Economic Tsunami: Oil was the Key Factor

Economic Tsunami: Oil was the Key Factor

The world failed to realise this, it was all about a Tsunami. Tsunami is a big wave that raises the sea level very high and travel far distance and submerges or sallow the costal regions, islands etc., and while return, the same wave will sweep aside the land with a devastating effect. I am not talking about the Tsunami happened in Indonesia which created havoc in South and South East Asian countries. Western countries has developed early warning system for such Tsunami, which helps at-least common man to flee from low lands. It generally provides enough time for countries to do their rescue operations.

Here I am discussing about a silent tsunami, which didn’t kill anybody directly but it is capable to create havoc all around the world. Financial tsunami defeated all kinds of early warning systems and started affecting each and every corner of the world now. I am sticking with one factor here to define the effect of that tsunami. It is Oil. This oil tsunami started long back, may be in March 2003 when US invaded Iraq, and slowly it travelled all around the world and saw the seeds of economic imbalance. In 2004, the average of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) future oil price was 41.5 US dollar. So, one can say, this tsunami approximately started its journey in 2005 December because from January to November, the average price was 56.5 USD per barrel and in December it raised to 60.5 USD/B. In 2006, it slowly raised and by the end of 2007, it formed the arch of proper tsunami and raised further, crossed 100 $ mark and moved forward. By July, the oil price reached in its all time high with 147 USD/B.

Economists and oil business experts analysed all factors leading to this price hike and come out with different arguments. I am not evaluating any of such arguments but looking into the process, the way it raised and how it affected and what it is in the present condition. Blame game was going on between West and East powers or United States and Asian giants. Oil cartel OPEC also got its share in the blame game, strictly on production matters. Still, very few people properly realised the devastating effect of this price hike and raised the alarm in time.

Interestingly, none of the share markets in the world predicted or projected its affect in proper way. Nobody said that there is some malfunction happening in the worlds banking economy. Everybody was busy to project the economic growth of China and India along with other traditional European and American markets. Very few discussed about the financial irregularities happening in the stock market and the real causes of the price hike of oil. Nobody bothered to see the impact of oil price hike as a whole to the world economy and every one discussed about their own interested areas related to the hike. Some projected that Iraq war and instability in Arabian Gulf area is the root cause of this problem, many others reiterated that it was all about the greedy attitude of OPEC countries to enjoy windfall gains through price hike. Main argument regarding this was about the high demand created by the fast growing Asian countries China and India. All these arguments were true in some level but none of them looked beyond it. Very few tried to look into the cracking foundation of the biggest economy of the world, the United States. Very few discussed about the money flow towards the speculation market of Oil and from where it comes.

Problems of US economy were a very good selling item in the cold war period. The pulp production of erstwhile Soviet Union talked a lot about it before it collapsed because of its financial burden. In early 1990s, one Indian origin economist predicted about the collapse of US economy, if my memory is correct, it was Ravi Batra. After that, the world has changed a lot. Several new countries emerged; political map of the world was redrawn several times, Kuwait was annexed and freed, Osama kicked on the wrong place of United States, so Afghanistan was attacked, Saddam Husain lost the war and was hanged, Bush fabricated an electoral victory and repeated it after four years, and now they elected Obama to correct history. All these time, oil was politically a very significant factor and behind all cases of political instability, one can see the presence of oil factor.

As I said, the oil tsunami raised to its peak in July this year by touching 147 USD/B, then the world saw the curve of price started climbing down. If we look it from far, we can see that the tsunami tide of oil, which started in March 2003, took six years to reach to its peak level. But, as like tsunami, the major climb happened in its last stage only, that high tide raised its level from $ 100 to 147 in just six month time this year. By the time, entire world experienced its worst effects through raising prices of food commodities, energy supplies, services etc. Inflation hit the world economy hardly. Each and every country faced economic crisis due to inflation and measures taken by financial exchequers of countries affected the livelihood of common people.

Then, all of a sudden, the hell broke down. The media started bringing out the devastating effect of sub-prime crises in US. Yes, the news on sub-prime lending crisis was there in the media for quiet sometime but nobody expected its irresistible effects on world economy. Once, the media appeared with the stories of bankruptcy suits of big banks in US, the world started thinking about the economic security. Though the oil tsunami took nearly 6 years time to reach all time high of $147 per barrel, it took less than two months time to come down to more than half of its price. In September it scaled down the 100 dollar mark and by the end of October, it reached further down at $ 65 per barrel.

It is true that the public memory is too short. Now nobody is discussing about the price hike of oil but debating on the financial crisis which broke down the stoke exchanges all around the world. World over, the share prices are melting down, many companies filed pauper suit and expecting financial support from their respective treasuries. Few months back, those who fiercely fought against the involvement of ‘state’ in financial matters are arguing for the intervention of state to stabilise the market. But what happened to the oil hike? OPEC is having rounds and rounds of meeting to stabilise the oil price by cutting down the production. Once again, the basic theory of economics is back in lime light –the demand –supply theory. If it is true, what and where things went wrong?

Here, I am emphasising my finding that the Oil Price Hike was a Tsunami. It started slowly, rose up as a very powerful tide, gathered momentum in its journey, peaked at 2008 July and started its return in 2008 September. It was a virtual tsunami, so death rate is very minimal but the damage it created is phenomenal. Melting in Wall Street send panic messages to all stoke markets and every country is experiencing severe financial crisis. First, it was inflation, so the countries tried to arrest it by hiking the banking interest rates. Now, the crisis is appearing in the form of credit crunch. Flow of money is very much disrupted and now the governments are forced to reduce the interest rates on various loans. It is very difficult to connect all these developments with the oil tsunami. But I still believe, it was a tsunami and it created havoc on world economy and it is continuing.

(I accept this is an immature way of writing, and i am very much aware that posting it without editing is a crime. So, you can decide the punishment.)

Arsenal Ladies’ Team Will Face Tottenham at White Heart Lane Next Time

Though I am not supporting the managerial changes, which happens every year in Tottenham Hot Spurs, the new manager Harry Redknapp did the right thing in his first game in charge. It is a great achievement for a team like Spurs who are lying in the bottom lines of the league table. Winning a London derby is almost equal to winning the league for Tottenham fans and from the frustrating two months, they made a wonderful achievement by equalizing Arsenal at Emirates.

Yesterdays comment from an Arsenal player makes me to write this. Though I am not a Spurs supporter, but after reading those arrogant words, I felt that everyone who loves football should support them for at least on this derby day. If they won the match, it would have been the best reply to the arrogance of Arsenal young boys. The way these boys underestimated the quality of their opponents shows their immaturity and arrogance. They forgot the fact that Tottenham Hot Spurs team have more better and experienced players than Arsenal squad have and it was just a matter of patience to fulfill the potential.

They first team players in the Spurs team are much more experienced than Arsenal players and most of them proved their quality in international level too. In normal case, the players will learn lessons from defeats in past and Arsenal boys failed to do that. They very badly lost to Tottenham Hot Spurs in last year Carling Cup campaign for a score line of 6-1. They may say, it was their second team or Carling Cup is not a big thing for a club like Arsenal, who failed to win a single trophy for last 3 years. But, those who watched the premier league derby hosted by Arsenal just after their Carling Cup defeat will remember how Arsenal managed to win it with a slender margin. Those people who are neutral can see that the there is not big gap in quality of both teams. Ramos did a wonderful work last year but due to other reasons, he failed to repeat it this season and he was sacked. I will never support the approach of Spurs management in dealing their team managers and still believes that it was the management’s problem rather than Ramos’s to sell their best players without finding proper replacements. Still, his findings were really good for any team and many of them were outstanding in their position.

Lucky Redknapp, who took over the control of the team from Ramos, really knew what is lacking in the team. Ramos was not good in communication with players, may be the language barrier, and failed to motivate them from the initial failures. He knew that the quality of squad is good enough to cope up with any team in the league and it is just matter of time to gel up as a strong team. Harry Redknapp, who have huge experience in managing good number of teams in English Premier League itself, especially those who with less money to spend, got a golden offer from a big club like Tottenham. It is a huge challenge for him but his two major skills –communication and motivation –are enough to create wonders for any team. In fact, from Ramos, Redknapp inherited a strong team with high quality players, who are looking for motivation to face their eternal opponents Arsenal at right time.

