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.
Sunday, 10 March 2013
Saturday, 9 March 2013
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.
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.
Thursday, 7 March 2013
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.
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.
Saturday, 12 January 2013
Wilshere vs Cleverely
New debate on the street, which is the better out of two of Englands brightest talents in midfield.. Jack Wilshere OR Tom Cleverely.
If you're biased you're clearly going to side with one or the other because that's what football fans do! I'm not going to bombard anyone with stats as most football fans in general aren't interested in them, all i'm going to do is offer my opinion.
Tom Cleverely
As a Manchester United fan I appreciate the job what Tom Cleverely does in our team and he's probably more under-rated than he is, over-rated. Considering the midfield options that United have, Cleverely has done a very good job in making a spot in midfield his own as he has to battle with the likes of Paul Scholes, Michael Carrick, Shinji Kagawa and Anderson who all offer their own specific duty to the team. Having been sent on loan by Sir Alex three times, to three different clubs since he was brought in from Bradford in 2000 and having had a spell throughout the majority of our youth teams i have nothing but praise for the youngster himself. Now he doesn't have the vision as of yet, that the majority of the players i mentioned above do, however he does bring a lot of energy in midfield not to mention he often become an available, unmarked option for you to pass the ball to, to get the ball up the field and out of danger often using one-two's to get out of tight situations. He doesn't score as many goals as most midfielders out there as he's not renown for his shooting ability or finishing ability but he has brought more goals to his game this season than in the past so it can't be a bad thing. Unlike Jack Wilshere most of all, he's made more progress in the first team having missed his first season with the first team with injury, he's coming along nicely to become an integral part of both Englands and Manchester Uniteds team.
Jack Wilshere
Jack Wilshere's done a lot to come back from the injury problems that have plagued his career up until this season which has been a shame, as most football fans enjoy watching him dictate most football matches he plays, one including a certain match against Barcelona in the Champions League which says a lot seeing as Barcelona's midfield have dominated so many games in recent times.
Now what differs from him and Tom Cleverely is that, Jack Wilshere is seen by many as a "playmaker" who can make things happen and makes that his own duty in football matches to supply team-mates with goal scoring opportunities whereas Cleverely is a box-to-box midfielder or just a midfielder who brings his own abilities to whichever team he plays in.
Now despite many saying Jack Wilshere's lacking in first team progress, it turns out he's actually made more first team appearances for Arsenal than Cleverely has for Manchester United, but he's had more injury problems than Cleverely which does account for a lot. Having been loaned out to Bolton Wanderers in the 2009-2010 season, he was praised a lot by a lot of managers of teams he played against in that season which was counted a lot towards his first team progress in the premier league.
All i'm saying is i don't feel the need to compare the players abilities against one another as they not only play a completely different ball game when they play, they play different roles in their respective teams and when they both peak they should hopefully become class internationals in Englands team come future world tournaments and winning trophies for their clubs.
If you're biased you're clearly going to side with one or the other because that's what football fans do! I'm not going to bombard anyone with stats as most football fans in general aren't interested in them, all i'm going to do is offer my opinion.
Tom Cleverely
As a Manchester United fan I appreciate the job what Tom Cleverely does in our team and he's probably more under-rated than he is, over-rated. Considering the midfield options that United have, Cleverely has done a very good job in making a spot in midfield his own as he has to battle with the likes of Paul Scholes, Michael Carrick, Shinji Kagawa and Anderson who all offer their own specific duty to the team. Having been sent on loan by Sir Alex three times, to three different clubs since he was brought in from Bradford in 2000 and having had a spell throughout the majority of our youth teams i have nothing but praise for the youngster himself. Now he doesn't have the vision as of yet, that the majority of the players i mentioned above do, however he does bring a lot of energy in midfield not to mention he often become an available, unmarked option for you to pass the ball to, to get the ball up the field and out of danger often using one-two's to get out of tight situations. He doesn't score as many goals as most midfielders out there as he's not renown for his shooting ability or finishing ability but he has brought more goals to his game this season than in the past so it can't be a bad thing. Unlike Jack Wilshere most of all, he's made more progress in the first team having missed his first season with the first team with injury, he's coming along nicely to become an integral part of both Englands and Manchester Uniteds team.
