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Well, it finally happened. The nonsense with Cristiano Ronaldo has reached the point where it is reminiscent of a serialized television drama, and a rather predictable one at that. Picture the key players: Ronaldo, the young, desirable hero; Manchester United, the woman who currently has him; Real Madrid, the woman chasing him; FIFA, the frustrated school official; and Sir Alex Ferguson, the father of Manchester United. And here is the current installment….

Ronaldo (as Real Madrid stands by smiling): I don’t love you anymore, Manchester United. I want to be with Real Madrid now.

Real Madrid: That’s right; he wants to play for a real team.

Manchester United: He’s mine! You can’t have him! I don’t want you talking to Real Madrid anymore, Ronaldo. I don’t even want to hear the name come out of your mouth!

Real Madrid (as Ronoldo stands by tight-lipped): That doesn’t change anything. Everyone knows where his heart truly lies.

Manchester United: FIFA, did you hear Real Madrid? Do something about it.

FIFA (sounding clearly exhausted): Manchester, Real Madrid hasn’t done anything wrong. However, Madrid, you do understand that you are toeing a dangerous line.

Alex Ferguson (whispering loudly enough that Manchester United can hear him): If you let Ronaldo go, I am out of here and I won’t have anything more to do with you.

*Screen fades to black on all the key players*

And, yes, that about covers the news on Ronaldo this week. He’s still quietly letting it be known that he wants to move to Spain. FIFA has made it clear that thus far, Real Madrid hasn’t done anything wrong. There has been no breach of contract, and thus legal action can’t be taken against the club. In a move that seems like it was designed for the sole purpose of appeasing Manchester United, however, they have sent Real a warning. Of course, since all that has really happened so far is talk, the warning hasn’t changed anything.

In fact, all it seems to have done is pushed Real Madrid to do things through more official means. They are reportedly preparing to make a bid of up to £75 million for the winger. Real Madrid is ready to put their money where their mouth is, and it’s starting to make people wonder if the powers that be at United can, in fact, be bought.

One of the most important people curious about that fact is Sir Alex Ferguson himself. He’s a bit leery that United might sell Ronaldo off if the price is right, and that they would do so without even bothering to talk to him. While he isn’t completely against selling the winger, he is furious that he might not be consulted.

The entire situation was turning into a bad joke before last week. Now it has degenerated into a pathetic excuse for a soap opera. Watching the whole thing unfold is this summer’s guilty pleasure. Someone needs to tell both scripted and reality television to move over. For real entertainment, all one needs to do is pay attention to this summer’s football transfers.

Surely there is something more than just rumour afoot regarding the future of Cristiano Ronaldo. As the rumours continue unabated, and with Ronaldo himself refusing to quell the stories linking him to Real Madrid, speculation inevitably grows and it is still a distinct possibility that the brilliant Portugese striker/winger will join the Spanish giants. Sir Alex Ferguson has said, very loudly, that Ronaldo is simply not for sale and if ‘push came to shove’, then Ronaldo would sit out next season in the stands. That of course will not happen no matter how this ongoing saga is concluded, but it indicates that United do not want to lose their superstar.

Real Madrid themselves, who have a history of shenanigans in the transfer market, say that they are patient, but have also made it very clear that Ronaldo is their number one target and whilst that remains the case then Ronaldo, Sir Alex and the Manchester United fans will not get any rest. The Spaniards are used to getting their man and it seems that sooner or later they will succeed with Ronaldo.

One rumour that has done the rounds is the one where he told friends in confidence that he will do whatever is necessary to engineer a way out of United and make the move to the Bernabau. How true that is no-one really knows but other rumours also persist that he has no desire to play another long season in the Premier League. That is understandable, particularly with UEFA Champions League fixtures to contest as well.

Miguel Arroyo, Managing Director of Real Madrid has said that they will wait for Ronaldo to initiate the necessary move but until he does so they will remain patient. Figures such as £60m have been banded about for Ronaldo’s signature and Sir Alex and his superiors at Old Trafford must weigh up whether £60m outweighs an unhappy player on the books.

Ronaldo says he will make a statement regarding his future after Euro 2008, the very fact that he is doing this suggests that there is still something in the air, surely, if his plans are to stay with United then it would have been easier for him to publicly and unequivocally state that, thus removing the distraction and allowing him to concentrate on his football for his country. Now that Portugal are out of the Tournament he has no further excuses; he must declare his intention. That is of course if he has not sneaked out the back door and gone for a much needed holiday.

Fenerbahce will be hoping to reach their first Champions League semi-final and damage England’s hopes of dominating this season’s competition when they face Chelsea on Tuesday.Fenerbahce start the second leg of their quarter-final 2-1 ahead at Stamford Bridge (1845 GMT) after their unexpected win over the London side in Istanbul last week.

If they should finish the evening still holding the upper hand, they would have pulled off a major shock and prevented what looked likely to be the appearance of three English clubs in the last four.

Chelsea are expected to be one, along with either Liverpool or Arsenal who meet at Anfield, and Manchester United, who have a 2-0 first-leg advantage over AS Roma. Barcelona, 1-0 up against Schalke 04, also look destined for the semis.