Arsene Wenger, the manager of Arsenal team also showed his arrogance by challenging the decisions of Spurs management in managerial change. In fact, he forgot the fact that the same Spurs team created havoc against Arsenal last year and it was just a matter of time to bounce back. Wenger never learn from his past. I remember, just before the year of their invincible season, he made a statement that his Arsenal team is good enough to the final match of the season without losing to any team in the league. Sir Alex Ferguson challenged it and defeated them in the last month of that season and eventually Arsenal lost their first place and championship to Manchester United. Then Sir Alex said, such immature comments will bounce back and will give a kick on the tooth from where it originated. Same thing repeated now. The pre match comments of Wenger and his players against Tottenham are forcing them to swallow them back. I hope, at least this time they will learn from their failure.

Now, it is up to the Tottenham Hot Spurs and Harry Redknapp to keep up the spirit and come out of their bottom position and fight for top six. They proved that they can come back from huge deficit, especially against highly spirited Gunners, so they can repeat such show against other big guns too. They have to reinforce the quality of the team in some segments and January transfer window will provide them a better chance.

Cesc Fabregas, who one of the senior members of Arsenal Squad made the comment that his London rivals Tottenham will struggle to beat Arsenal Ladies side. It was too childish comment from an experienced player like Fabregas. In fact, he forgot many factual truths before making such comment. After making regular appearance in the first team of Arsenal, Cesc Fabregas’s Gunners never won any trophy so far. But, the case of Arsenal ladies is different. Though they are founded twenty years back, their performance chart is much better than Arsenal men. They have better history in Europe than men Guns and won their first UEFA trophy in 2006-07 season. In such a short span of career, they won 10 our of 15 league titles and Women’s FA cup and same number of league cup. So, Fabregas should think twice before making such comments and compare who has better graph of career whether it is Arsenal men or women? It is not me, the Arsenal ladies should stand up against such derogatory comments and comparisons. In other way, his comment is justifying the quality and form of present Arsenal men and confirm that their ladies are superior and they can do much better than men’s team against good teams of Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Villa, Tottenham etc.

Tottenham’s Woes: Blame it on Sir Alex

There may be hundreds of reasons for the down fall of the premier league club Tottenham Hot Spurs in this season. For me, their collapse started in 2006 summer and Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has a big hand in this downfall. There is nothing wrong with Sir Alex. He did it in the best interest of his club and made the maximum out of it. Tottenham has to learn a lot from Sir Alex and his way of doing things. Sir Alex proves that the concept of team building is not just about splashing money in the transfer market and changing managers every year like Spurs. At the end, finding is, it is not players or manager who is letting Spurs down, and it is the Club management who doesn’t have a proper future policy, is derailing its progress.

At present they are in the bottom low of the league table with just two points in hand and struggling to show the strength of the squad. In such condition, every club will look into the performance of the manger. In last year October, after finishing in the 5th place for two consecutive seasons, Spurs faced the same situation and sacked their then manager –Martin Jol and replaced him with successful Spanish manager Juande Ramos from Sevilla. This move made an initial success and Spurs managed to win the league cup by defeating Chelsea in the finals. Ramos took them to 11th position in his last campaign. This year, the Spurs is repeating the same show of last year. Martin Jol managed more draws than Ramos by this time, still he lost his place. Ramos, who rebuilt the team with better players is struggling to keep his job in White Heart Line. What happened to Tottenham Hot Spurs? Where things went wrong?

English Premier League is nearly 15 years old and most probably the Spurs holding the worst record of changing managers. They tried more than 10 mangers in the last 15 years and one manager, David Pleat, worked as interim manager for three terms. Apart from Martin Jol’s two seasons, the club was positioned in the middle of the league table. Money was not a big problem in White Heart Lane. Mangers were supported by the club management with money. Jol spent a good amount on young players and developed a good team to challenge the top clubs. In his first full season, Tottenham reached in the fifth position in the league and unfortunately they lost 4th place and Champions League chance that time. His players were properly jelled into the team and they started showing performance as a team rather than individual talents.

2006 summer was the first crucial juncture for Spurs. They lost out in the race for Champions league but developed a young team for next season. Generally, for every manager, the foundation of a team building is based on one of two highly talented players. Sir Alex had Eric Cantona, Roy Keane, Paul Scholes etc. as a cog in the wheel in different times. This is same to Arsene Wenger, another long term manager who built different successful teams for Arsenal –the eternal rivals of Spurs. He had Tony Adams, Patrick Viera, Gilberto, Fabregas etc. and he built team around them. This is the same what Rafa Benitez did in Liverpool with support of Steven Gerrard. Spurs forget this fact and never found their key person to run the team. Martin Jol was lucky to have young Michel Carrick in his team, especially in the midfield, who was good in delivering the telling passes and control the pace of the match. Martin Jol brought Carrick from West Ham united for less than 4 million GBP and rebuilds the team around him and the team was a great success by reaching in the fifth position in EPL. What will happen if a beautiful building lost its main pillar which holds the entire roof? When Sir Alex decided to get rid of provocative Roy Keane, it become a heavy lose for Tottenham Spurs in future.

In 2006 summer, Alex Ferguson approached Tottenham to buy Michel Carrick and offered a good amount which is difficult to reject for Spurs. Manchester United got Carrick of 17 million GBP to fill the gap of Roy Keane and won their first Premier League after a three year break. Meanwhile, Spurs used that money to get some better players like Bebatov, Dider Zakora, Steed Malbaranque, and Pascal Chimbonda. Lose of Carrick disrupted their free flowing game and midfield struggled to cope up with the pressure from attacking teams. Carrick provided enough cover to the back four and also managed to go forward to support his attacking players. Though the superb attacking display by Berbatov, Robbie Keane, Jermine Defoe managed to cover up the absence of Carrick by scoring good number of goals, it was the defense which struggled and conceived more goals than last year.

Though, manager Jol was the person to decide whom he should buy for the team, in Tottenham, it was decided by different people. After finishing in the fifth position for second time, the management decided to get more players under Jol’s disposal. The football director of Spurs, Daniel Comolli supported the club to spend big money on players like Darren Bent, Younus Kaboul, Adel Tarrabat, Gareth Bale, Kevin Prince Boateng etc. Interestingly, this selection was against the wish of the team manager Martin Jol. Among the new purchase, he was interested only in Gareth Bale, who plays in the left fullback position. The new addition struggled to jell with the old team and some of the players in the old squad also lost their form. The beginning of the 2007-08 season was turned out to be the worst season for Spurs. Under Martin Jol, they lost matches in the first two months and the team struggled to regain its form. Pressure was mounted on the manger and the club management and Fans impatient attitude added oil in the fire. The Club chairman looked for alternatives to manage the team and get back them in winning mode. Media too poured petrol in the fire against Jol and he was sacked from the job in 2007 October.

Tottenham Hot Spurs found their manager in Juande Ramos, who led the Spanish club Sevilla to UEFA championship. Ramos took over the charge of Spurs by the end of October and led them to the finals of league cup. They defeated Chelsea in the extra time of Carling cup final and put them on winning track in the premier league. Under Ramos, Spurs managed to finish in the 11th position in league table. Meanwhile, Ramos also started thinking in his own way to restructure the team and added players in the January window spell. During the summer break, Ramos decided to get rid of many players and buy proved players from other clubs. He brought in players like Luca Mordic, Giovanni dos Sontos, Herlo Gomes, David Bentley, Paulochenkov, Vderan Corluka, Gilberto, Alan Hutton etc. Ramos expected that these players will jell together in less time and will be enough to challenge the power of top four. But, he didn’t (or refused to) realized the business plans and methods of the club.

What went wrong with Tottenham Hot Spurs in the last couple of years? In the first place, the Tottenham management is blindly following the footsteps of some big clubs in transfer policy. May be, Spurs management is feeling that they have enough spending power to compete with clubs like Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool or at least with their neighboring rivals Arsenal. The club owner Daniel Levy is a rich man but the club is not that rich. Still they splashed money in the transfer market to compete with the clubs who are playing and generating money from Champions league. Stadium capacity of Tottenham is not larger than Manchester United, Arsenal or Liverpool and their income generation capacity through marketing is no where near to Chelsea. Above all, the personal economic fortune of Roman Abrahamovich makes Chelsea more powerful in spending power. In the case of Spurs, Martin Jol provided an example of team building by spending on young talents. But when the club tasted success on pitch, they just dumped his policy and moved to follow the footsteps of big clubs.