Jack Wilshere
Jack Wilshere's done a lot to come back from the injury problems that have plagued his career up until this season which has been a shame, as most football fans enjoy watching him dictate most football matches he plays, one including a certain match against Barcelona in the Champions League which says a lot seeing as Barcelona's midfield have dominated so many games in recent times.
Now what differs from him and Tom Cleverely is that, Jack Wilshere is seen by many as a "playmaker" who can make things happen and makes that his own duty in football matches to supply team-mates with goal scoring opportunities whereas Cleverely is a box-to-box midfielder or just a midfielder who brings his own abilities to whichever team he plays in.
Now despite many saying Jack Wilshere's lacking in first team progress, it turns out he's actually made more first team appearances for Arsenal than Cleverely has for Manchester United, but he's had more injury problems than Cleverely which does account for a lot. Having been loaned out to Bolton Wanderers in the 2009-2010 season, he was praised a lot by a lot of managers of teams he played against in that season which was counted a lot towards his first team progress in the premier league.
All i'm saying is i don't feel the need to compare the players abilities against one another as they not only play a completely different ball game when they play, they play different roles in their respective teams and when they both peak they should hopefully become class internationals in Englands team come future world tournaments and winning trophies for their clubs.
Friday, 11 January 2013
Lionel Messi.
Now there's been a long, ongoing myth that Lionel Messi is only successful due to two of the greatest midfielders to ever grace the game.. Xavi and Andres Iniesta play in the midfield behind him and supply him all the time with assists? Sounds silly, right?
Now some people do have a point that he struggles in Argentina's side because his goal record isn't as prolific for Argentina as it is for Barcelona and there has to be a reason for that, which is what i'm going to try and explain.
Barcelona have made the "tiki taka" style of playing their own throughout their first team all the way through to their academy, otherwise known as total football which was played by the Holland team as far back as 1970 which was led by Johan Cruyff and the national team coach at the time! Now Pep Guardiola has stated himself that Johan Cruyff has taught him a lot when it comes to football and it's no coincidence that since Pep's arrival at Barcelona as head coach and Johan Cruyffs's placement in Barcelona's backroom staff that Barcelona adapted the "tiki taka" as their own style of play and soon it made it's way into the National team and is widely credited for Euro 2012, World Cup 2010 and Euro 2008 trophies that Spain have won since.?
Now, back to my original point about Lionel Messi and the two Spanish maestros..Messi doesn't struggle as such when he's in Argentina's squad, he just doesn't perform as well as he does for Barcelona and that's because Argentina do not play total football, no disrespect to Argentina's style of football however but they do not base their style of play to benefit Messi which is something Barcelona near enough do.
Having sacrificed some of the worlds greatest footballers and playing them out of position to benefit and get the best out of Lionel Messi, the likes of Samuel Eto'o, Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and David Villa .. Messi is basically given a free role within the team to pick up the ball whenever he pleases and run at defences once the said defences have been carved open with Barcelonas tiki-taka football.
The whole of Barcelona's team play to benefit Lionel Messi and that's not to criticize him whatsoever as he is a magnificent footballer and the team trust him a lot to basically give him the ball at any given opportunity as they know nine times out of ten, the ball will end up in the back of the net.
Now i believe myself that due to the small amount of tall players in Barcelonas team, this is why tiki-taka is so effective for Barcelona and Spains team, they have height where it matters in the team however in Xabi Alonso, Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique in Spains team specifically.
Football's a very simple game, well.. it's as simple as you make it. Unless Argentina make some progress towards their international team playing Barcelona's style of play, they will simply not get the best out of Lionel Messi which would be a crying shame as a player as good as he is should be winning plenty of international honours around this time in his career and it would be a shame for him not to win anything with his country and people will always find that a reason as to why he's not "the greatest ever" or "the best in the world".
Now some people do have a point that he struggles in Argentina's side because his goal record isn't as prolific for Argentina as it is for Barcelona and there has to be a reason for that, which is what i'm going to try and explain.
Barcelona have made the "tiki taka" style of playing their own throughout their first team all the way through to their academy, otherwise known as total football which was played by the Holland team as far back as 1970 which was led by Johan Cruyff and the national team coach at the time! Now Pep Guardiola has stated himself that Johan Cruyff has taught him a lot when it comes to football and it's no coincidence that since Pep's arrival at Barcelona as head coach and Johan Cruyffs's placement in Barcelona's backroom staff that Barcelona adapted the "tiki taka" as their own style of play and soon it made it's way into the National team and is widely credited for Euro 2012, World Cup 2010 and Euro 2008 trophies that Spain have won since.?
