Coulrophobia used to abound at Old Trafford. Now it is there but in smaller doses and with different connotations.
José Mourinho was feared. Not as much as he would have liked to have been but he was feared particularly by his players who were so scared of him that they forgot how to play football in his, yes you guessed it, third season!
Prior to him, Louis van Gaal was feared and, as a strict disciplinarian, he probably had every right to be. (more…)
Ole Gunnar Solskjær can look forward to the backing of the board and a serious amount of cash to spend in the summer transfer window. This is according to Ed Woodward, the CEO of Manchester United Ltd. In the dreaded “vote of confidence” Woodward stated the obvious which was that the club were still challenging in the Europa League and FA Cup and still had a chance at Champion’s League qualification through their league position.
He failed to mention that ex-manager José Mourinho led United to second place in the Premier League, finishing 8 points above Liverpool who currently sit first, 38 points points ahead of United! (more…)
Manchester City will win the Premier League. Liverpool will finish second. That, at the moment, is all that is fair to assume as the other two slots available within the top four are being contested between teams who appear to be doing their utmost to hand the position to a rival.
Tottenham Hotspur were in a reasonably comfortable third position until they lost at their new home for the first time, beaten by West Ham. Their unbeaten home record must be one of the shortest in history! (more…)
One gets the distinct impression that some Tottenham Hotspur fans would not be too disappointed if Mauricio Pochettino left for Manchester United in the Summer. One also gets the distinct impression that, if Spurs could get Ole Gunnar Solskjær to make the reverse trip, these same fans would be very pleased indeed.
The Argentinean has very recently fallen foul of a few of the faithful by stating that trophies are not important, that they are just “ego-boosters” and don’t necessarily reflect a team’s long-term success. That may be true but his “ambition” to finish in the top four of the Premier League in preference to winning a trophy is hardly likely to endear him to those Tottenham supporters who shell out their hard-earned cash to go and watch the team every week and will shell out even more in the coming years if the club ever move to their new stadium. (more…)
Will Liverpool win the Premier League? That is one of the questions on the lips of many from Scouseland. Evertonians obviously hope not whilst the red side of the city is beginning to salivate at the thought that this may just be their year.
Well, we have news for you. Not wanting to disagree with all the pundits who said, back when Brendan Rodgers was about to fail spectacularly from a position of success, “Liverpool will NEVER have a better chance of winning the Premier League than they have now,” we actually beg to differ. They have a better chance this year but, of course, all the experts have conveniently forgotten their previous pearls of wisdom. (more…)
He’s back! Having failed in Cardiff to which the general reaction was “so what?”, the Norwegian returns to Manchester United as caretaker manager until the end of the season at which stage the seat will be judged to have been sufficiently warmed for the derrière of Mauricio Pochettino, (unless, of course, Solskjær can win the Champion’s League, the FA cup and finish in the top four).
He will be assisted by Mike Phelan who has the undoubted experience of having assisted Sir Alex Ferguson but the dubious experience of having failed in any managerial role he has taken on, (much like the vast majority of Ferguson’s assistants). (more…)
As regular readers will be well aware, this publication tends to concern itself with the goings-on at the big six in the Premier League rather than get involved with the tedium that is the French League, the monotony that, (usually), is the Spanish League, the predictability, (except for this season), which is the Bundesliga and the general apathy which everybody outside of Italy has for the Italian league.
This article is no exception to that general rule of thumb and, despite the excitement generated in both Spain and Germany by potential new challengers to the old regimes, we make no apology for sticking with the tried and tested good old “English” Premier League. (more…)
As everybody should be well aware, Manchester United’s appointment of José Mourinho as manager was a knee-jerk reaction to Manchester City’s appointment of Pep Guardiola. After all, Louis van Gaal had just won the FA Cup and qualified for the Europa League, albeit with sleep inducing football which would have had the world’s worst insomniac snoring within seconds.
Mourinho, after some initial success has also managed to play some very boring and ineffective football which, at times, has managed to border on the pathetic. So what is the problem? (more…)
So that’s it! We’re back! After a short break to try and rejuvenate, (a word that literally does not describe the actual result of a “rest”), we return with congratulations in order to Gareth Southgate and the England team who, by winning their division in the Nation’s League, narrowly avoided relegation.
Now that’s excitement, although there were still one or two stifled yawns during the game against Croatia which, being the masochistic type, we actually watched in Croatia. (more…)
So it’s nearly that time of the season again folks! Yes, it’s almost upon us. It’s that game that never decides the title, is rarely a classic yet still manages to attract a very large worldwide TV audience.
Maybe that would explain why Sky, (and, no doubt, other TV channels), build this game up as the best anyone is ever likely to see even if they do live to be 200. As we said, it usually isn’t and this one probably won’t be either.
Still it will be interesting to see if Pep Guardiola can continue his march to a second Premier League title in succession or will José put the brakes on it by beating his old foe? (more…)
