Champions League knockout draw produces a repeat of last year's final!

The draw for the first knockout phase of the 2010-2011 Champions League (CL) has once again produced some mouth watering encounters between teams with with recent past history.

The most amusing match is between the current champions Inter Milan & the team they beat in the final in May, Bayern Munich. On the other hand, Barcelona will meet Arsenal, the team they demolished last year & beat in the final a few years ago. And Real Madrid will have to get past Olympique Lyonnais, the team they were expected to beat but in fact lost to in last year's quarter finals. The following are my predictions for the quarter finals (teams in bold to win)

• Barcelona vs Arsenal: Whilst there is no doubt Arsenal are a much better team this year, so are Guardiola, Messi & this year's Barcelona team. This makes this encounter of two teams with attacking styles the most mouth watering encounter of the round.

However, Barcelona showcased their prowess in the 5-0 demolition of Mourinho's Real Madrid team in the "La Liga Clasico" two weeks ago. In fact this Barcelona team is probably one of the greatest European teams of all time. The only problem in the make of the team last year was Ibramovic. He has now moved back to Italy where Milan's style is more suitable to him & in his place, arguably the best goalscoring forward in the world, David Villa has completed the magical puzzle that is the wonderful Barcelona.

Barcelona are the overwhelming favourites to win back the Champions League.

Bayern Munchen vs Inter Milan: Last year's Champion League finalists, Bayern & Inter have both been struggling this season in their respective domestic leagues.

Inter are not the same compact counterattacking unit they were under Mourinho last year, and Benitez is not the CL winning coach he was a few years ago either & has simply lost his touch. On the other hand, Bayern have been stuttering without the influential injured Robben & with a very long injury list from 11 tired players returning from the semi final & final of the World Cup.

However, whilst Benitez seems to be incapable of filling Mourinho's big shoes, Van Gaal can look forward to revenging the May final's defeat with an injury free squad which will include Robben, Klose, Ivic & Badstuber. In fact Bayern can once again be one of the dark horses of the tournament as long as they can solve their problematic central defensive issues.

• Real Madrid vs Olympique Lyonnais: Lyon, the perennial CL quarter finalists surprised everyone by defeating Real Madrid in the quarter finals last year & reaching their first ever semi final. But the galacticos of Real Madrid, under the polarising yet brilliant Mourinho are a different proposition this year & should easily dispatch of Lyon. (although I must admit predicted the same last year too!)
• Tottenham vs AC Milan: This is the best AC Milan team since they won the CL by beating Liverpool a few years ago. Ronaldinho seems to have rediscovered his passion for the game & Ibrahimovic has settled in well. However, Spurs have won many hearts with their gallant display in both legs against Inter Milan & could be one of the surprise packs of this year.
• Manchester United vs Olympique Marseille: I think this is one of the weakest & worst Manchester United teams under the long reign of Sir Alex Ferguson. However, they are too strong for a gallant Marseille side & should go through.
• Chelsea vs Copenhagen: Chelsea were the runaway leaders of the EPL & all of a sudden they lost the influential John Terry & more importantly the irreplaceable Frank Lampard to injury, and as a result have lost their way. Copenhagen on the other hand have been one of the surprises of the season & the first Danish team to make it to the knock out stage of the CL. However, with Lampard back, I expect Chelsea to once again mount a serious challenge in both EPL & CL.
• Shaktar Donetsk vs Roma: Shaktar are simply too strong for Roma. On the other hand, except for a come from behind 3-2 win against Bayern Munich, Roma have been unispiring.
• Schalke vs Valencia: Schalke have had a shocking run in the Bundesliga but possess enough quality & in Raul one of the all time greats of the CL, to progress past Valencia.

Champions League football first knockout stage is always full of goals & surprises as well as plenty of great football & bag full of goals. This year's is no exception & we can expect many predictions turn out to be wrong! Let's wait & see!

The new European Football Season promises another exciting year ahead

It's only a few weeks since Spain won the World Cup in South Africa. Nevertheless, the Domestic Leagues in Europe are in full swings again. The qualifying matches for Euro 2012 have already started & the first matches of Champions & Europa Leagues have also been completed. Another exciting season is well on the way.

