Man United promise no let-up When Guha called IPL ‘disgusting’
Manchester, Jan. 31: Henrikh Mkhitaryan insists Manchester United are taking all four competitions they are involved in seriously as they struggle to cope with a demanding fixture schedule.
Jose Mourinho’s club is the only one in England still retaining an interest in a quartet of competitions — the Premier League, Europa League, FA Cup and the League Cup, in which they can look forward to a Wembley final against Southampton next month.
Their success means United could face as many as 67 games, should they advance to the finals of the other two cup competitions, and has led Mourinho to criticise the English fixture schedule as “nonsense”.
But after a weekend in which a number of Premier League teams were eliminated from the FA Cup after choosing weakened line-ups, Mkhitaryan claimed United want to succeed in every tournament.
“We are taking all the competitions seriously,” he said. “For Manchester United, every cup is very important.
“A trophy is a trophy. It doesn’t matter if it is the League Cup, the FA Cup or the Europa League. We want to do our best to try to win them all.”
United face drop candidates Hull in the Premier League at Old Trafford on Wednesday, with Mourinho again likely to make sweeping Historian Ramachandra Guha, who was on Monday named in the SC-appointed panel to run the BCCI, has been a vehement critic of the Indian Premier League. A self-proclaimed purist, Guha has never attended an IPL match and strongly believes that the glitzy league “brought out the worst of Indian society — corruption and cronyism.”
In front of a select audience that included the likes of Kapil Dev here last August, Guha, a club and college-level cricketer, showed his disdain for the IPL. “When it started I was disgusted by it and I’m still disgusted by it. I have never gone to an IPL match and part of the reason was Vijay Mallya who ran the Bangalore team. He is a crook,” he had said.
As Guha will be part of the panel that is likely to take key decisions changes to his team selection.
The weekend FA Cup win over Wigan saw the United manager make nine changes from his previous game, a League Cup semifinal, also against Hull, and hand debuts to young substitutes Axel Tuanzebe and goalkeeper Joel Pereira.
Despite the Portuguese regarding the 10th edition of the IPL, it will be interesting to see how the historian goes about his job.
In his speech, Guha had even compared T20 cricket to “arrack sold down the road side.” “Test cricket is like a single malt scotch because you remember every sip — the aroma, taste, nuance and everything. ODI is like Indianmade foreign liquor as you remember a few good things. All that you boss having expressed concerns about the lack of depth in his squad, Mkhitaryan claimed the competition for places, and the emergence of young players at Old Trafford, was healthy. “It’s great for them to play their first game,” said the Armenian. “You know as a player that, when young players come remember after a T20 is that you got smashed,” Guha said.
As Guha kept voicing his opposition to the IPL, the BCCI even tried to win over the influential author “about the beauties of the league.”
Professor of sport management at the University of Michigan, Stefan Szymanski, who was roped in by the BCCI to draw the IPL schedule, met Guha in Bengaluru.
“The professor wasn’t successful (in persuasion) though. At the end of the conversation, he gave a present pulling out a bottle of single malt scotch from his bag!” Guha said.
Guha, worships the likes of G.R. Viswanath and Erapalli Prasanna, is also biased towards Karnataka though he traces his ancestry to Tamil Nadu. “I don’t really care whether India win or lose; I want my team friends’ Cricket Club in Bengaluru and Karnataka to flourish,” he said. into the squad, you have to help them and offer them some advice and I thought they both did well on what is a great experience for them.”
After a tough beginning to his United career, in which Mkhitaryan did not start a league game for nearly three months, the £26 million pre-season signing from Borussia Dortmund has emerged as a key member of Mourinho’s squad.
“Since he came into the team, we and Micki himself thought he was ready,” said Mourinho.
“He had a good impact immediately, then he had a break with the injury against Tottenham, and then he came back and played quite well. So we are happy with him.”
Full-back Luke Shaw was handed his first start in two months against Wigan but is far from certain to retain his place when United return to league action. And Bastian Schweinsteiger, who started a game for the first time in over a year, is unlikely to be involved either despite Mourinho having confirmed that the German has been named in his squad for the knockout stages of the Europa. FERNANDINHO RETURN CAN FORTIFY
CITY Kevin de Bruyne believes Fernandinho’s return from suspension will provide the foundation for Manchester City to get their spluttering campaign back on track at West Ham.
Pep Guardiola’s side have dropped out of the top four and trail leaders Chelsea by 12 points after winning just one of their last four league games.
Guardiola wrote off City’s titles hopes during that unexpected slump, but a comfortable 3-0 victory at Crystal Palace in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday was a much needed tonic and de Bruyne anticipates the return of Brazil midfielder Fernandinho will be even more significant.
Fernandinho has served a four-match ban after receiving his third red card in six games in a win against Burnley on January 2.