Aug 30
Wembley glory or European misery for United this time?
For the second year running the Champions League draw spared Manchester United tough opponents, with the Reds joined in group H by Portuguese side Braga, Turkish giants Galatasaray and Romanian club CFR Cluj.
While a trip to Istanbul is never to be taken lightly and Portuguese teams can prove a sterner test than expected when backed by a partisan crowd, group H definitely isn’t the “group of death” but, as United found out 12 months ago, even the easiest of groups can turn into a rocky path on the road to Wembley.
Sir Alex has stressed the need not to take the competition lightly: “After the experience of last year, we don’t want to make any stupid errors this time. We will play our strongest team to make sure we get through.”
SC Braga
The club best known as Sporting Clube de Portugal will compete in Europe’s most prestigious tournament for the second time in the last three seasons, hoping to go a step further this year after missing out on the round of 16 two years ago. A campaign that 
had started with Braga thumped 6-0 by Arsenal saw them enter the Europa League before finishing runners-up to fellow Portuguese club Porto in the final.
Qualified as: Braga finished third in the Portuguese League, then knocked Udinese out on penalties following a 2-2 draw on aggregate.
Record vs United: -
Star man: Rodrigo Josè Lima dos Santos.
The Brazilian striker looks to have found his feet with the Minho club following his arrival in 2010, netting 26 goals in all competitions last season (20 in the league) to fire his team to a third place finish. A mobile striker, the 29-year-old can play both as a centre-forward as well as a winger on either flank.
Ground: Estadio Municipal (capacity: 30,154)
Galatasaray
The Istanbul giants won their first Super Lig title in four years in May and will make their first appearance in the Champions 
League since the 2008-09 season when they were knocked out in the third qualifying round by Steaua Bucuresti. Turkish clubs are renowned for their hostile crowds and they don’t come much more hostile than in Istanbul, as United found out in 1993 as the Reds were knocked out from the European Cup in what was later renamed the “Istanbul inferno”. ”I’ve never experienced anything like Galatasaray. Two hours before kick-off, we went out to have a look at the pitch and the stadium was packed! The chanting was brilliant: one side starts, then the other, then quiet, then all of them chanting! The players really enjoyed it. Before it was good, after it wasn’t!” explained Ryan Giggs.
Qualified as: Turkish champions
Record vs United:
1993-94 European Cup second round
- United – Galatasaray 3-3 (Bryan Robson 3′, Hakan (o.g.) 13′, Arif Erdem 16′, Kubilay Turkyilmaz 31′, 63,’Eric Cantona 81)
- Galatasaray – United 0-0 (Galatasaray through on away goals)
1994-95 European Cup group stage
- Galatasaray – United 0-0
- United – Galatasaray 4-0 (Simon Davies 3′, David Beckham 38′, Roy Keane 49′, Bülent Korkmaz 88′ (o.g.))
Star man: Milan Baros.
The former Liverpool, Villa and Portsmouth man has enjoyed a career revival since he made Istanbul his home four years ago. The former Czech Republic international scored eight league goals in 23 games last season helping Galatasaray to their first title in four years. Don’t expect him to receive a warm welcome at Old Trafford though.
Ground: Türk Telekom Arena (capacity 52,652). Inaugurated a year ago, the new arena replaced the old Ali Sami Yen Stadium
CFR Cluj
The Romanians were crowned national champions for the third time in four seasons in May, a feat they first achieved in 2007-08 when Cluj were the first team not from Bucharest to win the Romanian League for 17 years. A year later, on their Champions League debut, Cluj won 2-1 in Italy against AS Roma and drew 0-0 against Chelsea. The Romanians have reached the group stage of the Champions League every time they have won the league.
Qualified as: Cluj knocked out last season’s surprise package (as United know all too well) Basel winning 2-1 in Switzerland and 1-0 at home.
Record vs United: -
Star man: Modou Sougou
The Senegalese winger impressed last season scoring 10 goals in 33 league games in his first campaign for the club as Cluj regained the title and he’ll be pivotal to the Romanians’ hopes of successfully negotiating their way through the group this term.
