Roy Keane, in his new role as ITV pundit, spoke of how the Manchester United players were letting Sir Alex Ferguson down at half time in last’s night 2-1 defeat against FC Basel.
At full time, Keane claimed that our young players hadn’t done well enough. He also made reference to Phil Jones’ comments ahead of kick-off and questioned how relaxed he felt now.
Sir Alex Ferguson was told about Keane’s comment and had a dig of his own, reminding Roy that he is just a TV pundit, not a manager, following his sacking from Ipswich last January.
“I don’t know why you are bringing this up from a television critic,” said Ferguson. “Roy had an opportunity to prove himself as a manager and it’s a hard job. We have enough good young players to see us through. I have every confidence in them. That is part of football. You have to deal with disappointment. It has been used as motivation at this club many times before. These young players will have to cope with it and get on with it in their careers.”
Man Utd News 24/7
sad thing is we need a keano type of player someone who can reach the team during a match
Imo Roy let the experienced lads off the hook by targeting the youngsters or Ashley who’s been here 6 months. Not what I was expecting from him. That being said, we still miss his type on days like this.
Keano maybe barking mad, but he speaks the truth.
I dont see what Fergie is getting upset by, other than he cant take criticism. RK has only said what we all saw last night. The youngsters are too young, the olduns are too old, there is no midfield spine, De Ghea is not world class and you cant take CL for granted.
I don’t see where Keane thinks he has a right to stick the boot in like this. Criticism of this nature will do nothin to help the young players confidence. Fergie is an abundantly better manager than he ever was and Roy of all people should know better than to question the manager. I loved Keano when he captained our club, a great player, a machine in the midfield, but unfortunately he has a big mouth when it comes to punditry. Similar to that of his friend Eamon Dunphy.
Have to admit though, that was a great response by the boss…… BOOM
Oh well thats United done for the season.Out of CL, cant catch us in the prem,Got us in the FA CUP (Remember last season)
And to top it off, if you do well in the EUROPA your gonna have to face us at some point…
So i will finish as i started, Oh well thats united done for the season
In other news, Rooney’s Euro ban reduced to 2 games. Now maybe he’ll get his head back in the game.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2071368/Manchester-Uniteds-exit-huge-blow-Sir-Alex-Ferguson.html
a sample of of the sensationalist doom mongering …. bloody cunts… have to take this up all season
Whats that saying again? Truth is a dish best served cold or is that revenge…
Keano does say it like it is, always has…… However he is a nut case, Robbo on the other hand?
Just stirring the pot fellas
Robbo > Keano
Robbo >>>>>>>Keane
Keane made a very good point I thought. He wasn’t so much slating them, more questioning their approach to the game. Yes I did think they needed to roll their sleeves up and say to themselves, we’re playing for United let’s fucking do this. Didn’t look like that out there. Great response from the boss though! Kind of bored now though of the “we need a response” we shouldn’t be in the situation where we need a response but hey ho. Wolves on Saturday and then onto the Sunday fixtures after Xmas! Always red never blue, we go on!!
That`s one of the reasons I`ve always admired Keano. He says it as it is. I guess that`s why he was given the push outta OT. And I just wish people would stop comparing Phil Jones to the late great Duncan Edwards. Let the guy play his own game FFS
Robbo >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Keane
Mike – Hey up pal, hope all is well. Loved the response by the boss, sneaky bugger he is! Would not care if we went for 2 or 3 seasons trophy less to be honest if its the price for rebuilding and in the process help filter out all them fake cunts out there
At least our game was fairly contested. I look at some of these other results (Dortmund, Inter and Zagreb’s home matches to be exact) and I shake my head at the farce this matchday was. And 2 French teams happened to benefit. Nothing to do with who’s Uefa’s president at the moment of course…
I disliked the way Keane talked about the young players, which seemed mainly designed to remind everyone what a great skipper and motivator he was and how much we miss him, ignoring the serial failures in Europe on his watch as captain. His ‘We’re fucking Man United’ approach to leadership became less and less effective as his own powers as a player waned and he had an inhibiting effect on the players around him, which is why he was pushed out in the end, followed by the finest sustained period of success in United’s history from 2006 to 2011. Full marks to Fergie for going toe-to-toe with Keane and delivering the knock-out blow.
SAF can really be dismissive to criticism, even constructive criticism, to the point sometimes which borders embarrassing. Keano was just sayin it as he saw it and he HAS EVERY RIGHT TO. He’s a fukin LEGEND. SAF snapping at the reporter 2 weeks who asked him a question implying we were struggling in Europe left a bad taste in my mouth and this jibe at Keano’s managerial failures is in pretty poor taste i gotta say.
Agreed with Giles. Plus, what happened to “not blaming failures like this on the newcomers”? Those were his words 10 years ago when we got dumped out by Leverkuzen..
Heyy Rooney’s euro ban got reduced to two matches… that should relieve some of our grief of champs league exit. It really should….we do care about england
When SAF speaks of “young players to see us through”, who is he referring to? Last night “young players” were always outnumbered by “older players” on the park:
whole team
young players 5 28%
older players 13 72%
18
starting game
young players 3 27%
older players 8 73%
11
ending game
young players 5 45%
older players 6 55%
11
Sir Giles
You beauty, nothing more to add!
Right to have a rant and right for SAF to have a go back.
Bring on the next game
I bet Roy Keane could do a better job than most of our midfielders now
Its a joke that Giggs was our best player at 38
We should have simply paid what Sneijder wanted in the summer. We’re now going to lose £20m
We should sell Gibson, Macheda, Diouf and promote Morrison and Pogba.
If Vida is out for more than 2 months, we can forget the title and FA Cup
We should try and win the Europa League, maintain our coefficient and at least get to play in the Super Cup next season. None of this taking the opposition lightly nonsense
Well said Sir Alex!!
Roy may have been a legend as a player but as a manager, he sucks. There are too many people around, especially journalists, pundits and fans who think that they know the lot but cannot, or will never even cut it as a manager. That’s why I don’t give a toss to what they have to say.
sad day indeed
Cedars u never give up on robson HaHa 
Keane is perhaps a bit too harsh if it was for jones. He scored a goal. Rooney missed dat sitter & then he was gone. GIGGS was our best player & dats not good. No disrespect bt we need to buckle up. 5 league games & we need to win it all. Title is still winnable for me. Hope fergie realises the importance of not losing anymore. He will. He is a legend by his own means. Lets al back him & rise again GGMU
I like how people are talking about potential signings. Lost revenue will mean more penny pinching. No major players will be brought in unless we sell first. I can’t even begin to imagine what my United bros back in England are going through.
@Captain Park.
So you dismiss Keano’s comments as a pundit, also?
thunder cats
Hahaha, what can I say, I just worship and idolize the great man so much!
@thunder cats
Giggs was OK, but he hit some truly rancid passes during the match.
Our best player was Nani, by a country mile. How long before the big European clubs start seriously sniffing around him and turning his head?
Yup! It’s always too easy (with hindsight) to sit in an armchair and pass comments, especially when things don’t go well.
Last night was a joke. The whole season so far has been a joke!
We neglected buying a center mid now for too long, why is it every fan can see it but he cant!
This BS excuse of no value in the market is pathetic! Van Der Vaart, Modric, Nasri, Silva, Sneijder, Parker etc. And we go out an get BEBE!!!! WTF!
We have been found out now, HOW can we go out of the easiest group in the competition! We will win fcuk all this season. Simple…. NOT GOOD ENOUGH!
We shall meet city in the Europa league final, and trash them 6-1, lets dream on.. DREAM ON guys, we shall never die..nah!! on second thoughts… fuck fucking fuck europa league fuck… i still cant believe it….fuck… bloody fucking arsenal and chelsea will be in the champs league… fuck
as far as Keano is concerned , we miss a player like him,prob we will never replace him, but he should cut down his punditry and spend time reading ‘how to be a manager ‘ by SAF.
Ferguson is a clown and Utd now need to replace him as soon as possible.This is not Ferguson Utd but Man Utd he does not see we need a midfield,replacement for Ronaldo[look at his woeful signings],refused to sign Van Der Vaart when Van Der Saar told him to[signed Bebe for more instead],continues to play Evans,Park,Fletcher,dropped his top scorer Berbatov[did the exact same to the best player in the last World Cup and spanish player of the year in Forlan],Spent around 60m to find Hernandez,thinks Gibson is far better than Pogba who he refuses to play and will now lose him to City next season thinks his youth players are top class [no evidence],refused to answer the twenty shocking questions given to him by Qubic Expressions[he was out of his depth big time],refuses to sign a top coach[Mc Claranesk] the list goes on and on.The club is on a very serious downward spiral.Ferguson reminds me of captain Smith of the Titanic,I didnt see the Iceburgs.Thanks Fergie for the good times but lets go forward with a new managerment team.These comments will not sit well with the head in the sand merchants but blind faith is blind.
red
Only joke is you pal
@stevo
Bet you were spouting off like this in 2006 weren’t you?
Bet you celebrated every trophy since, but deep down felt like a fucking tool, didn’t you?
@captain park
who said its difficult?…of course criticizing is easier than management and playing, but it has its importance . BTW what should united supporters outside Manchester do if not watch games from the comfort of living rooms? fly across Atlantic every week..?
stevo
Ferguson is a clown? What does that make you? A fucking clueless cunt of the highest order me thinks….. You thick bastard, such shameful words. I would bet my left nut that you are either a bitter or a dipper…… Please do us a favor and fuck off you hateful twat
@steve
why dont you keep your opinions to yourself
the reason why we lost is bcoz Rooney couldnt score from 2 yards, we were unlucky that they didnt score an own goal that hit the bar, plus complacency from the players in the home match
How can you blame all on Fergie when the players messed up big time
Boy do we miss Ando and Cleverley
I really don’t understand how calling a spade a spade is somehow seen as disloyal/fickle/bad etc. We WERE shit yesterday, noone denies it, it also highlighted clear problems we’re facing in the midfield, by simply addressing the issue does it make people bad supporters? NO. Bit tired of the know it alls on this forum who sit back on THEIR armchairs and slate anyone who doesn’t sycophantically snivel up SAF’s butt. Having an opinion doesn’t constitute any less love for the club.
One thing for sure SAF is not a quitter, he tried once to retire but he came back. He will lead the club once again to glory. Unlike Roy who quit the Irish team in world cup, quit United. Quit Sunderland and sacked by Ipswich. We are out of carling cup and CL but there are other trophies, it should be a lesson to all the players. Bring on wolves and all fuckin Xmas fixtures.
Sad day it was. On Keane, well what he says is somehow true but he digs at the younger players a bit too much imo. SAF also responded with absolute truth and I just don’t get it when pple say he attacked Keano. We really need a CM like Keano though but players must step up too.
And does anyone notice that the white we wore yesterday is a kit of misfortune. I predicted that we were going to have it rough the moment I saw our boys in that kit. I say burn it……
Sir Giles of Oakley.
Never in my life have I been so impressed at how someone can so consistently say exactly the right thing in a way that it can not be argued with. You should have your own blog.
Mes
More like having his own book, now that is something I would read with pleasure….
Hope all is well pal
@ Sir Giles – how do you think we should approach the Europa League many say play kids I want us to play the strongest team we can with maybe one or two tweaks and go out and win the thing?
@Cedars same question as Sir Giles and also your take on last night? Do you think we need investment?
Cheers guys
@ Sir Giles – how do you think we should approach the Europa League many say play kids I want us to play the strongest team we can with maybe one or two tweaks and go out and win the thing?
@Cedars same question as Sir Giles and also your take on last night? Do you think we need investment?
Cheers guys
Fergie, buy some fucking decent midfielders!
Last night was an accident waiting to happen. Injuries play their part of course but even if everyone had been fit last night, a centre midfield of Cleverley and Anderson is still nowhere near the required level of a football club with the global standing of Manchester United. Not signing two centre midfielders either in the summer or before the September window closed was a crime. There aren’t many times over the last 15 years when you would say that our central midfielders wouldn’t get into the Chelsea, Arsenal or Tottenham teams, but that is the reality of last night. Giggs, Park and Jones in midfield. Give me a Modric, Parker, Sneijder, Wilshere any day of the week. To beat the best you have to have the best and we were only up against Basel! There’s some major headscratching to do re personnel and I can count at least 6 players who I would want to sell in the January window: Gibson, Macheda, Diouf, Evans, Rafael and Fabio. Am not sure how much money you would get for them. Maybe £20m for the lot. That would raise enough cash for 1 world class midfielder! And that’s only focusing on midfield! Problem is SAF has problems all over the park which need addressing! Time to shut up now!
Didn’t actually think Keane said much wrong. He was probably pissed off more than anything else.
Fergie is a Clown? Thats some circus I’ll pay to see. I see the usless nagative comments have continued into today. Well guess what I’ll enjoy the Europa League and fuckin piss myself if Utd win it infact Utd have never won it as it was the UEFA Cup.
Live to fight another day.
WE’LL NEVER FUCKING DIE.
@stevo
Don’t you ever slate the old man again. SAF leads united to the most glorious years in history. He is the most succesful manager of all time. 12 league titles, you forgot about that already? The team is in transition, form is temporary, class is permanent. It can’t be rosy all the time. If you are a supporter then you have to support through thick and thin..otherwise go back to wastelands and do the ponzi dance
James21
You fucking beauty
hopefully when we win fuck all, most of these former chelsea fans support city. utd fans now have it too easy with europe, title after title…support your team, trust your team and manager. start of the season we were going to sweep all aside and didnt need a midfilder, saf was a genius and now he cant see what all us football fans can.
is that why his there? top of the game for 25 years, building team after team. you got to take the trophies with the losses, otherwise we never realise how good we got it and have no motivation, this was needed, not a great feeling, but you deal with it.
it’s one thing to fail in the group of death…and entirely another to fail to beat basel….fucking basel…
@stevo
agree with you… you are one of those few red cunts that are not deluded…you are on a shocking downward spiral indeed…you will lose fa cup in the third round…i hope it will be us who will put you out of your misery in europa league as well
and that fat red nose can do nothing about it no matter how much gum he chews….
Youcant buy
Utd were far from shit yesterday. Smalling down with a head injury play should have been stopped but it wasn’t so thats life. Rooney was poor yesterday, he seamed relutant to get involved because of this appeal today. Smalling made one mistake but lets not forget it was Rooney who lost the ball in a dangerous area. He needs to sort his head out and had Chicarito been fit I’d leave him out of the Wolves game. Love Rooney.
The rest of the team played well, maybe Nani needs to pass a little more but other than that he was fine. It wouldn’t go in simple as, you get games like that.
NRD
I think its more of a transition rather than the need to invest to be honest. We spent very wisely over the last couple of years, we cannot fault the signings of Smalling, Jones, DDG, Little Pea etc… I was always against getting wee Wes and had my reasons for it….. Not an expert on the issue, I just blindly trust the boss in getting right. We are going through rebuilding phase of that there is no doubt
Well there’s constucitve critisism and then there’s stevo. Sorry, but you can’t blame anyone for taking exception at the latter’s post. It’s not about blind faith. It’s about disgusting ungratefulness. Talk about clowns…
Sorry, i must have been watching a different game last night, played well?
it’s one thing to fail in the group of death…and entirely another to fail to beat basel….fucking basel…
@stevo
agree with you… you are one of those few red cunts that are not deluded…you are on a shocking downward spiral indeed…you will lose fa cup in the third round…i hope it will be us who will put you out of your misery in europa league as well
and that fat red nose can do nothing about it no matter how much gum he chews….
Your comment is awaiting moderation
Morning Cedars
I try and reason and fully understand why fans are upset but Reading comments like ‘He’s Shit’ SAF lost it Go Now’ is it a wonder these fans get Bashed on here. Fergie needs to buy now is another comment, Blame the Glazers, another. Not one of them can suggest who to buy or no bollocks all about finances. Grrr And when that fucker Izzy called our Hardcore I saw red. Then the reply was ‘I’m sorry I was just upset I had home season tickets’ Oh fuck off.
I tried my best yesterday but I’m pretty sure I failed. Over 600 comments on the other thread, I wish SAF Stand would make as much noise.
EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US. LOVES ALEX FERGUSON.
Fergie: “I don’t know why you are bringing this up from a television critic”
Ouch!!
As to the Game…….
Ya win some, Ya loose some! ( a motto worth considering)
@Costas – haha yeah fair enough, definite muppet that one.
James
Would not go as far as having a dig at the SAF Stand, our pal Mike sits there! hahaha
Seriously though, some of the posts I have read in the past 24 hours or so are just fucking sick….
As you say EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US. LOVES ALEX FERGUSON Indeed
Everybody has their opinion and As I have said thanks for the good times Fergie.For those who print foul language your parole will be violated if you continue.same.
I have said in the past that watching Ferguson is like taking a course at the Open University.
How does a man manage such success for so long, never losing his desire ,having such an impact on millions of people, getting men to never quit, fight to the end, achieving such glorious victories in battle ?
Teaching everyone , its not just how u enjoy the victories but also how u deal with failure,disapointment and luck.
So @stevo , I am assuming ur not a Fergie fan, probaly shiity or livers, or maybe ur just having difficulty dealing with what happened last night.
U havent been paying attention to Manutd and its history or culture. Its always ok to speak yr mind , to be critical but dont insult Fergie like that.
The problem is U not Fergie. Learn to deal better with bitter dissapoinments. May help u in yr personal life.
And yeah, before u decide to spout some shit after reading my comments, pls remember this, Fergie and the team screwed up, like we did in 2005. This is football, it happens. Lets deal with it.
And im pissed with what happened but reading arseholes like u talk about Fergie like that makes me what to fuck u upside down.
Stupid cunt!
Cedars
Tell our friend mike to get his arse to East or the Stretty
Its tongue and cheek mate, I think King Eric sits there as well.
I await their wrath.
any news on Vidic?
Fair enough if you don’t give a fuck about what people have to say, i certainly won’t change my views on what i keep seeing, sometimes a blinkered view can be to the detriment of a football team.
No one here is perfect in my view, it is a blog established for people to express not impress. respect an opinion, you don’t have to agree, it’s a free world.
Secondly, keane ain’t one to hold back in terms of being a harsh critic, deep down i reckon he is a united fan and perhaps expresses views in a fashion that the manager won’t be pleased with and rightly so. one thing i’m certain of is, Fergie is legendary and he’ll turn this around again hopefully and ride united through the storm..
A blinkered view or looking at the bigger picture with a bit of optimism?
Of course its tongue in cheek , I knew that but you are quickly burning your bridges! hahahahahaha
Get after him fellas!
Roy Keane is many things but if I read his comments right, then he spoke the truth.
Fergie responded well, he decided not to cut his players in public, he will handle it the right way.
Its part of management theta Fergie excels in.
So they are both right.
As for Evra, his comments are right , except the UEFA League shud be respected and Evra shud stop talking so much and buck the fuck up in actual performances.
We got what we deserved, no 2 ways about it. So lets see how the team reacts and what Fergie does.
shitty are out, otherwise they wud be crowing about us nonstop, and now wud we meet in The UEFA league?
Lots of depressed United supporters here in Malaysia today, some radio shows are talking about it.
@youCANTbuyTHISfeeling
There’s no way you can’t be critical of the manager after this Ch.League campaign. Performances have been extremely poor and the blame lies with him. I’ve taken shots at him too since last night.
But losing 1-6 at home to City or getting dumped out by Basel aren’t Ferguson’s biggest failures at the club. He led the club to unparalleled success. Success which bred plastic and spoilt fans like the muppet above. That will be the biggest con of Fergie’s tenure at the Man United.
