IN ALL probability, Manchester City and Liverpool will be “there or thereabouts” come the end of the 2020-21 season, but in these early weeks of another strange campaign, it is clear both sides currently lack some dynamism. In short, Liverpool’s defence and City’s attack seem to be the main problems, but there was something a […]
HOW do you sack managers like Pep Guardiola, or replace parts of the furniture like Frank Lampard? There’s an assumption that clubs will not fire people who are football luminaries or club “legends”. But it would be wrong to believe Lampard and Guardiola are untouchable, at best they will be left in a room and […]
INCREASINGLY, it looks as though Lionel Messi won’t be moving to Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain or any other interested club for the time being. Messi is just too expensive to be signed by anyone. If La Liga’s support of Barcelona around the release terms of Messi’s contract remains, then a cool € 700 million will […]
DAVID SILVA and Vincent Kompany are both excellent footballers and performed outstandingly well for Manchester City (they didn’t serve them, they were paid enormous sums of money). Doubtless, they are already being referred to as “legends”. Both have now left the club and Silva is heading for Real Sociedad in his home country. When any […]
THE GUARD continues to change. No Messi, no CR7 and now, Pep Guardiola has to step aside. It’s France v Germany in the semi-finals, the league that was supposed to be lagging the other “big five” has two representatives. Admittedly one is the heavily bankrolled Paris Saint-Germain, but Lyon were not meant to be present […]
MALCOLM ALLISON, that big, brash, iconic figure from the early 1970s, once said the period between 1967 and 1972 was a golden age for English football. Of course, during that time, Manchester City were quite successful, so naturally, Allison would look back on this six -year spell as special. But this was an age where […]
THE PREMIER LEAGUE, thankfully, has finished and the FA and the clubs must be breathing a collective sigh of relief. It has been a peculiar campaign, unprecedented in so many ways, but even without the disruption of the pandemic, it has not been a classic year. Liverpool fans, will, of course, claim it is the […]
MANCHESTER CITY’s two-year ban from the UEFA Champions League might have been overturned, but the critics won’t let the saga close without further snipes. Managers at other clubs, league officials and media commentators have all suggested the decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) was foolhardy. José Mourinho said it was a “disgraceful […]
THIS COULD be the year in which one of the clubs that has had its eyes on the UEFA Champions League for the past decade could finally lift the trophy they all covet. With Manchester City reprieved from a two-year ban, which had greater implications than an absence of UCL football, they can go into […]
