Jose Mourinho has long complained that other clubs have an inflated “Chelsea price” whenever the mega-rich Londoners show any interest in signing a player but the boot seems to be on the other foot in the case of Arjen Robben.

The Dutch winger was bought from PSV Eindhoven three years ago for 12 million pounds but seems set to go to Real Madrid for something around the 20 million mark.

Madrid, it seems, are desperate to sign some flair players having bizarrely sacked coach Fabio Capello because the team failed to show enough panache in winning the title.

His replacement Bernd Schuster said this week that “getting Robben here is very important for us. I want a lot of mobility there, similar to what Zidane did.”

Perhaps the Madrid hierarchy have been sent a video of what Robben can do but it must have taken some pretty creative editing to bring him into the same orbit as the French World Cup winner.

In his early days Robben’s delicate dribbling added an extra dimension to Chelsea but as his injuries piled up he became less and less effective.

Last season he managed only three goals and probably around the same total of productive crosses. (Note: There’s an interesting piece about his diminishing influence over at Blue Champions).

He also fell foul of Mourinho over what management consultants would probably call his “attitude to risk”. At times it seemed as if a slight strain was enough to rule him out of matches, while team mates such as John Terry limped into battle held together with string and liniment.

Why the champions of Spain think he is the final piece in the jigsaw to enable them to challenge again for the Champions League, and all in a crowd-warming flamboyant style, remains one of the great mysteries of the summer.

Mitch Phillips, London

Iraqs inspiring success in this years Asian Cup was not only a victory for the people of a country ravaged by war but also a major coup for the tournament organisers. The Asian Cup has always struggled for external recognition but the extraordinary events of the past three weeks have catapulted the tournament into a new era.

No-one in their right mind expects the Asian Cup will ever match the hype and glamour of the European Championship or the romance and skill of the Copa America but the tournament can no longer be ignored.

Iraqs victory in the face of incredible hardship and the unifying effect it had on their war-weary citizens captured the imagination of the sporting world.

It was a modern day fairytale (and it surely won’t be long before it gets the Hollywood blockbuster treatment) yet in many ways it was just the icing on the cake.

The inclusion of Australia and their English Premier League players, the increasing number of Asians plying their trade in Europe and the influence of crafty Brazilian coaches have not only raised standards but given the competition real credibility.

The Asian Cup rose from humble beginnings but it is only in the last 15 years that the event has really started to take off. The first three tournaments, in 1956, 1960 and 1964, were contested by just four countries. As recently as 1992, there were only eight countries involved but the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) realised it had to increase the number of teams if it wanted to be taken seriously.

The competition was expanded to 12 teams for the 1996 and 2000 editions, then to 16 teams for the 2004 and 2007 tournaments. While the first tournament was contested by South Korea, Israel, Hong Kong and Vietnam, todays major players include China, Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia and now Iraq.

The next tournament will be held in Qatar in 2011 and after the events of 2007, the competition just to qualify promises to fierce. The AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam believes the Asian Cup is now ready to take its place on the football calendar as a major event.

“The Asian Cup from now on will be different from what we’ve seen in the past, he told a news conference in Jakarta. In terms of organisation, in terms of popularity and in terms of standard. This is my promise to you.”

No Asian country has ever won the World Cup but it only seems like a matter of time. South Korea reached the semi-finals in 2002 and Australia made the second round in Germany last year, losing to eventual champions Italy on a dodgy penalty.

Perhaps the best example of the improving standards of Asian football is that neither of those countries made the final this time. Australia were bundled out in the quarter-finals by Japan while South Korea lost to Iraq on penalties in the semi-finals.

Yet the performances of Asias biggest and richest teams had nothing to do with this turning point in the Asian Cups history. Instead, it was the incredible success story of a team no-one thought had any chance that ultimately caught the worlds attention.

Julian Linden, Jakarta

Every close season there seems to be one or two transfer sagas which drag on and on.

This year Manchester United’s attempts to sign Carlos Tevez from West Ham have dominated the headlines while AS Roma defender Cristian Chivu has finally wrapped up his move to Inter Milan after two months of talks.
 
But why does it often take so long for some moves to go through when on deadline day clubs snap up players inside five minutes?
 
