Wigan boss Roberto Martinez is in demand once again as reports claim that Everton want him to replace David Moyes.
Moyes is expected to take charge at Manchester United following the shock retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson and the rumour mill has already started over who will replace him.
Martinez was linked with Goodison Park last summer as there were question marks over the future of Moyes back then, so it comes as no surprise to see the Spaniard’s name mentioned again.
The Latics boss came close to joining Liverpool last summer before he opted to stay with Wigan, while the year before it was Aston Villa that tried to lure him away.
Martinez is fully focused on this weekend’s FA Cup Final and keeping Wigan in the Premier League, but he could have another decision to make when the season is over.
Dave Whelan has always said he will not stand in his way if a top club come in for him and Everton would fall into that bracket should they make an approach.
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Yet again, the day following the end of the season will be one of solace and reflection for Tottenham fans, whilst their local rivals Arsenal will no doubt still be in celebration mode from yesterday afternoon. Despite the change in management, summer investment in the squad and the Lilywhites recording their highest ever points total in the Premier League, they find themselves finishing once again a place and a point shy of a Champions League spot, and even more insultingly, behind their arch enemies, who spent the first half of their campaign in rotten form.
Considering the start of the season, with historic wins against Manchester United at Old Trafford, and Gareth Bale being the most powerful individual force in the English top flight for much of the year, the attention from the Spurs faithful will be focused on where it all went wrong. Was it simply fate once again standing in the way of Tottenham’s ambitions of European glory or should the Chairman, Daniel Levy, have done more for this club during the summer and January in the transfer market?
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In terms of Tottenham’s shortcomings this season, there appeared to be a stage where the first team we devoid of ideas, with the exclusion of the simple tactic of getting the ball to Gareth Bale in promising areas of the pitch – the final game of the season, when it seemed Spurs were about to choke against Sunderland until a last minute strike from the Welsh wonder sealed their victory, is an excellent example upon how they’ve become over-reliant on the 23 year old’s abilities. His goals have secured Spurs the majority of their wins, starting with a hatrick against Aston Villa in December, and finishing up with 21 goals and four assists in 33 league games, almost double the total of Tottenham’s next highest scorer, Jermain Defoe.
The Lilywhites’ dependency on their talisman winger-come-forward however, was as much due to necessity as it was a tactic of preference. Jermain Defoe started the year in good form, with ten goals in his first twenty appearances in the Premier League, but upon missing out on the whole of February due to injury, and undergoing a rather long rehabilitation process since, his understudy Emmanuel Adebayor hasn’t been able to fill the Englishman’s famously tiny shoes.
Perhaps Daniel Levy should have anticipated that the Togo international would switch off as soon as his paycheques for the foreseeable future were secured, and indeed, Adebayor’s woeful form, recording just five goals in 25 appearances, two of them coming after he announced he intended to leave White Hart Lane in the summer, has no doubt been a factor in Tottenham’s slow end to the season. The striker spent the first half of the year looking exceptionally moody on the Spurs bench, seemingly due to his lack of game time, and then spent the latter half looking exceptionally uninterested on the pitch, despite being given the opportunity to play that he’d been so miffed about previously.
However, it would take a brave man to deny a loan star a long-term contract after recording 17 goals and 11 assists in their first campaign. What Levy could perhaps be held more to blame for is the decision to leave the Spurs roster with just two senior strikers. The Lilywhites have spent the summer and January in desperate pursuit of Leandro Dalmao, but upon failing to sign the Brazilian, Villas-Boas has had just one selection choice up front in Adebayor for a good three months, and additionally Tottenham’s busiest three months, of their season.
It’s not only left Adebayor with a lack of competition, no doubt a factor in his unprofessional on-pitch laziness, but upon the Togo forward’s decision to return back late from the African Cup of Nations, which he was duly fined for, the gaffer had no choice but to field Clint Dempsey as a striker for their fixture against Newcastle, with the inexperienced Harry Kane being farmed out for the year.