In the European scene the main question yet again is whether the free spending Real Madrid & their brilliant new coach, the annoying & arrogant yet masterful Jose Mourinho can put an end to the domination of Pepe Guardiola & his brilliant ensemble of superstars of Barcelona.

Mourinho is undoubtedly a masterful operator & as was evident in teh Champions League match vs Ajax has already done well by bringing his old general Carvallio as well as the young German World Cup stars Ozil & Khedria to Real Madrid.



On the other hand, Guardiola has cunningly replaced the ineffective Henry & Ibrahimovic with the best striker in the world David Villa. With the likes of Villa, Messi, Puyol, Alvez, Piquet, Iniesta & Xavi (in my view, overall the best player in the world by a mile) Barcelona rightly deserve to be considered the best & should overcome Real's threat once again this year.



Champions League:

Favourites: Barcelona

main Challengers: Chelsea, Manchester United, Inter Milan, Real Madrid & Bayern Munich



Here are my prediction for the other 3 major leagues in Europe:



In England, Chelsea have formed a great team capable of winning the EPL & even the Champions League this year.

Manchester United are suffering from lack of funds to nuy> new players &; with Rooney out of form & in strife in his personal life, will find winning major trophies difficult once again.

Arsenla will be brilliat at times but not good enough to go all the way.

Manchester City's big spending is still hap hazard & will not dent the Chelsea/Man Utd grip.

Spurs will find the challenge of European football too demanding on their squad & will not cope in all fronts.

Liverppol will be in a transition phase for the next few years & unable to mount a serious challenge whilst under current ownership.



My prediction: 1. Chelsea 2. Man Utd 3. Arsenal 4. Manchester City

Relegation candidates: Wigan, Wolves, Blackpool & Bolton



In Italy, the European Champions Inter Milan will not find life under the former Liverpool Manager, the now hapless Rafa Benitez as easy as they did with Mourinho. However, with Juventus still in the doldrums & the rest such as Roma & AC MIlan inconsistent, Inter should once again win Serie A this year, as they have done so in the past few years. Nevertheless, the defence of their European crown will be unsuccessful. Their main threat will be their somewhat rejuvuniated city rivals AC Milan.



In Germany even with the long term injury absence of Robben & with their rivals attracting some of the Europe's superstars to the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich with their Barcelona like style of play will win the league & challenge for European honours again.



All in all, another exciting European season is under way & it should be full of thrills & unpredictable results.

A wrap of the European Season & the start of my World Cup Blog!

Another exciting European season is over & we are heading to the World Cup in less than two weeks!

As the above photos suggest I made the 18,000 km (36,000km all up) trip to Madrid from Sydney Australia & sadly witnessed my beloved Bayern Munich lose to the tactically superior Inter Milan in the final of the Champions League at the magnificent Santiago Bernabau Stadium.

Now to a review of my pre season predictions:

1. I correctly predicted Bayern, Barcelona & Inter Milan would win their domestic leagues & they all did


2. I also passionately blogged about Perez & his second coming in building a team of "Galacticos"! I predicted (and prayed) that his mega money would not (at least this year) win Real Madrid anything! With Mourinho joining Real, their fortunes might change, but for the sake of the game let's hope not!
   

Here's a link to my post about Perez & his spending spree @ Real Madrid in the pre season:

http://ricksamimi-football.blogspot.com/2009/10/sequal-galacticos-2-has-so-far-fared-no.html

3. Somewhat in a biased but nevertheless informed way, I tipped Bayern Munich as one of the dark horses of the Champions League....and they only came short at the last hurdle :(

4. I initially predicted a Liverpool-Chelsea-Man Utd-man City finish in the EPL, but later on blogged & suggested Ancelotti was going to win the Premiership with Chelsea. However, I totally miscalculated the demise of Liverpool & Tottenham gallantly pipped Manchester City to the post & won the crucial 4th place.

Here's a link to my post on Chelsea:

http://ricksamimi-football.blogspot.com/2009/12/ancelotti-is-proving-his-genius-stroke.html

I also predicted Hull, Burnley & Wolves as relegation candidates in the EPL. Two out of three! Wolves survived the drop, somewhat more comfortably than predicted.

