THE MILAN derby was a personal triumph for fit-again veteran Zlatan Ibrahimović – two goals and victory over one of his former clubs, but it was also affirmation of the Milanese renaissance that appears to be gathering momentum at the San Siro. AC Milan ended Inter’s unbeaten run, their first league defeat in those crazy zig-zag […]
PRIOR TO this disrupted and somewhat confusing campaign, the past two seasons saw the same league champions across the “big five” leagues in Europe – domination by the rich and advantaged, namely Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Barcelona. It was seen as affirmation the game had become predictable, stale and lacking in […]
BAYERN Munich could be eyeing the “impossible treble” this season as they look ahead to the conclusion of the UEFA Champions League in August. Not many clubs have managed to win their two main domestic prizes and the UEFA Champions League, in fact it has been achieved just eight times, the last in 2015 with […]
CHELSEA and Bayern Munich are supposed to be in transition, two teams in reconstruction mode. Of the two, on the evidence of their UEFA Champions League meeting at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea look a long way off moulding a team capable of living up to the heights of the Abramovich era, while Bayern look to be […]
THIS coming weekend could be a decisive moment in the Bundesliga title race. Bayern Munich went top of the table after beating Mainz away 3-1 while RB Leipzig, the leaders, drew 2-2 with Mönchengladbach. Bayern, after an eight game run that saw them lose four times between October and December, have seemingly overcome their stuttering […]
SERIE A in the late 1980s and early 1990s was a fiercely competitive landscape with all-star line-ups comprising some of the world’s best players. Italy was a magnet for top talent, including Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten, Diego Maradona, Gianluca Vialli and Michael Laudrup, to name but a few. The rest of Europe just sat […]
ONCE UPON a time, Italian clubs ruled Europe, not just on the pitch but also through their purchasing power, attendances and in players wages that attracted some of the world’s top stars. Serie A was the envy of most European leagues, notably in England where people became fascinated by the glitz, glamour and smoke bombs […]
THIS IS a club that has called on the methods of Billy Beane of Moneyball fame. A club that has a reputation for bringing on home-grown talent. They’re also dynamic data wizards and come from a town best known for cheese. AZ Alkmaar have a playing budget that amounts to around 25% of the mighty […]
THE UEFA Champions League is due a new winner and this season, clubs like Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City will be hoping to join the elite band of European champions. The massive investments made in both clubs have been designed to lift the continent’s biggest club prize, but neither club has come close to winning […]
