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The new season in England brings with it managerial changes among three of the new ‘top four’ in the Premier League. Also, the appointments of Mark Hughes at Stoke and Roberto Martinez at Everton stir up the plot perfectly.
Chelsea: The return of ‘The Special One’ or ‘The Happy One’, as he now prefers being called has not only whet the appetite of every Chelsea fan but every football fan across England.
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The Mourinho we see now seems to have mellowed with age just a bit, but you cannot afford to take a man who Sir Alex Ferguson stopped playing mind games with, lightly. The signings of Andre Schurrle and Van Ginkel seem very shrewd acquisitions and Mourinho has been known to build teams at Chelsea which can fight flair with flair and muscle with muscle.
With players like Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Oscar already forming a very fluid attacking trio and rumours suggesting that Mourinho has his sights set on a certain Liverpudlian in Manchester, Chelsea fans would expect an upgrade on the European trophy they won the previous season.
You have to remember that Mourinho hasn’t won the Champions League with Chelsea, the trophy Roman Abramovich so covets. With all the right noises coming out of Stamford Bridge and Mourinho finally looking at ‘home’ after a torrid time with the fans and the press in Spain, this could well be the perfect wedding that is here to stay.
Everton: After eleven years in charge of Everton, David Moyes finally called time on his spell as manager and the man Bill Kenwright chose as his replacement is the former Swansea and Wigan manager Roberto Martinez.
Roberto Martinez
Martinez became the first manager in the history of English football to win the FA cup and suffer relegation in the same season in the previous season. Everton may have picked a mixed bag here as opposed to the stability and consistency that Moyes had to offer.
Martinez, on the other hand, had built Swansea on an ideology that has reaped dividends for them with Brendan Rogers getting them promoted and Laudrup winning the League Cup last year. His teams at Wigan have been very tactically flexible with Martinez choosing to play a 3-5-2 on several occasions with Shaun Maloney acting as the creative force through the middle.
Martinez’s main focus will be keeping the big Belgian Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines out of the clutches of the big teams who have been circling for some time now. Martinez has also been instrumental in bringing through youngsters like James McCarthy and Callum McManaman at Wigan and will look to do the same with Ross Barkley and Jose Baxter at Goodison.
He needs to bring in someone to ease the goalscoring burden on Nikica Jelavic who looked a little off the boil sometimes last season and not interfere with the defensive stability that exists currently. All said and done, it appears to be a roller coaster ride for Everton fans who may end up falling in love with the warm Spaniard.
Manchester City: Managing one of the most expensively assembled squads in the Premier League is a job fit for a man who was entrusted by Fiorentino Perez to handle the second coming of the Galacticos.
Manuel Pellegrini
We extend a warm welcome to the Chilean Manuel Pellegrini who has never managed in England before. With a CV that boasts of spells at the River Plate in Argentina and Villareal, and the might of Real Madrid in Spain, Pellegrini has his work cut out when it comes to managing the multi-millionaires at the Etihad.
With reports of the squad unrest under the previous manager Roberto Mancini, Pellegrini will be happy that Balotelli has been shipped to Milan and Carlos Tevez to Juventus. Pellegrini needs to get this lot to buckle down and play as a team considering that they looked lost when Mancini changed formations and personnel last season between games.
The big money acquisitions of Alvaro Negredo, Fernandinho and Jesus Navas seem to be in the spotlight now at City, but they need their little Spaniard David Silva to reproduce the form he showed in his first season in England. Samir Nasri, who was repeatedly questioned for his commitment by Mancini and Kun Aguero, who looks unsettled, need to get their act together.
Pellegrini though brings valuable Champions League experience with his stints in Spain and City fans can look forward to a season where they will compete on all fronts again.
Manchester United: How do you go about handling a potentially poisoned chalice? David Moyes has the unenviable task of managing a club which hasn’t had a managerial appointment in the last 27 years.
David Moyes
Sir Alex Ferguson not only changed the way Manchester United as a club was perceived by the outside world, but built team after team fuelled by his desire. Moyes needs to stamp down his authority at the club, and Phil Neville and Ryan Giggs joining the backroom staff will help him ease into life at Old Trafford.
He also has Wayne Rooney to deal with. Manchester’s favorite scouser reportedly wants a move away from Old Trafford, and this time with Jose Mourinho declaring his interest, Moyes has a fight on his hands even before his first proper game in charge.
United fans have been longing for reinforcements in the centre of midfield, but the manager will be pleased with the performances of Adnan Januzaj and Jesse Lingard on the pre-season tour so far. He needs to bring the youth through, ala Sir Alex and Sir Matt way before him.
It did take Sir Alex approximately four years to bring a trophy home, and United fans will be patient with Moyes, but not for more than a year.
Stoke City: After a meeting with the chairman Peter Coates, Tony Pulis left Stoke City, seven years into his second spell at the Staffordshire based club.
His successor, Mark Hughes comes in with Fulham, QPR, Manchester City and Blackburn on his CV. Apparently his expertise in buying and selling players was one of the factors that contributed to his appointment.
Mark Hughes
‘Sparky’ as he is also known, has already deemed Rory Delap, Matthew Upson and Dean Whitehead surplus to requirements and has brought in Marc Muniesa, a defender from Barcelona.
His record at Blackburn where he brought in the likes of Ryan Nelsen, Chris Samba and Roque Santa Cruz and the fact that he got his side to play decent football and finish in the top half of the league consistently must have really impressed the Stoke hierarchy.
His stints at Fulham and QPR and even City appear to be underwhelming at best. Statistics tell us that Stoke have the 3rd highest net spend in the Premier League. Mark Hughes has been entrusted with keeping this low and also changing the fact that Stoke have been a long ball team, probably the last in the league.
