I’ve always said that the first win or loss under Appleton would have a huge bearing on the morale around the club, but it’s not just in relation to run since Appleton has been here.

After winning on Saturday Blackpool have now lost just once in the last nine outings. If we would have lost though, we would be talking about just one win in 11. The two statements sound nothing alike and it is why they say that one result can make a huge difference. In reality it just goes to show how many draws we’ve seen recently.

With the players heading down to Peterborough, there was a feeling among the fans that anything less than a win would be a poor result. After only drawing with then-bottom Bristol City, taking just a point or less away from London Road would leave a lot of Blackpool fans looking down rather than up.

Following a terrible showing against Birmingham, the Seasiders had some improving to do if they were to take anything from the game, and Appleton decided to make just one change. Wes Thomas came in for his full debut in place of Kevin Phillips which proved to be the right choice as the new boy got on the score sheet and won his team a penalty in a whole-hearted display.

Ian Evatt, Matt Philips and Gary Taylor-Fletcher are still all out with injury and the current starting XI need to start performing if they are to keep them out of the side when they do eventually return.

It didn’t get off the the best start on Saturday, as it hasn’t in any of Appleton’s games so far, with Blackpool starting like they were suffering from a bit of travel sickness. Peterborough weren’t much better though creating only one real chance, albeit a brilliant one from which Boyd should have opened the scoring. It seems as though Appleton’s aim is to make it to half time at 0-0 and so far it has been a tactic which has proven relentlessly boring and ultimately unsuccessful.

However this week it worked out, Blackpool went in at 0-0 and Appleton had the chance to deliver what must be an inspirational teamtalk. Against Watford we witnessed a total transformation from first to second half, and again against Peterborough they went from looking like total strangers to a team in total control. If he could just be half as motivating before kick-off we might see an exciting first half.

Blackpool finally got hold of the game and after Ince chipped a ball for Thomas to head in, they looked like they would cruise to an easy victory. Just 8 minutes later Thomas won a penalty which Ince converted to put some space between the two sides and it looked like we would finally see a win.

Although you can see that Appleton is doing his best to tighten up the defence, he isn’t being helped by Alex Baptiste who has gone from being the first name on the teamsheet to a total liability. From Vincent Kompany to Titus Bramble. And he displayed his very best Bramble impression to gift Peterborough an early christmas present and let them back into the game.

Thankfully, after a few substitutions, Blackpool regained their 2-goal lead following a Martinez assist and Dicko strike, before Ince finished the game with a fantastic goal from another Angel Martinez pass.

So a 4-1 win looks convincing on paper, and maybe was fairly convincing on the day, but the Posh defence was poor and Blackpool still haven’t produced an interesting first half with Appleton in charge. But it’s goals and results that breed confidence, no matter who they are against, and this could finally be the platform that the side has needed to build upon. It wasn’t a great game and it was against the basement side, but it could give the strikers some confidence and give everyone at the back (except Baptiste) a bit of a boost.

For me though, potentially the biggest positive from the game is Basham collecting his 5th yellow card and therefore missing the trip to Palace. It sounds harsh because Basham has done tremendously well since he has come back in and has been a rare bright spark, but it frees up a position in the middle that will surely be filled by Angel Martinez. Assuming Osbourne and Gomes keep their places it means we could be seeing the multi-cultural trio back in the middle of the park for the first time since they wiped the floor with Ipswich.

And how ironic it may be for them to return against the manager that tinkered with that side and sent the team into a downward spiral. It’s not guaranteed that these three will start, and it’s not guaranteed that they will inspire a win or even play well, but they have a chance to show the new manager what they can do, and show their old manager what a fool he was to break them up.

As for Saturday, it’s not a game I’m looking forwards to really. A game that should have meant absolutely nothing now has so many fans expecting something. If we lose, it isn’t just 3 points dropped but it will lead to more questions about Appleton’s credentials compared to Holloway’s.

On the other hand, if we do win Appleton will be a hero and it could provide a bit of closure on the Holloway era. Winning would say that it was the right time for him to move on and that we can perform without him. Everybody can get on with things and start looking forwards.

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Hopefully Holloway will afford us the same luxury as he did with Leicester by telling his side not to perform against his former club. After getting Leicester relegated, whenever we played them you got the feeling that he was trying to rectify that by allowing them to win. After leaving Blackpool rather acrimoniously, he may be inclined to do the same thing. With any luck anyway.

