Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s signing for Manchester United is the final big European stop for a man who has found success in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and France. The questions surrounding his ability to succeed in the Premier League, while undoubtedly a media creation, still seem to fuel his desire to stay at the top of his game at 34 years of age.
Yaya Toure reportedly told Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola back in May that he was determined to fight for his future at the club and see out the remaining year of his contract.
We’re three weeks into the Premier League season and a quick glance at the table confirms some of the more common preseason predictions. Manchester United appear to be a much stronger club, Chelsea have returned to winning ways and Manchester City are likely the title favorites.
In two seasons with Sunderland, Jermain Defoe has managed to save Sunderland from relegation twice. Goals are key to survival, and Defoe consistently provides them from the forward position. He’s been doing so for almost sixteen years — since his Premier League debut with West Ham United during the 2000-01 season.
Defoe’s greatest EPL return was 18 goals during the 2009-10 season. You’d expect, at 33 years of age, that his goalscoring ability would’ve plummeted since then. You’d be wrong.
Pep Guardiola’s 2009 ‘revolution’ of Barcelona was not so much the invention of a new system, but rather the insistence on a playing style that’d been utilized by great European footballing sides since the mid-1900s. Key to his idea of attacking football was developing a Barcelona side that could attack from any position on the field — Sergio Busquets was promoted from the Barca B squad, Dani Alves was purchased from Sevilla for €29 million and, most importantly, Gerard Pique returned from Manchester United for the ridiculously low price of €5 million.
The Pep Guardiola effect is in full swing at Manchester City with the Citizens beating Barcelona to the signing of 19-year-old Brazilian forward Gabriel Jesus.
City and Jesus’ Brazilian club, Palmeiras, have agreed to a £27 million fee with the attacking talent set to stay in Brazil until December. Jesus has been widely touted as the greatest prospect to emerge from Brazil since Neymar — the two will be in action together for the Selecao at the 2016 Olympic Games.
As FourFourTwo set about compiling a list of the top 50 managers in world football, one of their resident experts, former Dutch international Pierre van Hooijdonk, revealed the difficulty in ranking such a role: “If you changed all the managers in the league for cats, there would still be a champion.
33-year-old Franck Ribery is aiming to recapture the form that saw him named UEFA’s Best Player in Europe for 2012-13. The following three seasons for the Frenchman, all under Pep Guardiola, have seen his appearances and goalscoring totals dwindle.
Ribery was plagued by injuries last year, and he only managed to score two goals in 22 games for Bayern Munich. Ribery, who’d finished third in the 2013 FIFA Ballon d’Or voting, is desperate to get back to his brilliant best.
UPDATE: Alves' transfer to Juventus is official:
UFFICIALE - @DaniAlvesD2 è bianconero! https://t.co/U82CsKAyIY #BemVindoDani pic.twitter.com/1Uxq8fjdnz
— JuventusFC (@juventusfc) June 27, 2016
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