Ground: Dr. Constantin Radulescu Stadium (capacity 23,500)
Dan (@MUFC_dan87)
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Attack, attack, attack the only way forward for United (15)
United are knee-deep in Cluj, but there’s nothing enjoyable about it (2)
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Tags: Manchester United News
The_Philosopher (486)
Redrich (253)
Opti (215)
Stephen (187)
Moscow (150)
Thanks for the writeup. Nice background info. Seems like a lot of travel:
Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Deep in Romania
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Speaking of Cups: for the league cups, we’re plaing Newcastle at home. Bring on the kids and fringe players…
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Berbatov at Fulham for £4 million. It seems rather cheap given that there were quite a lot of clubs in for him. Although I’m sure the salary he was on caused a few problems. For all Berbatov’s complaints about not being allowed to leave he could have got his move ages ago if he’d dropped his salary demands. He’s on £100,000 a week at Fulham.
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@colver: 5M + 100,000/week = 5M + 5.4M / year = 15-20 million over 2-3 years. That is considerably a lot for Fulham to pay… but then again how much was Carroll?
Heee-haaww!!
Fulham got a good deal, especially if they can fit him in. Looking forward to see berba strut his stuff more often…
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Mousa Dembele and Moutinho both to Spurs at reasonable prices.
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@Owen: Spurs team is shaping up well ! Either one of them or Fellaini was what we badly needed!
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@godzilla: Not sure about Spurs… their defense is VERY LIGHT… NoKing (retired) or Kaboul (long-term injury), so that leaves Dawson (injury prone), Verthonghen (unproven in EPL) and Gallas (older than Rio) in the center with only youth as cover. Any injury to Dawson and they will suffer.
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Anyways, screw Spurs. we just need to get our defence fit for the season and we should be alright. MF is weak but if players remain fit we should be covered well
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Surprise Surprise!!!
the top five gross spenders this summer (so far) are: PSG – €140m, Chelsea – €99m, Bayern Munich – €70m, Manchester United – €65m Juventus – €50m
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@jos: And despite conceding on average 40% more goals in the last 2 seasons compared to the previous 4 (while scoring about the same or slightly more), only 6% of our summer outlay went on defence-minded players. So much for the in depth analysis of the underlying issues with our goal difference!
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Berbatov for £4m is steal of a century
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@Owen: With a pretty solid team already supported by Berba’s 10-15 goals season they may give Arsenal, Spurs, Newcastle, and others a good run for the 4th spot.
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Dimitar Berbatov, a world-class striker with class to spare, our top scorer for number 19. Always United. Best of luck!
Everyone\\\\\\\'s talking about this one! - Join the debate.... Like or Dislke:
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@Opti: thank you berba- that was a nice speech- although I admit I was not your favorite fan while you were at united I certainly believe in your talent and I hope you get the love you deserve- best of look berbie
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- Berbatov
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@Opti: @AndyCR7: perhaps Berbatov’s true place was in the Stretford End.
Good luck to him anyway.
Lets see how he feels about us when we go down to the Cottage in February.
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It is a shame that players like Fletcher and Young have future with United but one of the most elegant players in world Berbatov was shown the door.
Score 20 this season and define what is value to Fergie.
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@Owen: What do you mean, we need a team of players like Berbatov? Fletcher is a totally different player who plays in a completely different position to the Bulgarian.
Berba is a total gentleman, Fergie made a mistake signing him, he simply wasn’t suited to our style of football.
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If Adams corners were worth 10 millions Fergie,then that hatrick against Pools was worth at least some respect which you never showed.
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GREAT finish by falcoa
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@ash is the man: Falcao 3 – Chelsea 0. Falcao has £50M buyout clause in his contract. Where do you see him play after January transfer window? My money is on Anzhi.
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@Andrei: Man City… or PSG.
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Where is the Eden Hazard wank-parade… ALL 4 NOTHING!
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@Opti: As bad as Chelsea were I was really impressed with Atletico. Speaking about depth of La Liga any EPL top side would have problems playing against this “other Madrid team”. It is misleading because RM and Barca are a head above the rest.
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Chelsea got what they deserved – a walloping. Bayern M were robbed in the game where Chelsea became so called European champions. Chelsea parked the bus, and Drogba saved them with one of his specials. Oh well we all know the the Chelsea manager will be sacked in the morning! I just want to know WTF Sir Fergie is playing at, why didn’t he give Lil Man Nani the transfer out he wanted. Well I guess I know, after the Berba fiasco, I see it is because SAF likes to keep all the technically gifted players on the bench. He likes his non technically gifted Ashley Youngs of this world. Sorry lads, but I just had to say that!
