Come the summer and every manager throughout the Premier League will be on the hunt for a bargain. The art of wheeler-dealing is by no means dead, and there’s a huge array of top-flight talent that will be available for cheap in the next transfer window. We may still be some way away from the end of the season, but it’s always good to find transfer targets as early as possible, and in order to help the likes of Manchester United, Tottenham, Arsenal, Everton and Liverpool, as well as the teams lower down the table, who always have a tight hold on the purse strings, we’ve compiled a select XI of potential Summer Bargains.
Some are ageing veterans with a wealth of experience to their advantage, others are currently unsettled and need a new club to stop their careers from stalling, and a few are quite simply a cost-free investment.
Click on Brad Friedel to check out the Summer Bargains XI, all available at a knock down rate
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The term ‘rollercoaster season’ is usually rattled out all too often, yet after following up a superb 3-2 win over Tottenham with a crushing 3-1 defeat away to Southampton, Liverpool’s season is starting to look Nemesis Inferno in its appearance.
Defeat at St. Mary’s left Brendan Rodgers’ side one point above West Brom in seventh and potentially six points behind sixth placed Everton, should the Toffees win their game in hand. With eight games left to play and a Merseyside derby still to come, there’s certainly still the capacity for change, but the odds are that the Reds may find themselves exactly where they are come the end of the campaign.
And it’s here that we face something of an interesting proposition when evaluating the success of Liverpool’s first campaign under Brendan Rodgers.
The remit for the Ulsterman has always been one of ‘progress’ for this season. Upon his appointment from Swansea last summer, the feeling was one of light optimism, albeit very much under an umbrella of cautious ambition. The Fenway Sports Group appeared eager to reassure Rodgers that qualification for the Uefa Champions League wasn’t a mandatory requirement for the season ahead, preferring to aim for a target of ‘stability’ as opposed to a top-four finish.
Although after overseeing what was the club’s worst start to a season in over a century, John W Henry and co were certainly given a stringent test of their willingness to play their part in stabilizing the club, as they liked to put it. Yet if the start was a sticky one under Rodgers, the club’s hierarchy were rewarded for standing by their man with a superb run in the lead up to Christmas.
Yet if the one constant has been the board’s backing of Rodgers over the course of the season, the variable has almost certainly been within the aspirations set for this term. The rollercoaster like change in fortunes has made it incredibly difficult to gauge just where abouts within the Premier League they might finish and as a consequence, the goalposts for where many have perceived they should finish, have been subject to continuous change.
But for all the calls for stability and dampened expectations, Liverpool supporters have been given real reasons to set their sights slightly higher this term and that’s in no small part to Rodgers’ insistence that the club should be gunning for Champions League qualification this season, rather than a small step towards it.
His words may have been taken slightly out of context back in December, but even if his observations that second place was ‘up for grabs’ may have been misconstrued, Rodgers’ message here was loud and clear – a top four finish is exactly what the club should be aiming for.
But while Bill Nicholson’s quote about it being better to fail aiming high than succeeding aiming low holds gravitas here, should you set yourself such high targets, that’s what you shall ultimately be judged upon. And crucially, you can’t keep changing those targets at your own will, either.
As it stands, the Reds currently sit nine points behind Spurs who occupy the fourth and final Champions League spot, with both teams having played 30 games. While it’s not out the question that Liverpool could stage a stirring comeback over the course of the next eight games, if you’re going on the basis of the performance they churned out against Mauricio Pochettino’s side on Sunday, you’d have to imagine that seems highly unlikely indeed.
So should the status quo remain and Rodgers’ side finish seventh, for argument’s sake, can Liverpool’s term really be defined as a success, or even reasonable progress, for that matter?
In acquiring the likes of Fabio Borini, Joe Allen, Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho, Rodgers has spent over £43million on forging his own team up on Merseyside. Granted, he’s only had the latter pair since January, although on top of his additions it’s hardly as if he inherited a squad that was absent of quality. The likes of Steven Gerrard, Daniel Agger, Glen Johnson and a certain Luis Suarez were all in attendance before Rodgers’ arrival at Anfield.
