Back On Top But I Remain Upset

Internazionale vs AC Milan, the Milan derby, known in Italy as the Derby Della Madonnina used to be a match that showcased some of the best players in the world. It is a derby unlike any in the world. It is probably the only derby in the world where the fans arrive and leave together on derby day with a rivalry and intensity that lasts for 90 minutes only. It is not uncommon to see Inter and AC Milan fans go back to the same home after the game. It is a derby characterised by a majestic show of choreography by the fans in the stands before the match mocking each other in a good natured manner.

Sunday saw Inter play the role of hosts in a stadium shared by both teams. Inter had won 2 out of 2 and Milan had won 1 and lost 1 in their respective first 2 matches of the season. Both teams have had a number of mediocre seasons and had undergone major rebuilding during the summer transfer window to promise a return to their glory days in the near future. Most of the match was contested in the midfield and in all fairness, a draw would have been the most deserving result. Inter had a nervy start with new signing Jeison Murillo in particular making some mistakes to allow AC Milan a glimpse at the goal but Samir Handanovic pulled off a couple of great stops to keep Inter in the game as he had done for a lot of the last two seasons.Overall, AC Milan had created clear-cut chances albeit capitalising from mistakes made by Inter. Inter in contrast lacked creativity and fluidity to create any chances. The nearest they got to scoring was a long range effort from Stevan Jovetic. Inter started to threaten more in the second half and Fredy Guarin had a couple of half-chances, one saved by Diego Lopez and another headed over before scoring the only goal of the game out of nothing with a shot from distance. Milan didn't threaten an equaliser until the introduction of the enigmatic, moody but talented Mario Balotelli who had a free-kick saved by Handanovic and another effort that crashed off the bottom of the post. Inter won 1-0 relying largely on a gritty performance and moments of individual quality at both ends of the field.

I have a lot to be upset and even disillusionised with the current Inter squad and the summer transfer dealings of the club. I am even losing my connection to the club and it is a testing time for me at the moment for my allegiance and loyalty to the club. I describe myself as an unique Inter fan. I don't know many Inter fans personally and I doubt they would share or understand my sentiments now and from listening to me, you might think I am a fan of a club that has started the season poorly. Inter might be top but we have won all matches so far by a slender margin without playing particularly well. Looking at it positively, winning this way is a sign of a champion team and champions have to be able to win without playing well. However, if this continues, Inter will get found out and get caught, the bubble will burst and when that happens, it will all come crashing to the ground. At the moment, almost everyone of Inter persuasion and allegiance is on the moon and excited at the start we have made but honestly, I feel we have been lucky. Results matter the most in Italy thus the optimism and excitement. For me, results and performances are equally important. I don't mind losing by playing well because sooner or later, we will start winning and when we start, we would be difficult to stop. I understand that it is impossible to play well in every game of the season and there could be matches where you would need to eke out results but playing well is important. I understand that this is a new Inter team that has lots of new arrivals and would need time to gel and maybe then we will see Inter playing well. It's great that Roberto Mancini recognises that the team has not achieved anything and not reached its maximum potential yet. It is expected of someone with his experience. Let's see if the performances get any better in the coming weeks

Back to the issue of my disillusionment and lack of connect with the club. Let me just briefly state the points. First, I have been upset for many seasons now at the lack of Italian representation in the first team. We have not signed many Italians and many Italians have not made it into the first team through Inter's youth team via loan spells elsewhere. It just feels that Italians are purposely marginalised and foreigners are favoured in the club's signing process. I am a fan long enough to know that the club's foundation is based on the concept of internalisation thus the club name and accepting foreigners into the team but it remains an Italian club and it needs to have Italians in the team.

Secondly, was it really necessary to sign and sell all these players in the summer. The sale of Xherdan Shaqiri and Mateo Kovacic in particular were upsetting and I feel they were totally unnecessary. We have replaced Shaqiri with the signing of Ivan Perisic, Stevan Jovetic and Adem Ljajic but Kovacic has not been replaced and we might suffer from the lack of creativity in midfield. Perisic, Jovetic and Ljajic are creative but none of them operate as midfielders. Signing Geoffrey Kondogbia was fine but for the sum that he was signed for, considering the club is in debt, I feel was excessive. He hasn't set the world alight yet with his performances and has looked pretty ordinary. The signing of Murillo has been a good decision but he should have been paired with Andrea Ranocchia. Joao Miranda has done well too. Nemanja Vidic, with all due respect and fondness I have for him, could have been an option to be sold not Marco Andreolli. Martin Montoya looks like he was signed to be an understudy which is fair enough because he was signed on loan and Inter needs cover at right back. Was the signing of Alex Telles really necessary? Maybe it is because the manager doesn't have faith in Yuto Nagatomo, who for all my fondness for him, should have been sold. I agree with the sale of Joel Obi, Ruben Botta and Hernanes. Perhaps Fredy Guarin should have been sold too if we needed more cash to reduce debts.

