One of the most regularly discussed items amongst the football press is who will be the man to replace Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United when he eventually retires. Given the length of time he has been with the club and masses of success he has enjoyed, it is clear that the man who takes over from him will have to do incredibly well to impress.
Ferguson has gone back to the roots of the club by playing entertaining football and trusting in youth. In his time at the club, he has kept plenty of former players on the payroll, like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Mike Phelan, Sir Bobby Charlton and Bryan Robson, to name a few. When Ferguson stops being our manager, it is fairly likely he will move higher up within the club somewhere, taking or creating a role for himself.
The man who replaces him needs to be familiar with how United to do things, and whilst being his own manager, strive to keep within the traditions of the club which have been re-established by Ferguson.
It therefore stands to reason that a former United man, especially someone who has played for Ferguson, would stand a good chance of getting the job.
Mark Hughes, a Manchester United legend, was in the press’ shortlist because of the impressive job he did with Blackburn Rovers. Whilst not winning a trophy, he kept the club away from the relegation zone and steered them to the latter stages of cup competitions.
Did he have what it takes to be Ferguson’s replacement? It’s hard to know. He didn’t have experience of handling big egos and hadn’t managed a club in European competition. When appointing Ferguson’s replacement, those lacking attributes would have gone against him, and could have been all that was needed not to take him seriously for the job. But he did have the previously mentioned qualities working in his favour, as a former player, an International manager, with a good eye for talent in the transfer market. At the least, he may have been given a go whilst the hunt for a more experienced manager took place, with Hughes being given the opportunity to show he was capable.
Regardless, any ideas of him becoming the future United manager were blown out of the water when during the summer of 2008, Hughes took the job at City.
After his first season in charge, City finished a lowly 10th, five points worse off and one place lower than Sven-Goran Eriksson had managed the season before, which ended with his dismissal.
564 days after his appointment, he watched City beat Sunderland 4-3 at home today, putting them 8th in the table, having won 6 of the 16 league games they’ve played, with a semi-final in the League Cup to play next month. This is deemed unacceptable for The Richest Club In The World though and Hughes is out of work.
Was it worth it, Sparky? A year and a half at City and he has without doubt ruled himself out of ever being the United manager. How depressing is that? At least if he had gone on to achieve something of note with City, it might have been worth it on some level, but all his CV shows is ridiculous amounts of money spent, no trophies and a 10th placed finish. Somebody better show him City’s Tevez campaign poster, seeing as though it amused him so much at the time. Through his bitter tears, he may still see the ‘funny’ side of it.
In the mean time, we can rely on agent Kidd, City’s new assistant manager, to continue where Hughes left off, just as he did with Leeds, in giving United fans plenty to laugh about.
Poor ol’ Sparky.
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As much as i agree with this post i think the fact that we lost today in such a terrible fashion should be addressed first. I’m still reeling ! United first , shity later
Yep that loss is just a manifestation of underlying difficulties we are having at the moment.
Its a depressing weekend & I hope we get out of this quickly by beating Hull next Sunday. When is Fulham coming to OT again?
Scott you have enumerated the qualities which Fergie’s successor should possess, but personally who would you want there?
@ bobkoh
I think sometime in march anyways ! Yeah hopefully we can get a solid win against hull and prove our worth. Simple as this , i understand we are skint but Rio/Nev are done in my opinion and we must replace them. Its not fair to rest all defensive issues on vida’s shoulders (when he’s fit). Evra is now the only backbone to our defence (love that man), January might not be optional but we must strengthen the squad. Watching today i couldnt help but cringe at what our once famous defence has become
congratulations on leaving bitter blue hell mark hughes, welcome back to being the man we loved to call sparky.
little consolation to the fulham result, but not seeing sparky manage them anymore is a good thing. imagine seeing someone like scholes, keano, ole, giggs, or bruce managing them now or 10-15 years from now. the horror. that’s what it felt like for me at least.
@Rooniho
leaving bitter blue hell = sacked from the council house , cant sugar coat that one
, as a united fan i still hope he goes on to better things though!
To be air to Sparky, let’s remember the following:
1) He signed on with City when they were a nowhere club going nowhere fast. It was a month or so later that they became the most hated club in the world with obscene money thrown at obscene players.
2) Hughes would have done phenomenally well to even make a short list, let alone become the next boss. He’s not even the most capable manager who’s a former player, let a lone managers, period. His managerial style (successful version) was always about scrapping and punching above your weight, which, even if he had won the league with Blackburn, would not translate to a appropriate approach to handling one of the biggest heavyweights in world football. Simply stated, “Hughes to United” was a headline that was never going to get published.
3) Roberto Mancicni? Are you taking the piss? Upset the apple cart, pull an Abramovich-esque tantrum about your billion dollar plaything, cause a near mutiny among players, enhance your reputation as the most despised club in the world for that tosser?
This is why they’ll always be a small club.
To answer the question Che Guevarist posed, I offer Bordeaux’s Laurent Blanc, complete with a first team’s worth of reasons:
1) Former United player, aware of the MUFC Way, and both popular and respect among players while he was here.
European prdigree, including success (albeit no trophies) in Europe.
2) Fergie approved. If it were up to Sir Alex, he would have been part of our outfit much, much earlier than he was.
3) Smart football man. Played under many strong (and not so strong) managers, in a lot of different systems and obviously learned a lot. It was his brain more than his body that made him successful.
