Clan-Members » in the Champions League

WOBURN, England -- In the 1840s, Duchess Anna Maria, wife of the 7th Duke of Bedford and resident of Woburn Abbey, thought there was something missing between lunch and dinner. She was feeling peckish, so she invented afternoon tea.Charley Hull, on the other hand, would have gone to Five Guys.There, in one restaurant choice, you have the run-up to this weeks Ricoh Womens British Open at Woburn Golf Club in microcosm: In a quaint corner of England that resonates with history, heritage and tradition, we have a tournament poster girl who is unapologetically part of the selfie generation.Her image is on billboards throughout the towns of Woburn and nearby Milton Keynes. Photos of her line the roads to the golf course and are pinned in every corner of the clubhouse.Everywhere she looks this week, Charley Hull sees herself. One hundred and sixty years ago, the Duchess no doubt had a similar experience, although her images were rendered in oil paint and displayed in gilt frames along gallery walls. She would have tilted her head, perhaps nodded and finally offered a measured appraisal. In contrast, when Hull saw a new poster of herself in the media center, she raised a jeweled eyebrow, said cool and took a photo of it.This is Britain 2016, and for womens golf in the country, she is the breath of fresh air it has badly needed for a very long time.Its not a criticism of Laura Davies, Catriona Matthew and Karen Stupples -- who have shouldered the burden of British expectation throughout the last 16 years -- but of the generations who followed them and have failed to generate interest or results.That Davies and Matthew continue to contend is to their eternal credit, but in modern day major championship golf -- when teenagers are regularly the winners -- it was as if Britain never got the memo and kept sending mom to the end-of-the-year prom.Hull changes all of that. For one thing she is the sort of character who everyone naturally refers to by her given name. For another, if she went to the prom you can guarantee there would be a story to tell afterward.Remember when she defeated Paula Creamer in the Solheim Cup singles back in 2013? Well, not so much defeated as thrashed 5 and 4. Afterwards Hull asked Creamer to sign a ball for her best friend James Northern, a huge fan of the American. It was classic Charley: carefree, happy-go-lucky, blissfully unaware that she was doing something out of the ordinary.Northern, Hull revealed ahead of Thursdays first round, has one-up on her this week because he won his club championship on Sunday.He went on a pub crawl with the trophy, she laughed, and he lost it. He actually lost a trophy that is 120 years old. They found the lid behind the bar and another bit in the hole on the 18th green.All of this is related in breezy style. Its almost as if she is playing a major championship on her home course.Hang on, she is. She really is and, for all the goofiness, Hull is no fool. Shes aware that playing in her backyard presents problems as well as benefits and has told most of her friends to stay away.I just feel like my friends are my friends outside of golf and I dont want them asking, why did you do this or why did you do that, she explained. James is a golfer so he can come. He keeps me calm and relaxed and stuff.Her family have also been given limits.My sister doesnt know much about golf, she laughed. If Ive had a bad round theyre like, well, I could have easily holed that, and Im like, just be quiet.It will be more difficult to contain the excitement of the Woburn club members however. She refers to them as an extended family who has known her since she was 11 years old, and yet their nervous expectation hangs over her with every well-meant question and message of good luck.Well, I feel like there is pressure on me this week, which is a bit annoying, she said, less in a mood of genuine irritation than another example of simple honesty. But at the end of the day its my home course and its great to have the event here.Curiously, for all her familiarity with the club, the local knowledge doesnt necessarily extend to the Marquess layout itself.Yeah, players have been asking me about the course and I was like, well, I play the other courses (the Duchess and Dukes) more. Ive played them hundreds and hundreds of times. Ive probably played this one only about 30. The other two are super-tight, this one is quite American.The measured approach is further proof that the bubbly impression is not the total picture because she possesses a sharp golf brain and has been wary of playing the course in conditions that bear little resemblance to this weeks.When Im with my friends I play off the back tees, she explained. I play it a lot further back than this weeks set-up. Some holes I hit driver and now I dont even need 3-wood with a bit more run. Also its been wet for so long and that makes it a different course. Ive known this all year so Ive stayed away.If this week is a highlight, so too is Augusts Olympic Games where she will join