Off-season months are always difficult to bear. I don’t mind the clearance sales, but it’s lack of football that makes me irritable like a hungry baby.
Off-season months are always difficult to bear. I don’t mind the clearance sales, but it’s lack of football that makes me irritable like a hungry baby. Thank you God, August 9 is finally here and that means the football season kicks off with the opening Community Shield game between Manchester United and Chelsea.
During the break, there was, of course, the transfer season for the entertainment. Darren Bent made the most of it. The striker was so annoyed with Tottenham Hotspurs chairman Daniel Levy for stalling his move to Sunderland that he let out his frustration on Twitter. One of his tweets said: “Seriously getting p*ssed off now. Why can’t anything be simple. It’s so frustrating hanging round doing jack s**t. Do I wanna go Hull City NO. Do I wanna go stoke NO do I wanna go Sunderland YES so stop ***king around, levy. Sunderland are not the problem in the slightest.”
Wow. You have to give him points for the guts, if not the English. Guess it was the only way he could make the headlines. Darren Bent did finally move to Sunderland, news of little interest outside of Sunderland. But Bent bad-mouthing the club chairman had me giggling here in India too.
Coming back to the Community Shield and the two clubs in question: wasn’t it funny that it was Manchester United who made all the news (and the money) with the buying and the selling, while Roman Abramovich kept his money carefully tucked away, choosing to do with whatever arsenal he already had?
Manchester United sold Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid. That was the news of the season and the biggest transfer move in the history of the game. But Sir Alex Ferguson had to do something to get the limelight back on himself. Cristiano was taking it all away with him to Madrid. He did so by picking an out-of-form, injury-prone, once-upon-a-time-wonderboy Michael Owen for the squad. Was it largesse or does Sir Alex really think Michael can make a difference, we can only wait and watch. Michael has started off promisingly in the pre-season friendlies but it is Antonio Valencia, 23-year-old winger from Ecuador, Manchester United’s new signing from Wigan Athletic who’s making every one stand up and take notice. Sir Alex had his eyes on Valencia since 2006 when he played against United for a brief 20 minutes. British press reports that Sir Alex would regularly send scouts to check on him. Valencia is fast with the ball, his crosses precise, but I doubt he will match Ronaldo’s goalscoring abilities just yet.
Chelsea’s biggest signing on the other hand was the Carlo Ancelotti, who took over as manager from Dutch Guus Hiddink. In the first team they also bought a midfielder, Russian Yuri Zhirkov from CSKA Moscow. Apart from Ancelotti’s arrival, Didier Drogba’s decision to stay with the club has also boosted morale, along with the fact that there were no major departures. All in all, this season promises to be just as juicy and spicy as the last. I hope the game on Sunday is exciting and worth the wait. So once again, let us all raise our glasses. To the game.
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