Forgot 3 big talents

Regarding previous list, 3 names missing who belong there...

Jordan Rhodes - Huddersfield Forward
Jack Butland - Birmingham Goalkeeper
James McClean - Sunderland winger

Young talents in the Premier League (or soon to be!)

Young talents in the Premier League (or soon to be!)

A rough and ready list (as always) of young players 22 or Under, in some kind of order.

Phil Jones – A certain star, future captain of England & Utd. Only question is where his best position lies. He has it all.

Gareth Bale – Still only 21 years old. Amazing winger who gets better and better.

Mario Balotelli – Has issues but talent is enormous, so easy to love him.

Jack Wilshere – Already brilliant, low centre of gravity. Currently injured.

Wojciech Szczesny – Arsenal keeper looks like he’ll be a force for years to come

Danny Welbeck – Already very good, versatile, scores and creates. Sets fast tempo

Kyle Walker – Fast attacking right back, bright future for England

Chris Smalling – Top draw, wise head on strong shoulders, will be world class.

Tom Cleverley – Intelligent, modern day midfielder, Could become world class.

Daniel Sturridge – Live-wire, Confident player. Makes things happen up front.

Aaron Ramsey – Classy, hardworking, big future for Arsenal & Wales

Alex oxo Chamberlain – Right Winger already looking comfortable in Europe. Class

Jack Rodwell – Will get better & better, England player. Lot’s of energy.

Martin Kelly – Will be a mainstay in Liverpool’s team for years at the back.

Jack Colback – Industrious, neat midfielder. Small but can get stuck in.

Junior Hoilett – Pacey, handful, makes things happen. Bigger clubs interested.

Jordan Henderson – Full of energy and craft. Good future

David De Gea – Already looks good, potential is huge. Distribution is outstanding.

Fabio - Big potential, serious concerns over fitness

Rafael  – Big potential, serious concerns over fitness

Oriol Romeu – Ex-Barca youngster already looks better than Obi Mikel

Josh McEachran – Brilliant with the ball, if a bit lightweight. Huge potential

Ravel Morrison – Utd. He can be as good as he wants to be. But does he want it?

Connor Wickham – Big powerful pacey forward

Nathan Redmond – Birmingham winger will be in Prem soon making a name.

Keiron Gibbs – Been around for a while, should play for England soon barring injury.

Emmanuel Frimpong – Wild energetic combustive midfield man

James McCarthy – Wigan midfield man has a lot of talent, could move on soon

Ruben Rochina – Hard working with flair & a good strike

Sebastian Coates – Towering centre back taking time to adopt to prem

Seamus Coleman – Pacey right winger who looks the real deal

Scott Sinclair- Quick, tricky left wing/forward at Swansea. Real talent.

Gabriel Obertan – Quick winger has all the tools but lacks mental strength

Neil Taylor – Swansea full back looks solid & comfortable on the ball

Marc Albrighton – Winger should one day player for England if he keeps improving.

Barry Bannan – Scot is gifted with ball at feet, passing range is already very good.

Kieran Clark – Irishman looks to have a good future pending off-field issues

Federico Macheda – Top finisher, needs to improve touch & be better in the air.

Romelu Lukaku – All the physical tools to become a real handful up front

Zeki Fryers – Could well make the left back spot his own once Patrice Evra has left

Ignasi Miquel – Arsenal defender, can play across the back, good with ball at feet.

Francis Coquelin – French midfielder at Arsenal, but has also played in defense.

Fabian Delph – Midfielder seems to have been around awhile but still has more to give

Nathan Delfouneso – Villa forward is big and quick. Should improve a lot given time

Jason Lowe – Blackburn midfielder looks versatile and competitive.

Dedryck Boyata – Big man at the back, another talent off the Belgium production line 

Jonjo Shelvey – Athletic looking midfielder with attacking intent & decent vision.

Haris Vuckic – Midfielder looks a handful with his flair & long range shooting

Harry Kane – Big strong forward from spurs looks a bright prospect

Paul Pogba – Uncertain where his future will lye but has all the tools to make it

Ryan Tunnicliffe – A Spartan, warrior in the midfield mould of Gerrard

Ross Barkley – Strong midfielder, developed early physically like Rooney did.

Grant Hanley – Blackburn defender looks robust, plenty of game already this season

Chucks Aneke – Arsenal midfielder, on loan at Stevenage. Big & strong with flair.

Jack Robinson – Young fullback who seems a natural defender

John Flanagan – Full back is raw but has potential at Liverpool.

