Where are they now? - Kléberson

Kléberson  (Jose Kléberson Pereira)

Born: 19th June 1979, Brazilian.

Major Honours:  

World Cup 2002, Copa América 2004, FA Cup 2004

The Brazilian World Cup winner earned what he described as a dream move to Manchester United in the summer of 2003.  However, since representing the red half of Manchester 30 times over 2 seasons, Kléberson appears to have subsequently disappeared off the footballing radar and has instead become known as one of Ferguson's worst ever signings - ranking#9 on the unwelcome list drawn up by The Guardian.

Manchester United paid Atlético Paranaense approximately £6.25 million for the World Cup winning central midfielder. The Brazilian had gained high praise, with Luiz Felipe Scolari (Brazil's manager at the time) declaring that Kléberson had indeed been "the first name on the teamsheet"  during Brazil's success at the world cup in 2002.

However, it is well know that Kléberson did not endure the best spell during his time in England. Seen as a replacement for Verón with the aim of releasing Scholes into a more attacking role he struggled to make an impact, picking up a nasty injury in just his second game for United.

Fergie was keen to ship the Brazilian out after 2 years at United

His career after England has been some-what interesting and has seen him move from Europe to North America via a stint back in his home country of Brazil.

After Manchester, Kléberson moved to Beşiktaş, Turkey for a fraction of the price United paid, signing a 3 year deal; however that ended a year prematurely due to unpaid wages.

A trip back across the Atlantic saw him arrive at Flamengo, the first of three clubs back in his home country of Brazil.  He successfully found his form again adapting back to the pace and life in the Brazilian league, successfully making 45 appearances in his first season.

After 2 years back in Brazil, things turned sour at Flamengo and Kléberson was loaned back to the club where it all started, Atlético Paranaense. This proved to be unsuccessful with the club getting relegated with two games to play before the season end. With relegation confirmed Kléberson returned to Flamengo. He was deemed surplus to requirements and sold to another Brazilian outfit - Bahia.

Kléberson’s time here seemed to follow a similar path to the rest of his career. He started well and then faded. Without even completing a whole season at Bahia, Kléberson found himself moving North-wards to the "land of the free", USA. Philadelphia Union to be precise, had successfully negotiated a loan deal that would see Kléberson stay at the MLS club for the 2013 season (funnily enough, it was a loan swap deal that saw the MLS' prodigal son Freddy Adu go to Bahia).

Representing "The Union"

Which bring us to the present day, Kléberson now 34 years old, a World Cup winner 10 years previous is plying his trade in the MLS, for a team that has relatively small hopes of reaching the playoffs at the end of the season. How does that compare to his midfield partner from that successful World Cup tournament?

Well Gilberto Silva, who was - like Kleberson - impressive in the Brazilian world cup winning team managed to orchestrate a move to the Premiership, joining Arsenal for a bargain-basement fee (with hindsight) of £4.5 million. 

Gilberto had a career that was strides ahead

 Gilberto enjoyed an illustrious career at Arsenal that spanned 6 years and ended with 170 appearances for the North London club. After this he moved to Greece and carried on his successful career amassing 78 appearances in 3 years at Panathinaikos. He is currently residing back at Atlético Mineiro.

Within his time in Europe (from 2003 to 2011)  Gilberto was the winner of 1 Premier League winner's medal, 2 FA Cup winner's medals, 1 Super League Greece winner's medal and 1 Greek Football Cup winner's medal, totalling 350 appearances.

For clarity; in this same time frame, Kleberson managed to win the FA Cup and the Turkish Cup. He made under 250 appearances for the 4 clubs he represented in those 8 years.  

Dave

The Joys of (Amateur) Football Management….

Going into the game, I was happy, I was confident. I had 13 players, including 2 subs that I knew were decent at football.

Kick-off was looming, I gathered the players round in a circle and started telling them how I wanted us to play. Utilise the wings, let our wingers use their pace. Hit the channels and use the speed of the striker to get onto the ball over the top. Keep it on the deck when we can to bring their defence out and then hit it over the top. In my head, it all sounded good, the players looked like they had taken it on board.

Again, I won the coin-toss and I wasn’t allowed (apparently it is a rule) to opt to kick-off, so I stayed as we were, knowing that we’d have the slight slope in the 2^nd half.

The game started and we didn’t switch on. Straight from kick-off a ball was played down the right which was flicked into the striker who’s first time shot beat the keeper and we were 1-0 down with around 10 seconds played – shocking. I tried my hardest to shout encouragement at my players, telling them to get stuck in and switch on.

My mind was racing and thinking about what I could do to change the situation. It was too early and would have been to knee-jerk to change anything after such little time.

We got the ball down and passed it around. But were hit twice in quick succession and I found my team 3-0 down with 10 minutes to half-time. It appeared everything they struck was going in. The half-time whistle blew and I couldn’t wait to get the lads around.

