IF anyone was lucky enough to watch the final for the Brazilian championships last weekend they would have seen two of the best up and coming talents in football - Robinho and Diego who play for Santos.

Santos, which was Pele's team, beat Corinthians 3-2. But these two players, especially Robinho, were fantastic. I watch a lot of Brazilian football and you can see these young players coming up - they are the Brazil team of the future.

Anybody who enjoys attacking soccer will love these kids who are still just teenagers. I wish I could go get Robinho now and take him to England!

I am sure in the future you will see them playing in Europe. Hopefull they will keep going in the direction they are headed. They seem to have so many good young players in Brazil these days.

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SCOLARI

Speaking of Brazil, I see that Luiz Felipe Scolari has been named the national coach of Portugal. He did a great job obviously with Brazil at the last World Cup and I think he will do a great job with Portugal who are hosting the Euro Championships.

Portugal have so many good players that it is just a matter of getting everyone to knit together and play together. Hopefully he can do that. Also the fact that he is from outside the country may help. I imagine he will bring a lot of discipline to the team and get them to do things they have not done before.

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WORLD CUP SPOTS

Oceania got a direct qualification place for the 2006 World Cup finals and I suppose that will be good for them. But what I do not understand is that our region, CONCACAF, only got a half place. I think CONCACAF should have got another place, not just a half place. We have proven we can compete with anyone in the world. Getting half a place is like getting a kick in the pants. Just look at what the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica have done at the World Cup. Europe have for many years dominated soccer but now things are different.

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BARCELONA

This club is in trouble - there is no doubt about it. Their coach Louis van Gaal may soon find himself out of a job. They lost last weekend to Seville. In fact they really got beat 3-0. Van Gaal is in serious trouble. What I don't understand is that Barcelona have so much talent but he can't seem to get them going.

I don't know what is going to happen but he is on thin ice. If you can't produce you have to go. Actually maybe some of the people who run the club need to be sacked as well. I think they can kiss that league title goodbye this season. It would have to be an unbelievable comeback to win the league since they are 16 points behind the leaders Real Sociedad. In fact Barcelona are only two points above the relegation zone although I don't think they are going down.

My problem with van Gaal is that first of all he let Rivaldo go and then he didn't replace him. When you do things like that, it will hurt you as he is finding out right now. He should have built his team around Rivaldo who is one of the best players in the world - he is a different class of player.

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MANCHESTER UNITED

United are through to the semifinals of the League Cup. I don't know if they just happen to be taking the League Cup more serious this year or whether it is the fact that they are in such good form right now.

They are playing very, very well.

On a personal note I would like to congratulate all the Manchester United fans here in Somerset! It seems like everyone is a Manchester United fan down here except me of course! I used to support them before I went to England (and played for West Ham). I know Shaun Roberts is a keen supporter and he just came back from watching United. I certainly am hearing from him especially after West Ham lost to United last weekend. However I feel West Ham should have had a penalty in the first minute and also the referees seem to be intimidated when United are playing at home. However that free kick from Veron was excellent. But if Beckham was on the field would Veron have taken it? Now United have two players who are experts at free kicks.

The manager Alex Ferguson is going to have a problem when his star players like Keane, Ferdinand, Blanc and Butt come back from injuries. I don't know if he is going to change the team with all the stars coming back because the team right now are playing so well. And stars do not guarentee you a championship.

Is he going to bench the other players? I hope he makes the stars earn their places. I know people say they have a lot of games over the holidays and that this woud be the time to bring in the stars who have been injured. However I find that tough to take. I think that when you are playing well and are on a roll you do not want to come out and rest. You should want to keep playing. I don't understand the mentality of the players today who say 'I need a rest - I'm tired'.

With Arsenal drawing at Spurs last weekend it has brought United closer to the top but I think it will come down to when the two teams play each other again. That will be the big game. Then again other teams will have a say in things. This week United are against Blackburn. That will not be easy because Cole and Yorke will want to score against their old team.

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LEEDS

Leeds' win against Bolton on Monday night has helped manager Terry Venables. But overall the players have to take responsibility for losing so many games. In fact everyone has to take responsibility. I know Terry personally and having seen him do things over the years I believe he will get it right. He also has Fowler back which will help. Hopefully he will keep the boy Lee Bowyer in check. I saw Bowyer stamp on that player's head (Gerardo from Malaga) in the European game last week - that was terrible. It was really nasty. If I was on the panel I would have banned Bowyer for the year. He could have really done some damage to the player. A stamping like that can ruin a player's career.

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DEBT

There are more reports of these lower division clubs getting into debt and perhaps folding. It is sad to see because that is where a lot of the die-hard fans are in England. I expect there will be big, big financial problems in the future in England - especially for the smaller clubs in the lower divisions. It seems that the rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer. They have to find a way to balance it out so that everybody gets a little piece of the pie. It's crazy. Hopefully they will be able to come to a solution where some of the smaller clubs will be able to survive.