Feb 26
United v Villa – Can the reds turn the tide around?
United have failed to beat Villa twice already this season but the market takes its lead from the history books by rating the Reds 1.89 (10/11) favourites to win the Carling Cup final on Sunday.
Those odds only apply to a Reds victory inside 90 minutes but the price is still well worth taking. This is a massive game but, at a congested period, Sir Alex will want his side to pick up their first silverware of the season in normal time. For a United win which allows for extra-time or penalties you can get 1.49 (1/2) in Betfair’s Carling Cup winner market. Villa are available at 2.98 (2/1) and 4.5 (7/2) in the match odds market.
The Villains have a decent pedigree in this competition. Martin O’Neill won the League Cup with Leicester in 2000 and before that Villa won the competition in 1996. Most memorable for fans of the claret and blue is their 3-1 victory over United in the 1994 final – a defeat which cost United what would have been an historic treble.
But nobody has a better trophy winning pedigree than the Reds. Sir Alex Ferguson has taken United to six League Cup finals so he knows exactly what it will take to win on Sunday. United have shaken off last week’s defeat at Everton with a clinical 3-0 win over West Ham and they look hungry for success.
The Reds attack will aim to put Villa on the back foot from the start and, after being taken off against West Ham, Wayne Rooney will be raring to go. He should be backed to be the first goalscorer but to make things interesting you might also fancy a small stakes bet on a less likely scorer, perhaps Antonio Valencia – whose influence increases with each match – or Nemanja Vidic at bigger odds.
The two early goals Villa conceded in the semi-final showed that they can be vulnerable early on the big occasion. United won’t want this game to drift away from them like two recent visits to Wembley – last year’s final against Spurs and the FA Cup semi-final against Everton – and Sir Alex will demand that his strikers take their chances early on. Villa were involved in a testing FA Cup tie on Wednesday and could tire late on so back United to lead at the break and to press home their advantage in the second half by snapping up odds of 4.2 (16/5) in the Man Utd Win Both Halves market.
Their failure to beat a 10 man United at Villa Park earlier this month suggests that O’Neill’s side will struggle to break down United. With Ashley Young, Gabriel Agbonlahor and in-form James Milner, Villa are an exciting team, but United’s defenders have their measure and should be backed to keep a clean sheet.
A third League Cup trophy in five years will set up United nicely for the business end of the season which starts directly after this game.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Free tickets for United v Villa final
- Aston Villa v Manchester United: Preview/Match thread
- Four Fours Sake Reds! – Wallpaper
- 7,000 Reds and one Roaring Valencia – Wallpaper
- Complacent Reds Eat Humble Wigan Pie – Wallpaper
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (541)
Stephen (487)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Craig Mc (348)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
@Traverse: I would never start Carrick over Lampard in a million years. The gulf in class is so wide it’s not even worth discussing. United bias aside, why would Carrick be a better fir over Lampard? The modern game has fallen prey to the idiotic belief that every team needs to have a defensive midfielder to perform those boring and so overrated Makalele duties. How the Hell did the game survive a hundred years without the DMF? A good manager will get Lampard and Gerrard to accept a role where they must track back and play within the team scheme. Sacrifice a part of their game for the overall good. And if they can’t, it’s a failure of the manager, not the players. Christ how I hate the DMF in today’s game. Get rid of that role in football and each game would average at least one more goal. It’s the position that has everything to do with creating the tag “ANTI-FOOTBALL”. Good teams do not need it.
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@Jay wire: i used to watch werder bremen(and now and then on GOLtv)..i liked diego when he played there..unappreciated and not your normal Brazilian midfielder…i do agree the game is as watchable as the premier league in terms of pace…but the teams are atrociously inconsistent and while Ribery does stand out in the league but they consistently falter in Europe..i wish Fergie takes a look at Eden Hazard..the lad is simply out of this world
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@Grognard: lol its fine
and these days i dont have the time to keep up with so many games and i’ll take your word for it..i agree with your assessment on the pricing..these days an above average talents cost hits double figures in the millions which is ridiculous…and no team will sell their assets to us without us parting a chunk of Ronaldo’s transfer fee
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@RMJ: i watch Adler and Neuer when they are on GolTV but other than that I do not care much for the BL. Though I have a soft spot for Dortmund as they bought one of my childhood heroes (Flemming Poulsen) in the early 90s.
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@Jay wire: Dzeko reminds me of one player.
Niall Quinn.