Sir Alex spends huge money on each player, but he rarely make mistake. He generally spends big money on maximum two or three players and never goes for buying each and every talent in the market to warm the bench. Another thing to learn for Spurs is, Sir Alex or any manager in the top clubs never try to sell their top most player at any cost. They will try to keep them in the team or make sure that he won’t go to the rivals in same league. Michael Carrick was developed as the cog in the wheel of Spurs and Jol knew that he was the main pillar of the team. Shrewd eyes of Sir Alex realized this fact and bargained for him. Tottenham should realize the importance of the situation. They have reached in a position to decide whether they should break the team or keep them intact for another couple of years, at least to find a proper replacement and make changes. They did it in other way. We don’t know whether it was the decision of the manager or the club management, still it went against the spirit of the team. They asked for huge money and Ferguson, who knew the potential of the player, accepted it and paid the asked amount.

In fact, by picking up Carrick from Spurs, Sir Alex did a big favour to the common enemy of both, Manchester United and Tottenham Hot Spurs, the Arsenal. Wenger, the Arsenal manager, who was a big admirer of Carrick benefited maximum from this transfer. The management failed to find a proper replacement for Carrick and they splashed money on different type of players without any understanding about the requirement of team. Still, Jol managed the team to the fifth position with a gap of 8 points between the third and fourth position, who shared same points in the league. Finishing in the fifth position provided a big boost to the club and its fans and the management decided to push the club further level by adding more expensive players to the squad. The club which already have three well proved strikers in Robbie Keane, Berbatov and Defoe splashed money on a fourth striker in Darren Bent. Instead of strengthening their leaking defence, they added more power in the midfield which is doing its work properly.

Expectation on Tottenham grew rapidly in 2007/8 season. The media interpreted that their high level spending will take them to the first four position and they projected them for next year’s Champions League. Fans also started believing such predictions and expected further from their team. In fact, I haven’t come across any writing which challenged the logic of spending decisions of Spurs. Once the Premier League started, Tottenham started struggling. They didn’t get expected results, struggled to play as a team and started dropping points in the first month itself. Each failure added immense pressure on players as well as no manager Jol. After one month, the same media who projected Spurs in top four started attacking the tactics of Jol, who managed the team to their best ever position so far in EPL. In effect, the expensive buys of the summer struggled to gel together as a team. In reality, Tottenham had more than eleven highly talented individual players but they miserably failed to become a proper team. When you have more players ready to play in same position, the manager also comes under pressure to select right player in right place.

When you follow a big club in its purchase policy to emulate their success, you should follow many other things what they do to gain such things. Spurs tried to spend money on players like Manchester United but they forgot one thing –to trust their manager and support him in long term. Success of Sir Alex in Manchester United is not happened in a couple of years. He started his career in United nearly twenty years back and he really struggled for years to build a strong team. In the initial years, he saw his team was struggling in the mid table and also positioned near to the relegation region. Still, the club management kept faith in him and supported him to bring up a team in his own way. This attitude was not familiar to Spurs, who is having the worst history of managerial changes. They forgot the fact that Jol was the manager who took the team to their best ever position in the premier league. They also put off their mind to see the reality that they are having a vast pool of talent and it is a matter of time to gel as a team. Fans also were blind in such aspects and cried for removal of the manager. The club management also reached in a conclusion that managerial change will help them to come out of this form problem and started looking for replacement. Daniel Levy found Sevilla manager Ramos as a proper replacement for Jol and without consulting with former manager, he opened talks with Ramos. This was a humiliation for any manager and Jol lost his case in a bad way.

Selection of Ramos provided fruitful result in the initial stage. He successfully led the Spurs in the Carling Cup and defeated Chelsea in the final. This was the first major trophy for spurs in the last one decade. Every manager has his own idea and policies in building a team, and Ramos too. Levy was generous in supporting this effort. Instead of going for less priced young talents, Ramos picked up finished articles in right price from the market. In the summer break, under Jol, Spurs has spent a huge amount of money, still Levy was ready to spent more to achieve better for the team. He financially supported Ramos during January transfer window opened. Ramos realised that Spurs is lacking depth in defence and splashed money on two proved defenders –Jonathan Woodgate and Alan Hutton. Brazilian player Gilberto from Hetra Berlin was added along with them in January break. Performance of Woodgate helped Spurs to win Carling cup. Ramos also managed Spurs to the round of 16 where they lost to PSV Eindhoven in the tie breaker. Though they struggle in the first half of English Premier League, Ramos managed to pull them to the middle of the league table in 11th position.


Juande Ramos, an experienced manager from Spain, had his own idea about a successful football team. During the summer break, he decided to restructure the entire team and started looking for proved players in different positions. He emphasised that there is no room for mistakes and confusions and decided to sell out those players who did not come up to his standard. This exodus forced more than 15 players to leave the club and apart from Berbatov and Keane, most of them were sold out in lesser price than they were brought. Meanwhile, Ramos brought 9 players to replace those who left spurs. He added expensive pieces like Luca Mordic, Vedran Corluka, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Giovani dos Sontos, Huerlo Gomes, and David Bentley. The same media, who projected Spurs in the first four positions and ditched manager Jol for all problems repeated the same show this time. They severely criticised those clubs how were not much active in the transfer market, especially rivals Arsenal who lost a couple of best players this time. Though there was a backlash in their expectations last year, the fans repeatedly fall behind their beloved Spurs and supported the purchases of Ramos.

One should learn from their mistakes and Spurs didn’t. They never realised the role of a good player in the team. They always saw each player as in individual rather than as a part of a big team. While building a young team, they lost Michael Carrick and it affected the coherence of the team badly. Same thing repeated in the summer in a worst way. Before going into the transfer market, every team should assess the financial power of the club and capabilities of the existing team. If somebody goes against the rule, the result will be abysmal. This lesson was written in big letters by Leeds United in 2004, who lost their way in Premier League and ended up in lower divisions. Spurs and Daniel Levy were aware about the financial matters and importance of book keeping. Before going for each buy, they thought about the generating money from different sources and major source available was selling of players.

Before realising the importance of depth of the squad, Spurs sold Defoe during 2008 January. Fine, they generated some money and paid it for getting Alan Huttan and Woodgate. When an offer from Liverpool for Robbie Keane reached the club, they didn’t spent much time to think and sold him. Before selling a valuable asset, any seller will think twice and also look for other options. Robbie Keane was one of the most important player in the last three-four years in Spurs squad. He always managed to get goals for the club and was in his peak form. When Berbatov and Keane gelled well, the club decided to sell off their third striker. This time they decided to break the partnership too by selling Keane. Liverpool didn’t wait long for the business and snatched Keane from Spurs quickly. Here, money worked first and club failed in its purpose. Before finding a proper replacement, Spurs concluded the deal. This was same condition happened with Carrick deal.

Ramos added four players into Tottenham’s midfield but failed to get a replacement for Keane. Spurs also failed to deal with Berbatov in his transfer episode. Though they made a huge profit in the deal with Manchester United, the delay occurred in the deal literally killed the advantaged Spurs made in the transfer market. Much before the transfer window opened, Berbatov declared his ambition to play in Champions League and showed his interest in top flying clubs and also decided not to extend his contract with Spurs. Ramos and Co. tried their best to keep him at club and miserably failed in this attempt.

Once again, shrewd eyes of Sir Alex fall on Tottenham for Dimitar Berbatov. Manchester United lost their key player Christiano Ronaldo to injury and the team struggled to repeat the same impact of last year. He realised that without Ronaldo, United will remain as an ordinary team and have to pick up the lacking piece in the puzzle. In the beginning of the transfer season, Ferguson showed interest in Berbatov and was not ready to pay the asking money by Spurs. But the injury of Ronaldo, poor form of Rooney and Tavez forced him to think again. United struggled to get good results in the opening matches and it forced Sir Alex to get back into transfer market. This time, he approached Tottenham for Berbatov and accepted the asking price, but the timing was very crucial for Spurs rather than Sir Alex. Though Spurs made a huge profit from this deal, they ended up as the biggest loser in the transfer market. Before making a proper replacement for Robbie Keane, they sold him and in Berbatov, they lost their existing and influential striker. They managed to sign Pavlyuchenko to fill the gap left by Keane and Berbatov but the result proved that their transfer decisions were disastrous.