However, my & I imagine many other pundits' most crucial tip was Barcelona winning the champions League. But like Chelsea before them & Bayern in the final, Messi & co found the well organised Inter Milan defence almost impenetrable & lost to Mourinho's side in the semi finals.

Now to the start of my World Cup blog: I will start by quickly look at the usual suspects:

I have already mentioned in one of my earlier posts that Germany will have a very difficult World Cup ahead of them, although Germany should never be underestimated (7 times finalists & 4 times semi finalists). Injuries to Ballack, Adler, Rolfe, Tresch & Loew's stubborn refusal to recall Frings & Kuranyi will make matters even more critical for the team. Nevertheless, as he mentioned himself, Loew & his team can learn from Bayern's achievements this year.

My prediction: Quarter Finals

Amongst the other big teams, England, Italy & Argentina seemingly have easier paths to the second round:

• Italy's team is however too old & Lippi's reliance on many of the fading stars will prove fatal. France on the other hand have lacked clear tactical directions under Domenech & owe their qualification to that dubious handball by Henry.

My prediction: Round of 16s for both team

• England on the other hand have flourished under Capello & as long as they sort out the following three major issues they will go a long way
  

a) Goal keeping issues. James is well past his best & Hart & Green are unproven at any level!

b) How to tactically accommodate both Lampard & Gerrard in midfield

c) Over reliance on injury hit Rooney! He can not emulate Maradonna winning the Cup for Argentina!

My prediction: Semi Final

• Argentina have massive technical ability & with Messi & others at least on paper have one of the top teams in this year's World Cup. However, Maradona is not the right tactical coach for such talented team & most likely will make naive mistakes as he did eg in the 1-6 drubbing by Bolivia in the qualifiers. However, Argentina will probably meet Germany in the QFs & go to the semi finals.

My prediction: semi final or final

• Spain & Brazil are my tip to reach the final. On paper they, alongside Argentina have the best squads in the tournament. On top of that both Spain (in particular) & Brazil (at times) are capable of playing attractive attacking football

My prediction: Spain vs Brazil final, Spain to win

My dark horses for the tournament: As per usual Germany, and yet again Holland. In Sneijder & Robben Holland possess two of the best "match winners" (alongside Messi of Argentina) in the world & if Holland manage to avoid the infighting they are notoriously well known for, they may at last lift the Cup!

I will be posting regular posts on my blog during the World Cup.

Champions League Final: Bayern Munich vs Inter Milan

It's down to the wire, and the final on may 22nd in Madrid will be between Bayern Munich & Inter Milan. Two old friends & master tacticians in their Barcelona days, Van Gaal & Mourinho have guided their respective teams through the tricky maze of the competition into the richest final in the world.

Those of you who from time to time read my blogs may remember that at the beginning of the season I nominated Barcelona as the best team in the world and my tip to successfully defend their European crown. Having declared my interest as a life long Bayern Munich supporter, I also cautiously labeled Bayern as one of the dark horses of this year's Champions League.

And my predictions nearly came true! Bayern admittedly rode their luck with brave away leg performances & wonderful away goals by Robben (amongst others) to the final. Van Gaal has slowly but surely blended the tough German mentality with the skillful Dutch/Barcelona style possession game into one of the best Bayern teams I can remember in my 35 odd years of being a die hard fan.

And as for Inter Milan, in Mourinho they undoubtedly have the most flamboyant, arrogant & polarising master tactician in the world of football today. His chess game got them past the might of Chelsea & Barcelona. And the quality of the players in their squad speaks for itself. Any team that manages to get through battles with Chelsea & Barcelona fully deserves its place in the final.

So for me, the final will be a match of Mourinho's tactics vs the Mini Me of Barcelona!

My heart says Bayern will win, my mind knows it will be tough on the night & 50:50........and my life & work schedule are doing everything it can to stop me from dashing off to Madrid for the final......................and in my dreams I am hoping to be there when Bayern lift the trophy!

Champions League quarter final pairings: What to expect?

The Champions League final will be held in Madrid in May. Sadly however, the start studded Real Madrid will not be there to win the title at their Bernabeu Stadium! The star studded but at times misfiring Madrid side lost to the gallant Lyon side who despite going to the return leg with the narrowest of margins never lost their self belief.

