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Will Mourinho finish what Hughes has started at Manchester City?

Matt Hughes
 
José Mourinho caused a storm, as only he can, in this newspaper last week by fluttering his eyelids in the direction of the Barclays Premier League before trying to reassure his domestic audience of his desire to stay in Italy. But despite the subsequent outcry, more squalls should be expected over the coming months if Inter Milan’s Champions League campaign goes awry.
 
Inter lead the ultra-competitive group F by one point, but defeat by Barcelona, the holders, at the Nou Camp tomorrow night could leave them struggling to qualify for the knockout stage.
 
Mourinho has won Serie A by a street in both his seasons in Italy, but the Champions League is the club’s primary target, so an early elimination could cause him to look over his shoulder. The coach made a habit of flirting with other clubs even during his successful period at Chelsea, so several Premier League executives should prepare themselves for intriguing conversations with third parties.

Luke Young had little to gain from England call-up

Matt Hughes

The only surprise regarding Luke Young’s decision to reject an England call-up yesterday is that it was regarded as a surprise at all. The Aston Villa defender had his own compelling personal reasons for retiring from international following the tragic death of his brother in August, but his decision was also down to a recurring sense of doubt that many players on the fringes of international football could empathise with. What did he have to gain?

Young won seven caps, all under Sven-Goran Eriksson, during a stop-start England career, though as the last of those was four years ago in a match also featuring Paul Konchesky he knew in his heart of hearts that his time had been and gone. The 30-year-old was called up by Fabio Capello for the friendly defeat in Spain earlier this year, but never came close making an appearance, after which he concluded that he may as well call it a day. Why, he thought to himself, should he put himself through the additional training sessions, wearying travel and needless separation from family and friends for so little tangible reward?

Expect Rafael Benitez to point finger at England

Matt Hughes

In the unlikely event that Rafael Benitez loses his job over the next few weeks – with the ink on a five-year contract barely dry, Liverpool cannot afford to sack him even if they wanted to – the Spaniard could be forgiven for taking out his displeasure on Fabio Capello. The pair have a difficult history, which will only have been exacerbated by the injury Steven Gerrard sustained on international duty two weeks ago. That has denied Liverpool of their captain during a crucial period in the season. The time-honoured club v country row is set to re-surface.

Benitez was relatively relaxed when Gerrard withdrew from England’s squad to face Belarus last week with a groin problem, but his attitude will have changed considerably in the intervening eight days. The 29-year-old missed Liverpool’s Premier League defeat by Sunderland at the weekend and could manage only the first 25 minutes of their Champions League loss to Lyons before hobbling off on Tuesday, which has left him struggling to face Manchester United at Anfield on Sunday. Without their inspirational midfield player Liverpool have slumped to successive defeats. If they break an unwanted 56-year record of five straight losses on Sunday, their Premier League title hopes will effectively be over for another season.

Omitting Crouch from World Cup squad would be a scandal

Matt Hughes

Being a mild-mannered individual he is unlikely to trash the manager's office or embark on a drunken rampage around the nearest golf course, but if Peter Crouch stays at home next summer it will be the biggest World Cup selection scandal since Paul Gascoigne was controversially left out by Glenn Hoddle in 1998. The Tottenham Hotspur striker simply has to go to South Africa.

Gascoigne's subsequent decline - and the emergence of Paul Scholes and David Beckham - ultimately vindicated Hoddle's decision to drop Gazza on the grounds of his poor fitness and even poorer attitude, but it did not feel like that at the time. Gascoigne's omission divided a nation that 11 years on is still fascinated by his increasingly disturbing exploits, with romantics everywhere convinced that the then Middlesbrough midfield player need only to get onto the pitch to rediscover his former glories, and the skeptics correctly suspecting he was already washed up.

Avram Grant's poor persona belies his expertise

 

Matt Hughes

As Paul Hart looks over his shoulder, he is unlikely to agree, but Avram Grant could prove to be Portsmouth’s salvation. With his halting delivery, limited experience at the highest level and patronage by some of the richest men in the game it is easy to mock the former Chelsea manager, although that should not detract from his knowledge and expertise in a sport he has studied intently since he was a teenager.

