When a club decides to fork out just over £17m, the incoming players usually create an atmosphere of anticipation and excitement among fans.
However, Tottenham have reportedly spent that much money on two 17-year-old Croatians from Dinamo Zagreb. Ever heard of Alen Halilovic or Tin Jedvaj?
For Spurs fans that hear “Zagreb” and think ‘a replacement for Modric’, Halilovic could supposedly be just that, having been labelled the new version of the ex-White Hart Lane man.
As for Jedvaj, he is a central defender currently representing his country at U19 level, once courted by Roma.
Both players will remain with the Croatian champions until they turn 18 at least, which for Jedvaj is at the end of November and for Halilovic is in June 2014.
That will give them an opportunity to build on the little senior experience they boast.
After becoming Croatia’s youngest ever debutant last season, Halilovic featured 21 times for his club, including three Champions League appearances. Impressively, he also has a single senior international cap to his name.
Jedvaj broke on the scene at Zagreb last season as well, playing on 13 occasions throughout the campaign.
As seems to be the case with many a starlet today, both players have been talked about as the next superstar of world football.
Halilovic in particular though, has received so much attention that, in a display of humbleness which might impress Tottenham fans, he asked the Croatian media to stop likening him to Lionel Messi.
“Just don’t call me Messi,” he said last year. “I admire Leo, but I am a long way from him. For now my goal is to play well and to show the coach he can count on me.”
To understand the hype surrounding the son of former international midfielder Sejad Halilovic, you need just watch the video of him in action below.
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It appears Halilovic possesses the ability to glide past defenders with effortless ease, as well as a deft goalscoring touch and a canny knack of drifting out wide before driving inside to cause havoc.
Certainly, it is understandable that he was being chased by Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and a host of other European giants.
What of Jedvaj then? Again, the video below really says it all about him.
He looks to demonstrate all the traits of a stereotypical centre-half, strong in the air and bullish in a tackle.
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At the same time though, his aggressiveness seems to be coupled with an instinctive sense of when to time a tackle. What’s more, Jedvaj appears to be able to carry the ball forward, a quality players at the back are expected to have more often than not these days.
Although both are still young, Spurs fans would be hard pushed to suggest they are not the type of players Andre Villas-Boas would want in his side.
As an interchangeable outfit playing fluid football, surely the dynamic game brought to the pitch by each youngster would make them a perfect fit at White Hart Lane?
England’s World Cup campaign didn’t kick off as planned as their spirited team performance wasn’t enough to overcome the might of the ever-reliable Italians.
But fear not young worriers, a lack of points at this stage is no drama. There was plenty in England’s first outing in Brazil to suggest they have more than enough to progress through their very own ‘group of death’.
With Uruguay and Costa Rica to follow, on paper England are the better side. And whilst football isn’t a game played on paper, the paper can give us a real good indication as to why this group of English players, and you English supporters, should have no fears in the upcoming fixtures.
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Click on Sterling to see the FIVE reasons why England will escape Group D
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We Can Pass!
Everyone knows that passing is the new scoring, right? The statsgasm on Twitter in recent days has been relentlessly positive surrounding England’s showing in their first match against Italy, and the figures suggest this is a side that is progressing. After the first round of group games, England were second only to Italy in the pass completion percentage statistics, and had the highest pass percentage in the opposition half of all teams.
With players like Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Raheem Sterling, Adam Lallana, and Ross Barkley, England can go into their final two matches in Group D knowing that they have the players available to them to take the initiative, keeping the ball away from the opponents and fashioning out chances by probing in dangerous areas.
We Will Score!
Against Italy we may not have created the most clear-cut of goalscoring opportunities, but once more the stats showed that England’s 18 shots were more than any other side. Despite many of these not being ‘chances’ as such, the fact the players were willing to work the goalkeeper was a positive thing.
They came up against a traditionally well-disciplined Italian defence, and weren’t afraid to pull the trigger if an opening presented itself. Obviously, their conversion percentage wasn’t anywhere near the best of the sides in the tournament, but you have to assume that neither Uruguay nor Costa Rica will be nearly as sturdy as Cesare Prandelli’s men. If our boys continue showing similar intent, they’ll likely come out more successful than before.
Luis Suarez Injury
While the World Cup is all about the best players in the world showing what they can do, England fans and players alike will not want to see Luis Suarez line up against them.
