Not My Kind of Sunday

After watching the Dutch getting the upper hand against Spain, I was full of optimism waiting for the England-Italy kick-off.

England wanted to inject pace to the game early doors, but Italy as the usually do, played at Pirlo-pace.

A dummy, a shimmy and a shot, and Italy was one nil up. England did not sit still and the old adage of teams being most vulnerable to concede when they had just scored applied here. Within a couple of minutes, Sturridge was at the end of Rooney's cross to bring the score level.

The scored stood tied until the break.

Then Italy got the upper hand. Ballotelli. Why always him?

England couldn't find a reply after this although I must say compared to the previous years, they played with more enthusiasm. They just lack the know-how at the final third. Their shoot-on-sight tactic did create a few problems for the Italian defence who were shaky at times, but they could do with a world-beating midfielder, somebody with a knack for the killer pass. Xabi Alonso, Xavi, Veron or even A Scholsey would do nicely.

Now to look forward to the next group game and come through from there ...

The Fever is Here

So, the World Cup was finally under way. I missed the opening ceremony though. It was post-call and I answered a phone call at around 2.30 am, and thought I just continued a nap for another hour before catching up the opening game.

The next thing I knew, it was already 6.30, waking up even later than usual.

Tonight it was the Netherlands playing Spain, a repeat of 2010 Final. Wonder which team I was rooting for?

van Gaal, No Hal

Finally, the best kept secret in football was out in the open. United had announced who tier next manager was to fill the hood after the sacking of David Moyes. It was none other than Louis van Gaal.

The interesting things were the timing of the announcement and the appointment of Ryan Giggs as his number two. The timing was spot on and with Giggs on board, the transition from the "Ferguson Way" would be easier to take.

In terms of getting results, van Gaal is right up there with the best. At the same time, people had been telling stories about his temperament. Maybe a bit of Rottweiler was what United needed at the moment, to kick things forward.

Either way, he was not able to stamp his brand until the World Cup in Brazil wrapped up. Giggs would have to organise the pre-season before the start of 2014-15. Let's wait and watch.

The Final Games

At the hotel, we had only a single sports channel available in the room, Fox Sports. And for the final Premiership game of the season, it showed the Liverpool-Newcastle game live. I was sure they would cross live to the Man Citeh-West Ham match should there be any important development.

United was away at Southampton, showed on another channel which we couldn't get. It wasn't a particularly important match, but it would be the last in a series of four matches with Gigssy at the helm.

We still have a chance at clinching sixth, which would still meant no Champions League football for next season.

At the rate I was going, I would possibly fall asleep soon, through combination of overeating during dinner and the long journey earlier. No goals yet so far ...

Moyes Out

Even though the news was finally out, it was still hard to swallow. United was not your typical sacking club but at the end of the day, results on the pitch and the money men had spoken. Moyes was given the marching order.

As a fan, I had always stayed loyal to players who came to United, didn't quite hit the mark and left. Some of them went into obscurity, while others - like Forlan, Rossi in particular - moved on to greater things. But I wasn't sure if the same applied when it came to the manager?

I have always been a fan of David Moyes when he was the manager at Preston North End in the 90s. He was young and had a drive. He would have made a great assistant to Ferguson and would one day go on to replace the great man.

He did this, but via the wonderful job he did at Everton for 11 years. But his fate was sealed when he was schooled at his old stomping ground by his successor.

The fact that Roberto Martinez proved to be more than an able replacement at Goodison did not go unnoticed by the United hierarchy. Maybe, that kind of flair was what the Glazers craved in the first place. And by that very point, Ferguson choice on who to replace him was a flawed one.

Moyes did not endear himself by bringing in his own backroom staff to Old Traffic the day he checked in. Retaining some of the old guard would have helped in. Checking in late, on the 1st of July to this big job also meant that his pre-season was restricted.

To put it mildly, he did not plan his start well, and had been playing catch up ever since.

I felt that he should be given more time. The management thought otherwise. Maybe they wanted the new manager to be given time to plan for the next season. And as a result, Moyes had to leave, less than a year in the hot seat.

David Moyes had handled himself with dignity and I wished him the best for the future. The experience managing United would have been seen as a failure in his otherwise decent CV, but he could only learn from the experience. He was simply found out and didn't have the time or the opportunity to adapt.

Who would replace him? Well, I was sure that Mourinho had it written in his Chelsea contract that he would take on the customary stance of leaving the club straight after winning the Champions League. Maybe Chelsea would go on to become the European Champion and the Special One would end up in Manchester .... Watch this space ...