Archive for the ‘Football’ Category

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The Premier League weekend started with an early game at the King Power stadium between Leicester City and Liverpool with the visitors looking reasonably comfortable when taking a two goals lead into the interval.

Sadio Mané and Roberto Fermino had scored the goals with the other member of the trio, Mo Salah, missing a great chance and, eventually, being substituted in the second half.

Leicester certainly chased the game and the referee didn’t appear to be of much assistance when giving free-kicks to Liverpool every time one of their players fell over. (more…)

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The first thing we must do before looking at the draw itself is congratulate the northwest clubs for almost monopolising the Champion’s League places.

This year we will be looking for improvement from Everton and West Ham and, if we are going to have another London club this time, we would quite like West Ham to be it. So goodbye again to Arsenal and Chelsea and, with a little luck, Tottenham Hotspur. Welcome to the Europa League AGAIN!

Anyway, the draw has been kind to Manchester City, reasonable with Manchester United and Liverpool and quite tough on Tottenham. Here are the groups which contain the English teams. (more…)

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So the board at Manchester United which, effectively, appears to be Ed Woodward, have decided to reward Anthony Martial’s poor performances, petulance and disobedience by offering him a new contract until 2023 with the usual raise in pay.

This is despite manager José Mourinho wishing to sell him and the player expressing a desire to leave the club.

Either Ed Woodward himself or the Glazers seem to have bestowed upon the diminutive marketing man from Chelmsford, a power of attorney which gives him the final say over everything at the club. He has proven on several occasions that his knowledge of football is, at best, dodgy, when he has preferred to look at transfer targets with a high marketing value rather than their potential benefit to the team. (more…)

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All of those Manchester United “supporters” who want José Mourinho to be shown the door marked “do one”, should be careful what they wish for.

We here at WSA are United through and through and it is difficult to watch this team most of the time, but patience is required.

We also found it very difficult to watch teams assembled by Wilf McGuinness, Frank O’Farrell and Dave Sexton. The team managed by Sir Alex Ferguson for the first five years of his tenure was an awful sight to behold and lost regularly.

Then we got David Moyes and Louis van Gaal so, if you think this is bad, where have you been for the last 50 odd years? (more…)

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So what is it then? The players aren’t good enough? They are overpaid and lazy? The manager is not good enough? Would the players, for example, get away with this standard of performance if Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge?

Many excuses and reasons have been offered for the downturn in form of Manchester United. Remember also that this is José Mourinho’s third season and we all know what happened to him at Chelsea when he supposedly “lost” some of the players and was sacked.

There aren’t too many examples of what has happened to him in the third season at other clubs but that is mainly because he usually only sticks around for two. (more…)

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602  Arsenal

The Gunners have finally won a game under Unai Emery at the third attempt. Having lost at home to Manchester City then away to Chelsea, not necessarily games from which they would be expected to pick up points at any stage of their evolution, they managed to overcome another side with another new manager who were also pointless from their opening games.

The difference is that West Ham’s aims for the season probably include a top half finish whereas this would represent a disappointing campaign for Arsenal who will be looking at top six, if not top four. (more…)

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Liverpool sit proudly at the top of the Premier League. For the moment. Jürgen Klopp, despite being a serial cup final attendee is also a serial cup final loser. He has now been in charge of Liverpool for three years and has won……NOTHING!

Is he under pressure? No. Why not? Nobody really knows. He has spent much more in the last two seasons than his counterpart at Old Trafford and yet José Mourinho, who has won three trophies in his time at United as well as finishing runner-up in the Premier League, is under scrutiny EVERY day. (more…)

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Well that was quite a day in the Premier League.

Firstly, an under par Manchester City could only manage a draw at newly promoted Wolves. This despite hitting the crossbar twice and the post once so their idea of under par is still better than most other sides.

Result: Draw 1-1

Then Everton went to Bournemouth, had Richarlison sent off for a head-butt which is unlikely to please his manager. They then went into a 0-2 lead which, despite their opponents also being reduced to ten men when Smith was sent off, they then managed to throw away.

Result: Draw 2-2 (more…)

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How is a fat football agent getting so much publicity? Mino Raiola is “acting on behalf of” Paul Pogba so, when he decides to insult Paul Scholes on social media, it is actually Pogba doing the insulting.

Now we know that isn’t the case and that the French player probably numbers Scholes amongst his favourite midfielders of all time. So why does he insist on continuing to employ an arrogant, obnoxious, fat and, admittedly rich, (which we had to include otherwise Bernard Manning would be spinning), so-and-so who, when he isn’t trying to extort as much money as possible from his clients and football clubs, is busy telling everybody else what to do. (more…)

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Has Klopp got it right now…..?

Pep Guardiola has built a successful team at Manchester City. In the eyes of many football followers he has to win the Champion’s League to put the icing on the cake but that doesn’t take anything away from last season’s achievement of winning the Premier League with a record number of points amongst other things.

That is the big one and relies on a consistently good campaign where, at the end of a long season, it is the best team who are crowned champions.

The Champion’s League is a knockout competition despite it’s name. It comes alive when the group stages are over but it also becomes a lottery at the same stage. Luck now begins to play a big part. Bad refereeing decisions, injuries and suspensions can see a team eliminated who may previously have been the favourites to win it. (more…)