So Jose Mourinho has announced that he is to return to England and the Premier League when he leaves Real Madrid and while he may deny that he plans to replace Sir Alex Ferguson when he eventually retires at Manchester United, consensus is growing that the “Special One” will take up the reins at Old Trafford.
With all the attention on Jack Wilshere’s return to first team action and rightly so after 14 months without being seen anywhere near a football pitch, it’s somewhat gone under the radar that playing in the same Arsenal under-21 match at West Brom having indeed returned in last week’s league cup victory over Coventry was Emmanuel Frimpong.
With all the furore Sergio Aguero has caused by saying that foreign players are the victim of domestic player bias from referees in this country, Sir Alex Ferguson has emerged from his lair to vent his feelings on the matter.
Aiden McGeady remains one of the enigmas of British football. Lauded in his days at Celtic for his twinkling, twirling, effervescent and goal-laden wing play in the Scottish Premier League, McGeady was judged to be one of the best prospects to have come out of the Celtic academy in years.
While Manchester City’s defensive problems and particularly Roberto Mancini’s inability to settle on a consistent partner for skipper Vincent Kompany have grabbed the headlines, City’s striking problems have been ignored somewhat. To be frank, to suggest that there are any “problems” is a bit far-fetched. City do often look capable of scoring at will and possess four top-level strikers in Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez, Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko.
Today the news was announced that ex-Wigan, Fulham and Hull player Jimmy Bullard had retired from football with immediate effect just five weeks into his spell at MK Dons.
Everton continued their superb start to the Premier League season by dissecting a far too open Southampton side at Goodison Park to move above Manchester United into second place in the table, just three points off league leaders Chelsea. Indeed, if the Blues had fallen to defeat at Arsenal earlier in the day, then the Toffees remarkably could have been sitting pretty at the summit of the Premier League after six games.
Modern footballers are often castigated for being mercenaries, professional, money driven and ego-centric with their sole motivation primarily being the advancement of their own self rather than engaging in so-called sportsmanship.