Memphis De-BYE

On 7th May 2015, Manchester United announced the signing of Memphis depay from PSV Eindhoven. It was on the back of a brilliant season  where he scored 22 goals for the club and guided them to be the champions of Eredevise.
By that time he had already drawn comparisons with Cristiano Ronaldo. The most prominent names in Dutch football Van Gaal, Guus Hindink, Marco Van Basten and Ronald Koeman all stated to believe  that Depay would become ‘the best in the world’
He had a bright start to his Manchester United career scoring his first United goal against San-Jose Earthquakes in a friendly per-season game. He scored his first two goals for Manchester United against Club De brugge, where he also assisted Maroune Fellaini in 3-1 victory over the belgium club. He provided assist to the first of Rooney's first three goals in the second leg. He continued his scoring streak versus his former team PSV Eindhoven in a losing cause and then followed it up with his first goal in the premier league versus Sunderland. But his good form was not to be lasted for long, as he was dropped for four consecutive matches by the manager due to his inconsistency in form and fitness. And then started the beginning of a long road of difficulties and bumps for the player. There were few bright moments for the player in between specially on the Europa league second leg versus Midtjylland where his perfomance was lauded by then United manager Louis Van Gaal citing him as someone who can be the very best around.

But what was already evident to the fans that Depay was not performing to the level which was expected of him after his successful stint at PSV Eindhoven. Technically he was very much suited to the philosophy of how United play their game. Quick, pacey and a very good free kick taker. But little of those traits were seen from him whenever he took the field for the red devils. He continued to struggle with the pace and the physically demanding nature of the league which is obviously very less forgiving then the Dutch league. You play bad, you will get the stick and that can be sometimes very much demoralizing for a player who is pretty new in the English shores.
Constantly loosing possession, failure to link up with the team-mates at the crucial time and shooting to the stars will how the United faithful will remember his time at Manchester.


The video will show what potentials we are talking about.But it will also show the below par nature of the Dutch league where an attacking player can have it so easy.

Louise Van Gaal left his role at Old Trafford and on came Mourinho. But Depay's luck would not turn around as he struggled to get a place in the starting eleven as his place in the team was shadowed by like of Martial, Rashford,Lingard and the brilliant Mkhitaryan.

Memphis Depay has departed Manchester United for French side Lyon. He has made just 16 Premier League starts, scoring two goals, in what must be one of the worst cases of unrealized potential the Premier League has ever seen. Hopefully the French league will be more forgiving for him and we can all wish him the very best so that the world gets a chance to realize his potential.

Also do give a read on a small excerpt of Depay on his journey to Old Trafford. But before that, do read the blog and share your thoughts.

Why the Chinese Super League?

The Chinese Super league first came to the existence in 2004.At first it was just a normal low tier league which was trying to make its own mark in Asian football. It was trying to emulate the success and the standards set by the top European leagues. Initially it was started with the vision to allow more homegrown/local players play in the league with a motive to allow football in China to grow and recognize. While the motive and the ambition were very real, the success was hard to come as people were more interested in the already established top leagues. It also lead to lack of sponsors and commercial success for the clubs prying their trade in the league.

It was 2nd July,2011 when China really gave a demo of their financial prowess to the world when they signed Conca for a then world record fee of US$10m with Conca earning a salary of  US$10 and it saw him earning at par with Ronaldo and Messi. Now five and a half years later, Oscar and tevez are latest out of the lot of huge contingency of players moving to China for a sum that can really make one relate football to some freak reality show. Some of the top names to have made the switch in the valley of the Dragons include the likes of Drogba,Tevez, Carlos Martinez,Oscar,Hulk,Renato Augusto,Graziano pelle and to name a few.

While it is understandable for players like Drogba or Tevez as they are moving towards twilight of their careers, its really shocking for the other players who have quit some of the top clubs like Chelsea, Athletico Madrid etc when they were in the prime and playing their best game. Its really easy to understand how important money has become for the modern footballers for which they are giving up the chance to play in some of the premier football leagues and competitions like the Champions league or the Barclays Premier league.

Xi Jonping, the Chinese president has a vision to transform his nation to a football super-power with an ambition to qualify and win the world cup. A huge amount of money has been invested to the very primitive level with an aim to establish 50,000 football specialty school to grow and develop the home based. Without any doubt, all these development and the chance to share the field with some of the top international players will give the Chinese players a huge amount of exposure. But it is also very easy to make one thing that all these money and the fanfare are aimed at to bring about more and more commercial success of the league to the stakeholders and an opportunity for the players roped in from the other leagues/countries to earn more money and make a living for themselves. Though it is something that people will always debate on and really difficult to put a lid on it.

Looking at the future it can be only said that the interest in this league will only grow with time. Everyday in the tabloids or in the papers, we can see a host of big names linked with a move to China. Players like Wayne Rooney or Yaya Toure have been linked with big money moves and it will be not surprising to see one of them giving up to such vast riches on offer. And only recently there have been many stories which were linking Ronaldo with a US$317 million move to a Chinese club, which really really sounds insane considering such a huge preposterous amount involved. And if football transfer histories taught us anything, it is always better to expect something really big and out of imagination to happen.

In  a way it is really saddening to see players from all these top leagues moving to China and hence gradually shifting the power. As a traditional football fan, I still want the big grand daddy teams to really battle it out with their hearts and souls and keep up the spirit of this beautiful game which we all cherish.