THE BIG ISSUE
Who’s done the best business in the January transfer window?
World Soccer's nominations:
1 Manchester City
City were quick off the mark to take advantage of the unhappiness of Mexican Nery Castillo at
Shakhtar Donetsk.
2 Heerenveen
At the time of writing, the Dutch club were listening to eight-figure offers from English clubs for Brazilian striker Afonso Alves.
3 Everton
The Toffees secured Portuguese midfielder Manuel Fernandes back on loan, this time from Valencia.
Readers Comments
“God sent Brian Barwick a clue as to who the next England manager should be. Surname seven letters C-p--l-. Achieved great things with a club beginning Re in 2006-07. He still screwed it up.”
Posted by “badgerboy”,
December 15
“I am absolutely against any nationality restrictions for players to join clubs, but I wouldn’t mind one for national team managers. If the whole point of the international game is seeing which country does better, let’s go the whole way. Everyone directly connected to the actual football should be from the same country.”
Posted by “Rogorn”, December 17
“Capello could end up being the best thing that could happen to some of the England players, what with his proven track record and his strong disciplinary stance. After all, foreign managers at an international level have had some (relative) success: Australia qualified for their first World Cup for many years with a Dutchman; Russia, with a Dutchman, beat England, under an Englishman, to the Euros in the summer; Portugal reached the World Cup semis and the Euro 2004 Final with a Brazilian in charge; and Greece won the Euros in Portugal under the guidance of a German.”
Posted by “brod014”, December 28
“International football is supposed to be a contest between the footballing cultures of nations. The coaching staff should be part of that along with the players. If England do win the World Cup under Capello, would it really be
an English victory?
“Of course, FIFA are highly unlikely to introduce a rule that national coaches must be from the country in question. This is due to the (reasonable up to a point) desire for foreign coaches to go to ‘developing’ parts of the world to ‘raise standards’.
“I would suggest coaches be subject to residency limits similar to those affecting players. If coaches had to have lived in a country for, say, three years, or to have won a club trophy in that country, they would have demonstrated an affinity for the country and could represent them internationally.”
Posted by “Andy Neill”, January 9
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