However, as things panned out, the Bulgarian slowly but surely found himself down the pecking order from Sir Alex Ferguson’s line up. From Rooney and Ronaldo to Welbeck and Chicharito, Berbatov has seen himself being overshadowed each season.

Ironically, Berbatov’s gift of playing the game at his own pace has turned out to be his biggest curse in the Manchester United setup. The ‘Theater of Dreams’ and the tradition it encompasses, appreciates slick passing and breathtaking counter attacks more than a slow yet creative build up. In fact, United’s game play of the last 6-7 years has been built around pacy wingers who hog the width of the pitch, aided by attackers with nitro boosters to make inroads in the opposition half.

Berbatov has always been an artistic player, more in the play-maker mode.  At his best he seems an incarnation of United’s favorite son of the modern era – the mercurial Eric Cantona. Much like Cantona, Berbatov has an eye for magic, loves being the link man and loves creating goals as much as scoring them. However, the difference in eras is noticeable. When Cantona was in his pomp, the sport was not as fast moving as it is today; especially the Premier League of today where a punt forward is better than spending time in the midfield.

Manchester United though are the most European of teams in the Premier League – preferring to keep possession of the ball than relying solely on a long punt forward from the back. However, Berbatov here too faces an insurmountable task in the form of Wayne Rooney. The English international is eerily similar to Berbatov when it comes to the playmaker-cum-striker role. However, Rooney scores over Berbatov in his mobility; the English international’s pace helps him to spray the ball into the wings and then make a dart into the box to get into a goal scoring position. Berbatov on the other hand, remains content with spraying the ball around but when you are in a team primarily as striker, managers prefer you in the box than outside it. Chicharito and Welbeck on the other hand represent the threat of running beyond the last defender and always staying in and around the box; attributes that are not a strong part of the big Bulgarian’s game play.

Then there is the languid style of the Bulgarian to contend with. It is highlighted even more in United where fluid interplay and pacy co-attackers make the Bulgarian look pedestrian on even his best days. With Sir Alex demanding a shift from every one of his players and expecting his attackers to defend from the front, Berbatov comes short of the stated objectives.

To sum up, Berbatov is undoubtedly a great player but in a club that already has his supreme talents covered. His talents might be best suited to a team like the existing Arsenal side, who desperately need a quality link man between Van Persie and the 10 players behind him.

For the lovers of the beautiful game, today’s central defenders don’t paint much of a ‘beautiful’ picture. In their prime they all resemble the hard elements of the society. Maybe it’s the job they do; destructive by nature, violent in spirit and vitriolic at the best of times. The art of defending nowadays is an ‘art’ only to a certain extent.

I shudder to think of especially the diminutive strikers who on paper are meat and fodder for the aforementioned species. However, as things stand, it is these very diminutive strikers – Tevez, Messi, Rooney, Aguero and co. who survive the butchering by skipping past these hounds of men with an impish grace. The brunt of the beating is taken by strikers of a similar built; as they arouse the physical instincts of these defenders like no other.

Nemanja Vidic, Vincent Kompany, Martin Skrtel, Pepe, Giorgio Chiellini, Carlos Puyol, Marco Materazzi etc are all apparently soft spoken and gentle guys outside the football pitch. But once inside, one look at them and you know they are baying for blood!

So what makes these men the way they are. Tattooed all over, shining scalps with little or no hair, builds that would put professional wrestlers to shame and cold blooded eyes that reek of hatred for anyone inside their half. I guess intimidation might be an answer; especially in the English Premier League where the physical attributes at times rule over the technical aspects. Case in point would be Stoke City. Their defensive line up at times resembles a group of hard liners on their day out. Robert Huth, Ryan Shawcross, Andy Wilkinson represent the sort of challenge that is unique to the English game.