Now, back to my original point about Lionel Messi and the two Spanish maestros..Messi doesn't struggle as such when he's in Argentina's squad, he just doesn't perform as well as he does for Barcelona and that's because Argentina do not play total football, no disrespect to Argentina's style of football however but they do not base their style of play to benefit Messi which is something Barcelona near enough do.
Having sacrificed some of the worlds greatest footballers and playing them out of position to benefit and get the best out of Lionel Messi, the likes of Samuel Eto'o, Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and David Villa .. Messi is basically given a free role within the team to pick up the ball whenever he pleases and run at defences once the said defences have been carved open with Barcelonas tiki-taka football.
The whole of Barcelona's team play to benefit Lionel Messi and that's not to criticize him whatsoever as he is a magnificent footballer and the team trust him a lot to basically give him the ball at any given opportunity as they know nine times out of ten, the ball will end up in the back of the net.
Now i believe myself that due to the small amount of tall players in Barcelonas team, this is why tiki-taka is so effective for Barcelona and Spains team, they have height where it matters in the team however in Xabi Alonso, Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique in Spains team specifically.
Football's a very simple game, well.. it's as simple as you make it. Unless Argentina make some progress towards their international team playing Barcelona's style of play, they will simply not get the best out of Lionel Messi which would be a crying shame as a player as good as he is should be winning plenty of international honours around this time in his career and it would be a shame for him not to win anything with his country and people will always find that a reason as to why he's not "the greatest ever" or "the best in the world".
Tuesday, 2 October 2012
Start.
So, where to begin.
Manchester United, the team who ever so cruelly had their title snatched away from them last season, have kicked off this season in a different manner shall we say.
Out of 6 premier league games that they've played so far, they have fell behind in 5 of them, won 3 and lost the remaining 2.
Now you may look at this and say "they recouped points from a losing position though, that's good right?" and in some sense you would be right. But having had a proportion of the squad on international escapades at the Euro 2012, players missing pre-season, players being brought in near the back end of the market, it's not a good thing falling behind and having to push a squad which is all at different fitness levels, to unnecessary levels of intensity.
Now combine that with players that are performing nowhere near their level of ability which we've seen in the past.
I'm only looking at a few players with that sentence however, a couple of names which a lot of United fans including myself have been cursing since i can only remember! Nani and Patrice Evra.
Here you have two players, one who was labelled as the best left back in the world at one point and another who has the world at his feet and nobody enjoys seeing footballers suffer especially when they play for the team you support.
Now Patrice Evra has had a turbulent last five or so years, having had the whole France squad walk out at Euro 2008, losing his place in the National team and losing his brother, you'd almost pardon him for having a slump in form, right? If you play for a team of Manchester Uniteds magnitude, you MUST be at the top of your game for every single match you play, or else you may as well not turn up and that's the truth whether you choose to believe it or not. Yet you look at the Evra and you have a player who seems to have forgotten how to mark, defend and stand up to wingers, be it to get tight to them or give them a yard, he doesn't do either, he gives them 5 yards to do whatever they want to with the ball which does not help your centre halves at all as they themselves have a given duty to mark the centre forwards who dart in after the crosses.
All Evra has to do is show the winger down the line and the danger's either cut out by the centre half or by Evra himself and if you know how to play football, you know how frustrating it is watching players getting dragged out of position and conceding stupid goals.
Now last season we had one hell of a combination of defenders playing at the back, i think we played 8 players their, 3/4 of which are not defenders and a lot of people used that as an excuse as to why we conceded a lot of goals and to some extent, we/ they're right, but that was last season so we move on, right? So we go into 2012-2013 and we see Vidic is back into our line up, collective "cheers" up and down the country because our best centre half is back, maybe some stability! Until Sir Alex starts chopping and changing his goalkeepers around, then Vidic, Smalling and Jones all get injured and suddenly you're stuck with two goalkeepers on rotation, neither of which know what's going on, a 33 year old centre half who by the looks of things hasn't adjusted to his own legs slowing down and adapting his game to them circumstances and a half fit Jonny Evans. Now Jonny Evans has put in a lot of work over the last year or so to become the defender a lot of us, know he can be and everyone has used him as a scapegoat for a United loss at least once, so don't sit their and deny you haven't!
