Have no fear, Ole’s at the wheel!
The only problem with this is that he is still driving with ‘L’ plates on and he has no instructor!
Assisting him in his quest to at least keep the car going straight is Mike Phelan, whose managerial experience extends to a whole 3 months during which time he took Hull City to the brink of relegation before being replaced by Marco Silva who duly completed the task. Read the rest of this entry »
We’re at the end of another boring international break and the English are, once again, being somewhat rapturous because their side managed to score four goals at Wembley against Bulgaria, then five goals against Kosovo at St. Marys, (who managed to get three themselves).
Mind you, it was always going to be a stroll when you consider that, again according to FIFA, England are miles better than Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany and Holland. Reasons to be cheerful indeed! The next Euro Championship is already in the bag and the World Cup will surely follow two years later! Read the rest of this entry »
The latest pantomime involving Manchester United was played out at Molineux. It was the 67th minute and United were awarded a penalty.
No problem. Step forward Marcus Rashford who has never missed a spot kick. Indeed his last effort was well struck past Kepa of Chelsea only the previous week, so his confidence was high.
But wait, who’s this muscling in on the act? It’s the pantomime villain or Paul Pogba as he is also known. He wants to take the kick and, as the senior player of the two, he will get his way. He did and he missed. So what went wrong? Read the rest of this entry »
Manchester United were supposed to undergo a complete overhaul. Ole Gunnar Solskjær was going to oversee the departure of several players who had passed their sell-by dates around three or four years ago and bring in new players to replace them. The new models would be younger and better with the emphasis on better which, let’s be honest, shouldn’t prove to be too difficult.
The positions flagged as needing strengthening were right full back, centre back, midfield and, possibly, a striker to replace the departing Lukaku. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s official, the leaks have been plugged. With the arrival of Aaron Wan-Bissaka to replace old man Young and Harry Maguire to replace the average Jones/Smalling/Rojo and injury prone Bailly the Manchester United defence looks, on paper anyway, decidedly more solid than it did last season.
The downside is that football is, and has always been, a game best played on grass, not paper, so the proof of the pudding will only really be evident when United play Chelsea at Old Trafford in the season’s opener. Read the rest of this entry »
It would appear that Ed Woodward isn’t very well versed in the takeaway. No, not the Chinese kind, the sales kind. The one which appears to remove a particular tidbit from a deal only to reinstate it at a later date.
It’s like saying that your favourite car can be bought, is affordable but comes without electric windows. Then when you, the client, say that the only thing stopping you buying the car is the electric window issue, they can suddenly be included in the price. Read the rest of this entry »
So Ole Gunnar Solskjær is going to replace any players sold during this transfer window, according to the man himself anyway.
Well, he hasn’t replaced Ander Herrera yet with Ed Woodward trying to be clever, (yet again), by refusing to pay the asking price for Bruno Fernandes. He is doing the same with Harry Maguire although he may end up being proved right on that one. United need desperately to get rid of Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo who both underperform in that position. Read the rest of this entry »
So, if the honest and upright British press, (and Sky Sports News), are to be believed then Arsenal have a transfer kitty of around £45 million.
This should be enough to buy them the player they are crying out for which is a central defender, particularly now that Laurent Koscielny has decided that there is more room in his pram without the toys.
However, having obviously appointed Diane Abbott to their accounting team, their kitty will now spread much further in a way reminiscent of the feeding of the five thousand. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s the 4th of July so it’s only fitting that the good old U.S. of A’s women’s football team has reached the World Cup final. Those ever so sporting winners with always a sympathetic and kind word for their opponents celebrate independence and, with it, the freedom to elect whoever they wish as president, even Donald Trump.
Megan Rapinoe is another one who could run in the next presidential election race as she has certainly proved that mixing sport and politics is boring and, hopefully, ineffectual. Football is not a platform to air views on anything other than football and, as far as we are aware, nobody is interested in those views anyway. Read the rest of this entry »
The clear-out still hasn’t begun at Manchester United and the priorities, as far as the fans are concerned, seem to be a little confused.
Yes, Romelu Lukaku should be sold as he doesn’t fit the philosophy at the new United. Yes, Paul Pogba should be sold because he doesn’t wan to be there and yes, Alexis Sánchez should be sold because he is costing a fortune while sitting on the bench but, far more pressing for the supporters, is the fact that Chris Smalling, Ashley Young, Jesse Lingard and Phil Jones are all still there and, worse still, no noises are forthcoming about any of them being shifted in the near future. Read the rest of this entry »
