Tag: Champions League

  • Manchester United: A Tough Road Back

    Manchester United: A Tough Road Back

    Manchester United’s last nine days were like the week from hell. Not only have their dreams of Champions League football ended after a 3-2 defeat away to Wolfsburg but they dropped more points at the weekend after a 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth in the chase for the title. The millions lost by going out of…

  • Barcelona Begins To Look Like The Real Deal Again

    Barcelona Begins To Look Like The Real Deal Again

                    For 90 minutes at the weekend, all of us went back in time a couple of years, to a period when one football team so eclipsed all others that they were being considered not just the best side on the planet at that moment but one of…

  • A Sport That Ignores What It Doesn’t Like

    A Sport That Ignores What It Doesn’t Like

    I love football, but there’s something about the game that’s pretty hard to deny. Football, above and beyond any other sport, is incredibly good at ignoring problems. Its leaders are incredibly good at wishing they’d go away. I’m writing a lengthy piece for this site on the continuing trials Scottish football is enduring as the…

  • Not So Special Anymore?

    Not So Special Anymore?

    So is this how it ends? With a whimper? With a team languishing mid-table, out of the title race by November? Does the career of one of the most interesting, and successful, managers in the history of the game really come crashing down like this? Jose Mourinho has been at the top of the global…

  • EPL Matchday 10: One Bore Draw And Many Harry Returns

    EPL Matchday 10: One Bore Draw And Many Harry Returns

    Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea took another battering, on and off the pitch, over the last few days as this weekend’s Premier League matches saw them defeated, again, this time to West Ham. They followed that up with a penalty kicks defeat at Stoke, in the League Cup, although like most of the other top clubs that’s…

  • Chaos At Leeds Shows No Sign Of Ending

    Chaos At Leeds Shows No Sign Of Ending

    Being from Scotland, and being a Celtic supporter, I have followed the story of British football’s most dysfunctional club, the one at Ibrox, keenly. Some of what has happened there is without parallel anywhere in the game, except perhaps for the rash of arrests and indictments at FIFA, but only someone who knows nothing about…

  • Watching Paint Dry – The Most Boring Matches In History

    Watching Paint Dry – The Most Boring Matches In History

    Everyone who watches football remembers at least one game they wish they could erase from memory, one match which was so bad that it made you want to give up watching the sport completely. These are some of those games … games which redefined the word “boring” and put a time and date on it…

  • Former Arsenal defender to return Champions League medal

    Former Arsenal defender to return Champions League medal

    Embed from Getty Images Former Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen will be forced to return his Champions League winners medal after not playing in the competition for Barcelona. Vermaelen along with Claudio Bravo, Jordi Masip and Douglas must return their medals after not featuring in the tournament this season after UEFA called on Barca because they…

  • Andrea Pirlo on verge of New York City move

    Andrea Pirlo on verge of New York City move

    Embed from Getty Images Veteran Juventus midfielder Andrea Pirlo has reportedly accepted an offer to join MLS side New York City FC. Rumors were rife this week that Pirlo would complete the move if Juventus were to win Saturday’s Champions League final against Barcelona, in which he is due to start. Spanish newspaper AS have…

  • West Ham: Who will replace Sam Allardyce?

    West Ham: Who will replace Sam Allardyce?

    Embed from Getty Images Rumours have come out this morning claiming that joint owners David Sullivan and David Gold have cut their managerial shortlist down to four names. Sullivan spoke out last week on the club’s website, explaining that they are being extremely thorough in their search, dedicating “every waking minute to recruiting the best…