Posts Tagged ‘Jose Mourinho’

Ibrahimovic, Rooney, Hazard, Mourinho & A Protest!

Posted: February 18, 2016 in Chelsea, Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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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…)

Guus Hiddink’s Chelsea Need To Win The Champion’s League!

Posted: February 16, 2016 in Champions League, Chelsea, Football, Opinion
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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…)

Why Is Louis Van Gaal Still Manager Of Manchester United?

Posted: February 15, 2016 in Football, Louis van Gaal, Managers, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Louis van Gaal is still sitting on the throne at Manchester United.

Nobody really understands why, apart from maybe Ed Woodward. Van Gaal should have been van Gone weeks ago.

As I have already chronicled it makes no sense to keep him until United can mathematically win nothing or qualify for the Champion’s League. Let him go, put him out of his misery. More to the point, put the long suffering supporters out of their misery. Give Mourinho or Giggs a shot at the remainder of the season, it can’t really get worse!

The problem has been evident to everybody except van Gaal and Woodward for quite a while. In fact, the penny does now seem to have finally dropped with van Gaal. He’s suddenly turned into David Moyes in the way he is doubting that United will achieve fourth position or better.

He is certainly achieving very little more than Moyes did and is currently worse off, having spent around ÂŁ187 million more, than his predecessor. (more…)

There Is No Logic As To Why Louis Van Gaal Is Still In Charge Of Manchester United

Posted: February 13, 2016 in Football, Louis van Gaal, Managers, Manchester United, Opinion
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So, Louis van Gaal would feel betrayed if Manchester United were speaking to Jose Mourinho about the manager’s position at United, would he? He has just led United to a defeat at Sunderland which leaves them six points away from the top four who all now have a game in hand. The chances of finishing in the top four are now very remote so, therefore, his spending of ÂŁ258 million on new players was both wasteful and unwise.

As a United supporter of more than fifty years I would feel completely betrayed if United WEREN’T talking to Jose Mourinho, I couldn’t care less what van Gaal thinks! He is not the man for Manchester United and the only people who don’t understand this are van Gaal himself and Ed Woodward.

Just to be straight, I have absolutely no time for Ed Woodward who, since amazingly being placed in charge of football matters, has overseen one disaster after another.

Starting with the appointment of David Moyes, a man with no big club experience and no trophy winning experience, through the purchase of Marouane Fellaini for ÂŁ4 million more than was necessary due to a missed release clause, it continued with the joke that was the Angel Di Maria transfer, the sacking of Moyes AFTER it became mathematically impossible to finish fourth or better, giving the next manager no chance of a relatively successful start. (more…)

Now The Clown Van Gaal Is Blaming Paul Scholes For Manchester United Problems!

Posted: February 12, 2016 in Chelsea, Football, Louis van Gaal, Managers, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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(Scholesy reacts to the news that, according to one expert, everything negative about United is his fault!)

Does the madness of King Louis show no sign of abating? Fresh from blaming his players for not rewarding themselves in the draw against Chelsea, he now blames Paul Scholes for anything negative in the camp, or on the bus, or in the dressing room.

The article explaining all this is in the Daily Telegraph and can be found here.

In a game where United looked reasonably comfortable until HE changed the shape and brought on three subs, which automatically gave the initiative to Chelsea, the end result should have been a 0-1 to the Reds. HE messed it up and then set about blaming the players for not following his instructions and giving the ball away and not defending properly.

He was right about losing possession and not defending but these were the players HE had picked, HE had trained all week and HE had become acquainted with over the last eighteen months. If he still does not know what they are going to do in a game, after all this time, then it is definitely Mourinho time. (more…)

Wenger, Van Gaal, Pellegrini & Hiddink A Couple Of Years From Now!

Posted: February 5, 2016 in Arsenal, Chelsea, Football, Managers, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion
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In two years time in the Algarve, at the Vale de Lobo retirement complex for ex-Premier League managers, Louis van Gaal will sit down by the pool along with Manuel Pellegrini and Arsene Wenger and they will talk about the old days.

Louis will begin with how it can all go wrong. Citing the approachment of old age during his tenure at Manchester United, he will point out that, nowadays, this football management malarkey is a game for the youngsters.

Stressing that he tried to reproduce the successes he had enjoyed at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, he will point out that tactics, which were winning titles many years ago, are not even staving off relegation at some teams presently. Just look what happened to big clubs like Aston Villa, Sunderland and Newcastle United!

