What are we talking about, you may well ask? Why, the Carabao Cup, of course.
Fresh from progressing into the next round, José Mourinho has decided, once again, that this is a competition to be taken seriously.
His shoulders are occasionally adorned by a white angel or a red devil, depending upon his mood. This time the angel, (responsible for the “serial winner” side of his personality), got there before the devil, (responsible for the “serial moaner” side of his personality). (more…)
This is a question we would like to be able to put to José Mourinho and Pep Guardiola. It would also get interesting replies from Arséne Wenger, Antonio Conte and Jürgen Klopp, not to mention Mauricio Pochettino.
To be fair they all set out, at the beginning of each season, to play open attractive football. Football is, after all, part of the entertainment industry and it’s success is measured, to an extent, by the amount of people who watch the games. This, in turn, dictates the quality of sponsorship attracted which determines the money paid into the clubs by these sponsors, and so on and so on. (more…)
Is José Mourinho just flirting with PSG in order to get some attention from his current employers? It is reported that he has asked for a “massive” pay rise, whatever that is, in order to sign a new and extended contract with United and he could be using the fact that he is still able to command the top jobs in European football as leverage to get it.
He could also be seriously contemplating taking the PSG job, either at the end of this contract or the next one.
United fans need to remember that, for Mourinho, this may be his biggest job to date, but it is still just another in the line of big jobs he has already undertaken and doesn’t necessarily mean he is at the end of his nomadic wanderings. (more…)
Continuing our delve into past articles written for other publications, today we look at one from a couple of years ago in which we thought Louis van Gaal may have been exaggerating his achievements at Old Trafford.
Most of the article is factual but we are quite pleased with our view on how it would all turn out as it was, in our insignificant opinion, pretty accurate. Anyway, here it is. (more…)
Pep Guardiola has recently said that it is an ambition of his to manage his country. He also stated, in the same interview that the country in question is Spain, not Catalonia, which may not have gained it’s independence by the time Pep is either shown the door at Manchester City or saunters through it voluntarily.
The thing is, it could be a short term ambition and it could also be a reasonably long term ambition such is the insecurity surrounding the career of a top football manager. (more…)
Mourinho, Guardiola, Conte and Klopp all have it, Pochettino is not far behind and Wenger never had it.
What are we talking about? Well, there probably isn’t one word for it. We are talking about charisma, je ne sais quoi, magnetism, talent, personality, winning mentality and other attributes we can’t even think of at this moment! If there is ONE word which encompasses all of these then please let us know.
Remember, we are not judging the most successful manager here, or the one with the best results on the pitch. This is just a bit of fun to see which one of them is the most complete. (more…)
PART ONE – ANTONIO CONTE, MAURICIO POCHETTINO & PEP GUARDIOLA
Probably not as bad as you may think. In fact, of the six, only Antonio Conte is deemed to have the temperament to walk away from a club at the merest hint of disagreement.
Here is what is being said about them individually.
Antonio Conte – Chelsea
As with others on this list, he has a habit of leaving clubs when least expected to do so. The first time was with Bari in Italy. He had just got them promoted to Serie A and had also just signed a new contract when he decided not to continue in the job any longer. (more…)
It’s all a question of size. Ask Pep Guardiola about the importance of a player’s height and our guess is that the adage, “a good little ‘un will always beat a good big ‘un“, will be his first response, or the Spanish equivalent at least!
Ask the same question of José Mourinho and the answer may very well be reversed. He has usually built his teams around big centre forwards backed up by relatively big midfielders.
If Manchester United were to field a team of their tallest players right now it would include Marouane Fellaini at 6’4″, Paul Pogba at 6’3″, Romelu Lukaku at 6’3″ and Michael Carrick at 6’1”. (more…)
The feeling at Old Trafford when David Moyes took over was, generally, one of apprehensive expectation. The problem was that nobody knew of what they were apprehensively expectant!
Moyes was untried at this level and, despite relative success at Everton, (which was keeping them in the Premier League’s top ten for years), he had won nothing of any note. (more…)
Watching “The Sunday Supplement” on, believe it or not, Sunday, we here at WSA were dismayed, if not surprised, to hear that all of the journalists on the programme were going to vote for Antonio Conte as their “manager of the season“.
Now we have never thought that football journalists were ever recognised authorities on the machinations of the modern football club or it’s manager, but to vote for Conte shows a staggering lack of knowledge and totally flies in the face of the true definition of the award. Let’s look at the contenders as they were when the season started. This, in itself, got everything off on the wrong foot as the wrong managers were being scrutinised. (more…)
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 