Champs Online

Manchester United have a great reputation for developing young players from the academy into first-team regulars.

This was especially pronounced during the era of Sir Alex Ferguson, as names like David Beckham, Gary Neville, and Paul Scholes progressed through the youth system to become great superstars. However, there is a danger of this tradition being lost with the club undergoing several managerial changes in the last three years. After experiencing more than two decades of stability under Ferguson, United have already gone through three managers since 2013.

Jose Mourinho has just arrived as the third manager and he has been given substantial amount of transfer money to improve the squad. The Portuguese is also expected to quickly bring success to Old Trafford. After managing to win the FA Cup last season, the club are now targeting at least two more trophies. Mourinho has already set the target of winning the Premier League in his first season at Old Trafford, while he would also realistically be targeting at the Europa League as well. However, he has already been criticising for this regarding youth in the chase for results. Last season’s most promising debutant – Marcus Rashford – has seen very little football, but Mourinho has promised to that the England international will be receiving game time in the future.

“Marcus will play a lot. I cannot choose competitions. I cannot say Zlatan doesn’t play one single match in the Europa League because that is not the case. I cannot say Marcus doesn’t start matches in the Premier League because that is not the case.Marcus is a young and talented player. That is why we didn’t buy more strikers. If you don’t trust him or want him to play, then you would buy other strikers. That is not the case,” said José Mourinho.

Liverpool signing Sadio Mane has confirmed that Manchester United were also interested in signing him but it was the move from Liverpool that changed the entire story.

The Southampton winger recently secured a £ 30 million move to Anfield to become one of the important forwards at the club. The injury prone forwards like Daniel Sturridge could get much less first-team opportunities in the upcoming 2016-17 season due to the presence of players likeMane. The player has admitted for the first time that Manchester United were also interested in him.

The news, though, does not come as a major surprise given that United have been looking to revamp that almost the entire squad since the arrival of Jose Mourinho. Even though the addition of Zlatan Ibrahimovic is certainly an important one, it is a very short-term signing nonetheless.Mane, though, will be different since he can contribute to the club at least for the next five years. Even though there was a lot of interest from other clubs,Mane says that the offer from Liverpool was too good to turn down since he believes he will get a lot of opportunities to improve as a player while playing at Anfield.
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It is believed that Ryan Giggs will be leaving Manchester United in the summer.

Indeed, the former Manchester United player has refused a reduced coaching role at the club and wants to move on. It is reported that Jose Mourinho wants to bring his own staff to Old Trafford and as such offered Ryan Giggs a new role at the club. But the latter has already made up his mind to leave the club.

It is reported that Ryan Giggs has been frustrated by the way Manchester United treated him. Indeed, there was an agreement in place that he will be given the Manchester job after the departure of Louis Van Gaal, but instead, the club chose to go for Jose Mourinho.

However, Ryan Giggs have yet to have a direct discussion with Jose Mourinho about his future. The Portuguese manager is due to start work with his staff on Monday, and it is believed that the Portuguese manager might make an effort to keep Giggs at the club.
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Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has said that MarouaneFellaini will have to learn to control himself on the pitch.

The Manchester United player was guilty of elbowing Robert Huth and has been banned for 3 matches.

Louis van Gaal, however, admitted that it was a human reaction as footage has shown that Huth was pulling out his hair. He conceded that Manchester United has no intentions of appealing the ban despite the fact that the ban would prevent Fellaini from missing the remaining games of the season.

The Dutch manager said it was unfortunate that the referee did not see the action properly and given that the Huth has also received a 3-match ban there was a foul in the penalty area. For him, this means that his team has been denied a penalty in the game.

However, he added that he would not want to complain too much as he respects what Leicester have achieved this season by winning the title and he congratulated them for their achievements. (more…)

AC Milan’s head coach, Sinisa Mihajlovic has come out in defense of mario Balotelli’s behaviour. He said Balotelli’s has a character rating of 10 out of 10. The 25-year-old’s career has been much talked about due to distractions off the pitch and his history of bad disposition. Since returning to San Siro on loan from Liverpool, he has stayed out of trouble and it’s incredible.

