The Final Sub

.                            premierleague.com Abdoulaye Doucore's second-half sizzler in the final-day clash against AFC Bournemouth ultimately ensured that the Toffees will go into their 70th season as a top-flight football team. It was so big a win but the bigger message should be the big uncertainty, lack of clarity and direction which has enveloped the club as a whole. The fans are disillusioned at best with what their club has become while the board and club hierarchy are scared to attend the stadium. Status secured, the stadium still felt flat after the final whistle. There was no fanfare and pitch encroachment. There was only the shock that it had to come to this again and the conclusion that something has got to change at the board level.  Only about three seasons ago, Carlo Ancelotti was leading a team that was nursing a little hope of making Europe. The Covid-year was a period fans watched ...

                                     Goal.com No manager would have looked forward to the end of the just-concluded season any more than Frank Lampard at Chelsea. The club's top scorer and legend was drafted in by the new ownership after their project with Graham Potter hit the rocks. The limp mood around the club only ended up growing worse as Lampard could only win one of his eleven games in charge, losing eight!  The concern now is whether or not Lampard is done as a manager.  The former England International is now seen as a fraud as far as management is concerned and recent living proof that great footballers do not necessarily make great coaches. Lampard has roundly failed to inspire a team of individuals pieced together by novice owners who have money to throw around.   His stint at Everton does not save him too. Lampard has become accustomed to losing ga...

.                                  football.london While the incoming Greek-Australian manager, will not be fazed by some scepticism around his appointment, Ange Postecoglou's arrival in North London however indicates a hopeful attempt for Spurs to return to the top echelons of the premier league.  When Mauricio Pochettino arrived in 2015, no one expected the upheaval he wrought and the standards he brought to a club that had been floating in mediocrity. The only stigma that remained, despite the height of the Champions League final in 2019 was the lack of silverware and after a meltdown, the quest for "managers who know how to win" brought a tirade that swept up the club. In the process, the key identity and essence of Tottenham both on and off the pitch was lost.  From a team that offered excitement, progression, togetherness and hope, the team became one of individuals, shadowbo...

.                                    theguardian.com Erik Ten Hag came into a club in chaos but there was no doubt that the new man on the hot seat carried the aura of a winner who knew what needed to be fixed. Outgoing interim manager, Ralf Ragnick had compiled a dossier on what the new coach has got to fix. His candid recommendation was a massive clear-out of the squad. United had just played out one of their worst PL campaigns, but Ten Hag had other ideas---There was enough quality in the squad. The problem was with the structure , discipline and organization on and off the pitch.  The glaring conundrum at the start of the season was how the squad rebuild would go on and with United spending weeks chasing Frenkie De Jong to no avail, it seemed United, who were billed for another campaign in Europe's second-tier competition, the Europa League, would not be able to attract their D...