There aren’t many sub-plots left to wrap up in the extraordinary tale of Cristiano Ronaldo, but with a date against the club who set him on his path to greatness awaiting tomorrow evening, the Champions League ties between Real Madrid and Manchester United will prove to be seminal moments in an already illustrious career.
It is a career that has of course seen the 28-year-old win just about everything there is to win within the pastures of European football. Sure, success on the international stage has perhaps proven a step too far even for his mercurial talents and he’s made no secret about his frustration at picking up just the one Ballon d’Or award.
But from his 2008 World Player of the Year award to the Uefa Champions League winners medal he picked up during the same season, there is very little indeed that the Madeira-born forward hasn’t achieved since he first arrived at Old Trafford in 2003.
Yet beneath the pomp, poignancy and sense of occasion that the sight of Ronaldo lining up against Manchester United will bring, the two-legged tie could also prove as something of a landmark occasion for all the wrong reasons should Madrid crash out at the hands of Sir Alex Ferguson’s side.
The prospect of facing Fergie, Wayne Rooney and the rest of the staff that Ronaldo achieved so much under during his time in Manchester creates a wonderful narrative, but make no mistake about it, the nostalgia of the occasion will make very little difference to just how desperately the Portuguese will want to go through.
Because should Jose Mourinho’s side fail to beat Manchester United over two legs, with La Liga already looking virtually unattainable and success in the Copa del Rey hanging on a second-leg semifinal tie against Barcelona, Ronaldo could find himself with a lot to contemplate at the end of his fourth season with Los Blancos.
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This isn’t to speculate that Ronaldo would consider leaving the Santiago Bernabeu nor is it to say that the ex-Sporting man is necessarily unhappy with the way things have gone since he switched the Premier League for La Liga. But while his résumé may well have overflowed with goalscoring records and personal accolades since he made his world-record switch in 2008, one thing that’s not sizeably increased is his medal count.
The looming spectre of Lionel Messi and Barcelona has certainly played its part in ensuring that Ronaldo has just the three honours to his name since joining Real Madrid for £80million. And after racking up 182 goals in 179 games, there’s hardly more Ronaldo could have physically done to try and change the course of recent history.
But although his name will forever sit in the pantheon of footballing greats, defeat to Manchester United in the last 16 of this season’s Uefa Champions League could perhaps leave a very small asterisk next to the side of Real Madrid career.
With Jose Mourinho widely tipped to leave the Bernabeu at the end of the season, this current Madrid side are facing something of a defining period. Despite success in the form of last season’s record-breaking La Liga triumph, the remit for both squad and manager has always been to end what is now over a decade’s long wait to end the club’s European Cup drought.
For Ronaldo, his individual performances might make it impossible to deem his time in Madrid as anything short of an astounding success. But a failure to add to his 2008 Champions League triumph with Manchester United during his spell with Real Madrid so far must leave a bitter taste in the mouth for a man so ruthless in his quest for perfection.
At still only 28-years of age, there is plenty of time for Ronaldo to rectify that statistic and surely it can’t be much longer before Madrid eventually win that record tenth European Cup. After all, as Pep Guardiola – the man who Ronaldo can attribute a fair proportion of the blame for his lack of medals to – once mused, all cycles must come to an end. Soon it will be Madrid’s turn to dominate Spain and Europe for a sustained period once more.
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But regardless of why Ronaldo hasn’t achieved more than the one league title, one domestic cup and one Supercopa de Espana, you can’t help but feel the Portuguese’s time in Madrid represents something of a frustrating paradox. It’s within the Santiago Bernabeu that Ronaldo has elevated his game into a gear that few in history have been able to attain; yet in three-and-a-half years there, he has relatively very little in terms of silverware to show for it.
There’s been bad luck, misfortune, penalty shoot-out misses and a certain Messi-shaped shadow that’s hindered him along the way. But perhaps in one of the greatest individuals to have played for the club in Ronaldo, we’re given the greatest reminder that success is built around a team, rather than a solitary presence.
