Jul 09
Fletch For Everton? Pako for a ‘Thrilled’ Queiroz?
… and pigs flying? Too many questions. So little time. Well there is plenty of time but, you see, I have to run off on an errand or two after this so I’ll get right into this straight away without much waffling.
There have been stories that Darren Fletcher has caught David Moyes’ fancy. I think Fletcher should not move because players like him is the reason why we are where we are.
It’s funny in a way because he was, along with O’Shea and Silly, among the most ridiculed players, not so long ago. But when it came to the crunch games — be it against Chelsea at Old Trafford in the 05/06 season, or against Arsenal in the FA Cup this year — he has always shown up. Enough reason for Fergie to call him a big game player.
But besides that it’s his readiness — much like O’Shea — to be able to come on whenever Fergie deemed it right to call him and do the job without any fuss that makes him so important to the squad balance. These players know they’ll never be first choice. But it is not a sign of resigned defeat. When called they give everything they can with their limited abilities and, more often than not, do what is required of them.
Fletcher’s early promise never materialised, and his inconsistency can be infuriating but he still has qualities that makes him guaranteed to play an important role for us next season. His tireless running and tenacity are the kind of attributes that may have impressed Moyes. I personally don’t want United to sell him.
Please Fletch, stay with us.
Meanwhile there are some rumours that United might line up Pako Ayesteran (the former assistant to Spanish waiter-cum-part-time football manager Rafa Benitez) as assistant manager if Queiroz. I don’t know how true that is, but I am fairly certain that Queiroz is indeed leaving. Losing him would be like losing a father figure for the likes of Ronaldo, Nani and Anderson. And I already mentioned why I thought he’s very important to us so I won’t expand on it further.
About Pako Ayesteran, I don’t know if it carries much weight. We’ve already had Blanc and Cantona linked to us.
Other than that not much else to talk about other than wishing Anderson best of luck for his involvement in the olympics.
Till tomorrow.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Why Carlos Queiroz is More Important than Ronaldo
- Brand New Centre Forward……
- United sign new Rooney…
- Fletch Wants To Stay. Do You Want Him?
- What Will Sir Alex Do With Rodrigo Possebon?
Tags: Site News
Opti (541)
Stephen (490)
RedDevilEddy (461)
Craig Mc (349)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
@PO13: Welcome aboard mate. I appreciate the kind words as well. From your first post I can see that you are well informed and have interesting things to say and I for one look forward to reading your posts as well as debating with you on all things United. Cheers!
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Why haven’t FIFA sacked this guy? I mean for all the charity work you hear about FIFA doing and for him to fuck it up like that it just puts a bad name on the organisation and football in general considering FIFA is pretty much in charge of everything to do with the sport.
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@dan(u-ol): I like what Parker had to say up to the moment where he suggested that Platini should take over for Blatter. As far as I’m concerned that dumbass is the flip side of the same coin. He’s just as bad as Blatter I’m afraid. Nevertheless, good for Parker to come out and show his displeasure at Blatter’s reprehensible comments.
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I see a premiership team made a £19m bid for Arshavin. Not likely to be l’Arse cause they’re cheap, not likely to be Chelsea as they already have Fat Frank, Ballack and Deco in his position, not likely to be Liverpool cause he’s not Spanish. Maybe Tottenham. Or…do we need him?
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someoene shld really shut blatter up,he talks like he owns the bloody world.If he aint mouthing off abt how he has aplan b as concerning south africa,he’s spewing some load of bull abt united and chelsea having loads of money and being able to buy who they want.So what but don,t Real,arsenal(if they wanted),Barcelona basically most of the G14 clubs.He’s a twat atimes he needs to look at things from our perspective and the players perspective.we are being given the shot end of the stick here,Real can openly court ,distract our key player from his football(afterall thats what his paid for),its bloody okay.But when we refuse their advances what does he do ,he goes and has a hissy fit.surely Blatter is a royal twat,if what Real are doing is not wrong then I don’t know what is
He needs to grow up him and his vice president.i have never agreed with anything they say because the tend to speak as if they are protecting their interests.Surely 6+5 rule was a non starter but heck he wants to rein in the EPL when its experiencing its upward trend.what does he do thats so fucking special that he keeps coming back.I am sorry RR but this dude is a fucking Twat.