Saturday also sees a clash between two of the hottest properties in the league with Ince and Zaha battling it out to show who really is worth their asking price. Ince, with 13 goals and 8 assists is being valued at £6m whilst Zaha, on 4 goals and 4 assists, is attracting talk of a £20m bid. Maybe it’s just my Blackpool bias that sees a flawed logic here, or maybe it’s because I’m not an idiot.

Ince has proven himself to be a good player in the last 2 years after leaving Liverpool and will cause problems for Palace, but I worry that at the other end Zaha may well be up against Broadfoot. Even facing Crainey, in his current form, I worry that Zaha and the equally impressive Bolasie will cause a lot of problems for our fullbacks. It’s unfortunate that we can’t see Ince and Phillips in action together on Saturday as that would be a great comparison.

No matter what happens, Saturday should provide a lot of talking points, both on and off the pitch and should make for very interesting viewing.

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Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has warned fans of the club not to expect all of their issues to be solved in January.

It’s widely believed that the Reds will be in the market for a number of players next month, with a striker and wide midfielder thought to be top targets to aid their Premier League campaign.

The Reds have been heavily linked with Daniel Sturridge in recent weeks and are also said to be closing in on a deal for Blackpool starlet Thomas Ince.

However, Rodgers has played down the significance of the winter window, hinting that the real work will be done next summer:

“All our problems were never going to be solved in this window because the January window is one of the least ¬productive, and the least ¬movement goes on there.” He is quoted by The Mirror.

“I see lots of names bandied about and, with all due respect, they’re names that are pie in the sky because there won’t be too many top players moving about in January, as clubs want top money.

“There is a bigger picture, for sure, and it goes back to ¬affordability. The reality is, for all the names bandied about, are they going to be ¬available?

“It will come down to two things: the availability and affordability of players, and in the January window you don’t get either.”

But, he did hint that money is in place to bring in some attacking reinforcements to ease the burden on Luis Suarez:

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“There is no doubt we will get reinforcements in and we will get the backing and support from the owners,

“We want to bring in goals and we want to bring in players who can assist in scoring goals.”

Norwich City have had an ‘undisclosed bid’ turned down by Celtic for their main man Gary Hooper.

The Canaries are keen to land the striker after their bid for Swansea City forward Danny Graham was also snubbed yesterday.

Celtic manager Neil Lennon is desperate to hold on to his star player this month and was left frustrated that the offer became public knowledge.

Hooper has 18 months remaining on his current deal but the SPL champions have offered the former Scunthorpe forward an extension that he is yet to sign.

Many have pinpointed Hooper as a surprise selection in Roy Hodgson’s England squads for upcoming friendlies this year after notching double figures so far this season and he helped Celtic progress to the knock out stages of the Champions League.

Lennon has admitted a bid was rejected and that he is hopeful a positive meeting with the player could resolve the contract issues.

“The bid has been rejected,” Lennon told BBC Sport.

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“We had discussions with his representatives this morning and we are waiting to hear back from them.”

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There’s a strange obsession in football whereby people want to see this Barcelona team—arguably the greatest any of us have ever seen—play in England to prove one thing or another. Barcelona performing a full league campaign in England will either legitimise the claim that Barcelona are indeed the best football side we’ve seen, or it will hammer home the idea that this team have been cuddled and comforted to glory through the lack of fight from La Liga teams.

Underneath it all, in waters that aren’t as muddy as people would like them to believe, Barcelona’s dominance is an indirect attack on English football. It’s a claim that the greatest team, the greatest player and the most breathtaking football didn’t come from English shores. Fans want to be proved right that the Premier League is king and that the kings of football would become mere peasants when thrown in against the heavy-hitters from the English game.

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Well I’m not having any of it. I’m not saying Barcelona could win the Premier League, I’m saying they could do so in equally convincing fashion as they have done in the past when they lifted the Spanish crown. They won’t like it “up ‘em” when they go up north and the rain beats down a little harder? Quite the opposite: they’d thrive under it, they’d play faster and with greater ferocity. The stakes would be raised and so would their game. The idea that Barcelona have never played a difficult, tough or physical opponent is wrong. And more often than not they’ve won.

