The fans will love him, if he goes. They will immediately be able to sing his name, it’s almost Chinese in pronunciation anyway – Wei Ru Ni. If he goes. The Chinese Super League will have attracted another big name to give more credibility to their project, if he goes.
Is there any reason he wouldn’t go? He doesn’t seem to be able to get into the first team at United at present and his chances would be likely to diminish as he gets even older. (more…)
José Mourinho is not known as a nice guy. He has fallen out with owners and club presidents, he has fallen out with players and fellow managers. He has fallen out with physiotherapists and club doctors. There are probably not many positions within the world of professional football with whom the Special One has not fallen out at one time or another!
He is, however, finding out that he has a nice side now that he is manager of Manchester United. He hasn’t turned into a serial smiler just yet, but there are signs that his disposition is somewhat mellower than it used to be. (more…)
Arséne Wenger and Louis van Gaal have a couple of things in common. Firstly, they are both past the 65 years of age mark. Secondly, they have been unable to adapt themselves to compete in the modern football world.
It is now seven years since van Gaal won La Liga, his last major championship title and a whopping thirteen years since Wenger last won the Premier League. Yes they have both won cups since those days but even a blind squirrel will eventually find a nut and they were both managing historically successful teams at the time. (more…)
Well folks, it’s that time of the year again! European competition has returned with the start of the knockout stages of both the Champion’s League and the Europa League.
This article was supposed to be a preview of the two tournaments BEFORE any of the games had been played but, thanks to missed deadlines due to oversleeping, is now published after the first round of them has finished.
Fortunately only Arsenal, out of the English contingent, have played their first leg game and everybody knew what was going to happen before a ball was even kicked. (more…)
It is a question which has been raised once or twice in the past. Of the current top six only Tottenham Hotspur have been buying anybody English from the lower divisions, that being Dele Alli, who arrived from MK Dons for £5 million a while ago.
Chelsea went down the tried and tested route by buying N’Golo Kanté from Leicester, shortly after he had become a Premier League winner, so no risk there.
Liverpool went for the unknown foreigners who have yet to prove themselves in the top flight, and Sadio Mané, who hasn’t. (more…)
The current top six are unlikely to remain with their present managers for too long unless they find a way of sharing the trophies between them on an annual basis.
The Holy Grail, however, remains the Premier League title but with half an eye on winning the Champion’s League, (unless you are Arsenal, in which case just qualifying for the competition is sufficient).
If, this season for example, sees Chelsea win the title, City, United and Tottenham finish in the top four and Liverpool and Arsenal making up the remainder of the top six then little should change for next season. (more…)
When these two managers were appointed by their current clubs it was widely expected, particularly in Manchester, that the top two positions in the Premier League would be contested between them.
Obviously, this view would not have been the case in parts of London or Liverpool but, generally, it was the concensus in the frozen, rainy wastelands of Manchester.
The facts have proven to be quite different. They have proven, for one thing, that even some of the best managers cannot just take over at a club and immediately turn them into champions. (more…)
Although a top three finish would have virtually the same outcome as winning the Europa League in that they would both mean automatic qualification for next season’s Champion’s League, the more prestigious of the two is the higher finish in the Premier League.
Fourth place, of course, would mean a chance to compete for the Champion’s League through the qualifiers, which is by no means a guarantee of participation in the competition proper. (more…)
(Thanks to sportingintelligence for the graphic)
Whenever anything relating to Manchester United is published it is big news. Maybe not to everybody in the world but there are many who hang onto every word, written or spoken, about the reds.
There is talk of the stadium capacity being increased to around 80,000 in the near future and it will be full for almost every home game.
Do United do anything differently to the other top teams? They spend some of their close season touring far away places in order to give some of their fans the chance to see the players, (not to mention increasing the fanbase to make more money)! (more…)
Rewind to a time not much more than twelve months ago. Stood on the touchline at the Kingpower Stadium was a manager whose team looked bereft of ideas, short of a leader and heading in one direction only, downwards.
José Mourinho, when interviewed after that 2-1 loss to Leicester City, unashamedly blamed his players for not following orders. This despite the fact that, as he well knows, the ultimate responsibility lies with the person who picks those players.
Roman Abramovich obviously concurred with the opinion that the manager was at fault and Mourinho was out of work. (more…)