I don’t think that his ever been a reasonable man.surely his organization has more problems than the european leagues.Afterall wasnt it FiFA that screwed south africa out of the 2006 world cup then awarded them the 2010 when they didn’t deserve it.It was more of a token gift when Morocco deserved it coz they put together a better proposal.HE shld sort out those issues first before getting in our business.
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@Tomas: Why insult and bad mouth the Italian Mafia by connecting and comparing them to two unscrupulous and completely criminal bastards like Don Platini and Don Blatter? I think only the Naples Mafia comes close to those two.
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@PO13: you say that there are no stars in Cleveland sport, do you not class LeBron James as a star
Anyway welcome to the site
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@Tomas: Your rant on what true slavery is all about and what a mockery Blatter just made of it should be applauded. Very well said Tomas and hopefully other people with power and scruples will act to do something about this man’s irresponsible actions that are not only unethical, but stink of corruption and a vast conspiracy as well.
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does real madrid calderon blatter platini even ronaldo make the glazers the nicest people on earth almost angels, and that is a feet in itelf I did not thought could be topped, its quiet obvious fifa uefa are desperate to see their beloved real madrid return to the top again.
Look how platini did not even want to give united the European cup. but like I said bladder is a real madrid fan he is a member of that Spanish governments funded and corrupted club, and he wants to see his club sign ronaldo because its quiet obvious that english clubs like man utd should not be allowed to have the world’s best player not in their eyes. Its amazing whats the prize for man utd winning the double, man utd being beaten to death like jesus by the media uefa fifa bladder real madrid and ronaldo.
man utd are still not being given the credit they deserve for winning the double because you know why because everyone is so in love with ronaldo, and everyone is saying how great he did its now seen has christiano ronaldo fc not manchester united fc its truly a disgrace in itself. thats why the double winning team will never be like the treble winning side because that side was about Manchester united has a team not about one person and his ego, go look at neville scholes and giggs I think they have done it all not ronaldo.
let’s see what they would say if man utd acted like real madrid they would have a totally different opinion, and yes real madrid and barcelona are in dept isnt that right platini and bladder or do you hate brittish football so much you are to blind to see that, I don’t want to put barcelona into this debat because they are a club I truly respect and who do things in a much better fashion then that scum real madrid.
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I think what really irks me the most about this is that I’ve grown accustomed to the American (NBA/NFL/etc) sport way of doing things. Where if you sign on that dotted line, you actually have to hold up your contract. Every once in a while, you get a player like Terrell Owens who will pout and whine and disrupt his way out of a contract, but by an large, you’re tied up. See: Chad Johnson this offseason. I see the 5 year deal he just signed and I can only wonder why he signed himself into it if he’d want out a year later.
I don’t know very much about the business side of football, and the way this offseason is going, I kinda wish I could unlearn what I’ve learned this summer. It seemed so much simpler when I could just tune in at August and watch the games and check out the changes to the team.
But this whole Platini/Bladder situation, I’ll try to understand it in the best context I can. It would be like the NFL commissioner speaking out against the Eagles in the whole T.O. debacle insinuating that the Eagles were in the wrong.
I have loved seeing Ronaldo, from the time where I wondered “Who’s the new guy wearing #7?” to the roller coaster of emotions he felt at the CL final.
While I may not have always approved of his methods, I’ve been satisfied by the results. I can understand a player wanting a new challenge elsewhere, but to leave the club in a proverbial limbo about this is very unprofessional and classless on his hand.
Maybe it’s just my warped way of making myself feel better, but I think that the way this has played out has shown how much he loves playing for MUFC and how hard it is to leave our great team. He hasn’t come out and definitively stated one way or another, and so until then, I will continue to wait.