And should Real Madrid fail to beat Manchester United over two legs, there’s every chance that Cristiano Ronaldo could finish his fourth season in Madrid with the status quo remaining on his medal count. There may well be more chapters to come in his Bernabeu tale and maybe history will be the truest judge of this final question, but what will rank higher for the Portuguese – record breaking personal dominance in white or collective trophy attaining glory in red?
Rio Ferdinand has been in the headlines this week after being recalled to the England squad, only to pull out citing a ‘pre-planned fitness programme’ at Manchester United.
The fact that he’s now off to Qatar to appear as a pundit for al-Jazeera has only fanned the flames as people question how good a seven hour flight will be for his bad back.
The animosity between Ferdinand and his country has been brewing for a while now after the defender first wouldn’t play with Chelsea’s John Terry and then Roy Hodgson was filmed telling members of the public that his international career was over.
This wasn’t always the case in the England camp however, and above, Ferdinand shares a few jokes with his Premier League rivals and international team mates John Terry and Steven Gerrard. The question is, just what are they laughing about?
Come up with a caption for this image and you can win a copy of ‘Inside the Divide: One City, Two Teams… The Old Firm’ by Richard Wilson. Click here to enter
Since 1888, Rangers and Celtic football clubs have been locked into an intense and frequently explosive rivalry: Rangers the product of West Scotland’s Protestant establishment, Celtic the team founded to raise money for the Catholic underclass of Glasgow.
On 2 January 2010 the two teams met in the Old Firm’s New Year Derby, a fixture that had been banned for ten years because of the trouble it brought with it.
Richard Wilson puts that game at the centre of a book which delves into the history and widens out to the cultural resonance of the fixture within Scotland.
It is a potent mix of close-up observation and big-picture thinking, with insight, understanding and depth.
For the FootballFanCast.com Caption Competition Terms and Conditions click here
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“We’ve always won games when we had too”, those were the words that rattled round by head as I got out the car and took a stroll, the regular two-week stroll to the Molineux. Saunders had a point you know, when we had to win at Millwall, we did, when we had to get something at Watford we did, and when we had to beat Bristol City, we did.
It was beginning to look extremely perilous for the boys in gold, with 5 games to go, the team had amassed 48 points and needed to win in order to push them selves up out of this septic precipice that was Championship relegation. Mind you, a win would only lift Wolves to 18th, which still would not guarantee them safety, in fact every team from about 11th could still be dragged into what is turning into an insanely unpredictable relegation battle.
The hulking figures of Matt Murray and George Elokobi on the touch line, pre kick off, had fans in good spirits before what was certainly going to be a season defining game. An unfortunate broken leg in the game against Birmingham ruled out our 15-goal striker, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake. It forced Dean Saunders to slot in what was, on the face of it, quite a surprising addition in the face of Stephen Ward, a man who, to many Wolves fans, seemed extradited along with Berra and Foley. He fitted in at left midfield behind the ever present and astonishingly consistent Jack Robinson, an odd move, considering Peszko, Hammill and Dicko were available to play. So with the calm head, and rather perfect hair, of Dorus De Vries in goal, the back four was Doherty, Gorkss and Johnson in the middle, who seem to be Saunders’ preferred partnership, and the aforementioned Jack Robinson at left back. The under pressure Jamie O’Hara was paired alongside Karl Henry in the midfield, with two Stephens on the wing in Ward and Hunt. Gorgeous Bjorn and Kevin Doyle were the preferred pair up top for Dean Saunders’ team
Two changes from the last minute draw at home to Peterborough saw Steven Gerrard’s younger cousin, Anthony, come in for Murray Wallace, along with Adam Clayton, who displaced the Scot, Scott Arfield. Huddersfield lined up with a diamond in the midfield, Oliver Norwood, Oscar Gobern, Adam Clayton and Neil Danns were the four cogs in Mark Robins’ midfield. James Vaughan and the influential Sean Scannell made up the front two. The back four consisted of the young, up and coming Alex Smithies between the sticks with Gerrard and Clarke at the back, Paul Dixon and Callum Woods occupied the full back positions.
