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Let’s learn about…Leicester City: Part Two
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Written by Ian Shine
It was at the start of the 2004/05 season that the managerial merry-go-round really started turning.
Mickey Adams was sacked in October and Howard Wilkinson was brought in as a stop gap before Craig Levein was lured from Hearts to take the job on a permanent basis.
Barry is an unwelcome Villain, whilst rumours continue unabated
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Written by Darren Douglas
So Gareth Barry finally moved from the club 'who's result I'll always look for first'. The fact that he has ended up moving to Manchester City for £12million raises inevitable questions about his motivation. If rumours were to be believed and logic dictated, it seemed likely that Aston Villa were going to have to cut their losses on a player who only had a year remaining on his contract. The most obvious target was of course Barry's long-term suitors of last summer, Liverpool.
Barry had explained last summer that a move to Liverpool was motivated by the ambition to play in the Champions League and to rise to the challenge of the next competitive level. This is a fair argument and one that could be grudgingly accepted in the PR stakes. When the transfer became increasingly strained Barry survived making disparaging remarks about the club and Martin O'Neill, and in the end he won back the majority of fans with his performances- even if the trust was no longer there.
The end of the season is here, Porto won the Cup of Portugal on Sunday and their manager Jesualdo Ferreira announced he’d be staying on for another two years.
More interesting than that however is the possibility of Sven Goran Eriksson turning up at Sporting.
That is what Sporting presidential candidate Paulo Pereira Cristovao is basing his campaign on, and it is likely to gain him some support considering Sven’s record when he was at Benfica.
Amidst all the lauding of Guus Hiddink and his achievements during four months at Stamford Bridge, let us not forget an altogether more morbid figure. Avram Grant achieved perhaps greater things during his own short tenure as Chelsea manager, but plaudits for the underwhelming Israeli have never been forthcoming.
There is no denying that Hiddink instilled renewed zeal into a Chelsea squad that had begun to flounder under Luis Filipe Scolari. The Dutchman has cemented a Champions League place for the Blues, taken them to within a whisker of a Champions League final and led them to their first silverware since the departure of Jose Mourinho.