Ben Mabley English blood,Osakan heart

3 Mar 2014(Mon)

However outstanding the quality of their football may be, it is bound to take a long time before clubs as sugar-daddied as the newly-crowned Capital One Cup winners Manchester City enjoy anything more than a complicated relationship with the neutral supporter. But perhaps the greatest joy of this Premier League season, even beyond the unusual closeness of the title race itself, has been the flowering of four sides in the top half built upon the combination of intelligent long-term management – both on and off the pitch – and highly attractive football. No nouveau riche; simply new thrills, and enough of them to restore one’s faith in the English game.

The December meeting of two of this quartet, Arsenal versus Everton at the Emirates, remains the highlight match of the season to date for its sheer all-round quality over 90 minutes. But for about an hour at St. Mary’s on Saturday evening, the other two ran it close. Liverpool managed to assert control over the opening quarter-hour despite misfiring with the final pass; finally leading in slightly fortuitous fashion through Luis Suárez, but demonstrating such a repeated threat to the opposing high line that one could have foreseen a similar shellacking as endured at Anfield by both Gunners and Toffees. However, Southampton regained the initiative in magnificent fashion not through any particular change, but conversely a sustained conviction in their own style of play which overcame the initial wobbles to lay siege upon the visitors’ third.

It was frustrating for Mauricio Pochettino that, despite a 25-minute spell of enrapturing domination, his players should go no closer than an Adam Lallana shot which struck the foot of Simon Mignolet’s right-hand post. Yet it was typical of Liverpool to quickly seize upon space between the lines afforded by the Argentine’s half-time tactical adjustment and double their advantage via Raheem Sterling some 70 seconds after the teenager’s introduction. Three goals mustered from five shots on target was testament to the incredible potency of the Reds’ attacking players; a rare clean sheet for the defence surely a confidence boost ahead of ten games to chase the trophy.

The end result, 3-0, appeared one-sided. But the match reaffirmed the ability of both Liverpool and Southampton to lift fans and neutrals alike from their seats, and of particular excitement to the English observer is the local core around which such excellent football has been cultivated.

A deep malaise has surrounded the national team ever since the supposed Golden Generation failed to probe beyond three consecutive quarter-finals under Sven-Göran Eriksson and died an inglorious death in the Euro 2008 qualifiers with Steve McClaren. A couple of big wins over Croatia proved a false dawn as Fabio Capello lost faith in the tactical intelligence of Premier League winners denied the comfort blanket provided by foreign clubmates. The Italian’s emergency replacement, Roy Hodgson, did a good job in the circumstances at Euro 2012, albeit a tedious and defensive one. The sense that England are stuck in limbo between eras persists, and expectations had never been so low even before they were drawn alongside Italy and Uruguay for this summer’s World Cup.

Yet England need not necessary remain so rigid, so inferior. Liverpool have supplied five players to the squad that will face Denmark this Wednesday – the most, jointly with Manchester United, for any individual club. The Saints, meanwhile, count a record four. Though Hodgson is noted more for his emphasis on organisational drills, preparation time is at a premium in international football, and options are suddenly abound to revolutionise the Three Lions’ attacking play through direct importation.

Take, for example, the Liverpool sides that terrorised Everton and Arsenal in successive weeks a month ago. As is commonly the case with Hodgson’s England in bigger matches, the Reds fielded a relatively deep defensive line and registered significantly less than 50% of the overall possession. Yet the energetic pressing of their front five around halfway allowed Steven Gerrard to serve effectively as a midfield sweeper, collecting loose balls at the breakdown and rolling them quickly to Jordan Henderson or Philippe Coutinho, who would pierce the highly-drawn opposition defence at a single stroke with precise longitudinal passes to the onrushing Suárez, Sterling, or Daniel Sturridge.

Four of the half dozen players mentioned above are English and could be deployed identically in a 4-3-3, with little need for further tactical instruction, at Wembley. Obviously, England do not have a Suárez, but Wayne Rooney is our closest equivalent and could thrive if given the responsibility of fulfilling a similar role. Either Jack Wilshere or Southampton’s Lallana could compensate for Coutinho’s passing and technical ability in the midfield three. The injured Theo Walcott might have been an ideal upgrade for Sterling, who is raw so can fade from matches, but the likes of Jay Rodriguez or Andros Townsend can always deputise if necessary. Frank Lampard and Michael Carrick provide experienced alternatives for the Gerrard position, even if Hodgson should not need all three in Brazil.

As discussed previously on Foot! TUESDAY, Liverpool’s midfield arrangement can break down in matches where the onus is placed upon them to control possession, when there are fewer opportunities to counter from turnovers and Gerrard’s defensive shortcomings are exposed. In such cases, England could err more towards the Pochettino style and perhaps adopt a fluid 4-2-3-1 to press much higher up the pitch. Here, the tireless positional rotation – both with and without the ball – of Southampton’s front four could be replicated by any combination of Rooney, Sturridge, Sterling, Lallana, Rodriguez, and Rickie Lambert. Each offers sufficient versatility of position to ensure an exciting variety of options for the national team.

Though there is a clear difference between the two approaches, and the starting positions upon which they are based, there is also a lot the Reds and Saints have in common. The 4 P’s that Brendan Rodgers has emphasised since his Swansea City days – possession, penetration, pressure, patience – can broadly be applied to Pochettino’s Southampton as well. For Hodgson and England, perhaps most important of all is the dexterity which the two sets of players share in terms of adapting to tactical changes (Liverpool played a 4-4-2 diamond on Saturday).

It may be alien for the 66-year-old to contemplate a line quite as high as José Fonte and Dejan Lovren were on Saturday, but at times a compromise will need to be found in order to break down weaker, deeper-sitting opponents. Phil Jagielka is certainly no stranger to passing out from the back at Everton, while Leighton Baines and Luke Shaw are ideal weapons on the overlap from left-back. The key to keeping the higher, 4-2-3-1 system together would be to ensure enough solidity at the base of midfield – in superb form this season at Goodison Park, a recall for Gareth Barry should supplement an area in which England have been lacking.

Things aren’t all bad in English football. Liverpool and Southampton – plus not forgetting Everton and Arsenal – have shown us so much. With few England managers ever having been under less pressure, it is time for Hodgson to get adventurous.

24 Feb 2014(Mon)

As Juan Mata and Adnan Januzaj, finally starting together for the first time, combined on the left-hand flank, the Crystal Palace defensive four retreated to their six-yard line in anticipation of an early cross. Wayne Rooney, however, seized the opportunity to curb his own forward movement and maintain a clear line of vision to the ball such that, when it was pulled back by Patrice Evra, the number ten was in as many yards of space just inside the penalty area. One bounce, slight lean back and twist of the shoulders, bang. Rooney was back in business.