Oh, and this is my first post here. I may post more from time to time, but I doubt I’ll be prolific as Grog.
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@Karl: I think you are missing the point a bit. Loyalty is important for players to show because they are the ones fans latch on to when they start to support a team. Why should they be loyal? Because they have signed a binding contract that pays them handsomely and that protects them as well. These players hurt themselves or have a major crisis, the team is there to support them and protect them. Ronaldo just had ankle surgery from an injury that happened three months ago in a Euro friendly for Portugal. Who is paying and taking all the responsibility for this operation and his subsequent therapy? Manchester United. Not Portugal, and certainly not Real Madrid. Why? because by contract and by a moral code in the game they are obligated to do so, even though the player wants nothing more to do with them. And they certainly do not want harm coming to their significant financial investment.
Players are not slaves and they cannot be compared to me and you who go out on our daily jaunt to a job that probably pays a fraction of what Ronaldo makes in a week. These are overpriced, spoilt athletes who are paid a king’s ransom to kick a ball around and enthuse the mob who pay their hard earned money in order to get a little satisfaction and entertainment in their otherwise dreary and stressful lives. Yes players are bought and sold like commodities but lets never forget that they do this by their own volition. Nobody is putting shackles on them, placing them in a stock car and transporting them without food and water to the slave camp for slave labor and torture 24/7.
You bring up the example of fans not being satisfied with certain players and crying for their release and that’s true, but here’s the thing. First of all, if we don’t like players for their lack of skill, attitude or general worthlessness, we are only asking for their sale to another team or their general release. After all, we don’t pay our money to go watch Christians being tossed to lions or slave gladiators fighting in the Coliseum to the death. Players always have the freedom to quit and to be released. They are not imprisoned and held against their will like Sepp Blatter has commented. Ronaldo has been wrong in his desire to leave. I personally don’t give a rats ass what he wants right now or the fact that his dream and desire is to play for Real Madrid. If that was the case, why didn’t he sign with them 5 years ago? Because they didn’t want him then, that’s why. Because he was an inexperienced worthless pillock in their eyes and because they never had the vision or the imagination to see what he could become. United took on the risk and project and Alex Ferguson banked the team’s future on this young man and nurtured him and supported him through thick and thin. I doubt Real Madrid would have welcomed him back with open arms had he performed his wink and shite routine on Raul instead of Wayne Rooney in the last World Cup. But Ferguson took the boy to the side and spoke with him and supported him so much so that nothing bad ever came of the situation.
Right now I don’t give a damn about his dreams. Was it his dream to play for Real Madrid last year when he signed a 5 year contract with United? Why bother doing that and making yourself look disingenuous and sleazy when you plan on leaving in one year? We all have the freedom to go and work where we please but only if we haven’t signed a binding employment contract. When I worked for the Government of Alberta here in Canada I was obligated to sign a yearly contract and to honor it. The only way I could get out of it is a personal catastrophe in my family or relocation to another province due to extreme circumstances. You see, I had a valuable position working as a civil servant directly with a Minister and that position carried a lot of responsibility. One cannot and should not just be able to up and leave that kind of job and leave all his work and his employers in the lurch. It’s irresponsible and highly unprofessional. And that is really what we are talking about right now isn’t it? Professionalism. Manchester United are a professional franchise operating in a league or professional association. They pay all their players and as their players are expected to follow rules and regulations, so are they. If they sign a player to a contract, they are obligated to honor that deal too. If they decide to sell him, the contract moves over to the next team once that team has agreed to terms with the player. Until that happens no deal can be made. My goodness, in North America players are traded for other players. Their contracts remain the same and are transferred along with the player. In fact, most players are drafted on to teams when they are still holding amateur status. They have no choice as to which team they are to go to and in some sports they are obligated to stay with that team up to 6 years (baseball) before they can file for free agency and leave. Why? Because that is the only way that a team and a league can protect itself from the Real Madrid’s of the world from swooping in and stealing all the great players because they have unlimited amounts of money. The New York Yankees have done this numerous times but they don’t bother with players who are under that six year protection. It’s for the good of the game, the league and the individual teams that large and wealthy teams do not have it too easy to create a monopoly. In other leagues there are salary caps designed to limit big clubs from spending way more than the minnows. The aim here is to create and even playing field for all. Something that is possible in one league in one country but impossible in a sport like football that is a world game and that breaks down physical borders when it comes to buying and selling players and creating competitions.
