One World Sports: More EPL Transfers, Shadows Cast Over Copa Lib




Beyond The Pitch show

Summary: Another week into the summer transfer window and the moves and speculation endures with several player transactions that have arrived with a number of key questions while in South America the Copa Libertadores semi-final rounds played out while two icons of world football overshadowed a tournament lacking clear star-power, raising even further concerns about the tournament itself and revealing yet even deeper issues for the game inside Brazil and Argentina. In segment one, football commentator and pundit Janusz Michallik joins us midstream as the summer tours crisscross the United States with some of the biggest names in the club game, but yet focused again on the player moves and questions surrounding many of the top Premier League sides as well as early questions about Barcelona in the wake of a number of changes including the arrival of Luis Enrique. We begin with a number of issues being raised at Manchester United as Louis van Gaal seems to be a number of players short while trying to turn the page on what he describes as a broken squad, as well as the moves made by Arsenal and Liverpool where there remains deep concerns as to whether the arrivals will be enough to improve their league fortunes of a season ago. At Chelsea the issues are simpler now that Romelu Lukaku has moved permanently to Everton, but there is the matter of goalkeeper rotation and whether the late season schism between Mourinho and Eden Hazard has been put to bed at last. We also examine what Manchester City has done in the market and whether the deeper concerns about productive depth have been addressed by Manuel Pelligrini and the braintrust. In segment two, South American correspondent and commentator Juan Arango takes us through the madness as Dunga has been tagged to succeed Felipe Scolari in the wake of a disastrous World Cup, then we examine not only the Copa Libertadores in the shadow of two South American icons who once again steal center stage, as both Juan Roman Riquelme and Ronaldinho have parted with their clubs and search for new opportunities both defined and not so defined in the case of the Brazilian who never fails to reinvent himself once his bold sense for showmanship is met with new challenges.