Who has been the greatest threat to Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona? Jose Mourinho. The Portuguese manager ruffled their feathers when he was in charge at Inter Milan and during that two-legged Champions League semi-final. Barcelona could have won, maybe they should have won. Julio Cesar was one of the world’s best goalkeepers that night in the Camp Nou. Bojan should have converted while at the same time not having his perfectly legitimate goal ruled out. The most important factor of that game is that Barcelona didn’t shy away, they didn’t hide when a physical team came to town and they still played their fantastic brand of football.

Would their style of play work in the Premier League? Why not? Many clubs have tried to emulate what they’ve done, either by adding players who they believe are good enough to recreate that level of football, appointing managers who follow that line of thinking to the Catalans and the Dutch, or going on to hire people who held significant roles in the conversion from theory to practice.

The idea that Barcelona wouldn’t like to travel to Stoke City or square-up to one of Sam Allardyce’s teams is nonsense. Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Everton, and whoever else you want to name have gone to places like that and won. Manchester United is and will remain for a long time the highest standard of Premier League football – they’re the best England have to offer and have been so for the best part of two decades. Barcelona toyed with them, drew them in and delivered crippling blow after crippling blow. United, Chelsea and City are the standards Barca have to live up to in England, not Stoke. Barcelona have beaten the best England has to offer and will continue to do so in the future.

And lets look to another important factor in the current makeup of this Barcelona team. Tito Vilanova’s team are greatly different to Guardiola’s. Ok, the principles remain the same but this is Vilanova’s team now. They’ve played against the most lethal natural no 9 in the game and their closest rivals in the La Liga title race and annihilated them. They enjoyed the occasion, it was something different and it was an Atletico Madrid who weren’t afraid of the obvious gulf in class in various areas of the pitch.

Barcelona have to travel to Pamplona every season and face the always tricky and noticeably English style of Osasuna. Barcelona have to travel to Sam Mames and face the noisy crowds in Bilbao. They’ve had to face Mourinho’s “dirty” tactics and his decision to deploy Pepe as the destroyer in midfield. They came through each of those hurdles not unscathed, but with further evidence that they can do it against the rougher sides in the game.

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Guardiola was far too meticulous, far too aware and far too good to allow his sides to fall at the hands of physicality. They have their enforcers in the team, but Barcelona’s group as a whole are far tougher than they may look.

It would be an interesting experiment to see the results of Barcelona in English football. But as I’ve said time and again in the past, it’s not needed. Would they win the Premier League? They’re the best team in Spain, the best team in Europe, former world champions. English football is not that special.

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When the January transfer window closed three weeks ago a lot of Tottenham supporters were asking questions of Daniel Levy as to why he didn’t ensure at least one striker was brought in to maintain the Champions League push.

There was the feeling that a huge opportunity to strike a blow to their rivals, for the rest of the season, had been lost.

Levy softened the blow at least by making sure that Lewis Holtby arrived six months before schedule, coughing up the necessary £1.5million fee to attain his services.

This though was not enough to remove the nagging doubts amongst Lilywhites supporters. Their chairman had to have a reason for why he did not go for broke and sign the missing attacking piece to the jigsaw alongside Defoe and Adebayor.

An explanation that seemed to fit the bill would be that Tottenham simply had to spend within their means financially. A lot of fans had reluctantly accepted that Levy was a businessman who had done a great job over the years, so they had to understand his judgement.

[post_link url=”https://www.footballfancast.com/premiership/tottenham/tottenhams-destiny-set-to-be-defined-in-april,https://www.footballfancast.com/premiership/tottenham/time-to-show-tottenham-ace-a-little-more-gratitude,https://www.footballfancast.com/premiership/aston-villa/can-he-really-do-better-than-signing-for-tottenham-or-arsenal” target=_blank” type=”tower”]

There had to be a longer term view and most would have warranted Levy using the stadium as an excuse for not generating enough income to provide money for the transfer kitty. But would such an argument really hold any real steel?

White Hart Lane has been seen as one of the main contributors to Tottenham not quite being able to consistently hold their seat at the Champions League table in recent seasons. The 36,320 all seater stadium may sell out every week, but it does not provide anywhere near the income that their neighbours at Arsenal down the road enjoy.

It is a sore wound that while the Gunners netted around £5million for the last derby match at The Emirates when the reverse fixture is played at White Hart Lane in March the estimated return will be around half that figure.

This is no secret but is this any excuse for failure if Tottenham fail to finish amongst the top four and once again tussle with Europe’s elite clubs this season? No, certainly not.

