Nov 20
Super Rooney Returns | Vidic Interview
Wayne Rooney is back. Well, not quite in the sense that he’s match fit. But he’s back in training thanks to his superhuman powers of recovery. It seems, he’s been called by Steve McClaren to get the team pumped up prior to the Croatia qualifier. I know, desperate times call for desperate measures. Here’s hoping that he doesn’t get too excited or trip over a piece of training equipment.
Bolton might be a bit too soon for him, but if not against Sporting, he would surely be back for Fulham. This is as good a news as one could ever get. I can feel more confident about us facing the ‘dippers now.
There is a two part interview of Vidic on the official site.
They are both excellent interviews that give us an insight into the Serbanator. He is an extremely modest fella considering how easy it is for people to get swept off their feet with a couple of decent performances and a bumper contract extension. The striking aspect of our squad this season (and the last) is the commitment and modesty shown by some of our lads. Evra, Vidic, Brown, O’Shea, Fletcher… they all just love it at OT. It’s one thing for players to say good things about the club while they are there. But in cases, like O’Shea and Fletcher, a lack of playing time hasn’t dampened their enthusiasm to keep pushing and impressing their manager.
That is a very good indicator of team spirit and an understanding of the value of playing for such an illustrious club.
John O’Shea, meanwhile, appears close to sign a four year contract with the club.
“I have this season and the next on my current contract, but I am very close to signing a new deal that will keep me at United into my 30s. It is something I want to do. I want to stay here, everything is good and this is where I want to be. I have never looked to go elsewhere.â€
You see what I mean when I say the lads love it here? There are things money can’t buy. Are you listening Roman?
SAF has taken time out to praise Rangers right back, Alan Hutton, for his displays for Scotland. I would read this as pure appreciation shown by one Scot to another. I wouldn’t read too much into speculation linking him with United in January. I haven’t really seen him play, although I heard he played very well against Barcelona too.
Owen Hargreaves tops a Manutd.com poll ahead of Carlos Tevez in the most popular player among the new signings poll. He shades it with 38% followed by Tevez at 32%.
According to resident MUTV pundit Paddy Crerand, Patrice Evra is the outstanding player for United this season. The left back has been brilliant, no doubt. The good part of his play, this season — something I’ve pointed plenty of times before — is his willingness to work on his weaknesses and iron them out. He is constantly improving and doesn’t get caught out as often as he used to. He’s also improved vastly in the tackle, not to mention his attacking prowess being such an asset down the left.
And on that note I will, quite abruptly, end this post.
Till tomorrow.
Related items from Red Rants:- Deadline Day Looms…
- Why Heinze Won’t Go to Liverpool
- Ronaldo Returns + Fergie’s Optimism Dips + Squad ‘Swells’
- To The (20)Legend, The Departed: Part I
- Preview: Man Utd v Zenit St. Petersburg
Tags: Daily Roundup
November 20th, 2007 at 12:53
Yea i think we all expected wazza to do this.
November 20th, 2007 at 14:18
If Rooney is back for the Fulham game, he’ll hardly have lost any playing time with United, so he’ll most likely be back at his best against Liverpool. Especially nice that he’ll get a few “easy” matches against Fulham and Derby to rebuild his confidence.
An early return might also back that his injury was claimed worse than it really was for him not to be called up for England (wasn’t that something you mentioned in a post, RR?)
Watch out Liverpool.
November 20th, 2007 at 14:44
It will be nice to see how the team does without Rooney…He is the most important player of the team along with Rio and Ronaldo.I thought he would be the first scorer in the Premiership this year but he is so unlucky…Never mind,when he returns he will be better than ever.
November 20th, 2007 at 15:00
I have a suspicion that Rooney wasn’t really injured…just needed time to study his schoolwork
November 20th, 2007 at 16:15
United are officially saying he’s not back, and the Telegraph just made it up. All a bit suspicious if you ask me. He needs to rest his ankle til it’s 100%, those are hte kind that you just roll lightly ina match and have to come off if they’re not all fixed.
November 20th, 2007 at 18:52
god this guy heals quickly, or maybe he wasnt injured in the first place, or maybe its just my paranoia tht fergie was afraid roonaroo may injure himself during the international weeek
November 20th, 2007 at 20:03
As mentioned in the Telegraph article, credit should be given to our medical staff. The team is in superb shape right now and I hope Rooney makes a comeback soon so that SAF need not shuffle the lineup.
