Archive for the ‘Premier League’ Category

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Bastian Schweinsteiger has managed to work his way back as far as the bench. Morgan Schneiderlin and Memphis Depay also reached that lofty height and Matteo Darmian has had a reasonable run in the first team, just not in his favoured position. That his best role has been filled by a winger who can’t defend says a lot about Darmian’s future in Mourinho’s team.

Marcos Rojo is almost a regular and Daley Blind flits in and out depending upon the opposition. Luke Shaw is yet to fully recover mentally from his injury and only time will tell if he is going to fulfill his potential and whether or not that will be at United. (more…)

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Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Well, almost. Mourinho is certainly more like Ferguson than Moyes or van Gaal were. Even taking into account that Moyes is from Glasgow he had little else in common with Ferguson.

Some of the press have been reporting an interview given by Lord Ferg to BBC Sport during which he mentioned how Mourinho has now calmed down on the touchline, pointing out that it was his Latin temperament which was to blame for the occasional outbursts. (more…)

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Mountains and molehills, sow’s ears and silk purses. A couple of adages the meaning of which Sky Sports is desperately trying to demonstrate. They are doing their level best to make mountains out of ever-decreasing molehills and they have several sow’s ears out of which, as yet, they have been unable to produce anything even remotely resembling a silk purse.

The prevailing problem at the Sky Sports Transfer Centre is that there have been no real transfers of any note and it doesn’t appear there will be any in the foreseeable future. (more…)

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(Sir Bobby is horrified to see his goalscoring record broken by Wayne Rooney, of all people!)

So it’s finally gone. One of the longest standing records in football has been broken. At least it was a decent goal which did the dastardly deed.

Wayne Rooney, thanks to longevity rather than anything else, is now Manchester United’s record goalscorer. This fact will always divide opinion amongst genuine United fans never mind the hangers-on who only discovered the club after they became successful. (more…)

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Manchester City and Manchester United are probably the two richest clubs in the Premier League. They have the two most successful and, arguably, best managers. They have the best squads and some of the world’s most expensive players.

The only club which comes anywhere near them in these respects is Chelsea, also with great wealth, a big squad and expensive players. Their manager, however, is an unknown quantity at this level. I suppose it could be argued that Pep Guardiola is in the same situation, but he has won far more domestic honours than Antonio Conte. (more…)

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So that’s it. It’s all over until the next time. We did warn you that it was over-hyped. We did try to explain that it may not live up to the publicity. The day turned out to be very much like an advert for…..well…..anything, in that so much was promised and so little delivered.

As was also predicted the results have changed very little in the makeup of the Premier League table. Chelsea are still top. The wins by Arsenal and Spurs kept them where they were and a little soft shoe shuffling by the rest has made little or no difference as to how the final table of the season will look. The major event was Manchester City losing points as opposed to the three London clubs above them who all gained three. (more…)

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So the time is nearly upon us. The massively over-hyped games between Everton and Manchester City, followed by Manchester United and Liverpool are just around the corner.

The respective fields will be taken by multi-millionaires running round doing something they love whilst being watched by, in the main, poorer working class people who have managed to scrape together the cost of either a season ticket or a matchday ticket.

Higher in the stands will be Roy Keane’s favourite people. The prawn sandwich brigade who sometimes don’t even know which game they are attending. The score, or even who is victorious, is a complete irrelevance to these types. (more…)

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For a short period of time, a couple of years ago, Brendan Rodgers looked as though he may win the Premier League title with Liverpool. He certainly came closer than they have done for many a year and all the stupid cliches came babbling forth from the experts and the press. My favourite is, “they will never have a better chance of winning it than they did that year“.

That, of course, is complete nonsense as, under JĂĽrgen Klopp, they may very well have their best chance of winning it, although it is yet to come. (more…)

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According to reports in the popular press, (does that mean the Sun and the Star?), José Mourinho has been so impressed with whoever plays in defence that he no longer feels the need to splash the cash on a new defender.

JosĂ© Fonte may have asked for a transfer from Southampton in the vain hope that it would result in a move to Old Trafford but it isn’t going to happen. He may still get to play for a club with more to offer than the Saints, but it won’t be United. (more…)

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For the last few seasons Manchester United have lacked passion. They have lacked passion from the manager and they have lacked passion from the players. Only now, under José Mourinho, are they starting to show a little of the old commitment and desire.

David Moyes may have been a fiery Scot but he was overawed by the players at Manchester United because they had won much more than he had and there was little, if anything, he could teach them. (more…)