Apr 16
Grant “Believes” | Capello on Rooney | Queiroz Loves Ron
Some United related news to talk about today, as usual. So like real gentlemen, let’s talk about it.
Avram Grant and his title ambitions
It’s come to this. Most fans weren’t too happy when Avram Grant was appointed, and opinion hasn’t changed much now. At this point many Chelsea fans just want the season to be done with and don’t even think that they deserve to win the title — however improbable it may be. Avram Grant thinks the title can still be won. Mathematically, yes. With his style of management, unlikely. Anyway, it’s not my interest to discuss their season at the moment, but towards the end of the article there are some interesting stats thrown about on how some of Fergie’s old pals have done us a favour by nicking points off the ‘big four’. And they are substantial. I am not too much on stats, but it’s interesting reading that.
Carlos Queiroz has reiterated that not even £ 97m can force him to part with Ronaldo. There is no way he can let Ronaldo leave United. Good to see the confidence, and hopefully that puts Real off his radar at least for this year, before they again come round circling next year.
To make this even clear, Ronaldo has expressed his frustration at constantly being linked with these clubs. He has for the 5987th time reiterated that he’s “happy at United”. He’s also added a “these rumours make me mad” quote just to confirm that these were not regurgitated quotes from before.
Fabio Capello has been quite impressed with Rooney. He gushes about his superior technique — names him among the best of the England squad — and even tips him for a future role as England captain. He also thinks his finishing needs to be worked on. ‘Constant practice in training sessions’ as an option — which would seem rather obvious. He cites the example of Crespo, and that with time he will improve.
Trust me, I was thinking of this pun ever since I saw the headline “Mikael eyes silverware” on Manutd.com. It was very tempting to do a tabloidish word play — you know, guilty pleasures and all that. So Mr Easter Island Head (or EIH for convenience) wants to join in and contribute as best as he could to help United achieve double glory. EIH just made his return against Roma, and while he has been prone to the loss in concentration, he is an adequate back up to Evra, who has been running at full pelt for a good part of this season. It’s nice to see useful players of his kind coming in at this crucial juncture — a luxury we weren’t blessed with last season.
Vidic Returns to training
… and is in contention for the Blackburn game. What can I say? Great news, and hope he’s in full flow for Barca.
Other bits and bobs
Well, there’s an article in the Sun where Torres wants to see Barca beat Man Utd. Giggs says that he’ll stop playing when he doesn’t enjoy it anymore or if he feels he’s not performing to a good level.
And that’s about it for the day. Over to you, lads.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Wayne Rooney Interviews Capello
- Featured Lookalike: Nani and…?
- It’s Make Or Break For Michael Owen
- Why Carlos Queiroz is More Important than Ronaldo
- Fletch For Everton? Pako for a ‘Thrilled’ Queiroz?
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (542)
Stephen (490)
RedDevilEddy (462)
Craig Mc (349)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
Gator; I’m not laughing mate.
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Cmon now Grognard, what do you think of my thoughts in the above post
what about ths as a potential line up next season
EVDS
EVRA
VIDIC
FERDINAND
LAHM
NANI
ANDERSON
HARGREAVES
JOAQUIN
ROONEY
RONALDO
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Mihir; I kind of feel the same way. They are two points behind and we have to play a good physical and offensively competent side at Blackburn. I can see us going to Stamford bridge with only a two or three point lead and then watch that group of underachievers playing the game of their lives. I don’t want to think like that but Chelsea just won’t do us a favor and just die. I would be elated if Blackburn picked this Saturday to lay an egg and play like Derby for one day. But I rather doubt it.
Fred; You could be right. Ronaldo has actually played like our lone striker at times this year with Rooney and Tevez playing the wings. I hope for the team’s sake as well as their long term future he does not choose this solution. Adding a little competition for both Rooney and Tevez is what they both need. They are presently not getting it from Saha.
