Managerial musings: Arsenal’s English bias, Mourinho set for Barcelona, Bilic or Blanc for Liverpool?
Congratulations to Matthew Upson and David Bentley on their deserved call-ups to Fabio Capello’s England squad. It cannot have been easy to rebuild their confidence after having their dreams of making it at Arsenal crushed by a perceived anti-English bias from the manager.
Arsene Wenger denies that any such preference for foreign talent exists of course, but the statistics are stacking up against him now. Of course, good enough for England is not necessarily good enough for Arsenal, but a quick scan of the current Gunners squad will tell you that both of these Highbury rejects would command first team shirts right now. Your loss Arsene.
Word on the street is that Jose Mourinho’s next job will be in Barcelona with the Catalunyan giants going full steam ahead for the ex-assistant manager and interpreter now that the La Liga title is gone.
Going nine points behind Real Madrid and playing some truly uninspiring football has empowered the Barcelona bigwigs to send an SOS to the Special One’s Setubal doorstep no matter what happens in the Champions League - following a trend set by Real. Their great rivals have booted out the likes of Fabio Capello, Vicente Del Bosque and Fabio Capello (again) in similar circumstances without any great uproar from the fans in the past.
Who is the up-and-coming, flavour-of-the month, European super coach that will be on all the forward-thinking middle of the road Premiership clubs (and Liverpool’s ?) wanted lists this summer ? Step forward Laurent Blanc, the bespectacled ex-Barcelona, Marseille, Inter and Man Utd defender who has taken Bordeaux to within three points of perennial Ligue 1 champions Lyon after seven months in charge at Stade Chaban Delmas.
Blanc has integrated some questionable foreign buys of the previous manager into a workmanlike French outfit that finished sixth last term and turned them into title challengers – oh and he’s got David Bellion scoring as well! Speaking four languages will give him plenty of options when the time comes to leave the proving ground of French football for a bigger playground, but what terrific irony if he crosses swords with Slaven Bilic again some day.
The Croatian will be forever linked to Blanc for the shameful simulation which cost Lolo his place at the 1998 World Cup final. And Bilic is actually going to be the number one managerial target for Premiership clubs this summer once his work with Croatia is done.
Written by Simon Barlow, a professional sports writer who blogs about football betting at Betfair.
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Discussion - 9 Responses
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Don’t mean to sound supercilious, but I don’t think your Barca/Real managerial analogy quite makes sense.
Real sacked a manager for winning the League and failing in Europe - twice in the last few years, now I come to think of it - not the other way round.
Deschamps is hotter property than Blanc: Blanc has taken over a decent squad and is doing fairly well with it. The reduced gap between Lyon and Bordeaux is evidence more of Lyon’s decline - the bane of having to sell one’s best players every single season is finally getting to them; they’ve released pretty much the world’s best midfield in the last few years (Essien, Diarra, Malouda).
Neither Bentley nor Upson would get into the main Asenal first team. They are not good enough for first selection. I’s as simple as that, they are no loss to Arsenal. Who would select Bently in front of van Persie and Adebayor and Upson in front of Gallas and Toure? They would make good first replacements but neither would accept that. All footballers eventually reach their real level and playing as regulars for mid-table teams is their level.
F
I absolutely concur with Farmer’s commments
Rob, you don’t sound super silly. You are right in what you say - Real got rid of Capello (x2) and Del Bosque after winning the league titles in 97, 03 and 07. My point was just that titles (whether Euro or La Liga) do not guarantee the coaches position. We will see won’t we if Rijkaard wins the Champions League this year.
Farmer - Arsenal fans must know that Toure is in Africa now and injured ? I would think Upson gets in the team ahead of Senderos and Djourou no ? And Bentley is still a right midfielder and better than Eboue.
Anti-english? was that why ashley cole took the place of sylvinho? if they are good enough they will play. Arsenal have just signed a 15 year old englishman, i’m sure we would sign more englishman if players like defoe weren’t valued at the same price as better players like Eduardo.
Yaaaawwwnn…
Oh what? Somebody is talking about Wenger’s ‘anti-English’ bias again eh? Huh. Must be a reeeaaal slow news day…
Lol Spiral!!
Farmer, do you know anything about football? Bentley is a winger, not a striker and he would command a first team place in just about every team in the PL (exception Man Utd of course).
Andrei… If you think Bentley would command a place on the right side of Arsenal’s midfield you clearly don’t watch Arsenal very much. With a starting 11 fit, Hleb is first choice on the right and I don’t think Bentley would move him. I have heard rumours Barcelona are interested in Hleb, I don’t hear Bentley’s name being thrown around with interest from top clubs, I wonder why?
No doubt, as a squad member Bentley would be a great asset. Is he good enough to start week in week out - I don’t know. Wenger obviously didn’t think so and we are currently top of the league, so how can I argue with that?