The Beckenbauer Column: No winter break in EPL makes for great excitement for fans but stressful for coaches

By Franz Beckenbauer

As the Bundesliga is the only strong European league with a winter break and the second half of the season just begins this weekend, I have been increasingly looking at the Premier League in recent weeks. In England they still play football over Christmas - almost every day, so it seemed to me.

Alex Ferguson, who spent almost three decades as Manchester United manager, has had to watch from the stands as his players have lost touch at the top of the table under Louis van Gaal. This is despite having a Wayne Rooney, despite having a Bastian Schweinsteiger, even though he does not seem to be having the best time at the minute. He missed out of the recent 1-0 win over Liverpool.

Jose Mourinho, this highly regarded, world class coach, slipped so far down the table with Chelsea that he had to leave again.

Meanwhile Juergen Klopp, whose work I much admire, is trying in his own way to get Liverpool back within touching distance of
the top clubs. His approach comes over well with the English as they appreciate clear words.

I could also watch how much effort it has taken billionaire-club Manchester City to keep up with surprise packages Leicester and Arsenal, who have become strong again this season. Mesut Özil seems to have rediscovered his old form, which distinguished him at Schalke and Werder Bremen, with the Londoners.

Many are curious as to how the transfer market will proceed in England after an eruption sparked by the enormous amount of TV money received by Premier League clubs. In this regard it could be a lively January, especially as Spanish teams Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid will not be able to sign players for a year from summer due to previous violations in signing youth players from abroad. If this pair want to strengthen, they have to do so by 1 February. Robert Lewandowski has been talked of as a potential candidate for Real but Thomas Mueller has made a clear commitment to stay at Bayern. And for that the fans love him even more.

The biggest names in the game still play in Spain, for Barcelona or Real. I mention only three; Lionel Messi, FIFA world player of the year for the fifth time, his eternal rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, three times world player of the year and of course Neymar - at 23 he is the youngest of the trio but is already scoring the most technically spectacular goals.

Speaking of the world player of the year, of course I would have liked to see a player from Bayern lift this trophy. With goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and strikers Thomas Mueller and Robert Lewandowski, there were good candidates. Douglas Costa may also be considered in the future, as could Arjen Robben, if he is properly fit again and can play a full season. But currently no one seems capable of surpassing Messi.

Finally, a look at Germany and the Bundesliga. Here Bayern are leading the table by eight points but Dortmund are not beaten yet. Should Bayern struggle after the winter break, which has happened in the past, it might be close once again. But Pep Guardiola surely intends to depart Munich by winning the title before heading off to the Premier League. It seems that he will be drawn to Manchester City and it just remains to wish him good luck and to avoid the turmoil experienced there by some of his coaching colleagues.

Petr Cech: an un-Mourinho sale in a distinctly un-Mourinho season

Chelsea's willingness to allow the goalkeeper to move to Arsenal was uncharacteristic of both club and manager - and could see the Gunners win the Premier League.
It is the least Jose Mourinho-like of seasons. Yet long before it started, or his sacking ended his part in it, came a decision that went against everything he believed in.

It wasn’t a move Mourinho would have made on his own. But, presenting himself as the great loyalist, he said he supported Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich when he was willing to sell Petr Cech to Arsenal.
 
“I always said I wanted him to stay,” said the Portuguese. Abramovich was playing the benevolent dictator, rewarding the goalkeeper for 11 years of loyal service. Mourinho was the arch-pragmatist. If Cech had to go, he would have preferred it to be somewhere where the goalkeeper was out of sight and out of mind, unable to damage Chelsea.
 
Seven months on, two contrasting things are clear. If Arsenal become champions, it will in part be because of Cech. But, given everything else that has gone wrong at Chelsea, not even a man Mourinho rated as one of the world’s top three goalkeepers could have saved their season.



In the three months the injured Thibaut Courtois missed, they still benefited from the presence of the Premier League’s outstanding second-choice shot-stopper. Imagine how much worse their campaign would have been if Sergio Romero, Willy Caballero or Adam Bogdan, rather than Asmir Begovic, had been the Belgian’s deputy.
 
Buying the best reserve goalkeeper he could get to replace Cech was in keeping with Mourinho’s safety-first principles. Unlike other summer gambits, many attributable to the club rather than the manager, it was characteristic with his past. Signing a busted flush, in Radamel Falcao, and a mediocrity, in Papy Djilobodji, while strengthening a direct competitor, in Arsenal, were not.  
 
The Gunners were swift to recognise that. “I was surprised by Mourinho because he really doesn’t do that,” said Mathieu Flamini in July. “He’s a competitor and usually doesn’t like to sell any players to his rivals.”
 
Flamini displayed an acute understanding of the Portuguese’s psyche. Mourinho was the Machiavellian, the man who would seize any opportunity to weaken an enemy. Take Chelsea’s 2013 attempt to sign Wayne Rooney. The archetypal Mourinho forwards are Didier Drogba, Diego Milito and Diego Costa. Lacking their bulk and abilities as battering rams, Rooney is a different sort of striker, one Mourinho did not try to buy from Everton in 2004. Yet this was a chance to damage rivals. While it did not quite succeed, it certainly destabilised them.
 
Then think of Mourinho’s twin pursuits of Steven Gerrard, in 2004 and 2005. The Liverpool captain probably was the missing part of his midfield triangle, a man he could have used alongside Frank Lampard and Claude Makelele. He definitely was Rafa Benitez’s pivotal player. Luring him to Stamford Bridge would have exerted an impact on both clubs. It might have made Chelsea Champions League winners in 2005 and 2007. It would almost certainly have deprived Liverpool of the inspiration to reach both finals, let alone win one in improbable fashion.


 
Consider another near miss. Rio Ferdinand has continued to insist his infamous 2005 meeting with Peter Kenyon was pure chance. Sir Alex Ferguson was more sceptical. Mourinho had the best defence in Premier League history, conceding just 15 times that season. He had an outstanding centre-back partnership, in John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho. Yet recruiting Ferdinand would have harmed United. It is entirely plausible Mourinho would have tried to do that.
 
And there is one confirmed case of tapping up which, albeit indirectly, resulted in Chelsea selling to Arsenal.
After being punished for an illicit attempt to get Ashley Cole, they proved willing to sacrifice Willian Gallas to sign him. They hired the best left-back in the league. They lost a defender whose peak came in west, not north, London. It was a prime case of Mourinho decisiveness.
 
Because, as Flamini suggested, he was only happy to see his charges join the rest of the elite when he did not fear them. Hence his decision to sell Juan Mata to United. Exit a footballer he patently did not rate, joining a club in crisis, while Mourinho banked £37.1 million.
 
The Cech deal is almost the opposite. At £11 million, he may have been undervalued. Arsenal were a club on the rise, maybe two players from being title winners. Chelsea gifted them one. Their trademark ruthlessness in the transfer market was abandoned.