Football Philosophy

From even the start of the season is was inevitable that Manchester City were going to do something special this Premier League campaign.

They strengthened well in the areas which they struggled with last season, bringing in Benjamin Mendy, Kyle Walker, Bernardo Silva, Ederson and Danilo with Aymeric Laporte moving later on in January.

Having under achieved in 2016/2017, with Guardiola’s men only managing a third place finish and a Champions League round of 16 exit, fans across England were wondering if Pep’s style of football would work on a cold Tuesday night at Stoke.

However, Pep proved us wrong.

The signing of Ederson massively helped and the creativity and flair of their  attack and the solidity of their defence proved too much for sides below them.

They stormed through the league, scroing 102 goals this season, and they still have two games to play against bottom half table teams. Furthermore, City have only lost twice this season in the league, against Liverpool and United.

The scary thing for other top Premier League teams is that City will strengthen even further in the Summer and it will be hard for other sides to match their brilliance.

England will face Belgium, Tunisia and Panama at the World Cup in 2018, in Russia. They got drawn in the Kremlin on Friday evening by Diego Maradona, who pulled them out of a hat.

England’s toughest game will be against Belgium on the 28th June with the Three Lions having to face fellow club compatriots such as Vincent Kompany, Kevin de Bruyne, Eden Hazard, Kevin Mirallas, Moussa Dembele and Jan Vertonghen. And for the Evertonian Englishmen, there could be a reunion with former manager Roberto Martinez, now boss of Belgium.

Another team England will play will be Panama who are playing in their first World Cup ever – something which meant so much to them that the president gave the nation a one day holiday.

Lastly, England face Tunisia who they have been drawn against before- in the 1998 World Cup.

England will have to try to prove themselves in this tournament having been knocked out in a group consisting of Costa Rica, Italy and Uruguay, poor for the expectation which surrounded the tournament, not forgetting that they got knocked out by Iceland in the Euros at just the Round of 16 stage.

In other fixtures, Portugal will play Spain in a tense and high-profiled game in what is commonly being called the group of death; Brazil will play Switzerland in another tough group also consisting of Serbia and Costa Rica and finally Nigeria will clash with Argentina for the fifth time in all of Nigeria’s six World Cup appearances.

So my overall view of this draw is that England will be pleased because they have avoided any big teams and there are lots of extremely strong groups and there will be incredibly exciting action happening in Russia.

Following PSG’s 3-0 crushing victory over Bayern Munich in Europe this week the French team are becoming a real force in Europe.

After three years of only reaching the quarter final in the Champions League under Laurent Blanc, PSG rightly decided change was needed – so appointed Unai Emery instead.

Following a disappointing first season for the Spanish manager in which they got knocked in the early stages in Europe and got pipped by Monaco for the title, rumours were flying around his sacking.

However, he managed to keep his job and stayed on to fulfil his two-year contract at the club.

Furthermore, PSG did extremely well in the transfer window, buying players like Mbappe, Neymar and Alves, replacing positions which were vacant after several key men left.

This positive summer spending can be seen in their form having been unbeaten in the league this season and after just recently defeating Bayern Munich.

So they are currently a real contender for the Champions League and a huge force to be reckoned with.

After a disappointing season last year Manchester United are trying to prove their doubters wrong by winning the title and here are a few reasons why they’ll achieve that objective.

Firstly, they have recruited well signing a top class striker in Romelu Lukaku, an impressive centre midfielder in Nemanja Matic and a solid centre back in Victor Lindelof without completely blowing the budget like their Manchester rivals did.

Also, they have stability in every area of the pitch and no major weaknesses, which has been the difference for clubs in the past years of winning the league or not.

Lastly, they have young talent coming through who have been developing in the past few seasons on loan and can prove their worth this year.

However they will face tough competition from other clubs, but Mourinho’s team must prove they have the fighting spirit to win the league.

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has spoken about his concern for overpriced players and has said it is reaching a dangerous level.

“I always thought the problem is not what you pay for this kind of player, I don’t think the problem is what you pay for Pogba. I don’t think the problem is going to pay crazy for Neymar,” Mourinho told reporters in Washington DC, during their pre-season tour of America.

“I think the problem is with the other group, which is a big group because players like Pogba there are one or two big transfers like that per transfer window. The other ones are where you have 100 transfers, and for me that is the dangerous area of the transfer market.”

And Mourinho believes the best approach taken in the current window has come from Spurs, who have yet to make a signing and have accepted a £54m bid from Manchester City for Kyle Walker.

This news comes after a reported £160m deal with Mbappe moving to Real Madrid.

Manchester United have splashed out £106m this summer to sign Lukaku and Lindelof.

But Mourinho said in response “This season we spent a lot of money on a striker. If we don’t do that, we have no striker,”

“Next season we are not going to spend a lot of money on a striker. This season we had to do it. Investment is overall and it is every team.”