In Spain Puyol and Pepe lead the baton. Though with Pep Guardiola’s insistence on starting the attack from the defense, Puyol’s days certainly look numbered as Mascherano and Busquets slowly but surely take over. Even today, Puyol represents a visual treat – a flowing mane of hair and a hardened look during a match. Pepe at Madrid, on the other hand makes up for the absence of the mane with a more active participation in ‘stamping out attackers’ from the beautiful game. His track record at losing his cool with opposition attackers is probably the benchmark for all those in the central defending industry.

I guess the platform was set by Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal as Tony Adams, Sol Campbell and Martin Keown all looked to be a minute away from exploding on the pitch. With Tony Adams it may be the hangover of another booze filled training session, but Campbell and Keown genuinely looked to crush any opposition surge with merciless grace. The abiding sight of the ‘Invincibles’ era was probably Martin Keown performing his own imitation of the tribal sacrificial dance in front of Ruud Van Nisterlooy when the gentle Dutch missed a penalty against Arsenal in a league game.

Back at Manchester City, Kompany and that man mountain Richards in the back force, De Jong ‘the player kicking machine’ and Yaya Toure screening the back four and complemented by Balotelli (a man with pseudo-authentic Italian mafia connections) and Tevez (forever coming straight from a brawl) leading the lines, have a fearsome presence on the pitch.

So here’s a silent prayer to all those gullible attackers who dare to trespass in the opposition frontiers and greet these ‘thugs’ with an eye for an eye.

A suitable parallel can be drawn with Ryan Giggs of Manchester United football club. With only 7 months separating him and Tendulkar at birth, Giggs has spent over 20 years in top flight football and is still going strong. This is in spite of the fact that football is a much more demanding game than the Gentleman’s game which can literally be played at a walking pace compared to football. There is no magic potion that leads these golden ‘oldies’ survive professional sports at the highest level for an eternity. It is the undying passion for the game and an inherent genius that makes them contribute significantly to the team’s cause year after year.

The furor over Sachin’s recent slump and calls for retirement stems from the fact that certain sections of the discerning masses (including journalists and the so called ‘pundits’) equate age with performance on the field. This morbid fascination with age limits for professional sportsmen fails to take into account the tangibles like advances in modern medical sciences and the intangibles like the undying human spirit. While recuperation rates are getting shorter by the day, players of today are at the same time able to look after themselves in the best possible manner and maintain longevity at the peak of their mental and physical states.

Perhaps, the issue has got something to do with the Indian psyche as well where age is not just a number; it is taken as a barometer and a deciding factor in determining individual capabilities. But world over, the field of sports is about meritocracy irrespective of the years under one’s belt. The Australian cricket team is a prime example (where most debutants are established domestic circuit players and not greenhorns with talent).  In our own backyard lies the even more pertinent case of Narain Karthikeyan, who at the ‘ripe old age’ of 35 has signed for another stint at Formula One – the most demanding of motorsports events.

So what does this say about Tendulkar? Only a year back he was the star batsman in the World Cup (behind only Dilshan in the aggregate runs scored), and today the critics are scathing in their assessment of his abilities. Tendulkar is for sure a ‘father figure’ to many in the current Indian line up but like all great teams across different sports, it is a chance for India to blend the young with the old. Not only does it ensure a smooth transition period, it also sends an unequivocal message – ‘meritocracy trumps all’.

It is no coincidence that the arrival of Michael Carrick in 2006 kick started a dream run for Manchester United – 4 out of 5 Premier League titles, 1 semi final and 3 finals in Europe’s biggest competition and 2 Carling Cups. Bought as a replacement for captain courageous Roy Keane, Carrick doesn’t possess the rousing warrior in Keane but he makes up for it with his array of passing and a quiet unassuming way of going about the business.  Perhaps Sir Alex preferred Carrick’s ‘silent yet highly effective’ midfield play than the rabble rousing Keane who didn’t have to think twice before publicly berating his own team mates.