November 20th, 2007 at 20:42
Ranter I mean bilal no I mean ranter wahtever ur nme is I agree the team is moving along nicely competition is always welcome at united I still feel were in need of a striker a young one with bags of talent the only onethat come to mind is klaas jan huntelaar
Ps ranter go get the champs league favirites standings plz
November 20th, 2007 at 22:29
Shera Ahmed Bilal is a completely different person, just so you know, and seriously what is the point of everyone repeating the same thing over and over again ” We need a good young striker, maybe Huntelaaar..”.. blah blah blah, I find it hard to believe that anyone here will be able to name the next striker we buy and whats the point on speculating about something we have almost no hints or clues about?
Glad to hear Rooneys back, if he’s back for the Fulham/Derby game then he’ll definitely be given a lot of space to work in and get back to a good level of match fitness, fellin’ pretty confident about the match against the ‘dippers now
November 20th, 2007 at 23:19
sorry conor I wasn’t speculating I was expressing apoint of veiw sorry you couldn’t understand that
ps I didn’t realize that was only joking its quite apparent that you bilal and ranter are different people I am sure that you all have lives outside this site and you are all very different people
also get that champsleague standings done
November 20th, 2007 at 23:39
You were expressing a point of view which has been repeated many times over the past week by a lot of people, I really wasn’t talking directly to you when I was saying people speculate too much with little or no indication of this ever happening. And as people have already said Huntelaar would be a great buy for us but he’s in the particular stage in his career when he needs to be playing regularly he won’t be coming to us to be 4th choice striker, this has already been debated before, many times.
November 20th, 2007 at 23:46
[Conor] Actually this has been debated since the beginning of the season, to be honest. More so when we weren’t scoring goals at the beginning.
[Shera]
I’ll fix the Champs league table and other things sometime soon.
November 21st, 2007 at 16:41
cheers ranter conor your probs rite bout huntelaar but wasn’t speakin jus bout him wastalkin bout other strikers who r in that sort of mould
ps jus wandering what everbody thinks of the veloso link idont think we need him unless fergie isthinkin of hsvinsnother pair of middeilders in a Anderson and veloso partwnership
November 21st, 2007 at 17:09
did you guys see daniel welbeck in action yesterday, for egnland u-18s, i was very impressed by him, he seems to be a star in the making
November 21st, 2007 at 17:26
Yeah Adil I’ve heard he’s good too, didn’t watch him in the match though. And shera I think that there would be only one reason why we would buy Veloso, if Carick leaves, Veloso is a good passer, good tackler and good at shooting either in open play or from free kicks, he’s similar in style to Carrick but slightly better than Carrick at tackling, whereas I think Carrick has the better passing range, but I think we’re just being linked with him because of our link to Sporting Lisbon.
November 21st, 2007 at 20:26
its anoying what mclown is doing, i can barely understand SWP over becks, but barry over a fit hargreaves? he puts on 2 good performences and he’s a starter ahead of hargreaves, i wonder if barry would make it at bayern-NOT!! GGGOOODDD! thats my rant for the day. BTW the kid i was tlking about was called claudio.
November 21st, 2007 at 20:52
Hm, never heard of anyone called claudio… I have to say Becks didn’t look like he was fit in the match against Austri mate, and SWP is playing well, plus I’m happy if hargreaves doesn’t play, no point in getting injured in a completely meaningless match eh?
November 21st, 2007 at 23:03
ENGLAND ARE OUT, LMAO well brasil better beat uraguay tonight or ima have a tough time terrorizing people in my school
November 21st, 2007 at 23:06
Well Dan you were proved completely right, Beckham and Defoe clearly should’ve played. Hard luck lads, what a game though! Croatia definitely deserved to win though.
November 21st, 2007 at 23:34
England got exactly what they deserved. Starting Barry and SWP was an absolute joke Hargo should have played, even if it was for only 60 minutes. Beckham was England’s player of the match and he only played half an hour. What a disgrace.
It’s not so much that England lost or that they lost a must win game at home. It’s how they lost. They gave up three goals at home to a team that had nothing to play for, while England had everything to play for. Where was the quality and the passion? Where was the tactical edge that a team need to win. England is a total embarrassment as a national footballing entity. Considering the quality of their domestic league, it is now clearer than ever than a cap has to come in place in the EPL, if for no other reason but to help develop and establish more English talent in the top tier. My God! England is presently starved for a World Class goalkeeper. Countries like Germany, Spain, Italy and France have several each.
MacClaren will either resign or be sacked before the end of the weekend. Good riddance to bad rubbish! Hire a foreign manager with proven pedigree and above all, tactical and motivational genius. God damn it, hire Juergen Klinsmann or even the Special One, but just hire a competent and above all intelligent manager. And shake up the England roster like it has never been shaken up before. Call up new players and forget some of the staple players.
Let them stew in their juices and contemplate their lack of success and lack of passion. Slowly bring some of the big names back in the fold for the World Cup qualifying run but let them know their place is not carved in stone.