4) Versed in the game throughout Europe, which means…
5) excellent network and football contacts throughout.
6) Obertan’s success proves he can work well with kids.
7) Success with smaller club eerily reminiscent of Fergie’s Aberdeen days.
9) Winning Ligue 1 proves he can win titles.
10) Toppling Lyon proves he can knock certain clubs off their perches
11) Age. 44 now, means he’ll be very close to Fergie’s debut age when a possible transition occurs. Not only another coincidence, but means that he’s going to remain available for the next 20-25 years.
SB
I bet u roberto will get sacked after a season . That”s how it is in the middleast espically in the gulf area . A manager might win all his games 10-1 and get sacked because they are conceding . And that”s how those ppl are doing it at city . But why managing city for 546 days would rule anybody from managing us ? I don”t think its a big deal . Every manager needs esxperience and it”s not like he has won anything there or said that he hated . Maybe i”m saying this because i”m not from manchester but i dont have a prpolem with this
Can’t believe that with all their money and ambition, of all the people they chose Roberto Mancini! – Anyway that’s good news for the other clubs because a true world class manager could do some serious damage with the unlimited finances they have
cant wait for the post on todays mess, i expect a 100,000 worder by 13.00 scott
While I am disappointed about the result all this crisis talk is ridiculous. Most of you read constant news spreads most of which are crucifying United. Was our play dreadful on the day? Absolutely. Does this one result mean we have no shot at the title? Absolutely not.
I will say we need to strengthen our defense as it is unclear if Rio or Gary Neville can be fit enough in the future. If we can bring in one or two defenders I think we are fine and our squad is good enough. Our midfield is a lot better if our two best center midfielders can actually play center midfield. The world is not ending nor is it an end of an era. It is a year of evaluation of youth and transition. I think we are seeing that some of the youth can continue in the squad while other players might need to move (Nani in particular.)
Strengthening our attack won’t help at this point. Their is not enough time for an attacking player to gel or make a huge difference. A defender can come in and give support at this very moment. Fergie got us this far, this is not the time to lose faith or patience.
I think scott, should leave sparky alone. He’s welcome anytime at O.T. But wit us being beaten that bad. I think, we needs strenghtening. Did u see our attack. Forget the injuries. Heaven knows we have only rooney and so does d premierleague. Berba is a flop either u folks like it or not. We didnt pay 30m quids 2 watch him do flicks, controls and touches. 4goals in all competitions dis season so far, dat is a massive joke, and 18goals in 63 appearances, am havin a laugh. God help us if roo ever got injured. 4 all u folks who still think berba is an ideal united striker, u can kiss d PL gudbye.
To be fair to him it was probably too good an offer to turn down at the time, but in hindsight it’s probably the worst decision of his managerial career. I lost all respect for him after his constant snipes at us this season. He seemed to go out of his way to burn his bridges with United and it’s backfired for him. No sympathy from me. He turned into a bitter twat so in many ways he was perfect for City.
Laurent Blanc would be my choice to take over from Fergie.
I also think Fergie should walk away completely when he retires. It doesn’t help to have someone as important as him hanging around, as evidenced by the barren years we had while Busby was still a director at the club.
Lets be honest guys i dont think we can win trophies with yesterdyas line up.yeah our defence was a makeshift one but still for me we have to buy players in jan.it was shocking to see fergie not using obrertan yesterday.anyways we can only hope for the best.because one loss doesnt make us a losers.man utd are born champs.
I remember precisely, a certain READ CAREFULLY WHAT I SAID warned us and told us that Mark Hughes will get his P45 before Christmas, and how true he was to his word. RCWIS Are you a magician or somewhat? RCWIS (Wastelands) are you watching???
Sparky is an idol a true legend of the club so we shouldnt rip him off in this difficult moments , so i suggest united should offer him a post in the team paul mcgunnies assistant maybe?
I will say it again. City are a club with no history and zero know how about what it takes to finish in the top 4. Spending money won’t guarantee that even if Fergie managed them. Besides, they didn’t exactly buy players from the top shelf did they? Instead of Drogba, Terry and Kaka, they got Adebashit, Lescott and Tevez.
Hughes has compromised his legacy at United ever since he posed with the Shity shirt in his hands all smiles. And he will never become a United manager, because above all else, he is City’s sloppy seconds now. However, that doesn’t change the fact that the Arabs treated him badly. Hughesy will fins his way i think. Mancini? The clock has already started ticking for him.
Had to happen at some stage. I still have utmost respect for Mark Hughes for all he did for United. He may not become the United manager now, but can you blame him for taking the city job?. i wont ,with the money that was being invested it was always a step up from Blackburn Rovers. Hughes had spent a lot of years at Blackburn and had shown his managerial abilities by guiding them to quite a few wins over us and the other big 4 members and some really good league campaigns. The difference between Blackburn and City was at Blackburn sparky had players who gave in their 100% week in week out. Here at city the players earn obnoxious amounts even if they dont give their 100% every week. Player like that overhyped cunt Robinho were clearly not giving in 100%. Hughes also said some things about Fergie and United that didnt go down too well with the United fans, but we shouldnt forget that he was at City and hence you cant expect him to say good things about United. I am sure deep down inside he has respect for United and Sir Alex.I still wont mind him as the United manager one day. No manager will succeed without the players giving in their all every week. As Steve Bruce said yesterday managers not getting time is a major problem. we are in a different world now.The pressue is too much..Thank God fergie came 23 years back and not now.I would love to see Sparky return to management seen.Man Utd wasnt built in a day and neither will any club shitty or any other club.
