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LIVE BLOG: United 2-2 Benfica

November 22, 2011

Scott is the editor of RoM and has a season ticket at Old Trafford. He started The Republik of Mancunia in March 2006. Follow @R_o_M on Twitter or @R_o_M7 on Instagram.

CONFIRMED LINE-UP: United vs Benfica

Jones: Don’t Write Us Off

657 Comments

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CedarsDevil November 23, 2011

oops another fucking typo! Crerand of course

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WillieRedNut November 23, 2011

I am legend.

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Costas November 23, 2011

Phil from prickwich is really Moses. :lol:

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CedarsDevil November 23, 2011

I cannot believe how thick you are, what planet do you come from?

Hahahahaha, how can you not love Paddy?

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Costas November 23, 2011

I get people getting absent about our squad's weaknesses, but who the fuck does he think he is talking to Paddy like that?

Imagine someone telling Keane that he was living on another planet. :lol:

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samuel - united WE stand November 23, 2011

It's all nice and sweet laughing at city and chelsea but we have our very own hurdle to get over against basel, all these talk about who we will get next, we don't even know if united will qualify, i hope they can get the job done at switzerland, won't be easy.

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CedarsDevil November 24, 2011

Costas - Spot on! hahahaha

God I wish I was sat in that studio, i would have raped the guy

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MG November 24, 2011

Calm down calm down

We the supporters demand a new midfield player from the management at OT

:lol:

Cough cough Pogba on top of cough cough Cleverly cough cough Ahem!

:lol:

Goodnight you lovely lot!

19

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WillieRedNut November 24, 2011

I know we'll qualify. Then we'll get Inter. YHIHF

Goodnight Reds. 19

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samuel - united WE stand November 24, 2011

I'm still purring over that prince boateng brilliant goal, he seems to have improved since joining milan, quality player that spurs didn't treat right..

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Fred November 24, 2011

Prince's goal was fit for a king. Fucking class. 8)

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Clint-iamyourpapii November 24, 2011

King Eric -
I don't rate that Soldado fella one bit. Aweful player, reminds me of Darren "barndoor -banjo" Bent. Everytime I see this guy he's aweful, fluffs it at crucial times but has a decent average, so its easily masked. Just thought I'd share my opinion ;)

Goetze is good,more experienced than our Clever-kid but in time Clevs will rival him for worldwide recognition in terms of most promising youths. Im comfident Goetze will be the next Kaka,Fabregas type for Madrid or Bayern.Dortmund have underperfomed this year losing Nuri Sahin to the Virus Bench.
I like that Shinji Kagawa,gives me some kind of feeling that he could do more at a team like United,perhaps Park Ji Sung's commercial replacement. :lol:

This United team is inbetween the old team and a transition period, We've lost the great Edwin,Nev,Scholes,Big John,Big Bad Wes,injuries to Rio,Vida,Giggs,Owen....Evra losing Form,Rooney becoming a centre mid, Fletch recovering from something, Park & Carrick missing from action for 2 months. Whilst all this is going on, a bunch of babies have been in charge and have done well with the odd expected mistakes.

I think we;ve done rather well under the circumstances,could have been a lot worse, without struggle there can be no progress, judge our season in June, nothing is concrete or won now.

Our defence will improve with Vida's presence, we have no continuity at the moment, Not SAF's fault, the Da Silva's & Evra need to up their game. Smalling is a huge boost.

Young needs to win some of us over, im not a fan yet of him, not grown to him despite his great performances, maybe by end of season I'll love him like Valencia who I instantly fell in love with.

Nani - This is your time to shine lad, fuck those bitches.I believe in you !

:) Finally the Papii has comeback to RoM , havent had a rant in hages !

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SAFrican November 24, 2011

Papii is back!!! Lol...sum good games tonight, i really enjoyed the barca milan match, was good, altho i wanted milan to win... :/

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Utd4life November 24, 2011

Paddy Crerand is a LEGEND. How thick can some fans be? Isn't Paddy agreeing with him that Utd tried to sign a MF player. If SAF won't get Sneijder or Nasri then he won't sign some tom, dick and harry just for the sake of it unless they bring some quality to the table.

