What City need most…
On Tuesday evening we witnessed one of the great European Cup matches of all time as the free scoring French side Monaco came to Manchester City and the game was a cracker! But we also witnessed something else. It finished 5-3 to City but their defence was caught out time and again as they were split open by Monaco’s Falcao and Silva. City’s Otemendi and John Stones just could not cope with them. The problem is that in defence no one is a commander, a leader, a general. Yaya Toure does his best but he is playing mainly in midfield and is not too quick these days. On came Pablo Zabaleta as a substitute and he took over the defence, steadying them and driving City forward. And that is where the solution lies….the man missing for City is their captain Vincent Kompany who is a born leader, solid and dependent. He controls a game from the back, spraying passes and marshalling the defence. Goalkeepers feel safe behind him. However, talking to City this week I was dismayed to learn from City insiders that Pep Guardiola has doubts about Kompany’s future. The captain has sustained 35 injuries since he joined City in 2008 and Pep thinks he may never recapture his previous form. “Vincent needs time.” said Pep, “When he is fit there is no one better.” Pep sees John Stones as Vincent’s successor however he showed in the game against Monaco that he is not ready to take over yet.
The main man who has the responsibility of employing Arsene Wenger’s replacement at Arsenal - should he leave after this season - is CEO Ivan Gazidis. He has never appointed a manager before because Arsene has been with the Gunners for 20 years however Gazidis knows he must not get his decision wrong. He is aware that he must avoid the fiasco that followed at Manchester United when Sir Alex Ferguson left and David Moyes and Loius Van Gaal failed spectacularly. To assist Gazidis is owner Stan Kroenke and his son Josh who is also a director and holds considerable influence over his father because he is a keen Premiership football fan whereas his father is based more in America. There are four other directors who will generally vote with Gazidis and the Kroenkes. None of the directors want Arsene to go and they have told him that however the 5-1 thrashing by Bayern Munich in the Champions League has left the manager sore and battered mentally and at 67 years old he might decide enough is enough. The have more responsibility than most clubs as Arsene is very involved with transfers and financial matters and club policies. The new manager will have to prove that they can play attractive football, have a successful cv and will give a lot of time to the youth programme at the club. As for Arsene, I have been told that he might favour a job as a national team coach less demanding but equally high profile.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich approved the club to reach out to Frank Lampard this week and offer him an Ambassadorial role for the Blues. However, Frank said he wanted to maintain close contacts with Chelsea - he lives near the Cobham training ground but refused their offer. Frank wants to study and work for his coaching badges so he can go into full time management and also work as a TV pundit.
Jurgen Klopp took his players to the luxury Spanish resort of La Manga and to a first class hotel for five days in preparation for their match against Leicester on Monday and the tough challenge of finishing the season in the top four. The schedule was double training in the mornings and afternoons with a full match practice on Saturday. The manager spent a lot of time pumping the defence with high balls, balls played in from the left and right wing and generally tested every defender given the team’s recent tendency to give away goals. Jurgen said, “First of all, you might think it’s a bit cold for a ‘warm-weather’ training camp, but that’s a good thing because we didn’t want to go somewhere where it’s completely different to England at this moment. We only wanted to change the circumstances a little bit....“I think there’s not a lot of good things to say about having a two-week break in the middle of the season because it means we are not in cup competitions any more, but we have to accept the situation and try to use it...We want to be focused on the work we do on the pitch especially, and of course we’ll use the opportunity to talk about a few things, how you always do in pre-season...Our home training ground at Melwood is a fantastic training ground but we are there for the whole year - since June, since we were in America, we’ve been there every day, so to come out and do a few different things I thought made absolute sense. The club gave us the opportunity to do it, and here we are.” The only player who did not benefit from the training break was Daniel Sturridge who had to return home with a cold virus. “We are ready to face all teams” said Antonio Conte after his Chelsea Blues beat Wolves 2-0 away with Diego Costa answering all his doubters by scoring and celebrating by mimicking wagging tongues with his hands...he was delighted and really up for the game and Conte appreciated that by saying his man was back and firing on all cylinders. Ex-Liverpool and Scotland captain Graeme Souness said recently that the main thing about Chelsea is even when they do not have the ball they still seem in control. Often in games things turn against you and opponents have a good spell but it is during those times that Chelsea never relax and never back away and Souness says that no other team in the Premiership can claim that. With 60 points the Premiership title is Chelsea’s to lose because in the history of the league no team with that amount of points at this stage has not won the title.