Posts Tagged ‘Sir Alex Ferguson’

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Manchester United fans do not have a lot of time for Wayne Rooney at present. When he originally signed for the club he was accepted quite quickly, helped, no doubt, by scoring a hat-trick in his first game, a Champion’s League match against FenerbahcĂ©.

He then went on to have a few relatively successful years even though he could only watch as better players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez moved on to more success. He never reached their level despite his early promise. It appeared that he reached his comfort zone and stayed there. (more…)

If you were this man,

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Would you be happy to see your goalscoring records taken from you by this man?

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No? I didn’t think so. There is an injustice about the whole thing which makes it seem so totally surreal.

One of the two is about to celebrate 60 years since making his Manchester United debut, the other one isn’t. One is universally liked and respected, the other one isn’t.

Sir Bobby, of course, was and will be the first to congratulate Rooney both for the England record he has already achieved and the Manchester United one which, if he continues to be as bad as he has been for the last few years, he may not achieve. We live in hope! Privately, I would be very surprised if Charlton is happy with this situation. (more…)

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He was blamed, initially, for the appointment of David Moyes.

The story put out by the press at the time was that Moyes was invited to the house of Alex Ferguson where, no doubt over a glass of something either red or whisky coloured, he was invited to take over as manager of Manchester United. (more…)

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To answer this question in an honest manner it is necessary to understand the pressures under which the manager of a top Premier League club operates.

The first thing to appreciate is that JosĂ© Mourinho will be judged on what he wins, not who he brings through from the youth team. This means that, in order to stay in the job long enough to blood potential first team players, he needs to be filling the trophy cabinet on a reasonably regular basis. (more…)

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(Wayne Rooney looks over his shoulder only to find that the manager insists on him playing!)

Recently, one or two football players have remarked that they have “nothing to prove”. They say this as though they have reached a pinnacle and will never drop their standards below this optimum level.

Marouane Fellaini was one of the ones to speak out and that, frankly, was laughable. Now it’s the turn of Wayne Rooney again. Yes, again! It seems that Wayne likes to tell everybody how good he really is on a fairly regular basis. (more…)

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The same may possibly be said about Antonio Conte but, as yet, we don’t know enough about him or his motives to put forward a case one way or the other.

Other older managers such as Arsene Wenger, Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Bobby Robson and even, to a lesser extent, Manuel Pelligrini, Louis van Gaal and Claudio Ranieri took jobs at clubs where there was a challenge. (more…)

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Despite blaming bad luck and referees for United’s poor displays while losing the last three games, JosĂ© Mourinho needs to be given time to sort out the problems at Old Trafford.

He has brought in four players who will all prove to be value for money but, at the moment, they are trying to fit into an average team. (more…)

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In the first two or three weeks of the Mourinho reign at Manchester United it became fairly obvious that the leopard was trying to change some, if not all, of his spots.

He and the players were seen arriving at games in the standard issue club blazer and tie. He even managed to fasten the top button on his shirt. (more…)

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Although José Mourinho was disappointed to lose to Feyenoord in Rotterdam, it was quite difficult to detect it in his post-match interview.

Stating that the team played better in the second half and that a few of the players were tasting their first minutes of football this season didn’t really tell us anything that we didn’t already know.

The conclusions drawn from the team selection and, consequently, the result is that, despite what he says to the press, JosĂ© Mourinho doesn’t really care about this competition. (more…)

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In the not too distant past, José Mourinho would have poured scorn on this competition. He always saw it as a tournament for losers, as a punishment for not being good enough in your own league and, therefore, confined to the basement of European football to compete with teams whose names are difficult to pronounce from countries which are difficult to find.

This was a view shared, strangely enough, by his great friend and hero Sir Alex Ferguson whose own journey into the Europa League was a one-time experience and very short-lived. (more…)