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wayne November 24, 2011

Wonder what the time frame was on Nasri,the way Paddy was talking it was a done deal then City came in and turned the players head.I'm thinking now maybe the reason Utd didn't sign a midfielder was the club thought they had Nasri and who knows how close WS was in signing,tried to sign both just turned out to be the wrong targets over money issues.

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wayne November 24, 2011

Good thing about this means Utd were prepared to splash close to a 100mill in summer signings which means Sir Alex has money to use if he wants to.

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rohan19 November 24, 2011

new thread please.. this one's ridiculously long now.
atleast set a filter for moaners..
such comments should come under one common username : moses

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dannysoya November 24, 2011

NEW THREAD TIME!!! Rooney might not play against Newcastle maybe a post assessing our options and assessing the opposition?

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sandeep1878 November 24, 2011

Good morning Red Devils around the world,

King Eric- Busquetes can never be a street fighter, he is a diving queen and yeah fuck those commentators..

btw, send our regards to Kings,

anybody in touch with Smarty?

Hello Cedars,

Your boyfriend scored yet another brace for Arsenal..

Arse is the only English club qualified, they said funny things happen in football, how true :)

Enough is enough, bring on the geordies, time for backlash..

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BlackBorneo November 24, 2011

Why SAF not give Chance to Ravel ..?

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Manuminati November 24, 2011

@slim

but you do know that barca are 1 of the top spenders in the whole of Europe?
averaging around 60million each season since Pep took charge.
And according to research,they pay the highest wages in any sport on planet Earth,and probably the whole solar system.

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samuel - united WE stand November 24, 2011

Fergie was never interested in nasri, just another media driven rumour as his contract seems to be running out and every tom, dick and harry gets linked with united, how many of them actually join though?

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sandeep1878 November 24, 2011

$amir Na$ri on twitter - "It's just a shame that @Persie_Official is not on the list for the Ballon d'or."

One follower replied - "@SamNasri19 it's a shame you're not on the list for the starting 11."

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Costas November 24, 2011

I still don't get how Nasri would have solved our midfield problem. Can he play as a CM in a 4-4-2?

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slim November 24, 2011

Costas

who's to say ? its a matter of ifs and buts at this point

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slim November 24, 2011

Manuminati

i assume your referring to my my earlier comments challenging the "spend money or die " notion someone posted the other day, or was it you? I'll bite. Barcelona's spending is significant, i'll give you that. But can you honestly spay they've spent their way to glory. Half the team come from their academy and Real Madrid the other team that was put forward as evidence haven't won fuck all. You could put thier spending on par with United - Major transfers in the last few seasons - The swede fella, Us - berbatov, Sanchez, 22-26 million we got Young last season and Valencia - combine is more than sanchez. Fabregas? They harldy broke sweat, money from winning the league ,Champions league sorted that out. We did the same with Phil Jones and DDG .
So what gives?

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King Eric November 24, 2011

Haven't read any comments since mine last night about Goetze so may repeat things. Anyway turns out he got injured after 20 minutes. No wonder I didnt see him!!!!

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Jeet November 24, 2011

Frankly, the "we don't have money" falls on it's face given this summer's spending. If anything, I think the real constraint seems to be paying big wages (england's tax structure plus our own self-imposed fiscal discipline, the latter being something that I take as a long term positive). So if we feel that we should have bought for certain positions, or specific individual players then its just a matter of Fergie thinking differently. Number of possibilities, most likely reality being a combination of these:
1. Fergie doesnt want to buy MFs or fullbacks as he feels it will hold back Pogbas and DaSilvas.
2. Fergie wanted certain players and were put off by their absurd wage demands, or their attitude. In other words, not United fit.
3. Given 1. , Fergie wants only the best, and those guys werent available, e.g. Schweinsteiger or Lahm.

Frankly, I am not at particularly excited about the likes of Goetze, never been about Pastore etc. I did feel Modric would have been ideal, and Sneidjer would have been good, but might have required tactical adjustments on our part. Of the young players I have seen, Hazard seems truly amazing to me, but he wouldnt fit in a 4-4-2 either. This Christian Erickson lad seems to be the real deal, but havent seen too much of him. Again, he's more like a winger or a no. 10 - not what we need. But, there's a possibility that he might be too good to miss. Not impressed at all by this Gaitan fellow. From all accounts, Javi Martinez seems to be more like our cup of tea - the complete midfielder, but I haven't seen him play, so can't comment. Would love Modric to be honest, but can't see it happening.

