By Paul Nicholson
June 9 – The CIES Football Observatory have taken a step away from their number crunching analysis of the Big 5 men’s leagues in Europe to examine the composition of playing squads in the four most developed women’s league in Europe (Germany, Sweden, France and England), as well as the Women’s National Soccer League in the United States.
June 7 – The coaching mantra of not changing a winning team has been questioned increasingly in recent seasons as increased numbers of fixtures and pressure on players has seen many managers complain of not having large enough squads to compete in all competitions.
By Samindra Kunti in Cardiff
June 4 – Real Madrid were crowned European champions for a 12th time after comprehensively defeating Juventus 4-1 in the Champions League final. Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice for Madrid to retain their European title, a historic feat.
June 5 – A survey of UK workers asking them which football manager they would most and least like to run their office on a day-to-day basis found Chelsea’s Antonio Conte top of the pile, while toxic Jose Mourinho came bottom.
June 1 – It has been very much a reign of two halves but after signing a new two-year deal, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, the longest serving manager in English top-flight football, is targeting next season’s Premier League title.
May 31 – A list of the players from Europe’s Big 5 leagues who played the most number of minutes for their clubs since 1 July 2016, shows eight having played more than 5,000 minutes.
May 31 – Arsene Wenger’s 21-year reign as the longest serving manager in English football’s top flight will continue after it was announced that he has agreed a new two-year deal.
May 30 – Will he stay or will he go? All will shortly be revealed. The future of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, by far the longest serving manager in English top-flight football, is expected to be announced this week after the Frenchman held a meeting with Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke and chief executive Ivan Gazidis on Monday.
May 30 – He is one of world football’s best-paid players, reaping the rewards of Chinese football’s import boom, yet Carlos Tevez has told a Spanish broadcaster the sport in the country of his latest employers is 50 years behind Europe.
May 25 – The CIES Football Observatory has ranked big-5 league players according to their tackling skills with players from three different championships filling the top three positions: Valentin Rongier (Nantes), Carlos Casemiro (Real Madrid) and Idrissa Gueye (pictured, Everton).
By Samindra Kunti
May 21 – Venezuela won the opening match at the FIFA U20 World Cup in South Korea with a 2-0 victory over Germany. England got their campaign underway with a 3-0 win against Argentina.
May 21 – Real Madrid have secured the Spanish league title for the first time in five years after winning 2-0 at Malaga to finish three points clear of arch-rivals Barcelona.
May 21 – Despite a late run of six wins from their final seven games, Arsenal have failed to reach the Champions League for the first time since manager Arsene Wenger took over a generation ago.
By Samindra Kunti
May 21 – India’s U17 team defeated Italy’s U17 2-0 on Friday, but in reality the ‘Indian Colts’ beat a selection of lower league Italian players.
May 16 – The CIES Football Observatory has ranked the best players of the 2016/17 season using their stats analysis and have come up with a Best XI that includes five players from the Bundesliga wth four of them – Manuel Neuer, Javi Martinez, Mats Hummels and Thiago Alcantara – from Bayern Munich.