Vijay Narayanan on December 14th, 2009

Dimitar Berbatov has been a near-tragic failure since he moved to Manchester United from Spurs in the summer of 2008. The player who came in for over 30 million pounds has only scored four goals in 18 games this season, and apart from the one wondergoal against Sunderland(?), he hasn’t wow-ed me at all. But [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on June 9th, 2009

With Carlo Ancelotti moving to Chelsea, Kaka to Madrid, Maldini retiring and Pato (and possibly a whole host of others) wanting to move away, and with an old squad that seems older than it really is, AC Milan are verily a football club in crisis.

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Vijay Narayanan on May 24th, 2009

The greatest footballer the world never recognized as such.

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Vijay Narayanan on May 5th, 2009

Arsene Wenger had promised a magnificent performance from his side ahead of the second leg Champions League semifinal tie at home against Manchester United. Instead the Gunners received a master class in counter-attacking football from the Red Devils, especially Cristiano Ronaldo. Video highlights will follow. Of the three goals United scored tonight, my favorite is [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on April 29th, 2009

Manchester United beat Arsenal 1-0 at home tonight in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal courtesy of a strike from John O’Shea (who would have guessed!). But this isn’t about this year’s Champions League semifinals. It is about an event of event greater signifiance that happened 365 days ago. It was the night [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on April 25th, 2009

There were many great moments in the Premier League this season. But the one image that to me will define this season is that of Cristiano Ronaldo throwing his shirt in the air out of sheer joy, nay, an animal passion, like a hound baying for blood, after he headed home a cross from Wayne [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on April 8th, 2009

… have made my day wonderful by beating Liverpool 3-1 at Anfield!

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Vijay Narayanan on April 5th, 2009

It has been four years and four weeks since I last let out a sore-throat-inducing “Wow” when watching a goal. The previous occasion was when Ronaldinho scored that “foot of God” goal at Stamford Bridge. Just a few minutes ago today, a hitherto unheard of Italian teenager turned around in front of the Stretford End, [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on March 14th, 2009

You might sneer at me when I call the result inconsequential, because I am from Mancunia. But here is my most important takeaway from today’s game: “Nemanja Vidic is human.” Good read from The Times: How Shankly helped the rise of United.

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Vijay Narayanan on February 9th, 2009

June 2008 seems like not so long ago. Why? Because it is not so long ago. And I wrote back then that the Chelsea job is a poisoned chalice. Back when I wrote that piece, Luiz Felipe Scolari seemed like he would give the vacancy at Stamford Bridge a pass. Would have good for him [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on February 9th, 2009

A rough measure one can use to compare clubs playing in the same league is to see how many points separate two clubs. If the points difference between two clubs that have played the same number of games is six points or more, one can claim that the two clubs are involved in different mini-leagues. [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on February 8th, 2009

Wow, what a magical goal from Giggs against West Ham! Update: The goal from Giggs reminds me of some from the George Best collection, where he twists, turns, swerves and bamboozles defenders. Sir Alex Ferguson in an interview last week thought that Giggs deserves a knighthood solely for his longevity – almost 20 years in [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on January 30th, 2009

Have you tried Gmail offline? It is quite good. What I don’t like though is that it downloads attachments automatically to your local drive. I wish they had an option to disable it. Manchester United have been swashbuckling ever since I wrote a draft entitled “WTF is wrong at United?” It is still unpublished, and [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on January 24th, 2009

Did you watch the FA Cup match between Manchester United and Tottenham today? If not, you have missed the start of a possible revolution – the one of many that constantly occur at Old Trafford. Rafael Da Silva, the young Brazilian right-back, has already been one of the finds of the season for United, so [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on December 19th, 2008

Though already a UEFA Cup winner, Jose Mourinho came to be taken seriously across Europe after his FC Porto side knocked Manchester United out of the 2003-04 Champions League. We know the rest of the story. Porto won the Champions League, Mourinho went to Chelsea, won two consecutive league titles and had a solid record [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on November 1st, 2008

When Harry Redknapp took over the reins at Tottenham Hotspur from Portsmouth a week ago, the jury was unsure about the effectiveness of the move. In their first 8 games this season, Spurs, under Juande Ramos, could muster only 2 points. Spurs were in free fall, and below Bolton and even Newcastle (!) in the [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on September 22nd, 2008

This happened yesterday when Reading took on Watford.

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Vijay Narayanan on May 22nd, 2008

It is said that there is many a slip between the cup and the lip. Like John Terry found out yesterday.

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Vijay Narayanan on May 21st, 2008

A small, but interesting incident happened during the penalty shoot-out. My friend Eshwar popped up on Google Talk, and I asked him to hold on for a couple of minutes till the spectacle ended. He was following it on BBC’s website. At 4-4, John Terry stepped up to take Chelsea’s final penalty kick. If Terry [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on May 21st, 2008

Glory, glory, Man United!

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