Now to my main beef from the summer transfer dealings, the signing of Felipe Melo and not selling Mauro Icardi. Why was Melo signed for? The real reason would be that he adds experience in centre midfield, brings personality and character to the team and dressing room and has the faith of the manager. He did do a good job in midfield until Balotelli came on but I don't have faith in his qualities and after selling Kovacic, signing another defensive midfielder who is mainly going to kick lumps out of his opponents is not the way to go. Gary Medel our number 1 defensive midfielder can kick lumps out of his opponents and is intelligent enough to read the game well. We should be looking to sign a deep-lying playmaker. In the first place, we shouldn't even sell Kovacic. If there was someone that we should have cashed in on for a big sum, it would have been Icardi. He finished last season as Capocannoniere but he is not a striker that can get goals on his own. He needs the supply to score. This season he has looked very ordinary having played one full game in the pocket of Alessio Romagnoli and another for a short while after he got injured minutes in the first half. If the creative talents of Perisic, Ljajic and Jovetic work, he would get chances to score if not, he would been starved and ineffective. A striker that relies solely on chances created for him to score can be replaced easier than a creative talent like Kovacic thus making it wiser to sell Icardi instead of Kovacic. To add salt into my wounds and to rub it in for me, he has now been made club captain. MAURO ICARDI! THE CAPTAIN OF INTER?! It is an absolute disgrace that the captaincy that was worn with great honour by great men not just footballers like Giacinto Facchetti, Giuseppe Bergomi and Javier Zanetti is now worn by an immoral man like Icardi. It is a disgrace! At the moment, the jersey still remains the best thing about this season. It is testing for me but I will keep pledging my allegiance to the club.

Possession, Possession Man United

Manchester United vs Liverpool, a match keenly felt all over the world. It is felt as passionately in Manchester, Liverpool or wherever I am based, Singapore. Manchester United and Liverpool are the two most widely supported English clubs outside of England or at least in this part of the world. They are the two most successful English clubs and for fans of either side, it is an absolutely gut-wrenching and horrible feeling to lose this one and not to mention the banter from opposing fans to just rub it in further. As a Manchester United fan, it is always horrible to lose a match because you would not only receive stick from fans of the team that beat us but from fans of other clubs as well who can't wait to rejoice at our failure. That feeling is multiplied by a thousand (or million) times for defeats against Liverpool. Matches between Manchester United and Liverpool are normally feisty and fiery encounters and that leads me to the next paragraph.

What did we witness in the first half last night? From Manchester United's perspective, we did very well to press Liverpool to force them into making mistakes and misplacing their passes, we did very well to keep possession but we were awful in the final third. We hardly created anything. It was frustrating to watch. We were totally dominant and it was almost too comfortable for us but we hardly did much to press home the dominance. If I viewed the match as a neutral, I might have fallen asleep or got distracted because I can understand how boring it was to watch that. Liverpool were content to sit back and seemed happy to get a point, United were not challenged hard enough and it was so comfortable that they started messing about in the final third. It seemed like no team really wanted to win it. The fire that people have come to expect from previous encounters of these two teams was missing. The blood-and-thunder was missing.

In the second half, for the neutrals, the tempo of the match picked up and perhaps the first goal was the catalyst for that. The match opened up, there was a second goal and two great goals shared by either side within two minutes. From a Manchester United perspective, it is always sweet and great to beat Liverpool even if we win ugly. The feeling is not to be under-estimated even if we have won the last 7 out of 9 encounters against them. We were dominant throughout and we thoroughly deserved the victory. Michael Carrick and Bastian Schweinsteiger won the match for us in midfield but we were still disjointed going forward. It was frustrating to get into great positions in the final third and not capitalise on being in that position or for our supremacy. It is frustrating to watch us hardly create any chances or have any shots at goal. Aside from his performance in the first leg of the Champions League qualifier against Club Brugge, Memphis has not quite performed as well as many would have expected from him but I don't feel it is fair to judge him harshly. He was never the finished article and can certainly develop further. He is only a young man and it is not easy playing and adapting to the demands of the English Premier League. Fans have to be patient with him and Louis Van Gaal got to start rotating him with Ashley Young who provided greater verve and impetus going forward and taking the opposition on. Perhaps some matches on the bench might get a positive response from Memphis.

