The managers with the most to prove this season

For Mourinho and Klopp this season is the time for them to prove their worth

Managing two of the biggest teams in the world can't be easy as Manchester United's Jose Mourinho and Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp would attest to. As different as the two managers are in their footballing philosophies Mourinho and Klopp find themselves in somewhat of the same situation for the upcoming season.

Both managers will be entering a critical juncture in their respective managerial careers having some expectations to fulfill.

For Mourinho things haven't been looking up at Manchester United where despite winning two trophies in his first season and finishing behind Manchester City last season the Portuguese manager hasn't won over many fans with the way United have gone about their business.

The Red Devils started the 2017/18 season looking like they would be genuine title contenders, but as the season progressed United's inconsistencies and overly defensive nature held them back from succeeding.

Further still how Mourinho has gone about utilizing his team has been a point of frustration for many fans.

With Juan Mata, Anthony Martial, Alexis Sanchez, Romelu Lukaku and Paul Pogba United should have a fairly potent attacking force, however, Mourinho's preference to defend at all cost takes away from these players' strengths especially Paul Pogba.

Leading into his third season at the helm of the Red Devils there have already been signs of a repeat performance of the acts that lead to him exiting Chelsea and Real Madrid in not so pleasant terms.

Mourinho has cut quite the frustrated figure during preseason bemoaning United that the club haven't loosened the purse strings for him to procure more players to United's cause.

This is despite having already spent over € 400 million so far in his tenure as United manager and there are now questions about whether Mourinho is the right man to restore United to their past glory.

For the upcoming season Mourinho faces mounting pressure to succeed and goes into this season knowing that he will not only be fighting for his job, but also his reputation as a winner.

Despite having won numerous trophies wherever he has gone, it isn't too much of a stretch to see that if things don't work out at Old Trafford for him he might very well be looking at his last job managing a club of United's calibre considering his tendency to implode when things don't go his way.

Just like Manchester United Mourinho has to earn his way back to the top but it seems he's still living in the past and very soon could find out he's not that special anymore.

Juregn Klopp will also face scrutiny depending how the season goes and expectations are high although he may not be under the same pressure as Mourinho.

Klopp's Liverpool have been a work in progress with the German taking the Reds from Thursday night Europa League football to the Champions League final in just two seasons.

Last season the Reds secured successive campaigns in the Champions League for the first time since 2009 and while it represents progress things could have been much better.

Liverpool haven't won a trophy since 2012 and have played in three finals under Klopp losing them all with the most recent being their Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid in May.

As improved as Liverpool have been under Klopp their inability to win trophies counts against the German which has led some to question if in fact he is the real deal.

Some of the results have come down to Liverpool not having the right players in place to challenge the very best as evidenced from last season where they fell away towards the end of the league campaign despite at one point being only a few points off second place Manchester United to only finish in fourth.

This season Klopp won't be able to use that as an excuse as the club have been at the forefront of transfers in the summer window. Liverpool have spent £ 176 million this term in bringing Xherdran Shakiri, Naby Keita, Fabinho and Allisson over to Anfield and nothing less than the Premier League title or Champions League will be enough for supporters this time around.

What will Real Madrid be without Cristiano Ronaldo?

After nine glorious years in Spain Ronaldo made the switch to Italian giants Juventus for the upcoming season

As one of the world's most recognizable brands Spanish giants Real Madrid currently sit pretty as not only as one of the most successful teams in football history, but also as one of the financial powerhouses in the world of sports.

Madrid were listed by Forbes as the third most valuable sporting team in the world and only Manchester United and NFL giants the Dallas Cowboys are worth more than the Spanish giants, and in terms of the revenue generated by football teams only Manchester United make more than Real Madrid.

And with their recent success over the last few seasons with their history making feats with their four European trophies won in the last five seasons, much of their success on and off the field can be attributed to former star man and all time top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo.

Highly talented, widely popular and one of the most recognizable faces in the world, Ronaldo's move to Real in 2009 served as the great equaliser to the stranglehold that arch rivals barcelona were beginning to assert over not only Spain, but also in Europe as the Catalans assembled a legendary team boasting the names of Argentine superstar Lionel Messi and midfield maestros Xavi and Andres Iniesta.

