Jose’s return to Madrid; The Special Once Bitten, Twice Shy

There’s been talk lately of Jose Mourinho returning to the Bernabéu, in the wake of his dismissal by Chelsea F.C, when Real Madrid finally decide to do same to Rafa Benitez, as they always do to top managers. But as I read these stories something interesting struck me, these two managers have so far managed three clubs in common and of the three clubs two out of them have dismissed the manager that took over the job from the other.

In the summer of 2008 Internationale Milan appointed Jose Mourinho, the self-proclaimed special one as their manager replacing Roberto Mancini as manager of the club. He signed a three-year deal worth £8.3 million a year and spent two seasons with the Milan club. During his spell as manager he won the Scudetto and the Copa Italia in his maiden season and in his second season won the European treble (the Champions League, the Scudetto and the Copa Italia) the club had waited since its inception to win. Then the team from Spain came knocking to be precise Real Madrid, the Los Merengues, they made him their new manager after dismissing Chilean manager Manuel Pelegrini and while in Italy the club in Milan also chose a Spaniard in the name of Rafa Benitez to replace the special one, this move by the Milan club marked the beginning of the Rafa-Mourinho Curse.

After Jose Mourinho led Inter to the treble in 2010, Rafa Benitez took over

The Portuguese went on to win the Copa Del Rey by defeating their fiercest rival Barcelona F.C in the final and in his second season pipped the Catalan club to the La Liga with an impressive ……. Points the highest achieved by any club in league as at that time.

But in Italy Rafa Benitez didn't live to see out his first term even to talk two full seasons at the helm of the Italian club, he was sent packing by the clubs Hierarchy just six months into his first season after a loss in the UEFA Super Cup to Atletico Madrid and a poor start to the defense of their Scudetto title meant he left the club wining nothing. During his short reign Rafa made it clear the club needed new signing an idea the clubs Hierarchy disliked as the club had previously spent millions of euros on player acquisitions and felt there was no need to splash the cash on new signings. This made Rafa Benitez the first manager under the Moratti Hierarchy not to sign a single player.

Benitez is sacked after he takes over a club whose immediate past manager was the special one.

Fast Forward to 2012/2013 and Rafa Benitez is made interim manager of Chelsea F.C replacing Roberto Di Matteo after a not so good start to the season by the team in blue. The team fails to qualify to the knock out stage of the Champions League slipping into the UEFA Europa League. However, Rafa’s arrival sees them win the Europa League for the 2012/13 season and qualify for next seasons Champions League group stage.

In the summer of 2013 Jose Mourinho returns to the bridge for the second time and interestingly enough this time Mourinho takes over from Benitez the man he left Inter with only to be sacked six months later. As if Benitez was trying to punish Mourinho for what he did to him at inter, Benitez’s win of the Europa League meant Jose’s first official match for Chelsea will be the UEFA Super Cup, exactly the same situation Benitez faced when he took over from Mourinho at Inter. Similarly, Chelsea lost out to the then European Champions F.C Bayern Munich on penalties. Two seasons and five months down the line Mourinho is sacked by the team he took over charge from Rafa. A at least Mourinho managed to win the Premier League with Chelsea and spent more than season at helm of the club.

The special one is also sacked by Chelsea F.C a club which was

 previously managed by Rafa Benitez just before Mourinho took over.

Deducing from what happened at Inter and now at Chelsea I don’t think Mourinho will be naïve in taking over the job at Real Madrid after the Bernabéu club decide to axe Mr. Benitez and also given that Jose Mourinho choose to return to Chelsea the only club he has managed twice and I don’t believe Jose will thread on that same part as in the case of Real Madrid.

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The #BBC vs The #MSN: Who will prevail in the El Classico?

The El Classico, the most popular & the most watched club football match in the world with a viewer-ship of over 400 million worldwide will this season have a different & interesting twist to it as both clubs try to prove to the world on who has the best & deadliest striking partnership in European club football. In recent years the main attention & attraction has been drawn by two of the best players on the planet who feature in the El Classico coupled with a side attraction of whose new signing will get his name of the score sheet or will outperform the other, as it was seen in the Gareth Bale versus Neymar contest. But not this time round, the match will have for the first time in many years a fierce contest between @realmadrid’s #BBC and @FCBarcelona’s new formed and yet to be unleashed striking partnership the #MSN.