Michael Johnson a victim of City's ambitions

Matt Hughes

The sight of a rather portly Michael Johnson almost rolling onto the pitch for the final minute of Manchester City’s 3-1 win over West Ham United on Monday night served as a reminder that the club’s new-found wealth also has its downside, even allowing for their outstanding start to the season. Johnson, after all, was the shining jewel in City’s youth academy, who as a teenager two years ago played a starring role in a shock win over Manchester United and appeared destined for great things.

Sol Campbell's departure leaves Sven-Goran Eriksson under fire

Matt Hughes

Sol Campbell’s sudden departure from Notts County has revealed the truth behind an age-old aphorism pertaining to the world of business, and everyday life in general. If a proposal looks too good to be true then it almost certainly is.

Due to Campbell’s reclusive nature and the mystery surrounding the club’s Swiss owners the real reasons behind his decision to walk on a five-year contract after a single match may never be fully known, but it is a decent bet they had little to do with his inability to cope with the privations of life in League Two. More relevant is likely to have been the contents of his first pay packet.

Fabio Capello must make every England player count

 

Matt Hughes

As he sits down to compile his World Cup squad over the coming weeks and months Fabio Capello should keep coming back to one question above all others: will this particularly player help England to win the competition? The World Cup is no place for passengers, other than the WAGS of course, as Sven-Goran Eriksson discovered to his cost three years ago by picking a horribly unbalanced squad that offered him very few options as the competition progressed.

A glance back at Eriksson’s squad quickly reveals some of his errors, as many of the players selected may as well have been in Germany on holiday, with almost one quarter of the squad not kicking a ball in anger through the entire competition. Reserve goalkeepers often find themselves as the footballing equivalent of net bowlers – so the non-involvement of David James and Scott Carson was understandably – but that does not explain the wasted journeys of Wayne Bridge, Jermaine Jenas and Theo Walcott. If Eriksson did not think they had a contribution to make then why were they selected in the first place?

Capello knows that Owen must go to South Africa

Matt Hughes

Fabio Capello is nothing if not inscrutable, so his refusal to bow to the growing band of opinion calling for Michael Owen to be re-called to the England squad comes as no surprise.

In keeping with his view that international football requires its participants to have demonstrated form and fitness for their clubs over a considerable period of time Capello will keep Owen on the sidelines for the foreseeable future, but would be foolish to ignore him forever. England are not blessed with so many resources that a player who has scored 40 goals in 89 games for his country - many of them against some of the best defences in the world - can be carelessly cast aside.

Arsenal are flying but they still have plenty to prove

Matt Hughes

Arsene Wenger is refusing to get carried away by Arsenal’s excellent start to the season, and for a very good reason. Although mightily impressive in different ways his side’s comfortable away wins over Everton and Celtic prove absolutely nothing.

The temptation amongst Arsenal fans to scream “I told you so” at their many detractors and bombard the various phone-ins with complaints that their heroes have been widely underestimated should be resisted. Arsenal’s strengths have been evident for all to see this season and do not need to be so aggressively advertised, though more significantly their weaknesses have not yet been exposed, as both Everton and Celtic lacked the class to do so.

In truth very little has changed at the Emirates Stadium this summer, and not just because Wenger has chosen to add only one player to his squad despite possessing more than ample funds. With the rub of the green and when the mood takes them Arsenal have always been capable of producing breathtaking football – arguably the best in the Premier League – and fortune has certainly favoured them so far this season. Everton’s defence was a shambles sidetracked by internal wrangling, while Celtic conceded two of the unluckiest goals you will see anywhere this season.

In some respects Tuesday’s win at Celtic Park was the more impressive of the two, as Arsenal had to contend with a real physical challenge from committed and coherent hosts in a cauldron-like atmosphere. Even such an impressive show of fortitude does not represent the turning of a mythical corner however, as despite the stereotype the days of Arsenal being a soft-touch away from home are long since past. Not since Sam Allardyce and an army of assistants stalked the corridors of the Reebok Stadium in Bolton have Arsenal been easily bullied.