It’s Friday, and I am looking to spread link love (link blog for the uninitiated) so here are some United related links worthy of, well, linking.

Continue reading “For Your Reading Pleasure…”

So some of you may be busy getting all mushy with your Valentine, trust me to spend Feb 14th with my brand new Bose Headphones and a new DirecTV install. Who cares about a day created strategically between New Year’s and Easter to boost consumer spending? Oh the couples in love I guess. Not that I’m bitter, it’s just that I don’t feel there’s a point for having a day created especially for celebrating your love when you can do it pretty much throughout the year on a spontaneous basis. Oh well, that’s my opinion.

Anyway, this may be non-United news but is nonetheless relevant in the context of the Premier League and online content creation.

Most of you may have heard of the Offside — a well visited football blog that’s grown so big that it’s got individual blogs for clubs that reside in every nook and cranny of the world, let alone England.

They just got served a notice to take down the club crest logos used to designate the individual club pages on their site, citing copyright violation. Net Result, a company that has in the past come after this very site — for posting Manchester United fixtures [yes, apparently it's illegal to post Premier League fixtures on a site without "paying for that right"] — our sister site, Soccerlens and countless other blogs, are at the forefront of this bird brained exercise in anti-goodwill. True, copyright is one thing; there’s good reason why clubs may be concerned about people selling counterfeit merchandise with the clubs crest on it. But requesting blogs to take down club crests is downright ridiculous and shows a clear lack of common sense while going after protection of intellectual property.

The Offside has this to say[read more here]:

While football fans see football crests as a helpful way of identifying football teams, Football Data Co (the Premier League’s licensing arm) sees football crests as a way to make money.

We could understand the legal takedown notice if we were profiteering from club crests by selling counterfeit Arsenal shirts or dodgy Man Utd dog food bowls. But we’re not. We use club crests the way they were originally intended: to identify teams.

And for the Premier League to prevent us doing that is not only comically tyrannical, it’s extremely short-sighted too.

You can read more on this in the following links:

1. The Offside
2. Brian Phillips on the Run of Play
3. Ahmed Bilal on Football Media.

Moving on, most of you might have seen the kid nutmegging Rooney video that’s out on many blogs and news sites. If you haven’t, here you go. But here I can share a bit of a back ground on it thanks to the people who approached me to spread the word. This video is a part of an upcoming Nike commercial that launches a nationwide Nike Five contest for an 5-a-side tournament, dedicated to giving urban footballers a stage to showcase their skills.

The way UK based people can enter it is by signing up via nikefootball.com and creating their own profiles, selecting team mates (if I’m not mistaken) and mentioning the area where they live and play. Through March and April there will be 16,000 people competing which, by process of elimination, leads to city finals which in turn lead to a national cup final. So those interested watch this space for updates on it.

Finally, there’s an FA Cup game tomorrow. I will put up a preview for it later in the day and tomorrow, hopefully there’ll be a live blog.

Cheerio.

Now let me not completely rubbish the Frenchman; he’s got a semblance of sense when he talks about the disproportionate spending of Citeh with respect to its revenue. But beyond that, most of his rants reveal a sense of hatred for the ascendancy of the English Premier League.

Now on to the main item, which is the proposed home grown players rule that could be imposed as early as the next season. We already know that European competitions like the UEFA Cup ensure clubs field 8 homegrown players in their matchday squads.

Continue reading “Home Grown Quota Could Temporarily Shut Platini Up”

Yesterday I was thinking aloud on twitter on Scolari’s sacking. I’ll quote from it for the benefit of those not following my sporadic byte-sized rants on the rather excellent micro-blogging service:

So now that Scolari’s sacked, what are the odds of tempting Zola? He says he won’t be tempted by the offer. Hmm… we’ll see.

Whether Scolari was good or not, the problem with Chelsea has been a lack of patience. Of course this is the case with most teams these days

Most sackings are followed by comments like “he’s lost the dressing room”. And if there are repeat instances like Chelsea’s case doesn’t that reflect poorly on those that inhabit the dressing room — i.e., players?

Chelsea over the years — of needless spending/chopping and changing — have accumulated far too much deadwood. Time for rebuilding question is, does Roman give a fuck anymore?