Due to our strange and bad end to the transfer window, we are effectively relying on Wayne Rooney as our main and only striker which is why despite the poor start he has had to the season, I was worried when I heard that he was not fit enough to play any part in the match. I had written previously that I can't see Marouane Fellaini playing as a Number 9 and his performance yesterday proved me right. Tactically, he seemed lost and it looked all throughout like a case of slotting a square peg into a round hole. I can give him the benefit of the doubt that he is making his first start of the season and was lacking match fitness but I am not convinced of having him play as a striker. We can employ him as a striker when we are chasing a match but he cannot start as a striker. Playing Fellaini there just makes it puzzling why we sold Javier Hernandez or are even contemplating to let James Wilson leave on loan. He could have started as an orthodox striker and I had thought maybe Rooney's injury would force United to rethink the decision to loan Wilson but he wasn't even on the bench let alone starting eleven. We were toothless up front.

Anthony Martial came on and scored a sublime goal which was reminiscent of goals Thierry Henry would score in his heyday but in today's day and age, people are very quick to build someone up and equally quick to destroy them. All eyes were focused on him whenever he would make his debut at some point during the game. Everyone wanted to see why did he deserve such a high transfer fee and what was he all about. I would say he did well displaying pace and strength on the few occasions he did get the ball and he did score a great goal but its too soon to liken him to Henry. Please give him his own space and time to develop and grow as a player to create a name for himself. Like Memphis, he is only young and is far from the finished article. Hopefully he will get better with time and at the moment, the promise seems there.

Daley Blind scored a splendid goal as he has shown he is capable of last season but the biggest contribution he made was to clear off the line from a Liverpool corner with the score was still at 1-0. Overall, we were very comfortable until we scored and then we allowed Liverpool back in and Liverpool started threatening a bit more. David De Gea did play his part to make a couple of great saves in his return. He wasn't as busy as he was in the corresponding fixture last season but did well when called upon. Back to Blind, he did really well to make up for a couple of mistakes against Swansea before the international break to even upstage his centre back partner, Chris Smalling who has been in great form so far this season. One piece of action in the first half when he eased off the challenge of the stronger and taller Christian Benteke to get to the ball was an epitome of the kind of match he had. He gets pulled out as the weak link in our defence weekly by pundits and perhaps even opposing managers but it's largely been a case of so far, so good for the versatile Dutchman at centre back.

Moving forward, we have got PSV Eindhoven in our return to proper Champions League action. I feel Van Gaal's tactics are probably better suited to our European matches and we could probably get more joy in Europe than in England. Let's see if I am right on that account. I would like to be wrong if it means we win something this season. We would still need to improve our performances though and it is quite clear that we are capable of doing more and going up a few gears. Fellaini cannot play as a striker and I hope we are wise enough to retain Wilson. Besides that, I feel we are lightweight up front because I think the Wilson deal is almost complete. Maybe the presence of another top striker might keep Rooney on his toes and get him to perform better but it is too late for that now with the transfer window closed. We can only do the best with what we have got.

Finally, credit where its due, Benteke scored a great goal. I feel he has upstaged Mata's scissors kick effort at Anfield for the way he has caught it.

Focus On The Italian National Team

It was international weekend last week which for most is seen as a hindrance as that would mean a weekend without any "meaningful" football from your favourite leagues and club teams. Most football fans are mainly excited by international football only when it reaches the final stage of a tournament not the qualifiers or friendlies but the international teams would need to qualify for these international or continental tournaments and would need friendlies to fine tune their playing style as well as experiment and try out new players and systems which is why these weekends are important to the international team managers. During this kind of weekends, most fans would just pray that the international players from their favourite club or clubs do not return to club duties with any injuries. The good news is that the international weekend is now over and the bad news is that inevitably, someone did get injured.

I am an Italy fan and have been one for the longest time. It was the first-ever team I supported and I feel for the Italian national team very strongly. I am not an Italian citizen, have no Italian ancestry and never ever been to Italy but I support Italy like it is my national team. It is the number 1 international team for me. Heading into this round of European Championships qualifying matches, I was quite worried over the state of the national team seeing that from a recent study, the Italian national team's manager, Antonio Conte has only 36% of Italian players to choose from Serie A for the national team. Italian players have left Italy due to the lack of faith and trust in them as well as the lack of space or are in Serie A but don't play often enough. Moreover, the atmosphere in Italian football can be very stressful and poisonous due to the violence, demands and expectations placed on teams by fans.

Italian clubs have been very territorial in their approach, focusing only on the good of their respective club sides and discounting the greater good of the national team. From what I have read, qualifiers and friendlies are not taken seriously in Italy which is why you see the national team losing friendlies and doing the bare minimum in qualifiers to qualify for an international or continental tournament. Once they have qualified for the World Cup or European Championships, everyone would leave their club allegiance aside for one month at the end of the season to support the national team and get upset when things go wrong and Italy do not win the tournament as they are expected to by most fans. In fact, Italy tends to do better in the World Cup or European Championships when they have been written off and not given a chance. History would suggest so. Personally, I love it when Italy approaches a tournament and is completely written off before a tournament because I know that is when Italy will be at its most dangerous.