Matthew, Justin Rose and Danny Willett as part of Team Great Britain.Im really buzzing for Rio, she said. This is my seventh week going at it full blast in the gym, I want to be really fit for this spell of the season. Ive watched quite a bit of it on TV over the years. I think its pretty cool and Im looking forward to seeing Jessica Ennis [track and field] in the Olympic village. I think shes brilliant at what she does. Shes proper fit, really physically strong.She has none of the fears of the Zika virus which have prompted many prominent men to forego selection. Im not going to be having kids until Im older, no need to be worried about that, I think.Hull is like every other young golfer. She played her home course time and time again, telling herself the next putt was to win the British Open.On Sunday afternoon, it might be. Seattle Mariners Gear . Datsyuk will miss Tuesdays game against New Jersey and could be sidelined longer, while Cleary will likely miss at least the next three games. Its been an injury-plagued season for Datsyuk, who has suited up for just 39 games. Custom Seattle Mariners Jerseys . It was the kind of score that might make everyone else wonder which course he was playing. Except that Graeme McDowell saw the whole thing. Crouched behind the 10th green at Sheshan International, McDowell looked over at the powerful American and said, "Ive probably seen 18 of the best drives Ive seen all year in the last two days. https://www.cheapmariners.com/ .Y. - Rob Manfred was promoted Monday to Major League Baseballs chief operating officer, which may make him a candidate to succeed Bud Selig as commissioner. Fake Mariners Jerseys . The 29-year-old from Port Colborne, Ont., has nothing but good things to say about former U.S. marine Liz (Girlrilla) Carmouche ahead of their co-main event Wednesday on the UFCs "Fight for the Troops" televised card in Fort Campbell, Ky. Stitched Mariners Jerseys . Ouellette, from Montreal, already has three Olympic gold medals since joining the team in 1999. An eyebrow or two were raised towards the end of 2013 when Nicola Cortese, then the executive chairman at Southampton, shared his views on the role of a manager at a Leaders in Football conference.The manager, Cortese said, has an important role but is basically just a department head like the others. It was a neat enough summary of the clubs technocratic approach; it also fitted the brief under which Mauricio Pochettino, Southamptons manager since the previous January, had been recruited. Hes the f---ing boss, the f---ing man. Off the pitch, he has won. He has won for the whole year.Guardiola on Mourinho, 2011Were Cortese still involved in football, he might revisit that assessment now. He will have seen Pochettino move to Tottenham and cement his reputation as one of the leading coaches in England. Hell also have seen that select group develop a life of its own. Never before has the status of manager been elevated to its present significance; never have Englands top six clubs all been led (and in some cases defined) by the man in charge of the team but the forthcoming Premier League season will inescapably be hewn -- whether in perception or actuality -- by the fortunes of these individuals.Jose Mourinho is off to a winning start at Manchester United but the ultimate goal for his reign goes well beyond the Community Shield. Barrington Coombs - The FA/The FA via Getty ImagesPochettino is one of them but he has rarely been at the front of the news agenda this summer. The arrival of Pep Guardiola at Manchester City has captured imaginations; so too have Jose Mourinhos long-expected unveiling across town with United and Antonio Contes early days at Chelsea. Jurgen Klopps first preseason at Liverpool may shape the rest of his tenure at Anfield and then there is the enduring presence of Arséne Wenger, who has outlasted most opponents during an often frustrating second decade at Arsenal but has never been presented with this level of challenge before. Then there is the unfancied Claudio Ranieri, who emerged from left field to win the title with Leicester and confirm his own place in this managerial pantheon.The same goes for every member of this septet and if one thing sets Wenger apart, it is that none of his peers will ever spend 20 years -- the landmark he will, barring a huge surprise, bring up at Arsenal next month -- in the same role. The sport has changed too much; one or two may not even last 20 months. While the concentration of excellence in Englands technical areas may thrill, equally compelling is the precariousness of it all: the fact that if achievement is measured in trophies, a number of these proven talents are about to fall short. A repeat of last season would be worse still.Fail to walk that thin line, and the consequences will be exactly the same as they were for less compelling names (like David Moyes or Mark Hughes, to name just two) in the same roles elsewhere. Every time I play Pep [Guardiola] I end up with 10 men. It must be some sort of UEFA rule.Mourinho, 2013Claudio Ranieri stunned the Premier Leagues natural order by leading tiny Leicester City to last seasons title. Hell look to upset things again in 2016-17. Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images When you give success to stupid people, it makes them more stupid sometimes and not more intelligent.Arsene Wenger on Mourinho, 2005So why are they doing it? Pep Guardiola succinctly captured the allure of Englands top flight during his official presentation on July 3. [Man City] will be completely different. They all said its tough. I dont know why. I have to discover that for myself. I have to see that. The Premier League was given an extra shine by Leicester Citys runaway title win last season amid a continent whose top leagues are generally low on dramatic suspense at the business end.Guardiola was the biggest, most high-profile managerial catch in the history of English football and brought with him an extra layer of legitimacy, too: if the challenges at Barcelona and Bayern Munich were relatively one-paced in comparison, the Premier League brings a change of speed and tone that may require a mastery of qualities quite different from the ones that brought him here.There was a telling moment when Antonio Conte, who rivals Guardiola for the sense of possibility he brings to his new club, previewed the season at the end of July. A lack of Champions League football at Stamford Bridge didnt deter him from leaving the Italy job for the day-to-day involvement he was well known to have missed, and he commented on the difficulty of returning to Europes elite. He likes having the ball, playing football, passes. Its like an orchestra. But its a silent song. I like heavy metal.Klopp on Wenger, 2013It is going to be some battle between all the managers to reach the top four. While the remark was hardly profound, it exposed a modern-day truth. However much we look at the big picture of success and failure, the personalities in and around the dugouts are the ones who will channel, and in some ways propel, the seasons narrative.In many ways, that is hardly new. The Premier League has a history of managerial conflict at the very top, from Kevin Keegan and Alex Ferguson in 1995-96 to the latter and Arséne Wenger, to Wenger himself and Jose Mourinho. These have generally been framed as direct confrontations, leaders going mano a mano. The battles have been targeted, the mind games deliberate and the insults specific: in a high-profile recent example Wenger, according to Mourinho in February 2014, was a specialist in failure.The gut reaction in some quarters now that Mourinho, Guardiola, Conte, Wenger, Pochettino and Klopp are all in the same league has been to stoke the appetite for similar clashes. It works to a degree. Mourinho and Wenger barely acknowledge one another and when they meet again at Old Trafford on Nov. 19, there will be as much attention on their pre-match handshake as on the game itself. There has long been a more fiery enmity between Mourinho and Guardiola, whose opposition in Manchester conforms perfectly to what you suspect is the Premier Leagues desired script; in Mourinhos words, the relationship will be normal this season and both are very professional.Managers on YouTubeThese coaches are the epitome of excellence but sometimes, the intensity and passion of the beautiful game brings out all their emotions.That sense of decorum may not last but there is a sense that this seasons core of managers feel as intrigued by one another as they do threatened.Klopp found himself rapt by Conte during Euro 2016, telling ESPN FC: He was quuite emotional [and] I thought, sometimes am I like this? Wenger described this years Premier League as a little bit like a world championship of managers .dddddddddddd.. all the best managers come to England to make our lives even more difficult. It is a concentration of talent that commands instant respect, like an elite group of mathematicians granted their own after-school class to finesse their ideas while outdoing one another.Could it be that for all these personalities on show, the football will do most of the talking?For a while, perhaps. This six-way contest may be best measured by reactions to that spectre of failure, which is more of a given than success. There is no guarantee that one of this new cabal will win the league; there is, though, the certainty that most will miss out and at least two will not even finish in the Champions League positions.Players on ManagersThe best measure of a manager might be what their players, past and present, say about them.When he talks, his words assault you. They crash through your mind, often quite violently, and settle deep within. Andrea Pirlo on Antonio Contes motivational skillsThings occasionally got very intense with Klopp. There was a lot of emotion. We had our fair share of quarrels. But things were all good again an hour later and we understood each other. We had a great relationship. Mats Hummels on his interaction with Jurgen Klopp at DortmundThat guy says whatever he wants. I like him. Hes the