From the "Special One" to the "Sacked One", the life of Jose Mourinho

The money infested world of European football is more ruthless than ever before.

And reputations don't count for anything anymore. Like politics, all that matters is "Now".

No long term planning is considered necessary if the result are not produced instantaneously!

And your friends & admirers of yesterday, can be your enemies today and contribute to your downfall tomorrow!

And it all has to do with the corrupting power of money & how players, players agents, club bosses & coaches tend to try to divide & rule rather than unite & win!

Just ask the Special One, Jose Mourinho! He lost the trust & respect of his once admiring players, and with that went their commitment to him to perform……..and the once Special One became the Sacked One!

However, in case of Mourinho, he is attracting little sympathy in personal terms due to his combative style of continuing to blame his players, the referees, medical staff & just about everyone else except himself! He even went as far as suggesting his players had "betrayed" him & maybe they were a bunch of "ordinary" players "he" had mad to perform so well last year, who were incapable of reproducing the same level of performance this year!

From next year, the mere presence in the English Premier League is worth a minimum of 100 million pounds to each club (in broadcast rights money). No club or their owners can afford to be relegated, and Chelsea are only one point above that zone right now.

Having said that, Chelsea should have stuck by a manager with a proven track record & allowed him to stir them back to stability.

Nevertheless, Mourinho has fallen on his own arrogant sword & got a taste of his own medicine!

Sir Bobby Charlton nails what everyone thinks of Mourinho: "…he's a really good coach…but that's as far as I'd go1….he pontificates too much for my liking!…."

Champions League round of 16 draw

The round of 16 draw for the knockout stage of the Champions League was made last Monday.

As usual the luck of the draw produced some sumptuous heavyweight encounters whilst allowing some minnows to progress further to the quarter finals.

My prediction for the group stage this year was better than average: I predicted 12 teams right & four wrong, the four I got wrong who did not make it to the round of 16 were: Man Utd, Porto, Leverkusen & Valencia.

Predicting the results of round of 16 is always harder because there's so much that can happen from mid Dec to mid February, both in terms of team form (e.g. Chelsea with a new coach) & players recovering from injury (e.g. in case of Bayern & Arsenal both of whom have several injured players who should be ok by Feb).

On paper however, some teams are clear favourites regardless of their opponents:

Barcelona vs Arsenal will be the most exciting tie of the round as both teams play attractive attacking football. But even with a fully fit team, Arsenal neither have the quality nor the mental strength to match Barcelona

Real Madrid may be have been inconsistent since the appointment of Rafa Benitez, but Roma are even more unpredictable & only made it with a mere 6 points.

Bayern in my view are clear favourites to beat Juventus unless by February the "on again off again" data of Pep Guardiola's tenure totally unsettle the players.

PSG will account for Chelsea as long as they take their current form into the new year. This is even if Mourinho's temporary replacement pulls the team together & the topic of his replacement does not drag the team down any further.

Manchester City have finally been given the chance to get to quarter finals & as long as they show consistency they should be able to account for Dynamo Kiev.

Wolfsburg will account for a brave Gent side & should consider themselves very lucky with the draw.

Atletico Madrid's experience should account for the bravery of the surprise package PSV, although I personally would like to see a Dutch team back in the quarter final stage & hope PSV win.

Meanwhile whilst Zenit were one of the earliest qualifiers & dominated their group, I believe Benfica can & should do better & I hope to see Benfica progress through

Groups of death largely fail to materialise in this seasons Champions League group stage

When UEFA finally came to their senses earlier this year & agreed to place the top 8 Euro leagues' champions in pool A in this years' group stage draw, the prospects of the likes of Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Manchester United & City, Arsenal & the likes in Pool B & C meant several potential groups of death were likely.

Last night's draw however, rather surprisingly failed to produce any of the complex permutations & with the possible exception of Group D most "big names" should reasonably comfortably survive the group stage into the round of 16.

