Stumbling Fumbling Giants (2)…
There should be something approaching quiet satisfaction this morning when Sir Alex takes in the newspaper headlines over breakfast.
The manager might have to stifle a loud ‘I told you so!’ when reading the announcement of David Beckham’s £500k a week move to the United States. Who would have thought ‘Golden Balls’ of the 1992 golden generation would retire before Sir Alex?
More importantly, the manager will note the pre-occupation of the tabloids with his most important rivals. Nothing sells like United in crisis, so it will be a welcome joy for the manager to find the newspapers only risking low intensity mischief about the future of Cristiano Ronaldo, Gabriel Heinze and Wes Brown.
After recent years featuring a missed drugs test, a suppressed television interview, the battle of wounded foot, rape allegations and mystery medical worries, not to mention blistering attacks on transfer failures and a faltering team, Sir Alex must wonder if he has been transported suddenly to a football paradise uninhabited by troublesome sports hacks.
Instead, the commentariat has its notebooks full from the travails of the three other members of Britain’s Gang of Four.
Chelsea
Like all empires, Chelsea are crumbling from within. Rarely a week goes by without reverberations from the rifts and rows at Stamford Bridge. Jose Mourinho has indeed been unlucky to lose Petr Cech, the world’s best goalkeeper and John Terry, the pillar of his defence. But what explains the decision to part with William Gallas, as competent a defender as the Premiership offers, or the serial difficulty at right fullback? Even the magisterial Carvalho has been rattled by the insecurity in Chelsea’s rearguard.
Mourinho’s expression of his own gloom has not helped morale either. “We have one player (Didier Drogba) in attack. All the others are not performing,” Mourinho admitted last month. “Shev (Andriy Shevchenko) is not performing, Shaun (Wright-Phillips) is not performing and (Salomon) Kalou is not performing.
“Maybe we are not so good as we think we are. Maybe we have not such a good manager and maybe the players are not such good players.”
Perhaps, Mourinho is suprised by the vigour of United’s challenge and bitterly disappointed by a waning impact on his charges this term but nothing good can come from trashing his players in public.
Chelsea’s problems are surely rooted in the inevitable arrogance of wealth and success. Flushed with plaudits after another title win, Chelsea set about conquering Europe and to that end, brought to the Bridge yet more expensive talent. The signings of Ballack and Shevchenko were heralded as arming Mourinho with the finest midfield in Europe and a greater cutting edge, to give the club a decisive advantage in Europe. What the Portuguese manager got instead was a stodgy and unbalanced centre and a Euro-sharpshooter who has looked off the pace since his debut.
Rumours abound that late last year, Mourinho was confronted by Drogba and Makelele, adamant that the form of the new signings made them unworthy of being considered for the first eleven. In return, Ballack has moaned to German sympathisers that his new team doesn’t play to his strengths.
The transfer window was seen by all as an opportubnity for Mourinho to ship out Shevchenko and remedy the right back problem. Yet, suddenly, the club appears unwilling to back the manager’s judgement with another transfer splurge, as Mourionho has acknowledged forlornly.
“I’ve identified players that I want but they will not come,” he said. “It’s club reasons and I don’t have to tell you why. I have asked for players and it’s not my choice that no one is coming. It’s not my club. I am just a manager.
“I expect my squad to be the same at the end of the transfer window as it was at the start. No one out and no one in. This is our situation at the moment. The information I have is that nobody is coming and if that’s the case then nobody is leaving.
“I cannot let a player go, even if he’s a player who should go, because we are very short on options and numbers. No chance.”
Mourinho’s outbursts and United’s consistency may have sparked such turmoil in the west London camp, that even the manager’s future is in doubt, with the shrewd but ageing Guus Hiddink said to be waiting in the wings for the call from Ambramovich.
When the season began Mourinho was considered to have the safest job in the land. Now the Sunday People’s football hack Paul McCarthy, has claimed that unrest in the boardroom over Mourinho’s stewardship of the team and his public despondency will lead to his departure from Stamford Bridge before the start of next season.
“It strikes me that Mourinho is not a manager for the next five years,” said McCarthy. “If I were a betting man I would put money on him not being manager of Chelsea the first game of next season.
