Feb 12
United’s Italian Interest. Neville’s Retirement Plans. Fergie and Carrick Speak. eBay Scarves.
As the extremely well crafted title would tell you, there is quite a bit to talk about today. But before we go ahead, a little word on one bit of news that sneaked away unnoticed–or should we say, did not get the coverage it deserved.
The Premier League, besides chalking up a rather controversial plan (to put it mildly), also agreed to allow seven substitutes on the bench from next season onwards. Now that is certainly something to feel happy about as it gives the manager more options. I’ve never understood the concept of five players on the bench when La Liga and the Champions’ League allow seven. Hopefully this would make man management easier.
Right, now back to United related news.
It was extremely embarrassing seeing Man Utd fans put up the Munich memorabilia scarves for sale on eBay. When we have sections of fans opposing the AIG banner, it would make us seem like hypocrites if we were putting up these scarves on sale. The cost of these scarves also appear particularly galling; some of them being put up for as much as £15,000! Even the Manchester United Opus costs £3000.
Anyway, reports have come in that eBay have agreed to pull the plug on these scarves thus ending the chances of these mugs looking to make a quick buck off these commemorative items. There is justice in this world. Pity, though, it had to come to that.
SAF reckons that the games between the top three will decide the fate of the title race. The race has become three pronged, although Arsenal have inched ahead, and it will get really exciting, and nerve wracking, as the season progresses towards it’s conclusion. We have Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Blackburn (at Ewood Park) towards the end of the season, not to mention our bogey team, West Ham, as the penultimate game. Arsenal also have it tight, so the race is still too close to call.
Michael Carrick also thinks that the title race is still on. We all think so too, Mike. So let’s hope you get back to the training ground and avoid the press for a bit now. Go on, be a good boy and win us the title. Talking to the press, as often as you have done this season, won’t win you the title. I can assure you that. Leave the talking to the Gaffer.
Long time United target, Fabio Quagliarella, thinks that United are still interested in him and that he is flattered. Good for you Fab, but I don’t really think you would fit in. We have too many players of your type. I’d rather take a Huntelaar, and even that I am willing to pass, if Manucho manages a dream run in United colours.
And amid speculation that skipper Gary Neville might actually retire, the right back moved forward to quash any such speculation and said that he will return to first team action. According to him he was fit before another few knocks set him back by — well you might have guessed it already… yes, two weeks. I hope he does return. We need a semblance of leadership that has been missing. A lot!
And, yes, that’s about it for the day.
Phew, back to the daily grind.
Related items from Red Rants:
- United’s debt situation explained
- What Will Sir Alex Do With Rodrigo Possebon?
- Manchester United have NO interest in Quagliarella
- Manchester United’s Munich tribute on 6 Feb 2008
- Gattuso, Berbatov, Owen – Debunking Some Rumours
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (542)
Stephen (500)
RedDevilEddy (463)
Craig Mc (349)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
I’m glad I resisted the urge to comment during the emotional Armageddon period.
I love this club and its supporters. This is the only club where a:
Draw = Loss
Loss = Crisis!!!Panic!!!End of the world!!!
At least I suppose it shows we are winners. We expect to win every game, nothing less!
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Consider this:
We are the current champions. We reaced the final in the FA cup. We fell out in the semi-final of the CL (even though I believe we were the better team and could have gone all the way). We then decided to spend £50m (£80m if you add Tevez) to an already good squad. All this, while other clubs were fairly quiet in the transfer market. Now people want us to spend another £60m on more players????
Where will this end? (and yet we criticise Chelsea for buying the league???)
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To all the Rooney critics (donnibrasco in particular):
Noticed how average Tevez and the great Ronaldo? Notice how easily they can be marked out of the game without the underperforming Rooney around? Notice the lack of space for either to operate? I admit he’s not scoring goals, but sell Rooney????
That said, we really missed Rooney AND Evra on Sunday.
