A Football Report

By Azeem Banatwalla

The footballing world in its entirety knows what happened before and after the clash between Manchester United and Liverpool yesterday. YouTube is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? So there’s not much point repeating what happened, but in the aftermath of yesterday’s events, debates have sprung up, as they usually do, on Facebook status updates, newspaper websites, and pretty much every space of internet brave enough to host a comments section. United and Liverpool fans are at each other’s throats. United fans say Suarez should have shaken Evra’s hand. Liverpool fans say it’s just a handshake being blown out of proportion. But the essential point of the debate was lost a long time ago. Having had a weekend to sleep on it, let’s see if we can find our heads again.

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By Azeem Banatwalla

Andre Villas-Boas’s visage has leapt across many extremes over the last month and a half. From quiet confidence to near-childish defiance, and more recently, after falling at home to Arsenal and Liverpool, a mix of anger and worry.

Football fans can be fickle in an almost cruel way when it comes to club managers. It comes with the territory. If a club isn’t doing well, it’s assumed that the man at the helm is at fault. “Get out the axe, let’s have his head!”, they scream. The footballing equivalent of that barbaric scene in Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto. But hold on a minute, won’t you? 

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By Azeem Banatwalla

Last season was strange for Manchester United fans. It began with the traditional sluggish start that follows most World Cup summers. A ton of draws and unconvincing displays led many pundits and even more fans to write off United’s chances when they were nine points off the pace in October. You couldn’t blame them. But Chelsea and Arsenal underwent their respective collapses and somehow, despite the Wayne Rooney saga, sub-standard displays and a glaring lack of quality, United found themselves on top of the tree at Christmas. 

Yes, last season was strange. Because it wasn’t a “vintage” Manchester United team, as every pundit on every television channel and newspaper has severally pointed out. It was a team that ground out results and battled through to victory relying less on attractive football and more on a winning mentality. Some went as far as saying that it was solely Sir Alex Ferguson who was responsible for the 19th title. Poetic, since he did want to knock Liverpool off their “perch” himself.

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By Azeem Banatwalla

Every transfer window is marred (or spiced up, whichever way you look at it), with that one controversial switch. We’ve had a few of those already this time round, with a manager making the headlines for once. Alex McLeish’s move to Villa was the stuff the Hollywood tabloid writers have wet dreams about. But there’s a new, more significant storm brewing, and it lies in London.

No, I’m not talking about Cesc Fabregas. I’ve given up speculating about whether he will stay at Arsenal or go. It’s the Luka Modric saga that’s threatening to boil over into an ugly volcano that could well erode Tottenham’s dressing room. 

I feel that both club and player are being stupid about the whole scenario. Yes, he is a key player - but he’s had a taste of Champions League football, and he wants more. Who can blame him? Yes, he signed a six year contract in 2010, but it’s more than a little naive on Modric’s part to have fallen for the “gentlemen’s agreement” that Daniel Levy offered him; the assurance that he would be sold should the right club come along. Especially in this day and age when morality in the world of football is as sparse as the hair on Levy’s head. It’s a business, pure and simple. Clubs are corporations, players are employees. Boo-hoo-hoo and all that, but this is the reality.

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By Azeem Banatwalla

“I am not a man of many words, but I can honestly say that playing football is all I have ever wanted to do” - departing words from one of football’s understated legends. Another member of United’s class of ‘92 announced his retirement today, lowering the curtain on an illustrious career with tons of trophies, but sparing individual honors. Paul Scholes would probably have it no other way.

He was never one for the limelight. He shunned it, preferring to talk with his feet. Every manager’s dream, and a journalist’s nightmare, Scholesy’s philosophy was simple - “Get up, Go to work, Play the game, Get showered, Go home” (quote courtesy tshirtsunited.com). Today we bid farewell to one of the greatest players of this generation. We bid farewell to the Ginger Prince.

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By Azeem Banatwalla

It’s not often you’d find yourself in a situation that put Manchester United down as a clear second favourite, but that’s Barcelona’s dominance of the European game for you. Barcelona have scored more goals in just La Liga than Manchester United have done in all competitions combined. They’ve conceded almost half as many goals as United have. It should be a no-brainer as to who’s lifting that trophy on Saturday night. But it isn’t.

People have complained all season long about how Sir Alex Ferguson’s current crop isn’t like those of the past in terms of free-flowing football and scoring goals for fun. I agree in part, but it’s not something worth complaining about. In fact, I’m going to go as far as saying it’s just that fact that will bring the Champions League trophy back to Manchester.

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By Azeem Banatwalla, follow him on Twitter

He goes by many names. Some call him the Welsh Wizard. The cool kids into “txt spk” and all that new-age jazz call him RG11. Some of us cricket fans in India call him the Sachin Tendulkar of football. To the rest, he goes by the name of Ryan Giggs. Someday, hopefully, we’ll see a three letter mark of knighthood precede that name.

What a player, what a personality, and what an absolute legend.

We hear this over and over again, every other week. From football pundits, players, managers and fans alike. That Ryan Giggs is a player that every kid who plays the game should look up to and say, “That’s what I want to be.”

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