“There have been so many signals coming out of Stamford Bridge and from Mourinho’s camp as well. There is a seeming division growing between the football side of Chelsea and everything else.
“I think it is this political wrangling that has upset Mourinho. It has always been, not quite a marriage of convenience, but Chelsea have been great for Jose Mourinho in terms of raising his profile and Mourinho has obviously been fantastic for Chelsea.
“Some of his outpourings don’t fit with the corporate identity that he would like to promote and I think on the other hand that some of the buys that have come into Chelsea, most notably Andriy Shevchenko, don’t actually fit in with what Mourinho saw as his transfer policy.”
The media chatter surrounding Mourinho’s fate should not deflect from the real truth that his team is still contesting four trophies. In Drogba and Essien, the club can call on two of the Premiership’s top five performers. There will be few at Old Trafford ready to believe that the champions have thrown in the towel just yet.
Liverpool
Two quick defeats in succession to Arsenal, have ended Liverpool’s interest in the domestic cups before the January sales have finished. The 3-1 FA Cup reverse at Anfield was bad enough but the 6-3 home hiding in the Carling Cup added to the grumbles about Rafa Benitez’s managerial qualities.
Liverpool are 14 points behind United in the league, having lost six games already but the manager still refuses to accept responsibility for Liverpool’s errant form. Instead, he accuses the club of a failure to invest, hammers the slowness to act on transfers and even hints that Liverpool’s predicament might be the fault of Gerard Houllier, who handed over the manager’s sheepskin to Benitez two years ago.
“When you analyse the situation, the conclusion that worries me is Arsenal could pick nine reserves and score six goals at Anfield,” he said. “We had seven players with first-team experience and could not win. There is a lesson there for the whole of our club.
“If you want to compete at the top level you must be able to spend a lot of money — not only on your first team but on the young players and reserves. My scouting department has done an excellent job but sometimes we go too slowly as a club to make signings we need. And when we do there is not a lot of money.”
The comments read like a suicide note. No wonder one national newspaper is running a poll on whether Benitez will be in charge next season. The manager would do better to hide, than seek to excuse the heavy home defeat of a Liverpool team featuring the experience of Hyypia, Gerrard, Gonzalez, Luis Garcia, Carragher, Warnock, Xabi Alonso, Bellamy and Fowler.
The 2005 Champions league success and the last gasp FA Cup win of last year, have given the Spaniard time but he could squander that bonus if inward transfers continue to disappoint. Crouch, always the most unlikely of Liverpool players, is no longer trusted to score regularly. Bellamy, a tip within these pages to shine after his summer exit from Blackburn, seems to have left his best form at Ewood Park, whilst the erratic Pennant is another who has not lived up to expectations. Striker Dirk Kuyt is a success but hampered by important injuries to Sissoko and Gerrard’s inability to summon the weekly Herculean performances of last term, Liverpool’s season is hanging by a thread. And next month, they entertain holders Barcelona in the Champions League!
Arsenal
If faith in youth is one of Arsene Wenger’s defining characteristics, his belief has been tested sorely this year. The Frenchman’s side is capable of great feats on its day as September’s master class against United proved. But such is the unreliability of the young, that on its travels, the team can just as easily succumb to Premiership middleweights such as Bolton, innocents like Sheffield United and YoYos like Fulham and City. Playing at the Emirates Stadium is also a bi-monthly learning curve too.
However and this must give Sir Alex enormous pleasure given the 15 point gap between the teams, Arsenal are the least troubled of all his close competitors. Wenger’s trust in Toure, Walcott, Eboue, Clichy, Van Persie, Gallas, Hleb and Fabregas, is well-placed. The indulgence of the Red Tops to develop his team away from withering criticism and the experience of being Champions League finalists last year, mean the Gunners’ boss is not under undue pressure to succeed this term. There is widespread belief that greater maturity will see Arsenal return as the domestic force of old. Their season of transition augurs well for the future but it must wrankle in north London that they have been unable to match United stride for stride as Chelsea stumble.
With the season more than half over, it is Sir Alex’s team which has shown itself to be the best-equipped for the long haul challenge to the champions, when the smart bet last August would have been on Benitez or even on Wenger.
What do they say about a fool and his money ? AU
© Copyright: Absolutely United 2007