FUCK MAN SHITTY. FUCK ROBERTO MANCINI.FUCK OFF TO THOSE GLORY SEEKING ARAB OWNERS
Some corrections in the above post
I would love to see Sparky return to management soon.Man Utd wasnt built in a day and neither will shitty or any other club be.
They brought in the tevez of managers to replace him, has Some winners medels knocking around his sock drawer but when you look past the hype he’s not all he’s cracked up to be.
Costa
to be fair to Hughes he sid see problems that needed to be fixed and seemed to be highly close to signing Terry for there week defence and they nearly bought kaka for 105million it was the club itsself that the players didn’t want to go to. If united Chelsea arsenal offered that money then he would of went , look at the kidnapping story of berbatov . He wasn’t going to city noattee the money or the fact that spurs had agreed a fee with city or the fact that spurs wouldn’t sell to united. He wasn’t staying with spurs he wanted top of the table European cup winning Manchester united, not let’s try to end in the top half of the table city
Well said GHTT. Mancini was at Inter for 4 years, but he only started winning them championships after the Calciopoli scandal. Basically, they took out Juventus and it opened the door for the to dominate Italian football. I can’t see that happening here.
And i am a bit more optimistic about our games in January. At least Hughes knew what a Manchester derby was like.
GHTT: Yeah i understand that. Those players would never go to City anyway. That’s why the Arabs should have been more patient with him. They got him some players that could propel the team to the top 6. But for a Ch.League spot? Highly unlikely. As AIG says, no team was built over night.
It’s sad for Hughes because he basically got the Ranieri treatment. But that’s football today…
Costas
i doubt that. You know the new manager impact works instantly for a club but fades after some time. Ramos came to spurs, won the leaue cup but faded ast the start of last season. Same happens with every chelsea manager.I expect shitty to do well this season but struggle next season. Seems not everyone wanted Sparky out
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1237167/Mark-Hughes-sacked-Manchester-City-Roberto-Mancini-charge-Brian-Kidd-No2.html
@AIG:
Their form in general will probably improve. But derby games are special and Mancini has never been a part of one over here, so that could work in our favor. And the good thing is that we have 3 games ahead of us to figure out how Mancini will line them up.
To be fair, they did beat us in Eriksson’s first derby game in 2007, but i am still wondering how we lost that!
@costas
I was watching the united match yesterday and the bar start having a who’s gonna end in the top 4 , and this was about half 3. I went with city cause I taught Hughes will buy in January and with the berbatov Terry kaka tries he’ll go for villa silva type players and someonelike that will bite. He may of ended up with kenwin jones who knows but Hughes tried to get players to get that top 4 space so he could say to the kakas of the world here’s a bundle load of money and European football to booth. He indendfied aproblem like cb and looked and English football and said Terry. That’s a manager, no matter if he acted or talked like a twat while been a city manager at times, that city needed and your right he needed more time. These mAnagers that city sill bring in after acking after sackings won’t be given a chance to build a squad and gel A squad and the Arabs will just get nothing for there money
Costas. The 2007 game.new manager always get some luck to start with.beginners luck.erikkson got plenty of it.
@aig
good morning my friend. Ihave to go with costas on this one when it comes to the feel of a Manchester derby, Sven and Hughes knew what they where getting in for one been an English manager watching those games another been a former united player and goal scorer in a derby . If you look at the dipper managers of the premiership years and you watch there first game against united they don’t know what’s hit them. That’s what bobby doesn’t know about and that’s what Bobby is gonna have to experience first hand when we play in January
@GHTT: Even if Hughes had stayed, i did have my doubts about them finishing in the top 4. I think that teams like Liverpool, Villa and Tottenham have been there before and will have more experience when the race for 4th spot heats up. Will they buy in January? It’s a good question. We haven’t heard many rumors about that. They actually sacked Hughes because they believe that they already have a formidable squad. I agree with you about Hughes though. He didn’t get the players he asked for(they would never have gone to City anyway) and i think he can say that he did the best with the ones he had.
@AIG: Tell me about it. I hope it won’t be the same with Mancini. And the other interesting thing, is that Eriksson knew about English football. Mancini doesn’t have any experience in that respect.
Ghtt.ok mate.but derbys are games where players should be fired up themselves.no need for manager to say anything or motivate them.when is the first leg? Hope we have some players back by then
@lexxy
“with us been beaten so bad I think we need to straighten”
we have 12 injuries that 1 maybe a football life enders that’s it
we don’t need to run out and buy 12 new players 4 new players maybe 1 midfielder buy when you gave your 3rd/2nd choice keeper infront of one of europes top cm players at right back a kid and another midfielder at cb and evra because there’s 8 injusies there and your midfield is oberton has a knock nani has a knock giggs has a knock park has a knock. You have Anderson on the wing you have a guy staring and a guy finishing his midfield life not mixxing because the ones who are at the middle of there midfield life are playing everywhere else or are injuries. Berbatov isn’t 100% fit so it was a risk if he started cause lord knows we could do with out berbatov joining kiko on the side lines. Fulham are not gonna win the league they just had a field day yesterday with a team in disaray. If Brock lesner get hit by a bus out side my house I’ll run out and pin him for the 3 count, it’s doesn’t make me ufc champion of take anything away from the beast lesner is when he hasn’t been hit by a bus. United have a full week to regroup hopefully get some players like vidic maybe rio and brown back which gives united back Fletcher carrick in midfield and experience at the bck, the pig may have had 3 past him yesterday but he didn’t do much wrong apart from maybe reacting too late for the first. Giggs should be back. Obertan should be back to play on the wings with Valencia is classic 1994 fasion.
