The Footy Tales

  Manchester United is by far the most popular English club in the world. Add to that, the addition of global superstar Cristiano Ronaldo this summer boosted their popularity to even higher levels. The net spending of the team in 2021/22 season was 126 million euros which saw players like Raphael Varane, Jadon Sancho, Tom Heaton and Cristiano Ronaldo arrive at Old Trafford. The onus was on the then manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to make a team out of these brilliant world class individuals. He failed, and following a string of poor results, he was sacked. In came German coaching great and the so called "Godfather of modern day geggen pressing" Ralf Rangnick. Rangnick has had a reputation of stabilizing small clubs, building them up from scratch and giving them a young, fearless and attacking identity. Well that has not been the case at United so far, and by the looks of it, the players are getting fed up. Recent news coming in that almost 11 players want to leave the club is a ...

  Football, the beautiful game we all love and enjoy, should ultimately be for the players. Its their job after all, to honor their contracts and be professional under every instance, no matter how challenging the situation is. The players who are European and American, including both the North and South, are often helped a great deal by their federations as well the respect they receive from the fans and society. A Brazilian or a Spanish player has a different aura about him in any league he plays . The continental showpieces of Europe and South America, the Euros and the Copa America respectively, are watched admired by people worldwide. This respect and admiration, however drains down the gutter when it comes to the African and Asian tournaments, or the players in that sense.  An African or Asian player will have to work a lot harder in order to make the name an European does. But when the disrespect towards a player, community or even a country is aimed at a continental sh...

  Real Madrid were shockingly defeated by Getafe away from home in their first league match of 2022. The goal, coming off an error by Eder Militao was enough to give three points to a Getafe side which Madrid were expected to beat. Madrid never looked the same after conceding the goal, and were nervy before a late final push to find the equalizer. The gaffer Carlo Ancelotti rightly pointed out that the players were still in " christmas mode" as Madrid looked far from their usual best. Here's me looking into the positives and negatives of our game vs Getafe; The Starting Eleven With leaks coming in from almost every possible source that Eden Hazard will start the game, it was widely expected that the Belgian will start upfront along with Benzema and Asensio. Marco Asensio, a player who starts on the right wing but likes to drop down in the midfield could have made the formation a bit for dynamic, changing from the usual 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2 at times with Hazard and Benzema upf...

  Football, the sport we love, the players we adore. Football gives us strength, courage, hope, a plethora of emotions like anger, happiness, sadness all within a span of 90 minutes. Football, as we know should always be for the fans. Fans or as I like to call them, the supporters should be the heartbeat of our wonderful sport. But lately, in the last decade or so there has been a shift in power in the footballing landscape in Europe, the hotbed of football. Its not a surprise that whatever happens in the European football scene is likely to influence the world football in some way or the other. Amid a raging pandemic and the rise of economic power houses entering this domain of the beautiful game, here are my views on the shift in power that has been so apparent in the last few years ; 1. The Economic Condition of the Players Football is for the players who play it, there's no two ways about it. For a footballer, its his job. They are lucky enough to turn their passion into their ...

  Manchester United bounced back to winning ways and top 6 after a 3-1 win vs Burnley at home. The win came at the back of a solid 1st half performance where they scored 3 goals but conceded a one in the process. The 2nd half was lull without much goal mouth action with United seemingly focused on securing the 3 points. Here are my takeaways from last night's match ; 1. The Changes Ralf Rangnick made as many as 6 changes from the starting eleven which drew at Newcastle. It was one of the rare occasions of seeing Cavani and Ronaldo start together. Luke Shaw and Aaron wan Bissaka came back into the line up, as did Jadon Sancho and Nemanja Matic. And the changes bore fruit. Burnley though attacking and creating good chances in the first few minutes, were completely blown away by a 30 minute storm. Bailly started at the heart of the defense in place of Varane. Greenwood started on the left side of the midfield while Sancho was on the right, although both the wingers interchanged their ...