"RONALDINHO will be looking to give his season a kick-start next month by trying to help Brazil win the gold medal at the Olympics in China. Brazil have never won a gold medal in football at the Olympics and it is about the only major title they haven't won. Olympic teams are mostly for players under 23 years old but they do allow three overage players in each team and Ronaldinho will be one for Brazil who, from the looks of it, are taking the competition very seriously.

Besides Ronaldinho, Brazil want to field players like Pato who was so impressive in the Under 20 World Cup last summer in Canada and who looked very good this past season with AC Milan. Also on the Brazilian Olympic team is Robinho from Real Madrid who at 24, is one of the other older players allowed. Brazil also have picked Diego from Werder Breman, Lucas from Liverpool and Anderson from Manchester United so they are really going all out for that gold medal in Beijing. There could be some problems though. Barcelona have come out and said they will not release Ronaldinho from their pre-season training which sounds crazy to me. They didn't use him much last season and they have made no secret that they want to sell him this summer. Also Werder Breman have said they will not release Diego so I expect FIFA to get involved. Brazil are in a fairly easy group with Belgium, China and New Zealand.

Argentina, who are in group A with Australia, Ivory Coast and Serbia, are also taking the Olympics quite seriously. They have included Barcelona's Messi in their team despite the long season he has had and also another one of their playmakers, Juan Román Riquelme who along with Liverpool's Javier Mascherano, are two of the three overage players allowed. Sergio Agüero, the wonderful striker from Atlético Madrid who was voted the Player of the Tournament at the Under 20 World Cup last summer is also in the side. It would be a cracker it Brazil and Argentina could meet in the final. Hopefully it would be a better game than the one they played last month in World Cup qualifying which ended in a scoreless draw in Brazil. That was also a game where Brazil's manager Dunga was booed by the fans. How quickly people forget that it was Dunga who led the side to victory last summer in the Copa America over Argentina.

Holland, Nigeria, the US, Cameroon and Italy will also be fighting it out in Beijing next month in the 16-team tournament.

Some countries do not seem to take the Olympics as seriously as they should when it comes to football. And of course it almost seems impossible to get a Great Britain team together since England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all play as individual countries in other competitions and have great rivalries. But perhaps seeing that all four did not qualify for Euro 2008 which just finished, they may want to get together for the Olympics, especially when England hosts the Games in 2012.

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ON THE MOVE

Frank Lampard only has one more year remaining on his contract with Chelsea and wants to move to Inter Milan to join his former manager Jose Mourinho. Chelsea have rejected the transfer and there could be a fight on. While I think players from England can benefit from playing in Europe, I hope that Frank stays with Chelsea and gets back to his best and hopefully cements his place in the England side trying to qualify for the World Cup in 2010 in South Africa. There is a risk of Frank going to join Inter Milan as you have to wonder how he would adjust to the style in Italy. The Premiership is much more robust ¿ a lot of hard running and tackling which is different to the game in Italy. I would hate to see Frank go to Inter and not be able to adjust and then get left out of the team.

But on the flip side some English players could get a lot out of moving to Europe. They would certainly be tested on their technical skills which would have to improve. That is something that West Ham have always emphasised when bringing up youngsters. Most players coming out of West Ham have very good technical skills.

The tall England and Liverpool striker Peter Crouch has now joined my mate Harry Redknapp at Portsmouth and I think it will be a good move for him. I like Crouch who has a lot more skill than people give him credit for as they usually just focus on his height and heading ability.

This past season Crouch was sitting a lot on the bench at Liverpool and he quite rightly wants more playing time. He is not content to just sit there and collect his wages. Obviously his playing time at Liverpool was going to be reduced with the arrival of Torres and Gerrard is often being used as a second striker now.

And I think Liverpool's Spanish manager Rafael Benitez will probably bring another striker in from Spain ¿ perhaps Villa. Portsmouth had a superb season last year in the Premiership winning the FA Cup and being up their in the standings. They are a small club compared to the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool, but Harry gets the best out of his player who all respect him.

I was also happy to see Chelsea midfielder Steve Sidwell sign for Aston Villa. He could be a replacement for captain Gareth Barry if Barry goes to Liverpool as it seems he will.

Sidwell joined Chelsea from Reading at the end of the 2006/07 season but only made 15 appearances with the Blues last season. You could see the writing on the wall when he joined Chelsea ¿ I honestly didn't think he would get much playing time and he didn't. But he should see more time on the pitch this upcoming season with Villa.

Fresh from winning the Euro 2008 title with Spain, their manager Luis Aragones just took over Fenerbahce in Turkey this week. And already he has signed dynamic striker Daniel Guiza from Real Mallorca.

Not many people realise that Guiza led the Spanish league last season with 27 goals and he certainly did his stuff at Euro 2008 coming off the bench to score a couple of times to help Spain win the title ¿ their first European Championship in 44 years.

Another player on the way to Turkey is Harry Kewell who was cut by Liverpool earlier this year following five injury-troubled seasons at Anfield. Kewell's best years were with Leeds ¿ and ironically it was when he was at Leeds playing against Galatasaray in the UEFA Cup semifinal in 2000, when he was sent off.

Kewell joined Liverpool in 2003 for a lot of money but he struggled from then on. This could be a good move for him to get his career back on track because he is certainly a gifted player.

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STILL CELEBRATING!

I know they are still celebrating in Spain this week. And not from just winning Euro 2008 but also with Rafa Nadal's victory over Roger Federer at Wimbledon last Sunday. I watched the match and it was certainly one of the finest tennis matches I have ever seen. Simply brilliant play from both players. One Sunday Spain win the Euro title and the next Sunday they win Wimbledon! Remarkable. I certainly am happy for the whole country especialy with them winning Euro 2008. For years they possessed such good players but always failed to deliver. This time their coach dropped some of the established stars like Raul and brought in some younger players and it worked out great. They were the best team without a doubt at the competition and were a pleasure to watch. And they should be a great threat in South Africa in 2010 at the World Cup.