Manchester City – Michmutters

Tag: Manchester City

Categories
Sports

Manchester City teams with St Laurence’s College for football coaching program in Brisbane

An image of St Laurence students running in line as if about to kick soccer balls

A Brisbane school has clinched a deal with Manchester City to train the next generation of soccer champions through a new football program.

English Premier League’s Manchester City has established the state’s only Manchester City Football School at St Laurence’s College.

The football school will involve coaching programs delivered by a Manchester City coach for the St Laurence’s College students, making use of the FIFA-certified artificial football pitch at the college’s South Brisbane campus.

St Laurence’s College principal Chris Leadbetter told ABC Radio Brisbane the partnership had been in the works for some time, and he had struggled to not tell the students the exciting news.

Young soccer players with arms over shoulders and a man in a suit on a soccer pitch.
Manchester City Football School has launched at St Laurence’s College in Brisbane.(Supplied: St Laurence’s College)

“They’ll implement a program in Year 5 to 7, it will be within the curriculum and also outside school hours,” Mr Leadbetter said.

“In Year 8 to Year 12 it will be a co-curriculum program, so before and after school, at our fields at the school or at our fields at Runcorn.

“So we’re very excited.”

.

Categories
Sports

Cucurella, De Jong among five transfers we still want to see happen this summer…

Brighton defender Marc Cucurella, Manchester United attacker Cristiano Ronaldo.

Chelsea are keen but we really want to see Marc Cucurella playing for Pep Guardiola. Chelsea can have Frenkie De Jong, just for the giggles.

Here are five deals we’re definitely here for this summer…

Marc Cucurella to Manchester City
Watching Cucurella scuttling up and down Brighton’s left flank was one of the joys of last season. After arriving from Getafe for £15million a year ago, the Spaniard took to the Premier League like a duck to water. A duck with lovely, flowing locks.

The ‘do meant you couldn’t miss him, but Cucurella quickly stood out for reasons beyond his barnet. Defensively, he made the fourth-highest number of tackles in the league, and offensively, he flew forward, never at anything less than warp speed. His energy from him was infectious and his influence from him on the Seagulls was such that he was named Player of the Season by the supporters and his team-mates.

So it is understandable that Brighton want top dollar for Cucurella. Given what Pep Guardiola has spent before on full-backs, the Seagulls are right to ask for £50million. Just as it is City’s right not to meet that demand. But it would be very much worth their time. And since they have already sold Oleksandr Zinchenko for £30million, they have weakened their own bargaining position.

And now here come Chelsea, not just to f*** with City, though the Blues’ approach certainly achieves that aim while generating a bidding war for Cucurella. One that City should be more minded to win than they apparently are.

Of course, if Cucurella stays at Brighton, that’s cool. Doubtless he’ll be brilliant again and the Seagulls will enjoy another fine season. They probably will thrive even if he goes. And the 24-year-old belongs on the Champions League stage. We just think he’d be more fun for his Catalan compatriot at City than Chelsea.

Man City shouldn’t allow their own stubbornness to spoil perfect Cucurella opportunity

Frenkie De Jong to Manchester United
Erik ten Hag certainly wants this to happen. The new Manchester United boss is desperate for a meeting with the former Ajax midfielder.

De Jong is pivotal to the plan Ten Hag has for United and the way he wants them to play. As a midfielder, De Jong doesn’t score many goals or claim bundles of assists, but Ten Hag recognizes that the Holland star sets the tempo. “He’s the player who supplies the team-mates who give the assists or who can score goals from their position,” said Ten Hag when De Jong was being utilized as a no.10 at Barcelona.

Ten Hag even used De Jong as a centre-back at Ajax in an effort to improve their build up play from deep and, apparently, there isn’t another player in the world that might be available who could do the job as proficiently.

So it’s a shame De Jong apparently doesn’t want to join United. Quite rightly, he’s digging in his heels while he waits for money owed to him by Barca but even then, word is he doesn’t fancy living in Manchester.