Now we've narrowed it down a bit, you can sort of understand why we're conceding quite a few goals so early in the season.. lack of stability! We really should look at the silver lining and look at the right back position where Rafael's finally settled in and is finally showing the potential we all know he has, plus he's pitched in with a couple of goals too! Luckily Robin Van Persie's took to our team like a duck to water and is scoring goals like they're going out of fashion, 7 in 7 to be precise and our other strikers haven't even come out the blocks yet, which brings me to another subject.
When i myself heard about Robin Van Persie not signing a contract extension at Arsenal, i said to my best friend that i wouldn't want us to sign him because he'd halt Welbecks and Hernandez's progress in the first team, but in hindsight i didn't realise it would take pressure off Wayne Rooney's shoulders who's been scoring all our goals it seems, for the last two seasons!
So far i'm slightly right as well, Welbeck's been kept on the bench and Hernandez does not look like he's at the races, despite him missing out at the Olympics to rest up for this season.
You'd think having another striker being brought in would up your own game, keep you on your toes and give you an incentive to push on for a starting spot but it doesn't seem this way with these two, who knows why? Maybe because they're young, they haven't matured properly yet in that mindset? As a United fan, i can honestly say i cannot wait till they are both "given the ball and told to run with it" because when they do, hopefully we'll have four strikers capable of scoring at least 20 goals each, that's no exaggeration too, we all know they're capable.
Now to Nani!
We've all seen him labelled as " the next Ronaldo" and we all know why, similar direct styles not to mention they're the same nationality *hurrah*! nobody likes to see a footballer struggle especially when he has bucket loads of potential. However this is a kid, quite literally who got the most second assists in the Premier League last season and still finds himself second choice on our right wing, behind the man who most prefer in that position, Antonio Valencia. Now Antonio Valencia is a very powerful, direct winger who will get the job done 9/10 however Nani brings another dimension to an attack doesn't he? He has skill, flair, pace, power and on his day has one of the best deliveries in world football and he's in a rut. It's up to him and only him to get himself out of it and he can also get out of Ronaldos shadow where most of us believe he is! He has the potential to be the best right winger in the world and a lot of football fans know this. It's all fun saying "a person being paid thousands of pounds to kick a ball should be able to do it correctly" maybe it's not that easy, we're all human and we all have imperfections and feelings! Having 70'000 collectively sighing at you when you do something wrong does not help anyones confidence at all, i'm sure. So instead of booing/sighing whatever .. cheering and encouragement is actually a good enough substitute to help somebody fulfil their potential. Frustration is a bitch but you cannot win as a team and lose as individuals. I've done it before and picked at the first player i saw and blamed them for a loss. Team game!
Think about it.
Manchester United, the team who ever so cruelly had their title snatched away from them last season, have kicked off this season in a different manner shall we say.
Out of 6 premier league games that they've played so far, they have fell behind in 5 of them, won 3 and lost the remaining 2.
Now you may look at this and say "they recouped points from a losing position though, that's good right?" and in some sense you would be right. But having had a proportion of the squad on international escapades at the Euro 2012, players missing pre-season, players being brought in near the back end of the market, it's not a good thing falling behind and having to push a squad which is all at different fitness levels, to unnecessary levels of intensity.
Now combine that with players that are performing nowhere near their level of ability which we've seen in the past.
I'm only looking at a few players with that sentence however, a couple of names which a lot of United fans including myself have been cursing since i can only remember! Nani and Patrice Evra.
Here you have two players, one who was labelled as the best left back in the world at one point and another who has the world at his feet and nobody enjoys seeing footballers suffer especially when they play for the team you support.
Now Patrice Evra has had a turbulent last five or so years, having had the whole France squad walk out at Euro 2008, losing his place in the National team and losing his brother, you'd almost pardon him for having a slump in form, right? If you play for a team of Manchester Uniteds magnitude, you MUST be at the top of your game for every single match you play, or else you may as well not turn up and that's the truth whether you choose to believe it or not. Yet you look at the Evra and you have a player who seems to have forgotten how to mark, defend and stand up to wingers, be it to get tight to them or give them a yard, he doesn't do either, he gives them 5 yards to do whatever they want to with the ball which does not help your centre halves at all as they themselves have a given duty to mark the centre forwards who dart in after the crosses.