Quite literally, in fact. As the beaming goalscorer happily accepted the adulation of his teammates and supporters, one was briefly transported back to that evening at Ibrox in November 2010, when Rooney returned from injury to make his first start for Manchester United since ending his previous contractual standoff. Then, it was an 87^th-minute penalty dispatched with supreme confidence to seal a 1-0 victory over Rangers and, with it, qualification for the knockout states of the Champions League. An exultant celebration appeared to propose, as at Selhurst Park on Saturday, that all that had gone before should now be forgotten.

On the face of things, it would seem painfully extravagant that United have agreed to pay the 28-year-old Rooney a basic wage of £240,000 and, uniquely, use their own commercial weight to further the player’s individual endorsements – thus bringing his total weekly income, according to Daniel Taylor of The Guardian, beyond even the £300,000 figure which has been widely reported.

Three and a half years ago, when Rooney publicly announced his intention to leave and flirted with Manchester City only to make a full U-turn and sign a new deal later the same week, his market value ought to have been at its very highest. The player, then 25, had risen close to the stratum occupied by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo during the first season after the latter’s departure to Spain, scoring 34 goals before the end of March when an ankle injury sustained against Bayern Munich ultimately cost United a fourth consecutive league title and, arguably, even the Champions League. Indeed, such was the initial effectiveness with which Rooney had replaced Ronaldo, that the team’s biggest problem had come in replacing the complementary work contributed by Rooney when the Portuguese had still been in town.

Compare such lauded status with the past 18 months, over which he has endured his most difficult spell at Old Trafford and at times looked eminently replaceable as Robin van Persie became the team’s superstar last term. An inflated deal running to summer 2019, by which point Rooney will be almost 34, puts an incredible amount of faith in the bouncebackability of a man who once said he couldn’t envisage his body lasting until his mid-thirties like Paul Scholes or Ryan Giggs. The old policy of only offering single-year contracts to players once they pass 30, exceptionally exempted to sign Van Persie from Arsenal, now seems a distant memory.

Yet from the moment August became September with Rooney still at United – which communications director Phil Townsend later declared to have been the club’s top priority objective for the summer transfer window – the balance of negotiating power shifted ever more towards the player and his agent, Paul Stretford. It was slightly neglectful of Sir Alex Ferguson to leave his final dispute with a senior member of the team for his successor to sort out, and David Moyes has gone a good job in this regard, but with every poor result on the pitch through autumn and winter, the Red Devils’ need grew stronger. Chelsea might not have waited until 2015 for Rooney’s previous contract to run down, and speculated interest from Paris Saint-Germain probably would not have materialised, but Stretford knew United could not possibly afford to take that risk.

Quoted in the Daily Telegraph, Rooney said of his new deal: “I know the direction that this club is going in. If we don’t make it this season, we will come back stronger and claim a Champions League spot next season. Let’s not forget we still have a chance this year, some of the other teams are playing well, but we have a strong squad here and if we have a positive end to the season then who knows what can happen? People have been saying we may have trouble attracting the world’s best players but I think the fact Juan Mata came here shows this isn’t true.”

Stage-managed, corporate speak of course, but exactly what United needed to be said. For all the questions as to whether he can still live up to the promise exhibited in 2009/10 or as a teenager back at Euro 2004 – another tournament in which his injury curtailed the potential champions – the fact is that an in-form Rooney, at peace with the world, remains a prize asset. Both in terms of his ability to fire the team back up the league table over the next few seasons, and as a poster child to attract global talent and supporters to Old Trafford even in the absence of Champions League football and Ferguson. The arrival of Mata notwithstanding, failure to keep Rooney on board would thus have dealt a severe blow to the club’s image, and as Gary Neville points out, it would surely have cost United even more money – once transfer fees and wages are counted – to attract a replacement of similar quality thereafter.

Supporters understand this, which is why they have generally continued to sing Rooney’s name in the hope that his threats to leave would again prove unfounded. Their realism reflects a recognition that business is business – the team they love is better off with him there and happy; the player enjoys greater wealth and long-term security than he would at any other suitor. It is win-win.

But such a pragmatic approach necessitates the detachment of emotion, and even if Rooney does go on to score the 41 goals now required to reach 250 and become United’s all-time leading scorer, this why he will never quite be considered a genuine club legend. In the hearts of those who watch the game, history is determined by sentiment above numbers or even titles – hence Brazil ’82 being remembered so more fondly than Brazil ’94. It is sad that the cynical corporatism of football should extend to the relationship between a player and the fans who celebrate his goals, but one too many contract fallouts means the latter are unlikely to remember him beyond his days in the red shirt with quite the vocal appreciation they reserve for Sir Bobby Charlton, Eric Cantona, and even Ronaldo. Rooney has always been led more by Stretford than the Stretford End.

17 Feb 2014(Mon)

At around four o’clock on Saturday morning, Japanese time, Yuzuru Hanyu followed up his astonishing, world-record score in the short programme of the men’s figure skating with another fine display in his free routine to clinch gold at his first Olympics. In doing so, he enabled Japan, twice a host of the Winter Games, to leapfrog past Great Britain, which barely has a mountain you can ski down, in the Sochi medal table. The trick for low-lying countries like mine, of course, is to find an event the snowier countries seem to have overlooked – in our case, skeleton – and invest our entire, modest budget into retraining athletes from other sports to fill the gap. (Although I suppose that with my own home county of Somerset still largely under water, any forthcoming cold snap might at least give us the opportunity to try out some Dutch-style speed skating or make curling the national sport.)

Happily, any sense of crushing disappointment we Brits might have felt at falling a spot in the rankings was negated by the distraction of simultaneously breaking football news from West London. At around seven o’clock on Friday evening, Greenwich Mean Time, Fulham caught everybody off guard by suddenly announcing the appointment of Felix Magath as the manager to lift them off the foot of the Premier League over the remaining dozen matches. And then all the more so when it emerged that René Meulensteen had not actually been replaced in the role, because it was never given to him in the first place.

Indeed, the official club press release deigned not to even mention the Dutchman in passing; instead simply welcoming Magath to Craven Cottage with an appraisal of his Bundesliga record and the gleeful assertion by CEO Alistair Mackintosh that “the opportunity to bring in a manager with the experience of Felix Magath would typically be unlikely at this point in the season”. The first reference to Meulensteen came, quite brilliantly, from the man himself on BBC Radio 5 Live less than five minutes later, but even he was at a loss to explain what was really going on:

“I’ve not been told anything,” said the 49-year-old. “I knew the owners were freaking out and panicking about the fact that Fulham could get relegated, but they’ve had that sort of attitude already ten games back… They’ve hit the panic button on emotions of fear, but hey-ho, that’s what happens in football. It’s not always fair.”

Meulensteen may be about to discover just how unfair things can get. Employed as ‘head coach’ under the management of Martin Jol on 13 November last year, he was then quickly put in charge of ‘first-team duties’ with the dismissal of his compatriot on 1 December. The former Manchester United trainer described the move as “one that took me by surprise from the start, because that was not anticipated with Martin Jol leaving”. But in fact, his job title at Craven Cottage was never changed, meaning that technically, the position of ‘manager’ remained vacant until the arrival of Magath. Ruthlessly careful with their semantics, Mackintosh and company maintained that Meulensteen had therefore not been sacked, merely reassigned, and remained in the club’s employ. The situation for the latter is clearly untenable, and he would surely have a good case for constructive dismissal, but whether he will receive the full payout that would normally be due to an ex-manager is another matter entirely.