Carrick’s game is about grace and fluidity matched by an eye for a tackle. Like all great players Carrick seems to have time on the ball and along with an in built GPS, runs the show for United in the middle of the park. The best thing about Carrick is he goes unnoticed during a match – his accurate passing and superior ball distribution are taken for granted despite not patenting too many ‘Hollywood passes’. His tackling and screening the back four is mighty effective as is his fine reading of the game. It is no surprise that in times of crisis he has donned the central defender’s hat; and performed exceedingly well there too.

He might not be the English football’s much loved box to box goal scoring midfielder but Carrick brings composure on the ball and to the team – an attribute highly rated among the best midfielders yet painfully absent in the English game. Perhaps that is the reason of his absence from the national side, where the midfield has two fixed roles – goal scoring (Lampard and Gerrard) and the midfield destroyer (Barry and Parker). Not surprisingly, England suffers from a lack of a passer in the big tournaments where ball retention is the difference between the best teams. And following on the same rationale, United’s success in continental football owes its fair share to the likes of Carrick and of course Scholes.

Perhaps the only complaint about Carrick is the lack of goals from a person who packs a punch on either peg and has a deceptive turn of pace. He is one of those rare midfielders who can ‘pass the ball into the net from outside the box’. Remember his solo virtuoso run at QPR this season (which almost seemed to be in slow motion for even the live audience) capped by a final pass into the back of the net. It is perhaps a product of the attacking riches United possessed in this phase that Carrick has been content to screen the back four and orchestrate the attacks from his deep lying role.

The final argument in the unassuming tale of Michael Carrick is the opinion of his own team mates. Much like Nani (who was ignored by all in the country last year despite effectively being United’s official player of the season in a title winning squad) Carrick gets the most flak from those outside Carrington. His team though worships him openly for the way he strings the attacks, puts in a shift, shuns the limelight (much like his partner in crime Scholes) and above all, is committed to the team’s cause through thick and thin.

In search of that elusive Champions League spot

For all of Kenny Dalglish’s legend, his comeback into management has been far from the fairytale, the Kop envisaged. In hindsight, Roy Hodgson was not the malaise as many of the Reds would like to believe. Dalglish and co, too have been unable to arrest Liverpool’s slide into mediocrity despite spending close to a fortune (in excess of $150 mn on player transfers alone) in little over a year.

The Fenway Sports Group has backed the club liberally, but the recruitment team at Anfield has done little to assuage fears among the club faithful. Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson for £20 million each represent the sort of ‘bargain deals’ Dalglish and Ian Ayre (the club’s managing director) struck after ‘extensive and advanced statistical analysis’ (in their own words). Downing is yet to register on either the goals or assist column in the Premier League while Henderson has fared marginally better with a solitary goal thus far.

And then topping the charts for ‘sheer value for money’ is the imposing figure of Andy Carroll. A £35 million ‘steal’ from Newcastle; the towering Geordie has seen the ‘lows’ like never before – uncomfortable on the ball, immobile to the core and lacking the confidence and the service to give any sort of trouble to opposition defenders.

As for Luis Suarez, he is the sort of player that lights the playing field with either his unmistakable genius with the ball or his adolescent capers. A return of 10 goals in his Premier League career spanning little over a year is not something Liverpool’s leading striker ought to be too proud of. And then there are the add ons with Suarez threatening to take the club with him into a depthless abyss. The recent Evra-Suarez fiasco highlighted the misguided actions of Dalglish and co themselves; embarrassing the club all over the world and causing an unmitigated PR disaster.

Is Henderson a victim of an 'Awesomely bad career move' ?

On the other side of the spectrum lie Craig Bellamy and Jose Enrique. The basement deals have performed the best by far. Bellamy might be as eccentric as they come but his talent and spirit are unmatched in the entire club. Enrique on the other hand provides a solid defensive cover and is arguably, a better wing player than Downing himself. In fact a solid defense may be the only shining light of Dalglish’s venture that he can build the future upon.

So where does this take Liverpool – short of goals and short of personalities who can lead the team and churn out victories. With talismanic captain Steven Gerrard on the wane and Charlie Adam unable to take hold of the midfield in Gerrard’s presence, Liverpool look set for a long haul. Sitting at 7^th spot with almost three quarters of the season gone, Dalglish hasn’t been able to transform the fortunes at all.