Sorry for this long rant but I am finding this slavery thing a bit offensive and very disturbing. What I find even more disturbing are the many who feel Ronaldo should be allowed to leave United believing it is his right and privilege to do so. I say no to this and I think I have made my case for it. Now having said that, I hope that Fergie does most of us a big favor and sells the bastard to Real so that we never have to see his two faced Judas persona wearing a Manchester United kit ever again. Loyalty and honor is a thing of the past. Especially when the governing bodies of football are advocating free mercenary movement by players. Imagine if world governments said to Hell with international laws of decency and conduct and said that military mercenaries were fine to do whatever they wanted legally protected. Imagine the mess the world would be in then. Football is broken and it needs to be fixed. First on the agenda is to oust both Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini from their positions as they have shown nothing but favoritism, lack of morals, ethics and a disrespect to all teams with their unethical deeds and practices. Their photos should be placed next to the word corruption in all world dictionaries.
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I think, as with any professional contract, if there is a specified term in which you cannot leave without penalty, then you are still free to, but you must pay the penalty. And the club chooses the penalty. For me it really is that simple.
Ronaldo can ‘buy out’ his contract at some price, and if Real Madrid are willing to pay it, then there is no problem IMO. Now it is United’s perogative to put a valuation on him. Personally this is where I think Blatter is trying to make his point. By not saying, we would sell him for £XXm, United are essentially saying they will not sell him. And it is his right as an employee to break contract if he’s unhappy. Of course that’s not the reality of the situation, but I think that’s where the stupid fat man is coming from.
You could look at it using Arshavin – he declared he wanted to leave Zenit, declared he wanted to move to Barca, they put in a bid which he would have accepted, but Zenit said no go. So basically, the employee wants to move to another employer, but despite meeting all contractual obligations, his current employer wont’ let him leave. I don’t think that happens in the ‘real’ world.
So if I’m United, I say, we will only sell Ronnie for £100m. That tells the world that he IS for sale, as is his right, and if someone can pay that, then lets make a deal.
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@Stephen: Carlos Queiroz is a class “A” hypocrite of the first order. Just two weeks ago he came out and declared how distasteful he found Real Madrid’s tapping up of Ronaldo and he pleaded with Ronaldo to not leave United as it would be a bad career move and that no club would show him the love that United does and will do. What a load of bollocks. You just don;t say that kind of shit and then go out a week later and accept the Portugal job. It makes you look a hypocrite and disingenuous all in one. What he doesn’t realize is that he has shot himself royally in the foot for his future positions with any club he gets hired for. Once his term with Portugal is over he will sign on with a club. What player playing for him is going to stop and listen to him if another team is trying to tap him up or that is showing interest in buying him. If I was a player in that scenario I would say “Hang on mate, what do you mean I shouldn’t take the Chelsea offer because you value me and because this team respects me”? “Didn’t you do the very same thing to Manchester United twice?” “What you say to me has no weight or believability.” “You sir are a hypocrite.” But then again footballers aren’t always the smartest apples to fall off a tree. What they are is arrogant, conceded individuals who think they know everything when all they know is football. Well football is also a business and a study in psychology. Managing and dealing with egos is a very difficult thing and in order to invoke your mantra or beliefs, you have to come across as committed and sincere. Can anyone ever question SAF’s loyalty or commitment to his team? Almost 25 years with one outfit. Queiroz should have learned a lesson from that and he has for all intents an purposes burned his bridges with United once and for all. He can forget ever taking over as manager for this club. I understand the Portugal as well as the Real jobs are jobs of a lifetime and great on one’s CV, but the reputation you make and the respect you gain while making these career decisions follows you. And all I can see from his actions right now is those of a hypocritical mercenary. What a horses ass. I’m sure the United job was his in three years. Especially with the players we have and the system we play which he has had so much to do with in implementing it. There is no end to stupidity in the game of football.
