SOUL SURMISE

COULD FOOTBALL'S UNITY IN TRAGEDY CHANGE THE VITRIOL AT MATCHES

Football is working through a very sad week. News of Glenn Hoddle’s heart attack caused a reaction across the sport. He was a hero. Gifted as a player. Creative as a coach. As a pundit, I enjoyed his tactical insight. He is loved. Our prayers are with him and his family.

Then, not many hours later, the Leicester City Chairman’s helicopter goes down in the streets beside the stadium. There is shock and grief at the loss of life.

A lot of us probably didn’t know the Chairman, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha’s, name but we knew his face and that amazing achievement of winning the Premiership for little Leicester City. Even as a City fan, who should have been winning it that season, I loved that Leicester did instead! 

What has struck me over the days since, has been the camaraderie of the football community. Everybody wants Glenn Hoddle well again. Every club sent their condolences to Leicester City. There was a wonderful sense of unity. Our humanity overcomes rivalry. 

Of course that is how it should be. My own prayers go out to Vichai’s wife and family and those Leicester players, and members of staff, who genuinely loved the man, not just his investment. Kasper Schmeichel running towards the crash said so much. As did Riyad Mahrez’s tribute after scoring for Manchester City last night.

However, it is not how football mostly is. I watch every weekend at the abuse that fans give the opposition’s players and fellow fans. It is angry vicious vitriol mostly enhanced by hand and finger gestures. I have been to matches and heard the abuse that referees, the opposition and even the team that fans are supporting receive. There are tirades of raw visceral hatred. I often wonder if there is something in the modern adult male that needs this place to vent something of the sadness and melancholy of a British life. 

It all seems dangerously uncivil to me. Of course there should be banter and a competitive spirit. Surely that can be healthy and humorous and actually add to the sporting atmosphere. I have enjoyed some good Rugby banter with fans of other teams and countries, standing side by side at matches. Less police needed there to separate supporters. 

What I am saying, on the very saddest of footballing weeks is that that same love and camaraderie in these moments of tragedy should be held and treasured. This feeling of one big soccer family should be nurtured that it might flourish, every single week in the stadiums of the beautiful game. 

I never want to contradict the great Bill Shankly but let me. This week he was proved wrong. It is not a matter of life an death. It is NOT more important than that.

SHOULDER TO SHOULDER - A Review

There was an American girl. She came to Queens University while I was a Chaplain. She was doing a dissertation on Sport and Reconciliation in Ireland. I thought she was a chancer. She was doing Sports Studies and wanted a trip to Ireland. Contrived, I thought.

Then we had coffee. It turned into a long coffee. Well…

 

Protestants support Rangers and Catholics support Celtic.

It is mainly Catholics who play GAA.

In the Republic soccer was not encouraged for decades.

Catholic schools in the north play GAA.

Protestant schools in the north play Rugby or soccer.

By the time students get to University they are playing different sports so it hard to mix.

The vast majority of the Ulster players who play Rugby for Ireland are Protestant.

In the north Cliftonville is the Catholic soccer team and Linfield the Protestant one.

Derry City play in the Republic’s Soccer league after it had closed down for many years due to violence at matches.

Some Catholic soccer players refuse to play for Northern Ireland and so play for the Republic.

In international Rugby we play as a whole island.

 

And on and on it went… there is a great dissertation in how sport divides.

This past weekend Shoulder To Shoulder was screened on the television. Irish Rugby legend Brian O’Driscoll investigated the story of the Irish Rugby team and The Troubles. Surely not enough for a dissertation. As it turns out… more than enough!

For 50 years I have watched Irish Rugby with no idea what was going on in the background. If I knew, and I possibly did, that Jimmy McCoy was in the RUC and Brian McCall in the British Army I didn’t consider the implications. 