Whilst I wrongly underestimated Lyon's depth & predicted Madrid would easily go through, I can still save face by referring to my several blogs at the beginning of the season when I claimed Real were a collection of great but selfish players who would not be able to deliver Mr Perez instant gratification, at least in the first year of his reign. The fact that Real have given Barcelona & the out of this world Messi a run for the Primera in fact comes as a surprise!

My other major flop for the round was Chelsea's loss to the arrogant master tactician, Jose Mourinho & his Inter Milan side. Mourinho simply rubbed salt to the Chelsea supporters' wound by reminding what they are missing out of since his departure!

Overall, this year's quarter finals amazingly are littered with surprise qualifiers. The elimination of giant former winners AC Milan, Juventus, Liverpool & Real Madrid as well as Porto & the newcomers Chelsea mean that the less fanciful CSKA Moksva, Bordeaux & Lyon have made the quarterfinals easier to predict, at least on paper!

The most exciting match up is undoubtedly Manchester United vs Bayern Munich. Manchester United comfortably disposed of a misfiring AC Milan whilst Bayern at the just scrapped past a gallant & unlucky Fiorentina side on away goals rule due to a masterful goal by Arjen Robben.

The last gasp heartbreaking final win by Manchester United in 1999 & the subsequent home & the subsequent quarter final home & away win by Bayern on their way to win the CL in 2001 means these two teams have an unbreakable history. Also, in Robben & Rooney, I believe we will witness the second & third current best players in the world going to the battlefield.

My Prediction: If Bayern's defence holds off Rooney & co in the first leg in Munich, Bayern may go on to win the tie. Otherwise, Manchester United are the favourites to go through.

Barcelona vs Arsenal: Arguably the two most skillful & entertaining club sides in the world repeating their CL Final encounter of a few years ago. With Messi in his current form speeding towards the super stardom legendary status, Barcelona are favourite to take advantage of Wenger's side's occasional lapses & go through.

Lyon vs Bordeaux: The all French tussle will produce the first French side in the semi finals of the CL since Monaco reached the final & lost to Mourinho's Porto a few years ago. Lyon have been a consistent performer in the CL League & go the battle with the confidence boosting elimination of Ronaldo & Co of Madrid. On the other hand, Laurent Blanc has built a masterful compact unit at Bordeaux capable of many surprises. I believe Bordeaux will continue their dream run to the semi finals.

Inter Milan vs CSKA Moskva: Whilst CSKA have quietly enjoyed good solid performances & slightly easier draws to get to the quarter finals, they are also a great team which fully deserve their position at this level. On the other hand, hats off to Mourinho for getting Inter Milan through the battle with Chelsea. I still feel uncomfortable about Inter & believe CSKA are capable of causing a huge upset!

No matter which team you are following, the quarter finals will be as exciting as ever. Let's just hope they do not get too tight & defensive. The away goal rule is making home teams timid & nervous & has a negative impact on the game as a spectacle.

Champions League knockout stage in 2010 promises to be exciting as well as intriguing

UEFA Champions League (CL) knockout stage kicks off on Tuesday 17th Feb 2010. As the world's richest and most watched annual sporting tournament, the real excitement starts in the round of 16 as the knock out stage commences.

In the absence of any form of salary cap system in Europe, the disparity amongst football teams in the CL is becoming more & more evident by the fact that most of the same usual suspects reach the quarter finals, ie teams from the powerhouse nations in Europe.

This year is no exception. The surprise casualties of the group stage were past winners Liverpool & Juventus, both of which are also having a relatively lean domestic season as well. the other surprise is the timely return to form of another former winners Bayern Munich.

Here are the round of 16 encounters & my predictions:

• Olympique Lyonnais vs Real Madrid: Whilst my pre season prediction that Real Madrid will need time to mould their star studded team to a force is still a valid point, Real are far too good for a mediocre Lyon that are a shadow of the perennial quarter finalists of the last few year. This is regardless of whether the recently back from injury Ronaldo or the out of form Kaka are present to help them.