By the way, you can forget about Lahm because he’s not going anywhere. Where are you getting this Joaquin idea from? He’s never been on United’s radar. I could see them getting another winger though and playing that formation you chose. Not an impossibility. I would suggest;
EVDS
BOSINGWA
RIO
VIDIC
EVRA
HARGREAVES
CARRICK
ANDERSON
NANI
RONALDO
ROONEY
Subs; Any combination of 4 and Foster
FOSTER
SCHOLES
GIGGS
GARAY
PARK
TEVEZ
FLETCHER
O’SHEA
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Grognard,I think by signing a top class winger and playing Ronaldo up top would provide some exiting attacking options with a fluid and pacy attack that would also have 3 top class forwards competing for the 2 striking positions, providing competition for places as well. I might be wrong, but I wouldnt mind seeing SAF trying giving it ago, coz when you think about it ,which striker in Europe has scored more than Ronaldo during the past 2 seasons.
Manucho and Wellback could be used as cover for our main 3.
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I just threw Joaquin in there to illustrate the system, any top class winger or right full back would do, lets really go for it and go for Alvez and Messi, it really would be the Thestre Of Dreams with that side.
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I would be in heaven and total rapture if we got Messi, but I don’t think United would pay the near 100 Million it would take to get him. WOW! What a fantasy! A threesome up front of Rooney Messi and Ronaldo would cause the opposition to surrender before the kickoff. We can dream!
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or what about making it a real Portuguese thing by signing Bosingwa and Quaresma from Porto.
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something else has been on my mind lately, I was watching Grahan Hunter who is Sky Tvs Spanish correspondant speaking on tv the other day and he says that Ronaldinho would prefer to move to a premiership club in the summer and he recons the fee would only be just over 20 million.
I wonder if SAF could reignite dino or would it be too much of a gamble, if he could that also would be mouth watering.
EVDS
BOSINGWA
VIDIC
FERDINAND
EVRA
NANI
ANDERSON
HARGREAVES
RONALDINHO
RONALDO
ROONEY
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Why would he want a fat, lazy malcontent with bad habits to rub off negatively on other Portuguese speaking players on the team? Also, I think there would be an ego battle between him and Ronaldo for control of the club. Besides, why would we buy him when we have a Ronaldinho in the making with Nani? Remember that Ronaldinho likes and prefers playing on the left side of the field where Nani presently presides. Personally I think there is a 1% chance of that happening Fred. As well, I hope it never happens because I am not nor will I ever be a Ronaldinho fan. He just bugs me on so many levels.
As for Quaresma, Queiroz warned Fergie off Quaresma when he discovered Ronaldo. He feels Quaresma can be lazy and that he is too easily marked out of a game because he hates physical play. I have to say I agree based on the few games I have seen him play. Still, I cannot honestly make a fair judgment on him having seen him only a half dozen times.
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The TimesOnline reports that Wes Brown has agreed to and been awarded a new 4 year contract with Manchester United. Being Canadian I have no idea whether I can trust this source but if so, I think that may answer a lot of questions regarding Fergie’s plans to buy a RB. Guess what? He’s not.
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My own gut feeling about Dino would probably agree with your sentiments Grognard as I do believe young hungry players offer so much more in terms of attitude and commitment although Quaresma also gives me the impression that he could be giving more than he actually does.
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the times on line as far as I know is a fairly reputable source, but even if the Brown story is true, I would still be surprised if SAF does not recruit a natural right back in the summer. He stated before the Arsenal game that there is a particular position that needed strengthened and the only positions that leap out at me are right back and centre forward. But the fact that he highlighted only one position leads me to speculate on the Ronaldo up front case that i stated above. I could be wrong, but SAF might surprise us all with the summer signings.
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Fred OK, for what it’s worth here is my feeling on what I think will happen. The signing of Wes Brown means that there will not be a signing of a RB this year. Fergie is going to wait a year to see if somebody else emerges or if one of the Brazilian twins is going to be ready sooner than expected. Although Brown is not super at RB, we have only given up 18 goals in the BPL and very few in the CL. Bottom line is that id it’s not broken, don’t fix it. Our back four has been solid all year and I don’t think Gary Neville would have endured the pain and hard work of rehabbing his leg if he were not serious about returning for at least one year. so take the 10 to 15 Million that would have gone to a Bosingwa or Lahm and put it towards a striker. Where we were possibly looking to spend 15 to 20 million on a striker, now we can spend 30 mil. That leaves money for Veloso and Moutinho if Fergie wants to go 50 or 60 mil. What I don’t see is the waste of money signing the two Wigan players. We’re Man Utd, we don’t buy players from Wigan. They buy players from us. I don’t rate Palacios or Valencia very high but I could be wrong. Nevertheless, we don’t need them. We need a striker, or a World Class RW who can take over Ronaldo if he moves to a more central second striker role. Anyway, saving money on a RB will allow us to really pay for a Huntelaar or Gomez. I doubt very much any money can convince Benzema to leave Lyon, unless it comes from Italy or a big Spanish club.