Second time intervention of Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was much more destructive than earlier one to Spurs. In Michael Carrick’s case, he made the transfer move in proper time paid the money asked by Tottenham. The deal gave enough time to Spurs to get replacement. This time, first approach was in time but the price was not acceptable to Spurs and Ferguson left it at there. His second approach was in a desperate condition and accepted the heavy price Tottenham asked. But, doing the deal in the last minute, Ferguson literally killed any chance of Spurs for replacement. In reality, Tottenham lost their both strikers and failed to find alternative.

One thing is very clear, the transfer policies of Tottenham is the answer of their problem. They should decide first whether they want to have a good team or a bunch of individual players in the pitch and balanced account book in the office. If they want to keep a team intact, they have to say a big ‘no’ to the clubs who approaches them with huge money. Second aspect is, they have to keep faith in their manager and allow him for long run. You cannot judge one persons ability, especially those who managed a football team successfully for years, in one day or month or in an year. The club has to wait and provide enormous support to him to bring fruitful results. This is the success behind all big clubs. Sir Alex Ferguson is the finest example of such approach.

Long Break -without answers!!!

I can't say why I did not write anything for the blog for long time. Lot of things happened in the world during the last three months. I took a sudden break during the Euro 2008 season and didn't wait to write about the winner. One more transfer season is over and football leagues in Europe are almost 2 month old by now. I would like to start directly by contributing to my blog rather than explaining why I didn't write.

As I said, many things happened in the world during the last few months. Spain won the Euro title, Chinese managed a successful and wonderful Olympic show for the world, but they suffered a devastating earth quake in its Sichuan province, still, their Taikonauts walked in the space last month and now their common people facing health problems due to the supply of contaminated milk products. Russia, another big country completed a mini-war during this time. They sent military to Georgia and challenged NATO's influence in the region. This intervention of Russia forced Poland to sign military agreement with NATO too.

United States of America, the world's most influential power was struggling to manage its leadership in many areas. They have to choose their own leadership between Obama and McCain in due course, but as a nation, they are losing the leadership qualities. They slowly started accepting their defeat in on going wars against different things. Iraq, Taliban, Iran, Osama, Pakistan, oil, Russia ….the list goes on. Interestingly, Osama is more acceptable to US English, at least for US giant Microsoft’s ‘MS-Word’, not Obama, which comes with a correction option to Osama. Economic melt-down in US is the most important 'problem' faced by entire world. Europe also joined the band wagon of bailouts and supporting schemes to stop freefall of markets. England, the closest allay of US is now expecting the impact of US economic meltdown on their economy and also on their Olympic dreams. George W. Bush, the president of United States, were more busy in deling with Nuclear Supplier countries to support Indo-US nuclear pact. Still the deal is half-way through.

India, the Manmohan Singh government managed to save itself from no-confidence motion in the parliament was completely involved in the preparation of the nuclear deal with US and other countries. In the mean time, the country experienced multiple bomb blasts in its metro centers, Kosi river in Bihar devastated the entire state, in Orissa, the Hindu communal forces started attacking other communities and this hate campaign spread to other states like Karnataka and Assam, and Tatas' one of the biggest industrial house managed to pull out from its prestigious car project in West Bengal. The capital city, New Delhi, experienced the maximum rainfall in the last 15 years and its river (filth) Yamuna touched and crossed the danger mark after long time. The city also saw crude bomb blasting off in populated places killing many innocents. The Media, in the city, who celebrated Arushi murder case for nearly a month in its own way, are now focusing on Delhi Chief Minister's mouth for new declarations.

Public memory is too short and now people are celebrating Navarathri and waiting for Deepawali. Markets, sorry -Malls, are preparing for shopping festivals and common man's markets are struggling to compete with them. Delhi is re-interpreting the famous Chinese slogan "Let a hundred flowers bloom, let the hundred schools of thought contend" with its own version “Let a hundred Malls bloom, let the hundred schools close down”.

Donadoni Lost His Game and Job: but not for ever

Shadow of ill fate continues with Roberto Donadoni. A successful footballer who achieved everything in club level but lost his foot in internationals. Now, he becomes a failure as a manager too. Is it his failure or Italy’s problem? In my last write up, I discussed about this same topic. Lippi, the smartest manager of Italian football visualized this collapse long ago. So he resigned at that time and now wants to make a come back.


When Italy lost their game against Holland, Donadoni’s days were numbered. The clumsy performance against a fine tuned team raised a number of questions in Italian football fans. The draw against Romania was not at all convincing but was a life line for next round. In the third match against France, somehow, the team produced a better show and sent the world cup runners back. Italy reached in the second round…but that was not enough to convince the football fanatics of Italy. They expected much more from them, at least a convincing performance against team like Romania.


The question is not about the result of Italy or performance of the team in group level matches. They played well in the quarter final against Spanish young blood and eventually lost out in penalty shootout. A team like Italy was not supposed to produce such result; they are expected to do much more than that. Question is whether it is Italian team’s problem or the manager Donadoni’s managerial problem? Now everyone is looking at Lippi, the manager who won the world cup.


Donadoni inherited a team which won the world cup. This argument shows he received a successful squad from Lippi. That is a half truth. The team which handed over by Lippi was a stationary wagon. The wagon lost its wheels in the beginning of the campaign and the new driver tried his best to move it on temporary wheels. The axis of the world cup winning team was built on three pillars –Francisco Totti, Alexandro Nesta, and Fabio Cannavaro. During world cup campaign, Nesta and Cannavaro kept the defence intact and Totti controlled the attack from midfield. Just after world cup, Totti and Nesta declared their retirement from international football and Donadoni lost Fabio Canavaro just before the start of Euro due to injury. In actual sense, Donadoni inherited a team sans its cream.


Donadoni got nearly two year time to rebuild the team and he picked up few good players to fill the gap of Totti and Nesta. But the talent pool in Italian football was not enough to support him. He couldn’t find replacement for their ageing legs but managed the team successful to the finals of Euro. Injury of Canavaro was the key turning point to the team. They lost one of the best defenders in the world as well as the most influential player in the squad. His experience and game reading ability made it an irreplaceable lose. Italian league so far hasn’t produced a proper alternative to this player and Donadoni couldn’t fill that gap properly.


Still, Donadoni made some positive changes in the team. In a short time, he managed to change the method of game. Earlier, Italy use to play the most defensive football which keeps the ball within the control of its defenders and try to win the game with a solitary goal. Donadoni tried to change this defensive mentality and produced an attacking football. Though they lost matches, the crucial role was carried out by their vibrant midfield. Of course, heroic performance of Gian Luigi Buffon under the bar is a different story. He was forced to produce such performance just because of the confusion of Italian defenders. They failed to read the game properly and make intervention in correct time. This attacking mentality is a new thing for Italy and produce better expectations in future.


Italian FA has the power to decide whether they want to continue with Donadoni or re-appoint Lippi or they can find more successful manager for the post. But, in the short time, Donadoni produced a better football and definitely deserve more time to produce better result. It is a pity to hear that he was sacked or Italian FA decided to see his contract get over. Compare with other successful Italian managers, Donadoni was fresh and new. His experience as a manager is not long but his contribution to Italian football as a player and as club manager is considerably successful and in national level also, he achieved a better result with an average team.


Time is on Donadoni’s side. He is in his 40s and gained enough experience in club, national, and international level. Though he lost out in the last campaign, he can definitely make a come back to Italian time. His experience will support him to gain more success.

Euro 2008: After League Round Expectatios and Realities

Euro 2008: After League Round

Expectatoins and Realities

Knockout starts today and eight teams will try their best to kick their opponent out from the tournament. While taking the account of the first round, this edition of Euro shows that it has reached to up to the expectations. Media encouraged predictions of the successful teams much before the beginning of this tournament. It will be interesting if we take a stock of those expectations, predictions and the reality.

As usual like every Euro editions, the defending champions struggled and lost out in the first round. Greece lost to all three opponents in their group D and only managed to get one goal in the entire tournament. They lost to Sweden for 2 goals and give a life line to Russia by losing to them for a solitary goal and in the final match against Spain they found the net at least once against two goals. They couldn’t repeat the show of their tailor made attacking design which use to hit the opponents from well calculated free kicks and corner kicks.

If it was an expected Greek tragedy, the champions of 2000 edition –France exit was something more than a fantasy. They ended as the fourth team in the group C –which is also known as group of death. Manager Raymond Domenech failed to find a proper bridge between his ageing world cup heroes and emerging talents. They lost badly to Holland and also lost, but played well, to the world champions Italy and managed a single point through a goal less draw against Romania.