[You can follow us on Twitter, here]

The part highlighted in bold above underlines the essence of Fergie’s shock at Chelsea sacking Scolari. Perhaps, he may have been found out in the big league. Perhaps, his early season hysteria was an aberration. Perhaps, he didn’t get the team he wanted. But the problem with Chelsea, and many other clubs of late, has been a lack of patience in managers. Of course, the likes of Tony Adams had serious issues, but when you have a team that, despite playing poorly, is better off than Arsenal then something is clearly wrong with the game.

In addition to expressing shock, he also spoke on the role played by the media on the sacking:

“It just seems to be more volatile now. You can’t always blame the press – but it plays a part,” he said. “The way the tabloids are – competing against the internet and Sky News – there is a sensationalism every time someone has a bad result. There was great expectation at Chelsea that they were going to do well this year – and it is only this last month they have had a bad spell. The judgment really is only on the last month.”

Anyway, enough of the sermonizing. Meanwhile, let’s all laugh at Chelsea. HAHAHAHA!

After successfully overcoming gruelling trips, and battling debilitating illnesses I come before you to do what used to be a daily routine of mine — writing about Manchester United.

I’ve missed reporting, analysing, ranting on my share of United related stories, so I shall hope to make up for the negligence in due course — however impossible it might seem.

Continue reading “On Shirt Sponsors and United’s Injuries”

It is true. United have signed Serbian duo Zoran Tosic and Adem Ljajic from Partizan Belgrade. Try saying Tosic-Ljajic in quick succession. If you manage to say it right ten times then gift yourself a pint (and think of me while you down said pint) from your local.

Oh — and I am deeply sorry to have forgotten this — a very, very happy, albeit belated, new year to all our readers. I have been too caught up in New Year festivities to find time to post — although I suppose I shouldn’t be wasting space with another long winded excuse for not posting.

Continue reading “United’s Tongue Twisting Duo and What they Mean”

Much (MUCH!) has been made out of yesterday’s Champions League playoff draw and much more will be said between today and February when the damned matches actually start.

Are Inter going to be too much for United? Will Jose beat Fergie again? Will Arsenal and Chelsea fall to the Italian revolution (or some such nonsense)? Can Madrid stand the might of the great Rafa?

Please. Get a fucking grip. Two seasons ago this time around Barcelona and Liverpool were paired together in the round of 16, with FCB in blistering form and Pool dithering around like only they can. Come February it had all changed with Barcelona stuttering and literally defeating themselves while Liverpool kept their heads and took their chances.

Continue reading “Mourinho’s Inter, Liga de Quito and proof that Berbatov can be happy”

I am aware of our game against Sunderland today, but the Evra ban had me seething. It’s not that I’m a fan of conspiracy theories (for the record, I am not), but a four match ban for the player was very confusing to say the least. Let my first quote the FA’s statement from the website: [you could read the whole statement -- including the reasons for slapping the ban on Evra -- but I'll quote the part of most interest]

Continue reading “Evra’s Ban Smacks of Inconsistency | Sunderland Preview”

It is now common knowledge that Royston Maurice Keane stepped down from his position as Sunderland manager. Having been in the club for over two seasons, he has given the fans a whole lot of glory than they can have imagined. (Glory, here, is a relative term. So I hope you get my drift.)

When he arrived first at Sunderland, he did the unthinkable by bringing them from rock bottom to promotion as champions — no mean feat for a rookie. In his second season he managed to keep his calm whilst confronted with defeats, poor refereeing decisions, long term injuries — stuff he’d rarely have experienced during his United career, where things came fairly easily.

Continue reading “Keane’s United Prospects and The Tevez Conundrum”

Finally.

A realisation of another of the many dreams the boy from Madeira might have had, Ronaldo now becomes only the first player since George Best to win the Ballon d’Or as a United player. This, in itself, is a shame and does a disservice to the vast number of outstanding players that wore the famous red shirt. But, then again it’s a great achievement, especially in an era where the likes of Platini and Blatter attempt to do everything in their power to undermine the growing power of English clubs in Europe.

Continue reading “Ronaldo Wins Ballon d’Or”