Posts Tagged ‘Joe Hart’

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Can Chelsea really afford to sell Eden Hazard? Can they afford not to? It’s the age old question of whether the player wants to leave and if he should be kept against his will.

Hazard has recently expressed a desire to play Champion’s League football which, having only missed two seasons during his time at the club, is a little selfish.

Now, with Maurizio Sarri in charge, Manchester United and Arsenal looking nothing more than average and only Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester City to concern them, Chelsea should be fairly confident of a top four finish this season meaning that he would return to Europe’s top competition next time out. (more…)

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(De Gea’s reaction on learning that he won’t have to answer questions on a transfer to Real Madrid)

It’s a case of “not going, going, gone” for three of the Premier League’s most famous goalkeepers.

Not going…..

For the first transfer window in a while David De Gea and Manchester United can relax about the goalkeeping position.

This time out there has been no mention of the player being chased by Real Madrid, or anyone else, for that matter.

De Gea has been able to put a disappointing World Cup, both personally and professionally, behind him and return to his two best mates at Old Trafford where he can concentrate on his woeful defence allowing him to pick up his fifth “Player of the Season” award. (more…)

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This year’s FA Cup final, as well as being the traditional curtain-downer on the domestic season, was also an example of two managers under pressure for completely different reasons.

Antonio Conte, who is widely expected to resign/be fired within days of the game, is under pressure because he has proven to be a one-season-wonder in the Premier League and that only because he had no European involvement to hinder his side’s progress to winning the title.

José Mourinho is widely expected to take some time off and go visiting Portugal, a grand prix or two and then pitch up for RT, a Russian TV station, as a double agent World Cup pundit. He is under pressure because some Manchester United fans find it difficult to accept that THREE trophies and a second place finish in the Premier League in two years should be considered successful. (more…)

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José Mourinho is not known as a nice guy. He has fallen out with owners and club presidents, he has fallen out with players and fellow managers. He has fallen out with physiotherapists and club doctors. There are probably not many positions within the world of professional football with whom the Special One has not fallen out at one time or another!

He is, however, finding out that he has a nice side now that he is manager of Manchester United. He hasn’t turned into a serial smiler just yet, but there are signs that his disposition is somewhat mellower than it used to be. (more…)

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It just shows what a sorry state the England national team is in. Sam Allardyce parts company with them for a mistake which was, basically, getting himself involved in a sting operation by a newspaper designed to prove that Allardyce is, after all, as human as most other people.

It was not a mistake over which he should have lost his job which will be proved in future when he is given another job. There’s hypocrisy for you! One man’s meat is another man’s poison and all that. (more…)

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José Mourinho and the Manchester United supporters will hope it was just a blip, just one of those things. Losing to City was inexcusable but not a major shock. Feyenoord was a bad performance, which can happen. The Watford loss was the worrying one.

This was a game from which United would have been expecting three points, at worst one point, but they ended the day with none. The trip home would have been very quiet. (more…)

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Manchester City finished fourth last season and won the Capital One Cup. That relative failure saw them having to play a Champion’s League qualifier against Steaua Bucharest this time out, a tie they won comfortably.

To many fans of many clubs Manchester City’s season would have been considered a resounding success but, when you have the kind of players, and therefore, the kind of financial outlay that they have, success is deemed to be finishing in the top two in the Premier League and reaching the final of the Champion’s League. (more…)

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Although the transfer to Real Madrid a year ago was scuppered by some dodgy faxwork, there is really no reason why, if they were that determined, Madrid shouldn’t have come back for him during this latest transfer window. Did they ever really want him? We at WSA are not so sure, and we said as much at the time.

Right from the beginning there were real problems and potential problems with this move. Firstly it was said that De Gea wanted the move because he is from Madrid. That is entirely possible but not to Real. De Gea was brought up through the academy at Atlético, so would have been looked upon as a traitor by their fans and an intruder by the enemy. There was never any clamour from the Madridistas for him to sign. (more…)

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The operative word here is “inherited” as any player can be deemed surplus to requirements by a new coach and, as long as he is new, he will be forgiven virtually anything he does with the team.

A perfect example is Pep Guardiola and his decisions at Manchester City. He has, no doubt, ruffled a few feathers. That is no surprise, Guardiola always ruffles feathers.

Joe Hart has gone out on loan to Torino having been replaced by a shorter Chilean version who, according to Pep, can play football. (more…)

Another question which may be asked in lieu of the title is; does anybody care? After all these are very highly paid individuals, they will be sold to another club at some stage and they will remain very highly paid individuals.

Maybe it is more a question of pride and respect or the lack of it when it comes to a manager’s treatment of his players, in which case the money is not an issue.

Last season it was Victor Valdes at Manchester United who was ostracised for his behaviour. In his case Louis van Gaal had decided that Valdes had acted against his and the club’s interest by not wanting to turn out for the reserves. This was never fully cleared up as Valdes always said that he had never refused to play for them. Whatever the truth of the matter the result was that Valdes spent almost two seasons on the naughty step and was banned from being anywhere near the first team before running down his contract and moving to Middlesbrough. (more…)