Last year I tipped 14 of the 16 group stage teams correctly to the round of 16. So here we go for this years':

In Group A, Real Madrid & PSG have too much fire power & class & will go through. Shakhtar lost heavily to Bayern in last year's round of 16. This year Shakhtar has lost Adriano to Milan & Douglas Costa to Bayern & is still homeless due to civil strife in Donetsk. Malmo meanwhile relish the prospects of playing against their homegrown start Ibrahimovic. I do however believe PSG will make life hard for Real Madrid in the battle to top the group.

UCL welcomed back Manchester United after a year of absence by handing Van Gaal's team possibly the easiest draw in Group B. Man Utd should comfortably top the group & Wolfsburg should scrape into 2nd place following selling their Bundesliga player of the season De Bruyne to Manchester City.

Atletico Madrid will comfortably top Group C whilst Benfica & Galatasaray will depend of their home form to finish second & Benfica will come on top. Astana will meanwhile enjoy a chance of a lifetime & have nothing to lose.

Group D is the only potential Group of Death & once again the money rich luck poor Manchester City must be cursing their luck. Last year's finalists Juventus & Europa Cup winners Sevilla will be lurking to spoil the party for Manchester City. To make the matters worse, the 2nd & third placed Bundesliga sides ended up in Pool D & in drawing Moenchengladbach as the fourth team, there is very little space for error in this group. Manchester City have been full of errors in the past few UCL appearances but if they capture De Bruyne, they will be full of confidence.

This is a group which is difficult to predict. Nevertheless, Juventus & Manchester City start as favourites, in particular because the other two teams have no recent UCL experience.

Group E will see Barcelona comfortably qualify whilst Leverkusen will probably beat Roma to the 2nd place, but only just, and again home form will play a crucial role.

Bayern & Arsenal will go through in Group F. Wenger & his team have all the motivation to try to topple Bayern & finish first & gain revenge for elimination at the hands of the Bavarians in 2 of the last 3 seasons. However, they will be facing a determined Bayern side as anything short of a UCL Final appearance will deem Pep Guardiola's 3 years at Bayern a relative failure.

Mourinho's current team Chelsea & his former team Porto will finish 1st & 2nd in Group G.

Group H is probably the most difficult to predict due to relative recent lack of UCL pedigree amongst the 4 sides. Valencia & Zenit start as slight favourites whilst Lyon have not been a force in the French League since the rise of PSG & return of Monaco, Marseille & the likes.

All in all, the most exciting & most watched annual football competition in the world once again promises an exciting season ahead.

Let's hope beINSports, the new broadcast channel in Australia do a good job & don't let the fans down, in particular in light of two major changes compared to previous years:
a) ESPN had 2 channels & therefore showed 2 live matches concurrently on Fox payTV
b) SBS had the right to show one of the ESPN live matches on free to air on both match days on Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

beINSports on the other hand:
a) are yet to announce if they will introduce a second channel or just show one live match on TV & simply show the other matches on their mobile app only
b) More crucially, SBS have lost the rights to Thursday morning matches & will only be showing one live match on Wednesday (with highlights on Thursday nights at 11.30pm on SBS2)

At least on the surface, the above is hardly an ideal situation for the fans.

The end of an era as Bayern legend Bastian Schweinsteiger leaves for Manchester United

Bayern fans salute a true Club & Country legend: Bastian Schweinsteiger

Only true hardcore fans of football can understand the heartache Bayern fans feel right now....the end of an era.....local hero, born & bred in Munich, a Bayern academy player since the age of 12, record 8 times Bundesliga winner, multiple German Cup medals, European UEFA Champions League winner, European Super Cup & World Club Champion......all achieved with Bayern in a stellar career.....

......and not to mention the small matter of his blood stained heroics for Germany in the final at Brazil FIFA World Cup.......the match that subsequently kept him out of action for many months at the beginning of last season due to injury ....and possibly played a huge part in his departure as he struggled to maintain his place in pep Guardiola's starting 11.

