Football reunions have become increasingly commonplace in the Premier League. While one-club players and managers are rare specimens nowadays, a gold dust scattered sparsely across the unforgiving plains of top-flight English football, the majority of those plying their trade in the league are more or less mercenaries who will set up camp at a number of clubs throughout their careers, disregarding innocent, idealistic notions of loyalty and devotion to one fanbase in favour of leading a nomadic life based on the accumulation of vast wealth. As such, many players can be expected to face a former employer a few, if not several, times a season, which has taken the shine off the significance of footballing reunions somewhat.
However, last weekend’s round of Premier League fixtures served up three reunions which were more intriguing and noteworthy than usual, and in keeping with the theme of mercenaries, the outcomes of these not-so-amicable get-togethers can be summed up as a case of the good, the bad and the ugly. There may not have been any Clint Eastwoods or Lee Van Cleefs on show, but the contrasting fortunes of Cesc Fabregas, Harry Redknapp and Mauricio Pochettino as they came face-to-face with former friends certainly provided as much drama and excitement as a vintage spaghetti western.
The Good – the star of the show, the one who emerged triumphant – was without a doubt Cesc Fabregas. The Chelsea maestro might as well have been the Man With No Name in the eyes of the Arsenal fans, who would not have been able to bring themselves to utter the name of a former favourite, a darling of North London and a club captain of three years whose move to Stamford Bridge over the summer was greeted with accusations of treachery and back-stabbing by devastated Gunners supporters. The Sunday showdown between Chelsea and Arsenal was always going to be a hostile affair for Fabregas, even with the tie being played at his new home, yet by displaying a calmness and unwavering confidence in his own abilities that Eastwood’s nameless hero would have doffed his cowboy hat at, the Spaniard helped the Blues to a convincing win, with a sublime assist for Chelsea’s second goal rubbing the salt in the wounds of his old side. Jose Mourinho’s band of brothers are now heavy favourites to lift the Premier League title in May; Fabregas, for all his insistence that Arsenal has a special place in his heart, must surely have few regrets over his move.
The Bad in Sergio Leone’s 1966 epic is a mercenary who always finishes a job he is paid for but is eventually defeated, and based on the events of the weekend his footballing equivalent is Harry Redknapp. Given the negative connotations of the word, desribing Redknapp as a mercenary is perhaps unfair, yet the QPR manager had already come up against two former employers in Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton earlier in the season, and Sunday afternoon’s visit to West Ham United made it three. It turned out to be an unhappy return for Redknapp however, as his QPR side put in a listless performance in a 2-0 defeat which leaves them at the bottom of the table with one win in seven games. Although club owner Tony Fernandes is paying Redknapp to keep the R’s in the top-flight, finishing this job may prove to be a tough ask. A bad week indeed for Harry, then.
And last but not least we come to the Ugly. A Mexican outlaw in the film who is a wanted man for his crimes, his Premier League reincarnation is Mauricio Pochettino, similarly Hispanic and wanted by Southampton fans on the grounds of desertion. The Argentinian coach left the south coast for Tottenham Hotspur in May, and after his depature sparked a mass player exodus, there were fears that the Saints would sink. Such worries were unfounded as Southampton enjoyed an excellent start to the season under the leadership of new manager Ronald Koeman, and they travelled to Pochettino’s new hideout at White Hart Lane on Sunday with a point to prove. In this hostile reunion, it was Pochettino who prevailed as his Spurs side ground out a narrow 1-0 victory, suggesting that the Argentinian bandit may have made the right choice after all in mounting his proverbial steed and galloping for London in search for better prospects. The win was by no means pretty – in fact, it was darn right ugly at times – but it takes Spurs to within two points of third-placed Southampton, and gives Pochettino’s men the confidence to overtake the Saints.
An intriguing round-up of duels then, where old allies clashed as foes with varying outcomes. Although it was Fabregas who ultimately emerged as the top dog, with Pochettino coming in second and Redknapp the worst off as the punk feeling decidedly unlucky, the return fixtures later on in the season present another opportunity for scores to be settled, and even a possible reversal of roles for this trio of footballing desperados forging their legends in the Wild West world of the Premier League.
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