Blue Is The Colour

The month of May has seen some thrilling sporting finishes, with the last day of the Premier League, where the title was not decided until injury time, and the Champions League final going to penalties. The French Open first round match between Serena Williams & Virginie Razzano was another. Up 5-1 in the 2nd set tiebreak & cruising, Serena lost six straight points & then the first five games of the final set. She recovered to 5-3, & then there was an incredible final game lasting nearly 25 minutes, with 12 deuces & 5 break points. Razzano began cramping up, but managed to close it out on her 8th match point. It was excruciating to watch at times, with great shots alternating with tired efforts. The drama included a controversial forfeit of points for hindrance (usually called when the opponent makes a noise deemed to have put the opponent off their shot). It was the biggest win in the career of Razzano, ranked 111.

Alec Ferguson deserves great credit for the way Man U took the title race with City to the wire, despite the superior squad of the Blues. Scholes had to come out of retirement to boost the Man U midfield, & they were without their best defender, Vidic, for most of the season.
Fergie’s record of sustained excellence makes it to hard now to deny him the title of the greatest British club manager, above the likes of Paisley, Clough, Busby, Nicholson, Shankly, Revie etc.

Chelsea again rode their luck in the Champions League final, & only started to put their passing together in extra time. Crucially, they held their nerve better than Munich at penalties. David Luiz, famously derided for his defensive positional sense, smacked his into the top corner, & Drogba, with his last kick for the club, sent Neuer the wrong way to win the cup.

Performance of the Month

Chelsea. Who else ?

Honourable mentions:
Ronnie O'Sullivan, who was tested in his quarter-final with Robertson, but otherwise cruised to his fourth world title at the Crucible.
Pastor Maldonado, who became the first Venezuelan F1 winner of a F1 by winning the Spanish GP.

Chelsea Pensioners

Champions League

One of the tasks AVB was given by Abramovich was to overhaul the Chelsea squad, including ageing stars like Drogba & Lampard. However, the old guard, especially Drogba weighing in with vital goals, have been instrumental in Chelsea's recent return to top form. Having looked dead & buried in the last 16 v Napoli, they have now beaten the mighty Barca with only ten men for over 50 minutes of the SF second leg, & reached two cup finals.

Performance of the Month

Bubba Watson, who promptly burst into tears after sinking the winning putt which clinched his first major at the Masters.

Honourable mentions:
Chelsea.
Real Madrid, who inflicted Barca's first home defeat for 54 matches with a 2-1 win at the Bernabeu, & so took a seemingly insurmountable seven point lead in La Liga.

Put Your Money on Madrid

Predictions for UCL ahead of the start of the group stage

Barca will still be comfortably the best passing team on the planet, & are once again faves with the bookies. But do Barca have a plan B if opponents 'park the bus' & they can’t break the defence down with their passing game?

It's dangerous to read too much into one game, but the holders, Inter, lost the Super Cup to Atletico Madrid. Their new manager, Benitez, of course has a very good Euro record (1 Uefa Cup, as well as winner & RU in UCL) though.

What of the British teams’ chances?
Spurs have tough group & will do well to make the knockout stages, while Rangers have it even tougher.
Chelsea will be strong again, but what will they do if their talisman Drogba gets injured?
Man Utd & Arsenal will flatter to deceive, but I can’t see them getting past the quarters.

Which leaves (Real) Madrid. Is it asking too much for even the 'special one' to deliver the big prize in his first season in charge? However, if anyone can coach Madrid to improve their defence it's Mourinho, & they're not lacking in attack with Kaka & Ronaldo now joined by Mesut Ozil. They drew their first game in La Liga (away to Mallorca), but by the time of the knock-out stages Jose will have sorted the team shape & tactics.

Farewell to the Special One

The English game has lost its most colourful manger since Brian Clough.

Jose Mourinho will be sadly missed, especially by journalists, as he provided such fantastic copy, starting with the famous first press conference. It's often not quoted in full, even by the Times/Guardian/BBC etc:


Again, please don't call me arrogant, because what I'm saying is true. I'm European champion, so I'm not one (pause) of the bottle. I think I'm a special one.



link to Sky Sports video

http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,31200-1284939,00.html

Another great piece of Mourinho showmanship was the 2005 press conference for a round of16 Champs League tie, when he cheekily (& correctly) predicted the Barca line-up (& peeved Frank Riijkard by depriving him his right to announce his own team ).

Today Mourinho said how he felt he had 'another family at the training ground'. No wonder Drogba was (allegedly) in tears when Jose said his goodbyes to the squad at Cobham.

He has been criticised for favouring a pragmatic playing style, but two league titles, an FA Cup, two ECL semi-finals & two League Cups in three seasons, is a fantastic return, even allowing for the amount spent on players. Unfortunately Mr Abramovich wanted his team to play beautiful, attacking football. The warning signs of his disastisfaction were evident from his early exit from Chelsea's Villa Park defeat. Mourinho however, has presided over the most successful period in Chelsea's history, including breaking Liverpool's record for the most successive top-flight home games without defeat.

Even his fiercest managerial rivals have spoken today & yesterday of the loss to the Premiership. Occasional gracelessness in defeat is the only negative of Mourinho's time in England.

His first English fixture was a 1-0 home win over Man U. His successor, Avram Grant, will play the same opponents at Old Trafford in his first game in charge tomorrow.