Managers have a big role in picking up the best team and taking the best out of them. In the last Euro, it was the manager the Greek team who successfully lead his mediocre team to success with well planned strategies and execution of best tactics. Otto Rehhagel, the German manager of Greek team knew the strength and limitations of his team and used the resources very well and won the championship. But he failed this time to reproduce the same show. Same to Domenech, who successfully took his ageing heroes to the final of World Cup in 2006 and eventually lost to Italy in shoot out, failed to get the best out of that team and lost out in the first round.

Portugal, the winner of Group A performed in expected manner and reached in the top of group. They defeated Czech Republic and Turkey in the first matches to ensure their position in the quarter finals and did an experiment with unused players of their squad against Switzerland in the final match and lost to the hosts. Interestingly, Portugal become the leaders of the group but Turkey become the heroes of the group through their performance in the last match against Czech Republic. Over confidence and may say arrogance made the exit way to Czech Republic who were leading with two goals against Turkey in the final match and lost to the never say die Turks, who made a come back with three goals. The hosts, Switzerland never made an impact in the league round and managed to win the final match against second fiddle team of Portugal.

At present the real hero of Euro 2008 edition is Croatian team. Slaven Bilic’s team killed English aspirations in Euro by defeating them in both legs and many pundits counted it just as a streak of fortune. They lost their key striker Eudardo, the Brazilian turned Coration striker who plays for English club Arsenal and badly injured in English League, before the Euro started. Bilic, one among the heroes of 1998 world cup dark horses, maintained a hundred percent success in the league round of championship against Germany, Austria and Poland. They defeated all three in a convincing manner and they kept their best performance against Germany. Most pundits expected Germany in the top position and in the first match against Poland they fulfilled those expectations. But, in the second match, Germany was a pale picture of their self and lost their rhythm and confidence against rampant Croatia. By defeating the co-hosts Austria, Germany managed to finish as runners of this group. While main hosts Switzerland managed a win in their last match, the co-host Austria could only manage a draw against Poland in the whole episode. Poland gained one point from the draw against Austria and ended up as the last in the group.

As I mentioned in the last blog, many pundits predicted Italy and France will move up the next level from group C –which is also known as group of death. The group consisted World champions Italy and world cup runners France along with Netherlands and Romania. Against all odds, the Oranges’ defeated all three in convincing manner and topped in the group. In the first match, they literally killed the world champions Italy for 3-0 margin and in the next match the Dutch steam roller crushed France with 4-1 margin and in the last they defeated Romania with their second fiddle team. Like Croatia, Dutch also kept a hundred percent result to reach in next round. Till the last round, it was difficult to pick up who will reach into next round as runners of the group. In the third round, Italy faced France and managed a 2-0 victory against the Les Blues. Sad part of this group is the exit of Romania who managed two points and standing ahead of winners and runners of the world cup. They had a hard fought goalless draw against France and another 1-1 draw against Italy but in the third round they lost out to Netherlands for 2-0.

The group D included Spain, Russia, Greece and Sweden. Many pundits counted Spain as one of the strongest contender in this tournament. Louis Aragonis, the manger of Spain had the problem of abundance of talent in his team. To pick up the first eleven is the most difficult task to him and his team won all three matches and kept a hundred percent success in the group level. They literally killed Russia in the first match with a 4-1 margin in which Spanish striker David Villa made his first hat-trick in Euro. They continued their rampant run against Sweden with a score line of 2-1 and kicked out the defending Champion Greece for 2-1 margin. So far, by performance, Spain have the most prolific striker in David Villa and he has the best support in Fernando Torres, who is considered as one of the best striker in the world. Apart from the saga of Spain, the real story of the group level competition lies with the next two teams –Sweden and Russia. In the first group match, Sweden defeated Greece with a 2-0 margin and managed a 1-1 draw against Spain till the dying minutes of the match when Villa found their second goal. With three point from first match, they faced Russia in the last round who also have 3 points from their 1-0 victory over Greece. In some places, the talent of manager will work much more than the players in the team. Guss Hiddink, the Dutch manager of Russia, who have such a great credentials in his profession introduced a revolutionised Russia in the third round against Sweden. Introduction of Anderi Arshavin in the Russian team made the right impact for them and they muted Swedish attach and gained 2 goal lead over fulltime. Thus, Russia managed runner position to reach quarter finals.

Now, the quarter finals starts and the winners of group A will face the runners of Group B and their winners will face the runners of group A. Same will done with group C and D. Group A winner Portugal will face Group B runner Germany and Group B winner Croatia will challenge Group A runner Turkey. Group C winner Netherlands will play against group D runner Russia and Group D winner Spain meet Group C runner Italy.

Now the match is not just between teams and players, it has much more to do with the managerial skills of each team. So far, Louis Philippe Scolari, the Brazilian manager of Portugal team did well with his team who faces Germany today. Scolari managed Brazil team in 2002 world cup and won the cup and took Portugal into the final of 2004 Euro and Semi final of World cup 2006 against France. He has a well balanced team under his disposal and Portugal has the best talented footballer in the world in Christiano Ronaldo. While meeting Germany in the quarter final, Scolari has to pick his best strategies and tactics and motivate his players to the optimum level.

Germany, who lost their World cup manager Jurgen Klinsmann will face Portugal in the quarter final without support of present manager Joachim Low. He saw red card from the referee in his match against Austria and will be forced to watch the match from the stands. Germany has experienced and well talented players and key player for them will be Michel Ballack. Many pundits consider this match is a repeat show of European Champions League where Christiano Ronaldo’s Manchester United defeated Ballack’s Chelsea.

The match between Croatia and Turkey will be more interesting than the clash between Portugal and Germany. As per expectations, these two are dark horses and well managed by high talented and successful managers. Fatih Terim, who has a wonderful managerial career in club and national level, is known for aggressive and attacking football. Meanwhile, Bilic, the Croatian manager is much younger and ended his playing career recently but known as one of the most talented managers in the world. He played in the 1998 world cup team which reached in the semi final and also played in English League clubs. Many big clubs are closely watching his performance in Euro. Both Terim and Bilic have a well balanced young team with them. So, the match between Croatia and Turkey will be exiting.

Third match is a complete Dutch match. Both teams Netherlands and Russia were managed by Dutch managers. Van Basten was the key figure in the successful run of Holland in 1988 Euro and considered as one of the most lethal strikers in the world. He took the reign of the Dutch team in 2004 and managed them in an unsuccessful spell in the world cup 2006. Guss Hiddink, the Dutch coach of Russian team is known as the most successful soccer managers in the world. He was the manager of Netherlands in 1996 Euro in which his team lost out against France in the quarter finals. He took the same team to the semi finals of World Cup in 1998 and managed unknown Asian team South Korea to the Semi Finals of next world cup in 2002. He took over the control of Australian team and manages them to the quarterfinal round of 2006 world cup where they lost out to eventual Champion Italy. After the world cup, he moved to Moscow to manage Russian team and took them to the finals of the Euro and successfully managed them to the quarter finals. Van Basten faces the problem of abundance and Hiddink faces scarcity of talent. It will be a match between talent versus managerial skills and we can expect a wonderful match.

The last quarter final is between group D winners Spain and World champions Italy. This will be one of the most interesting matches where the young blood faces the experience. Italy got a life line in the group level from France and manager Roberto Donadoni is trying his best to motivate the aged team to perform in its optimum level. Louis Aragonis, the Spanish manager have a very good squad under his disposal and difficult task for him is to pick up the best combination against the experienced opponent. This will be a very tactical match rather than a free flowing football. Italians are known for their defensive approach and Spain is better in their counter attacks. The speed and striking power of Spanish forwards –David Villa and Fernando Torres- will create havoc in the Italian defence and am sure Italian goalkeeper Gian Lugi Buffon will have a much big role in coming match.

Destiny plays against France and Italy in Euro 2008

Destiny: The difference between France and Italy in Euro 2008

Before the start of Euro 2008, the Guardian predicted that Italy will lead the group with France in the second, Romania in third position and Holland will end up in misery with fourth position. But, the performance changed the position up side down and the predicted winners and runners are struggling to keep a foot on next round against predicted 3 positioned Romania.

