Last summer Real Madrid's new president, Ramon Calderon was adamant he would sign Milan superstar and all-round nice guy, Kaka. He was incessant with his reassurances to the Bernabeu faithful that the world's best player would be wearing the famous white jersey. Calderon even went as far as to suggest he would try and arrange a meeting with Kaka while he was in training with Brazil for the World Cup.

AC Milan and Adriano Galliani were furious and warned the Real Madrid supremo that Kaka was not for sale and that they would report any illegal approaches. In context, Milan had just lost Andriy Shevchenko to Chelsea, in no small part thanks to Roman Abramovich's relationship with the striker. However, it was particularly perplexing that Galliani took such a strong stand considering Kaka had put pen to paper on a contract extension fairly early on and hardly seems like the kind of player to ask to leave so soon after committing to a club. The thought of losing two top players was obviously unbearable and Galliani made sure that everyone knew that Milan don't tap up and don't tolerate other clubs tapping up their players.

Skip forward to January 2007 and rumours linking Barcelona's Ronaldinho with a move to Milan were abundant. Galliani said that Milan were interested but would only make an approach if Barca gave the all clear. Skip forward again and there are rumours suggesting Samuel Eto'o, another Barca star, is on the way out and is also linked with Milan who have released a statement on their website today reassuring everyone that will do everything above board and that the final decision is up to the player's current club.

Have Milan backed themselves up against a wall? Tapping up is illegal but very loosely policed and most clubs engage in the tactic on a regular basis. By taking such a strong stand in the Kaka-to-Madrid saga, Galliani may well have put himself and Milan in a position where they can't put enough pressure on Barcelona to part with either of the star players.