1. Bayern’s gain is Chelsea’s loss
The news that Pep Guardiola will take over the reins at Germany’s most prestigious club this summer came as both a shock and a surprise to many in the English game. Last seen championing the merits of the Premier League, it looked as if Pep was sounding out the major clubs to see how much they really wanted him. In truth, Guardiola had two firm offers to consider (Munich and Chelsea) and took the one which offered him better control, better protection and a greater sense of history. At a time when the German league sits toe to toe with the Premier League in the games standing, this was a hammer blow for English football and in particular for Roman Abramovich. With Dortmund having already blazed a trail in this year’s Champions League, the most damning thing for Chelsea fans is that Pep Guardiola looked at the two teams who contested the final last year and threw his weight behind the losers. Having already been eliminated from this season’s competition, Chelsea’s long sought after win is already beginning to look like an anomaly which time will soon forget, rather than the beginning of a new era which their owner craves. It was a fitting end to the careers of some of the old guard who had served Chelsea well, but with an owner who has refused to invest in youth and has panic bought and panic sacked at every step, it is little wonder that Guardiola decided to move to Bayern and begin building what he hopes will be a second dynasty. People who criticize Guardiola for having the world’s best players at Barcelona miss the big picture. He inherited a mess which he cleared out and promoted many of the youth team that he had coached. The pivotal midfield figure of Busquets was arguably the most crucial, alongside the early promotion of Pedro and the recalling of his main defender Gerard Pique from his spell in the Manchester wilderness being compared to Jonny Evans. Pep achieved almost unrivalled success in his four years at the club and developed Xavi, Iniesta and Lionel Messi from exceptional talents to three of the greatest footballers to have ever played the game. Ok so they haven’t done too badly since he left, but then unlike Pep, the new manager did inherit a team in its prime. How the Spaniard will be judged remains unclear. Will simply winning the Bundesliga be enough? Especially given it looks like Munich are already well set to reclaim the title this season? No. It is likely, that having not won the Champions League since 2001, that is to be Guardiola’s target. That… and building a team that once again will be the envy of anybody who picks up a football in any park, pitch or playground across the world. No pressure then…
The news that Pep Guardiola will take over the reins at Germany’s most prestigious club this summer came as both a shock and a surprise to many in the English game. Last seen championing the merits of the Premier League, it looked as if Pep was sounding out the major clubs to see how much they really wanted him. In truth, Guardiola had two firm offers to consider (Munich and Chelsea) and took the one which offered him better control, better protection and a greater sense of history. At a time when the German league sits toe to toe with the Premier League in the games standing, this was a hammer blow for English football and in particular for Roman Abramovich. With Dortmund having already blazed a trail in this year’s Champions League, the most damning thing for Chelsea fans is that Pep Guardiola looked at the two teams who contested the final last year and threw his weight behind the losers. Having already been eliminated from this season’s competition, Chelsea’s long sought after win is already beginning to look like an anomaly which time will soon forget, rather than the beginning of a new era which their owner craves. It was a fitting end to the careers of some of the old guard who had served Chelsea well, but with an owner who has refused to invest in youth and has panic bought and panic sacked at every step, it is little wonder that Guardiola decided to move to Bayern and begin building what he hopes will be a second dynasty. People who criticize Guardiola for having the world’s best players at Barcelona miss the big picture. He inherited a mess which he cleared out and promoted many of the youth team that he had coached. The pivotal midfield figure of Busquets was arguably the most crucial, alongside the early promotion of Pedro and the recalling of his main defender Gerard Pique from his spell in the Manchester wilderness being compared to Jonny Evans. Pep achieved almost unrivalled success in his four years at the club and developed Xavi, Iniesta and Lionel Messi from exceptional talents to three of the greatest footballers to have ever played the game. Ok so they haven’t done too badly since he left, but then unlike Pep, the new manager did inherit a team in its prime. How the Spaniard will be judged remains unclear. Will simply winning the Bundesliga be enough? Especially given it looks like Munich are already well set to reclaim the title this season? No. It is likely, that having not won the Champions League since 2001, that is to be Guardiola’s target. That… and building a team that once again will be the envy of anybody who picks up a football in any park, pitch or playground across the world. No pressure then…
2. Ferguson reserved his respect for AVB, but not the
officials
Having been taken apart in 45 error strewn minutes at Old Trafford earlier in the season, Alex Ferguson showed Spurs rare respect on Sunday by taking his team to White Hart Lane and for the first time I can remember, setting them up to contain. Utd played a 4-3-3 formation that was, for the most part, a 4-5-1 with Phil Jones playing exclusively to track Gareth Bale and Michael Carrick sitting so deep he was almost part of the defence. It was, in many ways and until the last 60 seconds, the perfect away performance. So much so, that it prompted both Jamie Redknapp and Gary Neville to see it is a dry run for how Utd would play against Real Madrid. There were many talking points from the match, but the most interesting for me was the level of respect shown by Ferguson toward his opposite number to do that. Away at Chelsea, Arsenal and even Manchester City this season, Ferguson has stuck with his attacking instincts and taken the game to his opponents rather than play on the back foot. AVB has come a long way already in his on/off time in English football, but 4 points against Manchester Utd is something that hasn’t been achieved by this club since 1989. Those points were well deserved, although Utd played much better than Scott Parker’s strange post comments implied. Comments, that were consigned to a footnote by another famous Ferguson rant about almost nothing of consequence. To complain about a single bad decision given against you in a match where almost everything else had gone your way is pretty poor anyway, but to do it against Spurs? A team who in previous years appear to have had a curse over their heads when they’ve stepped up to do battle with the red of Manchester. It was a shame, especially following a game where there was so much football to talk about, that Ferguson once again gave the press all the ammunition they needed to make it all about him instead. He may have showed Spurs and their young manager respect, but he is a long way off ever doing the same for officials.
