Although Manchester City has won the English Premier League in six of the last seven seasons, as we look to the start of a new English season this evening, most focus in England and Ireland will probably be on City’s Mancunian rivals United. Manchester United won the last of their 13 EPL titles in the 2012-13 season which happened to be Alex Ferguson last season as manager.
Since Fergie left, Old Trafford has not been a good place for successors. Fergie recommended that fellow Scot David Moyes would replace him. But Moyes failed to win the EPL, as did Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Ralf Rangnick and, so far, current manager Erik ten Hag. True there have been FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League wins, but none of these men have been able to add to their 13 Premier League titles won under Ferguson.
At the end of last season Sir Jim Radcliffe took over football maters at Old Trafford and for a while it looked like Radcliffe would sack manager Ten Hag, but instead the club extended the Dutchman’s contract by another 12 months. So will we another season of excuses from Ten Hag? Of course we all know there was football in England before the introduction of the EPL in 1992 and when you count the old First Division and the EPL United are top of the pile with 20 titles, one ahead of Liverpool, who are the only club in recent years able to break City’s dominance when they won the EPL in 2019-20. But Jurgen Klopp’s team slumped the following season.
Now it’s the turn of Dutchman called Arnie Slot at Anfield to try and topple City. Allegation of 115 breaches of Financial Fair Play hang over the blue side of Manchester and we might see a result from that Commission of Inquiry in the coming weeks or it could be months. I tend to trust the bookmakers and right now, before a ball is kicked, City are favorites at 11/10, Arsenal are second favorites at 9/5, while you can have Liverpool at 7/1; Chelsea are available at 21/1 and United are 26/1. The first game of the new EPL season is at Old Trafford begin at 2 p.m. (East Coast) when United play Fulham. There will be six games on tomorrow, including Liverpool’s trip to newly promoted Ipswich Town. On Sunday one of the two games is City’s opener away to Chelsea, while the Monday night game is between Leicester and Spurs.
DONOGHUE
SPECULATION
Micheál Donoghue quit as Dublin senior hurling manager last week. The Galway native was appointed for a three-year term in August 2022, but he has now opted not to remain at the helm in the capital for a third season. This development will naturally lead to speculation that Donoghue and his backroom team might return to Galway job they left in 2019. Galway are currently without a manager as former Kilkenny great Henry Shefflin quit last month.
Meanwhile Derek Lyng is to remain on as Kilkenny senior hurling manager for a third year, the Kilkenny county board has confirmed. Lyng was appointed to succeed Brian Cody for three years initially and will now see out that term, ending any speculation there may have been since the All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Clare that he might step away. Under Lyng Kilkenny have won two Leinster titles, extending their run in the province to five in succession. Mark Dowling and Niall Bergin have been confirmed as Kilkenny under 20 and minor managers respectively for another year.
In Cork former goalkeeper Donal Óg Cusack is back on the inter-county sideline after being confirmed as the new Cork under-20 hurling coach. Cusack, who is a popular analyst for RTE television, is the high-profile name in new manager Noel Furlong’s backroom team, which was named last week
In football, former Cavan footballer and manager Mickey Graham is going to replace Andy Moran in Leitrim. Graham, who did very well at club level, taking Longford club Mullinalaghta to a Leinster club final and he later manager Cavan for five years. Graham was assistant to Moran during the former Mayo player’s term in charge of Leitrim.
In Kildare former under 21 manager Brian Flanagan has been confirmed as the new Lilywhites senior manager, where he replaces Glenn Ryan. Goalkeeper Philly Ryan is the new Tipperary senior football manager, where he replaces Paul Kelly. Ryan played in goal for the county from 1991 to 2003 and later managed the Tipp minor footballers.
BOHS’ REYNOLDS
DROPS IRISH ROLE
Bohemians manager Alan Reynolds has stepped down as coach the Republic of Ireland under 21 team. The Waterford-born coach joined manager Jim Crawford’s backroom team in July 2020. During that time Reynolds has held coaching roles at Dundalk, Shelbourne, Derry City and Waterford and he was appointed manager of Bohemians in March this year. Reynolds was criticized by some Bohs fans in June when his double jobbing left him torn between two roles, and two countries, as the Irish Under 21s were taking part in a tournament in Croatia the same week as the Gypsies were due to play Derry in the League of Ireland. The FAI say that new under 21 coach will be announced before the games against Turkiye and Latvia next month.
DEATHS OF GAA’S
O’NEILL, HEAVEY
The death occurred recently of former Tyrone footballer Jody O’Neill. The Coalisland Fianna clubman captained Tyrone when they won the Anglo Celt Cup for the first time in 1956. Jody had two spells as manager of the Red Hand, including a spell as player-manager at the end of the sixties. A top-class midfielder, Jody won five Railway Cup medals with Ulster and was inducted into the Tyrone GAA Hall of Fame in 1990. He also managed the Red Hand when they won the All-Ireland Junior football title in 1968 and was part of the Ireland management team for the first Compromise Rules series against Australia in 1986.
The death also occurred of former Offaly footballer Martin Heavey. The Rhode clubman, who didn’t play minor or under 21 football for the county, was one of the stars of the Offaly team that won the Sam Maguire Cup in 1971 and 1972. He later served as a senior selector with former managers Paddy McCormack and Eugene McGee.