I am sure nobody affiliated with Tottenham Hotspur will look down upon having a long term view, but isn’t using the stadium as a weapon to not spend just a smokescreen for the fact that Levy has left AVB with not enough tools to succeed?

In terms of net spending Mr Levy backed Harry Redknapp in his last two seasons at the club to the tune of over £50million. This season AVB has just £500,000 in net spend.

The performances on the pitch have not suffered as a result. The Portuguese manager has managed to bring the very best out of Gareth Bale, but he has also managed to bring on players such as Sandro this season too, much to his credit and not his chairman’s.

In the summer, Levy showed his capability to have foresight. He did this by sacking Harry Redknapp and seeing that a vibrant new manager would revitalise the club when a time desperately needed it. He gave Villas Boas a Premier League platform to flourish which he has gone on to thrive upon.

It is though possibly more interesting that Levy showed his ability to see into the future of the club in the transfer market too when he sanctioned the signing of Hugo Lloris.

At the time, signing the French international may not have been a pressing need but he was willing to take the gamble and sign a world class keeper for an £8million fee.

This January, Levy was required to make the same courageous move in ascertaining a striker. AVB may have said that signing a striker was unlikely but it didn’t mean he wouldn’t have wanted one.

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It may turn out that Tottenham have enough quality in their squad to get over the line and into the Champions League places. If this is the case it will be down to the superb man management of Villas Boas. Levy would have to thank his lucky stars should this happen.

Whatever the outcome, the issue of White Hart Lane won’t go away and ensuring a solution so the club can bring in more money to be able to fund transfers is pivotal, but this is not the current underlying issue.

If Daniel Levy wants to support AVB for the long term he may want to seriously consider protecting his boss by ensuring the nucleus of the side stays put, as well as ensuring that he backs his manager to the hilt in the next transfer market.

Should Levy continue to take such unecessary gambles on transfer issues in years to come it won’t be White Hart Lane that scuppers their Champions League ambitions. It will be losing his star players who fail to see their future in North London and a young and talented manager in the form of Andre Villas Boas.

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Arsenal are preparing to sell Gervinho in the summer, and use the funds to sign Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina.

Reports in the Daily Mail say that Arsenal are ready to accept a £12million bid from Galatasaray in the summer, and will use the money to bring Liverpool shot-stopper Jose Reina to London.

The Turkish giants are keen on the 25-year-old after seeing impressive performances in the African Nations Cup for Ivory Coast, and are looking to add to their star line-up including Didier Drogba and Wesley Sneijder.

Gervinho has struggled with the club’s fans over recent months, and has received criticism for some poor performances in Arsenal colours. The Ivorian will be looking to turn that around and help the Gunners into the Champions League spaces in the league table.

Arsenal have already lined-up their next transfer move as soon as Gervinho is sold, with the club ready to bid for Reina. The Gunners have been linked with the Spaniard for a few years, and are ready to turn that interest into a solid offer.

Reina had been one of the best ‘keepers in the league for many years, but this season mistakes by the Spaniard have cost Liverpool, most notably his error at the Etihad against Manchester City that stopped Liverpool earning a superb away win against the champions.

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Aresnal’s best chance of signing Reina will be if they can offer Champions League football, and will need to take all 3 points at home to Reading on Saturday to keep chasing that 4th place in the league.

[cat_link cat=”arsenal” type=”grid”]

QPR chief Tony Fernandes has hit out at some of the players in his squad who do not show the same passion as he does.

Despite investing a fortune in the club, Fernandes neither former manager Mark Hughes nor current boss Harry Redknapp could find the right formula to get them playing and the results have continued to disappoint.

The draw at Reading on Sunday means that QPR will be playing in the Championship next season and Fernandes has had a go at his players.

“It’s heartbreaking for me when we lose. I don’t want to go out, I just want to stay at home,” he told the club’s website.

“And I am someone who has dealt with success and dealt with disappointment. But there is nothing I have gone through that is as disappointing as losing a football game.

“I haven’t said it throughout the season because it wasn’t right to be said, but it hurt me when I saw some of the players who didn’t feel the way I felt. And in fact, in their case, it should be worse because this is their job, it’s their life. It wasn’t a good feeling.”

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Paul Lambert says Richard Dunne won’t play for Aston Villa this season and admits he could leave when his contract expires this summer.

The Republic of Ireland international hasn’t featured for Villa during the current campaign due to a serious groin injury sustained while on international duty at Euro 2012.

