Scolari Has Abused His Position By Inflaming Ronaldo Wrangle

Luiz Felipe Scolari arrives in London later this month on the back of two less than glorious defeats with Portugal and trailing a cloud of sulfurous fumes that would have done credit to the eternally noxious Jose Mourinho. The Brazilian coach's observations on the future of Cristiano Ronaldo represent at best an abuse of privilege and at worst a calculated attempt to destabilize one of the biggest rivals Scolari will face when he takes charge of Roman Abramovich's Chelsea project.

Making enemies is something that has never unduly worried him and he may have decided that the best way to undermine Sir Alex Ferguson is to get him off balance at the start and then keep the punches coming. In a media environment with an insatiable appetite for stories of conflict the confrontation looks like providing a rich new source of headlines devoted to squabbles both connected and substantive. The Ronaldo business comes very definitely under the latter heading since it involves the destiny of one of the game's most coveted young players.

In an era of super clubs, with annual turnovers topping £200m, managers of national teams are in a delicate position. They are given temporary charge of the bodies of men who are those clubs' most important assets, with the job of subjecting them to short bursts of intense activity. Injuries to their players while on international duty are the clubs' most obvious fear but not the only one.

The prospect of destabilization while on international duty is a real concern, something that may have crossed Martin O'Neill's mind since Gareth Barry, his Aston Villa captain, was recalled to the England squad, renewing his acquaintance with players from the Premier League's big four clubs. Now, very much against O'Neill's will, Barry seems on the brink of a move to Liverpool.

Since Ronaldo joined up with the Portugal squad at the end of the English season there seems to have been no stopping the stream of remarks from Scolari concerning the young man's future, his words pouring petrol on the conflagration raging between Manchester United, who have the player under contract for a further four years, and Real Madrid, who want to make him this summer's trophy signing. And the higher the temperature rises, the more likely it becomes that bridges will be burned and that Ronaldo will arrive at the Bernabéu stadium in time for the start of next season.

In this paper yesterday Scolari was quoted thus on the subject of Ronaldo: "It is his dream to play for Real Madrid, and I am sure he will fulfill his dream whatever the difficulties. I know Cristiano well and I know the type of person he is, so I have no doubts about how he will handle himself in the next few weeks. People must understand that Cristiano becomes stronger with all the difficulties and the stories about him. He is strong mentally and he is in control of his own destiny - and because of that Manchester United can do nothing to hurt him."

From the outside it looks as though the player has already gone and that Manchester United might as well concentrate their energies on planning a future without him. Their supporters will miss his brilliance but sympathy for Ferguson is muted by the memory of the games the manager played in order to bring players such as Ruud van Nistelrooy and Jaap Stam to the club, incurring the wrath of the bosses of PSV Eindhoven on both occasions. Nor did the protracted removal of Owen Hargreaves from his Bayern Munich contract reflect well on United's willingness to observe protocols.

So perhaps all is fair in love and war and we should just chuckle over the whole thing. But Scolari's contribution to the debate, made while he was still technically head coach of Portugal, was such a disgracefully blatant and potentially damaging breach of etiquette that in a better-regulated world it would be the subject of some sort of Fifa sanction.

United, meanwhile, may just have to face up to the fact that they cannot keep a player whose thoughts are a thousand miles away. Ferguson is said to want a straight cash deal which could go as high as €100m (£79m), while Madrid are rumoured to be offering something less than that plus Wesley Sneijder or Robinho. After Sneijder's performances for Holland over the past couple of weeks Ferguson should grab the deal while he can and look forward to September 20, when United travel to Stamford Bridge.

Redding reminder of two-wheeled thrills

John Surtees raced a 125cc motorbike only once, at the Isle of Man TT meeting in 1953, when he was 19. He remembers the front fork snapping as the machine hit the ground after taking off over Ballaugh Bridge, a broken hand costing him his rides in the 350cc and 500cc races. And it amuses him now that the bike on which 15-year-old Scott Redding from Gloucestershire won the 125 race at Donington Park on Sunday, becoming the youngest rider ever to win a grand prix, produces as much power as his 500 did when he was winning world championships half a century ago.

Surtees, still the only man to win world titles on two and four wheels, and - unbelievably - yet to be knighted for that distinction, was thrilled by Redding's win. "I believe he'd never even been to Donington before," he told me on the phone yesterday, "which makes it even more of an achievement. Motorcycling doesn't get its fair share of publicity in this country, perhaps because the last rider to capture the public imagination was Barry Sheene. Since then we've had a lot of people who've not been as good as they thought they were. But now, with Scott and Bradley Smith and Danny Webb, we've got three youngsters who're doing extremely well, and it's wonderful."

Shirts that fly in the face of distinction

A simple question: what makes the Arsenal strip distinctive? Answer: the shirt with the red body and the white sleeves. Second question: why are the white sleeves there? Answer: because in 1933 Herbert Chapman, their greatest manager before Arsène Wenger, devised them as a way of making the strip more distinctive.

For 75 years, then, those sleeves have been part of Arsenal's identity and you do not have to be a fan of the club to feel outraged by the first sight of the new home strip to be worn by Wenger's team next season. The white sleeves have gone, replaced by two stripes. As a colleague said, it will make them look like Charlton Athletic. No disrespect intended to Charlton, of course, but what could they have been thinking of, to allow the marketing men to trample on such a valued piece of history?

A code too late from leaders too weak

According to Rob Andrew, a new code of conduct for England players will be in place from July 1. Too late for the New Zealand tour, of course, but whatever the truth behind last week's unseemly episode, strong management should have ensured that the party steered well clear of any such risk. Instead the current hierarchy continues to demonstrate weakness.