PRE-WORLD CUP VACUUM IS TEDIOUS

D. Ray Morton, 1st June 2014.

The World Cup will be here very soon, finally, amidst fears of unbuilt stadiums

We have entered June and the World Cup will hit our TV screens in eleven days. This period between the end of the domestic football season and the world's biggest international sports event has been downright tedious, however.

Rumour mills have been overloaded and changes are afoot. Possibly the most ridiculous story that has broken out over the past couple of weeks is Yaya Touré's demand for a move away from Manchester City because the club did not acknowledge his birthday. That is one for the ages. An eight year-old could come up with a better excuse and if Touré and his agent do successfully negotiate a mega-bucks move away from the Etihad, City fans will feel both frustration at having lost a great player and the frustration of having egg on their face. Questions will be raised as to why a player like Touré, a freshly-crowned Premier League winner, would flee Manchester despite the riches on offer there. He has flirted with the idea of a return to Barcelona though the Catalan club are unlikely to approach him. Paris St. Germain are the favourites for his signature.

Eden Hazard is not exactly feeling the love at Chelsea right now

Speaking of PSG's attempts to further strengthen their growing empire, Eden Hazard could also be in their cross-hairs. Chelsea's Belgian winger is unsettled at Stamford Bridge due to manager José Mourinho's public announcement that Hazard does not play for the team. A puzzling statement about an extraordinary attacking talent, a future Balon d'Or winner in the making. Could there be some massive clean-up going on behind the scenes at Chelsea? PSG are throwing caution to the wind with their spending but Chelsea are tightening that belt and raking in the cash as evidenced by their swift decision to offload David Luiz to the Parisian giants last month. Are Chelsea forced to sell Hazard for, say, €70m? They are giving the impression that it would a tactical decision which could appease their supporters rather than showing it would be for financial stability. The sale of Hazard would cause waves, however. Bigger waves than a Yaya Touré move considering his age and vast potential. It would also demonstrate that PSG really are on the up and up and Chelsea are stagnating somewhat.

Poor Montolivo. Here is a token "sickening leg-break" snap

Another feature of this pre-carnival vacuum are the World Cup warm up matches. Such drudgery, understandable I guess, but dire to watch all the same. The level of excitement between a late season international friendly and an actual World Cup match is incomparable. These friendlies come at a cost too. Italy have lost Riccardo Montolivo to a horrendous leg break in last night's exhibition against Ireland at Craven Cottage. A huge blow for the azzurri as the AC Milan midfielder was expected to play a key role in their upcoming games against England, Uruguay and Costa Rica.

The only real points of interest so far have been some major managerial appointments. Manchester United have appointed Louis van Gaal, though it is becoming clear that he was not their first choice as the Red Devils sniffed out Borussia Dortmund's Jürgen Klopp and Real Madrid's Carlo Ancelotti before their futures had been determined. Van Gaal will be flung into an arena of high expectations, that is after he is done with the Netherlands' World Cup campaign which features a tough group with defending champions Spain, Chile and Australia.

Much-loved by the Barcelona faithful, how will he do now as a manager in the Camp Nou hot-seat?

Another fascinating appointment is Barcelona's decision to hire ex-player and ex-Barcelona B coach, Luis Enrique. Leaving his role at Celta Vigo, Enrique will bring a more familiar brand of attacking possession football to Camp Nou but it should be interesting to see how his "fitness freak" conditioning systems will rub off on what is a somewhat rattled squad that could not pick up any significant silverware last season. It will also be a key season for Lionel Messi, some having accused him of taking his foot off the gas to save himself for Argentina's World Cup. Can he recapture his status as the world's finest player or will Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo seize the glory again? Winning a World Cup in-between might be just the tonic Messi needs.

With Tottenham Hotspur poaching manager Mauricio Pochettino from Southampton, one of the funnier quotes this week came from Real Madrid's Angel di Maria: "It hurts when you're always doing your best for your club and then you hear that you might be going to Tottenham." Inadvertently humiliating to Spurs, Pochettino will need to give his squad the kick up the backside to make them a serious club again. He has been challenged with providing that holy grail of a top four finish, a familiar tune from Daniel Levy, and the pressure will be on if results do not match expected standards.