Costas.eriksson was one.west ham beat us in his first curbishlys first game.ramos came in at spurs and they seemed a different side all of a sudden.ramos started brilliantly at real last season winning 12 of his first 13 games.scolari started of brilliantly.it happens most of the times.but it dosent last long as all the above names discovered
There’s only 6602 minutes till Christmas and Liverpool could be 8th by then that’s a feel good taught on a bad morning
He’s also soured the opinion may United fans had of him. Unfortunetly from now on when someone mentions Mark Hughes I fear I’ll think of the former Citeh manager as opposed to former player.
He knew he wouldn’t be able to take over at United once he decided to take up the Citeh job so it’s his own fault.
bChilds
couldn’t agree with you more, ask any Irish football fan about Steve stalton and they’ll tell you he a arsehold who couldn’t manage his way out of a paper bag, not that the guys a legend who was once of the best when he was a history making player in the green
The League cup semi is on January 6th. Hopefully Rio, Vidic, Rafael, Brown and Neville will be back for good by then.
Pity that we have to wait 8 days for the Hull game. I want an instant response from our players.
Playing with untold riches and creating your own real-life version of a fantasy football team then getting sacked with not only the sympathy of the football community who don’t like to see big-money owners treating clubs like assets but also with your wallet stuffed with a few million quid in severance pay…
Asked someone who’s just lost their job in a factory if they think its worth it. I should coco.
Costas – “Rio, Vidic, Rafael, Brown and Neville” won’t play. maybe Neville. we must play second string youth team.
Is it just me that thinks Hughes looks like Hargo in this picture?
Either way, this is just a small blip, we’ll be back to normal in no time.
We don’t need any new players, in my opinion, we’re good enough as it is.
Corea: Look back to last season’s League cup campaign. Fergie played the reserve goalkeeper and at least 2 first choice defenders. For example, Rio and Evra played the in the final. When we were playing Derby and we were running out of defendersm Fergie played the ones he had left. Why change that now? From the midfield and forward, we will just play people who don’t get many games. People like Obertan, Nani, Gibson and Welbeck and Owen. Besides, if our first choice defenders are fit by then, they could use some match practice.
Red Issue October edition predicted that Hughes would be gone by Xmas. How right they were…a brilliant read, full of straight talking sense all be it rather worrying if what they predict for us is accurate. Apparently in June the s### is going to hit the fan when the debt has to be paid and the gimps have not got it.
Keep thered flag flying high.
I would have some sympathy for Mark Hughes but he has been a bit of a TWAT hasnt he?
I predicted a couple of months back that he would be OBC – Out by Christmas, as it was always a certainty that City would try to buy in a world class manager – if you have the money to spend, and Hughes was never world class.
I think Mancini might not prove to be the MAN either, but he is their third choice after all, at least he has that in common with the players.
So now we can sit back and watch the mutiny begin – far too many Prima Donnas at City so if Mancini doesnt suck the right Dicks from the off he will struggle – Robinho, Adebayour,Bellamy,Santa Cruz, Tevez.
Mancini will look like some slag Dogging in a car park trying to keep half a dozen cocks happy all at the same time.
Now that is always fun to watch, however grotesque.
As for Sparky – I know you used to play for us (and really well at that) but we can only judge you on the comments and actions you made towards Sir Alex and our club. The fact of the matter is Sparky, after all is said and done you won FUCK ALL and got sacked. That is the story of Mark Hughes and Manchester City.
All the Money, all the Mouth, all the Disappointment.
You can bleat all you want about targets havingbeing met and not being given time blah,blah,blah.
Time to put up one of your Posters –
“Thanks from Manchester – Now, fuck Off!”
As for City and their uncanny ability to Fuck everything up I really would not be surprised to find out on Monday that they have actually got the guy who wrote the Pink Panther Theme tune to manage them by mistake.
@evras left boot
Agreed. Strange we seem to be talking about Sparky rather then the deeat we sufferred yesterday.
Plus the only man for the job is Lauren Blanc!
He has done wonders with Bordeux. Topping a group with both Juventus and Bayern Munich in it. They may not be the super powers they once were but he seems to be in a more advanced position than many if not all of our former players.
who would you want to be the next manager scott?
As soon as the Arabs bought Man Shity FC, The club became to big for Sparky’s shoes. It was always going to end up in failure for Mark having to manage so many mercenaries. Also, I could not stand his arrogance. He began thinking that he was the next Fergie of English footbal, never realising thathe was actually in a borrowed time.
Off the topic, I never minded Ronaldo leaving us. But I do mind him touting our young players to Fascists.
@ Xyth, out of interest, what young players is he touting to real?
Apparently Real are interested in Jonny Evans.
http://www.imscouting.com/global-news-article/Real-Madrid-chasing-Manchester-United-defender-Jonny-Evans-/4275/
However, i don’t think Ronaldo has done anything. Real have scouts and they know which defenders could help them. I would appreciate it if we don’t sell another player to Real for the next 20-30 years…
Never think that cuz we’re not at our best at the moment we should all of a sudden dip into the Market,but keep hearin the rumour of benzema agen,in papers recently!!?? Like phelen said lastnight,our team starts from the defence,n we’re guna struggle without 7 of them!! Keep the faith n our season wil finish stronger than ever,remember 02/03!!!
