Ras' Football World

Wolverhampton Wanderers have always been a tricky team to face for Manchester United and I believe most other big teams as well since their promotion into the Premier League under Nuno Espirito Santo. Nuno has left Wolves to become the new Tottenham Hotspur manager and Wolves have a new Portuguese manager in charge in the form of Bruno Large. I have not watched them play their first two matches but I am aware they have lost them both. Wolves Domination Against United yesterday, they dominated us. Adama Traore was a handful with his direct running, pace and power while Trincao was causing problems with his trickery and dribbling. We were lucky in the first half that Traore made some bad decisions in good positions and Aaron Wan Bissaka produced a great last-ditch sliding tackle to clear off the line from Trincao. We never got going in the first half. We were better in the second half but we were still not at our best. We had our first shot on target in the second half. Wolves’ threat re...

 I would describe me as a balanced man, keeping my emotions in check unless of course, my team has won a trophy. But I couldn’t help myself when it was confirmed that Cristiano Ronaldo was making a fairytale return to Manchester United. Like millions of United fans all over the globe, I was delighted and excited. My Timeline Of Events Days after Juventus’ 2-2 draw against Udinese, rumours were making the rounds that Cristiano has expressed his desire to leave the club. Then came news that his agent, Jorge Mendes was offering him to Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). MANCHESTER CITY! Surely this can’t be true. I hope it was nothing but just a rumour. Next came news of a showdown with Juventus’ directors and a tense meeting as they were reluctant to let him leave. If he was to leave it had to be on their terms and as the days passed, the rumours grew stronger that Ronaldo’s next destination is to the wrong side of Manchester as far as we were concerned. Torn into Pa...

After the big win on the opening day of the season against Genoa, Hellas Verona was always going to be a tricky opposition. They have created an impression of being a tough team to play against since their promotion into Serie A under Ivan Juric. They are now managed by Eusebio Di Francesco who seems to have lost his way in his last two managerial stints at Sampdoria and Cagliari. I wasn’t sure what we would get from this Verona. Poor First Half Inter were far from fluid and sharp in the first half; a stark contrast to the performance in our first match. We kept giving the ball away cheaply, in possession we lacked the sharpness that we showed against Genoa and we were lacking the incisive off-the-ball movement and link-up play by our midfielders with our forwards. The credit has to go to the opponents as well for pressing us hard and going man for man. We had a tough beginning and made it tougher by gifting the impetus and momentum of the half to Verona after a poor pass by Samir Hand...

 It took Manchester United all of 2 games to expose their frailties; a weak mentality and poor decision-making from the manager. I am not a fair-weather, modern Manchester United fan that cannot accept a setback. I have seen my share of setbacks as a United fan and there have been a lot of it since Sir Alex Ferguson retired. I am just calling it a spade, a spade. Sancho Pre-season I had pointed out that if we didn’t improve in these aspects, we will be left empty-handed again. There is no point chasing and signing world-class players if the manager is cautious. After a great start to the season, I understand why the manager would not want to change too much of the first eleven. They played well enough to start the second game. The only change I would have made was to include Jadon Sancho from the start instead of Dan James. He is a player we have chased over 2 transfer windows, haggling over the price in a long-drawn-out saga. When he is finally here, he is sat on the bench. He m...

 Finally found some time to write this. Inter fans all over the world had only the space of a week to properly enjoy winning the Scudetto before the dark clouds descended upon us. Antonio Conte left, then came news that we were looking to capitalise on Achraf Hakimi because our owners are broke and we did, then the one we did not expect at all, the sale of Romelu Lukaku despite his proclamations that he would stay. The final bad news (I hope) came days before the first game when it was confirmed that Inter legend and Technical Manager, Gabriele Oriali has left the club too. A lot of negativity amongst the fans towards the owners for the situation we find ourselves in leading to the start of our Serie A defence. Business As Usual What we saw on the pitch last night was anything but negative. It was a very positive display by the team. The players showed a lot of hunger to press from the front, we dominated possession, there was an intensity in our play and some very good off-the...

 It was a perfect day in every sense; a bright, sunny day in Manchester, a full stadium, a serial winner unveiled before kick-off, a new signing that made his debut and a big win over our old rivals, Leeds United. It reminded me of the opening day 5-1 thrashing over Fulham in 2006-07 and you know how that season ended. I am not saying things will end the same way this season but the signs are ominous. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuiYpgcBznc&t=50s When the starting line-ups were released, I dreaded seeing the names of Scott McTominay and Fred because it’s not a combination that would stir up feelings of excitement and thoughts of free-flowing football. Out of the two, I prefer McTominay and he played very well; he was full of energy and running like a good old-fashioned box-to-box midfielder. Fred didn’t play too badly and scored a rare goal, not too bad but I still prefer to see Donny van de Beek play more often in his place. I thought Paul Pogba had opened the scoring ...

  Modern football, what is it good for? (sang to the tune of War by Edwin Starr). I am tempted to say absolutely nothing and you might have a differing view on it or I might just be an old man who preferred football from years before. You might wonder why I am exasperated with modern football. Transfer fees have increased year after year since I started watching football in 1991. There have already been two 100 million Euros and above transfer fees in this transfer window despite the financial difficulty brought about by the COVID pandemic. The wealth of football is concentrated in the English Premier League and that is no fault of anyone associated with the league. The merit of the league; its publicity and marketing is far better than any of their counterparts in Europe and as such, it is an extremely popular product in the world of sports which is why Premier League clubs earn a lot from TV rights despite a loss of gate receipts due to the COVID pandemic. While the rest of Eur...

I wasn’t too keen on the idea of Romelu Lukaku joining Inter after having seen him play for two seasons at Manchester United. He guarantees you goals but his overall play left a lot to be desired. I was favouring a move for Atalanta’s Duvan Zapata at that time. Credit to Antonio Conte, Antonio Pintus for working on him and proving me wrong. Credit to Giuseppe Marotta, Piero Ausilio and the Suning Group for enabling this transfer to take place. Under Conte’s stewardship, Lukaku developed as a player. He improved his first touch and his hold up play. He was devastating when he ran with the ball as he was a beast; powerful physically and speedy. He was built like a National Football League (NFL) player. Lukaku formed a close rapport with the Inter fans all over the world from the first day and with his team-mates, he was a gentleman on and off the pitch. Thanks to his contributions, Inter won the Scudetto for the first time in 11 years last season. Inter fans were not allowed to prope...