The danger with hiring the Portuguese, it was said, is he becomes the story at the expense of your club. That is what seems to be happening at Old TraffordThere is no Premier League rule that forbids managers dismissed from the dugout coming to speak about their treatment afterwards – when Arsène Wenger was so photogenically sent to the Old Trafford stands seven years ago he still made it to the press room at the end of the game – so José Mourinho opting to send his assistant, Rui Faria, in his place suggests the Manchester United manager was probably wary of making a bad situation worse.It is possible that at some point in the immediate aftermath of the goalless...
Most people’s ideal would be for a tight top-flight but part of football’s appeal is the drama – and that requires weakness as well as strengthWhat would you like a league table to look like at the end of the season? Forget who you support, forget who you dislike, forget personalities and tactics and prejudices, if you turned up in an alien land and were given a subscription to watch every game in their league season, what would be your ideal? Most people, I’m guessing, would want it to be tight, would want the season to go down to the wire to sustain the interest, maybe so that on the final day every team would have a chance of success....
The Swedish striker was error prone in the first half but his improvement helped put Manchester City out of the EFL CupThe selection said it all. Ordering room service to a suite at the five-star Lowry Hotel may constitute a bit of a disaster for José Mourinho but losing to Manchester City for the second time in seven weeks at Old Trafford, and a weakened City at that, would have left the United manager fearing the walls were closing in. It was not a risk he was prepared to accept.Both managers were in urgent need of victory – Pep Guardiola to avoid the longest winless run of his illustrious managerial career and Mourinho to respond to growing doubts over his...
Liverpool’s main contenders are embroiled in European competition, while Jürgen Klopp’s men can stay fresh in their quest for a first title since 1990Arsène Wenger must be a genius if he can come up with a points total that will be necessary to win the title. Between 82 and 86 points, since you ask. Either that or he was having a little joke, which has been known to happen. “He must have more experience of the English league than I thought,” the Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said, making his own little joke. “Because I have no idea how many points it will take.”Leaving aside the matter of how Wenger expects a more competitive league to result in a higher...
Manchester United’s manager has seemed too conscious of how he is expected to behave in his latest job, to the detriment of his team, but the petulant criticism of Antonio Conte was a sign the fire is returningSir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United took some fearful hidings over the years. “Even in the most successful campaigns, there always seemed to be one match when it went horribly wrong,” wrote Gary Neville in his autobiography, Red. “A nightmare match that reminded you success never comes easily.” Such games would prompt an orgy of schadenfreude around the country.At Ferguson’s United, the only laugh that mattered was the last one: his team won the title in various seasons despite losing 5-0 against Chelsea, 4-1...