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Spain striker David Villa has agreed an improved contract with Valencia which ties him to the club until 2014, the Primera Liga club said.

Celtic boss Gordon Strachan is hoping to come up against Real Madrid when the draw for the Champions League group stage is made on Thursday.

Defender Philippe Senderos has left Arsenal for AC Milan on a one-year loan deal, the Premiership club said on Wednesday.

Korea Republic defender Lee Young-Pyo has left Tottenham Hotspur to join German club Borussia Dortmund.

The legendary speculator, philanthropist and pontificator came close to buying the Serie A club this summer just before its president Franco Sensi died after a long illness.

Though he was briefly linked with the Washington Nationals baseball team, Soros has shown no great interest in sport in general or football in particular. He is not the only American tycoon to mull an investment in Serie A: another group, TAG Partners, bid for Bologna but the takeover collapsed after the buyers were refused more time.

Soros is a know it all, but no one ? even right-wing Americans whose eyes pop with fury at the mention of his name ? ever thought him stupid. So, what did he see in Roma?

The answer to that question ? as far as we can construct one ? isn?t terribly good news for the Premier League.

Smart investors have the gift of timing, knowing when to get in ahead of the game and, more importantly, when to get out.

Soros: Targeting Italy bad news for the Premier League 

If Soros was tempted by football as an investment, the obvious target would have been England, home to the world?s most lucrative league which draws the greatest global TV audience.

But who would he buy? As Kevin Keegan has pointed out, to his owner?s chagrin, catching up with the big four might cost you £100million or so. Even within the big four, a divide is opening up with Liverpool seemingly unable, albeit partly because of internal politics, to match the spending power of Chelsea and Manchester United.

There is still profit to be made in the Premier League but how much scope is there for someone like Soros to come in and transform a club?s profitability?

The answer to that may depend on your opinion of the quality of the management of British football clubs. From personal experience, I would suggest the quality is variable.

At its very worst, I am reminded of a colleague who met the director of a once high flying club to talk about a publication to be given away to reward season ticket holders? loyalty. The deal seemed done when the club rang up to announce that, while they were perfectly happy to pay the publisher a few grand to produce the publication, they would be invoicing him £50,000 for use of the club brand.

Struck by the absurdity of the club charging him £50,000 for the right to do something for the club which the club wanted to do anyway to impress its supporters, my friend let the deal die. I remember him saying: ?The worst part wasn?t the hassle, or the waste of time, it was that the director sat through the whole of the crucial meeting with his flies wide open.?

In contrast, the big clubs ? with certain exceptions ? strike me as well run businesses. An investor with experience of sports elsewhere might suggest a tweak here or there but they are hardly likely to transform a club?s financial performance.

In a way, the Premier League?s 39th step is a desperate admission that new sources of income must be found. The rise in gate receipts is flattening out, merchandising is vulnerable to the credit crunch and the next TV deal, despite the war between Sky and Setanta, may not deliver lots and lots of extra dosh. And this season, more Premier League clubs will, a recent survey suggested, draw on more of their overdrafts, trim squads and introduce players to the delights of performance-related pay.

So Soros has a point. If I had a few billion to spare I?d give the Premier League the swerve and look at a country which has yet to realise the fortunes to be made from corporate boxes and the world?s apparently insatiable appetite for football-themed duvet covers.

Serie A yet to be engulfed by hospitality, unlike Wembley 

A country which is passionate about its football but where innovative, professional management could quickly increase revenue. And given the legal difficulties in buying clubs in France and Germany, the logical choice would be Italy or Spain. Mainly Italy really.

To give you just one example: according to a report prepared by Brand Finance and published ? free plug alert! ? in the April/May issue of Champions, Schalke, Lyon and Spurs all make considerably more money out of merchandising than Milan, Inter or Juventus.

It wouldn?t take a genius to turn a top Serie A club into a financial powerhouse. They?d just need a knowledge of Italy?s intricate business landscape and the smarts to apply best practice.

So don?t be surprised if Soros ? or someone like him ? snaps up a Roma or Bologna in the next few years.

If that happens, remember where you read this. If it doesn?t happen, feel free to forget all about it.

Tiago Mendes just cannot take a hint.