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Prakash
If only it was so easy to win everything by buying world class players! Chelsea bought the likes of Ballack & Sheva (both truly world beaters) to strengthen a premiership winning squad but still lost it! There is no way you can guarantee a Lahm or Cichinho (who is crap and RM reject!) or Benzema/Huntelaar will surely add to our squad. The best judge in the world to make that kind of call is Sir Alex (who precisely knows how much green notes he has in his purse to run things…) We can only marvel at players who are not part of our team and fantasize about them but you have to have belief in your own players and have to support them. I just cant imagine people like you being fans of clubs like Bolton or Wigan who win nothing! Money is not answer to everything. Last summer SAF bought 4 huge players and still we struggled in the beginning (doesnt that tell you something? It takes time for players to settle in, howsoever good they may be)… prob thats the reason why Liverpool achieve nothing all the time (they add at least 10 new faces every summer!)
Race is still not over. To win we will have to beat Gunners at OT. I’m sure we are going to do that (Benzema or no Benzema in the team!)
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Yes i agrre Fifa is a game so is pro evo but how about the ratings on Football manager where proffesionals rate the players. Concluding my point, Tevez’s acceleration is slow indeed, but no one can deny that when he is on a long sprint he can be pretty fast, and im trying to but i dont remember one instance where tevez and dunne where chasing a through ball ora a long ball and dunne kept running pace with him?
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Firdtly, Dunne is surprisingly fast so even if he did keep running speed with Tevez that wouldn’t be saying much, secondly, Tevez is slow whether on a long sprint or accelerating, but he rarely runs at speed anyway as he tries to use close control to beat players and finally, we definitely are looking into these two last poor performances too much, if we win 4-0 against Arsenal I’m sure everyone will back to thinking we’re the greatest team in the world and we will win the premiership this season, in other words, the truth
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£15k for a scarf? £3k for an Opus?
Time to flog my scarf (made in China) and buy an Opus for me and four of my mates
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What the hell?!using football manager to rate players.Thats a first!
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Tevez aint fast at all.I dont know how in hell he is gonna cost us 35 million or even 30 or even 25.
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Taehr i was just suggesting that games rate him rather fast, and Valuing a player on his speed IS a first to me
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Tevez is reasonably fast but his control is so good that he doesn’t need pace to beat players like Ronaldo does. I think that Podolski could be a good signing as he is out of the Munich team at the moment and might be a fair bit cheaper than some of the other options while still being young and quite good in the air. If we sell Saha that leaves us with Rooney, Tevez, Manucho and Podolski which is quite enough cover if one of them gets injured in the meantime. Welbeck wont be good enough to break into the first team for a while(that is presuming he is good enough in the first place of which we can’t be sure) If we sign a good RB (Lahm would have to be first choice but I’m sure the scouting team could find someone else ala Evra and Vida) then I think that we can afford to let Brown or Evans leave. With the Brazilian twins coming that means that we have cover for that position. If we let Fletcher go then that would give extra funds as I just don’t see a place for fletcher anymore. There, that’s two in and 2 or 3 players in which is better than a complete overhaul which would unsettle the team.
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anyone else watching the rangers match, hope manu is in action.
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he is not even on the bench, isn’t the point of loaning a player out is so they play more matches? angola were knocked out about 3 weeks ago!
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but if are spending 35 million on a slow player or average paced player i feel its a waste.35 million!?Pace these days is important.It is of great value.
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Yes you are right Taehr but im sure u as long with many other fans would have surely agreed if at the beginning of the season we were told that tevez would be offered to us for 30 million and go on to score the winner against liverpool, key opener against chelsea and the last ditch goal against tottenham,not to forgot the equalizer against sporting.
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cicinho is a right wing back,u fool.he can’t defend,he doesn’t know
how to defend.he was in real madrid and without playing time,moved
to roma(maybe).i remember him playing with beckham where beckham used
to cover the right back position while cicinho was upfront.so,do u expect
ronaldo to play right back?
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prakash varma,u dont know anything about football.plz dont talk shits
__________________
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Karl: its always good to vent out the frustration of losing/drawing which are all the same to man utd fans as you pointed out because it just drives fans nuts when we watch our very expensive players play averagely.