It may well be acceptable against the Magpies, a rank and file Premier League club, but had Spurs come up against a serious divisional rival that weekend, the club’s lack of depth would have been heavily scrutinised by the fans and the media. Similarly, having only two strikers on the books pretty much dictates a team’s formation to being a 4-5-1, and a remaining competitive up front for all 38 games of a campaign is surely a pre-requisite for a team focused on Champions League qualification – it is after all, goals that win games, and it is telling that both Manchester clubs started the year with four forwards a piece in their strike forces.
Furthermore, it’s not the only area of AVB’s squad that can be accused of be lacking in depth this season. The use of wingers has been an integral part to the Portuguese coach’s simple game plan of width and speed on the counter-attack, and upon Aaron Lennon’s short spell on the sidelines, missing four games in the Premier League, Spurs suddenly became incredibly blunt on the break.
His orthodox approach was the ying to Bale’s yang, hugging the right-hand touchline, maintaining shape and width to allow the Welshman on the opposite flank to venture inside and take up a freer role. Lennon’s absence cost them two defeats against Liverpool and Fulham, with Clint Dempsey and Gylfi Sigurdsson proving to be rather inadequate replacements simply due to their lack of pace.
Suddenly, the Lilywhites’ roster, praised at the start of the year for being converted in quality throughout, began resembling a house of cards, with a few integral figures being taken away to bring the whole mechanism of Tottenham’s style of play grinding to a halt.
But can all the blame be attributed to Daniel Levy alone? He did bring in a stellar cast of new recruits in the summer, including Jan Vertonghen, Moussa Dembele and Hugo Lloris, who’ve all served the club well this season, in addition to Dempsey and Sigurdsson, who’ve both played a role and contributed goals and assists. You can argue that there perhaps wasn’t enough planning, with a lack of like for like replacements for Bale and Lennon, and an overload of personnel in other departments, such as central midfield, defence and between the sticks, but his conviction to improve the overall quality of the first team is clear to see. Similarly, with Adebayor commanding a £100k per week deal, there is only so much that one can do in regards to signing better players that the limitations of finance will allow.
Similarly, whereas Harry Redknapp was given his marching orders in the summer for not being able to secure results against the bigger teams, judged as being the stumbling block between Spurs finishing up in the top four, AVB’s knack of recording points against the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal appears to have come at a price of the Lilywhites being less successful against the teams directly below them in the Premier League, in addition to the teams at the bottom.
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Spurs have come away with nothing or just a single point from fixtures against Everton, Liverpool, Fulham, Norwich, QPR, Stoke and Wigan, and despite the absence of Bale, Defoe and Lennon at times, excluding the two Merseyside clubs, the Lilywhites have more than enough quality to record a victory against these rank and file clubs. In my opinion, the failure to secure all three points against clubs teams like QPR, Wigan, and Fulham has as much to do with Villas-Boas’ leadership and tactics as it does a lack of depth.
Nevertheless, Champions League qualification is attainted through the course of an entire season rather than in just 90 minutes or any particular Saturday afternoon. A squad can only do as well as their quality will allow, and it appears that overall, the roster has come up short. The January signing of Lewis Hotlby was premature, unneccesary and uninspired, whereas a number of cheap wingers on the market, including Scott Sinclair for example, who was known to be on his way out of Manchester City as soon as he turned up for the first day of training, would have been a much more useful acquisition for Tottenham’s busy end to the season.
But could Levy really have afforded another winger and another striker – the two most expensive types of player to bring in, as it is often their end product which determines results and outcomes. The fact is, Spurs are not yet a Champions League club; their wage bill is £50million less than Arsenal’s, and their record transfer fee is the £17million spent on David Bentley. With the Chairman unable to bring in long-term target Leandro Dalmao, it makes sense that he’s bided his time rather than rashly acquiring an alternative that will be a burden on the club’s finances in the years to come.
Levy resisted the urge to take a risk in the transfer market, having already brought in a series of new personnel and a new manager, and perhaps it has cost them a place in the Champions League. But with plans for a new stadium on the horizon, and the expected arrival of another fresh batch of players in the summer, most likely including Dalmao and Joao Moutinho, in the long-term, it makes sense to walk before you can run. On the other hand, with Chelsea, Arsenal and the two Manchester clubs set to invest heavily in the summer, the Lilywhites may have missed their best chance at European glory for years to come, and Spurs fans will be gutted if failing to qualify will cost them Gareth Bale over the course of the summer.
