Rival watch

I heard that this was Watford's first win against Man Utd for 30 years, if true then that's a BAD sign for them.

I'm also hoping that Arsenal actually win a match i.e. Chelsea. A draw and two defeats will send ripples through Chelsea and Conte will start to get nervous. If Mourinho and Conte fail and get sacked this season it's mightily difficult to see who will replace them.

 

Moronho says his players are struggling with the pressure of playing for Man Utd.

Would that be the players who have played for Man Utd for several years prior to Moronho's arrival, or the players who have clubs such as Barcelona and Juventus on their CVs?

 

Since clubs have had a major boost in spending power and thus improved their squads greatly in the past 18 or so months, Mourinho has suddenly struggled to make any impression.

Funny that.

 

Conte already under pressure, bye bye.

 

So Toure quits International football. Does that mean he doesn't play any at all?

 

Mad to think Pep doesn't rate him. World class midfielder in my opinion, or at least he was, dropped a bit of form last season and at 33 won't get any better but he's still an improvement on most in his role.

Probably the best box-to-box midfielder to grace the current era I'd say, can't think of any better in that role over the last 5-10 years.

 

Pep's view is he has to apologise to him for something his agent said before he plays again for Citeh. FFS! Talk about thin skinned and petty minded. Toure can't be held responsible for his agent having a big mouth. What would an apology from Toure achieve or prove? Guardiola's got everything rolling in his direction and he decides to go to war with someone who will have friends in the dressing room. That's just stupid. He got rid of Hart and Bony and Nasri, I never understood why he kept Toure when he dumped the others. Either get rid or try and manage them out subtly. Mauricio Pochettino wasn't having Adebayor but Adebayor hasn't got a bad word to say about him. Both United with Schweinsteiger and Pep now have senior, respected players as enemies within.

Considering Mourinho and Guardiola are supposed to be the creme de la creme of football managment, there's some strange stuff going on up in Manchester for my money.

 

Word at the time was that Pep was desperate to get rid but Toure himself didn't want to leave as he is settled there and preferred to simply run down the last year of his contract while picking up a nice fat pay cheque every month. Given the fuss he made over not receiving a birthday cake, that doesn't sound remotely out of character.

 

He'll be playing plenty of international football soon. Mainly Chinese, though.

 

Then let him eat cake, daily. Keep him extremely well fed, happy, quiet and out of the way. I just don't see what upsetting such a peripheral (now) but influential (formerly) figure achieves unless he's hoping Toure will breach his contract and they can get rid a few months early. Given Citeh's untold wealth it's a risky strategy considering what they're paying Hart, Mangala, Nasri and Bony to not play for them and that they did the same with Adebayor, Bellamy, etc, etc.

Spurs just isolated Adebayor when he wouidn't go. No mess or fuss, he was just parked somewhere out of the way. Surely, Pep should have done that?

 

I think the simplest difference is the comparative influence wielded by either player. Toure arrived at City already a massive name and went on to establish himself as the crucial central cog in the heart of their most successful campaigns in history. He has no doubt amassed quite a following in the dressing room, irrespective of how 'big' Pep's CV as manager is in comparison.

Adebayor, by contrast, had one good season on loan, followed by an irrelevant 1.5 years and a few good months under Interim Tim. He was probably seen by the majority of the dressing room for precisely what he was - a mercenary with little regard for the club whose only contribution was stopping exciting young talent like Kane from getting the chance to shine. A player like Toure is just too big - not just physically! - to purge quickly and quietly.

 

Guardiola was the Barcelona coach when they sold Toure to City in the first place. There may be some unfinished business from back then?

 

I don't disagree but making him apologise for something he hasn't said? Who does that help and how? Shades of constructive dismissal? Maybe Citeh hope he'll jump at that? High risk strategy though.

 

It's widely reported from ex-players that both managers are absolute arseholes but they know what they're doing (supposedly).

Mourinho's dressing down of Shaw was completely out of order. He gets away with it because he's the media darling.

Makes me proud to have Ranieri and I imagine you feel similar with Pochettino.

 

There's more from Yaya Toure's agent, Dimitri Seluk...It is not exactly what you'd call conciliatory:

“Guardiola also needs to apologise to Joe Hart It is not normal and it is not right to come to England and to get rid of the few English players," Seluk told Sky Sports News HQ. "They send away many people from England and they have a lot of Spanish people there. When you come to a country you must respect the country and respect its people.

“When Yaya went to Man City, they could only dream about the Champions League. The biggest stars in Europe did not want to come to City, but Yaya came. They weren’t a big club. After he arrives they started winning; two league titles, cups and now the semis of the Champions League.

“I want Man City to win everything; to win all their games because it means more trophies for Yaya. City have great players, but Guardiola wants new future for Yaya, for Hart…and they won’t be the last. I respect managers like Ranieri who achieve without spending so much money on players.”

“Guardiola wins a few games and he thinks he is king,” Seluk said. “I live in Europe so I can say whatever I like and Guardiola can’t stop me.

When asked if he will apologise, he said: “What do I need to apologise for? Ok, I will apologise to Guardiola if he will apologise to (Manuel) Pellegrini for what he did to him.

“If you are a gentleman, this just does not happen. He [Pellegrini] signed a new contract last year and then he gets pushed out for Guardiola to come in. Pellegrini was a gentleman."

This is not really helping anyone...but it is fun.

 

Chelsea

 

[Ask not] for whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee, Antonio.

Gone by January.

 

Okazaki scores another without hitting the back of the net

 

I can see why everyone else was supporting Leicester last season, it's quite fun

 

A few weeks ago the Standard were lauding Conte for using so many U21 players in pre-season. What're the odds they'll slag him off for doing so if they lose tonight? Or, you know, maybe they'll consider every team has U21 players feature in pre-season, so there was nothing unique about Conte doing so?