Jose Mourinho has been touted as Manchester United’s next manager ever since leaving Chelsea but now it’s Mauricio Pochettino earning Sir Alex Ferguson’s praise. The success of Louis van Gaal’s youngsters is beginning to change the role requirements, writes Adam Bate… Louis van Gaal has found himself in the peculiar position of writing his own job description. Under intense pressure late last year, winter turned to spring with the Dutchman clinging on as Manchester United manager. Hope of a top-four finish just about endures. And with it, Van Gaal is busy re-framing the requirements of the role come the summer.Thats bad news for Jose Mourinho. For as the season draws to a close and thoughts turn to the composition of the squad for next season, one thing becomes abundantly clear - its the development of Manchester Uniteds young talent that will be near the top of the agenda. The sight of Sir Bobby Charlton celebrating the clubs 1000th Premier League goal at Old Trafford will have stirred emotions for supporters. Timothy Fosu-Mensah, all energy and endeavour, fashioned the opening for Anthony Martial to turn the ball home. Its just the latest moment to enjoy thats been provided by the younger members of Uniteds squad.Marcus Rashford, relatively unknown as the pressure built on his manager over Christmas, is now central to the clubs plans after netting five goals. In defence, its about Cameron Borthwick-Jackson not Marcos Rojo now. Once again, supporters eyes have been opened to the possibilities. After all, this remains the club of the Busby Babes and the Class of 92.All of which helps to partially explain why the emphasis has shifted away from Mourinho, with his very particular set of skills, and instead towards Mauricio Pochettino, the man who has been the club boss for 11 of Englands last 20 debutants. The Argentines record in developing young talent stands in stark contrast to that of Mourinho. Mauricio Pochettino has attracted praise for his development of young players In a recent interview with Sky Sports, Sir Alex Ferguson was effusive in his praise of the Tottenham manager. Mauricio Pochettino has been fantastic, said Ferguson. This lad has got the composure, you never see him ruffled and the way his team plays is a testimony to the work he is doing. The specific focal point of his praise was particularly revealing.The most important thing, and the most telling thing for English football, is how many young English players he has in his team, added Ferguson. He is not afraid to play young players, he understands the advantage of young people -they remember who gave them their first chance - and they are not letting him down, they have been fantastic.In contrast, and for all his success, bringing through young players has not been Mourinhos forte. Indeed, in his entire managerial career, from his brief stint at Benfica in 2000 through to his second spell at Chelsea ending in 2015, the Portuguese coach would be unable to form a 25-man squad of youth players he has introduced to his first-teams. The Sunday Supplement panel discuss whether or not Van Gaal will stay at United And so, with Pochettinos willingness to walk away from such an exciting project at Tottenham far from inevitable, it could yet hand Van Gaal an unlikely reprieve. For all his faults, the veteran manager, the architect of Ajaxs 1995 Champions League triumph, has once again shown himself to be someone who trusts in young talent.In February alone, Van Gaal handed six debuts to United academy players - taking the tally to 14 for his reign. The following month, he fielded the youngest line-up named in a Premier League game so far this season in the clubs 1-0 win over Watford. Its been partially down to necessity given his penchant for small squads. But its also been a self-conscious decision.Van Gaal has admitted as much. It is the culture of Manchester United, that is why they take me as a manager, he said recently. You see youngsters give always spirit to the team. I have a lot of experience with that and that is also a very important aspect of my philosophy. Was this a dig at Mourinho? Veils surely do not come much thinner. How much credit does Van Gaal deserve for the talent he has blooded at Old Trafford? Of course, many among Uniteds support still find themselves too disillusioned after enduring a series of insipid afternoons at the Theatre of Dreams to countenance his continuation as coach. Even as youth flourishes, there are those reporting that it is Ryan Giggs and Warren Joyce with whom a bond is being forged, not the 64-year-old Dutchman.However, the point stands that it is Van Gaal who has afforded them the opportunity to play. And its that fact that may yet, against the odds, sway those among Uniteds hierarchy. He can point to his development of players. He can argue that this commitment to the clubs traditions is more pertinent than ever given the current make-up of his squad.If that conclusion is drawn and Van Gaal is retained, it will not be seen as a testament to the results achieved, but instead his ability to rewrite the job description even while he faltered. In doing so, the man in possession might just be fostering enough doubts in Mourinho to parlay the last vestiges of belief in his methods into securing a third