All Evra has to do is show the winger down the line and the danger's either cut out by the centre half or by Evra himself and if you know how to play football, you know how frustrating it is watching players getting dragged out of position and conceding stupid goals.
Now last season we had one hell of a combination of defenders playing at the back, i think we played 8 players their, 3/4 of which are not defenders and a lot of people used that as an excuse as to why we conceded a lot of goals and to some extent, we/ they're right, but that was last season so we move on, right? So we go into 2012-2013 and we see Vidic is back into our line up, collective "cheers" up and down the country because our best centre half is back, maybe some stability! Until Sir Alex starts chopping and changing his goalkeepers around, then Vidic, Smalling and Jones all get injured and suddenly you're stuck with two goalkeepers on rotation, neither of which know what's going on, a 33 year old centre half who by the looks of things hasn't adjusted to his own legs slowing down and adapting his game to them circumstances and a half fit Jonny Evans. Now Jonny Evans has put in a lot of work over the last year or so to become the defender a lot of us, know he can be and everyone has used him as a scapegoat for a United loss at least once, so don't sit their and deny you haven't!
Now we've narrowed it down a bit, you can sort of understand why we're conceding quite a few goals so early in the season.. lack of stability! We really should look at the silver lining and look at the right back position where Rafael's finally settled in and is finally showing the potential we all know he has, plus he's pitched in with a couple of goals too! Luckily Robin Van Persie's took to our team like a duck to water and is scoring goals like they're going out of fashion, 7 in 7 to be precise and our other strikers haven't even come out the blocks yet, which brings me to another subject.
When i myself heard about Robin Van Persie not signing a contract extension at Arsenal, i said to my best friend that i wouldn't want us to sign him because he'd halt Welbecks and Hernandez's progress in the first team, but in hindsight i didn't realise it would take pressure off Wayne Rooney's shoulders who's been scoring all our goals it seems, for the last two seasons!
So far i'm slightly right as well, Welbeck's been kept on the bench and Hernandez does not look like he's at the races, despite him missing out at the Olympics to rest up for this season.
You'd think having another striker being brought in would up your own game, keep you on your toes and give you an incentive to push on for a starting spot but it doesn't seem this way with these two, who knows why? Maybe because they're young, they haven't matured properly yet in that mindset? As a United fan, i can honestly say i cannot wait till they are both "given the ball and told to run with it" because when they do, hopefully we'll have four strikers capable of scoring at least 20 goals each, that's no exaggeration too, we all know they're capable.
Now to Nani!
We've all seen him labelled as " the next Ronaldo" and we all know why, similar direct styles not to mention they're the same nationality *hurrah*! nobody likes to see a footballer struggle especially when he has bucket loads of potential. However this is a kid, quite literally who got the most second assists in the Premier League last season and still finds himself second choice on our right wing, behind the man who most prefer in that position, Antonio Valencia. Now Antonio Valencia is a very powerful, direct winger who will get the job done 9/10 however Nani brings another dimension to an attack doesn't he? He has skill, flair, pace, power and on his day has one of the best deliveries in world football and he's in a rut. It's up to him and only him to get himself out of it and he can also get out of Ronaldos shadow where most of us believe he is! He has the potential to be the best right winger in the world and a lot of football fans know this. It's all fun saying "a person being paid thousands of pounds to kick a ball should be able to do it correctly" maybe it's not that easy, we're all human and we all have imperfections and feelings! Having 70'000 collectively sighing at you when you do something wrong does not help anyones confidence at all, i'm sure. So instead of booing/sighing whatever .. cheering and encouragement is actually a good enough substitute to help somebody fulfil their potential. Frustration is a bitch but you cannot win as a team and lose as individuals. I've done it before and picked at the first player i saw and blamed them for a loss. Team game!
Think about it.
Sunday, 8 April 2012
Player power.
Player power seems to be grasping the headlines in football clubs nowadays, for all the wrong reasons let it be known.
The most recent episode of it has happened at Manchester City who over the last two seasons or so have established themselves as title challengers, putting them amongst teams such as Chelsea and Arsenal who have been challenging Manchester United for the last 15 years or so, Tottenham seem to be sneaking upon the title challenging radar also.
Anyone who follows football, knows about the episode with Carlos Tevez on Manchester Citys european escapades in Germany in the group stages of the UCL this season, a quick recap may be in order.
