Archive for July, 2010

Prediction Time

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

There comes a time in every correspondent’s life when he must place his hand in the fire. When he, or she!, feels the urge to go against everything he knows and make some predictions. For me, that time is now and with the way this season is shaping up I have very little chance of making accurate guesses. Anyway, here goes.

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The Future
One thing that is undisputable this season is that the battle for the Champion’s League places will be even more bloodthirsty than usual. From my vantage point, there are seven teams with realistic aspirations of finishing up there (United, City, Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool, Villa and Spurs) and one set of fans who see it as their divine right (Newcastle).

Just quickly, I would like to say I am delighted to see the Geordies back in the top flight. It is easy to paint their supporters as delusional muppets (and I won’t do that) but my goodness they are loyal and they really do love their team. That is fine by me, and if you subscribe to the theory that football is entertainment, then Newcastle being around is a very good thing.

Every man and his dog and the dog’s vet will be predicting that this is City’s year to finish in the top four. I am not that man, nor his canine. This is not because of some misguided sense of civic pride. It is because I strongly expect the Bitters to change manager at some point during the season and place a large bullet hole in their own feet.

The Harry Redknapp management experience is in phase two at Tottenham. Phase one involves charming the fans and board and achieving moderate success. Phase two invariably tells a tale of overspending and sending the club to the brink of bankruptcy. I expect more money to be spent at White Hart Lane, Spurs to fail admirably in the Champion’s League and finish 6th this season. Then Harry can move straight on to phase three where he leaves via a back door as the club goes into administration and he starts the whole routine again with a new set of suckers.

Liverpool might just do something. Hodgson is an extremely good man manager, which is the exact opposite of Rafa Benitez, and with Joe Cole they now have three good players. Chances are that at any given time one of them won’t be injured and Roy will have the rest of the team playing out of their skins. Much as it hurts me to say it, Liverpool are a danger this year.
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This Year’s Top Four
So if all of these teams are going to be gunning for the top, who are the team that shall fall? I’m going to put my very fragile reputation on the line and guess Chelsea. Ancellotti’s Milan only one title and this year they will be going hell for leather to win the European Cup. I also don’t think their squad has been much improved by losing Cole, Ballack and possibly also Cashley. Outside the top four? I’m not sure, but not title contenders either.

Arsenal and Villa have both, in recent years, earned my respect through playing attacking football with a core of young players. Under Wenger’s stewardship you would expect them to be getting closer to winning the title rather further away. This could be their year. Alas for Villa, they keep being raided by bigger spending clubs and something may well crack, be it either Randy Lerner’s patience or Martin O’Neill’s temper. I have a feeling this will be the Ulsterman’s last year in Birmingham.

Where United sit in all of this is difficult to gauge. Where Fergie presides it is difficult to see United finishing outside of the top two. However, none of us can yet foresee the role injuries will play or how much the anti-Glazer stuff will play out this year. One thing is certain. They’ll put up a hell of a fight. Whether or not that’s enough to stop Newcastle winning the league though, I just couldn’t tell you.

Follow Mark on twitter and at thedevilinme.co.uk

Photography from Segozyme and Sailing “Footprints: Real to Reel” (Ronn ashore) at FlickrCcoms

Posted in 2010/2011 | 1 Comment »

Reboot

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

It has only taken four days but the last remnants of the World Cup drug are leaking out my system. Time then, to turn the focus back to United, the coming season and an appraisal of how things may unfold. Currently our newly-kitted out lads are touring around the US and it is always interesting hear the murmurs from Sir Alex at this time of the year.

Nobody on earth is a more critical analyst of the team’s fortunes and after his usual break in the South of France Fergie usually has new ideas up his sleeve on how to approach the forthcoming campaign. It came as no surprise to hear that none of the World Cup participants are likely to feature against Newcastle.

The purple-nosed warrior will be under no illusions that his dressing room will be full of players whose egos have just taken a battering in South Africa. The first order of the day must, must be to try and reinstall the confidence of Messrs Rooney and Evra, who were our stand out players last year.

When he says things like “I have not bidded for Sneider” I tend to believe him as it would be a great surprise to learn we have oodles of cash to spend. The big money this summer will be flying out of Eastlands and we all know it. I should imagine a tremendous amount of smugness will accompany their next outlandish outlay but frankly I couldn’t give a monkey’s.

What is of far more interest is just exactly how Fergie is going to squeeze more achievement out of this squad. Scholes and Giggs have both stayed on but to get anything close to 10-15 decent performances out of them would constitute a miracle.

If there is hope, it lies with the young players stepping up. Fortunately, in this field, United have done it all before.

What needs to happen for us this season is something that palpably didn’t happen last year. We really require the young players to step up. People can say that Rooney’s performances did improve, but he is too experienced for me to class him as a ‘young’ player anymore.