season at the helm. Also See: Le Tiss: City will deny United Will Martial beat Rooney? http://www.officiallionsgear.com/Lions-Ricky-Wagner-Draft-Jersey/ .C. -- Charlotte Bobcats coach Steve Clifford said after all of these years in the NBA hes still amazed at some of the things LeBron James does. http://www.officiallionsgear.com/Lions-Glover-Quin-Draft-Jersey/ . The CFLs leading rusher kept adding to his gaudy numbers this season and scored the winning touchdown with just over two minutes to play. The New Westminster, B.C., native plowed three yards into the end zone for the last score of a heated, see-saw battle between the two teams with the best records in the CFL. http://www.officiallionsgear.com/Lions-Jake-Rudock-Draft-Jersey/ . Oyama had six birdies and two bogeys at Kintetsu Kashikojima in the event also sanctioned by the Japan LPGA Tour. "I have been having this neck ache thats been affecting my golf recently," Oyama said. http://www.officiallionsgear.com/Lions-Ashawn-Robinson-Draft-Jersey/ . Its the second straight game Bell has scored in extra time for Kelowna, which beat the Brandon Wheat Kings 6-5 on Friday, and he now has four game-winning goals on the season. http://www.officiallionsgear.com/Lions-Tj-Jones-Draft-Jersey/ .ca NBA Power Rankings, ahead of the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs. Has any great rugby player had a more apposite name than Dickie Jeeps, who died on Saturday aged 84?Like the vehicles which share his name the Northampton, England and Lions scrum-half was rugged, durable and operated effectively in all terrains but was probably at his best in the mud, of which there was plenty on the pitches of the 1950s and 1960s.His 24 caps were the most for an England scrum-half at the time of his retirement in 1962. ESPNscrums John Griffiths rated him Englands best ever scrum-half - ahead of Cecil Kershaw and Bernard Gadney - and 22nd greatest player in all positions, when he listed his top 50 in 2003.But perhaps the truest measure of his standing is his record with the Lions, for whom he played 13 tests on three tours between 1955 and 1962. That too was a record at the time, since overtaken only by his 1962 team-mate Willie-John McBride. Unless Lions tours get longer or more frequent, neither probable under modern conditions, he is likely to remain in perpetuity both the Lions most-capped back and their most-capped Englishman.His international career began as, to modern eyes, a still less conceivable phenomenon - the uncapped Lion. He was hardly unknown when chosen for the 1955 tour of South Africa since he had been playing for Eastern Counties since his teens and for Northampton (where he was to pile up 273 first-team appearances) since 1952, had been an England reserve for the past two seasons and played in a trial match in late 1954. But Englands selectors had yet to be convinced he was their man.One anecdote suggests that legendary Welsh scrum-half Haydn Tanner was the advocate who earned him Lions selection along with England incumbent Johnny Williams - who was generally expected to play the tests - and Wales Trevor Lloyd.His ascension to the test team in South Africa has generally been put down to brilliant Welsh outside-half Cliff Morgan finding that Jeeps shorter delivery offered him more options than Williams long bulleted passes. Certainly if the selectors had this combination in mind, they kept it well-concealed, pairing them only twice in the 12 matches played before the First Test. JBG Thomas account of the tour reckons that Jeeps won his test place with a brilliant display in the 36-13 defeat of Transvaal, when he was paired with Englands Doug Baker.So Jeeps made his test debut in front of then the largest crowd in rugby union history, 95,000 at Ellis Park, Johannesburg and in a match remembered as one of the greatest in Lions history. A single moment in the second half of the Lions 23-22 win illustrated the virtues of Jeeps passing from the scrum. As Morgan recalled He threw out the perfect flat, shortish pass which was moving away from me. I had to run and stretch to get it, and as I caught it and swung my body, my great adversary Basie van Wyk just missed my backside. Morgan went in under the posts, and the Lions led 23-11.Jeeps and Morgan played all four tests for a team who were, before the triumphs of the 1970s, regarded as the best Lions ever for the brilliance of their rugby and the 2-2 draw secured against the Springboks. Morgan wrote of his partner that he served you like a dog, he was tough and he knew the game.Jeff Butterfield, a team-mate for club and country provided perhaps the definitive soundbite about Jeeps as The toughest, hardest player around. He was relentless in pursuing a win. He didnt just play for fun. Part of his essential gear contained a catapult : he was a grown-up Just William.It was perhaps that combination of relentless competitor and practical joker - he was in his own words a water-pistol man and once warded off boredom at a post-match banquet by crawling under the top table to set off a firework - that made Englands selectors wary. A first England cap followed, against Wales at Cardiff in 1956, but England lost and it was back to Williams for the rest of the season.The breakthrough came in 1957. He played all four