Cheers. Cedars. I liked Sneijder we should always have a dutchman in our squad. I don’t think we need wholesale changes but a centre midfield signing just th
e one would do us. Anyway should have dealt with it last summer as in 2010. WHAT ABOUT what team we should send out in Europa.
Cedars
I’m sure Mike and King Eric will forgive me. I stuck up for them last night. Damn about to get Lynched from the entire SAF Stand.
*at Man United*
Loved Keano as a player and his kind of leadership is what we are short of right now. I never thought Roy would have turned to being a pundit and criticising players when he hated other peoples views on himself so much. Regarding Giggs as his choice as man of the match, I thought it was quite clearly Nani, apart from one superb reverse through ball to Rooney, Ryan hardly passed to his own teammates all night
NRD
I think it would like a Carling Cup approach, i.e. send out the young ones and keep the experienced lads fresh for the league……… We need them ready and fresh for no 20
Stevo – there is one thing called expressing your opinions and there is the matter of how you express them. The way you put it, frankly deserves the the flak you are getting…as someone said, learn to be thankful for what you get and ride out the rough times…
Costas
Your typos are becoming silly, enough already
Keano let the side down on numourous occassions especially in Europe e.g Madrid At home. He was playing in a better side then and was Captain so he should know better when being critical of the younger players. He is honest but can be a hypocrite. Btw Fergie made him into the player he was and gave him world class footballers to play along side. Yes it is a transition phase and Keane should recognize that. Sustained sucess is difficult to achieve and we’ve been lucky to taste it for 20 yrs. Fergie usually gets it right and the team need r support. Have to take the rough with the smooth UTD will rise again as always.
James21
Hahahaha, as long as you are not having a dig at the Stretty then I am on your side…….
DON’T you dare!
it’s well and good being optimistic and i do that well myself, i bang on about United’s youth and how they can save the club from spending loads on transfers. That is an optimistic view, probably not realistic.
Finally a football supporter is either optimistic or pessimistic, everyone reacts differently we’d all be robots if we agreed with everything and bury our heads in the sand, we’d all be putting all the problems under the carpet rather than being frank, lets all speak our minds.
I like this blog because i see different people with different views, some harsh some optimistic, i think some how we are all here hoping for the good of manchester united.
fuck the bickering, it does no good.
@MG: Friend, I am truly sorry for not being avaliable to see u in KL. Hope u had a good time. Sorry I cud not let Hayley out (live in a towm outside of KL). Yr wife may not have liked a 3some.
I hope if u do get over here in the future , I will be able to take u around. Without Hayley of course.
@CedarsDevil: Hope ur well, not needing any more injections, but giving yr personal injections, if u know what i mean. dear meg!
Hope Maya is well.
@smartalex: Nice to see u in full action on the other threads. Hope ur well in paradise.
@Costas: how is it hanging ,Greek? hope ur not tilting Euro to bankcruptcy.
@Balaji Silverman: Hows are the tittys camels in Dubai? Hope ur doing good.Say tits a hundred times, and do 5 somersaults, alakazam SHE the chef will be there. U know who!
First Europa League game will be away on February 16th. That’s followed by (a possible) FA cup 5th round game. Second leg is at OT on February 23rd.
@Cedars
Oh, come on. It was my first one today!
@Dave Malaysia
Hi mate. Good to see you here again. Hope you are well. Ah, the Euro doesn’t need me for that to happen. It’s a lost cause anyway.
It’s so hard to accept that we are in Europa League now. Even a day after the disaster.
I was gutted after Barca showed us that we aren’t even near to them in the summer, but last night I was just disappointed by what the team has done to the club.
Young or not they have the quality to beat a team like Basel.
And they didn’t perform in a single game.
Dave
Great to see you here again, where have you been?
Costas
I mean look who’s talking! haha
@stevo the club is in decline? United won the league last year… A period of transition more like it…
Cedars
No chance. Thats where I started all them years ago.
You humble me in your post on the Europa Glazer thread.
Its just the way I am, a Utd fan turned on me after Champions League defeat last season, because I was singing Utd songs after the final whistle. I was probably getting far to pissed off last night with the internal argueing that was going on. Fans on here were starting to repeat themselves. Like you I shouldn’t bother coming on during matchdays.
Slowly trying to get back to my senses. It’s been traumatic to say the least. But I’ve torn down my United-ego, accepting that we did deserve our exit from the CL. We played fantastically against Bayern the year before last, and didn’t progress, it was bitter. But this time, is just massive disappointment and disgust at the way we played, I really don’t have anything in our defense. Injuries? We’ve met equally bad ones before. Poor luck? Using that excuse too many times reduces its validity greatly.
It’s time to lift our heads, and move on with what we have to do now. Give it our all for the league. We’d be playing once a week for quite a while till the FA cup and Europa League starts. So its time to do it right. And i’m just praying it’s too long out for Vida. And we’ll do it, because if this setback and disappointment doesn’t motivate us, nothing will.
I don’t know if we’re gonna buy. But all i think there should be is that there needs to be a level playing field. Bench people when they’re needed, and start those who step up to the occasion. It shouldn’t be because i’m a big name, so i get to start.
@Cedars: lost in the mist of love with Hayley!
@Costas: Dude, save the euro!
I don’t recall having a go at you. I’ll check again. Some posters on here a disgusting thats why they get bashed others put good points across and its debated at length.
Just read some of yesterdays (If you havn’t already) and you’ll see where the likes of Cedars is coming from.
James21
Nothing to feel humbled about my good friend, like me you are just a true red…… Win, lose or draw I always sang my heart out to the last minute at every match I attended……
For me United are not just about winning, they are my fucking life
Time for dinner, @KingOfStretfordEnd ,know how u feel, I am worried about Vidic, will be back soon, to see if any news on him.
Our players are dropping like flies,wtf.
“Yes it is a transition phase and Keane should recognize that. ”
So many are saying it. The keeper is new but three of the old defence are there. If Carrick had been fit the midfield would have contained Carrick, Giggs and Park. Up front Nani and Rooney are experienced campaigners and Young, though new to United, is not a young and inexperienced footballer.
Transition? It’s a very nice word for managers to hide behind but after having been runners-up and spent 50m in the summer, we should have negotiated the group. Especially as we have the ‘white Pele’ and have ‘collectively replaced’ our most talented player/midfielder, Scholes. Arsenal and Chelsea are arguably in bigger periods of transition and have won harder groups.
But strengthen the midfield (8m gets you an Ozil, Sahin or Vidal – no more Bebe’s please) and don’t even think about pissing about in the group next season. Qualify after five games and rotate and rest on the sixth like all the other big clubs have done this season.
Cedars
I always find that if thats what you do, sing and chant when the team looses rival fans can’t get a word or remark in. If you sing loud enough you can’t hear them.
Got get back to work now mate, prob pop on later.
Do You agree?????
Dave
Regarding your love for Hayley, best I leave that for MG to reply! hahaha
As for my angel Maya, she is doing just great, thanks for asking my friend
I agree I agree! hahahahaha
Holy Trinity of RoM baby
So keano speaks the truth and good old blinkered fergie can’t take the critism!!!! Swallow your pride fergie and sort it out before it’d too late!! De gea is our number one sob play him every game, not for 2 games then rest him for 1. You never did it with van der sar
‘Swallow your pride Fergie’ ????
Just gets worse and worse
I think people are blowing this a bit out of proportion. Yes, we’re not going to win the Champions League this season. But we don’t usually win it anyway and, to be honest, Barcelona have improved more over the summer than we have. We were always something of a long shot.
Sure, we’ve lost some money. But I find it ironic that so many of us here won’t buy tickets to home games, or won’t buy club merchandise to spite the Glazers, but we lose money in the Champions League and people complain like that’s somehow different? Fuck it, we’re not going to go broke any time soon. Maybe this will wake some people up and get them to spend a few quid.
To be honest I think too many people take Champions League group qualification for granted, and to an extent maybe the players do. We did the business in Benfica, we did the business against the muppets home and away, but our home performances against Basle and Benfica were poor. Away from home in Basle, playing in that quagmire, it was always a wildcard. It was never a game we could bank on. We could bank on beating them at OT and we failed to do that. Honestly I thought the lads in Basle played extremely well, in general, couple of mistakes cost us the game, but overall they put in a hell of a shift. It’s clear Basle aren’t all that bad either. I mean not great, sure, but they defended well as a unit and took their chances, had a couple of guys who could create, certainly not the worst team in the world.
Fundamentally though, the United team needs to be strengthened. Couple of midfielders at least.
Best I piss off for a nap before my head explodes….
Laters
Nothing wrong with being in the Europa maybe even have advantages.Who knows maybe the massive over rotation folk seem to like can be transferred to that competition and our league team left in peace.
Wait and see obviously, but if it’s not Barcelona, it’s going to be Real winning it this season. I can’t see any other side coming close to those two, apart from Bayern. Imo we couldn’t tackle the two Spanish sides this season.
Is this the same Roy Keane who once said Ronaldo wouldnt make it? Said Fletcher wouldnt make it? I Just dont understand why he always targetting the youngsters when United face failured.
I agree with what Keano is saying there, but the problem is that it won’t help anyone. Ferguson knows better than to completely slam his young up and coming players.
obviously.
the young boys are not to blame AT ALL for this debacle. ALL THE OLD HEADS are to blame. We had at least 80 minutes to rescue that game All we needed was ONE GOAL. You would think the more experienced players who we are paying a shitload of money to win us games would perform. OH NO they didn’t and then they come out later in the press and say they’re embarassed.
The young boys are still young and mistakes are expected but the experienced boys have NO excuse for yesterday. As for Roy Keane I still love him as a former united great but sometimes he just has to keep shut.
Hi anyone Very sad day 4 utd 2day fair play 2 basel 2nite manchester utd are still the best in eupoure I think Rooney played ok very bad attacked very bad crosses 4 utd last nite plus the basel goalkeeper played very well utd did’t have any good luch!!!!!!!!!! When Berbo is back he will be better and Sir Alex get your head out of your asshole!!!!!!¬
Fuck Keano. There I said it. Fuck him.
With Vidic out for four months to add injury to insult this might just be a proper shocker of a season.
A quick glance in european papers and most of them are writing Sir Alex off meaning he belongs to history and that his time is over. I wonder how many times we have read and heard that over years and seen the man come back and win big time again?
“the young boys are not to blame AT ALL for this debacle. ALL THE OLD HEADS are to blame.”
Doesn’t the manager take a part of the blame? All the other big clubs had qualified before the last game. We shouldn’t have been in this position at all. The quality of the side has declined but we still should have gone through from what was a simple group. But we pissed about, chopped changed, rotated and got what we deserved by scraping a draw and losing against Bale. From runners up to the laughing stock, but the experienced players can’t take all the blame as we’ve played without flair for a while and made mistakes for most of the season. It’s not just happened overnight.
@ahjs:
of course the manager does take the blame. So whats your point?
I’ll take few years of mediocrity so United could get rid some glory hunters fan…
So what I’d missed?
@ahjs Yesterday I could only count THREE players who you could classify as young. De Gea, Jones and Smalling. the rest have had champions lge final experience. The reason why fergie filled the team with old players is because he expected them with their experience to guide us through. They did not do that. Of course they should get the blame. They are being paid a crapload of money and all tthey do is talk to the press about how they will bounce back and then perform like shit the next game. Why should fergie get the blame. There is only so much you can do as a coach you can’t go out there and suddenly make the players play like magic. His job is to get them prepared for the games. Teach them some new things. THEY are the ones who have to go out there and put those things Fergie has thought them to good use. And they didn’t do that.
Champions League is overated anyway…
Now Europa League! Bet barca never won that one, have they?
We always blame players like Evans, Fletcher,Carrick,Young,Valencia,Anderson,Berba, Even if they had a good game but We never blame Rooney who has been shit for almost 2 months.
Now I like rooney but Accept it he has been shit.
I hate fans when they say lets not play Europa league.Lets give our 100% and try to win it. Its a great chance for our young players to get some real exposure. I really feel this is Blessing in disguise for us.
We needed this kind of lesson. Young players would remember this and will give their 100% next time.
Now Sir Alex is the best manager in the world but we have to accept he has been poor this season. I am not saying he should have bought some quality Midfielder(Which he should have) but Atleast give oppurtunity to the youngsters.
I don’t mind us being trophyless for few season but that should be at some cost. Whats the point when you still depend on a 38 year old. Giggs will always be great but he cannot do week and week out. He should step down and it really pains me in saying this.
And to all those fan who just say abusive things about our team they all can fuck off. Our club don’t need fans like you.
This is the season where we should really look forward to winning the FA cup.Brick t]back the old days and develope some classy players.
WE ARE UNITED AND WE WILL NEVER DIE
The sad thing is Keane is still bitter about the way it all ended,just can’t resist taking digs and let it go
Ash, well said. I just hope some of the players, who in my eyes, are suffering from a sense of entitlement, don’t feel it’s beyond their dignity (and their riches) to give it their all in the Europa League.
@CedarsDevil – wake up dickhead!
@Dave Malaysia
Yeah. Flies, tell me about it.
Enjoy the meal mate. Took me a while to swallow anything today. Oh, this painful painful thing called football. Sometimes you wish you never fell into it, but can ya help it? I’m sounding like a jilted lover. Yikes.
Frankly speaking it would have been waste of time in qualifing to next round. Accept it we would have lost to real or barca . Lets give our youngsters chance and make them ready for big challenges next season or season after that.
I really hope english don’t win champs league this season. Chelsea were really lucky to finish top.
But at this point I don’t give a damn about other club.
I just love my club so much that I don’t give a damn about others. Like every other period of our club i will enjoy this period and support my club.
To end the rant I will say I just Love Jones and Smalling.
@Ash
Hi mate. Well I expect fans to give Rooney a free pass. We are more passionate about certain players and it’s understandable. I am biased about some players too. But how can Roy Keane sit there and blame this on the youngsters instead of players like Rooney is beyond me. What was he afraid of? That ITV won’t bring him back if he slams England’s big white hope?
@Ash
I like your statement. Enjoy this period and support my club. It’s time we focus on ourselves, accept the embarrassment, and disappointment and the flak we’ll get throughout and get behind the team.
Fuck it. I wanna win the UEFA Cup. There. That sounds better than Europa League.
I meant english clubs
There’s nothing to be said about Keano anyway. He’s a legend, but that doesn’t reduce his stupidity by any bit. I’m really proud of our young lads, and its the senior ones that deserve the flak more than anything.
I wonder what the fallout is going to be…on different fronts:
1. Financially, what does it mean for the club? What does it mean for the g-cunts?
2. Already we see top players refusing to play for United for different reasons – money, style of play, weather, etc. What does the Cl exit mean in terms of our ability to attract star power?
3. What does it mean for certain players? Seniors, juniors, doesn’t matter…but I really wonder how fergie will compose his response?
4. and what does it mean for non-playing staff? What does it mean for coaching techniques? Tactically, do we overhaul? Do we start looking for different qualities in players, when we look to add to the squad? And what does it mean for the medical and fitness team?
Any news on Rafael and Fabio’s injury? How long are they gonna be out?
Costas
.Hi mate.Completely agree with you. Being biased is OK but we have to criticize when they are to be. Rooney has been shit. He needs to stand up and lead the team. Its the time where we will know who really deserves to play for us.
KingOfStretfordEnd
Its not so bad like many are making. Lets support our team and cheer them even in UEFA Cup
Doghouse @ 12:47: “Fundamentally though, the United team needs to be strengthened. Couple of midfielders at least.”
This is the easy way out. Since CR7 left, SAF has been juggling a line-up composed of aged former-stars and kiddies, with only a few players (TheWayneBoy, MichaelCarrick, CaptainVidic, Patrice Evra, and DarrenFletcherinho) in their prime. On top of this, two of his recent signing – Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young – just aren’t good enough: not “UTD quality”.
If you take the glass-half-full view then the inclusion of DannyTheLad, Anderson (on his day !), YoungTom, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Chicharito and the always-injured Da Silvas seems like the job of making the first team younger and stronger is carrying on – but not without bumps in the road. AND, one can only be hopeful that mega-hyped youngsters like Ravel Morrison, Paul Pogba, Davide Petrucci and Ryan Tunnicliffe make their own breakthroughs in the next 18 months. For me, that’s cause for optimism – regardless of the clouds overhead.
SAF ability to weather the storm of losing so many great, great players – Scholes, RedNev, Edwin, and (despite his continued playing time), SirRyanGiggs – while continuing to win trophies and competing at the highest level has been a feat of managerial acrobatics. Obviously, he slipped off his high wire last night – and the two months before haven’t been thrilling or even entertaining. I don’t like the metaphor of a “wake up call” but the losses to Crystal Palace and Basle Young Boys has to be reason enough for a re-think for the OldFootieKnight. I wouldn’t write him off but I sure do hope that he hasn’t lost his mojo and desire to “win everything with kids”.
@theCANTONA
“of course the manager does take the blame. So whats your point?
I’ll take few years of mediocrity so United could get rid some glory hunters fan…”
My point is that blame can be spread to more than one group of players and lessons learnt. I’m sure Ferguson knows mistakes have been made (because how else do you explain such a shocking result?) and make the appropriate adjustments.
@dannysosa
Look., I don’t mean to disagree completely but if we win it’s because of the manager and if we lose it’s because of the players? It’s hardly ever that simple.
And were we prepared? We put out a midfield with a centre-back and two wingers when we’ve needed reinforcements in that area for a long time. Can you explain to me the gameplan? Where was the cohesion? Plus, we concede way too many chances for the oppositon and have done all season and putting on two strikers when we needed a goal sounds good, but we weren’t creating enough chances. It was a messy night on what’s been a messy campaign from the start.
And last night was the second time we’ve underachieved against Basel. If we had won the home game which we usually do, we would have already qualified. But we were asleep that night and that should not have happened twice.
jeet
It won’t have that much of impact on players refusing for signing For us. We still are the benchmark in english league. We are one of the giants.
We will bounce back. Sensible players who want to play football will join us and who wants to join for money will never join us even if we win champs league.
Ash @ 13:35: “Frankly speaking it would have been waste of time in qualifing to next round. Accept it we would have lost to real or barca . Lets give our youngsters chance and make them ready for big challenges next season or season after that.”
I don’t accept that logic at all – last year’s participation led to a final appearance. IF – and I know it’s a big “IF” – SAF could get this lot healthy and firing-on-all-cylinders then I don’t see why they couldn’t repeat that.
I really don’t like after-the-fact defeatism.
I agree with Wayne above, Keane is still bitter about the way he left but he’s still right. As or the squad I think Rooney, Macheda, Diouf, Gibson, Giggs, Evans and possibly Fabio should all leave this season. I really Like the look of Cavani of Napoli, he’s big, quick, excellent technique, good header, two footed, skillful and can shoot accurately from distance, another player doing the Rounds is Javi Martinez who is a big strong midfielder with excellent technique and passing ability, he can track back and chip in with goals too but I would see him as a central midfielder that commands the middle of the pitch so I would still add another playmaker and for me Modric is NOT the answer, Hazard on the other hand looks like he would be terrific if he had the freedom to be a creative playmaker. Also with Cavini in the team you could play him as a lone striker a have a 4 – 5 – 1 formation. I also think we need a left back in the mold of the little Jordi Alba who is tecnically good, quick but maybe needs to work a little defensively
I’d like to see, De Gea, Rafael, Vidic, Smalling, Jordi, Martinez, cleverly, Hazard, Nani, Young, Cavani
And we would also have a very strong bench with the likes of Jones, Hernandez, Carrick, Valencia, Welbeck etc…
Good evening Red Devils around the world,
No matter what,
Keano is not right here to criticize our young players and espeically Jonesy,
with all due respect to Keano,
it was a fitting sucker punch reply by Sir Alex..
for me, the most idealistic target is defending the league, that would be some achievment with the squad we have and the injuries we are suffering…
i have a feeling that, some of defenders will be gone, at least by the end of the season..
we have seen it Sir Alex do this many times,
i think we are on the verge to look out for someone who is hungrier, beast and gives everything like the Captain Marvel…
this group stage exit will have more say on the player’s careers by end of the season,
‘
we all know that Sir Alex is too smart to not to go into action more right away..