Fear, nervousness, anxiousness, jitters, call them what you wish, they were all allayed inside 4 minutes when Sigurdarson drove forward through the heart of the Huddersfield midfield, passing the clambering Oliver Norwood to slide an inch perfect pass to Kevin Doyle out onto the left hand side, who took a few touches and whipped a venomous, accurate cross to the overlapping Stephen Ward, who slotted home from 8 yards out, needless to say, Molineux erupted at the sight of this somewhat questionable introduction giving Wolves a deserved lead.
Now, if you are reading this and you are not a regular visitor to the Molineux, then you won’t understand why, at 1-0. The aforementioned jitters seem to seep there way back in through the very bricks of the golden bowl. At the start of play, Wolves dropped 19 points from winning positions at home this season. 19 points that would see them comfortably in the top 6 with 67 points, it is astonishing really. So as Huddersfield picked the ball out their own net, the celebrations were there, they were. But you couldn’t help but feel that there was a tinge of nervousness just brushing the crowd as the ball was placed on the centre spot once more.
We had 86 minutes to try to either defend a one goal lead or continue with our vicious, attack dog like intent and go and get number 2, 3 or, dare we even say it, number 4. Things were looking even better, when it took 20 minutes for The Terriers to create their first real opportunity, when Oliver Norwood floated a high ball in from 30 yards out to James Vaughan who busted the proverbial gut in order to get a toe to it. He did, but it was just a toe and the chance went just wide after some good containing from the chasing Roger Johnson.
Wolves’ opportunities on goal increased when Sigurdarson burst down the right hand side, cut in, Arjen Robben-esque and beat two of the Huddersfield defenders to slide a ball to an open Karl Henry, who fluffed the shot completely. The missed opportunities were piling up for the home side, as we continued to push on. After another 25 yard strike from Kevin Doyle went sailing over Alex Smithies goal. On about the half hour mark Huddersfield found themselves on the right hand side with Sean Scannell he brushed past a committed Matt Doherty who ran in, head first, under the sheer awe of Scannell’s spell-binding step-overs. With Doherty on his arse, Scannell continued forward, parallel to the goal line, the defence, expecting a cross, kept their line and waited for the ball in. The opposite happened, Scannell dropped his shoulder and slotted the ball into the bottom left hand corner from an impossibly acute angle. 30 minutes gone, the score was, predictably, 1-1, see what I mean about those ‘one goal up’ nerves, the worry always comes to fruition.
The pressure from The Terriers increased as Wolves’ shell was well and truly shocked, the impressive Adam Clayton jinked his way through a scrambling Gorkss and a desperate Johnson, it took the goal keeper, Dorus De Vries, probably the only player in the back 5 to be comfortable on the ball to stamp his authority and go right through Clayton and clear the ball away, dispelling some of the tension, for now. In fairness, the pressure from Huddersfield dispelled until Keith Stroud blew his whistle.
As the half time pies, tea and beer were being purchased the usual moans and groans rang around the ground, “Why did we not capitalise on that early goal?”, “Why did we let Huddersfield back into the game?” and “We really are our own worst enemy”.
The second half was under way and Wolves found that hunger and intent that rewarded them with a first half goal. Hunt’s ball in was punched away by a confident Alex Smithies. Bjorn Sigurdarson flick on to his partner Kevin Doyle was seen as a good chance until Peter Clarke forced the ball out. And when Stephen Ward drove at the opposition defenders and played a reverse ball to an impressive Matt Doherty who lofted a good ball in and Kevin Doyle found him self facing away from the goal, he chested it down and set up an oncoming Bjorn Sigurdarson who fired miles over. It seemed that all these wasted chances were piling up, sound familiar?
An hour had passed and Wolves were looking on top, chance after chance after chance had passed yet the score remained at 1-1. Both managers had kept their cards close to their chests, Mark Robins was the first to make a move, he brought on Keith Southern for the impressive Oscar Gobern, his second substitute was to be the game changer, Sean Scannell’s identical and less effective twin, Neil Danns, was brought off for the 29 year old journey man, Jermaine Beckford, the loanee striker from Leicester City.