One thing that we can say about Newcastle United is that they never fail to give us a strange variety of news on a pretty consistent basis. This is in no thanks to the man behind the veil, Mike Ashley. Since 2007 he has always managed to surface large amounts of controversy around him.
To shed some light on how many controversies this man has caused in the space of six years, here are a few; appointing Dennis Wise as Director of Football in 2008, failed to sell the club on numerous occasions but fully committing his future in late 2009, further in 2009 he decided to sponsor the stadium with his company re-branding it the ‘Sports Direct @ St James’ Park Stadium’, in December 2010 he sacked Chris Hughton despite doing reasonably well in the Premiership following an immediate return to the Premier League, sold Andy Carroll, Newcastle’s young starlet at the time for £35million to Liverpool and more recently in 2011 fully renamed St James’ Park to the Sports Direct Arena.
Now he has managed to rile the Newcastle fans again by making a decision to, well basically, punish Alan Shearer. With Shearer being a god to most Newcastle fans, it all seems very petty to strip the title of a bar named after him. Shearer’s bar had originally been instated in 2005 lasting just 8 and a-half years. For speaking what views he holds, Shearer has been socially disconnected from the club. Of course Shearer has shrugged of the notion and insists he will still purchase a season ticket like everyone else. Despite trying to diffuse the situation and say the plans were in place before Shearer’s comments, you can’t help but think why, why has Ashley gone and done this again? This man just keeps constantly shooting himself in the foot. After going through a period of relative ‘quietness’ and just as people start to think ‘ok, he might be doing a good job’. He goes and does it again. So why is it that Ashley seems to be doing this on a regular basis, it’s far too consistent and too much on a larger scale to be just random mistakes. Is it actually all intentional and very clever, and perhaps there is precise methodical action to the madness that we see. What I’m saying is, Mike Ashley knows exactly what he is doing.
It is simple, you don’t manage to be the CEO of a very successful sports franchise or a chairman of one of the biggest fan based clubs in England without holding a few brain cells. Ashley is in exactly the position he is in to make the decisions no one else can. These decisions, especially those controversial ones that Ashley has made, have seen him get slaughtered by fans, the press and past and present players. Yet every one has been for the greater good for the club, not Ashley. Ashley is the man to take the hit in order for the club to gain, he will be that man who is hated, that person to blame so the club can go on. I’m not saying Mike Ashley is in fact Batman, but he certainly embodies a high level of sacrifice for the greater good like our caped crusader. He makes those decisions no one else can or will do and take all the stick that comes with it, so no one else has to suffer, so the club can prosper. Going back over some of his controversial decisions we see an immediate onslaught of anger and rebellion, and then it calms down. The same order repeats itself. Why does it calm down? Because it turns out to be right decision. Looking at those previous examples, deciding to take away the name ‘St James’s Park’ was a massive decision. No one could understand it and near on everyone hated it. But it grabbed peoples attention, it was such an ingenious way of sponsoring your own company. The commotion died down and in late 2012. Wonga took over a 4 year deal as sponsors, re-instated the stadium name as St James’ Park and invested £1.5million into the youth academy. For all the slack he got, Ashley’s move to do this paid off and he was able to put together such a nice transfer kitty for the influx of French players you now see today. The fans are back to being happy and all has ended well. Another example was deciding to not keep Shearer on, employing Chris Hughton as manager led Newcastle back into the Premier League in one season. A tough feat, clubs struggle with finances and adjustment into a new league, but with Ashley, he steered Newcastle in the right direction. Which led to further controversy when Hughton found himself sacked, despite Newcastle being in a promising league position. The outcome of this was that Pardew was hired and Newcastle finished 5th the following season. Everyone knew that sacking Hughton would cause uproar, but only Ashley saw that some one with better managerial experience and tact could guide Newcastle further. A pattern is emerging.