Even though they are a goal down, Chelsea start as favourites to advance as they have not lost at home in Europe since Barcelona beat them at the Bridge in February 2006 and they rarely fail to win at home in Europe.

Their last 10 home matches in the competition have produced seven victories and three draws.

Fenerbahce, on the other hand, are poor travellers having lost five and drawn two of their last seven away matches in the competition proper.

The day’s other quarter-final is at Anfield between Liverpool and Arsenal, who meet each other for the third time in a week.

Mathieu Flamini refuses to blame the pitch for Arsenal’s draw at Wigan on Sunday. There was plenty of ’surface tension’ at the JJB Stadium over the weekend as Arsène Wenger’s side saw their title hopes hit by a goalless game played out in difficult conditions.

However Flamini’s words afterwards were as no-nonsense as his performance. Yes, the pitch and the midweek trip to Milan were a factor but, he said, “when you want to win the title you have to be ready to fight”.

“Of course, it is very frustrating,” the 24-year-old commented. “We gave a lot on Tuesday and had to give a lot again at Wigan. It was not easy because it was difficult conditions. But it was important to stay focused defensively and offensively. I think we missed a little bit although we were unlucky. “The pitch was horrible but what can you say? It was the same for both teams. Of course we like to play and we had to play more long balls so it was more difficult for us.

“But you cannot moan. You just have to score goals and we didn’t so now we have to work harder in training and be ready for Middlesbrough [on Saturday].

“It’s always difficult especially after big games like Milan, you need to be 200 per cent concentrated. But we had five days to recover.

“We missed a little bit in the final part. But it’s like that sometimes. We have the quality and we are strong so we just have to keep going.”

The English have always prided themselves in having the best domestic cup competition in the world but until this season there has been very little evidence of that claim.

But this season alone we have seen a non-league side like Havant and Waterlooville go to Anfield and take the lead against the mighty Liverpool before eventually losing gallantly by 5-2.

Luton Town, a team about to go into administration because of immense money problems holding Liverpool to a home draw, Oldham winning at high-flying Everton, Huddersfield being on level terms with Chelsea at half-time at Stamford Bridge and Barnsley going to Anfield an winning by 2-1 with the winning goal right at the death.

This and other results made Manchester United and Chelsea the clear favourites to win the FA Cup. By the quarter-final stage the draw pitted Manchester United at home to Portsmouth, Chelsea away to Barnsley, Middlesboro at home to Cardiff and West Brom at home to Bristol Rovers.

These meant 4 teams from the premiership, 3 from the championship and 1 from league one. You would have got long odds in not having 3 premiership sides in the semi-finals before the start of play but what transpired was so astonishing that most people still cannot believe it.

On Saturday, Portsmouth travelled to Manchester United hoping at most for a draw to take them back to Fratton Park but fate was to play a huge part. United missed a lot of chances in both halves but perhaps the most telling event was when goalkeeper Edwin Van Der Saar was uneable to come out for the 2nd half due to a groin injury and his replacement Tomasz Kuszczak was sent off for bringing down Milan Baros as he bore down on goal.

There was no doubt it was a penalty but the decision to send him off was very harsh as the rule states that if you deliberately stop a goal scoring opportunity then you have to be sent off but from replays it did show that Kuszczak accidentally brought down Baros and should have got a yellow card at most. Rio Ferdinand went in goal as there was no other goalkeeper on the bench but Sulley Muntari dispatched the penalty brilliantly to put the favourites out.

Another point that was controversial was that Wayne Rooney and Anderson were behind the goalkeeper so he was not the last man but Chris Kamara on Sky’s Goals on Sunday stated that the rules have been changed and it does not matter if you are the last man or not but later that day I did see Barcelona goalkeeper deliberately bring down Villareal’s Leo Franco thereby stopping a goal scoring opportunity with defenders like Gaby Milito and Lilian Thuram about but all he was shown was a yellow card.

The talking point was Cristiano Ronaldo being denied a penalty when Silvian Distin clearly barged into him in the penalty box. Personally I thought it was a foul but an indirect free kick in the penalty box as it was an obstruction and not a push. The game ended 1-0 to Portsmouth and Chelsea had a clear way to the FA Cup or so it seemed.

Chelsea kicked off in the evening against Barnsley confident that they would retain their trophy but Barnsley had other plans and almost totally dominated the premiership side before their striker Kayode Odejayi, who had not netted in 28 games, previously rose majestically to head home the winner to the astonishment and sheer delight of the Barnsley supporters and neutrals around the country.

If those were not enough, on Sunday, Cardiff City went to Middlesboro and totally outplayed the premiership side winning by 2-0 with Guy Whittingham scoring the goal of the round to put his side in front before Roger Johnson headed in the winning goal to make it 2 championship sides in the semi-final.

West Brom then defeated Bristol Rovers 5-1 to make it an astonishing 3 championship sides in the semis and 1 premiership side to bring the romance back to the FA Cup.