The uncertainty surrounding his knee following an operation a month ago will fill everyone with added positivity. The Liverpool striker was one of England’s biggest worries before the tournament, but having not played since the final day of the Premier League season, it would be fair to predict that he won’t be at his sharpest.
Without one half of their talismanic frontline, Uruguay will be half as deadly. And that can only work in England’s favour.
Squad Depth
Never before in recent memory has an England squad possessed so many players with the ability to individually change a game. Against Italy the likes of Rooney, Gerrard, Sturridge and Sterling were on the pitch, wonderfully complemented by the work and effectiveness of Jordan Henderson and Danny Welbeck. With the likes of Barkley, Lallana, Frank Lampard, Rickie Lambert, and Jack Wilshere on the bench, Hodgson has a whole plethora of players to turn to in times of need.
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The impressive Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain may struggle to find fitness for the Uruguay game, but he should be back in time for Costa Rica. His direct and powerful dribbling can help change the momentum of a game. We shouldn’t have to worry about our options from the bench.
No More Italy
Quite simply, Italy have been one of the best outfits so far at the World Cup. Their ball retention in midfield is second to none, and their compact defensive shape made them incredibly frustrating to break down. What’s more, they looked to have attacking quality in all areas. Mario Balotelli had a quiet game, but impressed when called upon.
The right-back Matteo Darmian was a constant menace to Leighton Baines, and Antonio Candreva drifted in and out of spaces causing no ends of problems. England won’t face a similar side to Italy again in Group D. Costa Rica and Uruguay are very different from Italy, and have glaring weaknesses in their sides, whereas Italy are well-rounded.
England can rely on Italy to take points from their rivals in the next two games, so there should be no worries about results going the wrong way. The toughest challenge has been and gone. The next two games will be much simpler tasks.
Manchester United got their season back on track with a commanding 3-0 win over Newcastle at the Sports Direct Arena on Sunday.
Jonny Evans, Patrice Evra and Tom Cleverley were all on target for the Red Devils, who were under pressure to get a positive result after losing 3-2 to Tottenham in their last game.
Sir Alex Ferguson stated that the victory was the best of the season so far, and feels his side played for the full 90 minutes.
“I would agree with you. I think so,” the Scot told Sky Sports when asked if it was the best performance of the campaign.
“Although the second half against Tottenham we were terrific, but the first half spoiled the whole day. Whereas today I thought the whole game we were on top of our game in the sense of concentration, determination, all the things you want to see in a team that’s going to win.
“It was a great result. To come here and win 3-0 against a really powerful, aggressive Newcastle team, you have to make sure you really perform and keep control of the game and I think we did that most of the time,” he concluded.
The win lifts the Old Trafford outfit up to second place, four points behind leaders Chelsea.
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For those younger football fans among us, the art of tackling is something we have never been able to appreciate in all its full-throttle glory. Any slightest hint of contact can often leave a player with a booking, forced to walk on a tightrope for the rest of the match.
After the crunching challenges of yesteryear, tackling is now viewed as a last resort by many players; with interceptions now the preferred method to win the ball back.
A player like Michael Carrick is often criticised for his reluctance to tackle, but he can still be effective in winning the ball back; with his number of interceptions reportedly being the highest in the Champions League in 2010-11, with 48, according to FourFourTwo.
Interceptions appear to be cleaner and run a much lower risk of a booking or sending off if mistimed. This is one of the reasons why tackling is gradually being phased out of the game; another being the factor of inconsistency among referees as to what constitutes as a fair challenge and what is deemed as reckless.
The most recent high-profile example comes from the clash between Liverpool and Manchester United, where Jonjo Shelvey and Jonny Evans launched into a 50-50 challenge for the ball.
Referee Mark Halsey judged Shelvey as the guilty party and assumingly assessed that the Liverpool midfielder had endangered Evans’ safety with the challenge, but those of us who saw the tackle would find it difficult to find one party guiltier than the other. It would be hard to imagine such a challenge being deemed worthy of sending off 10 years ago, especially not before the 1990s.
It seems that as football becomes more continental, fewer challenges of a more physical nature are allowed on the pitch, something which definitely favours the country’s more skilful players, but hinders those whose jobs it is to stop goalscoring opportunities.
Some say that play-acting and diving has also contributed to the downfall of tackling; with forward players now seeking to con officials by going down too easily.
