Great Players and Managers

ManU legend Roy Keane has become the new manager of Sunderland. There is no doubt he is one of the greatest midfielders of this era, but can he now reach the great heights he once reached as a player?

Very few great names come to my mind when I think about great players becoming great managers. Of the top of my mind, I can think of Johan Cryuff, Franz Beckenbeur, Frank Rijkaard but no more. On the other hand, great players such as Graeme Souness, Ruud Gullit, Bryan Robson have not achieved much success as managers.

So, what is that X-factor that managers are supposed to have in order to become great? Providing inspiration and confidence to the players, i suppose is the most important thing that makes a great manager. Aston Villa, until recently was down in the dumps, but after Martin O'Neill took over, they have been undefeated and are in the top five after 3 matches. It's basically the same set of players his predecessor O'Leary had but then O'Neill has been able to instill confidence into the team through his great approach and charismatic persona.

Also, managers do need some luck. Money for new players and fewer injuries, as in the case it has been with Mourinho at Chelsea, can pave the way for huge success. But will Roy Keane be able to build a team at Sunderland with limited money but great fan-base and take it into the Premiership within at least 2 seasons? If he does that, he can be considered a good coach but for him to become a great one, he will have to achieve nothing short of what he achieved as a player at Manchester United, be it with Sunderland or any other club.

An Incredible Start!

How is it that I miss the best of ManUtd's games? I missed ManU beating Chelsea 1-0 last season and the season before I missed ManU thrashing Arsenal 4-2 at Highbury. And this season, I missed the season opener when the Red Devils overwhelmed Fulham 5-1 because of my flight to UK.

Anyway, I am not complaining as long as ManU retain their winning streak and keep their momentum especially at a time when Chelsea and rest of the tope teams aren't exactly going great guns right now.

I didn't want to miss the away game at Charlton. So I went to one smoky pub in Oxford, paid for my Pepsi and enjoyed the game as ManU excelled once again. There were lots of people in the pub and 3 Chinese guys ( I think) too at my table cheering on ManU and Park-Ji Sung.

People were really excited everytime ManU hit the post or came close to scoring. There were loud cheers when ManU did score finally after half-time but the loudest cheers were reserved when we got an update on the screen that Boro were leading Chelsea 2-1.

Great entertaining play once again by ManU and it is nice to see ManU top the table after a very long time, although it's just 2 games over. Hoping to see some live games in the stadiums. Keeping my fingers crossed. More later.

Btw, Champions League fixtures are out...tough groups for Arsenal and ManU and Chelsea meet Barca again!

Group A - Barcelona Chelsea WerderBremen Levski Sofia
Group B - Internazionale BayernMunich SportingLisbon SpartakMoscow
Group C - Liverpool PSVEindhoven Bordeaux Galatasaray
Group D - Valencia Roma Olympiakos ShakhtarDonetsk
Group E - RealMadrid Lyon SteauaBucharest DinamoKiev
Group F - ManchesterUnited Celtic Benfica Copenhagen
Group G - Arsenal Porto CSKAMoscow Hamburg
Group H - Milan Lille AEKAthens Anderlecht

To The Theatre of Dreams!

Suprise! Surprise! I am going to UK on an official visit this weekend and I will be gone for about 6 weeks! I had hoped to watch one of ManUtd's home games at the Old Trafford stadium but I was told that members themselves aren't assured of tickets as tickets are often allocated though a ballot system. A cruel blow to my hopes!

Anyway, I am hoping to catch at least one of ManUtd's matches live in the stadium, even if it means watching some away match. That means, from my base at Oxford, I will have to travel to either Watford, Charlton, or Reading. But, I can forget getting a ticket to the home games against Tottenham and Arsenal.

I just hope I have a really good time there (meaning I get to watch a couple of matches in the stadium), and I promise I will try and keep my blog updated. Expect pictures from the Theatre of Dreams too!

Bye Bye Becks!

The End of Beckham?

The new England manager Steve McLaren has named John Terry the new England captain. Oh, btw, Beckham is finally axed from the England squad to play Greece in a friendly next week. So, is this the end of the international road for the former captain? I think so.

Also, I feel Gerrard would have been a better choice for the captaincy, just because he raises his game to the next level when extra responsibilites are given to him. Anyway, good to see Dean Ashton, who has been terrific for West Ham, being given a chance to prove himself. I had hoped Kevin Nolan to be there too but there is too much competition for places in midfield right now.

The Squad...

Robinson (Tottenham), Kirkland (Liverpool), Foster (Man Utd); Bridge (Chelsea), Brown (Man Utd), Carragher (Liverpool), A Cole (Arsenal), Dawson (Tottenham), Ferdinand (ManUtd), G Neville (Man Utd), P Neville (Everton), Terry (capt, Chelsea), Young (Charlton); Downing (Middlesbrough), Gerrard (Liverpool), Hargreaves (Bayern Munich), Jenas (Tottenham), Lampard (Chelsea), Lennon (Tottenham), Richardson (Man Utd), Wright-Phillips (Chelsea); Ashton (West Ham), Bent (Charlton), Crouch (Liverpool), Defoe (Tottenham).

The Curse of United

New Season. New Player. New Injuries. Welcome to ManU!

The new season is yet to start but Manchester United will be left ruing their luck as they fell victim to the curse of injuries that haunted almost the whole of last season. Neville, Heinze and Vidic are yet to recover from their injuries following the World Cup. Rio got a knock in a pre-season friendly and is doubtful for the season opener while new signing Carrick damaged his leg against Ajax and is out for a month.

Last season, Heinze, Giggs, Neville, Saha and Scholes missed bulk of the matches due to injuries and it was the team's slow start that eventually came to haunt them towards the end of the season when they still had a chance to clinch the Premiership title. ManUtd faithful would just be hoping this does not happen again, especially since the sqaud is much weaker now that Keane and Ruud have left.

This makes me ponder on the usefulness of pre-season friendlies and trip to other countries, just because more players are beginning to get injured. Does the profit made from such trips compensate for the loss of players? Chelsea's Joe Cole was injured against DC United in USA and now he might miss the season until Christmas. Although Chelsea have enough cover, they will certainly miss him.

Btw, am surprised that Chelsea lost that game where they played Sheva, Ballack, Kalou and the greedy Nigerian teenage fraudster. But more surprising was the 5-0 thrashing Liverpool suffered at the hands of lowly German team Mainz.

Meanwhile, Barcelona are on their American tour and drawing huge crowds. The club's marketing director has been talking of overtaking Real Madrid as the world's richest club in the near future, which by the way is quite possible if they continue to play such attractive football and also able to keep hold of their main stars such as Ronaldinho, Eto and Messi.

Great Expectations?

The new season is about to start in a few weeks...here are my predictions...

Henry to emerge EPL top scorer again...Berbatov and Rooney to come close.

C.Ronaldo to get booed at every away game (probably at home games too!)

Chelsea's dominance to continue while Arsenal, ManU and Liverpool fight it out for the 2nd spot.

ManU to have injury crisis again and struggle in the opening few games as usual.

ManU to beat Arsenal, Liverpool at home but struggle against Watford and Reading.

Becks-Ruud partnership to bloom again, this time in La Liga.

Barca's reign to continue in Spain, if Real do not replace Zizou with Kaka.

Berbatov to shine?

Chelsea to fall short of winning the Champions League, again!

At least two of the three new teams to go back straight to the Championship.

Mourinho to get fined by the FA for some crappy comments about players/referees/authorities.

You have any predictions? Let's hear!