"Gary and Wes are England's best right full-backs. But they have a little problem because this young boy Rafael has really taken off."
The above were the words of Sir Alex Ferguson, and they must be of worry to Gary Neville.
United's consistent right-back for over 10 years now is in serious danger of having to wind down his career.
Young Brazilian Rafael Da Silva's emergence in the United first team has been nothing short of sensational. The 18-year-old hadn't played a game of competitive football for over a year before wowing the crowd at Peterborough in a pre-season friendly. Now he is a regular in the first team, even notching up a superb volleyed goal against Arsenal at the Emirates earlier in the year.
All this is seriously worrying for Gary Neville's career at United, and for England. No spring chicken at 33 and struggling for form and fitness after being out for over a year with ankle and hamstring problems, the signs don't look good for Gary.
No-one can doubt his contribution to the United cause over the years, but there comes a time when we must look to the future, and whether Gary likes it or not, Rafael is the future.
Wednesday 17 December 2008
Wednesday 3 December 2008
Tevez Turmoil
Ok, so my team, Manchester United have just beaten Paul Ince's Blackburn Rovers 5-3 at Old Trafford in the Carling Cup quarter final.
We put a great shift in, with promising youngsters such as Possebon-bon-bon-bon, Rafael Da Silva, Anderson-son-son-son and Darren Gibson showing their outstanding talent. But the one stand-out performance had to be from Carlos Tevez.
The currently out of favour striker scored 4 goals showing Fergie just what he has been missing by putting him on the bench throughout the season. Since Berbatov arrived in January, Tevez has been the player that has missed out. This has led to tremours form the player and his agent, with our old transfer foe Real Madrid suposedly lurking around him.
But why has Fergie left him out?
Tevez plays with such enthusiasm and has to be the hardest working player in the squad. To go with this, his finishing is clinical, so why doesn't he get enough games nowadays? It's clear Fergie has an embarrassment of riches situation on his hands. In an ideal world you would love to have Rooney, Ronaldo, Berbatov AND Tevez on the pitch at the same time. What a devestating prospect that would be to any defence in the world. But, it would mean one of Rooney, Tevez and Berbatov playing out of position. They all operate best as a central striker. Rooney has always been prepared to sacrifice himself for the team, but he is a striker, not a winger. Berbatov would not be able to do a job out wide, and Tevez would lose his effect out there too.
So, why doesn't Fergie start to operate a rotation system? It would be his biggest mistake since he let Jaap Stam leave United if Tevez were allowed to follow suit. His 4 goals tonight show just how important he is to the team. If he didn't score we would have lost 3-1.
So, Sir Alex (I know you're a reader of this blog) I plead that you start to give Carlos more playing time. He is a crucial member of the squad both short term and long term. The fans love him and rightly so!
We put a great shift in, with promising youngsters such as Possebon-bon-bon-bon, Rafael Da Silva, Anderson-son-son-son and Darren Gibson showing their outstanding talent. But the one stand-out performance had to be from Carlos Tevez.
The currently out of favour striker scored 4 goals showing Fergie just what he has been missing by putting him on the bench throughout the season. Since Berbatov arrived in January, Tevez has been the player that has missed out. This has led to tremours form the player and his agent, with our old transfer foe Real Madrid suposedly lurking around him.
But why has Fergie left him out?
Tevez plays with such enthusiasm and has to be the hardest working player in the squad. To go with this, his finishing is clinical, so why doesn't he get enough games nowadays? It's clear Fergie has an embarrassment of riches situation on his hands. In an ideal world you would love to have Rooney, Ronaldo, Berbatov AND Tevez on the pitch at the same time. What a devestating prospect that would be to any defence in the world. But, it would mean one of Rooney, Tevez and Berbatov playing out of position. They all operate best as a central striker. Rooney has always been prepared to sacrifice himself for the team, but he is a striker, not a winger. Berbatov would not be able to do a job out wide, and Tevez would lose his effect out there too.
So, why doesn't Fergie start to operate a rotation system? It would be his biggest mistake since he let Jaap Stam leave United if Tevez were allowed to follow suit. His 4 goals tonight show just how important he is to the team. If he didn't score we would have lost 3-1.
So, Sir Alex (I know you're a reader of this blog) I plead that you start to give Carlos more playing time. He is a crucial member of the squad both short term and long term. The fans love him and rightly so!
Wednesday 22 October 2008
Murray Looking to Buck the Trend
Andy Murray starts his title defence at the St. Petersburg Open against Serbian Viktor Troicki today.
He will be looking to avoid what has become a familiar formula of dropping out of tournaments disappointingly early after winning big the week before.
