Scottish football has had to mourn the premature passing of another great servant this week with the news of the death of Celtic coach Tommy Burns. He died of stomach cancer at the age of 51 having only been diagnosed with the disease in March and had been given a leave of absence from post as first team coach at the Glasgow club.

Burns had been an important player for Celtic during the 1970s and 1980s and had managed the club during the mid 1990s. After working with the Scottish national team he had returned once again to Celtic Park to work in several different roles as head of youth development and then back onto the professional coaching staff.

Much loved by fans and fellow professionals at all levels of the game, Tommy Burns was a devoted family man and a great servant to the world of Scottish football who will be sorely missed.

Football is funny sometimes, turning the sweet scent of imminent success to the obnoxious whiff of defeat in the space of a minute and vice versa, it's moods dictate the mood of thousands of fans who follow the game and while life is surely about more than 22 men kicking a ball around a field, there are many who can't seem to see the distinction. Take last Wednesday night for example.

Rangers played Zenit St Petersburg in the UEFA Cup final in what should have been their finest moment in European competition since a European Cup Winner's Cup win back in the early 1970s. 100,000 die hard Rangers fans travelled to Manchester to support their side, either in the stadium if they were lucky enough to get a ticket, or form the plethora of bars or dedicated "fan zones" set up by the organisers to cater for the high demand to see the game. So far, so good. Read more...

So it's all over for another year and what an entertaining day of football it turned out to be at both ends of the English Premier League table. Manchester United's hard fought 2-0 win over Wigan Athletic saw them lift their 17th English league title leaving them only one behind Liverpool's record haul of 18. Manager Sir Alex Ferguson and goalscorer Ryan Giggs both secured their 10th league titles with the Old Trafford club on the same day as Giggs equalled the Manchester United appearance record held by legend Sir Bobby Charlton. Quite a day for the Welshman then.

Chelsea finished second after their draw at home to Bolton wasn't enough to catch United but they can look forward to next week's UEFA Champion's League final against Manchester United in Moscow to exact their revenge.

At the bottom of the table Reading, Birmingham City and Fulham all started the day with the threat of relegation hanging over them but despite all three securing credible wins it was Fulham who edged out of the relegation zone after four wins in their last five games and delivered the kind of escape Harry Houdini would have been proud of. Coach Roy Hodgson now picks up an estimated bonus of around £1m for avoiding the drop so I'm sure he'll be a happy man tonight.

Elsewhere, Everton secured a much deserved 5th spot, Liverpool beat Spurs in a meaningless contest and Middlesbrough recorded a record Premier League win of 8 - 1 against Manchester City in what looks to be Sven Goran Eriksson's last game in charge of City. With city rivals United winning the title it wasn't the happiest of endings to a season for the long suffering City fans in any regard.

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AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti has rubbished press rumours that Chelsea striker Didier Drogba has signed a £30m transfer deal with the Italian giants. Branding the reports as "rubbish", the Italian drew the line at denying that Milan had any interest in the Ivory Coast striker however and that could be the most telling part of this exchange.

The reason Ancelotti could be playing coy on the Drogba issue could well be due to the second part of the original "Drogba to Milan" newspaper stories which said that he would be going there to link up with his former Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho who had been offered the AC Milan head coach's job for next season. Therefore we can understand why the current incumbent Ancelotti would be unable or unwilling to fan the fires of his imminent demise in public.

I don't think it's any secret that AC Milan are big fans of the powerful Drogba and are one of several major European clubs who need a massive overhaul to their playing staff this summer. Drogba meanwhile has never claimed any particular love for Chelsea, quite the opposite at times, and has been linked for a high profile move back to the continent for over a year.

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Czech Republic's chances of staging a smash and grab for the Euro 2008 trophy this summer have been hit by a massive blow after playmaker Tomas Rosicky ruled himself out with a knee injury.

The Arsenal midfielder has had a stop-start season with injuries and has been out since January with this current problem in an attempt to get it sorted before the big international showpiece in Austria and Switzerland.

