Moving On…To A Great New Season

We may still have a few nail-biting weeks to go before the end of the season but the events that have transpired in the footballing world over the last few days have been anything short of dramatic. If you were expecting the focus to be on title chases, the battle for glory or for some even survival, you are most certainly quite mistaken. Instead be prepared for a manager merry go round like one you’ve never seen before.

The catalyst for what is going to lead to a very interesting post season is the decision by Sir Alex Ferguson to call time on his reign at Manchester United at the end of the season. After guiding the Red Devils to their 20^th league title, the Scotsman will finally step down after over a quarter of a century in charge. With a job available to lead at one of the biggest clubs in Europe, a lot of names were thrown into the hat, but the powers that be at Old Trafford acted swiftly to usher in David Moyes from Everton as their man. This has now left a manager’s post vacant at Everton and the bookies favourite to get that job is Roberto Martinez of Wigan. Also in close contention are Malky Mackay of newly promoted Cardiff City, Michael Laudrup of Swansea City and Neil Lennon of Scottish Champions, Celtic. If any one of these managers are to take up the Everton job, it would in turn lead to a chain reaction that could end up sucking in more clubs into this game of musical chairs.

In addition to the above, there is the guessing game of which manager could be on the move. Rafa Benitez is at Chelsea on an interim basis and is most likely making way for Jose Mourinho who seems desperate to make the switch back to London, considering he is running out of friends in Spain. Should the move materialise, Carlo Ancelotti could be on a plane to Madrid from PSG.  Reports coming out of Spain also suggest that Manchester City have reached an agreement with Manuel Pellegrini, leaving Roberto Manicini probably without a job. Pep Guardiola will be taking over at Bayern Munich, putting current manager Jupp Heynckes, who is on the verge of a historical treble, out there in the job market too.

With the kind of speculation in the media, the PR machinery at the clubs are definitely working in overdrive to contain any negative impact such announcements, statements or assumptions could have. One such action taken is Real Madrid being forced to cancel a pre match press conference for this weekend to avoid any further controversies.  Also with all to play for certain clubs, such rumours could destabilize a team and its players. Both Manchester City and Wigan will face off tonight in the FA Cup final, which is their last chance for silverware this season. But with both managers jobs under scrutiny for different reasons, one can totally understand if they do not really feel committed to the cause.  Players too could end up being distracted focusing on where their future lies rather than getting the job in hand done. Wigan are also involved in a relegation dog fight that sees them needing to win at least one of their remaining two games and hope that other results go their way if they have to avoid the drop.

There is no doubt that such movement among managers will certainly have a direct impact on the club transfer policy. Clubs are obviously looking to steal a march on their rivals by getting players to commit well in advance and Mario Goetze’s switch to Bayern Munich is one such transfer of note. On the other hand a club could end up having a disgruntled player who doesn’t agree with the incoming managers policy and like Wayne Rooney put in a transfer request.

This is without a doubt only the tip of the iceberg and you can certainly expect a lot more drama to unfold in the coming weeks. With more money being made available and more movement expected in both players and managers to come this post season could well be fantasy football at its very best.