Till yesterday, I thought Fergie’s comments, as quoted by the Sun were out of line. And since the quotes were attributed to Fergie, no less, I thought, either they must be true or the Sun ought to have some nerve running that story. So, unless Fergie came out to rubbish them, I had no other choice but to take those words for what they were. [It's a different thing when those quotes came just a day after the boss spoke about us having made a big for an unnamed striker.]
Continue reading “Spurs, Levy, Ferguson and Berbatov”
Everyone has been going on about Fergie holding talks with Ronaldo over the past few hours. The Guardian, for example, report that Fergie held talks with Ronaldo on Monday as he flew to Lisbon.
Here, let me quote:
Continue reading “Conflicting Reports Cast Cloud Over Fergie-Ronaldo “Meeting””
Three top Premier League clubs — Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United — have players that have been agitating for (or as they say these days: trying to engineer) a move to another club. With Arsenal it’s Adebayor, with Chelsea it’s Drogba (and Lampard) and with us it’s you know who.
In the cases of Adebayor and Drogba they’ve been whining in public for a move away whilst, in the case of Ronaldo he has done a lot with his silence.
Continue reading “What Happens When A Player Doesn’t Get His Move?”
[Warning - this is a longer than usual post, since this is too big a topic to cover in a few snappy paragraphs. Still, I think it's an important area, so if you have a few minutes then settle in for a read and a think.]
There’s no doubt that we have been spoilt in the past. In the nineties, our youth system produced a quite extraordinary series of top class players. I don’t need to list them, but I will anyway because of the memories they bring back: Sharpe, Giggs, Scholes, Beckham, Gary Neville, Phil Neville and Nicky Butt. All effectively “free”, and all of whom played their best years for United.
Continue reading “Is Manchester United’s Youth System Redundant?”
I know this question has been posed before, but I think it deserves a separate space of it’s own. [Why you ask? Because I think it does!]
On a day where the likes of Zizou have jumped in on the Ronaldo should go to Madrid bandwagon I’d rather sidestep Ronaldo talk for a day and talk about some transfer targets. So today, it’s Ronaldinho for me.
Continue reading “Should United Bet on Ronaldinho?”
[Warning: Highly speculative article involving yours' truly thinking out loud for most part. Kindly bear and do add your 2 pennies' worth at the end.]
Yesterday, following Ronaldo’s interview with Guillem Balague Manchester United Football Club, issued a statement on its official site reaffirming what it’s been saying all along: that Ronaldo is not for sale.
This is the rare occasion where United are being put in a position where they don’t want to sell a player who seemingly wants away. [I personally think he does want away, but for the sake of those who think we should wait till he comes out and says it definitively, I've added the word 'seemingly']
Continue reading “United’s Transfer Strategy — Is There More to Their Denial?”
In an attempt to move on from the Ronaldo saga, I want to go back to the topic that was getting most “blog inches” (if that’s a phrase) before we descended into the current quagmire. What’s the deal with Wayne Rooney?
I’ve tried to phrase that as openly as possible, because the spectrum of opinion is broad. To some, Rooney is a maestro who had a bad season. To others, he’s a good player who hasn’t quite lived up to his billing or his potential. I know that after a sub-par performance in the CL final, most of you were leaning towards the latter — decent player, great to have him in the side, but not as stand-out amazing as we had hoped. I disagree, and here’s my take on things.
Continue reading “The Wayne Rooney Debate”
By that, I mean Ronaldo’s advocate. I don’t view him as the Devil, but some of you do so I thought you’d like the connection.
A lot has been written on this blog alone over the last couple of weeks about the Ronaldo situation, culminating in Red Ranter’s superbly passionate piece. I have stayed out of it in the comments, firstly because of the lack of hard news on the subject and secondly because of the level of emotion running through. In the midst of it all, I don’t think anyone was prepared to step back and think it through more fully.
Maybe you’re still not, and I expect, if not flaming, then some strong contradictory opinions to this post. But what I’m going to do is explain why the Real move is good for Ronaldo, and point out some silver linings for us. Then, just to maximise the controversy, I’m going to give a super-long-term view of the situation that most of you will hate but which I think we should hope for despite ourselves.
Continue reading “Playing Devil’s Advocate on Ronaldo”
[Warning: Long article.]
It’s been one hell of a week. I finally get to break my self-imposed silence on Ronaldo. So I’ll start without too much of an elaborate prologue.
Continue reading “Breaking the Silence on Ronaldo”
Talk about longevity; talk about loyalty; talk about a man who values the club and you have the knight from Govan. Yesterday I managed to finally get my hands on Sir Alex Ferguson’s full length interview with Sir David Frost [for those who haven't seen it yet, here's the Megaupload link. Download it before it eventually gets yanked off]. Watching it made me realise — not for the first time, though — how blessed our club is, and we as fans are.
Continue reading “Why Fergie Is So Precious to United”