If this was Football Manager, my team-talk would have been “aggressive – I want to see something different from you”. I lay into my players, saying how we had discussed before about what we wanted to do, and that no-one was doing it. I ended with some encouraging words about how even if we lose, we need to go back to the changing rooms and say we gave it our all. I handed over to my vice-captain, who again, re-iterated the points that we hadn’t shown up, we had shown nothing that we were capable of – “everyone needed to step up”.

 The "Aggressive"teamtalk.... It didn't work for Phil Brown and it didn't work for me.

We went out for the 2^nd half and immediately put them on the back foot. Camping in the opposition half, we pummelled them with long throws and corners, with the ball always just falling out of reach of the striker.  I thought to myself “That’s done the trick, the lads have listened”.

A few minutes later, due to some shoddy defending and bad luck, we were 4-0 down. I subbed myself off and brought a substitute.

From the sidelines, I tried my best to encourage the team, but to no avail. 5, 6, 7-0 down. I tried to get the lads to play for some pride and encouraged them to attack. We got a goal back, a scrappy tap-in from a throw in. But, heads were down. The game finished as a 9-1 loss. I felt terrible. This was shocking. The opposition weren’t anything good, they didn’t really out play us. I was gutted. On basis of play, we deserved to lose, but not that heavily.

The lads all came in after the game and we spoke for a few minutes about what had happened. “We didn’t show, we had no heart, we let them bully us”. After speaking to them sternly and honestly, they all agreed that must do so much better next week. I finished off with “Right, we sweep this under the carpet and learn from it. We have to play better next week”.

The lads trundled back to the changing rooms miserable, I hang around with my vice-captain to discuss which lads we wanted to keep, what we were going to do next week and what formation to play.

In the pub after we literally dissected everything about the game. Tactics will change and the lads have to work harder. We need to stop trying to play football and clear the ball when it is needed. Get more shots of, utilise the wingers, play an out and out holding midfielder to help the defence.

Anyway, after a spanking like that, I just wanted to get on to the next match and put it right. Unfortunately for the guys, I’m taking the next training session and they are going to have to work very hard to make up for that performance.

So, still looking for that first legitimate win, and hoping to not get another drubbing. 

Cup game next week, and we have been drawn against the league champions of the division above us..... Brilliant.

The Joys of (Amateur) Football Management

Dave Nicholls

I've recently been appointed as the 4th team player-manager for my Saturday team. We play in the 4th division (of 4) in Bristol and this will be my weekly (maybe fortnightly) blog to let you see what its like to be a Saturday team football manager. I will state one thing though, this blog will not be talking about my players in a sense of who was good/rubbish.

Ok, so we are 3 games into the season, and so far my record is Played 3, won 1, lost 2, scored 1, conceded 6.  So, it hasn't been the best of starts, and did I mention that the win was because the opposition couldn't get a team together, meaning we got a 0-0 win (figure that out). I put this down to numerous reasons. 1) Not having a settled side. 2) Not really knowing anyone. 3) Not being sure of who plays best in what position.

A little note: There will be more structure and managerial insight in my  future blogs, I just felt that I had to fit both previous games into this first post to give you an insight into my team.

The first week I think I'll remember for a while, and I know I'll use it as a motivational team talk in the future. After the selection meeting on Monday, I had a team lined up, there were 11 players (a good start) and no subs. By the time it got to Thursday, I was down to 9 players and was texting everyone I knew that could kick a ball relatively well. By game time on Saturday I had 12 confirmed players, with a goalkeeper saying his was available that morning.

Come game time and I had 10 players kitted and ready to go. We trundled over to the pitch and I got one of my more senior players to put the others through, what actually seemed like, a vigorous warm up whilst I frantically tried to phone any stragglers. After none of them picking up their phones, I joined in the warm up and got the lads doing the classic amateur football team warm up of piggy in the middle.

The ref called me into the centre circle for the coin toss and I won..... a good start to my managerial career I thought. just before kick-off an injured spectator (who played for the team last year) said he would be happy to stand up front and be a man for them to mark. Bonus, that gives me 11 (10.5) players, he quickly got changed and stood (literally, as he had an ankle injury) on the edge of the opposition area.

The game started well, we kept the ball and cleared it when necessary, created a few chances and pretty much stopped them from attacking. We went in at half time 1-1 with our injured 11th man scoring a tap in from a few yards. I was delighted and told the guys that if we can keep going, we can win this game. We had the better players.

The 2nd half was a mixed bag. The players put all their effort into the game, but with my injured team-mate going off and then my left winger pulling his hamstring 5 mins after the 2nd half start, it was always going to be tough. Down to 9, we battled on and defended solidly. A very dodgy linesman decision put the opposition striker through 1 on 1. He was fouled by the keeper and tucked away the resulting penalty. We lost the game 2-1, but I was very pleased with my team, especially as we ended with 9 men and hit the bar in the last few minutes.