Lambert had hoped he would have the 33-year-old back for the run-in to the season but Dunne has now been ruled out for the remaining five matches.

The Villa boss has hinted Dunne’s time at Villa Park could well be over as a result, with his current contract due to expire this summer.

“It’s unlikely because of the injury he’s had,” said Lambert, when asked if Dunne might play this season.

“He’s doing a lot better. It’s been an incredible injury, that. Something that I’ve never come across, and hopefully he feels better now within himself.

“We will just have to wait and see about his own career really.”

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When asked whether it was too early to make a decision over Dunne’s Villa future, Lambert said: “Yes, because he main thing for me and for Richard was for him to get himself back to playing the game of football. At the minute he’s doing fine with his rehab, really well.”

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There’s an odd phenomena that occurs when a word is repeated too often in close proximity. After a while it loses all the values & meaning we’ve attributed to it and ceases to become anything but the bizarre collection of silly mouth noises the letters make when we verbalize these weird symbols together in the way we’ve been conditioned to. There’s a word for it. It’s called Semantic satiation. Try saying chimney 40 times. It’s ludicrous. What is a chim? What is a ney? Chim-ney. It’s bonkers.

This peculiar thing happened to me the day David Moyes was appointed manager of Manchester United. I encountered his name so ubiquitously that a simple word I knew well, and had happily associated automatically with a sinewy bug eyed football manager who worked in Liverpool, became a complete nonsense of a sound unable to be appropriated any value. Moize. Mwoys. Muoeze. What?

I tried to reprogram my brain to register it. I knew it belonged to a man, and I knew what that man looked like, but no, the word was now gibberish. Every time it was mentioned it refused to stick to him, and would only register as somewhere between “moist” and “noise”. By the end of the first day this had developed into an actual moist noise that I would subconsciously manifest in my own head whenever it came into my sphere of awareness. The name wasn’t even a silly word anymore, it was a silly sound. Like Prince, if he’d changed his name to a sound. A moist sound. Like very softly sucking your cheeks towards your tongue and then releasing them. “Sslukkd”. THAT, and only that, was Moyes to me. For weeks.

Then, thankfully, other news happened. The football season ended, other less important sports seized their chance in the graveyard atmosphere of Sky Sports News, and the noise himself went on a long holiday. The affliction subsided.

But now he’s back. Starting his first week proper as manager of Britain’s most famous football club. Guaranteed to be scrutinized in everything from his choice of first press conference tie to his inability to chew in a manner befitting of Sir Alex Ferguson.

[cat_link cat=”manchester-united” type=”list”]

One thing that’s absolutely certain about the first few months (and possibly even years) of Moyes’s tenure, is that he’ll be castigated in some corners for everything he does. Loses Rooney? Moyes is weak for letting him go. Keeps Rooney? Moyes is weak for not getting rid. Fails to sign a world class midfielder? Moyes has no pulling power. Signs people from Everton? Moyes has no pulling power. Fails to win all pre-season games against Japanese electricians by eight clear goals? Moyes isn’t up to this level. Wears ugly suit to Charity Shield? Moyes has no pulling power.

Even now, typing the word out I’m drifting dangerously back towards satiation-land.

United’s ominously tough opening fixtures combined with sslukkd-era Everton’s historically slow start to the season means they’re guaranteed to drop at least a couple of points in the early going. Byline writers will undoubtedly already have their headlines primed, pre-set and ready to go at the touch of a button. Like the Queen’s obituary. Or prospective Yewtree candidate puns. MOYESEND CHALICE. MOYES FROM THE CRAP STUFF. UNITED CAUGHT WITH THEIR PANTS DOWN MID-MOYTUS. It’s going to become unbearable.

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United fans and board need to be patient. This barely needs saying and has been repeated ad nauseam by anyone with a brain still able to register the meaning of words, but it’s much easier to trot out before the actual business commences (and by business, I don’t mean business as in business, I mean business as in football. The business of playing football. Not football business. That much should be evident, unless the word business has now become meaningless to you. Business. Look at it, it’s nonsense!) Because when the first on-pitch stumbles start to happen, and they will, that name is going to be everywhere, losing it’s meaning and value with every red top headline, sensationalist hit whoring editorial and over emotional forum post.

Get to grips with it while you can. The noise is coming, and it’s going to be deafening.

