…in February for the League Cup, another journey to London continues in the F.A. Cup tomorrow via South Wales.
After the Cardiff City preview piece, below are comments on both:
- Who do you think you are? And…
- Alexis Sanchez
v Cardiff City
 |
| Cardiff City Stadium |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct
from starting line-up in the last game: 8/11).
Fluid 4-5-1 / 4-3-3
____________________Aguero____________________
_________________Fernandinho___________________
____________________Ederson____________________
Surely Pep
will use Ederson in the net for the F.A. Cup. That’s what I’m predicting.
Vincent is reportedly okay to play and, so,
I think we’ll see him slotted in to an otherwise fairly familiar back line. I could be
wrong in-guessing that our manager will go for Kyle at right-back in this one but I don’t
think he’ll want to put out a defence that is changed too much against a decent Championship
outfit and, so, I’m going for Oleksandr, Vincent, John & Kyle across the
back-4.
Fernandinho in front of those and in a slightly changed midfield with a Premier League home game coming up against WBA on Wednesday night; I think we’ll see Ilkay
in for a rested / protected David who is likely to be joined by Leroy, Kevin & Raheem.
Sergio to ‘go again’ up top.
Claudio back on the side seats; Danilo (could
start), Nicholas & Eliaquim the reserve defenders. Yaya, David &
Bernardo I think will make up the midfield change-options (no kiddies on the
bench for this one, if I'm right).
Notable absences: Benjamin Mendy (continues
rehab following injury / surgery), Fabian Delph (injured / unknown return date)
& Gabriel Jesus (injured for another week or so, I think, before returning to training).
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Yep.
Result? Well this
is definitely a toughie – the home side have been getting praise-aplenty this
season and sit 3rd in their league and just 2-points off an
automatic promotion place.
I
know nothing about their players without looking them up (not gonna) and
suspect that, with a ferocious home support, they will ‘give us a game’ and even
breach our defence once (hopefully no more than that).
But
IF Pep takes this one seriously enough and doesn’t focus TOO much on the fact
that we have the first of 10 games we need to win in the league, on Wednesday
night, in order to clinch the title – and let’s not
forget that our players will-have-rested for a near-full 5 days before facing Cardiff following our
victory at Bristol City last Tuesday night
– then a team anything like the one above should prove too much for our hosts if we’re
‘on our game’.
An
away win for me.
Last season’s,
corresponding pre-match prediction and result…
Prediction: N/A
Result: N/A
Expected weather conditions during
the game: Overcast / chance of drizzle with a decent Westerly breeze but flippin’ mild at 11C for early-to-mid Winter.
Who do you think you are?
A very good & interesting TV programme,
if you’ve not seen it. So, recently and in 'relation to' (see what I did there?) football, it got me thinking…
Previously
managed?
No-one
Went
on to manage?
Previously
managed?
Interim-Manager of Manyoo
for 4 matches
Went
on to manage?
International Manager of Wales
Previously
managed?
Joint-Manager of Non-League
side, Salford City, for 1 game
Went
on to manage?
International Manager of the England Woman’s Team
Previously
managed?
No-one
Might go on to manage?
Previously
managed?
Joint-Manager of Non-League
side, Salford City, for 1 game
Might
go on to manage?
Previously
managed?
No-one
Might go on to manage?
I mean, have
some of these ex-Manyoo players applied for these top jobs by simply handing in
a very brief, 1-page CV that says…
Name: Bla, bla, bla…
Contact details: Bla, bla, bla…
Previous & relevant managerial
experience: I
used to play under Sir Alex Ferguson
References: Available from the previously-named ex-boss (see above)
If so…THESE
CLUBS / ASSOCIATIONS ARE ACTUALLY FALLING FOR IT BY LETTING THEM GET
PAST THE APPLICATION STAGE; INTERVIEWING ‘EM AND TAKING THEM ON FOR FLIP’S SAKE!
Arrogant?
A slap in the face for all those managers out there who, a lot of them I’m sure, would love to move up the ‘managerial
ladder’ and manager bigger teams in higher leagues BUT, who, choose-to-instead
learn their trade and work hard for many years at lower levels to attain that
vital experience & deserved reputation?
I’ll let you decide…
Perhaps
they just looked at Pep Guardiola and thought, ‘Well
if he can manage the mighty Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City after just one year in charge of Barcelona’s‘B Team’ then, why not, hey?’
A word on Alexis Sanchez?
Well I am sick
of hearing his bloody name mentioned every few seconds but, why not…
Now our
wonderful club had already moved into world of ‘big money’ - joining those both
in this country and around the world who had been spending BIG
for years and years - when this fella was rumoured to be moving from his Italian
side, Udinese. And, for that reason, we were
linked with the Chilean, attacking forward.
