Neil Maidment

While a lucky pool of soccer millionaires can now get down to some serious daydreaming about World Cup glory in South Africa next year, there's another group of equally well renowned and respected players who will be spending the summer sprucing up the gardens (or getting their agents to buy them fridges).

Here at the Reuters Soccer Blog we're a little bit saddened by this fact and, doing some daydreaming of our own, we've come up with a plan for a 33rd team at the World Cup, made up of players whose countries have failed to qualify.

I'm nominating Sven-Goran Eriksson for the job of coaching them, provided he will agree to swap his plush office at League Two Notts County for a month whipping our World Cup 'unfortunates' into shape.

Here's my stab at a starting XI for the opening game, with a few standbys for the bench.

Sven's unfortunates (4-3-3): 1-Petr Cech; 2-Yiri Zhirkov, 3-Thomas Vermaelen, 4-Josip Simunic, 5-Christian Chivu; 6-Andrei Arshavin, 7-Luka Modric, 8-Mohamad Zidan; 9-Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 10-Eduardo da Silva, 11-Emanuel Adebayor.

Subs: Shay Given, Razvan Rat, Robbie Keane, Martin Petrov, Dimitar Berbatov, Edin Dzeko, Adrian Mutu.

Razvan Rat makes the cut purely because of the headline grabbing potential of his name, while Shay Given and Robbie Keane deserve something to go right for them.

Bulgaria's new record goal-scorer Dimitar Berbatov also makes the squad as one of a ridiculous amount of strikers, another is Edin Dzeko who has taken the Bundesliga by storm this season and the last for VfL Wolfsburg.

Have we missed someone obvious? How far could this side go? And, removing tongue from cheek for a second, is this an idea FIFA should consider?

MAKE SURE THIS MAN ISN'T STUCK DOING THE GARDEN: Barcelona's Zlatan Ibrahimovic celebrates his second goal against Zaragoza during their Spanish first division soccer match at Nou Camp stadium in Barcelona October 25, 2009. REUTERS/Gustau Nacarino

Liverpool's Rafa Benitez may feel he got a good price for Xabi Alonso but he is in no danger of dislodging Arsene Wenger as the Premier League manager with the Midas touch.

Wenger has received criticism of late for not ‘spending big' on replacements for departing first-teamers. He should be receiving credit for earning a huge pile of cash for players no longer in his plans. Does anyone in football generate as much money from transfers as Wenger?

The wily Frenchman has built a career on signing young prospects for small fees and selling them for gigantic ones when he feels the time is right.

Most recently Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure moved to Premier League rich boys Manchester City for a reported combined fee of 39 million pounds after being brought to Arsenal for much less.

They follow the likes of Nicolas Anelka, Emmanuel Petit, Marc Overmars, Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira in enjoying great success and form under Wenger before moving on to pastures new to the benefit of the Arsenal bank balance.

Success-starved Arsenal fans, frustrated by the absence of a trophy since the FA Cup in 2005, may look upon the departures of such players as a defeatist approach but Wenger has a bunch of hungry youngsters waiting to come in and yearning for success.

Between them they should be able to replace Toure, Adebayor and, if Everton get their wish, the Swiss defender Senderos, shouldn't they?

LUCRATIVE SALE: Marc Overmars signs for Barcelona in July 2000, for a fee of more than $40 million. REUTERS/Gustau Nacarino

The build-up to Friday's second Wimbledon semi-final was all about Briton Andy Murray but the man of the hour was the fearless American Andy Roddick.

Sat on a packed and sunny Centre Court, the prospect of Murray's party being gate-crashed did not take long to dawn on a crowd who did not seem sure who they should be cheering for.

Roddick never stopped playing like a man on a mission, contesting every point while Murray's more subtle, patient approach was not coming to fruition as many had predicted.

Murray produced glimpses of magic and he stood up bravely to return many of Roddick's meteoric serves, which hit a staggering speed of 143MPH, but his own first serve let him down too often and the passing shots he regularly makes went amiss.

On paper, this was a match Murray was meant to win, but in reality the world number three was outplayed by sixth seed Roddick whose recent good form has coincided with a much fitter physique.