In his nine years in Madrid Ronaldo helped guide Los Blancos to 16 honours and proof of his impact at the Bernabeu can be seen in the increased revenue generated by Real which climbed steadily from €401 million on his arrival to €674 million as of 2017. 

While the loss of the Ronaldo marketing machine won't impact Los Blancos until sometime down the line, Ronaldo the player's exit surely will in the immediate term.

In just nine years Ronaldo scored 450 goals making him the club's all time goal scorer and looking back at last season the Portugal international's contribution to Madrid cannot be downplayed.

After a bad start to the season which eventually lead to the loss of their league crown Ronaldo was the biggest factor in dragging Madrid into making the season more memorable contributing 44 of the 110 goals Madrid would score throughout the season.

To put things into perspective in winning last season's Champions League Madrid scored 28 goals. Ronaldo top scored in that competition last season with 15 goals.

Madrid's next highest goal scorer for 2017/18 season was the injury prone Gareth Bale who scored 21 goals last season in all competitions.

All factors considered, Madrid's move to sell Ronaldo for just € 112 million registers as an odd bit of business for the Spanish giants. Yes Ronaldo is getting up there in the years, but considering the current climate with the bloated values in today's transfer market Ronaldo could have easily been sold for four/ five times that amount.

With Madrid now out looking for Ronaldo's replacement its becoming clear how much of a favour Madrid did for Juventus.

Recently Madrid have all but ended their interest in Chelsea midfielder Eden Hazard after the Blues slapped a £ 200 million transfer fee for the Belgian.

The transfers of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, by all appearances, aren't likely to happen and reports from Germany have Robert Lewandowksi staying with Bayern despite reports that the Poland forward wanted to start a new chapter in his footballing career.

This all means that the next few weeks will be highly interesting as the footballing world wait to see what actions and more in particular who Madrid will sign to fill the void left by Cristiano Ronaldo.

A man to watch for Barca this season

Barcelona will be targeting more success this season with a new attacking trio

Having won a total of 27 trophies over the last decade Barcelona are arguably the best team in the world.

Much of that success has come down to star man Lionel Messi who this year reached the 600 goal mark on the way to leading Barca to a league and cup double, and as exceptional as he is, at 31, time will become a factor in his ability to be the main man in the next couple of years.

This was a factor the Blaugrana were well aware of, and signed Neymar to take over when the time would come where the Argentine's powers would be waning. Neymar's shock move to PSG last summer put a damper on those plans and Barca rightly worked feverishly to secure the signing of Phillipe Coutinho from Liverpool.

While their efforts were rebuffed by the English side, Barcelona got their man in January with a £ 142 million deal. The Brazilian had a good start to his Barca career as he contributed 10 goals from 22 appearances as Barca won the La Liga title along with the Copa del Rey.

His good form carried over into the world cup and even though Brazil were unsuccessful, Coutinho was their brightest light with two goals and two assists in the five matches he participated in in Russia.

Good with his feet and having an eye for that killer pass Coutinho has innovated his game adding a trademark quick shuffle of the feet before slotting the ball from range. He keeps improving as he's adapted his game from playing out wide to playing just behind the striker and now occupies an even deeper role devastating teams with runs from deep.

His form playing for Brazil, Liverpool and Barcelona has been consistently spectacular as the Brazilian bagged 29 goals in total for all three sides and created 15 in the process.

Signs are there that Coutinho is still yet to reach the heights of his true potential and playing along side Luis Suarez and Messi there is plenty to come from the former Liverpool man.

The Ronaldo effect in action as new Galactico era looms

Record breaker and gold standard Ronaldo still having an effect on Madrid even despite exit

With Cristiano Ronaldo making a sensational move to Juventus this past week the transfer rumour mill has been sent on overdrive as Real Madrid will be looking to stock up on some new signings or outright replace Ronaldo with one of the transfer targets on their list.

