Roy Keane wrote in his autobiography (or at least said to the Ronaldo-hating Eamon Dunphy) that even though Sir Alex Ferguson is not the best coach, he is an incredible manager of men. And he’s proved it again this season with his exceptional handling of Nani and Anderson.
On the face of it, this was a really difficult ask. Both came to us out of the blue, with big price tags and big things to live up to. The press were totally blindsided by the speed of our moves, but when they recovered our new signings were hailed as the “next Ronaldo” and the “next Ronaldinho” respectively. Everyone dug up YouTube videos proving that these guys were the best thing since sliced bread, and some even put them straight into the first XI on general principle. To make matters worse, neither had lived in England before, and neither spoke the language.
Despite all this, Fergie ensured a smooth transition which leaves us now with two genuine stars in our squad, rather than two pissed-off, burned out and frustrated starlets.
Continue reading “Nani and Anderson — Managed”
This is the concluding part in our three part series on Manchester United’s 07/08 season. [Read: Part I | Part II]
Today we review the defence and to clear the confusion, by defence we mean the back four as well as the ‘keepers. So here goes…
Continue reading “Manchester United 07/08 Season Review: The Defence”
Yesterday we talked about the attack and got a good response in the comments as well. For those who missed it, head over and have a look at the ratings and do drop in your comments.
Today we discuss the midfield, and as I mentioned earlier, we mean the central midfield.
Continue reading “Manchester United 07/08 Season Review: The Midfield”
This is Part I of our three part series on Manchester United’s successful 07/08 season. We’ve broken it up into three parts: the Attack, the Midfield and the Defence. Now we must also be clear about what I mean by these; the attack comprises of our strikers and wingers; the midfield is strictly central midfielders; the defence would represent our central defenders and ‘keepers.
So let’s get on with this shall we?
Continue reading “Manchester United 07/08 Season Review: The Attack”
In an interview with the Irish Times (via SS), we hear what Roy Keane has to say about his departure from Manchester United.
I’m not going to sugar-coat this or give you a preamble - have a read.
Roy Keane:
Continue reading “Roy Keane on leaving Manchester United”
Sir Alex must have been behind plenty of transfers in his time in football. It adds up: a new centre-back every three years or so, countless midfielders, even more goalkeepers and a few strikers, but one position he has not touched in a while has been the right-back position.
Continue reading “Should United keep Brown?”
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”
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.â€
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”
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”
While Seba Veron is often hailed as Sir Alex Ferguson’s most expensive mistake, Eric Djemba-Djemba is the one thrown in our faces as Fergie’s worst signing ever (hell, even Kleberson could play a bit).
He may have cost only £2.5m (and earned £75k / month) but as a player he was quickly found at the top level. The problem hadn’t been just his playing talents but also his temperament, and it’s a testament to Fergie’s loyalty to his players (or his troubles in offloading him) that Djemba stayed on United’s books for 2 years.
So where is he now? If anyone cares, Sniffing The Touchline has the full story (from Nantes to Qatar SC, via England).