Bastian Schweinsteiger is Bayern Munich & Bayern Munich is Bastian Schweinsteiger! Mia San Mia runs in Schweinsteiger's blood & his departure whilst still the German National Team Captain is a momentous event in the history of the Club.

However, whilst many fans, in their moment of anguish are blaming Pep Guardiola for this, Scweinsteiger had always talked up his desire to play at another major European League before his time was up. The truth is, a combination of injuries & loss of speed always meant Schweinsteiger was going to struggle for his place in the starting line up next season.

nevertheless, I believe most Bayern fans would have liked to see him retire from football as a Bayern player rather than moving to Manchester United

Besides his blood stained face at World Cup final in 2014, there are two other moments in Scweinie's time in Bayern which will forever be indelibly stamped in the fans' minds........his anguish at hitting the post in the penalty shootout loss to Chelsea in the 2012 UCL final in Munich, and his subsequent come back to win the trophy at last in 2013 at Wembley.

As Bayern fans we salute a true Club & Country Legend & wish him all teh best in his new venture: Bastian Schweinsteiger

Is the Sepp Blatter soap opera of delusional narcissism set to continue?

Sepp Blatter has been named many things by fans, media & football officials around the world alike.

Had medical experts been called upon to try to label him, severe delusional narcissistic disorder would  have been the most likely expert terminology or diagnosis!

This would have much more likely been the diagnosis since the news in recent days that "Blatter believes he has not resigned & is considering nominating for re-election!!"

However, knowing Blatter the way he has stayed at the helm by throwing money at & tolerating full blown corruption in poorer FIFA member countries in exchange for votes, his apparent sudden change of tune, whilst not surprising at all, must only mean one & one thing only:

When Sepp Blatter reluctantly announced his resignation a mere five days after getting reelected by his cronies, he must have been advised that the FBI & Swiss investigations were likely to incriminate him in corruption allegations & as such his position was untenable.

But lets not beat around the bush: Blatter is a slippery fox & the fact that he is attempting yet another one of his political flip flops & suggesting a come back, albeit much more mundanely this time, must mean only one thing & one thing only:

The psychopathic narcissist must have been advised that the likelihood of any corruption charges against him personally are minimal. 

It is crystal clear that Blatter believes he has nothing to answer for. In all probability Blatter himself has never received any corrupt payments. Therefore he believes 17 years of tolerating official corruption under his watch was ok & in fact necessary to advance the greater good of the game. He believes he has enhanced the worldwide reach of football despite all the various allegations of corruption.

Meanwhile even the Catholic Church officials must be watching the slippery master with envy!

UCL Semi Finals: Battle of European Titans

The Champions League semi finals are a battle of true European heavyweights. Besides the notable absence of any EPL Clubs, all of which failed to even reach the quarter finals, the final 4 are true European Titans.

Between them, the final four have won no fewer than 21 European Cup/UCL titles & have been involved in an amazing 37 finals! Barcelona, Real Madrid & Bayern have been ever present semi finalists in the last few years & Juventus, following a few rough years is back amongst the European elite.

Predicting the results of the two semi finals this year is harder than ever before, despite the fact that Barcelona & Real Madrid will start their respective ties as slight favourites.
There are however some distinct factual observations that can be made about the final four:

Barcelona are undoubtedly currently the most in form team in Europe,
Real have wobbled vs Schalke & Atletico Madrid,
Bayern have deep injury worries to key players, and
Juventus's defence looks rock solid & very hard to breach

Here's the team's overall results so far in this year's competition

1. Barcelona 9W 0D 1L, goals 23-7, 27 points
2. Real Madrid 8W 1D 1L, goals 22-6, 25 points
3. Bayern, 7W 1D 2L, goals 30-8, 22 points
4. Juventus, 6W 2D 2L, goals 13-5, 20 points

Based on how Real Madrid accounted for Atletico Madrid, Real will most probably get the better of Juventus over two legs, and with a more comfortable margin than a mere 1-0

The Barcelona vs Bayern is much harder to predict & very much depends on how fit key Bayern players will be in time for the two encounters. Without Ribery & Robben on the wings & Alaba & Benatia in defense Bayern simply do not have the quality to counter Suarez, Messi, Neymar & co. A fully fit Bayern side on the other hand is more than even chance.

