I was in Osogbo, capital of Osun State over the weekend for a conference of my group, The Companion, when news broke that Chelsea Football Club of England had signed President Goodluck Jonathan as their new manager for next season to replace the sacked Italian, Carlo Ancelloti.

Before I could recover from the shock, Complete Sports editor, Dare Esan phoned to also give me a earth-shaking exclusive that long-suffering Arsenal fans had finally succeeded in forcing their stingy manager, Arsene Wenger to sign Lionel Messi of Barcelona for One billion pounds!

If you believe any of the foregoing, you’ll believe anything. Welcome to the season of outrageous transfers speculations in international football.

Since Barcelona took Manchester United to the cleaners in the final of the last season’s European Champions League, transfer speculators have been at their best churning out real and imaginary moves ahead of next season. When you read some of the stories, you will know straightaway that the journalist had just sat down in front of his computer and let his imagination run riot. And because all transfers don’t have to end up with a done deal, the writers get away with blue murder with no questions asked. Who says European sports journalists don’t cook up stories...

So, when Esan told me about the Wenger ‘coup’, I knew where he was coming from. During the off-season, virtually anything goes.

However, a bit of news that is beyond speculation is the resignation of Jack Warner from FIFA following his suspension over alleged bribe-taking ahead of the last FIFA presidential elections. Warner had boasted that he would cause a tsunami by revealing classified information. His sudden change of heart and decision to quit must be a great relief to FIFA and I suspect that his old friend, Sepp Blatter, will be sending him flowers and a fat compensation cheque. Happy retirement, Mr. Warner.

Back home, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) versus “Nigeria Football Association” (NFA) brouhaha has suddenly cooled off, hopefully, permanently. Let’s pray that whatever deal has been struck to force the temporary truce will be executed to the letter this time around. Or is it a case of the calm before the big storm?

On the pitch, Augustine Eguavoen’s U-23 team lived up to expectations by slamming a boastful Tanzania side 3-0 in the second leg of their 2012 Olympic football qualifier last Sunday in Benin to qualify for the next round 3-1 on aggregate. Up next for the Dream Team V is Ghana’s Meteors in an All Africa Games qualifier. I hope the lads will not allow the Ghanaians to repeat their feat over the Super Falcons in the female series.

This has been an abridged edition of Soccertalk. By the time I return next week for a full dose as usual, don’t be surprised if you hear that I have signed for ‘Chelsea United FC’ for 70 million pounds! Remember, it’s the season of spectacular speculations.