Back to the topic of lack of Italian players in Serie A, I don't understand why Italian players are not given space, trust and faith in the Italian clubs. My favourite Italian club, Internazionale is one of the main culprits of doing so. There have been an influx of foreigners into Italian football not necessarily for the better. Some of these foreigners occupy a space that could be occupied by an Italian player without offering more in terms of quality. There have been suggestions that Serie A is on its way back to its glory days again due to the foreign names it is attracting but if you analyse it carefully, most of the foreign players are either rejects from big clubs in other leagues, players formerly from the Serie A who can't find space in foreign clubs or players in their career's final lap. Some do well and can provide a boost to a team's quality while some others falter to deceive.

On the topic of Italian players, is there not enough talent in Italian youth players? I think so looking at the results of the youth Italian teams. The Under-21 team were unlucky to have got knocked out in the group stage of last year's U21 European Championships. Italian players do not lack talent. What they do lack in is confidence to express themselves fully without fear of failure and suffer from inexperience. Italian football is such a stickler for success and the end result that any small mistake made and the player would be annihilated by the press and fans. Due to this fear of making a mistake, young players play with an iron ball around their ankles and do not dare to express themselves fully. There is too much pressure placed on players. Due to the lack of space afforded to these youngsters in the first team, the youngsters lose out in terms of experience playing in Serie B or lower or worse still, in the Primavera against teams of similar ilk and experience whereas German and Spanish players play regularly in the highest division of their league.

Italy have suffered two embarrassing exits from the World Cup. In both cases, they were eliminated in the group stage itself. There was a brief blip of joy and positivity when Italy finished second in the 2012 European Championships and third in the 2013 Confederations Cup. The strength of Italian football lies in the tactical discipline that has been passed on from generation to generation as well as the win-at-all costs mentality.These two factors have enabled Italy to punch above their weight and surprise the odds even when on paper, they have seem to possess a squad lacking in quality but this lack of quality is also the reason why Italy hasn't been able to take the leap forward and win a World Cup or European Championship after winning the 2006 World Cup.

The Italian FA's controversial President, Carlo Tavecchio has commented on the issue of foreigners in Italian football but has done little to address the issue. Former Italian national team manager, Cesare Prandelli has also commented on it as has other big names in the game but no-one in a position of power has exerted any influence or their power to address the issue. It could be due to the fear of upsetting the club Presidents who have only got the greater good of their club side in mind. There have been allegations raised that Tavecchio is a puppet for Lazio's President Claudio Lotito and doesn't act independently.

Italian football needs to be refreshed with new ideas and fresh faces in the management positions at club and national level. By management, I mean management in the administrative level. Stadiums need to be renovated and club-owned. Violence and hooliganism needs to be eradicated. Fresh ideas need to be brought in at all levels of the game starting from the FIGC to Serie A, Serie B and so on. Primavera teams should be allowed to compete in the lower leagues of the Italian league system with promotion to Serie B as their ceiling of progression. All clubs should universally agree to focus on developing young Italian players and giving space to Italian players in their first team. The Italian national team should be the Number 1 team in Italy not Juventus or Roma or AC Milan or Inter. Knowing the selfishness of Italian clubs which comes from the traditional win-at-all costs attitude in the game, perhaps a restriction needs to be introduced to force Italian clubs into fielding a certain amount of Italian players as part of their starting eleven and a certain amount of Italian players as part of their match day squad per week. I don't think a lot of these Italian clubs realise the talents they have on their hands as they are so blinded by foreign players, Inter being the prime example.

There have been complaints in the recent past over the inclusion of Oriundi in the national team but what is Conte to do when there are so many foreigners and so little Italians to choose from? It is slowly becoming more common now for Italian players to move abroad to find playing time and to play in a better atmosphere where they can focus on football and lead a normal life without the fear of being harrassed by fans after losing a match or being under too much pressure during the entire week. Not many have made a successful transition with Marco Verratti developing at an eye-catching and consistent rate. Graziano Pelle, has been abroad for a long time now but has only gained prominence now playing in the English Premier League. Matteo Darmian has made a good start to life at Manchester United and Salvatore Sirigu was first choice at Paris Saint Germain until he lost his place this season. Sebastian Giovinco is enjoying a new lease of life and is full of confidence in Major League Soccer. If Italian players continue to find themselves marginalised in their own countries, more Italian players will continue to move abroad and Italian football would suffer from the talent drain. If foreign players continue to be preferred over Italian players, then it would be better for Italian clubs to compete in foreign leagues instead. I do hope one day soon crooks like Lotito and puppets like Tavecchio are removed to allow for someone younger and fresher to revolutionise Italian football. I don't mind taking up the mantle but I don't speak or understand Italian and I am afraid I lack the expertise to implement the changes and ironically, Italians are sceptical of having foreign owners for their clubs and foreign players representing their national team. I don't think they would take too kindly to having a foreigner trying to revolutionise Italian football. Hahah.

