BLOGGERS WORD

Modern football it’s getting much harder for everyone – Mourinho

2017-08-08T06:37:00.001-07:00

After qualified success in his maiden campaign as Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho will hope to dust off his tried and tested second-season formula in 2017-18.

mourinho Manchester United’s Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho celebrates after his team won the UEFA Europa League final football match Ajax Amsterdam v Manchester United on May 24, 2017 at the Friends Arena in Solna outside Stockholm. / AFP PHOTO / Soren Andersson

Mourinho led United to victory in the League Cup and Europa League last season, the latter yielding a place in the Champions League, but their football was drab and they finished a distant sixth in the league.
Having won the league in his second season in his last five jobs — Porto, Chelsea (twice), Inter Milan and Real Madrid — he will be expected to mount a strong title challenge at the very least.
“Can we win it? We can, but maybe we won’t,” Mourinho told ESPN in a recent interview.
“Everything is good and strong, but some of them (other clubs) are really strong in the market, so it is going to be difficult.
“Normally the second season should be better than the first because you know the club, you know the players. The players, they know you.
“The club know you can affect in a positive way the structure, you can affect in a positive way the people that work around you.
“But this is modern football. It’s getting much harder for everyone, so we don’t know.”
United’s signings have been thoroughly in keeping with Mourinho’s pragmatic approach to the game, the Portuguese having galvanised his squad with extra height and muscle.
Centre-back Victor Lindelof, midfielder Nemanja Matic and striker Romelu Lukaku are all over six feet (183cm) tall, giving United the second-tallest squad in the division behind Tony Pulis’s West Bromwich Albion.
Lukaku faces the greatest scrutiny, having been brought in to replace Zlatan Ibrahimovic after the charismatic Swede was released in the wake of the serious knee injury he suffered last season.
Lukaku, 24, has scored 87 goals for Everton over the past four seasons, statistics that moved United to sanction a £75 million ($97.9 million, 82.9 million euros) acquisition.
– Make-or-break for Martial –
But the Belgium international failed to convince Mourinho during their time together at Chelsea and will be playing in the Champions League proper for the first time.
A battering-ram striker in the finest Mourinho traditions, Lukaku’s task is to sharpen an attack that mustered only 54 league goals last season.
“I’m here to score goals and be the focal point of the team,” Lukaku said.
“At Manchester United, we play to win and that’s the mentality when I get on the pitch.

“I’ve been waiting for this opportunity. Now I’m here and it’s time to work hard and, hopefully, deliver.”
With Ibrahimovic and Wayne Rooney no longer around, there is pressure on Paul Pogba to establish himself as the team’s leader after blowing hot and cold in his first season following his return from Juventus.
Anthony Martial, meanwhile, faces a make-or-break campaign, having slipped from view last season after failing to earn Mourinho’s trust.
The 21-year-old Frenchman faces stiff competition for one of the two or three places in support of Lukaku, with Marcus Rashford, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard among Mourinho’s other options.
Matic, who won the league with Mourinho at Chelsea in 2015, is expected to slot into midfield alongside Pogba and Ander Herrera, with former Benfica man Lindelof due to partner Eric Bailly at centre-back.
United face a relatively benign start to the season, Rooney’s return to Old Trafford with big-spending Everton the most taxing assignment of their opening seven fixtures.
But October and November bring meetings with Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea in the space of three weeks, by which time United’s Champions League campaign will be in full swing.

Police confirms killings of worshippers during Sunday mass in Anambra

2017-08-08T06:24:00.000-07:00

Awka – The police in Anambra on Sunday confirmed that a gunman killed eight worshippers and injured 18 others in an early morning attack on St. Philip Catholic Church, Ozubulu, Ekwusigo Local Government Area.
The Commissioner of Police, Mr Garba Umar, in Awka said that the remains of the dead had been deposited at Nnamdi Azikwe University Teaching Hospital Nnewi.

Umar also said that the injured were taken to the hospital.
He said that preliminary investigations by the police revealed that the attack was carried out by a native of the area.