In my last blog, I was discussing about Donadoni’s role in Italian team. After that blog, I saw his team losing to Holland and compromised with a draw against Romania. Interestingly, the group of death, for the time being, is an enigma. Very few predicted that Holland will end up as winners of the group. But they did it in a grand way. At present, all three teams in the death group still have a chance to make it to next round. I am not bothered about who will make it or not. But, interested to observe closely what happened to the World Cup winners and runners.

Donadoni achieved everything in the club level with AC Milan but never touched his peak in the international forums. He was a wonderful player in the midfield with never say die attitude, but luck was never on his side. In 2008 edition of Euro, Italy was under pressure of expectation but managed to reach convincingly in the final 16. But their first game against Holland was a disaster. They lost out to the Orange in all segments. Italian media started to call for the head of manager Donadoni. For me, it was the fate of Italian team, what ever they achieved was good and if they can manage little further, will be great.

If Italy’s failure on the pitch was fate, to France, it was height of stupidity. Both are in same boat and facing each other in the deciding day. Raymond Domenech is the same coach/manager who took the same team in the final of world cup against Italy in 2002. Apart from Zinedine Zidane, he had all other players who played in the world cup final were available to his disposal. Meanwhile, Donadoni, who was appointed as the manager after the world cup final, inherited an experienced and talented but aging team for Euro. His grave mistake was not finding new blood to refresh the team between the two year time and he paid heavy in the first game in Euro, where he used nine players who played in the world cup final.

Italy failed to find replacement for the aging team and they are reaping the result now. Italian football league is considered as one of the best in the world but for last few years, they failed to produce subsequent talent to replace the old players. Those players who won the world up started their career in mid 1990s and flourished and primed by 2006. But, between 2000 and 2008, one can see the talent pool is drying up very fast. We haven’t heard any promising Italian name like Christiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Fabregas, or a Fernando Torres. Instead of this, Italy produced Antonio Cassano, an only promising talent but ended up as the most misguided youth They failed to find a proper replacement for playmaker Francisco Totti and defending ace Alexandero Nesta. Donadoni cannot run away from this blame because he had two year to pick up alternatives and experiment them in the qualifying round and make them fit for the new challenge. His conservative approach doesn’t allowed him to do that and struck with the same team minus Totti, Nesta and Cannavaro. Yes, Cannavaro’s absence was accidental and it is difficult to prevent injury in football, but a manager’s ability is to foresee it and take precaution by keeping an alternative for him. Donadoni failed to find young strikers become crucial error for the team. Their dependence on ageing strikers Luca Toni and Alexander Del Piro proved that the team is not good enough to compete against young teams like Portugal and Dutch.

But, France –it was a real blend of stupidity and arrogance of Raymond Domenech. He was in charge of French team for more than 4 years and he managed to take them to the final of World cup against Italy. He managed to bring back the old glorified days of les blues in the world football in 2006. He had experienced players from the world cup winning team of 1998 and Euro winners of 2000 under his disposal and France produced a good number of talented players successfully playing in best clubs in Europe. Domenech had complete control over the team selection and he successfully managed to show his power to the players who challenged his credentials –Robert Pires etc. His major contribution –under question –is to reproduce the creativity with elegance of Zidane during the World Cup campaign. Apart from the performance of Zidane and Ribery, French team was absolute mediocre and they got a straight line of luck in the knock outs to reach final. They made proper blend of youthful players like Frank Ribery, Florent Maluda, Eric Abidal and M. Diarra with the experience of Henry, David Trezegue, Vierra, Turam etc of their world cup winning squad. But the brilliance of Zidane stood out in the world cup campaign and his contributions –experience and talent- took them to the final. Though, France introduced young blood in the campaign, they still relied more on the experience of players like Zidane, Henry, Vierra, Gallas, Turam and Makelele than the youngsters. But, the performance of Ribery and Maluda were outstanding and that helped them to create better chances reach in the final.

Domenech saw the ability and limitation of French team in World Cup campaign. He got another two years to prepare for the Euro 2008 and meanwhile, not like Italy, France turned out as a production house of more promising and outstanding young players. He could have used them in the qualifying rounds and make them sharp and effective for the finals of Euro. Instead of going for that, he struck with his stupid conservatism and used the ageing players in the key match against Romania and Holland. Against the young blood of Holland and Romania, the performance of the old legs of France was abysmal. Dutch were best know for their attacking flair but have a very bad reputation on defense settings. France had quick wingers and fast strikers in Ben Arfa and Karim Benzema respectively who enjoyed a successful season in French league. Apart from Arfa and Benzema, France witnessed the emergence of talents in all segments with players like Samir Nasri, Partic Evra, Matheu Flamini, Lessana Diarra, Bacary Sagna, Jermey Toulalan, Philip Mexes, and Bafe Gomis. Instead of using them effectively against Romanian and Dutch defence, he decided to stick with the old squad which peaked in the world cup 2006. Interestingly, during the league season, everyone saw that the players like Florent Malouda and Eric Abidal started fading from their self and proved players like Vierra and Maklele were much far from their best. Instead of using fast and strong defenders to stop young attackers of Dutch and Romanians, he used Lilian Turam, the World cup winning hero of 1998 who is 36 now. Anelka, the Chelsea striker used in the first match was completely faded in the second half of the season and Henry, the most talented striker was struggling with injuries for last two years. Abundance of talent in the striking segment forced Domench not to select David Trezeguet, Djibril Cisse, Matheu Flamini and Gael Clichy in the last 23. There is no more explanation required for the failure of France. It is much larger than Italy. France had everything under their disposal but also had the stupidity and arrogance of Domenech.

France didn’t learn anything from their first match against Romania. They failed to create better scoring openings and their defense struggled to cope up against the fast Romanian strikers. If they changed the squad formation in the second match by using more young players in attack, of course –by removing ineffective players –they could have produced a better fight against Holland. France had everything to win the group but failed to utilize their own properties.

Still one among the three has equal chance to reach in the quarter finals and can’t predict who will be there. Nobody will write off Romania because they are enjoying a better position in the present table. If they manage a victory against Dutch –who will field a weakened side- can reach in the next 8 for quarter finals. I feel sorry for Italy but never feel sorry for France because it was stupidity and arrogance than ability of the team.

Euro 2008: AZZURRI Fleet of Roberto Donadoni

Euro 2008: Azzurri Fleet of Roberto Donadoni

Just before Euro 2008, it is better to go through the profile of the managers than writing about the key players of Italy. Italy doesn’t have anything to prove. They did their best two years ago, won the World Cup in Germany. The team has everything which is required for a winning team. The squad will be almost same and their responsibilities are also…so what difference is there for this time?

It is Roberto Donadoni, the manager of the team. He succeeded Marcello Lippi –one of the most successful coaches of Italian club Juventus and Italy. Donadoni inherited a good squad from Lippi but expectation from the country is much higher than what Lippi had before winning world cup. Before World Cup, Italy was one among the good teams and very few expected that they will lift the cup. Now, they want to repeat what France did after 1998 world cup victory. They want to continue the run of success as long as then can. So, the pressure on Donadoni is also tremendous.

Credentials of Donadoni as a player won’t be challenged. For me, he was the most outstanding Italian player of Italia 90. Remember, that team had very big names like Gian Luka Viali, Franco Barezi, Roberto Bagio, Salvatore Schilachi etc but the best performance come out from Donadoni, who played in the midfield, who controlled the rhythm of the game. The wind of luck was not with Italy that time, and there was another great footballer controlling the crucial game against Italy in the Semi Finals –Diago Maradona. Donadoni hit the post once during normal time and failed to convert the spot kick during the shootout time. Italy lost the cup and Maradona lost his rich football life there…the rest is history. He appeared in 1994 world cup in which Italy finished in second position, but was not the same player of 1990. Donadoni had a luminous and long career with AC Milan and he was the cog in the wheel of Milan midfield which had the most successful period. He left Milan in 1996 and had a small stint with Metro Stars of MLS in US. He returned to Milan in 1997 and helped his club to win Serie A title and ended his career as a player with Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia.

