A Common Fan’s Sports Diary

By his own admission Jose Mourinho isn’t happy in Italy. He is itching to either return to his beloved England or satiate his ego further by taking charge of the biggest club of them all – Real Madrid.

The Champions League will give the ‘Special One’ the perfect platform to make a pitch for the Spanish job.

His biggest challenge in the Champions League semis would be to rein in Lionel Messi and shackle the free-flowing Barcelona attack. This is a prospect which no manager in Europe relishes.

But if Mourinho can manage to do that, and I wouldn’t bet against him pulling off this almost impossible feat, then Florentino Perez would walk to his door step to sign him. It is another matter that the door would be guarded by Massimo Moratti himself.

The Real Madrid president isn’t too pleased with his current manager and would be tired of the sight of Messi scoring yet another hat trick and the sounds of the experts singing Barcelona’s praises over and over again.

Signing the world beater that Mourinho is, could well be the final and most crucial piece in world beating squad that Perez has assembled.

On the flip side, if Mourinho’s side is overrun by the Barcelona juggernaut, then he can kiss his Real Madrid dreams goodbye. He will still remain the “Special One”, but not special enough for Perez and Real Madrid. They have not time for losers, especially those humbled by their bitter rivals.

Jose always loves a challenge. The make or break nature of the Barca clash will bring out the best in him. Or will it be the worst.

To be a BIG Club Man City first need a BIG Manager. Like one of these guys

When Jose Mourinho went to Inter, the likes of Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard were ready to go join him.

When Luis Felipe Scolari came to Stamford Bridge, Deco and Bosingwa followed

As soon as Carlo Ancelotti became manager of Chelsea, rumours of Kaka and Pirlo joining the Blues started doing the rounds

In Mark Hughes’ reign at Man City, the only player willing to come to Eastlands purely because of the manager has been Roque Santa Cruz.

See the difference.

Forget tactical acumen and man management skills, Mark Hughes is light years away from the likes of Mourinho, Scolari and Ancelotti, when it comes to having the persona and the resume to attract big name players to come and play for them.

In the case of Man City this becomes an even bigger handicap because they are a second rung club – not big enough in their own right for the big names – a club which for all its riches has managed to sign just a single world-class player; and that guy supposedly thought he was joining Man United and often appears to be disenchanted at the club. The club has suffered the humiliation of having its overtures for the likes of Kaka and Buffon turned down in spite of tabling bids which would have dwarfed previous transfer records. And that too in today’s recessionary times.

You can argue that Mourinho, Scolari and Ancelotti can attract these players only because they have coached them previously and the superstars are very comfortable playing for them again. But that is exactly the point that we are trying to make.

Big time players want to move to a club primarily for two reasons – either because of the club’s name or because of the star power of the other players playing for the club. Man City have neither. They are the poor cousins of Man United, have never won anything and I don’t know any super stars who are dying to rub shoulders with the likes of Stephen Ireland and Richard Dunne.

They cannot change their history or their stature overnight. And they don’t even have European football to offer.

As for raising the quality of their players, that is exactly what City are trying to do in the first place -they are caught in a classic catch-22 situation. Until, they get the first lot of quality players, other big names are not going to join.

That brings us back to our original argument now that we have exhausted all the other options.

The most sure shot way of getting the first lot of superstars is to target the ones who are willing to move with their manager. And the easiest way of doing that is by getting a manager who has managed a clutch of big name players. Once City have their manager and their first set of big names, the others will automatically follow. They will be assured in the knowledge that this club is now on the move in the right direction.

Additionally having a big name manager helps in keeping the inflated egos of the superstars in check. Do we have any evidence to believe that Mark Hughes can handle the tantrums and mood swings of players like Didier Drogba or Cristiano Ronaldo or Zlatan Ibrahimovic? Especially after having seen Robinho toy with him on a regular basis.

That leaves us with one last question.

How hard will it be to get a world class manager?

Not too hard at all.

There are scores of great managers around. In addition to big bucks, which is quite an incentive in itself, City also offer any manager a fresh challenge, a complete free hand to run things and an opportunity to build a world beating club. Great managers have fallen for far less.

It is difficult to understand the reluctance of the Abu Dhabi Sheikhs in parting with Mark Hughes. Even from a purely footballing standpoint, he has fared worse than his predecessor Sven – Goran Eriksson and that too with a far bigger budget.

Time is running out fast. Ideally City should have moved into the top 6 in the 2008-09 premiership season and put on a good show in the Europa League to establish their credentials as a club growing in stature. That would have helped in attracting big time talent. Now they are hopelessly running from one agent to another, chequebook in hand. They will end up signing a bunch of mediocre names or some talented malcontents, much like their efforts in the January transfer window. With Florentino Perez back at Real Madrid and Chelsea looking to start afresh under Ancelotti, the bidding war for big names is going to be hotly contested.

Man City with Mark Hughes doesn’t have a chance to compete with these big boys.

That is unless they decide to get a big boy of their own.

The British Bulldog - back in control

The appointment of Fabio Capello was a telling blow to the pride of British football – a nation which once prided itself on having invented and then taught the game to the world had fallen on really bad times –so much so that they had no option but to depend on a foreigner to manage their national side. They had had a foreigner previously in Eriksson but the situation was far more desperate this time. A far cry from the days when British managers where much sought after.

The decline had already been evident in the domestic game – 3 of the top 4 clubs in the English premiership have been managed by foreigners for quite some time now. And others like Tottenham had also joined the fray. Considering the multi-cultural nature of the premiership, a fair sprinkling of foreigners is expected in the managerial ranks but suddenly no British manager seemed to be contending for the top jobs – in England or elsewhere.

The rot has been stemmed in 2008 and now the good old British manager is back in business. It started with the renaissance of Fulham under Roy Hodgson. And then Harry Redknapp showed with Tottenham that the British still knew some tricks that the Spanish (Juande Ramos) didn’t. The good showing continued with Joe Kinnear and Newcastle and although it is still early days, Blackburn already looks a different side under Big Sam Allardyce.

All of them truly epitomize what has traditionally been the strength of the British manager – their bulldog ways. They might not know the fancy tricks of modern football and lack the technical flair of continental managers but are tactically sound and know how to rally the men and rough it out. That most of the younger British managers like Roy Keane and Paul Ince were hopelessly bad is a corollary of the bulldog theory – quite obviously this style cannot be learnt in the coaching classroom – it comes with years of learning on the job. And hence the fledgling managers like Keane and Ince, who were still not fully versed in the good old British way, struggled miserably. Occasionally there will be someone like Glenn Hoddle – a Britisher but a manager with flair and technical nous. These creatures are as rare as a British footballer with full of wizardry and brilliant technical skill.

And that works for the national team too. Think of the last few successful British managers – old fogies Bobby Robson and Terry Venables.

It might not be the biggest story of 2008 in English football but this year has definitely seen a successful return of the good old- fashioned British manager.