Posts Tagged ‘Eden Hazard’

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With five of last season’s top six having already dropped points and only Manchester United with a 100% record, who can stop them going on to win their 21st title?

It may still be very early in the new season but Manchester United have already laid down a marker and it is up to the rest to catch them and stay with them.

Whilst it is true to say that they have only beaten an average West Ham United team at home and a just-as-average Swansea team away from home, it isn’t so much that they have won both of these games as the way in which they have won them. (more…)

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Manchester United

It would appear that José Mourinho is now quite happy to wait until January to bring in any more players. This has always been on the cards as he has already expressed how happy he is with the players brought in up to now and has stressed that Dithering Ed has managed to get 75% of his targets through the door.

It is not, we repeat not, as some people may surmise, an admission that DE has completely failed with all his other targets, even if he has.

According to the press, Mourinho’s list of players, given to Ed back in March, was longer than a tailback on the M6 in August. Also, according to the press, they have been 90% of the way to making about eleven or twelve signings where terms have been agreed and the only detail left was to agree a fee with the club concerned. (more…)

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Due to a shortage of actual, interesting transfers, Sky Sports News are treating the transfer of Neymar from Barcelona to PSG as though it was important to anybody not from one of the three locations directly affected. It isn’t, but we will now devote almost an entire article to that very subject.

Yes, there is a knock-on effect with the fee that PSG are paying for someone generally  regarded as being only the THIRD best player in the world because it will certainly drive up the fees for average players. But that alone does not make this particular transfer any more interesting to the average fan.

The average fan does not really care about how much a player is bought or sold for, he/she just cares about whether or not they can play football. (more…)

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Eden Hazard is wanted by Real Madrid. Big deal. Real Madrid, like many other big clubs, has a scouting network which only seems capable of finding world class players after they have become world class.

Whether or not Hazard wants to go to Madrid is, to an extent, irrelevant. Usually when Real want a player they get that player. If Hazard does opt for the riches in Spain it should be seen as a cop out by the Chelsea fans. (more…)

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When José Mourinho was sacked by Roman Abramovich a year ago, many people thought he had lost the plot and had reached the stage where managing a top flight football club was no longer the challenge he required.

He was well into his second coming at the club and had won the Premier League title in the previous season. So what happened?

Did he lose the players? It is an overused expression nowadays but it may have been true in this case, almost certainly with some of them. (more…)

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Jesse Lingard back in the United team at the expense of Ashley Young. Talk about bitter sweet. On the one hand, Young being dropped is good news but, on the other, Lingard playing is not good news.

Having finally managed to make the Manchester United management see the error of their ways when continually selecting Wayne Rooney, it is now time for them to see who is Manchester United quality and who isn’t. Neither Young nor Lingard would get into a fully fit Manchester United team and it would not be too disappointing if they were both sold in January. (more…)

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He must have, you only need to read the amount of players he is going to buy and look at the total cost.

All this talk of United giving him a kitty of ÂŁ250 million to spend on transfers is obviously a smokescreen so that clubs are not aware of how much is really available.

Ed seems to have learnt his lesson! Gone are the days when he would brag that United could afford any player in the world because money is no object. Maybe he realised, shortly after making his stupid statement, that any player in whom United expressed an interest suddenly experienced a sharp hike in price. When you add that to the fact that, thanks to Ed’s propensity for dithering, they also paid ÂŁ4 million more for Fellaini than they needed to, then it is understandable that their budget is being kept a closely guarded secret and that a completely false figure has been circulated. Only the really intrepid football journalists have figured out the truth.

So, following the arrival of Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic will come riding into town on his white horse. (more…)

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Recently the press appear to have decided that Eden Hazard would rather go to Real Madrid than to PSG. This pre-supposes that he actually wants to leave Chelsea and go to a weaker league. Strangely, though, most of the best players do!

Luis Suarez chose Barcelona over staying at Liverpool or moving to Arsenal. Cristiano Ronaldo favoured Real Madrid above Manchester United. Zlatan Ibrahimovic who, rather amazingly is considered world class by some people, has managed to avoid being roughed up in England his entire career, as has Lionel Messi. Neymar is also staying in Spain for the time being although the appointment of Pep Guardiola at Manchester City may change one or two minds.

Hats off then to Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil who have both made the reverse trip to the Premier League from Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively.

Sanchez, in particular, hit the ground running upon his arrival and looks made for the Premier League. (more…)

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So Zlatan Ibrahimovic is available at the end of the season. He can even go to the Premier League if he so wants. He will have a choice of top clubs just waiting to welcome him with open arms and open cheque book.

Well I, for one, hope that is not the case. I don’t have a lot of time for him and his arrogant ways. He is a vastly overrated footballer who, similar to Wayne Rooney, occasionally does something brilliant. He is 34 years of age which makes him two years older than Robin van Persie when he was deemed “not good enough” by the Manchester United manager. Ibrahimovic will certainly add nothing to a top six team.

Maybe a year at West Ham or Southampton if those clubs are not beneath the conceited one, which I feel sure that they are.

Having just mentioned Rooney, apparently Manchester United are considering an offer from China for him. I hope this one is true because he has certainly long outstayed his welcome as far as I am concerned. As anyone who has followed these chronicles for more than five minutes will know, had it been up to me he would have been sold the first time his toys came out of the pram, when he had the audacity to hold the club to ransom. (more…)

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Guus Hiddink will not be staying at Chelsea after this season. That is not good news for Chelsea fans.

Has he been brought in to save the club from relegation? Has he been brought in to try and win a trophy? What about sorting out the players who brought about the downfall of Jose Mourinho? He must know that there is more than one bad apple in this particular barrel.

The point now is, does he really care about that side of things? Providing he keeps Chelsea in the Premier League, maybe gets into the top six, has a decent run in the Champion’s League, (even he must know they are not good enough to win it, although, they weren’t good enough to win it the year that they won it, so you never know!), and also has a good shot at the FA Cup then Guus will probably feel as though he has earned his money.

Is it really his problem that the football club contains some players, certainly led by a Fletcher Christian-type character, who wanted Mourinho out of the way and are trying to become the tail that wags the dog? No, it isn’t. It would be much easier for Hiddink to serve his time, pick up his money and disappear into the Dutch reservoirs armed only with a fishing rod and some worms. (more…)