Page 3 - Monthly Archives: December 2015

There can be no doubt that Gary Neville is an English football legend. A member of Manchester United's legendary "Class of '92," Neville spent almost two decades with the Red Devils, earning his first senior cap in 1992 and sticking around until 2011. He was the football club's captain for five of those seasons, contributed to eight Premier League victories, won the Champions League twice, and tallied 602 appearances. As a figure in England football history, and as a player period, Neville will never be forgotten.

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Leaving England

Outside of England, though-and in the management game-Neville still has plenty to prove. He currently serves as assistant manager for the English national team, a post he has held since 2012. However, his more recent appointment to the

By Karl Matchett.

No Neymar, no Lionel Messi, no problem. Barcelona swatted aside Chinese Super League opponents Guangzhou Evergrande in the semi-finals of the FIFA Club World Cup semi-finals thanks to a Luis Suarez hat-trick and they'll face River Plate in the final, Spain vs. Argentina again, and in all probability the European side will once again emerge successful.

Should they pick up the title, officially proclaiming them the best team in the world, it will be the third time in seven years that Barcelona have gone the distance, with those first two victories coming under the guidance of Pep Guardiola and his fantastic side of ball retention-based monsters. In both 2009 and 2011, Barcelona won both La Liga and the UEFA Champions League before also going on to win the Club World Cup-an achievement which will be matched by Luis Enrique's team if they beat River.

By Matthew Amalfitano.

The big theme over the past few years in the peninsula has been the desire for Italy to regain their fourth Champions League spot back, having lost it after the 2011/2012 season.

A substantial reason in how Germany overtook Italy in UEFA's coefficient ranking system stem from a large lack of concern towards Europe's second premiere club competition, the Europa League. Italian clubs saw the competition simply as a waste of resources given the previous winners of the competition did not receive a direct place in the Champions League group stage. Thus, coaches often fielded weaker sides to keep their squad fresh and avoid injury.

This factor coupled with generally mediocre Champions League performances over the past five seasons that have seen just two quarterfinal and one finalist appearance, has aided in the deterioration of the country's ranking, even coming close to being overtaken by France and or Portugal.

The writing's been on the wall for months, but on Thursday, the other shoe finally dropped. Four days after Chelsea FC lost their ninth game of the 2015 2016 Premier League campaign, and just seven months after they won the English top flight title, Jose Mourinho was sacked from his position as head coach. The exit of Mourinho, widely considered as one of the greatest coaches in modern football, leaves Chelsea without a manager heading into the Premier League's busy holiday season.

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A Second Departure

This isn't the first time Jose Mourinho has exited as Chelsea's head coach. Previously, the Portuguese manager coached the Blues from 2004 to 2007, winning two Premier League titles along the way. He resigned in 2007, supposedly by mutual consent-though

In the 16 days that span between Saturday, December 19^th and Sunday, January 3^rd, the English Premier League will blast through what amounts to four weeks of competitive play. While most of the world is on vacation, in other words, England's top football clubs are heading into one of the busiest periods of the year. The festive season in the Premier League can define many teams' campaigns for the year, meaning the stakes are high for every soccer club hitting the pitch this holiday season. Teams that find their groove in these two-plus weeks can leap their way up the table or barricade their positions at the top. Teams that hit a rough patch during the festive period, meanwhile, often take themselves out of title consideration.

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How Things

By Greg Lea.

In 2013/2014, Atletico de Madrid achieved one of the most astonishing feats of recent times by winning La Liga ahead of Barcelona and Real Madrid despite various financial and structural disadvantages. Two seasons on and many people are backing them to repeat the accomplishment.

With the winter break approaching, Diego Simeone's side have the chance to reach the summit of the standings before Christmas; currently in second place and level on points with Barcelona who are in Japan competing in the Club World Cup Atletico will move three clear at the top with victory over Malaga on Sunday night. It is a fantastic opportunity for the capital club, who will not mind the fact they have gone somewhat under the radar so far this campaign.

Atletico's extraordinary title success two years ago was built on a collective that amounted to more than the sum of its individual parts. Only

Competitive play won't resume in the 2015 2016 UEFA Champions League until well into the New Year, but already, fans are getting excited for the next stage of Europe's most prestigious club football tournament. On Monday, December 14^th, the UEFA announced the draw for the Champions League 2016 round of 16, with the first leg matches to take place on February 16^th, 17^th, 23^rd or 24^th and second leg matches scheduled for early to mid-March. Let's take a look at the match-ups!

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The Games to Watch

Probably the highest profile draw for the round of 16 is the match-up between Bayern Munich and Juventus. Bayern won five of their six group stage fixtures, only dropping one game (against Arsenal). Juventus, meanwhile, have struggled

By Karl Matchett.

Football changes at pace, especially in the high-intensity glare of the Premier League. One week you can be potential title challengers, the next, well, as Chelsea will attest to, almost too embarrassed to label yourselves being in a relegation fight. 

Those extremes perhaps don't quite extend to Tottenham Hotspur, but there were plenty who, a few short weeks ago, had tipped Spurs as being an alternative option for the league title this season, with Manchester City stuttering, Manchester United boring and Chelsea nowhere to be seen.

Arsenal and Spurs, then, made for good headlines in a title fight.

At the start of December, with Tottenham

Harry Kane may be a young man-he just turned 22 in July-but the Chingford-born striker has already spent more than 10 years at Tottenham Hotspur. He came to the football club's youth program in 2004, joined the senior squad in 2009, and had his breakout season last year when he scored 31 goals across all competitions. The young offensive star had a hiccup earlier this season, failing to score a single Premier League goal until Tottenham's week seven fixture against Manchester City. Now, though, with Kane back in fine form and the Spurs climbing the Premier League table, it seems that the officials at Hotspur are ready to ink a new deal with Harry Kane to keep him happy at White Hart Lane for the foreseeable future.

A Big Salary Bump

If talks of a new contract for Kane seem like déjà vu, that's because they are. The Spurs already inked a new deal with Harry this year, back in February when he was in the midst of his

After this coming weekend, the German Bundesliga will take more than a month off before resuming regular-season play. Luckily for fans of the Spanish La Liga, though, there will be plenty of action going on in the Primera Division throughout the holiday season. Consider this post your guide to the La Liga 2015 festive fixtures, from the games you should watch to what Spain's top teams will be hoping to accomplish with the holiday spirit (hopefully) on their side.

Week 16

Though far from the month-long break provided by the Bundesliga, the La Liga does take the better part of two weeks off for Christmas. As a result, you'll want to tune in this weekend to get your fill of Spanish league football action before you head off to spend time with family and friends for the holiday season.

There aren't any huge fixtures on the schedule for the first week of the festive period. Barcelona, who are still leading the