The talented forward has been on the sidelines a lot due to injury concerns. He has played 16 games scoring 3 goals for the team. After meeting him recently, Milan coach says he still has confidence in him.

Sinisa Mihajlovic told Sky Sport Italia: “I was blunt with him. I wanted to talk to him and look at him, because I’ve known Mario since Roberto Mancini gave him his Inter debut.”

Balotelli has a history of bad behavior and Inter Milan former coach, Jose mourinho tagged him “unmanageable.”

“He was a kid then. Many years have passed and he’s changed, too. I found a mature person, a man, not a boy. I wanted to look him in the eyes, and he gave me the right impression. The key thing is that he’s a good lad, and I really like him,” he continued. (more…)

The head executive vice-chairman of Manchester United, Ed Woodward has recently called up his team of scouters so they can start searching for the winter transfer window targets of Louis van Gaal and it’s believed that the Dutch will be given or possibly has already been a given a transfer budget in the region of £120 million so that he can improve his squad and continue charging for a top spot in the Premier League.

This injection of money might be what Louis van Gaal needs in order to help resolve some of the weaknesses that his team has been displaying and one of the areas that the Dutch coach wants to improve is his attacking department.

Wayne Rooney is currently the top goal-scorer of Manchester United but he hasn’t really been as productive as he has been in previous seasons. The English attacker has so far scored 6 goals in 18 appearances and this just show how much the players of Louis van Gaal have been struggling on scoring goals. If Rooney is the top goal-scorer of Manchester United and he has only scored 6 times, you can imagine how the rest of the team is doing.

One of the players who is rumored to be in the watch-list of Louis van Gaal is EzequielLavezzi from PSG. The Argentine player is a very talented forward who can also serve as an attacking midfielder or a winger and Lavezzi is a realistic player that can be signed. (more…)

The Selecao manager Dunga has backed his decision of replacing Coutinho with Kaka in the squad that he has announced for the upcoming couple of games.

It has come as a big surprise for everyone that Dunga took a backward step and went back to Kaka instead of encouraging a young talent like Coutinho.

Dunga had brought Coutinho into the side straightaway after he took charge following Brazil’s World Cup disaster and the young winger did not disappoint him.

The 23-year old played a little bit in Copa America and he was okay in that tournament in terms of his form.

He might not have been extraordinary, but, he would have thought he did well enough to retain his place in the squad.

However, in Dunga’s view, it was not the case. According to the boss, Coutinho failed to make the most of his opportunity and thus, had to make space for Kaka.

Addressing the press after the announcement of the squad the other day, Dunga said, “Philippe has had his opportunity. He played in Copa America. You have to understand that it’s not possible to do the rebuilding work with young players only. Experience is needed as well.” (more…)

Former Burnley defender Kieran Trippier says that he is excited by the possibility of featuring for a big club like Tottenham Hotspur.

The defender recently completed a switch to White Hart Lane from the relegated team Burnley. Even though his transfer fee may be just around £ 5 million, Trippier is expected to be a key part of Spurs going forward. After all, the youngster was one of the major attacking forces of Burnley despite being a defender. At just 24 years of age, he still has the capability to learn a lot more in the game.

Trippier is primarily looking forward to playing in front of a packed White Hart Lane, which is one of the noisiest grounds in England. Spurs did no negotiations with Burnley over the transfer of Trippier as they agreed to meet the release clause his contract. The exact details of his transfer fee have not been disclosed. In the past four years at Burnley, Trippier made close to 200 appearances and he was also a key part in the club rise to the Premier League. It was always expected that top names like Trippier would depart Burnley if the club failed to stay in the top division and it proved to be the case. (more…)