Posts Tagged ‘Porto’

How Did Your Favourite “English” Premier League Team Fare In Europe?

Posted: April 20, 2019 in Arsenal, Champions League, Chelsea, Europa League, European Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Tottenham Hotspur
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Well, in the main, pretty darn good. Unless, of course, you happen to hail from the European capital of football.

On Tuesday there were two “English” sides in action. The one with the Norwegian manager came to a predictably sticky end by losing to Lionel Messi, (and maybe a few team mates although they were somewhat irrelevant and almost unnecessary).

They also managed to fail to score in both legs meaning that the £££millions spent on a Belgian and a couple of French “superstars” is yet to provide much in the way of value for money. (more…)

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The Champion’s League Gets Interesting And A Must Read Book Is Out!

Posted: March 17, 2019 in Arsenal, Champions League, Chelsea, European Football, Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Tottenham Hotspur
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Following the recent Champion’s League draw the English clubs, with the possible exception of Tottenham Hotspur, can be reasonably optimistic about progressing.

Manchester United have already eliminated the so-called “favourites” by beating PSG so Barcelona, over two legs, shouldn’t hold any fears.

Liverpool have the “easiest” draw and should be able to find their way past Porto whilst, as we said, Spurs have the most difficult draw and could even see themselves exiting the competition from their new stadium! Now wouldn’t that be poetic justice? (more…)

City, Liverpool And Tottenham All Looking Good. Can Chelsea And United Follow Them?

Posted: February 16, 2018 in Arsenal, Champions League, Chelsea, European Football, Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Tottenham Hotspur
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Ilkay Gündoğan – Man-of-the-Match and two goals to boot.

After emphatic away wins for Manchester City and Liverpool they are both, barring disasters of seismic proportions, through to the quarter finals of the Champion’s League.

Having beaten Basel 4-0 in Switzerland City fans will be thinking that there will be tougher tests ahead and they would be right in so thinking.

The only question raised by the performance of the Swiss team is how they managed to beat Manchester United and Liverpool in the recent past!

On this form, which has been pretty consistent all season, City need fear nobody and are certainly a match for the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Münich. (more…)

José Mourinho – First Manager To Spend A Total Exceeding £1 Billion On Transfer Fees

Posted: November 14, 2017 in Arsenal, Chelsea, European Football, Football, Jose Mourinho, Managers, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Transfers
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On the back of his undoubted success at Porto, José Mourinho was appointed by Chelsea owner Román Abramóvich to take the team to the next level which, in their case at that time, was to win the Premier League.

This is where the Mourinho success story really begins. In his first season with Chelsea he won the Premier League and League Cup spending £81.2 million in the process. The following year he retained the Premier League and won the FA and the League Cups whilst spending a paltry £58.4 million. He then had a barren year but still managed to spend £63 million and this was followed by a further £17.2 million the season he left. (more…)

Why José Mourinho Will Never Be Bored At Manchester United

Posted: April 2, 2017 in Chelsea, European Football, Football, Jose Mourinho, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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He had taken Porto as far as he could so moved on to Chelsea. The only trophy to elude him at Stamford Bridge was the Champion’s League but, when he left, he was still young enough to be able to return one day to win it, (or so he probably thought).

Inter Milan proved to be a relatively easy challenge during which he even managed to come up with a way of beating Barcelona over two legs in the Champion’s League and go on to win it. This was when Barcelona were the best team in the world. (more…)

José Mourinho Has To Succeed At Manchester United, There Is Nowhere Else To Go

Posted: January 5, 2017 in Chelsea, European Football, Football, Jose Mourinho, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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What continually drives people like José Mourinho to succeed? It isn’t money. Alright, in the early days of their career it IS money but, after the initial successes have eliminated the need to ever work again, what becomes the motivating factor?

It is a question asked of many of the world’s richest people and, in a lot of cases, it is STILL money. The quest to be the richest in the world, the additional power that even more money brings with it. These are forces which have been known to propel the wealthy to even greater things.

Generally not, however, where top football managers are concerned. (more…)

Did Manchester United Get José Mourinho At The Right Time Or Too Late?

Posted: November 9, 2016 in Chelsea, European Football, Jose Mourinho, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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José Mourinho appears to handle failure in the same way as he handles success. The success is well known and has been demonstrated on several occasions. It is usually a sullen look, a half smirk of “I knew we would win it” followed by a disappearing act leaving his players to enjoy the limelight while he sneaks off home to be with his family.

For failure take the same sequence but leave out the half smirk. He has yet to perfect a unique reaction to failure because it is still a relatively new experience for him. (more…)

What Would Jose Mourinho Bring To Manchester United?

Posted: February 9, 2016 in Chelsea, Football, Jose Mourinho, Managers, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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1. A Winning Mentality

Wherever Mourinho has been he has won trophies. Beginning with Porto back in his homeland all those years ago he took this unfancied team to Champion’s League glory. Obviously, domestically he had already won the Portuguese league in order to qualify.

Since leaving Porto for Chelsea he has had one success after another. In fact, since his first club, Benfica, back in 2000 he has managed clubs in a total of 765 games winning 505, a win percentage of 66.01%

It must also be remembered that this success hasn’t always been with the biggest clubs, but some of it has. This brings us to the next point:

2. Big Club Management Experience

Mourinho, as we know, has won the Champion’s League with Porto, in Portugal and Internazionale in Italy. He has also won domestic titles in Portugal, Italy, Spain and England. He has proven, unlike van Gaal and even Guardiola, that he can do the business when there is realistic competition around. (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…)

Jose Mourinho & Chelsea: The Odd Couple

Posted: December 17, 2015 in Chelsea, Football, Jose Mourinho, Managers, Opinion, Premier League
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(Jose waves goodbye to Chelsea again, probably for the last time, but who really knows?)

For a while it was a match made in heaven. Jose and Chelsea had a passionate marriage which lasted three years and only ended in divorce when the bubble appeared to have burst and the passion went out of it.

After a short separation, Mourinho and Chelsea realised that they could no longer live without each other and decided to give it another go. The passion returned for a short while and everything was fine for a short while. The problem is that “short while” has come to define the marriages between Mourinho and Chelsea.

Now he has gone, probably for good, because of the vow “for better or worse” in the wedding ceremony. To Jose’s way of thinking this meant that the “better” bit was for him and the “worse” bit was for Chelsea and everybody else. In other words he was quite happy to take all the praise when winning, but turned into a spoiled brat when losing.

The final straw, in my humble opinion, was when he turned on his own players after the Leicester City game, which Chelsea lost 2-1. (more…)

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