Scoring Open Goals!
In the summer of 2016, Manchester United paid a hefty fee of £90 million to activate the return of Paul Pogba (whom they let go for free) from Serie A club Juventus. Since then, Pogba has made it to the news headlines for both the good and bad reasons.
Since Pogba re-joined United, he has recorded some great individual performances in the red shirt, one of which was in the 2-3 comeback win against the noisy neighbors Manchester City – a game in which he scored two goals.
Jose Mourinho has taken Manchester United from securing the 6th spot in his debut season at the helm (and getting that all important Champion’s League spot in what was an underwhelming campaign for the Portuguese coach) to being genuine title contenders. Even though the English Premier League appeared to be very far away from Mourinho, he still managed to lift the EFL Cup, FA Community Shield and the UEFA Europa League in 2016-17.
In a season that is generally considered to be forgettable at least in the standards of Jose Mourinho, the Portuguese coach was still able to add numerous pieces of silverware to his collection and significantly helped in getting Manchester United back to their former elite status that they have been attempting to do for the past years.
The Liverpool team are set for their pre-season tour of Germany, with winger Sadio Mane included to take part as one of the 30-man squad.…
Even before Portugal’s triumph at last year’s Euros, centre back Jose Fonte had had an impressive season with Southampton as the Saints got the license to treat the rest of the league to a treat of attractive football in the top flight league in England and still manage to stay afloat far away from relegation, above the mid table as they battled Everton for the Europa League spot.
It was, however, his impressive displays for Fernando Santos’ side at the Euros that made big clubs sit up and take a long and hard look at him as he helped marshal the Portuguese defence to the title – in much the same way that Moussa Sissoko’s marauding energy made Pochettino take him from Newcastle United just weeks after the tournament.
Dele Alli is one of the best young players in the Premier League. In fact, the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder is one of the best young players in the whole of Europe. The England international has progressed massively since his move to Tottenham in 2015 and has established himself as a key player in Mauricio Pochettino’s team.
Alli’s development and quality has reportedly attracted the attention of Real Madrid, who are claimed to be lining up a £50 million bid for the 20-year-old. Madrid have signed players from Spurs before – remember Luka Modric and Gareth Bale? – and many fans of the North London club would be worried about this speculation. After all, when Madrid come calling, it is hard to say no for any footballer.
It is almost a year since it was announced that Pep Guardiola was to take over from Manuel Pellegrini at Manchester City. The statement was met with universal delight from City fans and a certain amount of jealousy from rival supporters. If there is such a thing as a risk-free appointment in football management, this seemed like the nearest thing to it.
His spells at Barcelona and Bayern Munich saw the Spaniard amass 6 league titles, 2 Champions League trophies, 7 domestic cups, 3 UEFA Super Cups and 3 FIFA Club World Cups. All of that was achieved in just 7 seasons.
Manchester United recently secured a much needed 3-1 triumph over Swansea City on November 6 as this victory was particularly important for Jose Mourinho and his squad due to the fact that they had not been able to secure a league goal since August 27 when they defeated Hull City.
This recent triumph over Swansea City is what Manchester United needed to start getting back on track and not slip any further behind in the Premier League standings which is something that has been happening on a more regular basis in recent times.
1 day after this victory, Jose Mourinho took the chance to speak to the media about his squad and their current situation and the Portuguese stated that he wants to see his players giving it everything they have and going to their limits.
Manchester United superstar Wayne Rooney is working with the club’s foundation to provide help for kids. The player says all the funds raised from his testimonial match against his former club Everton at Old Trafford will go to the charity.
The money is understood will be used to fund a scholarship programme to cater for youths from disadvantaged areas. The funds aims at giving the children an opportunity to reach university level education. Four charities are set to benefit from the proceeds of the charity game with Manchester United Foundation being one of them.
Italian players Andrea Pirlo, Sebastian Giovinco and Mario Balotelli have been left off the preliminary list announced for Euro 2016 for Italy.
Toronto FC forward Giovinco is one of a number of noteworthy players left off the continental tournament.
The 29-year old, who has 30 goals in 45 games for TFC, was surprisingly not included in manager Antonio Conte’s 30-man squad, despite his decent performance at his club.
Aside Giovinco is Balotelli, whose goals during the 2012 tournament sent Italy into the European championship final before they lost 4-0 in the final to Spain.
Former France coach Raymond Domenech says that he does not expect Manchester City to even come close to beating Paris St Germain in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
The two teams have been pitched against each other for the first time in European football history. City are second favourites going into the game since they have little experience of the latter stages of this competition.
This is the first time that they have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Supporters of the club, though, think that they will be able to make a major impact due to the presence of world-class players like Sergio Aguero and Yaya Touré.
