AS Kenny Dalglish returned to management this week, wits as sharp as ever, it was easy to guess what he might have made of the Ronaldinho saga at Blackburn Rovers.

When the Brazilian started to be linked with an unlikely move to Ewood Park, I was reminded of a remark Dalglish made when I had the privilege of meeting him for the first time in the summer.

He had bounded into Clitheroe Golf Club for a fund-raising event for his wife Marina’s charity, seemingly carefree – a world away from the cut and thrust of management.

Dalglish, keen as ever to talk about Rovers, was the man who spent Jack Walker’s money so wisely that within four years Blackburn had won the Premier League title.

Alan Shearer, Chris Sutton and Tim Flowers were among the influential players he brought to Ewood.

Dalglish even tried to sign Zinedine Zidane. So the story goes, true or not, Jack Walker asked him: “Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?”

But there was always a method in Dalglish’s signings. As he remarked in the summer, it was never about the name, just the ability.

“The name does nae matter,” he said in his canny Scottish tones.

"It’s the quality of the player that’s important, not the name.”

Ronaldinho, who has now joined Flamengo, undoubtedly still has talent. But it is much faded since his glory days, and the name seemed the biggest attraction to Rovers’ new owners.

When even Michel Salgado – formerly of name-chasers Real Madrid – is sceptical about Ronaldinho, you sense there could be a salient message here.

Perhaps the biggest irony is that Sam Allardyce supposedly did not see eye to eye on transfer targets prior to his Ewood exit, yet few managers were more partial to the attraction of a big name.

But even Allardyce might have thought that £20m was too much to spend on an increasingly under-motivated Ronaldinho.

In the spectrum of risk and reward, this was too great a gamble.