Hot on the heels of his impressive goal against the Netherlands, Manchester United new boy Javier Hernandez has scored a somewhat fortuitous goal against Gambia.
The UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations were unanimously approved by UEFA’s Executive Committee today.
About a month ago, images of Manchester United’s home shirt were released on thebusbyway.com and www.footballshirtculture.com creating quite a bit of discussion. Most fans on the internet seemed to doubt the authenticity of the images due to the quality of the photos and also (humorously) the design.
New images have emerged today which appear to confirm the retro design seen in those disputed images. Although I am still warming up to them, they are definitely better than this season’s home shirt which looked like a failed Star Trek uniform. I refused to purchase this season’s jersey, but would have no qualms wearing the new designs.
The new shirts also feature United’s new sponsor Aon.
Aon is a Gaelic word meaning “unity.” When the former Combined International Corporation adopted Aon as its name, in 1987, the word was chosen to represent one of the most diversified groups of insurance companies in the United States.
Image credits: www.footballshirtculture.com
Several sites had reported this week that Mexican striker Javier Hernandez had not yet been granted a work permit, due to the fact that he had not played the required 75% of his country’s “A” fixtures in the last two years.
A day after scoring for Mexico against the Netherlands, Javier Hernandez has been granted a work permit and will join Manchester United on the 1st of July.
The official United website further disclosed:
Chicharito, who has already passed a medical and agreed personal terms, will join United’s squad on the Philadelphia leg of July’s pre-season trip to the USA and Canada.
Whether the 22-year-old makes his debut in that game will depend on how far Mexico progress in the World Cup. But he’ll definitely be involved in the friendly United will play to open the new 45,000-capacity Chivas Stadium in Guadalajara at the end of July.
After receiving little service in the second half against England on Monday, Manchester United new boy Javier Hernandez ended his recent goal drought by scoring against the Netherlands. Chicharito received the ball 30 yards away from goal, laid it off to a team mate before heading towards goal like a heat-seeking missile to get on the end of a cross.
The goal comes in a timely fashion as United look to build their case for Chicharito’s work permit, as he has not played the required number of international matches for his country.
I certainly enjoyed this goal and hope he will do more of the same in the red of Manchester United.
Following a meeting of the Dubious Goals Panel, the number of own goals scored in favour of Manchester United has been reduced from 12 to 10. Nani (1st goal v Arsenal A) and Carrick (3rd goal v Portsmouth H) were the beneficiaries of the decision.
United supporters the world over had considered the 1st goal at the Emirates stadium to be Nani’s following his sublime piece of skill, but it is nice to have it officially accredited to the Portuguese winger.
The reduction of own goals scored by United’s opponents also means that Dimitar Berbatov, who was tied with OG at 12 each, is now the club’s second highest scorer for the season. 
I have to admit that I was quite happy that Steve McClaren was appointed Wolfsburg’s new head coach. Not for Steve and not for Wolfsburg’s fans, but because Bosnian stiker Edin Dzeko is on my transfer wishlist. I was and still am hoping that Sir Alex can use his relationship with McClaren to sign one of the hottest properties in European football.
The 24 year-old has been in brilliant form over the past two seasons and even scored twice against Manchester United. While Dzeko isn’t a pacy striker, he is by no means a slow coach and ticks every attribute you would want in a centre forward.
The latest admission by McClaren that Dzeko has a buy-out clause in his contract has me quite excited. It expires on Monday, so I will be following the transfer rumours over the next few days with increased interest.
McClaren told Sky Sports News: “At the present moment we’re not in control of it. He’s got a clause in his contract where he can go for a set fee before Monday.
“We’re really sweating on it. After Monday, if nothing happens, we take a little bit more control over the situation and we can dictate it a little bit more. He’s a world-class striker and we don’t want to lose him.
“We’re fighting tooth and nail to keep him. If we want to be successful we have to keep our best player, as every team does.”
When Sir Alex Ferguson retires…..
I wonder which manager in world football has the charisma to take over at the helm of Manchester United and automatically have the respect of the payers because of his achievements and personality.
I wonder which manager has a strong bond with his players, so much so they cry when he leaves.
I wonder which manager has been credited time and time again by his players with teaching them how to win.
I wonder which manager can assemble a balanced squad to play the correct tactics to beat so-called invincible teams.
I wonder which manager’s personality and quotes are so interesting that they deflect attention and pressure away from his players.
I wonder which manager is young enough to stay at United for a long time, now that’s he’s managed two of Europe’s top clubs already and might be heading for a stint at Real Madrid.
I wonder….
Mourinho’s arrogant, egotistical style and perceived boring brand of football might not be everybody’s cup of team, but Jose Mourinho certainly is the best candidate to take over the reins of Manchester United when Sir Alex retires.
I keep reading anti-Mourinho articles and for the life of me can’t believe what I’m reading, so would like to discuss the main criticisms cited against him becoming United’s next manager. They are:
- He has had a lot of luck winning the trophies he has
- His inaptitude in the transfer market
- His boring brand of football
- His arrogsnt, egotistical style
- His inability to bring through young footballers
I can only agree with the last of the above points, but even on the aspect of young players, there is evidence that Mourinho will play young players when needed.
