Cambridge United Season Preview 2012/13

Good morning sports fans! A ball has not yet been kicked in a pre-season friendly passive manner but things seem to be shaping up rather nicely for Jez George and his charges. The disciples of the Jezolution are almost expectant of challenging with the best of them (and Forest Green) this season, with remarks such as "the best squad we've had since we came back to the Conference" floating around. On the face of it, those expectations aren't misplaced or the usual head in the cloud stuff. Let's take a look at why the previously misplaced optimism might be completely justified this time around...

Trimming the Fat and Replacements
Almost quite literally in the case of one or two (nice trip to Antigua Kieron?), but who have we lost since last season?

• Danny Naisbitt
• Simon Brown
• Kieron Murtagh
• Jordan Patrick
• Ashley Carew
• Conal Platt
• Ryan Charles

If we're comparing those like for like with our new signings, there isn't a single one I'd pick that we've lost over who Jez has picked up in the summer. The ridiculousness of having 2 senior keepers at Conference level aside (genius Ling, genius use of the budget), we've now got a younger keeper in the way of Jonathan Hedge signed from Tamworth. I'm not one that can usually remember opposition players so couldn't judge, but being 24 and an England 'C' International suggests he may just do alright for us. The jury is out still, but he has played with almost our entire defencive line-up with England C so shouldn't have too many problems bedding in. So we can strike Naisbitt and Brown off the list as not much of a loss for starters.

Our defencive line up will not see massive upheaval and for good reason, last season we were resolute and even the so called backup Rory McAuley came in when Michael Wylde was injured and fast formed a formidable partnership with Josh Coulson. Now we've added yet another England C international in Scott Garner from Grimsby, we have made the Blue Square Premier's best defence even more resolute. This could even give young Blaine Hudson the chance to go out on loan and get a good season worth of games under his belt, keeping the U's fantastic production line of youth players for the first team flowing. Our full backs pick themselves in the form of Kevin Roberts and James Jennings. With everyone fit and available I'd go with:

Roberts - Coulson - Wylde - Jennings

Honourable mentions to Rory McAuley, who will never let us down and probably end up playing more games them Wylde should he not be able to shake off his injuries. Scott Gibson has done nothing to not warrant a place yet but hasn't done anything to warrant one either, I'll judge once I've seen more in pre-season.

Kieron Murtagh had the Abbey faithful amber with anticipation to see him play upon his signing this time last year. On the back of rave reviews from Woking and some good league experience he was set to be our playmaker, the key to opening up opposition defences and the flair element of the side. A few trips to the Caribbean on international duty, a couple of injuries and an apparent slack attitude meant that by December he was loaned back to where he came from. He wasn't to be seen again and has since signed for Macclesfield. He wasn't missed, with the midfield engine room of Shaw, Jarvis and Berry all meaning he wouldn't have got much of a look in anyway. With the addition of former loanee at the Abbey, Ricky Wellard, now signing on a permanent deal, our middle of midfield is going to have tough competition for places. I'd happily have any two from those four starting, with possibly Berry and Wellard edging it for me on their previous endeavours.

Mercurial wingers Carew, Platt and Patrick all never seemed to fit the Jez mould and none of their departures were a surprise. Carew unarguably made a big contribution with assist and goal stats topping those of any around him early in the season. With pace being a trait that Jez has identified as being key to success in this division, plus the inconsistency of Carew as the season went on, I get the impression Jez just thought we could do better. There wasn't a massive clambering from the fans to keep him but he played his part in what was a great start to the season, otherwise he was an obvious choice to depart. Platt was never really given a chance under Jez, despite some top Twitter #bantz and keeping Nando's Cambridge in business, he was sent out to Lincoln never to return. He worked hard whenever he played and had some neat foot work, he left without any hard feeling but ultimately the face didn't fit. The last of the released wingers was Jordan Patrick, who the less said about away from the pitch the better. In footballing terms, he had pace to burn but couldn't produce the goods for a full 90 minutes, only really making an impact in games when coming on as a sub. He's currently trialling with Cambridge City where I think he'll have found his level. I doubt he'll be coming back to haunt us any time soon. No huge loss and someone who has probably wasted a golden opportunity to carve out a career as a full time footballer.