Raheem Sterling – Liverpool winger looks hot property, despite off field problems

Robbie Brady – on loan to Hull from Utd. Irish winger looks real deal.

Conor Coady – Leader on the pitch in the engine room or at the back

Andrew Wisdom – Defender, Captain at all youth levels played.

Adam Morgan – Natural goal-scorer, Liverpool youth

Will Keane – Natural goal-scorer at Utd reserves, looks promising

My England team for Euro 2012

Go with youth Fabio!

                    Hart

   Walker Smalling Terry Cole

 Gerrard Wilshere Jones Young

       Sturridge      Welbeck

With Rooney to come in after groups.

Top 5

A quick bit of fun, the top 5 in each position in the Premier League in my opinion as of November 2011

GK
Hart
Reina
Krul
Szczesny
Vorm

CB
Vidic
Ferdinand
Kompany
Vermaelen
Agger

FB

Evra
Enrique
Richards
Cole
Baines

DM/CM

Yaya Toure
Modric
Lucas
Parker
Song

AM
Silva
Van Der Vaart
Gerrard
Wilshere
Lampard

Wing
Nani
Bale
Young
Valencia
Nasri

FW/ST
Rooney
v.Persie
Suarez
Adebayor
Aguero

Giving us a team of

                 Hart
Richards Ferdinand Vidic Evra
 Nani YaYa Toure Silva Bale
         Rooney v.Persie

I've probably forgotten some and there's a few I've left out who came close such as De Gea, Mata, Terry and Hernandez.  

10 Reasons why Ferguson is the greatest manager ever.

10 Reasons why Ferguson is the greatest manager ever.

1. “Show us your medals” Simply put, no one has won more. 37 major honours at Utd alone. (Giovanni Trapattoni comes closest but includes less meaningful titles in places such as Austria)
2. Getting to the top is easy, staying there is another thing. No one has stayed at the top longer. (Clough exploded with a blazed, beautiful but albeit brief start & eventually got Forest relegated – Dalglish won 1 title with Blackburn using Jack Walker’s bottomless pit of money but didn’t attempt to retain it for whatever reason) Shankley failed to stay at the top for a long period.
3. Building the foundations/Empire. Utd had no money, a drinking culture & no modern youth system in 1986 but Ferguson changed all that and reaped the rewards. Bobby Charlton kept him in a job after 3 years of not winning anything for he could see the special things that were being built behind the scenes by Ferguson. (Bob Paisley had amazing success but on the back of foundations built by the great Bill Shankley, while Ferguson took over from Ron Atkinson. Jose Mourinho has a phenomenal record but never built an empire, only hanging around clubs for 2-3 years before moving on)
4. Sustained Success at one club. As Arsene Wenger found out, building 1 or 2 great teams is tough. But to build 4 or 5 is something else. Ferguson has, over the 25 years, built new team after new team. From his double winners in 1994, to the treble winners of 1999 to the flamboyant 2003 team to the 2007 team which overcame Abrahmovic & Mourinho’s billions to the current team which held off Man City last term. Which one is his best, is up for strong debate.
5. Aberdeen. The last time a team outside of Celtic & Rangers won the Scottish league, was amazingly over 25 years ago, when Alex Ferguson was Aberdeen manager. He also won the European Cup Winners cup with the little Scottlish side, beating the likes of Bayern Munich & Real Madrid along the way. Some actually argue that this remarkable success at Aberdeen is more impressive than the success with Utd.
6. Beating clubs with money. No other manager has ever had the competition that Ferguson has had. 3 times he has come up against clubs with bottomless pits of money. Blackburn in 1995, Chelsea in 2003 & Man City in 2009. He seen off Rovers & Chelsea & currently has City’s Oil money to beat. Shankley never had such ferocious, wealthy enemies to overcome.
7. Beating foreign managers. Again, no other manager before him has had such competition from rival managers. Since the mid '90s he's been competing not on a domestic level but on a world level with managers like Wenger, Houllier, Benitez, Ranieri, Mourinho, Scolari, Hiddink, Ancelotti. There are a lot of the world's top managers in that list, people who have won leagues, Champions Leagues. In the 70’s & 80’s only domestic managers were in England. Can you imagine if Ferguson only had to compete with the likes of Allardyce, Redknapp, Curbishley, O'Neill, O'Leary, Keegan & Dalglish during his 25 years?
8. The raising standard of English Football. The Premier League is harder than ever to win & of a much higher quality than the old First division. This is down to the amount of money now involved. Instead of the league being made up mainly of English, Scottish, Irish & Welsh players, now we have Brzilians, Italians, French, Spanish & every other superstar player. Instead of Alan Smith, Arsenal had Thierry Henry. Instead of Brian McClair, Utd had Cristiano Ronaldo. Instead of Gavin Peacock, Chelsea had Didier Drogba & so on and so on, for every position from Goalkeeper to the subs. The quality of players now is a world apart from the 80’s. The higher the standard of competition, the harder it is to win. Think of it like playing FIFA or Pro Evo on easy mode. And then after a while you play Expert mode. Even though you’re better & your team is better, the opposition is also a lot better & tougher to beat.
9. Winning the right way, with style. All the success Ferguson has had, he’s achieved through attractive, attacking football & faith in young players. He believes in potential more than anyone who’s come before him. Trapattoni, Helenio Herrera, Rafa Benitez & Jose Mourinho all hold a pragmatic, defensive manifesto & view a game first & foremost as how to stop the opposition & then exploit them. Ferguson’s primary belief is in attacking football, taking risks & giving young people a chance to shine.
10. The Champions League & the Great Barcelona team. 3 finals in 4 years is quite an achievement. Coming up against possibly the best club side of all time in 2 of those finals however, is pretty unfortunate. Only 2 Champions Leagues in his time sounds poor, and it is undoubtedly Ferguson’s biggest critic. A closer look does ease the blotch on his record, all be it only slightly! After English clubs were allowed re-entry into the competition, it took a while to adapt (from 1994-1998) & Utd were also hindered by the foreign rule where only 3 non English players were aloud in the team. Even the likes of Giggs & Irwin were regarded as foreign. After the success of 1999 came Utd’s golden period when they really should have added more titles (2000-2003). But by now the competition was letting in 4^th placed entrants from England, Germany, Italy and Spain meaning a huge increase in the quality of competition. Now, instead of coming up against 3 good teams from those countries, there was 9-12. Some of Liverpool’s victories in Europe featured bye’s into the next round (1978) & easy opponents such as Irish teams & finals against Belgian team Bruges. No team has ever won back to back Champions Leagues. The globalization of football now means better managers are spread across more countries, sharing modern tactics, resulting in the weaker teams being more organized.  The old European cup was harder to qualify for (as only champions got in) but Ferguson wasn’t around to have a go at that. If he was around in the 70’s/80’s and won the 12 English league titles he has, he’d have had 12 stabs at the old European cup which is easier to win once you’re in there. So the amount of European titles he could have won, is frightening.

