Stuttgart are in a similar decline, their Bundesliga lead having dissolved through poor results either side of the winter break.Yet while Ranieri is widely regarded as a lame duck manager, Magath is still in charge of his own destiny, with Stuttgart waiting on his decision. Magath’s reputation (“Saddam” is another nickname) has attracted Bayern Munich, whose players are again invoking the “FC Hollywood” nickname.Magath, who scored the winning goal in the 1983 European Cup final, earning Hamburg a surprise win over Juventus, is a fabled disciplinarian. Jan-Aage Fjortoft, once of Middlesbrough and Barnsley, who played under him at Eintracht Frankfurt, once said: “I don’t know if Magath could have saved the Titanic but I do know the survivors would have been extremely fit.”Magath claims to have mellowed but recently made his players stand still for 90 minutes on a freezing morning, telling them: “If you don’t move during a game, why should you move during training?”These methods usually work best with a young team like Stuttgart but such players are also more vulnerable to dips in confidence. Both sit third in their domestic leagues, a position which once would have been cause for celebration, but now fails to meet raised expectations. Chelsea’s travails are well known to English audiences, as is their slip since leading the Premiership at the start of December. If coverage of tonight’s Champions’ League second-round tie between VfB Stuttgart and Chelsea was destined for movie theatres, the billing would read: “The Torturer vs the Tinkerman.” Neither Felix Magath nor Claudio Ranieri will be kicking a ball in the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadion but their team selection, tactical approach and motivational prowess are likely to determine which club takes a first-leg advantage.
For Stuttgart and Chelsea are two clubs on the slide.

“Among our experienced batting line-up and our inexperienced bowlers we have some young lads who are very exciting.”Our preparation before the first Test will be crucial. We need to make sure we get our acclimatisation right and use the two warm-up games in the correct manner.”. Runs for England’s batsmen should be easy to come by and this is why it is crucial that Vaughan’s bowlers find their form straightaway.”We have a fantastic chance of going out there and doing very well,” Vaughan said. Simon’s only played one full Test and has not played international cricket for a long period.

He has obviously come back well in India and I am delighted to have him around But let’s not build him up too much. He also needs time to settle back into the team.”The ability of this pair and England’s other fast bowlers to bowl with the discipline and consistency required to take wickets in the Caribbean will have a huge bearing on whether Vaughan’s side retain the Wisden Trophy over the coming weeks The West Indies will be tough opponents. They may have been heavily beaten on their recent tour of South Africa but they are a completely different outfit at home. However, this is a four-Test series that England should expect to win.Any side containing Brian Lara, the world’s leading batsman, needs to be shown respect and he leads a young and exciting batting line-up Their weakness, amazingly, lies in the bowling. “It is exciting to have a couple of young quicks who are capable of hitting the 90mph-mark,” Vaughan said.

“Hopefully they will be able to ruffle up the West Indies batting.”But we have to be realistic about Stephen and Simon. Stephen missed out in Sri Lanka because of an injury and we might have to give him a little bit of time to get back into it. No England captain in recent times has had the luxury of utilising the threat offered by two bowlers of such pace. Each has the ability to propel a ball at 95mph and they have the potential to be as hostile as any opening attack in world cricket.
The prospect of this has not been lost on the England captain, Michael Vaughan, even though he was keen to play down the partnership on the eve of his side’s 10-week tour of the Caribbean. English cricket would be hard-pressed to find a more exciting sight that Stephen Harmison and Simon Jones bowling in tandem for England. If they’ve got any pride, some of them will take a lot of heartache away Others will have forgotten about it already. That doesn’t upset me, but it’s going to upset their cricket careers, I think.”.