The fiasco is a clever new twist on Fulham’s own, in-house version of the managerial merry-go-round. Meulensteen may not have seen himself as a readymade replacement for Jol, but most observers did, with the much-liked ex-Tottenham Hotspur boss a sitting duck having recruited a few too many players who reflected his own, languid personality. Later in December, the experienced Alan Curbishley came aboard as technical director while Ray Wilkins, himself a one-time Fulham manager back in the third tier in 1997/98, was recruited as Meulensteen’s assistant. It did not take long to make the connection and Mackintosh himself even admitted that Curbishley in particular was an option to take over at some point in future. As such, it was somewhat out of left field that Magath should be the one unveiled – and before the technical director had even been consulted.

Also puzzling is the timing. Early December, as with Jol, is most opportune for a mid-term changing of the guard as it affords the new man time to assess his inherited charges before investing whatever money there is into re-jigging the squad come January. The overhaul was rapid, with four first team players moved on and seven new faces – including two, Larnell Cole and Ryan Tunnicliffe, who had developed under Meulensteen at Old Trafford – recruited. Despite a poor record of just ten points from 13 matches, identical to that achieved under Jol over the opening three and a half months of the season, it must rankle with the ‘head coach’ that he never got to see his team beyond promising displays against United and Liverpool; or marquee signing Konstantinos Mitroglou in action at all.

This is not to criticise the choice of Magath, whose reputation as a hard trainer is preceded only by his record as a fire-fighter. During relatively brief spells at each, he previously helped 1. FC Nürnberg, Werder Bremen, and Eintracht Frankfurt avoid relegation around the turn of the millennium, before taking VfB Stuttgart from second last in February 2001 to second place in 2002/03. In this regard, perhaps it simply was a case of an unexpected chance too good for Fulham to miss, regardless of complications, after talks between Magath and Hamburg SV fell through only last Thursday. As the German now attempts to perform similar escapology in England, he will be aided by the presence of two regulars from his 2008/09 title-winners at VfL Wolfsburg, Sascha Riether and Ashkan Dejagah.

As for Meulensteen, his 75-day reign follows a 16-day spell in charge of Anzhi Makhachkala last summer, meaning the most significant mark on his managerial CV remains those turbulent six months at Brøndby, where he is best remembered for asking his players to imagine themselves as tigers and giraffes. Yet his popularity remains high in Manchester, where he enjoyed enormous success after returning from Denmark and his training was credited for bringing the best out of star names from Cristiano Ronaldo to Robin van Persie. Perhaps it would be best for all concerned if David Moyes invited him back up north to help out once again.

11 Feb 2014(Tue)

Quite what to make of that extraordinary lunchtime kickoff at Anfield, when unlike so many other games witnessed to the residual taste of toothpaste or even Friday night excess, Liverpool raced out of the traps quite superbly to overwhelm the soon-to-be ex-league leaders? The solitary consolation for Arsenal was that theirs did not wind up being the most embarrassing display of the Premier League weekend. That dubious honour again befell a one-dimensional Manchester United – David Moyes’s charges trailed for an hour and only secured a single point from their home encounter with Fulham, whose previous endeavour had been to lose to a Sheffield United side battling against relegation to the fourth tier.

For Liverpool, the obvious comparison with their most deadly rivals was altogether more flattering. In only the 16^th minute, as Jordan Henderson drove along the right-hand side, Luis Suárez and Daniel Sturridge forced an already shredded Arsenal back line into another desperate retreat, and Raheem Sterling completed a ravenous sprint from his own half to make the score 3-0, one was moved to recall the manner in which Sir Alex Ferguson’s 2008-09 vintage – the reigning European champions, with Cristiano Ronaldo at his absolute pomp – once devastated the Gunners in a Champions League semi-final at the Emirates.

Quite aside from the efficiency of those early Steven Gerrard-Martin Škrtel set pieces, the period from 2-0 to 4-0 was the most awe-inspiring spell of football played on any English pitch this season. The clock will show this lasted but ten minutes; Liverpool squeezed so much in that it felt much longer. As well as two brilliant goals on the break, there was another shot over the bar from Sturridge, plus the burst in behind by Sterling that brought the corner from which only the woodwork denied Suárez a goal of the season, and Kolo Touré failed to divert home the rebound. Find the footage on one of the on-demand services – no matter where your personal allegiances may lie, it easily stands a third or fourth watch.

Football’s love of poignant superstition ensured we quickly recalled the last time Liverpool put five past Arsenal was the day, nearly 50 years ago in April 1964, that Bill Shankly won his first league title. That began a glorious run of 13 championships in a quarter of a century; a similar period since has delivered none. Is that now about to end? Reds fans are often ridiculed with a blinkered “this is our year” stereotype, but the mood now suggests a more cautious, though genuinely realistic optimism: “No, not this season. But maybe soon…”

There are a few reasons that it won’t come this season. Fielding Gerrard as a sort of midfield sweeper behind a quick-pressing, attacking quintet has been wonderfully effective at producing rapid turnovers and counters against teams who like to dominate possession, like Arsenal and Everton. But it has left Liverpool variously frustrated and defensively exposed when opponents allow them the ball, not least Aston Villa in the first half at Anfield, and the division of roles between Gerrard and Henderson becomes less defined. Most crucially, although Manchester City and Chelsea do still have the odd problem with quality in depth, their efficiency is such that slips like that endured by City at Carrow Road are rare enough to comprise big news. Liverpool are not yet quite as consistent and would be affected more significantly by the loss of a couple of players in midfield or attack.

But the key word is ‘yet’. Even during the 3-0 opening day setback at West Bromwich Albion last season, or as Brendan Rodgers recalled this weekend, the home loss to Arsenal a fortnight later, there has always been a clear blueprint at Anfield ever since the Northern Irishman replaced Kenny Dalglish as manager. Necessary playing resources were lacking at the start, but 18 months on, the progress made in both acquiring and developing talent to achieve this vision has been startling. The next stage in this process should be Champions League football – which would ideally ensure the retention of Suárez – and the challenge to combine the European campaign with a real assault on the Premier League crown in 2014-15.

As for Arsenal, Arsène Wenger appeared understandably bleak throughout the second period and his post-game media engagements, after a half-time break during which – according to captain Mikel Arteta – he had demonstrated unusual anger. The 64-year-old was correct in his appraisal both that his team’s credentials would be widely questioned, and that the clearest answer must come in the way they respond as their testing February schedule continues.

A pessimistic approach would be to recall the three most recent occasions on which the Gunners were in genuine title contention at this stage. Exactly six years ago, on 11 February 2008, they led the division by five points after 26 rounds. But then came that fateful day at St. Andrew’s, when Eduardo da Silva suffered his horrible leg injury, and James McFadden netted a 95^th-minute penalty to earn Birmingham City a point. Arsenal only won one league game in eight between then and mid-April, to sink to third in the final standings.