I see reasons to be cheerful in parts of Nani’s season and lots to admire in the work of Antonio Valencia. Jhonny Evans needs to add some steel and consistency to his game and Anderson has quite a bit of bridge building to do with Old Trafford faithful too.

My gut feeling is that there ain’t gonna much in them there transfer coffers – so it is a matter of team cohesion and improvement from those already in the squad that will count.
To be honest, I approach the season more in hope than expectation.

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How Our Boys Fared

Sunday, July 4th, 2010

Fergie must be absolutely delighted. The first rays of sunshine have only just fallen on July and all of his playing squad are now on holiday. No longer subject to the pressures of a major tournament’s taxing final stages, on the surface this is wonderful news for Manchester United, but is it a double-edged sword? Have United’s players all gone home early because they are not actually all that marvellous? Here I cast my eye over the performances of Old Trafford’s representatives in South Africa.

Park Ji-Sung

The man American commentators call “Fergie’s Dog of War” has been United’s top of the pops in South Africa. He scored a corking goal in the opening game and caused all manner of havoc in every match he played. I was a big fan of the South Koreans and during the tournament have found their fans some of the best to hang out with, shame they couldn’t go further.

Patrice Evra

Viva la resistance eh Patrtice? Although Nicolas ‘The Incredible Sulk’ Anelka is credited with inspiring the French team’s uprising as captain Patrice must chew down a large slice of the blame. As a frustrated football player who will never get the chance to play at a World Cup I wag my finger angrily in the direction of the French squad and hope they feel my wrath.

Wayne Rooney

A leading candidate for not only the biggest disappointment of the finals, but also the worst player. He has been beyond reproach for United this year yet sadly the expectations of England and the rabid tabloid press seem to have crushed him. May well have been lacking match sharpness and still recovering from injury but he still had a shocker. I would have dropped him after Algeria. Nobody has provided a better argument in the last 2 years for the selection of Michael Owen. Ouch.

Fabio Capello emerges from ‘clear the air talks’ with JT and the England squad
Rio Ferdinand

Has got off lightly here. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that England would not have conceded four goals against Germany had he been on the pitch. Alas, being clattered by Emile Heskey in the opening training session gave him a get-out-of-jail-free card and misses the vilification. Spent the tournament proving how dangerous it is for top players to have Twitter profiles.

Michael Carrick

Did as good a job for England as he did for United last season.

Nemanja Vidic

Described by the Serbian manager as “not so much a rock but a mountain range” after qualification the big man didn’t really put a foot wrong in South Africa. Mind you, he didn’t really get much of a chance either. The Serbs being dumped out in the group stage and finishing below Australia robbed Vidic of his chance to elbow some of the game’s bigger players. He was part of the defence that kept out the free-scoring Germans though, and that deserves credit. Pity I don’t expect him to be at United for much longer.

David Beckham ™

England’s best player of the finals by some distance. The only thing that seemed to work out for us was the success of the 2018 bid’s progress. The only man to have pulled on the national shirt and shown some class in the last decade may well be called upon for the finals of that summer if things carry on like this.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Eighty million pounds?! You’re having a laugh. Perhaps if Cristiano paid more attention to the fact he plays as part of a team as opposed to having ten back up dancers Portugal may have gone further. I must say though, I very much enjoyed his goal against DPR Korea.

Fernandez

This guy looks like an astute signing and I expect him to put plenty of pressure of people like Macheda and Berbatov this season. Has already achieved more at a World Cup than Wayne Rooney.

Mesut Ozill?

Here’s hoping. A terrific talent who seems to understand the art of skinning a defender as well as having an appreciation for playing as part of a team. He has really announced himself this month and there will be a lot of bidding for him. Has stated a desire to join United so let’s hope we can afford him.

Fabiano?

‘Ageing striker announces desire to join Manchester United’ could be translated as ‘Fabiano wants large pay-check before retirement.’ The hit-man has put away some peachy goals and he couldn’t harm us if he joined, I am not certain Fergie is all that interested though.

All in all, had the tournament been rated on the basis of players’ clubs United would be finishing far below Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Ajax and Villareal. FC Porto would also be out of sight. I’ll try to ignore that I guess. Who are your tips to win from here on in?

Posted in World Cup 2010 | 2 Comments »

The real reason…

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

This is juicy. Perhaps too juicy, but my source swears by it.
Make your own judgement call. It would explain a lot.

Anyone out there believe this?

“Courts held a further 2 week gagging order on steven gerrards private life, turns out he got his wifes sister pregnant (not a 16 year old ) Will hit the newspaper in 14 days, the judge held the gagging order to protect FA while they decide on capello, and the future of English football.. John terry and the england boys all know about it and JT had a argument with capello because gerrard got to keep the captains armband. the tension in the camp was down to JT and half the team saying gerrard was a disgrace and the other half of the squad backing gerrard..The press conference was related to the tension and JT wanted Gerrard exposed – they hate each other.”

Posted in World Cup 2010 | 3 Comments »