WHY SAY ANYTHING?

Stubborn Old Man has now decided he is having to endure criticism because he is 68 years old! By attempting to apportion blame to absolutely anything as long as it isn’t himself he is displaying perfectly the detrimental aspect of ageing.

Honestly, the man is becoming a joke and the sooner he leaves Arsenal to be replaced by another manager the better! Not because of his age but because of his attitude and poor recent record!

He is being criticised because his team is rubbish. His team has been rubbish for the last few years and, as far as the Champion’s League goes, has been rubbish for the last twenty!

Arsenal fans are now fed up with his refusal to accept the obvious and take an executive role at the club. They are not bothered about his age.

Ask Manchester United fans whether they would take Fergie back now or not. Of course they would, despite the fact that he is approaching his 77th birthday.

Ask Bayern Münich fans what they think of Jupp Heynckes and if they would swap him for another, younger manager. He is 73 this year!

So no Arséne, it isn’t an ageist thing, it’s a rubbish-at-football thing! Stop making excusues and leave.

Up in the frozen north…..

José Mourinho is now only talking to Rui Faria and one of the tea ladies. Oh, and Sir Alex when he pays one of his royal visits. Then there is Ed Woodward with whom he occasionally passes a little time of day, usually to request more money for players.

To date, Woodward has bought Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku with there being little or no evidence that either player was on Mourinho’s original wish-list.

He then enticed Alexis Sánchez to join by offering more money than Manchester City and, probably, a guarantee of first-team football he is yet to tell his manager about.

Mourinho brazenly admitted that he had absolutely nothing to do with this transfer!

Zlatan Ibrahimović, recently departed to Los Angeles, had been brought in on a “free” transfer and was another signing that the manager will have had little to do with.

So there is some discussion to be had about which signings have actually been “Mourinho signings“. He is not going to speak out against his boss by saying that he didn’t want any of the players recently bought by United but his behaviour towards some of them is a little surprising.

Eric Bailly, Nemanja Matić and, now, Romelu Lukaku appear to be his favourites and, of the players already there when he arrived, he seems to have a soft spot for two ageing wingers who can’t defend and a midfielder who he never picks and who is retiring at the end of the season!

Of his other signings, Henrikh Mkhitaryan has already gone and Victor Lindelof is struggling to get a starting spot.

Readers of yesterday’s article about Mourinho and the mistakes he is making will agree that he needs to brush up on his man-management skills, (or lack of), otherwise it will all end in tears and, judging by the current mood on social media, those tears won’t be from United fans.

Along the East Lancs Road…..

Jürgen Klopp is confident that his team are good enough to beat Manchester City in the Champion’s League and that the team from Manchester is “running scared“.

Having lost at The Etihad in a game which turned when Sadio Mané was sent off Klopp then went on to see his team score four against them at Anfield. The problem was that from a position of winning 4-1 they allowed City back into the game and it finished 4-3.

If this were to happen in the Champion’s League then City would probably be quite happy with three away goals! Particularly as thier defence is marginally better than that of Liverpool.

All the talk has been coming from Anfield and the supporters with little or nothing being said in Manchester. The quiet ones are always the ones to watch so City will win this tie quite comfortably and it won’t even be as close as a lot of people seem to think it will be.

And finally…..

Tuesday sees England play another footballing giant who has failed to qualify for this year’s World Cup when they meet Italy.

Doctor Southgate is likely to make a few changes in another “experiment” with his team in an attempt to continue his good run against international failures and to see if he can find a solution as to how to beat teams who actually HAVE qualified for the tournament.

Quite what these “experiments” are proving is a little beyond this simple publication as we fully expect England to exit the World Cup very shortly after the group stage finishes, if not before. That being the case will England then “experiment” with a new manager?