What I do remember is Philip Rainey, David Irwin and Nigel Carr being blown up crossing the border in the bomb that killed Lord Justice Maurice Gibson. As Carr put it, some one stood on a hillside and detonated it when Judge Gibson car passed, having absolutely no regard for the other cars caught up in it. It was an attack that cost the injured Carr his place in the very first ever World Cup and highlighted the ruthless brutality of the Troubles. It  made the Republic players on the Irish team realise what then Northern players were having to deal with.

The film though is not so much about the divide but about the  positive contribution that Rugby made in a violently divided community. There is the story of the joint anthem, which gives the documentary its title. There is the wonder of Donal Lenihan from a Republican family sharing a room on tour with British soldier Brian McCall. Trevor Ringland and Hugo McNeill organise a peace match with the Barbarians after the 1996 Canary Wharf bomb shatters the peace process. There is the day that Rugby brought the British National Anthem to the home of GAA, Croke Park.

O’Driscoll even comes north to understand the Orange Order and plays a lambeg drum as part of his research. It was a beautiful act in understanding the other. He had a gracious welcome in Loughgall and the engagement was good. I was surprised that he got some grief about doing it and had to emphasise the fact that he didn’t actually march. That revealed that work still needed to be done even on the south side of the border.

In the end this is a poignant, often emotional, sometimes humorous and always heroic story. It is about a sport that brought two very divided communities together, at least for 80 minutes on some Saturday afternoons. This was particularly true when they were playing England, the irony of which was a mystery to O'Driscoll.

Rugby is the most high profile sport that works in an all island system. There are others. One wonders if soccer had been in the same system how much that too would have contributed to peace. People from different communities trusting each other on one team is a marvellous resource for breaking down barriers. A weakness in the plot might be the lack of engagement with working class loyalist communities who are not such big Rugby fans and might not be so keen to stand for the Irish Anthem.

I am back to my American girl and her dissertation. If only she’d seen Shoulder To Shoulder she’d have had plenty to work on. It is a powerful piece of documentary. 

IF HARRY KANE HAD HAD MY DAD... SPURS WOULD HAVE BEATEN INTER MILAN

If Harry Kane had had a father like mine, Spurs would not have been beaten by Inter Milan last night. My dad had a thing. He didn’t reckon you should get into the Boys Brigade football team if you couldn’t kick the ball with both feet.

When I was about 6 years of age my father would take me out to the green in front of our house at Maine Park, Galgorm and play shooting in. On some of those evenings he would not allow me to kick the ball with my right foot. For maybe an hour I had to shoot with my left foot. I loved those nights but hated the ones where I couldn’t kick with my right foot. I couldn’t get the ball off the ground. I would scuff it. It was so unnatural. 

When I played competitive football in my late teens I was so thankful for those awful nights where dad banned my right foot. Indeed, many coaches and players thought I was left footed. Don’t get me wrong, if it was a free kick, corner or penalty it was always my right foot but if the ball landed at my left I didn’t have to think twice. Bang! I had some shot on me with that left foot.

There was a moment in the San Siro last night when the ball landed at Harry Kane’s left foot in the Inter Milan box. If my dad had been given a few evenings with a 6 year old Harry Kane he would have hit it first time and scored. Instead, not confident on his left foot he took it around the goalkeeper. Three yards out and guess what? Didn’t have the confidence to finish on his left foot. 

Harry Kane is not the only one. Almost every modern player has only one foot. For most of them it is enough. I only reached the heights of Randalstown Reds with two feet! 

BUT… I cannot understand it. It drives me mad. Maybe very single week I shout at the television set. It must be modern football wisdom to concentrate on your good foot. George Best kicked the school with one foot and all the way home with the other, Sorry Harry, but George would have scored!

So what I do not understand is why coaches don’t do what my dad did. Even if the modern football intelligence suggests a player concentrates on one strong foot why not at least give the weaker one some potential. I watch matches won and lost every single week because a player cannot clear the ball or score a goal with his weaker foot. Just like Harry Kane last night. Why? 

