THE ROUND UP

CREDIT TO FANS FOR TAKING ACTION

What a past couple of weeks it’s been in football. The shenanigans has been nothing short of ridiculous in many respects but overall I think we can all agree that football belongs to the supporters and fans alike. The beautiful game was able to overcome the ugly greed of business that is often synonymous with football…..you’ve only got to look through the history books, the revelation is there for all to see. The following is just a quick round up of the events of the past few weeks.

SUPER LEAGUE? I THINK NOT!!

So, apparently (well, it’s actually a fact) Europe’s so called elite clubs decided to get together and form a Super League consisting of between 12 to 15 clubs. The league’s structure would be concurrent with the existing format, meaning matches would be played during a regular premier league season. However, the element of competition would be non existing as no team selected to take part would need to qualify for the super league nor could they be eject or relegated with a guaranteed purse of £3.1billion, now that’s not bad business (Nope, its GREED business).

The following Premier League clubs, Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham all unashamedly signed up for this so called joke of a Super League. Whilst all clubs have since now taken a you turn after the announcement was heavily condemned and criticised by the entire footballing community, you have to give credit to those fans and even players and managers who took a stand and said NO. Chelsea fans gathered outside Stamford Bridge in great numbers to protest against this Super League (money grab), Gary Neville and other pundits were very vocal and thankfully this how now been put to bed.

You knew it was a joke when they named it a Super League and Spurs were invited. For the sake of clarification, Spurs are not amongst the historical elite of European football. That doesn’t mean we can’t endeavour to push but only time will tell. A Super League without Ajax and Bayern Munich is not a Super League but you’re happy to have an Arsenal side who haven’t won major honours in forever, no no no (please don’t mention the FA Cups). I’m glad the owners/Chairmen of the respective clubs involved saw the error in judgement and let common sense prevail (LONG LIVE THE BEATIFUL GAME!!).

MOURINHO SACKED

Well it looks like the special one isn’t so special after all having been sacked yet again by another club. Tottenham called time on Jose’s reign at Spurs after an unconvincing run of recent matches that saw Spur’s hopes for a top four finish all the more challenging. Some may argue that it was wrong for Spurs to sack their manager a week before a Cup final as Mourinho is a master tactician especially in knock competitions. Well, I’m sure he’ll be happy with his £34million payoff to add to his coffers. Will we see him back again? Probably not in the premier league and he may want to try out managing at international level as I believe the modern game has evolved and his style of play is simply prehistoric.

CARABAO CUP FINAL

With Jose now out of the picture, the interim job was awarded to Ryan Mason who at 29 years of age became the youngest ever manager to manage a top flight club in Premier League history. A lot of people (including myself) thought club legend Ledley King would get the nod seeing as he was Mourinho’s number two, however Daniel Levy had other ideas. So it was up to Mason to deliver Spurs their first trophy since 2008 and going up against Guardiola’s Manchester City side is an uphill struggle for any club let alone Tottenham.

As expected City dominated the entire game giving Spurs barely any possession or room to be creative. City could easily have scored 6 goals on the day if not for Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris’s agility. Surprisingly, City didn’t find the net until the 82nd minute when Laporte found the breakthrough. The goal was enough to give Man City a deserved win and leave Spurs players in tears. Who knows what the future holds for players like Kane and Son, who am sure will have offers in the summer transfer window. However, one thing we do know is that the Spurs will always go marching in………