The night it happened fell on the same night Manchester United managed to scrape a draw at home to Basle FC in which the game finished 3-3, however the Carlos Tevez issue overshadowed that.
Manchester City were 2-0 down to Bayern Munich and Carlos Tevez and Nigel De Jong were told to warm up as Mancini was looking to attack and claw back the deficit, after calling Nigel De Jong and Carlos Tevez back to get stripped to get ready, he chose Nigel De Jong instead of Tevez to replace Edin Dzeko who was chosen to come off and as you can imagine he wasn't happy with being substituted, reacted angrily to being subbed.
Carlos Tevez however was the most angry of the two, when called upon to warm up once more so he's ready to come on, refused to do so. During the match it was made to look like he refused to play, whereas that wasn't the truth.
After the game, Mancini claimed that "if i had my way, he'll be out of the club" , "he's finished with me, he's finished" .. most Manchester City fans given the impression that they have a player in their squad who doesn't want to play for them, which is understandable because of what went on.
Now when Carlos Tevez moved to the blue side of Manchester, it did manage to trigger an outburst of fans of City, as this was a cross town transfer which are usually frowned upon by football rivals of such.
This issue dragged out across the season and is still spoke about to this day despite, it happening over 6 months ago.
Especially as the gifted Argentinian went on holiday back to his homeland for more than a couple of month, didn't train and launched an astonishing attack the city of Manchester itself.
Roberto Mancini later on in the season let Carlos Tevez back into the squad after Tevez himself, apologised for the actions that took place but after Roberto Mancini took such a strong stand on the night and aftermath of the incident, you have to be asking .. why would you let this player in and disturb the harmony of the squad which has improved since?
Which brings me to an incident that happened over ten years ago.
Paul Scholes, a Manchester United midfielder who refused to play for the reds in a Carling Cup (Worthington Cup, as it was known) tie against Arsenal, which the team went on to lose 4-0, the previous game, Scholes was dropped due to poor form for the game at Anfield which finished 3-1 when Scholes was given ten minutes at the end.
Paul Scholes said himself, about the incident : It is something I regret doing. I wasn’t in a great mood after being left out of the starting line-up for the Liverpool game – our previous match,” he said. “It was basically the reserves who were playing at Arsenal and I got a bee in my bonnet that I wasn’t happy with it and my attitude was, ‘I’m not going’. It was a silly thing to do – I know that. I had reasons for it but it was stupid and I ended up apologising. But I was lucky – Sir Alex would have been well within his rights to get rid of me after I refused to play for one of his teams and I couldn’t have complained about it. I don’t think many players have done what I did. “I got fined for it – a week or two weeks’ wages. I can’t remember exactly but I didn’t do it again! And I definitely regret doing it.”
What is the difference between the two, i can only presume you're asking yourself?
The only difference's i can make out between the two incidents, is that one player had previously been playing for his current club 9 years before the incident, sort of had a short legacy set in stone so far in his career.
Myself as a Manchester United fan, cannot condone Paul Scholes for this incident, but at the time.. the "press" didn't have that much power, so it wasn't such a big deal.
& ever since that incident, Paul Scholes has become arguably the best midfielder to ever grace the game, of course that's my opinion, not fact.
Then we move onto the issue of Wayne Rooney in the 2010-2011 season.
The autumn of 2010, the talismanic striker for both club and country revealed that he had no intention to sign a new contract with Manchester United, upsetting the majority of the fanbase of the club, seeing as he has been such a pivotal figure in the side after overlooking the departures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Ruud Van Nistlerooy.
As more details came out, it was revealed that he had a minor fall out with Sir Alex Ferguson and didn't feel happy with no news regarding incoming transfers for the club.
Now two weeks after this incident, Manchester United fans were pleased to hear that Wayne Rooney had signed a new contract with the club which included a raise in wages, which came as no surprise as every player gets a rise in wage.
In the summer at the end of the season, Manchester United later went on to sign Phil Jones from Blackburn, Ashley Young from Aston Villa and young goalkeeper David De Gea from Athletico Madrid in La Liga.
Now again, i think the difference between the Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez sagas were that Wayne Rooney had already been at Manchester United for 5-6 previous years and had helped the club to numerous titles and cups.
Going back to the Carlos Tevez saga, i can't help but spare a thought for Mario Balotelli.
The youngster knows he's talented as do most football fans, he sees his current manager as a father figure so you'd think they get on, on and off the field.
