Moving ahead after Chris Smalling

 Many of the names that people have been mentioning for months regarding Man United - Skriniar, De Ligt, Varane, Upacamento, Godin, Gabriel, Minolas, etc, played in Serie A last season; good and reliable defenders they may be, but Chris Smalling out-performed all of them on route to being named in Serie A's Team of the Season by several European journals. Not just that, he was also named in the European Best XI for the 2019/2020 season by the influential journal, WhoScored: a team chosen from players in the Top 5 leagues of Europe (Budesliga, La liga, Serie A, French league 1 and the EPL). So Smallings influence now goes beyond Italy  and Serie A. 

But a certain Man United manager is not swayed by those ratings. Smalling may be the best in Europe, says Ole, but he's only No 6 at Man United - behind Maguire, Lindelof, Bailly, Jones and Tuanzebe! 

Do you still wonder - when you have a manager with such poor judgement - why the club can no longer rise above the mediocre level? 

Gullible Man United fans

 Ole Gunnar Soksjear wants everyone to believe that Chris Smalling is not good enough for Man United; gullible as we are, we all believe him; so even when the team is going from one defensive disaster to another, no one even remembers that Smalling’s still a bona fide player of United. May God help the club if they’re not able to sell him before the transfer deadline, and he ends up remaining at the club for the new season, getting his wages but not being allowed to play

Ole doesn't want competition at United.

 Its looking like Chris Smalling has upset some people at Old Trafford. His offence? He’s so good on the field he won’t allow other defenders to get a look in. Ole doesn’t want his favorite, Victor Lindelof to suffer the same rate as Eric Bailly. Ole has apparently studied Smalling’s recent record at the club and sees that he’s a slow starter. He starts each season on the bench, until about the 5th or 6th week; but once he plays his first match, he retains his starting shirt for the rest of the season. That’s why before he left for Roma last summer, he had kept Bailly on the bench for one and a half seasons. The same thing would have happened to Lindelof last season had Smalling opted to stay at Old Trafford and fight for his shirt.

Ole apparently doesn’t want competition for Victor Lindelof!t

European Giants scramble for Man United ace

 

Juventus are in the market for a new Centre Back, as their Italian Twin Towers, Giorgio Chiellini and Leonard Bonnucci are in the twilight of their careers. The high profile capture of Dutch teenage sensation, De Ligt last season helped to ease the pressure on their long standing CBs, but De Ligt picked up an injury towards the end of the last season and will be out for several months. They will certainly be short in central defence, as their other CBs, Ruganni and Benatia, are not considered good enough to be regular starters.Napoli have Kalidou Koulibaly and Kostas Minolas, but Minolas has dropped  in form and is no longer the rock that he once was at Roma. Koulibaly could also be tempted away by the lure of the EPL, so they too have problems in central defence. Inter usually plays with three CBs, but apart from the Dutch Stefan de Vrij(28), the other two star defenders, Diego Godin and Milan Skriniar have been inconsistent, and Inter may decide to sell one of them this summer. On the strength of his performance this past season, Chris Smalling would easily pick a regular starting shirt at any of these three Serie A giants, and but for the emotional   attachment he has with Roma, he will surely fancy his chances of ending up at one of these Italian clubs  this season.But the question is: for how much longer can Man United wait for Roma to come up with the cash to acquire Smalling on a permanent basis? Both clubs have been haggling over Smalling’s valuation all through the past season, with United demanding a minimum of 20m, and Roma only willing to pay a total of 15m in batches. If Smalling’s price were to be raised to 25-30m because of last season’s performance, the Italian giants in their present condition will quickly jump at the offer. But United, for reasons best known to them, have continued to wait for Roma to complete the deal, rather than throwing the bid open to all comers.But for how long?

United aim to sell Smalling for 20m

Manchester United want £ 20 million   for Chris Smalling? That’s ridiculous. Why does United like to give away their players at ridiculously low prices when other clubs always quote astronomical figures when they want to sell players to United? One wonders whether the United executives are in touch with current realities at all. Smalling still has two years left on his contract, so United are not in danger of seeing him walk away free anytime soon. And he’s currently one of the best Centre Backs in all of Europe, and at 30, still has 3 or 4 more years of top class football left in him; so this player is worth far more than £ 20 million at the moment.

Man United executives need to wake up. They are willing to pay £75 m for Milan Skriniar and £70m for Kalidou Koulibaly, two players who also play in Serie A.  But while Chris Smalling was named in Serie A's Team of the Season and also the European  Team of the Season by some journals, Skriniar couldn’t even nail down a 1st team shirt an Inter Milan this past season, and Koulibaly couldn’t make it into Series A’s TOTS.