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Jeet November 24, 2011

@King Eric: Goetze, IMO is very good, but not the next Zidane as some seem to be making out. Might do a job for us, but to say he's going to be a future Balloon d'Or is an absurdity.

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King Eric November 24, 2011

Fred - Hello mate. When wa sthe last time one of our central midfielders ran into the box to score? Err two nights ago mate. Fletcher!!!

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WillieRedNut November 24, 2011

There's no doubt United were interested in Nasri. We all know the story. He agreed to sign for us, then city bunged his agent a few million quid. As for where he would've played? I suggested in the summer, we might have changed our formation, to a 433/4231. Nasri is suited to a 3 man midfield. It's all history now, though.

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WillieRedNut November 24, 2011

Where's my manners, good morning Reds!

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King Eric November 24, 2011

samuel - Its not bollocks about Nasri mate. Thank fuck he didnt sign like. Anyway the story goes and this is pretty much spot on according to many behind the scenes folks including Paddy C. Nasri was a done deal. City bunged his agent 3 or million and the rest is history. Fergie spoke to the cunt on the phone and said "You will never disrespect this club or play for it. You enjoy the money, we will enjoy the trophies you cunt". Bored of this tale now but its true supposedly. Don't you remember his comments at a press conf when asked about him ? Disgruntled he said "Oh he is going somewhere else".

The Phil and Paddy argument was top class. Paddy was fucking fuming.

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Vilhelm28 November 24, 2011

What gets me the most is that "we the fans" are starting to accept mediocracy, even hail it. I agree that you have to support the players wearing the shirt, but come on - look at who is wearing the shirt....

Players having an ok game are hailed as "great players". I'm not going to slate any players, but come on.... this aint no vintage United team - it's clear to everyone - just look back at 25 years.... you'd be baffled.

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King Eric November 24, 2011

Willie - Beat me to it you bastard!!

Jeet - Cheers mate. Javi Martinez looks a top player. Played for under 21's and was top class. Seen him for Bilbao a few times but he has played at centre back. Marked Barca out the game the other week. Erickson is a decent little player but more out wide.

Clint - Top post as usual last night my man.

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wayne November 24, 2011

Vilhelm28 Utds lost one game all year,thats mediocracy? fuck me mate thank god the team hasn't lost 2 or 3 games

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Jeet November 24, 2011

@Wayne: yeah, that's some perspective, thank God! Loved your comment the other day (yesterday?) about how we might as well shut shop if we are gonna "get slaughtered by Madrid". I always say that we shouldn't get overconfident before facing the likes of Basel or Stoke for that matter, and the same applies the other way around. For fucks sake, at the end of the day it's 90 fucking minutes. . If "getting slaughtered by Madrid" is such a fucking foregone conclusion, we might as well attempt to put ourselves out of our misery and line up to put the ball in our own nets at basel. Thank fuck the players and fergie dont think that way. Seriously got to wonder if some of these guys ever seen a half-full glass.

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wayne November 24, 2011

@Jeet hi mate problem is seems alot of fans expect Utd to show up and win 4-0 every game,getting back to my comment about real football isn't fifa 12.These fans don't take into account injuries,it's obvious Sir Alex has tightened the formation up which will lead to duller games but if i remember Utd won alot of 1-0 games Ronnies last year,just the way it is the Prem is a grind and a results driven business

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WillieRedNut November 24, 2011

I'll take a few years of mediocrity, if it means we lose some of the glory hunters, that have attached themselves to our club.

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Costas November 24, 2011

Jeet is right. It's becoming more of a wage issue. Heck, we could have sold Berba, PIG and Diouf and raised around 15-20 mil if we needed cash. However, the club doesn't want to start paying over the odds for players and that will start becoming an issue. Imo you can't expect to work with the same wage structure forever. Just like ticket prices get higher over the years so do wages...

@slim

Of course we don't know for sure, but until this point, he hasn't proved that he could do the job as a CM in a 4-4-2. Imo this signing would have complicated matters and possibly forced us to play 4-2-3-1 at a time where all of our strikers work better with a partner next to them.