Interesting thoughts Scott, but I got to agree with some lads here, we still need to address yesterday’s game. How serious is our situation? We are literally missing all our defenders, midfield players playing their positions, and those who currently play midfield, are playing like dogs.
How poor has Scholes become anyway? What is happening with Anderson? Don’t get me wrong Scholes is a legend and one of my all time favorite, but is seems that he is satisfied and has already planed his retirement. Anderson just isn’t getting it.
I wonder if mistakes have been made at higher rankings at our club. Why are we short on players in certain positions? Didn´t anyone anticipate that worst case scenario could happen? Was Sir Alex halted in the transfer market? Are we seriously going to buy the explanation that our title defense is gone because of injuries in December?
I find it hard to swallow.
United should always have plan B. We have come through injuries before, but yesterday the situation was only partly because of injuries. We just sucked in every aspect of the game.
@ Costas, thanks for the link. Jonny won’t go, Fergie won’t sell. I hope ronaldo is the last utd player we have sold to the fascists.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/6844764/David-Beckham-has-paid-the-price-for-leaving-Manchester-United-in-search-of-global-fame.html
This is a good read.
Costas – I am not interested in Carling Cup. This is not the tournament we must strive to win. However if it is about getting match practise why not. But i am afraid the rivalry between the clubs might prove to be really dangerous for the players like Rio, Evans who have serious problems with injuries.
Evans to the fascists ? You know the answer.
Still feeling miserable.getting grilled by the rentboys,arsenal and some dippers fans via text messages and calls.anyone got any ideas how to forget yesterdays game quickly.
Scott forgot to mention that this is the 14th time City are going to bring in a new manager since Fergie first took charge of utd. City are a small club with a small mentality, as Fergie said. They are not destined for success, even with all the money they have, even in bringing in a new manager. They’re becoming a bit like the rentboys. Poor Hughes. What will he do next?
As for the carling cup even though its city i want us to play all youngsters.dont want more injuries.ill go with.foster,da laet,nev,brown,fabio,park,gibson,anderson,nani,welbeck,kiko irrespective of the situation in the game.if we dont get our defenders back oliver gill can play.if he is injured play david gill but not fletch and carrick.they need a break
@ Aig alex is god, switch your phone off. Switch it back on in may.
As a Manchester United blog, shouldn’t you be concerning yourself more with the shambolic team selection red nose came up with yesterday?
@David, it’s called playing with 7 injured defenders out. Try playing with Ireland and Barry at the heart of your defence.
And as a Manchester United fans we do have an interest in how former Man United players fare as managers.
David.saf had no option.he knows better than us having a trophy cabinet bigger than our houses.he had 7 defenders out.cant do anything when that happens.
David, as a supporter of some other club on a Man Utd blog, shouldn’t you be fucking off?
For fuck sake, Scott, we just lost 3-0 to Fulham in what is probably one of the worst united performances I’ve EVER seen, and you’re still writing about other fucking clubs. I’m of it whenever we put in a bad performance I come on here expecting to see a match report and there’s just some bitching about another manager. We have got some serious problems for the next month that could well cost us the league this year. You need to start concentrating on united.
@Corea:
I have never been a fan of playing with 11 youngsters in these games. I like what Fergie has done in recent years by playing with a mixture of fringe players, a couple of youngsters and a couple of first team regulars. Personally, i don’t want us to act as if we are above City and that we don’t care. So, rest players like Evra, Rooney, Giggs and Scholes who have played a lot in the past few months, but at least lets play with a defence that will give us some stability. Besides, the Leeds game also gives us the chance to rest a few. I think that Fergie will rotate a lot in these 2 games.
Duncan – you don’t understand the concept of thу thing called blog. he is entitled to his choice of thread subject. maybe if you try to offer him money he will think of satisfying your needs. give the guy a break.
Costas – Leeds game is an FA Cup game. Different kindof tournament.
In this situation when we badly need to win games it is an unnecessary risk.
I agree with you but with one remark. If it were 07-08 season.
…and 7 defenders out doesn’t excuse our woeful attacking yesterday. Scholes played his worst game for united, the passing throughout was awful and nobody could shoot – we barely had a shot on target. Rooney did fuck all and Valencia’s touch was useless. With all our defensive troubles why on earth did Fergie start our only experienced defender, Evra, on the left wing with only 3 at the back??!!
Costas.it also depends on how many players we get back.if fergie cant see any light and the end of the tunnel than that says the whole story.we are already 6 points behind .if the gap increases further in next 2 games saf will have to play the top players in fa cup and carling cup because that will be only silverware where we are in control of our situation rather than relying on others
Costas – of course he’s entiled to his opinion, just like anyone is, but he’s representing the hardcore support of united and what is the most important issue right now is our current poor form, not the sacking of another manager. This is not his blog this is our blog, this is a UNITED blog.
@Corea:
That’s the thing though. In my opinion, it isn’t completely unnecessary. There are some bragging rights at stake. It’s very possible that whoever wins the semi will win the Carling Cup. Besides, i am not saying that we should play our best XI. Just some defenders. If players like Rio, Wes and Neville can’t handle 3 games in a week anymore, then i don’t know what to say.