Drawing this back to more recent events, fans were up in arms about the decision to strip the grounds bar name ‘Shearer’s’ to ‘Nine’. However lets think about this logically. Ashley appointed Joe Kinnear for a reason he thinks deeply important, Ashley isn’t stupid, he knew how much controversy this would cause, so let’s give Kinnear a chance. Shearer jumps the bandwagon and blasts his thoughts publicly. Now when you’re as big a man as Shearer in Newcastle, you’re going to get heard and you’re going to get a following. When Shearer voices something as public as this and as negative as this, Ashley has every right to protect the club. There is no doubting Ashley’s commitment and passion, and he will go so far as to risk allegiance with a club hero to protect the club. If nothing, this was a very admirable and brave move. Ashley has given Shearer his fair amount of chances at the club. Some of the gloss was lost when Shearer took charge and failed to avoid relegation. Shearer has had his chance and failed it. As said, Ashley appointed a different manager for the Championship and Newcastle came back up.
Of course there are some fans that will want Ashley out as soon as possible and there are some that are used to this behavior by now. Speaking on Twitter, a Newcastle fan group, @NUFCFansUtd stated that they would like more communication between Ashley and themselves. It is very evident that no matter what decision Ashley makes it is always for the clubs greater good. It is time that Ashley is praised for the work he has done and recognised as being one of the only true brave men in football. Not many people can cut the slack like he does. If more trust is put into Ashley, Newcastle fans will enjoy a much better life.
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West Ham manager Sam Allardyce has sensationally claimed that wantaway forward Ricardo Vaz Te was illegally tapped up before handing in a transfer request, as reported by the Daily Mail.
The Portuguese winger shocked the Hammers this week by demanding a transfer after dropping down the pecking order under Allardyce with the likes of Stewart Downing, Joe Cole and Matt Jarvis all ahead of him.
Vaz Te, who scored the winning goal to send West Ham back to the Premier League in the 2012 play-off final, will be allowed to leave Upton Park before Monday’s transfer deadline but Allardyce is not happy with the situation.
The former Bolton and Newcastle boss knows that he has to sell players in order to bring anyone else in but Allardyce was happy with no business being done in East London until January.
‘Generally when you make something like that they’ve been tapped,” Allardyce said.
‘Someone would’ve probably already contacted him.
‘I am expecting a bid for him in the next couple of days because you don’t do that sort of thing this late in the transfer window without having somebody spoken to you.
‘If anybody’s going to leave now it’ll be Vaz. You don’t keep anybody that doesn’t want to stay. If a club comes in to make the right offer for him we’ll be more than happy to accommodate the transfer request he’s given us.
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‘We haven’t had any offers for him. I would expect in the next couple of days we will have an enquiry. If not he’s put himself in a difficult position having said what he’s said if he doesn’t have another club lined up. Obviously we’ll cover that when the transfer deadline is over if he’s still here.’
Roberto Martinez believes a total of 71 points will be enough to take Everton to the Champions League, reports the Telegraph.
The Spaniard has been busy calculating the amount of points he believes his side will need to reach their objective, and hopes they will take an average of 1.94 points from their final 11 games of the season, in the hope that they will have already accumulated 50 points.
Martinez takes his side to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United tonight, and claims he would rather see his team play attractive attacking football against the Champions and lose, than be negative and play poorly and get a result.
“To get into the Champions League, I can guarantee what you need to do is get an average of 1.94 points from the last 11 games,” said Martínez.
What we’re seeing now from Daniel Sturridge – 18 Premier League goals this season – could easily be explained by suggesting the player was always capable but just needed the trust of a manager and club.
Earlier in the season I pointed to the lack of evidence we had in concluding whether Sturridge was a consistent goal scorer or one that goes through peaks and troughs, who will hit a hot streak but who may take some time to rediscover that fortune in front of goal. Even those with established reputations in England or on the continent go through inconsistencies as strikers. The issue with Sturridge is that we really didn’t have a good understanding about the kind of player he was.
There was misfortune in the clubs he was attached to prior to arriving at Liverpool. Sturridge caught the first wave caused by Manchester City’s new owner but left before a host of big names made their way to the club. Nevertheless he remained on the peripheries amid talk of a galaxy of stars arriving in the blue half of Manchester.