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Selling Ronaldo is a double edged sord. On one hand cashing him in for £70m at posibly the height of his stock, realistic will he score 42 goals again this season is unlikely he wants to go seems good business.
But if we do it sets a president, that we can be bullied by other clubs into selling our best players, and player power wins out which surely isn’t right, a difficult one for sure.
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@colver: A very well thought out argument. I loved the analogy of marriage and divorce. A great example.
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Grog, unfortunatly he is foreign, and thats being racist but foreign players, managers in any league and I would say especially the premiership are money hingry mercenries with few exceptions.
I my few he should be told to fuck off and never darken our door again. He was lucky to be asked back previously, and he should remember that. I know he has done a good job, but surely that is what he is employed to do? If I did not do a good job in my business I would be asked not so kindly to leave, that is life.
He is making a big gamble but posibly for the long term it could work for us, because I for one certainly did not want him as manager.
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@Karl: You are right, we are a fickle lot. But it’s also our right to be because those millions of pounds that are paid out to those players have to come from somewhere. And if only a fraction comes out of my pocket, it still hurts so I feel I have the right to jump on and off the bandwagon as often as I feel. Loyalty is all we fans really have to hang our hat on. We get no say in anything the club does. For many of us silly little forms of entertainment is all we have to look forward to because we are poor or just middle class. We pay everybody’s bloody salary and yet, no decisions are left to us. So forgive us if we are fickle, as it is a small price to pay for living in luxury and water skiing behind a yaught. I doubt I could ever afford to invite all my pals and have a multi million dollar wedding in Italy. But our Rooney can, so if he can’t handle the supporters being down on him for not scoring, tough. But then I hope he doesn’t get to full of himself when he scores a stunner and we all praise him to death. The nature of the biz. In Roman times it was much simpler, thumbs up or thumbs down. Life or death. We may be a fickle lot but I think we have evolved since then.
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@Beachryan: Not likely to be Manchester United because we are run by the Glazer’s
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ps I meant to say “thats NOT being racist” Sorry bad typing
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New post up more than an hour ago. Kindly head over there.
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Just seen what I believe to be Ronaldo quotes on Sky, I can’t believe this bullshit.
Can someone please draw up whats really been said and its authenticity!!
Am I ready into this to much is there an angle that no-one has spotted??
Please someone address whats going on here.
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It surely is difficult to call someone a slave when the slave in question is being paid £140k per week?
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@Liam: You are correct sir. Lebron James is indeed a superstar, and has been a joy to watch for the last five years. In fact, his progression from youngster to superstar mirrors Ronaldo in many ways. The twist with Lebron is that he is from Akron, a town about 35 miles outside of Cleveland. Due to this, many have labeled Cleveland his “hometown” and that he is playing for his “dream” team the Cleveland Cavaliers. Lebron’s true dream is to play for a more established team in a bigger market (like New York). The national media continues to belittle Cleveland and exclaim that Lebron is already on his way out. The one difference is that Lebron recently signed a three year extension, of which he has two years remaining. This assures that he will be playing in Cleveland for the next two seasons. If he played football, who’s to say he wouldn’t be asking to make his “dream” move right now to New York? At least contracts are worth the paper they’re printed on in the US!
Lebron has been the one star Cleveland has had for the last few years. I should’ve mentioned this in my earlier piece.
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@Red Ranter: just a minor correction albeit late, Kanu is Nigerian and thats English speaking.
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