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karl,we have had rooney countless games but still needed ronaldos magic moment.dont use rooneys absence as an excuse.we have overrelied on ronaldo that fergie tells giggs and the rest of the team.go uot there,even if you dont play well you are assured of your spots,ronaldo will make the team look nice.
rooney has been one of the culprits and you know it.yes we missed him coz it could have given us another striker,but thats just about it.the continued selection of giggs and scholes is the cancer we need to treat
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what will happen when rooney calls it a day sometime?will you remember him as a united striker who never scored?will u convert his energy into stats?give me adebayor any day.he works more for the team and scores loads.he is young too.that is a striker.rooney does not bring the best out of ronaldo.the latter is simply too good.look at ronaldos record for portugal,is it rooney too?rooney for england?even crouch is better.
am not slating rooney but may be we need to look at the facts and put aside the notion that we support united folks.
does anyone have a problem with tevez?he scores,works hard.we are happy.if he ever underperforms,we question it.
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For the team to win, it must have a balanced line-up..as i posted eralier, our back for were left vulnerable and hence the two goals, esp the second 1 and the many chances citie wasted, thank God they are not a team with a very strong attacking ability otherwise the scoreline would have been embarrsing. at least we needed to play a DM.
speaking of balance, rooney brings that balance upfront or at least another striker would have done,
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Donibrasco: I thought Prakash would take the award for most rubbish spouted in one comment but it seems you have beat him hands down. Rooney is an excellent player, vastly superior to Crouch. Despite mixed form due to injury blips he has 10 goals and 8 assists to his name this season. His goal scoring ratio isn’t too far off one in two this season. He will never be the most prolific player but his all round game compensates, particular when you have a winger chipping in with as many goals as he does.
It is a football fan without understanding of the game however that solely judges a player on stats. Last year Paul Scholes passing was absolutely top notch, however if you looked at his stats for assists you wouldn’t have noticed it. Energy and enthusiasm can lift a team out of the doldrums but it isn’t easily quantifiable, nor is his excellent movement or his presence. Yet I know the influence Roy Keane had on us for so many years, with qualities that didn’t appear on the stat sheet.
And on Adebayor, lets just see if he can continue the form next year. There are far too many football fans who jump to conclusions about players, mistaking purple patches with greatness.
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[JB]
I was actually planning to write a defence of Rooney post. But on second thoughts, I will shelve it. I just can’t believe some of the vitriol poured against Rooney. Oh well, two adebayor videos up on my new post. Lighter times ahead
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Funny how short-lived fans’ memories are.
Two years ago, people (including the most ardent United fans) called Ronaldo a useless one-trick pony…now you call him a ‘great’ player?
Almost a year ago people (including the most ardent Arse fans) called Adebayor a useless cunt….now you call him a ‘real’ striker?
About a year ago, people (transfer frenzy) thought Nani was better than Ronaldo…now you claim Anderson is a better player?
A few months ago, people (including the most ardent Pool fans) called Rooney a great forward, Rooney/Tevez the best understanding and complimentary partnership in the world…now you call him a mediocre player?
Strange thing is, he start scoring a couple of goals and he becomes the best in the world again…silly don’t you think?
When Henry left Arse, everybody claimed that Barca got the best deal.
When he didn’t score, everybody claimed that Barca made a mistake and overpaid
When he started scoring, everybody claimed that Barca got the best deal ever
Same fuckin player!
I can’t convince you that Rooney is a great player. If you’ve failed to see that by now, you most probably never will. What I can tell you however is that:
Form is temporary…Class is PERMANENT!
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excellent post karl
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[manutd jaluo says: 68]
Fully agree with you on this point.
I’ve just noticed over time that when I read the comments afterwards, it seems very funny and illogical, all the stuff said during our ‘rage periods’. Analysis usually clouded by fury. That is one of the reasons I love this site because you have a place to sometimes vent your anger (instead of taking it out on the wife and kids). My wife hates it when United lose because I’m then ‘always’ miserable.
[Thanks Red Ranter for your Anger Management contribution! Feel pleased to know that you truly play a part in eliminating domestic violence worldwide! Damn, how does it feel to be part of the sollution and not the problem
]
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