Let The Managers Do Their Jobs

Finally, the “Special One” was fed to the guillotine and nothing much could be done in that regard despite the love and support of players and fans as well as the success brought to the club, Mourinho couldn't be the Arsene Wenger or Sir Alex Ferguson for Chelsea.

A lot has been said about it already but one has to think how these managers at Old Trafford and The Emirates stadium have been able to stay there despite having “dry” seasons. The reason could be the way the top management and owners of the club want to run the clubs.

This is not the first time that a manager has left a club in acrimonious circumstances due to differences with the club's owners/management. But this is surely the first time that a manager of Mourinho's stature has been a victim of interference on team affairs by either the club's owner or the “Director of Football”.

The end of 2004 saw two such incidents, one in London and the other one down at the South coast. Jacques Santini and Frank Arnesen both arrived at Tottenham as Sporting Director and Coach respectively, but within 5-6 months Santini left the club citing “Personal Problems” but it was clear that actually things had not worked out well between him and Arnesen.

Down below in Southampton, rumors were rife that there had been tensions between Portsmouth's Chairman Milan Mandaric and Manager Harry Redknapp over player transfers and the appointment of Velimir Zajec as “Director of Football”(yes the same post again) proved the final nail in the coffin and Harry left Pompey almost in tears.

Harry Redknapp later joined Portsmouth's bitter rivals Southampton but there was more in store for him. By 2005, another Russian Vladimir Romanov had acquired the Scottish club Hearts and appointed George Burley as the manager who brought unprecedented success to the club, but once again fell victim to the undue interference of the owner in the team affairs to such an extent that he(Romanov) was even rumored to giving his two cents on team selection as well. So Burley left Hearts to join Southampton where Harry Redknapp had left the club after a short stint. Harry had left the club due to “problems” with Sir Clive Woodward(yes the rugby coach) who was holding some kind of directorial position at Southampton.

Then Mr. Woodward was supposed to work as “Director of Football” alongside George Burley but surprise surprise things once again went pear shaped and for the first time, sense prevailed and the Director left the club instead of the manager.

In the meantime Frank Arnesen had joined Chelsea in a questionable move that was reportedly opposed by Mourinho. And thus Chelsea had both the ingredients, a meddling owner and a “Director” in the form of Arnesen. And eventually the outcome is in front of us all.

A man of Mourinho's caliber will find success anywhere he goes but it remains to be seen how Chelsea fare after his departure and the first thing on the line is the 3 year old winning streak. Best of Luck to both Mourinho and Grant.

Would this “Nando” work???

El Nino, Looking on to his predecessor namesakes

After spending a lot of time at the Real Madrid bench and scoring quite a few important goals in many important matches as a last 10 minute substitute, Fernando Morientes moved to Monaco on Loan and that year in the UEFA Champions League he proved his worth to the world by scoring a handful of goals alongside the “Mechanic of Monaco”, Dado Prso. Then came a dream move for Morientes, a move to Anfield and a chance to play under Benitez and anyone would have found that offfer irrestible. But in the season that followed, the Anfield faithful kept waiting to see the kind of form Morientes had shown with Monaco and Madrid over the years, but the wait never ended. Finally he moved back to Spain to join Valencia.

Fast Forward to 2006, and while driving for Renault, world champion Fernando Alonso is announced as the next year's driver for McLaren Mercedes. And alongside was lined up a British rookie Lewis Hamilton. It was expected that Alonso would be the main driver with Lewis playing the usual role of a 2nd driver. But things were to go a little unexpectedly and the rookie turned in 9 straight podium finishes in the season and Fernando was heard complaining that the team are focusing on the Brit and not him. Then came the Hungarian Grand Prix surrounded by a few whispers that the champ could be getting back to join his ex boss Briatorie at Renault. In the qualifying, the F1 fans witnessed a shocking incident, Alonso blocking his teammate in the pit lane with just little over one and a half minute left on the clock. The events that ensued are well known to everyone. Latest reports suggest that the two McLaren teammates are not talking to each other and Alonso's honeymoon with the Woking based outfit could well be over in just one season.

With the world witnessing that sportsmen named “Fernando” don't get along very well with British teams, Liverpool splash a lot of cash to bring another Fernando to Anfield. One of the most prolific strikers in Spain, Fernando Torres has signed for Liverpool. It remains to be seen how El Nino performs at Anfield, though we all wish him and his new team very well.

Star Nurseries

Mark Webber's podium at the Nurburgring couple of weeks back marks the coming of age of a formula 1 driver who scored the first championship points in the very first race of his formula 1 career and the icing on the cake was that this race took place on his home turf in front of his home crowd. Webber's celebrations made it quite clear what that result meant to him.

The most important thing about this result was that he was driving a Minardi which usually was not even expected to finish races let alone scoring points. This was the great thing about a team like Minardi which despite its poor results was able to provide the formula one fans drivers like Anthiny Davidson, Alex Yoong, Mark Webber and last but not the least, the reigning champion of the formula one world, Fernando Alonso.

Yes, not many people may be aware of the fact that Alonso started out his formula one career with Minardi. This post is a tribute to the various “Nurseries” that produce great sports stars over the years, the great thing about them is the fact that they themselves might not be so good in the sport but they have always been good in spotting talent early.

