http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/ en Thu, 17 May 2012 09:00:24 GMT vBulletin 1 http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/images/misc/rss.png http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/ http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119604-15-ABUs-won-t-like-this-Martin-Tyler-stat-we-have-had-less-injury-time-than-most-teams-and-would-win-league-if-goals-weren-t-counted-after-90-mins&goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 01:54:53 GMT from http://www.skysports.com/opinion/sto...760046,00.html


Hi Martin. I'm a Man United fan and it's been a fairly horrible few days to be honest with you. People always say that we benefit from injury time but I'd be interested to see which team, on average, has had the most added-on time this year. I bet it's City. Also, can you show us what the table would look like if you removed goals scored after the 90th minute? I bet we'd be champions? Thanks, Rick (Man Utd fan)


MARTIN SAYS: Opta have given us the average match length for each of the 20 Premier League teams this season. You might be interested to discover that the Manchester clubs, on average, have played less injury time than most of the other teams.


Manchester United have had the joint-least (with Bolton) amount of injury time per game - on average 5mins 24secs across both halves. Manchester City have had an average of 10 seconds more per game. Wigan Athletic have had the most with an average of 6mins 12 secs per match.


Average game length for each Premier League team this season:


Wigan Athletic: 96m 12s
Stoke City: 96m 10s
Newcastle United: 96m 9s
Arsenal: 96m 4s
Chelsea: 95m 58s
Norwich City: 95m 57s
Blackburn Rovers: 95m 57s
Everton: 95m 56s
Aston Villa: 95m 55s
Tottenham Hotspur: 95m 52s
Sunderland: 95m 48s
West Brom: 95m 47s
Wolves: 95m 42s
Queens Park Rangers: 95m 42s
Fulham: 95m 41s
Liverpool: 95m 41s
Swansea City: 95m 39s
Manchester City: 95m 34s
Manchester United: 95m 24s
Bolton Wanderers: 95m 24s


As you suspect, if goals scored after the 90th minute are excluded then Manchester United would be champions. City have scored eight injury-time goals in the league and have conceded only one and have gained four points after the 90th minute. United have scored just four injury time goals this term and have only picked up an additional two points as a result.


Under this criteria, Tottenham would have finished third and QPR would have been relegated, which shows how important it is to play to the final whistle!


Premier League table if goals scored after the 90th minute are excluded:


Team P W D L F A GD Pts Difference
Man Utd 38 27 6 5 85 30 55 87 -2
Man City 38 26 7 5 83 28 55 85 -4
Tottenham 38 20 9 9 62 39 23 69 0
Arsenal 38 18 11 9 68 46 22 65 -5
Newcastle 38 19 8 11 52 49 3 65 0
Chelsea 38 17 10 11 59 43 16 61 -3
Fulham 38 14 12 12 47 44 3 54 2
Liverpool 38 13 13 12 44 36 8 52 0
Everton 38 13 13 12 46 39 7 52 -4
Swansea 38 13 10 15 42 48 -6 49 2
Norwich 38 13 9 16 50 61 -11 48 1
Sunderland 38 10 15 13 41 42 -1 45 0
West Brom 38 12 9 17 42 50 -8 45 -2
Stoke 38 11 12 15 34 50 -16 45 0
Wigan 38 11 11 16 40 58 -18 44 1
Aston Villa 38 7 17 14 36 49 -13 38 0
Bolton 38 11 5 22 44 74 -30 38 2
QPR 38 10 7 21 40 64 -24 37 0
Blackburn 38 9 8 21 47 71 -24 35 4
Wolves 38 5 10 23 40 81 -41 25 0 ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119604-15-ABUs-won-t-like-this-Martin-Tyler-stat-we-have-had-less-injury-time-than-most-teams-and-would-win-league-if-goals-weren-t-counted-after-90-mins http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119603-14-Fabio-on-missing-Rafael-when-he-goes-out-on-loan&goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 01:52:34 GMT Da Silvas - http://www.rednews.co.uk/shop/items.php?itemid=90


"It's so, so hard. It's very, very difficult for me and my brother as well but this is life. I have to play more games to improve my football and it's why I think it's better for me and for him as well. I had a good start and played a lot of games in the Champions League but, at the end, I've not played in many games. But it's okay and we go to the next season." ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119603-14-Fabio-on-missing-Rafael-when-he-goes-out-on-loan http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119602-13-Subscribe-to-Red-News-in-print-or-digital-form-here&goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 01:49:52 GMT In Issue 191 - out May 6th 2012 - of Red News... Reditorial on the future, however the season ends. Away match reports, Wigan and city (a Red... In Issue 191 - out May 6th 2012 - of Red News...