@Bring Back Ruud
Please explain why you think we should sell Rooney.
I should have added to my comment @ 13:54 that the real “waste of time” is the Europa League – Thursday nights before Saturday matches which is a recipe for tiredness in EPL matches. So, my suggestion would be to treat the Europa League like the Carling Cup and use it to give KikoTheKid, Amos, Morrison, Pogba, Fryers, the KeaneTwins, and Petrucci serious game time alongside veteran bench players like Dimmy, ThreeLungPark, Jonny Evans, and the under performing duo of Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia. The only one of these aforementioned players that would get first-team action in my world would be Ravel Morrison; the rest are prospects – or suspects: squaddies, has-beens, or marginals.
Hi Tommy Taylor, good to see you on here, haven’t seen posts from you for a while.
Greetings to other friends.
On the question of who Fergie should play in Europa Cup matches, he should certainly give opportunities to younger players, but he must put out strong sides and aim to win the trophy. To be brutally honest, I don’t think United have a good enough squad to win the Premiership, and we are far from having a settled side, although Fergie’s the master of winning from weak positions. (Incidentally, I wouldn’t rule out Spurs for the title, if they can keep injury free). It’s also a very tough hurdle to beat City in the FA Cup, given our depleted team – no Vidic, maybe no Cleverley, no Anderson, maybe no Hernandez, no Owen (3-4, mate) and so on, not to mention the lack of consistent form shown by too many of our players. If we’re out of the Cup, realistically our best hope of silverware is the Europa. It’s important to keep winning trophies – defeat becomes a habit – and the younger players need as much European experience as possible. It’s also vital to prevent City winning the Europa. I’m hoping they have some gruelling matches against Liverpool, with maybe some injuries to contend with. I hope we don’t have to face Hargreaves in any of these competitions, the ‘immutable law of the ex’ and all that.
One final thought. At some point United will stop being the top club in England, inevitably. It may have happened already, which is not an attack on Fergie or the players, just being realistic. Nothing lasts for ever. If we go into a period of relative decline, supporters habituated to success will have to learn to adjust. Some will melt into the night, never to be seen again, at least until United start winning again. Others may even prefer it as we’ll have shed ‘glory hunters’. But for most of us – I hope – we’ll have to find a way to deal with relative failure.. There is a lesson to be learned from watching all those jowly ex-Liverpool players over the last twenty years, lining up to say how whatever current Anfield team is out there aren’t up to it, not as good as my day etc (as with Keane last night, and maybe with Gary Nev, sadly, having taken the Sky dollar)The past rapidly becomes an albatross round the neck of current players, a constant rebuke that they are not good enough. It’s hard enough to stay at the top year after year, and United supporters have a role to play helping what could be a difficult transition.This is not an argument for fawning praise or refraining from criticism, just a plea for keeping things in perspective, especially with young players learning their trade. It’s important to get behind the team who need our support more than ever. Anxiety and nerves and negativity so quickly spread to the players, we must stay positive.
*
I meant few player careers…
and our 2nd goal is purely because of we putting all players in their half to score that rescue goal which never came..
shit happens in football,
we gotta move on,
this is the time that the club, players and every one needs fans backing…
BringBackRuud @ 13:55: Dream on, m8.
Keano was spot on with what he said last night, that wasn’t good enough for united and youngsters do need to step up and realise they have to produce top top performances in Europe. Keano should have added the established players to the list but the general jist was spot on.
Fergies response was typical fergie bite back at the accuser without addressing the fundamental problems that are afflicting the team. None more so than the inability from him/glazers to identify one maybe two top quality midfielders and buy them. What is it now 5 years since we bought a central midfielder!! Last night a 19yr old center half and a veteran 38 yr old in central midfield, says it all really.
Fergie has muddled on and got away with it for 5 years mainly on the back of Scholsey enduring class and Ronaldos goals. Since Ronaldo left and Scholsey this season the gap has become so alarming that the time for action must come, buy buy buy.
Fergie deserves to go out in a blaze of glory in a champions league final and therefore we need world class players-quick fixes because where im sitting were light years behind the likes of barca, real, munich, city.
Sir Giles,
excellent post,
my idea to deal with relative failure is simple and it works on the principle,
“success and failure are part and parcel of life..”
this will be the biggest test for we true fans and thats where the character and the attitude plays a key role..
not worrying one bit about glory hunters,
we have enough real fans to go through the toughest period on Manchester United in the recent history..
cant imagine life without supporting, loving and following UNITED like a religion,
its bed in deep in our mentality, the true fans will remain here no matter how long a barren period we might have to face..
#############
Regarding your comment on we should be aiming to win Europa..
I agree, but for one reason or other, our tactics havent even worked to 50% in Europe,
that is worrying me a bit,
and as MG said it ysterday, we have done the suicide by drawing the games from winning position in Europe, which is punishable and thats what happened…
Defending the league would be some achievment if we do it…
and we should not face anymore inuries, otherwise we have very less chance of winning silver this season,
come hell or high water, we are with UNITED..
We will keep the red flag flyin high
Coz Man United will never die
Manchester United
@kanchelskis
If Real Madrid are serious and offer 60 mill for him then we should bite thier hands off. Rooney peaked a long time ago now, lets not kid ourselves. He’s 26 and his game has gone backwards in many respects
He’s more hype than substance and he attracts far to much attention from the media which is never good for this club. Fergie should have done a Beckham with Rooney. It was a mistake in letting him stay.
He’s over rated and does NOT earn the money or respect he gets as a player, he’s streaks behind the true footballing elite and I’m not buying into him anymore
I’ve had enough of him and his hollywood passing attempts which most of the time just look pathetic, or what about the chips on the keeper he attempts with zero success since Portsmouth in the F.A cup about 5 years ago
I could go on and on
Keane was a great player, but if he thinks Giggs was our best in this match, that only shows what a poor judge of others he is. I honestly thought Giggs was pants in this match. In his defence, it may have been rust rather age, since he has barely been used recently, but whatever the reason, his performance was one to forget.
Nani was probably our best. But what the fuck has happened to our ability to put crosses in? Our crosses are fucking horrible. They go the wrong places, at the wrong angles, wrong elevations, and wrong pace. And with our emphasis on using wide men (a policy that greatly weakens either our central midfield or our striking force), we must put in crosses that cause trouble — that give us opportunities. Right now, we are lucky if one or two crosses create good chances in an entire match (and even luckier if we can put them away). And I don’t just mean crosses from open play, but from corners and set plays too.
Giggs was fucking terrible as per usual nowadays, anyways i haven’t got the energy because i made my points clear last night on where i think we need to fix but unfortunately millions of others feel the same.
@Giles, Excellent post as usual! My ideal to deal with failure is to tell myself, “It is just a fucking sport.” I know that sounds like bollocks but that is what I always do. I look to other things in life like King Eric’s expected arrival or other fortunes in life. That is how I got through 2001-2006 which is when I had started supporting United (in that same time I had to watch my country get fucked in the WC final as well). I never lose 0.1% of the love I have for club or country and never stop watching matches. But when things don’t go the way of the team I support is when I truly realize there are bigger things in life than sports. That is how I get through any period of failure and it has always worked for me.
Keano was spot on. Must have touched a nerve with Fergie for him to have a dig at a club legend and true Red like Keane.
Our Champions League campaign was a massive failure, so what’s wrong with another failure giving his expert insight? I guess that’s why the top pundit on Channel 5′s Europa League coverage is Stan Collymore. It’s very fitting.
For all those who are busy blaming Fergie and want him to be sacked, I’m sure you wouldn’t even be United fans had it not been for this mans genius. He’s the reason Manchester United are the biggest club in the world, he’s the reason all of you were celebrating title number 19. He’s the reason Manchester United is the club that it is today. So if there is one man who could fix all of this and turn it around, it’s Sir Alex Ferguson. Yes he’s made his share of mistakes, but who doesn’t make mistakes? And mark my words, he will make sure this exit is erased from our minds sooner rather than later. In Fergie I trust.
Most alarming to me last night was the lack of passion and urgency regardless of personnel.
Keane every right to air his thoughts if you ask me (cracking response from the manager though)
Roy would not have been a puppet to the Glazers as it appears everyone at the club needs to be these days, obvious to everyone in World football our engine room has looked very lightweight for a while now and only so much of the no value shite we can swallow.
Having said that some fans responses to a set back such as this are comical but myself I will happily take a year or 2 of rebuilding and I am sure the managers has a plan.
“Thursday nights before Saturday matches which is a recipe for tiredness in EPL matches”
It will be Thursday before Sunday and United are well used to midweek games. I know Spurs have treated the competition badly but they have little experience managing both Europe and the league. I would like to see a pretty strong lineup in the cup unless we have a particularly tough, important league fixture in which case that takes priority. The Europa League (or Uefa Cup as someone mentioned earlier, which sounds a lot better) is a competition we’ve never won so it would be nice to tick that box. And you can bet Mancini will take it seriously because winning it will improve City’s coefficient in next season’s CL, so stopping City from winning a European trophy would be OK, too.
And if this is a team in transition as so many have said, the youngsters need to get used to winning away (and at home it seems) against European opposition.
There is grain of truth to what Keano and Evra said – they are some players in the squad who are just happy to be playing for United and who are not ambitious enough to want to win the CL and EPL. The new signings career high point is joining United. They need to focus on beating top teams and winning trophies which they have no experience of doing.
Personally, I have to admit this a pretty damn poor team as it stands by United standards and I have see very little we fight to the death and the last minute. Really missed VDS yesterday. Rooney also needs to get scoring. Young is just going down by the day. Nani in a team with movement and intelligent swapping of positions would be lethal.
It is embarrassing to be n the Europa Cup. This team is just no clicking.
Re criticism of SAF the team should have won – they have no excuse, hard to blame the manager for that they just lacked a cutting edge in front of goal. What happened to Nani ans Young pile drivers? Giggs and Evra were the only ones showing urgency.
Is Costas around? I need his prediction for the PAOK v Atromitos Athinon game this weekend.
How dare Fergie insult Keano by the way. The man dragged his team from the depths of despair and ensured united would win the treble and seal Fergie’s legacy, how many of those players last night stepped up? Thought so Sir Alex.
KR – agreed. Keane was well and truly “booched” by Fergie here, but the boss was in no position to talk. People who live is glass houses and all that.
Everyone knows I love Keane, but Fergie’s response was a telling one lol. Keane wasn’t saying, the young lads are shit and won’t make it. He give an honest assessment of United’s champions league campaign. Which was, not good enough for a United team. It’s probably where we’re at, though. The issues are bigger, than what Keano has to say. We all know what they are. On top of departing CL, we’ve got major worries on the injury front. Me and Costas don’t agree on the reasons, why we’re suffering these injuries. But it’s becoming a real concern. Vidic out is a fucking disaster. Rio is injury prone himself. He has to stay fit, if we’re seriously gonna overtake the bitters. ps if Fergie pulls off title number 20, he deserves another Knighthood!
Och, who’s that wee cunt to talk to me about fitba? I’m the manager of a top Europa League side.
Fred – bingo.
Denton
Waste of time is not the right word but Comparing to last season is not correct. I know we could have defeated Barca but again it would have been too much to do that.
We faced marseille ,Chelsea and shalke to qualify for finals. Only one(Chelsea) was a tough one and rest were easy opponents so we made to finals.
This time if we had qualified we would have faced Barca, Real ,Bayern Inter or APOEL. Inter and Apoel would have been easy. We would have been underdogs against the other three.
Europa cup should be used for building the youngsters and not play Giggs and parks.
“we could have defeated Barca”? “Inter and Apoel would have been easy”?
Oh Ash.
We were beaten fair and square by FC Basel last night. We couldn’t beat them and we couldn’t beat Benfica. We made hard work of Otelul Galati FFS. What planet are you living on?
@Fred
Oh, a tricky one. I’ll go with a PAOK win.
Okay we need to put this into perspective.
People are disapointed and rightly so but its not the end of the world. Disapointment is part and parcel of being a football fan, we man utd supporters dont have to feel the pain that often but i suppose thats what makes it all the more painfull when we do experience it.
People blaming SAF are right to do so, ultimatley as manager, the buck stops with him. SAF is probably the greastest manager of all time but that does not make him infallable. He makes mistakes, none so more evident than last night when a lackluster campaign came crashing to an end. SAF was too complacent in this years competition, sending out weakend sides in earlier games. whilst we are used to seeing this it is usually at the end when the group is already won. This complacency cost us dearly but also highlighted the biggest mistake SAF has made in recent years. ask any united fan and they will tell you….. the midfield.
Gone are the days when we could boast having the beat midfield in the world when the likes of keane and scholes formed the best midfield pairing ive ever seen. while giggs wing wizardry was complimented by beckhams hardwork and excellent cross. these days are long gone.
Ask any football fan and they will tell you that uniteds midfield is just not good enough anymore.
Last night we had a center half and two wingers playing in midfield, this just isnt good enough. Injuries and suspentions aside the personel at our disposal is just is not up to united standard.
Anderson and cleverly – i rate and work well together, they looked good at the start of the season but remain unproven. Carrick – has had some good form lately but is not dynamic enough, especially playing in a two man midfield. Fletcher – love they guy, united through and through but again not good enough. Gibson – gets far too much stick, he is not the worst player. we all know he is not good enough and its only a matter of time before he moves on. Jones, Park, Rooney are not midfielders and Giggs is 38!! Which brings me to the youth players coming through. there is nobody coming through. Morrisson, Tunicliffe and Pogba have potential but are far way from the first team let alone playing at the standard needed to reassert ourselfs in the midfield department. Any body that calls for Pogba to play in the first team does not watch reserve matches because if you have seen him play this season you will know he is far from ready.
We need new blood. Who will it be? i dont know, thats another disscussion but what i do know is that if we sold carrick, fletcher, gibson, park, diouf and owen i would not be disapointed.
We need to invest in our squad, we still have some excellent players at the club some great young players. some tweeking with the squad and we could be right back up there.
The question is do we have the money to invest, probably not in january as SAF does not usually tend to buy players then but in the summer? only the glazers can answer that question.
Since the glazers took over the club they have invseted in players at the same rate as before. the problem is other clubs spending has grown.
united went from an average of 9.5 million per season net spent to 8.5 million.
chelsea went from an average of 7.5 million to 48.5 million.
city went from an average of 3.5 million to 78.5 million.
It appears we cannot compeate, maybe this is just something we will have to get used to but some more investment is needed to improve our squad so we dont fall behind in the prem let alone europe where the powerhoses of madrid and barca look unbeatable.
All in all it may look bleak today but dont forget we are united and there is still trophys to play for this season. we are very much still in the running for number 20 and still in the fa cup.
I am an optimist by nature but i cannot get away from the fact that united are not as good to watch in the last couple of years as im used to. lets hope that SAF can work his magic yet again and bring the fantasy back to manchester united.
Thanks Costas.
@Fred
WE might have rediscovered the form of early season in the month of february and march but like I said Its too much to ask when you say can beat barca.
Everything does not remain same. We won’t be like this in every game.
At this point we can;t beat Barca or real or even bayern
Neptune Fred?
Ash, you are living on cloud nine not another planet. What are you smoking to make you think we could touch Barca or Real? I said it a few weeks ago that i think we’d get beat by an aggregate score of possibly 5 or more if we played them and United have done NOTHING since then to prove otherwise and now we’re playing in the ITV4 cup.
some people are saying Europa league is a shame and evra saying that it is an embarrassment but do you think that last night night performance and our whole group stage display is good enough to win Europa Legaue? fuck no…
A decent team in europa league will have no trouble beating Manchester United at the moment because they don’t feel afraid and inferior. I think even smaller clubs in EPL would fancy their chances whether playing home or away…
I’m not sure how many wake up call do we need, CL final defeat last year, Shitty demolishing, and now this… I know all success are because Sir Alex but he cannot be too stubborn and have to realize that our current squad are not even good enough to compete with the likes of benfica and basel let alone Barca, Real, Milan, Bayern etc… those big clubs will give us a proper rape i’m sure…
I tell you what if it wasn’t for Vidic or Nani we’d be well and truly out of the league right now to put it blunt. I’m convinced Nani is the best winger in the world and Vidic, well he might be the best defender we’ve ever had and when he went down you just knew Jonny ‘what are you doing son’ Evans came on we weren’t coming out of there with a result.
When Vida plays Rio raises his game, they are just a perfect partnership and i’ll praise Sir Alex for that but i won’t praise the fact we had Jones and Giggs in CM – two players in their unnatural positions.
aimanunited, thing is alot of people will call you a bad supporter but in actuality all you’re doing is being realistic and not living on another planet or having your head shoved up your arse.
It’s a mere fact that United aren’t nowhere near what they were from 08 and yes we’ll get destroyed by the european big boys home and away.
Dave Malaysia @ 11:52 – spot on mate.
__
Im surprised by Keane’s comments, but not the managers response. Keane is more than welcome to his opinion but singling out our young players seems more like defending the older lads. Keane needs to be honest and look at our extremely experienced star player. It was ROONEY who led the line for 90 mins and he was ineffective for the whole bloody game. Of course we should’ve had the group wrapped up before now, but qualification was STILL in our hands and we blew it on the night, lets not hark back to previous CL results when a DRAW against mighty Baselona would’ve seen us through (FFS).
Im not bashing Rooney for the fuck of it, but surely HE should be the immediate talking point following our exit and not the bloody midfield or transfer window or whatever? All the bollocks I’ve read on here about other players, lets not bury our heads with Rooney’s performance aye? We can’t escape the fact our *main player* was poor on the night and as such the rest of his season should be judged honestly and brutally.
Lets be real, despite demanding world class contracts Rooney won’t exactly be leading our line when he’s Drogba’s age, and that doesn’t say much when our lad is nearly 10 years younger does it? A five year contract is a long time and Rooney has made it all about money, so United as a Club have to be sure his weekly wages are never better spent elsewhere. If we sold him next summer there isn’t a striker in the world we couldn’t attract or afford, and Wayne can only blame himself if fans and supporters look at him in those terms.
Sometimes we play brilliantly, but when we don’t we need our match winners to step up. Theres nothing wrong with playing average and winning thanks to a world class striker, thats what Champions rely on when overall form dips. But the thing is we’ve been creating enough chances to score a lot more than we have done since City, and the responsibility for that has to rest with our star man Wayne Rooney. Theres no doubt, when he’s class he’s world class, but on nights like last night his overall contribution can be as pathetic as blind commentators praising him.
Our only attacking player worth praising was NANI imo, he kept tracking back for the team and still posed our biggest threat going forward. He’s fit as a fiddle and it shows, so forget all the bollo about Wayne being third best in the world, not while he’s inconsistent, out of shape and smoking fags he isn’t. Its become really trendy to downplay Tevez and his constant efforts off the ball no matter what Club he plays for, but THAT is the same determination that allows Barca to run everybody ragged including us. Pique “hardly defends” at Barca because his whole team fights for the ball whenever they don’t have it, and they all do it without fail, so much so we wouldn’t be surprised if they we’re all on drugs. Rooney looked a washed up striker over 30 last night, not a young man in his prime. If we play a lone striker who doesn’t fight for the ball at every opportunity, whats the fucking point exactly?