In 2009/10, Arsenal were top as late as 20 March with seven to play, but only added eight more points after the concession of another additional time equaliser at St. Andrew’s. Then, a season later, an 89^th-minute winner by Obafemi Martins of – you’ve guessed it – Birmingham City in the League Cup final triggered another nightmare run in which Wenger’s men were eliminated from all three knockout competitions in the space of 13 days. League form followed suit; only two wins and 12 points were accrued from the 11 matches remaining after Wembley as the Gunners went from champions-elect to Champions League playoff.

However, this year’s side is made of stronger stuff, as evidenced by matches like their late win at Newcastle United after Christmas or the 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace, where they were given a tough time throughout but came through with the three points regardless. Set in this context, it matters little to have conceded 11 times in two hammerings at City and Liverpool when the remaining 15 goals in their ‘against’ column have been spread thinly across 23 matches, of which Arsenal have won 17. Indeed, while they may have taken just eight points from seven games so far against the rest of the current top seven, their record against the league’s 13 other teams is a close-to-perfect 47 points from 18. Given that these figures have left them top or thereabouts all season, they ought to stay there even if they do continue to struggle against the European contenders – just as long as they keep on beating everyone else.

Failure to add squad depth during the transfer window does, of course, mean Arsenal are still worryingly incapable of giving Olivier Giroud or the out-of-sorts Mesut Özil a breather, while injuries and suspensions have unbalanced the base of midfield. But there is one more reason for Gooners to be cheerful. They cannot possibly face Birmingham this season, and instead their ‘testing’ run of games resumes on Wednesday against that shambles that couldn’t even beat Fulham.

3 Feb 2014(Mon)

Falling as it did on a Friday, transfer deadline day this January was all set to complement my fashionable, urban bachelor lifestyle quite superbly. To celebrate the occasion, I duly transferred over a generous amount of beer – some Minoh, some Belgian, even a spot of Westvleteren 12 – from storage temperature to serving temperature in preparation for a stirring night of solitude in front of my computer screen.

As such, it was rather a disappointment when a succession of major Premier League clubs used their pre-match media engagements that morning to announce that they had already closed for business; leaving a succession of both minute-by-minute and frontline correspondents across England to tweet their utter boredom at having several hours of coverage yet to fill but nothing of note to say whatsoever. At least I had the option of cutting my losses and taking an early night come about 3am.

Of course, this was largely because targets had been swiftly identified and the bigger business sensibly conducted earlier in the month. Liverpool were the one side ostensibly left disappointed come 11pm GMT on Friday; their failure to lure Yevhen Konoplyanka out from Ukraine coming a week after Chelsea had gazumped a move for Mohamed Salah. This thus repeated a familiar pattern of frustration with attacking midfielders, after the Reds had missed out on both Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Willian last summer, and means Brendan Rodgers will be ever reliant on having at least two of Luis Suárez, Daniel Sturridge, and Philippe Coutinho fit and available for the rest of the top four race.

Manchester City identified Eliaquim Mangala and Fernando of Porto as the men to respectively plug their one weakness in central defence and provide necessary backup in midfield, but refused to pay the exorbitant last-minute asking price and will remain clear title favourites regardless – even if an unprecedented quadruple bid seems fanciful.

Depending on whose figures you believe – for so many of the January fees go annoyingly undisclosed – Chelsea were involved in five of the six largest deals of the latest window; the sole exception being Yohan Cabaye, a crushing loss for Newcastle United cushioned only the £20 million cheque from Paris Saint-Germain. The comings and goings at Stamford Bridge were an interesting case study in how modern transfer activity works at the top end, with the Salah move following a return for Nemanja Matić to provide the composed, ball-playing defensive midfielder José Mourinho required.

At almost £21 million, the Serbian international represents an astonishing net loss for Roman Abramovich’s coffers after he was relinquished as a cheap makeweight in the David Luiz deal with Benfica three years ago. But then, needs must. Chelsea also looked to the long-term future of their central defence with the signing of 19-year-old Kurt Zouma, rated by The Guardian as one of the ten most promising young players in Europe. He will spend the remainder of this season at Saint-Étienne and hopefully not end up like Kevin de Bruyne, who was loaned out twice and only managed three Premier League appearances before leaving permanently for VfL Wolfsburg.

And then, there was Juan Mata. By far the biggest transfer of the window – in terms of the £37.1 million fee, the status of the player, and the very identities of the clubs concerned – there was a real undertone of intrigue as details from behind the scenes emerged. The Spaniard was unhappy at his suddenly reduced status under Mourinho as far back as August and agreed a deal whereby Chelsea would sell him had the situation not changed by January. Manchester United – a destination originally vetoed until Mata demanded otherwise – were aware of all this, and made the move after giving Shinji Kagawa time to recover from his busy summer but deciding the Japanese’s performances through autumn were below par. Having suffered public embarrassment with his attempted transfer activity five months previously, United’s new CEO Edward Woodward appeared to acknowledge his own inexperience by having the entire negotiation process conducted by third-party agents.

The sheer coup factor was justification enough for United to splash the cash, signalling as it did a statement of intent which, at least initially, helped galvanise the side against Cardiff City. A woeful display at Stoke City on Saturday, however, was a reminder that Mata’s position was hardly the first that needed strengthening. David Moyes suggested that other key targets were not available in January and would likely arrive this summer, and that being the case, it makes sense not to panic buy. However, given the current predicament at Old Trafford, one does feel the defence and midfield might have been well served by a couple of experienced, short-term signings. This was a tactic used successfully by Sir Alex Ferguson with the inspired, two-month acquisition of Henrik Larsson in 2006/07.

Arsenal did go down this route with the loan arrival of 31-year-old Sweden midfielder Kim Källström on loan from Spartak Moscow. The former Lyon man quickly dispelled any doubts as to his ability to fit into the Gunners culture by turning up in London with a back injury which is set to rule him out for several weeks. But while the sensational football played after the signing of Mesut Özil served to emphatically silence criticism that Arsenal had lost direction under Arsène Wenger, there is still a sense that the boardroom has hardly helped him strengthen certain areas of squad weakness. Whether Ashley Williams last summer or Julian Draxler last week, Ivan Gazidis and colleagues are starting to gain a reputation for not rigorously following up their initial enquiries.

But the real value in the January market – and in following what little deadline day action there was – will have come in the bottom half of the table, where ten teams are covered by a gap of just six points and thus every win or draw could ultimately be worth several million pounds. So solid defensively, at least at home, Hull City finally got around to the business left unfinished in August by replacing their perilously goal-shy forward line with Nikica Jelavić and Shane Long. Evoking memories of the John Hartson-Paul Kitson pairing that transformed West Ham United’s survival battle in February 1997, the new Tigers combined fluently for the opener against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday and looked like they had been playing together for years.

