Fernando Torres, what happened?

As a football fan of Manchester United, when it comes to transfers i don't usually get jealous about other signings clubs make.
However, when Liverpool lodged a bid and had it accepted for Fernando Torres i was extremely jealous and partly angry as Manchester United had and still continue to miss out on some bargains/good players!
He was bought by Liverpool for £20 million and for the time he was there, he was worth every penny for the Merseyside club and helped them to mount their best Premier League challenge to date in 2008-2009.

During his time at Liverpool, his manager was confident enough in him to lead Liverpools line on his own with a midfield consisting of Steven Gerrard, Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano. With Mascherano and Xabi Alonso sitting deep in the defensive quadrant, this gave Gerrard permission to venture forward and express his passing skills to his maximum ability and set up Torres near enough every game and 9 times out of 10, Torres would finish the move with a goal, most of which were world class.
In his first season, Torres would go on to score 24 goals in 33 appearances and in that season alone he went on to break records that once belonged to the likes of  Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Liverpool legends Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen but was beaten to the PFA player of the year award by Cristiano Ronaldo.

That season alone put fear into many world class defenders in the Premier League and more often than not when Liverpool played Manchester United, Fernando Torres and Nemanja Vidic got into personal battles on the pitch and more often than not, Torres succeeded and even ended up getting Vidic sent off by luring him into fouling him.
In the 2010-2011 season Fernando Torres was sold by Liverpool to Chelsea for a total of £50 million pounds with a record of 65 goals in 102 games, Liverpool later replaced Fernando Torres with Andy Carroll from Newcastle United for a fee of £35 million pound.
Torres had been brought into a Chelsea side that had been led by the world class, powerhouse Didier Drogba for half a decade and that has seemingly affected Torres' confidence.
During his second season at Chelsea, Fernando Torres led Chelseas line up at Old Trafford when they took on Manchester United who went in to half time, 3-0 up. After half time, less than 5 minutes into the second half, Torres went on to score for Chelsea after a smart pass from Nicolas Anelka however later on in the match when Chelsea had improved from their first half display, Torres was through on goal against De Gea and went round the goalkeeper only to hit a shot on his weak foot wide with the net wide open.
Incidents like that don't happen often to world class finishers in this current day and age and this HAS had to affect Torres in one way or another, despite him not being his old self before that happened though, his form has dipped alarmingly since.
He has helped recoup the fee that Chelseas owner had spent on the Spaniard by getting his team through to the Champions League final of 2011-2012, when a Chelsea defender cleared the ball from a Barcelona attack, Torres ran through on goal,rounded Victor Valdes and then placed the ball into an empty net.
In the Champions League final however it was Didier Drogba who stole the show with an 89th minute equaliser for Chelsea and scored the winning penalty to secure the clubs first ever Champions League trophy against Bayern Munich in the German giants home stadium.


Now, few people could argue that Torres this season is playing in a team containing a midfield that was as good as any midfield he played in front of during his whole time at Liverpool and i believe that is true however that's not helping him whatsoever.
With Eden Hazard, Juan Mata and Oscar playing behind him, he has three attacking midfielders capable of pulling any trick out of the bag and being able to rescue Chelsea when necessary and you'd think this would help Torres find his old form but you're mistaken.
Those are three midfielders that are finding their feet in the English game and however successful they were before they joined Chelsea they are still players that are attempting to make a name for themselves in world football, do not mistake that for me claiming they are pushing for moves to another club.

At Liverpool, Torres was playing in front of Steven Gerrard who's a midfielder who's already made his name in the game worldwide and Xabi Alonso who's become a vital part of Spains squad for every major tournament and was doing so at the time.

At Chelsea, he's playing in front of midfielders that are making their own mark on the game and are not the correct players to get the most out of Fernando Torres and get the old Torres back, however creative the afore mentioned may be!


In conclusion i believe to get the best out Fernando Torres, you should play him in midfielders that are willing to make him centre stage, players that have already made their mark and are open to making Torres become his old self.

BVB.

Borussia Dortmund. The team on most fans lips when you think of the Bundesliga and the current Champions League campaign.  This is a team that i personally have been keeping an eye on since at least 2009, when the likes of Mohamed Zidan and Lucas Barrios were leading the line for the German outfit.