Chelsea, however, is a club who many youngsters have failed to find a place, as only recently names like Oscar and Eden Hazard have established themselves, yet still had to wave off Kevin de Bruyne and perhaps Romelu Lukaku too this summer.
Chelsea’s recent history dictates that they were never a good environment to gauge whether a young player had it in him to be a star at the top of the Premier League.
But Sturridge had a promising six months at Bolton before winding up at Anfield. There he scored eight times in 12 games, adding further fuel to his already high confidence and giving him the necessary starting point in the top flight, one which was denied at both City and Chelsea.
As of now, the guidance of Brendan Rodgers has put Sturridge where some would have expected him to be. He’s not a star name; for all his scoring exploits, you feel he’s a long way off the big names on the continent pursuing him with any concrete interest.
Even for his confidence, which he clearly has in abundance, he needed someone to give him a platform that was big enough for his talents to be taken seriously. Players have done well in the smaller teams in the Premier League but have failed to manage the expectations laid upon them when moving up a tier. Sturridge had youth on his side and was offered the faith of a manager who believed his confidence was justified, that he could help lead Liverpool back to where the club feel they belong.
It wasn’t too long ago that talk of England’s World Cup campaign focused on how best to use Wayne Rooney. He’s England’s best striker – though currently not the country’s most in-form – and yet he plays his club football behind a lone centre-forward. The discussion went that moving him forward would leave Roy Hodgson without an experienced option who could take over in the No.10 role. Steven Gerrard, evidently, is past that stage in his career.
But now there is the option to continue playing Rooney in that withdrawn role. It would seem ludicrous to not name Daniel Sturridge as England’s starting centre-forward at the World Cup. Under Rodgers, he’s been taught to play one his own and with a partner alongside him in Luis Suarez.
Sturridge has shown himself to be exceptionally quick, an asset for Liverpool but also an incredibly value tool for England if conservative thinking forces a leaning on counterattacking tactics.
Sturridge’s current goal haul doesn’t look to be a fluke. He’s simply carried on where he left off from last season, his initial first six months at Anfield. If Rodgers was taking a serious look at the striker rather than just taking him on as a matter of availability and convenience, he would have been encouraged by what he saw while Sturridge was at Bolton, hallmarks of a player who can be moulded into one of the Premier League’s best.
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There’s still a long way to go before Sturridge is free from the drawbacks of youthful exuberance. The selfishness to have a go at goal is slowly seeping out of his game. Though it could simply be that Sturridge, in his need to create an impression on the few opportunities he’s had over his career, was simply trying to elevate his position up the pecking order. That desire to take on shots from near-impossible angles or distances became ingrained in his thinking, which clearly has had to be coached out of him.
Sturridge isn’t a forward of the calibre of Cristiano Ronaldo or Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whose form in front of goal is perpetual. There will be dips and even losses of total form for the Liverpool striker. Yet what we’re seeing now is a player very much capable of playing a lead role on the big stage.
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On Tuesday it was announced that Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew had been penalised by the Football Association with a seven match suspension and a £60,000 fine for his headbutt on Hull City’s David Meyler.
Pardew has accepted his punishment, the heaviest ever sanction placed upon a Premier League manager, and told the club’s official website “I deeply regret the incident and again wholeheartedly apologise to all parties for my conduct, which I understand was not acceptable.”
In an ideal world, the verdict should have dissipated the furore and intense media scrutiny which the incident attracted.
In reality however, the inconsistency in the FA’s judgement has only served to further the discussion over the matter and raise huge question marks over their decision making process.
Pardew deserved to be punished for such a ridiculous action and English football’s governing body were correct to establish an independent regulatory commission to review and sanction accordingly.
But where has this punishment of a seven match ban, three of which prevent the Newcastle manager from entering the actual stadium, and a £60,000 fine actually come from?
The severity of the judgement was left in the hands of the three man panel after the issue was declared by the FA to be “non standard”. In the governing body’s view, this meant that the punishment could be determined solely from this individual case and not from precedent.