At Cardiff City, Ole Gunnar Solskjær was afforded funds that would have been denied to his predecessor, Malky Mackay, and even showed himself capable of signing players with whom he doesn’t happen to share Jim Solbakken as an agent. Wilfried Zaha – why did Moyes never use him, again? – and Kenwyne Jones both enjoyed sparkling debuts against Norwich City to take the Welsh club off the bottom. Looking up at the other 19 now are Fulham, who were carved apart by Southampton on Saturday but did at least have a wild one the day before – Rene Meulensteen returns to Old Trafford next time with the much-coveted Kostas Mitroglou, Johnny Heitinga, plus former United boys Ryan Tunnicliffe and Larnell Cole all available to make their league debuts for the Cottagers.

26 Jan 2014(Sun)

I am not entirely convinced that the United Kingdom is quite so conservative a country as its externally projected image would have many believe. Governments seldom present a truly accurate reflection of the national will since democracy, whose parliamentary version originated in the old Kingdom of Great Britain 300 years ago, is not always very democratic. The current leadership of our three major political parties have each recorded double-digit negative scores in the latest net approval ratings, and with conservative agendas serving largely to protect the antiquated status quo – the scandalous loss of a once-in-a-generation opportunity to pursue electoral reform in 2011 being a prime example – public disillusionment is unlikely to change much before the next general election. But in spite of this, most of the Brits I speak to are actually rather progressive, both politically and socially, while instinctively sceptical of anything that smacks of conservatism for conservatism’s sake. Perhaps much of this also applies to Japan, as well.

However, the major area where we Brits do generally lean towards proud, nostalgic conservatism comes in our cultural institutions – notably sport, and football in particular. After the insanely busy Christmas and New Year calendar come, instead of a well-deserved winter break for all concerned, the opening rounds of the FA Cup. And, just as any players who aren’t yet injured reach exhaustedly for the last few drops in the water bottles, drawn matches are decided by playing the whole damn 90 minutes all over again.

Replays were seen as the natural means of determining a fair winner from the moment that knockout football first arrived. In the second round of the first ever FA Cup, a team called Hampstead Heathens drew 1-1 with Barnes (now a rugby club) on 23 December 1871, and only secured their progression after a further meeting two weeks later. But then football went international, and a total of four knockout matches at the 1934 and 1938 World Cups had to be replayed. Amid tight schedules on foreign soils, this was clearly unsuitable, and from 1954, only finals could be taken to a second game while any other ties would be settled by the drawing of lots. Neither event ultimately happened at a World Cup, but Italy did eliminate the Soviet Union via the toss of a coin en route to winning the 1968 European Championship.

In 1970, FIFA and IFAB ratified the use of penalty shootouts, thus bringing order to a European Cup where level scores after two legs had necessitated a third game until 1968/69 and then a coin toss the following season. Everton were the first beneficiaries, beating Borussia Mönchengladbach on spot kicks at Goodison Park in the 1970/71 second round with future managers Howard Kendall and Jupp Heynckes both successful with theirs. This then became the global standard – Czechoslovakia beat West Germany on penalties to win the 1976 European Championship final, but the Germans edged France in the first ever World Cup shootout after their 1982 semi-final. A provision to replay the World Cup final was originally maintained, but abandoned after 1990.

However, the FA Cup replays went on unabated and, originally, ad infinitum. What to do if the replay finished level too? Simple – you played another. Famously, Fulham reached the 1975 FA Cup final having required a second replay to overcome Hull City, a third replay against Nottingham Forest, and a further replay on neutral territory in their semi-final with Birmingham City. 12 matches to get through six rounds might have been worth it if they hadn’t wound up losing at Wembley to West Ham United. When Arsenal won the Cup in 1979, they had needed four replays (i.e. five matches) to beat Sheffield Wednesday in the third round, finally achieving a result five days before the next round kicked off. When qualifying rounds are included, the record is five replays, with Alvechurch United finally beating Oxford City 1-0 to reach the competition proper in 1971/72.

Only when the police advised ten days of notice for additional fixtures, rather than the four-day turnover as was common for second and subsequent replays, was the penalty shootout finally introduced to the FA Cup from 1991/92. Manchester United were the first top-flight team to fall victim, losing to Southampton in a fourth round replay. But 127 years of tradition came to an end in 1998/99 when, in contrast to the old World Cup provision, it was announced that the FA Cup final would no longer even go to a single replay – due to fixture congestion and the desire of travelling fans to see the trophy presented on the day.

Ever since, the topic has been open for debate. Semi-final replays also fell by the wayside that season after the epic encounter of Arsenal – the last ever FA Cup final replay victors in 1993 – and Manchester United fell between the two legs of United’s last four European tie with Juventus. An expanded Champions League has complicated the situation further, and while advocating the tradition of a busy festive period, José Mourinho became the latest to call for replays to be abolished altogether ahead of Chelsea’s fourth round game with Stoke City on Sunday. Had the Blues drawn, their huge visit to Manchester City next Monday would have been moved forwards 48 hours to Saturday evening – just three days after Wednesday’s round of Premier League fixtures – in order to accommodate the replay.

Sadly, our British love of old convention is no longer matched by either modern-day relevance or even visible enthusiasm. The Football Association proudly boasted this month that the 29 third round ties played on their original dates produced an average attendance of 18,297 per game – the highest since 1979/80. But this overlooked the fact that the overall average attendance in league games this season for the 29 sides playing at home was 22,442, meaning that gates were actually more than 18% down on those usually seen at the stadiums in question. Over the 16 fourth round ties played this past weekend, average crowd figures fell by 6% compared to league matches for the 16 home teams.

The disinterest is evident in Cup matches between teams from the same division – every one of which so far this year has attracted fewer spectators than the corresponding league encounter. Newcastle United are used to virtually filling their 52,405-capacity St. James’ Park, but there were more than 20,000 empty seats for their third round loss to Cardiff City. Even holders Wigan Athletic could only attract 9,542 people – 38% down on their mean attendance since relegation to the Championship – when they beat Crystal Palace, a division above them, on Saturday. Nottingham Forest suffered a similar percentage drop for their 5-0 giant-mauling of West Ham United despite not having enjoyed Premier League football themselves this century.

Fans are, thus, voting with their feet, and the instance on replaying drawn matches is beginning to feel awkwardly preposterous. There are many reasons for the FA Cup’s decline in popularity, but one way to restore the special ‘magic of the Cup’ would be to simply make it like any other. Attract fans back by the more exciting prospect of results decided on the day – as was the FA’s justification for scraping replays for the final – even if that did mean extra time and penalties. Though many, myself included, would miss the nostalgia, anything else would be little more than conservatism for conservatism’s sake.