In this round of European Championship qualifier matches, Italy won both matches 1-0 at a time when Italian players haven't exactly hit full form in terms of match fitness. I feel the team collected good and important results on the path to qualifying for the European Championships. I didn't get to watch these matches so I can't comment on the performances but being an Italian fan, I know that all that matters now is to win and qualify. It would be nice to see or hear of Italy winning comfortably by a bigger score-line but I read that Italy were profligate in both matches and the standard between the big teams in Europe and the smaller teams has reduced over the years. It is no longer a walk in the park for big teams against smaller teams. We'll accept the goal of qualification any way it comes. Due to these wins, Italy have moved up the FIFA standings and most importantly moved a step closer to qualifying. Win against Azerbaijan next on the 11th of October and Italy would go through. Achievable goal but what about the future of Italian football? I hope more is done and lesser is said about what needs rectifying in Italian football for the sake of the national team.

The Tragedy & Humiliation Of The Malaysian National Team

Dollah Salleh is a Malaysian football legend. He did well as a player for the national team and Selangor but his career as a coach will forever be tainted after his resignation from the post of head coach for the Malaysian national team. Preceeding his resignation, he had overseen the nation's heaviest defeat in its history, a 10-0 whopping at the hands of United Arab Emirates (UAE). His resignation or sacking whichever came first was inevitable. The results have been abysmal for some time now. To be fair, Malaysia punched above its weight and over-achieved in the AFF Suzuki Cup last year. They relied on the experience of the squad from Datuk K.Rajagopal's successful SEA-Games gold winning and AFF Suzuki Cup squads as well as the experience of Shukor Adan and Indra Putra Mahayuddin without any or many young players in the squad to freshen things up alongside the experienced ones.

Dollah Salleh has to take the blame for the poor results but the players have to shoulder the blame too. According to me, I feel the players from that successful era of 2009-2011, have lost the hunger to succeed. I feel they have become too comfortable and have grown too big for their boots. The other issue is that the conveyor belt of youth has stopped. There are not enough talented youngsters coming through. The Malaysian Super League is one of the best leagues in South East Asia but take the foreigners out and there are not enough Malaysians playing a key role in the centre back and centre forward positions for example.

There have been talk about introducing naturalised players to represent Malaysia after the experiment worked well for Liverpool's pre-season visit but that would be a short-term, stop gap solution and personally, I don't ever favour the concept of naturalising foreigners to play for a national team unless there is some family lineage or the player has migrated into the country since he was a child and has become a citizen. At present, even if Sir Alex Ferguson is convinced to coach the Malaysian side, he will struggle to sufficiently revive the fortunes of the Malaysian national side. The only solution I see is to go back to the basics and invest into the youth, making sure there is a larger pool of talent to choose from across all races in all parts of the country and these youngsters have a pathway into the club sides and then the national team. Patience and careful planning is required to restore the pride of Malaysian football but I have my doubts time will be given and that the right plans will be made and if they are made, I doubt it will be implemented efficiently and with success.

Post-Brugge,Swansea & Transfer Policy - Manchester United

I have finally found the time to pen my thoughts. I have my thoughts and views on different topics but let me start with Manchester United in this article. Let's revisit the Champions League qualification clinching match against Club Brugge in Belgium. It was a convincing performance as reflected by the score-line which could have been more. We had a couple of scares which we just about dealt with in defence. However, I felt that as much as United should be credited with the performance, Brugge should have to take responsibility for delivering a below-par performance at home. They had virtually let us play and dictate the tempo of the game. I felt Swansea would have provided us with a bigger and stronger test last weekend and my prediction came true. Swansea not only provided us with a stronger test but they made a mockery of our excellent defensive record till then. However, truth to be told, if United were sharper in front of goal, we could be talking about another United win and not about Swansea emerging as our bogey team. We had chances at 0-0, we certainly played with more confidence after going 1-0 up and then it all fell apart like a house of cards in the space of 5 minutes. We got caught on the counter attack for the first goal and then conceded a rather soft second goal which Sergio Romero has to take the blame for. We could have equalised for 2-2 but didn't manage to and that led to the usual meltdown all over social media among United fans.