Ronaldo scored a record 450 goals in the colours of Los Blancos and won 16 trophies at the Bernabeu which highlights his importance for the club. Having bought the Portugal star to Spain in 2009 to keep pace with and curtail Barcelona's dominance finding a worthy replacement will be at the top of Real's priorities.

So far five names have been speculated to be the next in line to make a move to Madrid for some huge sums as a new Galacticos era beckons.

Neymar 

Despite Madrid coming out and denying any interest in the Brazilian rumours still abound of him making a possible switch to Spain.

Considering the optics why wouldn't Madrid be interested in the Brazilian after all he ticks all the right boxes for a Galactico: universally popular and one of the most recognizable faces on the planet, the Brazilian would easily fit into Madrid's plans with him being highly marketable would send shirt sales through the roof.

Not to mention the once Brazilian wonder kid has what it takes to back it up on the field too and at 26 could be more than a match for an aging Lionel Messi at rivals Barcelona.

Kylian Mbappe 

At just 19 Kylian Mbappe has had a whirlwind introduction onto the big stage with his first season earning him a loan move to Paris Saint-Germain, which will be made permanent this season, after helping Monaco to their first Ligue 1 title in 17 years and a Champions League semi-final.

Alongside Neymar at PSG he helped put the French giants back on top as he won a second league title.

Most recently he topped it all off with winning the world cup and emulating BrazilIan legend Pele. It's safe to say the youngster is Madrid quality especially seeing he's made a bigger introduction into the game than the sport's greats Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Paulo Dybala

Touted as the new Messi Paulo Dybala's future looks a bit uncertain at the moment as Ronaldo's move to Juventus could mean that he could be seeing less time on the pitch.

Right now looks to be a good time for the 24-year-old Argentine to make his move in the other direction.

Dybala scored a total of 26 goals throughout all of last season and while its not up there with Ronaldo's tally there still space for him to improve.

Eden Hazard

Since late last year the Belgian's future at Stamford Bridge has been in doubt as he's stalled on signing a new contract. Hazard has also been ambiguous about whether he'd be staying at Chelsea and has neither confirmed or denied that he was interested in moving to Madrid.

After helping Belgium to third place at the world cup and Ronaldo now at Juventus conditions look good for Hazard to move to the Bernabeu as he'll be able to play a star role under the lights of the famous stadium without the shadow of the Portuguese looming over him.

Harry Kane 

World cup golden boot winner and Spurs man Harry Kane has been linked with Madrid in the past season and despite the prospect of staying in England and breaking Alan Shearer's record, Kane wouldn't deny a move to the Bernabeu isn't ideal.

Real Madrid are arguably one of the world's biggest teams and the promise of prestige and silverware as the club's main man should serve as a lure for the English forward.

As opposed to Spurs who last won a trophy back in 2008 and considering how Manchester City blew away the competition in the Premier League last season he might be tempted to switch the whites of Spurs for Madrid's.

Ready to do it the West Ham way

Jack Wilshere is just one of the new faces at West Ham who look set for big things

The 2017/18 season came with more lows than highs for West Ham as the Londoners flirted with relegation for much of most of the first half of the season and ended 2018 in the bottom half of the Premier League log.

The Hammers finished in 13th which was a far cry where the club were two seasons ago.

In 2015/16 West Ham finished in seventh, their best performance in the Premier League, playing some of their best football they beat all the sides in the current top six only losing just one game against the league's big guns. Not to mention the Hammers also completed a double over Liverpool for the first time in 52 years.

Typified by star man Dimitri Payet's virtuoso performances West Ham made a bold statement throughout that season and along with the pace from Mikhail Antonio, flashes of brilliance from Manuel Lanzini and presence of Andy Carroll West Ham qualified for the Europa League.

After a very busy transfer window the Hammers will look to repeat the feats of that season with a host of new signings.

Issa Diop, Andriy Yarmolenko, Brazilian centre back Fabian Balbuena and Reece Oxford are some of the names who will add quality to the Hammers.

Furthermore, West Ham broke their transfer record with the acquisition of the highly rated Felipe Anderson for £ 42 million but the biggest signing of the summer could be the signing of free agent Jack Wilshere.