19 Jan 2014(Sun)

In the era of Premier League and heavy external investment, few club boardrooms have exactly met with universal approval. The abhorrent Glazer family have loaded hundreds of millions pounds worth of debt onto Manchester United, which has since been serviced in part by pricing lifelong supporters out of Old Trafford. Venky’s turned Blackburn Rovers into a bad joke, George Gillett and David Hicks threatened to do the same at Liverpool before they were thankfully forced out, while Peter Ridsdale ‘lived the dream’ at Leeds United and sent them plummeting towards the third tier. Even Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour, beloved of Chelsea and Manchester City fans for the trophies their finances have delivered, are criticised more widely for furthering English football’s unhealthy dependence upon big spending.

As such, it ranks as pretty unusual when an 18-year-old breakthrough star footballer, coveted by most of the country’s biggest clubs at an estimated price of £20-30 million, tweets his profound disappointment at the departure not of a teammate or manager, but the executive chairman. Last Thursday, Southampton left-back Luke Shaw took to Twitter and wrote, “Gutted with that news, but would just like to thank Nicola Cortese for everything he has done for me and the club! All the best to him!” Similar sentiments have been echoed by virtually everyone associated with the Saints, but the fear now is that, in the absence of their visionary leader, the St. Mary’s project will unravel with the successive departures of Shaw, various other key players, and the highly-rated manager Mauricio Pochettino.

Their visionary leader? Cortese was not quite hailed as such when, in his senior role at Banque Heritage in Geneva, he brokered the deal for German billionaire Markus Liebherr to purchase Southampton in July 2009 then found himself appointed as chairman a month later. But, then again, Saints fans were in no position to be choosy.

Just two seasons after reaching the FA Cup final and finishing eighth in 2002/03, the club’s 27-year spell in the top flight had been broken when ‘Agent’ Harry Redknapp took a year away from local rivals Portsmouth and oversaw their relegation to the Championship. The bizarre, short-lived appointment of England’s Rugby World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward as technical director failed to halt the slide; come April 2009, the team were relegated to League One with a ten-point deduction to be applied the following season due to their parent company having gone into administration. A takeover bid from the Pinnacle Consortium led by Saints legend Matt le Tissier fell through, and the survival of the club was in question until Liebherr and Cortese came along.

The Italian banker had previously run the sports business desk for Credit Suisse, but this was his first ever role inside a football club. Undaunted, he put his financial background to good use by quickly overhauling Southampton’s entire management structure – lamenting clubs’ tendencies to spend their income one or two years before they actually receive it during an interview with The Times in March 2010 – and laid out a five-year plan to return to the Premier League come 2014. Despite the mess that had greeted his arrival, Cortese recognised the potential of their UEFA four-star rated, 32,689-capacity stadium and a renowned setup for scouting and developing young players like Theo Walcott and Gareth Bale – coupled, of course, with his own executive mind.

When this writer visited St. Mary’s four years ago, there was evidence of both their future promise and the size of the task at hand. With one end closed entirely due to lack of demand, a ground barely half-full witnessed an influent display from Alan Pardew’s Southampton as they struggled to overcome non-league Luton Town in the FA Cup third round. But progress was ultimately secured thanks to a magnificent free-kick from a forward named Rickie Lambert, signed from Bristol Rovers the previous summer after a decade-long career in the third and fourth tiers of English football. Also in the starting eleven that cold January afternoon were 21-year-old youth product Adam Lallana, and a French midfielder called Morgan Schneiderlin who had been recruited at the age of 18 from Strasbourg.

There is a fine line between the ‘ruthlessness’ of successful business and the ‘impatience’ of firing football managers for a few unfortunate results on the pitch, but Cortese toed it perfectly. Pardew, who of course went on to lead Newcastle United into Europe, was relieved of his duties that August for former Scunthorpe United boss Nigel Adkins to lead Southampton to successive promotions – thus achieving the five-year objective two years early. However, there was outcry throughout the game last January when the likeable Adkins found himself unceremoniously replaced by Pochettino with the Saints 15^th in the Premier League table. The chairman, whose calculating nature had already rubbed some fans and ex-players like Le Tissier up the wrong way, was just another man in a suit who ‘simply didn’t get it’.

In hindsight, it was actually Adkins who didn’t get it. Before that first season back in the top flight, it is said that the manager presented his plan for avoiding relegation to Cortese, who was unimpressed with the premise that just because Southampton had still been in League One a couple of seasons previously, they shouldn’t hold much loftier ambitions. Last April, the Italian then offered his own presentation to the squad asking how, not if, they could eventually win the Premier League title. This vision excited the likes of Shaw, Lambert, and Lallana – not to mention Pochettino, who Cortese had researched for six months before hitting it off in a first meeting which confirmed that, as planned, the Argentine was the man for the job. Excellent results and attractive performances on the pitch have been testament to the decision.

Alas, not all has been as smooth off it. Liebherr passed away in August 2010, leaving the club in the ownership of his daughter Katharina. Somewhat less enamoured with football than her father, who had trusted Cortese implicitly, the heiress to the £3 billion family fortune has sought a more hands-on role behind the scenes. A stable place in the Premier League and the promise of further television money jackpots to come put Southampton’s current value at around £100 million – some seven times the Liebherrs’ original investment. Rather than continue to feed funds back into the club in pursuit of Cortese’s biggest goals, Katharina has taken personal control of the pennies with a view, almost certainly, to cashing in and selling up. For the man who called Southampton his ‘baby’, his position as chairman was suddenly untenable.

Once again, the future for the Saints is uncertain. Pochettino, who had commented last May that he “would not understand staying in this role if Nicola was not here”, admitted to having had a sleepless night after his friend’s resignation but pledged to see out the season before reassessing his position. For Cortese, a job at AC Milan has long been rumoured, but as suggested in the Sunday Express this past weekend, he could yet assemble enough backers to enable him to purchase Southampton himself. The dressing room and the supporters will surely be praying that there is credence to the latter story and their baby can continue to enjoy the healthiest of upbringings.

13 Jan 2014(Mon)

Just as the end of the old year is a time for reflection, the beginning of the new year is one for looking forward. During my trip back to the United Kingdom over the festive period, I dug out my old crystal ball to predict – with remarkable insight and accuracy – what will happen over the remainder of the 2013/14 season.


JANUARY
With just three days remaining before the close of the transfer window, Arsenal suffer a major setback away to Southampton when star striker Oliver Giroud severely strains his back – ironically, while attempting to close a window on the team bus. Luis Suárez promptly offers interviews to every British broadsheet, explaining that he needs to move down south to London before his three-year-old daughter’s Scouse accent becomes permanent. Arsène Wenger offers a domestic record fee of £50,000,002, but an impasse is reached when Liverpool insist he puts the two-pound coin back in his pocket and fishes out a fiver instead. Wenger refuses and signs Cameroonian forward Andé Dona N’Doh, the runaway top scorer in the French third division, instead.

Meanwhile, recently-appointed Cardiff City manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær is buoyed when Vincent Tan promises to augment the playing squad with a Champions League-winning striker and a rapidly up-and-coming all-rounder. It transpires that the Malaysian has simply given squad numbers to Solskjær himself and to Alisher Apsalyamov – the 23-year-old friend of Tan’s son who held roles including head of recruitment and trainee painter/decorator at the club in 2013.