The replacements for the 3 departed wingers are where this U's team are really going to set the Blue Square Premier alight this season compared to last. We've been solid at the back under Jez throughout but struggled to create goals. The lads coming in have reputations for being pacy and creating goals, add this to the return of Dunk and our forward line should be left with no excuses for not getting well into double figures for goals this season. The first arrival was Billy Gibson, a player who came through the ranks at Watford and seems like he will have a point to prove. He's had a couple of successful loan periods in the Blue Square Premier and showed a lot of promise at Yeovil, but has never had a solid run of games at any first team level. Adriano Moke had York fans so sad to see him leave even after promotion they wrote a song about him:

So with the return of Dunk from injury, Moke and Gibson added, the likes of Thorpe and Eades pushing from the youth team for a wide berth, there's some good competition for places.

STOP THE PRESS! Who's that running down the wing? It's Robbie flipping Wilmott! After the signing of Adriano "final piece of the jigsaw" Moke, I thought our summer business was complete. What a welcome surprise to see the chipmunk come home. With the noises he's making about turning down more money and wanting to get back on track under Jez, we could have one hell of a player on our hands. On his day he's undoubtedly one of the most dangerous wingers in this division, with many surprised he left for Luton in the same division as us. The signing as a footballer aside, what a great bit of business from the club to loan Wilmott to Luton for 18 months for £50k! To pick 2 from our 4 wingers (presuming Jez is going with 4-4-2), I'd go with on form Wilmott and Dunk. Making my midfield 4:

Wilmott - Berry - Wellard - Dunk

Our strike force was probably where we just came short last season in terms of challenging for a play-off place. While the likes of Gash are always going to be effective at this level at bringing others into play, he needed to be the foil for another striker which he never really had. Marriott struggled to live up to promise and has been given another chance with a contract for this season, which forced us to play Berry in a more advanced position for much of 2011/12. We saw very little of Blue Square South top scorer Andy Pugh who was signed for the second half of last season, should he find the goalscoring form he had at Welling we'll have the 20 goal a season striker we've missed since Scott Rendell. Tom Elliott has joined from Stockport, much to the bemusement of Hatters fans as surely Elliott was only able to thrive under the stewardship of the Messiah - Jim Gannon. Elliott has taken a big risk in leaving the manager to whom he owes so much, playing under Jez who has no reputation for developing young players may hinder his career. We'll check on that one with Stockport fans come May, where did they finish last season again? All the potential systems and tactics employed aside, purely on what strike partnership I think will flourish given time together, I'd go with:

Gash - Pugh

Starting XI and the Squad
This would make my starting XI:

Hedge

Roberts - Coulson - Wylde - Jennings

Wilmott - Berry - Wellard - Dunk

Gash - Pugh

As stupid as this may sound, I think the most exciting thing about that line-up is those that they are forcing to sit on the bench. Many have said that the biggest job for Jez this season will be keeping the majority of his squad happy, but if they've come in with the attitude of someone like Rory McAuley rather than that of a Kieron Murtagh, competition should be healthy and morale will stay high. With the line-up above in mind, that leaves us with:

GK TBC

Thorpe - Hudson - Garner - Brighton

Moke - Jarvis - Shaw - Gibson

Elliott - Marriott

With a host of hot CRC prospects such as Liam Hurst, Luke Allen and Jack Eades, plus Liam Hughes who has played a number of first team games already that I haven't even mentioned, you can see why it might be hard to keep our feet on the ground. Crawley and Fleetwood have bankrolled the title for the division for the last 2 years, with Forest Green new pretenders on the money front. This only really leaves Luton and Mansfield to an extent who can really be predicted as certainties for one of the top spots. The relegated clubs Macclesfield and Heresford aren't by any means considered too big for this division. While they will be expected to be there or there abouts, as U's fans will know all too well and more recently Stockport and Lincoln, it can be a bit of a shock coming down to this division and take a few seasons to find your feet. Wrexham, Grimsby and Kidderminster all come off the back of decent seasons and will be the other main contenders, but other than that, why not us?