Wilshere brings a wealth of experience from Arsenal since making his professional debut at the Gunners at just 16. An England international, two time FA Cup winner and at 26 Wilshere has much to give to the club provided he stays fit.

Good times look to be on the horizon for the Hammers as the new signings coincide with the arrival of former Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini who lead the Sky Blues to the league title.

A busy window still looks ahead for the Hammers as the club has backed their promise to bank roll a huge recruitment drive for the new Premier League season.

Dark horses see light at the end of the tunnel as world cup glory looms

Luka Modric and Harry Kane will be the two key men for their respective teams in their bid to reach the final

With a win on Wednesday, Croatia will make national history by reaching their first ever final after matching the result of the 1998 squad by reaching the semi-finals of the Fifa World Cup.

Croatia's road to the knockout stages has been one of the stories of the tournament as they topped their group ahead of Lionel Messi's Argentina, even routing the Argentines 3-0, in a group which could easily gone wrong as Iceland and Nigeria posed a credible threat.

Croatia managed to overcome through a combination of good teamwork, better tactics and as well as their best players stepping up when needed.

Of course, it helps when your two best players ply their trade with the two best teams in the world. Barcelona's Ivan Rakitić and Real Madrid's Luka Modrić have done a great job in keeping things ticking and will be pivotal to proceedings going up against a relatively untested England.

Ivan Perisić, Mario Mandzukić and Andre Kramarić will also give the Three Lions a few more things to consider.

However, despite all that England will fancy their chances as Croatia have failed to win a knockout game in regular time. In their last two matches Croatia have had to overcome both Denmark and Russia via the lottery of penalties. While this displays a strong mentality, playing back-to-back games into extra time and penalties can take its toll.

Even though England are a work in progress, fatigue setting in for Croatia could swing the match their way. 

Ready to take advantage of this will be the much maligned Raheem Sterling who on his day can be a handful and his pace serves as a diversion which frees up space for England's other attack options.

Harry Kane has six goals so far in this world cup and a couple against Croatia will be on his checklist to further etch his name in English football lore in leading England to the final.

Whatsmore, England go into Wednesday knowing a win will get them one step closer to ending their 52 year wait for the World Cup and finally bringing football home.

France, Belgium with a glimpse at glory as Word Cup final beckons

Paul Pogba and Kevin De Bruyne will be the two key men in the middle as France and Belgium look to advance to the final

Coming into the tournament as two of the favourites to lift the world cup in Russia, Belgium and France go into their semi-final as the only two big teams to deliver on that status. After an amazing run of stories unfolded the other big guns including defending champions Germany, former champions Spain, Brazil and Argentina all failed to make the grade.

Belgium were brilliant in their execution as they eliminated Brazil from the world cup and played on the Selecão's weakness down the middle of the park in the absence of their anchor Casemiro. This showed that the Belgians not only have the necessary talent to perform on the big occasions, but they also have the tactical nouse to see through and adhere to a gameplan.

Romelu Lukaku has been key in that regard with the bullish centre forward often acting as the first point of attack as Belgium's battering ram drawing attention to himself. This has allowed their dangermen like Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne more room to outmanoeuvre opposition defences. 

Against France they look likely to be favourites as the experience and the talent is on their side. Belgium also have the ability to do a bit of everything from playing fine intricate passing football down to forcing matters if need be.

France will be well aware of this and will have confidence in themselves too as they have grown in confidence looking more assured after they mostly scraped through in their group stage matches.

More importantly, their best players have started stepping up with Kylian Mbappe looking lively in the knockout matches, Paul Pogba looking like his old self spraying an array of passes and having an impact on the matches.

Best of all, the return of Blaise Matuidi will come as welcome news for France as he along with Pogba and N'Golo Kante will prove key if Les Bleus are to have hopes of toppling a Belgium team stacked with an array of talent down the middle of the park.

So now all that's left to do is to see who'll be able to apply their game plan and adapt to their circumstances to put them just one step away from the biggest trophy in world sport.

Neymar may never be as good as hoped to be

Neymar proved to be ineffective as Belgium stole the show in knocking Brazil out of the world cup

When it comes to football no other nation has had a more illustrious history than Brazil. Having won a record five World Cup titles, the Brazilians have also been blessed with some of the world's best talent having won more world footballer of the year awards over the past two decades. 