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There were – and there remain – a fair share of faults within this side, but Liverpool bestow the core components needed to make something of a top-four push. And who knows, had they not put together such a terrible run of results at the start of the season, maybe there might not be such a gulf between themselves and a push for Champions League qualification.
Ultimately, if FSG were looking for a season of ‘stabilization’, then there will be few in their Boston offices that will be having any particular complaints. Should the season finish today, a seventh placed berth would represent an incremental improvement on last season’s eighth and where as the squad felt bereft of any real identity come the end of last term, they’re undoubtedly moving in the right direction under Rodgers.
But on the same coin, while Brendan Rodgers might have put the brakes on the clubs recent regression and brought a relative calm to the club, any progress made has been more of a cautious step sideways, rather than a positive step into the future. Judging by the targets that were set out for the Ulsterman at the start of the season, Rodgers hasn’t failed by any stretch of the imagination – the problem is that he hasn’t really achieved anything, either.
Liverpool could reportedly turn to Real Madrid’s unsettled centre-back Raul Albiol as a possible replacement for Jamie Carragher, according to the Express.
With Carragher set to retire following Sunday’s final game of the season against QPR, Reds boss Brendan Rodgers is on the look-out for an experienced man to come in and replace him.
Reports in Spain suggest that Real defender Albiol has decided he wants to leave, having fallen out of favour with Jose Mourinho, and that has apparently alerted the Reds.
The 27-year-old is keen to ensure he stays in contention for a World Cup place for Spain in next summer’s World Cup in Brazil and would be open to a move to Anfield.
Rodgers is currently looking for alternatives to Carragher and had identified Ashley Williams at his old club Swansea but Arsenal are also keen on him and that potential deal has stalled in recent weeks.
Albiol could be the experienced centre-half the Northern Irishman is looking for and he could be available for around £6-8million, although with Mourinho expected to leave Real this summer and return to Chelsea, it is by no means a certainty he will still want out when the transfer window reopens.
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Roberto Soldado has sort of flown under the radar this summer, and that’s completely understandable. With Europe’s leading strikers in Edinson Cavani, Radamel Falcao, Luis Suarez, Mario Gomez, and a handful of others dominating much of the headlines, it’s easy to forget that Roberto Soldado, while not in those players’ class, is more than good enough to jump on the striker merry-go-round of this summer’s window.
Soldado falls into that category of strikers that compatriot Alvaro Negredo finds himself in: very good, but not quite world class. The Valencia striker has the talent, the experience at the highest level and the scoring credentials to warrant a big-money move out of La Liga. The problem is, he doesn’t have that aura and wow factor that can force an upturn in morale at Arsenal, or a big enough name to be Chelsea’s leading striker in the way Cavani could have been.
But that’s all politics that take away from his ability on the field. Like Negredo – and should Soldado arrive in England, the comparisons will rightly continue – he can play a significant role at a major team challenging for honours. With Valencia in a financial mess, he’s the club’s most saleable asset, allowing them to make up plenty of the revenue that is now lost after they failed to land a Champions League place for this coming season.
So forget the marketing factor that would be lost in signing Soldado over a genuinely big-name forward this summer and question whether he can be a team’s go-to outlet over the course of a season.
Can Soldado do it in big games? Last season at the Bernabeu, Soldado wrongly had a goal waved off for offside as he sprung the offside trap from an incredibly high Real Madrid backline and rounded Iker Casillas to offer Valencia what should have been a 2-1 lead and eventual win.
Since arriving at the Mestalla in 2010, Soldado has competed in three back-to-back Champions League campaigns, scoring a combined total of 15 in 21 games.
Surely the sensible and perhaps logical line of thinking is that a striker who can score over 20 goals a season in an okay though not terrible team, as Valencia were last season, can only go on to better those numbers in a team with the attacking capabilities of Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea, or even Liverpool.
Chelsea may not really need him, with Romelu Lukaku, Demba Ba and the myriad attacking options from midfield able to supplement Fernando Torres’ unpredictable output over the course of a season. Liverpool, however, could do very well to replace Luis Suarez with Soldado, though how much will a lack of Champions League football affect the Spaniard’s decision to go to Anfield, as well as them being a little further away from breaking into the top four than Tottenham?