It is indeed ironic that the yesteryear’s flair player Dalglish, now commands a ‘pedestrian Liverpool outfit’. Barring Bellamy, and to an extent Suarez no Liverpool player ever looks like creating something out of nothing. While Henderson and Carroll have apparently made the step up a bit too soon for their own nascent careers; Downing represents the sort of malaise at Liverpool that transforms even good players into ordinary – remember, Torres was not exactly setting Anfield alight before single handedly dousing the last embers of glory at Stamford Bridge.

And finally, to compound matters, with no Champions League football in sight it would be even more difficult to get the players befitting the Liverpool of old.

For many of Premier League followers irrespective of their club loyalties, Spurs have been the team to watch this season. The London outfit has been a fresh whiff of hope for lovers of the beautiful game for their consistently breathtaking displays. It is even more remarkable considering the gulf in resources between them and the traditional big four.

Modric, Bale, Van der Vaart, Adebayor may have lit White Hart Lane alight with their displays but there is always a lingering doubt about their destination next season. Bale’s displays against Inter had already earmarked him as the next star in Barcelona, Madrid or the noisy neighbours in Manchester. Modric has been openly coveted by Chelsea and Manchester United who need a midfield maestro to take over from ageing stars fast running out of gas. Adebayor on the other hand may pledge loyalties for decades but his wage demands and his track record suggest otherwise.

The root cause is the gulf in resources. These are not the days when players are known for their loyalties when they can pocket astronomical wages elsewhere. As Harry Redknapp himself put it that you can’t tell a player not to leave when someone offers to triple their wages and provides a chance to compete consistently and realistically for the biggest trophies. The ceilings on the wage structure though ideologically correct and economically prudent does nothing but ties Spurs’ hands in competing in the wage market (and hence the transfer market).

So where does this take Tottenham despite being outstanding this season. What would it do to the team’s morale of performing so well and then finding its match winners leaving for bigger and greener pastures? Is that why Harry keeps flirting with England job knowing all too well his predicament at club level?

What’s the solution? Unless a billionaire investor takes some interest in Spurs, the writing looks well and truly on the wall. However, that too has its stumbling blocks from a business point of view to a prospective investor – Spurs have little or no global appeal, their stadium size and match day revenues are no dangling carrots, and finally they are in a league where unlike PSG (in Ligue 1 in France) and Anzhi Makhachkala (in the Russian Premier League) immediate funds would not guarantee even a moderate degree of success. So this leaves Spurs to find a billionaire investor, who loves Spurs and has pockets and patience deep enough to sustain economic losses in the initial years – a heady and rare combination indeed!

So unless an act of billionaire providence happens, Spurs might find themselves in the ‘Berbatov’ situation – the Bulgarian striker in 2008 apparently refused to play for Spurs in order to force a transfer to Manchester United. Modric all but chose the same path this season.

What this does is even though Spurs should be landing a Champions League spot, they risk losing the stars who took them there in the first place. And the worst part is that even if Daniel Levy and co land hard bargains and get millions from the sale of these ‘stars’, the wage structure would ensure that they don’t get players of a similar caliber. And then the vicious cycle would begin all over again – Champions League pursuit would dilute their league position and then Harry ‘the Houdini’ would have to conjure up another miracle with the resources (or the lack of it) he has.

Greatness, exhilaration, magic, heart stopping, nerveless, peerless, ethereal etc are some of the umpteen adjectives that spring to mind whenever Federer or Nadal take to the court. It is not so much about the talent – which is unquestionable in either case – but more about the indelible after effects they leave on the watching audience.

While Federer for most is the quintessential genius at work, Nadal is more like the working class’ hero, striving with every sinew in his body to reach and return that one extra ball. Comparing them to each other is like trying to compare Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid – two cricketing Icons with entirely different skill sets but still legends in their own right.