WHY I'D RATHER LOSE WITH PEP THAN WIN WITH JOSE - Not Quite Gloating At City's Derby Win

I never enjoy the Manchester derby. Oh, of course it is the most important fixture of the season but there is that knot in the stomach, for all 90 or 99 minutes. Even those historic 5-1 and 6-1 wins, it was only deep into injury time when I could relax and feel we were safe!

No, as Colin Sinclair’s book was titled, Manchester United Ruined My Life. There was even a period a few years back when they would purposely leave it until injury time BUT in Fergie time they would then break our hearts. Time after time. Remember Michael Owen. Or Rooney’s amazing volley! Ouch!

Even yesterday with the pundits suggesting we were the better team, when we were coming off 13 Premiership wins in a row, I was still nervous that United would break my heart, yet again. Indeed, I preferred playing United when we were rubbish and fighting relegation. In those days we had nothing to lose. We had no expectations of beating the dominant team in Europe. A win was so joyous and I am glad to say that there were one or two!

Yesterday we were 8 points clear at the top of the league. We had lots to lose. A record 14 game winning streak as well as that healthy gap in points. United would love beating us in the same way we loved beating them back in the day.

United came into the game having shown some real form. Those first twenty minutes against Arsenal were very impressive. Our last few games had been a struggle to win. Paul Pogba suspension, due to a sending off against Arsenal, was a plus point for sure. It would be like us without De Bruyne.

I doubt that since Busby verses Mercer has there ever been such a head to head in mangers as Jose and Pep. Manchester is now divided in two on managerial approaches. Jose Mourinho has been an incredibly successful manager. Winning three Premierships with Chelsea says he knows the English game. Pep Guardiola has been successful too but many are unconvinced that he can do his thing in England.

As I look at these two mangers I see two very different approaches. Pep is a developer of players. I don’t just mean young players. De Bruyne, Sterling, Stones, Otimendi and Aguero are improved players over the last 18 months under Pep. He has a way of playing and he needs the players who can play his ambitious system, shaped when he was influenced playing under Johan Cruyff.

Jose is a whole different kind of manager. He is pragmatic. He is a tactician. He looks at the players he has at his disposal and, maybe even just as much, at the team he is playing and is a genius at getting a result. His personality is a little eccentric and the kind of quirk that doesn’t care what others think. 

Which is why I am glad that Pep not Jose is City’s manager. Yesterday Jose’s tactics embarrassed a club that deserves better. As City fans chanted their new song “Park the bus”, United did. At home against the noisy neighbours they had only 35% of the possession. Manchester United for goodness sake. They looked nervous and frightened. Manchester United for goodness sake. Jose has got away with his pragmatism for too many years because he has won. Yesterday he didn’t. I cannot see United fans being patient when it is the noisy neighbours beating them with poetic free flowing football. Having said that that is the very challenge Jose likes. It’s a big one but if anyone…

Now, here’s the thing. Right up until the referee blew the whistle yesterday, United were in the game. As at the end of the first half, when outplayed and one down going into injury time, a quick break and defensive mistake and Rashford could have finished beautifully again. City just couldn’t get that third goal and Ederson made a crucial double save that could have made it 2-2. 

Jose’s pragmatism almost matched Pep’s poetry… but it didn’t. United’s reputation is taking a mauling in today’s press. Pre match mind games did not effect Pep or City. Ironically it was a United player Herrera who was booked for diving! The after match perpetual blaming of referees and the later rumours of Jose’s confrontation outside the City dressing room hasn’t helped. Pep is not the gentleman that Pellegrini was but I would rather lose with Pep than win with Jose.

As for the Premiership it is far from over. City caught United in 2012 and we were 8 points behind at Easter. It’s not even Christmas. If City get injuries to crucial players and United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs or Arsenal go on a 14 game winning streak… So, as Kevin De Bruyne said after the game, “I would rather be 11 points ahead than 11 points behind.” There are 22 games left. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if City won them all playing football that thrills us all! Just saying! 