Conclusion

Jez has found his feet managing at this level, he's learnt what he wants from his signings, the budget has been spent very sensibly and we are capable of fielding two teams neither of which I think would disgrace themselves against anyone in our league. We've had 2 seasons of stability, last time we had this it was trusted into the wrong hands of ding-a-Ling. Jez is so clearly the right man to lead us forward that quite rightly any talk against him is very quickly quashed. No more three year plan, no more signing players on the way down in their career, just young, hungry and passionate players who love our training facilities and want to win with Cambridge United.

Here's hoping this time round we're not just pretenders. Win or lose, up the U's!

Managers Who Haven't Played the Game

Football fans, by a massive generalisation, are an opinionated bunch who always know best. Up and down the country in our living rooms, pubs and - what now seems a rare occurrence - at our football grounds at a live game, followers of football have their say on the action that's unfolding in front of them. On occasion we all agree, but more often than not there's a crescendo of opinion with a variety of views on who our managers are selecting, the tactics they are using etc. But who is most qualified to pass judgement and what is it that qualifies the managers in our game to be the men paid to do the job we're all doing ?

Sometimes, the crescendo of opinion becomes one and we all agree that the manager is wrong. Everyone has the answer except the manager and it's blindingly obvious where they are going wrong. We're chasing the game, why aren't we throwing another striker on? Scott Parker has been the best English midfielder for a few years but has only recently come to prominence at international level, why? Emile Heskey was consistently picked despite the only person knowing why seemingly being the managers that picked him. But what is it the manager has seen that we haven't? Something from the training ground, a tactical reason our untrained eye won't have picked up on or something else?

The main reason I think we are supposed to bow down to the superior knowledge of the managers in our game is that they are 'football people'. They've played the game, they've been in the pressure situations as a player, they've been a part of a tactical discussion and they will have seen first hand what works and what doesn't. We mere outsiders to this world couldn't possibly comment or pass judgement on something we've never been involved with first hand. But the trend is bucked to a certain extent, while a majority (I'd love a statto to get me some percentages) of our managers have been involved in the game at some level before making the step up, we do have a minority who have a less conventional route into management. I'll put to you the following names:

• Jose Mourinho
• Andre Villas-Boas
• Carlos Alberto Parreira
• Nigel Adkins
• Les Parry

Let's take a quick look at the route each of the above took into football:

Jose Mourinho
The most famous of our "non-footballer" managers. Jose played a handful of games at a professional level in Portugal, but his route to becoming the Special One was without doubt through the back door. After becoming a youth coach and assistant manager, the opportunity to work with Sir Bobby Robson as a translator arose. Sir Bobby required some assistance after becoming the Head Coach at Sporting Lisbon, Jose saw this as a chance to make it at the top level of the game. Jose followed Sir Bobby to his next 2 clubs, ending up at Barcelona and with the role of assistant manager. The rest of the Jose story doesn't need telling, but culminates with him as Head Coach at Real Madrid via Benfica, Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan - as good a CV as you'll see anywhere in management! Not bad for a young man who dropped out of business school on the first day.

Andre Villas-Boas
Another former Chelsea man also with a link to Sir Bobby Robson, this time more through convenience than anything. At the age of 16 AVB lived in the same apartment block as Sir Bobby. Following a debate between them both, Sir Bobby appointed a young AVB to the observation department at his then club, Porto. He was then put through his coaching qualifications and ended up as number 2 to Jose Mourinho, following him from Porto to Chelsea and Inter Milan. The chance to manage in Portugal's Primeira Liga with then then bottom club Academica. He led them clear of relegation, moved on to Porto as their number 1 and was most recently with Chelsea. Where I'd say he was harshly treated by a certain Russian oil magnate.

