The only one who’s pretty balloon has been well and truly burst is Ole Gunnar Solskjær. They haven’t yet taken the moon away but don’t hold your breath, this incarnation of a once great club is certainly capable of anything.
Talking of moons, Manchester City seem to be winning trophies more than once in a blue one nowadays so maybe their signature song should relate to the colour of the moon over Manchester at present. Read the rest of this entry »
Major League Soccer is fast becoming a top incubator for talent all over the globe and the vast array of gifted players making the trip over the Atlantic to reignite their careers is increasing every season.
Since its formation in 1996, the MLS has made itself more of an attractive destination with every passing year and much of this is down to expansion, with new teams being elected from the minor league, rather than promoted.
The arrival of ‘designated players’ on boosted wages (of which the likes of David Beckham and Wayne Rooney have been beneficiaries) has also made the States a desirable destination for Premier League masters. Read the rest of this entry »
With each club’s season quickly winding down to its last game and only a point separating the top two, the race between Manchester City and Liverpool for Premier League supremacy is one of the most exciting in recent years. In fact, the gap is so wide that 3rd place Chelsea are 23pts behind Liverpool. While the competition at the top of the Premier League table is a two-horse race, at the moment it looks very likely that City will win the Premier League and Liverpool will finish second. But will they? Read the rest of this entry »
So the season is all but over. We have now reached the time of year when, finally, Manchester United fans have something to look forward to. No longer must they suffer their team underperforming on the pitch. Some of those “players” may even be sold if anybody is clueless enough about football to actually buy them. The fact that Chris Smalling, Matteo Darmian, Phil Jones and Ashley Young are still there suggests that there aren’t as many clueless people around outside of Old Trafford as there used to be.
No, now is fast approaching the time when United fans can look forward to their “team” of transfer gurus underperforming OFF the pitch. These will include, probably for this gig only, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Mike Phelan, Michael Carrick, (because surely he must do something!), some fresh faced kid who looks like Phil Neville and good old uncle Ed overseeing things to make sure the club only overspends on galacticos they don’t need. (There may be a Director of Football involved but, as it has taken about six years for the club to even admit they need one, don’t hold your breath). Read the rest of this entry »
Manchester City will win the Premier League. Liverpool will finish second. That, at the moment, is all that is fair to assume as the other two slots available within the top four are being contested between teams who appear to be doing their utmost to hand the position to a rival.
Tottenham Hotspur were in a reasonably comfortable third position until they lost at their new home for the first time, beaten by West Ham. Their unbeaten home record must be one of the shortest in history! Read the rest of this entry »
Well, in the main, pretty darn good. Unless, of course, you happen to hail from the European capital of football.
On Tuesday there were two “English” sides in action. The one with the Norwegian manager came to a predictably sticky end by losing to Lionel Messi, (and maybe a few team mates although they were somewhat irrelevant and almost unnecessary).
They also managed to fail to score in both legs meaning that the £££millions spent on a Belgian and a couple of French “superstars” is yet to provide much in the way of value for money. Read the rest of this entry »
Now that Ole Gunnar Solskjær has been installed as the “permanent” manager, at least until he becomes the ex-manager, has his attitude or approach to the job changed?
Has he, for example, confronted some players safe in the knowledge that HE will still be in charge next season, something he would have been unlikely to do as a caretaker?
Also, some of his recent decisions seem to have been a trifle strange. Why did he rest players against West Ham? United may have a deep squad but it isn’t blessed with more than one or two world class players and they only beat the Hammers courtesy of two penalties when, in fact, West Ham should have won the game. Read the rest of this entry »
So Ole’s got the gig. He has been signed as the clubs new resident entertainer for the next three years or until he does something disagreeable to fans or board which results in him following the path already trodden by David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and José Mourinho.
Described as the new “permanent” manager, one could be forgiven for wondering if the great British media have forgotten the meaning of the word. “Permanent”, the last time we checked anyway, does not mean “three years”, it means infinitely. It’s a little like the current moronic trend of saying that players “gave 110%” or that “we achieved the impossible”, both of which are actually impossible and only said by people who should either know better or are severely lacking any form of common sense whatsoever. Read the rest of this entry »
Following the recent Champion’s League draw the English clubs, with the possible exception of Tottenham Hotspur, can be reasonably optimistic about progressing.
Manchester United have already eliminated the so-called “favourites” by beating PSG so Barcelona, over two legs, shouldn’t hold any fears.
Liverpool have the “easiest” draw and should be able to find their way past Porto whilst, as we said, Spurs have the most difficult draw and could even see themselves exiting the competition from their new stadium! Now wouldn’t that be poetic justice? Read the rest of this entry »
Poor Ole. He must now be fearing for his job. No doubt the “five-minute fans” will want him out now that his unbeaten run has come to an end. They will want to replace him with….well….er….they probably don’t know because these are the kind of idiots who just want a manager out of their club without giving any particular thought as to who will replace him.
United actually played reasonably well against Arsenal and certainly didn’t deserve to lose in a game which was all about four shots at goal. Two of those shots came from the home team the first of which was from Granit Xhaka who had the advantage of being able to make the ball become invisible to goalkeepers. David De Gea has, no doubt, watched several replays of the goal and probably still hasn’t seen where the ball went. Read the rest of this entry »