But why is this the case? In 2007, Kidderminster Harriers manager Mark Yates was handed a four match ban and a £35o fine for headbutting Exeter City striker Lee Elam. Surely a precedent such as this cannot be ignored?
Obviously the level of the fine should be adjusted accordingly to match the relative riches of the divisions, but why should the severity of the ban be greater for Pardew?
Pictures from both incidents does not reveal any greater malicious intent or physical action to suggest a greater ban on that basis.
So does that mean that Pardew has been delivered a heavier punishment because he is the manager of a high-profile team in the Premier League? A consistency in sanctions should be maintained across all the tiers of English football, no matter how many people view it on their television screens.
How much of a role did Pardew’s prior misdemeanours have to play in shaping the commission’s decision? The Newcastle manager has previously been banned for shoving a match official and was recently charged by the FA for directing foul language at Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini.
Without an explanation from the commission, it would be wrong to just assume that these incidents did indeed add to the severity of the punishment.
Most importantly though, the fact that Pardew has been sanctioned to a greater extent than Nicolas Anelka was for his controversial quenelle goal celebration reflects horrendously upon the FA.
Fined £80,000 and banned for five matches, the West Brom striker was punished for a gesture which he claimed was a show of support for his friend and comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, but controversially carried anti-semitic undertones.
With Jewish groups condemning the perceived weakness of Anelka’s punishment and Labour MP John Cryer labelling the FA as “pathetically spineless”, the outcry is likely to continue after the revelation of Pardew’s sanctions.
Inadvertently, English football’s governing body has outlined that a headbutt is worse than anti-semitism.
Football fans and journalists have taken to social media to highlight this remarkable inconsistency.
The scenario is similar to the outrage caused by UEFA’s fine of Nicklas Bendtner at Euro 2012 in comparison to their punishments for racism.
While the Arsenal striker was fined £80,000 for displaying Paddy Power branded underwear in a goal celebration, Bulgaria were fined in comparison a meagre £34,000 for racist fan behaviour in an international fixture.
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The FA have likely not yet felt the full repercussions for their respective punishments of Anelka and Pardew.
To avoid looking like clowns again in the future, a consistency in the severity of punishments needs to be established across all levels of English football.
Aside from the comparison to the quenelle, Pardew has been punished more severely than Yates for an almost identical offence with no justification as to why.
If the decision making process was perhaps more transparent, maybe it wouldn’t look like fines or match bans have been selected at random.
The announcement of Pardew’s punishment, just like the decision over Anelka’s sanction, should have firmly ended the media frenzy surrounding both events. Instead, the FA’s mishandling of both incidents has led them to inadvertently suggest that a headbutt is worse than a racist gesture.
Pep Guardiola’s reaction following Bayern Munich’s 4-0 loss at home to Real Madrid last week (5-0 on aggregate) was a call for more. No need to change, Bayern just need more. More possession; more of that tiki-taka stuff Philipp Lahm dismissed as never being a part of Bayern’s culture; more Guardiola.
The Catalan coach isn’t on the brink of departing the Allianz Arena. Not quite. Where in the past Louis van Gaal struggled and was eventually moved on for his abandoning of defensive reason, Guardiola, with similar faults, is being backed to improve next season. Moreover, in his first season in charge, Pep has been far from a failure or disappointment.
We often struggle to grasp the bigger picture. Guardiola won’t replicate the treble success of Jupp Heynckes last season, but he has already delivered the Bundesliga title in record time and may add to it with the German Cup next weekend. The bigger picture here is that Bayern are still champions. The bigger picture is that up until the point where they won the league title, Bayern were imperious. The bigger picture is that Guardiola has a myriad of ideas which he is still to implement and perfect at the club. He’s making adjustments, he’ll bring in new players and he’s learnt the hard way. All of this while keeping Bayern the best club in Germany.
There were obvious flaws to Bayern’s game in their two losses to Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals. As good as he is – and these defeats aren’t a confirmation that he’s a bad coach or that he had it easy up until now – Guardiola did make tactical errors.