MANCHESTER CITY - A LONG WAY TO GO

After the near forty years of utter misery supporting Manchester City, surely my friends will allow me a day in the sun. Paris St Germain are probably the only team in the world that would dare suggest that they are better just now! It’s a long way from 1999 and away days at Macclesfield Town, trailing around mid table, two Divisions down, for a part of the season while our neighbours won the Treble!

It was at a wedding a couple of years ago, speaking to a man who knows nothing about football, when I realised that the future, that we are already experiencing now was assured. My friend is working in the middle east seeing through a University hospital project. When he told me that they did not know the word failure and invested money until they succeeded I smiled. I knew then that City would have Pep Guardiola and silverware was pretty much guaranteed.

However, with all the winning streaks and free flowing football, City are far from completing the project. The project is to be one of the best teams in the world, challenging for silverware and selling shirts across the world. The Chairman admitted a few weeks ago that there is a long way to go. He is right. I have been monitoring it on my last three summer trips to Uganda. 

What have mission trips to Uganda to do with football, you might ask? Well, it is the football shirts. There is an abundance of soccer shirts across Uganda. Arsenal are the most popular. Apparently that goes back to the invincible team of 2003-04 that had African players Kanu and Toure in the squad. Anyway, in 2015 there were a decent amount of City shirts. This last summer, no improvement and if anything not so many. 

To become a global force you need to be continually winning trophies. A League Cup is not a good enough return over the last two years for a team with ambitions to be world contenders. After their Premiership successes of 2012 and 2014 City have been very much underachievers. On paper it is a travesty that they haven’t won the Premiership since 2014. It is time to put that right.

So the team is getting there. I fancy that when Pep puts his final touches to the squad next summer that City will be near invincible over the next few years. That sounds frightening considering that they have just gone 18 wins in a row in all competitions. I just do not think Pep has finished his build. 

And even this season… City who are good at writing cheques need to, in May, cash the cheque of this early season promise. Winter is coming. It could be Baltic! There is a long way to go! Those of us who have been fans for decades are all too aware of our teams's ability to Manchester City it! Failure from the jaws of victory. Too many times! I have been wondering which I would prefer; Jose pragmatic boredom week after week with scrappy 1-0 wins for a moment's joy as the trophy is lifted in May or the weekly ecstasy of beautiful Cruyffian football for a moment of deep disappointment at the finish line! Please, no! Pep needs to make sure that the best squad on paper has the best points tally at season’s end. 

It is is urgent to stop the slide in Ugandan shirt sales! It is vital if the club are to achieve the success that Sheikh Mansour has invested in. There's a long way to go. The going needs to start now! No pressure Pep!

SURMISING THE HEROICS AND HEARTACHE OF THE GAWA...

Has there ever been a more unsatisfactory winning team in a World Cup Play Off Qualifier than Switzerland? Tonight we did everything but score, even getting a header cleared off the line in the last minute. Switzerland were poor, panicking and in the end almost embarrassingly relieved. 

It all, of course, means that that awful penalty decision makes it feel unjust as well. Extra time at 0-0 over both legs and who knows, a last gasp McAuley header or a McGovern block out in a penalty shoot out. All lost when a referee has a bad angle and decides to make a big call.

All in all, this was a heroic performance, in a heroic campaign, in a heroic tenure for Michael O’Neill as manager. Northern Ireland have simply fought above their weight for at least five years. O’Neill’s achievements recognised after Euro 16 should never be forgotten. Qualifying for Russia 18 would have made that certain. Walking round Windsor Park museum this week I hope his place in that history of local football has a centre stage. He has been simply magnificent.

In the end though we have been an imbalanced team for some time. If we had had four forward players as cool, confident and classy tonight as our back four of Hughes, Evans, McAuley and Brunt then we would have stuffed Switzerland. Steven Davis has been the ultimate class act in recent years but oh for a Healy up front. Our strikers have done great and I am taking nothing away from their contribution to the heroics but that goal out of nothing was always an ask slightly too big.