“He has had a lot of luck winning the trophies he has”/ “it was easy with the teams he had”
When Jose Mourinho arrived at Porto in January 2002, the club hadn’t won a title in 3 years. Mourinho guided them to 3rd place that season and then led Porto to league and European glory in 2002/03, winning the Portuguese Liga, as well as the UEFA Cup (now Europa League).
In the 2003/04 season, Jose Mourinho famously led Porto to not only retain the league title, but also win the coveted Champions League. Punters often cite the luck Porto enjoyed against Manchester United, having a perfectly legitimate Paul Scholes goal disallowed, but often fail to mention that Porto progressed from a group which consisted of Real Madrid, Marseille and Partizan Belgrade.
They beat Marseille twice, Partizan once and drew mighty Madrid once. In the knockout stages, they beat United, Lyon and Deportivo la Curuna to reach the finals. Something no other Portuguese team has managed since.
When Mourinho left Porto, his immediate successor failed to retain the league title.
When Mourinho replaced Ranieri, he immediately won the league title, a feat which Ranieri did not manage despite having the same access to Roman’s rubels.
When Mourinho left Chelsea, both Big Fail and Avram Grant failed to win the English Premier League and the Stamford Bridge only had an FA Cup to celebrate. Chelsea’s drought finally ended this season, but as the special one pointed out, Carlo Ancelotti’s side benefitted from an awful Liverpool side, an injury-hit Arsenal and a Manchester United sans Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez.
Mourinho arrived at Inter Milan with the task of returning the club to European glory. He won two Serie A titles and on Saturday accomplished the mission club president Moratti had given him – he led Inter to their first Euopean Cup title in 45 years beating the eventual English Champions (Chelsea), the reigning Spanish Champions (Barcelona) and the newly-crowned German Champions (Bayern) in the process.
Either Mourinho is the only lucky manager in World Football or he’s just extremely good.
His inaptitude in the transfer market
This is a rather curious criticism voiced against Jose. A recent article on another Man Utd blog listed the transfers he had made at Chelsea and the subsequent decrease of points – attempting to show that the more Jose spent, the worse Chelsea got. I think the author missed the point that Mourinho bought in the players that enabled Chelsea to become winners:
Ricardo Carvalho, Tiago, Didier Drogba & Mikael Essien.
Other punters like to cite his failures like Kezman, Mutu and Shevchenko at Chelsea, as well as Mancini and Quaresma at inter, but no manager gets it right all the time and Shevchenko was forced upon him.
Also, I see Mancini and Quaresma as a sign that he tried to play attacking football with wingers like he did with Duff and Robben, but that it didn’t work out. (more on this later).
The flipside is that he brought in the spine of the current Inter team:
Lucio, Tiago Motta, Wesley Sneijder, Samuel Eto’o, Goran Pandev and Diego Milito have been regulars throughout the season and runaway successes. In addition, 5 of them started the Champions League final on Saturday. Think about it. 5 players in their first season starting a Champions League final and it would have been 6 if Tiago Motta had not been suspended.
Not bad for a manger, who is supposedly inapt when it comes to transfers.
Oh yeah, he also sold Zlatan Ibrahimovic for €69million, who subsequently flopped at Barcelona, especially against his former club Inter Milan.
His boring brand of football
Jose Mourinho caters his tactics according to the mission. When he spoke about his possible switch to Real Madrid recently, he mentioned “I have to hear about the project”. Meaning – what am I supposed to do? What is the mission? Am I there to play beautiful football and win? Or is the agenda to win at all costs?
At Inter, the task was to win at all costs and he did that. He bought two wingers in Mancini and Quaresma, but it didn’t work quite as well as building a team around Sneijder did.
In his first season in charge at Chelsea, I don’t think Mourinho could have been accused of boring football and neither can the current Inter side.
They went to Stamford Bridge, played balanced attacking football and won. At home against Barca, they knew how to hit them where it hurt and when to do so.
And Inter’s display against Barcelona at the Camp Nou was sheer tactical brilliance.
It might not have been one for the purists, but it was not boring.
Those who think Jose Mourinho is incapable of playing balanced attacking football, do not watch his teams often enough. They can! And only step away from doing so when different tactics are needed. Barcelona are the best in the world at what they do, so Inter had to beat them differently.
If given the task to play balanced attacking football and be successful at Manchester United, I have every confidence that Jose Mourinho would be more than capable of doing so.
His boisterous egotistical style
Much has been said of Mourinho’s personality and conduct, but many miss the point that he is absolutely brilliant at deflecting attention and pressure away from his players. An article before the Champions League final attacked Mourinho’s supposed “media-whoring” as attention-grabbing and that any club managed by Jose would always be seen as Mourinho FC.
This is a simplistic way of seeing things and only rival fans would view Jose’s club as Mourinho FC. The fans and players of the club would absolutely love him and intrinsically know that nobody is ever bigger than the club.
While the Inter players were preparing for the biggest games of their lives, most of the media’s attention was on Mourinho. Hardly any articles were about Inter’s tactics, potential weaknesses, whether the players were good enough or the usual false rumours of unsettled players etc etc.