Just look at Welbeck. He was putting defenders under pressure as soon as he came on and perhaps thats because he doesn’t smoke fags and he’s actually fit to give his all for the Club? IDK, all I do know is far more effort was needed from Rooney for a huge game and he didn’t deliver. Its not like he wasn’t fit either, he’s had more games and less injuries than all our other strikers minus Kiko, but I don’t remember one occasion where he snatched back possession for himself, ran at goal and took a shot. Thats not too much to ask from our resident third best in the world is it? Course its not.
Its almost as if Rooney’s been reading RoM and spent the entire match WAITING for a killer midfield pass with his hand on his hip. He didn’t pose a real threat to the Basel defenders passing the ball around him because he wasn’t closing them down like Danny did for the last 30 minutes, or like Tevez does every single time you see him. To make it worst, it was Rooney who lost the ball trying to dribble out from our end, and THAT led to the second goal when we we’re looking very likely to equalise, lest we forget.
If Nani made the same school boy error im sure Keane would’ve commented on it loudly, and likewise, if Rooney had HALF the match Nani had im sure the Scouser would be singled out for praise as well. Lets just cut all that pretentious shit out aye? Blaming the youth and new signings for this defeat is a cop-out when Wayne was our spearhead who let chances go begging. He was blunt and useless last night, simple as, and fair enough De Gea made an early mistake for the first but thats when you rely on your best players to make use of the EIGHTY mins left. Alex was right to trust that team and he was let down, starting with Rooney first and foremost.
Our self-professed best player has no right to lose the ball outside his own box in the dying minutes of the game, and in hindsight I would’ve preferred Nani and Welbeck starting in an advanced position and Rooney remaining in midfield. He was woeful as a lone striker, and we can’t blame midfield for that, or even Alex Ferguson. We only needed one goal all match, and our team selection WAS strong enough to equalise. Unfortunately, Rooney missed our best chance in the first half, plus, thanks to him losing possession in the second half, by the time Jones got the goal we wanted it was too late to even DRAW.
We’ll match on, and im pleased to read Rio downplay Pat’s comments about Europa (which im looking forward to tbh) but lets not sweep Rooney’s performance under the rug. He had a great season when we lost the title, then he suddenly demanded more money. Fair play in the modern game I guess, but if he has a shit season this year do we sell him or what? Fair is fair right? I hope he returns to his form of two seasons ago for his sake as well as ours. He’s the most senior striker we have by a mile, and he can’t afford not to perform with so many exciting and proven strikers out there, starting with Welbeck and Hernandez and going right the way up the transfer wish list.
Channel 5s viewing figures will go through the roof, I bet everyones looking forward to Pat Nevins expert analysis on United
Last week I said “We are inbetween the cycle of the champions of 2006-11 & a transition stage” Similar to the stage we was at in 2003.
This destruction of attacking,defensive ability in the past 3 months is proof now we are in full transition and SAF is building a new squad that needs experience like the sides of 2003-06. I don’t care how long we go on this bad form, as long as the end product is Manchester United playing like Manchester United.
Trophies are nice, but to gain that kind of instant sucess we need tor rebuild.We are 50% Through this phase. Great teams come in cycles, ours passed in 2010 and experience & grit dragged us last year to 19.
We have lost great players recently. The experience heads need to be kept or we’ll end like arsenal completely, we are yet to find the right blend.
Its not a crisis it called rebuilding and creating new teams, which SAF is fantastic at, we have the right man for the job, we have to find the right balance like we did in 2006 which lasted 5 years till now. I hope the fairweather fans do fuck off now.
We can still win the league but the real fans will apear for Europa cup. I am not worried by our team. Saf will put things right. This is not bad form, no need to sugarcoat this donut, the squad needs to get match fit, gain experience, pull up their pants and we need signings as usual of course to help,
Look at the Carrick signing, he was the last piece to the jigsaw. We are in process of putting together the pieces of our puzzle still, the team of 99,08 etc was not built in one season but many years.
I will wait for my club to silence the critics again, whether thats in 6 months or 6 years, its worth every second.
Things could be worse, be grateful, we are blessed.
We use this as motivation?
After losing to Barcelona in the Champions League did we use that as motivation to beat them the second time? NO.
The second time we lost to Barcelona in the Champions League we didn’t even use that as motivation to reach the final this time.
What is the motivation going to be used for since it seems that our motivation doesn’t last very long?
Our team lacks a hero this season. Brilliant players but no one can seem to finish anymore.
Sorry for the rant. I feel sickened by our defeat.
KR
When did I Say we can beat Barca or real or any other team. Don’t just comment for the sake of commenting. I said in my earlier post that if we had qualified it would have been waste of time as we would have been beaten.
Read the comments properley and then comment.
The positives for the Europa cup? Blood the kids. Gives Fergie that chance, at least.
I cannot believe how deluded so many of you are on here.
This team is not exceptional. This team is not grand. this team is not good enough to compete with Europe’s elite.
I don’t even want to think about the outcome of us facing Barca, Real, or Bayern in the later stages. We’d of been trounced.
Scraping 1-0 wins against average prem league teams is a different task than competing with the big boys in Europe.
Aside from Rooney and Nani we had no match winners, creative spark, proper skill, drive, or ambition on the pitch last night.
Take off the red glasses for a minute and look at the team. We are not as strong as we once were. End of story.
I forgot to say lads? Rooney got his ban reduced to 2 games! Isn’t that great news?
@Paul Parker
You seem to have a big agenda against Mr Rooney sir.
Rooney did not play well last night but how many did?… I can only remember Giggs reverse pass as the single creative pass coming from the midfield all night.
I get you point you are criticising Rooney because of the wages he earns but what about players such as park for example?… Very experienced player who was what can only be described as a ghost last night.
We can all single players out but remember there is no ‘I’ in team!
Apparently going out could cost the club £20 million.. :\
as fans we don’t know the ins and outs of the club..
according to Paddy Crerand, Nasri was ours until his agent wanted more money etc.
so I won’t bash the club for not trying to sign a creative midfielder in the summer..
but it may be a good option in January… the only issue of course is that we are in the Europa League
-___-
that hurts typing it Ouchh..
alternatively if Cleverly and Anderson get injured again he should maybe promote from the reserves.. im sure some more solid game time for Pogba and Morrison will be beneficial..
===
I don’t think we are lacking in other areas.. in the middle that SUCKS at the moment..
Hopefully when players come back from injury and form we’ll be alright!!
COME ON UNITED
Europa League should be the Carling Cup team.
Average age should be 22, there or there abouts.
Seniors let the shirt down last night, simple as. But that said, you win and you loose some.
Hope this is another wake up call. Not sure I am agreeing that we need to go out an buy a big name as that just has too much Berba bashing in it for me. Do hope we can get some of our talent back on the pitch (Cleverley, Twins). Injury table isn’t pretty reading at the moment.
Out: Vidic, Hernandez, Rafael, Fabio, Berbatov, Anderson, Owen, Cleverley. Throw in our 8M winger Bebe and it just about sums up the state of our physio room at the moment….. Crocked.
Hope the youngsters and Giggs can put something together to get a smile back on the kisser.
Love United, really really not best pleased with the ownership at the moment.
Come on you REDs!
KR, the definition of a good supporter varies between fans, but all i know is that I love united not less than anybody in this forum. When united lose to shitty, I tell myself that I will not watch united’s next match because it cause me pain and also because here at australia, united game are always late at night or early in the morning and as a uni student, I have to focus on my study as well.
But I cannot hold myself from watching united no matter what time the game is and so I stay up late even during my final exam, I watched all the games be it EPL, CC, CL and internationals that involve united players.
I acknowledge that most players signed by Sir Alex has potential to be quality but the main problem here is consistency. we all knew what they’re capable of early this season but since then they’ve i don’t know what happened. Injury is one thing but a big club like united and with fergie’s experience should have a way to cope with it.
And back to consistency topic, we have far too many players that struggle to find their best form, I’m not talking about two, three games here but for months. The most noticable surely is our Mr Ambition, he should be the one who carry the team and as a striker, only goals can prove his worth.
Every big club has at least one player that you can turn to in difficult times. RVP for arsenal, gerrard/suarez for liverpool, lampard/drogba for chelsea, while shitty, real, barca have a lots of great players. I know we can’t just buy any players like them but we’re still one of the big club in Europe.
wayne has done it occasionally but its not enough. I don’t care if people labelled us as a one man team because that one man makes million pounds a month and he should pay back the trust. And regarding our youngsters policy, I somehow can understand what keano is saying, there’s too much hype on pogba, morrison, clev etc when they’ve done very little. This week we can see Barca youngsters hammer BATE 4-0, they played exactly like their 1st team but why nobody talked about that? i bet our first team will struggle to beat BATE while our youngsters can’t even beat crystal palace…
Think there’s criticism on here ? Just as well you don’t frequent Manutd.com the clubs official site
Alom – £20 million? Oh dear. Ticket prices will be hiked up again and there’ll be no transfer funds for the next two years.
Many here seem to think Europa is easy….no way Jose, this tournament is hard, it maybe on chanel 5 & ITV and 2nd to CL but it has quality teams that can turn us over easily like Basel did.
We was no threat to basel for large parts, these teams are basel equivalents or is that us ?
Anyways, Athletic Bilbao + Anderlecht will be our biggest challengers apart from City,Spurs (?).
“If you can’t support us when we’re losing & drawing, you sure as hell better fuck off when we’re winning” //// My mates great status on FB ////
aimanunited
I completely agree with what you say about Rooney. He need to lead the team and not play like shit.
But I also somewhat Blame Sir alex for his poor form. Playing in Midfield was the biggest mistake .
No more experiments with the squad please. The only experiment that has somewhat worked is Jones in Midfield.
As far as financial loses goes. We will lose some money for not qualifying but It won’t have longtime impact. We are still a Top club having fans globally.
Mate if we are having to worry about teams such as Bilbao and Anderlecht then we really should be worried!
FFS!
So rooney got his match ban for england reduced, is that supposed to be some sort of consolation for united getting knocked out? rooney will be poor as usual at the euro’s, he’ll get the blame and england will get their asses whopped.
I for one am lookin forward to a Thursday European away night.
Ajax away would be ideal.
Some good points made on here but the main thing is surely now, as GO says- sin your hearts out for the lads.
We may be in decline. We may be in transition. We may not hit these celestial heights for a while. We may return to them next season. The only person who can answer these questions with any clarity comes from Glasgow and has had a sword dipped on each of his shoulders by Queen Betty. If it’s euphoria or euthenasia then he’s the man to guide us to salvation.
Nothing ever lasts forever but as long as the second you see red shirt, white shorts, black socks it still makes you feel like you’re a child again then all is not lost.
Hit me Fergie one more time.
Oh, and John Terry is a CUNT.
Come in United!
Hate to tell you all, I told you so.
Our disappointment will be compounded, when Benfica and Basel get turfed out in the second round. I’m cheering the old men of Meeeeeeelan!
Was reading a few articles and did not like Bosnich criticising De Gea-he is probably one of the last few people that gets to have a go at the young keeper!
What really pissed me off about Rooney’s performance last night was his England-esque approach to our must-win game. Be half-hearted for your country if you want pal, no skin off my nose, but don’t fuck about when its Manchester United.
He’s world class on his day but he didn’t look like a world beater trying to keep his Club in Europe, he looked over-rated and worse of all, half-arsed.With strikers injured we can’t exactly drop him but for the love of God lets lead the line with Danny or Nani next time Roo flops in a 4-5-1.
He’s not the same player who led our line 2 seasons ago. THATS the player who eventually demanded more money for his prolific goalscoring, and I wouldn’t complain if he’d been consistent but he’s been stop and start since securing more money.
And for the record nobody can blame the delivery. For all the crosses Nani put in from the first whistle big bad Welbeck should’ve been fighting to get on the end of them. Rooney didn’t contest anything in the air all night and thats exactly what you expect from a lone-striker.
He’s put the onus on himself by breaking our pay structure in a ruthless manner so I for one wouldn’t bat an eye if Alex responded in kind and sold him. Rooney really needs to step up this season, he’s not just another young talent he’s supposed to be the best striker in England at the minimum.
He hasn’t been consistent over 20 odd games so far, and bar a spectacular goal and celebration he wasn’t the best striker in the league last season either. He better not make this a habit as United will simply (and dramatically) move on. Plenty more raw talent where he came from.
I refuse to blame one player for a team performance, but I have to say Rooney was aweful as a lone foward for a reason
1- He is an oaf that doesn;t have the disicpline for such a role
2- He likes to drop deep
3- He is not a poacher, Chico would have scored all of his chances, even the offside one.
4- Rooney hasn’t played lone foward since Bayern Munich.
I said a few days ago, I’d have him over Messi and Ronnie, I stick by it, one bad game for Mr Ambition doesn’t make him rubbish and unambitionless.
Welbeck is a BEAST !
This is the problem with some fans, they still fail to acknowledge the incapabilities of this current team.
coming out with several excuses will only make these players continue on this horrible road to no where. some of these players have reached the end as great players, they’ll not roll out great performances like you’d think because most of them have lost the hunger or in other cases, just not good enough.
Evra, rio, park e.t.c have all played well in the past and had successes but they aren’t fired up for matches anymore, their experience is worthless because they’ve become unreliable, they can’t guide these young players when they themselves aren’t playing up to the standards required. These guys need to moved on, perhaps gradually but if they stick at the club then you’ll continue to witness inconsistent performances.
Glory, glory-hunter mania!
Glory, glory-hunter mania!
Glory, Hunter, Glory, glory hunter mania!
but truth is marching on.
Hundreds of infrequent posters emerge only when our underbelly is exposed. Any chance to deride Sir Alex is compulsively snatched up, as overkill explodes with pent up frustration. So long they wait, often years pass between opportunities as the great man exceeds expectation at every turn. When United seem momentarily on their knees with crippling injuries and poor results, the inherently anti-SAF scuttle to the fore.
Stamp the fuckers out!
We should not play in white kit.It has been very unlucky for us.
hey smartalex, go fuck yourself.
just because people dont post on here that often doesnt mean they dont read the blog all the time and they have just as much of a right to their opinion, even if you dont agree with it.
Are you suprised that people are looking for a forum to air their fustrations?
Clint
How ya doing pal? Love your mates status!
Problem with welbeck is that annoying recurrence of hamstring pulls, cant get consistent amount of games up front.
You can see he is ideal for a lone striker, he has the drive and determination of a real manchester united player, he has the quality to match and will hopefully transform into a world class player, if he never had that injury against arsenal then hernandez would struggle to get back in the team simply because welbeck is a better all round striker.
As for rooney, i think he cares more about being a legend for england than for united (why am i Suprised, he is a scouser that only cares about his pay cheque) i’d imagine his satisfaction at getting those bans reduced but that may well become worthless because england will struggle to get out of that group, the fans don’t give a fuck about him, shown by the abuse he got at the last world cup. so mr wayne rooney, you’re fooling yourself for thinking england care about you.
Cor the language on here.
Smartalex
Behave yourself.
fitz’em’good’n'tight
Over-react, much?
What the hell are you saying? Do you think I was singing to you?
Why would you think that?
I’m not “suprised that people are looking for a forum to air their fustrations”
I well remember quality comments from you in the past.
I was singing about people that comment only when they see a chance to deride Sir Alex.
Their United experience seems to revolve around ending Sir Alex’ victorious reign.
James21, was that polite enough?
Keep an eye on me buddy, and thanks for being a calming influence!
Fergie out!!!
smartalex – sorry man that was defo a bit of an over-reaction!!!
but i just hate the way sometimes peoples opinions are shot down on this site.
you and i might think people who want fergie out are crazy but im sure them people exist and although i think they are dead wrong, those people are out there.
Fergie back in!!
Personally I disagree with the philosophy of playing youngsters in the Europa League. If we get knocked out early, then we’ll have to spend the next 4 seasons trying to make up for this season’s fiasco in the Uefa rankings, as it was the case after the 2005 exit. But at the end of the day it might come down to what happens in the FA cup and the Premiership. If things go from bad to worse there, I think Fergie will play his strongest teams in Europe.
Mike, im good mate, I’ll take credit for that status from now on
Fergie out bring in that whore from black eyed peas ..Fergie if im correct ?
Fergie in and out!
Anyone who has an interest in corruption, collusion, conspiracy and general match-fixing in football, please take a look at this: http://www.101greatgoals.com/does-dinamo-zagreb-defender-domagoj-vidas-wink-prove-the-lyon-game-was-fixed/120021/
““I know they were playing against ten men but I’ve also heard some of the goals were very easy. If something strange has happened, we can still prove it.” – Ajax coach Frank de Boer.
Group D of the Champions League witnessed an incredible turnaround on Wednesday night and in the aftermath questions have been asked whether all was 100% kosher.
Lyon’s incredible 7-1 win in Dinamo Zagreb and Ajax’s 3-0 home defeat to Real Madrid meant the French team secured a spot in the knockout stages by virtue of a +2 better goal difference.
The Ligue 1 side were all but written off going into the final matchday and had only scored two goals in the previous five matches in the group. And it took a crazy swing for Ajax to be shunted out of the second automatic qualifying spot.
Specifically, suspicions that Zagreb simply rolled over for Lyon were raised from the fifth goal scored by Lisandro Lopez.
Incredibly, as can be seen in the picture above and on the video below, Dinamo Zagreb defender Domagoj Vida winks at Lyon striker Bafetimbi Gomis and also gives him the thumbs up just after he picks the ball out of the net.
At first, this seems like a conspiracy theory, but the evidence is pretty damning.”
Keane: “Youll never win anything with THESE kids.”
SAF: “Phil, please eat the pundit”
Sign that stocky bastard, Shaqiri!
well i hope we score against wolves. not onerous i think.
about the whole huge debate raging.. its not worth commenting on
we’re bang out of form.. when a 38 year old winger is transformed into a CM and then becomes the single most creative influence in the side you know they’re struggling…
its not so bad.. we might not win anything this year but there’s always hope
the hope however rests on our players getting through games without being strechered off every now and then
@samuel : great posts all of them.. great read..
http://www.redcafe.net/f7/lyon-game-fixed-344969/#post10846880
The kids will play some part in the Europa cup. They’ll have to, with the injuries, we’re sustaining. No doubt Fergie will target the FA cup and league. That game with city, looks even bigger now!
Vidic is a huge loss.
I doubt that Jones can play effectively beside an aging Rio that can’t control his defence.
Evans is no angel either, I have geuine concerns about his confidence.
He;s not like Carrick,Scholes,Rio etc to be able to shrug off criticism.
Vidic is a massive loss to our poor defence.
A defence of; Rio + Evans is dodgy because neither can drive foward, but their experience is key. Smalling + Jones are still babies.
Smartalex
I’ll calm anyone down if I can. But I enjoy reading your posts and the way you and the Devil hunt.
I can’t believe some of the comments and the Internal bickering. Some of the lads have made valid points and well worth a debate. However some arse holes come on here and spew such negativity with comments like ‘Fergie has lost it’ ‘Sack Evans, Berba, Gibson and Owen’ then you never hear from them again until we next loose or draw. Tut Tut, shocking.
I do my shouting at the games after enjoying a few warm Singah’s.
fitz’em’good’n'tight
No problem buddy, it wasn’t that bad really.
Anyone who wants Sir Alex out is by definition a glory hunter. Rather than love a club, they love winning. They would change clubs if necessary, or change any aspect of their current club to increase their street-cred earning. They claim that wanting fundamental change is in the best interests of the club, but it rings hollow, as they only care about the glory that they get when we win.
With regard to “opinions are shot down on this site”, may I add:
- If an opinion can’t fly, it is target practice in a football forum.
- Much of the time, it is not the opinion that attracts harsh responses, but the tone.
i hope we give some sort of a reaction against wolves..
‘ll be glad with any reaction as long as it isn’t losing or drawing.