It would seem likely that this is the end of the road for a dynasty. We have been the oldest team in this qualifying campaign and Hughes, McAuley and Brunt will hardly make 4 more years. Aaron might struggle to make the end of the season. Which makes his 90 minutes tonight another performance was above the ordinary. It will now take time to rebuild but the foundations O’Neill had for this team were firm and sure. The next few years do not look so rich in Premiership talent.

I fear Michael O’Neill will see this as a natural time to go. He has proven he is a good football manager and I would hope might manage at a top level. Now is his time to work out where. For our wee country it might be a while before we get this close again. This was a once in a generation opportunity. Which makes it all the more frustrating, unjust and heartbreaking. We should be no less proud, all the same!

SHOULD LUKAKU HAVE CELEBRATED IN FRONT OF THE EVERYONE FANS? ABSOLUTELY!

Was Romelu Lukaku right to celebrate his goal in front of the Everton fans on Sunday? I think he was - absolutely!

After scoring Lukaku turned away and held his hands to his ears to hear the Everton fans’ silence. For me, the gesture was not rude or disrespectful and should in no way have caused a bad disturbance from the Everton fans. 

When Emmanuel Adebayor scored for Manchester City against Arsenal and ran the entire length of the field to celebrate in front of the Arsenal fans it was a little bit out of order but for me Lukaku’s gesture was part of an ongoing conversation throughout the game between fans and player. 

I understand players who do not celebrate when they score against their old club. I am thinking of Frank Lampard with that big goal for City against Chelsea a couple of years ago. That too was about a relationship between Lampard and Chelsea fans. The difference went both ways. Chelsea’s fans respecting Lampard as a club legend would not be jeering a Lampard miss, so Lampard in return respects them and the years of love they had given him.

I think such relationships like Lampard’s with the Chelsea fans is rare and only comes with long years of service and success.

Lukaku’s relationship with Everton is different. I hope he gets enough respect that he will not be booed when he runs out at Goodison Park later in the season. However, a bit of banter is understandable. If Lukaku hits a free kick into Row Z then a wee jeer is obvious. If he then scores he should be a allowed to acknowledge the previous banter.

I think that though Lukaku changed direction as he arced away after his goal in order to send the gesture to Everton fans he quickly focused on his team mates and new fans. It should not have been caused any disruption among the Everton fans. They should have taken it as part of the banter. A message that needs to be sent to football fans is that if you can dole it out, you should take the idd wee gesture back.   

HAVE GOLF CADDIES TOO MUCH INFLUENCE?

It might be just me but I have been noticing golf caddies a little more, just recently. Obviously there is the Rory McIlroy's situation. PJ finally went his own way and Rory brought his old pal Harry Diamond in to carry his new Taylor Mades in his final Major of the year. Sadly it didn’t sparkle (ouch!). That PJ had made £8million pounds from his nine years with Rory seemed to be a reasonable return on his investment. Let us not feel too sorry for him.

Just about a month previous Phil Mickelson had split wth his caddie of 25 years. Was it a mutual decision? Who knows but one can only imagine what Bones earned in two and half decades carrying the bag of a five time major winner!

The other caddie to cross my radar was Rickie Elliott. Ricky is from Northern Ireland and caddied for Bruce Koepka when he won the US Open in June. The press speculated that the Portrush man won $200,000 that week. Probably after Rory he’ll be Northern Ireland’s best paid sportsman this year! 

Caddies eh!

Then this weekend at the Solheim Cup my surmising turned a little more serious. America’s Lexi Thompson’s caddie is a Scot called Alex McAlpine, a former professional player himself. As I watched how McAlpine helped Thompson I wondered, for the first time in my 45 years of following the sport, if the influence of caddies should be reconsidered by the golfing authorities.