The obvious is in placing Lahm in midfield to ensure his side dominated possession. While they did that, there wasn’t an able body at right-back to combat the threat of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Another is the ludicrously high line Guardiola has adopted with two centre-backs who aren’t quick enough to play in that kind of system. Don’t let this season fool you, Dante is a good centre-back; he was excellent last season throughout. But he’s clearly not quick enough to handle a defensive line that more or less stands on the halfway line.
The final is in Bayern’s lack of penetration and creative nous in the final third. Mario Mandzukic – or a player like him – has a purpose in Guardiola’s team; remember all that discussion about needing a Plan B while at Barcelona? But Mario Goetze was the player who should have been involved against Real Madrid from the off. The German resembles Lionel Messi much more than a player like Mandzukic.
All this means is that Guardiola will have another crack at it. There will be changes at Bayern this summer, high-profile changes, because quite clearly there are players in this team who can’t adapt to this tiki-taka style.
The fallout of Bayern’s loss to Real Madrid saw a damning verdict on Guardiola’s style of football. It’s been a long-running theme, though one that has remained below the surface until now: people, inexplicably, find Guardiola’s teams boring. Those losses against Real Madrid just gave them the ammunition they needed.
I don’t get it. We don’t want the unimaginative – which funnily is also boring – and we don’t want the adventurous, the musician who needs an extra disc on his latest record because there’s no room for the 25-minute album closer.
What is also quite amusing is that those who oppose Guardiola’s thinking would still love to see him either at their own club or just anywhere closer to home at another in the Premier League.
Guardiola’s football is complex, with lots of constantly moving pieces. It’s also proved to be a winning formula, both in domestic competition and in Europe. This 5-0 aggregate loss doesn’t take away Guardiola’s four league titles, two domestic cups (with another possibly on the way), two European Cups, and a total of nine Super Cups and Club World Cups.
He was lucky that players like Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi were available to him during his time at Barcelona, and let’s not forget how important the defensive pairing of Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol were (and Victor Valdes and Sergio Busquets, and so on). But it is a system that can be transported elsewhere and used with different individuals, though they do have to be the right individuals, as Bayern are proving.
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What is important to note is that ideas eventually do take on setbacks, as Barcelona found against Inter Milan in 2010 and Bayern last year, and as the Bavarians have done now. The opposite of Guardiola is Jose Mourinho, who was a genius after engineering away wins at Manchester City and Liverpool, but completely flawed following losses to Crystal Palace, Sunderland, Atletico Madrid, and whoever else. The ideas still work when executed properly. We’re not at a stage where one set of footballing principles is unbeatable.
Louis van Gaal will go to Manchester United, probably for a period of two years (not only because van Gaal works in short periods, but because United will want to hold back on handing out five or 6-year contracts after the last one). After that, Guardiola’s football may be up for grabs; he, too, has in the past confirmed his desire to work to short contracts.
Tiki-taka’s setback isn’t one it can’t get back up from. You wonder how much support Guardiola would have from England if and when he finally brings his product to the Premier League. The cult-like followers would finally see their hero hit the mainstream airwaves.
Thomas Vermaelen hasn’t become the player most Arsenal fans hoped and expected him to be after he arrived at the club from Ajax in 2009.
The Belgian international’s goals, eight in his first season, coupled with the glorifying of his ability during his lengthy absence through injury the following year, helped him to develop a cult status among the club’s support. It’s a status, though, that has really begun to run thin over the past 18 months.
In part it’s been due to successful partnership of Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny. The other is that Vermaelen simply hasn’t offered the same level of quality when drafted in to replace either of Arsene Wenger’s first-choice centre-backs. He looked assured, cool under pressure and equipped with all the physical and technical tools to be a success at Arsenal during his first few years. But – and perhaps it’s due solely to the inconsistency of games – Vermaelen looks to be declining as a player.
He’s a good option to have in the team due to his experience, leadership and versatility. If this is just a prolonged dip in form and Vermaelen is able to get back to his best, few teams in England can boast three centre-backs of such high quality.
But the player understandably wants games. He’s no longer a first choice for Belgium, and at the age of 28, he’s at the point in his career where regular games should be a given. Provided Arsenal can replace adequately, there should be no harm done in selling Vermaelen later this summer.