In this modern age, does Fergie rate the FA cup any higher than the Carling Cup? If we look at the teams he played in both competitions last season, i think that they are about the same. That’s why i think that Fergie will split his best players into 2 groups, use some of them against Leeds, some of them against City and all of them at Birmingham.
@AIG: That could be true. However, i think Wes, Rafa, Neville and Vidic will be back by then. I really hope we don’t reach a point in early Janaury where the cup competitions will be our best route to a trophy. The next two league games must be won no matter what.
@Duncan: Agreed. Honestly i could care less who they sack at the moment. It was just the Mak Hughes factor that made this story more interesting. Not trying to defend Scott or anything, but after bad defeats what i have noticed, is that we don’t get a topi for a while and just load up the last one. I think that from tomorrow we will get a topic about our issues. We have 7 days to think about them unfortunately. Better do it with cool heads.
Duncan.there is nothing to say about yesterdays game.injuries cost us a bit.players on the pitch not performing added to it and we got walloped.end of the story.
Duncan – this blog is a success because he wrote what he’d thought was necessary at one point or another. This is United’s blog because he made it so interesting and people gathered around him. But the concept is pretty much the same because it is still a BLOG. He needs time to gather some thoughts and make you a proud person who comes to this site and reads what Scott has to offer. I don’t think you are the only one who suffers right now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
Costas – yes, i think it will be the case. But as AIG’s said it depends. FA Cup is an FA Cup. I don’t think Craling Cup can be compared with FA Cup right now. The main difference is that Carling Cup gives youngsters the chance to shine and to gain some experience.
“it’s very possible that whoever wins the semi will win the Carling Cup”
i don’t care. yes, i will watch the game, will support my team, will want them to win but it won’t be the end of the world for me.
@costas
you are right we cant simply put our pride at stake just in the name of giving the youngsters a run out if the reserves can struggle to beat the shitty reserves do you guys think they can do it against their first team at wastelands ?
well its that time of the month when games comes thick and fast and if we were to belive the myth that the league is won in december then saf got a shit lot to do
@Corea:
Historically, of course the two competitions can’t be compared. However, last year, we approached them in the same manner. The team that played at Southampton for the FA cup, played at Derby for the Carling Cup semi 4 days later. Personally, i hope we do knock City out because it’s their best shot at lifting a trophy after 30something years. And after that, i wouldn’t mind if we lift the cup. Once you get so far, you always feel like you can win it.
@sam: And as i said above, i hope we get to knock them out. That said, i wouldn’t sacrifice Rooney, Giggs or Evra for such a game because they should be saved for the league. Just those first team players that could use a game(Nani,Obertan, Owen, Gibson,Welbeck and hopefully the returning Brown and Neville). I think they will be enough..
Lets compare. Terry, Drogba, Ballack lift the EPL trophy in may and we lose to Shity in the Carling Cup. Oh, CMON!
Costas – Nani, Welbeck, Gibson, Obertan are all youngsters who will play. I don’t see them as our first teamers. Maybe Obertan to some extent. Owen also isn’t a first choice player to my liking. Berba and Rooney all the time.
Remember the final with Tottenham. I think then we lost to Everton in the semis of the FA Cup. Fergie played some first teamers that day and the game was a nightmare in terms of effort. Players were knackered.
Our defence had everything to do with our attacking play and performance yesterday. A makeshift defence affects the whole team, that was crystal clear yesterday. Rooney dropped deep and defended himself too. It was the same when Foster was in goal at the beginning of the season, Rio and Vidic looked shaky when ever he was playing and weren’t at their best. When VDS came back from injury, the defenders grew more comfortable fully knowning there’s someone they can rely on in goal.
Evans and O’shea will be out until the end of Jan. Which means that hopefully the rest could be back beginning of the new year. We will definitely win against Hull and Wigan. We have already beaten Wigan 5-0 and Hull have been piss poor this season, beaten by the gooners, the rentboys and Villa. Chelsea will probably win against birmingham, but Fulham will definitly not make it easy for them. If the rentboys drop points in their 3 remaining games, and we win against Hull and Wigan, then there is NO need to panic.
@duncan
i cant belive you’ve the guts to question scotts ability just look at the tremendous job he has done to this site can you show me one club blogg that can really stand above ROM ? i doubt it
i used to rate jamie kanwar of the liverpool kop but considering how clueless he was it really improved my respect to scott yes i know this is a united blogg the same sparky is a united legend live with it and move on mate….
anybody else sick and tired of our injury prone defenders ??
i mean its anoiying that none of our back four (-evra ofcourse) can play a continous three games what happened to our once consistence defenders ?
PS united need to shuffle the entire medical staff they keeps on delaying the players comebacks or are they been paid on the amount of time a player spends on the treatment room ??
@Corea:
Why does it have to be a choice? We could knock City out of the League cup and win the Premier League. Or we could fail at both. Even if we play 11 fringe players against City, that doesn’t guarantee that our fresh first team will win at Birmingham. Fulham were less fresh than us and look what happened. Besides, playing the same defenders Wednesday-Saturday doesn’t tire them as much as it does midfielders. Last January we played 9 games(3 games every week) and the defenders were almost the same ones each time: Neville, Vidic, Evans, O’Shea and Rafael.
