A Football Report

By Zara B. and A. Cortez

Alex Ferguson

This past 6th of November marked Sir Alex Ferguson’s 25th anniversary since taking charge of Manchester United. While many managers are fads at other clubs (Chelsea, Real Madrid), Manchester United have been fortunate enough to have a single manager lead the club to 12 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, four League Cups, and two Champions League trophies. For his service and all his accomplishments, the Old Trafford stand has been renamed “Sir Alex Ferguson Stand”. A high point in Ferguson’s career came in May of 2011 when he led the Red Devils to their 19th league title making the Manchester side the most successful team in the history of English football. In October, Ferguson’s men got thrashed 6-1 by “noisy neighbors” Manchester City at Old Trafford—a low point the Scotsman would sooner like to forget. He was left even more red-faced than usual after crashing out of two competitions within a week of one another—first, a defeat in extra time to Crystal Palace in the Carling Cup, and second, a defeat to FC Basel in the Champions League. The defeat to Basel sent Manchester United crashing into the Europa League—the only trophy Sir Alex has never won. While Sir Alex may never forget those painful defeats in the first half of the 2011-2012 season, he can look forward to the possibility of adding new championships to his CV in 2012: a maiden Europa League trophy, a sixth FA Cup and that record 20th league title.

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By Saheli RC, writing from Singapore

For the laymen and armchair critics, the thought of a player voluntarily leaving a club as big as Real Madrid to ply his trade up north in the cold, hilly regions of North-Rhine Westphalia, indicates two things. One, he’s finished. Two, he’s crazy.

In a constantly evolving world of football, dominated only by the grossly inflated, nominal dollar value, courtesy of clubs like Man City, Real Madrid and Chelsea, where morals and norms shift quicker than the tectonic plates under our feet, remaining at a club for seventeen years is not an easy feat. For Raul Gonzalez, it has been the norm. For his fans, it was the reality.

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By Saheli RC, writing from Singapore

Late last year, I wrote a piece on the eccentric, and unpredictable nature of Schalke’s season so far; by this week, that eccentricity has manifested into something so uncanny that it’d have reduced Freud into a five year old in a candy store if he were alive to witness it. While their domestic season has improved considerably – and by that I mean they are out of the relegation zone – they have still produced plenty of shock results which left Felix Magath red-faced and the fans, furious.

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by Amit Katwala, writing from London

Bayer Leverkusen’s 6-0 destruction of Ukrainian side Metalist Kharkiv in the Europa League last night may not have garnered much media attention from those who follow the ‘bigger leagues’ in Europe, those of England, Spain, Italy.

But it should have.

The resulting boost to Germany’s UEFA co-effiicient means that the country has definitely cemented its third place in the standings. You can see the latest table here. The numbers take into account performances in European competitions over the last few years and apply various weightings and mathematical manipulations to them. The important thing to take away from the data is this:  From next season Germany will get a 4th Champion’s League place at the expense of Serie A, which will only get 3 teams.

So how did this happen?

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By Amy Quinn, writing from Dublin.

Sat down today to try and make sense of the chaos at VfL Wolfsburg, a club I have followed on and off since the wake of their championship winning 08/09 season. Since then, many things have changed. Felix Magath, the coach who achieved what seemed impossible with the Lower Saxony side, has moved on to Schalke. Edin Dzeko, who netted over twenty goals that year, has taken up the Premiership challenge at Manchester City. Armin Veh, Magath’s immediate replacement for the 09/10 season, now plies his trade at Hamburger SV - just a short drive west of Wolfsburg. Lorenz Gunther-Kostner, Wolfsburg’s reserve team coach, replaced Veh as caretaker manager until the end of that season, before returning to his original position when the permanent job was taken by Steve McClaren. As of yesterday, February 7th, Wolfsburg’s manager is Pierre Littbarski - assistant coach under McClaren, on an interim basis. Confused yet? I am.

That’s four managers in the space of two years - four managers since Wolfsburg clinched the Bundesliga crown in spectacular fashion. Where did it all go wrong?

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