The Final Sub

                                              FC Barcelona Noticias Another season, the same result. Barcelona is back in the less fancied Europa League once again after five rounds of Champions League group-stage matches. The air of disappointment that greeted the pre-match activities for the Blaugrana's penultimate group game at home to group-winning Bayern Munich soon metamorphosed into horror after a toothless display in a comprehensive 3-0 loss to their German nemesis. As the club anthem boomed around the Spotify Camp Nou at the final whistle, it gave a rather somber theme as some of the faithful who stayed till the end of the game pondered on the consequences of the team's recent failure. The deed was done before the match with Xavi, his squad, and indeed the Culers all watching in disparaging hope that a recent Italian league champion will somehow fail to...

                         Eurosport It is another pre-season at Manchester United with a new manager leading a reset, and with the fans hoping that the club would eventually succeed in the quest to return to relevance at the top end of the league. Erik Ten Haag is the fourth substantive manager since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement after a title-winning season back in 2013. He is the "new sheriff", who is hoping to use the optimism that usually surrounds the club after a good pre-season as a catalyst for systematic progress both in the short and long term. The Red Devils have won three out of three preseason games so far with stellar performances to boot.   Ten Haag looks poised to imbibe in his players, some of the core values that have since been eroded from the team over the past years - commitment, discipline, pride, honor, and most importantly, winning mentality, which are all baselines of the g...

.                                            SpursWeb News has emerged that Mauricio Pochettino and the Paris Saint Germain hierarchy have mutually decided to go their separate ways this summer. Perhaps, the surprise is that this is not a surprise. Ideally, with a 15-point dominance of a league championship culminating in a title win, the plan should be about how to consolidate. Alas, PSG operates within other ideals, and the reality at the moment is that a star-heavy squad, expensively furnished has failed for the umpteenth time to achieve the goal. As Karim Benzema led a roused Real Madrid team to a comeback win over the French superpower in the round of 16, PSG added to their long list of monumental collapses in the Champions League. In-coming PSG bosses should know the drill: Le Championnat is the basic minimum, and the Champions League is the goal. Yet, the ques...

                                     Metro.co.uk Something is just not clear about how Don Carlo seems to sustain his relevance in an era of high tactical innovation on the world stage of football. A flash from the past, a figure from the era of football greats who rely on talent, organization, and team cohesion above tactical and strategic poetry, it is gobsmacking and brain-teasing to understand how Ancelotti continues to compete despite his "era-peers" seeming decline in this modern era. The Italian has led Real Madrid through different scathes and to the La Liga title despite last month's 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Xavi's resurgent and tactically vigorous Barcelona side in the El-Clasico. Los Blancos have blown La Liga away and have produced scintillating Champions League nights to sit one game away from Paris, literally coming back from the dead when thought to be put down. ...

                                   punchng.com The oscillating pendulum movement of the Cottagers has swung once again towards the top flight. Fulham is back for their third Premier League campaign in five years with another manager at the helm. The West London club saw manager Scott Parker who had overseen their most recent return leave at the end of last season having unsuccessfully overseen their failed bid to retain topflight status. With the remit being to return to the Premier League immediately, it was perhaps a huge blow but the arrival of Marco Silva promised quite as much. Fulham has retained a good number of the squad that has been shuffling between the first and second tiers in the last five years. Whatever that means for their long-term ambitions is another concept entirely. However, they have been able to build a team that this time around blew the entire EFL championship ...

                                            Khelnow The 2022/2023 Premier League season threatens to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Manchester United's last league title win. Sir Alex Ferguson signed out of a 26-year, 38 trophies laden reign with the Red devils clinching a 13th Premier League title and 20th top-flight triumph. Little did the club know that it was on the threshold of darker days. A succession of managers in both substantive and interim capacities have graced the hot seat at Old Trafford which seems to be fast becoming a poisoned chalice. From the ill-fated eight months of David Moyes to the eye-watering boredom of Louis Van Gaal, to the drama-laden shadowboxing years of the Special one, and then, the emotive turpsy-curvy ride of the assassin, Solksjaer, United has seen enough disappointment and are set to complete their fifth successive trophyle...

                                        TEAMtalk From all indications, Chelsea will not go bust as they will have a new owner latest May 31st. Ownership transfer usually comes with administrative and sporting upheavals and this is no different especially when it sinks in that a man who rewrote the history of one of British football's top clubs in the last two decades has been asked to step aside due to his heinous affiliations with a notorious world bully.  Enter yet another American-led investing consortium with a notorious business model for profiteering. But that's not the concern yet. If the Todd Boehley-led consortium is ratified by the British government as Chelsea's new owners, what is clear is that the financial security of the club is certain - they will remain a big ambitious club in England and Europe as a whole with the potential to keep flexing financial musc...