Despite the moaners and the harbingers of doom, Manchester City should be able to qualify from the group stages of the Champion’s League for the second year running.
As expected they will come up against one of Pep Guardiola’s old clubs almost immediately when they meet up with Barcelona.
As usual, and purely because Barcelona are present in the group, this is being called the “group of death”. It is the group City get every year according to all those “in the know”. (more…)
(Jose ponders selling the entire squad and starting again!)
The real difference between Manchester United and the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona can be seen when the clubs mention that some of their players may be allowed to leave. The press immediately begin speculating which players those may be and then start linking them to different clubs around Europe.
For example, there were mutterings that Isco was surplus to requirements at Real Madrid. He was reported to be of interest to Manchester City. Then it was James Rodriquez, who is still not certain to stay. He is linked with Manchester United, amongst others. Raphael Varane has also been mentioned in the same breath as United.
Barcelona sold Thiago Alcantara to Bayern Munich and Pedro to Chelsea. In fact, Thiago was linked with United for a while but, by this time, Ed was in “full dithering mode” so they missed out on him. There was never any doubt that, when the availability of these players became public knowledge, they would go to big clubs. (more…)
In the not too distant past the top clubs in Europe were the ones with the most money. This, to an extent, is still true today but the main difference is that a lot more clubs have the most money than previously.
Thinking back fifteen or twenty years ago there were the usual suspects in Real Madrid and Barcelona from Spain. Bayern Munich, at the time, were usually Germany’s sole representatives in the latter stages of any competition. Arsenal and Manchester United used to fight for the Premier League in England and the Milan clubs and Juventus usually offered Italian resistance. (more…)
This should not come as a major surprise to supporters of the two clubs. If they both stick to their original schedule Manchester United will have played five “warm-up” games and City three.
United will have faced Wigan Athletic, Borussia Dortmund, Galatasaray, Everton and Leicester City.
City will have played Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal.
In the past United have been known to organise another friendly prior to the start of the season, usually in the week leading up to the Community Shield. Given that their derby in China was cancelled they may still choose to fit in another game before the big kick off. It seems that United’s players have not yet reached the required level of fitness demanded by a Premier League title contender. (more…)
Challenging at the sharp end of the Champion’s League. Challenging for the Premier League title. Mounting serious attempts at both the FA Cup and Capital One Cup.
These are all answers to the question, “Where would you expect Manchester United to be this season?”
These answers would probably have been a lot closer to the truth had Ed Woodward had the courage to sack Louis van Gaal when it became apparent, to everybody except Woodward, that United’s season was actually going nowhere and that a replacement was required.
This became the case reasonably early in the season. United were out of the Capital One Cup almost as soon as entering it and the Premier League challenge was faltering virtually from day one. Elimination from the Champion’s League at the group stage just heaped more humiliation on a once great club.
Now was the time for Ed Woodward to stand up and be counted. To be a hero in the eyes of the United fans he needed to get rid of van Gaal. What he didn’t need to do was dither. Ed had proven himself remarkably good at dithering. (more…)
Without playing particularly well, (by their own standards anyway), Barcelona were able to win this game as though they had played particularly well.
Arsenal had chances and should have certainly scored at least one goal. They didn’t and, against a side as good as Barcelona, that will always be a problem. As Aaron Ramsey pointed out the Spanish side average a goal per game so somebody WAS going to score for them.
When the goals came they came from Lionel Messi. No surprise there you may think but, before tonight, he had NEVER scored against Petr Cech.
His first was laid on a plate for him by Neymar, who unselfishly squared the ball back for him to take a touch, which beat Cech all ends up, then place the ball in the net.
His second came from the penalty spot after he had been fouled by Mathieu Flamini, who was making his first tackle having just come on as a substitute for Coquelin.
They make a living, nothing more. They are not original and spend their career copying somebody who was original. If this seems a trifle parasitic, it is because that’s exactly what it is.
There are tribute acts for Queen, Bon Jovi, Abba, Take That and Guns ‘n’ Roses, to name but a few. Rarely, if ever, seen on TV these bands are destined to play the pubs and clubs throughout Europe. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
I am not saying these acts are totally talentless, I guess they must be able to play a musical instrument and sing a bit, but they are devoid of any originality, relying on others to do all the hard work.
David Moyes was the first manager to try a Manchester United tribute team. They wore the same colours as the Ferguson originals and they even managed to win a few games. The problem was that nobody really thought of them as being the real thing. (more…)
Arsenal are, once again, at the stage of the Champion’s League where they normally bid their farewell. Not for no reason is it called the “knockout” stage, because this describes perfectly what invariably happens to the Gunners, they get knocked out.
In fairness, they have been beaten by some very good teams in the past whilst also succumbing to some of the more mediocre ones. There has been more than one occasion on which Arsenal should have stayed in the competition, but didn’t.
Fortunately for Arsenal, Tuesday is one of those games where they cannot be knocked out as it is only the first leg. Unfortunately for Arsenal, it is Barcelona and so, over the two legs, they will almost certainly be departing this years Champion’s League.
The only chance they have of getting through this tie is if Sanchez, Giroud and maybe even Welbeck, all find their shooting boots at some time during the two legs. This also assumes that Messi, Neymar and Suarez leave theirs on the bus!
If the MSN, as they are rather strangely known, turn up in fine form then Arsenal could be embarrassed as they were by Bayern Munich. They do not have a good defence and, similar in some ways to Manchester United, have to rely on having a great goalkeeper to keep them in some games. (more…)
The Champion’s League suddenly has a new significance for Chelsea this time around. Winning it looks like their best, if not only, route back into it next season.
A dismal Premier League campaign which only started to turn around when Guus Hiddink replaced Jose Mourinho was, at one stage, seeing them involved in a relegation battle. Although Hiddink hasn’t pulled up any trees he has steadied the ship somewhat and Chelsea now sit in twelfth position which is only “very” embarrassing as opposed to the “extremely” embarrassing position of a couple of months ago.
The problem with winning this competition is that Chelsea, in all their years competing, have only managed to do it once. Having lost a final against Manchester United, on penalties, they could say they were a little unlucky. They weren’t, they were outplayed for most of the game and were fortunate to hang on for penalties.
The year they won it has to go down as one of the most fortuitous campaigns ever witnessed in the history of the Champion’s League. They should have been hammered by Barcelona in the semi-final, where players were sent off and penalties were missed and, in fairness, having got through to the final, most people agreed that Chelsea’s name was on the trophy that season. (more…)
1. A Winning Mentality
Wherever Mourinho has been he has won trophies. Beginning with Porto back in his homeland all those years ago he took this unfancied team to Champion’s League glory. Obviously, domestically he had already won the Portuguese league in order to qualify.
Since leaving Porto for Chelsea he has had one success after another. In fact, since his first club, Benfica, back in 2000 he has managed clubs in a total of 765 games winning 505, a win percentage of 66.01%
It must also be remembered that this success hasn’t always been with the biggest clubs, but some of it has. This brings us to the next point:
2. Big Club Management Experience
Mourinho, as we know, has won the Champion’s League with Porto, in Portugal and Internazionale in Italy. He has also won domestic titles in Portugal, Italy, Spain and England. He has proven, unlike van Gaal and even Guardiola, that he can do the business when there is realistic competition around. (more…)
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 