“From our findings, it is very clear that the person who carried the attack must be an indigene of the area.
“We gathered that worshippers for 6 o’clock Sunday mass at St. Philip Ozobulu were in the service when a gunman dressed in black attire covering his face with a cap entered the church and moved straight to a particular direction and opened fire.
“The man after shooting at his targeted victims still went on a shooting spree, killing and wounding other worshippers,’’ he said.
The commissioner said information available to police showed that the attacker was speaking undiluted Igbo Language at the time he was firing at worshippers.
Umar said though no arrest had been made but that the police already learnt that the attack followed a quarrel between two natives of Ozubulu residing overseas.
Describing the act as sacrilegious, the commissioner of police said it was wrong for the perpetrators of the act to extend their quarrel into the church.
He added: “such conduct shows the people behind the act do not fear God.’’
He said the police had launched a manhunt on those behind the act and gave an assurance that everybody behind the act would be brought to justice.
Umar described any insinuation that the attack was carried out by Boko Haram elements as false and urged the people to go about their normal businesses.
He said the police were on top of the situation.’’(NAN)

Jubilant Trump vows to ‘finish off’ Obamacare

2017-05-05T16:19:00.001-07:00

    US President Donald Trump took an early victory lap after his bid to roll back Barack Obama’s signature health care law passed a significant hurdle in Congress on Thursday.

                        U.S PRESIDENT- DONALD TRUMP
   Trump, who personally prodded and cajoled fellow Republicans into backing a plan that would affect millions of Americans, basked in victory after the vote.

The US president predicted an “unbelievable victory” as he gathered with Republican representatives in the White House Rose Garden, vowing to “finish off” Barack Obama’s signature health care law in the Senate, where his own plan faces substantial opposition

“It’s dead, it’s essentially dead,” Trump said, describing Obamacare as “a catastrophe.”
“We’re going to finish it off and we’re going to go on to a lot of other things,” he said.

Trump’s first 100 days have been marked by governing missteps and stalled promises, taking some of the shine off his reputation as a consummate dealmaker.

Following weeks of in-party feuding and mounting frustration, lawmakers voted 217 to 213 for a plan that could reduce insurance premiums, but may also leave many Americans without affordable coverage.

Democrats have vowed to make Republicans pay for backing a plan that they claim will leave millions without care.

Trump boldly promised that that would not be the case.
“Yes, premiums will be coming down. Yes, deductibles will be coming down. But very importantly, it’s a great plan,” he said.

Breaking: Buhari prays at Aso Villa Mosque

2017-05-05T15:53:00.000-07:00

BUJA-President Muhammadu Buhari on Frid

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/05/breaking-buhari-prays-aso-villa-mosque/c

     ABUJA- President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday prayed at the Aso presidential Villa, Mosque.

                         This is coming weeks after he had not been sighted in public.

                                     He was dressed in white flowing gown.
      His appearance at the mosque is expected to douse tense about his whereabouts as he has not been

seen in public for some time now.
The President was seen waving and exchanging pleasantries with other worshipers.

ABUJA-President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday prayed at the Aso presidential Villa, Mosque.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/05/breaking-buhari-prays-aso-villa-mosque/

BUJA-President Muhammadu Buhari on Frid

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/05/breaking-buhari-prays-aso-villa-mosque/

ABUJA-President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday prayed at the Aso presidential Villa, Mosque.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/05/breaking-buhari-prays-aso-villa-mosque/

ABUJA-President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday prayed at the Aso presidential Villa, Mosque.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/05/breaking-buhari-prays-aso-villa-mosque/fff

ABUJA-President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday prayed at the Aso presidential Villa, Mosque.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/05/breaking-buhari-prays-aso-villa-mosque/

Breaking: Buhari prays at Aso Villa Mosque

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/05/breaking-buhari-prays-aso-villa-mosque/

ABUJA-President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday prayed at the Aso presidential Villa, Mosque. Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/05/breaking-buhari-prays-aso-villa-mosque/

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/05/breaking-buhari-prays-aso-villa-mosque/