So…I looked him up (including
footage of course) and instantly thought, wow! This
is a player I want at City!
Sadly –
and of course there was no competition back then – a certain Josep “Pep” Guardiola
Sala decided he’d have him over at Barcelona, before leaving the player to it;
as the Spanish boss moved to manage 'The Bavarians' / 'Reds' in Germany.
Then…there was a rumour that he was no
longer required at the Catalan side and EVEN
a rumour that he was interested in a move to the Premier League! 'This is it', I
thought; this is our chance to grab a player who I believed would bring so much
to our growing football club & team and would be the darling of City fans for
years to come.
No. He
was wooed by the smooth, French tones of one Arsene Wenger and the glitz on the
London lights, as he switched tapas for pie & mash & cockles.
I have to admit I was a little
stunned and quite gutted at the time…
But wait! All of a sudden, we acquired the
services of the same Manager who had overseen the player’s move from Italy to
Spain and, sure enough, we were, this
time, VERY strongly linked with the player! 'It was destiny', so I thought. So much so, in fact, that in
the summer of 2017 we began a bidding process.
However,
stubborn Arsenal / Arsene wouldn’t budge
from their valuation of a whopping £60M for a player who had less than 12 months left on
his contract and although I think we
tried and tried to pay somewhere reasonably-close to that figure (and
reasonable for a player who both wanted to move and was fairly close to becoming
a ‘free agent’) they
weren’t ‘avin’ it' and we told ‘em to ‘do one’…although we said we might be back
in the Winter transfer window, thank you very much indeed.
Winter arrives…and, sure enough, despite us
FLYING and banging-in goals aplenty, we stick-in another reasonable £20M bid;
this time for a player who had around 6 months left on his current deal.
But then some cheeky scamp from just West of Manchester stuck his / their oar in and effectively snapped the player from out of our reach by, effectively, paying £35M for him; a considered valuation for Henrikh Mkhitaryan in a ‘swap deal’ for a player who Manyoo had purchased for around £27M in July 2016 and who had 2-½ years left on his contract.
But then some cheeky scamp from just West of Manchester stuck his / their oar in and effectively snapped the player from out of our reach by, effectively, paying £35M for him; a considered valuation for Henrikh Mkhitaryan in a ‘swap deal’ for a player who Manyoo had purchased for around £27M in July 2016 and who had 2-½ years left on his contract.
That brings us up to date.
My very
last thoughts on the whole saga?
Manyoo
did a great bit of business in a way – they looked at our stance of not budging
from our very fair valuation for the Arsenal attacking player; nipped in with a
deal that would appeal to the North London
club - in that The Gunners would be
getting a player-replacement of similar age who didn’t play in a completely
dissimilar position to their outgoing winger / forward – and got a very
good player indeed.
Low centre of gravity; can play left, right and centre in
an ‘attacking line’ as well as deeper in an attacking midfield role. He’s Strong,
pacey, creative and a goal-scorer; he’s very rarely injured or injured for long
and has a really, really good spirit and work-rate. A perfect Pep-type player really…that’s why he once signed him and tried
twice again in the last 5 months.
Have
Manyoo paid over the odds? Of course they have – don’t be blinded by this, ‘Mourinho is a genius
and has simply got rid of a player he didn’t want and swapped him for a better one’ crap!
£15M might ‘roll off the tongue’ these days without a second’s thought but that’s
basically what Manyoo have paid over the
closer valuation for a player who would have gone for free in 161 days’
time!
And then there’s the wage.
What is it supposed to be? £600,000 per week?
Someone said in the media that’s more than Messi gets? Just
flippin’ stupid and if WE'D have done that, we wouldn’t be getting this, “Ooooo…what
a shrewd signing that is”. We’d have got, instead, “Oh here come City again; blowing everyone else
aside by spending 'over the odds' and ruining football again with their money!”.
Would he
have improved us? As a player on the pitch I think he’d have slotted in
perfectly to our system and with the players we have already, yeah.
However,
even if we’d have paid him £100,000 less per week than Manyoo have thrown at him,
I think, personally, it may well have soured the atmosphere in the dressing room with the likes of
already-established - and quite brilliant-attacking players we have - in Sane, De
Bruyne, David Silva, Sterling, Jesus & Aguero to name just a few.
Anyhoo…I
think we’re 'keeping our powder dry' with regards to spending on a new attacking
player / striker until the summer and I think
we’ll see a stellar name come in, in the summer, of the likes of Mauro Icardi
or Antoine Griezmann.
And, let’s
not forget, it looks like we’re already using the ‘money saved’ on not
getting Sanchez by signing a much-needed boost to our defensive department in Aymeric Laporte and, one-for-next-season in midfield, Fred. Goodbye
Vinny (and thank you!) & Mangala in the summer…
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