I see what you mean you youngsters. I thought you meant people like Oliver Gill or Corry Evans. Personally, i see Nani, Obertan, Welbeck and Gibson as potential first team players. I can’t see them as youngsters anymore even though Welbeck is just 19 and Obertan is 20. Either way, i think we agree that these 4 will probably start. Who would you start in defence for City? Given that every defender, apart from Rio, O’Shea and Evans will be back?
@sam the kenyan red:
I think it’s a big debate that needs to happen at some point. I know that i have become very annoying because i mention it almost every week. Some of these defenders had issues last season too and we knew that. The twins are injury prone because they are still developing, but i am not worried about them. Neville, Brown, Rio and Evans had problems last season and we didn’t deal with any of them effectively. Yesterday i questioned whether our pre season training was poor, but that was crap on my behalf. Because there are many other players who haven’t got injured seriously. I think it’s the medical stuff’s responsibility to ensure than a player can come back at 100%. Maybe some of these defenders will have these sorts of problems for good from now on.
Costas – Rafael Neville De Laet Fabio
No Vidic, Brown and if fit Evans, Rio or OShea. It depends of course.
enough of this united to facist crap can’t they raise their own stars ??
johnny should and will stick to united not even another 80m can please me coz i dont even have any clue as to where the money goes………but united should sign van dre vaart we really need his qualities in the team
And we should have defenders like Craig Cathcart back till then. And maybe Danny Simpson.
@ Costas, I first blamed the coaching staff and physios for our injury crisis. But yesterday, Fergie claimed that they are working over time to help the players get match fit as soon as possible. Fair play to them. If there’s anything to blame, it’s probably just our bad luck. It happened to us, rather than any other team. A few months ago Wenger was saying it’s not fair that arsenal have more injuries than any other club, and it’s affecting their title bid. Mr Wenger, look at utd. We’re still in the title race with 8 defenders out.
Fuck Mark Hughes, I actually liked the guy as a player and manager when he was at Blackburn. But in, truth he was and still is a mercenary and deserves nothing for spending obscene amounts of money on average players, who were not much better than the the players he had in those positions to begin with.
Just because you have money at your disposal does not mean you go and buy anyone and everyone and destroy the team and players who have played well for you in the past.
I have calmed down a lot since yesterday, but I do sincerely hope Fergie gets us back into the team that dominates matches and creates many open opportunities per game. People stating that we have no confidence in our defense which stunted our attacking play is pure bollocks!! |Correct me if I am wrong we have not conceded more than one goal since we have had a makeshift back four, so I dont see where the lack of confidence would have come in. We must strive to play at the level Barcelona do, always dangerous, always creating opportunities, if not necessarily taking all of them.
Barcelona, in our position (of no defenders) would have played keep ball and waited till an opening arose before giving the ball away. This is the bar they have set and it is our job to ensure we can either counter or emulate them, otherwise this will be a very long season!
aig – Morning mate. You want to know how to forget about yesterday? Just draw a line under it. It is the next game that matters, there is fuck all you can do about yesterday.
PS I know we are short of defenders but play “David Gill”. You mean Oliver?
piss poor performance, and my resulting hangover isnt to great either. depression drinking is not the answer. we desperatly need another reliable defender and a creative midfielder, just dont think SAF will spend in january. cant figure out why we played with 3 at the back? surely when you have no fit recognised defenders a safety in numbers approach would make more sense? get the feeling we may have already lost too many games this season, but i have faith and know we will be on the up again soon!!
@Fze123:
I want to give the medical stuff the benefit of the doubt, but at the moment, all we have is return dates getting pushed back. I don’t question their work ethic. However, i do have some questions regarding their capability to deal with these injuries. I think there is some bad luck involved because all of them got injured at the same time. But apart from Vidic and O’Shea, the rest of them were injured for a large portion of last season too. So they were injury prone and we should have took better care of them this time. To play the devil’s advocate, why does Van Der Sar have to go to see the Dutch doctor anyway? Why haven’t we got to the bottom of the problem for a month now?
@Corea: Fair enough. I would start with the De Laet,Vidic,Neville and Fabio against City and with Rafael,Vidic,Brown and Evra at Birmingham.
Rewind – Rubbish mate. If Barca played with Xavi and Iniesta at the back in a frantic paced game at Craven Cottage I would love to see them play “keep ball”. Ridiculous statement.
@costas
yeah agreed on that one mate how can you simply describe a 33 year old defender who is injury prone ?? i know the name alesandro nesta will spring to mind but this aint italian league where you face shit teams like cagliarri ( only god knows if i got that one right) week in week out this is ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE for christ where “shit teams” like bunley,portsmouth,fulham …..are more than capable of giving you a good spanking thats where fit defenders comes handy….
” there is nothing to say about yesterdays game.injuries cost us a bit.players on the pitch not performing added to it and we got walloped.end of the story. ”
I’m sure that’s exactly how a team learns to imrove by just ignoring it. There is plenty to say about our performance, probably even more so than when we win comfortably. Losing is not the norm for united so when it happens we need to make sure it doesn’t again. We need to to think about HOW we are going to improve rather than just saying “there’s nothing to say”. Am i the only one who thinks losing yesterday actually matters more than the Hughes story?
It’s been almost 12 hours since this loss for Scott to gather his thoughts so don’t give me that drivel about needing time because he’s managed to write a hefty article about Hughes so obviously his thoughts are elsewhere.