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right after watching that shite known as the yankees embaress themselves to the redsox just like my belevoed patriots did to the giants, im going to talk about my 2nd love (brasil being my first) and my dream team for next season
FOSTER
LAHM
EVRA
VIDA
RIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO(c)
Hargo
ANDERSON-SON-SON
NANI (it actually means who in swahili)
ROOOONALLLDOO
ROOOONEY
GOMEZ
Subs
the pole in goal
PIQUE
FABIO
RAFAEL
SCHOLES
WELBECK
LULINHA
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Mr Muhozi; I had the utmost respect for you until you bashed my Yankees. I hate the bloody Red Sox with a passion. They used to be my favorite team and then they betrayed my hero Roger Clemens. But you are forgiven because you are a Patriots fan. How do we get over that anomaly in the Super Bowl? The Giants could play New England 50 times and they would lose 48 times, but in that bloody Super Bowl the stars were aligned in their favor. It made me sick. Tom Brady is American football’s Ronaldo.
Anyway, back to football Euro style. I love your United dream team. The starting eleven would be my choice to although I would be tempted to replace Anderson-son-son with Carrick. I love the choice of Gomez although Huntelaar would be fine too.
And Nani in Greek means nap time for an infant. Hopefully Nani puts defenders and opposing goalkeepers to sleep with his smooth melodic style of play that sooths like a beautiful bedtime story. And Fabio? What the 80′s male model? And forget my ignorance but who or what is Lulinha? Inquiring minds want to know.
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[Grognard]
How can you like the Yankees and the Patriots at the same time? Personally I can give a toss about baseball (not because it’s boring, I enjoy cricket more), although I must say american football is a better sport. Although with you being Canadian, I guess ice hockey would be your favorite sport.
I was gutted as well when New England lost to the Giants. This is why I don’t like the format of American sport. They all favour cup teams (like Liverpool) and never reward the best team over a season.
Lulinha is supposedly the new teen sensation out of Brazil. Fabio is one half of the Brazilian twin full backs (Fabio and Rafael) who are at Old Trafford. They came in January.
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[Everyone]
While posting players lists, cut out the caps. Please! Capital letters literally scream at you like you’re shouting at me.
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I dont think a German has ever played for Manchester United(?)…Saw some videos of Gomez.. big strong lad with excellent finishing..he could probably be the first German to set Old Trafford on fire…well hopefully anyway..
On the other hand, I seriously feel that our Academy system is being undermined by us buying foreign players to plug holes in all positions. Welbeck and Simpson both deserve a shot at cementing their positions in the first team, but I dont see that happening any soon if we buy a young top class rightback and center forward this summer.
If that raging insane Blatter gets his way of allowing only 5 non-English players out of the 11, then we might probably regret having bought so many foreigners!
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Check this out!
Avram Grant interview after Everton game
What a doooof! Does he think he is making a protest or something to the premier league by being such a dim, unintelligent dudd??