Sir Giles … excellent posts. I agree we must try our best to win the the Europa.
I had already steeled myself for a barren season this year. Long ago, I bought into the idea that the squad would be in transition between generations, and that this would be achieved by bringing younger players through the ranks. And I think when you buy into something like that, you have to accept that the transition will take some time and that you probably won’t stay right at the top throughout that period. The trick, I think, is to stay within reaching distance of it — say, in the top 4 domestically. I actually expected last season would be unsuccessful and was surprised that we won the PL and reached the CL final.
The only players who came out fo the game with any credit were Nani, Rio, and for the brief time he was on, Welbeck. The rest were very poor.
A lot has been said about Rooney that I agree with. He was shocking….not the missed chances, coz that happens to anyone (although Fergie’s comments that we failed with our fisnishing will have been majorly aimed at him). But his all round game was diabolical. I disagree that he’s not suited to the lone striker role….coz he plays that role extremely well…but when he’s ON FORM. When playing one up top, the lone forward needs to be on top of his game. I thought after his performance at the weekend, Rooney was back on song but clearly not. In hindsight…Welbeck could’ve led the line and Rooney could’ve played on the left (would’ve been a damn sight better than Young).
Also…Giggsy seemes to have some sort of immunity with pundits and fans alike. He’s an absolute GOD….but I am getting fuckin sick of him starting games and putting in these Ando-esque performances. Constantly attempting Hollywood passes, his ball retention is poor. A few good passes and dribbles doesn’t mean anything……..coz he’s not a winger any more. Wingers can afford to put in 9 poor crosses and then one brilliant one. CENTRAL MIDFIELDERS have to control the game and keep possession. There’s a reason why Giggsy is the best impact sub in the Premier League….coz he comes on fresh, with 20 mins to go, against tiring defences, and he can work his magic. From the start…not a chance.
Likewise Park, who has the same problem in every game. 50 minutes onwards, his legs give way and he staggers around like adrunk. Touch, passing, dribbling….it all goes to pot. How he lasted the full 90 I do not know.
Does anybody know what’s happened to Fletcher recently btw? Last night our starting line up didn’t have a central midfielder on the pitch!
Costas – mix experience with youth, mostly youth because we would like to see something different.
even if united play their strongest team, i still can’t see us winning it. The europa league is a long slog and some tricky teams are in it who are capable of causing shocks like basel have done, city are in too so united aren’t favourites, what do we lose from playing some young players and letting them get experience in europe? wrapping them up in cotton wool will not help, we need to know who is ready for the step up.
I understand what you meant about the ranking problems which means experienced players should be involved alongside the youth, europa league is tough and won’t be a walk over. valencia, city, ajax, trabzonspor, stoke and couple more tricky eastern european teams.
I read this forum on a regular basis although I am very rarely moved to post, I mostly like absorbing the comments of other republikans on united, although after last night I lost my cool and launched something of a tirade on the quality of 90 per cent of the players in the squad, although to be honest, I still don’t really know what to make of everything that has happened so far this season (8-2 vs l’arse, 6-1, europa disney league etc.)
something I would be interested to find out what the people on here think is whether or not anyone thinks ferguson will be moved to bring players in this winter transfer window?
I mean, it looks like arsene wenger has turned the season around for arsenal by going mental in the market after the 8-2 slaughtering match against us.
For me, it looks like he has basically bitten the bullet, swallowed his pride and recognised that his project was failing and drafted in a couple of fairly well established european pros, rather than his usual 19 year old french african ‘rough diamonds’.
My question to the lads is… what chances ferguson doing something similar?
Should he? or do you think there is enough at the club already to progress (you know, when the young players improve etc.)
Could he? is there money there? is he right in saying that there is no-one (available aka at a club who would be willing to sell) out there?
What do you reckon? or maybe he will wait until the summer and then go for?
And tbh….if we had a Keano playing last night, no way would we have gone out. Not a leader in sight.
BUT….our main problem in Europe has been shoddy fuckin defending. Apart from Jones’ own goal against Benfica………….EVERY other goal we’ve conceded has been defensive errors. Evans shrugged off to easily in the first match (althought that may be a bit harsh tbf). Basle at home……3 poor goals to give away and bad defending all night long. Benfica at home….De Gea fluffs his kick when we’re 2-1 up. Last night….De Gea cocks up again, and then Smalling cocks up for the second goal.
People thought I was being a pessimist…but 2 weeks ago I was saying that I feared for us in Basle. Full house, their fans roaring them on, qualification in their hands….and without our best European midfielder (Carrick)…..it was always gonna be tough. Add to that our best goalscorer missing the game through injury, and it was even more difficult.
Where we lost this group was at OT against Basle and Benfica. 2 points when we should’ve got 6….I repeat, shocking defending all the way through the group stages.
James21
I often notice that 2 or more of us has made the same observation, yet only one comment is attracting derision or even invoking rage! Could it be that when a reasonable fan discusses his misgivings he receives the sympathetic ear of fans that share his concerns, and perhaps the opinion being condemned is a reflection of it’s own malevolence.
You do well to live your United life filled with the joys, unlike these preening ingrates.
Keep it up buddy!
One positive point………..some of the plastic fans can go support someone else now. And yes, there’s a whole load of them on ROM, you can all piss off out of here now.
hi all.
Beliv it or not we are out of the ucl bcos of kevin davies.
Yep u heard me right.that bolton thug took out the jewel in our crown.clev was meant to b d hub around which our team was to revolve this seasson.saf was neva gonna let old sneijder b our new scholes.he ain’t exactly lighting up serie a @ d mo.clevs had d team brimming with newfound youthful enthusiasm and confidence.
Pls,do not blame saf for our current preddicament.he is only doing what he sees best for the overall good of the team by not bringing in unsuitable players who may disrupt dressing room cohesion and skew our pay structure unhealthily.besides our youngsters are certainly up there with the likes of gotze,wilshere,sturridge,ramsey etc
That said,I bliv we are in need of alternative therapy to our ever increasing injury woes.
I honestly am close to tears remembering Vida calling out to d bench when that pig Strellar intentionally dropped his whole weight on our skippers exposed leg after having bn owned by Vidic in their tussle.
Seriously,we need to get some prayer warriors over @ ot pronto.enough with this rotten spell of treatment room players.
I decided to repost this frm previous thread just to let all reds of little faith understand the epoch we are going thru:
Welldone everyone!
Whao!I guess no one saw dat
coming!Incredible.
I put all d blame down to
injuries/suspensions.Seriously.
Saf intended bringing on Fletcher
for the final lap yet injuries to
Vida and Young just wouldn’t let
him!
We never seem able to win these
‘finals’ without Fletcherinho.
Safs a genius.He had us well set
up last night yet 8asel played
dirty.
Smalling was down with a head
knock,ref was disinterested and
shaqiri whips in for an early
opener allowing them to seat
back and defend valiantly with d
home crowd behind them.Barca
surely found it difficult breaking
down Getafe under those similar
conditions (1-0 away loss).
Then again Marco Strellar having
bn owned by Vida in the one v
one proceeded to wilfully
descend on our skipper’s
outstretched leg thereby causing
Evans (our latest O Shea type model) to use up Tony V’s
slot.
The fox even pretended to b
innocent of his callous act yet
went on to gesticulate to shaqiri
the opening @ Vida’s position.
How gutter is that people!
Big ups to Wayne.He was all over
the place.attack,mid,defense.
Missed some sitters yet must say
they took some awkward
bounces.
Better luck next time (remember
d basel player thta smashed
against his own bar on another
day that could have bn our
favorite striker OG).
reds,we are in transition to
metamorphose frm worm to
butterfly.
Don’t give up on our boys.
They’ll come good.
Quit with d handbags people!
GGMU!!!
Can’t see Fergie splashing out in January. The more the media tell him he needs to buy, the more he’ll go the other way, and do nothing. We need some of our players back!
Looking forward to the reserve game tonight. Probably more passion and ability than was on show last night!!!
smartalex
Still trawling through the posts. It reminds me of Arsenal Fans screeming for Wengers head, after all he’d done. He proved them all wrong and made them look, dare I say it? ‘Cunts’
Now where’s that ‘Dick Head’ Devil.
Especially with the reserves smelling blood! The chance to force Sir Alex’ hand.
Willie, Spot on. My sentiments from above, but better stated.
We will be back. Hope we can pick up some silverware for the youngsters.
Many of the recent seniors don’t have an FA cup either. Thing that is better target after the EPL for the seniors. If we don’t win anything then that will be a measure of how the youngsters are needed as they become our senior squad.
The defense is showing how much we miss the vocality of Edwin but I feel that will gel in time. Think we will improve when we start leaking goals. Just saying, not blaming!
Dont know why everyone suddenly starts raving about Pogba and Morrison when the first team are doing bad. Wonderkids in this world such as Goetze, Neymar, Jones are only a year older. Even Wilshere was playing when he was 18. They obviously aint good enough.
When we*STOP* leaking goals
I think ajax are clutching at straws here, dynamo zagreb are crap and got whopped by real madrid by some huge goal margins, how comes no one screamed match fixing?
lyon threw men forward and went forward like a swarm of bees when dynamo went down to 10 men, lyon were supremely clinical against a very mediocre defence so i don’t see the problem?, de boer is getting desperate now.
Rohan – thanks buddy, like wise.
Can I just say one thing. The Europa league aint even on channel 5 now is it? Its on itv4!! Wouldnt surprise me if the main ITV channel show United games!!
Cedarsdevil is on his balcony, remembering his neighbour, and looking forward to summer.
Shortly, he will sigh, pour a whisky, and refresh this thread.
Keano was right to a degree. Fergie shouldn’t have a pop. Where Keano is wrong is most of the main culprits aren’t young. Evra is fucking SHITE. How badly do you have to play to be dropped. He was one of the experienced players who lost their head against city and the next game he’s got the arm band. The man cannot defend.
Last night we had a swiss version of Charlie Adams….fat, with a great left foot. For their second goal, Evra doesn’t cover the man going out wide, Ferdinand is pulled across, then shows him on to his one and only foot, instead of showing him on his right and down the wing. Mean while Evra is still ball watching….. That fat twat consistantly put crosses in and was given time to switch to his left foot to cross. How many crosses did our full back stop? then add in how many theirs stopped. Our full backs are shite. Smalling is out of postion and young. Evra is 30 and even worse and thats his role.. What’s his excuse? He doesn’t cut the mustard, keano shouldn’t be blaming the young players, blame ferdinand and Evra, just like it was for city. Two experienced heads not doing their job or organising.
We need a keano. Fergie should hire him, not give him a dig.
smartalex
yeah, fair points. but sometimes if somone has an opinion that deviates from the consensus on this site they get ostracised and that is just something that has stuck in my craw in the past.
I know this sounds strange but i dont care about united winning as much as i care about how well we play. at the end of the day i watch football for entertainment, ive been a united fan for 25 years and the football we are playing at the moment is boring (apart from the first few games). last season was boring, we won no.19 and it was great but we played rubbish.
i suppose i am spoilt as a united fan, the team winning trophy after trophy that i have the luxury of saying that i would almost prefare to see united finish second playin great attacking football of old, compared to them winning the title playin boring football like last season.
managers say that football is all about results, but is it? it should be about entertainment, and the last couple of seasons have been below par. I would love to see united win the league playing great attacking football but i think that is going to take some change in personel the club.
KE
Yeh I made that observation last night, but with the Dogfight on here it was missed.
@ash
interesting point…thought has been mulling around my head for a while
maybe fergie is just reluctant or stubborn. methinks its the latter…how else can he justify playing gibson and diouf, even in league cup games.
@Samuel
Yeah it’s a tricky competition in itself and the way the schedule works, we could be in store for some more upsets. Some long travels I assume as well. We’ll see. Like I said, our minds may be made for ours by the time we play our first Europa League game. Personally, I’d like to see us have a go at it. On the other hand, if we play a second string side, at least lets be consistent about it. Play the same players and the same line up in each game.
We didn’t lose last night, because of Gibson and Diouf. Collective failure, methinks.
We’ll still pull in more viewers than any of the other Champions League matches Barr The Virus and the drugs cheats!! Reckon we should negotiate a new Europa TV contract, could make our £20m back!
With any luck we’ll play an obscure Eastern European team and we can steal their celebrations.
What’s channel 5 anyway? When I lived in England there was only up to channel 4.
@RedLife
Truth be told, Evra has been needing someone to breath down his neck for over a year. But who? Fabio is injured or playing at right back and Fergie seems to have abandoned the Evans as a left back experiment. In recent weeks we’ve seen Fryers come along nicely, but he was never going to start yesterday. Maybe Wolves at home will be a more realistic option.
Sigh, dickhead Cedars is in the house baby….. agree or disagree?!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Evening all
Fergie OUT or was it it IN?
I think it’s pretty clear what this team needs. Just ONE midfielder nothing more. ONE ball retaining midfielder with vision and skills and we’ll be fine. We don’t need to go on a buying spree. We are ONE player away from something special. Plus the old heads in this team need to take the damn lead. Vidic has tried but now he’s out with an injury. Who’s gonna step up? Somebody HAS to lead this team. I would have expected Mr ambition to tstep up to the plate but I am starting to see now that it is pointless expecting that. Rio has played in 3 champions lge finals and has won multiple titles and has been in multiple situations with United. I would expect him to stand up and be counted from here on out. Our season isn’t totally dead yet. We can still recover and you never know. Chelsea might just give us that boost we need come Monday night ( provided we fulfill our part of the deal by soundly beating wolves). Last night was disappointment but I’d love to see how they bounce back from this. UNITED TILL I DIE.
Mentioned this on the other thread, when you address him its Sir Giles, SIR GILES…… He may not be knighted but he is our knight, please show some respect
Cedars
I agree.
Fergie in
Fergie out
In out in out shake it all about.
Keep the faith in the old knight and He’ll turn it around.
and thats what its all about.
Woh oh Sir Alex, Woh oh Sir Alex, Woh ho Sir Alex ,number 20 on the way.
whoa, been a48 hour whirlwind on ROM. Too fucking right Keano. You’re spot on. Can’t believe some have said he’s been too harsh, too harsh? Fuck me he sugar coated it, being on the tele and all. I can understand the boss coming out and defending his players nothing to do with Roy, if it was bloody townsend, he’d rebuke the same way but our Legend has a point.
Sick and tired of hearing our younger players are not good enough. If they’re goo, why are they not playing they ask? The second most annoying thing i read on ROM. This is the same technical team that watched us get ripped apart in Europe by the same team TWICE and kick off a season thats has been far from stellar. The same technical side that did fuck all to look at the weakness of the side how can they be relied on wit regards our youth players. I mean not one single one has made it so far. Its unreal. We lose VDS and we get two back ups, we haven’t even lost Rio and Vida and we got two youngsters to add to Evans. Giggs still playing as well and we did a bit of business with Young. I won’t go down the midfield route(i’m already there i know- i hold my hands up) because we have other equally pressing issues to attend to. Fuck me Wayne better start earning his top wages or those balaclava clad wearing supporters could feel like a little Xmas visit. Fucking banged on about the performance levels of the team and senior players all summer and during the season. But apparently if the general consensus was we win 1-0 every game i’ll be happy? Will we fuck? Has any team done that in recent memory ANYWHERE?
King Eric
Thanks for the heads up on the reserve game buddy, i had no freaking idea. Must be excited and nervous with “junior” coming along. Merry Christmas buddy, truly wonderful gift
James21
Get stuck the fuck in you beauty………… Bloody hell, I just love true REDS
As for the fake plastic cunts, well that is just another story
Willie … I agree. We were in sensational form at the start of this season, played some of our best football in years. Real champagne football — sparkling, flowing and intoxicating stuff, it was. And apart from injuries, that was the same squad as now. These lads are capable of playing much better than their recent form suggests.
Anyway, we all know SAF has an aversion to the January window. Plus, I can’t see him spending a lot of money just to cover for injuries. Injuries are a short-term problem. Transfers are a long-term solution.
Still, if you do buy in January, you want someone who can slot in and make an immediate contribution, and that suggests a player who has both talent and experience. Such players are expensive and not readily available (especially in January). But although I know it winds some people up, I can’t help it: the name De Rossi just keeps popping into my head. He fits the bill in so many ways. His contract with Roma is running out and they still haven’t agreed a new one — January is Roma’s last chance to get some money for him under the current contract. He’s the right type of player, and in the right position. He has the experience and talent. SAF is an admirer. Roma aren’t in the CL this year and have been knocked out of the Europa, so although he would be cup-tied in the Europa for us, he himself wouldn’t be missing anything. Not only that, but he has recently admitted Roma are unlikely to get into the CL next year, whereas we probably will.
As for his age, he is 28 now (and will remain so until the off-season). That puts him a little past our policy, but in his case, I see it as a good thing. He probably has 3 good years left in him, followed by another 2-3 in a more occasional role, and that outlook seems to fit very well with our transitional needs: he is young enough to carry the ship for a few years while the youth stars find their feet in the first team, but old enough that by the time they’re fully ready, he will no longer be standing in their way.
fitz’em’good’n'tight
Also fair comment from you. We have lost quality posters for that reason. Unfortunately there are also often those who only come here to upset people. They get everyone’s back up, and then hide behind claims of limitations to their freedom of speech. Actually, it is they who have freely expressed, and seek to quash the responders.
Wanting United to play well, even magnificently, is a core desire in us fans. At United, we’ve been fortunate that even when we’ve seemed out of kilter, we’ve always had the results to fall back on. Even when we’re not firing, we’re still a winning team. When we are on fire, it’s a raging inferno, and we are all consumed with passion.
We haven’t earned a letter home for ages, add a few poor results, and we’ve nothing exhilarating to reminisce on, as we await our next performance with hopeful consternation.
Oh ya, this is about Keano, sorry I forgot…… Snide bastard, loved him to bits when he wore the shirt, still a legend in my books, however he is fucked up in the head…… Anyway the boss put him in his place
Robbo >>>>>>> Keano
You can still address me as WillieRedNut. No sir needed.
You NI beauty, friggin love you to bits
The words just roll off the tongue Cedars.
Lennon and McCartney, bloody Scouse amateurs.
red
Your snide dig did not go unnoticed……. Bravo
I just love it when media all over the world claim that SAF has won his last title at United. I know some of these journos wrote that a few years ago as well and in one case a certain journo said in 2007 that SAF had won his last title at the club.
Why some people never learn to wait until they safely can say it is beyond me. Sad fact is that we have an army of media ABU’s who cannot disguise the fact that they WANT United to fail and therefor wanna predict the end for the club at every chance they get.
I really miss the old mediamen that were honest people who wrote about facts and did not speculate as soon as something occured.
Been a weird day since it turns out I am the only United fan in the world it seems that was ok with us going out as I see the benefits in doing so. This may be the first time under SAF when a big setback will not make the lads perform in the coming games and if that happens I will be surprised and gutted.
I wonder if we’ve been in a worse situation when it comes to injuries and defeats and elimination so if there is no reaction now then those same journos could be excused for once again speculating about the end of an era under SAF.
Keano may be a legend, but he’s just a lesser legend when standing alongside SAF. If Keano’s Hercules, SAF’s Zeus.
Bear that in mind some of you.
To me, there was only 1 underperforming player. Everyone else was around par, with Nani doing very well I thought. His best position is REALLY still the right winger role. Dangerous with crosses, and when he cuts into the box. Can’t say the same for a certain player who’s being paid insane amounts to miss from 1 yard out. When he realises he doesn’t have his shooting boots on, he drops deep to try to spray a few passes and mask the horrible outing. Is it going to be Feb or Mar before he starts scoring on a regular basis again, just like last season?
Question:
Why is it that that ex players of Man United end up having a dig at SAF and the club?