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@Traverse: oh yea signing up to maby give an undisclosed cash amount at some unmentioned point in the future is doing sooo much.
I’ll give you all the credit that that brings you dont worry. 
I’ll sign up when you can buy shares of the club, but untill the red knights stop lowballing and asking fans to hurt the team to make it better im just shaking my head and asking questions.
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@Grognard: i can’t believe your classing carrick in the ‘defensive midfielder’ bracket, surely he is worth more credit than that? i will agree that his form has been inconsistent for United this season (his performance against Everton was particulaly woeful) but his range of passing as illustrated by the goals he set up for England last night after he came on in the second half (replacing the out of sorts Lampard)saw them come from behind to finish will a comfortable victory. He is a much better player than some (including myself sometimes) give him credit for, he is no Gerrard or Xavi but i think he plays an important role for United alongside Fletcher and wouldn’t look out of place in an England first XI, particularly if Lampard continues through the below average vein of performances of the moment.
personally, although i doubt i will get many agreeing with me, i would love to see England play Thus:
Rooney
Johnson/Young Milner/Lennon
Carrick Gerrard Hargreaves
Baines Terry Ferdinand ‘X’
Hart
I say ‘X’ at right back because i do not wish to see Brown, Neville or Richards play there, but cannot think of a suitable replacement for the moment. Any suggestions?
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@Traverse: “Luckily UEFA has beaten them to it and are bringing in new rules saying clubs can’t spend more than they earn. Next we need to stop people taking over clubs with borrowed money and then paying for their takeover with the clubs earnings. It is theft by a different name, and it’s what the Glazers are guilty of. Also taking over a club, pumping money into it and then claiming it is a loan, ala Portsmouth’s takeovers should not be an option.”
i agree, we are compliant under the new rule, with manshity, fake madrid and chealscum not being compliant. But they should have done something about the hostel takeovers that were allowed. I just think glazers have us over the barrel and their is nothing we can do but give up the money to them. United is making a profit(more than everyone else… well barca just jumped us
) and unfortunately however we look at it they are entitled to some or all of it if they choose.
this article from this morning says the red knights offer was 1bn+ and was rejected and also says they have received two other offers recently and do not want to sell. Ill quote the article
[Soccernet understands there were two offers, one from China, the other from the Middle East, and both felt their bids were so strong that the Glazers could only accept. They were shocked when the message came back: "Thanks, but no thanks". The Glazers refused to put a price on the club and did not even seek an even bigger bid.
The source added: "The Glazers have made it perfectly clear they are not sellers. People are puzzled why they are refusing to cash in, but it's simple: they think it is a good business and they like the club. They are very confident that it can be even more successful in the future both on and off the pitch."]
I think they want the prestige as well as the money
they want it all.
Link
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@Grognard: that is too true but there is always a price that would make them jump now and that is what it is going to take to be rid of them. no fan revolt can shake them is what im afraid of.
It would suck to make the team suffer only to see them take the same amount of money out. While also loosing our training ground.
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@Grognard: ha i was just linking the article that you link a couple down
great minds eh
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@gator: There is one small mistake in that article. ‘they like the club’. (I’d like to see how they’d run us if they hated us!)
that should have read ‘they like the money they can take out of the club’.
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@Redrich: its not a war its business and untill you start thinking in business terms and not schoolyard arguments it is you that fail to grasp something and that is reality, the reality that the glazers own united and dont have to sell.
they think that they can have it all and that they can pay off the debt and make a profit while winning and taking management fees. I dont know if they can but they think its possible. They are not going to sell the club because you or MUST dont think they can manage it. To get united away from them they will have to recieve an offer like they did for ronaldo… stupid money.
they value the club, as does the market, at 1.2bn and they would prolly bite at 1.5 so the offer of just over 1 from the red knights was never going to work.
check out this article LINK
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@gator: My message to the Glazers:
Silly women, get back to the kitchen!
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@Traverse: alot of people were saying this of walcott… needs a brain.
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@Grognard: Only the toilet has smelled worse shit than what my nose has
You heard me right bitch!
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Glazers are another proof to why you shouldn’t have unprotected sex with gingers.
Seems like Scholesy was the last good one…
I’m not counting Wazza, it’s only his beard that is ginger. 
At laest I hope so… 
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@Grognard: Well that’s like saying Adolf Hitler liked the jews!
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@Will: Walcott at right back maybe?
Works for me one FIFA….