Therefore, professionals of yesteryear would not last a minute in the modern day game – can you imagine how many red cards legendary 70s Leeds hardman, Billy Bremner or former Wimbledon defender Vinnie Jones would receive in a season?
It all seems to mean that the days of tackling are now gradually coming to an end, but perhaps we should not become too downbeat about the situation, with many defenders now viewing staying on their feet as a particular skill. Players like Rio Ferdinand now see making tackles as a last-ditch option, something which would only arise if he had not of read the game well enough.
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So in future, defensive players may strive to make the perfect interception rather than the perfect tackle as football evolves into more of a non-contact sport.
QPR look set to clinch the signing of former Inter Milan goalkeeper Julio Cesar before the close of the transfer window, but this deal is just the latest in a long line of stop-gap, short-term transfers that could harm the club further down the line, as boss Mark Hughes continues to gamble with their financial future.
A few facts to bring you – QPR were the only club last season not to hand a single start to a player under the age of 21. Of their current 32-man squad, 19 of them are over the age of 30. The average age, factoring in the signing of the Brazilian goalkeeper, of their nine summer transfers comes in at 28.5 years of age. This is far from planning for the future, rather simply trying to avoid the drop before he moves on to bigger and better things.
Stability is the name of the game this season, and on the face of it, you can’t really question any of the summer deals that Hughes has gone for as they all boast knowledge of the Premier League and have been successful elsewhere during their respective careers, but dig a little deeper and nearly all of them are fraught with problems.
The Junior Hoilett capture represented something of a transfer coup as he’d been linked with bigger clubs since January last season, while Samba Diakite did reasonably well during a loan spell which has since been made permanent, but these are the only two deals that you would qualify as ‘good business’ so far.
The rest of the players, however, have either not been first-choice at their clubs for some time, have been playing at a lower standard, or have been involved in clubs which have been battling for their survival. The likes of Andrew Johnson, Ryan Nelsen, Park Ji-Sung and Fabio were all far from regulars in their respective sides last year, while Robert Green played in the Championship and Hoilett was battling the drop all last term.
There’s gelling as a new side, which is no mean task in itself, then you also have to factor in that many of them will not be familiar in recent times with being guaranteed starters week-in, week-out, while others will have to get used to being back in that crucial winning habit again – that’s a lot of minor problems to overcome in a season such as this.
Hughes is clearly banking on experience as being the key to stability this season, but it appears as if he’s gone way too far the other way, and the back four still looks extremely ropey on paper and in practice, while the pursuit of Julio Cesar smacks of desperation and a lack of faith in a fellow summer signing Robert Green after a couple of admittedly shaky performances.
Nothing typifies the short-term trap that they’ve fallen into more than their pursuit of the chunky goalkeeper, and he’s the second number one that Hughes will have signed inside three months. This is not a revolving door policy, more a 100mph merry-go-round, during which any player can be sacrificed on a mere whim.
In all honesty, I couldn’t really tell you what their starting eleven is at the moment and while Park Ji-Sung is a perfectly decent player, naming his as captain seems like an odd move – does he lead by example? Is he vociferous leader on the pitch? The answer is that he’s probably neither and the side does look like it’s lacking in both leadership and direction at the moment.
Also, Park has never really played to the best of his ability in a two-man central midfield while in England, and has more often than not been part of a three-man midfield while being given a specific tactical job to do for the sake of the rest of the side – the role he’s been asked to perform so far must have been somewhat alien to him. His midfield partnership alongside Diakite, particularly at the expense of Alejandro Faurlin, looks very strange to boot and hasn’t really worked so far, with the Swansea performance the most obvious example of such, as both just seemed to go missing in the second half.
You also have to factor in that players like Julio Cesar, Jose Bosingwa and Djibril Cisse and Bobby Zamora did not come cheap in terms of wages and instead of battle-hardened experience, you have a side full of OAP’s looking for one final big payday before they retire. Given the age issue throughout the whole squad, it’s entirely conceivable that the majority of the first eleven will need replacing within two years, which will come at a great expense to owner Tony Fernandes and could unsettle their progress further down the line again.
In key areas, right down the spine of the side, there appears to be little cohesion or understanding about what Hughes’ vision is. A centre-back partnership of Clint Hill and Anton Ferdinand is simply not good enough for the top flight, and while he may be seeking to add a player here before the window closes, with both Michael Dawson and Ricardo Carvalho (another ageing player at 34 years of age who played very little last season on a short-sighted loan deal) linked, you have to question why that wasn’t a priority from the outset at the beginning of the summer.
The main accusation often levelled at Hughes during his time at Manchester City was that his approach to the transfer market was scattergun at best and he was really very wasteful with the resources that he had at his disposal. He resembled a kid in a candy shop, or somebody going on an ill-judged spending spree on Football Manager, with no real thought given to how these signings would adapt, into what system they would go and how much of a role they would play. For every Vincent Kompany there was a Roque Santa Cruz and for every Carlos Tevez, there was a Wayne Bridge and very few of his signings remain key players at the club now under Roberto Mancini.
It seems as if, with a sizeable budget compared to his fellow potential lower mid-table rivals, that he’s been done little more than tried to ensure that the club don’t go down this season. This in itself is a reasonable expectation, but the flawed and somewhat bizarre approach to transfers leaves a lot to be desired and the majority are little more than expensive stop-gap purchases.
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Many tipped the Hoops’ for a top-ten finish this season prior to the campaign kicking off, but with such an heavy influx of new faces, the side will take time to gel. Hughes has shown himself in the past to be a more than capable operator in the Premier League, but the moves so far this summer all point to a dampening of expectations and a lack of ambition, precisely at a time when the club should be looking up the table, excited about the future after last term’s escape.
The plan so far of banking on experience to help the club consolidate is something of a gamble and the repercussions if it goes wrong are potentially catastrophic financially, while for Hughes’ sake and the amount that he has personally staked on this policy being a resounding success, it could be a career-defining next few months, with his reputation certainly on the line.
England and Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard has expressed his excitement towards the future of the England midfield after a 5-0 win in Moldova.
Tom Cleverley and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain stood out as boys reforming into men as the game went on, and Lampard clearly feels that this England team has potential.
The in-form Chelsea midfielder scored twice for his country in a comfortable win at Moldova that is certain to prove any doubters wrong over his own personal selection. Lampard played alongside Gerrard in a mythical paring that was deemed impossible by former managers, and the two combined well to allow the youngsters to enjoy the occasion that Lampard and Gerrard thrived in.
“They’re brilliant; of course they’re good enough. Tom is a pleasure to play with and with him being at such a young age, he’s going to be right in the middle of the team for years to come,” Lampard told the Daily Mirror.
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“Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was brilliant. He lit up the first half and it’s great to see players like that coming through,” he added.
Stoke City travel to Upton Park looking for their 50th premier league win after their promotion in 2008.
Tony Pulis’ side will be trying to do something they haven’t achieved since the latter stages of last season in their search of the landmark; win away from the Britannia Stadium. Stoke haven’t managed a victory in their last 15 league fixtures away from home, scoring just eight goals in the process.
During this campaign their record stands at lost three, drawn three on the road and they will be hoping to put this right on Monday against this seasons surprise package West Ham who currently sit in sixth.
Both the Hammers and the Potters won their previous games 1-0 against Newcastle and QPR respectively and both will want to continue their winning ways.
West Ham’s fortunes at home are very different to Stoke’s away form, having only lost once this season, going down 3-1 against Arsenal in October. They will be pushing for all three points on Monday as their following four games give them the daunting prospect of Tottenham, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool.
Stoke’s problem hasn’t been the defending, having the joint best defence in the league with champions Manchester City, conceding just 10 goals, four of them coming at Old Trafford. The problem has been going forward only bagging nine, and with West Ham only shipping one more goal than the visitors this season, Monday’s affair could be a low scoring one.
But both strikers will want to prove a point after being left out of Roy Hodgson’s England squad. Many believe England need a Peter Crouch or an Andy Carroll but there is only room for one. In a fixture bringing two of the toughest defences up against each other, is there a better place to put your case forward?
Neither manager will have a full squad at their disposal; Sam Allardyce is still without Ricardo Vaz Te who dislocated his shoulder during the defeat to Arsenal back in October and Jack Collison is out with a knee problem.