To say he had an instant impact would be an understatement, once again it began by Sean Scannell running at our defenders, he had already by passed Sigurdarson and Matt Doherty was his next target, the young right back contained Scannell well and forced the ball out for a corner. The resulting corner was swung in, Gorkss and co were far too slow to react to the ball bouncing around the 6 yard box after De Vries had made an impressive point blank save from the head of James Vaughan. Unfortunately, Jermaine Beckford was there, sharp as a razor, to smash the ball into the roof of the net and subsequently dampen every single Wanderers fans sprit.
The defending was brittle and lazy, Beckford was quicker to react than any of our players. Things were about to get worse, O’Hara lost possession incredibly easily and for a third time, Sean Scannell was running at our back four, like a repetitive nightmare that Johnson and Gorkss could not awake from. Scannell saw the run of Beckford behind Johnson, who was completely unaware of the striker. The aforementioned forward received an inch perfect pass from Scannell, Beckford waited for Gorkss to go down and chipped a delicious ball over a flapping Dorus De Vries. Boos rang around Molineux as Beckford wheeled away to celebrate, the sense of disbelief in the ground was palpable. The anger was vitriolic towards everyone, 42 games’ of frustration that could ultimately lead in successive relegations for our beloved club was being aired. Can you blame them?
Wolves had only just picked the ball out the net and put it back on the centre spot when Jamie O’Hara did the foolish thing of raising his arms to an oncoming Keith Southern. Stroud had no choice but to go to his back pocket and dismiss O’Hara who was clearly angry and shaken by what happened. It was 5 seconds of madness, but it was 5 seconds that could define our season. “You’re not fit to wear the shirt” was the chant of choice as our combative midfielder trudged off for an early shower, like a child who had been told to go to his room.
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With 15 minutes to go, Wolves were two goals and a man down. Could it be done? Well no, it could not. Wolves, for the remaining 15 minutes, looked utterly deflated and devoid of any, sort of fight, desire or even Wolves fans favourite buzz word, passion. Huddersfield looked utterly content to let us have the ball. Without Blake, Wolves lacked a spearhead, we lacked our own Jermaine Beckford that was clear for all to see. The introduction of Hammill, Dicko and Doumbia in the space of 5 minutes did nothing to inject much needed zip and flair to the team.
Keith Stroud blew his whistle after a surprising addition of 6 minutes injury time. Wolves offered nothing of merit in the final 15 minutes, it was a limp and rather drab ending to the game. Glorious failure it was not. The jeers, boos and chants were louder than ever, for once they were directed towards the team and not to the men in the boardroom and rightly so. The 10 men of Wolves failed to take hold the initiative and press forward, they didn’t even try. That was the worst part about it.
Wolves’ lack of depth really was exposed, we have one goal scoring striker, just one. And he was sat at his home with his leg in a brace, McAlinden was on the bench but can he really be relied on to push Wolves away from the perilous, sometimes unreal, position we are in? There are 4 games to go, the visit of Hull on Tuesday night will be an extremely tough test, Steve Bruce has them playing some fantastic football, how much would Wolves fans swap Bruce for Saunders right now. He was so close to managing us but turned it down because he was offered Wolves’ remaining 13 Premier Leagues. Mind you, hindsight is a wonderful thing. Charlton are the team next to face Dean Saunders’ men at The Valley, winnable yes, but Chris Powell has got his men playing well and are in brilliant form, coming off the back of a staggering 6-0 win at Barnsley. The last home game is against Sean Dyche’s Burnley and then we travel to the south coast to promotion chasing Brighton on the 4th May. It could be all done and dusted by then, Wolves could be down or we could have performed a minor miracle and managed to avoid successive relegations.
If we are all honest with each other though, Jermaine Beckford introduction and his two instinctive strikes may have just sent Wolves plunging into the abyss.
After a delay of nearly two hours from the original unveiling time, the Cardiff City website coughed and spluttered back to life, bringing with it the full horror of the Bluebirds 2013/14 home kit.