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@Traverse: I think they like the money and the fame and the power. I think they are eating up the publicity and how they can just shut down powerful bankers like the ones that make up the red knights. they probably love it.
They have a high opinion of themselves. They are running the beast, most famous, most money making, baddest ass sports franchise on the planet. I think they love united if only for this reason.
Now do i believe that they can pull off continued success on the pitch and in the financial worle
I have to admit the latest numbers they put out were encouraging. but idk
that doesnt mean that if an offer came in, if they took it, and if it required me to pony up some cash, that i wouldnt. hell yea ill buy shares right now if it was possible but it isnt, so i wait. That is all we can really do.
and hopfully they try to win us over in the meantime with a summer signing or two and keep making runs at multiple trophies every year.
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@Will: That is virtually the role he plays with United. United in fact play two DMF’s and put the emphasis of moving forward on our wingers. Both Fletcher and Carrick play too far back to be considered attacking midfielders or even just central midfielders. So there is a reason why I categorize Carrick like that and correctly.
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@gator: Pure geniuses.
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@Will: Capello will not play 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 with England. Ever. He is a 4-4-2 main.
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Also, anyone with any questions as to MUST, The Green and Gold Campaign and the Red Knights should head over to http://www.joinmust.org/ as the website has gone properly live, now with added explanations for all of your questions! (and a member list of over 110,000).
And the latest this morning from The Times is that “We thought we had 40 investors — well, it is already 60,” as members of the Chinese consortium of United fans and Middle Eastern fans who individually had looked into bids have now joined the Red Knights.
It has been talked about that £1.2bil was what the Glazers were after. It looks like £1.5bn has been raised, and they may prove that by the end of today (Friday). £1.5bn is definitely in the ball park of ‘an offer they can’t refuse’.
Jim O’Neill, the guy from Goldman Sachs (born and raised in Manchester) has been given leave to work on the deal.
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@gator: To me it’s a war, –
and it’s been over 40 years since I’ve been in a playground, so you can just fuck off with that point!!
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@Traverse: Amazing news. Just got my brother to join MUST — he is a United fan.
1.5 billion already (1.5 billion/60 ~ 25,000,000 sterling pounds ~ 38 million dollars per person)!!! That is outrageous.
It seems a little scary that these 60 guys only have United in common, yet are willing to pony up 25 million pounds for the love of the club and with little interest in profits…
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@gator: And you would shoot your wad on the first bid??
Come on, this is purely just negotiations at this stage. If it takes 1.5, I think the Knights will eventually pony up.
The Glazers are thinking about the sale, because;-
1/. They are in debt up to their eyeballs.
2/. Their American concerns are not doing well.
3/. The windfall, from a sale of United, would change their entire financial picture.
4/. Their immense unpopularity amongst United fans, makes their future untenable.
The sum of the parts = a certain sale.
What matters now? – when!!
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All Manchester United fans requested to have the status “Red Knight, and proud of it” on their Facebook page betweeen 11:00 to 13:00 British time today, to support the cause of Manchester United.
If you do care about our club, pass this on.
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wow Michael Owen out for the season.
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Just got the news as well that Owen’s out for rest of season because of Hamstring injury.
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@[OPTI]Madschester United: I’d do it if I had the money! The honour of being an owner of Manchester United, and going down in our illustrious history as having saved the club I love would be worth that money.
Just because these guys have lots of money, no reason they can’t love United as much as I do.
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The other big news from SAF’s presser is that Hargreaves is pencilled in to play in the reserves next Thursday against Citeh, and that is fucking brilliant news.
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Seems Hargreaves is set to feature in Thursday’s reserve’s fixture vs City! Hope he is fully recovered…
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That’s Anderson and Owen out for the season. Does anyone know if they can be replaced in the Champion’s league squad.
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@AndyCR7: Well he played a behind closed doors match and came through the whole 90mins without feeling anything. I think he has been physically fine since November, when he was due back to begin with, but the mental side of things has been holding him back. I can only imagine not doing my job for 2 years and then jumping straight back into it. Your mind wouldn’t be in the right place. Add to that the fear of the operations not having worked, feeling your knee after 60mins… he’s suffered a terrible situation, and for his sake and ours I hope he has come through it as good as he ever was.
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@Traverse: hope he gets over this mental thing… he would be very useful for us at RB in big games.
He was dropped from the CL squad, right? Can we add him back in place of Owen or Anderson? Is it allowed now?
