After nearly three years it is starting to feel as though time may be finally running out for Ole Gunnar Solskjær. There is probably no need for his loyal fan club to panic just yet though because he has been in this situation on more than one occasion in the past. What usually transpires is that he, or rather his team, manage to dig out a totally unexpected result which then sees his stay of execution extended further.
(more…)
So England’s Cricket team have banned their players from playing football during training and in warm-ups. This follows Manchester United’s decision to ban their players from playing football during matches. The England reasoning was quite logical in that their regular knockabouts with the big ball had resulted in injury to Rory Burns which ruled him out of the second test against South Africa.
The Manchester United reasoning is less logical and must, unfortunately, be put down to the manager. After wins against Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City which came as a big surprise to United fans and, probably, an even bigger surprise to Ole Gunnar Solskjær, they reverted to type against Arsenal and put in an abject performance when deservedly losing 2-0. (more…)
Here, admittedly before many transfers have been completed, we take a look at who will be among the favourites for the Champion’s League next season.
From Real Madrid through to Manchester United, managers at the top European clubs will be under pressure to deliver silverware at the highest level. They will be expected to mount a domestic title challenge and the elite few will also be expected to mount a challenge for Europe’s top prize.
They could be viewed as a European top six and we fully expect the following clubs to at least reach the quarter finals of the competition: (more…)
We mere mortals can only speculate on what it must be like to have several million pounds available to spend. There is, however, a limit on how much of these several millions can actually be spent due to something called Financial Fair Play.
This was all the rage just a few short years ago and was tested out on Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain. Both of these clubs benefitted through being purchased by Middle-Eastern billionaires who immediately went about spending some of their wealth on improving the teams. (more…)
Is it a coincidence that the six richest clubs in the Premier League currently occupy the top six places in the Premier League?
I suppose it depends upon your view of Leicester City’s achievements last season. If you think, like many others, that their winning the title was a one-off, freakish, yet sensational story then the natural order of things has been restored.
If, however, you think that the Leicester story can be repeated by either themselves or another unfancied club, then the amount of money a club has available to buy players is less relevant. (more…)
(Jose sits with his medical team and ponders the future!)
Jose Mourinho is in limbo. If we believe all the reports then he wants the Manchester United job. If we believe further reports then the reason he isn’t the current manager is because of Sir Bobby Charlton. He is old school and doesn’t like the idea of the club’s manager being headline news most of the season.
If it was only for all the good things, he would probably be fine with it but Jose, as is his wont, tends to make the news for virtually everything he does and, let’s be honest, it isn’t always the stuff used to set as examples for schoolboys to follow.
From arguments with his medical team to arguments with his players, Jose isn’t too fussy and even manages to include other managers in his occasional outbursts.
Arsene Wenger, Sam Allardyce and Manuel Pellegrini to name but three, have all crept into Mourinho’s radar of people he loves to hate.
The problem for United is actually quite simple. They have tried David Moyes. A likeable, non-confrontational Scot who, some people thought, would be ideal for United. He wasn’t because the job was too big for him.
So they are now trying van Gaal. After all, he is a winner, more like the “United type” than Moyes. He knows what it is like to win Championships and Champions Leagues titles.
Having spent £258 million on new recruits you could be forgiven for thinking that van Gaal would be doing somewhat better than his predecessor. He isn’t! His record is almost identical to that of Moyes except he didn’t last as long in the Champion’s League, with Moyes having taken United to the quarter final stage. (more…)
Carlo Ancelotti is going to Bayern Munich where, after succeeding as usual, he will be fired as usual. He will probably win the treble but, because he is cursed, he will still be fired.
At two of his previous clubs he has a record which most managers would be proud to have. He was fired from his job as Chelsea manager having won the League and FA Cup double and, at Real Madrid, he was fired having won the Champion’s League. So he could be considered either a trifle unlucky or a loser for only winning the top trophies and none of the lesser ones.
Sympathy is not a feeling too much in evidence when it comes to highly paid football managers losing their job. Particularly when you consider that the top ones will almost certainly walk straight into another one.
So what will be the chain of events this time, I don’t hear you ask? (more…)
(“I last saw it over there!” Louis ropes in Ryan Giggs to help him look for the plot he lost a while ago)
Louis van Gaal is looking a whole lot less calm as the weeks go by. He isn’t the type to be too bothered about losing a job and the salary that accompanies it. He is bothered, however, by not being able to finish one of his “projects” and by being deemed a failure. His pride does not allow for either of those scenarios.
If he is allowed to carry on in his job as manager of Manchester United he may face one or both in the relatively near future.
Depending upon your rag of choice, Pep Guardiola is either waiting in the wings for van Gaal to be given his marching orders or going to Manchester City. It would seem that one of Manchester’s equivalent to Waldorf and Statler will be being replaced by the bald, bearded Bayern boss.
In fairness to van Gaal he has had a lot of injuries to contend with. For the next game which, as I write, is against Bournemouth, he has nine first team players unavailable through injury. Manchester City have also suffered an injury crisis to their better players, and Arsenal most certainly have, so it is a situation which is not unique to United. (more…)
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 