So between preposterous big money transfers, broken legs in friendlies and more managerial merry-go-round, we just want to get on with the World Cup at long last. Will the stadiums be up to scratch? Will Brazil triumph as expected? Bring it on for goodness sake.

MOYES MUTINY MOUNTS AFTER MANCHESTER DERBY

MOYES MUTINY MOUNTS AFTER MANCHESTER DERBY

D. Ray Morton, 26th March 2014.

As soon as Yaya Toure fired home Manchester City's third goal in their three-nil away slaying of cross-city rivals Manchester United last night, the home fans parted like the Red Sea and left Old Trafford in their droves. That is, apart from the few stewards asked to guard the "Chosen One" banner attached to the Stretford End in fear of it being ripped down. Anger was the main reaction from United fans in this most woeful of displays in the 167th Manchester derby.

"I take responsibility. I have to be the one who plays them, picks them
 and that is what it is. I think there are a lot of really good players there,
 some can play better, but there are a lot of really good players in the squad,
 a lot of international players and players who I think on their day
 can be a match for most players."

David Moyes' reaction post-match revealed desperation. His absolute failure to motivate his squad is a gaping inadequacy. In football, struggling managers are often accused of "losing the dressing room". This is not so much the case with Moyes as he maybe never had the dressing room in the first place. Sir Alex Ferguson sold the fans on Moyes' appointment but the same cannot be said for senior players who simply have not performed for the 50 year-old Scot. This is the same Scot that Tottenham Hotspur once considered hiring before opting for Andre Villas-Boas feeling that the young Portuguese essentially had more to offer on the basis of having actually won something despite being younger than several of the first-team squad players.

If Moyes was to be the long-term appointment, Sir Alex's old backroom staff would be there to bed him in, that is unless you terminate all of their contracts as Moyes did in an attempt to bring in his own people and feel independent in his role. The poor starts in either half last night demonstrated that Moyes' team talks are not working. Edin Dzeko had given City the lead after 43 seconds. He bagged another just eleven minutes after the restart.

"I just think we never came out of the blocks. You prepare the players,
 you warm them up, you do all the things to have them ready
 but we just never started. It gave them a real big lift to get a goal so early on."

The game was a true walk in the park for City. They never had to lift a gear. Fernandinho spoke of how easily they beat them earlier on in the season and this was no different. Nasri hit the post during their first attack and Dzeko knocked in the rebound.

City's second came off a Nasri corner. Rio Ferdinand's hatchet marking job on Dzeko meant the big Bosnian striker had plenty of space to volley home his second of the evening.

Yaya Toure, who added the third, ensured an end to the home fans' attempt at a  loyalty sing-song.

Moyes felt the hostility all night. At one point during the game, he was accosted by a furious fan who shook his fists at the United manager just several feet away from the dug-out.

Moyes looked to try and ignore it but it's rather obvious he would have heard all of this angry fans sentiments from that close difference. A cringesome moment if there ever was one.

Fans outside the ground chipped in on the dissatisfaction also. This one enraged fan, interviewed by United online fanzine FullTimeDEVILS , dubbed Moyes as "the biggest fool in Manchester" as April Fools' Day approaches:

The rest of the season will be a right struggle for United and Moyes from here on in. They face Aston Villa at home this weekend and considering how awful their home form has been, there will be no easy matches in that regard, playing in front of their evermore frustrated fans. Bayern Munich come afterwards and even the most optimistic of followers can only see that as a write-off now. The defending European Champions just secured their second Bundesliga in a row last night and will be licking their lips at the prospect of thrashing a disorientated United. Once that European campaign goes down like a lead balloon, meaningless league matches will remain, a managerial nightmare in terms of motivating already demotivated players. I still see Moyes lasting until some stage after the summer but it should be fascinating to see how he deals with bad results before then. How far can the outrage go and how long will that banner stay on the Stretford End?