Posts Tagged ‘Zinedine Zidane’

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Manchester City have finally had a VAR decision go in their favour. That is if, in fact, VAR actually checked the potential “push” performed by Gabriel Jesus when scoring the equaliser against Real Madrid. It was quite obvious that the City player had placed his hands on the back of the Madrid defender but there was actually no evidence to suggest that a push was made.

Naturally, Sergio Ramos went down as though hit by a sniper in the crowd but he didn’t fool the referee who also saw through his shenanigans shortly after this goal when sending off the Madrid captain for the 26th time in his career. This one was for pulling Jesus back and, as last man, denying him a goal-scoring opportunity. (more…)

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Firstly, we have to start this little monologue with the assertion that we think José Mourinho is doing an OK job at Manchester United. It isn’t perfect but we don’t think we could have reasonably expected much more out of the first two seasons in charge.

We were happy with the three trophies in his first season, even if none of them were “A list”. We appreciated that the team would slide down the table somewhat in their quest for Europa League glory so the sixth place finish was acceptable, particularly as the winning of Big Vase meant automatic qualification for The Champion’s League.

The following season saw an improvement in league form and finish but very little, if anything, else. Second place was a decent ending to the season but didn’t mask the fact that United were 19 points behind City. (more…)

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All of those Manchester United “supporters” who want José Mourinho to be shown the door marked “do one”, should be careful what they wish for.

We here at WSA are United through and through and it is difficult to watch this team most of the time, but patience is required.

We also found it very difficult to watch teams assembled by Wilf McGuinness, Frank O’Farrell and Dave Sexton. The team managed by Sir Alex Ferguson for the first five years of his tenure was an awful sight to behold and lost regularly.

Then we got David Moyes and Louis van Gaal so, if you think this is bad, where have you been for the last 50 odd years? (more…)

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Why was José Mourinho attending the international friendly game between Austria and Russia?

Well, obviously, he was there to watch Marko Arnautovic! How do we know? Easy, we read it in the paper, so it must be true.

It did cross our mind that he may have been there swotting up on the Russian team as he has agreed to be a pundit on a Russian TV station for the duration of the World Cup. (more…)

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How can selling Wembley be described as a betrayal? The idiots who massively overspent in building a stadium nobody outside of London really wanted cannot be accused of selling the soul of football, as some people have put it.

Wembley never was and never will be the “soul of football”. That title belongs to grounds such as Old Trafford, Anfield, Goodison Park and Stamford Bridge. In the past it would have included Highbury, Main Road, Roker Park and others too numerous to mention. (more…)

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Confused? It’s hardly surprising after the noises coming out of Madrid! Only minutes after winning the trophy for the thirteenth time in their history and the third time in the last three years, two of the BBC were talking of their futures as though they had played their last games as a Galáctico.

The other member of the BBC, Karim Benzema, probably realises how lucky he is to be playing at a club whose manager is from the same ethnic background as he is and, probably because of this, keeps selecting him no matter how average a player he is. So he is keeping his mouth shut at present.

But what is likely to happen with the other two? (more…)

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So Liverpool are through to the semi-finals of the Champion’s League having beaten Manchester City home and away in their quarter-final tie.

There is no doubt they deserve to be there as the damage was all done in the first leg at Anfield where City proved, yet again, that if their defence is put under any pressure they don’t have a defence!

The second leg may have been more interesting had a perfectly good goal from Leroy Sané not been disallowed. This would have seen City go in at half-time leading 2-0 and chomping at the bit for more in the second half. As it was, they left the field somewhat dispirited and weren’t the same team after the break. (more…)

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Today we continue our look at what the short term future holds for the top six managers.

Yesterday we concluded that Jürgen Klopp will stay at Liverpool beyond this season, Antonio Conte will leave at the end of this season and Stubborn Old Man will, (probably), stubbornly carry on in his role as captain of the Titanic which is how he is viewed by many football followers, not just those of his own club.

The difference being that, if he were to abandon ship, then it probably wouldn’t sink and may even rise, submarine-like, with a new man in charge.

So to the other three and we start with:

Pep Guardiola (more…)

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Is it a coincidence that the six richest clubs in the Premier League currently occupy the top six places in the Premier League?

I suppose it depends upon your view of Leicester City’s achievements last season. If you think, like many others, that their winning the title was a one-off, freakish, yet sensational story then the natural order of things has been restored.

If, however, you think that the Leicester story can be repeated by either themselves or another unfancied club, then the amount of money a club has available to buy players is less relevant. (more…)

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He was born in Yerevan, capital of Armenia, in 1989. When Henrikh was seven years old his father died of a brain tumour at the age of 33.

Football certainly played a prominent part in his family life as his dad has been a striker for FC Ararat Yerevan during the 1980’s, his mother is the head of the national team department in the Armenian football federation and his sister, Monica, works at UEFA headquarters.

In the early 1990’s the family moved to France to escape the Armenian mafia, where Henrikh played for ASOA Valence and helped them gain promotion to Ligue 2. The club no longer exists. (more…)