A REAL HAZARD
IT’S a big week for Chelsea. For me, Newcastle away is the first proper test for Maurizio Sarri – because it’s not the easiest place to go for a manager new to the Premier League.
But bigger, much bigger, is not only whether they keep Eden Hazard (above) this week, but exactly where his head is at when the transfer window closes in Spain.
I know the club has said he’s not going and I know they are suggesting he’s happy with that. But if Real Madrid do make a huge play for him this week, how will that affect his mentality going forward?
Madrid have only made a couple of biggish signings – and that is ominous. One is a keeper, the other an 18-year-old kid from Brazil, who we probably won’t see for a year or two.
They haven’t even spent all the Cristiano Ronaldo money – and haven’t replaced him – and it looks as if Hazard is the ideal signing in that respect. It’s a test for Sarri. He’s had a decent start and his side look as though they are playing some stylish football.
Yet beating Huddersfield and an Arsenal team who will be far better in a few months is not anything to get carried away over.
Sarri looks a thoughtful manager, but he’s never actually won anything.
No trophy in senior football at all.
It’s a tough job he’s inherited already because, with Manchester City, Spurs and Liverpool all looking powerful and making it hard to hit the ground running, it won’t be easy to break that trophy duck.
But if he has Hazard upset that he missed out on a move – then it suddenly becomes much, much harder.
Everyone is throwing everything at the club, and particularly Jose Mourinho, even though he finished second last season, and won two trophies the year before.
Why then, with that record? Well, for me it’s that subtle psychological vibe that is hard to define, but can
mean the difference between success and failure. Let’s call it the fear factor. For many years under Sir Alex Ferguson, United had it.
Teams were beaten before the game started and they had that aura of dominance.
I’d argue it’s not there now... and I know how it works because, for years, Liverpool lost it – and they suffered because of it.
I accept it’s too early to say that will be a defining factor this season.
But I believe teams go into games against Mourinho’s United at the moment, not expecting to win, obviously,
City in English football.
That hasn’t helped in the transfer market. There has been a suggestion United failed there this summer because some big names didn’t want to play for Mourinho.
I don’t believe that, but I can see a situation where United have not adjusted to the reality of their situation. I saw it at Liverpool for years.
Everyone in and around the club I FEEL for Burnley. It seems as though they’ve played about 1,000 games already just to try to get into the group stage of the Europa League... and yet now they’re on the verge of going out. Even worse, it seems to have affected their becomes a vicious circle, because if you don’t attract the top, top players, it’s a bigger struggle to win things. You then have to look at your transfer strategy and plan things differently, maybe sign younger players and look longer term, like Liverpool and Spurs have done – and even City to a certain extent. United seem to only now be getting their head around that, after looking far too much at the quick-fix solution to that problem. If you throw money at
They didn’t play with much panache last season, but still didn’t lose many and still finished second.
Any manager is only as good as the players he has.
That comes back to their transfer policy and the quickfix mentality. Maybe that’s Mourinho’s fault, Ed Woodward’s fault or a bit of both.
Which makes tomorrow night’s Spurs game a big one.
Lose, and there will be more questions... like how hard really did Woodward and United find it to attract players in the summer?