Since then, both of them have moved on to pastures new and as the cliche goes, the grass isn't always greener and this has proved so for Mohamed Zidan who is now a free agent however Lucas Barrios isn't doing all that bad at Guangzhou Evergrande.
Another player we've seen leave the yellow of Dortmund was Nuri Sahin who was arguably the heartbeat of Dortmunds team however, when Jose Mourinho comes calling as the manager of Real Madrid, you're not going to say no are you? Sahin went on to make an astounding FOUR appearances for Real Madrid's first XI, was then loaned out to Liverpool who then sent him back to Madrid after 7 appearances and is now back in the black and yellow of Dortmund!

When Nuri was sold to Madrid, Dortmund went on to find a more than capable replacement in the Turkish-born German, Ilkay Gundogan and every time i've been able to catch Dortmund playing, this man has been more than instrumental in not only keeping teams attacks at bay, also being an important player in dictating Dortmunds flow in midfield and attacking in the final third.


A lot of football fans have been reeled in by BVB's attacking, full of flair starting XI and especially in the front four of, Jakub "Kuba" Blaszczykowski, Mario Gotze, Marco Reus and Robert "Lewa" Lewandowski.
The latter, Lewandowski was bought by Jurgen Klopp in the summer of 2010 for a small fee of just 4.5 million Euros, Kuba from Lech Poznan for an undisclosed fee however, no Dortmund fan has good enough reason to complain.
Marco Reus was brought in from Borussia Monchengladbach, in the summer than the dynamic Japanese playmaker Shinji Kagawa was sold to Manchester United and he's certainly justified his price tag.

Jurgen Klopp has a squad under his management that look set for challenge Bayern Munichs domination of the Bundesliga for some years to come and with Bayern Munich bringing in the tactical astute Pep Guardiola in the summer, we are looking to have a superb tactical battle on our hands for the foreseen future with Jurgen Klopp vs Pep Guardiola.

The rising of, Rafael.

With Manchester United on course to win their 20th league title barring them blowing a big points gap for the second consecutive season, not many Manchester United fans can argue that three players have contributed more than most to this league title, the English lynchpin in Michael Carrick, the Dutch maestro Robin Van Persie and the full of confidence, new number 2.. Rafael Da Silva.

He and his twin brother, Fabio Da Silva agreed to move to Manchester United back in 2007 without even having played a match for Fluminese's first team however moved to United only in 2008 but were unable to play for Manchester United until they both turned 18. At this time, Gary Neville and Patrice Evra had the right back and left back slots nailed down as their own however this would not deter the Brazilian pair from attempting to break through into the first team.

With Rafael making his debut for the first team in the league a year before his brother(Fabio's was delayed due to a calf injury), many MUFC fans were hoping this young, bushy haired Brazilian would become as good as right backs that have come before him in Brazils first team such as Cafu, Maicon and most recently, Dani Alves of Barcelona. However fans of Manchester United have had to wait quite a long time to see the best of the player.

Sir Alex Ferguson had decided in the past to put his faith into the young right back in quite frankly, very big games for our club including the second leg of the UEFA Champions League against Bayern Munich in April 2010 when, as Sir Alex put it "he absolutely dominated Franck Ribery" until being sent off for a shirt tug in the second half. Manchester United went on to draw the tie 4-4 however went out on the away goals rule.
He and his brother Fabio had previously started in quite frankly, a team full of young players in a FA Cup semi final in 2009, a cup Manchester United haven't won since 2004, where the twins themselves didn't do that bad but United went on to lose the tie on penalties.

