Mourinho’s Notebook – September 25
Asamoah Gyan Denies Ritual Sacrifice
Ghanaian forward Asamoah Gyan has dismissed rumours that he had his friend and fellow countryman, rapper Castro, ritually sacrificed as "wild and ludicrous". Castro went missing in July while on holiday with Gyan, the all-time leading African goal scorer at World Cups, and it has been suggested that perhaps Gyan killed him in some ceremonial practise as a way of enhancing his career and… wait, WHAT!? Ritual sacrifice!? What the hell is this?
Here’s an excerpt from his legal rebuttal:
Jeezus, I can’t believe I even read that. It’s like a cheap 70s horror film or something.
(P.S. I’d definitely watch that film)
League Cup Missives
How about that Liverpool Middlesbrough game? Insane! The game itself was one thing, with Kolo Toure giving away a last minute penalty in extra time which Patrick Bamford converted to take things into penalties. Bamford then missed his shootout effort, and Liverpool were a Raheem Sterling kick away from the next round… but Sterlo missed. Next thing it’s goal after goal until the entire team had taken one – goalkeepers included – and they went around again. By the end the penalty spot was almost engulfed by the muddy bog caused by the planted non-kicking legs of the right footers. 14-13 it ended.
Yep, 14-13.
Arsenal and Southampton played out a pretty decent game too, in which Alexis Sanchez scored a stunner from a free-kick but was topped by Nathaniel Clyne’s swerving pile-driven effort as the Saints won 2-1.
Manchester City battled away in the first half against Sheffield Wednesday but showed why they are defending champs in the second, turning a 0-0 game at the break into a 7-0 win. Frankie Lampard scored twice, as did Eden Dzeko. Spanish teenager Pozo scored on debut too for the Sky Blues. Yaya and Navas bagged the others.
Chelsea crept through 2-1 over Bolton and will be no doubt challenging, as could 2008 winners Spurs, who came back from a goal down to beat Nottingham Forest 3-1. Swansea romped home 3-0 against Everton, while Newcastle and West Brom each beat EPL competition 3-2. MK Dons kept their cup journey alive with a 2-0 win over Bradford. Sheffield United are the other League One side still in it, and those two play each other next round. The true fairy story has to be Shrewsbury Town though. They beat Norwich 1-0 and will host Chelsea in the next round. Wow.
Here are the fourth round fixtures:
Fair Play?
Liverpool are one of seven teams being investigated for allegedly breaching the Uefa Financial Fair Play system. Monaco, Inter Milan, Roma, Besiktas, Sporting Lisbon and Krasnodar and the others.
The FFP regulations mean that a club competing in Europe cannot make a loss of £35.4m over a two year period. This may seem surprising for Liverpool after the Suarez transfer, but the period in question will be the two previous seasons. Man City and PSG have both been fined and have sanctions placed upon their spending for their own breaches in the past.
Liverpool reckon that their commercial deals should boost them to safety but either way, this is a business matter, so it shouldn’t spill over onto the field. Who cares, basically.
Is This The Real Life, Or Is This FIFA 15?
At a Dutch Eredivisie game between Feyenoord and Ajax the other day, some clever folk reeled out some very expensive camera equipment to capture some pretty awesome film. It actually looks like a video game, but this is legit. A MoVI Steadicam frame was the secret weapon, capturing movement in a lovely flowing manner. Very cool.