The Czech captain will be sorely missed in creative areas and has been no stranger to scoring a few spectacular long range efforts himself in the past so will leave a massive gap in coach Karel Bruckner's plans. The Czechs face Switzerland, Portugal and Turkey in their Euro 2008 group with the tournament kicking off on the 7th June 2008.

Liverpool's Argentinian midfielder Javier Mascherano has decided that he wants to miss the start of next season's English Premier League season so he can pursue an Olympic gold medal as part of the Argentina squad at the Beijing Olympics.

Mascherano has claimed that winning the Olympics is a major dream for all footballers and while I'd take that claim with the proverbial pinch of salt I can understand a young man wanting to represent his country if selected as it really is the highest honour any professional footballer can receive.

Whether the Liverpool hierarchy see things the same way is another matter and I find it hard to believe that Rafa Benitez will just roll over and let one of his prized midfield assets walk away for a month at a crucial starting point to next season's assault on the English title.

Just when you think the biggest problem in your life is the career threatening knee injury that could bring a premature end to a football career that brimmed with so much early promise, you turn around and find yourself in the middle of a media storm after being arrested in the company of three cross-dressing Brazilian prostitutes amidst claims of theft and extortion. Or you do if you are AC Milan's crocked superstar Ronaldo.

Quite what Ronaldo was doing in the company of the aforementioned "ladies" of the night is a story for another website I fear but you do have to question how a man with so much money, fame and celebrity could ever find himself in a position to be the victim of a driving licence theft and extortion scam by people such as this.

I'm sure the pressure of another major injury hasn't done Ronaldo's mental state any favours but after previous high profile relationships with stunningly attractive women such as ex-wife Milene Domingues or MTV Brasil's Daniela Cicarelli surely Ronaldo can do better than three dodgy blokes dressed up as birds? The mind boggles.

Manchester United's legendary European Cup winning goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel has said that he feels only a former Manchester United player can eventually succeed manager Sir Alex Ferguson when he finally steps down from the Old Trafford hotseat.

The big Dane won the European Cup with United in 1999 under Ferguson and has put forward former team-mates Mark Hughes, now manager at Blackburn Rovers, and Roy Keane, the current Sunderland manager, as possible replacements for Ferguson when the time comes.

Replacing Sir Alex will be the toughest task United's owners will ever face, somewhat akin to the then owners having to replace Sir Matt Busby at the club in the mid-1970s and whether it's a former playing hero like Hughes, Bruce or Keane or a big name outsider like Scolari, Lippi or Mourinho, it'll be the toughest job in world football, regardless of whether Ferguson takes his current United charges onto 2008 UEFA Champion's League glory next month or not.

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A few week's ago it looked all over for defending Scottish champions Celtic but after two thrilling victories over Old Firm rivals Rangers in recent weeks it is the Bhoys from Parkhead who sit five points clear at the top of the Scottish Premier League.

Rangers can still point to the three games in hand they have over Celtic as proof that the destiny of the Scottish title is in their own hands but I'm sure Rangers boss Walter Smith will be worried about the psychological effects on his players after two defeats at Celtic's hands in quick succession.

The Scottish title will now boil down to the difference between points on the board and the potential of games in hand and looks set to go right to the last day which is something of a tradition in recent times. It may only be a perpetual two horse race in Scotland but what a thrilling race it usually turns out to be.

I wrote back in December that the Dinamo Zagreb president had allegedly turned down an offer of £35m for the club's star playmaker Luka Modric and that the diminutive midfielder wouldn't be leaving Zagreb any time soon. Fast forward four months.

Stealing an early march on a host of big name admirers, Tottenham Hotspur wrapped up Modric's signing in principle last night for a fee of £15.8m to bring one of Europe's most sought after players to White Hart Lane for next season.

With Euro 2008 only around the corner I was expecting the traditional brinksmanship wheeling and dealing by Modric's agents as they must have known that his value would rise on the back of a starring performance for tournament dark horses Croatia. Instead they've got a great deal tied up early to allow Modric the chance to concentrate on his football over the summer with no lingering worries about his club career hanging over him. Well done Tottenham, a great piece of transfer market dealing wrapped up early and another of Europe's top young stars to parade in the English Premier League next season.

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