Sports
‘Man Utd May Face 10-Year Title Drought’
Manchester United might not win the Premier League title again for another decade, according to former England international Danny Mills.
The current champions suffered a 3-0 defeat by Liverpool on Sunday and are seventh in the table, 18 points behind leaders Chelsea.
“It could be 10 years at least before they win the title again,”
If Liverpool needed to deliver a defining mission statement that they can stand alongside any of the challengers for the Premier League title on their own terms, they produced it most emphatically to humiliate Manchester United in their own self-styled ‘Theatre of Dreams’.
“The whole rebuilding process is going to take three or four years at least.”
He added: “Then you have got to think Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool will strengthen – and Tottenham and Arsenal could possibly strengthen as well.”
United won the title by 11 points last season, but since David Moyes replaced Sir Alex Ferguson as manager last summer they have struggled.
Aside from being out of the title race, the Old Trafford club are also 12 points off one of the top four spots needed to qualify for next season’s Champions League. They have only missed one season of European football’s premier competition since 1993-94.
United could still qualify for the Champions League by winning this season’s competition. But the club will have to overturn a 2-0 deficit against Olympiakos today to stay in the tournament.
“David Moyes has not won the league. He has not won a trophy,” added Mills.
“If he had a good team he might get back in the top four and Champions League, but I think that they are a long way off competing and winning the title.
“Going into Manchester United, you had to build on massive success and that is where David Moyes has found it difficult.”
United striker Robin van Persie scored 26 league goals last season, but has scored just 11 so far in the current campaign.
“Van Persie doesn’t look like he wants to be there and wants to leave,” said Mills.
“You look at his body language and he doesn’t look happy there does he? Something is not right with him.”
Fellow BBC Sport pundit Kevin Kilbane, who played under Moyes at Everton, believes not being in the Champions League would hurt United, but that his former manager needs time to turn around the club’s fortunes.
“It was one of the most comprehensive away performances at Old Trafford for many years. Liverpool absolutely battered them in all areas and United looked like strangers. Make no bones about it, it could have been six or seven, Liverpool’s movement was so good.
“Liverpool were on the front foot and United were nowhere near it. Adnan Januzaj and Juan Mata out wide is not working for them. You can see why Jose Mourinho got rid of Mata – you need legs to get up and down and he hasn’t got that. There’s no point him being on the pitch.”
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor