Is Wenger Real-ly Madrid Bound?

Suggestions have been circulating in the British press that Arsene Wenger could be about to swap Arsenal for Real Madrid.

Certainly, respected football journalist, Guillem Balague thinks this could be the case.

According to Balague, talks are well underway between Wenger's agent and Jorge Valdano, the man Florentino Perez, the outright favourite to win the Real presidential elections, has give the task to find them a new manager.

This comes after stories that Wenger has become frustrated with the Arsenal hierarchy.

This is a move that could very possibly happen and should it happen, it would be a very interesting one.

Real are a club renowned for splashing the cash on big-name players and the potential marriage of them to a manager who is renowned for doing the complete opposite is bound to raise a few eyebrows.

In the past, Wenger has had free reign over transfer decisions. Would this be the case at Madrid? It certainly hasn't been their way in the past.

If Wenger does join Real it would be extremely interesting to see if, or how, Real's transfer policy changes or if it will be a mix between Real's 'big bucks for big players' approach and Wenger's 'buy young unknowns and make them greats' strategy.

Each strategy has had its sky-high ups but, more recently, its lows. If these two approaches can be successfully amalgamated then we could soon see the reemergence of Real as the world's premier superpower.

Then again, Wenger could stay at Arsenal.

Returns, Refs and Pouting

Over the past month or so ‘The Mixer’ had gone AWOL, Marco Boogers style (bar the caravan in Holland and slightly less craziness).

During its absence a lot has happened. Quite a lot. Lots and lots. A stupid amount of lots. Unbelievably lots.

OK, maybe not that much, but enough to force a round-up of events that ‘The Mixer’ appears to have missed in an, Arsene Wenger inspired, ‘it obviously happened, I saw it but I can’t be bothered talking about it’ way.

So, here goes.

Shearer was hired by Newcastle as an interim manager, in a gloriously timed move by the board, on April fools day.

Newcastle fans went mental and hailed his return as the greatest thing ever, despite the total lack of managerial experience, just slightly easing off to fall short of the, almost annual and patented, Geordie ‘tell them we love them but then suffocate them with expectation’ approach.

The fans said that Shearer’s appointment was the boost they need to escape relegation. Unfortunately, no-one appears to have told the players and they continue to play crap, culminating in a 3-0 thrashing by Liverpool.

Manchester United looked to be running away with the title but then slipped up to allow Liverpool back in before the Merseysider’s second 4-4 draw in a week, this time against Arsenal, meant that United were given a reprieve.

The first of Liverpool’s afore mentioned eight goal thrillers came in the Champions’ League at Stamford Bridge. Liverpool surprised everyone, by coming back from a 3-1 first leg deficit, to be on the cusp of a semi-final place.

Chelsea, though, fought back to all but guarantee a place in the last four, before Liverpool popped up with two extremely late goals, to make the Blue’s bums squeak a little bit more, but to no avail.

Manchester United managed to get past Porto, while Arsenal booked an all English tie with United after cruising past Villarreal.

In the semis; Man United handed a footballing master class to Arsenal, albeit with the aid of a Cockney defender slipping at a crucial moment (sound familiar?) and a dubious free kick, spectacularly despatched by the world’s most petulant No.7 (more on that later).

On the downside for the Red Devils, they will go to Rome minus Darren Fletcher who was red carded for a perfect last ditch tackle, late in the second leg.

If that refereeing decision was bad then spare a thought for Chelsea.

After a hard fought 0-0 draw at the Nou Camp, against Barcelona, the Blues were about to set up a rematch with United before a string of refereeing blunders and a fabulous last-gasp strike from Iniesta sent them crashing out.

Norwegian referee Uncle Festa, sorry, Tom Henning Ovrebo denied the Blues two stone wall penalties and one arguable appeal and also wrongly sent off Barca’s Eric Abidal who, like Fletcher, will miss the final.

Much was made of the referee’s inept performance and almost equal attention was focused on the almost comical reaction of a selection of Chelsea players.

One penalty appeal saw Michael Ballack chase after Ovrebo, flapping his arms in a way similar to a giant seagull chasing after someone who’s nabbed off with its chick.

M.C. Drogba went one better by almost man-handling the slap-headed official before helpfully pointing out to Sky viewers, through the medium of shouting into a camera, that the ref was “a f*****g disgrace” forcing Richard Keys to hastily apologise, twice, and the director to fear for his career.

While most of the focus was on the bad refereeing, many people seemed to over-look the fact that Drogba had missed a guilt edged chance to make it 2-0 and put the game out of Barca’s reach.

The fourth minute of injury-time, in which Iniesta scored, only came about because of Drogba’s inability to stay on his feet (caused by an inner ear problem… or diving… not sure which) and his tremendous acting skills; feigning injury so brilliantly that he fooled Hiddink, who them subbed him, much to the Ivorian’s disbelief. A role in Casualty is surely in the offing.

Prior to that game Barca had demolished bitter rivals Real Madrid, 6-2 at the Bernabeu, with the style, panache and coolness of a diamond encrusted wreaking ball operated by Samuel L Jackson. Not bad for a team who don’t like to shoot.

They were given a chance to wrap up the title yesterday but a late Villarreal goal meant that the champagne remains on ice.

Back in the England, Chelsea proved to be the best of the rest, beating Arsenal 4-1 in an unofficial Champions’ League 3rd place play-off while the Manchester derby ended up with United comfortably beating City 2-0, meaning that they only need four points from their last three games to retain the title.

The only other notable action in the derby came when Ronaldo was replaced by Rooney and the Portuguese poser stormed off to the bench, throwing down his training top and began to shake his head, almost constantly, throughout the rest of the game and probably all the way home, as he drove off only 15 minutes after the game ended.

Still, not to worry, apparently Alex Ferguson likes this kind of attitude from his players. Maybe van Nistelrooy just didn’t pout enough.