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jay November 24, 2011

How good is Van Persie at the moment and yes although he does play for Arsenal, you can't deny this man has been sensational in front of goal, he has been the most prolific goal scorer in 2011 behind Cristiano Ronaldo, so he has scored more goals than Lionel Messi in 2011. There are rumours that SAF might go for him if he decides to leave Arsenal, that would be very interesting.

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Manuminati November 24, 2011

@slim

No mate,it wasnt me.

but saying say the amount Barca spend on transfer is similar to ours is incorrect.

Just check thier trasfer record since,at least from 2007

07/08

Yaya Toure= €12m
Henry= €24m
Abidal= €15m
Millito= €20m

Total=€71m

08/09

Alvez= €32m
Kieta= €14m
Pique= €5m
Ceceres=€17m
Hleb=€16m

Total=€84m

09/10

Maxwell=€5m
Ibrahimovic= €72m
Kerrison=€14m

Total=€91m

10/11

Villa=€40m
Adriano=€10m
Mascherano=€22m
Affallay=€4m
Chygrynskiy=€25m

Total=€101m

11/12

Fabrigas=€29m
Sanchez=€26m
Femenía=€2m
Rodri=€2m

Total=€59m

If we are spending this kind of funds every year,with SAF in charge,our squad be as strong or even stronger than Barca.

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wayne November 24, 2011

@Costas hi mate the wages are a % of revenue so the wages are going up it's just some teams pay over the odds to get the player.If it's true WS is on 250k a week,Nasri is getting 180k a week,City lost 195mill,Barca have problems paying wages,god knows how much Real have borrowed over the years and Roman has lost millions just not good business plans.
That's a point most fans don't take into account,want the 40mill rentboys then bitch about ticket prices can't have both and obviously are connected

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Costas November 24, 2011

@wayne

Hi pal. Well obviously we wouldn't spend as much as City do on wages, but we could still raise our offers and keep our house in order. Unlike the clubs you mentioned. Taking into account this summer's departures and arrivals, we are paying even less on wages this season than we did in 10-11. Imo the club should get a bit more adventurous in that department, as long as they can maintain a good morale in the dressing room. Because unless there's a salary cap, things will get more and more inflated.

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wayne November 24, 2011

@Costas problem is if Utd pay one player 250k a week then it opens the door for everyone.Taking into account what Paddy said no question Utd had budgeted for Nasri,WS or both so unless one of the young lads step up think Utd will be in the market for a top player.Not sure if it'll be January or Summer.To be fair to the club they are getting all the young lads signed to bigger contracts.

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dannysoya November 24, 2011

On the guy praising Van Persie. I agree with you. the man is tearing up football at the moment with his stunning performances. This is good for us too because Arsenal play city VERY soon and with a fit and firing RVP and an on form arsenal, they just might help us out in this race.

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parryheid November 24, 2011

We definately wont be buying any top notch midfielder no matter how badly we are in need but boy what a pile of cash the club will have,sickening.

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Fred November 24, 2011

For the record, I had Fletcher's goal in mind when I made that comment about Xavi's goal. Just my offbeat sense of humour I suppose. ;)

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denton davey November 24, 2011

Jeet @ 11:27: " If anything, I think the real constraint seems to be paying big wages (england’s tax structure plus our own self-imposed fiscal discipline, the latter being something that I take as a long term positive)."

Exactly - that's why WeeWesley was too expensive; the transfer fee would have been OK but his (NET) wage demands were simply excessive. And, besides, why pay for a player's Indian Summer ?

What you really want is to buy a guy who has already shown himself to be top-notch but is still in his late teens or early twenties, that way you get the prime years of his career. Much as it pains me to say this, that seems to be TheVirus' new transfer strategy - after forking out a ton on money on Kaka, they came to the realization that for that amount they could get Ozil, De Maria, and Coentrao - and pay their combined wages.

If the RM transfer "strategy/policy" is any indication, then it looks like the big money is going to go for relative youngsters - under 24/25 - and that a late bloomer like Robin van Persie might have missed his chance to cash in. The RVP saga is going to be interesting.