After winning the tournament in Doha, he dropped out of the Australian Open in a poor manner. He struggled at Rotterdam after winning in Marseille, and he flopped big time at the Olympics after his maiden Masters Series win in Cincinnati.
It is clearly an issue Murray will be looking to address coming into Russia on the back of his superb second Masters Series title last week in Madrid.
It has been well documented the amount of work Murray and his trainers have been putting in off the tennis court, so the issue must not be a physical one. So what is it Murray struggles with? Can it be mental? Im not sure. I will be waiting to find out with keen interest later on today to see how the tournament in Russia goes for the British number one.
He will be looking to avoid what has become a familiar formula of dropping out of tournaments disappointingly early after winning big the week before.
After winning the tournament in Doha, he dropped out of the Australian Open in a poor manner. He struggled at Rotterdam after winning in Marseille, and he flopped big time at the Olympics after his maiden Masters Series win in Cincinnati.
It is clearly an issue Murray will be looking to address coming into Russia on the back of his superb second Masters Series title last week in Madrid.
It has been well documented the amount of work Murray and his trainers have been putting in off the tennis court, so the issue must not be a physical one. So what is it Murray struggles with? Can it be mental? Im not sure. I will be waiting to find out with keen interest later on today to see how the tournament in Russia goes for the British number one.
Wednesday 8 October 2008
The Fat Cats that Do Sweet FA
"Racism has no place in football.
Fifa is determined to continue broadcasting this message around the globe and deploying all of the means at its disposal to eliminate this form of discrimination."
The above quote was from a Fifa statement after they handed out the worst punishment possible on the Croatian FA last month. Yes thats right, in a sport where money is as rare as grass in the countryside, they fined the Croats £15,000 for rascist behaviour form their fans during the 4-1 defeat by England.
The impact of that fine must have been catastrophic. I can remember being as severely punished. One night I came home an hour late (rebel) so my mum grounded me for one night! Crazy times we live in eh?
Rascism has no place in football, but mediocore governing bodies do.
Rio Ferdinand has today spoken out against the football authorities, stating they talk a great game, but never get out there and put a performance in. Not only is he the countries best defender at the moment (im a United fan), but he's clearly got a bit between his ears too.
"Croatia were fined a few thousand quid. What's that going to do? That is not going to stop people shouting racist or homophobic abuse.
"(Fifa president) Sepp Blatter likes to speak up about things that are good for Fifa's image but I would love to see them stand up and dish out the right punishments for these incidents.
"If things like this keep happening you have to take points off them. Then the punters will realise the team is going to be punished."
I have to agree with Ferdinand's views. Football, simply, is a sport. In football you win points. Points win prizes.
So if Mr Blatter and his world football organisation are serious in the threat of "deploying all of the means at its disposal to eliminate" racism in football, lets see some truly sufficient and meaningful punishments.
Blog out.
Fifa is determined to continue broadcasting this message around the globe and deploying all of the means at its disposal to eliminate this form of discrimination."
The above quote was from a Fifa statement after they handed out the worst punishment possible on the Croatian FA last month. Yes thats right, in a sport where money is as rare as grass in the countryside, they fined the Croats £15,000 for rascist behaviour form their fans during the 4-1 defeat by England.
The impact of that fine must have been catastrophic. I can remember being as severely punished. One night I came home an hour late (rebel) so my mum grounded me for one night! Crazy times we live in eh?
Rascism has no place in football, but mediocore governing bodies do.
Rio Ferdinand has today spoken out against the football authorities, stating they talk a great game, but never get out there and put a performance in. Not only is he the countries best defender at the moment (im a United fan), but he's clearly got a bit between his ears too.
"Croatia were fined a few thousand quid. What's that going to do? That is not going to stop people shouting racist or homophobic abuse.
"(Fifa president) Sepp Blatter likes to speak up about things that are good for Fifa's image but I would love to see them stand up and dish out the right punishments for these incidents.
"If things like this keep happening you have to take points off them. Then the punters will realise the team is going to be punished."
I have to agree with Ferdinand's views. Football, simply, is a sport. In football you win points. Points win prizes.
So if Mr Blatter and his world football organisation are serious in the threat of "deploying all of the means at its disposal to eliminate" racism in football, lets see some truly sufficient and meaningful punishments.
Blog out.
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Welcome all to my section of the web.
By some means you have stumbled across my thoughts and views of what I hope will be a wide range of issues.
Enjoy!
By some means you have stumbled across my thoughts and views of what I hope will be a wide range of issues.
Enjoy!
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