Sweet Nothings

Even in today’s state of constant managerial flux, Southampton’s recent sacking of Claude Puel seemed somewhat harsh. An 8th placed finish and a cup final appearance is surely a decent return for a club which has become football’s equivalent of a used car showroom each summer (Saido Mané and Victor Wanyama being last season’s nice little earners). And if that league position is slightly misleading – miles away from Everton in 7th, only 6 points clear of Watford in 17th – the Ben Stiller dad-alike Puel could point to further mitigating circumstances in the form of injuries to Charlie Austin and Virgil van Dijk, and Jose Fonte’s ill-judged departure in January to a club where he will very much not be playing Champions League football. In days gone by, before 24 hour rolling news and breaking TwitFace updates, we marvelled at tales of Athletico Madrid’s exotically-named chairman Jesus Gil y Gil bringing new meaning to the phrase ‘manager of the month’ as he put another hapless ap...

In this first post-Fergie season, it wasn’t terribly surprising that Manchester United continued to dominate the headlines, albeit not in the manner to which they were accustomed. Although in some ways a shame that they didn’t put up a great fight to defend their crown, it’s so often the case in sport that great champions don’t just slowly fade away, their declines instead being sudden (check) and total (which now rather depends on Mr van Gaal). It’s interesting that journalists chose David Moyes’s clearout of the club’s backroom staff as one of the biggest sticks to beat him with. After all, most managers bring their own people with them to new clubs. Either the likes of Mike Phelan and future-ex-Fulham-boss Rene Meulensteen were gods amongst men, or United are a textbook example of all that’s gone wrong with football - a toxic bubble where Fergie was God, and players and fans alike are bloated with self-important, preconceived notions of the club’s ‘way’. Moyes was th...