FEBRUARY
The heavy rainfall that has plagued much of England since Christmas continues unabated, making for a tricky surface at the Etihad as Chelsea come to town. Attempting to warm up on the near-side touchline, which resembles a day four mudbath at Glastonbury, Juan Mata delights the Manchester City fans by repeatedly slipping and falling onto his backside. José Mourinho can barely hide his disdain, saying Mata “needs to stay on his feet like an English gentleman, and not like those backstabbing Spaniards I used to coach in Madrid”. The game finishes 0-0.

Assem Allan, owner of the club once known as Hull City, holds a joint press conference in Cardiff with Vincent Tan to officially confirm their respective teams’ long-rumoured name changes. The subsequent league encounter, now billed as Dragons vs. Tigers, attracts a record live audience on J Sports in Japan, albeit consisting mainly of confused Nippon Professional Baseball fans.


MARCH
Adnan Januzaj is the hero for Manchester United as his last-minute, goal-line clearance protects a 0-0 home draw with Olympiakos, which takes them through to the Champions League quarter-finals on away goals. Shinji Kagawa is not involved in the second leg, with David Moyes claiming he is still jet-lagged from Japan’s friendly against New Zealand two weeks previously. Incredibly, United are now the only English team left in the competition, although Arsenal were left cursing their luck when Dona N’Doh was put clean through on goal to complete a remarkable five-goal turnaround against Bayern Munich, only to snap his Achilles at the crucial moment.

Back home, Cardiff Dragons are racing up the table after wins against Tottenham Hotspur, Everton, and Liverpool, but Ole Gunnar Solskjær is suddenly fired when he refuses to pick Alisher Apsalyamov over Gary Medel for the away trip to West Bromwich Albion. The Kazakh promptly succeeds him as player-manager.


APRIL
Arsenal appear to have run out of steam; reduced to nine men in a 2-0 loss at Everton when Jack Wilshere is sent off for an ill-advised impersonation of Tourette’s sufferer Tim Howard, and Yaya Sanogo is injured with no substitutes remaining. It is their fourth straight reverse following that night of nearlys in Munich, prompting trophy-starved Gooners to wonder if Arsène Wenger perhaps should have tried harder against FA Cup giantkillers Yeovil Town back in February.

Hull Tigers become the latest team to end an Old Trafford hoodoo, winning away to Manchester United for the first time since 1952 courtesy of a 15^th goal of the season for skin-headed Tom Huddlestone. David Moyes is given reason to smile, however, as a pair of uncharacteristically fluent victories over Bayer Leverkusen and Zenit St. Petersburg lands him a place in the Champions League final at the first attempt. Sir Alex Ferguson, whose executive seat is now located a mere two rows behind the dugout, seethes in quiet envy.

Manchester City break all sorts of records by scoring 23 times in the space of two home games, against Southampton and West Bromwich Albion. But Chelsea remain in title contention as City’s puzzlingly poor away form continues with one-goal defeats at Selhurst Park and, more surprisingly, Old Trafford.

Alisher Apsalyamov is sacked after his first five games in charge at Cardiff resemble José Carlos Serrão’s ill-fated spell at J. League side Gamba Osaka. Vincent Tan appoints himself as manager.


MAY
On a dramatic final day of the Premier League season, Manchester City are stunned as already-relegated West Ham United become only the second visiting team to earn at point at the Etihad all season. However, City are still crowned champions as Chelsea fall an agonising five short of the 27-goal winning margin required away to Cardiff Dragons, who join the Hammers and Norwich City in the Championship.

There is finally some joy for Arsenal, who are elevated to third in the final standings when Tim Sherwood’s 2-3-5 formation for some reason fails to deliver victory against Aston Villa. Spurs slip to fifth, one place ahead of Manchester United, while Liverpool celebrate claiming the final Champions League place.

But there is still time for an unexpected twist. Despite Sir Alex Ferguson going on national television the day before the Champions League final to claim that if he could never beat Pep Guardiola, then David Moyes would never stand a chance, United redefine the art of parking the bus to take overwhelming odds-on favourites Bayern Munich to extra time. Then, in the 117^th minute, a hoofed clearance from late substitute Shinji Kagawa catches a freak gust of wind and sails through the Lisbon skies over the head of Manuel Neuer, who had advanced as far as the halfway line out of sheer boredom.

As the ball drops down into the net, the roar of exultation in Manchester is matched for volume only by the angry cries of disbelief in Liverpool, who will be the last team ever to surrender their Champions League birth to the holders before the new rules come in a year later. Police close both the M62 motorway and the Manchester Ship Canal in fear of the biggest national disturbance since the English Civil War.


JUNE
On a day where all the major media organisations are busy with the opening match of the World Cup, Vincent Tan quietly slips out a press release assuring Dragons fans that relegation doesn’t mean the end – he has secured the use of a major international stadium for the 2014/15 campaign, whose capacity could potentially make his side the best supported in the entire English league system.

Curious locals gather outside the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, excited to hear more details. But Tan is not there. He was, of course, talking about the Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Kuala Lumpur.

16 Dec 2013(Mon)

Christmas is a time to indulge in food and drink, enjoy one another’s company, relax and forget the year’s stresses. That is, unless you happen to be a footballer based in England, where we like to do that subversive, island nation thing of ours and turn the coldest time of year into the busiest. This season, the intensity of the Premier League festive season is turned up a notch further than usual by a total of eight direct face-offs between members of the current top nine – i.e. the realistic title and/or European place candidates – between the Sunday before Christmas and New Year’s Day.

By far the most significant ought to be next Monday night’s meeting of first and third, as Chelsea make the trip to the Emirates Stadium. Those waiting to write off the chances of a first crown in a decade for Arsenal were given ample opportunity to sharpen their quills this past weekend, when Manchester City reaffirmed their status as outright favourites with a breathtakingly energetic 6-3 thrashing of the Gunners at Eastlands. But Arsène Wenger and his charges will be well advised not to press the panic button just yet – they still lead the way and, as such, what will be demanded over the second half of the campaign is not so much an improvement but essentially a maintenance of the level that they have shown so far.

Whether or not they will be able to do so would appear to be a matter of managing resources. Wenger claimed before Saturday’s defeat that he did not envy the squad depth at Manuel Pellegrini’s disposal but must surely have reversed this view after the deliberate and relentless manner in which City ran at them for 90 minutes. Arsenal were understandably tired from an intense week that began with an exciting draw against Everton before defeat away at Napoli; the 2011/12 champions had been able to beat Bayern Munich despite resting their three best players – Yaya Toure, Vincent Kompany, and Sergio Agüero – then made fully eight changes to kick off the weekend fully fresh.

Though the home form that has already seen City register 50 goals in all competitions may not remain quite this explosive, one might also anticipate a regression to the mean with regard to their disappointing away results. This would likely mean a higher overall yield of points per game and helps explain why they stand at close to even money with most bookmakers to wind up top in May. In order to stay ahead, Wenger could do with a couple of January purchases to ease the load on the 15 or so players who currently enjoy his absolute faith.