Soldado could be a perfect fit for Arsenal, able to act as the “fox in the box” that Wenger has spent years looking for. He’s not just another Olivier Giroud, if there is some kind of negative connotation attached to the Frenchman. The former Montpellier striker arrived at Arsenal after one very good season in France, though prior to that his name was hardly up in lights. Soldado, on the other hand, is very well known across Europe and has been one of Spain’s leading marksmen for the best part of the last four years.
Yet Arsenal are a bit of a strange one. While Soldado does fit the bill for what the club need – a natural and at times lethal goal scorer – he simply does not fit the bill of that “marquee name” the club have seemingly promised supporters. Make no mistake, there is a very real chance that Arsenal will completely fluff their lines this summer and be left with a worryingly small pool of strikers with which to choose from, forcing the club to target the Valencia man. But from a football perspective, it’s no real worry. The big hammer blow and backlash will come on the PR front, where the club have once again failed to deliver. Yet Soldado, combined with an improving Giroud – who isn’t bad by any means – plus Theo Walcott and Lukas Podolski, is capable of helping to turn pretenders into Champions.
Local rivals Tottenham have plenty to offer too, though again you have to bring up the debate about a lack of Champions League football, mainly because it could be on offer elsewhere for the player. Yet in a World Cup year, Tottenham would offer him a regular place in the starting XI over the other London options.
There would be no PR damage at Tottenham’s door, rather it would be greeted with huge praise that the club were able to land a forward good enough to have his name featured on the list of big-name forwards on the market this summer.
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Valencia will lament the loss of such an important figure should a transfer occur, as they have done in the recent past with other forwards. But if Soldado does arrive in the Premier League, White Hart Lane would appear to be the ideal fit, for both club and player, and due to the waves others are looking to make in the market.
Which Premier League club is the ideal destination for Soldado?
In light of the 2014 World Cup, a Brazil three-part special is on the cards. Part one will be looking at Brazilian players specifically, part two will look at the national side and their current set up, how it has changed and how it will fair in their own nation next year. Finally, part three, will look at the dazzling Neymar, and if he really is the wonder kid that can live up to the hype.
So part one. After identifying a common theme among most Brazilians I decided to investigate further. It is something which has always been there, but it was first drawn to everyone’s attention on a larger scale with the move of Ronaldinho.
It’s fair to say that Ronaldinho made his mark not only in Europe but around the world. Blasting onto the stage in the 2002 World Cup, everyone knew who he was by the time his free-kick dipped over David Seaman and hit the back of the net. At this point, Ronaldinho was already playing in Europe for Paris Saint-Germain, which was his first club after boyhood Brazilian team Gremio. Soon after the World Cup, where Brazil won and Ronaldinho had bagged himself two goals, he moved to Barcelona in a €30million deal. This is truly where he shined and in his time at Barcelona Ronaldinho scored 70 goals in 145 games. He also won one Ballon D’or and two FIFA World Player of the Year titles.
Ronaldinho summed up what Brazilian football was all about, he played with flair and his footwork was the best the world had seen. After spending five years at the club and stating they were the ‘best of his life’, Ronaldinho took on a new challenge at AC Milan. Unfortunately he wasn’t as prolific with a return of 20 goals in 76 games, but he still showed signs of that footwork mastery we’d become accustomed to.
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After two seasons, Ronaldinho and AC Milan parted company – alerting a number of other clubs to his availability. However it was Brazil that he chose, in the form of Flamengo, something which meant, no more Champions League, no more Europa League and no more big big money. At the time, this baffled quite a lot of people, why would you go back over there, when the better football is here? But is it that or is it because we don’t know enough on the Brazilian league and set up? I believe it is the latter, undoubtedly Europe is far bigger with the likes of many nations coming together and playing in the Champions League, however Brazil does hold a certain footballing quality unseen anywhere else in the world.
Ronaldinho went back home to play football, he wanted to go back where it all started and bring back the quality. As well as guaranteed play he would enjoy a better quality of life. It becomes a lot clearer when Ronaldinho stated at the time of his move to Flamengo, that he did it to get back in the squad for the 2014 World Cup. Although he is playing in a league with less quality, if he can prove himself to be the player he once was, it wouldn’t matter what league he is in. Still, playing in Brazil for Atletico Mineiro, Ronaldinho has found some form and has won a place back in the national side.