Since Sir Alex Ferguson has retired, I feel United fans have become twitchy. Perhaps its the legacy of David Moyes' time with the number of bad results and performances we suffered from causing a lasting psychological impact among fans. It is annoying to read as a fellow fan because the reactions are extreme and not balanced enough. As a fan, I am never happy to lose a competitive match and my mood can be affected for days or weeks depending on the magnitude of the match and/or identity of our opponents but it is important to bring some balance and subjectivity to the matter after we regain our composure and calm down. First thing I feel all fans should realise is that our great club can never win it all forever even if that is what we aspire and expect. Football goes in cycles and ours ended when Sir Alex left. We have to be patient and can only hope the club makes the right decisions in terms of signings, manager appointment and planning and that our cycle will return soon or at the very least we will achieve some Cup success. Secondly, United fans should focus on Manchester United not Manchester City or Liverpool or Chelsea or Arsenal. I don't mind taking some joy in seeing or hearing of our rivals dropping points or losing. I am especially delighted to hear of Liverpool or City losing but please don't mock their fans. I know a lot of fans have been doing it for years when we have been successful and are continuing to do so. I understand the exchange of banter between rival fans but at the very least, if you want to do it, wait until the season is over because it can always come back to bite us in the same weekend or during the course of the season. We are not immune to dropping points and losing, no team is no matter how strong they are and we certainly are not in a position of strength now to be able to mock and banter confidently. Thirdly, the meltdown from United fans have made us sound like fans of our rivals who we have ridiculed in the past. All that is required is some intelligence of football. We have lost under Sir Alex too and suffered heavy defeats. We have gone seasons without winning anything or anything major. Before Sir Alex and Manchester United became successful, we went many years without winning anything. It can happen. Just calm down and put things into perspective.

There was another meltdown from fans on the last 2 days of the transfer window. I admit, I got as irritated as anyone reading about what was going on in the transfer window but after a few days, I have calmed down. Fans seem to think nowadays that the solution to our lack of success or poor performances lies in the transfer market. It seems to me that fans' solution to our problems are that we need to sign some big name player or the other at an astronomical sum and sell X,Y,Z from the team. Regular buying and selling of players in big quantities will not guarantee success. During our period of success, at most we have only signed 2-3 players and sell not more than the same amount. In two seasons, last season and this, we have bought at least 5-6 players and sold about the same number in each season. The lack of stability is hardly a recipe for success. What fans don't realise is that this is not fantasy football or Football Manager. This is real life and players are human beings who need time to adjust to a new league and new country if they are joining from overseas. They would also need to adjust to the manager's requirements too. Some take a faster time to settle in and some take a longer time. It is also one thing to play for a smaller club and another to play for a club the size of Manchester United. Patience is needed if we are to see results. We need a settled team not one that keeps chopping and changing every season.

On the transfer market this season, I feel we had done pretty well until this week. We signed Memphis, Matteo Darmian, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Morgan Schneiderlin and Sergio Romero early. Memphis, Darmian, Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin had the benefit of going on tour with team and that has helped them settle in but nothing beats actually playing in competitive matches and in that respect, they are still adjusting. Romero came the latest and was thrown straight into the first team due to David De Gea's frame of mind from the uncertainty surrounding his future and Victor Valdes' falling out with the manager and he is playing catch-up due to the lack of proper pre-season training. All five have done decently well so far. What I do not understand is the decision to send Adnan Januzaj out on loan to Borussia Dortmund. I guess no-one saw that coming. He was playing regularly in the first team in the last 3 matches before missing the matches against Brugge and Swansea. Louis Van Gaal had said that he would not entertain any offers for him so why the change of heart now? I am puzzled by the decision. We hope the experience at Dortmund would do him good and he can return with greater confidence and experience. Javier Hernandez was another who at the start of the season was seen as one of the three strikers in our squad seemingly set to stay. Was the change of heart due to that penalty and open goal miss against Brugge? It was put to me that his fate was probably decided after the miss against Newcastle. I feel he could have still done the job if he was trusted and shown the faith the way Sir Alex did. It's sad to see that since Sir Alex left, Hernandez no longer plays with a smile on his face and his enthusiasm has reduced too. He looks lost. Hopefully he rediscovers his confidence, enthusiasm and joy in Germany.

The most controversial piece of business would have to be the signing of Anthony Martial from Monaco for a 36 million euros and the price can rise further if he becomes more successful with us. With all due respect, unless you watch Ligue 1 regularly, most would not have heard of him and it came as bolt from the blue for all as nobody saw this coming. What has made it controversial was the price United paid for an unproven teenage Frenchman. It is not the player's fault that he was bought for that amount but undoubtedly he will be under pressure from the start due to the price tag. We can only hope now that he turns out to be a good signing and we can only support him as a Manchester United player. David De Gea, as widely expected was on the verge of joining Real Madrid in exchange for Keylor Navas but due to an administrative error, the move fell through. I hope now that his future is settled albeit not favourably for him, he can be fully focused on giving his all to the club. We might have some sympathy for Victor Valdes who has been left out since pre-season due to a fall out with the manager. Maybe he shouldn't have refused the orders of the manager or could have done so tactfully. It's a pity as he could have been playing in the first team from pre-season onwards due to De Gea's state of mind. To be fair, Romero has done well when called into action except when he has the ball at feet or against Swansea but there is a feeling that fans would rather see Valdes play having seen him as an adversary who won a lot even at our expense in the past. However, this saga should have ended by the end of the transfer window. He should have been sold and if he wasn't then I feel it is only fair that Valdes apologises and is given a chance to stake a claim.

