Archive for the ‘Managers’ Category

jm

Having sat through Manchester City’s 6-1 demolition of Huddersfield Town, a team who managed to stop them scoring at The Etihad in last season’s record-breaking campaign, the early conclusion is that City are even better this year! So far anyway.

So it was with some trepidation that we watched Manchester United away at Brighton. This was a game they lost last season without appearing to even turn up.

They haven’t changed and managed to lose again without appearing to turn up.

So the whingeing and whining about new signings, the pre-season tour and the World Cup have had no effect whatsoever and this team is as bad, if not worse, than last term. (more…)

jm

When he was first appointed, José Mourinho was not universally accepted as being the “right man for the job” at Old Trafford. Some supporters, bored almost lifeless with the type of football served up by David Moyes and then Louis van Gaal, thought that Mourinho was just more of the same.

The majority, however, just wanted van Gaal out and Mourinho in based on the fact he was a proven winner with every club he had managed and United, having been starved of any serious success, (with van Gaal’s FA Cup win being the only exception), since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, were happy to oblige. (more…)

CREATOR: gd-jpeg v1.0 (using IJG JPEG v80), quality = 90

With it’s usual bells, whistles and fanfares Sky Sports’ “breaking transfer news” was that Harry Maguire would, more than likely, stay at Leicester City.

This hardly qualifies as “transfer news” as it is actually stating that he is unlikely to be transferred. That minor detail, however, is of total irrelevance to a broadcasting great like Sky who pride themselves on making the most enormous mountains out of the tiniest of molehills and are unequalled in their ability to do so.

José Mourinho was reported to be interested in buying Harry Maguire but the price Leicester City have been talking is totally ridiculous for a player even the overpaying Ed Woodward values at £65 million, which is still £15 million over the odds. So Yerry Mina it is then! (more…)

CREATOR: gd-jpeg v1.0 (using IJG JPEG v80), quality = 75

Two seasons ago three of the “big six” started their campaigns with new managers in charge. Pep Guardiola had arrived, with much fanfare and hype, at Manchester City and he would go on to lead them to….er….third place in the Premier League, 15 points behind the winners, and absolutely nothing else.

José Mourinho rode into town, checked himself into the Lowry hotel as if anticipating a short stay and then led his new club, Manchester United, to an underwhelming sixth place finish. He did redeem himself, however, by winning both of the B trophies. He picked up the Carabao Cup and the Europa League with the latter ensuring qualification for the Champion’s League. (more…)

ue

It started, more or less, with Unai Emery getting the Arsenal gig. The club wanted somebody who could match, or better, Arséne Wenger’s achievements during his last few years in the job. They certainly got that. Emery is adept at getting his clubs into the top four and has been known to actually win the Europa League on more than one occasion.

Hold on to your hats you Gooners, it’s going to be a roller-coaster ride full of “been there, done that” and déjà vu. Unai Emery will deliver one of the trophies Wenger failed to deliver but which will it be? Our money’s on Big Vase. (more…)

mandg

José Mourinho wants, at some stage. to manage Portugal. He is quick, however, to point out that the position is still some way in the future as he has more energy for his club job now than ever before.

Pep Guardiola is still young, or so he assures us. This was pointed out by him when stating that he too would quite like to manage at country level in the future. He doesn’t stipulate which country probably because his country, in his own mind, isn’t yet a country.

Never mind, he would probably still have a few options were he to decide to make the move into the semi-retirement home which is international football management. (more…)

pg

Manchester United…..

José Mourinho has to go all out to win either the Premier League title or the Champion’s League or, best case scenario, both! The impression is that another trophy-less season might very well be the end of him and even a Carabao or FA Cup win, in isolation, wouldn’t be enough to save him.

One of his well documented problems is that, if he is not winning trophies, then his style of football alone is not enough to keep him in a job. As everybody is aware, he was sacked by Chelsea when five months into his third season back with them.

His demons begin to surface when he starts losing football matches and he tends to blame the players, physios, scouts and anybody else who isn’t him! (more…)

jm

Why was José Mourinho attending the international friendly game between Austria and Russia?

Well, obviously, he was there to watch Marko Arnautovic! How do we know? Easy, we read it in the paper, so it must be true.

It did cross our mind that he may have been there swotting up on the Russian team as he has agreed to be a pundit on a Russian TV station for the duration of the World Cup. (more…)

w

How can selling Wembley be described as a betrayal? The idiots who massively overspent in building a stadium nobody outside of London really wanted cannot be accused of selling the soul of football, as some people have put it.

Wembley never was and never will be the “soul of football”. That title belongs to grounds such as Old Trafford, Anfield, Goodison Park and Stamford Bridge. In the past it would have included Highbury, Main Road, Roker Park and others too numerous to mention. (more…)

ac

The Antonio Conte saga goes on. No decision has yet been announced by either the man himself or Chelsea as to what his immediate future holds. The fact that everybody else already knows doesn’t appear to have occurred to either of the two parties. Or maybe it has and that is why they can’t be bothered announcing anything.

Anyway Conte, when he does leave/get fired in the very near future, won’t be rushing into a new job. He has decided to take a sabbatical at Chelsea’s expense.

This is because, contrary to popular belief, he won’t be swapping jobs with Maurizio Sarri, who may end up at Stamford Bridge but will be replaced by Carlo Ancelotti. No, Conte is more likely to take over Ancelotti’s bar stool for a period so he can see how the land lies. (more…)