Since Peter Schmeichel left Manchester United after that game, it always seemed that we had a weakness to find good goalkeepers and bring them to the club. Sir Alex tried everything: Mark Bosnich, Tim Howard, Roy Carroll, Fabien Barthez. Nothing seemed to work. It looked like Schmeichel left a ghost behind to haunt everybody who tried to replace him successfully.
But then, after becoming utterly frustrated and bored of experimenting with goalkeepers, he went for the sure choice: Edwin van der Saar. The Dutchman nearly joined United in 1999 before he opted to move to Juventus, but he then moved on to Premier League side Fulham and Manchester United had no problem snatching him from the Premier League strugglers. Suddenly, Schmeichel’s ghost vanished.
Continue reading “On Kuszczak and Foster”
The distraction that was the international break is over and, hopefully, there aren’t any injury worries. I must apologise for not giving you your daily fix of United news yesterday, thanks to my laptop’s AC adapter conking out. This post is from a borrowed computer, so I can’t be long. Hence today will be more of a link post. The good part though, will be that I will try to update this post through the day, as and when I gain access to a system for even few minutes.
My brand new AC adapter should be in tomorrow to give a new lease of life to my currently comatose laptop. So regular service should resume by then. So here we go with interesting links for the day:
- Old news, but Anderson is, indeed, loving life at United — in case people were wondering. I couldn’t find links to his performance (for Brazil) yesterday. Anyone who could post something would be greatly commended for their efforts.Update: Some words of praise from Dunga, for Anderson and Pato.
- Rooney remained isolated up top, while Fabio Capello was happy despite defeat to France. Is it a realization that little could be done with a side shorn of anything resembling creativity? Actually, anything other than lumping hopeful balls to players who aren’t known for their heading ability.
- ‘Wounded’ Terry wants armband back — and they say it’s a team game. Update: And as an aside, here’s a good rant on Terry.
- Skipper Neville, in typical Neville style, gives his forthright thoughts on his chances of making it back to the side this season — here’s a hint, it’s not very good.
- Michael Barnes out on month’s loan. [via Ahmed]
- Mikel’s documents found to be forged. How does it concern us, you ask? Well, it could force us to pay back some of the £ 12 million back to Chelsea
That’s it for now, I think. Hopefully when I find the time, and a computer, I will add to these links.
Keep checking back and, of course, ranting.
Yes, I know, Manchester United > England and all that. But it’s still United, dammit, and Rio deserves it as much as anyone else in the England squad. Plus I love a good captaincy debate (Terry v Ferdinand, if you’re wondering).
FA statement:
“Fabio Capello has confirmed that Rio Ferdinand will captain England against France in Paris. Capello has confirmed this continues his policy of rotating the captaincy between players in the friendly matches before confirming a permanent captain for the World Cup qualifying games.”
So Ferdinand will be captaining a side that includes Terry, Gerrard, as well as possibly Beckham and Owen. All four have led England at one time or the other ahead of Ferdinand, and it is a matter of pride to see the captaincy return to Manchester United, even if it is only for one game (no other United player in the squad - not even Rooney - would be in with a shot at captaincy come summer time).
Continue reading “Future Manchester United captain Rio Ferdinand named England skipper”
The weekend euphoria must have well and truly subsided to some extent. Mondays can do that even to the merriest of the lot. We also discussed pretty much everything that needed to be discussed. Some people decided to murder Rooney for his poor goal returns, others decided to murder those who decided to murder Rooney. Some were worried that Ronaldo was scoring more goals than providing assists, others dismissed that as mere selfishness. Some discussed about Ben Foster, others were preoccupied with solving the conundrum of how best to fill the two holes in central midfield that could pulverize one and all. Some wanted the team to demolish all opposition, others were happy just winning.
A casual observer was meanwhile found scratching his head — a glance at the league table showed him that Manchester United were on top and five points ahead. Little did he understand the true nature of fandom. There can be no end to bitching, regardless of your team’s position — and Red Rants certainly does have a nice place to do said bitching. Enough of the self-aggrandizement, though, on to some news of note.
Continue reading “Lull After the Storm”
A lot of pages were spent over the past week discussing tactics, formations, players, attitudes, form, referees. All that came to yesterday as the so-called Big Four clashed with the nation holding it’s collective breaths — according to Sky — for the ‘closest title race in history’. I am sure that was a hyperbole, only short-memoried TV blokes would have you think, as I am fairly certain that such a superlative wouldn’t even apply to the history of the Premier League.
But we are here to talk about yesterday’s game, regardless of the flashlights associated with Easter Sunday.
Continue reading “Man Utd 3-0 Liverpool: Threasy Peasy, Innit?”
Our dear scouse friends appear fairly bullish ahead of today’s game and fair play to them — they have been knocking in more goals of late. Chelsea play Arsenal at the Bridge in the Grand Slam “Bang Thank You Ma’am For Such Over-Hyped Match Ups That Almost Always Produce Less of A Spectacle Than Was Promised By The Mugs At Sky” Sunday. I just can’t stand the hubris over such announcements by television people. But then, they have to make their living too and events such as this Sunday only serve to keep them going. Speaking of Sundays, a Happy Easter to all who celebrate this festival. Oh, and let me break a secret: the easter bunny is fictional. It does not exist. So wallow in your disappointment as I begin to preview the all important game against the ‘dippers. I also have a secret about Santa that I’d want to let in on, but I’ll leave it until Christmas.
Continue reading “Man Utd v Liverpool: Preview”
And I thought of adding this as a separate post in addition to the preview. Hopefully it should fill your time in the lead up to the amazingly, extraordinarily, exciting Sunday like you’ve never seen before — © ® Sky.
Here are links, United related and some football related, that I recommend reading for the day:
That’s about it then. Do read the preview and keep match related discussions over in that thread.
So Ben Foster has finally played as many games for Manchester United as he has for England. United fans might not know too much about him (apart from his debut against Derby) so I thought I’d let you know what to expect.
As a Watford fan I would say that Ben Foster is somewhere between God and Gandhi in relation to his importance in the history of the world. For two seasons at Vicarage Road he performed like no other keeper I have ever seen on the hallowed turf. We’ve had some good keepers down at Watford including the young David James and United’s own goalkeeping coach Tony Coton, but nobody came near to this exceptional young number one.
Continue reading “So How Good Is Ben Foster? — A Watford Fan’s Perspective”
One thing we ought to have learned yesterday is that Ferguson is a tactical genius (in case anybody ever doubts him anymore). I doubted him. Reading the line-ups before the game, I was shocked: Ferguson was being experimental!
Continue reading “Man Utd 2-0 Bolton: Ronaldo Usurps Best”
A midweek game against Bolton is just a few days before we entertain our very dear friends. Fergie would like to take it one game at a time, and hope that the team doesn’t falter while looking to the weekend tie against ‘Pool. They, of course, don’t need too much reminding; we did lose to Bolton this season, and their uncompromising style (which is being generous) will test the tiring legs of the players.
Continue reading “Man Utd v Bolton: Preview”
