Swansea sack Micheal Laudrup

In a move that came as a suprise to many in the game, Swansea City have sacked manager Micheal Laudrup. A meeting was held earlier today to resolve the uncertainty surrounding the future of the Manager. Although he agreed to carry on, the decision was made to sack him.

Swansea City had won their first ever trophy as a club under Laudrup's guidance last February in the then Carling Cup now Capital One cup when they defeated Bradford City 5 nil in the finals.

The club however suffered a dip in form over the past year since the triumph in the league cup with just  8 wins from 31 league matches. They have also suffered injuries to key players including last season's top scorer Michu who has  been out for most of the Campaign.

The decision to part ways with Laudrup comes just days from the second Welsh derby of the season with Swansea due to host Cardiff within days.
The handwriting over what happened was already on the wall after the club fell out with Micheal Laudrup's agent last summer over transfers. Still, his departure comes at time when the club is struggling for form and with just 14 games left to play this season in the league, securing their Premier League future remains the ultimate goal of the club whereas Laudrup had seem to concentrate more on the Europa league where they will play Napoli in the Round of 32 later this month.

An high for the club this season despite a disappointing season to date because of form and injuries, remains Swansea knocking out Manchester United out of the FA cup at the third round stage in early January. Which gave the club their first ever win at Old Trafford.

David Moyes' unusual records

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The much heralded arrival of Juan Mata failed to inspire Manchester United as they fell to their eight defeat of the season. Although the only goal from Robin Van Persie was from Mata’s assist, making it two assist in two matches for the mercurial Spaniard. The defeat at the Britannia Stadium was Stoke City’s first win over Manchester United in 30 years. The last time Stoke City defeated Manchester United was in 1984.

David Moyes early reign as the Old Trafford club’s manager has seen some hitherto impressive record broken. Before now Swansea City had not beaten Manchester United at Old Trafford before. But that was settled when the Swans defeated Moyes’ side in the FA Cup early last month when Wilfred Bony won the match with a textbook header to knock out Man United in the 3^rd round stage.

That feat achieved by Swansea at Old Trafford has been replicated by Everton, West Brom and Newcastle respectively. As these clubs before this season have not won at the Theatre of Dreams when added together for almost a century.

So David Moyes has lost a third of his 24 league matches as manager. And he has just 40 points after 24 matches when compared to 41 he had for Everton at the same stage last season.

With fourteen matches left in the league, Manchester United could find themselves 9 points of fourth place if Liverpool beats West Brom on Sunday. With matches against Arsenal, the Manchester derby, Liverpool and Everton to come, every match begins to take an added significance as the battle for a top four finish hots up.

It an unusual territory for Manchester United to be in, but the mentality judging from their past antecedent is that they can always pull a magic out of the hat as the battle becomes fierce.   

Arsene Wenger’s wisdom of using an injury to cover an injury

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The January transfer window was an underwhelming one in the gunner nation. With the club practically declining to add to it squad in spite of the fact that it was in real need of strengthening especially in the striking department. In short, the irony of the transfer window for those connected to Arsenal was the fact that a club that needed a striker ended up loaning out three strikers on deadline day. Benik Afobe, Chuba Akpom and the strange Park Ju Young were all sent out on loan. With the South Korean ending up with Watford. Although, the three have contributed next to nothing to the first team.

As if the underwhelming nature of the January transfer was not enough, then came the news that the only signing Kim Kallstrom on transfer deadline day was already injured when he signed on Friday.

He had a slight back injury. And this was revealed through a scan, and the information passed on to the Manager who still sanctioned the move. It has been revealed he is likely to miss the next six matches.

It beggars belief that a player brought in to cover for those that are currently out injured, was injured on arrival, and cannot even feature when he is most needed.

He last played for Spartak Moscow on December 8, 2013. While the Russian league has been on winter break, he bizarrely injured his back while playing football on a beach in Abu Dhabi before his arrival.

In a busy month of February where Arsenal are expected to play Liverpool twice, Manchester United, Chelsea and Bayern Munich, a proactive manager would have been more forthcoming in shoring up the gray areas of his squad. Instead the only signing comes with a card carrying tag that is a common theme amongst Arsenal’s players. The tag of injury.

Can the players whom Wenger has placed is strong faith on deliver in the coming weeks as they have done in that last twelve months? The results will give an accurate answer.