There are fresh injury worries for Pulis; Glenn Whelan is waiting the results of a scan after he limped off for the Republic of Ireland against Greece in midweek, while Charlie Adam and Jon Walters should make the trip despite picking up niggles. Marc Wilson (broken leg) and Rory Delap (hernia) are definitely out and Michael Owen (hamstring) remains a doubt. Dean Whitehead is also going to miss the game at Upton Park with his second suspension of the season, after he picked up his fifth yellow card in the game against QPR.
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With both defences in their current good form and the lack of goals at the other end, the game has got a 1-1 draw written all over it.
Saturdays 2-1 defeat to Huddersfield effectively put the final nail in the coffin for our season, with a seven point gap that would prove difficult for most in form teams, never mind one that lacks a severe cutting edge.
With any defeat comes negativity, but it’s when the defeat is also met with an air of expectancy that there becomes a serious problem.
When Neil Warnock took over as manager he was the first choice for many, and the fact that it hasn’t worked out for him doesn’t mean that any of us were wrong to get our hopes up over him coming in. Warnock is a good manager, his record proves that and it cannot be argued against, but there is only so much a good manager can do with a club that has spent years limiting the resources on offer. That being said, Warnock cannot argue that he hasn’t received backing of sorts, it was only a few games ago that he told us all that he wished he’d had this squad from the start of the season, before deciding that we were still one or two short.
Truth be told, we’re probably about seven or eight short. That team is an average Championship side, thankfully the players all seem committed to the cause, and you can’t help but think that the season could have been drastically worse had they not been.
With all this in mind, it looks as though Warnock’s time at Elland Road is coming to an end. Personally, I’ll look back at his tenure with a hint of regret, there was no doubt that he came here wanting promotion as much as we all did, but unfortunately the ambition we shared was not matched by Bates at the start of the season by GFH after they took over, who perhaps understandably seemed to be focusing on next season. Right man, wrong time.
Whether Warnock leaves before our game with Ipswich is anyone’s guess, but what we need to do now is let GFH handle this how they see fit. For the first time in a long time it would appear that we have very level headed owners who wont rush or panic into making decisions. They’ve already proved to be listening to the fans, the recent drop in season ticket prices reflects this, and that isn’t the first time they’ve tried to re-engage the fans.
Appointing the wrong man now would undo all that hard work, right now we need a dream to buy in to and the first piece of the jigsaw has to be a quality manager. Ambition breeds confidence in fans, bringing the right man in now could seriously galvanise the fans and club as a whole for next season.
Trust between the club and fans has been shattered in the past, but GFH have called a lot of the shots right since they arrived, and they deserve huge credit for restoring some of that lost trust.
Bring in the right manager, and they might be in danger of becoming popular.
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Southampton’s decision to relieve Nigel Adkins of his duties and immediately replace him with former Espanyol coach Mauricio Pochettino last week was quite rightly labelled a harsh move by the club’s chairman Nicola Cortese considering the form of the improving side, but did the 47-year-old lose the image battle more than anything else? And is this simply the latest instalment in an increasingly clear trend of clubs favouring ideas over experience?
There had been rumblings that Adkins was at risk after the newly-promoted team’s patchy start to life in the top flight, but enjoying a heroes status among the fans after leading the club to two successive promotions, it was thought that Cortese would be unable to justify removing such a popular figurehead, especially when you consider that the original plan laid out by the Italian owner included a five-year plan for promotion back to the promised land of the Premier League, not just two.
Cortese released a statement with the following: “This decision has been made with the long-term ambitions of Southampton Football Club in mind. Whilst we acknowledge the contribution Nigel has made during the past two years, for the Club to progress and achieve our long-term targets a change was needed. Mauricio is a well-respected coach of substantial quality who has gained a reputation as an astute tactician and excellent man manager. I have every confidence that he will inspire our talented squad of players to perform at the highest possible level.”
He goes on to talk about the Argentine’s record at nurturing youth prospects, something Adkins was also extremely adept at considering the involvement of the likes of Luke Shaw and James Ward-Prowse this term at such tender ages, while the timing of the dismissal also seemed extremely odd at first, with Southampton having lost just two of their last 12 games and having secured laudable draws against both Arsenal and Chelsea. They were 15th at the time of the sacking, three points clear of safety and picking up points regularly and starting to look more and more like a team that had enough in the tank to stay up.
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Of course, Cortese is known to be something of an egotist and will have no doubt have been put out by the fans continued support of Adkins despite their poor early season form and penchant for letting in bundles of sloppy goals, treating it as a personal affront. He has previous when it comes to clashing heads and sacking perfectly qualified managers, with current Newcastle boss Alan Pardew also unfathomably dismissed back in September 2010.