My final words in this article would be on Louis Van Gaal. We have seen him work for a season now and to be fair to him, he hasn't had a settled squad yet. I feel the squad he has this season is better than what he had last season. Our midfield is as strong as ever. The options are plentiful but he has to start rotating the squad. Memphis is still young and adapting to the English game. He needs to be given a breather and taken out of the limelight from time to time to keep him fresh and hungry. Wayne Rooney has had a poor season so far outside of the night in Brugge in the Champions League. Van Gaal should have the courage to drop him even if he is our captain which is where Hernandez would have come in handy or maybe Van Gaal could try and rotate Rooney and play him as the Number 10 instead which again could be where Hernandez would have come in useful. Fellaini is back but I can't see him start games as a number 9. He can play off the number 9 and having him in the side would enable us to play in a different way which so far during Van Gaal's reign has been the most convincing and dominating style. However, that style of play can be easily read and nullified. With the options we have, we can play with different players offering different options and style. We have the potential to play free-flowing football with an exchange of players in the forward positions but I have seen that the players have played tentatively and within themselves which is disappointing. There is no use keeping all that possession when most of it is away from the box and is just being recycled without penetration or causing any threat. He has to realise that we got to play faster and press harder from the front. It doesn't come bigger than the match against Liverpool on Saturday to put things right and I hope we do.

What's The Fuss All About?

Inter kicked off its 2015-16 season yesterday against Atalanta who in the past have proved to be a bit of a bogey team for us especially when we travel to play them in Bergamo and have beaten us in the San Siro in the recent past too. I was disappointed and upset to see Mauro Icardi as the captain of the side. I feel it is an insult to all the great Inter captains that came before him that this immoral man was chosen as captain. I can't stand seeing him in our colours and now he is our captain?! Roberto Mancini, what were you thinking?! Samir Handanovic, Gary Medel, Rodrigo Palacio and even Juan Jesus were better placed to be captains than Icardi.

I was happy to see the back of Icardi after 10 minutes and our new number 10, Stevan Jovetic came on. I feel he has the right attributes to inherit the number 10 jersey. What ensued before Jovetic came on, after he came on and until the moment he scored was a boring spectacle. I am watching the match from 2.45am, in the wee hours of the morning. What I saw just lulled me to sleep several times during the game. We played better last season in certain games and lost. Geoffrey Kondogbia, big fuss was made of signing him like as if we had signed the reincarnate of Ronaldo, was not worth the fuss. Thus the title of this article. I could be harsh and I know I am. It's only one game in, I expect him to take his time to adjust to the country and the Italian game. He is still relatively young and I can't expect him to be consistent yet. It is no fault of his that Inter's directors were silly enough to spend so much of money to sign him despite knowing that the club has Financial Fair Play to adhere to. No fault of Kondogbia. I still feel the fuss was created because we beat Milan to his signing but that's nothing to be overjoyed about. We should be beating Milan on the pitch and in the standings not in the transfer market. The midfield was crying out for creativity, creativity that was lost from the silly sale of Mateo Kovacic. It is not silly for the money Real Madrid paid for him. In the financial sense, it made sense but seeing it from the football side of things, it is silly.

Did we really need to sell him and Shaqiri? Mancini had said as much that the club were forced to sell Kovacic and Shaqiri because they needed the money and for what? Because we had paid a huge amount of money for Kondogbia among others. We had Medel. We can give Gnoukouri space to play. He had a poor game but he is a youngster, he is bound to be inconsistent. He can only grow. We should have kept Marco Benassi and brought back Thiago Motta for his experience and winning mentality. We could still sign him though. If there were anyone we should have sold it would have been Fredy Guarin and/or Hernanes. Anyways, I can't undo whatever has been done but clearly the midfield was lacking creativity. Marcelo Brozovic was clearly our best player. He did well again but I guess he is missing his Croatian team-mate, Kovacic as I have seen him to have played better than he did. The club had said they would not sell Icardi and Kovacic. I am not naive to believe whatever the club says. I know if needed, they would be forced to sell someone and they would but the smarter option would be in selling Icardi. You can always replace him with another striker that can score goals. He is no world-beater. Icardi is no Ronaldo, no Ibrahimovic, no Milito or even Adriano in his prime. He is a good finisher who relies on supply. He can't create chances on his own.