The Tevez affair is unique because of the complex legal issue of whether West Ham or businessman Kia Joorabchian own the rights to the player. However in the case of Chivu, Inter and Roma agreed a deal which they could easily have reached in early June.
 
Players, agents and club officials being on holiday is one reason why close season transfers can take ages to go through. On the other hand, you would think transfers could be speeded up when there were no matches to play.
 
Economic factors are also key. A buying club has three months without a competitive game to be able to whittle down the price on a player, but by doing this they obviously risk losing him to someone else.
 
Inter nearly paid the price when Real Madrid came sniffing for Chivu and were only saved by Chivu’s rare rejection of Real because of his love for Italy.
 
Some lower division clubs also employ the interesting tactic of waiting until the August deadline to snap up players to avoid having to pay July wages. Many even hope that the pre-season training regime at the selling club is better than theirs, meaning they sign an extra-fit player.
 
Drawn-out transfers are not all bad though. At least they supporters and the media busy before the big kick-off. 

Mark Meadows, Milan

Timing is everything, as the saying goes, and David Beckham has already proved the point in his first two weeks with Los Angeles Galaxy.

Although his playing time has been restricted to just 16 minutes because of a lingering ankle injury, his mere presence in Los Angeles has lifted his new teams fortunes on and off the pitch.

Before Beckham touched down with his family at LAX airport on July 12, the Galaxy were struggling to overturn a dismal start to the season, winning only three of their 12 Major League Soccer games to languish second bottom in the Western standings.

They plumbed further depths when they failed to reach the U.S. Open Cup quarter-finals after losing 1-0 at lowly Richmond Kickers two days before Beckhams much-hyped arrival.

After watching helplessly from the sidelines when the Galaxy were thumped 3-0 by Mexican club Tigres UANL in a friendly, one day after his first scheduled training session, Beckham has seen his new team mates emerge in a very different light.

They produced commitment and passion against English giants Chelsea in one of their best performances of the season, losing only 1-0 in a friendly highlighted by Beckham’s long-awaited debut.

Barely four minutes after Beckham began warming up in front of a capacity crowd of 27,000, U.S. international Landon Donovan came close to equalising for the Galaxy when heading over the bar after latching on to a cross from Quavas Kirk. Impeccable timing, or what?

Beckhams appearance on the bench unquestionably lifted his team mates who, just three days later, upset Mexican side and CONCACAF Champions’ Cup winners Pachuca 2-1.

Slowly but perceptibly, the Beckham factor is impacting on the Galaxy. And off the pitch, the England midfielder has made an even bigger impact with his number 23 Galaxy shirt becoming the biggest seller in the game after his first week in Los Angeles.

Although his long-term goal of taking U.S. soccer to a new level can only be judged with the passage of time, Beckham appears to be ideally equipped to make that happen.

To make Americans fall in love with the game, hes the one to do that,” Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho said. “That is what everybody is waiting for.

“Football is about motivation and intensity and for these players of not a high level to play with David Beckham on their side in sold-out stadiums with a red carpet in the ground must be a big motivation for them.

Mark Lamport-Stokes is a Reuters sports correspondent based in California

Sickening scenes in the Bosnian city of Mostar come as a reminder that soccer violence in the western Balkans is largely an echo of the ethnic strife that tore the former Yugoslavia to pieces in the 1990s.

Fans of home club Zrinjski and the visiting supporters of Serbias Partizan Belgrade clashed with each other as well as with riot police before, during and after a UEFA Cup first qualifying round match that came close to being abandoned early in the first half.

As a result, Partizan were thrown out of the UEFA Cup and fined 50,000 Swiss francs as European soccer’s governing body delivered on its vow to show no tolerance for hooliganism.

It is no surprise that soccer violence keeps showing its ugly head on a regular basis in this part of Europe, where the authorities have so far taken half-hearted action to vanquish it. Fights among fans, some of them with fatalities, seem to break out whenever passionate local derbies take place in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and also when clubs or national teams from these countries play each other.

Vulgar ethnic and religious insults and banners glorifying war crimes suspects are part of the violence which leaves fans, police and security stewards in danger of suffering serious injuries and worse.

