Sir Alex Ferguson has claimed that he had a funny feeling that we were going to be drawn against Real Madrid in this year’s Champions League and therefore face our former superstar, Cristiano Ronado.
However, on the night that we beat AC Milan 4-0, Real Madrid were knocked out by Lyon, the current fourth best team in France, with a United scout in the crowd watching on.
“In my mind, I had a thought that, somewhere along the line, we were going to meet them and Ronaldo would be up against us,” said Ferguson. “We would have needed a machine gun to stop him! I am disappointed for Ronaldo not having qualified. We had someone at the game and the report was he was absolutely fantastic.”
Man Utd News 24/7
Not to worry. I am sure Red Nev would have kept him in his back pocket. It’s a pity we will never find out though.
I always think of Vidic as our machine gun, so if SAF said that’s what we would need to stop him, I’d be fairly confident we would stop him.
Besides it would be like playing against one man as the rest of his team never bother showing up when it matters
Who is this ronaldo fella? Maybe we should sign him, let him play for a real outfit. Mug.
Vida and Rio in the heart of our defence we shouldn’t worried about Ron. they know all about him… “We would have needed a machine gun to stop him!” lol
costas
morning mate, yes gaz had a stormer against ronaldhino, saying that he was far more influetnial in the 1st leg in milan..i wonder what is going through ronnies head at this time, in spain well for the faciasts and barca the champs league is always the top priority over the domestic league, different to here, and now ronnie wont have a chance at euro glory for another season at least, would the spansih title make up for it? i dont think so somehow
Watching Real go out at the first hurdle – again – was quite funny. A nice moral tale there about how you cannot buy success. (in case you already haven’t learned that lesson from shitty.) It proves my belief that team spirit and the way the team gel together is far more important to success. Good players are needed obviously but they are nothing without the spirit.
By the way – its good to see the city of Norwich backing the green and gold campaign wholeheartedly!
)
bet fergie was having a “i told you so” moment when he realised real madrid was knocked out
again, too many egos and not a strong enough manager to manage them all
fergie chooses his players well – whether he can control them, they have desire to fight for team, graft & work ethic etc.
it would be great if ronaldo comes back on a free when his time is up at real madrid ;p
now on to fulham – just read fergie’s complimentary comments on hodgson and fulham! you know what that means – we are going to trash them! it always happens when fergie speaks well of the opposing team and manager before the game!
@Ulster Red
Good morning. It will be interesting to see how he reacts to this situation. Ronaldo hasn’t felt a similar disappointment in the Ch.League ever since Benfica beat us 5 years ago. Yesterday Marca reported that he had a go at Higuain because he didn’t give him the ball when he was in a goalscoring position. The Spanish title will soften the blow a bit, but can you imagine Real going trophyless this season? Oh oh…
Thought his interview was great yesterday, although he talked with affection about Ronnie. The most important point he was getting across was to keep our feet on the floor after the Milan result!! I have watched the Real game since, he was brilliant and took the game to Lyon. Lyon are looking very good, comfortably beat the dippers then drew and won against Madrid – I don’t particulary fear them – but they could knock the Chavs or Arse out!!
costas
heads will roll lol, well he suffered a defeat for us in the final, nothing should hurt more than that! i cant belive higuain missed that sitter and hit the post, funnier evrytime i see it. it would be great for us to win the leauge and champions league and barca to win the spanish title, think it might hit home then for him?
StretfordEnder – I thought exactly the same yesterday about Fergie and his comments. For all the shit the abu’s give him there is no other manager that would have talked about a former player THAT fondly. A class act is Fergie saying how he felt for the kid. Not bitter at all. Like steamdigit said though I bet deep down he was feeling quite smug with himself about the facists pathetic exit.
@Ulster Red
Probably. But even if we just win the league and Real fail to win theirs, that would be a blow for him. I know what you mean about Rome, but at least we made it that far. He played in a final two times in a row. Now he is out of the competition from the last-16 stage.
In regards to Higuain, I heard that they have a rivalry because they both want to be the top scorer for Real. Talk about team unity!
RE: Costas
I don’t think the story is true Costas. But rather the rumours are it was planted by Marca to get rid of Higuain as he is a Calderon signing and they hate Calderon. Also, he would have probably played through the centre rather than the wings so Neville wouldn’t have marked him.
RE: King Eric. Never mind an ex player, I can’t remember the last time I heard Fegie speak so fondly (and not just interview) about an ex player other than ones that have retired. He even texted him to wish him a happy birthday and considering how many people SAF must know- all the ex players, family, friends, staff at United, current players, opposition etc that is quite amazing. It is clear he has a lot of time for Ronaldo, for numerous reasons one being when Beckham was here, Fergie got a lot of stick that he wasn’t with the times and players were going to have celebrity lifestyles. But Ronaldo showed what he wanted Beckham to be. A player who could have a celeb lifestyle should he wish, but who always put his football and training first. No matter what commitments Ronaldo would have (in terms of PA’s) he would still be the first to arrive to training (Evra even said he was the greatest professional he has ever worked with) and last to go.