This takes us to a football club nicknamed “The Academy of Football”, West Ham United truly deserves this name since they have made a tremendous contribution to the world of football, especially English Football. There is a long list of good football players who joined West Ham in their youth but most of them moved on to better clubs, some of them are:

Player	Age when joined West Ham	Stay(years)	Next Club
Bobby Moore	17	16	Fulham
Geoff Hurst	18	13	Stoke City
Trevor Brooking	19	17	-
Paul Ince	18	4	Manchester United
Rio Ferdinand	17	5	Leeds United
Frank Lampard	16	7	Chelsea
Joe Cole	17	5	Chelsea
Michael Carrick	17	6	Tottenham
Jermain Defoe	17	5	Tottenham
Glenn Johnson	17	2	Chelsea

Nigel Reo Coker, who was tipped as a future prospect, has already left the club and it wont be surprising if Mark Noble and Anton Ferdinand also one day leave in search of greener pastures.

Of Fairytale Seasons and Reliability

We still have fresh in our memories, the fashion in which Kimi Raikkonnen’s McLaren Mercedes gave way and he crashed out of the way in the penultimate lap of the European Grand Prix in 2005, though it was heartbreaking but not unexpected since at that time, it was the prancing horse of Scuderia Ferrari that could boast of no failures over the last 2-3 years of running.

Then came the latter half of the 2006 Formula One Season, once again we were in Canada and Michael Schumacher triggered an unexpected Ferrari renaissance that no one could think of and at the end of the season everyone was expecting a fairytale finish to the illustrious career of a driver who was known for his ability to lift his team’s spirits through the murkiest of moments.

But some things are never meant to be, the unexpected happened in the Japanese Grand Prix and we saw something that we had almost forgotten, blue smoke from Schumacher’s Engine !!!

Every Ferrari fan and even the pure racing followers were sad to see a man who had achieved so much being betrayed by his luck at the penultimate lap of his career.

Fast Forward to 2007, Schumi is still in the Ferrari pits, although this time as a “CONSULTANT” and we have another fairytale of a season in a making for probably the best rookie this game has ever seen, yes, I am talking about young Lewis Hamilton. Talking about Ferrari first, the thing that has worked against them more than even McLaren is their reliability, which until the end of last season was their hallmark. So if Ferrari seriously want to pose themselves as the title contenders, they’ll have to work on their car’s reliability otherwise neither the expert advice of Schumi nor the pace and flair of Kimi and Massa would be of any help. Even if McLaren are docked points by the FIA over the espionage row, Ferrari would have to work very hard to win this season’s championship.

Now, we come to the surprise package of this year. No doubt Hamilton has proved to everyone that he has got all the ingredients to make him a great champion. 9 straight podiums in your rookie season is no mean feat, and we shouldn’t forget the fact that he is still leading the driver’s world championship ahead of his two time world champion teammate.

And finally this weekend we saw something that many people had been waiting for, anything unfortunate for Hamilton. Everyone was talking about Hamilton’s response to any misadventure to him on the race track. The grit and determination that this young man possesses was evident when he was stretchered off after his accident in the qualifying when waved and showed thumbs up to all the fans and viewers. And then again the next day when he was on the starting grid, its not that easy to recover that fast from at a speed of around a 160 mph.

The big question that remains is that how he comes back in his next race, because this is the first time he is facing adversity on the big stage and if he comes out of this with a race win or a podium, Team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes can rest assured that they got a couple of great champions in their team and with them being ahead of Ferrari in terms of reliability this season, it would arduous task for Ferrari to lift this season’s championship.

The Great Coach of Coaches

7 matches to go in the Coca Cola Championships in England and already Sunderland are looking towards getting promoted and the fans must have by now started thinking about preparing posters, banners and placards displaying the famous “BACK TO WHERE WE BELONG” slogan.

Quite a few months back, the mood wasn’t as good at the Wearside club which was being managed by the new Chairman and former striker Niall Quinn whose fellow investors were advised not to invest in a club whose debts were approaching 40 million pounds.

But after a few difficult games as a Manager cum Chairman of the club, Quinn finally found the man who he thought could be the solution to his problems, the one and only Roy Keane. The fiery midfielder turned coach has taken the team to position where they can think of getting promoted and that’s an achievement for team whose chairman thought while appointing Keane the being somewhere around the top 7 would be enough.

Keane who wasn’t considered perfect to coach by many because of his attitude, did a great job bringing in new players with low price tags and good enough abilities and sunderland fans can now at least hope to watch premiership matches at the Stadium of Light next season.

But how many players could so smoothly go through a transition from plying in top flight football to coaching a football at near top flight level. One major reason has to be the fact that he has played the major part of his career under a manager who is an institution in himself and the players who played under him have proved to be good managers and Keano is already a member of the great legacy that Sir Alex has given to this game in his 20 years and counting as the manager. The league includes people like Mark Hughes, Steve Bruce and Bryan Robson.

So “Coach of Coaches” continues his job at the Theatre Of Dreams and we can keep our fingers crossed to see a few more good coaches gifted to this beautiful game by this great man.

Repost: Maybe Manchester Evening News reporters got to read my post, and published an enhanced story, just kidding, after all i posted it first ;)

Take look at it here, "Hail Fergie, the boss of bosses"

American Football, an Oxymoron

Hello Everyone, here i am with my brand new rather first Sports Blog. It gets its name partly because of my extreme love for sports and the mainframe part was added since i am a software engineer by profession, so I thought it would be good to mix them both up in order to find such a title for my blog that hasn’t already been used by 620,000 other blogs.

To start with, the post will be a short one, posing a question about American Football, isn’t it an oxymoron??

Playing Football? Where are the Feet then?

The very name of the sport has always been very puzzling because the player’s feet(after which we get the name football) are seldom involved in maneuvering the ball.

There may be other ones too but maybe I am not fully aware of them, so I’d invite my readers to please share their knowledge about such oxymora in sports so that we can take this discussion forward.