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grognard, i think you misinterpreted what i said, im a yankee fan, and have been ever since i can rememberer i have a signed derek jeter ball of the 2000 world series which i really treasure, but staying up until 3.40 am to watch a drivel of a performance by mike (i cant throw a pitch faster than 86mph) mussina, it just made my blood boil, i mean even farnsworth the wes brown of the yankees pithched 2 perfect innings, i mean come on giradi, get another starter or move joba into the rotation when he gets back, we wont be a playoff team, and wild card might be a stretch,
and it seems we have great taste as we all like the same teams, united yankees and patriots, speaking of the pats, what is the superbowl , i’ve never heard of such a thing, i think you may be referring to the flukebowl of february the 3rd, if that so, i’ve taken my mind of it by Manchester united and the yankees, with the draft looming, i pray i hear chris long being taken at no.7
onto europe, fabio and rafael are the twins, these two are the telepathic young forms of roberto carlos and cafu, im not to sure your old enough but they are kinda like the Djalma amd nilton santos brothers of the 1954 world cup squad, each can attack and defend all at the highspeed of evra, whilst having the calmness and cool of young maldini, but they are far from a finished article and need a few years before they are anywhere near cafu and carlor, but in 2012, they will be a force on the flanks
lulinha is the hottest thing in brasil at the moment, many people are raving about him, i like the boy, however, he is too much in the early c.ronaldo mould where he is too selfish, and tries to go for the spectacular once to many, however, watching this guy play, he has the ability to become a zico with speed, his vision, passing, shooting, skill, and ability to slow the game down is incredible, he plays through the middle a link between midfield and attack exactly like zico, whether he can become like the great man only god knows
and lastly, tom brady is the pele, maradonna, beckenbauer, garrincha all rolled into one of american football, yes the guy is that bloody good, without talent he wins superbowls, with talent he destroys records and gets robbed of superbowls
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[Muhozi]
He also has Gisele Bundchen, another Brazilian connection. *sigh*
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Umm the reason the Patriots lost the Superbowl was the fact that they didn’t cheat like they did for the rest of the season. Duh. They were spying on their opponents plays for Christs sake! No wonder they were doing so well.
Back to Man Utd though. Fingers crossed that Rafael and Fabio are any good and we don’tneed to buy full backs, but I say if Chelsea are going for Alves we should too, provided it’s less than £15mil, which it could be if he wants to leave. A really outstanding young central midfielder like Anderson wouldn’t go amiss. I hear Camacho at A. Madrid is decent but I haven’t seen seen him play since his first start where he was maybe a 7/10.
If we’re buying a forward I’d really like Aguero. The boy is phenomenal. Best player in La Liga this season, hands down. And he probably wouldn’t cost any more than Benzema (who would be okay but I’m yet to be fully convinced).
Gomes isn’t German by the way, he’s Brazilian isn’t he? He might be a German national or something though. Sounds like a decent buy, but I think Foster will get his chance to shine next season, he’ll be our number 1. VDS is still great but aging and clearly declining ever-so-slightly.
Side note, what do people think of Rafinha? I’ve never seen him play outside the CL, but he looked decent. There’s a lot of hype, though. Could he cut it at United?
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Gomez is definitely German; he was born and raised there. His surname comes from his Spaniard father.
AS for our new fullback, i don’t think we’ll be seeing one. soccernet.com is reporting that wes brown has agreed to a four year deal worth fifty thousand pounds a week! I don’t think we have enough room on our payroll for another fullback with brown making that kind of money. I think Wes is good enough to be our full-time right back. sure he’s not as much of an offensive threat as evra, but Ronaldo does enough attacking for the both of em down the right flank.I just hope Brownie has something left to play for cause he doesn’t have much left to earn.
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dudes, this is a manchester united fan site, not amercian football
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torres might be leaving liverpool according…tribal football!
link
but he’s not leaving until he takes a few more pops at us
link
but then again it is just tribal so its probably bull.
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check out Lulinha in Football Manager if you want to know. cracking player apparently
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he looks impressive but not the type of striker some fans are looking for. i personally believe we don’t need a striker.
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Arizmendi
Javier Arizmendi shows his skills and his bad composure against real m. ,as he dribbles 4 players including the goalkeeper and missing the goal in the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFh4IURBAXs
If we are to buy an out of the box striker-winger I would like us to buy Arizmendi.Underrated impressive technician . I just love his footwork.
Valencia’s Silva is great too.But , we really don’t need more players like them.If we sell Park then YES. BRING US SILVA or Arizmendi, SELL PARK, THEN DECIDE ABOUT THE RIGHT BACK (simpson or who?) and Bring in VILLA or Huntelaar
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There’s no way CR is going to Real.
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This is an important post I didnt know where to put so Im just going to put it here for now and if its possible to move it I will.
Here in Saudi we have a cup competition for premier clubs in the league but this competition has a special speculation where they play under 23yr old players only.
My point is what if the FA made something like that but with the specualtion being playing only English players or at least playing mostly English players, solving the problems of the national team (it should replace the carling cup).