The BBC which needs no introduction was tauted as Europe’s best striking partnership by pundits last season,  their breath-taking pace and clinical finishing saw them tear teams apart from limb to limb and eventually helped @realmadrid win its historic tenth @ChampionsLeague trophy, the #LaDecima, after thirteen years of trying, they also scored a total of 28 goals between them in the competition and a mind-boggling 97 goals in all competitions last season. That said they also helped @realmadrid win the Copa Del Ray trophy last season beating their rivals @FCBarcelona 2-1 in the final. But the question remains, will they continue their dominance come this season or an even new deadly striking partnership will emerge from one of Europe’s biggest clubs.

On the other hand the @FCBarcelona seem to have put together a striking partnership of their own after the acquisition of @luis16suarez. The #MSN which is made up of Lionel Messi @luis16suarez and @neymarjr, an all South American affair as opposed to the #BBC which is an all European affair, will make this years El Classico a mouth-watering piece. The #MSN  combination which is yet to be seen in action will make its debut coincidentally in the El Classico against the #BBC, on October 26 exactly a day after @luis16suarez four-month ban handed to him by @FIFAcom, for biting Italian defender @chiellini at this years World Cup, comes to an end. The #MSN will be hoping to dethrone the @BBC as the deadliest striking partnership in Europe.

I honestly can’t wait for the day this two European heavyweights square-off and produce some mouth-watering, tasty, quality football. On who will prevail? your guess is as good as mine, though i tip the #BBC to urge past the #MSN in the first leg. Until then we wait patiently and see what unfolds on the 26th of October.

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Arsenal’s Summer Business in Perspective

Arsenal’s only summer arrival Petr Cech

The REAL Reasons for not signing a striker

I’m quite sure you are still pondering over Arsenal’s inability or unwillingness to sign a single outfield player this transfer window. Then welcome to my blog as I try to make sense of the somewhat sensible or thought provoking reasons underlying Arsenal’s dormant position regarding the clubs transfer of players into the club.

First off to begin with I would like serve you with some starter before the main dish arrives. I would want to first and foremost to dispel the notion which is being bungled around relating to Arsenal’s transfer activity. I’ve heard a quite a lot of amateur sports writers who do command some following tag Arsenal’s transfer activity as inactive or dormant and I would like to correct that misconception. A team’s transfer activity is not defined by only the number of players that move in to the club only but, also the players that move out does count. I don’t think a club that had eight (8) players walking out of its doors either temporarily or permanently can’t be tagged as dormant.

Moving on to the main meal itself, which is Arsene Wenger’s supposed reason behind why he felt the club did not need a new striker or outfield player this transfer window. It’s well believed that Wenger feels that even if Arsenal brings in a world class striker and scores thirty plus goals in his first season and subsequent seasons the club will not win any great honours by virtue of that fact, but Wenger believes that if only the likes of Mesut Ozil, Chamberlain, Theo Walcott, & Danny Welbeck step up to the plate in terms of goals, only then will the club be confident of securing any major title this season.

Reported striker targets for Arsenal

I honestly do agree with Wenger on this point as recent history has made it clear that for you to compete with best in Europe you should have a duo or trio of players who will contribute immensely and consistently to goal scoring in the team as juxtaposed to a one man job which a lot of Arsenal fans think is the solution. I think this perception of the world class striker theory  stems from the Thierry Henryexperience, but let’s face the fact, when we began to rely solely on him for our goals we did not win anything and I guess that was when our trophy less streak even begun. Better still you can look at Real Madrid over the past two seasons. We saw how their season ended two seasons ago when their BBC was in form & last season when only Ronaldo was in form. And lastly out of the numerous examples is the dominance of Barcelona in Europe, they’ve been able to achieve this because they have always managed to get two or three goal scoring machines in their team over the last decade. Starting from Eto’o & Ronaldinho, also Messi, Thierry Henry & Eto’o and recently the Messi,Luis Suarez & Neymar combo popularly known as the MSN.

And for dessert, is the increasing number of forwards at London Colney. Arsenal had close to 50% of their players that moved out being forwards and this has not still significantly reduced the number of forwards at the club by that much. Even with Welbeck injured the likes ofJoel Campbell still find it difficult to make it the first team, therefore any new addition to the forward line will limit opportunities for young strikers at the club and also adversely affect the wage structure.
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