No, it was almost all about Jose and it worked a treat. The proof is in the pudding. They won and they celebrated with Jose. The players love him. The fans love him.
His inability to bring through young footballers
Perhaps the one criticism I would agree on is the supposed lack of youngsters having a breakthrough in Mourinho’s teams. One could mention Davide Santon who played so admirably against United in 2008/09 or Jon Obi Mikael, but they are hardly examples that can compare to the brilliant strides made by young players under the tutelage of Sir Alex Ferguson:
David Beckham, Garry Neville, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo & Wayne Rooney all started life at old Trafford as teenagers and blossomed to become start and superstars of football.
So I would have to agree on this point and hope that it is an aspect of management which Jose can develoe, once he has settled down into a long-term project.
Let’s be honest, if he’s going to Real Madrid, it will not be for long. Few managers do.
He has already said that he has a few ambitions left for this career: to mange in Spain, to return to England and to manage the Portuguese national team when he’s older.
To me, that reads ”Join Madrid and be the first manager in history to win league titles in England, Italy and Spain, then take over at Manchester United for a long period before managing the national team”.
Who else is there?
Capello, Redknapp, O’Neil, Moyes, Hughes, Bruce, Cantona, Solskjaer and Guardiola are some of the other names mentioned for the job, but amongst them only Capello would realistically have the expertise and command the immediate respect of the Manchester United players.
For all his admirable achievements, Moyes does not have the profile or track record which would command that respect from the United dressing room.
Nay.
Mourinho may be brash, loud, egotistical, and he might seem to forgo beautiful football in order to win, but dig a bit deeper and you will see a leader of men, who is loved by the players and supporters of the club he manages. He is tactically astute, a leader of men, savvy in the transfer market, gets his substitutions right most of the time and is great with the media, as well as fans.
And by the way, have I mentioned that Jose Mourinho has only ever lost one single league game at home in his entire managerial carrer? One!
And that was over 8 years ago.
He might not be an ideal candidate, but Jose Mourninho sure is the best candidate at the moment and unless the likes of Moyes or Bruce step up considerably, I don’t see this changing much in the near future.
Edit:
How much do football stars love Jose Mourinho? So much so they cry when he leaves:
Sir Alex Ferguson will not be signing a replacement for the outgoing Ben Foster after confirming he will promote Ben Amos to provide the cover for Van der Sar and Tomasz Kuszczak.
He told a press conference: “When we decided to let Ben (Foster) go, we were in the process of letting a good young goalkeeper, Ben Amos, go out on loan.
“He’s in the England Under-21 team, but we can only accommodate three goalkeepers. So when the situation with Ben (Foster’s) future at Manchester United came into it and we agreed to let him go, we stopped Ben Amos from going on loan.
“He will now be our third goalkeeper, he’s very talented and has a good future ahead of him.
“So we have three goalkeepers, Edwin van der Sar, Tomasz Kuszczak and Ben Amos. So we’re okay.”
Although Fergie has been known to tell a few porkies, he is unlikely to be building a smokescreen on this front.
The move is bound to receive mixed reactions from United supporters. While it is great news for Ben Amos and United’s youth setup, many will see it as a bit of a gamble. Edwin van der Sar is 39 and if injury were to strike, the possibility of Amos having to stand in during some important games becomes a very real possibility.
In light of transfer rumours linking United to Akinfeev, Neuer and Buffon, this move would seem to indicate that Sir Alex sees Tomasz Kuszczak as United’s future number 1 and that he didn’t rock the boat by bringing in another established keeper.
While thinking about United’s poor record of scoring from corners this season – only 4 goals from 246 corners or 1.46% compared to Man City’s 15 goals from 207 corners or 7.25% – I also realized that we haven’t seen many free kicks of real quality. Ryan Giggs’ effort against Tottenham being a rare gem.
Nani has scored from a free kick this season, but he was out of favour or out injured for big parts of this term. I’m not sure why Berbatov doesn’t step up to the plate and have a few punts, since he did take free kicks for Spurs, but maybe he feels he should be asked or invited.
Of course, I would prefer Man Utd not having to rely on goals from dead ball situations, but it can happen that United play well and deserve to win, but just can’t find the net, so they can come in handy. Besides the practicality of scoring from free kicks, they also are beautiful to watch. The aesthetic beauty of a ball bending over or around a wall and into the net is just breath-taking.
So having suffered a recent drought in goals from free kicks, I decided to take a trip down memory lane and check out some of the nicer United free kicks from recent times.
Not all of them were available online, but the usual suspects can be found.
Enjoy and feel free to share the ones I forgot to list.
Giggs vs Tottenham 09/10
Owen Hargreaves vs Arsenal
Ronaldo compilation
Beckham vs Real Madrid
(I apologize for the irritating commentary)
Beckham vs Barcelona
David Beckham compilation
Veron vs Bolton
Denis Irwin
He scored a few nice ones in his time. I could not find a compilation of his free kicks, so here’s a tribute clip.
The King vs Arsenal
What a thump!
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