A childhood dream for most players is playing in a World Cup, playing in a World Cup on your home soil is even more special. No doubt this will be Ronaldinho’s last World Cup and he will go on to retire in Brazil. And this is a common theme. Many Brazilian players starting off their career in Brazil and making their mark in Europe, have all since gone back to Brazil to the end of their playing days.
Ronaldinho is just one case, but here is a starting 11 of Brazilian internationals that ended their playing days where the started:
– Dida (Brazil 91 Caps, AC Milan 206 Apps)
– Juan (Brazil 79 Caps, Bayer Leverkusen 169 Apps, Roma 117 Apps)
– Josue (Brazil 28 Caps, VfL Wolfsburg 140 Apps)
– Lucio (Brazil 105 Caps, Bayern Munich 144 Apps, Inter Milan 96 Apps)
– Kleberson (Brazil 32 Caps, Manchester United 20 Apps, Besiktas 45 Apps)
– Elano (Brazil 50 Caps, Shakhtar Donetsk 40 Apps, Manchester City 62 Apps, Galatasaray 33 Apps)
– Rivaldo (Brazil 74 Caps, Deportivo La Coruna 41 Apps, Barcelona 157 Apps, AC Milan 22 Apps, Olympiacos 70 Apps)
– Ronaldinho (Brazil 97 Caps, Paris Saint-Germain 55 Apps, Barcelona 145 Apps, AC Milan 76 Apps)
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– Ronaldo (Brazil 98 Caps, PSV Eindhoven 46 Apps, Barcelona 37 Apps, Inter Milan 68 Apps, Real Madrid 127 Apps, AC Milan 20 Apps)
– Luis Fabiano (Brazil 45 Caps, Porto 22 Apps, Sevilla 149 Apps)
All of these players made a decent impact in European football, the three R’s in there being the most noticeable. All of them retired or still play within the Brazilian league. It may surprise many people to learn that in fact Rivaldo still plays on at the age of 41 for Brazilian side Sao Caetano. He’s scored twice so far in 2013.
Whether it be a lifestyle choice or a bid to regain the passion of football, nothing beats the essence of home for most Brazilian players. This could arguably be fanned out as a South American trend, if we look at Carlos Tevez, who by all means, could play for most clubs in the world, but wanted to move back to South America. Corinthians nearly had a deal in the bag, before it was scuppered at the last minute. Tevez was desperate to re-unite with his family and spend time with them, he even left the country for three months to try and force a move and be alongside his family.
The greatest player that ever breathed, Pele, never left Brazil until his final two playing years. He played for Santos for a total of 18 years never once going to Europe. Argentine legend Diego Maradona started and ended his playing career in Argentina, while having a stint in Europe. There is definitely a theme not many can deny that, all for different reasons. Most of all, the football league in Brazil is bigger than we may think, and this, is where we are having our next World Cup.
The whole of England went Rickie Lambert crazy last week after the 31-year-old netted the winner for the Three Lions against Scotland with his first touch on the international stage.
And indeed, the Southampton forward’s rise to prominence is an inspiring and captivating tale. Released by Liverpool aged 15 and subsequently Blackpool two years later, Lambert earned his place in the Premier League and the England squad the hard way – working his way up from the depths of lower league football with spells at Macclesfield, Stockport County, Rochdale and Bristol Rovers, before the Saints acquired his services in 2009 for £1million.
As the south coast outfit achieved back-to-back promotions to the English top flight, Lambert’s efforts in front of goal gained notoriety, netting 78 times in 132 appearances for his League 1 and Championship campaigns combined at St. Mary’s.
But the enigmatic Lambert’s ascension into the England squad is a rarity to say the least for a former fourth tier player, and more than anything, the 31-year-old’s defiance of the footballing norm in England highlights the Premier League’s snobbery regarding lower league players.
[cat_link cat=”premiership” type=”tower”]
The negative cultural stigmatism attached to those donning their trade at any level lower than the top flight couldn’t be summed up better than by Three Lions manager Roy Hodgson himself, who remarked after including Lambert in his squad for the Scotland friendly: “I’d just gone to Fulham and we played [Bristol Rovers] in the FA Cup – and lost on penalties. Lambert played, and did very well.
