Letting a lead slip twice, missing a penalty and conceding an 89th minute equaliser all resulted in Manchester United throwing away ‘silly points’ against Fulham, but Sir Alex Ferguson will be in no mood for niceties as West Ham visit Old Trafford on Saturday in a match at would seem the perfect antidote to a disappointing visit to London last weekend.

Continue reading

After a comfortable win over Newcastle on the opening day of the season, Manchester United face a much tougher task in West-London as they visit Craven Cottage to play Fulham side under the tutelage of United legend Mark Hughes.

Continue reading

If reports are to be believed Rooney is out with a stomach bug, and is left out of the trip to Craven Cottage. But going by recent trends, he might as well make it to the starting XI bust a gut, perform somersaults and end it with a split. Not that it would make pretty viewing, but since the official site says nothing about him being left out (so far) make of that what you will.

Continue reading

United midfielder Rodrigo Possebon is set to join Brazilian club Santos. The deal is still in progress and is expected to be completed on Friday 20 August, but the two-times FIFA Club World Cup winners are keen to herald Possebon’s imminent arrival.

via ManUtd.com

The once promising midfielder was never really the same since his injury due to Pogatetz’ horror tackle. It may be said that his short-lived spell at SC Braga in Portugal didn’t do him any good either. A shame, but here’s hoping he’s carves out a nice career for himself with Santos.

“I’m so happy and excited to be back again after six months without football,” Anderson told ManUtd.com. “I’ve been really excited to be back. I’ve been so happy ever since I got back to Carrington and I just can’t wait to play again.

“I’m feeling good. I’ve been training for two weeks and I’m very happy. I think maybe very soon I’ll come back again and start playing normally with the rest of the team. I have had no problems at all with the injury. I’m just running and training now really hard, so I can come back and train normally with the team.”
“I think the new season will be very difficult because a lot of teams are becoming strong,” he admitted. “But in pre-season we have looked very strong and I think we will come again this season and we will aim to win everything.”

via ManUtd.com

After escaping unscathed in a car crash, he should be glad he’s not had a bigger setback. There have been plenty of questions on his attitude, leave alone inconsistent displays. And it remains to be seen how he puts those things behind him and focusses on regaining a midfield spot—a task made more formidable given Fletcher’s near-unimpeachable status and the other spot held by Scholes or Carrick.

It’s a fair shout to say that if he doesn’t manage to establish himself this season in the first team, it’s going to be hard for him to stay on. Anderson was the one to catch everyone’s eyes when he was signed alongside Nani. But it’s Nani who has established himself as a starter while Anderson has gone off the rails, blighted by a mix of injury and inconsistency.

The season kicks off on Monday for us, but let’s use this as an overall preview of the rest of the season as such.

Public perception has been that this summer is quiet on the transfer front. In reality it’s not been quite at all. If you add up signings made during last season and during this summer we’ll realize that the club has in fact spent about £25m on players. True they’ve been spent with the future in mind, but they are signings nonetheless, and what we cannot ignore is that hard cash has been put into players. This is not something that we can write off as pure PR, because money has been spent.

Continue reading

Rovers have swooped to secure a loan deal for Manchester United’s highly-rated young striker Mame Biram Diouf. The Senegalese international arrives on a season-long deal at Ewood Park.

via Blackburn Rovers Official Site.

I had a look at their squad and it looks a bit thin in the strikers department. Hopefully he gets a fair share of games. A season-long loan deal is probably good for him because on evidence of his pre-season performances he’s not going to get a nod ahead of Rooney, Berbatov, Owen and Hernandez. Even so, Macheda would be ahead of him in the pecking order.

“He is an exceptional young player in terms of his ability to play a variety of positions,” Sir Alex said on Friday. “He can play in central midfield and on both wings. He is such a talent, we must keep him. He showed at Watford that he’s a goalscorer from midfield and we need that. Apart from Darron Gibson, we don’t have a lot of goals coming from midfield. The days of expecting [Paul] Scholes to score 15 goals a season have gone now. So we needed to look at that area and there’s no doubt Cleverley has outstanding qualities as far as goalscoring is concerned.”

via Boss: Cleverley must stay – Manchester United Official Web Site.

Several reports over the past week said he’d be moving out on loan, but he isn’t. Yesterday, I’d remarked that I would prefer Cleverley to stay at the club. I would still like us to either loan or sell Gibson and give Cleverley an extended run in the side. If we’re not buying big stars we might as well give our more promising youngsters an extended run.