It was immediately met with cries of derision by Bluebird fans from all sides of the rebranding – The KKB (Keep Kardiff Blue), The Reluctant Reds, The Cardiff City Traditionalists, The I couldn’t give a frig’s, Bluebirds Unite (who are newly formed and rapidly gaining followers) and The so called majority – The we’d rather be blue of course we would, but we have no say in it! Brigades and with good reason too!
The all red kit which was unveiled managed the truly awesome feat of clashing with itself. The shirt and shorts were two vastly different shades of red. The top, Liverpool red while the shorts are the shade of red of last seasons controversial and much derided home strip – it screamed one thing – it was designed by someone who is colourblind.
I suspect it was supposed to represent the fusion of the rebrand – The Welsh red and the Chinese red. However, like the reviled badge that remains from last season – which is also purported to represent the fusion of the two cultures; the kit just didn’t work, it clashed violently and jarred on the senses and the eyes.
Across the Social media platforms there was an explosion of disgust and anger, 99% of supporters concurring they hated the two tone red shirt and shorts, but a closer inspection revelled the kit was made up of at least five shades of red and the design is clumsy and ugly!
Baggy three-quarter length sleeves, and a faux v-neck that harks back to the hay day of Frank Butcher in Eastenders, while the Cardiff City logo and that of kit designers Puma both sat very high on the shoulders of the shirt rather than on the chest area as is traditional, close to the heart where they have always sat to symbolise that the players and supporters who wear the shirt, carry the badge (which is the physical symbol of the club and so the team itself) in their hearts.
The shirt also has two stripes which to quote the club are symbolic “The two Puma King stripes are a reflection of fans’ loyalty to the club!” Many quickly and pithily replied, it was a pity the club showed no loyalty to its history!
Then there are the shorts once you get past the dirty red colour which takes some doing when they are paired with a brighter almost wash faded red of the shirt and socks.
The shorts are cut oddly, old fashioned, over long and shapeless they have a thick and ugly elasticated waistband of the type usually seen on the trousers of old men of a certain girth
They also have the look of cropped jogging bottoms, the kind of shorts that someone’s mum had made and donated to the school, for the dreaded spare kit box, the very pair that lurked at the bottom greeting you if you forgot you sports kit, with their polyester shine, before inducing fits of giggles as you took to the field of play wearing them within sight of everyone else!
The kit taken as a whole looked like it belonged to a pub side clobbered together with the only bargain basement market stall rip-off parts there was enough of for the whole team , certainly not befitting of a side making their return to the top flight of English football for the first time in 51 years.
It’s a bizarre thought that anyone at any point looked at the clashing Cardiff City two toned red home kit in a typically poor design by Puma and thought they likes it, much less that it was perfect for The Blues to run out in, in their first home game – That it was fit to mark The Bluebirds re-entrance into the most successful league in the world after an absence of fifty odd years, in the knowledge that the world will be watching, with a smirk on its its face after the embarrassment of the rebranding which was universally criticised by everyone within the sport of football and beyond.
It is Incomprehensible that someone at a very early stage of the design’s life didn’t say “You’re not serious? That is hideous!” But it would seem if someone did (which is likely) they were shouted down and ignored.
The long suffering wife of One lifelong Bluebird supporter (who has bought every replica Cardiff City shirt for the last 25 years apart from last season’s red and the 2011/12 ‘Swansea home kit’ style away strip) was aghast when she logged into the City shop to view the kit saying – “At least last years shirt even although it was bloody red, it was stylish …. this one looks like it was made in a cheap sweatshop …”
Another fan emotionally said: “I struggled to come to terms with one shade of red, but two clashing shades of red is killing me.”
Supporters of other clubs quickly started to add their opinion into the mix a West Ham fan commented that he was unsure if it was possible to get any more different shades of red In the same kit.
A Newcastle united supporter said “I wouldn’t even wish that on Sunderland!”
Even Cardiff City’s players waded in; defender Andrew Taylor tweeted to one of Cardiff City FC’s media men to ask ” why are the shorts a weird colour??!! Has (the City kit man) designed this strip??