Although he's young, if you've seen much of him before you'd be forgiven to believe that he could lead a club to glory, despite his age .. you've seen it before.. Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney for Manchester United, Lionel Messi for Barcelona etc etc.
You can't help but think, letting Carlos Tevez back into the squad has damaged Balotelli more than anyone.
As much as a live wire that he is, it's got to of ticked him off. Not to mention the majority of the Manchester City squad being given the impression that they can do what they want and still get a place guaranteed in the squad, although most players won't do anything Tevez did, you'd presume!
Nobody wants to see players over shadowing their respective clubs for the wrong reasons, don't get me wrong this is no dig at Manchester City however, you can't help but think Roberto Mancini has made the wrong decision in welcoming Tevez back into his squad, especially as it seems that Manchester City are looking more and more likely to miss out on their first Premier League title, making it look like they've brought back Tevez for no proven reason and with Balotelli looking like he's ruined his MCFC career with a stupid amount of incidents in the last two seasons.
As a United fan, i must add i hope Roberto Mancini doesn't get fired at the end of this season, it's not deserved.. he's brought a cup in three seasons to the Etihad, brought in Aguero, David Silva, Samir Nasri and Yaya Toure.. players years ago most City fans would never of imagined would be wearing the blue shirt of their club.
Improved Vincent Kompany who is recognised by most football fans as one of the best centre halves in world football.
Their uprising in football has seen them linked with players such as Robin Van Persie, Radamel Falcao, the Napoli trio of Marek Hamisk, Edinson Cavani and Ezequiel Lavezzi, Dutch maestro Wesley Sneijder, Croatian dynamo Luka Modric, even Real Madrid players such as Gonzalo Higuain and Karim Benzema at times.
Surely the players mentioned above wouldn't want to work for a manager who lets players come and go as they like?
Lets hope it works out in the long run and Manchester United have a new title challenger in years to come, not just for a couple of years.
The most recent episode of it has happened at Manchester City who over the last two seasons or so have established themselves as title challengers, putting them amongst teams such as Chelsea and Arsenal who have been challenging Manchester United for the last 15 years or so, Tottenham seem to be sneaking upon the title challenging radar also.
Anyone who follows football, knows about the episode with Carlos Tevez on Manchester Citys european escapades in Germany in the group stages of the UCL this season, a quick recap may be in order.
The night it happened fell on the same night Manchester United managed to scrape a draw at home to Basle FC in which the game finished 3-3, however the Carlos Tevez issue overshadowed that.
Manchester City were 2-0 down to Bayern Munich and Carlos Tevez and Nigel De Jong were told to warm up as Mancini was looking to attack and claw back the deficit, after calling Nigel De Jong and Carlos Tevez back to get stripped to get ready, he chose Nigel De Jong instead of Tevez to replace Edin Dzeko who was chosen to come off and as you can imagine he wasn't happy with being substituted, reacted angrily to being subbed.
Carlos Tevez however was the most angry of the two, when called upon to warm up once more so he's ready to come on, refused to do so. During the match it was made to look like he refused to play, whereas that wasn't the truth.
After the game, Mancini claimed that "if i had my way, he'll be out of the club" , "he's finished with me, he's finished" .. most Manchester City fans given the impression that they have a player in their squad who doesn't want to play for them, which is understandable because of what went on.
Now when Carlos Tevez moved to the blue side of Manchester, it did manage to trigger an outburst of fans of City, as this was a cross town transfer which are usually frowned upon by football rivals of such.
This issue dragged out across the season and is still spoke about to this day despite, it happening over 6 months ago.
Especially as the gifted Argentinian went on holiday back to his homeland for more than a couple of month, didn't train and launched an astonishing attack the city of Manchester itself.
Roberto Mancini later on in the season let Carlos Tevez back into the squad after Tevez himself, apologised for the actions that took place but after Roberto Mancini took such a strong stand on the night and aftermath of the incident, you have to be asking .. why would you let this player in and disturb the harmony of the squad which has improved since?
Which brings me to an incident that happened over ten years ago.
Paul Scholes, a Manchester United midfielder who refused to play for the reds in a Carling Cup (Worthington Cup, as it was known) tie against Arsenal, which the team went on to lose 4-0, the previous game, Scholes was dropped due to poor form for the game at Anfield which finished 3-1 when Scholes was given ten minutes at the end.
