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Benitez leaves Liverpool, next stop Inter?
After months of speculation, Liverpool have confirmed that coach Rafael Benitez has left the club.
Disagreements with the owners and a poor season for the Reds have led to the decision to part company by mutual consent. Do you think it was inevitable?
Inter Milan, without a coach after Jose Mourinho joined Real Madrid despite Champions League glory and an unprecedented Italian treble, are looking for a another high-profile boss and Italian speaker Benitez fits the bill.
First target Fabio Capello has committed to England while Barcelona’s Pep Guardiola and Fulham’s Roy Hodgson, both highly-rated by Inter president Massimo Moratti, look tied to their clubs.
Guus Hiddink has only just linked up with Turkey so it leaves Benitez as the clearest candidate for Inter, especially after praise from Moratti.
But what about the Liverpool job? Martin O’Neill? Mark Hughes? You could argue it is not a great time to be taking the Anfield hotseat if there is limited cash to spend.
So much for long-term projects at Manchester City
Manchester City’s chief executive Garry Cook has made an impassioned defence of the reasons for Mark Hughes’ sacking.
The feeling persists, however, that Hughes was harshly treated by the club.
Cook states that he and the club’s owners gave Hughes all the resources that he needed to achieve the target of 70 points for the season. The one resource Hughes did not get was time. Had just two of the almost freakish seven successive draws been turned into victories, City would have been in an extremely strong position in the race for a top-four spot.
Even as it stands, they are well-placed in sixth place with 29 points from 17 games, just six points behind fourth-placed Aston Villa with a game in hand. Cook’s statement that the trajectory of recent events gave no evidence to suggest City could reach 70 points is a curious basis on which to sack a manager.
Hughes was asked to put together a team that could threaten the established top four. City beat Chelsea and Arsenal, drew with Liverpool and lost to Manchester United to a goal deep in stoppage time. The only other league defeat was away to Tottenham Hotspur.
City have two very winnable looking games over Christmas. Had Hughes remained in his job and won those, it would have been very hard to justify sacking him, especially with a League Cup semi-final against Manchester United looming.
It all smacks of panic by owners who talked a good game about “long-term projects” but in reality got spooked when some of the league’s more humble clubs refused to roll over and surrender.
man city lost the race to the 4th position in the league and that was not down to the manager, they were just not good enough or in other words spurs were better this season…..its is not at all good News for the city fans and the owners as they will be playing Europea league which was harshly discarded by the the club….
Mancini is a results man
It may be good entertainment but new Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini will not have enjoyed watching their 4-3 win over Sunderland on Saturday.
The uncomfortable nature of his appointment, with Mark Hughes taking charge of the game knowing he was sacked, will be a minor thought to the Italian now he has seen the challenge ahead of him.
Mancini won three Serie A titles at Inter Milan largely because of a miserly defence. City’s backline must now prepare themselves for some hard work on the training ground.
His Inter side was far from pretty, often relying on long balls up to Zlatan ibrahimovic, but it was mightily effective and Jose Mourinho is now reaping the rewards at the san Siro.
Quite how City’s plethora of forwards will fit into Mancini’s pragmatic approach is anyone’s guess. Perhaps in his year away from the game he has decided to play a more expansive style but with the club’s owners showing how ruthless they are by ditching Hughes so early, Mancini does not have time to leak goals and play an open game.
The 45-year-old has shown he is vulnerable to pressure. His bizarre resignation after Inter lost to Liverpool in the Champions League last 16 in 2008 is proof of that. He changed his mind but was sacked anyway by Inter owner Massimo Moratti, who believed his coach had lost his bottle.
when the current squad of players still could not meet the super excessive expectations of the Arab owners, Mancini’s head will also roll. Soccer has deteriorated to become this, a business with profit margins and goal quotas, and has lost its essence.
Does Petrov deserve more of a chance at City?
Bulgarian winger Martin Petrov’s days with Manchester City may be coming to an end. Rigsby, as Petrov is known among City fans, has once again expressed his frustration to reporters back home about the lack of opportunities he is getting.
When Petrov joined Bulgarian giants CSKA Sofia they called him Hristo Stoichkov’s successor as he was fast, greedy for the ball and produced a memorably angry look when ending up on the losing side.
He was successful enough — at Servette, Wolfsburg, Atletico Madrid, all of them famous teams but none of them part of the European elite – but the great expectations have proved hard too fulfil.
He made a promising start at Sven-Goran Eriksson’s City but under Mark Hughes they are aiming even higher these days and there’s much tougher competition for places.
Hughes decided to leave Petrov on the bench for the game at Aston Villa on Monday, despite his goal and assist against West Ham.
Petrov’s frustration could only have when he was asked to get ready to go on at Villa Park, only for Hughes to change his mind when Craig Bellamy swept home the equaliser.
PHOTO: Manchester City’s Martin Petrov (R) and Shaun Wright-Phillips celebrate a goal against Barcelona during a friendly at the Nou Camp, August 19, 2009. REUTERS/Gustau Nacarino
Petrov is a quality player and would definitely benefit Santa Cruz and Adebayor with his crossing ability. It’s too competitive at Man City though – he should get a move to another English club.
http://www.worldfootballcolumns.com
Vlog on the Pitch talks to Pablo Zabaleta
When Pablo Zabaleta signed for Manchester City this time last year he admits he wasn’t really expecting to be playing on the same team as Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor.
How times change. City are now being referred to as part of the “Big Five” in the Premier League and a Champions League qualifying place must be their target for the season.