At 22-years-old, a grand slam semi-final still represents progress for Murray and the defeat will by no means damage his confidence or reputation -- British fans will just have to wait a little longer for a homegrown Wimbledon finalist. After all it has been 71 years already.

However, tennis fans will not begrudge Roddick, a former world number one and the 2003 U.S. Open champion, another chance to renew his rivalry with defending champion and overwhelming favourite Roger Federer in Sunday's final.

If Roddick serves like he did on Friday, he has a chance, don't you reckon?

ANDY 1: Andy Roddick seems scarcely able to believe his won over Andy Murray in their semi-final at Wimbledon, July 3, 2009. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

ANDY 2: Murray's expression says it all. REUTERS/Toby Melville

Much like a homeowner who decided to hold out for a higher offer and now finds himself stuck in a credit crunch, negative equity nightmare, Premier League side Portsmouth have made a highly regrettable financial faux pas.

Amidst the crazy antics of the January transfer window, Portsmouth decided to reject a 3.5 million pounds bid for midfielder Sean Davis from rivals Bolton Wanderers. On Wednesday he joined Gary Megson's side for free.

Liverpool losing Steve McManaman to Real Madrid for free in 1999 when he would have certainly commanded a big-money transfer in the two years leading up to his exit, springs to mind as another high profile example.

Let us know if you can think of any others.

Now is not a good time to compare the men's game with the women's and the question of value for money, both for the people who hand out the prize money and for those who buy the tickets, has come up again.

Three of the four women semi-finalists have yet to drop a set and three of the four quarter-finals -- Dinara being the exception -- together lasted less time than the fourth round battle between Andy Murray and Stanislas Wawrinka under the new roof.

Yet here's the number that has got a lot of people talking on Tuesday -- the four semi-finalists are guaranteed at least 212,500 pounds each in prize money for their troubles. In three cases, that's for playing eight sets of tennis apiece.

But any calls to turn back the clock and reinstate the disparity in prize money should be resisted.

It's true that the women's game needs more players with the talent to challenge the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, but they will surely come. Women's tennis recently lost its undisputed number one in Justine Henin, who retired a little over 12 months ago to everyone's surprise. Any sport losing its best player could be forgiven for struggling for a little while.

In fact, in just a few years the women's game has had to say goodbye not only to Henin but Kim Clijsters (although she is coming back in some form), Martina Hingis and Jennifer Capriati, while Lindsay Davenport appears to be on her way as well.

That's a large void to fill, and the loss has left spectators in a transitional period whereby a seemingly endless line of teenaged eastern european prodigies emerge to replace the last great hope to shine momentarily.

This situation will, no doubt, eventually come good. Just give it time... and in the mean time, enjoy watching the men.

A SUITABLE CASE FOR TREATMENT: Sabine Lisicki of Germany drinks during a medical break in her quarter-final defeat by Dinara Safina of Russia at Wimbledon, June 30, 2009. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

Formula One stepped back from the brink on Wednesday as FIA president Max Mosley agreed a compromise with FOTA, the Teams' Association, to save the sport from a rival breakaway series.

The disagreement, which centred on Mosley's plans to introduce a budget cap for the 2010 season, had threatened to end Formula One's 60-year existence with eight teams including champions Ferrari prepared to walk away for good.

To the relief of Formula One fans and teams including McLaren, Red Bull and Brawn GP who all faced having to start again in what would have been a hastily arranged rival championship, Wednesday's world motor sport council meeting in Paris has finally ended that threat.

The compromise comes about as Mosley also announced that he would not stand for re-election as FIA president, something many thought would have to happen for any agreement to be reached.

The controversy of a possible split has overshadowed the sport in recent weeks but hopefully attention can now return to a season which promises a championship showdown between Jenson Button's Brawn GP and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.

Roll on Germany's Nuerburgring.

PHOTO: International Automobile Federation (FIA) President Max Mosley (R) and Formula One commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone attend a meeting in Paris June 24, 2009. REUTERS/Gareth Watkins

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez fought long and hard for greater control of the Anfield club's transfer funds and first through the door since he agreed his new contract is Portsmouth's Glen Johnson. He didn't come cheap, either.

At a reported 17 million pounds, Johnson is an expensive acquisition for a player who never quite made it at Chelsea, and has only recently found success in the England team after raiding down Portsmouth's right hand side last season.