“Like I am certain many other managers, we looked at it and thought, ‘Division One? Is he going to be able to step up?’ and we didn’t take the chance – but other clubs did.”
The former Cottagers boss decided Lambert wasn’t good enough for the top flight, and rather than taking a punt on a budding Englishman who’d been taking the lower leagues by storm, Hodgson signed former Norway international Erik Nevland, who found the net just nine times in three seasons in West London. But now Lambert has wormed his way into the Premier League, with 15 goals in his inaugural top tier campaign, he’s more than good enough for an England squad that’s disturbingly lacking in prolific centre-forwards.
Fair enough, every manager lets transfer opportunities slip through the net, but this summer alone, we’ve seen Premier League clubs reject Championship and lower league players in favour of signings from the continent on an almost systematic scale. So far in the current transfer window, only 15 of the 61 Premier League signings to date have been promoted from the lower tiers, and with six of that 15 having already played in the top fight, three of which did so last season, the actual number of players from the Championship or beyond is ten, and three of those – West Ham’s Danny Whitehead, Cardiff’s Simon Moore and Stoke’s Alex Grant – are unlikely to feature next season, being still considered as youth prospects.
So that’s just six from 61 players in total without top flight experience who will be playing Premier League football this season that played Championship football last term without acquiring promotion, while the top flight welcomes 46 new foreign arrivals.
It begs the question of what do we actually use the lower tiers for? The Championship is often praised for its high quality and depth of competition from top to bottom, with just 13 points between relegation and play-off places last season, but a Premier League outfit actually investing in a second flight player has become a rarer occurrence.
And it’s very much a glass ceiling, considering that in comparison to the Premier League, 33 players have jumped ship to the Championship from clubs plying their trade in League 1 or lower already this summer, equating to around 30 % of all transfers. But unlike the Premier League, a significant amount of second tier acquisitions have been sourced from other Championship clubs, whilst only ten Premiership players have secured new tenures at other top flight outfits thus far in the current transfer window.
It seems the prevailing opinion is that a striker who can net 25 times in the Championship will be disturbingly lacking in front of goal in the top flight, or a goalie that can keep a wealth of clean sheets in the second tier will suddenly become a flap-happy calamity ‘keeper in the Premier League. Despite often claiming the Championship is one of the most competitive second tiers in world football, the gulf between itself and the Premier League is still judged as too vast.
Gary Hooper had to move to the SPL with Celtic to get a top flight club to acquire his services, despite scoring 43 goals in 80 appearances for Scunthorpe and being the Championship’s third top scorer during the 2009/2010 campaign, at just 22 years of age. But the £5million Norwich signing is yet another Premier League starlet to have to work his way up from the bottom, having started his playing career with Grays Athletic.
There are signs that things are changing for the better however. Along with Lambert and Hooper, who both began in lower league football, Crystal Palace signed budding youngster Dwight Gayle this summer for £4.5 million from Peterborough after plying his trade with Essex Senior League outfit Stanstead FC two years ago, and had it not been for a failed medical examination, fellow former non-leaguer Charlie Austin would’ve joined Hull. Similarly, ex-Eagles prodigy Wilfried Zaha officially joined Manchester United for an initial £10million fee in January.
But there still remains a negative stigmatism in the Premier League towards players from the lower tiers, especially if they’ve already surpassed the 24 year old benchmark. Top flight managers view foreign imports as less risky, despite the obvious flawed logic; can a Spaniard, an Argentine or an Italian from abroad possess a greater knowledge or better understanding of the English game than a tried and tested Championship performer? It’s almost as if excelling in the second flight pigeon-holes players for their foreseeable future, rather than implying that they’re ready for the next level.
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Pundits, managers and players alike often bemoan the poor state of the England national team. But with the Premier League cutting off opportunities for Englishmen in the lower tiers to play football at the highest level, is it that surprising that our top flight is now filled with foreign imports to the extent that only 34% of starting line-ups from the Premiership’s opening weekend were home-grown talents?
We’re suffocating the English game by our reliance on players from abroad, and a significant factor in that process has been the Premier League’s cultural lower league snobbery. Unfortunately for Rickie Lambert, he doesn’t represent the end of the trend, but rather shines brightly as a rare anomaly.