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@Craig Mc: nani is a good player but at times he cant be trusted- young is complete crap so maybe nani will get his transfer next year if we can a replacement- fergie was hardly going to let him leave with no one to replace him- anyway nani plays most of the time- you probaly didnt notice because 50 percent of the time he is headless
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@Craig Mc:
You say what many of us think Craig! 17m on Ashley Young, who ability wise, is bench at best. A decent right foot, but entirely predictable and therefore easily marked out of games by half good teams as was demonstrated in the Euros. With Nani, like Berbatov, it seems Fergie is unable to get the best out of some of our most technically gifted players these days, for whatever reason. As a result we’ve had far too much (wasted) money sitting on the bench from an attacking perspective and yet can’t field a recognized defensive setup, never mind a world class one! Our current philosophy seems to be geared towards ‘you score 3, we’ll score 4′. Problem is, whilst this may work against the mid/lower table Premier League sides, it’s not going to work against the top tier European teams. We just have a very unbalanced and (on-field) leaderless look.
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Well even with the sale of Van der Vaart and Modric, Tottenham have still been able to invest a modest £40 million to put together a midfield much better than ours.
Sad to see Berbatov go but yeah getting him off our wage bill was a big priority with both Rooney and Van Persie on 250K a week.
But as Ferguson clearly knew last summer that Berbatov wasn’t in his long term plans we should have sold then especially as teams like Paris SG were interested and we could have got two or three times the money for him. It seems very bad business. As was the initial ridiculous sum of £30.75M for a player with limited resale value who was only actually worth £20 million.
Manchester City unfortunately have done a big spend after what was looking like being a very lean summer for them. No star players but they’ve certainly added depth and experience to their squad. Probably with European football in mind buying mostly continental players.
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@colver: I wouldn’t focus that much on the MF if I was you. I think this will an exciting season for us. We are young and raw in the MF, experienced up front and flawed all along the back line.
I see a glut of goals (scored and given up), a CMF that will compete intelligently with our rivals (but will be underwhelming as far as their physicality is concerned) and it will be a massive wake up call for all the new boys at the back. (and yes that does include you Mr. DeGea)
It really is a transitional time for us this season. Hope for the best, fear for worst – it’s going to be a hell of a ride!!
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@colver: Don’t they always buy continental (Arsenal) players
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Berbatov was a misfit for United.
Our successful teams under SAF have always relied on pace and work rate. With Berbi, though, the impact of other players was dragged back to his comfortable pace. He is a great player on the ball, but really United would have had to change its ways to get him the ball and to suit his style.
In a nutshell , it was Berbi or Fergie. No chance Dimitar!!
I guess the big question will be “why get him in the first place”? Could no one have seen what a poor match-up this would be or how marginalized a player of his ilk can be trying to work within our team philosophy. For Berbi, it was like taking the fish out of water and asking him to dance with the wolves.
All big clubs have had their “Berbatov” situation. It’s always bad for the player and it’s always bad for the club. In short it’s hard on everyone – and Fergie, this ones on you.
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@Redrich: I agree with you on this Redrich. It’s very strange given he was very much a known quantity, in terms of style and approach, that we invested such a huge amount on him – not just a cut-price punt that didn’t work out. I really think, very simply, that it’s Fergie’s perennial soft spot for the latest and greatest Premier League centre forward, as opposed to some grand tactical plan that just didn’t pan out. I only hope that RvP doesn’t go the same way.
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@ForeverRed: Yeh, but Berbatov has been his only balls up in the striker position.
We cant forget the past while we focus intently on the present, can we.
It was a mistake and I’m sure he would admit it candidly to most anyone.
Problem is, he wasted 30m of the Glazer legacy on a misfit. Have to wonder how that’s effected his ability to spend since.
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@Redrich: I guess I’d add Forlan, and widening the analogy to attacking players in general, Alan Smith, Bellion, Bebe, Tosic, Obertan, Poborsky, to name a few, were hardly resounding successes. But I agree with your general sentiment Redrich, that he has been more effective at bringing in a succession of goal scorers – moreso than game changing leaders in midfield – during his 25 years in charge.
But I’m not so sure about him admitting mistakes to most anyone!
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@ForeverRed: Right I’ll try this again as first comment from iPad was blocked for some reason!!