Selecting a manager is not a joke in football. Before appointing a person as the manager of the national team, especially in a football nation like Italy, authorities has to think several times about the credentials of the person. Italy, not like England, produced a handful of successful managers and names like Arigo Saachi, Fabio Capello, Trapatoni etc. are good enough to impress any selection panel. Still the selection of Donadoni as the manager of Italian national team was a big surprise to football world. More surprise was the hesitation of the most successful and experienced managers like Cesare Maldini, Giovani Trapatoni, Carlos Anchalotti, Arrigo Saachi and Fabio Capello to that post. They were not ready to take up the challenge with the same Italian team who won the World Cup. So, Italian Football Federation decided to appoint a fresher who holds enough credentials to continue the achievements. Regarding this appointment, Italian Football Federation's then vice-president Demetrio Albertini commented that "we decided to gamble on a young man who could become truly great." They picked up Donadoni who successfully managed some middle level clubs in Serie A. He helped Livorno to reach in Serie A from lower league and Genoa to reach in upper half of the Serie A in 2003-04 season.

The real litmus test for Donadoni was awaiting and he had a baptism in fire with the first match in the qualifying round of Euro 2008. On 2nd September 2006, Italy faced Lithuania and compromised with a draw in the home match. Next match, just after few days, on 6th September, Italy lost to France in the away leg and score was 3-1. It was a big blow for the world champions and media, fans and football pundits started crying for his removal. But, authorities stood with him at least for the time being and demanded a better performance of the team. Next month, Italy faced Ukraine at home and Georgia in the away match and the World Champions made a wonderful come back by defeating both teams with a comfortable margin. In the qualifying round, they expected tough opposition from former world champions France and Scotland and there was no question of finishing in the third position. Exactly after one year, on 8th September 2007, Donadoni’s Italy faced France in the second leg at Milan, where he enjoyed his best days in career. This was considered as the turning point of Italy’s easy walk to the Euro 2008. They couldn’t defeat France but managed a goalless draw and that was enough to take them to the top spot of the qualifying round. His team won 9 matches out of 12 and compromised with draw in two and lost one. Mean while, France struggled against Scotland and ended up in the second position by 8 win, 2 draw and 2 lost matches.

Achievement in the qualifying round helped Donadoni to keep his critics mouth shut. Euro is a different ball game for any team. In the qualifying round, they had only two tough opponents and other five were comparatively small teams who haven’t proved anything in football map. From frying pan to burning fire –proverb become absolutely right in the case of Donadoni and Italy when they drew with teams like France, Netherlands and Romania in Group C. Pundits consider this group as a death group where three teams were former champions in earlier editions of Euro. Third edition of Euro in 1968, Italy hosted the tournament and ended up as the champions by defeating Yugoslavia in a reply final. Apart from 1968, Italy hosted another Euro in 1980, just before winning World Cup in 1982, but failed to reach in the final two. Italy managed to reach in the finals second time only in the Euro edition of 2000 hosted jointly by Belgium and Holland. There they lost of 1998 World Cup holders France in an extra time golden goal. Within six years from there, Italy achieved the top most position –world champion and looking to repeat the stride of France during 1998-2000.

Along with a heavy burden of expectation, Donadoni also inherited a high potential team from Marcello Lippi, which has a good composition of experience and youthfulness. Retirement of legendry Maldini, who played along with Donadoni in two world cups, and in Milan too, and playmaker Francisco Totti, who retired from international football just after their world cup victory, remains a huge gap in the team. Donadoni is expected to fill that gap with experience of Alessandro Del Piero, Fabio Cannavaro and Gennaro Guttoso. The performance of the team in the qualifying round provides enough to expect in the bigger stage. Performance of one late bloomer, Luca Toni Varchella Della Cave -30 year old striker currently playing for Bayern Munich, lifts confidence of Italian side and he is expected to be playing along with Alessandro Del Piro or Antonio De Natale. Donadoni has showed the public that he is willing to take risk by including Antonio Cassano in the team.

Azzurri was one of the first team reached in the finals of Euro 2008 through qualifying round. Apart from expectation factor, Donadoni require a huge amount of luck to win the tournament. Ability is not a question for Italian team, but getting the best performance out of the team is the key concern for a manager. This is a chance for Donadoni to achieve something with national team in his career. Twice his team became the victim of shootouts, and penalty shootout will be his last option this time. His experience in semifinals of 1990 and finals of 1994 world cup will definitely demand his players not to take the game to shootout and finish it in natural time.

Totti and Maldini were expected absence but injury to Cannavaro in the training session in Switzerland made a big blow to the blue shirts. He was the key player who drilled the Italian defense successfully in the world cup finals. He was the most influential player in the world cup squad and everyone expected same performance from him in Euro 2008. Still, fate is staring, not at Italian team, at Donadoni –the under achiever of Italy. If he can get the team back to the best …without any doubt, he will be the real legendry Azzurri.

Chelsea will be the European Champion

Champions League: Chelsea is in pole position

If somebody say this few weeks back, the response will be either exclamatory or rejection. But last Saturday, the match between Chelsea and Manchester United changed all equations. Now the question is who will take the league title and who will reach in the final of Champions League. A couple of weeks back, United was in an amazing form and their players were doing very well. Injury crisis was considerably low to the squad and form of the squad was at peak. Suddenly, we saw the defensive partnership between Rio Ferdinand and Vidic were departed due to injury to the later. This affected their prospectus in the away match of Champions league Semi-finals against Barcelona. Then they lost to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last week and also lost two key players, Rooney and Vidic, for the next match, which is the second leg of Champions League.

Meanwhile, Chelsea slowly picked up their form in between started showing their abilities against big teams. Their lost to Spurs in the Carling Cup final was the low patch and after that they gained enough confidence to face strong opponents. They defeated Arsenal and Manchester United in the league and gained a 1-1 draw at Anfield against Liverpool. One away goal is certainly an advantage to a team like Chelsea. They have better chance to go further and grab the trophy this time.

Liverpool, who mastered in Champions League are facing a tough task. Rafael Benitez, the manager of Liverpool is known as the master of Champions League and he took his team to success three years ago and also took them to the finals of last year against AC Milan. Credentials of Benitez is much higher than his opponent Avram Grant of Chelsea. Still, the depth of the squad, advantage in the first leg, form of players etc. supports Chelsea. Against Arsenal, Liverpool had same advantage which is troubling him against Chelsea. Arsenal had better attacking unit but their defense was very poor. Though, Arsenal had a slight advantage in the first leg, they lost out to Liverpool in second leg, just because of their poor defense performance and inexperience of squad. While, Chelsea has all those things which was lacking with Arsenal. Their squad is experienced, mid field is good enough to attach any team and equally good to come down and support the defense. Defense unit of Chelsea is much stronger than Arsenal and they have few players who can play in any position and get result. Apart from these, Chelsea hasn’t lost any home match for quiet long time at Stamford Bridge.

So, the second leg semi-finals between Chelsea and Liverpool will be more comfortable to Chelsea. They will have a full strength squad which includes Frank Lampard and Michel Essien who were missing in the last match against United. Influence of in-form Ballack will add more woes to Liverpool. Within last three years, Liverpool and Chelsea faced each other in the semi-finals of Champions league twice and in both occasions, Liverpool was successful. This time, things are not going in favour to Liverpool and they lost their golden chance to keep an upper hand on the second leg by losing one goal advantage.

Pundits like Alen Hansen also started saying Chelsea have better chance in this year against Liverpool. But, he still believes that United is the best team and they will manage to defeat Barcelona in the second leg and reach in the finals in Moscow. Yes, they were stronger and favorites in the beginning of April. But, their two draws in the EPL and CL raising some question marks on the ability of the squad on big occasions. Sir Alex is a seasoned campaigner and shrewd manager with enough experience in top level. Still, the incidents occurred in the match against Chelsea and injury of Wayne Rooney and Vidic creates much worries for United. Their goalless draw at Nou Camp was not a great result for a team like United. It was Barca’s terrain but like Arsenal, Barcelona is also badly known for their fragile defense. There, Manchester United failed to gain a goal matters a lot in the second leg. Barcelona possess a very strong attacking unit and their players like Lionel Messi, Samuel Eto’o, and Therry Henry. Absence of Ronaldinho will be a big relief for United but Barca found another lethal weapon in Bojan, who is capable in getting goal from difficult positions.

In the second leg, Manchester has to face few unwanted things. One is dipping form of Christiano Ronaldo –the most influential players of United for long time. His penalty miss in the first leg of CL last week raises few questions about his ability to show up in big occasions. Injury of Wayne Rooney will be a big problem for their attack, but this lose will be much more for overall team performance. Rooney is known as an effective striker but his performance never ends with getting goals. He is the first person who retracts down to the pitch to support his defenders and also wins balls from the opposition midfielders. In his absence, United are losing one most influential players on pitch. If United makes any mistake in the match, I am sure they will badly punished by Barcelona. United are still in the fight of English league Championship and Barcelona is completely out from the race. Champions League will remain as the last hope for a silver ware for this season for Barcelona. So, they will do their best to gain it and most probably they will reach in Moscow against Chelsea.

