Manchester United is becoming the impossible job, according to Patrice Evra. You may have heard that one before. England used to be the impossible job, remember. Then Gareth Southgate came along.
Oldham. That looks pretty impossible right now. Maybe Newcastle, although that will change. Derby, too. But Manchester United? Are you kidding? The club that left Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench on Sunday? The club that could not find room in the starting line-up for Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata, Anthony Martial, Mason Greenwood or Donny van de Beek?
That is waiting for Paul Pogba, Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw and Raphael Varane to come back from injury or suspension? Impossible? That they should currently reside in eighth place might be; or that they are two points behind Wolves. Yet Ralf Rangnick left permanent employment for a temporary managerial position for one simple reason: because any coach with the slightest self-regard looks at Manchester United and licks his lips.
Ex-Manchester United defender Patric Evra said Old Trafford job was ‘impossible’ this week
But how can that be for a team good enough to leave out a player like Cristiano Ronaldo?
They are a fabulously wealthy club with every competitive advantage and a place in the last 16 of the Champions League guaranteed. Come fourth — five points away, with 25 games remaining — and they’ll be pathetically grateful. And that’s beyond capability?
‘You need to play the United way and win,’ said Evra. ‘It’s an almost impossible job.’ No, it isn’t. Every league champion in recent memory has combined winning football and a recognisable style. Even Leicester, even Chelsea with managers as disparate as Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti, or Manchester City with Roberto Mancini and Pep Guardiola.
We can argue that United’s squad lacks balance or has weak areas, but many of their players would walk into any Premier League team bar three. Lingard played 16 games for West Ham and returns there to the sort of reception traditionally reserved for Sir Geoff Hurst.
United’s squad lacks balance, but many of their players would walk into any top flight side
And this is the club United need to hunt down in fourth? The one where Lingard would be considered among their best players — and he can’t even get in United’s team?
If Rangnick is as good as advertised, then coaching is not an impossibility. And that is what United need, just as England did, in the days when they lost direction under managers such as Graham Taylor. A documentary was made about those times. Its title? The Impossible Job.
Yet it did not seem impossible for Terry Venables, who followed Taylor. And it hasn’t proved impossible for the clear-thinking Southgate, whose semi-final and final finishes have been England’s best tournament performances since 1966. Why? Good coaching and good players. It’s not an easy job, but it’s not futile.
Nor is what awaits Rangnick. He will not have much time to prepare for Thursday’s meeting with Arsenal, if that is to be his first game, and Manchester United blew the chance to make a change during the international break. Now he’s approaching a month in which matches come in torrents. So, no, not perfect. But not impossible.
Most managers will lick their lips at the chance to manage United – and new boss Ralf Rangnick could now give them what they need – quality coaching
DELIGHTFUL DEFEAT FOR AGNELLI
Atalanta are the club Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli thinks do not deserve to be in the Champions League. Too new, too small, not enough history.
He felt places should be reserved for the traditional elite.
He cited Roma, presumably because he thought Juventus would never be in need of charity.
Delightfully, at the weekend, Juventus lost 1-0 at home to Atalanta, who are four points behind second-placed AC Milan.
Atalanta beat Juventus on the weekend after the Turin club’s chief Andrea Agnelli said their opponents should not be in the Champions League
Juventus are seventh and seven points adrift of the Champions League spots. Also, they face allegations of artificially inflating the valuations of players, to improve their financial status in the accounts. Agnelli, and five other directors, are being investigated over false accounting, false company reporting and billing for non-existent transactions.
Italy’s stock market regulator and the Italian federation are following the investigation by Turin-based prosecutors. Interesting to see how Agnelli’s take on Financial Fair Play pans out. Meanwhile, we can only wish him well in his pursuit of Atalanta’s richly deserved fourth place.
POTTER SHOULD IGNORE THE BRIGHTON BOO BOYS
Graham Potter shouldn’t be surprised at the boos Brighton received on Saturday night. It is the standard reaction these days if a team disappoint. The past, the performance, are barely taken into account. Lose or drop points at home, and the bird comes close to guaranteed.
Crystal Palace were booed for losing to an improving Aston Villa side at the weekend, although everyone agrees Patrick Vieira is doing a good job. Brighton have the same points after 13 games as Manchester United and Leicester, and fans would have bought that start in a heartbeat before the season.
Graham Potter shouldn’t read too much into Brighton fans booing his side – we live in a social media age where supporters feel their voices must be heard
Yes, it can be argued there have been too many draws of late. Brighton have only lost two games since August — against Manchester City and Aston Villa — but haven’t won in the league since September 19. Then again, they’re Brighton. For a club of their size, however well run, each season contains the potential for relegation.
Yet we live in a social media age where every citizen feels their voice must be heard. So draw at home to Leeds: boo.
For sanity’s sake, Potter would do well not to read too much into it.
A NEW LOW FOR CHINA’S PUPPET
Is there any bigger creep in world sport than International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach?