There may be a lot of rebuilding work still to come from Benitez if Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa are allowed to leave to join the Real Madrid party (and who knows, perhaps Javier Mascherano along with them).

Johnson is not at all a bad player. His general attacking play is more appealing than his defensive talents, but they can be coached. It is not his capabilities that are in question, it's his price tag.

Another striker must be high on the priority list, but having always openly admired Barcelona's Dani Alves and then settling for Johnson, Liverpool fans could expect links with Samuel Eto'o or David Villa and end up with Carlton Cole.

PHOTO: England's Glen Johnson outjumps Kazakhstan's Tanat Nuserbayev (R) and Zhambyl Kukeyev during the World Cup 2010 qualifier against Kazakhstan at the Central Stadium in Almaty June 6, 2009. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

The new Premier League season kicks off on August 15 and the first real eye-catching fixture is at Old Trafford a fortnight later when Arsenal visit champions Manchester United for the first twist in the title race.

United manager Alex Ferguson will clash with new Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti at Stamford Bridge on November 7, two weeks after visiting rivals Liverpool at Anfield.

After the all-important Christmas period, the pick of the reverse fixtures see United visiting Arsenal's Emirates Stadium on January 30 and then hosting last season's Premier League runners-up Liverpool on March 20.

United's last match against one of the other members of the leading quartet comes when Chelsea visit Old Trafford* on April 3.

Other dates for the diary:

Oct. 3/May 1: Chelsea v Liverpool

Dec. 12/Feb. 9: Liverpool v Arsenal

Nov. 28/Feb. 6: Arsenal v Chelsea

Nov. 28/Feb. 6: Everton v Liverpool

Oct. 31/Apr. 10: Arsenal v Tottenham

PHOTO: Alex Ferguson lifts the Premier League trophy at Old Trafford. May 16, 2009. REUTERS/Phil Noble

* corrected (see comments below)

The French Open quarter-finals were as good as it got for Briton Andy Murray as the number three seed was ousted by Chilean Fernando Gonzalez 6-3 3-6 6-0 6-4.

While an improvement on last year’s third round Roland Garros exit will be encouraging for the 22-year-old, who has previously struggled on clay, Murray will view a final four absent of top seed Rafael Nadal as a missed opportunity for his first grand slam title.

If Nadal’s domination on the red stuff had not been ended by Sweden’s Robin Soderling, Murray might have been forgiven for giving himself a pat on the back.

Prior to Paris, the Scotsman had reached the semi-finals of the Monte-Carlo Masters and the Madrid Masters quarter-finals this season, having never previously been beyond the third round on clay.

So, while the red stuff no longer seems to be the menace it once was to Murray, a clay tournament void of ‘King Rafa’ is perhaps a present he might well have felt he should have taken.

As impressive as two Champions League triumphs are, Chelsea's appointment of former AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti will not leave their Premier League title rivals quaking in their boots.

Ancelotti ended his reign at Milan on Sunday after eight years, following top flight stints at Parma and Juventus, all of which amounted to just one Serie A scudetto.

Some may say the Champions League is harder to win than a league, so two is a phenomenal achievement. He also won two domestic cups, two UEFA Super Cups and a World Club Cup, but Chelsea will be expected to challenge for the Premier League next season.

Outgoing temporary boss Guus Hiddink succeeded where his predecessor, Luiz Felipe Scolari could not, in giving a hint of the current Chelsea squad's potential this season with a third place league finish, a Champions League semi-final and the FA Cup*.

The key to going a few steps further next season will be two or three key signings, including a striker.

In an attempt to put a disappointing fifth-placed finish in Serie A behind him, Ancelotti spent last summer signing the likes of Andriy Shevchenko and Ronaldinho, neither of whom made much of an impact.

John Terry apparently wants Chelsea to sign Franck Ribery and David Silva. Getting players of that quality would certainly make Ancelotti's job easier. If Chelsea are not prepared to make that type of investment in the playing staff, it's going to be hard for the new man to make his mark.

PHOTO: AC Milan's coach Carlo Ancelotti gestures during their Italian serie A soccer match against AS Roma at San Siro stadium in Milan May 24, 2009. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo

* Post updated to correct overgenerous reference to Hiddink cup exploits (see comments)