If Chelsea wins Semi-Final against Liverpool, Avram Grant will achieve what his predecessor failed to reach. But he should be thankful to Jose Mourinho and Claudio Ranierri, from whom he received this existing squad. Michel Ballack will be key player to open up the game against Liverpool tomorrow and he will remain as the key player for upcoming games. Still, Chelsea can land up the double this time but it is better to focus on one, which especially eluded them for quiet long time. I still believe, Manchester United will remain in the top of Premier League and Chelsea will either lose a point of will lose out to United on goal average.

Chelsea against Manchester United: Experience counts a lot, especially for gifted players

Until yesterday evening, nobody was raising any question about the ability of Manchester United in lifting league championship this season. The result made it wide open once again. Chelsea beat United for 2-1 and equalized the points in the top order. Arsenal lost out in the run few weeks back and Liverpool, who is in the fourth place, is no where near to challenge the title. Football is like this, something amazing… till the end, you have to wait for the proper result.

There is something to learn from this match. Which is applicable to the third positioned Arsenal too. From the beginning of the season, most of the pundits suggested that this time it will be a three horse race for the league title and the teams will be Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool. This was based on the strength of the existing teams and the talent and capabilities of new recruitments. But, beginning onwards, it was completely wrong and another team who were not in the picture during the projections, appeared in the first place and hold that position till January end. They achieved more than they expected… that was the common notion among the pundits.

When Arsenal had six points lead over second placed Manchester United in January and Chelsea were struggling in the third position, Sir Alex predicted that the raise is still on and biggest threat will be Chelsea than Arsenal. There are only two more match remaining for the title and his prediction comes true. What were the components forced Alex Ferguson to make such prediction at that time and how it becomes true? This article is looking into such facts.

In January 2008, when Manchester United closed their gap with Arsenal in the top, Ferguson said, they will definitely reach in the top spot and most probably the closest challenge will come not from Arsenal and it will be from Chelsea. But, next week, EPL saw, Arsenal gained few more points and gained a better margin. Ferguson was not shaken and he stood on his same opinion. He was waiting for the blip of Arsenal and in next couple of weeks, it occurred. When the crucial matches piled up on one side and injury list become long on other, Arsenal crumbled and by the end of March, they lost everything and started struggling for third place.

Now, it is the time for Manchester United, and Ferguson perhaps has to eat his own words. Couple of weeks back, United were in a comfortable position with a good margin of 4 points above Chelsea. But the draw against Blackburn Rovers and lose against Chelsea put them equal in point to Chelsea and still enjoying advantage in number of goals scored. Why this happened and how Chelsea got that advantage?

Answer was there in the wall. When Sir Alex predicted that the real fight will be between United and Chelsea, he also clarified why he thinks so. It was purely based on squad strength and experience of players in big matches. Both, United and Chelsea holds the best squads in the league, with most talented players who also have enough experience. They were very particular in strengthening their squad by acquiring the best from market every year. Liverpool did it this time but they lost their momentum in between and lost their sight from League title and started concentrating on Champions League.

Apart from Arsenal, Chelsea, United and Liverpool plays for winning the match and their priority it to get 3 points out of it rather than playing beautifully on pitch. United merged strength, practical approach and technique in their games but Chelsea were more pragmatic and tried to win the match without much flare. All clubs puts their priority in winning the matches, but when market intervenes in the game, they have to entertain their supporters too. United were successful in maintaining both but Chelsea found several times they were in the false end where supporters are not interested in their home matches. Roman Abrahamovich, the owner of Chelsea built the team on his millions but later realized it is difficult to keep the attention of viewers on the game without an attractive and impressive game format. This was one of the key reason forced him to chuck Jose Mourinho out from the club and replace him with Avaram Grant. He tried his best but result was not that promising.

Beyond the attractive passing football, Chelsea had everything which a team requires. They had the best talent from all over the world. Each position, they had back ups and most of them were good enough to play in any best team in any country. Only suspicion was about the experience of Grant in Premier League. He was new and was not known for his managerial capabilities and experience with big clubs. Sir Alex were watching two things, how Grant will recover the success touch of Chelsea and how he will handle the absence of African players who will be away when African Nations cup take place. There was a blip in the transition period but Grant stabilized the team on the path of success. He was not successful to produce the beautiful football but managed to overcome the absence of African players in January.

Meanwhile, Arsenal was flourishing with its young talent and keeping its control on first place from the beginning. Sir Alex was very much sure that Arsenal will do wonders with the team but it is not enough to keep up the fight till the end. Before the beginning of the season, when all pundits wrote off Arsenal from major challenges, Ferguson was adamant that they will come up and give good fight to United and Chelsea. He said, they have a very good young team and they gained enough experience in the last year and of course, they have a good manager to make them successful. Only fault Wenger, the manager of Arsenal did was his adamant position to not strengthening the team with new recruits. He sold off his best player Therry Henry to Barcelona and allowed key player like Lung Berg to leave the team. The fragile defense was a real question mark from the beginning of the season. They possessed a first team which was capable to defeat any best opponent but they failed to find back up in crucial places when injury and disciplinary actions created holes in the team. Defense was over stretched and Midfield replacements become a big issue during February. African cup added more vows to the team when they lost their key defensive players like Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Eboue and Alexander Song.

Here comes the advantage of a big squad which Chelsea and United holds. African cup schedule was the time which Sir Alex was waiting as defining movement. He saw how Arsenal crumbled down from the first position and lost out in key matches. Absence of Toure, injuries of key players like Eduardo, Rosisky, Van Persie, Denilson, and Bacary Sagna proved that the squad strength of Arsneal was not enough keep up the fight.

On the other hand, United brought three for four players in the beginning of the season and strengthen its squad. They spend handsome amount to acquire Nani and Anderson from Portugal club along with Over Hargraves and Carlos Tavez, two most trusted and experienced talents. Injury of some players didn’t bother them at all during this season. Replacements performed better than their first team players and extremely brilliant form of Christiano Ronaldo helped them to compete in all big cups. They were never bothered about the injury of players like Gary Nevelle and Silvestor in defense and Louis Saha in attack. African cup didn’t bother them because they didn’t had any African national player in their team. So, Sir Alex was sure, when the time demands more from teams, his team will get advantage.

But, Sir Alex was not wrong in the assessment on Chelsea’s capability and its squad strength. Under the management of Avram Grant, they lost out in Carling cup final against Tottenham Hotspurs but they never lost in the premier league. They kept their team intact and performed well when they lost a good number of African players for Nations Cup. The expected blip didn’t happen and the team gained more experience in the absence of key players like John Obe Mickel, Michel Essien, Salomon Kolou and their key striker Dider Drogba. Instead of making lose in this time, they made advantage by bringing back the most experienced player like Michel Ballack in to form.

I may say, it was Chelsea, not Manchester United made the decisive blow to Arsenal in the league. They defeated them in the most crucial time and kicked them out from league and that forced them to move out from Champions League. Against Chelsea, Arsenal lost its best and most crucial player of the season Bacary Sagna to injury. Depletion of squad was the key reason of failure of Arsenal but advantage of Chelsea against Manchester is not only squad strength, it was experience of big players.

Decisive movement for Chelsea was the return of Michel Ballack from his long injury off. He has never won a Champions League but played in the final which lost to Real Madrid, especially to the wonder goal of Zineden Zidane. It was his heroic performance put Bayer Leverkusen in the finals of Champions League and he become German player of the year for three times. Apart from the experience of big players in big time, other elements were equal to both Chelsea and Manchester United. Both were still fighting in the Champions league to reach final and both team decided to keep their key players from the starting eleven.

English Premier League has two more matches to go to find its champion. If both, Manchester and Chelsea manage to win the remaining two matches, the title will be decided over goal average, where United enjoys a clear upper-hand. Both can’t afford any more blip of form in any circumstances. Champions League victory will be a bonus for both team but Liverpool and Barcelona have equal chance to reach in the final. One thing is sure, strength of squad is must but if it is with experience players, it is an added bonus.