Looks like we have loads of enemies out there who once played with us and it all started with Mark Hughes admitting he was a Chelsea fan and then became City manager as well.
You don’t really need enemies with that type of friends. The club should just erase all traces of certain players that are stupid enough to criticise a club that gave them all they ever wished for.
I see Keano’s outburst as another sign of the irish frustration with the economy and the fact that the irish no longer get as much attention as they used to. The culture seems outdated and the values as well in times like these.
The irish and the greeks can have their own pity party and I prefer to not get invited and swear I will not gate crash the party. Keano is a clown off the park and a cab driver once told me that he drove a very drunk Roy to a kebab place at 5 in the morning during a bank holiday weekend despite the driver trying to tell him it would be closed.
Footballers might be gods on the pitch at times but they have no brain.
James21
Had you chosen a career in the music industry then I have no doubt that you would have out shone them scousers! hahahaha
(RIP Lennon)
We treated the teams in our section with contempt at OT in our hah doesn’t matter this is a cinch 2 0 up against Basle lucky to get a point 5 goals they scored against us incredible.got exactly what we deserved.
@STAMpede … but weren’t you questioning SAF yourself just yesterday? Here is your quote from another thread on this blog (how much will glazer charge us for europa):
“Has SAF finally lost the changing room and the players?
Do they need a new voice to get them going?
Somehow it feels likely that Rooney and a few others will leave the club now.”
I am confused.
StateSide
Evening pal, ya I am confused too, hence no response from my end……..
Samuel – interesting point. Maybe because Real Madrid are much, much better than Lyon? Then again, in Zagreb, Madrid were only able to come away with a 1-0 win, so that shows what a startling result this is by Lyon! They went a goal down before scoring 6 goals in 26 minutes – that’s quite an impressive feat! Especially, as I said, considering Madrid were only able to manage 1 goal in Zagreb, and Ajax were only able to manage 2. When you consider that Lyon needed to beat Zagreb and for Real to beat Ajax, along with a SEVEN goal swing in their favour to qualify, then this must rank as the most phenomenal achievements in the history of sport! Bear in mind that Ajax also had 2 perfectly good goals disallowed against Madrid, how LUCKY was that for Lyon??
To put it in persepctive, legendary football club Manchester United only needed to draw with masshive underdogsh FC Basel and were unable to do so. Just how fucking good were this Lyon side when the pressure was on?! My word! These young men MUST be considered serious contenders for Ol’ Big Ears now.
Here are the comments so far on the 101GreatGoals article:
“To be honest, I was convinced there was something bogus afoot when viewing the goals. Watch the keeper carefully : he doesn’t go for the goals.
2nd goal – he can easily reach this if he just raises his arms, instead he just jumps lamely in the air
5th goal – Lisa Lopez’s nutmegs keeper – keeper makes a point of opening his legs as wide as a tunnel
6th goal – Gomis’ 4th – this is the worst : the Zagreb full-back just stops running and lets (I think it’s Alhy Cissokho) ghost past him, keeper can easily make the save from Gomis’s shot but he pulls out.
Watch the muted reaction of the Lyon players as well after each goal, as well as the bench. They’re so matter-of-fact about it, like smashing seven in is just one of those things.
Mundo Deportivo have reported UEFA will be investigating.”
“The deal was made at half time! It’s the most common method of fixing games in Balkans – you see what you need, you make a deal with the other side (not necessary involving money, a favor is just as good) and then they lose the game.
Just look at the second half goals – every time there was a Dinamo’s defender or a goalkeeper on the ball and could’ve easily cleared it, but they always trip on a ghost and fall (the third Lyon goal), or the goalkeeper doesn’t extend his arms until the ball passes him (at least two goals scored that way). Then, after they make a “mistake”, every one of them falls to ground, putting their hands over their faces – probably to conceal a laugh.
Still don’t believe it? Take a look at the pictures. Central defender, Vida, gives the ball to the French striker – the same person caught on camera while exiting the bookies.
But no, Dinamo would never fix a match, their president, Zdravko Mamic, isn’t somebody who’s already being investigated for mass fixing games in Croatia…
I teach at the faculty for sports science, I was also a coach before that, so I’m not just talking without any credentials. Just look at the body language of Dinamo’s players in second half. There’s no positive tension, no eagerness, no aggression – all the symptoms of the team that knows what the end score will be (and must be).
Like I said, I’ve seen a lot of fixed games in ex-Yugoslav countries and by teams coming from them, and this is a textbook example of one.
P.S. I don’t think that the Ajax – RM game was fixed, just bad refereeing, but the score their allowed the deal to be made in Zagreb.”
“What you said makes total sense. I just dont agree when you say that Ajax -RM was just “bad refereeing”. The referee is portuguese and since i am portuguese I know how it works. Believe me, portuguese referees are professionals at manipulating results (its their job since many decades ago).
Its normal that you think that is just bad refereeing, but its not!”
Match-fixing is alive and well at the highest levels of football. Most football fans don’t want to believe it but the good news is that more people are waking up to what’s going on right under our noses.
Oh and a transition? Really? After winning the league and looking to defend that title we miraculously jump into a transition? A lot of posters/fans have said this all season, yet i haven’t heard the manager use the word ONCE. I haven’t heard him use that word in years. Sorry not buying that. We began our transition when Giggs moved into midfield and Paul playing fewer games, with G.Nev retiring. We didn’t just creep into it, although some would have you believe that given the recent “set backs” .
STAMpede is IMpeded by his one hundred CENTIpede feet that drum away at his tonsils.
Put your right feet in!
Shaqiri didn’t really impress, tubby fella looked slow and couldn’t pick out easy passes IMO.
I liked the look of that Cunt Shakha or Shaka or Shaqua
Evra, Rio,Rooney,Fletch,Jones,Carrick etc talk to much. Evra,Rio & Rooney are media pigs, same can be said about Jones but I’ll let him off because he’s the future United Captain.
We need Javi Martinez, he can play centre back and midfieldmdddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd\zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
—— I wrote this at 17:20 and I swear to God I fell asleep with my head on the laptop and the letter ZZzzzz came up
Incredibley
I turned transfer muppet & God instantly put me to sleep for an hour …. nice one dude
slim
So if its not transition what is it then? Have we become mediocre all of a sudden?
You made your point so do tell what you really think is the ‘issue’ as it were
I asked a question last night if people thought SAF had lost the changing room.
slim – What is it called when a large group of long-term core players all leave the club in a short space of time? (Scholes, Neville, Brown, O’Shea, Van Der Sar) When you add to that the young players that have come in (record-setting youngest starting line up in the EPL), is the term not ‘transition’?
StatesideAussie – thank you for digging up the quotes, truly felt like puking reading the post you responded to. Irish economy? Jesus
gutted…but i agree wit Sir Giles, Utd’s our team and we must keep the dream and hope for glory alive. SAF has made an incredible contribution to the success of utd and so has Keano(varying degrees), but neither is infallible and one need not look too far to substantiate. I share Keano’s opinion that we didn’t deserve to proceed because we simply weren’t good enough, but differ regarding his opinion on the blame resting on the shoulders of the young players. Perhaps its the result of a lingering loyalty to some players on the team, or maybe a case poor judgment(which i doubt) but i think he uncharacteristically chose soft targets.
SAF has been on record numerous times this season to state that the team was good enough to compete at any level. We all know that it isn’t a poor team, given some of the beautiful displays earlier on in the season, but who can honestly trust this team(as is though without injury) to beat barca or any of the top clubs in europe? The rubber met the road and…it’s back to the lab.Honestly, imo SAF could have handled this transition better and i guess he knows it too, but he aint going to say in front of the press cause he has the futures of the young players to consider. He also said we’d take this as a learning point, but we should have taken Barca as a learning point and avoided this embarrassment.
Both SAF and Keano hate losing with a passion and it’s this intolerance of mediocrity that has made them what they are today. This isn’t the beginning of this ‘war of words’ and am sure it’s far from the end. And who knows maybe europa maybe be just what this team needs to gain confidence and coherence in europe? Who knows this could be the required price required for Fergie to do the predictable thing and buy that midfielder? All i know s that SAF always beats expectations in the longer run and this won’t be an exception.
I actually blame the Greek economy
CedarsDevil
nah mate, we’re not mediocre, we just haven’t progressed as well as we should have- as a group. I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again i don’t expect United to win every game or competition but i do expect them to lace up their boots and stealing a phrase from Uncle pat – take a look in the mirror when things go tits up and go for it. Apparently we learnt our lesson when we first lost to Barcelona, and yet here we are today complaining about even more issues than the customary “midfield is shit” cliche
How much blame does the Grecian urn?
No pottery cracks from the crazy!
I reckon we will play 2 games in EL and field mostly reserves. I base that on SAF’s comments in last nights post match conference where he said that the penalty for failing is having to play thursday and sunday and that is something they will have to look at.
What he means by that is anyones guess but I suspect that he means that the sooner we are out of the EL the better. Reserves missed out on two semi games in the carling so they get that in Europe instead so all is not bad.
City elimination shows how much time it takes to cope with playing in CL so it may take them years to go through to the next stage.
slim
The progression you rightly speak of needs time pal, have we not seen it enough times over the years… We are in a building process and as such it never clicks over night. We may not win anything this season, if we do it will be a bonus….. But what the heck eh?
slim … g’day mate. I have been using the word transition for some time, since well before this season. Fergie may not have used it himself but so what? The team clearly is (and has been) undergoing significant change, and in the case of several of our long-standing, high-profile players, those changes have been on the cards for some time. We all knew GNev, Scholes, VDS and Giggs would be retiring around about now (even if we couldn’t predict the exact dates), and we all know that others are in the autumn of their careers too. So even if SAF hasn’t used the term, it has been self-obvious for several years that the squad would go through significant changes sooner rather than later, and it is self-obvious that it is happening now (and has been for some time). Not only that, but it has also been apparent for several years that the new squad would be built by developing younger talent, rather than competing for established talent in the transfer market.
Backlash, response, watchout fill-in-next-team-we-meet, I’m getting tired of this. Let’s just beat Wolves 5-0 & forget the CL for this year. IMO even if we drew 1-1 or 2-2 with Basel, next round we meet Real or Barca or Bayern, it is a round too early. Let’s win the league and do a proper job next season.
CedarsDevil – Chelsea won the league season before last and i never felt they were champions. Now whether we as fans think we were champions means fuck all- i apologise if i offend anyone but if your opponent throw that fact out the window and KNOW they can get at you then i’m afraid a rethink/reflection is required. We saw it happen to Chelsea when we got the league back off them last season.
The reserves are on mutv lads watch that it might cheer us up a bit.
Giles,
Excellent post and coming from someone like myself who’s seen the lean seasons when if we
won the FA Cup we’d be over the proverbial moon – between 1968 -90 three FA Cups!! – it makes complete sense.
People who’ve just been fed on the fantastic success Fergie has delivered to us in the last twenty years just don’t realize how lucky we’ve been to have had such a great manager at the helm. As for those people calling for his head……… get real!! He has earned the right and will stay as long as he sees fit . Roy is entitled to his opinion but for the present just let’s get behind SAF and let him do what he has more than demonstrated he is very capable of, managing and keeping United at the very top
slim … cheers mate, I almost puked myself. That’s why I remembered it
Slim Charles on the offensive! Hows prop Joe?
The oirish had their glory at our club but it seems like the big fanbase is moving back to being England fans deep down. I have always suspected that the United fanzines online are made up of a little but quite noisy tail of irish descendants.
Maybe the defeat last night was all about the hate for England which has affected our England players that have been the only ones playing well over the years?
United fans are divided in many different fractions and I suspect the irish one is legging it for the benefit of the Man United England fans who are much better dressed in general.
More Hackett and less Umbro stadium jackets is the cure we need now. Man United is an english club in England and nothing else.
slim
Poor comparison choosing Chelsea as an example pal, they just threw money and won them a couple of titles….. At United and under Sir Alex we have rebuilt so many teams over the years, way too many to mention. We have had our barren seasons in the process…. We always persevere and come out on top eventually
Man United hasn’t been “an english club in England and nothing else” since Sir Matt decided to venture into Europe.
SmartAlex … not sure if it could rightly be called a stampede, but there certainly seem to be kangaroos loose in the top paddock
We will never forget our Belfast Boy……
You’re talking bollox for the sake of it Stumpede?
STAMpede- any chance you can go and pick your EDL scarf up from your mate Os Mosley?
I mean really? Kiss my Lanvin (google it you pleb) brogues and tongue my Marc Jacobs jacket you ignorant Ingerlund loving high-priestess of tat.
Stamford Bridge is that way bruv, jog the fuck on to it you mug, you’ll blend right in.
Having extreme difficulty comprehending what you are saying.
Ouch
That’s Moses aka the Swede.
Woahhhh! STAMpede just took one helluva booching from ClaytonBlackmore’sTan.
Willie
Get the fuck out, no shit? Did not read into that
StatesideAussie
i’m all right. i get you points. like i said we all saw them players hanging up their boots a mile away. Not even interseted in transfers. Its like tossing a coin, you either get it right or not. The issue i have is knowing that these changes were coming and actually waited till they left before doing anything about it. God i love Giggs, Gary and Scholes but can we really say they were the players that lifted us the trophy. For me i say no. By that token i think we realized that we had to start preparing for life without these guys and we did just that. Just haven’t made a good job of it. I make no apologies to anyone .i haven’t been impressed with United for a while, not just this season or last but there’s no drama i can take that, certainly the trophies did help along the way but it wasn’t solely about that for me. Followed United and Football for a long time to know that timing can play and important factor in a clubs fortune. I just can’t stomach the sweeping stuff under the carpet and thats exactly what a lot of fans do. United will never die and anyone who thinks so, ……well their problem, not mine.What concerns me is how we’re living – if that makes any sense, i’ve been told i can be quite cryptic(polite talk for talking BS)
I blame the Mongolian economy
Looks like that cunt daniel taylor is on it again.
Zelh – what’s Danny The Cunt up to now?
To put thing succinctly i think we should be in a better position than we are with the resources at our disposal
fred – that’s what this cunt is up to.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/dec/08/manchester-united-champions-league-exit
he’s slating Gibson and Diouf like they would be first teamers.
neither one of them played in the league for us.
don’t make me start what he says about evans and rio.
Hello all.
I blame the Mongolian economy, hahahaha
FUCK
19
SAF has a vision of his next great team
My captain my captain.
Cedars – You’re so drugged up mate, you wouldn’t know if it was Moses, or a naked lady! And of course, Keane > Robbo
Who loves ya baby? 
StatesideAussie, clown-footed kangaroos have picked the paddock in STAMpede’s wildly spinning top floor. The lights are on, but they’re strobing, as the marsupials make a mockery of his memory. Jumping to flattering conclusions, Stampedophilia is a crippling condition.
Kenny Dogsheet
On Suaress
“”People just jump on the bandwagon and accuse him of this, that and everything else.”
Fucking Racist, bunny rabbit toothed soft cunt in a shirt two sizes too small deserves better treatment.
The lads a cunt, I understand the protection for this cunt, but this one cunt is worthy of being raped and double penetrated by the FA & Fans.
He’ll probably get slapped with a suspended 38-match ban.
———————————————————————————————————–
Going back to Utd, we should focus on regaining form and winning the league. Its going to be difficult without Vidic,Cleverley,Fletcher (again), Rooney &Chico.
Injuries have smashed our back doors in this season.
I blame Sir Willie.
GTF in there!
“Manchester United have a deal in place for Dallas Texans forward Roberto Carlos Brito Rojas, 18.
After impressing in trials, the Venezuelan has agreed a one-year development contract and will train with the youth team next year.”
Always wanted us to sign Roberto Carlos.
At least we can be sure that ROJAS is a true RED! 
Clint – Rooney out? did I miss something?
Is that Carlos Borito Rojas?
*burrito.
fuck me my spelling is as good as rooneys form.
Willie
Trust me I would tell a sheep shagger from a naked beauty! hahahaha
Oh and of course its Robbo >>>>>>>>>> Keano
I blame it on the boogie!
Well that was the one good thing about last night. Gibson, Carrick, Anderson, Berbatov and Diouf didn’t play at all and Evans played just the 2nd half. With no scapegoats in sight, the blame for once might go to the experienced players that didn’t show up.
But you won’t see many rags critisize Rio or Rooney. Euro 2012 in on the horizon you see…
Boogie Smalls? Juicy snotter!
I blame it on the sunshine
Thursday night, Thursday night, hmmm … what to do on a Thursday night …
Slim … yeah, I get where you’re coming from. I have often wondered about the timing of all this. I think there may be an argument that SAF waited too long — that he allowed nature to take its course with the ageing players, rather than making a preemptive strike several years ago. I have been curious about that, because “letting nature take its course” is a risky strategy, given that nature is so unpredictable. I don’t think it is explained by his loyalty to those players, since I am sure he would always put the club first. Maybe he didn’t have the money to go out and buy top-level replacements. Maybe he had the money but really didn’t see good players to spend it on. Or maybe he thought our young players would progress more quickly than they have done. I really don’t know — even with the benefit of hindsight, it’s impossible to guess.
But whatever the reason, we are in the middle of it now. Time for us true fans to hunker down in the trenches…
Roberto Carlos to replace Evra? Get in! Awesome news Fred.
Costas – Read the piece from Daniel Taylor. Said we are poor cause we have less net spendings than mediocre clubs.
what a fucking moron.
Have a ****
Oops. Sorry. That’s another Roberto Carlos. A striker. Oh, lord knows we need more strikers! Especially now that the Da Silvas have finally synchronized their fragileness and we’ll miss both of them at the same time
Net spending? Our nets look ok to me. Nice design.
I blame the medical team….
(Snide dig at Costas hahahahahaha )
lol@smartAlex … once again your lexicographic looniness takes the day!
Deary me. A dipper on talksport, said Rooney got banned last season, for giving West Ham fans the fingers?
DECEMBER 8, 2011 AT 18:38
StatesideAussie
Spot on mate, many here have talked of transition even starting when SAF got Berba knowing it would be CR7′s last season. Then as you mention Nev, VDS, Scholes and Giggs. SAF pulled a great year off last year with 19 and a CL final, now we must support during this time. More will go in the next 2+ years, Owen, Berba, Rio, Giggs, Evra, ect. Then the ones SAF cuts. Then in the same time frame, 5 to 8 academy youngsters looked at and 3 to 5 make the first team. And SAF will buy 5 to 8 prospects and 4 to 6 transfers with one or two 25+ million pound players. With Jones, Smalling, TC, DDG, Wellbeck and Lil Pea with Rooney and co. Man Utd will and can play with anyone.
net spend.
Like I said. My spelling today is like rooneys form.
Zelh – I must disagree, I think that’s a good article by Danny the Cunt. We know that he never misses an opportunity to put the boot in, but I think this time his questions and criticisms are warranted.
If people take nothing else from the article, I hope they remember this:
“The truth they do not want you to know at Old Trafford is that in the last five years United’s net spend on transfers is a mere £56.9m. Or to put it another way, less than Aston Villa, with £68.2m, Sunderland’s £62.7m and Stoke’s £61.2m. City have spent £437.1m, Chelsea £144.9m, Liverpool £84m and Spurs £76m.
Many will point out the £50m transfer splurge on Phil Jones, Ashley Young and David de Gea as evidence that the Glazers are not as frugal as portrayed. But even this is not as straightforward as it seems. Ferguson has said himself that the new arrivals were funded because of the considerable savings made from releasing Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Edwin van der Sar and Owen Hargreaves, each of whom earned around £4m a year. United also made around £10m by selling John O’Shea, Wes Brown and Gabriel Obertan, along with a couple of reserve players, Corry Evans and Joe Dudgeon.”