He?s like the unwanted guest at the end of the night who hangs around when all the host wants to do is hit the sack.

However, Juventus can?t exactly sling him out the door ? not without tearing up his contract which runs until 2013, although they have tried their best.

The Portuguese has had his name linked to more clubs than Paris Hilton but remains steadfast in refusing to budge from Turin.

Juve had a deal done and dusted with Everton but the player was having none of it, while, if a reported switch to Newcastle United was true then that no doubt received similar short shrift.

Tiago (left): Available for transfer, apparently 

The Bianconeri transfer chief Alessio Secco may have been left fuming but he certainly hasn?t given up on disposing of the midfielder who is costing the club around 3.5million euro a season to hang about.

Speaking to Juve mouth-piece Tuttosport, he sounded ominously like one of those gentlemen in pinstripe suits who make offers you can?t refuse when he said: ?The player won?t go anywhere but we are hoping he will change his mind.?

According to press reports right across the board, it?s Atletico Madrid where the former Chelsea and Lyon man will finally pitch up.

Gazzetta dello Sport claims the 27-year-old has no desire to flop back to Portugal and join Porto, but may well decide that the millionaire playground of Monaco is more to his taste.

Certainly, his agent Jorge Mendes has been a busy man.

The 42-year-old is one of the most powerful operators in the game and has been behind making Jose Mourinho and Luiz Felipe Scolari the wealthy fellows they now are, not to mention securing mega moves for the likes of Pepe to Real Madrid and Nani at Manchester United.

Happier times at Chelsea 

Juve?s insinuations gather pace with each passing day towards the September 1 transfer deadline.

With safe passage to the Champions League secured, they have already discarded the player from their squad-list for the group stages of the competition.

On top of that, to heap ignominy upon ignominy, Stephen Appiah looks set to return to the club from Turkish side Fenerbahce.

He was, of course, the headless chicken who ran around the midfield a few seasons ago for the Old Lady.

So, if your face don?t fit it don?t fit, but you have to admire Tiago?s fortitude at hanging in there ? well you would won?t you, especially with the thought of safeguarding that juicy contract in the more congenial environment of Spain or France. 

If La Liga Loca?s employers demanded hot-as-a-hamburger-in-hell breaking news and informed, accurate musings on the wonderful world of Spanish football, then it would be in serious do-do.

In fact, it would be packing its bluffer?s guide to lazy national stereotypes and pathetic puns into a battered box and shuffling out on its knees into the pouring rain. Well, the glorious sunshine, actually. After all, this is Spain.

Luckily, La Liga Loca?s employers are kindly, charitable folk. But not as kindly and charitable as the numbskulls running Marca and AS.

After yet another summer of scoop-missing, prediction-failing and blatantly making stuff up, the publishing geniuses behind the bafflingly popular rags should really consider sacking their entire editorial staff and replacing them with shrimp. Less smelly, cheaper and more likely to get a story right, once in a blue moon.

Marca?s offices are a stone?s throw from the Bernabeu, but in recent years they have failed to predict the transfers of Pepe, Sneijder, Van Nistelrooy... pretty much everyone.

Instead they are in a perpetual state of wild-eyed bewilderment and panic like Maniche forced to choose between a rum and coke and a cookie.

Oh come on... you're not seriously going to make me choose? 

AS are no better. Tuesday?s headline screamed that the club were on the brink of signing Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Diego Capel. 

As it turns out Real Madrid were on the brink of signing Santi Cazorla from Villarreal, instead. Except they?re weren?t. Or maybe they were.

The rodent-like but rather handy midfielder reacted to the news that Pedja was pawing him by telling the press on Tuesday that a move to the Spanish capital would be top banana and by ringing up Iker Casillas to ask him to put in a good word for him with Calderón and co.

?I spoke with El Guaje (David Villa) and he also said he?s moving,? spluttered an overheard Cazorla on another missed scoop by the idiot-twins of the Spanish press.

Of course, all this Cazorla talk is stuff and nonsense says Marca?s Roberto Gómez as he is claiming that Real Madrid are too much of a goody-two-shoes to move in on other people?s players.

?Calderón is a leader with honour,? gushed Gómez on Monday as he wrote about his icon?s promise to other club presidents made at the Valencia Grand Prix that he would not poach any of their stars. ?Some of them could learn from them,? he sighed.

