.
• Sampdoria have signed Giampaolo Pazzini in a 9 million Euro transfer deal. The striker joins from fellow UEFA Cup contenders ACF Fiorentina, who will receive forward Emiliano Bonazzoli on loan as part of the deal. Bonazzoli had scored four times in five UEFA Cup games while with Sampdoria, but failed to find the net in nine league outings. His move to Fiorentina could become permanent in the summer. Fiorentina face Ajax in the UEFA Cup Round of 32 next month, while Sampdoria come up against Ukrainian club FC Metalist Kharkiv.
• Metalist have been busy preparing for that clash by signing a couple of players. Defensive midfielder Walter Acevedo from Argentine club San Lorenzo joins Ukrainian Under-21 international midfielder Denys Oliynyk (signed from Dynamo Kyiv) and defender Andriy Berezovchuk (signed from FC Metalurh Donetsk) as new faces for the stretch run.

Manchester City are in danger of an early exit from Europe after a shock 1-0 home defeat by Danish side Midtjylland in their UEFA Cup second qualifying round first-leg match on Thursday. The loss adds to the ongoing turmoil at the club. Mark Hughes had been obliged to state publicly he would be staying at the club amid talk of financial constraints and internal conflict and could have used a victory in this match to lighten the mood around the club.

It was the worst possible start for City manager Mark Hughes as midfielder Danny Olsen struck in the 15th minute to give Midtjylland a good chance of progressing to the first round after the return leg in two weeks’ time. The Guardian reports that the City supporters booed the team off the field, while The Times quotes Thomas Thomasberg, the 33-year-old coach of Midtjylland, who accused City of complacency and of underestimating his side. “Maybe they didn’t know our players,” he said. “Maybe they made stupid decisions because they lost the ball and thought it would be so easy to get it back.”

There was no complacency for one of City’s domestic rivals, Aston Villa, as they cruised past FH Hafnarfjordur by a 4-1 scoreline. Almost as significant as the scoreline was the fact that Gareth Barry started for Villa, making himself ineligible to represent another club in the Champions League until the knockout phase in February. Could that signal the end of the much discussed courtship by Liverpool? The Daily Mirror has the rumour that Liverpool are going to come back with yet another bid for Barry.

Another club that was on the wrong end of an upset was Ligue 1 side Rennes, as they fell to Norwegian league leaders Stabaek by a 2-1 score. 36 year-old central defender Kjolo headed home a corner kick in each half for the home side while Moussa Sow (pictured above) scored a critical away goal to give Rennes hope for the return leg at home.As always, a collection of highlights that have made their way to the web has been compiled by the people at 101greatgoals.com.

The complete list of first-leg scores is posted below:
Metalurgs 0 – 2 SC Vaslui
FK Borac 1 – 0 Lokomotiv Sofia
Vojvodina 0 – 0 Hapoel Tel Aviv
FC Honka 0 – 0 Viking Stavanger
Legia Warsaw 1 – 2 FC Moscow
FC Haka 0 – 4 Brondby
Stuttgart 2 – 1 Gyor
APOEL Nicosia 2 – 2 Crvena Zvezda
Litex Lovech 0 – 0 Hapoel Ironi KS
Djurgarden 2 – 1 Rosenborg
Elfsborg 2 – 2 St Patrick’s Athletic
Stabaek 2 – 1 Rennes
FK Suduva 1 – 4 Red Bull Salzburg
Young Boys Berne 4 – 1 Debreceni VSC
Hafnarfjordur 1 – 4 Aston Villa
Gent 2 – 1 Kalmar
Aris Salonika 1 – 0 NK Slaven Koprivnica
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 3 – 2 AC Bellinzona
Slovan Liberec 1 – 2 MSK Zilina
FC Copenhagen 3 – 1 Lillestrom
Maccabi Netanya 1 – 1 Cherno More
FC Zurich 1 – 1 Sturm Graz
AEK Athens 0 – 1 Omonia Nicosia
KS Vllaznia 0 – 3 Napoli
Siroki Brijeg 1 – 2 Besiktas
Manchester City 0 – 1 Midtjylland
Queen of the South 1 – 2 Nordsjaelland
NK Ljubljana 0 – 2 Hertha Berlin
Braga 1 – 0 Zrinjski Mostar
Lech Poznan 6 – 0 Grasshoppers
Deportivo La Coruna 0 – 0 Hajduk Split

The UEFA Cup (perhaps soon to be known as the Europa League as we covered a while back) is in some ways more interesting to me as the diversity of nations represented is much higher. If Michel Platini is successful with his reforms, we may see more diversity soon in the Champions League but for now, the UEFA Cup is the place to really learn about the teams in some of Europe’s “smaller” footballing nations like Norway, Denmark, Croatia, Bulgaria, etc.