My prediction (assuming Bayern players are fit in time) is Bayern vs Real Madrid

Intrigue in UCL Quarter finals

The quarter finals of this season's UCL will get on the way next week....and the intrigue this year is, whilst Barcelona, Real, Bayern & Juventus are odds on favourites on paper, PSG, Atletico, Porto & Monaco are all capable of causing upsets on their day.

The much hyped, money rich EPL has not managed a SINGLE team in either UCL or Europa League quarter finals this year.
It is quiet clear that the mega TV money which continues to make the EPL the richest football league in the world, is also contributing to the mediocrity of the EPL teams in European competitions. Whilst many of the world's best talents are attracted to the money lure & glamour of the EPL, the clubs are also paying inflated prices for over hyped but otherwise average players who clearly are not tactically as proficient as many cheaper but more astute players playing for mainland European clubs. Porto, Monaco, Atletico Madrid & even to a lesser extent PSG & Juventus all demonstrate my point.

Now back to the draw:

PSG's disposal of Mourinho & his over hyped Chelsea side in the round of 16th was a master class in tactical football & a lesson for Mourinho's usual "park the bus" tactics. PSG also beat Barcelona at home in Paris in the Group stage.
Barcelona on the other hand have finally got Messi fully fit, Suarez settled into their system & Iniesta back to his near best whilst their at times suspect defence has also been repaired. PSG can only get the better of Barca if their players are fully fit & they manage to perform 2 more perfect performances as they did vs Chelsea. Barcelona are however currently the clear favourites to win the UCL this year.

If there's a coach and a team that can get the better of Real Madrid, it is their city rivals Atletico Madrid. Atletico were very unlucky not to win last year's final 1-0 in normal time & they will be motivated to take advantage of a misfiring Real side.

Normally, Guardiola & Bayern Munchen would be clear favourites vs the entertaining & skillful Porto. However, Bayern are currently in an injury crisis & will travel to Porto next week without key players such as Robben, Schweinsteiger, Alaba, Benatia & (possibly) Ribery & Badstuber, plus the long term injured Martinez.

Bayern are simply not the free flowing goal machine their fans have got used to without the services of Robben & Ribery on the flanks (They have now scored 1 goals in their last 3 matches with those two injured). But there should be no excuses for Guardiola & Bayern with their talented squad.

Juventus have finally returned to their rightful position amongst the European elite this season & a gallant Monaco side who disposed of Arsenal are probably the least likely team amongst the 8 to make it to the semi finals.

I got 7 out of 8 quarter finals right with PSG's elimination of Chelsea the only exception. The semi finals will be contested by Barcelona, Bayern, Atletico Madrid & Juventus.

How Ben Williams single handedly took revenge on Iran for the heartache of 1997 & his calamitous decision robbed fans of a potential Iran vs Australia dream final in the AFC Cup

The history of the rivalry between Iran & Australia in football is exciting & dramatic to say the least

In 1972 during their ultimately successful qualification quest for 1974 World Cup, the Socceroos beat Iran 3-0 in Sydney before narrowly escaping after going down 2-0 in the return leg in Tehran.

During the 1978 world Cup qualifiers, Iran took revenge & qualified for the World Cup & in the process beat Australia 1-0 in both qualifying games.

And then of course there was the historic night of Nov 29th 1997 at the MCG , and the unbelievable elimination of the gallant but perhaps naive Socceroos sides at the hand of a highly talented but unpredictable Iran which ultimately qualified Iran for France 1998 at the expense of Australia.