McAlpine seemed to give Thompson all the lines on every shot but particularly on all of her putts. I think it was Laura Davies who said on commentary how this was a weakness of Thompson’s game and how much she depends on McAlpine. Thompson at times looked like a robot. McAlpine did all the thinking, told her what to do and Thompson’s gift was then following through on the advice. It seemed a little too much interference though. 

Which got me surmising. Is golf a level playing field? Do caddies give players significant advantage? If caddies have become coaches psychologists and crucial contributors to the outcome then should golf being recognised as a “doubles” events? Is golf comfortable with that? Or should caddies be just what they are, bag carriers? Then we would know the best player. They would all be on their own with no one to cover their weaknesses. They might then be cheaper too! 

Just surmising!

I THOUGHT OF GIVING UP FOOTBALL - BUT... IT IS MY UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

It is just great to have the Premiership season started again, though Manchester United look a little bit strong for my liking! Without a World Cup or European Championship, the soccer less summer seemed to go on for far too long. 

As it all gets going again, my mind has been drawn back to a Sunday afternoon in April when I closed my eyes, gritted my teeth, turned up the stereo and tried to give up being a football fan! For a good five minutes it all seemed like a good idea. I could do it. Lots of my friends have no interest. 

What had caused this mad rush of blood to my head?! Well, my beloved Manchester City had just been destroying Arsenal for 45 minutes in the FA Cup Semi Final at Wembley. They should have been 6 up at half time in chances missed, did score a perfectly good goal and the score was still goalless. At that stage you know that it is not City’s day. Indeed, I had left when after a late equaliser, Arsenal went ahead in Extra Time and I knew… I could miss the rest  of that match and soccer itself for ever after!

It was deep psychological hurt. A sense of real injustice. One up at half time and we were in the FA Cup Final. A bad lines man’s decision about the ball behind out of play, when it wasn’t, and my wee heart was in short term trauma. Too easily for a 55 year old man I hear you say but it is that ridiculous impact on my life that had me trying to give the whole thing up. Football fans invest a lot of emotion in their team. With such investment, justice is the least we deserve.

This however is not a blog about refereeing technology. It is about why I could not let go of the beautiful game. So why not? Why did I decide to get up after the inevitable final score at Wembley? 

Well, the first thing is obviously the near impossibility of it all. As Rod Stewart put it in the sleeve notes of his last album, “the two things you cannot change in life are your mother and your football team.” Soccer is an addiction. You can hear the kind of money being thrown around. Neymar’s transfer to Paris St Germain for £200m and Manchester City paying the same for a new defence seems utterly obscene if you have spent some off your summer in Uganda. BUT… the darn game gets into your blood before you are old enough. A transfusion is yet to have been found!  

As I left the room in April though I had decided I was sticking with it for a more positive reason. Football is a universal language that I have used across the world. 

It all started one night in 1990 in Shanghai. Walking the streets looking for a KFC we bumped into a Chinese chap wanting to learn English. He has been teaching himself through BBC World Service and he started enthusiastically talking about Packie Bonner’s penalty save in the recent World Cup. It was humorous but taught me something about this game. Thousands of miles from home it is a connector. 

Arriving in South Africa a decade later some of the first conversations we had on the Khayelitsha township was about a soccer team; the Kaiser Chiefs. Indeed it seemed almost everyone, male or female, old or young wore Chiefs shirts. The rest supported the Orlando Pirates. After discovering that the local team Cape Town Ajax were considered Dutch and therefore white, so no fans on black townships supported them, I became an ardent Pirates fan. The Chiefs seemed a little too Man United!

For the next decade I engaged with black South Africans through Orlando Pirates shirts and hand signals. I wore the shirt on the townships as much as the odour allowed. People would stop for a chat, in amazement that a white was a Pirates fan. In moments when I felt a little insecure I’d lift my sweat shirt to reveal my Pirates’ top and tensions turned to a laugh and African handshake. At every petrol station I asked what team the attendant supported and told them I never tipped Chiefs! 