I think Ferguson, like any man,would readily admit his mistakes to anyone that wouldn’t hold it against him. I’m sure that cold, dark Scottish personna has learned a lesson or two from mistakes.
The real Achilles heal of his rein though has been his inability to piece together a superb squad in all areas of the pitch. We have had a great defense whilst having a mediocre attack, a strong MF whilst having a sub-par attack, and as is the case now, a below average MF supported by potent attack and a dodgy back line.
This more than any other reason is why we have underachieved in the CL – a league that has teams that can just focus on a single weakness and prosper because of it.
I would like to think that this is an exercise in reinventing the team time and time again. Phasing players in and out as needed and keeping the pot on the boil, so to speak. However I fear that what has happened is by random. The long parade of talented players has been partnered by an even longer stream of journeymen. The effect being decades worth of some successes interspersed by some failures, but an overall feeling that we could be better than most, most of the time.
For Ferguson, the idea of having the perfect squad all the time, is not on his radar. The idea of achieving the heights of say Barca, is a fantasy best saved for a journey to Never-neverland, and a sure way to commit managerial suicide. He has achieved success beyond anyone else and thats good enough for him and for a good portion of the United faithful.
For anyone else who might look for higher ground, that nirvana will lie in the hands of another manager and of couse, another ownership.
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Redrich, I think it is part of the long term view we always take.
Four or five years ago we had the best defence in the world. But through ageing (Vidic Rio), attrition (Brown O’Shea EVDS) and general loss of form (Evra)that no longer applies.
Rather than replace them with established experienced defenders who’ve already made all their rookie mistakes and have played lots of big games we promoted Rafael, bought Jones and Smalling on the back of only a season or so of competitive football, and buy Buttner an uncapped Dutch defender.
My personal opinion is that you can get away with young players on the wing, upfront and even occasionally in midfield. But defensive mistakes are so costly that you cannot afford to have players learning the trade at a club of our stature.
Of course we could be vindicated if in four years time a defence of De Gea, Rafael, Jones, Smalling, Buttner becomes the best in the world.
But it doesn’t really matter how many goals Rooney Kagawa and Van Persie score if we concede as many through defensive mistakes as our youngsters learn their trade.
And by the time the young defenders do come good Rooney and Van persie will be too old and we face the problem of replacing them. And of course the risk is that the potential our defenders have is never realized.
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@colver: That is a very good point. We have been blessed with such a good defence for so many years. De Gea will make mistakes, it is the very nature of youth that they have to mature. Smalling and Jones will be very good players, contrary to popular belief on this site. If Vida had stayed fit last season we would have won the league, the margins in football are that tight. Rio will now be fazed out, but who is his natural successor? Jonny Evans had a very good season last,but is he the long term answer? The jury is well and truly out.
We will score goals this season, RvP is a very exciting signing and I am really pleased we bought him, the fans deserve a luxury signing. We have been starved because of value, this austerity isn’t much fun and Fergie has treated us. But would we have been happier with Tiote and Dembele who would have cost us a little more? Lets wait and see…
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It’s a sad day to see Berbatov go. He never fitted in well with fergie’s philosophy especially after Quiroz left but none one can doubt the man’s skiils and ability. The hatrick against loserpool will forever remain as a testament of the mans contribution.
But for all his skills, I personally feel fergie was a bit of a dick on this one.The way fergie treated the league’s top scorer was nothing but disgraceful. Berbertov was ligting up the EPL and I feel he would have comfortably hit 30 goals but having to sit at in bench because of rooney and hernandez? The mind boggles.
I could rant and rave but as supporters we all know what happend. I just feel like there are a bunch of players who can do no wrong and get the benefit of the doubt despite being poor for extended periods, and even disrepectin the club. Rooney comes to mind on this, as well as evra. But to think Berba was in my opinion the greatest ambassador and always talked about the club in positive tone, it’s really sad that we lost his character and persona at the club as I feel he epitomised the kind of loyalty to the shirt and club that I wish all players had.
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I hope both City and QPR lose, I will never forgive them for the pathetic way they rolled over when they knew they were safe.
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If I see that useless **** Anderson waddle around the pitch tomorrow I will have a heart attack, especially with that stupid haircut, fuck off please.
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@Stephen: Do you think fergie will start Evans in defense today? I hope he does. He played a full game for U21.
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