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Supporters outraged by Cardiff City’s attempts to red-dyed themselves for the Premier League started an online petition in the hope of bringing about a complete reversal of the rebrand. Several hours passed before anyone from Cardiff made any comment. Then it was an official, unofficial promise to look into things.
That evening Cardiff city club issued an apology
‘Cardiff City Football Club on Wednesday May 29th launched the first images of the 2013/14 home kit, which featured two shades of red, the darker of which was carried in the shorts. The decision had been made as a means to help visually distinguish the club in the Premier League, while continuing the theme of our successful 2012/13 Championship winning season.’
The resulting response carried across social media quickly indicated that a large number of supporters were unhappy with the choice of colour concerning the shorts. For that we apologise.
Along with the apology came the news that via email season ticket holders were to be balloted on a choice of replacement shorts.
Newcastle United are considering a move for West Ham defender James Tomkins, according to the Metro.
Alan Pardew is a known admirer of the centre back, and was linked with a move for him last January. The Magpies boss is desperate to strengthen the centre of his side’s defence, with it proving a glaring weakness last season.
It is understood West Ham would be willing to let Tomkins leave for the right price, as the club are aware they still have to sell players to fund the £15million they used to sign Andy Carroll from Liverpool.
However, the obstacle for Newcastle is whether Pardew can convince new Director of Football Joe Kinnear to sanction the deal.
The pair are understood to have held a meeting to discuss transfer targets, but it remains unclear as to who has the final say. Newcastle fans have voiced their unhappiness at the controversial appointment of Kinnear, and the club know they need to make signings in order to appease the supporters.
The Magpies are still yet to launch a bid for Aston Villa striker Darren Bent, who has been linked with a £5million switch to St James’ Park, as a possible replacement for Papiss Cisse.
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Cisse looks to be on his way out of Newcastle after refusing to wear the club’s new shirt, sponsored by loan company Wonga, as it goes against his religious beliefs.
Liverpool fans have taken their anger out on Twitter after Luis Suarez’s recent comments turned the Uruguayan striker into a very negative trend.
The 26-year-old made it clear that he wants to leave Anfield and join a team that will be playing at the Champions League next season. According to the BBC, the Uruguayan international might even have to hand in a transfer request by the end of the week.
According to the Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, Suarez claims that Liverpool promised him that he could leave if the team did not qualify for the Champions League.
“Last year I had the opportunity to move to a big European club and I stayed on the understanding that if we failed to qualify for the Champions League the following season I’d be allowed to go,” said the striker.
The Reds’ fans though were not at all moved by his comments and took their frustrations on social media.
A displeased Liverpool fan wrote: “#Suarez is officially worse than Torres. He who betrays will always walk alone! #Judas #LFC.”
Meanwhile another fan included Suarez’s name with that of Fernando Torres and Michael Owen, who both moved to Chelsea and Manchester United respectively, and wrote that “no player is bigger than the club.”
As an Ipswich fan there have been many results that have been hard to take and Ipswich’s 4-4 draw against Derby will be put right up there with the worst of them.
Seeing the Tractor Boys go 4-1 up was a great feeling, two goals for Daryl Murphy to boost his confidence, three assists and a goal for the club’s biggest asset Aaron Cresswell too.
Then out of nowhere Derby come out in and play like a completely different team, with Ipswich suffering from overconfidence at the same time. All of the positives that should have been taken from the game were then replaced with disbelief and despair as Derby clawed their way back to 4-4 with just two minutes to go.
However, to properly analyse the match and its consequences we need to take emotion out of the equation, although I do appreciate this is hard for anyone to do especially right after the game.
The first positive thing that can be taken from the match and most others this season is that the Mick McCarthy and Terry Connor combination has got the team scoring enough goals for a promotion push. Connor’s influence cannot be underestimated as McCarthy has never taken credit for the teams offensive prowess and always tells reporters that his right hand man is working wonders with the teams forwards.
This isn’t just wild claim I am plucking out of the air after watching the team either, the statistics show an incredible improvement in goal scoring. Ipswich were the lowest scoring team last season but the Suffolk side have been up there with the high scorers throughout the early stages of this season and there are only three teams that have scored more than them right now.