The culprits usually get away with suspended sentences and the teams with symbolic fines. It means the violence goes effectively unpunished and it has driven away most decent soccer fans from the stadiums.

Serbia kicked off their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign behind closed doors after trouble during their final World Cup 2006 home qualifier against Bosnia but that did not seem to ring the alarm bells in Belgrade sufficiently.

Partizans banishment certainly will. The clubs top officials, while hoping they would be let off the hook one more time, readily acknowledged that they had it coming.

Zoran Milosavljevic, Belgrade

Ailton is returning to the Bundesliga, where the Brazilian had a glorious 2003-04 at Werder Bremen when his 28 goals topped the league scoring table and helped Werder win a league and cup double.

After an unhappy year at Schalke 04 and spells in Istanbul, Belgrade and Zurich (as well as a brief stop in Hamburg) Ailton has signed with newly promoted MSV Duisburg. ”It was a big mistake to ever leave the Bundesliga,” he said.

He seems to be part of a trend. Ze Roberto is returning to Bayern Munich after a year back home in Brazil, Marcelinho came back to the Bundesliga at Wolfsburg earlier this year after his move from Hertha Berlin to Turkey didn’t work out and Ewerthon, formerly of Borussia Dortmund, has returned to play at champions Stuttgart on loan from Real Zaragoza.

There are plenty of new Brazilian faces, too. Werder Bremen have led the way by bringing in Carlos Alberto, for 7.8 million euros, to play alongside compatriots Diego and Naldo. Other moves include Fernando Santos and Maicon to Duisburg, Diego Morais and Orestes to Hansa Rostock and Gledson to Stuttgart.

Cold cash may be part of the reason. As Bayern sporting director Uli Hoeness often said, the Bundesliga might not be able to promise the big salaries that players in other top European leagues offer but at least they can sleep well at night knowing their wages will be paid on time.

But Hoeness has another theory — a “World Cup effect”. He believes foreign players might think that because the weather during the 2006 World Cup in June and July was so warm and the people so friendly that it’s like that all the time in Germany.

The World Cup surely had an impact. The stadiums in Germany, most of which were beautifully renovated in a massive spending programme for the tournament, have an unrivalled quality and the crowds in Bundesliga stadiums are always large and enthusiastic.

Or why else would anyone want to live in Germany?

Erik Kirschbaum, Berlin

It’s too late for the 1966 West German team but Hawk-Eye creator, Paul Hawkins has revealed a contract is in place to adapt his ball-tracking system to make goalline decisions in football.

Hawkins sounds confident that, working with Reading FC’s Academy side, a system could be in place in the Premier League within a couple of years.

But once the floodgates are opened, and technology is available for use by referees, why stop there? If the defences of the rule makers are down, why not squeeze through another concept in the challenge rule, which was well received at the recent Wimbledon tennis tournament by pretty much everyone apart from Roger Federer.

Imagine the great theatrical scenes as managers and players turn to the big screen in the 89th minute to see if that clever ball through for a winning goal was offside?

Referees might be pleased at escaping the wrath of irate managers and their pointing fingers after a close call. Those ugly scenes witnessed at the Emirates Stadium, where then Wigan Athletic manager Paul Jewell stormed on to the pitch to voice his discontent at a decision made by referee Phil Dowd, may be a thing of the past.

So are we all in favour of the challenge system? Or would we risk slowing the game down too much?

Patrick Johnston, London

While Franck Ribery has already shown he can be Bayern Munich’s on-field inspiration, it looks like Luca Toni may turn out to have a even bigger effect on the club’s media profile.

Toni, the tall 30-year-old striker who is reportedly earning a Bundesliga record 10 million euros a year, has gone down a storm at Bayern since his 11-million euro move from Fiorentina.

The Italian scored a few in pre-season friendlies before picking up a knee injury that could see him miss the start of the Bundesliga. But so far he has been making more of an impact off the pitch than on at a club starved of real stars in recent years.

“Teenagers rave over him, mothers want him as their son-in-law, female supporters are at his mercy,” the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper said earlier this month.

Toni was “a heartbreaker, with a three-day beard, a charming smile and a weakness for Dolce & Gabbana,” it added.

