MOST young boys who dream of becoming a footballer want to be a star striker, and it is easy to see why – they grab all the headlines and quite often most of the money: Struggling Premier League side Aston Villa splashed out £18million (the deal could eventually rise to £24million) for Sunderland forward Darren Bent last week.
STRUGGLING Championship club Preston North End learnt a harsh lesson this week – don’t mess with the football institution that is the Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
Ferguson is one of the most revered men in the game, a manager with an almost unmatched honours list and a tough, powerful Scot with a demeanour that at times can be fearsome.
FOOTBALL fans are fickle creatures and this was clearly illustrated over the weekend when both Manchester clubs secured wins to leave them in the top two spots in the Premier League.
It is only a few seeks since Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney and Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez were expressing dissatisfaction with their current employers and seeking pastures new.
THERE was much hype surrounding the draw for the last 16 stage of the Champions League with pundits wetting themselves with excitement at the prospect of Arsenal re-staging their epic clashes against Barcelona last season.
True, both matches were real treats, a feast for football purists and it does seem that Arsenal face the toughest challenge of all the English teams still left in the competition.
THE most dreadful aspect about the controversial goal scored by Nani for Manchester United in their 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford on Saturday was not that it was allowed, because there are arguments both ways on that issue, but the pathetically weak behaviour of referee Mark Clattenburg.
AS the footballing world whipped itself into a frenzy last week over the financial shenanigans at Liverpool and Wayne Rooney’s dramatic loss of form at Manchester United, two managers offered rare words of wisdom amidst all the media hysteria: Everton boss David Moyes, speaking to the Independent newspaper before his side’s home game against neighbours Liverpool on Sunday, made some telling remarks about his rivals.