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http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2879901/Hargreaves-boost-for-United.html
holy mother of god!! this just made my day!!
go hargo!!
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@AndyCR7: I don’t know, and I can’t find any information on it. You can bet your ass Fergie is trying to do it though…
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HARGREAVES!!! My favourite player is coming back??? what the fuck!! please be safe lad…Good luck!!
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Hargreaves
Owen
Red Knights
Manchester United – an emotional roller coaster!
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@rsg: That’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I read it too but I do not believe it. Hell I tore a hamstring muscle and was back playing in a month. From what I saw of the game I seriously doubt Owen did anything more than tweak it. There is some politics or financial skullduggery going on here and it may be a case of stipulations in his contract that state if he doesn’t play so many games, his wages are reduced. I wouldn’t put anything past Gill and the Glazer’s at this point. Hell I have seen American football players play with pulled hamstrings in a much more physical game and all they do is rap them tightly. This is absurd.
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@Traverse: Yes but you investing 100 pounds is a statement of love. No millionaire ever donated millions of pounds just out of love. You become a millionaire because you are smart with money or you invest wisely because you are looking to make money and profit back. It’s nice when you can love what you are investing in but trust me, if they never thought they could get their money back eventually, they wouldn’t drop a plugged nickel.
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@AndyCR7: He’ll feature and then take two steps backwards for the trainers room and the physiotherapy trainer. He’s finished.
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@Traverse: I have a real problem with this mental side of things. What on earth does Owen have to lose by giving it his all at his age? This is his last chance and if he hasn’t got the courage to really test his knees, then he should bloody well retire. I am sympathetic but there is also a case for being to chicken shit to cross that pain threshold and truly improve.
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@Grognard: You aren’t investing £100mil though, you are investing probably £20 million and when you are worth £500mil that is like one of us spending money on a doing up a classic car… a bit of a pricey labour of love!
@Grognard: Also, the mental side of things does exists… and I don’t mean it as a ‘scared to go out on the field’ way. I’d imagine it’s not going into tackles like he used to, not making the runs he used to, and not being match sharp in hi mind. It would seem he is over that now, hence the reserves match.
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@Traverse: just read it myself
looks like shit just got real 
Now they have a chance if they offer 1.5 or more the glazers are going to have to look at it and not just say no.
Someone needs to make a list of demands for the new owners. So we dont have to rais 2bn 5 yrs from now
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@Grognard:
Who really knows what goes on behind closed doors at Old Trafford these days – community based football club or covert Ministry of Propaganda.
I do believe that the United medical staff are a load of tosh. Owen’s scheduled to have surgery on Monday, maybe he shouldn’t have been jumping about so much during the Carling Cup celebrations.
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@Traverse: In any case the issue was not about who performed better for England. I don’t care about England. It was the role Crouch played which is how Berbatov should be played. By the way Crouch was voted MoM and I didn’t suggest Carrick had a bad game but I said Crouch had more influence on the way England played. Defoe might still have failed because he wasn’t linking well with the other players. Crouch gave the midfield a viable outlet upfront by holding the ball and clever link up play which not only opened the game up but helped with ball retention
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@Redrich: my point exacly you fucking child.
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@Redrich: right on they everything is for sale for a certain price and it looks like the redKnights are gonna pony up enough to get to the negotiating table now.
And no one should have to boycott anything and try to bring down the club.
Im in for however much i can when the time comes you can bet. but i dont agree with a boycott green and gold is as far as i go at turning my back to united.
Any way it should be enough money to make them sweat at least. and if they dont take the money right away it will make the summer transfers really heat up.
the glazers will try to buy our love with players and there will be players linked to us as targets of the red knights. itl be a circus for the rags. 
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@Traverse: I’m sorry but I cannot relate to Hargo because ulike him I played hard men’s sports where acting like that forced you into a dress. As an athlete you owe to yourself to go about things smart, but not timid. Sounds like he has a real issue with pain and in that case I cannot relate because I have played sports with very serious injuries and just sucked it up. That’s the problem with footy and baseball players in general. They are king sized pussies. I respect American football players and hockey players who not only know how to dish out the pain, but they also know how to suck it up and play with it. I can’t how many football players have come back from serious knee or ankle operations or shoulder operations and still got down and dirty and got back into the game. Hargo needs to check downstairs and see if he has a pair. I love the guy but right now he is doing a disservice to Canadians who are a much stronger lot than that and who grit their teeth and fight through the pain until it just goes away and you once again play the game naturally.
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