Federer is pure poetry in motion – gliding on the court like a ballerina, unearthing impossible and yet supremely graceful shots from nowhere, dismantling supremely gifted opponents with an impish yet subtle grin on his face. The Swiss is now into his thirties – considered to be the death knell for top tennis players – and yet his fluid and surreal game play continues to astound and captivate us all.

Nadal on the other hand, is the antidote to Federer’s grace – his bulging biceps and fist pumping rages provide the ideal backdrop to the brick wall he represents on the court. A freak of an athlete with a spirit to match, he takes his place in the sun not on the back of a supremely gifted game play but an iron clad belief in his ability to return anything and everything on the court.

My introduction to tennis was prompted by Federer’s wizardry and maintained by Nadal’s stubborn defiance of the same. Nadal in his earlier days was a one trick pony – a ‘dirt’ court bludgeoner – who was brushed aside on other surfaces by Federer and some other big and not so big names. Nadal for many Federer fans (including yours truly) resembled the devil’s incarnate who was a nobody throughout the season but rose mysteriously come May (French Open time) and repeatedly dug a spanner in Federer’s march to greatness.

However, the Spanish matador to his credit wasn’t content with a seasonal role in the tennis calendar and gradually through sheer grit and continual small refinements in his game has come to be an all weather player. His duels with Federer are not for the faint hearted. The typical story line being Federer starting with a bang, pummeling Nadal in the first one and a half sets and followed with the Spaniard eating away into Federer’s momentum bit by bit, return by return and ultimately sneaking away with the match.

Statistics can only be a determining factor on so many occasions. But when you are trying to encapsulate the impact on the senses of the audience, statistics more often than not go for a toss. What a swish of Federer’s racquet or a Nadal coverage of the court at full throttle does to one’s senses is a feeling that cannot be told or expressed; it can be only felt and enjoyed. How many of us have been left gasping thin air while the commentators and the live audience are left stunned or speechless by the sheer genius of these two fine exponents of the game.

Therefore, rather than embarking on a futile discourse on the respective merits, demerits, rankings etc of these two greats it would be much better to savor the indelible moments these two provide and lift a simple game of tennis to an exercise in treating the sensory appeals to the maximum.

To start with, this is not an ode to two of the best personalities to grace the footballing world. I write this article to delve into the grey side of the two Portuguese protagonists.

Cristiano Ronaldo:

-        An absolute phenomenon, nurtured under the guidance of Sir Alex Ferguson.
-        Suffers from a narcissistic streak which is detrimental to the team’s cause.

The biggest beneficiaries of his transfer to Real Madrid might be Madrid for most but United didn’t do too badly after that. They may have lost the X-factor but regained the team factor. And I am not counting the record transfer fee United pocketed.

• Nani has found his way at United – showboating lessons are a thing of the past as he has become a consistent match winner
• Valencia has given United a goal creating winger who is totally devoted to the team’s cause and he never shirks from the responsibility of playing in defense when needed.
• Sir Alex Ferguson’s team talks are now about how to ‘play around the team’ and not ‘play around Ronaldo’
• Rooney has re-captured his best form and is no longer relegated to left wing to accommodate Ronaldo’s goal scoring instincts

Jose Mourinho

-          A manager par excellence who has learnt his ropes in the best footballing institutions.

-          While his managerial record is close to 100% succes; his penchant for new challenges masks a self aggrandizement streak that has seen him leave the biggest of clubs at the best of times.

Winning the Champions League with Porto’s unheralded stars might still be the epitome of his managerial pedigree but his immediate departure to Chelsea in search for glory, masked a recurring theme of his career – Leave when you are at the top.

