Guus Hiddink, Frank Rijkaard and , all of whom have been much touted in the media as candidates to be the next Chelsea manager, are no longer major contenders for the job as far as the club's hierarchy is concerned.
But , Roberto Mancini and Felipe Scolari are among those being most actively looked at.
This follows a reappraisal by the powers-that-be at as to what they feel the new manager needs to do for the club.
The view is that need to use the new appointment to make the club feel popular, if not loved, not merely by their own fans but by the public at large.
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Nobody in Moscow mentioned the , the now seemingly forgotten idea of taking Premier League matches outside England.
But in many ways the was the 39th game, albeit a one-off and under Uefa auspices - and what a vivid demonstration of why the Premier League is so enthralling and watched by millions round the world.
I have now watched all three finals between teams from the same country: was a Real celebration and too one-sided to be a great match; was so terrible that we could not wait for the penalties.
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Fifa president Sepp Blatter has confirmed to me that at the forthcoming Fifa Congress he will not ask the organisation to force clubs to field only five foreign players in their teams.
For months Blatter has been saying that the Congress, which will take place at the end of month in Sydney, would make it obligatory for club teams to field at least six home-grown players.
But following a morning, he told me that his plans had now changed.
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Judging by the hotels the two teams occupy in it is very clear that Chelsea are the home team and the club feels like it owns the place.
Chelsea are at the , a few metres from and not far from where the trophy has been on display for the last few days.
The Chelsea players, in the unlikely event they felt like it, would only have to walk a few minutes to join the queues to see the trophy.
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Uefa president has achieved something that, so far in the field of sport, has been the exclusive preserve of the .
That is to make a government accept that a sporting ticket or accreditation can act as a visa to enter the country, no further visa being required.
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Fifa president , head of world football's governing body, will not ask the Congress to approve the idea of having only five foreign players in club teams when it meets in Sydney later this month.
Well-informed sources close to Blatter have told me that he will instead ask the Congress to give him powers to try and negotiate such a deal.
Blatter's decision to back away from having a firm Fifa decision insisting club teams field could put on hold Fifa being at loggerheads with the European Union and the laws on free movement of people.
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While England are expected to easily defeat New Zealand in , the attention is not so much on what is happening here as on India.
Traditionally by this time cricket would have ceased in most of the world, barring the odd Test series in West Indies, and all eyes would be on the English summer.
But this year the vast riches offered by India and the have made the English summer seem more like a cricketing footnote.
Even New Zealand great Sir Richard Hadlee, previewing his country's series, concentrated on the IPL.
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On the walls of conference room at the infamous Balco laboratory in San Francisco hangs a United States flag signed by men and women who were once the greatest athletes in the world.
The flag dates from the of 2000, when America's view of drug cheats was a lot different to now.
At that Olympics, Marion Jones's then husband, .
The revelation triggered rumours he was not alone, that there were, it was alleged, many more drug cheats in the American team.
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