The problem was that, with the onset of old age, he had to rely on the players coming up with training routines and tactics and, when he did, the team became quite good. They had left it too late to finish in the top four so Jose Mourinho now occupies Louis’ old seat. If only he would have thought of it years ago, he could have saved himself a lot of headaches and Advocaat. (more…)

Would Manuel Pellegrini Be A Good Fit For Chelsea Post Jose Mourinho?

Posted: February 3, 2016 in Chelsea, Football, Managers, Manchester City, Opinion, Premier League
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(Roman wonders whether Guus has sorted out Chelsea’s problems and whether Manuel will bring another steadying hand to the tiller!)

I suppose if you want a quiet, charming and polite man to take over a club like Chelsea then, yes, he would be ideal. A little like Hiddink in that he prefers to do his talking on the pitch and only appears at press conferences and on TV because his contract states that he has to, it would be an almost seamless transition from one to the other.

Having decided that Jose Mourinho was no longer the man to take the club forward, Roman Abramovich now has a decision to make. He can try and tempt a man who is eight years Mourinho’s senior but is a safer pair of hands in which to leave the grenade that is Chelsea football club, or he can try to attract a younger manager with potential longevity, such as Diego Simeone.

His choice may say a lot about his own long-term plans. If, for example, he opts for Pellegrini, this would be on a two or three year contract which probably wouldn’t be renewed, irrespective of success achieved. It would be viewed as a way to get Chelsea back on an even keel without losing the ability to compete at the top of the Premier League and in the Champion’s League. (more…)

Why Wayne Rooney & John Terry Don’t Need To Defend Their Managers

Posted: January 31, 2016 in Chelsea, Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Many a time, when a manager is under pressure, one of the team’s star players will decide, unwisely, that he should speak up on behalf of the beleaguered boss.

Usually it is the captain who will step forward to the microphone and recent examples have included John Terry, during the last few games of Jose Mourinho’s reign at Chelsea and Wayne Rooney at Manchester United.

The reason it is not necessarily the brightest move to make is because it puts even more pressure on the manager.

The captains in question no doubt feel that they are doing the manager a service by voicing their opinion that the players “are the ones who go out onto the pitch”, and that “the manager can only pick the team, he can’t play the game”, but, in fact, the reverse is true.

Yes the manager picks the team so, it can be argued, he isn’t doing so very well if they keep losing! Also, the captain is indirectly admitting that the players aren’t performing for this manager. So surely it would be better to keep mum and get on with trying to help the manager with the performances ON the pitch rather than OFF it. (more…)

What Drives The Likes Of Jose Mourinho & Pep Guardiola?

Posted: January 28, 2016 in Chelsea, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion
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Given that the top coaches in club football have a few million £/€/$ in their bank accounts, why would they want to take up positions where, at best, they win a trophy at a club where that is the least that is expected anyway and, at worst, they face a humiliating exit, sacked for failing to deliver the least that was expected anyway?

One of the obvious answers to this question is, “not money!” So what is a less obvious answer?

If we take Jose Mourinho as the first example, he is driven by the desire to succeed. As with many megalomaniacs he only desires success at the top level. He doesn’t see taking over a first division side, as Brian Clough did for example, as his type of challenge. It would take too long and Jose craves almost instant success.

Mourinho wanted to win the title in three countries. He has achieved that. He also wants to win the Champion’s League with three different clubs, he is one away from achieving that particular goal. His problem is that, if he were to take a job at a lower league club, then the chances of attaining his particular goals are reduced tremendously. (more…)

Ed Woodward & Louis Van Gaal, Two Men Being Allowed To Ruin Manchester United

Posted: January 27, 2016 in Football, Managers, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Manchester United have given Louis van Gaal more than enough rope to hang himself. In fact, they have given him sufficient to ensure that his feet are able to reach the floor.

According to the Guardian’s Jamie Jackson, Louis van Gaal’s performance as a manager is to be reviewed on a match-by-match basis. The article is here, if you wish to read it.

Yesterday I wrote about the fact that the Manchester United Circus is being run by the head clown. Today, I wish to revise that opinion. It is now a pantomime being run by the Dame. How else can this ludicrous decision be explained?

Van Gaal’s record speaks for itself in it’s level of failure. Even van Gaal himself has finally admitted that he is failing and doesn’t know what to do.

If the press is to be believed he has offered to resign at least once, an offer which should have been welcomed by United, because it may not come again. A resignation would have meant that United didn’t have to pay the remainder of van Gaal’s contract which the, now inevitable, sacking or mutual termination means they will.

Still, for a man who has managed to waste the millions that Woodward has managed to waste over the last three years, this is only a minor detail. (more…)

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