• The biggest accusation against Mourinho might be his short sightedness in search of immediate goals. He is normally on a project rather than on a job. The state of Chelsea and Inter are a case in point – burdened by Mourinho’s legacy of persisting (and not replacing) proven players who were nearing the end of their top flight careers. The absence of a long term plan has come back to haunt these big clubs badly
• Chelsea of today are literally the pensioners’ club while Inter are lost in a sea of stars well past their primes

It is hardly a surprise that the two ‘larger than life’ protagonists are now plying their trade/projects in arguably the biggest club in the world – Real Madrid. The era of Galacticos is back; Mourinho’s team has been funded lavishly in the bid to reclaim lost glory. And despite being closer to Barcelona, Mourinho’s camp is already giving sound bites of discontentment and perhaps a move abroad for fresh challenges!

As for Ronaldo, his every step on the football field seems like an exercise in displacing Messi from the top. Despite boasting of a goal scoring record that would put most accomplished goal scorers to shame, Ronaldo’s obsession with Messi’s stature warps his mind to the detriment of its pursuit of the greater goal.

If the past is anything to go by, Mourinho would be content to leave Spain with the La Liga and embellish his CV by one more ‘world beating’ achievement. And then Madrid would be left with superstars – whose rough edges have till now been papered over by Mourinho’s undoubted man management skills – fighting for their place in the sun while the sun calls it a day!

For all us football fanatics, there comes a time when we cross the threshold of fanaticism and deem ourselves as the ‘Pundits of the game’.  It is in this exalted state, that we don the judge’s hat and take a condescending call on every nincompoop who professes an addiction to the beautiful game.

Here’s an unbiased and objective take on those lesser ‘pundits’

Type 1 – Gyan Guru

Key attributes -

• A warehouse of all knowledge pertaining to his club, league table, weekend fixtures, timings, stats, WAGs, rumors, scandals etc
• Easy to spot with his pedantic ways about match predictions and condescending attitude to anyone other than himself discussing football
• Discussing his fantasy teams, substitutions and leader boards 24^7

Life beyond football –

• Limited to eating and passing stool.

Favorite Lines -

• “I told you so”
•  “The manager should bring on XYZ only in the last 1o minutes because………….. “

Type 2 – Gyan Guru’s friend/rival/sibling (irked by the self appointed ‘Pundit’)

Key attributes –

• Easy to spot with a heady combination of their easy going attitude interspersed with vitriolic fits whenever Gyan Guru starts his discourse
• Suddenly active in the footballing social circles whenever Gyan Guru’s team loses

Life Beyond football –

• Does everything other than sit and watch a game
• Digging up old videos of embarrassing moments for Gyan Guru’s team

Favorite Lines –

• “Football……….. Bloody hell!!!” – no realisation whatsoever that this line was patented by Sir Alex Ferguson on that night in Barcelona
• “Your f@#$%^& team lost……… (more profanities with devilish smiles)…….”

Type 3 – Wannabe cool ‘football’ dude (needs acceptance in the footballing circles)

Key attributes –

• Shiny fake jersey with incorrect spellings of club/player
• Favorite footballer – Ronaldo since the last 15 years ……… still clueless about the different Portuguese and Brazilian versions
• Footballing fashion disaster – often couples a Liverpool Jersey with a matching Man United muffler

Life beyond Football

• Aspirational lifestyle – haircut of Beckham, Ronaldo’s torso; Gattuso’s rough streak; Terry’s playboy ways

Favorite Lines

• “Maaan….. you should see Ronaldo play; he wins World Cups!!!”
• “Dude…….. you saw last night’s match?? Messi’s girl friend was hot……….”

Type 4 – Parents (some of them at least)

Key Attributes –

• In the garb of spending quality time, they sit and watch a match with their football fanatic kids
• Typical comments during match – “Where is the match taking place? It is so cold out there? Why do they play during such harsh winters? Why are they playing so aggressively…….. It’s just a game? How boring……… no goals?”
• In short, parents (some of them at least) desperately and unknowingly try to take the fun out of a football match.

Life beyond Football –

• Regular 9 to 5 jobs
• Making snide remarks at exorbitant and hideous jerseys that are the second skin for their football fanatic progenies

Favorite Lines –

• Cricket is so much simpler
• There’s nothing happening in the match………… Let me watch the news
• Only owls stay awake at 0200 hours