• AC Milan vs Manchester United: This is a far more intriguing contest with the added spice of David Beckham's return to Old Trafford in Milan's colours. I am not a fan of either team this season (or any season for that matter!) & like many others believe selling Ronaldo has substantially weakened Manchester United, even though Rooney is playing the best football of his career. Milan on the other hand have dipped in form again after a mid season revival led by the resurgent Ronalidino. I think Manchester United will survive & pip Milan to the quarter finals. However, I don't think the eventual winner of this year's Cup will be either of these two teams
  
• Bayern Munich vs Fiorentina: A classic case of reversal of fortunes. Fiorentina played great football in the group stage & topped their group which included Liverpool. Since then however, Fiorentina's form in Serie A has dipped & Mutu has got suspended. On the other hand, Bayern were seemingly down & out & had to win their last match in Turin to qualify for the knockout stage. They fell 0-1 behind in the match, but in perhaps the best match of the current season ended up winning 1-4, their best ever away win against a top Italian side. Since then, they have had 12 consecutive wins in all competitions & scored 40 goals in the process. With Ribery rumoured to be starting against Fiorentina & Mutu suspended, Bayern should be win reasonably comfortably. If they can maintain their current form, they may even be an outside chance to win the CL this year! (Disclaimer: For those of you who don't know, I am a life long Bayern supporter!)



• Porto vs Arsenal: At the beginning of the season I predicted arsenal's attractive & flowing style lacked the experience factor. This is showing & I believe Porto, another former winner, whilst upstaged by Benfica in their domestic league this year, are too tricky & experienced for Arsenal & will win this close tussle.
  


• Stuttgart vs Barcelona: Barcelona will comfortably win against out an out of sorts but reviving Stuttgart & remain my tip to win the CL back to back. Pep Guardiola has done a magnificent job even if I believe Ibrahimovic is not suited to Barcelona's & Spanish football & is over rated.


• Olympiacos vs Bordeaux: Bordeaux are the refreshing surprise of the current season & disposed of Juventus & Bayern in style. Alongside Guardiola, Laurent Blanc is a rising star coach. Bordeaux should win this encounter comfortably even though their form in the French League has recently been inconsistent & Olympiacos are difficult to beat in Athens


• CSKA Moskva vs Seville: This is a hard one to predict simply because both teams can and do score goals & have proven themselves to be hard to beat. Seville have a better team on paper & should prevail.
  


• Chelsea vs Inter Milan: The last & most intriguing encounter is the return of Jose Mourinho with Inter Milan to Chelsea. I must say I am not a fan of Mourinho & believe Inter Milan would currently win the Serie A even if they don't have a coach! Both teams ae frustrated with lack of European success & are hungry. How much of a distraction John Terry's personal life & Ashley Cole's untimely injury are to Chelsea is open to speculation as they have been wobbly lately & lost to Everton this week with John Terry at fault. On the other hand, Inter Milan have a lot to prove in the european stage & this plays heavily on their players' minds. I believe Ancelotti is a better tactician than Mourinho & predict Chelsea will win the battle & in doing so will start the end of Mourinho's time at Inter Milan.

Ancelotti is proving his genius stroke at Chelsea

OK! I admit! I was amongst the doubters at the beginning of the season! I suggested that it would take Carlo Ancelotti at least one season to get familiar with the peculiarity & fast pace of the EPL! Many of us have seen it time and time again, coaches & players from continental Europe failing or taking their time to settle to the English game.

But not Ancelotti! Years of learning & experience as a player for Milan & Italy, combined with his natural ability to understand & dissect the tactical aspects of the game and his Champions League winning experience as a coach have made Ancelotti a superb coach!

And this is in a year when Chelsea have in fact been outspent by most of their domestic & mainland European rivals. Ancelotti has managed to make full use of individual and collective skills of Lampard, Ballack, Deco, Malouda & Essien. With those at his disposal & Drogba & Anelka striking a deadly understanding between them, Ancelotti has made Chelsea an attractive and lethal attacking force similiar to the Barcelona of the recent times, and much easier to enjoy than his AC Milan.

Ancelotti has continued to refine the art of "Modesty in success" at Stamford Bridge that started with the Big Phil (without success) and continued with the master Hiddink. As a result Morinho bashers who couldn't stand Morinho's arrogance (and still can't at Inter Milan, I know because I am one of them) have warmed to Ancelotti & the stylish & entertaining Chelsea side.

Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, barcelona, real Madrid and teh rest: watch out! the Tsunami of Chelsea is coming to get you, and this year it most probably will!

Chelsea fans, your time has come to concur Europe ....with your heads high.....it will be a deserving achievement.

What is holding Bayern Munich back from being a serious contender to win the Champions League again?

Bayern Munich are statistically amongst the Top 5 most successful football Clubs in Europe. Only Real Madrid, Liverpool & AC Milan have won the European/CL Trophy more than Bayern. Bayern are also regularly amongst the Top 5 or 10 top clubs in the world in terms of turnover as well as one of the Top 5 best supported Clubs in Europe.

However, unlike the financially reckless owners of some of the big Clubs in England, Italy & Spain who have always been willing to grab trophies & glory at any expense, and in attempting to do so have put their clubs under immense financial pressure and huge debt burden, Bayern Munich have always been too conservative & at times seem to have sacrificied trophies & glory for the sake of remaining financially sound.

This has of course at times irked their demanding supporters who at the very least expect parity with other top clubs in Europe, and made some of their highly sought after players to demand a move to the "glamour clubs" mentioned above.

Bayern have in fact in occasions splashed huge sums in recent years on the likes of Klose, Toni, Ribery and very recently Robben. But these have always been in a much more measured way compared to for e.g. Real Madrid's Galactico mark 2 by Perez & co.

This has meant that Bayern have once again finishedd the decade with only one single European final appearance to show for, the CL final win against valencia in 2001, a life time ago in footballing terms in the eyes of denmanding & passionate supporters.

But in my opinion, the conservative transfer policy has overall been for the long term good of the club and most of the decions have been sound (The poor deciosn to let Lucio & Ze Roberto leave last summer was a major exception. A few more top players and the team is as good or at least as competative as any of the top clubs in Europe.

I believe the major factor that is holding Bayern's progress is its frequent change of Managers & coaching staff & not allowing the head coaches enough time to implement their tactical vision. Just look at what Hitzfeld achieved with Bayern by having the luxury of time! I am talking about employing a world class tactician on a FIVE year contract as a minimum & giving him flexibility, time & space to develop & implement his system, i.e. emulating what the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool & Arsenal have allowed their Managers.

Magath & Klinsman did not have that luxury. Let's hope Van Gaal (although I am not a big fan & personally preferred Rijkaard)gets the support & patience from Rumminegge & Hoeness to develop & implement his ideas.

Bayern have the money, influence, players, support & prestige to be back on top. All they need is patience with their managers!

Money may win Real Madrid a few trophies, but it won't buy them lasting glory!

Real Madrid and their newly elected President Florentino Perez are once again making a mockery out of the "World game" by attempting to buy themselves glory.

Real under Perez's leadership did the same thing a few years ago with the now famous "Galacticos" policy. Perez went shopping and bought amongst many others, Figo, Zidane, Beckham and Owen at ridiculous fees to bring back the glory days to Madrid. They won the Premiera League a few times and a CL trophy (or perhaps two depending on how the time period of his presidency is looked at.....and then they started to believe Real had actually organically made it all happen and guess what happened next?

They started to fade away after the 2002 CL win, Perez lost his position, and they have been rather ordinary every since, blaming coach after coach for their failure to plan for the future and develop youngsters through the ranks.

Now Perez has once again been elected with the promise to "buy" Real's way back into the history books at any cost and in a totally shameless fashion. And as the nature of Club Presidency in Spain dictates, Perez has to be flashier and more outrageous this time. So, he's paid more than 200m Euros for Ronaldo and Kaka, both of whom will reportedly earn more than 300 thousand euros a week after tax.

In doing so, Perez hopes to get enough time to "buy" a few trophies for Real, before his ego once again clashes with the Board's collective egos, the coach gets blamed, and Ronaldo starts throwing his usual narcissistic tantrums!

You might challenge me by asking the same question about other rich European clubs. Chelsea and their appearing overnight "funny Money divided between so few Putin supporters" Russian money aside, who have as yet failed to buy their European glory (thanks to John Terry slipping on the ball in last year's CL Final), most other big European clubs such as AC Milan, Barcelona, Manchester United, Liverpool, Juventus and Bayern all try to buy the best players in their desperate attempts to get their hands on the CL trophy.

