Sir Alex Ferguson will surely greet Javier Hernández’ Gold Cup win with mixed feelings. Delight for a player who has burst onto the international scene as a genuine star; concern that the 22-year-old striker faces burn out after seven summer matches that crisscrossed North America and racked up more than 8,000 miles on the continent [...]
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Sir Alex Ferguson called international week “crazy” and he may have a point with five key Manchester United players off on international duty this week. While Ferguson negotiated a week off for captain Nemanja Vidic, whose Serbia team beat Israel 2-0 in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night, many of the Scot’s players were called into [...]
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
The World Cup ended on Sunday with Spain the predictable champions after 64 matches, 145 goals and not enough red cards in the final. But what lessons can Manchester United fans draw from the tournament that will go down as one dominated by negative tactics even if the best team eventually triumphed in Johannesburg? After [...]
Monday, July 5, 2010
The English cricket team has imported South African-born Kevin Pietersen, Craig Kiesweter and Jonathan Trott, as well as Irishman Eoin Morgan. Meanwhile, Rugby Union has capped Kiwis Shontayne Hape, Lesley Vainokolo and Riki Flutey. Could the answer to English football’s problems lie in the globalised Premier League? After all even tennis (Greg Rusedski), boxing (Lennox Lewis) [...]
Sunday, July 4, 2010
With the World Cup into its final week, the semi-finalists settled and 28 teams on their way home Rant looks at how Manchester United’s players fared at the tournament. Amid the inevitable festival of football, refereeing controversies and English failure – one memory abides: cheap plastic horns blown with the side of the mouth! Javier [...]
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane has lashed out at England manager Fabio Capello’s critics, delivering a player-by-player rating of the national side’s humiliating World Cup failure. Ipswich Town manager Keane derides the England squad as average, shorn of ‘World Class’ players bar Wayne Rooney. “To keep criticising the manager is crazy. Capello is a [...]
Sunday, June 27, 2010
As England crashed out of the World Cup in the most humiliating fashion perhaps the best consolation for those Reds following the national side is that Manchester’s finest will always be bigger. England’s ‘Golden Generation’ has evolved since Sven Goran Eriksson’s side lost to Brazil in 2002 but the squad’s nucleus remains. It’s a squad [...]
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed details of the tension-ridden England World Cup camp in a US radio interview, as the Scot again called on the Premier League to adopt a mid-winter break. Ferguson, speaking to US radio station Sirius XM, says that the weight of expectation is weighing heavily on England players’ shoulders. “I spoke [...]
Monday, June 21, 2010
Prior to the World Cup’s start French coach Raymond Domenech awarded Patrice Evra the national team captaincy. The honour came with Thierry Henry’s fading star; Manchester United’s left-back replacing Les Bleus’ legend at the national side’s helm. With the team and coach at war, Evra may prefer the relative quiet of defensive duties. How quickly [...]
Monday, June 21, 2010
Perhaps the most shocking element of the fallout from England’s meek performances at the World Cup is not that striker Wayne Rooney has borne the brunt of criticism but that so few others have been singled out, let alone stepped forward to shoulder any responsibility for failure. Rooney alone is now the media’s principal target. [...]
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Sunday, June 26, 2011
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