Is there a snobbery regarding the lower leagues in England?
The ambition shown at Tottenham is admirable, a club that dreams of one day feasting again at the top table of European football and whose owners seem to have the desire to make this reality. Football these days is as much about what you do on the pitch as you do off it, the teams with greatest financial muscle generally do the best.
In Joe Lewis and ENIC, Spurs have one of the wealthiest football sugar daddies around, who if he wanted could happily match the spending powers of many of the clubs Premier League rivals.
Yet it isn’t that simple, the advent of FFP and Lewis and Levy’s business geared approach means that turning a loss isn’t a possibility. If Spurs want to compete then they need to bring in the kind of revenue that their North London rivals Arsenal do, and the secret to this is the upgrade of a rickety and under-sized White Hart Lane.
Now this isn’t a plan conceived on the back of cigarette packet, Spurs fans know all too well about the trials and tribulations of the NDP since its conception in 2008, indeed thoughts to a new stadium have been on-going for decades now.
However, financial wrangling and red tape have held up the project that in all honesty will be key to Spurs’ long-term future. A standoff over the issue of £16m funding of infrastructure and 50% commitment to affordable housing left Levy keen to explore other options, indeed his overtures to the Olympic Stadium bidding process forced the council’s hand and concessions have since been made to ease the building process.
The Guardian has argued that in doing so the council have effectively neglected their main concerns for the local community of Tottenham. Here is their take on Spurs’ plans for the surrounding area of the ground:
“A council housing tower block and rows of shops with people living above are to be knocked down to create a wide walkway for Spurs fans from a relocated White Hart Lane station straight to the new 56,000-seat stadium, with its shops, bars and food outlets; the council says on non-matchdays the walkway will be a “mini-town centre” public space.”
“Business owners whose shops, workplaces and, for those who live above the shops, their homes have been targeted for demolition under the council’s “masterplan,” have accused Haringey of going too far to please Spurs, in the effort to keep the club in Tottenham and build regeneration around the new stadium.”
Comparable to the issues surrounding the recent construction of the Olympic stadium in Stratford, the council face a huge headache. There are businesses up and down the High Road that have existed for decades, family run ventures that have been the beating heart of the community. That said the regeneration of one of the most deprived wards in London depends solely my opinion on the continued investment of Spurs in the wider community.
On paper Tottenham is an area with potential to prosper and grow, a stones through away from central London with ever improving rail and bus links it represents a potential commuter hot spot. Such a development will be set back decades and decades if Spurs don’t get their plans through, it is for me a question of harming a few to help the majority.
An area tormented by the riots of 2011, you only have to go to Haringey to realise what an under-invested part of London it is. The Guardian may argue that this plaza is totally unnecessary and that Spurs should just build the stadium as a stand-alone structure.
The reality for Spurs is that without the potential to sell-off new-build housing and lease restaurants and café’s the financing for the stadium just isn’t feasible. A £400m investment isn’t as simple as signing over a cheque, why else has it taken the club so long to put their plans into action.
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It has become something of a tug of war between the club and council, but both sides know that they need to make concessions to the other to make it work. The very thought of Tottenham playing away from their roots in North London is sickening, and in the same way Haringey without the club there is a much worse off place as well.
With any mass development there will always be winners and losers. Those that lose out here will be granted the necessary compensation and hopefully the opportunity to thrive in the newly developed North London.
With the club now confident about funding it is believed that following consultation with Populous work on the new stadium can begin by the end of next year.
This season could see Manchester City take home three trophies this season, as a blue cloud looms over Old Trafford and United’s famous treble of the 1998/99 season.
Manuel Pellegrini has sat in a number of high-profile dugouts over his managerial career but has had little success in major tournaments. The Chilean has previously managed Spanish clubs Villarreal, Real Madrid and Malaga, having to face a Barcelona side that were at the peak of their powers. Having missed out on major titles in his La Liga years, Manuel Pellegrini managed to enjoy a 75 per cent win ratio with Real Madrid in 2009 and so far this season, the Chilean has a similar record at ManCity. If he can build on this in the New Year, then he will certainly be looking to win a number of trophies this season.