The problem is selling to Manchester United, who are reported to be interested in making a £12 million bid for the centre-back. If it goes through, that’s two Arsenal captains sold to a major domestic rival in the span of three summers.
Wenger really should be taking a page out of Alex Ferguson’s book and his refusal to sell Gabriel Heinze to Liverpool. Manchester United reportedly wouldn’t make direct contact with Chelsea in their negotiations for Juan Mata, ensuring that the topic of Wayne Rooney remained off the table. Even Jose Mourinho refused to loan Demba Ba to Arsenal due to the rivalry and obvious strengthening of a potential title contender.
It does a lot for the reputation of a club. I’m not a lover of the idea that club’s can’t or shouldn’t sell to rivals. In Chelsea’s case, they were on the end of a good deal for Juan Mata, bringing in £37 million. Who knows if another club would have offered anywhere near that? Are they worse off now? With Cesc Fabregas signed up, certainly not.
But, in Arsenal’s case, when the option is there to sell abroad, the club should take it. At the very least don’t facilitate in the strengthening of a rival. Don’t sell Robin van Persie to United. Juventus had an offer on the table that was said to be about £10 million short of what United offered. Either take that option or keep the player and let him run down his contract. Borussia Dortmund took a respectable stand against Bayern Munich over the Robert Lewandowski transfer. Worry about finances later if it means remaining in a strong position and ensuring you’re not lending a hand to a domestic rival.
Napoli have been interested in Vermaelen for much of the past 12 months. Whether the interest is there at this time remains unconfirmed. If Arsenal and Wenger were smart, they’d tap into that potential deal. If it means taking a hit in terms of fee received, well that’s just the way sports works sometimes.
The ideal scenario is that Vermaelen stays at Arsenal this summer and extends his contract – and of course finds some form, though easier said than done. The club have already lost a valuable and experienced member of the squad in Bacary Sagna and can’t really afford to further diminish and already small defensive group.
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But in a period in the club’s recent history where they look to be making strides to becoming regular Premier League title challengers once again, the sale of high-profile members of the squad to rivals should be out of the question.
Vermaelen could move to United and have an equally poor spell at Old Trafford, but it will only further reinforce the notion that Arsenal can be bullied in transfer negotiations and that they carry very little authority when attempting to dictate the future of saleable assets.
Southampton star Nathaniel Clyne grabbed the headlines today as England boss Roy Hodgson named his squad for the upcoming EURO 2016 qualifiers with Estonia and San Marino.
Swansea’s Jonjo Shelvey was also recalled to the squad alongside Arsenal star Kieran Gibbs, while Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge missed out due to a thigh injury picked up on international duty last time around.
Clyne has been linked with a call-up in recent weeks given his impressive for the Saints, and he could be handed his international debut with John Stones his only competition for the right-back role in Glen Johnson’s absence.
Sturridge will not link up with squad, with Hodgson not ready to risk the striker who hasn’t played since the 1-0 win over Norway almost a month ago.
“It’s just simply a fact, an unfortunate fact, that he’s not recovered,” Hodgson said of Sturridge’s absence.
“It’s a great blow to us, Liverpool and the player, because he was anxious to be a part of these two games.
“There’s no problems or conflict there at all.”
There were very few shocks in the selection, with Aston Villa’s Fabian Delph retaining his spot after an impressive debut against Norway and the win in Switzerland:
FULL SQUAD:
Goalkeepers: Fraser Forster (Southampton), Ben Foster (West Bromwich Albion), Joe Hart (Manchester City)
Defenders: Leighton Baines (Everton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Nathaniel Clyne (Southampton), Kieran Gibbs (Arsenal), Phil Jagielka (Everton), John Stones (Everton)
Midfielders: Fabian Delph (Aston Villa), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Adam Lallana (Liverpool), James Milner (Manchester City), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Jonjo Shelvey (Swansea City), Raheem Sterling (Liverpool), Andros Townsend (Tottenham Hotspur), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal)
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Forwards: Rickie Lambert (Liverpool), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Daniel Welbeck (Arsenal)
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