Carlos Alberto Parreira
Not a name I can say I was overly familiar with and the only one that I didn't bring up from memory, you'll remember him mostly for his World Cup exploits with the following sides:

• Kuwait (1982)
• United Arab Emirates (1990)
• Brazil (1994 and 2006)
• Saudi Arabia (1998)
• South Africa (2010)

Only 2 coaches have led 5 different World Cups, the other being Bora Milutinović. So to say Carlos has had an illustrious career would be somewhat of an understatement! It all started out way back in 1967 for him as a fitness coach with Brazilian club São Cristóvão. The details on his transition from fitness coach to manager here are sketchy, I'm sure mostly down to it being before the age of Internet and mass media. But to go on and have the career he had (including winning the World Cup) shows how management is more about the man than their football upbringing.

Nigel Adkins
While being a professional footballer at the start of his career, Nigel took a convoluted route into management via being a physio. A playing career that spanned across Tranmere, Wigan and Bangor in Wales saw Nigel take over the latter club at the end of his playing career. Then followed 10 years exiled from the world of management and by this time nobody would have predicted the events that follows. 10 years out of a top spot would usually confine him to the Rothman's, but Scunthorpe called on Nigel in 2006 who at the time was their physio to be their caretaker manager after sacking Brian Laws. After successfully taking them into the Championship when winning the League 1 title, he kept them there by securing an unlikely 20th spot for the unfancied side. This brought about the attention of Southampton, off Adkins marched and he now looks like being on the brink of a second promotion with them to the Premiership. Who needs Mourinho, we've got our physio the Scunthorpe fans used to sing!

Les Parry
The last in our series and our second physio. Unlike Nigel Adkins, Les did not have any previous experience either as a player or a manager. Les was the loyal physio at Tranmere from 1991, and in October 2009 he became the successor to John Barnes. After nearly 20 years as the club physio, when Barnes was sacked he was instilled as caretaker manager, his successful caretaker spell led to him being offered the job on a full time basis. After over two years at the helm, Parry was dismissed of his duties earlier this month with Tranmere languishing in 19th.

So it goes to show, while the man in the street may never secure the dream job on the back of virtual success in a Football Manager career, it isn't a closed shop. Should you happen to live next door to an all time great such as Sir Bobby Robson, have a loosely related career such as a physio or fitness coach, it's not beyond the realms of possibility.

I'll be blogging again very soon about why certain managers are suited to certain clubs. Until then... TTFN.

Capello, Liverpool and Herve Renard

You'd be forgiven for thinking you were watching an episode of Dream Team, following Harchester United if you've kept up with the stories coming out of football over the last couple of weeks. The England manager has resigned, Liverpool and Luis Suarez have given us plenty of reasons to love to hate them and there's been a bit of a fairytale over in Africa with Zambia winning the African Cup of Nations.

Fabio Capello
Let's start with a topic that's always close to my heart - our national team. Unless you've been in hibernation over the last few cold weeks, you'll be aware that John Terry is due to stand trial for a racially-aggravated public order offence. Namely something he said on the pitch to Anton Ferdinand. The evidence appears to be pretty damning, but until a trial takes place and there is a conviction either way then John Terry is an innocent man. The FA have stripped John Terry of the captaincy over the whole affair, which has led Fabio Capello to resign. Without wanting to go into how this trial might go and the possible implications, let's look at how it's been dealt with.

