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! Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

ue

According to The Guardian Manchester United manager José Mourinho is interested in signing Diogo Dalot of Porto. He has a release clause of €20 million but, reportedly, this has not yet been triggered.

That is, unless you read the Daily Express, who say that United have triggered his release clause which means that he will be signing in the not too distant future.

He is a 19-year old right back who can also play on the left and in midfield. This would be a signing designed to give some competition to Antonio Valencia which, in fairness, shouldn’t be too difficult for anybody half competent in the art of defending! Read the rest of this entry »

hk

(Harry Kane stifles a yawn brought on by the intense tiredness suffered having spent the equivalent of 78 hours, (3.25 days), playing competitive football this season)

Any regular reader of ours will be well aware of our opinions of managers who claim that their players are tired.

You know the ones, they have to play two games in a week and, when they lose one, it’s nearly always down to tiredness. Most of the top Premier League managers will use it as an excuse at least two or three times per season.

They will go whining on about a winter break as though that will suddenly turn their players into world beaters. Read the rest of this entry »

bandr

Confused? It’s hardly surprising after the noises coming out of Madrid! Only minutes after winning the trophy for the thirteenth time in their history and the third time in the last three years, two of the BBC were talking of their futures as though they had played their last games as a Galáctico.

The other member of the BBC, Karim Benzema, probably realises how lucky he is to be playing at a club whose manager is from the same ethnic background as he is and, probably because of this, keeps selecting him no matter how average a player he is. So he is keeping his mouth shut at present.

But what is likely to happen with the other two? Read the rest of this entry »

jk

Liverpool played reasonably well despite losing the Champion’s League final 3-1 to Real Madrid. They were unlucky to lose Mo Salah to injury in the first half and also had a shot from Sadio Mané come back off a post when, had it gone in, they would have taken a 2-1 lead.

These are the finer details which can sometimes be the difference between winning and losing but, the general feeling is, that Madrid would have won the game even if Salah had not been injured and Mané’s shot had gone in.

Liverpool were undone by two goalkeeping howlers which would have looked out of place in a schoolboy game between under-13s. Read the rest of this entry »

clf

So the Champion’s League final was contested between two teams who, between them, had won almost a third of the total Champion’s Leagues ever held!

For Real Madrid it was another chance to make history. Last season they became the first team to successfully defend the title since the competition was rebranded from the old European Cup. This season they have become the first team to reach three consecutive finals on two occasions.

Between 1956 and 1960 they reached the final of the European Cup for five consecutive years, winning it every time, so it is no wonder that this trophy is considered to be their favourite! Read the rest of this entry »

bg

It depends. If the question relates to the top six being the same six as usual then there is unlikely to be any difference. If, however, it is questioning whether the finishing order will be the same as this season, then that is more debatable.

On the first point, clubs who would think they may have a chance, however slight, of breaking the hexopoly, include Everton if/when they employ Marco Silva, West Ham United now that they have managed to appoint a top manager and Newcastle if they can get rid of Mike Ashley and replace him with somebody considerably richer.

These are all pretty big “ifs” and, in truth, it is unlikely that any of them will be ready to challenge for the top six places as soon as next season. Read the rest of this entry »

w

Apparently Manchester United are going to buy almost every player who is rumoured to be for sale. In an attempt to separate the “possibly true” from the “absolutely not” we look at deals which could happen.

Dastardly Daniel Levy decided, a while ago, that Toby Alderweireld was surplus to requirements at Tottenham Hotspur because he had the audacity to think he should be paid more than the minimum wage.

This alerted Manchester United manager JosĂ© Mourinho and had Ed Woodward reaching for the nail-biting repellant at the very thought of having to negotiate with London football’s answer to Shylock. Read the rest of this entry »