Ethan Ward

No manager should take on more than two or three player projects at any one time. A player project is the manager focusing his attention on a particular player and showing a real interest in their future. Some managers are willing to engage in quite a few projects as they feel that youth is essential to the modern game. Some can handle that, but others really can’t. For me, Jose Mourinho is good enough to take on plenty of projects, but his problem is that he’s not interested. 

A player that ends up in a tussle between all the top clubs in Europe is likely to end up in an ugly situation as it will work out that the club who finally purchases the star will pay a ridiculous fee that will go down in the history books. Or it could mean that a team will spend the whole summer pursuing this man only to be let down at the last minute and end up not having enough time to sign someone they need?

The end of an era for any player will bring much sadness for the himself and the club. Usually a reliable, consistent and hard-working man that adores the club. However, the club can’t feel sad for too long as they have to move on and find a replacement for the next chapter in the Blues’ story.

A decline of one of the best domestic teams from the last decade is sure to hit the club hard and will thus do everything in their power to remedy the situation. For Barcelona, their reign has come to an end in Europe and in Spain as they simply haven’t been the force they were under Pep Guardiola.

Sometimes in a season your strikers just don’t perform as well as you think they should do, therefore relying on other players to make up for such lack of form. They chip in with goals from time to time, but not regularly enough for your liking. You instantly jump to the conclusion that a complete re-shuffle is needed in order to fill that void. However, leaping at the first striker that becomes available isn’t the way forward.

The demand one will receive after experiencing a fantastic season, where the player has demonstrated abilities that far exceed his age, will be very high. Big clubs from all around Europe will be readying their cheque-books for an enormous bid that is designed to fend off other interest. It can either play into the hands of the player’s current employer or it can seriously damage them as a club.

Every so often you get a physical specimen so good that there is no change from their peak years to their current one. No matter what their age, they can perform as good as any player younger than themselves. If that player loves the club that gave him a stage to show the world what he can do then he’s an indispensable option even when he’s no longer with the club.