Is scouting the most difficult job in the Premier League? We suppose it depends on what your brief is. If, for example, we had been sent to watch Glasgow Celtic three or four years ago, we would have noticed two standout players who we would recommend be playing at a top six club. (more…)
Having been linked with nearly every player available to buy since the season finished and having been linked with a lot of players who aren’t and won’t be available to buy, Manchester United have until now bought, or more precisely, announced the purchase of,……………………nobody. (more…)
Good old Arsene. He never lets you down. Well, not very often anyway. OK, quite a few times in recent years. But give the guy a break, after all he keeps having to play teams like Bayern Munich in the Champion’s League. Quite why this appears to faze both him and his players so much is a mystery. He can come up with tactics to beat the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea in knockout tournaments, he just can’t seem to do it when it’s a foreign team, (or Manchester United in Europe). (more…)
The main reason Manchester United have never won the Europa League before is because it is a competition in which they have rarely been involved and, when they have been, they haven’t taken it particularly seriously.
Even under it’s previous incarnation as the UEFA Cup, it was a trophy only flirted with on four occasions since Sir Alex Ferguson took over in 1986. On those four occasions they lost to what can only be described as mediocre opponents. (more…)
So it’s nearly all over. On Wednesday night the fat lady will sing, at least as far as any English interest in Europe is concerned. To continue the mixed metaphors from the previous article, then is the time that JosĂ© Mourinho will find out if the straws at which he has been grasping can be pulled through the silver lining he has decided the Europa League to be, or if they will get stuck in the cloud.
Counting chickens before they are hatched is easy when all of your eggs are in the same basket. José Mourinho has already counted the chickens and has decided that he will gamble on them all hatching.
Just to prove how confident he is in this he is also trying his hand at juggling with them! He doesn’t have another basket to hand, just in case a fox comes to steal the first one. He has decided that guarding the basket by concentrating all his efforts on it’s safety is the way forward. (more…)
If we were an average Premier League footballer, coming to the end of our playing career but pocketing a massive ÂŁ250-300k per week, depending upon who you believe, we would probably want to stay where we are as well.
Emitting the occasional “we would like to play more games“, and, “we do everything we can to help the team, on and off the pitch“, we just hope that we are making the right noises in order not to be sold to a club where we will have to take a very large pay cut, particularly if that club is one we supposedly love and support. A clear example of how greed is a much more powerful emotion than love. (more…)
In all fairness, ANY manager at ANY club has the right to select whichever team he feels is appropriate for the game ahead.
Sure, there will be “first choice” elevens which, in the manager’s opinion is his “best” combination of players. This combination will not always be the right one for different opponents. Therefore, the manager has to have the right to make changes.
The question only becomes inflammatory when wholesale changes are made in order to “protect” some players for games further down the line which are deemed to be more important. (more…)
The result was fitting, if not entirely fair. City, to be honest, were the better team on the night and certainly looked the more likely winners. However theirs is a problem similar to that of Manchester United in that they don’t turn enough chances into goals.
It could be argued that Manchester United deserved the point if only for their stout defending, no mean achievement given that three of their four first choice centre backs are out injured. (more…)
It is now Wednesday, 26th May. Manchester City are two points behind Liverpool with two games in hand and an inferior goal difference.
Manchester United are three points behind Liverpool with two games in hand and a vastly inferior goal difference.
The upshot of all this is the following: If Thursday’s derby game is a draw, both Manchester clubs gain a point on Liverpool and both will overtake Liverpool should they win their other game in hand. (more…)
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 