Three points against Chelsea would, of course, be rather useful too. The ominous thing about the west Londoners at the moment is that for all that they have missed a convincing central defensive partnership, a convincing centre forward, and convincing performances in general, they are still just two points off the summit. José Mourinho has repeatedly downplayed his squad’s maturity and chances of silverware this term, and spoke after Saturday’s narrow win over Crystal Palace about their need to be more ruthless in finishing opponents off. But his response to a question about whether the Blues ought to be more like Manchester City was knowing. “Man City is one point behind us,” the Portuguese pointed out. “So they need to be more like us.”

It is hard to know what to make of the third big capital club, Tottenham Hotspur, after one heavy defeat too far triggered the sudden and ruthless dismissal of André Villas-Boas. Given that the greatest problem has come in reshaping the team after all the summer transfer activity, one might suggest that Daniel Levy and Franco Baldini, respectively chairman and technical director at White Hart Lane, are at least partly responsible for any crisis they may deem to have unfolded. AVB was tactically inflexible when the players he needed were unavailable, but he can point to a better win percentage than any Spurs manager since 1899. While their setbacks so far this term have been individually humiliating, they have at least been less common than at Manchester United – who just about remain on the conceivable fringes of the title race by little virtue other than simply being United.

By far the most pleasing improvements of the season so far, in terms of both results and aesthetics, have been the two Merseyside rivals from either side of Stanley Park. Theoretically, neither should be candidates for the Premier League trophy, but while Everton suffer from a similar reliance on a small core of players to Arsenal, they exude Champions League quality to an extent never quite witnessed under David Moyes. Under Roberto Martínez, the overlapping full backs are a more potent threat than ever with Everton winning the ball higher up the pitch and moving it on more precisely.

Luis Suárez, meanwhile, has gone a level beyond the form which persuaded this column to name him player of the season last season to enter the realms of all-time Premier League greats. The ability of the Uruguayan to dominate matches not only with the sheer regularity of his goals, but with their variety, affords Liverpool a confidence that has accelerated the advancement of the Brendan Rodgers blueprint. It is an environment in which the younger players can really enjoy their opportunities; Jordan Henderson is beginning to sparkle in midfield and may benefit from the absence of Steven Gerrard. There remains a certain unbalance to the squad, but if Suárez plus at least one of Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho stay fit (and at Anfield), then the longer the title picture remains uncertain, the higher the Reds can aim beyond merely challenging for the top four this term.

This column will return in the New Year after a brief visit back to the United Kingdom. Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2014 to you all.

9 Dec 2013(Mon)

It is the third Saturday before Christmas and the streets are packed with shoppers, but all is not merry at Old Trafford. Ever since that day in May when Sir Alex Ferguson shocked Manchester United supporters by announcing his retirement, the club has been in turmoil. The chill in the air is notable as the game kicks off. Shortly after the hour mark, a solitary crowd-silencer consigns the Red Devils to a 1-0 defeat against a side whose terrible form back in spring had seen them flirt with relegation. Unthinkably, this is their second home loss of the week.

With 15 league games played, United have won just six and lie ninth in the table. Having cantered to the previous season’s championship by a double-digit points margin, they now sit the wrong side of a similar gap as an old rival in red tears off into the distance. The relegation zone is closer than the summit. Criticism mounts as pundits try to make sense of the Glaswegian manager’s game plan and ask what on earth he is going to do about the midfield. Perhaps it was a mistake to let go of that canny old assistant, who is now trying his hand in the hot seat of one of the smaller clubs in the division. Bewildered supporters all ask the same question: “How much worse can it possibly get?”

Fortunately for them, it doesn’t. Ryan Giggs returns to the starting eleven and hits top form over the festive period, netting three times in four days amidst a run of eight consecutive league wins which, incredibly, takes United top. They are not quite strong enough to hold off the best Arsenal team in years and end up having to settle for third, behind the Gunners and Liverpool, but against all odds squeeze out one more league title with the existing squad a year later before the serious rebuilding work begins. José Mourinho’s Chelsea then take advantage to dominate for a couple of seasons, but even they are ultimately blown out of the water by the new-look United. The latter’s return to pre-eminence is cemented with three straight Premier League crowns, plus victory against the Blues in the European Cup final a few months after the Portuguese’s dismissal.

Of course, there is no way of telling how far history can continue to repeat itself 12 years on from that Saturday afternoon in December 2001, when a teenage Jermain Defoe scored the only goal for West Ham United at Old Trafford. This time, for example, Ferguson’s retirement was immediate and left no room for a quick about-turn. But this story does at least partly explain why David Moyes was applauded down the tunnel by the Stretford End after defeats against Everton and Newcastle United.

There is no escaping the fact that Moyes’s first five months in Manchester have gone as badly as could have been imagined. At the same time, it has not hit depths beyond the imagination. Taken in isolation, not one of the individually poor results thus far would have been unheard of under Ferguson – who also suffered the odd derby thrashing plus first home defeats in decades to sides hitting form, like Bolton Wanderers and Middlesbrough. Yes, there is only one example that springs to mind from the last 20 years of such an incoherent United side recording quite so many setbacks, but that came in the 2001/02 season referred to above, when a dressing room both stronger and closer to its peak than at present was shaken by the mere suggestion – not execution – of their legendary gaffer’s retirement.

Off the pitch, too, Moyes has had plenty of ‘new boy’ problems. He looked awestruck during his first months in the job, casting doubts over his readiness to stamp authority over players with Champions League medals. The Scot may regret dispensing with Rene Meulensteen, now in charge of Fulham, and the training methods that brought the best out of the man whose goals secured Ferguson’s final title, Robin van Persie. Few were impressed by the manager’s argument, or its unintended implication, after the Newcastle loss when he protested, “I haven’t changed anything.”

But for all the vitriol that may fly about on Twitter, or in comments below the line on columns such as this, there is little chance that the vocal support at Old Trafford will shift away from an outward tone of sympathy and patience any time soon. When United chose to hire Moyes over Mourinho – who, according to reports in Spain, was literally waiting by the phone – it was to prioritise long-term stability over a higher guarantee of short-term glory. Stretford Enders old enough remember the 1980s – so not that old at all, really – accept that the only way this path can succeed is by sticking to it. For better or for worse, the Glazer family is not about to witness any public pressure pushing for managerial change in M16.

That is not to say that fans are happy. Not even the most blinkered would have disagreed last week when Daniel Taylor of The Guardian tweeted, “#EFC have improved without [Moyes], #MUFC have deteriorated with him.” Most surely look upon Everton’s dynamic brand of football under Roberto Martinez with envy, too. The real danger here is if the Toffees carry on impressing until May.

For, despite Moyes’s words to the contrary on Saturday, the Premier League title is no longer a likely objective for United this term. His primary objective now is to steer their ship into the safer waters of fourth place – such that they may embark on Champions League football, and not a harrowing test of Glazernomics, in 2014/15.