This is the one, an opening post

Manchester United & overall football enthusiast since 1994...roughly. Though my first ever football memories seem to be fragments from Italia '90 and the magical Nessun Dorma theme tune via Mr. Pavarotti - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqzz7B7V2IE

A Football passion & devotion nurtured on USA '94 (Bebeto's baby birth celebration), Match of the Day (Des Lynam & Jimmy Hill), Sportsnight, Championship Manager all nighters (Alfonso from Real Betis) and my first ever glimps of Fergie's flying Red Devils (inparticular Ryan Giggs, Eric Cantona and Dennis Irwin!) ...Oh yeah and pre-internet days when Ceefax was used to find out transfer rumours during the long summer months (Utd snap up £20 Millon brazilian Superstar!!!!!!!) and Serie A being the best league in the world with enchanted, magical visions of Maldini style defending without getting dirty & George Weah dribbling from his own box to score a solo goal of rare quality etc etc

I know I'm getting old now because I'm often grumpy about Football today. The money involved, Chelsea & City on steroids winning trophies they wouldn't be winning without the artificial injection of extreme money. Players like Tevez refusing to play, Barcelona having such an unfair advantage in terms of TV money in Spain and domestic rules regarding the signing of young players etc etc.

But I still remain hopeful, optimistic about the game and believe in the future, the young players coming through. The next generation like Phil Jones, Ravel Morrison and Ross Barkley. I still read many Football books, Biographies. From Jonathan Wilson's brilliant ''Inverting the Pyramid'' to Daniel Taylor's ''This is the One''.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inverting-Pyramid-History-Football-Tactics/dp/0752889958
&
http://www.amazon.co.uk/This-One-Ferguson-Football-Genius/dp/1845133544/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321111059&sr=1-1

My posts will be mostly about United, pro United and not much else. That's the reality, so Liverpool/City/Chelsea fans this won't be easy viewing. But I try to remain objective as much as possible.

Not much of a post but it's a start.