Archive for the ‘European Football’ Category

Manchester City And Chelsea Have Identified Weaknesses And Strengthened Them. Manchester United Have Identified Strengths And Strengthened Them, (Slightly)

Posted: July 30, 2017 in Chelsea, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Transfers
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It is still too early to judge the success or otherwise of this transfer window as far as City, United and Chelsea are concerned.

Chelsea fans will argue that they have strengthened in positions where strengthening was required and Manchester City fans will say exactly the same about their club.

In Chelsea’s case, and depending upon who you choose to believe, either Diego Costa had already decided he was going to leave, or Antonio Conte had already decided Diego Costa was going to leave. Either way a striker was a pre-requisite in this window. (more…)

With Specialists In The Role At Chelsea And City, Who Would Be The Ideal Director Of Football At Manchester United?

Posted: July 29, 2017 in Arsenal, Chelsea, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Transfers
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At Manchester City it is Txiki Begiristain, at Chelsea it is Michael Emenalo, at Liverpool it is Michael Edwards and at Arsenal it is Arséne the Omnipotent.

These are the Directors of Football or Sporting Directors or Technical Directors or whatever other fancy name they have been given to justify a very large salary. A salary nobody would begrudge them providing they serve the club and the supporters well.

The two stand-out names here are the ones at Chelsea and City who have been responsible for some excellent signings at the two clubs. They seem to have adopted the attitude that if the manager wants the player enough, then they will pay the price. (more…)

Chelsea, Manchester City And Manchester United All Need To Win The Premier League Title Next Season, But Which One Will?

Posted: July 28, 2017 in Arsenal, Chelsea, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Transfers
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This question, of course, assumes that one of the three will be triumphant come next May and that the challenging pack, which may very well include Everton and West Ham, will remain exactly that, the challenging pack.

Arsenal, as we are used to saying by now, will do nothing as long as Wenger is performing his Dorian Gray impression. Having no Champion’s League football will be of no assistance as they will compete in the Europa League. Consequently, a top four place will be difficult for them to achieve next season, even if they manage to keep Alexis Sánchez. (more…)

Yet Another Reminder For Ed Woodward And Why Transfer Fees Need To Be Capped

Posted: July 27, 2017 in Arsenal, Chelsea, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Transfers
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Once again, José Mourinho is using his press conferences to try and shame Ed Woodward into action.

Obviously the two don’t speak very often or this tactic would be unnecessary.

Mourinho has expressed his desire to add at least another player, preferably two, to his squad in at least three press conferences to date.

As the CEO or MD or whatever he is nowadays, Woodward will keep an eye on the goings-on with the media so that he is up-to-date with what his manager is saying, so it is a reasonably sure-fire way of getting his attention. (more…)

Another Reminder For Ed Woodward And Some Hope For City In Their Pursuit Of Alexis Sánchez

Posted: July 26, 2017 in Arsenal, Chelsea, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Transfers
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Ed Woodward, apart from having the same name as a late actor who used to portray, amongst others, a character known as “The Equalizer“, (yes, it was an American series, although the actor was English), has nothing else whatsoever in common with that persona.

A man who spent his waking hours righting wrongs, looking after the poor people who couldn’t afford protection and didn’t trust the police, he was a mixture of Robin Hood and the A-Team and always came out on top. (more…)

Chris Smalling To West Brom, Gareth Bale Not Going Anywhere And A Reminder To Ed Woodward

Posted: July 25, 2017 in Chelsea, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Transfers
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If the press is to be believed, (and why shouldn’t they be?), then Chris Smalling is of major interest to West Bromwich Albion.

He is also rumoured to be of interest to Everton, West Ham, Newcastle, Leicester, Stoke, Crystal Palace and Arsenal with the latter’s interest probably proof of why Arséne Wenger should have resigned at the end of last season.

The West Brom move, however, is one of those which would make sense to all parties. Smalling has struggled to play regularly under José Mourinho whilst Louis van Gaal didn’t even know his name! (more…)

Is Six Weeks Enough Time For Ed Woodward To Sign Two Players?

Posted: July 24, 2017 in Chelsea, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Transfers
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Come on Ed! You can do it! Don’t forget to breathe! Breathe! Just a few short weeks to go now and then you can retire to your office in Mayfair and forget all about the football side of the game until January. You can concentrate all your efforts on getting obscure conglomerates to sign massive sponsorship deals.

Of course it will be easier in January because, by then, José Mourinho will have worked out that, if he wants two players, he has to ask for four. He just has to be careful of the order in which he asks as he won’t want to be saddled with the two players he didn’t really want. (more…)

No News Is Never Good News For José Mourinho Because It Means That Ed Is Dithering Again

Posted: July 23, 2017 in Chelsea, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Transfers
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WSA gets the impression that José Mourinho is always waiting for news of something. It may be that he is about to get fired and would like to hear about it. It could also be that his wife and kids want to stay in London while he jollies off up to Manchester to slum it in a five star hotel for the duration of his United contract, but he wants to know about it.

He wants to know who is “with him” at Old Trafford and who is “against him“. Who will let him down by refusing to play when injured and who will ignore the pain and fight for the cause? (more…)

Transfer Window Bits & Pieces

Posted: July 22, 2017 in Arsenal, Chelsea, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Transfers
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Poor Alvaro Morata. Fresh from dyeing his hair red and his wife following Manchester United on Instagram he now has to pretend that Chelsea was always his first choice.

He hasn’t actually said those words but, then again, his English isn’t too good yet.

On arrival at Heathrow airport the player and his wife were immediately hijacked by a Sky Sports reporter who wasted no time in asking those pertinent questions to which we all want an answer. (more…)

The American Manchester Derby

Posted: July 21, 2017 in European Football, Football, Jose Mourinho, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Pep Guardiola
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So it is nearly time for the two new BFFs to face off against each other in a Manchester derby unlike any other.

This is the first time the game will be played, not only outside of Manchester, but also, outside of the UK.

A Portuguese coach will square up his team of Spanish, Armenian, French, Italian, Belgian, Argentinian, Swedish, Portuguese, Dutch, Ivory Coast and English players against a Spanish coach and his team of Brazilian, Argentinian, Spanish, Belgian, Ivory Coast, Ukrainian, Turkish, German, French and English players, in the USA! USA! USA! That, folks, is the Manchester derby nowadays. (more…)

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