It’s pretty sad when you have players like Lampard, Gerrard, Rio, etc and your best player is 30 something playing in Los Angeles. Where was Walcott, Hargo? I’d like to name others but frankly,England is a talentless nation with mostly blue collar players who offer very little in international competitions. After all, there is a reason you see very few if any English born players playing anywhere out of the UK. Frankly, they are not good enough. This has to be an all time low point for England when it comes to their national side. They didn’t just not qualify, the lost in a group the sould have dominated full stop.
November 21st, 2007 at 23:47
Jeese Grognard, that was a bit of a controversial rant don’t you think? Oh and Germany don’t have any better goalkeepers, the rest do. Lets hope England hire a mangager who can change Englands style of play and make them play good football, Jurgen Klinsmann or Jose Mourinho will probably be the next England manager, yeah.
November 22nd, 2007 at 1:03
A controversial rant?
I don’t think so.
It was pretty spot on.
I can’t remember a more abject performance by an England team in a competetive game.
Even in that famous game against Poland in 1974 we were well on top and it was just pure bad luck that we only drew.
But tonight was different.
When we eventually drew level, we all of a sudden reverted to Sven mode,like we did again Brazil in 2002 and against Portugal in 2004 and again in 2006. It never worked then and it didn’t work again tonight.
I mean Jesus how many times do we have to try this before it sinks in..
The only players to come out of this with any credit are Crouch, who was just amazing considering the detritus around him, and Beckham who pulled on his superman boots probably for the last time.
As for the rest of the retards, Bridge was beyond belief.
Gerrard and Lampard AGAIN were abject. Croatias third goal was down to Gerrard not being arsed to close him down. He just ambled towards him as if it didn’t matter. Useless tw*t.
As for the rest of them they should be barred from ever playing for England again. They just didn’t care.
We finished third in a group we should have walked, and it’s down to Mclaren. he has made costly errors from the off.
Dropping Beckham after the World Cup was a mistake,which has been proved again tonight that even an only half fit Beckham is worth twice the other useless tossers he is surrounded by in midfield.
Mclaren should resign, NOW, instead of hanging on for the pay off.
We need someone in place to lead us to qualification in the World Cup Finals now. But you can bet your mortgage that those useless twats at the FA will make a total horlicks of it now as they have done so in the past
November 22nd, 2007 at 2:31
Hmmm… personally i’m quite happy that England is out… It will do Man Utd good next summer… Players like Rooney, owen hargreaves, carrick, Rio will have a fresher start next campaign!
November 22nd, 2007 at 3:08
Honestly Conor!!!! First of all Germany have exceptional goalkeepers. Lehmann, Kahn, Hildebrand, Weidenfeller and Enke are considered world class by most experts. Yes Lehmann may be in Wenger’s doghouse for a few gaffs but he is quality nonetheless. Add to this a few more keepers like Neuer and Rensing who are better than anything that England have to offer and I have to wonder where your argument comes from?
Regardless of my personal bias, I have read countless articles and listened to many experts rave about Germany’s many quality keepers. Certainly Italy and Spain have their share too.
As for my criticism of England, I’m afraid it’s well deserved. Perhaps Englanders need an unbiased perspective from someone to make them realize that the quality of their national program and their development of talent is total shite. I’m afraid the truth hurts.
You laugh at Klinsmann or Mourinho as choices. Sounds like you would be happy with some lunch bucket English choice like Paul Jewell or Sam Alardyce. When will England wake up and smell the coffee. Wenger is so right about his claim that England’s lack of quality players makes it imperative for top clubs to shop for foreign talent. And to think that your supposed superstars are also crap, that’s really gotta hurt. My sympathies.
November 22nd, 2007 at 8:10
englands out good for us:)
November 22nd, 2007 at 8:57
all im saying is that when becks came on, goals were scored, we would off been top off the group if mclown had [ut him in the sqaud earlier, and now he’s most likely been robbed of a chance of 100 caps.
November 22nd, 2007 at 9:18
Oh I know the criticism was completely just, I was just saying its just like rubbing it in towards any England fans, and by the way I am not one of them! “You laugh at Klinsmann or Mourinho as choices”, I agreed with you about them as choices… No germany used to have many great keepers, when Oliver Kahn was one of the best,but not now.I know Robert Enke,but I haven’t watched him play in a while so I can’t pass judgement on him, but I doubt he’s that good, Weidenfeller isn’t world class, Hildebrand is almost world class but just not there yet, and I have never looked at Lehmann as World Class even without all the mistakes he makes. I still consider Kahn to be slightly better than Lehmann and better than any other English keeper, but I have to say I think Scott Carson is/will be as good if not better than the rest of them and that Robert Green is as good as the rest of them too.
November 23rd, 2007 at 14:19
Is Roon really back, some news is saying otherwise ..