Despite Tuesday's news to the contrary, Gómez is either sticking to his guns or was too busy with a particularly succulent serving of pheasant on Wednesday to notice that Calderón has gone back on his word. And considerably sooner than normal.

?By not taking any player 15 days before the close of the transfer window, he is a true gentleman with honour, the kind of which has never been seen before in Spanish football,? wrote the Marca man who is now light years beyond parody.

?Ramón Calderón is having his finest moment since taking the role of president,? fluffed Roberto giving La Liga Loca the deeply unpleasant image of him dressing up as Marilyn Monroe and singing to the Real Madrid president on his next birthday.

Not content with that superlative day?s work Gómez then goes on to make up an entire conversation between Mr President and Bernd Schuster ? a man who wants Robinho to stay.

?The president and manager have had a cordial, but fluid relationship. Of course, that?s because of the German?s character,? explained Gómez. 

Atletico for the Champions League

Real?s city twins, Atlético have bigger fish to fry on Wednesday night ? making sure their season is not doomed before it starts.

Despite Javier Aguirre saying that the entire team must perform against Schalke in the Champions League qualifier to claw back the 1-0 deficit, everyone?s nervous eyes are on Kun ?I?m no saviour? Agüero to be the saviour.

The Argentine striker has managed to lose the increasingly stalky Diego Maradona in traffic and has declared that ?I?ve had time to rest and get into the rhythm of the side.?

Agüero: Back in Madrid fresh from Olympic success 

La Liga Loca will be heading down to the delightful Vicente Calderón with its pom-poms aloft to cheer on the rojiblancos, as the blog quite fancies the idea of extra Champions League action in the Spanish capital.

After all, Real Madrid have only been good for three or four home matches a season, in recent years.

There?s no doubt that many an Atlético player would have been tossing and turning away last night. And this means that new loan signing, Ever Banega, will fit in just fine.

Whilst all the dotting and crossing has yet to be completed on the Valencia player?s one-year deal, it seems that the lawyers have thrashed out a compromise on some stumbling blocks.

The hard up men of Mestalla wanted some cash as part of the deal and Atleti wanted a clause put into the contract that if Banega breaches the terms of a special night-time curfew, the Argentinean?s spell in the Spanish capital will be over.

La Liga Loca has a feeling that this is going to be fun.

John Gidman called last week. Now 54, the former Manchester United full-back lives on the Costa Del Sol with his air stewardess girlfriend. When I interviewed him two years ago, I met him at 8am in Torremolinos. The first thing he said was ?Are we going to have a bevvy or what?? I left him 12 hours later after hearing his crazy life story of Shankly, girls, guns and one England cap.

John?s a character and we speak most weeks. ?Just been playing golf in Mallorca,? he enthused, ?with Jamie Redknapp and Andy? ? his best mate, Andy Gray. ?Fucking brilliant.?

I told him that his fellow ex-United defender Paul Parker had complimented him on his fitness after playing with him in a veterans? tournament in the Isle of Man two years ago.

?There must be another John Gidman because I haven?t fucking been to the Isle of fucking Man since I was seven,? he replied. ?I lived near the docks in Liverpool and we got a boat there on holiday. I?ve not been since.?

Gidman in his pomp at Big Ron's Old Trafford

Gidman lives with a lot of other Brits, but something surprised me at the opposite end of Spain in Catalonia last week ? a Spanish family wearing English football shirts. I?ve never seen it before, but two lads played football on the beach, one in a United shirt with ?Ronaldo? on the back, the second in a Chelsea one with ?Shevchenko? (oops). I?ve not been as surprised since seeing Barcelona shirts outnumber Celtic and Rangers ones on a journey from Glasgow International to Govan in 2006.

Waterstones emailed asking me to sign copies of Mad For It the next time I was in Manchester, so I popped in last Monday and left an hour free. I realised that wouldn?t be necessary when the man in the sports department said: ?We have nine copies. Four here and five downstairs.? I was done within a minute and left, wondering why they had bothered.