Paul Scholes said himself, about the incident : It is something I regret doing. I wasn’t in a great mood after being left out of the starting line-up for the Liverpool game – our previous match,” he said. “It was basically the reserves who were playing at Arsenal and I got a bee in my bonnet that I wasn’t happy with it and my attitude was, ‘I’m not going’. It was a silly thing to do – I know that. I had reasons for it but it was stupid and I ended up apologising. But I was lucky – Sir Alex would have been well within his rights to get rid of me after I refused to play for one of his teams and I couldn’t have complained about it. I don’t think many players have done what I did. “I got fined for it – a week or two weeks’ wages. I can’t remember exactly but I didn’t do it again! And I definitely regret doing it.”
What is the difference between the two, i can only presume you're asking yourself?
The only difference's i can make out between the two incidents, is that one player had previously been playing for his current club 9 years before the incident, sort of had a short legacy set in stone so far in his career.
Myself as a Manchester United fan, cannot condone Paul Scholes for this incident, but at the time.. the "press" didn't have that much power, so it wasn't such a big deal.
& ever since that incident, Paul Scholes has become arguably the best midfielder to ever grace the game, of course that's my opinion, not fact.
Then we move onto the issue of Wayne Rooney in the 2010-2011 season.
The autumn of 2010, the talismanic striker for both club and country revealed that he had no intention to sign a new contract with Manchester United, upsetting the majority of the fanbase of the club, seeing as he has been such a pivotal figure in the side after overlooking the departures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Ruud Van Nistlerooy.
As more details came out, it was revealed that he had a minor fall out with Sir Alex Ferguson and didn't feel happy with no news regarding incoming transfers for the club.
Now two weeks after this incident, Manchester United fans were pleased to hear that Wayne Rooney had signed a new contract with the club which included a raise in wages, which came as no surprise as every player gets a rise in wage.
In the summer at the end of the season, Manchester United later went on to sign Phil Jones from Blackburn, Ashley Young from Aston Villa and young goalkeeper David De Gea from Athletico Madrid in La Liga.
Now again, i think the difference between the Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez sagas were that Wayne Rooney had already been at Manchester United for 5-6 previous years and had helped the club to numerous titles and cups.
Going back to the Carlos Tevez saga, i can't help but spare a thought for Mario Balotelli.
The youngster knows he's talented as do most football fans, he sees his current manager as a father figure so you'd think they get on, on and off the field.
Although he's young, if you've seen much of him before you'd be forgiven to believe that he could lead a club to glory, despite his age .. you've seen it before.. Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney for Manchester United, Lionel Messi for Barcelona etc etc.
You can't help but think, letting Carlos Tevez back into the squad has damaged Balotelli more than anyone.
As much as a live wire that he is, it's got to of ticked him off. Not to mention the majority of the Manchester City squad being given the impression that they can do what they want and still get a place guaranteed in the squad, although most players won't do anything Tevez did, you'd presume!
Nobody wants to see players over shadowing their respective clubs for the wrong reasons, don't get me wrong this is no dig at Manchester City however, you can't help but think Roberto Mancini has made the wrong decision in welcoming Tevez back into his squad, especially as it seems that Manchester City are looking more and more likely to miss out on their first Premier League title, making it look like they've brought back Tevez for no proven reason and with Balotelli looking like he's ruined his MCFC career with a stupid amount of incidents in the last two seasons.
As a United fan, i must add i hope Roberto Mancini doesn't get fired at the end of this season, it's not deserved.. he's brought a cup in three seasons to the Etihad, brought in Aguero, David Silva, Samir Nasri and Yaya Toure.. players years ago most City fans would never of imagined would be wearing the blue shirt of their club.
Improved Vincent Kompany who is recognised by most football fans as one of the best centre halves in world football.
Their uprising in football has seen them linked with players such as Robin Van Persie, Radamel Falcao, the Napoli trio of Marek Hamisk, Edinson Cavani and Ezequiel Lavezzi, Dutch maestro Wesley Sneijder, Croatian dynamo Luka Modric, even Real Madrid players such as Gonzalo Higuain and Karim Benzema at times.
Surely the players mentioned above wouldn't want to work for a manager who lets players come and go as they like?
Lets hope it works out in the long run and Manchester United have a new title challenger in years to come, not just for a couple of years.
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