“A natural ray of sunshine with his come-to-bed eyes and his pitch-black locks,” was how the Die Welt daily described him. The club had stopped counting the number of requests for interviews with the player, many from fashion and women’s magazines, the paper added.

Bayern officials are expecting the Toni effect to significantly boost merchandising revenue, perhaps lifting shirt sales to the million mark reached during 1995-96 when Juergen Klinsmann was a player there.

But it will be for his performance on the pitch that he will ultimately be judged. Has he got what it takes to meet the already sky-high expectations?

Iain Rogers, Berlin

Japan’s Shunsuke Nakamura was taking the all-for-one line to extremes in the land of Uncle Ho when he was spotted collecting up the team’s balls after training at the Asian Cup and lugging them off to the bus in a huge bag.

The Celtic midfielder has been the driving force behind Japan’s run to the semi-finals in Hanoi but, despite his flair, he has shown a team ethic that Vietnam’s “father” Ho Chi Minh would have been proud of.

“I was first off after training so I got stuck with the job of ball-boy,” Nakamura told Reuters with a sheepish grin. “I’m not bothered. I’m more worried about all the mosquitoes.”

Nakamura also let Reuters in on his secret for recovering between Asian Cup games in Hanoi’s brutal heat and humidity — germanium baths.

“We’ve got all sorts of minerals. It’s nice to climb into a bath with an interesting colour than just plain old water,” he said. “My skin’s nice and smooth anyway!”

Nakamura used to have reputation as something of a “luxury player” and was famously discarded by then Japan coach Philippe Troussier before the 2002 World Cup.

But Nakamura has matured beyond recognition at Celtic and was last season’s double Scottish player of the year.

His love affair with the country is apparent, even in faraway Vietnam.

“We have our own Japanese chef but we also get Vietnamese noodles,” he said, before adding quickly, “Just don’t ask if it tastes better than Scottish food. I can’t say anything bad about Scotland!”

Alastair Himmer is in Vietnam covering the Asian Cup

David Beckhams debut for LA Galaxy, in a friendly against Chelsea — a 12 minute appearance as a substitute gingerly nursing a sore ankle — at least turned the attention away from the celebrity and business angle of his arrival in Major League Soccer and towards the field of play.

Not entirely, of course, because the television cameras spent a good deal of time celeb spotting in the crowd and ESPN viewers were treated to interviews with the likes of actress Jennifer Love Hewitt and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and constant shots of Victoria Beckham in her sunglasses chatting with Eva Longoria and Katie Holmes.

But that glitz is part of the plan. Galaxy chief Alexi Lalas popped up at half-time in the television coverage bubbling about the glamour but he was smart enough to make sure he thanked the loyal Galaxy fans who were turning up at the Home Depot Center long before ‘Becksmania’. (One of those fans has a few sharp comments here)

What impressed this viewer was the way that the Galaxy approached the game. It was certainly not the tippy-tappy stuff of friendly games (or exhibition matches as they are called in the States).

LA played the game with a lot of passion. I think maybe they waited to show David Beckham they have a team,” Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho told reporters.

“They were highly motivated and they gave us a hard game. I think this is the correct attitude to play football. If they continue doing this, they will get results and they will improve.”

They were indeed fired up but there seemed to be something more about their determination than just wanting to put on a good show for their new team-mate.

Matt Dickinson in The Times (of London) says this: Embarrassed by recent performances, the Galaxy had taken the ‘pub team’ insult to heart and they unexpectedly made a contest of it. Chelsea might have scored three or four on top of John Terrys strike but the Galaxy had their chances.

The pub team comment had come from the British press and a collection of the criticisms was reported by our soccer editor Mike Collett here.

The silliness of an unfit Beckham jogging around for a few minutes aside, it has been a pretty positive week for the image of Major League Soccer. The MLS All Stars (or a league representative side as such outfits are called in the UK) showed plenty of motivation and more as they beat Celtic on Thursday, looking impressively together for a team put together a few days before the match.

Soccer fans over here tell me that the amount of media coverage given to the game in the past week has been unprecedented. The question now is can the momentum be maintained?

With basketball and American football still in close season, this is an ideal chance for the MLS to have a few weeks of prime-time promotion. Can they take the opportunity?