Rafael also got himself sent off for two booking against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane and was warned about his future conduct. Manchester United fans had become accustomed to his fiery temperament and rashness in challenges however the latter pretty much was forgotten by most Manchester United fans when Rafael squared up to cross-town rival, Carlos Tevez in the Manchester Derby! [Pictured below]




United first choice right back for over a decade, Gary Neville decided to retire in 2011 however Rafael didn't become Uniteds number 2 till the current 2012-2013 season and he's seemingly took off where Gary Neville left, linking up with Antonio Valencia on the right flank. However with United's wingers being off the boil this season, Rafael has actually become MUFC's most attacking threat when it comes to attacking down the wings!
Having tested himself against what could only be described as a plethora of the worlds best attacking talent since his move to Manchester United in Frank Ribery and most recently this season, former United hero Cristiano Ronaldo, this Brazilian can be genuinely proud of the amount of progress he has made for the reds.
Few could argue that he can be denied the Young PFA player of the year award for the second time in his career however, Gareth Bale like Rafael, has a strong case for that.
This season, Rafael has done his reputation wonders with exquisite goals coming against rivals Liverpool, a well took finish against Fulham back in 2012 and recently what BBC journalist Dan Walker described as a "thronker", not to mention his main duties in defense when needed. At the age of just 22, Rafael Da Silva has made 100 appearance for Manchester United, a feat not many Manchester United players have managed at such a tender age and with the guidance with experienced defenders such as Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand and coaches at Manchester United, this young Brazilian and hopefully his brother will hopefully go on to become established starters for club and country.

Can Spurs really mount a title challenge, next season?

Seeing as most people are seeing the 2012-2013 title as a foregone conclusion with United on course to win their 20th league title, the focus is now starting to shift onto who's going to hold on to the three remaining Champions League qualification spots!
Manchester City have been floating around in second place since late 2012 and they seem to be struggling to keep up with Manchester United at the top of the table, seemingly without noticing who are creeping up on them in 3rd, Tottenham Hotspur.

Now, Spurs have previously qualified for the Champions League under previous management with Harry Redknapp however Daniel Levy presumably, decided to release him and then went on to bring in the previous Porto and most recently, Chelsea manager. A lot of questions were asked at the time of this appointment seeing as he didn't do very well with a Chelsea team backed by Roman's millions but Daniel Levy decided to give Villas-Boas something that Roman Abramovich didn't have and hasn't had with a lot of managers bar a certain Mr Mourinho and that is, time.

In the summer of 2012 during the transfer market, AVB decided to take a chance on a certain Belgian centre half that few people had heard of before Ajax came up against Manchester United in the Europa League.
Jan Vertonghen, a left footed "rolls royce" of a defender, still young and still learning yet seemingly playing like a defender who's grew up in the Premier League rather than the Eredivisie, it's been quoted that during that mentioned summer he did have a lot of suitors but nobody was willing to take a chance on the player and now Tottenham are reaping the rewards of a centre half that's pretty much going to be in Belgiums national team alongside the world class Vincent Kompany for the next few years at least.

He brought in Gylfi Sigurdsson who was loaned from Hoffenheim to Swansea in the 2011-2012 season and had a massive impact on keeping them afloat, for a reported fee of £8 million, has proven to be a very good squad player however few would argue he would be doing a better job back at Swansea as a starter however the Welsh team, seem to be doing fine without him.
He invested also in two of Fulhams want-away most attacking players in Clint Dempsey and Moussa Dembele, the former had been linked with Liverpool throughout the summer and the latter, linked with Manchester United. Now Clint Dempsey hasn't become a vital part of the Tottenham team yet however with Dembele it's a totally different story. With him having forged a balanced on the pitch relationship with Sandro, Tottenham had found the perfect balance in midfield with one doing the dirty work and one being the "ball carrier" into the final third however that partnership was short lived as Sandro fell to injury and underwent surgery in January 2013.

Looking past the signings Mr Villas Boas brought in and what he did with players that were there before he was, who he sold and who stayed you cannot argue with his work.
Luka Modric, the Croat who tried to push for a move to Chelsea in a previous market was sold to Spanish giants Real Madrid for a fee of 26 million. Few would argue he's worth that much on the pitch but he was obviously worth that much to Spurs and their ambitions.
Rafael Van Der Vaart, a dutch playmaker many feel that Manchester United missed out on was sold back to HSV for a reported fee of £10.8 million. It was well documented that Van Der Vaart's stamina wasn't the best and had to be subbed many-a time so it wasn't often you seen him finishing 90 minutes.

During his spell at Porto, he went the full season unbeaten and also won the treble with his side which did lead to many journo's drawing similarities with him and his fellow country man, Jose Mourinho. But it wasn't that, what stood out most of all. It was his man-management skills and his ability to put belief into the the best players in that Porto side, mainly Hulk, Joao Moutinho and the world class striker who moved onto La Liga since, Radamel Falcao.