Having been taken apart in 45 error strewn minutes at Old Trafford earlier in the season, Alex Ferguson showed Spurs rare respect on Sunday by taking his team to White Hart Lane and for the first time I can remember, setting them up to contain. Utd played a 4-3-3 formation that was, for the most part, a 4-5-1 with Phil Jones playing exclusively to track Gareth Bale and Michael Carrick sitting so deep he was almost part of the defence. It was, in many ways and until the last 60 seconds, the perfect away performance. So much so, that it prompted both Jamie Redknapp and Gary Neville to see it is a dry run for how Utd would play against Real Madrid. There were many talking points from the match, but the most interesting for me was the level of respect shown by Ferguson toward his opposite number to do that. Away at Chelsea, Arsenal and even Manchester City this season, Ferguson has stuck with his attacking instincts and taken the game to his opponents rather than play on the back foot. AVB has come a long way already in his on/off time in English football, but 4 points against Manchester Utd is something that hasn’t been achieved by this club since 1989. Those points were well deserved, although Utd played much better than Scott Parker’s strange post comments implied. Comments, that were consigned to a footnote by another famous Ferguson rant about almost nothing of consequence. To complain about a single bad decision given against you in a match where almost everything else had gone your way is pretty poor anyway, but to do it against Spurs? A team who in previous years appear to have had a curse over their heads when they’ve stepped up to do battle with the red of Manchester. It was a shame, especially following a game where there was so much football to talk about, that Ferguson once again gave the press all the ammunition they needed to make it all about him instead. He may have showed Spurs and their young manager respect, but he is a long way off ever doing the same for officials.
3. Are Wigan finally running out of lives?
Roberto Martinez was the toast of the league this summer after guiding Wigan to another great relegation escape. All but down in March, the Latics rallied to win seven out of their last nine games and pull themselves free with the sort of escapology and entertainment not seen since Harry Houdini. Villa and Liverpool both came calling for Martinez in the summer, but he stayed put and buoyed by his success, aimed to secure Wigan a more stable campaign this time around. That was looking like an option after the first few games, but not anymore. Wigan have won once in eleven matches and are firmly entrenched in the relegation zone. They look incapable of keeping a clean sheet and are making the sort of errors that it looked like Martinez had successfully managed to eradicate from their game toward the end of last season. They may yet escape again, but do the players have the heart for another relegation battle after starting the season with such renewed promise? The Spaniard has done wonderful things for this club, but unless they reverse their fortunes soon, they are running into some very tricky matches at a time when it is unlikely that lightning will strike twice.
Roberto Martinez was the toast of the league this summer after guiding Wigan to another great relegation escape. All but down in March, the Latics rallied to win seven out of their last nine games and pull themselves free with the sort of escapology and entertainment not seen since Harry Houdini. Villa and Liverpool both came calling for Martinez in the summer, but he stayed put and buoyed by his success, aimed to secure Wigan a more stable campaign this time around. That was looking like an option after the first few games, but not anymore. Wigan have won once in eleven matches and are firmly entrenched in the relegation zone. They look incapable of keeping a clean sheet and are making the sort of errors that it looked like Martinez had successfully managed to eradicate from their game toward the end of last season. They may yet escape again, but do the players have the heart for another relegation battle after starting the season with such renewed promise? The Spaniard has done wonderful things for this club, but unless they reverse their fortunes soon, they are running into some very tricky matches at a time when it is unlikely that lightning will strike twice.
4. West Ham need a striker.
After starting the season in fine form, West Ham have hit a bit of a wall of late; not least away from home where they have scored just 5 goals all season. They haven’t been helped by a smallish squad and an increasingly more comical injury list. But they certainly haven’t been helped by the complete inability to find a centre forward who scores goals. Andy Carroll’s injury hasn’t helped, but in fairness the striker had managed just one goal before departing to the clubs bulging hospital. Big Sam has played Carlton Cole in most games since, but he’s managed a miserable 2 goals all season, at a rate of 1 every 500 minutes. None of this then, explains the mystifying decision to buy Marouane Chamakh. We all know that Big Sam loves a target man, but surely there was someone available who could actually score goals rather than just head the ball vaguely in the general direction of the net. Few footballers have declined as quickly as Chamakh, who offers almost nothing of value other than wondering if he’s actually a well-dressed Fox. Joe Cole’s signing has already proved successful, but the likes of him, Jarvis and Mark Noble need somebody to actually convert the chances they keep creating or West Ham are going to get dragged further into the mire. I could labour this point more, but given West Ham are such a lamentable club I really can’t be bothered. It’s not like I care anyway.