Click on the video above to see Owen Wyatt chat to Zabaleta about the coming season.
We welcome comments on our blog site, and if you’re feeling more adventurous please feel free to leave your own video response. Upload it somewhere, send us a link and if we like it we’ll showcase it on our site.
City’s spending spree makes sense in battle for fourth place
There’s been a fair bit of speculation, here and elsewhere, about whether Manchester City could actually win the Premier League title but a more realistic goal is a top four finish. That being the case, the summer spending spree seen by some as being brash and uncoordinated is actually very shrewd.
Look carefully, and what City have managed to do, with the recruitment of Gareth Barry from Aston Villa and Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure from Arsenal, is to weaken two of their rivals for fourth place.
Last season Villa and Arsenal fought tooth and nail for that position and with his transfer policy Mark Hughes has struck an early couple of blows in this season’s fight.
Note that City also have their sights on defender Joleon Lescott from Everton, another team with Champions League aspirations.
Add to that the hugely satisfying signing of former Manchester United forward Carlos Tevez and there would seem to be a pattern to their spending spree — even if results are not yet going their way.
haha thats the point these players obviously dont have as much ambition to succeed as they do to make loads of money! look at gareth barry for example saying he would only leave for a champs league team last season and rafa benitez said he even bid for him this transfer window, and you didnt even get in the europa cup which to me speaks volumes, yeah u wanna get in the top 4 but buyin most of the bad apples from the teams above you and mashing them together is hardly going to garauntee that is it
Can Manchester City win the Premier League?
Fuelled by millions of petro-dollars from the apparently bottomless pockets of their Abu Dhabi owners Manchester City have spent the summer accumulating what is beginning to look, on paper anyway, a squad that will challenge for the title.
Significantly, the players bought by manager Mark Hughes are tried and tested in the Premier League which augurs wells for City’s chances of shaking up the established pecking order in English football.
Opposing managers must have watched with a growing sense of awe and no doubt a little envy as Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn Rovers), Carlos Tevez (Manchester United), Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal) joined to form a formidable looking strike force while defender Kolo Toure (Arsenal) was recruited to beef up the back four and England midfielder Gareth Barry signed from Aston Villa.
Consider the likes of Robinho, Craig Bellamy, Shaun-Wright Phillips, Wayne Bridge and Micah Richards, who were all part of last season’s team, and City already boast arguably the strongest squad in the Premier League with the transfer window nowhere near closing.
But can they win the league? Are the new recruits going to bridge the 40-point gap between champions Manchester United and City last season or eben the 20-odd extra points they will need to challenge for a Champions League spot.
Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill certainly thinks so.
“City might not be favourites to win the league, but they should be,” O’Neill said last week. “They have as good a chance as anybody of winning it.”
Tevez is a game changing signing for Manchester City
Manchester City are finally shopping at the luxury end of the market, as befits their status as the richest of the rich, and as a result the fans can start to get excited about the new season.
Back in January I blogged about the depressingly familiar rollcall of mediocre players being linked with City: the likes of Scott Parker, Roque Santa Cruz, Craig Bellamy and Matthew Upson.
I suggested they aim a bit higher and sure enough they went in at the nosebleed end of things with a bid for Kaka. As we all know, it didn’t come off, and no one of that quality came in in January, but with the arrival of Carlos Tevez (and to a lesser extent Gareth Barry, who was wanted so badly by Liverpool) things have changed.
Now Tevez is there, I’d expect more big names to follow. Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor may be among them, and there’s still an outside chance that John Terry could fellow.
Whether those moves come off or not, things are already looking up for City fans. The arrival of Tevez means they are players at last. Watch out Real Madrid!
PHOTO: Argentina’s striker Carlos Tevez smiles as he leaves after a training session at the squad’s camp on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, June 4, 2009. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci
United did not offer Tevez the salary that City did(5 million euros per season)
But I believe that, as Tevez said in the City press conference, the move was not about the money, he now has a manager that wants him.
What player does not want to feel respected, wanted and supported by his manager?
Tevez has every right to feel the way he did, the fact is that he spent too much time sitting on the bench this past season.
I think the final straw for him was not being in the starting lineup for the Champions League Final.
A player of Tevez’s caliber should not put up with such treatment from a manager.
United fans looking to place blame should direct it at their club’s manager.
United happy to be wearing white…just like 1991
Manchester United’s Red Devils will be wearing angelic white in Wednesday’s Champions League final, just how Alex Ferguson likes it.
Barcelona are the nominal home team for the ‘dream final’ in Rome and as their famous claret and blue tops clash with United’s usual red and their first choice blue away kit, the holders will wander onto the pristine Stadio Olimpico pitch in white.
“We’ll wear white, we are very happy with that,” Ferguson beamed.
Of course United wore white the last time they met and beat Barca in a European final, the 1991 Cup Winners’ Cup showpiece in English clubs’ first year back in Europe after Heysel.
Former Barcelona striker Mark Hughes scored twice in the 2-1 win in Rotterdam.
Hi microboy… new thread on this here… http://blogs.reuters.com/soccer/2009/05/ 27/barcelona-beat-manchester-united-your -views/
Rome, one of the world’s most visited cities, plays host to millions of tourists on a yearly basis. These tourists use the three airports in Rome as points where they can enter and exit Italy during their vacation – a very sensible thing to do as Rome is one of the most sought after tourist attraction in the world.
Airfares Rome
http://airfaresrome.cc/