It defies belief that people still complain about how McCarthy plays ‘boring football’ or is ‘too defensive’. If anything the Blues boss has proven the opposite and the team now need to work on finding the right balance between attack and defence.
Another surprise is that large groups of supporters still believe Ipswich need to be scoring more goals and are expecting to see attacking players joining the club soon. If the club were to spend any money I would much rather see them sign a solid defender like Richard Stearman rather than a forward. The statistics certainly don’t lie, but some people choose to ignore them.
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Going back to the Derby game in particular, we all need to remember that the team is a work in progress and is currently not up there with the best sides in the division. Don’t get me wrong, I believe by the end of the season Ipswich could be one of the better sides, but they haven’t yet perfected their style and that is why we will get a lot of ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ performances like on Tuesday night.
For now fans need to focus on the positives; taking a point away from home is a good result even though the way it happened was disappointing and additionally the team are playing entertaining football. McCarthy and Connor are taking the team in the right direction so just sit back, remain patient and eventually they will make Ipswich the finished product.
You can be forgiven for thinking all is rosy on the blue side of Manchester. At the top end of the Premier League table, through to the Champions League knockouts for the first time and a place booked in the League cup final to boot, all is well at Manchester City surely?
The club have today though been rocked by the news that their star midfielder Yaya Toure has openly admitted considering a move across the pond to PSG. Asked about a move to Paris by French radio station RMC, he said:
“Why not? Everything’s going well with City at the moment, but you never know. When you have big teams like that, who already have big players, it’s obviously attractive. Being part of an adventure like that, a squad like that is exceptional.”
“My objective is always to work with big players. It helps you to get better and to learn many things. You never stop learning in football. For me PSG are a big club. They’re a big team, full of history, with all the great players they have at the moment.”
The question for City fans is whether this is simply a statement of his admiration for a club like PSG, or a genuine flirtation with a potential move? It does seem a little bizarre that a man playing for one of the best footballing sides in the world at the moment would even for a moment consider a move elsewhere.
City do though have a reason to be concerned, Toure is possibly the best midfielder in the league and a player central to their attacking menace. Whilst the club has the financial power to replace anyone, there just aren’t that many players comparable to the Ivorian in world football. Toure’s importance this term is underlined by his return of 14 goals so far, and he looks still to have been a relative bargain. A midfielder who is rare in his all round completeness, he has the physical presence to break up play and the swiftness of mind to engineer incisive attacks for his club.
The sense from Toure’s comments are that he really buys into the project at PSG and that isn’t at all surprising given the ambition being shown, but in my opinion he has unfinished business. Manchester City may be playing the best football in the league, but they are yet to dominate the country domestically on a regular basis, add to that failure in Europe and you can see a way to go before Toure’s work in England is done.
I personally don’t see a move away as being at all imminent, he has just signed a lucrative new £11m a year deal until 2017 and the club don’t appear to have any urge to sell. At the age of 30 Toure has one big move left in him, and it isn’t surprising that he has eyes to the future. However, given what he has left to achieve and contribute to his current employers I’d suggest his overtures are a little bit premature.
If this was any other club the Parisians would blow them out of the water, but City’s backers are unlikely to flinch regardless of how high PSG want to bid.
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PSG may be a pre-retirement dream for Toure, but don’t expect it to be realised any time soon.
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The fans never stopped supporting the team. That’s what they’ll say when looking back at David Moyes’ first season in charge of Manchester United. Whether Moyes only makes it to the end of the year or goes on to create a second 20-year dynasty, it’s unlikely that there’ll be many darker days than the 3-0 home defeat to Liverpool. And still the fans kept singing.
While the support for the team was certainly admirable, it was equally as tragic. They didn’t cheer the team on because they expected a comeback. That was impossible: there was no coming back from this.
They sang to prove a point. We’re still singing because we’re not like you. We’re still singing because we support our managers. We’re still singing because we’re Manchester United Football Club. We’re singing because we’re still better than you.