We reckon he should open his mind to the prospect. If for no other reason so that United can have no excuses and we can see how good both De Jong and Ten Hag are when they have everything in place. Otherwise there is a very real prospect of McFred living to fight another season.

Frenkie De Jong to Chelsea
Just for the LOLs. De Jong is obviously loathe to relocate to the north west of England but, apparently, he might consider London. Just imagine all the boiled p*ss in Manchester at the sight of Ten Hag’s most-wanted lining up in blue against McFred and United.

It would also be absolutely hilarious if he stubbornly refused to leave Barcelona given they seem to have already banked and spent the money already. Just not on paying De Jong or his team-mates the deferred wages they are owed.

Cristiano Ronaldo to Sporting Lisbon
We know Ronaldo wants a move. We also know now that almost no one wants to give him one – not Manchester United nor any of the clubs he might consider joining. So at some point during the coming weeks, one party will have to suck it up.

It could be Ronaldo, if he is made to stay at Old Trafford with his tail tucked between his legs. It might be United, who may have to take a hit to get the 37-year-old distraction away from Ten Hag while he begins his rebuild in earnest.

That being the case, a loan move back to Sporting would tick a lot of boxes for Ronaldo. It would enable him to go ‘home’ to where he began his career, while also keeping him the Champions League.

There was some excitement at the reported sighting of one of Ronaldo’s cars being spotted at Sporting’s stadium, but the player’s response was simply to cry ‘fake’ news. Going back to the Portuguese league might not be what Ronaldo had in mind when he declared his intention to leave United, but with no other options, away from Saudi Arabiaa romantic return may be the best way for him to save face and the Red Devils – and the rest of us – to move on. He’s only been back a week, but already he must be making Ten Hag’s t*ts itch.

Man Utd striker Cristiano Ronaldo walks down the Old Trafford tunnel

Aaron Wan-Bissaka to Crystal Palace
It’s not Wan-Bissaka’s fault he was promoted way above the level his talent merits. We’ll blame the transfer brains-trust that watched 804 right-backs and decided he was the best of the lot.

After a bright start to his United career, when slide tackles were still a novelty down Old Trafford’s right flank, Wan-Bissaka’s prospects have nose-dived. It soon became clear that the £45million man had none of the other tools in his locker that a modern-day full-back needs to thrive at a club expected to attack, leading to him being steadily sidelined by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Ralf Rangnick kept him there and Erik ten Hag wants rid completely.

Where next? The only obvious solution is to return to Palace, where he made his name from him, at home in the Eagles’ defense. Would Palace take him?

On loan, probably. With long-serving Joel Ward and Nathaniel Clyne, it feels as though Patrick Vieira is making do at right-back at present. The Eagles boss is keen for his defense to be comfortable in different shapes, and he wants Palace to be on the front foot. Maybe Wan-Bissaka isn’t that suited after all.

But we can all envisage him rediscovering some form and happiness back at Selhurst Park. United just have to accept that they will take a huge hit, however Wan-Bissaka departs.

.

Categories
Sports

Nunez upstages Haaland, Alvarez in Liverpool’s Community Shield win, but Manchester City’s new stars will shake off loss

Nunez upstages Haaland, Alvarez in Liverpool's Community Shield win, but Manchester City's new stars will shake off loss

LEICESTER, England — Erling Haaland will have better days in a Manchester City shirt, you can be certain of that, but his first taste of English football saw him resoundingly upstaged by Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez and City teammate Julian Alvarez as the FA Cup holders claimed a 3-1 Community Shield victory over last season’s Premier League champions at the King Power Stadium.

Few players in world football create quite as much noise as Haaland, the 22-year-old forward who moved to City from Borussia Dortmund in a €60 million transfer earlier this summer. The Norway international had his pick of every major club in Europe before agreeing to move to the Etihad and few expect him to do anything but score a truckload of goals on the way to winning trophies galore with Pep Guardiola’s team.