Arriving in Uganda in 2015 it was English clubs that had me conversing. Arsenal and not Manchester United surprisingly rules in Uganda. At the school we partner with I took the name Ya Ya after City’s African player Ya Ya Toure. Immediately Gilbert was Ozil and Norman was Suarez. Two year later we all still are and the kids have a few Ya Ya chaats as I walk across the playground.

In a tricky situation on the wrong side of town, Jasmine and I found ourselves a little isolated. Looking down at a few tough looking guys, sitting watching us, I spotted a bicycle in the middle of them with a  Chelsea sticker and started some banter. All fear and tension immediately evaporated and we left with them laughing at the Manchester City supporting muzungu! 

Football frustrates me and angers me and with all the money too often lets me down but it was my best geography teacher as a child because I know where towns and cities and countries are by football teams. If your town ever made the FA Cup First Round I’ll know what part of England you are from! Most of all though it is a universal language that has given me inroads to connections around the world. So here’s for another season of painfully unjust afternoons like that one last April. Give it up? Don’t be daft!

STOCKI SURMISES THE 2016-17 PREMIERSHIP SEASON

So it is Monday and the dust has settled on another Premiership season. Pablo Zabaleta  and John Terry's tears have dried and the In-Out door has begun as David Moyes leaves Sunderland! The boring days of a long summer without a big International tounrmanet has begun. I hate having no Fantasy League so much that I play the MLS version!

Chelsea were worthy winners. Just. Their consistency across the season makes last year's blip even more mysterious! Personally, I think Pochettino’s Spurs were the team of the season. Ali and Eriksen were creative geniuses and with Harry Kane winning another Golden Boot! Wow!

Arsenal fans are getting much grief this morning for finishing outside the Champions League places but credit where it is due, it is the first time they haven’t been in the top 4 in 20 years. Respect! 

Liverpool will be delighted with their Champions League place. Man. United however seem further off the pace than ever. A Europa League trophy this week might save Jose’s season but this is not where they were expecting to be 4 years after Sir Alex. Dull and defensive with the Mourinho scowl! 

My beloved Manchester City? Well, this was even more disappointing than last season. 2015-16 was the best opportunity City will ever have, with the mystery of Chelsea’s blip and the other major teams not quite put together yet. Leicester won it for goodness sake!

2016-17 we had finally got the manager we had sought for a long time; Pep Guardiola. In my opinion, even with a leaky defence, we had the best squad in the league. That we were depending on a win against Watford on the last day of the season to sneak a Champions League place and without a trophy in the sideboard was a big fail. Pep, the jury went out when you shipped Joe Hart to Italy and brought in a clown called Bravo and it is very much still out!

To be fair the season ended with City in better form though their last few opponents were already on a Spanish beach with their seasons over. Pep has little need to add to the front seven players but defensively City were vulnerable on every break. The legendary Vincent Kompany secured things up when he eventually returned from injury but full backs are urgently needed and only time will tell if John Stones and Kompany can form a partnership that can win the title. Another centre half please!

If we can keep Aguero then the attacking end needs no additions. Leroy Sane took time to find this feet but when he did he was devastating. Raheem Sterling was a revelation early on if his form dipped late in the season. Kevin De Bruyne had a blip mid season but his class is unquestionable. David Silva is still a magician. Jesus and Aguero are the best there is! Let us not forget İlkay Gündoğan who sone bright until his injury.

So, bring on August! The 2017-18 Premiership should be the most competitive league in the history of world soccer. When you see how easy the top two teams in Germany, Spain and Italy have you are glad to be following the English game. 

If Jose can sort something out and make United strong again then we are in the era of the big BIG SIX. I imagine that all six will strengthen. The other leveller will be that all six are in Europe. There can be no questions that Liverpool and Chelsea both benefitted from not being in Europe. It is now three years since a team who was in Europe won the title! Bournemouth anyone?! Two teams with big players and managers will miss out on the Champions League. Pressure!