Our FA, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to act upon the matter over 3 months after the date of the incident. QPR played Chelsea at the end of October 2011, the FA have decided to strip John Terry of the captaincy at the start of February 2012. I think John Terry has a massive part to play in all this, please don't think this is me getting the little violin out for him, but how on earth did it take 3 months for the FA to come to that decision? And why now? Surely as soon as it becomes clear there's an allegation with some substance, you either act then or stand by the man until it's proven he's guilty? The timing for me is the worst part of the decision, it stinks of incompetence and a lack of any real leadership. The worst thing is, going by the quotes from Capello leading up to his resignation, he would of taken the same course of action if not harsher had Terry been found guilty. But he wasn't going to do it - like the FA shouldn't have done - while he was still innocent.

Another strange part of the decision is to only strip him of the captaincy. If this decision is based on the racism allegations, how can they expect the campaign against racism to be taken seriously? They're saying it's fine to play for your country as a racist, just not be the captain. Bernstein has got this whole thing completely wrong, a decision needed making as soon as it became apparent that there was a situation with the captain and it should of been a case of back him or get him out of the picture until the trial is concluded.

As for John Terry, I'm definitely not fighting his corner. He has to take a large portion of the blame for how things have ended for Capello. Terry should have offered the captaincy until the case was over, this would have taken the decision away from the FA or Capello and I'm confident in predicting we might still have Capello as our manager. Although if it turns out to be a verdict of not-guilty, how are the FA going to pick themselves up from that farce? Stripping the captaincy of an innocent man.

I've not mentioned Capello much yet, but the stat of best win percentage of ANY England manager aside, I think it's a massive loss. I say this in jest, because some people still outright refuse to believe he was a good manager. We've lost someone who I believe was on the verge of building us a squad and a team capable of competing at the major championships. We had many reasons I think to look forward to the future under Capello:

• The phasing out of some of our big names who have been out of form for some time.
• Those players being being replaced by exciting new young players.
• Finally finding a system we were playing that brought the best out of us.
• The RESULTS! The Capello win percentage and qualifying campaign an unquestionable success.

It was all very encouraging and I couldn't wait for Euro 2012 to see how we'd fair. The emergence of players such as Phil Jones, Kyle Walker, Adam Johnson, Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck and Daniel Sturridge has been a delight. Scott Parker has finally started playing a pivotal role. Many of these players have come out and thanked Capello for what he's done with them since being the England manager.

Our fans love a bit of drama, when the news came out I had various people on my social networking sites dancing in the streets that Capello had gone. I tried to explain to them that we've got to start again, this is a couple of years building work that needs to be started from scratch. You only have to look at Steve McClaren to see how wrong it can go. I'll never understand why Sven and Fabio have been repeatedly lambasted, our national media are mostly responsible but it would be nice if some of our fans had a brain of their own and came to their own conclusions about how our managers are doing. I know I have some rose tinted specs when it comes to our national team, but even the stats suggest Capello did a good job. Is it the foreigner thing some can't get past?

So once again, thank you to our FA for royally cocking up the preparation for a major championship. You stuck your oar in when it wasn't needed with a horribly timed decision, which has meant the resignation of our manager. Here's hoping they get man of the people Harry Redknapp or the apathy towards our national team could be at an all time high.

Liverpool and Luis Suarez
I've never felt strongly either way about Liverpool, I was pleased for them when they won the European Cup, I quite like that they seem to bring through some decent English players, but other than that they've never really been on my radar as a club I either like or dislike. Until recently...

Their handling of this whole Luis Suarez racism affair has been nothing short of farcical. It's been a batten down the hatches and protect their own at all costs mentality, for someone who has proved to be a racist. It would be admirable how they've come out to look after their own player until he was proven guilty, but they've kept up this victim act after the guilty verdict.