Our defence was largely untroubled so I can't say much about it. All I can say is that Miranda and Jeison Murillo have added quality to the defence. It looks like a good battle now for the other central defenders in the first team. Personally, my pick is on a Ranocchia-Murillo partnership but that's just me. I am not one of the technical directors at Inter, I am not the owner at Inter, I am not the manager at Inter. I am just a fan that has lost his connection with the players on the field. I love the club and would still support them even at 2.45am but I got to get used to accepting the players on the pitch wearing the Nerazzuri colours. As a fan, I just got to get behind whoever that is wearing our jersey on the pitch hoping that they do well for the club regardless of my personal opinions on them. Like many other fans, I would like to be in a position to make big decisions at the club but that is just an unreachable dream. My marriage with Inter is that of compromise with a tinge of unhappiness and despair. The best thing this season so far one game in is still the jersey.

By the way, I am glad Juventus lost and happy Milan lost too but I don't take much joy from Milan's defeat especially after watching an awful performance from us. If it was Fiorentina that played us instead of Atalanta, we could have lost too. Maybe all the expectations around the Milanese sides are false ones to have and both sides still have a long way to go before they return to their majestic best.

How Did We Not Score Let Alone Win That?!

As the title suggests, I am bewildered at how we did not manage to score a single goal in a game where we had at least 20 attempts at goal. We could have scored one legitimately through Wayne Rooney only to be wrongfully ruled offside. Pre-match, there was a lot of talk of United eking out wins without creating chances and to be fair, we created more and played better against Club Brugge in the Champions League in midweek. We played better and created more against Newcastle than we did in the last 2 Premier League matches against Tottenham Hostspur and Aston Villa.

In my opinion, I feel we were unlucky especially on Rooney's "offside" goal and on Chris Smalling's header that crashed against the post. With better luck and on another day, Michael Carrick's deflected shot at the end would have ended in the back of the net but not yesterday. Instead, it spun just wide for a corner. Our bad luck would have been compounded if Newcastle had scored through Aleksandar Mitrovic's majestic header that crashed against the bar or through one of their counter-attacks. You can also argue that on one of our many forays forward, the ball didn't drop favourably for us.

Luck aside, we got to be guilty of some bad decision-making when in good positions in the final third. We got crosses wrong, dallied on the ball too long, didn't pass the ball earlier and got the passes wrong. However, it is wrong to be overly critical of youngsters like Memphis and Adnan Januzaj. They were exuberant and provided dynamism but with all youngsters as we have seen in the past with Cristiano Ronaldo for example, they would need to improve on their decision making in the final third and that would come with time and experience.

Credit would also have to go to the Newcastle backline especially Fabricio Coloccini for resolutely facing United's attacks and throwing their body on the line. Tim Krul made a couple of good saves as well to keep Newcastle in the game. Our finishing did not help our cause too. Juan Mata forced Krul into a good save but then blazed over when well set up by Rooney. Javier Hernandez was denied by a good save. We had some shots straight at Krul, some shots that weren't powerful enough and some over. It just adds to the argument that we need a striker. The potential is there in the squad to score goals but it is not being fulfilled at the moment.

Bastian Schweinsteiger started his first match as a Manchester United player and he has been used in rotation with Michael Carrick and that was the case in this match too but I feel both players are not similar in style and can co-exist. Schweinsteiger is more willing to push forward and join the attack than Carrick while Carrick would be content to sit in front of the defence and let the ball do the work with his passing. However, at the moment it would be harsh to drop Morgan Schneiderlin on current form. The defence and goalkeeper largely unchanged from day one of the season have been a positive so far this season.

I feel people have been overly critical of the team and the attackers. Granted, we were dull going forward in the first two games of the season but since then, we have played better. We are creating more chances and having more attempts at goal which is a progress. The football is more free-flowing but not exactly perfect. It is disjointed but we are at the start of the season, four games into the season to be precise. We have gone through seasons where we have gone four-five games without winning or playing well only to win the title at the end of the season. I am not saying we will win the title this season. I just feel that the fans got to be more patient and balanced in their expectations. We are no longer a team under Sir Alex Ferguson's tutelage. In two summers, we have sold and bought a lot of players. The squad is being rebuilt and expecting everything to click immediately is silly. Signing players for big fees does not guarantee immediate success. Sir Alex had the benefit of time on his side to build a team that slowly started to win it all. It was a largely settled squad with a settled system.

I don't expect anything from pundits, so-called "experts" and commentators who are quick to shoot us down. They are just chomping at the bit to shoot us down. For that reason, it makes it sweeter when we actually win trophies and click into gear. It's good when we are treated as underdogs and criticised. Personally, I enjoy it the most when that happens.