The fans in Old Trafford have taken the fall from grace with dignity. While they may mutter Moyes’ name with discontent in private, in public they have put on a united front. This was Ferguson’s last beckoning call after all. A public damning of Moyes would be to betray their last manager and that’s the last thing you’d get from a club built on loyalty.
However, it’s hard not to draw parallels between the Man United fans’ behaviour of late and that of Liverpool fans for the last 20 years. It may seem odd that a comparison with Liverpool fans would have negative connotations given that the Scouse support are famed for their backing of the club. But then that’s just it, they’re famed for their support because they sing when they’re losing. This is not something that a club as successful as Manchester United want to be associated with. It’s demeaning.
But they may just have to settle for having the best fans, if not the best team in the world. That’s how the future looks. It’s one where Gary Neville and Rio Ferdinand beam out from Sky Sports studios eulogising on the size, tradition and character of the football club as they cling onto past glories. It’s what we’ve had from Jamie Redknapp, Jamie Carragher and Graeme Souness for years.
And Souness knows how easily things can change at the top. Like Moyes, Souness had the unenviable task of following an incredibly successful manager of the biggest club in the country. And like Moyes, Souness found his best efforts met with failure.
However, unlike Moyes, Souness went out in a ball of flames. He took on the playing squad from day one, with little respect for reputation or skill. He broke the dynasty by breaking the team. If anything, Moyes has been too respectful to the players he was given. But then, the man who chose these players was the same one that chose him.
The Manchester United fans may accept their temporary fall from grace but only because they believe it won’t be as long as Liverpool’s time in purgatory. And they may be right. The reason that United were able to reign supreme over their Merseyside rivals for the last 20 years was due to the Manchester club’s relative success in harnessing the greater revenue streams offered by the Premier League.
And this strategy has only been on the increase. The club now boast 35 commercial sponsors according to their website, including Mister Potato, the Official Savory Snack Partner of Manchester United. However, how long Brand United can last if team United suffer an extended exile from the Champions League remains to be seen.
One gets the feeling that there is little danger of the Red Devils support having to update ’20 times’ anytime soon. 21 will come. But it may be that they have to live on past glories for longer than they think. They may just have to survive for as long as Liverpool have.
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Fans tend to joke amongst each other about supporters of certain teams being a little casual when it comes to knowing the history. This is perceived to be the case with some of the bigger teams in the Premier League, who have fanbases spanning several continents, but is it actually true? Knowing a football team inside out can take time, especially for younger fans without memories stretching back several decades.
What it can do is help when trying to impress fans, but how much do fans tend to know. Using all teams currently in the Premier League as an example, it seems that a few supporters should know a little more than they do right now. A quiz asked how well do you know your team, with 10 different questions spanning every facet of the club. The test by Ladbrokes caught quite a few out.
Ignorant Canaries?
Right at the foot of the knowledge table are Norwich City, who aren’t out of trouble on it just yet. Supporters of the East Anglian side have, on average, scored a miserable four out of ten in the quiz, perhaps showing that their knowledge of the club’s history doesn’t go too far back. In total, less than one third of their fans who took the quiz got at least six correct answers.
Another set of fans who didn’t fare too well are Stoke City supporters. The Potters, who look to be close to achieving Premier League safety following a solid win over Hull City last weekend, saw 3% of fans come away without getting a single question right. Less than a quarter of their fans got more than 6/10, which is surprising given their support at the Britannia Stadium is pretty vociferous.
Proud Palace
Among the other low scorers are West Bromwich Albion. Although not a single Baggies fan scored zero, two-thirds of their fans failed to get more than 5/10, which is surprising. However, not all of the smaller clubs’ support fared so badly, with Crystal Palace fans proving to be pretty sharp when it comes to knowing their team.
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12% of Palace fans scored 10/10. An astonishing 72% of their fans came away having scored at least 6/10. Also, 16% of Hull City fans managed to get all their questions right, which shows that smaller teams’ fans have plenty to draw on, as do the bigger clubs, but it’s Southampton who sit at the top of the table.