Managers

Superstar striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is headed to Manchester United this season, a move that prompted one of my Manchester-supporting friends to assure me they will win the Premier League this season.

Ibrahimovic is known for his ability on the field and his ego off of it, and he may have finally met his match, ego-wise, a man who can stand toe to toe with Zlatan in the self-confidence arena: former Manchester United striker Eric Cantona.

Former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has provided a compelling piece of reasoning as towards why Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player of his generation.

Having worked with Ronaldo for six hugely successful seasons at United, Ferguson has since watched the Portuguese forward dominate La Liga for seven years with Real Madrid and win his first major international tournament with Portugal, the 2016 European Championship.

Portugal manager Fernando Santos was undoubtedly the big winner of Euro 2016. It’s an almost certainty that his name has entered the conversations of many top European clubs looking for their next coach.

Euro 2016 did not provide many spectacular moments, unforgettable games or tactical innovations that’ll redefine 21st century soccer, but it did bring back the necessity of having a fantastic manager in international play.

New Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers is an eternal optimist, but it will be hard for him to find positives in his first competitive game with the Scottish club, as Celtic were beaten, 1-0, in the Champions League by Gibraltarian side Lincoln Red Imps. Seriously.

Lincoln Red Imps manager Roy Chipolina is also a customs officer and left work in mid-afternoon to get to the game.

Arsene Wenger gave Thierry Henry the choice: either he quit his job as pundit on Sky Sports to focus solely on his job as assistant manager of Arsenal’s U-18s, or he’d lose his role within Arsenal’s academy. 

Henry has responded by leaving the club, choosing to maintain his role on television along with its £4 million-a-year paycheck. 

Arsenal’s all time record goalscorer had been completing his UEFA Pro License  at the club, the final coaching qualification available, giving rise to rumors that he'd someday replace Wenger.

The potential is there to make the England national team job an unheralded success, just not right now.

Euro 2016 outlined emphatically how a mixture of mental fragility and poor coaching results in outlandish failure, to the point of embarrassment and humiliation on a mass scale.

Too often the discussion revolves around potential that should be realized rather than world-class performances that actually are on show at major tournaments.

Much like Spain in the 1990s, the talent at the disposal of any incoming manager should be an appealing prospect. 

Hey there, it's time to check in with our friends at the Argentine Football Association.

Oh no.

A bullish Jose Mourinho has been unveiled at Old Trafford as the latest manager of Manchester United, and he’s been quick to dismiss the work of the two managers before him. 

Noted yelling person Jamie Carragher (among others) roundly criticized the England National Team for being "too soft" after the Three Lions were sent back to their den by the likes of Iceland.

The loss was enough to make manager Roy Hodgson quit the team right then and there, leaving England in need of a coach. 

The next england manager will need to be tough. He will need to make sure they players aren't soft like Jamie Carragher (and others) says. He will need to be a bad a** mother who doesn't take nothing off of nobody.

That man is Eric Cantona.