AVB has currently put them man management skills to use with Gareth Bale and what a revelation he has become this season not to mention being the main reason behind Tottenhams sudden surge up the table into second and only a few points behind the current Premier League champions, Manchester City who are lingering in 2nd.
His current form has given journalists, football fans and pundits many reasons to class him as one of the worlds best players and few could argue with his goals to games ratio playing as a winger.
In my eyes, Tottenham only need a handful of class players to push on for a go at the league.
They do have enough depth as it is but in certain areas, when they lose a player to injury/suspension .. the player that comes in for him just isn't good enough. Mainly right back and strikers i personally feel they need to improve. Their midfield is good enough on any given day to play against anyone in the league and maybe in Europe, their defence is young but always learning. Kyle Walker has made that right back position his own but with minimum threat plus he's still prone to the odd error and lapse in concentration.. most recently against Liverpool on the 10th of  March and against Chelsea at White Hart Lane when Juan Mata admittedly got into his head and he gave away a goal in the 90th minute.

Jermaine Defoe and Adebayor who are regularly rotated in this Spurs team i feel, are not good enough if Spurs want to push on in the league. Worth mentioning that Jermaine Defoe has been quite selfish over recent weeks when in goal scoring situations, maybe all the attention and headlines that Gareth Bale is grabbing is getting to him, who's to say?

Off the top of my head i can think of many players that Spurs could enquire/go in for who would not only improve their team but could even attract even bigger players to be a part of this clubs project.
Leandro Damiao, Stevan Jovetic are some of the names that have been mentioned before but most recently Gary Hooper of Celtic in the SPL has been linked with a summer exit, could we see Spurs lodge a bid for the English hitman? Even Mario Gomez of FC Bayern and Robert Lewandowski of BVB in the Bundesliga could be on the way out of their clubs in the summer, could we see Spurs go in for either of these poachers in an attempt to push on in the league?

Who knows.

Treble dreams, shattered.

When Manchester United left the Santiago Bernabeu stadium with a 1-1 draw with a headed goal from the home grown Danny "Welbz" Welbeck, the reds treble dreams were still well alive and with a Premier League tie with Norwich on the horizon before the second leg back at Old Trafford, few things were more vital than correctly rotating the squad and keeping important players fit and raring to go. United warmed up well for the second leg against Madrid and the FA cup tie at Old Trafford against Chelsea with a tidy 4-0 against a Norwich side that you could argue didn't turn up as well as they did at Carrow Road.
Many football fans finally got to see a glimpse of the Shinji Kagawa that few football fans seen at Dortmund against that Norwich side, with a hat trick littered with cheeky finishes with a MOTM performance and a rocket from Rooney that sealed the win against Norwich and everything was looking on track for the coveted treble that hasn't been seen for 14 years.

Then came the second leg against a Madrid side that have beaten Barcelona twice in two consecutive meetings beforehand so they hadn't warmed up too badly for this match you could say however, the team that Sir Alex Ferguson put out to face Madrid had nullified every possible threat that Madrid brought to the table at Old Trafford and managed to squeeze an own goal out of Sergio Ramos to put them on course to go through to the last 8 of the Champions League. Of course sticking with the team selection that the manager put out, more focus was on the fact that Wayne Rooney wasn't in the starting XI than the focus was on the actual starting XI. Most MUFC fans that watched the Norwich game could argue that, goal aside.. Rooney didn't particularly have a superb game and didn't use the game to stake his claim in the starting XI against Madrid in a way that most of the other players did. The Madrid game was a perfect example of how Sir Alex had rotated his squad correctly to keep the treble dreams alive and few people could argue otherwise despite him starting a 39 year old Ryan Giggs and giving him co-duty of keeping one of the top two best players in the world quiet for a full 90 minutes, but it worked up until Nani's unfortunate and wrong red card. Sir Alex had deployed Nani and Welbeck to play off Robin Van Persie and use their pace to hit Madrid on the counter attack as Madrid play such a high line in most high profile games ( most notably, football fans remember that being the cause of a 5-0 mauling to Barcelona in recent years).
On the bench for the Madrid game, United had Hernandez, Rooney, Kagawa and Ashley Young and that is a plethora of attacking players if ever you seen them and they would get into most Premier League first teams starting XI every Saturday so that proves the depth of Uniteds squad across them three important matches against Norwich, Madrid and Chelsea respectively. Now chances are against Chelsea, you will see all four of them players mentioned above start against Chelsea as they were rested/rotated correctly.