The draw for the UEFA Cup Second Qualifying Round took place last Friday and it has presented us with a number of all Scandinavian fixtures. One of the highlights will be Djurgarden v Rosenborg. Djurgarden, who are going through a bit of a rebuilding phase after being dominant in the early 2000′s, are led by veteran striker Mattias Jonson (formerly with Brondby and Norwich) who has represented Sweden at two World Cups. Djurgarden are currently sitting 10th in the Allsvenskan (Swedish league) table.

Rosenborg are also rebuilding under new manager Erik Hamrén. The club had been trying to sign Kenny Cooper from MLS team Dallas FC but Cooper will remain with the club for the rest of this season. They have also sold Swedish defender Fredrik Stoor to Fulham of the English Premier League. Another player that might be on the move from the club is midfielder Per Ciljan Skjelbred who has drawn interested from Tottenham, Ajax, Blackburn and Newcastle, but it was West Bromwich Albion that has made the first bid for his services. Rosenborg have turned down that offer but with contract talks with Skjelbred stalemated, Rosenborg may start listening to offers again shortly. Rosenborg are struggling again this season and sit 9th in the Norwegian league table with 10 rounds of games left to play.

It’ll be fascinating to see which of these two strugglers will progress in the tournament and if a win in this competition can boost their sagging domestic form.

2008/09 UEFA Cup second qualifying round draw
First leg: 14 August
Second leg: 28 August

NORTHERN SECTION

Djurgarden (Sweden) v Rosenborg Trondheim (Norway)
Manchester City (England) v Midtjylland (Denmark)
FC Honka (Finland) v Viking Stavanger (Norway)
Queen of the South (Scotland) v Nordsjaelland (Denmark)
Ghent (Belgium) v Kalmar (Sweden)
Aston Villa (England) v FH (Iceland)
Stabaek (Norway) v Stade Rennes (France)
Haka Valkeakoski (Finland) v Brondby (Denmark)
FC Copenhagen (Denmark) v Lillestrom (Norway)
Elfsborg Boras (Sweden) v St. Patrick’s Athletic (Ireland)

SOUTHERN SECTION
Siroki Brijeg (Bosnia) v Besiktas (Turkey)
Braga (Portugal) v Zrinjski (Bosnia)
Lokomotiv Sofia (Bulgaria) v Borac Cacak (Serbia)
Aris Salonika (Greece) v Slaven Belupo Koprivnica (Croatia)
Omonia Nicosia (Cyprus) v AEK Athens (Greece)
Vllaznia Shkoder (Albania) v Napoli (Italy)
APOEL Nicosia (Cyprus) v Red Star Belgrade (Serbia)
Deportivo Coruna (Spain) v Hajduk Split (Croatia)
Litex Lovech (Bulgaria) v Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona (Israel)
Vojvodina Novi Sad (Serbia) v Hapoel Tel Aviv (Israel)
Maccabi Netanya (Israel) v Cherno More Varna (Bulgaria)

CENTRAL-EAST SECTION
VfB Stuttgart (Germany) v Gyor ETO (Hungary)
FC Zurich (Switzerland) v Sturm Graz (Austria)
Lech Poznan (Poland) v Grasshoppers (Switzerland)
Slovan Liberec (Czech Republic) v Zilina (Slovakia)
Metalurgs Liepaja (Latvia) v Vaslui (Romania)
Young Boys (Switzerland) v Debrecen (Hungary)
WIT Georgia Tbilisi (Georgia) v Austria Vienna (Austria)
Suduva Marijampole (Lithuania) v Salzburg (Austria)
Interblock Ljubljana (Slovenia) v Hertha Berlin (Germany)
Legia Warsaw (Poland) v FC Moscow (Russia)
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (Ukraine) v AC Bellinzona (Switzerland)