Red Rants

It is all over the news and it was certain to crop up sometime sooner or later. If Rooney manages to make it for the Everton game it would be a record of some sorts for a player who broke his metatarsal just four weeks ago for the millionth time.

The player is desperate to get back to the side. There is no doubt about it. It was the first summer in a while where he stayed injury free and away from a major international tournament. Coming off a season which was labelled by the media as poor, by his own standards, he was hungry to impress and was looking really good in pre-season.

Continue reading “Rushing Rooney Would Be Foolish”

Not much today. At least that’s what it was at the time of writing this. Highly doubt things would be much different. But whatever we have to talk about today is mostly positive stuff, depending on how you look at it.

Today’s topic is only about injuries. While the second leg of international games is to be held on Wednesday, before we really get to know which players have picked up knocks, we have a couple of players who are certainly not playing them.

Continue reading “United’s Injury Blow… And Boost.”

As we all now know there is a report expected from the Manchester United Supporters’ Trust detailing the failure of the ‘Glazer business model’. It is a little odd that I have to link to a NOTW article but there is truth in what’s published there and what is expected from MUST.

Of course, the members of the Glazer camp have swiftly moved to dismiss speculation as unfounded:

“The story is inaccurate,” said a spokesman for the Glazer family. “Nothing has changed. “The debts continue to be comfortably serviced by the business, which is performing better than ever.”

So with contrasting reports who do we trust. Let’s look at it a little closely.

Continue reading “The Glazer Financial Breakdown”

Hope you’re having a good Sunday. I, for one, am not. The whole international break thing is crap. Especially after just three weeks since the season started. It’s like getting on to the freeway after spending an hour negotiating a traffic jam only to suddenly come upon another serpentine queue of stationary cars, honking furiously at those in front. Go figure, if you find the analogy a little off.

Anyway, international breaks, like those periodic dentist check-ups, are necessary evils. These are times when you would want to keep your fingers (arms and legs) crossed, fervently hoping that your players avoid anything untoward.

Now that the first set of international games are over, let’s all heave a sigh of relief.

Continue reading “Ronaldo Scores, Players Come Through Unscathed… So Far”

One of our readers, JB, pointed me out to this article by Oliver Holt. The ‘bloke’ at Soccerlens also wrote about it, but since I found it interesting myself, I thought I would also contribute to the clutter.

Oliver Holt, of course, is a fine lad who is a columnist at the Mirror. Although the use of the words ‘columnist’ and ‘Mirror’ in the same sentence might be regarded by many as an odd use of the English language. That doesn’t stop said paper rag from proclaiming Holt as the best Sports Writer in Britain. But prejudices aside, the article had enough in it to warrant a retort of some kind. In that respect, well done Mr. Holt.

Continue reading “Much Ado About Ferdinand, And Some Loads of Ballacks”

I don’t remember the last time we had so many interesting quotes from Fergie in such a short period of time.

The most interesting one, undoubtedly, is his admission that the sale of Stam was a mistake. For a man who still thinks Veron was a good buy, this is something. Jaap Stam was a quality center half and his sale to Lazio for a handsome 16.5 million led to a poor season.
Of course, the sale of Stam was due to a more familiar situation than the ‘offer too good to refuse’ reason given by SAF. Stam’s autobiography didn’t have too many good things to say about Fergie, and that would have been enough to see him out. Stam did say after being sold that his sale was a ‘big mistake’. Surely the players that came in, viz., Veron and Blanc did not particularly set the stage on fire.

Continue reading “Quotes Galore From Fergie | Hargreaves Injured | Another City Loss”

Morning. A very quiet day it is indeed.

Really grasping at straws as far as news goes. The long international break adds to the frustration as far as club football goes. Although, from our club’s point of view, it couldn’t have come at a better time. Saha’s got 45 minutes under his belt. Thankfully, as things stand now, Raymond Domenech hasn’t called him for international duty. (Ssshh, don’t tell him that he’s fit.) Enough time for him to play some reserve games and make himself ready. Ronaldo, after coming back from his Portugal commitments would be hungry to prove a point or two.

Anyway, about today, it is really quiet and I’ll see what I can talk about.

Continue reading “Roundup: Amazed Anderson; Hargreaves Tops Poll; Ole’s New Avatar”

Morning all. Yes, the daily roundup is back! Let’s get it quickly out of the way. So without any meaningless banter from my side, here goes.

Continue reading “Roundup: Saha’s Enlightenment, Nutty Takeover Bids, The Portugeezers’ Romp and More “

For those interested, MOTD highlights is up on the stats page.

I am sure certain sections of regulars to this site might have been left wondering what really is up with the lazy author of this site. Admittedly there was a little slacking off from your’s truly. After all, waking up late, groggy-eyed, on a Sunday morning - when the lethargy was only mildly nudged out of the system while watching Villa beat Chelsea - should be enough cause for feeling generally happy through the rest of the day and forgetting one’s blogging commitments.

Anyhow, apologies. Here’s getting back to business…

Continue reading “Reds 1-0 Sunderland: The Late Late Match Report”

FULL TIME:
Saha showed what we’ve been missing all along this season. A target man. His introduction made so much of a difference. Makes one realize how important he was to our blazing start last season. A headed goal was something we were never likely to have got prior to this game. Speaks a lot about our season from now on, as we rely on an injury prone striker.

The game was scrappy, with plenty of possession but the ball given away numerous times. Evra however was immense, as he was in the first half. His tackling has also improved greatly. My man of the match by a mile. Hargreaves was also good, doing the tidying up job pretty well. Great buy indeed.

That’s it for now from me. Detailed match report later.

FIRST HALF:
United have been bossing possession, but have been clueless as far as making use of it. Familiar story, isn’t it? Eagles, Tevez, Anderson and Nani are our attacking quartet. Scholes and Hargreaves are in our midfield. Saha was on the bench. Nothing remotely threatening has come throughout the half, despite some 7 odd shots from outside the box.

Oh did I mention, Patrice Evra has been immense. Most of our promising build-ups have been from the left channel.

Sad story really. Pray lads, pray for your life that Saha has a blinder.

Half Time Substitution: Saha replaces a very quiet Anderson. Come on Louis!

Watch this space for updates. Hopefully I should bring you some! Won’t promise you though, if I get carried away by the game. Feel free to discuss away.