RE: Curtis. Rio would have been much more likely to stop Ronaldo than Vidic. Vidic seems to panic everytime he is up against someone with pace.
By the way is it just me or does Nani get some unfair treatment? Watching the ITV highlights back after the match and Nani tried to defend a corner but he ended up heading it to Ronaldinho and Ronaldinho had a free header. They went on and on about it saying ‘Oh it was Nani, look at Nani, look what he did, stupid thing to do!” blah blah. If certain other players for us had done that, it would barely have been mentioned
costas
yea wasnt he arguing over a penalty a few weeks back? not a chance he would get on like that here, and he knows that.
Think one thing we should take from Fergies comment is that he had someone at the game? Does this possibly mean we are looking at a player from one of the teams possibly? To be honest i was dissappointed for Ronnie not to go further and possibly get a game back home however weve already had that circus with Becks, awell possibly next year but i bet some of the boys were surely texting Ronnie to give him a bit of stick…Anderson, Evra, Rooney spring to mind.
Spencer – Spot on about Ronaldo . As for Nani yes I have noticed that. I watched the game back and Beglin was very quick to get on his back. Always the scapegoat. Must admit I wanted him sold in January as just didn’t think he was a United player. How wrong I was, he is one of the names I look for now! Has been fantastic of late and with his pace and Valencia on the other flank and Rooney and Park we look awesome going forward. Starting to adapt to the left side now as well to be fair to him. The best thing about Nani the other night was he was poor first half and the crowd were getting impatient a bit with the usual fucking groans. It didn’t bother him though as he came out second half and shut everyone up including dipper Beglin.
United had someone at the game interesting, future transfer targets maybe. We would have needed a machine gun to stop Ron, you call him Darren Fletcher lol.
willirednut – Yeah i was thinking the same pal but more likely scouting opposition for future rounds?
Ronaldo is unstoppable at the moment. Shame that he is surrounded by clowns at madrid. our right backs are fortunate not to come up against him. he is in similar form to what he was in 2007-08. The difference is he was surrounded by players who cared about the team back then. Now he is surrounded by players who dont bother about the team
@spencer
Is that so? I didn’t know that. It puzzles me why they would have a problem with Higuain given his form this season. Just goes to show what a role Marca plays…
I mentioned Nevile because if Ronaldo played a free role, he would find himself against Neville at some point. Or Evra…
@Ulster Red
I think he was sad because his peno didn’t go in and Benzema(?) knocked the rebound in.
@King Eric
You could be right but we have been linked with Lyon’s keeper and also, i think Makouns a very good player scored a wonder goal in the first leg.
aig alex is god
you have fiffa 10 for the ps3 mate? add me stu9-mufc and ill beat ya sometime
ulster red
no mate. i dont have a PS. I have it on my PC.
aig alex is god
no worries pal..what is it like on the p.c?
@ulster red
pretty good but i get bored of clive tyldesely and andy gray every time in commentary.A lot of lines are repetitve from fifa 09.The player features are pretty good. the game as a whole isnt very impressive though. Could have been better
aig alex is god
its martin tyler and andy gray on ps3..i just feel it would be weird playing it on a p.c lol
@ulster red
lucky you. I wish they had those 2 on PC. it would be wierd for me playing on PS because i have played on PS 3-4 times and that too many years back.
got to go out now. cia later mate
aig alex is god
i love it mate, so addictive between this blog and that lol..no worries catch ya later
spencer @ 11:25: “is it just me or does Nani get some unfair treatment?”
Your question is well-taken because Nani gets a lot of unfair treatment – just because he’s not CR7.
I was very relieved when he had those back-to-back-to-back performances in January/February AFTER all the “chat” that had him on the way out of OT. When he was able to play on the right, it was evident that he has bucket-loads of talent and skill and speed.
What I noticed is that after those performances there was a new realism about what he was sacrificing from his game in order to accommodate Valencia. Since those performances, the criticism (“unfair treatment”) has subsided to a great extent.
NOW most people realize that Nani is one of those high risk/high payoff players who might not get it right all the time (who does ?) but can produce a moment of brilliance that can change a game. And, “change a game” is exactly what he did against Meeelan with than fantastic curling pass into WayneRooney’s path which was converted to kill off the opposition, almost immediately after the break. That one moment was truly magical.