I also questioned the motivation of another character I came across on a trip to see my brother play in Chorley, Lancashire, two days before. I was minding my own business in the clubhouse, listening to my dad tear strips out of anyone who has ever played football (sample quote: ?And that Pele/Maradona/Cruyff was a diving, spineless, foreign cheat?) when a man in ill-fitting jeans approached.

?This is Magic Sam, the most famous magician in Chorley,? he said with the confidence of a man on his fourth pint. I looked around to check that I wasn?t an extra in a new series of Phoenix Nights. The venue fitted the bill, but Sam was genuine and he was soon performing a card trick which involved me missing the first three minutes of the second half. He?ll soon be leaving the armpit of Chorley (it nestles beneath the M61/M6 intersection) for the bright lights of Blackburn or Blackpool.

Chorley: looks quite pleasant, for an armpit

We left Chorley, passing a pub advertising live Polish league football, to meet some visiting Newcastle fans in Manchester. I?d swapped dad for girlfriend as he would have instantly offended them. I once introduced him to a former Manchester City player, to hear him describe them as ?classless blue c*nts.? The silence was as awkward as you?d expect.

?We?re having a good night because we don?t expect anything from tomorrow,? offered one of the Geordies. He was wrong, for Newcastle were worth their point at Old Trafford.

We left the Geordies and went to a bar which my cousin helps run. She?s a girl about town who knows everyone, but the omens didn?t look good when we saw footballer Chris Eagles being refused entry ?for being too casual.? I went for research purposes, you?ll understand. Cousin got us in alright and introduced me to various phonies, before saying, ?You should meet my friend Titus, he?s involved in football like you.?

I looked up to see Titus Bramble. How I wished I?d still been with the no-nonsense Geordie lads to see how they would have reacted to meeting him....

After enjoying a pleasant afternoon bobbing about off Sardinia on former Chukotka governor Roman Abramovich?s floating palace-yacht, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi can look forward to spending some quality time with his godson Jordan Shevchenko.

Yes, Andriy?s back at AC Milan after a couple of years lost in London - and it's to everyone's benefit. If reports are to be believed, Roman will continue to stump up part of Sheva?s £120-grand-a-week salary for the next year, after which he will get first dibs on Ricky Kaka.

"...and there's a lovely bistro off the King's Road"

Mrs S has been putting on a brave (and presumably exquisitely exfoliated) face, ensuring a worried world that ?if Andriy is happy then we are happy? ? ?we? being her and the nippers. Not that the former model is ready to jump on the first flight back to Italy just yet, mind: ?Me and the kids are staying in London as things are not ready at the other end,? she insisted. In other words, ?That Lake Como villa needs a good airing and there?s no way I?m staying in the Best Western in the meantime.?

Hubby, on the other hand, couldn?t wait to hop on the plane and get back to speaking Italian ? and he sure gave it some rabbit when he landed at Linate airport on Sunday evening. ?I?m so happy, great to be back, love you all,? he gushed, before mentioning the unmentionable around Milanello: ?It?s like winning the Champions League.?

Silvio, Kristin, Jordan and Andriy share a moment

The same cannot be said for some of his new/old team-mates. The players are split over Sheva?s return, with some of the old stagers seemingly still put out by the manner of the Ukrainian?s departure two years ago. Well, you know, these old folk do like to reminisce. Certainly Carlo Ancelotti will be chewing the insides of his ample cheeks as he comes to terms with having to play the boss?s pet while keeping the likes of Filippo Inzaghi happy. Indeed, and to nobody?s great surprise, it seems Ancelotti was hardly the driving force being signing Shevchenko: just last Friday, the day before the return was confirmed, Ancelotti was bleating away about how much had he been left in the dark ? ?There?s a lot of talk but little action.?

It?s also not what you would highlight as a problem position, whether you?re from Milan, Manchester or Mongolia. Considering that both Ricky Kaka and Clarence Seedorf have been registered as strikers on the squad list, the coach can now call on seven front-men and about four defenders. It might sound heavenly for a Keegan or an Ardiles, but it?s hardly likely to cut the mustard in Serie A. Place your bets now that the apple-cheeked one won?t see out the season at the San Siro ? unlike the U-turning Ukrainian.

Euro Roundup: Juventus, Panathinaikos also move on to 32-team group stage.

Teams sweltered in midday temperatures of 107 degrees in Beijing.