Romario, Ronaldo, Kaka, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo are just some of the names that come to mind when discussing the innate talent of Brazil. However, none had scaled the heights that Brazil legend and all time great Pele had reached and the hunt for his successor continued.

That is until in the build of the 2009 a 17-year-old Neymar drew the attentions of the Brazilian footballing fraternity performing feats reminiscent of the footballing icon.

Even with the rising powers of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi the wonder kid looked destined to overhaul them as well as by the time he'd left Brazil in 2013 for Spain he'd won the Copa do Brazil, and Copa Libertedores as well as an international title with Brazil lifting the 2013 Fifa Confed Cup in dominant fashion against world champions Spain.

The world looked to be at Neymar's feet as a season later he'd form part of one the most dangerous triumvirates, MSN, in world football alongside Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. 

In his time as part of MSN, Neymar would win 7 trophies including a league and European treble. Neymar finished third behind Messi and Ronaldo for the Ballon D'Or after producing the best form of his career.

By all indications the Brazilian wonder looked to be getting closer to the level of the two greats. But in light of recent events you could argue his career has taken a few steps backwards as he proved ineffective for most of their quarterfinal loss to Belgium in Russia.

Throughout the tournament Neymar tended to stifle Brazil going forward as he held on to the ball for far too long and heading into the new season he definitely has some growing to do as a player.

With the Messi and Ronaldo era entering its twilight years Neymar would have been the next in line to assume the mantle of world's best player, but following a good showing from Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne things might not be all that simple.

Along with that in a few years he'll also have to deal with the emerging talent of Kylian Mbappe as the teenage wonder walks the same path he did, however, he looks to have a good head on his shoulders opposed to Neymar who might have made a mistake by leaving Barcelona for bigger pay days in Paris.

PSG may offer big money, but there's no growth to be had for Neymar at a team with the best players and almost unlimited resources. Essentially Ligue 1 serves nothing more than a feeder system for Europe's big sides and his chase for the Ballon D'Or would have likely succeeded if he stayed at Barcelona learning alongside Messi and Suarez.

Either out of ego, of being in Messi's shadow, or bad advice to chase money Neymar's career could threaten to devolve down the same path as Robinho who chose the new money at Manchester City over glory at Real Madrid.

Part 4: World Cup in Russia gives glimpse into next generation of Balon D'Or hopefuls

King Kane sitting pretty at the top of the goal scoring charts

Making the last entry of the Balon D'Or hopefuls Harry Kane has been one of the stories of world football considering that just four years ago he made just a total of 15 appearances for Spurs while scoring just three goals. Before that he had spent loan spells at various football teams in the lower tiers of English football.

That's all in the past now as Kane's fortunes have experienced an upswing with him netting 20 plus goals in Spurs colours for the past four seasons and by the projected estimates he could one day go on to eclipse even Alan Shearer as the greatest goal scorer in English football.

Heading into the world cup the England captain, at just 24, scored a total of 37 goals for Spurs by the end of 2017/18 season and he's already making his mark on the world game.

Kane is currently sitting pretty at the top of the goal scorer rankings with six goals in his first appearance at a World Cup finals. Added to that his England team should be favourites to at least make it to the semi-finals or at best go on to win the whole thing with the way things are currently unfolding in Russia.

Even if a world cup medal is not in Kane's immediate future he has the look of a player who could became the greatest forward the game has ever seen with his ability to score goals with either foot, his head and different kinds of goals.

Part 3:World Cup in Russia gives glimpse into next generation of Balons D'Or hopefuls

Belgium magic man Hazard will look to inspire his nation's best generation to the world title

Born into a footballing family Eden Hazard has risen within the football structures from grassroots level all the way to the senior squad as the best player in the golden generation of Belgian football.

Fleet footed, tricky and with an ability to either score or create goals Hazard had the look of a player who could rival the powers of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. However, as brilliant as he can be on his day, a hallmark of Hazard's career so far has been the fact that when he's done well during one season he experiences a dip in form such as been the case over the two last seasons.