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by golly SRD you may have something there, then dicks like sepp b would have 1 less thing to hate about english football. That really is a good idea. Hmmm…
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Agree with SRD…That would give enough opportunity for the home-grown english players to donn the first team colors and push their case for a regular position.
Sepp however, has made it a matter of personal glory to push the rule of 6 English players in starting 11…its an ego issue now and I think he wont let himself look down by agreeing with the EU and UEFA (who thank god, arent as idiotic as him!) Hope he gets down from his high horse and accepts a compromise such as this idea of having a cup competition with only english players playing in each side…(will arsenal be able to put together 11 players even???)
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SRD’s idea has merit but consider this; do we want yet more fixtures to add to an already long schedule for players who are under 23 and are already playing for the big club? I personally wouldn’t want those games for my young stars who are already tired from a long season. For all the lads on the reserves it’s great.
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RR; It’s quite easy to be a Yankees fan and a Patriots fan. I don’t live in either of the cities so the cultural bias and cultural rivalry does not affect me so much. And yet, soccer is so much in my blood and heart that I cannot dismiss those same cultural biases and rivalries so easily in the great game. I hate Scousers, Arses, Neverton’s, Newcassholes, Chelski’s and all football things Italian (except Luca Toni). I am originally from the city of Edmonton and so I hate all things to do with it’s southern neighbor and bitter rival Calgary.
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Mr Muhozi; Yes I did misunderstand your comment, sorry about that. It’s good to see that you are one of the enlightened ones. I must say that I was a Red Sox fan during the Roger Clemens era but I was Yankees fan before it and since his departure. So I have a little blood in my hands. I go back as far as the early 70′s but I am a big fan of Yankees history and absolutely love the exploits of Mickey Mantle. As for the Patriots, I must admit that my allegiance is with two teams. I have been a lifetime Cowboys fan but my preference over the past 8 years has been New England because of one Tom Brady. Yes players can have that kind of impact on me in American sports, up to a point. I will always be a Cowboys fan and a Yankees fan but I can’t guarantee that kind of allegiance to the Patriots although I love the team now and am a great admirer of their organization and the way they go about their business (cheating with cameras aside). I think they proved that cheating with cameras was overrated this past season.
As for United, I am and always will be a fan of the club win or lose as well, I am life long fan of Bayern Munich and the German National team. Those are constants. And if anyone is wondering who I was pulling for in the 1999 Champions League final between United and Bayern, it was United. I was a massive Schmeichel and Beckham fan. I loved Matthaus and Kahn on Munich too but I still favored United. It was a tough one though, let me tell you. And although I was thrilled by the way United won, I felt bad for my Munich boys at the same time. I envy all those who can support only one team. It makes things so much more easy. Like should Lahm go to United or stay at Bayern? I’m torn!
As for Fabio, yes I forgot he was one of the twins. Well hopefully he will be ready sooner than later. Lulinha sounds interesting but I do not want another show pony project at United. Fergie will not be here forever and I don’t think taking on another project like that is advisable. If he was going to manage for at least 6 more years, then yes. But I think he will be with United for no more than two or three seasons. He’s getting up there in age and someone will have to inherit a team plus it’s youth projects. And will they be up for the job turning Lulinha into another more disciplined version of Ronaldo?
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Grognard I think you missed my point, it was playing an all english team not an under 23 team.
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Oh and I do have the same problem I might just be the biggest Real Madrid fan there is, but whenever I hear them asking for Ronaldo and pricing him and all that I get all those mixed feelings of “what if he played in Madrid?” I sometimes feel like its a good idea and a prospect Id be waiting to see but sometimes I think “what about United?”
It is a problem loving more than one team, anyway that makes our match with Barca much more interesting for me because of my hatred towards them.
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Sorry about that SRD. Sometimes I read too fast and less soaks in to my brain. Still, the problem would remain though because players like Scholes, Hargo, Rio etc would be playing more games and that’s not a good thing. I would go as far as making it an under 21 tourney to avoid that problem.
It’s good to see that others suffer from the same problem of loving two teams. I thought I was alone. It is difficult. Like next season I could see another Bayern v United matchup at some point during the CL. Most difficult.
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