After defeats in The Champion’s League it will be a welcome return to The Premier League for both Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City.
Spurs managed to lose a game they should have won over in Italy and City managed to lose a game they were expected to win in Manchester.
The other teams involved in Europe all won and will be hoping to carry that form back into the domestic competition.
Arsenal and Chelsea both won in Big Vase whilst Manchester United and Liverpool won in Big Cup. (more…)
Well, that’s the first week out of the way. Only another five days to go before the return of Premier League football.
This is good news for lovers of the game, avid supporters and masochists as every form of satisfaction will be delivered or denied over the coming weekend.
Why is it that, when the Premier League has been absent since May, we get four games into the new season and have to have an international injury window?
Is this just because the powers-that-be are a bunch of sadists? We are not thinking necessarily of just the effect on the fans here. They will tune in to the meaningless rubbish served up as top quality international football because they have nothing else to watch, that’s just the way it is and is why England, for example, will always attract a decent sized crowd at Wembley despite being rubbish. (more…)
So the board at Manchester United which, effectively, appears to be Ed Woodward, have decided to reward Anthony Martial’s poor performances, petulance and disobedience by offering him a new contract until 2023 with the usual raise in pay.
This is despite manager José Mourinho wishing to sell him and the player expressing a desire to leave the club.
Either Ed Woodward himself or the Glazers seem to have bestowed upon the diminutive marketing man from Chelmsford, a power of attorney which gives him the final say over everything at the club. He has proven on several occasions that his knowledge of football is, at best, dodgy, when he has preferred to look at transfer targets with a high marketing value rather than their potential benefit to the team. (more…)
In the opening game of the new Premier League season Manchester United beat Leicester City 2-1. The score may have been rather predictable, especially when United’s team was announced and it looked far stronger than the one originally envisaged given the manager’s pessimism about available players, but the game was quite close and Leicester controlled large portions of it.
It turned out that Paul Pogba could manage most of the match as could other returning World Cup attendees David De Gea, Victor Lindelof, Fred and Marcus Rashford. (more…)
Second in the Premier League and through to the semi-finals of the FA Cup. Not too shabby and in fact, if it hadn’t been for the way his team were knocked out of the Champion’s League by Sevilla, the cracks would be well and truly papered over.
However, Mourinho chose, in his warped way of doing things, to criticise his team after they had just won rather than when they deserved it following a pathetic performance in Europe.
Placing his favourite signing, Nemanja Matić, on a pedestal of invincibility, he proceeded to label the rest as not having the character or personality to play for Manchester United. He pointed out, as he had when Chelsea lost to Leicester shortly before he was sacked, that the players had failed to follow his instructions. (more…)
Arsenal
Having already splashed out £1.8 million on the signing of Konstantinos Mavropanos from PAS Giannina, Stubborn Old Man may be getting in the mood to scour the market for more bargain buys.
He will send the Greek defender out on loan and thereby hand the problem of coming up with a terrace chant incorporating his name to the supporters of some other club, probably in Germany.
The only other player thought to be on Arsenal’s radar is Thomas Lemar but, having turned them down once due to the lack of Champion’s League involvement, he is unlikely to change his mind having noted, no doubt, the continued lack of ambition at the club. (more…)
The quick response to the above question is that they don’t! However, if that were all we had to say on the matter then this would be the shortest article we have ever unleashed on our long-suffering readership.
Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola has already revealed his secret to keeping everyone in check and on board with his way of thinking. He doesn’t care! As he has said in the past, if they do as they are told he has no problem with them. If they aren’t happy about not being in the team than that isn’t his problem, it’s their’s!
Despite this stand-offish, (and correct), approach to management, Guardiola has few, if any, players who are actively seeking a transfer from the club. (more…)
The game against Everton was the chance to put some pressure on Manchester City before their game with Chelsea. It was also a chance to show the Old Trafford faithful that they hadn’t completely forgotten how to win a game of football.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic returned to add a goal threat up front and Ander Herrera returned to add a threat to the opposing midfieders. (more…)
Bastian Schweinsteiger has managed to work his way back as far as the bench. Morgan Schneiderlin and Memphis Depay also reached that lofty height and Matteo Darmian has had a reasonable run in the first team, just not in his favoured position. That his best role has been filled by a winger who can’t defend says a lot about Darmian’s future in Mourinho’s team.
Marcos Rojo is almost a regular and Daley Blind flits in and out depending upon the opposition. Luke Shaw is yet to fully recover mentally from his injury and only time will tell if he is going to fulfill his potential and whether or not that will be at United. (more…)
This is the latest incarnation in a fairly long history of the José Mourinho persecution complex. Nothing is his fault and the whole world is out to get him.
In truth this attitude helped to develop a siege mentality during his successful years at Chelsea and Real Madrid . He managed to convince his players that they were universally hated and nobody, except their own fans, wished them well.
It is not dissimilar to the way Sir Alex Ferguson used to motivate his teams. Proving to be the best was always, in his opinion, the only way to show those doubters and haters how wrong they were. (more…)
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 