After starting the season in fine form, West Ham have hit a bit of a wall of late; not least away from home where they have scored just 5 goals all season. They haven’t been helped by a smallish squad and an increasingly more comical injury list. But they certainly haven’t been helped by the complete inability to find a centre forward who scores goals. Andy Carroll’s injury hasn’t helped, but in fairness the striker had managed just one goal before departing to the clubs bulging hospital. Big Sam has played Carlton Cole in most games since, but he’s managed a miserable 2 goals all season, at a rate of 1 every 500 minutes. None of this then, explains the mystifying decision to buy Marouane Chamakh. We all know that Big Sam loves a target man, but surely there was someone available who could actually score goals rather than just head the ball vaguely in the general direction of the net. Few footballers have declined as quickly as Chamakh, who offers almost nothing of value other than wondering if he’s actually a well-dressed Fox. Joe Cole’s signing has already proved successful, but the likes of him, Jarvis and Mark Noble need somebody to actually convert the chances they keep creating or West Ham are going to get dragged further into the mire. I could labour this point more, but given West Ham are such a lamentable club I really can’t be bothered. It’s not like I care anyway.
5. Shame on Saints.
Football has been guilty of many sins over recent years, but in terms of managerial madness, few decisions rank lower than the one taken last week by Southampton to sack Nigel Adkins and replace him with Mauricio Pochettino. Let’s get one thing clear, if Saints had unveiled Pep Guardiola this would still have been the wrong call. Pochettino is not Guardiola, or Mourinho, or Alex Ferguson for that matter. He is a young, promising manager with some good things and some not so good things on his cv. He has never managed in England and can barely speak the language. There is simply no logic for his appointment at a time when Adkins had lost just one game in ten, and was turning Saints into a genuine Premier League team who had added defensive solidarity to vibrant attacking play. Aside from all of that though, the thing that really galls here is the complete lack of class or respect that the Saints hierarchy have paid to a manager who has done more for their football club than anyone in 20 years. Back to back promotions, the reinvention of the Southampton youth and investing in a style of play that is a joy to watch. The statement given by the board over his dismissal was invisible and the match day programme of yesterday’s game contained not a single mention of him. That is not good enough. The man should have been given a long and proper send of and been allowed on to the pitch for the fans to say thank you to a manager who will surely be reemployed again in a heartbeat. The worst thing about this call from the clubs perspective is that Saints staying up this year will, in no way, justify this decision. But if they go down, it will be held up as the reason and used as the stick to beat them with. As Blackburn, Leeds, West Ham, Wolves and Southampton themselves have shown to their peril in recent years… a long period of decline can soon follow. Saints deserved better than this. Adkins deserved better than this. Football is a wonderful and often brilliant sport, but with the contracts and wages given to players, how can we expect them to listen and respect their managers if they continue to be treated in such a fickle and disrespectful way?
Football has been guilty of many sins over recent years, but in terms of managerial madness, few decisions rank lower than the one taken last week by Southampton to sack Nigel Adkins and replace him with Mauricio Pochettino. Let’s get one thing clear, if Saints had unveiled Pep Guardiola this would still have been the wrong call. Pochettino is not Guardiola, or Mourinho, or Alex Ferguson for that matter. He is a young, promising manager with some good things and some not so good things on his cv. He has never managed in England and can barely speak the language. There is simply no logic for his appointment at a time when Adkins had lost just one game in ten, and was turning Saints into a genuine Premier League team who had added defensive solidarity to vibrant attacking play. Aside from all of that though, the thing that really galls here is the complete lack of class or respect that the Saints hierarchy have paid to a manager who has done more for their football club than anyone in 20 years. Back to back promotions, the reinvention of the Southampton youth and investing in a style of play that is a joy to watch. The statement given by the board over his dismissal was invisible and the match day programme of yesterday’s game contained not a single mention of him. That is not good enough. The man should have been given a long and proper send of and been allowed on to the pitch for the fans to say thank you to a manager who will surely be reemployed again in a heartbeat. The worst thing about this call from the clubs perspective is that Saints staying up this year will, in no way, justify this decision. But if they go down, it will be held up as the reason and used as the stick to beat them with. As Blackburn, Leeds, West Ham, Wolves and Southampton themselves have shown to their peril in recent years… a long period of decline can soon follow. Saints deserved better than this. Adkins deserved better than this. Football is a wonderful and often brilliant sport, but with the contracts and wages given to players, how can we expect them to listen and respect their managers if they continue to be treated in such a fickle and disrespectful way?
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