Jose Mourinho is undoubtedly one of the top managers around and arguably the best. Even though he finished this season without winning any trophies for Real Madrid, he has made an impact and triumphed with every team he has managed during his already illustrious career.

During his time at Porto, the ‘Special One’ won the Primeira Liga twice and the Portuguese Cup and Super Cup once. He also lifted the Europa League and the Champions League trophies with the Dragons.

With his current team Chelsea he has won the Premier League in two consecutive years, the League Cup twice and the FA Cup, as well as the Community Shield. In Italy he won the treble with Inter Milan (Serie A, Coppa Italia and the Champions League) as well as the 2008 Italian Super Cup. Even before this year’s dry spell he managed to win La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup with Los Merengues.

Mourinho has travelled the world and succeeded everywhere but what’s missing for the successful coach?

Three days ago Mourinho told the Independent that the FA asked him to coach the England national team six years ago and he declined because he felt that the long periods of inactivity would distract him. Now, if Mou joined England that year he would have never had the glory he experienced at Italy and Spain. But what if he became England’s manager now? Wouldn’t the European Championship and more importantly the World Cup act as a huge goal for the 50-year-old manager?

England are currently a team that has been experiencing a dry spell for a long period of time, and the last big trophy they won was way back in 1966. The fans seem disappointed with their players and the team looks to have taken a permanent back seat to the giants of Spain, Germany and Brazil. If there is one coach in the world we know has slayed giants everywhere he has been, it’s Jose Mourinho. From the 2004 Porto underdog story all the way to dethroning Barcelona, Mourinho has done it all and has beaten them all. Why would the international level be any different?

Mourinho has also expressed interest in England’s young talent. He told the Independent that he was very “open-minded” about young players and added that English teams should push the young footballers more. He added that he would like to help the English youth football with his experience, once he learned more about it, and what a better way to do that and promote talented young players as England’s manager?

During his career, the Portuguese managed to mould the skills of talented youngsters such as Mario Balotelli at Inter Milan as well as Raphael Varane and Karim Benzema at Real Madrid. Therefore, the ‘Special One’ could easily work with the young rising stars of England’s national team such as Phil Jones, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jack Rodwell.

One thing that could also lure more fans into England games is Mourinho’s playing style. The Chelsea coach has always been a fan of attacking football and most of his tactics are based on that game plan. Football fans around the world are all admirers of this sort of football as they want to see goals and chances being created at the opposing net.

England’s last game at the Euro 2012 against Italy featured the Three Lions’ game plan being anything but attractive, as Italy dominated possession by 63 per cent. Furthermore, Italy had a minimum of 59 successful passes, 31 shots (18 on target) and seven corners. England only had a minimum of 18 passes, eight shots, four on target and three corners. That is something that the Three Lions fans would rarely see with Mourinho.

The former Real Madrid coach made a very good point as he would indeed be experiencing a long period of inactivity where he would have to be content to just visit other teams’ practice and assess the players through other coaches’ training methods and would also have to watch every single match per week to monitor the talent. That way he could possibly lose his edge.

But let’s take Vicente Del Bosque, Spain’s manager, for example. The Furia Roja are arguably the best team in the world, after winning two European Championships in a row and the 2010 World Cup, with players such as Andres Iniesta, Juan Mata and David Silva. There is no way Del Bosque couldn’t get any credit for that success (except Euro 2008) as he is the one calling the shots at the team and he is the one working the systems. The Spaniard didn’t lack any glory beforehand as he won La Liga and the Champions League twice as well as the 2001 Spanish Super Cup and the 2002 UEFA Super Cup with Real Madrid.

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The same goes for Marcello Lippi, who has won the Serie A five times with Juventus as well as one Coppa Italia, four Italian Super Cups, one European Super Cup and one Champions League with La Vecchia Signora. When the Italian manager took over at Italy’s national team he managed to bring the country on the top of the mountain at the 2006 World Cup. Therefore, he as well didn’t lose his edge after picking a completely different schedule, so why would Mourinho suffer this sort of fate?

As said above, if Mou succeeded Steve McClaren in 2007 he would probably not have the fame he has right now, unless he won trophies with England. Truth is though that the World Cup and the Euro would work as great targets for Mourinho to get his rightful place in greatness a lot earlier than he will get it. That doesn’t mean he has nothing to win in the Premier League as he is back to a team that saw great success under his leadership and could bring the Blues back on top after three years. From then on, who knows…?