Ronaldinho signs for Milan

First, to erase the doubts and eliminate the skeptics: It's definitely happened. Don't be fooled by the BBC headline "Ronaldinho to sign for Milan", he is, according to Wikipedia, an AC Milan player, and the Milan official website is littered with information on the Brazilian.

I haven't posted on this since Monday, when I was as optimistic as I had ever been. Perhaps a chronology is in order. My enthusiasm was gradually sapped over the following 48 hours. First came the news that Galliani was in Barcelona on Tuesday to persuade Ronaldinho to move. This was followed by an ominously confident statement from Barcelona's lawyer. On Tuesday evening, the end seemed nigh - Sky Sports News led their 10pm bulletin with news of a humiliating snub. At this point he seemed more likely to make the move to Milan than he ever did to sign for City. Overnight, the Milan website claimed that Ronaldinho was their player. Don't be fooled by the lack of a Jo-type "unveiling" - the body language of the website now is the sort that suggests they have their man.

The Laporta quotes have shown themselves to be merely a reflection of what we already knew - Ronaldinho going to City would, due to the larger transfer fee, have been better for Barca. I suppose that the lesson from this is never to take anything from such a complex story at face value.

City will take plenty of lessons from this. The main one is for Shinawatra and it stares him right in the face - money will only get you so far. This will have told him that however much he offers a player, he must make City an attractive proposition first. The club must walk before it can run, and getting only 4 points off Derby and 1 off Fulham before chasing a world superstar has an appropriate lack of symmetry to it.

I hope that City can bounce back from this, and I think they will. Perhaps Hughes was never confident (his words today were not the reaction of a broken man), and only Thaksin really believed it would happen. Signing Ben Haim or Milito this week would be brilliant - a public showing of how City were in no means distracted by Ronaldinho and were simultaneously chasing a large number of other targets, determined not to miss out on everyone else, regardless of what happened with Ronaldinho. The truth, however, is probably that City have invested a large amount of energy into this deal and will have to regroup before they make their next forays into the transfer market.

The effect of all this on our transfer policy? Well, it may free up some funds, or speed up some transfers we possibly had in the pipeline. One thing is for sure, we didn't need Ronaldinho. He was such a unique player that we looked at him regardless of our squad balance. The truth of the matter is that City have two of the best attacking midfielders outside the top four - Elano and Stephen Ireland. Perhaps these two will blossom in Ronaldinho's absence.

However, this news has not quelled my enthusiasm for the upcoming EB/Streymur game. As a matter of fact, after Tuesday night's disappointment, City have had a good day today. An encouraging Bojinov interview, Corluka's deserved promotion to number 5 and Ched Evans signing a new deal just as the Championship suitors began to hone in.