– ESPN+ guide: LaLiga, Bundesliga, MLS, FA Cup, more (US)
– Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (US only)
– Don’t have ESPN? Get instant access

But Haaland had a debut to forget against Liverpool. Not only did he fail to score, he barely touched the ball, missed an easy chance in stoppage time when hitting the crossbar from six yards and saw Nunez — Liverpool’s €75 million signing from Benfica — leave him firmly in the shade with a dazzling substitute performance which delivered a goal, an assist and an exciting showcase of the qualities he will bring to Jurgen Klopp’s team this season.

And then there was Alvarez, the 22-year-old signed from River Plate for €16 million, who gave an eye-catching City debut by scoring the equaliser, canceling out Trent Alexander-Arnold’s first-half opener, after replacing Riyad Mahrez early in the second-half. While Nunez was explosive, determined and clinical, Alvarez showed the ability to hold the ball, lay it off and take advantage of tight spaces before displaying a striker’s awareness when scoring from close range after goalkeeper Adrian had pushed away Phil Foden’s shot in 70 minutes.

Haaland will undoubtedly score goals for City. His record of him so far for Dortmund, FC Salzburg and Molde, has been so consistently good that he would be foolish to suggest he will do anything but continue his scoring ratio at the Etihad. But this was a day when he was up against one of the strongest teams in Europe, with defenders Joel Matip and Virgil van Dijk one of the best partnerships anywhere in the game, so it was a tough baptism for Haaland. The space to run at defenders which he often enjoyed in the Bundesliga was denied him by Matip and Van Dijk, and any other red shirt that came within close distance. And when he can’t run into the final third with the goal facing him, Haaland is not quite the same threat.

Nunez looked much sharper, and much more able to receive the ball with his back to goal and move defenders around, but Haaland and City are clearly still learning how to work with each other. Mahrez failed to spot a clever Haaland run in the first-half, when the forward had peeled off his marker, while Kevin De Bruyne waved his arms in frustration at his new teammate when he strayed offside and made himself unavailable for a pass in the second half.

And while Nunez was prepared to run across the face of the 18-yard box, Haaland stayed within the tight confines of the central area of ​​the pitch and it made him easier to stifle and perhaps explained why he only managed 14 touches in 90 minutes. On this evidence — admittedly, just 90 minutes — Haaland will offer less to City when he doesn’t have the ball than Nunez will give to Liverpool. Nunez simply looks a more rounded player, but it doesn’t mean he will score more goals and Guardiola insisted that Haaland will deliver in the months ahead.

“He didn’t score,” Guardiola said. “Another day he will score. He has an incredible quality on that and he will do it.

“He fought a lot, made the movements. It’s good for him to see the reality of new country, new league, but he was there. He is going to help us a lot — he had the chances, he was there.”

Opponents that aren’t as accomplished are likely to be blown away by Haaland if he is given the space to hurt them, but ultimately, he has been signed to make the difference in the tight games, against the likes of Liverpool and in the Champions League, so he has still to show he can make that vital step up. It is difficult to envisage Haaland failing to take his game to that level, but he and City have work to do to make it come together.

Liverpool appear to have less to do to make Nunez fill the gap created by Sadio Mane’s summer move to Bayern Munich. His header from him, from Mohamed Salah’s cross on 80 minutes, led to the Ruben Dias handball which, after a VAR review, resulted in a penalty from which Salah made it 2-1 to Liverpool. And Nunez than scored his goal with a diving header, four minutes into stoppage time, after Andy Robertson had teed him up in the six yard box.

“We all know they are a special species, strikers,” Klopp said. “They all need goals and goal involvements.” [Nunez] would have been fine without his goal because he created the penalty with his header and had a chance when the goalkeeper reacted brilliantly. “His goal for him was the icing on the cake, brilliant for him and it’s a really good sign after the time he has been with us.”

So in the battle of the new signings, Nunez won his first encounter with Haaland and helped Liverpool to their first Community Shield success since 2006. But this is a game that means little in the long term. How Nunez and Haaland do in the Premier League and Champions League is what will truly define the success of their big moves.

.