Similar to how Manchester City prepared for Roberto Mancini’s arrival by letting Mark Hughes take the brunt of a tough sequence of games, Cortese approached Pochettino weeks ago, seemingly anticipating that the side would lose against both Arsenal and Chelsea, leaving them some way closer to the drop zone, thus making the decision somewhat easier to justify. That’s not only reprehensible, it’s depressingly cynical.
Pochettino may well go on to be a success on the south coast, with the early signs of his pressing style visible during an excellent first half performance against Everton before tiring late on. He has a clear plan and ideology, which seems to be the most attractive principles around to prospective chairman these days above other qualifications such as experience and silverware. He may well be to the club what Pardew was to Newcastle after Chris Hughton was ridiculously sacked.
His sacking at Espanyol back in November was widely seen as a reluctant one; the board loved him, the fans did too, and he’d done a marvellous job to make the club so competitive and entertaining with such a paucity of resources, with the cash-strapped outfit forced to sell off star players at every turn, including Jose Callejon to Real Madrid, Victor Ruiz to Napoli and Daniel Osvaldo to Roma.
The BBC profile piece on him introducing him to the wider English world hailed him as a “forward-thinking and thoroughly modern coach.” Now, I’m not entirely sure what that means. Are there backward-thinking managers out there? Are there ‘keep it steady, don’t rock the boat’ centrists? Is it merely an age issue? Are older managers being phased out because they lack a clear footballing ‘philosophy’? It would seem so.
Liverpool have 39-year-old Brendan Rodgers in charge, appointed off the back of one season of top flight experience at Swansea. Tottenham have 35-year-old Andre Villas-Boas at the helm, a man who managed his first team at the age of just 21, while 39-year-old Roberto Martinez at Wigan is casually referred to as a ‘footballing purist’, quite what that means is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear, just as much with styles of football, a hierarchy has been formed in terms of the crucial currency of status – young is good, old is bad, in-between like Adkins is just plain dangerous.
We’ve certainly moved away from the days of the ‘old boys club’, whereby a decent playing career would inevitably set you up for life as a manager, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing by any stretch, it’s a welcome one, but it’s when this shift starts claiming the scalps of credible managers such as Adkins for shinier, newer managers like Pochettino that it starts to get worrying.
It’s very telling that in the list of managers to have taken charge of the most Premier League games, with the usual lot of Ferguson, Wenger, Redknapp, Moyes, Allardyce and O’Neill at the top, that George Graham is still sixth with 332 games despite not having managed in the league since 2001. Alan Curbishley is joint-seventh on 328 games even though he has been unemployed since leaving West Ham in 2008. Graeme Souness is ninth on 319 games, without a job since Newcastle in 2006. New Scotland coach Gordon Strachan hasn’t managed in the top tier since 2004 with Southampton but is 12th. Joe Kinnear, an 18-game spell at Newcastle aside, hasn’t been around since leaving Wimbledon in 1999. It’s taking on an increasingly ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality.
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The attraction with a young manager is clear – they are vibrant, media-friendly and come with 100-page dossiers on what their style means and how best they can implement it. Some dip their toes too far into manager speak, with ‘going forward’ and other made up words like ‘diversivise’ or ‘conversate’, gradually helping corporate, middle-management jargon infiltrate the game; language that’s sole objective in mind is to make the person using it sound more intelligent than they actually are and their ideas appear more worthy of listening to.
Football needs to evolve and fresh ideas are a positive step on the well-worn path of progress (see, I can do it too), but they should not come at the expense of proven managerial talent that’s been successful elsewhere in their career, otherwise, what’s the point of it all? All managers need to get their break in the game somewhere, but now it’s happening right at the top and is used as a statement of intent by owners to the fans, ‘look, we’ve appointed a young coach, aren’t we progressive’.
It’s not reckless, but it’s a gamble, a risky move that has become an accepted truth which has helped give birth to an established trend, with the spiel that these appointments have both ‘the long-term and short-term’ of the club in mind, therefore insinuating that appointing an older manager doesn’t. Every club now looks as if they’re trying to build a lasting legacy, which is admirable, but as with all trends, it’s just not realistic.
