Hargreaves Becomes Fully-Fledged Villain

Days before signing for Manchester City, Owen Hargreaves claimed that he had offered to play for United for free, only to be told he was no longer required by the champions. Despite his desire to stay at the club, he understood why United chose to let him go.

“I don’t blame them for letting me go. I can understand it,” he said. “There comes a point when you have to say this hasn’t worked out. The game has moved on. See you later, all the best. I told the boss I will play 40 games this season. He said he could see me playing again, but he wanted to start bringing the younger players through. When I played for him he was fantastic. He’s a great manager. He knows the players who can win a game for him. He’s the best at that. The guys were great, too. It’s a wonderful club.”

After speaking so highly of United, it was hard to believe your eyes when he was spotted leaving a Manchester City medical three days later. Whilst some chose to be understanding, believing that despite us paying his wages for doing fuck all for three years, he owed us nothing after we released him, I was anything but sympathetic. He received offers from other clubs, clubs where he could play more football if fit, yet opted to join our rivals, who left him out of their Champions League squad.

I was intrigued to see the reaction from the crowd when he returned to Old Trafford wearing City’s colours. Some reds were actually genuinely supportive towards him whilst others, like me, had no time for him whatsoever.

So, it is with great relief that I can confirm there should now be no ambiguity when it comes to the greeting he will receive from our fans, after an interview has been published in today’s papers, criticising the club.

“I’ve had to be a guinea pig for a lot of these treatments,” said Hargreaves. “But when you’re left to try to make something of a difficult situation, it’s not really an option to say: ‘Let’s sit it out and rest for six months.'”

This is interesting as three weeks ago he was singing the praises of our medical staff, claiming they were like friends.

“The people behind the scenes are terrific,” he said. “Some of the guys on the medical staff have become great friends.”

You have to wonder, why was he so desperate to stay at a club who had treated him like a guinea pig?

Three weeks ago, he also talked about his last ever game for United, playing against Wolves last season. Despite carrying an injury, he claimed he was desperate to get back on the pitch and play.

“I wanted to try to keep playing,” he said. “I think it shows how desperate I was, trying to battle on with two muscle injuries. I wanted to at least get to half-time. But I last five minutes!”

However, today, instead of claiming he was desperate to play, he reckons the club forced him to.

“I started that game with two muscle injuries but I should never have been in that position to begin with,” he said. “I was just going to try to get through 45 minutes because that would have been a start. But I didn’t even last five. I wasn’t surprised. I’d said to them that I had a hamstring problem, which I obviously did. I said: ‘I think I’ve got a bit of a problem here.’ I was surprised it didn’t go in the warm-up, to be completely honest. People at times must look at it from a distance and say: ‘Shit, he’s made out of glass.’ But I don’t know many people in the world who could do any sporting event with two muscle tears. There were 70,000 people there and, if I had walked away from the game, it would have looked like I didn’t want to play. I thought: ‘I’ll try to play, I just won’t sprint.’ I know it sounds comical.”

Again, why would Hargreaves ask to stay at the club and to play for free if the club had messed up his treatment so badly?

After United signed Hargreaves, he admitted that he suffered from tendinitis and had been aware of this problem whilst still at Bayern Munich. He did not reveal this to our medical team though. As his condition worsened and operations were needed, Richard Steadman, a surgeon and expert in the field, stated that Hargreaves knees were in a worse state than any other he had come across in his 35 years of experience.

However, Hargreaves seems to have a different side to tell today, insisting that United are to blame.

Asked if he felt United had mishandled the situation, he replied: “You’d have to ask them. There were a few crucial points. We treated it and it got significantly worse through the injections. That obviously had a huge impact. Basically, I was left to pick up the pieces, which was incredibly frustrating. They said it [the injections] would help and that I wouldn’t have any side effects. That obviously wasn’t the case and if I’d known I could have had a reaction like that I wouldn’t have done it. It was a shit position to be in, to be honest. I’m not a guy who wants to bitch and complain. I was trying to make the most of it, but it deteriorated over the season and we had to do these injections. My knee, my tendon, was never the same.”

You just can’t believe the brass neck of some people. Not only picking up a salary for years for contributing nothing to our success, but then signing for our rivals, and then slagging off the care he received. What a cunt. It appears it doesn’t take long for the lack of class and lies to rub off on a person at Wastelands.

Sir Alex Ferguson has today defended our medical team against Hargreaves claims, whilst revealing an official club statement will be released later on.

“We have been trying to analyse all the stuff Hargreaves has said this morning and we’ll have a club statement this afternoon to address it,” he said. “But as far as I’m concerned, for what it’s worth, my medical staff are one of the main reasons Manchester United have been so successful over the last few years. There is absolutely no doubt about that. I have fantastic medical staff and a great sports science team. Do you think we would be successful if we had an operation that wasn’t 100 per cent absolutely brilliantly done? The doctor, five physios and sports scientists are fantastic. That’s my opinion of Manchester United and it’s more important than what anyone else has to say about it.”

Sue the cunt.