But, of course, he’s not now – nor never will be – a replicand of CR7; in the same way that Antonio Valencia’s contributions should be judged without reference to “replacing” Ronaldo. Interestingly, the team seems to be stronger without Ronaldo since his departure has force-fed a new division-of-attacking-responsibility and the front three (in a 4-3-3) have risen to the challenge of “replacing” the world’s best player with a different style of play. More, UTD-like you might want to say – and I wouldn’t disagree with that one little bit.
Fergie is just teasing CR7, oh sorry CR9
I think the scout was looking at Lyon’s keeper, he was getting some good reviews before
Wonder if an audacious bid for Ronnie might be accepted in a few months time…… seems to me SAF is still sweet on CR7/9….. and it has been proved already that the grass is not always greener…..do you think that the Galacticos are struggling with all their big name players…… just a thought…!!
I’m glad we don’t have to face Ronaldo as it would have been difficult to stop him but I’m pleased the virus are out cus I can’t stand the fascists.
@TonyBee
I wouldn’t want him back mate im happy with the way we’re playing.
It’s funny that before the second leg he said Real will score ’5 or 6 goals’ at the Bernabeu. Look how it turned out Ronnie.
as a side note, i hope this season is the beginning of United getting over another one of its departed stars. Personally i’m chuffed about the way we’ve coped so far. Pretty sure fergie will dip into the transfer market this summer, if anything i’m quite excited by it. who will he go for ? a winger ? a forward ? an attacking midfielder ?
Cant help but feel chuffed about the way we’ve played for the past few weeks, starting with man-shitty all those weeks ago. This club is like no other around the world and i am glad to be a member of this juggernaut that is MANCHESTER UNITED
stick in a cheeky 30 mill offer for ronnie. haha see if he has realized he made a mistake.
We’re playing better this season without him though.
That said, I salivate at the thought of Rooney with Valencia and 06-07 Ronaldo on the flanks…
Marq @ “I think the scout was looking at Lyon’s keeper”
Lloris was shockingly slow to react to CR9′s left-footed shot; here in Canada, a ball sent between the keeper’s legs is called a “five-hole shot” on account of the way that kids’ ice hockey, model keepers provide five different shooting-targets – high on both sides, low on both sides, and the “five hole”. Apart from that, he did fine; but he’s no VDS when it comes to commanding the area, distributing the ball, and playing it with his feet. But, then, who is – apart from Gianluigi Buffon ?
Slim @ 14:59: ” Pretty sure fergie will dip into the transfer market this summer, if anything i’m quite excited by it. who will he go for ? a winger ? a forward ? an attacking midfielder ?”
I would think one of the lessons SAF learned in last year’s debacle at Roma was that missing highly-energetic midfielders like Fletcherinho, Hargreaves and having Anderson limp off at half-time was like playing the game with one leg tied to the other. I know that ThreeLungPark is a dynamo but he’s already almost-30 and Scholes can’t play all the time while Michael Carrick is a fairly passive player.
So, I’m figuring that the role model for a new signing would be a “ball of hate” like Gennaro Gattuso or Daniele De Rossi – although neither of those guys who are too old or just not interested in a new challenge.
What makes this scenario more likely are the following factors:
first, a 4-3-3 seems to get the best out of Wayne Rooney;
second, the midfield “destroyer” is necessarily a role that is hard on a player’s body so quality back-up is important;
third, Darron Gibson can shoot the ball but he’s not really proved to be able to do much more than that; and,
fourth, the two best midfield prospects in the youth system – Tom Cleverley and Paul Pogba – are not this kind of player although I suppose that Corry Evans would fit the bill and seems to be coming on gang-busters, just like his big brother.
Off topic, but hey Denton Davey, where in Canada are you and which Pub do you go to watch the UTD games?
On midfield enforcer’s, i think Sissoko who plays for Toulouse or Makoun from Lyon would be excellent buys.
I love Neville , but Ronaldo one on one against him , he would have ripped him apart . But we can do to Ronaldo what Barca did to him? Never let him get into a one on one situation with Nev .
“We had someone at the game and the report was he was absolutely fantastic.”
Scouting other player also maybe? Most probably Hugo Lloris. He was impressive that nite.
The should have spent that 250m on Sir Alex.
Next they gonna bid for who? Rooney 200m pound, Nani 70m pound, Valencia? The only thing I dun mind us to get rid off rite now r the Glazers cunt. For free, we dun mind to give it to Real
Knobby6Styling: “Off topic, but hey Denton Davey, where in Canada are you and which Pub do you go to watch the UTD games?”
I live in downtown Toronto – Dupont/Spadina – and usually watch the games at home but when they are not televised on Setanta or any other cable channel then I go to Scallywags at St Clair/Yonge