matches, found an ideal outside-half partner in Harlequin Ricky Bartlett, and England won their first Grand Slam since 1928. In the clincher against Scotland he withstood ferocious pressure from the Scottish back-row before having a hand in all three England tries. Another title followed in 1958, when he also captained Northampton.Yet this was an era in which, as Jeeps himself told me in an interview in 2008, you had to start again every year and fight your way back into the England team. County championship form, a series of trials and thhe Varsity match were all thrown into the mix along with past services.dddddddddddd.In 1959 the selectors were beguiled by the huge pass and Varsity form of Cambridge Universitys Stephen Smith. Jeeps merely came from Cambridge, where he and his father ran a market garden, which was not quite the same thing.Smith came in and Jeeps played only once, when Smith was ill, against Ireland. It happened to be the only match England won in 1959 (although there were also two draws), and it was unlucky for both the newcomer and England that the opening match against Wales was lost on exactly the sort of Arms Park swamp that would have suited Jeeps down to the ground.To be fair to Englands selectors, they were not the only doubters. His 1955 Lions colleague Clem Thomas reckoned him a scrum-half of durability rather than perception and reported South African rugby boss Danie Cravens view that the Lions would have won the series with Williams at scrum-half.But those opinions are outweighed by others. Clive Rowlands, another ferociously pragmatic scrum-half operator recalled him as brilliant at using the gap between the forwards and the backs. The 1959 Lions selectors took him to Australia and New Zealand where he played five of the six tests, missing the match at Auckland only through illness.Bev Risman, who played outside-half on that tour, remembers He never gave you the ball unless you had the chance to do something. If there was nothing on, he would take the punishment himself. The New Zealand Herald journalist Terry McLean, a demanding and astringent critic, wrote that he had the torso and arms of a heavyweight, and with his courage he would take on anything. He had a furious temper, too.And in 1960, he was not only back for England, but captain - although he probably jeopardised that elevation before the final trial, later recalling :Since we were asked to assemble at Richmond the day before, I wrote to every member of that England team to come to a training session, which I took myself...I got a fearful bollocking.But the bulk of that England final trial XV not only got selected, but stayed together through an entire Five Nations season in which only a missed kick against France deprived them of a Grand Slam. Little else went wrong from the opening minutes in which Jeeps, acting on a suggestion from astute back-rower Peter Robbins, first surprised Wales by attempting a couple of breaks himself then took advantage of their confusion by sending debutant outside-half Richard Sharp sailing through a huge gap to the line.At the end of the 1960 season Jeeps was unbeaten in 14 matches for England (including three draws), since his losing debut in 1956. His last two seasons were less successful, but he was able to quit on his own terms, while still captain, at the end of 1962, finishing with a third Lions tour - to South Africa - in which he played all four tests and was made captain when Arthur Smith was ruled out of the final Test.But this was far from the end of his rugby life. He played, as he had always promised, a couple of seasons for the Cambridge club and, a gifted all-round sportsman, continued to play Minor Counties cricket for Cambridgeshire.Elected to the RFU committee almost as soon as he retired, his restless energy continued to make an impact. In 1976 he became, at 44, the youngest president of modern times and shocked an organisation which still saw no reason why its number should be in the telephone book by instituting regular press conferences at which he was, among other things, trenchantly critical of the quality of English club rugby.There were suggestions that he be granted, exceptionally, a second year in office. That came to nothing but, in an era when rugby administrators rarely did much to impress the wider world, he had been noticed and in 1978 was appointed to chair the Sports Council. He kept the job for seven years, surviving the change of government in 1979, instituting the Sport for All slogan which underpinned policy for many years and standing up to royalty in the same way as he had once defied opposing loose forwards, dismissing as an insult criticisms of Sports Council staff by the Duke of Edinburgh.Visited in his mid 70s at his Newmarket home, he proved a generous host with a clear and trenchant recall of his playing days. Few English rugby lives have come much greater. Cheap Jerseys China Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys China Nike NFL Jerseys China Discount NFL Jerseys Wholesale Nike NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Wholesale China NFL Gear Stitched Jerseys Discount Jerseys Cheap NFL T-shirts Cheap Jerseys 2019 Black China NFL Jerseys Discount NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys 2020 ' ' '