It has been another year of disappointment despite signs of promise throughout, a year which ultimately has been defined by off the field issues. Focusing on the football side of things though and it has been a drama filled season.
We started the season with last year’s caretaker boss Andy Thorn in charge of first team affairs. His inexperience in the job was clear for everyone to see from the off but we felt as a club that we at least owed him a shot at getting this club back to the championship.
After relegation last season it was inevitable that we were going to lose our better players and the exodus began with the likes of Richard Keogh, Martin Cranie, Oliver Norwood and Gael Bigirimana all leaving for bigger and better things. Brought into replace them were relative unknowns which on a shoestring budget you could understand.
It was a squad which looked capable and a potential for a promotion push looked on. However a win in the cup and 3 draws in the league later and Thorn was relieved of his duties. This seemed a ridiculous decision at the time with the side unbeaten but after surrendering a two goal lead to bury the owners saw fit to end Thorns reign despite the fact they had just allowed him to build his own squad over the summer.
Richard Shaw was put in temporary charge and in his first game knocked out Birmingham from the capital one cup in dramatic style. Unfortunately this was a one off performance and the rest of his short tenure in charge was pretty appalling to say the least. Four league games and a cup match later and the Skyblues were looking like a side that could get relegated twice in two seasons.
One positive to take from the early stages is that we clearly had a striker who knew where the goal was. Despite our often lacklustre and woeful performances David McGoldrick kept getting himself on the scoresheet.
We then saw the one really good decision that Coventry City FC made all season in the appointment of Mark Robins. He came in and although progress was slow at first it was clear to see we were becoming a good side. One of the biggest things Robins did was to bring James Bailey to the club. He was in essence the replacement for Oliver Norwood which his predecessors at the club had failed to get. Bailey was undoubtedly a game changer for us, his intelligence and passing ability allowed him to command a game from the middle of the park and helped other people’s game’s especially Carl Baker.
Carl Baker under Robins was a revelation. Given the responsibility of the captains armband he grabbed the opportunity with both hands and quickly became a vital part of the team. Form continued to improve and come the end of the year Coventry were on a ten game unbeaten run and sitting in 9th just two points off of a play off place.
We were looking like a side that could beat anyone in the league and with goals coming from McGoldrick and Baker it seemed the only way was up. However the news then broke of McGoldrick’s inevitable return to forest. His form was 2nd to none and a lot of clubs had been keeping tabs on the front man. Surprisingly forest didn’t really seem to want him back but other championship clubs were after his signature. In the end he chose to go on loan to Ipswich town which to this day I still cannot understand and it was the Marlon King situation all over again.
This was a huge blow to the squad as where now would the goals come from. We did have a player on trial at the club by the name of Leon Clarke. He had spent the early part of the season on loan at Scunthorpe and had proved to be a real asset for them in front of goal. Everyone was hoping he and McGoldrick would have been a partnership but instead the burden of main goalscorer now fell to Clarke.
He was a very different type of player and it was hard for the team and the fans to adapt to not having that skilful often classy centre forward to look to when things weren’t going their way. Leon Clarke though settled in rather well and went on to score 10 goals for the club despite missing a large part of the end of the season due to injury.
An aspect of the season that is definitely worth celebrating is our drama filled cup run in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. It was running nicely alongside our league form and we were a two legged semi final away from a trip to Wembley. Unfortunately the first leg of this tie was the begging of the end to our season.
A 3-0 home loss to Crewe which to this day I still don’t know how it happened followed by Mark Robins decision to leave the club to join championship strugglers Huddersfield ultimately left us shell shocked. With One Wembley dream gone the other looked like it was disappearing fast. Carsley was in as Caretaker boss and things began to tail off. Even Carsley himself admitted he wasn’t ready for the job and effectively ruled himself out of the running.
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With the playoffs looking like a longshot the club went to Scotland for the next appointment with the man they call ‘Elvis’ being brought in. Steven Pressley seemed to have little experience on the face of it and I think it was obvious from the start that he had different ideas to previous manager Robins.
City’s form became intermittent at best and with playoff hopes just about surviving the threat of administration emerged over the club. The club said they would fight it and well we all know the debacle that has followed but the club ultimately were deducted 10 points and the season was officially over. City’s form understandably dive bombed and in the end it was a disappointing 15th place finish to end a season which had shown so much promise.