In terms of longevity, there is no difference between Smalling (30) and Koulibaly, who is 29. Skriniar is only a little younger than both of them. So what’s the thinking behind United valuing Smalling at only £20m? 

And why are they still talking to Roma when they spent the whole of last season doing just that? Why not throw the race open and allow other clubs to put in their bids. 

UEFA’S PLAN B

The wave of English dominance actually started last season, 2017/18, when 5 English clubs took part in the main draw and all five of them got through the group stage safely – four of them as group winners; that’s a dominance not seen since the 2008 season. This season, with no EUROPA Cup winner in their midst, only 4 came to Europe, and again, all 4 got through the group stage – but only one was a group winner.

Two prominent ‘faces’ were missing this time – Chelsea, and Arsenal for the second year running. Arsenal had been UEFA’s ‘whipping boy’ for the past one decade, and their new Plan B which started in 2016/17 was obviously designed for ‘stubborn outsiders’ like Arsenal. However, with Arsenal missing for the past two seasons, Plan B hasn’t been going very smoothly.

Plan B was designed to set up landmines for targeted teams (and these are mainly the English sides). UEFA knows that the best English teams will always make the Top 2 in their groups, and Plan B is to ensure that irrespective of their group placing, their Round of 16 opponent will be one of Europe’s giants.

The first casualty of Plan B was Arsenal in 2016, who after topping a group that included PSG (and were therefore expecting a weak Round of 16 opponent), found European giant Bayern Munich waiting for them in R16. Needless to say, Arsenal were promptly eliminated. PSG were the main target last season. After seeing off the challenge of Juventus to top their group, they were rewarded with a tie against the reigning champions Real Madrid, and made an early exit from the UCL.

Early exit: that’s precisely what UEFA targets for those clubs that threaten to upstage the status quo. With the events of last season in mind, and given what we’ve seen already at the group stage, Liverpool, Spurs and Manchester United will be UEFA’s targets this season; so expect them to get the most difficult opponents at the Round of 16!

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE LAST 16.

English champions, Chelsea, have had the toughest Last 16 draw, but after the 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, a Barcelona victory at the Nou Camp is by no means guaranteed. Tottenham also got a tough draw, but after holding Juventus to a 2-2 draw in Turin(and looking like the more likely team to progress), Spurs have shown that the English are not in this year's Champions League just to make up the numbers. Man City and Liverpool both take virtually unassailable leads into their respective second legs, while Manchester United are on a knife edge as they host Seville in the second leg. This is already marked as a season of English dominance, but it could get even better(or worse!)if they can push two or three of these five teams into the semi-final. That will bring back memories of about a decade ago, when English teams had a stranglehold on the CL for about five seasons. Should that happen, it could well be the trigger that Arsenal needs to dismantle the big psychological wall that has prevented them from making progress in Europe.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE KNOCKOUT - ENGLISH DOMINANCE

Former European champions, Manchester United, should have too much ammunition for a stubborn Sevilla playing at home today. Barcelona came from behind last night to earn a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, yet none of the remaining Spanish teams is certain of quarter final qualification, and the English have clearly been the dominant force in Europe this season, and they may well lineup not just four but five teams in the Last Eight.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE KNOCKOUT.

It’s an irony that Chelsea, the reigning English champions(and in theory England’s best team)are the only one of England’s five representatives in this season’s Champion’s League whose qualification for the quarter finals is seriously in doubt. They face old enemy Barcelona for the first time since their annual series ended several years ago. BARCELONA (Barca)are the runaway leaders of La Liga and have been similarly impressive at the group stage. Chelsea has recently suffered a dip in form, but otherwise has been very impressive all season. This tie for a place in the quarter finals looks too close to call, but I won’t be surprised if Chelsea cause a major upset here. Over the past few years, the English have flattered to deceive, with Man City reaching the semi-finals two seasons ago, and Arsenal continually excelling at the group stage only to fall flat once the knockout stage begins. But this season, the English have come in full force, fearing no foe. By holding Juventus to a score draw in Turin last week, Spurs have proved that their group stage heroics in topping the group ahead of Real Madrid is no fluke. And they look poised to cause a big upset by eliminating Juve. Liverpool and Man City have carried their sharp-shooting form in the Premiership into Europe, breezing through the group stage and continuing in like manner as the knockout stage started last week. Both have virtually guaranteed two quarter final places for England.