It shows the high regard in which he is held that a week on from his stage-managed video conference call with Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, few are taking his words as assurance, and the Women’s Tennis Association remains ‘deeply concerned’ about her welfare.
This suggests they see Bach as little more than a government stooge and the IOC as puppets of the Chinese state, with so much money tied up in next year’s Winter Games in Beijing.
It shows the regard in which Thomas Bach is held that a week on from his stage-managed call with Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, few are taking his words as assurance
WTA chief executive Steve Simon has made his own attempts to contact Peng — who has barely been seen since making allegations of sexual misconduct against Zhang Gaoli, former vice-premier of China — so far without success.
Yet Bach was happy to play along, and prop up the idea that she is safe and well and simply chose, after such a devastating revelation, not to pursue it but retreat instead into silence and isolation.
His soft stance on the state-sponsored Russian doping regime was disgraceful enough but this is a new low. Why would he be the only sports administrator capable of contacting Peng? We all know the answer to that.
FOOTBALLERS DON’T LEARN THEIR HOLOCAUST LESSON
What is it about the Holocaust that makes footballers think it is just another noun, like disaster? Carlton Cole is the latest to misuse the term, deploying it to describe a potentially heavy defeat for West Ham at Manchester City.
The Holocaust wasn’t one rotten afternoon, it was a cruelly real event, lasting many years and costing millions of lives. What do they teach in schools these days? Why don’t they teach this?
BEST IN THE WORLD? JORGINHO MIGHT NOT EVEN BE THE BEST PLAYER AT CHELSEA
The only way Jorginho could have won the Ballon d’Or is if they sawed the trophy in two and presented half of it to N’Golo Kante. Chelsea’s performance without Kante at the weekend shows what he brings to that club.
He was man of the match in the Champions League final, man of the tournament in the games leading up to it and, without him — or Mateo Kovacic, who is also having a good season — Jorginho is exposed by the pace and physicality of the Premier League.
Jorginho was in the Ballon d’Or running, but N’Golo Kante was the hero of Chelsea’s season
He won the European Championship with Italy but their World Cup qualifying campaign has been a mess.
Jorginho is a fine player, and very important to club and country, but the best in the world? He’s arguably not even the best at Chelsea.
Amir Khan will fight Kell Brook in February. That’s a headline to provoke great excitement: in 2016.
A further two questions about the Government’s review of football. Why do Gary Neville, and others, talk as if football’s executives were powerless to stop the breakaway league when, in reality, it fell apart within days?
And why, if the Championship is the sixth biggest league in the world, and the strongest second division, is it so poorly monetised that it requires saving by the Premier League?
The proposal to abandon the 3pm Saturday blackout for EFL matches — to secure a better TV deal — is the first sign of the Championship trying to innovate rather than simply take. That’s what is needed.
BLANKET COVERAGE IS TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR
Ken and Brandi Saxton must have been rather surprised to travel 4,500 miles and 30 hours from Dallas, only for Tottenham’s match at Burnley to be called off.
They are made of sterner stuff in the United States. Dallas Cowboys were the away team at the famous Ice Bowl in 1967 at Lambeau Fields against Green Bay Packers which, with the wind-chill factor, was played at -48°F (-44 °C).
The 1948 Championship game between Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Cardinals is also known as the Snow Bowl — because four inches fell in Philadelphia on the day. Despite this, the game went ahead, the Eagles winning 7-0. Then there was the Snowplough Game, in which New England Patriots beat Miami Dolphins 3-0, thanks to a snowplough deployed mid-match to clear a spot for kicker John Smith to score the only points.
The Lancashire blanket scuppered Burnley’s home game against Tottenham – as well as two American fans’ hopes of watching their first match
So they have had worse than was seen at Turf Moor on Sunday. Football, however, is a sport played with the ball primarily on the ground. Gridiron is not… And American sport has tight schedules and a show-must-go-on attitude. If rain delays play in baseball, they wait and finish when they can.
The Philadelphia Phillies game with San Diego Padres scheduled as part of a double-header on July 2, 1993, was actually completed at 4.40am on July 3.
What happened at Burnley, then, was unfortunate. Undersoil heating can melt snow, but not instantly.
The Lancashire blanket would have stopped the ball travelling and made play impractical. Torrential rain will do the same. Yet, this was the first game lost to weather in the Premier League since Boxing Day 2010, more than a decade ago. No consolation to Ken and Brandi but, for a winter sport in northern Europe, that’s a pretty good record.
NO FIX FACTOR IN THE WORLD CUP PLAY-OFFS
At least we know the draw for the final round of World Cup qualifiers was not fixed.
There is no way FIFA would have placed Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal and European champions Italy on a play-off collision course if the ties were pre-arranged.
BEES’ SHIRT GESTURE WILL NEVER CATCH ON
Good news that Brentford will be keeping their home strip for next season, unaltered. Value for supporters, and also a great shirt.
Brentford reached the Premier League and decided to look like Brentford. What vision. It will never catch on.