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Chelsea want to emulate the fluent attacking football of Manchester United and Arsenal, and they figure that Ronaldinho will be a key ingredient to that vision.If the Catalan sports daily, Sport, is to believed, Chelsea are ready to offer Barcelona 60 million euros for its Brazilian star midfielder Ronaldinho.

The paper pointed out that Roman Abramovich is “convinced that the signing of Ronaldinho would be magnificent from all points of view” and has made it a top priority for the next season. Peter Kenyon has already held discussions with Barcelona officials on the sidelines of the G14 meetings.

The paper further confirmed: “The decision has already been taken.” The bid will include Michael Ballack, who was a firm target of Barcelona while he was at Bayern Munich.

This season, Ronaldinho has been lambasted in in the Spanish press for dismal performances and unprofessional behavior off the pitch. But Barcelona is sticking with him, at least officially. Just last month, Barcelona vice-president Ferran Soriano insisted that Ronaldinho, who has also been linked to AC Milan, was not for sale.

There are obstacles to the Brazilian’s arrival at Chelsea, not least the price tag of £85 million as a buy-out clause in his five-year contract. Nevertheless, Abramovich is confident of luring him over since Frank Rijkaard is struggling with the assimilation of Thierry Henry, Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi into his line-up.

Another attraction is the arrival of Juliano Belletti from Barcelona. Together with Alex, Belletti offers a strong Brazilian presence at Stamford Bridge.

Currently struggling with a makeshift defense, Chelsea are not looking to strengthen the squad with a fullback, but rather an attacking midfielder. Last month, they forgo the chance to bring Daniel Alves from Sevilla because they were unwilling to match the £24m asking price. That may haunt them in the title race, considering the first team defense is almost wiped out and the reserves are barely coping.

Avram Grant wants to focus on entertainment and there is a yawning shortage of exciting players in Chelsea, so Ronaldinho seem the most natural of choices. But a word of advice, the Real Madrid’s style of pursuing galacticos is a double-edged sword.

Let’s recall the days of Florentino Perez, former Real Madrid’s president. It is ironical that just within a week of Real Madrid getting the tag of the “world’s richest football club,” he resigned (or was forced to). His vision of catapulting Madrid onto the world map has achieved spectacular commercial success, but the trophy cabinet is empty.

They had not won any major titles in 2004 and 2005 and in 2006, a series of embarrassing losses and trailing behind arch-rival Barcelona by ten points, it is apparent Perez’s days are numbered.

In his interview, he candidly revealed that the galacticos he signed were not performing and were ‘confused.’ They were more often interested in their self-interest than fighting for the team. Perez further compared his ‘Galacticos’ to spoilt children and blamed himself as the parent who indulged them. The inability to foster team spirit was his greatest failing.

Coming back to Chelsea, the purchase of Ballack and Shevchenko qualify as galacticos but their impact on the team was minimal, and I meant it as an understatement. Chelsea has the money, that is for sure.

In the list of the richest players and club owners of the Premiership, published by English magazine FourFourTwo, Roman Abramovich’s personal fortune was estimated at a whooping £10.8b. Joe Lewis, owner of Tottenham, came in at a distant second with only £2.8b.

Even then, Chelsea has to consider if the purchase of a declining asset at this point of time will work in their interest, they have after all spent a fortune on two flops, there is little guarantee that Ronaldinho will set the Premier League alight if he cannot do it in La Liga.

Abramovich and Kenyon have also indicated in Mourinho’s days the need for Chelsea to conduct their business in a commercially sustainable manner — by spending £85m on a single player is a baffling reversal, and a slap in the face of the Special One. If Ronaldinho fails, I am sure Mourinho will take pleasure in the demise and among the first to rub it in the face of his former boss.

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