leader of his army ... the exact opposite of Pep Guardiola. If Jose Mourinho lights up a room, Guardiola draws the curtains. Mourinho would become a guy I was basically willing to die for. No prizes for guessing who Zlatan Ibrahimovic would rather play forEven if he likes you outside football, if you do not perform on the pitch, you do not play. That is really what is his signature. You have to perform, you have to be the best. It is only business. Didier Drogba has similar love for Jose MourinhoHe gave me the chance. He took me when I was only 16, made me a better player, a better person, and was like a second father with the way he treated me ... So for that Wenger is a special manager, a special person, and I know without him I wouldnt be here right now. Cesc Fabregas on the influence of Arsene Wenger on his career He has been perfect because, always, he gives a balance to the team - between young, medium and experienced playersPochettino on Wenger, 2015In a climate whose demands for instant achievement become all the more acute, how would a place outside the top four look for the upwardly mobile (but relatively under-resourced) Pochettino and Tottenham after a concerted title challenge last season? What would something shy of a top-two place be for Mourinho and United, newly blessed with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and the ?105 million Paul Pogba, regardless of last seasons fifth-place finish? In a pack with such spending power and such highly skilled leadership, there is little shame in finishing behind anybody else. Try telling that to those with an emotional, and perhaps financial, stake in your progress; the league may have attracted greatness, but it will quickly enough prove not to be a respecter of it.This competitive nature is borne out by the current transfer window. The Premier Leagues spend for this summer passed the half-billion mark on Aug. 1; it is an arms race now and even if fees and incoming signings are what keep supporters happy during transfer windows, the real skill will come in creating the few percent that make a difference.Added fascination comes with the fact that it is far from an exclusive group. Ranieri turns 65 in October but his success last season confirmed his place among the leagues big hitters; he showed exactly how to cross those fine margins by creating a wonderful, indomitable feeling around his squad. Its a sentiment echoed by Conte, who said in his first press conference: I want my players to feel me very close. I suffer and I win with them.The excellent Slaven Bilic could conceivably put West Ham on par with Tottenham and Arsenal over the medium term; Ronald Koeman will aim to keep his upwards trajectory going with Everton, while Aitor Karankas education alongside Mourinho at Real Madrid looks suited for a top-flight campaign with Middlesbrough. Bournemouths Eddie Howe will also surely coach his way to one of the leagues leading lights before long.For a role with such a short shelf life, the stock of the football manager couldnt be higher. If this seasons protagonists are mere department heads according to Cortese, then a number of promotions seem well overdue. After all, these figures carry the immediate futures of the Premier Leagues most well-decorated houses, and perhaps even the league itself, on their shoulders.Jurgen Klopp has brought some life back to struggling Liverpool in recent months but itll take a lot more than that to restore the Reds to the top of English football. Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty ImagesPep vs. MouEven though both managers are keen to play it down, the rivalry between Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho has more explosive potential than any the Premier League has seen. It dates back to 2009-10, when they met four times in the Champions League with Barcelona and Inter Milan respectively; Mourinhos side prevailed in their semifinal despite clear stylistic differences. Things escalated the following year when Mourinho arrived at Real Madrid; by the following April, when the pair met in another Champions League final-four tie, they were openly at odds.Hes been winning off the pitch all season. Let them give him a Champions League for it so he can enjoy it and take it home. In the press room he is el p--- jefe (the f---ing boss) and the one who knows more than everyone else, said Guardiola in response to assertions from Mourinho that he criticized referees too much.One day, I would like Josep Guardiola to win this competition properly, Mourinho said after Barcelona won a controversial first leg 2-0. It set the tone for a frosty relationship that continued during Guardiolas time at Bayern Munich. They may fire equally scathing salvos off the pitch, but on it Mourinho may feel he has scores to settle: Guardiola has beaten his sides seven times, while he has won just three of their meetings.Nick AmesNick Ames is a football journalist who writes for ESPN FC on a range of topics.join the conversation follow @NickAmes82follow @ESPNPhoto Gallery 00 of ' ' '