After the first game, I thought I was in for a torrid time selection wise and although I was happy with how the team did, I knew that those players who had played well for me were probably going up to the 3rd team for next week game.

The mid-week game on Thursday was called off, and we secured an infamous 0-0 win, and gained 3 vital points.

I went to the selection meeting preparing for the worst. And low and behold, for the game on the next Saturday, I lost my attacking creative midfielder (called to 3rd team), both full backs (called to 3rd team), my goalkeeper (back to uni), my right and left winger (called to 3rd team and injured respectively) and my centre forwards (Injury and holiday).

Still, I left the selection meeting on Monday with 11 players in a standard "keep it simple" 4-4-2 formation. I was happy. Come Saturday, I wasn't. I was on my 5th centre back pairing since Monday and had lost another winger to a higher team.

          "Lets keep it simple" - Your bog standard 4-4-2        

However, with other players returning from holiday and what-not, I was able to put out a full 11 and even have 2 subs (both players new to the club). My problem this time was I had no strikers. Meaning that I had to play myself, a centre back by trade, up front as an emergency centre forward, being supported by a guy that normally plays left back or left midfield.

We started poorly and went down 1-0 straight away to a very flukey freekick goal. No one was to blame. It stayed this way to half-time after I had squandered a few chances with my shovel of a right foot.  During the break I said how well we were doing and we just needed to keep going. I mentioned things that, looking back, I probably picked up from football manager, like "hit the channels a bit more" and "lets try and play the ball into the space". I felt like I was getting through to the players.

After another freak wonder goal for the opposition, a blistering shoot from just inside out half, I switched formation to 3-5-2. We were dominating them and creating plenty of chances. However, we were very vulnerable on the counter and got beaten by 2 long balls. We ended up losing 4-0, which was a very flattering scoreline for the opposition.

I gathered the lads in after the game and said the scoreline was unfair and undeserved. I was proud of all of them and we were the only team trying to get it down and play football. Our keeper got MoM on his debut after he had kept us in the game at 2-0 down when were hit on the counter a couple of times.

I knew that it would be tough when I agreed to take the role as player-manager of the 4th team, I mean after all, my job is to get new players playing for the club and get them moving up the teams if they are good enough. Or, if they aren't destined to go up the teams, then keep them in the 4ths and get them enjoying their run out. Hopefully picking up some wins on the way.

At least, after the selection meeting this Monday, I had a set 13 players for Saturday's game. It is now Wednesday and I have 14 confirmed players. Here is hoping they all show up and I get my first legitimate win as a football manager!

Euro 2012 Predictions

Dave Nicholls

Group A Winner: Russia
Group B Winner: Germany
Group C Winner: Spain
Group D Winner: France

Finalists: Germany vs. Spain

Winner: Germany
It is their time. Although the recently friendly performances before the tournament have shown Germany in poor form, in competitive and knock-out football they have shown they will be there or there-about come the end. A group of young players from the World Cup have matured into a well oiled machine. Low will have them playing well and the goals will flow.

Dark Horse: Russia
The Russians are hard to break down and have a distinctively average team on paper. However, they will win their group at a canter and will then get a surprise result against the Netherlands (or Portugal) in the Quarter finals. I predicted the winner to be Germany, and they will knock Russia out. However, Russia can not be disappointed after a vast overachievement of reaching the Semis. A chance they could go all the way – a definite dark horse.

Underachiever: Italy
They will not qualify from the group. A disappointing tournament will be compound by a draw with Ireland as their only solitary point.

Golden Boot: Mario Gomez
He will lead the line for the eventual winners. He will definitely be amongst the goals. 

Josh Coull
Group A Winner: Poland
Group B Winner: Netherlands
Group C Winner: Spain
Group D Winner: England

Finalists: Spain vs. Netherlands

Winner: Netherlands
By my predictions we’ll see a repeat of the World Cup final, only with a different result this time. Spain are clearly a technically superb side, but when these two match up the Dutch will have the added motivation of revenge on their side. They have potent strikers, a balanced midfield and experience throughout their side, three factors that will see them through.

Dark Horse: Poland
Host countries normally overachieve at major tournaments, with two to pick from here I’m plucking for Poland (cue Ukraine winning the tournament). With the in form Lewandowski leading the line, the support of the crowd behind them anything can happen.

Underachiever: Italy
There is quality amongst the squad, but I just don’t see where the goals will come from. None of their strikers have been in prolific form this season and as we know, goals win games.

Golden Boot: Robin van Persie
The combination of his own finishing prowess, the ability of the players around him to create him chances and playing the most number of games will see RVP lead the way.