Now that normal service is about to be resumed in the Premier League, at least for a month until the next set of ridiculous international fixtures are played, the clubs can begin to count the cost of releasing their top players to play in these games.
Sometimes meaningless, sometimes meaningful, it is always a surprise, particularly when the season has already started, to see how willing the teams are to release their players and how inconsiderate the international coaches are. (more…)
During the international yawn and, due to the paucity of anything remotely interesting in the football world, we will be publishing some of the articles written, by our goodselves, for other publications.
The reason for this is twofold. One is the lack of anything else worth reading, but the other is to see how accurate, or otherwise, we have been over the years. See what you think and please use the comments section to let us know.
To begin with, here’s an article we wrote back in 2015 which looks at how important Marouane Fellaini was becoming, even then, to Louis van Gaal. It was written just before the Champion’s League qualifier against FC Bruges of Belgium. (more…)
Arsenal can’t defend, Liverpool can’t defend, Chelsea play better when down to nine men and Manchester City find it difficult against a ten man defence.
You may be forgiven for thinking that the top clubs, having had a two and a half months break from competitive football, time to work on their style of play and money to buy new players where needed, would return to Premier League action with all guns blazing.
If Friday’s game was supposed to be an example of that then Arsenal didn’t stick to the script. They did, however, manage to achieve something which has been rare in the last few years. They won their first home game. They were lucky to do so as it would have been no surprise had their woeful defending resulted in more than the three goals they conceded. (more…)
Firstly, we apologise to fans of Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Arsenal and even Everton.
Much as we admire the optimism of the supporters of these clubs we have to think that it is misguided.
With the exception of Arsenal, the other clubs which made up last season’s top seven will be expecting a more successful campaign next time out. Arsenal will just be hoping for one, without any real conviction.
However, judging by recent transfer market activity, only Chelsea, City and United have already improved or will significantly improve their squads and, in Chelsea’s case, not much improvement is necessary. (more…)
WAYNE ROONEY
Forget nostalgia. Forgive any possibly deluded Evertonians who think they are getting a good player. They are not.
The fact of the matter is that Wayne Rooney is now not good enough to get into the Everton side. He may occasionally be OK coming off the bench for the last half hour of games but, as a starter, he has lost it.
Who at Goodison actually wants him back? I can’t imagine that Bill Kenwright would ever sanction the kind of money Rooney is paid, especially as he is now no better than average. (more…)
Ronaldo shows that there’s plenty of petulance in the old dog yet
Cristiano Ronaldo is said to favour a move back to Manchester United. Now there’s a surprise! Only days after saying he wanted to stay and play for Real Madrid until he was forty, and that there was no chance he would ever go back to United, he now wants to go back to United, or so we are led to believe.
Tough luck, Cristiano, the world doesn’t work like that. If you wanted to play for Manchester United you should never have left. Now you want Manchester United but they don’t want, or need, you. That ship has sailed. Mind you, if there’s any truth in the rumour whatsoever, you would be welcome back. (more…)
(Guess which four of this lot should be sold by United)
Whilst the rest of the footballing world watches with almost child-like, wide-eyed wonder at the movement of players through a metaphorical window, we here at WSA have reached the stage where we trust José Mourinho and are, therefore, happy with whoever he chooses to bring to the club.
That is not to say we won’t be watching, reading and listening for every player linked with United as well as the few who will actually arrive, it’s just that we have decided to look at who should be going in the opposite direction. In other words, who needs to leave Old Trafford? Who has overstayed his welcome, who isn’t good enough, who should never have been bought in the first place? That kind of thing. (more…)
Now that Antoine Griezmann has shown his true colours by saying it would be a low move to leave a club who are being punished for even lower moves, and Romelu Lukaku is probably going to Chelsea to replace Diego Costa, which is fine by us, we look at who may actually turn up at Old Trafford and who won’t.
The number of publications we have waded through in order to find some transfer stories with real foundation as opposed to just simply being pure invention to be used as click-bait, is exhaustive but, as always dear readers, it was worth every hour just to bring you a measure of truth to your rumours. (more…)
Is scouting the most difficult job in the Premier League? We suppose it depends on what your brief is. If, for example, we had been sent to watch Glasgow Celtic three or four years ago, we would have noticed two standout players who we would recommend be playing at a top six club. (more…)
When he arrived at Manchester United it seemed fairly obvious where the problems lay.
After two years with Louis van Gaal in charge, the football was stale and boring. One-dimensional with the tendency to try and keep possession without actually going anywhere. The United faithful quite quickly got fed up watching their team passing sideways and backwards then, eventually, either giving the ball away or simply running out of pitch.
The United board or, more particularly, Ed Woodward finally ran out of patience and even an FA Cup win wasn’t enough to earn van Gaal a contract extension. It didn’t help him that José Mourinho was out of work and available and, more to the point, was the popular choice of the majority of United supporters. (more…)
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 