Euronly in Europa for a year. Our new lads will learn a lot about playing Europe if they can stay in the competition long enough. This experience comes at a good time for them. The old hands earned a proud reputation. The young bucks will learn they have to earn theirs themselves. There’s no hand-me-down hero status in football.
@Zelh
I don’t get what “Evans isn’t becoming the player he was touted” means. The lad has received tons of critisism from fans and journos. He wasn’t touted as someone that can keep Drogba in his back pocket. He’s done that more than once. But he’s not yet the finished article. Taylor is speaking as if Smalling and Jones won;t find themselves in the learning curve that Evans is.
Anyway, the money was there this summer and it wasn’t put to good use. We could have sold Berbatov and PIG to raise more if we wanted to. But you see, saying that Fergie didn’t spend the 50 million as he should have, means that Taylor would have to bring up Ashley Young. A name that’s conspicuously absent from his article…
smartalexicographicopathy is in my blood!
It’s not contagious, don’t worry!
@willie
Maybe he meant that Rooney fingered West Ham, which wouldn’t be a lie.
CedarsDevil – and who do we compare United to? by your reasoning. No one in my opinion. You say poor comparison, i say a good enough one. What were they supposed to do, wait 20 years. God forbid we were in a similar position Sir Alex would probably handle it the same way, plus they were all ready doing well and did need to splash the cash as a ton of players were on their way out
I wonder how some utd fans would treat saf if he had a barren spell like wenger.
Like Willie, I believe our nets are in fine shape
Cedars – Keano rubbing off on you? Snide cunt!
Robbo >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Keane. I blame Ron Atkinson!
I’ve gotta agree more with Slim on this one. The “Transitional Period” hasn’t started this season. It started the moment we lost to Barca in Rome, and sold Ronaldo and Tevez.
Since then we’ve had an influx of new players….either signings, players being promoted from the system, or young squad players stepping up to be first teamers. Valencia, Hernandez, Smalling, Rafael, Fabio, Evans, Nani, Obertan, Diouf, Gibson, Foster. Some have proved to be good enough, some haven’t.
Obviously this summer, it was the second stage of the transition. Some of the older players left, and we bought in some more new players. But let’s not pretend that its a new thing….coz within the next 2 years, a lot of the remaining older players will have left as well (Rio, Giggsy, Evra, Park, Berba etc)…….are you gonna pretend that’s a new transitional phase, or will you accept that it’s a continuation of what started in 2009?
In any case, transition or not, we should be qualifying from a group like that. Realistically speaking…VDS and possibly Scholesy are the only members of the first team who we’ve lost. Nobody can tell me that Neville or Hargreaves were vital members of our squad over the last few years. Wes barely played last season. And Big John was a very useful squad player, but no more than that.
Willie – You know me so well its scary!
Oh and Robbo > Keano
Mike is in the house baby, piss off you Keano lovers….. We have us a true Robbo loving RED in the house! hahahaha
Fuck Sunderland equalise
StatesideAussie – Too true we are in the middle and we’ve all got to pull together but i will be vocal if i feel we slack off- and we have.
Fred … yeah, I thought some of what Taylor said was fair enough. The big question we all want answered is whether SAF is telling the truth when he says the money was there but he decided not to spend it. I have no idea, of course. But whether he is being honest or not, I don’t think there was ever going to be enough dosh to compete with the petro-dollars flowing from the middle east (or russia). That’s the nub of it — that given unlimited funds, you really can buy your way to the top.
Sunderland 2:1 United Reserves
44 minutes
coor PIG doesn’t look good, let another one in
@Stateside, have you heard anything on the float?
Net spending, hum…….the 80 mill for CR7 tilts that some?
Zibbie beat me to it. Ronaldo’s sale played a huge part in our net spending looking smaller compared to those other clubs. Unless Villa sold someone for 80 mil and I am not aware of it.
Listen up all you fans that got your britches in a bunch! There are a few people here who have made this blog what it is today, and are nearly beyond reproach for what they say and some of you gits would be better off to learn who they are and how dedicated they are to our club…
Cedars, Smartalex, Fred, Costas, Willie(and his alter ego), and Stateside and of course our beloved leader Scott the Red… Forgive me if i forgot someone else
The point is: If any of you disagree with what these guys say and feel the need to spout off like a scouser or a Chelshit just because of one game, you better shut your Shitty trap. Character, lads, character. Think twice. There is the Holy Trinity, the Apostles, SAF, United players past and present, These die hards that know more about United than you ever will, and then you doubters and dumbasses last. Show some respect.
When Robbo speaks he makes Keane seem like an insect….. When Robbo plays he makes everyone looks like an insect….. When Robbo exists then everyone else is an insect
Sawubona. Unjani?
Thanks for your kind words ManchesterMike!
Dave!
Cedars – When you talk, it don’t make any sense. Keane > Robbo
Zibbie & Costas – so our net spend only looks so poor because we sold our best player for £80m and didn’t reinvest it in the squad? Oh, that’s okay then.
ManchesterMike – LOL that’s quite a compliment! I’m certainly not beyond reproach mate and I don’t think anyone should be, but thank you for the kind words.
Hello DaveMalaysia!
I’m well, thank you! how are you? I often wonder where my friend might be, and I knew that you are aware of your responsibility to sate my tuak addiction. Welcome home!
please no-one mention Rooney in the same breath as Messi or Ronaldo ever again. Or even call him world class again. Wayne Rooney did what he did over a year ago. Since he signed his fat pay rise he’s severely failed to justify his astronomical increase in wages.
Winning the title last season was as much 2 fingers up to him for doubting our ambition. I said it back then, we should’ve sold him to Citeh and moved to sign Kun Aguero, who for me is a far more consistent and superior striker.
Whatever happens now, a left back, and 2 central midfielders must be priority. Why no-one has tried to sign Javi Martinez is a bit of a puzzle. Class act and just what we need.
Wesley Sneijder i always thought of a luxury player who’d find it difficult to play in central midfield in a 4-4-2 formation. I have faith in Clevs but the rest of the dross in the central players, Giggsy apart, are just not good enough i’m afraid.
Zibbie!
ManchesterMike
Cheers for the mention pal
Reserves playing pretty poorly right now, PIG needs to just go, he’s woeful.
And just as I say that he let’s in a 4th… ye gads he’s dreadful
When I talk, Cedars goes all funny. When Smartalex talks, Zibbie guns for deer. When KE rants, the blog listens!
@ManchesterMike
Cheers pal!
Fred, no it does not. I would love to get some more players. I do think Man Utd spend well, and has a plan and are not mega-billionaire with almost endless pockets. And I feel they will almost have to spend 25 to 35 million for 2 to 3 players in the next 2 1/2 years with like 3 to 4 15 to 25 million types to fill the holes with some academy kids to fill out the squad.
daemondada – hmmn i wonder too. oh wait how many derogratery comments have we seen about Fergie? Yeah thats right a sprinkling of moaners.
Its a shame a few post that are out of order are used to go on a tirade against the “gloryhunters” . That term is used so flippantly, its become a joke. Way too many times no one says anything, then someone dredges a few comments from the internet and its open season on ROM. Take the “fuck the ungrateful bastards who say SAF should leave” comment. i mean come on, how many of those post are actually on here, i certainly haven’t seen them. It does sometimes feel like a competition for who loves United most and i think that it gets in the way of having proper constructive discussions
And a nice one by M Keane to get us one back… down 4-2 now.
@Fred
No. I said that’s why it looks worse compared to the clubs Taylor mentioned. Whether we’ve spent a lot or we haven’t since Ronaldo left is a different topic. One I would probably agree with you.
@ManchesterMike
Thanks pal. Put everyone in their place didn’t you.
damn it , just conceded a fourth.
Sweet, keano pulls one back, its 4-2. Game on – i hope
Surely you can’t just put two fingers in your ears and go “lalalalalallalala” to everything though? Something certainly is wrong, and while I do understand that SAF is unlikely to analyze everything in front of a tv camera I really hope that some soul searching is going on behind the scenes…
Arrrrr Harmony. Where have all the plastics gone?
Oh wait, back in their holes until matchday, thank fook I’ll be at OT.
I don’t know about glory hunters, but this blog last night was infested with people I’ve never seen on here before. It’s like they were waiting for the team to mess up. Takes all types, I suppose.
Willie
When you speak I listen you NI Red Nut………..One line genius
Robbo > Keane
Woo and now W Keane gets another one back after abusing the dreaded Titus Bramble… 4-3
Get in!! Keano strikes again 4-3
Cedars
If I knew how to change my name on here I’d change it to Captain Marvel immediately!! Dont think anybody loves Robbo as much as me and you pal. ROM magic!!
Fuck me PIG, you could have kept that out. sheesh
Fuck Kuszczak lets in a 5th, he’s rapidly dropping his sell on value down to a league 2 teams reach.
@smartalex: Still alive over here.Might not be for long when @MG reads my comments about Hayley.
Tuaks on the way, with a huge dose of sate.
Nice to be back, but it pisses me off , seeing how so called supporters going after Fergie.
@Willie Hows the Red Nuts hanging: U shud get @Zibbie to aim his guns on dogleash,after his stupid ‘rafa benitez’ like rant against the FA and Rooney.
Fred, I forget who. They put up the transfer $ Barca spent like the last 8 years. WOW!!! and Real as well as Shity. I have seen the hand writing on the wall for 3 years now. I believe SAF squeezed 19 and a CL final out of them. With the above examples of people in and out for United going forward I see some world class players in Jones, Smalling, TC, Welbeck, DDG and Lil Pea along with Rooney and the rest with say 4 to 6 additions in the next 4 windows. I see this summer similar to the Hargo, Nani, Anderson one, some of those type of quality players bought in.
Mike
Hahaha, nice one…. No one ever comes close to Captain Marvel
Keano can kiss my cedars ass
Sunderland 5:3 United Reserves.
72 minutes
MG called from the airport, he was collecting some celebrity love of his, I’m not sure who.
Dave Malaysia – Hello mate? Have you been hibernating?
Dave Malaysia, those that actively seek Sir Alex retirement also seek United’s demise.
They hope we will falter, but Sir Alex has strengthened the staunch foundations that will hold United strong for generations, never mind a single personnel change. His work is for good. The long term good of United.
“In any case, transition or not, we should be qualifying from a group like that. ”
Of course. Nice try from someone above to say losing O’Shea, Brown and Neville meant we’re in a transitional phase. What about Chelsea, new manager and new signings? Arsenal always lose their best players. City are perhaps in a late stage of this so-called “transition”. I could go on and on – Bayern have a new manager, Barca are phasing in new players, Milan too. Teams are pretty much always in transition so I accept we are only to a certain extent – the transition isn’t sudden and doesn’t excuse our poor exit from the group. We’re not alone in this.
“please no-one mention Rooney in the same breath as Messi or Ronaldo ever again.”
Look at Rooney recently and I think we can all remember Rooney’s form for a large chunk of last season. I’d like to ask people who rate him above those two when they (and Xavi?) last had such spectacular dips in form, to the extent the ball bounces further off them than I could probably kick it?
samcooke – it’s clear to me you don’t know much about history!
Zibbie – I will say this much: if you pretend the Ronaldo transfer never happened, our net spending looks a more impressive, but then again, so does our team!
http://www.iconicphotogalleries.co.uk/content/thumbnails/00017/01594-mainmedimage.jpg
Listen regardless of what anyone thought of Roy Keanes comments when he was a player he now works as a pundit and is paid to speak his mind. I for one prefer to listen to someone who says what he feels over a bunch of Jamie Fucking Redknapps or Ray (I think everyone is wonderful) Wilkins. I think Gary Neville is doing a good job for Sky now but he can be quoted as saying that we all want Chelsea, Arsenal, City and United to qualify to the next round. Does he really expect anyone to believe that he wanted City to qualify, do me a favour. I don’t think Roy Keane would say it in a million years. He’s already on record as saying he would never manage any of our rivals. Keane was merely pointing out that the players let the manager down. Does anybody think that he was wrong, cause I don’t?
I think he was right to make a reference to Phil Jones’ comments. It wasn’t a slight on Jones’ ability as a player, he’s obviously going to have a long and successful career. He was simply using Jones’ comments to make the point that players can talk all they want but the real talking is done on the pitch. Maybe players are too relaxed now, after all it was the fear of losing that made Keane such a great player. If you’re going to talk the talk you have to be able to walk the walk I’m afraid. The whole team let the manager down over the whole euro campaign. This isn’t about who we should have signed or who was rested or who got injured, the fact is, and we know this now with the benefit of hindsight, that this was the poorest quality group we’ve ever been drawn in and any United side including the current one should easily have qualified from this group.
The greatest example that ever existed of a player keeping his trap shut was Paul Scholes. No one ever heard a word from him between games but the whole world listened to him the second he stood on to a football pitch.
For what it’s worth Bryan Robson was and will always be one of my footballing heroes but I think Keane was a better player than even he was. Just my opinion, Robson was great too.
I for one still have one hundred per cent faith in Sir Alex, there’s no way he or anyone else could have envisaged that his team would collapse they way they did in Europe this season.
Sunderland 6:3 United Reserves.
88 minutes
Wow, we’re getting stuffed.
This week just gets better and better…
Between O’Shea, Brown, Scholes, Edwin and Neville there’s 1540 caps.
Recently they were all still with us. Now it seems they are not.
Has there been a transition?
Bloody all, just read. The skipper is our for many months!
I hope we can sail though this season in one piece, there’s not much left on the ship that isnt broken. Get well soon Vidic!
You forgot the legend that is Owen Hargreaves!
“We have to be honest and say we haven’t been professional from the beginning of this competition,” said the France defender. “I don’t know why. Maybe one or two of us have to look in the mirror and say we can do a lot better than we have done. Everyone. And I am the first.”
Evra on the sillyness that was our CL Campaign.
All talk and no fucking balls. Rooney Rio, Paddy, Jones give it all that and only one has substance, the beast that is Jonesy.
We’re not losing anymore, because the game is finished. Now we’ve lost.
Ole, come home!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2071519/Manchester-City-boring-Champions-League–Jens-Lehmann.html
Former Arsenal and Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann claimed the Champions League is better off without Manchester City after they were eliminated from the competition despite beating Bayern Munich 2-0.
Lehmann, working as a pundit for Germany’s Sky television, could not hide his pleasure at seeing City drop into the Europa League as Napoli joined Bayern in qualification from Group A of the competition.
‘Man City play very, very boring football,’ he said. ‘They just make their opponents fall asleep with lots of possession.
‘But to be honest, that is not tactically very demanding. The way they play here is the way any amateur team plays, only not on such good grass.
‘They just pack men behind the ball, have five against two and just move the ball around. The goal then just comes from a fortunate circumstance.’
Lehmann, who played in the Champions League final for Arsenal against Barcelona in 2006, albeit for only 18 minutes before being sent off, was also unimpressed by the atmosphere at the Etihad Stadium.
‘There was no life in the stadium,’ he said. ‘It was dead.
‘The fans are so quiet. You have got to say, though, that they have not got anything really to get excited about here.
‘They had possession all of the time, albeit in their own half where nothing was happening.
‘It is a shame because it is not typical English football. Napoli have heart and passion and I liked them. It is good that they have gone through.
‘We don’t want to see Manchester City in the Champions League.’
Fred
at Sam Cook comment.
New ‘Bad News’ Thread up.
I also forgot Kuszczak, although I think everyone has.
Jens Lehmann for Chancellor!
Take a chance!
@Smartalex – Regardless of their appearances, you’ve gotta look deeper. We’ve still got enough experience at the club, an absolute bucketload of it. As I said…Neville barely featured since early 07….if we’re gonna count him, then we may as well count Hargreaves! Wes was practically non existent last season as well.
In any case….I’m not saying that this is NOT a transition. Clearly it is, we’re building a new side. BUT….let’s not try and pretend that this is the first season of the transition. Fergie’s been buying players for the next Utd side since 2009, and tried intergrating most of them into the side (the list of players I mentioned above).
IMHO, we’re just over halfway through the transitional phase.
Clint – what you on about shaqiri being slow and didn’t pick easy passes?. It’s one thing to hate basel for knocking us out and another for unfairly criticising a player.
Shaqiri technically is a quality player, he is a threat which he proved by creating the two goals, he runs with balance and pace so i don’t get where you got this ‘tubby and slow’ from, he looked the player capable of opening us up last night and in my opinion is a star in the making if he continues to dazzle in big games or at least be effective.
Sure will have him in the team instead of k.f.c belly mr oliveira anderson that couldn’t hit a barn door if it was right in front of him without any obstacles.
for me Roy said that out of his love the club he knows the standards needed at our club and this euro campagin we have fell well short
Fergie has been amazing for us go’s without saying but there can be no denying he can be a slapped arse sometimes
for me roy is spot on with his points dont agree with SAF having a pop on this occasion
19
Fred – i was chuckling whilst reading that, i think the whole world hates city for splashing ridiculous amount on mercenaries to get to where they are currently, i guess lehman won’t be weeping about city any time soon.
Don’t listen to papii, Sammy! Last time he was in the barbers, the barber cut too much off!
@Sparkz – Agreed. We are going through a transition, but that is not breaking news. We have been very focussed on the looming changes enforced by top players retiring. Any inexact timing to the replacement of the heart of the team is destabilizing, although not unusual or inept, as some would have us believe.
The person who is going to bring us back to the top is Sir Alex. The poor run of results can be handled by getting this group of players to perform consistently at the level we know they are able. Additions might come, but I think not. Players coming back from injury early next year will be fresh all the way through. Squeaky-bum time we’ll be there or thereabouts, and firing on all cylinders.
Yeah I don’t get some of the comments aimed at Keano on here. A lot of what he said was spot on, and you could tell just by watching him that he still cares about the club and wanted us to go through. At full time he looked really angry, as a lot of Utd fans would have been.
I understand Fergie wants to protect his players, but for me, that was an unnecessary dig at Keano about his managerial record. Fair enough, if Keano was slating HIM….then Fergie can say something. But he was just being blunt and straightforward in his assessment of the team and its players, as ever.
Sparkz – It seems to me that Sir Alex was being rightly indifferent to the line of questioning. Instead of discussing the game, the journalist wanted to discuss somebody else’s point of view about that game. It was always going to happen. Roy is being paid to talk, and his words were being analyzed from the off, to see which quote would be thrust at Sir Alex.
“I don’t know why you are bringing this up from a television critic,” said Ferguson.
… but seeing as you are asking me about Roy’s opinion, Roy knows I’m a better manager and I think the youth are looking good. (paraphrased!)
A great trick question for the ages: In which year did Roy Keane fall foul of Fergie by using his guest spot as a TV pundit to criticise United’s young players; while Sir Alex’s went out of the Champions League after a 2-1 defeat away from home in their final group game?
Sir Alex’s TEAM, I should say.
A simple “well Roy’s entitled to his own opinion…but we have a terrific group of young players and I have every confidence in them. They’ll bounce back, that’s part of football” would have done nicely, without the need to take a cheap shot.
Obviously if the journo tried to push it a bit more, then he can give them the stare and tell them to stop asking stupid questions (like he did to Dalglish’s daughter after the 1-1 vs Benfica!)
Keane has a right to voice his opinion. He’s hurting too, don’t forget. He left United under a cloud. He didn’t say Jones and co won’t make it. He questioned their attitude. When you talk the talk, you have to walk the walk. We didn’t, and now we’re out. Outside influences will make the most of these comments by Keano. It’s just an opinion. We’ve got bigger issues, that should concern us.
On a much smaller note – It should go without saying that Roy Keane can and should say whatever the fuck he wants. As one of the greatest midfielders the game has seen, he’s earned that right.