Hazard played a starring role in Antonio Conte's first season as Chelsea cantered towards the league title, but last season didn't perform consistently last season.

Nonetheless, Hazard has been one the brightest talents of the current era of football, and if he can put his inconsistencies aside we could very well see him in the near future crowned the world's best.

The chances of living up to that could be made more likely with a summer move to Real Madrid being rumoured in the media, but for now the Belgian ace can make a statement by helping his star studded Belgian team to the world cup, and what better way would there be to stake a claim for a Balon D'Or in the future than to outshine the player everyone expects to be world's best when Belgium face Brazil in the World Cup quarterfinals.

Part 2: World Cup in Russia gives glimpse at the next generation of Ballons D'Or hopefuls

Cool as a cucumber in front of goal and fleet footed Mbappe has that special thing about him

A player who has come seemingly out of nowhere, Kylian Mbappe is one young man with the look of greatness about him. That claim to greatness was substantiated as the prodigious French talent, and Cristiano Ronaldo fan, effectively ended Lionel Messi's hopes of winning the world cup with the two goals he scored as France dumped a disjointed Argentina in a 4-3 win for Le Bleus.

In doing so the young Frenchman replicated a feat performed by none other than the game's greatest player Pele in becoming the only teenagers to score twice in a World Cup game.

In just two seasons Mbappe has won two Ligue 1 titles with Monaco and Paris Saint Germain respectively. But his claim to fame came in his breakthrough season where he helped Monaco to a semi-final spot in the UEFA Champions League and broke a few records along the way.

By the looks of things Mbappe looks like the biggest threat to the other hopefuls considering he's only just 19 years old, and the young Frenchman looks to be the future of football and could even give the likes of Neymar and Eden Hazard a run for their money not too long from now.

World Cup in Russia gives glimpse at the next generation of Balon D'Or hopefuls (Part 1)

NEYMAR has waited for some time to be proclaimed the world's best and it seems that wait could finally be over

With the dust settling after an intrigurging past few weeks at this year's Fifa World Cup in Russia seeing a number of subplots take place, chief of which included the exit of champions Germany in the group stage, surprise exits of Argentina, Spain and Portugal.

The biggest of the taking point would be what looks to be the end of the World Cup careers of modern day greats Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, who once again failed to live up to their club form, as their respective teams fell at the last 16 with both failing to register a goal in a knockout match of a world cup.

By the looks of it we could be looking an end of an era of dominance for the duo given their respective ages of 31 and 33.

By design or out of pure coincidence the players still participating in Russia look to be the next generation of players who will be looking to claim the mantle of the world's best player, and it could all begin by doing what two of the greatest players couldn't do by winning the World Cup.

Without further a due let's take a look at what the future of football could like in a few years.

Just like Ronaldo and Messi Brazilian ace Neymar rose prominence at an early age and in his formative years media attention was on the Brazilian from across the pond as Europe looked to lure him away from his homeland at 14.

However, he would remain in Brazil where he blazed a path to glory for himself and duly he was labelled not only as the next big thing in football, but was proclaimed the heir apparent to Pele's title as the sports greatest player. In the eyes of many he looked to have the potential to surpass both Ronaldo and Messi in his ascension to the summit of the sport when he made his professional debut at 17.

Those claims looked to be substantiated as Neymar played a starring role in bringing an end to Santos' 48 year wait for a Copa Libertadores title. By the time he'd turned 21 the wonder kid had won everything there was to offer in Brazilian football and had scored over 100 goals for Santos.

In 2013 he made the decision to move to the Nou Camp and before that, left a lasting impression on his future teammates when he caused havoc against world champions Spain as Brazil lifted the 2013 FIFA Confedeations Cup on home soil in a 3-0 win.

What followed was an illustrious career at Barcelona where he also won everything on offer including a league and European cup treble. 

In 2017 he would make a shock move to Paris and in the process became the world's most expensive player at € 222 million with his transfer to Paris Saint Germain.

At 26, Neymar looks to be the next player in line to be named the world's best and has shown good consistency for club and country having scored 57 goals for Brazil.