The Citizens have never looked a threat in Europe, despite their dominance in the league. Each year, fans have been frustrated by the lack of success in the Champions League. Despite a league title and numerous cup victories, the hierarchy at the Etihad club seem to crave this European glory. Finally, this season could see them get their hands on a trophy in Europe, as well as building on this with both the league title and the Capital One Cup.
Having beaten LeicesterCity 3-1 in Round 5 of the Capital One Cup, Pellegrini’s side have been made the bookies’ favourites to win the competition, as they prepare to face West Ham. City have already convincingly beaten West Ham in the league this year and the Chilean boss will be looking to emulate this, come the New Year when these two sides meet in the Semi-Final.
The likely opponents for ManCity in the Final are their fierce Manchester rivals, as they face struggling Sunderland. City have won three of the six League Cup encounters against United, however they lost in the Semi-Finals back in 2010. This won’t worry Manuel Pellegrini too much however, having already put four past David Moyes’ side at the Etihad in the league.
Pellegrini has a lot of firepower to pick from in his midfield and up front, it’s just a question of whether or not he can sort out the inconsistent defence that has been the only blot on what has been an excellent start to the season for City. Sorting out the back four is the priority, but if they manage to do that, City will have a very strong side competing in both the Capital One Cup and the Champions League this season. A few signings in January to bolster their starting XI and give the Chilean boss some cover for the likes of full-backs Pablo Zabaleta and Micah Richards – both of whom are injured at the moment – could see them winning a lot of silverware.
Any other year and their Champions League opponents Barcelona would be the neutral’s favourites to progress, but even the fans at the Nou Camp are nervous about the outcome of this fixture. City’s attempts to do the treble will no doubt be tough, but performances both in the league and in the Capital One Cup this season have been very convincing and you’d have to be a brave person to bet against them.
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Since signing for Arsenal in 2006, Abou Diaby appears to have spent more time in the medical room than he has on the football pitch.
The French midfielder has picked up a total of 39 injuries in eight years at the club but, after eleven months on the sidelines, he made his return for Arsenal U21s the other night.
But it has now emerged that he picked up another injury, this time a groin strain, after just 45 minutes of football.
You just can’t make up how unlucky the 27-year-old has been with injuries throughout his career, and football fans on Twitter just can’t believe it judging by their comments on Twitter…
It’s always easier to replace the manager than it is to overhaul an entire squad. Something that won’t sit too well with David Moyes, as he seeks to repair his severely damaged reputation in English football.
Mark Bosnich is quoted as saying, “it has been obvious for some time that things are not quite right there,” while adding that Ryan Giggs has clashed with the manager over Moyes’ methods this season.
It adds further fuel to the fire started by Anderson after he secured a loan move to Fiorentina. The Brazilian midfielder has stated that many players were unhappy at Old Trafford and were looking for a way out – a comment he’d later go on to deny. Furthermore, the tension which appeared to rise between Robin van Persie and the manager fits the story that all is not well at Manchester United.
Moyes is already under enormous pressure. We may be at the point where there is little expectation in the manager turning things around, even with less than 10 games to go in the league, but instead simply enforcing a damage limitation policy. Things won’t get any easier with United set to meet Bayern Munich in the Champions League next month.
But while Moyes is struggling for results – a fact that may make his position untenable if matters continue to deteriorate – Moyes is also battling on another front in trying to win over the entire squad. The manager may suggest otherwise, but there is simply too much smoke from various sources for there not to be any fire.
It will make very little difference that Ryan Giggs is coming to the end of his playing career. The Welshman, per Alex Ferguson’s wish for the club to emulate the model of Bayern, will more than likely stay on in the coaching capacity he started this season. Players like Giggs and van Persie who have rocky relationships with the manager, spell little but future difficulties for the club if they retain Moyes. Will players want to come to United if there is a track record of the current manager falling out with members of his squad, and will he be able to convince them to stick around, especially in times of on-field crisis?
Everything points to an eventual exit for Moyes. It’s not working on the pitch, with United’s situation steadily getting worse rather than showing signs of improvement. If the manager has also lost key members of the dressing room, it makes it difficult to envision him succeeding, even if he does drastically improve his ideas to right the ship.
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