Since then and following Australia's admission to the AFC, both passionate Socceroos & Team Meli fans have been hoping for a rematch between the two teams at World Cup qualifiers or Asian Cup.

This year, both Iran & Australia were amongst favourites to win the AFC 2015...and when Australia lost to S Korea, a potential Australia vs Iran excited fans.

But tonight, Aussie referee BEN WILLIAMS put an end to that dream by almost single handedly ending Iran's participation in the tournament prematurely. Williams made a calamitous red card error which reduced Iran to 10 men in the QF match between Iran & Iraq midway through the fist half.

Iran, which were comfortably dominant & leading 1-0 at that stage, fought with 10 men for nearly 90 minutes & fell behind 2-1 & 3-2 in extra time & came back to end the match 3-3 before finally losing 6-7 in the penalty shoot out to a resolute Iraq side which rode their luck at the back of Ben Williams' error.

FoxtSports commentators Mark Bosnic, John Aliosi & Mark Rudden were stunned at Ben Williams' error & unanimous in criticism of his amateurish error.

So THANK YOU BEN WILLIAMS! but Socceroos fans never wanted you to take the matters into your own hands & take revenge for the 1997 heartache in such unsavoury & embarrassing manner! Surely the cream of football refereeing in Australia is of a much higher calibre than what you displayed tonight!

And as for the passionate Iranian Team Meli fans, they hope your latest serious error of judgement on the field will see the end of your career as a FIFA international referee. It may be harsh but you deserve no less a punishment considering your error earlier in the tournament in the S Arabia vs Kazakistan match & many questionable decisions in the A League.

Complex tactical approach means the usual suspects logically remain the favourites to win the Champions League

European season has reached its half way point, and the EPL has once again entertained fans worldwide during the festive season whilst all other major European leagues take their winter/Christmas break.

Much has been written & said about the  nonsensical levels of transfer money that continues to infest the beautiful game & widens the game between "the Have & Have Not" Clubs in Europe.

However, most commentators seem to ignore the fact that it is not just the crazy levels of money to buy the very best that is shaping the game in Europe & who wins the top price ie the Champions League. 

The modern tactical approach to the game by master tacticians such as Angelotti, Mourinho, Guardiola, Simone & a few other coaches has become so complex & difficult to implement that only the most skilful top players are capable of meeting the challenge of applying the modern tactics. 

This means that realistically, only Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Barcelona (in that order) have the quality players who are capable of winning the Champions League. The likes of Atletico Madrid, PSG, Dortmund, Juventus, Porto & Arsenal can & may in fact surprise the favourites but one of the favourites will win the Champions League this year.

Here's my tip for this year's round of 16 (I got 8/8 right last season)

Chelsea will overcome PSG as long as Mourinho does not allow the New Year's Day 5-3 loss to Spurs to affect the team's confidence.
Barcelona will once again beat the unlucky Manchester City. Whilst man City can curse their luck in drawing Bayern in the group stage AND Barcelona in the round of 16 for the 2nd successive season, they have had many narrow wins this season & against Messi & Co they will not be able to get away with luck!
Atletco Madrid will be too strong for as usual unpredictable Bayer Leverkusen whilst Real Madrid, Bayern & Arsenal will also dispose of their opponents.

I have never been too impressed with Juventus despite their comprehensive Serie A wins in the last few years. However, with Dortmund fighting a surprising relegation battle in the Bundesliga, Juventus will have a huge chance to beat Dortmund as I expect Klopp & Dortmund to concentrate on Bundesliga in February.

......Which brings us to Porto vs Basel...........Porto have been very entertaining to watch whilst Basel have once again overachieved by eliminating Liverpool (and in doing so pull the curtain down on Steven Gerard's European club career).......I would like to see Basel to progress but Porto are too fast & silky & should win over two legs.

And as for this season's dark horses, the unpredictability of Manchester City & their talisman Aguaro (when fit) qualifies the EPL Champions for the tag!