Despite rotating players for the Madrid game, only one tactician came out on top in that midweek game and that was Mourinho. He smelt blood after the red card and brought on Luka Modric who knows the English game all so well and he was the key that unlocked the ten men of Manchester United and got Madrid on the road to a win. Wayne Rooney was eventually brought on and few people could argue it was too little, too late as Sir Alex presumably felt his tactics would stick even with ten men.


All in all, we move on from the Madrid loss and with a squad with such harmony that cannot be rivaled in the Premier League, we trudge on to Sunday's match with Chelsea with a fully fit squad barring Mr Utility in Phil Jones and Chelsea really should beware of the wounded animal, not to mention a raring to go.. Wayne Rooney.

Wenger and his technically long raincoat.

I, amongst many football fans have grew up watching Premier League football and Arsenal have been up there with the best teams in the league for some time. Arsene Wenger has been at the helm throughout Arsenals best trophy period/s in the Premier League and has had some absolutely world class footballers at the club in that time.

I've seen Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pires and Freddie Ljunberg dismantle teams with swift counter attacks in seconds and i've seen the invincible's close out teams for a full season and that will never be repeated however, all good things come to an end and it'll happen to most football clubs .. the honeymoon period will end and they'll either end up selling players that want to leave or they will go through a trophy-less period and when that time comes, you can only hope that you have either a manager or leaders in your squad that can guide you through that rough time.

Now, a lot of football fans that are from the outside looking in at Arsenal will mostly agree that Arsenal are lacking a leader ON the pitch mainly someone who will get stuck in, grab the team by the scruff of the neck and lead his team onto a draw or a win.
They had that in Patrick Viera, they had it in their two centre halves and they had it in Thierry Henry, Bergkamp and Pires and many other players that were part of the invincible's.. players that would not give their team mates any other choice but to get their heads up and push on.
Of course, not all teams need a gamechanger in midfield who gets stuck in etc.. Manchester United don't have one and they get by just fine however they win trophies pretty much year in, year out and that's the difference between the two.
I personally feel Arsenal could improve in a handful of positions in their starting XI and that's not me having a dig whatsoever, that's me expressing what i feel will improve Arsenal and get them back in the top four.
The fact that actually a few Arsenal fans want Wenger out is however, quite puzzling considering he's the man that has led their club to a UCL final, again i'm going to mention the invincible's as well amongst other honours. The question i forward to you is, if Wenger was to quit.. who's going to be the experienced leader in Arsenals camp? Yeah sure you could bring in a new manager but what will he have, what Wenger doesn't? A stricter regime on the players? You cannot replace a man with such integrity just because you went without trophies, you can't always blame the manager for that. He puts out a starting XI that he feels can win the game that's in front of him. Despite that, you can argue that he has had players that could have lead his team to glory over the last, 5 years? Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas and most recently, Robin Van Persie have moved on to pastures new, to seek trophies to fulfill their own personal dreams and ambitions and from an unbiased point of view, you can't blame them whatsoever but let's get one thing straight that a lot of people seem to forget.. Arsenal didn't PRODUCE the three mentioned .. they were all bought from a young age, they were nurtured and they moved on. From Marseille, Barcelona and Feyenoord respectively they were all brought in from a young age and they matured and moved on. Personally in my eyes that does not make Arsenal a selling club, it may have dropped them down a peg or two in the Premier League food chain but that's about it. Footballers are hungry for success and they want it as much as they want to breath, especially when you're well known world beaters who do it on a consistent basis. You can blame Arsene Wenger all you want for selling the mentioned players, but who says he's the one who sorts out players contracts/extensions? With most managers at most football clubs, it's usually managers taking chances on players however due to the amount of high profile players that have left Arsenal over the last few years .. it's now become near enough, which managers are willing to take a chance on Arsene Wenger and his promises of success.