I have got huge respect for this site, I’m on it every day and I do appreciate what Scott does. My only dissappointment is that there isn’t a reaction when united fans need it most: in defeat. It’s really dissappointing to come on here after seeing such an important and possible turning point in our season to read some shit about Hughes never becoming the united manager. There is a time for ripping it out of the opposition but that is after we have addressed our own issues.
its anoying that every time i start bullying l’arse crooks with our proud records, all of a sudden we fuck it up…. first it was last season with the number of seasons since we last conceded four goals in the league the out of no where came the dippers….then our record in europe only god knows what happened…..then till yesterday it was our 100% record in london and how we’re gonna tear em apart no need to explain what went on…..
am still searching for a new record and am not getting out of the house till i find one…anybody mind helping a brother out ?….
Duncan – dissecting our problems, particularly in light of yesterday’s result, is far more complicated and time consuming than talking about Hughes getting sacked. I’m not a machine and remarkably, do have a life away from this place, so will pick and choose when I have time to sit down and look at United’s problems in comparison to banging out a quick reflection on Hughes.
Just read scotts fantastic end if the year address on the state of Manchester united and for all the teats on this today who’ve been writeing about Scott not talking about it I ask yous to fuck off and start your own blog to write amazing informative blogs like this man the second united lose a match . Do you think the man shits on his key board and out comes a post with facts amd stats and make it an amazing read . It’s people like that that want united to win every game 4 nil or there shit united had 3 first team players yesterday playing in possition and people want to ,as was said to me yeaterday, burn all there jerseys. Where’sy 3 points I want it now now now where’s the post game post Scott I want it now now now. Worse than a 3 year old with a mars bar
@King Eric – “Rubbish mate. If Barca played with Xavi and Iniesta at the back in a frantic paced game at Craven Cottage I would love to see them play “keep ball”. Ridiculous statement.
Your entitled to your opinion Cantona, but Xavi and iniesta at the back, you must be joking! Why would you play xavi and iniesta when you can play Yaya Toure, a proper defensive midfielder and to be fair we have played a proper defender alongside carrick most of the time, maybe not first team but a proper defender nonetheless.
Your statement is looking rather more ridiculous than mine at the moment! To be fair barca control the tempo of games which is what makes them so successful and dominant at this moment in time.
To be fair Barcelona pretty much played keep ball against us in the most important european competition’s final last season lest we forget and we were pretty much chasing shadows all game when they had the ball. So to state that they would’nt be able to play keep ball against fulham, home or away, is a rather more ridiculous statement.
The final last year hurt alot simply because they made us look like we were a mediocre team, who had been lucky to reach the final. As a fan of this club i expect us to strive to be number one and if we are not, I bloody well expect us to try our hardest to regain the spot we all crave.
They deserved it last year, but hell I expect us to fucking give them as good as we get, if we meet them this time around and show them last year was a one-off!
Hughes couldn’t handle the big egos very well, the City mercenaries were fighting in the dressing room according to the press. I don’t think Hughes would have been a likely candidate for the job at United even though if he would never have taken the City job. I’m glad he did though, now we know for sure he isn’t quite that we need when Sir Alex retires. But I must say the City owner is an idiot not giving Hughes more time, they are not intact with reality those ridiculously rich idiots. But hey, they can do whatever they want, I don’t care….
Rewind – Yeah I can see what you are saying but I really do not think Barca would be able to control these games like Pompey and Fulham away with no back five. A much more frantic pace than they are used to in Spain. Outside the top 3 or 4 the teams are laughable. You saw how Rubin got in their faces.
I do however agree with your last paragraph.
“Did he have what it takes to be Ferguson’s replacement? It’s hard to know. He didn’t have experience of handling big egos and hadn’t managed a club in European competition”
Yes he did…
If a former player becomes our next manager I think there will be more pressure on him. I for one do not want an ex-player coming in. It didn’t work the last time we tried it and it bit the dippers in the arse as well. I hope it isn’t a foriegn manager and we stick with someone from the British Isles. Until Fergie gives us a quit date it’s unfair to link people and speculate. After all the managers we were linked with in 2001/02 how many would we want at the club to take over now?
Anyone know what financial compensation Mark Hughes is getting?
I ask because I still can’t get over the fact IT guys like me, if I’m sacked, I get nothing of substance, but top football managers get a retirement package that ARE REALLY ENOUGH TO RETIRE ON!
He gets the remainder of his contrat paid up until he gets a new job. I think he had 3 years left but not sure how much but obviously multi-millions. And that is the reason my friend why life isn’t fair!
Great club and supporters. Surviving for so long on a sense of victimhood, the mythical evils of United and a sympathy readily offered up by others in football from their own anti-United sentiments, both perpetuated their own classic myth of being a “proper” club with “proper” fans. Now we have the reality.
Today infested with the arrogance of parvenus and with not a dirham of their pelf genuinely earned the pre-existent shallowness is revealed. Never wanting Hughes as manager in the first place and sleekly shedding any further pretence at honour on the takeover, some now try to justify the disgusting treatment of one of English football’s contemporary greats. Apart from those whose silence is rooted in the fear of tribal chastisement. What a bunch of hypocrites.
Everything they concocted about United then condemned them with has come home to roost. The irony being how grotesquely true it all is about City and enough of its followers. And all of English football knows it.
“David, as a supporter of some other club on a Man Utd blog, shouldn’t you be fucking off?”
Excellent.