Luis Suarez apparently used the term "negrito" toward Patrice Evra. Regardless of your culture and what that word means in your country - there's absolutely no way that Suarez was using that term as an endearing one. He's not naive enough to think he can use a term such as that in England and it not be seen as anything other than racist, he's not a 16 year old kid who has only just left his home country. He's been in Holland for a number of years before here, he was found guilty and rightly punished. Furthermore, he was in his (very public) place of work. Even if he is that unbelievably naive to think he was referring to Evra as a "cuddly black guy", then the punishment should stand for how incredibly thick he's been to teach him a lesson.

The best way to draw a line under this will be to further educate our players, then ask our players to educate local communities and children. When a player from a foreign country signs, it should be the clubs responsibility to let them know what is and isn't acceptable. The other way to draw a line under it all would of been to shake the hand of Evra at the next opportunity, your manager not lose the plot with a Sky reporter over the incident and show some humility. An apology after that seems somewhat meaningless! Shame on you Liverpool.

Herve Renard
As they say on the BBC Gossip column, and finally... Cambridge United fans, rewind to 2004. Club legend John 'Shaggy' Taylor has just been sacked, enigmatic (for want of a better, more repulsive word) Chairman Gary Harwood pulls something out of the hat that I don't think anyone would have predicted. Claude Le Roy, a former adviser at Paris St Germain and AC Milan and manager of Senegal and Cameroon, enters the fold apparently as our new manager. After some initial confusion, it turns out our actual manager is his protege, Herve Renard. Who actually hadn't managed anyone. But none the less, it was considered quite a coup and with the much travelled Claude looking over him, what could go wrong? The U's were saved!

Herve lasted 25 games in charge of the U's, despite trying to push his philosophy of playing football the right way and bringing a certain French flair to League 2, it ultimately ended in failure. Despite (if what I'm led to believe is true) the largest playing budget in the history of the club, Herve was sacked 25 games into his tenure. He could walk away with his head held high, but his tactics, way of playing just didn't suit the club and division we were in. Sadly, I think had we appointed a stalwart lower league manager, that would bring some direct football and some players that knew the league (not Kingsley Mbome or Igor Latte Yedo) we may still be a Football League club today.

Two names that are before my time seem to make any U's fan shudder at the thought of their tenures - John Ryan and Ken Shellito. It is only these 2 names out of the list of full time Cambridge United managers that have a worse win percentage. So while the Herve philosophy may have been the right way, it certainly wasn't the winning way.

If I'd said to you after Herve left the Abbey that he'd go on to win a major international competition, you'd have laughed in my face! Herve Renard this week has been part of a fairytale story at the African Cup of Nations, winning the tournament with Zambia. To go from the basement division in England to winning one of the biggest tournaments in the game with an unfancied side is quite some feat. What he has achieved cannot be underestimated, but I can't help but think the world of football is more "who you know" not "what you know". Any other manager with that sort of track record at the start of their career would surely not go that far in the game, you only need to look at his predecessor as an example - John Taylor.

Nice one though Herve, you always looked like you were giving your all and you did try things the right way. Don't forget us!

Blogging

I love blogging, I honestly do. But as with 99% of other blogs (stats on this page are 100% correct 43% of the time) I seem to have given up. It's been around 4 months since my last post. A combination of actually being very busy in my professional and social life mean a luxury such as sitting and spending part of my day writing goes out of the window. I haven't forgotten about this place, just neglected it. I would update you on all my personal goings on, but it would be pretty mundane so I prefer to wait until I feel strongly about a subject.

It seems to be a habit this blogging lark, once you start and are in the flow you don't seem to stop. Which is why I've forced myself to post the drivel you are working your way through now. Apologies for this, but it just seems necessary in order to get back into the swing of things. I have started reading on a more regular basis after getting a Kindle for Christmas, reading and writing tend to go hand in hand so maybe that will be a good kick start. I enjoy writing and (I'm told) I'm good at it, so to not deprive you further I'll try and set myself a target of a post a week.

Just to throw a cliche out there, from small acorns do big trees grow. Hopefully this pathetic post can be that acorn. I'll get my thinking cap on and get the creative juices flowing. In a bit.