That is a fair comment. However, none go crazy like Perez and Real do, and all try their hands on developing some of their young talent as well. Take Barcelona and its Youth Academy or Manchester United and Sir Alex for instance. Love him or loath him(and I belong to the later group) Sir Alex has an uncanny ability to nurture young talent into his first team (endless list of Neville brothers, Beckham, Giggs, Ronaldo, Butt etc) as well as letting restless players leave. Even the self serving, self promoting Berlusconi at AC Milan never behaved as shamelessly as Perez is at Real.

At the end of it all, Perez is simply taking the Beautiful game further and further towards disaster whilst trying to buy his way into glory of the history books.
In years to come, rest assured Real fans, and football fans worldwide will remember the expensive players who won Real the trophies. But Perez will be judged as one of the architects of "prostituting the passion of the beautiful game in order to buy himself glory"

Did Bayern give Klinsman a fair chance?

Bayern sacked their coach after ten months in charge.
Jurgen Klinsman is the legendary former National Manschaft (German National Team) striker, and Germany's coach in the last WC in their home soil. He took them to the semi finals with an attractive and attacking style of play which Germany had failed to show since the early 1990s when they were the World Champions (and Klinsman was one of their main players).

Klinsman had never coached a club prior to his posting at Bayern. The ins and outs of handling a big Football Club, its internal politics and fans' expectations are not an easy task and require amongst other factors past experience in dealing with egotistic stars and impatient fans, full management support and patience and vision by the coach.

Klinsman lacked the first three, and his vision is still subject to question. At the end he lost the support and the patience of both fans and management, and according to press reports, the respect of his stars in the dressing room.

Football Clubs like Bayern are big business. Bayern turns over in excess of $800m Australian dollars a year. (Not sure if the ENTIRE sporting market of all sports in Australia would reach that figure). This makes instant gratification more than just the pleasure of playing the simple game of football. The Club's management (and Bayern is in fact privately owned) become very nervous when results are less than 100% satisfactory! Simply because 10s of millions of dollars of potential revenue are at stake.

But can Klinsman be considered more of a victim of the commercialisation of football than anything else? Given a few more years, could he have been as successful and his reign as long as the likes of Wenger and Ferguson in Arsenal and Man Utd?

Whilst the answer is probably yes, the fact remains that ultimately his inability to get results out of crucial matches in Bundesliga (and the humiliation against Barcelona in the CL) was the main reason he lost his job. Amazingly, he became a national hero at the WC in 2006 because he managed to guide Germany to produce good results in the WC matches where it counted!

During his tenure at Bayern however, the team had many opportunities to go to the top of the table, and each time failed to produce the desired result (except in case of a lucky last minute 2-1 win over Hoffenheim before the winter break and of course some good results in the Champions League (CL). In many instances Bayern naively lost their lead or lost crucial points due to tactical inability to take control of these crucial matches.

Producing results in matches that count is a very crucial component of successful coaching at this level. e.g. it's Chelsea's 0-0 at Nu Camp, or Man Utd wining 1-0 at Porto and going through.

Klinsman in recent weeks had a few of these crucial matches and lost all of them! 4-0 to Barcelona, 5-1 to Wolfsburg, and 1-0 to Schalke in his last match in charge. His record of 8 wins 2 draws and 7 losses in all competitions since the winter break was simply not good enough for a team of Bayern's status. In fact, these heavy and embarrassing losses may have irreversibly damaged the psychological advantage Bayern had established against their rivals in Bundesliga by wining the double three times in the last four years.

It would be very ironic if job of coaching Bayern next goes to the Dutchman Frank Rijkaard, as speculated by the press. Rijkaard spat at Rudy Voller in an elimination match between Germany and Holland in the WC in 1990. The referee showed both players a red card. Klinsman, without his partner Voller, Klinsman scored and single handedly won the match 2-1 for Germans. They went on to win the WC and Klinsman became a superstar!

Rijkaard won the CL and Spanish Premiera League with Barcelona a couple of years ago before falling out with star players and losing his job. He would be a great choice to replace Bayern, but only if the Management shows more support and patience. Otherwise Klinsman's faith will await him too.