But having said that, if Keano’s words are used by the ABU brigade to hijack our press conference, then the Irishman is big and ugly enough to deal with the “friendly fire” from Alex and United.
Also, he chose to be a pundit didn’t he, so theres no love lost here. Keane can say what the fuck he wants, and so too can Sir Big Bollocks who called time on his career. He’s still the Gaffer.
@ Willerednut, didn’t even see your 22:06 post mate, well said!
“Transition” is often used to describe this year’s UTD team – and last year’s, too, for that matter. Winning # 19 and getting to the CL final was a triumph, considering how many of the players were quite literally on their last legs.
By the end of this season, five or six of the very best players from the last twenty years will be gone – Paul Scholes, RedNev, SirRyanGiggs, Edwin, and maybe Rio and Dimmy. While I’m no fan of Berbatov, his talent is exceptional even if he hasn’t put it to good effect in his stint at UTD. That’s a lot of “replacement” that is needed in short order. So, to my way of thinking, it’s not surprising that TheLads have fallen short in Europe AND the Carling Cup. They are “struggling” in the EPL, too – I know they’re second but they’ve been dire in far too many matches.
Injuries (and suspensions) to key players haven’t helped but – honestly – UTD’s second-string should have had enough to beat the Young Boys of Basle. If you review their two goals, it’s tough to stomach – the first one happened after Captain Vidic smacked Chris Smalling and drew blood THEN the Shaquiri’s cross was perfectly redirected by De Gea to Streller who finished it off; their second goal was the result of an “After you, Alphonse; no, after you, Gaston” routine from Chris Smalling and David De Gea. Bad luck and inexperience which is understandable since neither one is over 21 and both are learning to play together.
However, while those two goals should not have been conceded, what was really disturbing was the truly inept “attacking play” of the veteran presence: SirRyanGiggs, Ashley Young, ThreeLungPark, and TheWayneBoy. This quarter just weren’t contributing – how little defending from the front ? how many mis-hit passes ? how many times did they run into blind alleys ? how many missed chances ? THAT was just embarrassing.
We’ve seen this before – and we’ll no doubt see it again this year and maybe next year as SAF turns over a goodly portion of the squad. Giggs should be given the heart-felt hand-shake and sent to join the GingerNinja in training the kids; Rio might last another year but he’s now slow, fragile and, so, unreliable; Antonio Valencia and ThreeLungPark are valuable squad players but must be used judiciously and not expected to shoulder a burden
If I was making personnel decisions then Dimmy and Ashley Young would be off-loaded right away – asap ! – so that they don’t take playing time/experience away from Danny Welbeck, KikoTheKid, Ravel Morrison and Chicharito (when he returns).
SAF has played a high-wire act – without a net – and he won that gamble last year; this year it doesnt look like he will be able to break his fall but I’d expect that the medium-term planning will possibly come-good next year (or the year after that). The alternative is just too, too horrible to contemplate.
The way I see it is a storm in a europa cup.
Sir Alex wasn’t keen to discuss a pundit’s views, but addressed the heart of the matter by saying that in his (oft proven) opinion the youngsters are quality, and naturally need these experiences.
Neither Sir Alex nor Roy Keane are in any way irked by each other in this instance.
They both of course scorn the media trickery.
why take a pop at keano?
@Sparks – I disagree mate. Ferguson’s responsibility isn’t to his mates, or to fan favourites or past players, its to the Club.
The media were quoting one of our best ever players, and using his words to attack our Club. We all know the wrong word can fly around the world in seconds, so Alex had to nip all criticisms of our Club in the bud. You don’t wash your laundry in public – well not if you’ve got a washing machine
I think its a bit of friendly fire, and Keane has to accept that danger as part of his job as a pundit. Alex Ferguson’s job as our manager is to shoot first and ask questions later. You think it was a cheap shot fair play, but I think it was pure class Pal! Never mind us lot in here blogging, somebody at the highest level has to stand up for our Club when the vultures circle our poor performances, and thats the job of the Manager.
Imagine the headlines if Alex just said, yeah, Keano’s right. The call would go up for his head and we’d end up with a Fat Spanish Waiter….. doesn’t bear thinking about does it? We can’t love our manager’s tenacity and then ask him to tip toe, fuck that. A bit of friendly fire never hurt anybody, ask Becks!
Like I said, no love lost.
Stevo – Keep taking the tablets. Show SAF the respect he deserves. Since winning the FA Cup in 1990
it’s been a wonderful ride. However, you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth and we’re still
only 5 points behind Shitty. Remind me again – do you win the league in December ?
Blue Matchstick or whatever you call yourself. Fuck off. Twat.
Why do the journalists try to set up interviews to appear as if SAF took a pop at keano?
Probably because we’ll all talk about it for ages, or at least until the next contrived slur
hits the news-stands.
Part of the basis of sir Alex response is that as a manager, Roy would know that you don’t talk about other team’s players in that way. Of course, he’s unemployed, but behaving in a way that manager’s don’t is so past-tense. He used to be a manager, but now he’s a pundit? It is rare to hear quality managers discussing other teams players, other than their next opponent.
I love Roy Keane, and don’t at all mind his expressed opinion. He is however operating in a manner seen as unpalatable amongst current managers. Which he’s not, and that’s okay until he gets a job?
@Paul Parker….you’re right, Fergie’s duty is to the club. And of course I want him to stand up and defend the club.
But, as I said…taking a shot at Keano’s record is nonsensical, since it had nothing to do with the subject. He gave his views on our team, Fergie had every right to defend his team (which he does in the second part of his quote). It’s not like Roy lambasted Fergie and his decision making is it?
Put it this way…………read Fergie’s quote once again. But read it without the first 2 sentences. Would that have made any difference to Fergie’s response? Would we be sitting here thinking “Damn, I really wish Fergie stood up and backed his team a bit more”? Of course not, he gave his players 100% backing. The first 2 sentences were unnecessary IMO.
Willie – lol i was wondering what clint was talking about, i’ve heard enough about shaqiri but he shined last night and if he carries on like that then some top clubs will be circulating around him.
Ok, think I’m finally ready to talk about it. Gutted, can’t quite believe it even though it has been coming on gradually. Even at times like this, we are used to some bright spark from one of our players and rescue.Wasn’t to be, too many bad performances. I didn’t think Giggs was very bad, park and young and rooney on the other hand were. Even if smalling hasn’t made that schoolboy error for the 2nd goal, we would have gone thru with 1-1. Anyway, those are ramblings of a hurt soul. don’t matter jot, we are out. nothing can be done now, except we mustn’t make this season any worse.
This is the mother of all wake up calls for the boss, I’m sure he will pick up the boys and recover – our form over the holidays needs to be very good and revenge in the FA cup. Come on United.
Mike and Cedars – I happen to think I’m Robbo’s biggest fan, my crush since my school days. As much as love keano, he was in the wrong yesterday, in my opinion. As many have said he blamed the wrong players. Anyway, comments immediately after a match can have that effect – these are better forgotten. He will always be a legend. Excellent riposte from Fergie though
TV critic, indeed!! poor keano.
@Denton 22.17 – Agree with the poor attacking unit of last night. As I said before, Nani (plus Welbeck when he came on) was the only member of the front 6 who did any justice to himself.
Sparkz – Please have another look at my 21:54 thoughts. I think it shows why Sir Alex did need to say those initial words. He is pointing out the fact the question is not about the match, but actually a paparazzi-styled headline generator.
For those driven by sensational snippets, it may seem odd that football man Fergie should be encouraged by the press to elucidate freely, not tiptoe through the minefield of loaded questions. To me, I’d rater hear Sir Alex on the game, not on our ex-Players views. They have glamourous dinners where you can listen to warm expression of admiration.
By Sir Alex pointing at the pressman’s ruse, he warns those interested in relevance to ignore this silly question.
smartalex – Keane doesn’t have to be in a job to express his opinion on United. He played with distinction for us. Give everything on the pitch. If ITV employ him, what do you think he’s gonna do, when watching United crash out of the champions league? Give his views on it. Agree with you on the media. Hence, why I said we’ve got bigger issues, than Keane’s opinion. They thrive on this bollox. Trying to drive a wedge between Fergie and Keane. We shouldn’t fall fowl to their ruse.
@ManchesterMike … cheers mate!
@Smartalex..I see your point tbf, he needed to poiint out that it wasn’t really a match related question. But dyu think there was a need for the second line? By all means point out that these are the views of a TV critic……… but talking about Roy’s time as manager isn’t exactly relevant to what happened last night either!
Agree with WillieRedNut though, bigger issues than that.
What I am curious about is why we played so well in the first few matches this season (the pre-season, and the first half-dozen PL matches), and then it all fell apart. What’s the explanation for that? I haven’t seen much discussion about that — a little bit, back around the time of THAT match against you-know-who, but not a lot. Any thoughts on that? It is the same squad, after all. I can’t come to terms with it. Injuries have played a role, for sure, but if that’s the total explanation, then there’s no need to go calling for replacements and a massive clean-out and all that stuff, because eventually, the injured players will recover.
Sparkz – Omitting those two sentences may have been more kind to Keane, and I do respect him highly, but we’re not in the “being nice to Keane” business are we mate? Course not! We’re in the keeping the Red Flag Flying High business! Keane put himself and our Club in a compromising position with his quotes, and Alex didn’t have the luxury of mincing his words in response. It that simple imo mate.
Don’t forget, Keane chose to say “If I was manager I’d get hold of these lads and tell them X, Y, Z”. Like smartlalex said at 22:33 you can’t do that and not expect the real manager to tell you to fuck right off. Imo he’s asked for that response, and it was hardly hit em up was it? Keane has every right to voice his opinion but so does our manager. Ideally nothing would have been said, I agree, but seeing that it has its no biggie really. Keano is a tough bastard!
Agreed!
Keano can do what he fucking wants! So can Sir Alex.
I bet that neither of them see it as an issue. Sparkz you are right to defend his honour vigorously. I too know that slightly different words from Sir Alex would be more suited to our ideal of harmony amongst our gods.Of course, a bit of mild controversy is just the ticket for Roy’s punditry jaunt. An extended, respectful, humorous joust can add a little spice to the mix. Sir Alex, the master of media and interviews, has actually just sorted Roy’s new career, as he did for the old one.
Two big characters, you see. Keane and Fergie. Keano was Fergie’s voice on the pitch. Now, he’s a voice in the wilderness. Don’t stop him voicing his opinion, though.
WillieRedNut – Roy will return to management, and forever silence those who laugh too soon.
There’s a laughing hyena howling in the wilderness.
Who let the dogs out?
smartalex – Maybe so mate. As you said though, too much being made of it. The media will seek to exploit any divisions at United. We do help the vultures on occasions. But United are pure drama! We sell huge copies of papers. We never do things the easy way!
@Smartalex……..IMO, injuries and form are the key factor with regards to the front 6. The front 6 at the start of the season (Nani-Clevs-Ando-Young-Rooney-Welbeck)….all of them apart from Nani have suffered injuries.
Their replacements (Fletcher, Valencia, Park, Berba) have generally performed poorly when called upon, mostly down to lack of match sharpness. Carrick and to an extent Hernandez have been good though.
Additionally, the players who started the season on fire (Rooney, Nani, Young) went off the boil as well. Nani has come back into form of late, can’t say the same for the other 2 though.
Before last night, the previous 3 games we looked really good though. Benfica, Newcastle and Villa….performance levels were excellent IMO.
As for the back 4, well we were shoddy at the back even at the start of the season. That was purely down to the fact that we kept having to chop and change every game…and the one constant in that back 4 was Evra who was well off the boil.
StatesideAussie’s question at 23:03 leads me to suggest that a great squad including several new (read inconsistent) faces had a short time to play in a free-style, before injuries disrupted the fragile cohesion that came so soon in the season. We had accelerated our preparation timetable, partly due to our opening schedule. Without key players, and those that left, we had young players needing to adapt and re-adapt as the various partnerships were split. We’re juggling. Unfortunately we’ve already dropped two of the balls, and our key defender has been skittled. The show must go on!
Sparkz – Great players make things happen. We’re not seeing much of that on attack now.
Even without attaching blame to players, attaching credit is hardly an option.
To me, this malaise reeks of players with their heads in the clouds. It may come to pass that twitter, glitter and fritter are to be replaced with blunt, grunt and cunt!
Agreed. We’re a young team. Sure, we had experienced players out there last night, like Rio, Evra and Giggs. This is Jones first champions league adventure. Smalling is on his second. We’re breaking a new keeper in. Rooney, Young and to a lesser extent, Nani haven’t been in great form of late. Then you throw injuries into the mix! Not the preparation you want, when going into a big game. Still no excuse, for not qualifying. We got our pants pulled down by Basel. Sir Alex Ferguson will once again have to lift a set of players, who have failed to live up to United standards. I have 200% in the man.
@Smartalex – the fact that we’ve still found a way to win most of our games without playing well suggests that they have “made things happen”, even if its just sporadically.
Hopefully we’ll get a settled team together for a while and certain players will come back into form.
Apparently Young’s injured as well now. Can’t see Park or Giggs playing on Saturday, so guessing Valencia will come in with Nani wide left, and Fletcher returning to midfield (does anybody know why he’s missed so many games of late? We had a team with no orthodox centre mids last night! I hope its not a recurrence of the virus)
SAF has every right to dismiss whatever comes from a loudmouth pundit – even when it comes from one of our legends. But the boss too should notice that our midfield has been a particular concern for us for a couple of seasons now. We were overran in the midfield area playing in Premier League. Who’d think we’d reach the final last season with that midfield of ours.
I mean lucks and grit aside, its time for us to step up into reality. And that means dipping our hands in the market – even when there’s “no value in it”.
Fletcher has been clouded in swirling mists from a sorcerer’s spell.
Now you see him, now you don’t. Is he really there? Not in writing, anyway.
And I could be wrong…but this injury crisis could potentially leave Giggs, Park and Evans as the only senior players on the bench against Wolves.
Atm we’ve got 5 fit defenders
3 fit centre mids (including Giggsy)
3 fit wingers
And 2 fit strikers
Take 1 defender and 1 winger to be in the starting XI….and who’s left? Expect Fryers, Morrison and Macheda on the bench.
Denton. Sell Young? Fuck me mate give him chance. He has played about ten fucking games man. I admit he has been poor of late but fergie aint gonna sell him. Jesus wept.
It’s so typical of Uefa that Rooney’s England trial was concluded after the CL group phase. Was it because they didn’t want any incident’s after they had ruled, or was it that clenching Wayne’s testicles might might sterilize his performance against Switzerland based Fifa’s local club?
Sparkz – Young has a recurrence of his toe injury again. We’re cursed! Fergie might have to throw the some of the younger lads in. Down to the bear bones!
WillieRednut, that grizzly news is polar-opposite to what our bare changeroom needs.
The skeleton squad will have to play with a boner!
We don’t have a KEANO,Garry Neville character in the squad currently,…..the young lads terribly needs an ONFIELD Hairdryer to perform……
@aenemy7 – 100% true, I noticed that last night, no leaders on that pitch.
We can become the first team to hold both trophies simultaneously.
Win the Europa this season, and the CL next season.
‘can’ is such an empowering proviso.
Can we get the hairdryer though? He does blow hot and cold.
“Yes We Can” – a phrase inspired by one of the most inspirational, iconic figures in history.
Bob The Builder.
The heir apparent had a transplant, and the bald truth is a root of our problem.
It seems that hair hides an heir who needs to be yanked up by the short and curly.
Fearing Cleverley to be a little wet-behind-the-ears to readily assume the Scholes mantle, Ferguson said “I do like my heir dryer!”
Rooney is the heir apparent, so he better keep his on!
England’s next manager is no surprise. Hairy Redknapp! Mr Redknapp said, he’s had a hair across his ass for sometime, thinking about the England job. Better watch though Mr Redknapp? Hair today, and a wig tomorrow!
Zibbie … sorry mate, missed your earlier question. No, I haven’t heard any update about the float. Wondering about that myself.
King Eric @ 0:17: ” he has been poor of late but fergie aint gonna sell him.”
I know that – that’s why I wrote that “in my world” Ashley Young would be sold, not in SAF’s world.
StateSideAussie @ 23:03: “What I am curious about is why we played so well in the first few matches this season (the pre-season, and the first half-dozen PL matches), and then it all fell apart. What’s the explanation for that?”
If I knew how to answer that question I’d already be installed as the Gaffer’s mate.
Denton … true that. I guess what I’m really trying to do is expand the discussion beyond “the players and/or the manager and coaches are all crap and need to be shipped out”. In terms of personnel, nothing has changed, bar a lot of injuries. If we had been playing like this all season, I would have some tolerance for the argument about needing a large injection of new blood. But we haven’t. Clearly, our guys can play well, because we have seen them do it. Equally clearly, they are not playing well now. Whatever the reason is, it’s not lack of ability.
@ ClaytonBlackmoresTan
December 8, 2011 – 16:03
Thanks for reminding us that John Terry’s a cunt. The memory alone sort of eases the pain of the transition we are going through.
JOHN TERRY IS A SNIVELLING CUNT!
I have been a United fan for over 50 years, my father played for United in the 30′s, this is the first time I have commented on this or any site regarding United. The situation that is at Old Trafford is of serious concern to me and many supporters. I could write a long list of players on United’s present squad who quite frankly are not up to scratch, Sir Alex has been telling us that the squad is good enough, he picks them, he works on the tactics – he runs the show. He’s the Captain of the ship.
The defeat by City was and has been on the cards for months, unfortunately it was City. The 2-1 defeat by Crystal Palace was embarrassing for Sir Alex and he apologised – pay the gate money back to those people who spent circa £50 per ticket to watch that rubbish. 2-1 to Basle – £360 waisted going to watch them, again Sir Alex was embarrassed – he’s responsible, he’s the Captain.
Since Carlos left as number 2 we have suffered, constant team changes, trying new formations, setting up to foil the opposition when they should be doing that against us – and so it goes on.
Sir Alex is 70 this month, god bless him we’ve had some cracking times, but everyone comes to the end of their tenure, move up now and build for the future with a new youing manager with fresh ideas and youth on his side before it all comes tumbling down.
Sir Alex Ferguson – please retire upstairs now before you are embarrassed!
Amen ironbrand.
It’s all looking a bit ropey at pres but fuck it, just means louder voices in the away end.
StateSideAussie @ 5:08: “If we had been playing like this all season, I would have some tolerance for the argument about needing a large injection of new blood. But we haven’t. Clearly, our guys can play well, because we have seen them do it. Equally clearly, they are not playing well now.”
Sometimes these things are “perfect storms” – no one explanation is sufficient but lots of partial explanations (injuries, tinkering, inconsistency, bad luck, etc) are necessary.
In a curious way, I’m not altogether sure that SAF is “enjoying” his predicament – he likes to be able to play the “I told you so” game and winning the EPL this year would be wonderfully rewarding to him and, of course, it would put both the “noisy neighbours” and the “former manager” in their rightful places. What could be better ? A fine consolation prize.
LongTime Red, welcome to this site. It would be great to hear anything you’ve heard from your grandfather about his days at United in the Thirties, or from your time as a supporter yourself over the last 50 years. You make a good case for Fergie retiring, but I don’t really agree. I think everyone is forgetting just how disruptive the injuries have been this season. When you think how we were flying in the early weeks, playing very progressive, up to date football, I think it’s fair to say Fergie’s still got what it takes.
I’d still like to hear about the 30s, though!
finding some of these rants about keano a bit unbelievable to be honest!..Apart from sir alex,who in the world is more entitled to give their opinion about united than our most successful captain?!As much as i love and respect the boss,i dont think he would have had half the success he’s had without roy putting his body on the line week in and week out for 12 years.Eaten bread is soon well and truely forgotten some times.