(Top four or Europa League? Why not both? José ponders the obvious!)
José Mourinho loves the Europa League. Not that he has much choice as it is the only European competition in which Manchester United are competing this season.
He didn’t appear to love it at the start of the season and it was only when he was reminded that it offered automatic Champion’s League qualification that his feelings towards it grew in a dramatic fashion. (more…)
As egos go, there are none much bigger than that of José Mourinho. Little is said of his time flirting with Inter Milan and Real Madrid even though he continued winning trophies with both clubs.
No, it is his two “marriages” to Chelsea for which, at present anyway, he is being remembered.
The second break-up was far more noteworthy than the first as it was brought about by a perceived breakdown in relationships with certain players and with the club outside the top ten for the first time in years. Mourinho was unceremoniously kicked out and Chelsea were soon to be in a new relationship with Antonio Conte. (more…)
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…)
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…………”
And so it goes on. This extract, as learned readers will know, is taken from “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens. In some ways, it describes quite well the period between Louis van Gaal being told to do one and JosĂ© Mourinho being welcomed into the spider’s web which masquerades as the manager’s office at Manchester United. (more…)
So Manchester United managed to overcome a terrible pitch and a good team and are now in very real danger of reaching the final of the Europa League.
The pitch, at the end of the day, was the same for both teams although Rostov are, obviously, more used to playing on it. It didn’t really make a difference. Providing United, who had the better players, played to their potential then they were always going to be in a position to win the tie over the two legs. (more…)
Manchester United are among the top four teams in the country, just not according to the league table or their results at Old Trafford.
The league table currently has them in joint fifth position and, at Old Trafford, they have failed to beat Stoke City, Burnley and 10-man Bournemouth to name but three.
Failure to take three points from each of these games is inexcusable and it is difficult to imagine the same happening to Chelsea or Manchester City.
Against Bournemouth, for example, the finishing was woeful. Both Paul Pogba And Zlatan Ibrahimovic were guilty of missing excellent chances with the latter even managing to miss a penalty. (more…)
As football matches go, testimonials are slightly more important than a school playground kick-about. Usually a way of shovelling further riches on a footballer who’s only contribution has been hanging around a club for ten years or more, either because he hasn’t wanted to go anywhere else or because nobody else has wanted him. They are another example of a profession further rewarding it’s already over rewarded employees.
Testimonials were originally intended to provide for a player in his retirement. So, for example, quite a few players used the money to buy a pub so they could spend their dotage in the same place as they spent most of their career. Nowadays the top players could buy a pub every week so the testimonial is nothing more than a circus. It’s a circus which raises money for charity, but it is a circus all the same. (more…)
The current top six are unlikely to remain with their present managers for too long unless they find a way of sharing the trophies between them on an annual basis.
The Holy Grail, however, remains the Premier League title but with half an eye on winning the Champion’s League, (unless you are Arsenal, in which case just qualifying for the competition is sufficient).
If, this season for example, sees Chelsea win the title, City, United and Tottenham finish in the top four and Liverpool and Arsenal making up the remainder of the top six then little should change for next season. (more…)
Although a top three finish would have virtually the same outcome as winning the Europa League in that they would both mean automatic qualification for next season’s Champion’s League, the more prestigious of the two is the higher finish in the Premier League.
Fourth place, of course, would mean a chance to compete for the Champion’s League through the qualifiers, which is by no means a guarantee of participation in the competition proper. (more…)
Premier League title winning is something Jose Mourinho knows all about. It is also something Sir Alex Ferguson knows all about. The common denominator between the two is Manchester United. So how come one of the most expensive squads in the world is struggling to get into the top four?
The answer to the question is very simple even if the solution to the problem isn’t quite so straightforward. They are struggling due to an inability to score goals.
This inability has resulted in too many drawn games which should have been comfortable victories. (more…)
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 