On Wednesday night, Corinthians put on a decent performance away to Medellin in Bogota.
Despite the odd scare, the Brazilians controlled most of the match because the defence and midfield covered vast quantities of ground closing down the Colombians. The only area that wasn’t functioning was the attack. Embarrassingly overweight and completely ineffective, Ronaldo cut a forlorn figure up front...

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I refuse to believe that adriano is only 8 kg overweight. Against Ireland he looked like a guy living on a diet of guinness and fags, who spent too long at those amazing brazillian barbeques.

There's a brilliant picture in today's Bola of Adriano on all fours after being fouled with his belly hanging out of his shirt and the headline "Adriano is not an Alcoholic". I'll try and scan it because it's truly inspired.

It may well be time to drop him. If a player can be replaced by Souza and the team's performance improves then he must be playing poorly. I'd argue that for much of last season it was the same story. Ronaldo only played in half of Corinthians league games and the goals had started to dry up long before the end of the season. When I saw him he might as well not have been on the pitch.

The difference with Adriano is that he's still capable of getting himself fit when his personal problems aren't intruding. He's five years younger than Ronaldo. On his return from Italy he was in a similar whale-like state but by August/September he'd got himself into shape and was playing every game, often with devastating effect.

It would be nice if Flamengo could insist that he turns up for training but in Brazil the craque is afforded privileges denied to other players. Last season Flamengo (and Fluminense with Fred) were more than amply rewarded by their performances on the pitch. I'm not sure that's still the case with Ronaldo.

"Ronaldo remains a popular and well-loved player not just at the Parque São Jorge but throughout Brazil and the world.."

My son's girlfriend is from Sao Paolo and both she and her father are huge Corinthians fans. When she visted the U.K. recently she brought me a book that looks behind the scenes at the club's succesful 2008/09 season. In all photographs Ronaldo looks enormous.

They certainly don't concur with the above statement and see him as an embarrassment.

of course, not everyone likes Ronaldo - especially now the goals have appeared to have dried up and he's putting on the flab. Dentinho is going to play vs Santo André today. Ronaldo should also start but it hasn't been confirmed.