Reditorial on the future, however the season ends. Away match reports, Wigan and city (a Red in their end), @Herzogschild on Waiting for Midfield, @Paul__Ring assesses the squad this season, @carlosartorial on Derby Day aftermath, Quotes of the season, @badgerwolf on MUFC fan identity crisis, mad goings on from RN seller Lee, centre-spread pic of a week in 1991 (Rotterdam, Spurs, trophy parade), @tomclare2 on the Dallas Cup with exclusive Jimmy Ryan interview, Pete Shaw is angry - be proud you're a Red not a Blue, @R_o_M looks at England-United, 20 years ago… the 1991/92 season, with @chinatownbranch acid kit art! gossip, graphics, laughs and more!


Alex Ferguson on Red News' 25th anniversary in 2012 "What an achievement" (see his full comments in RN190 out April 15th 2012)
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Guardian. March 2010. "Strong voiced".
David McDonnell from the Mirror on RN183, Sept 2011: "Superb…Buy it."
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Shortlisted for Fanzine of the Year 2008 2009.


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see our full shirt range at http://www.rednews.co.uk/shop/index.php ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119602-13-Subscribe-to-Red-News-in-print-or-digital-form-here http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119601-12-Wayne-Rooney-expects-Manchester-United-to-bounce-back&goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 01:48:58 GMT "Sunday was a difficult day for everyone. One minute you think we have won the title, then we haven't, which was heartbreaking. That is how it goes sometimes. We have to believe in ourselves. We have to look forward to next season and hopefully we can win some trophies next season. I am sure we will be back. We all believe in ourselves. The biggest disappointment was the Everton game. To be 4-2 up, with 10 minutes to go and to lose that lead is disappointing. But there are a lot of young players in the team. That is only going to benefit them. They will learn from that." ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119601-12-Wayne-Rooney-expects-Manchester-United-to-bounce-back http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119600-11-World-Champions-Twice&goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 01:45:54 GMT ]]> ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119600-11-World-Champions-Twice http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119599-10-Samir-Nasri-on-choosing-city-over-United-and-thinks-Hazard-will-do-the-same&goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 01:44:42 GMT “I thought for a few months before making my decision, with my parents and my advisors. Patrick Vieira's argument was that United are used to winning everything. Last season they won the league title and got to the Champions League final and if you sign this season and you play less well, it won’t have been a success for you. Whereas City is a club that’s building, which has recruited smartly with the likes of Sergio Aguero, and if you win the title you’ll be part of history. I weighed up the pros and cons, Roberto Mancini was calling me every day and I decided to go there. I came to Manchester to help the team become champions. Next season the club’s ambition is to go further in the Champions League and win the title again. In terms of statistics, it’s not my best season. Last season I was much more prolific in front of goal with Arsenal. But what counts is the team and the title with Manchester City, so it is my best season. I think Hazard will come to City. There is already one Belgian in the squad in Vincent. He’s a young, talented player and at Manchester United there are a lot of people on the wings." ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119599-10-Samir-Nasri-on-choosing-city-over-United-and-thinks-Hazard-will-do-the-same http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119598-9-Urgh…-Hedge-fund-manager-delighted-at-owning-bonds-in-United-still-low-hanging-fruit-to-go-for&goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 01:42:05 GMT Jupiter Strategic Bond fund manager Ariel Bezalel


"It’s been a nice play for the fund and the equity valuation comfortably supports the debt. Manchester United are one of the leaders in what they do and have shown that you can actually make money out of a football club. It is a phenomenal brand that’s being exploited with tie-ups with everything from mobile phones to airlines and there is still a lot of low hanging fruit to go for.’ The company has been buying back a number of its own bonds, which is a positive, and they are now pretty tightly held. A possible listing could also be a positive event and enable the Glazers to reduce its debt mountain further." ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119598-9-Urgh…-Hedge-fund-manager-delighted-at-owning-bonds-in-United-still-low-hanging-fruit-to-go-for http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119597-8-Manchester-United-pull-out-of-Mohamed-Diame-transfer&goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 01:38:39 GMT Expedia £50 discount Voucher Code for Hotels here OFFER: £50 off on all Hotels worldwide CODE - MAY50 MIN SPEND - 500 GBP Expedia £50 discount Voucher Code for Hotels here


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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...ion-fears.html


Manchester United have pulled out of a move for Wigan midfielder Mohamed Diame due to concerns over his heart condition.
Wigan became aware of the problem when Diame signed for £3million in 2009 and have always kept a defibrillator close to the touchline.
United are keen to sign a powerful central midfielder with Paul Pogba expected to leave Old Trafford for Juventus, but did not want to take a risk on Diame.
The Senegal international, 24, is out of contract this summer and is attracting interest from Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham and Aston Villa.
Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Owen and Park Ji-sung are also set to leave United.
Borussia Dortmund's Shinji Kagawa, expected to sign in a £7m deal, confirmed yesterday that he has spoken to Sir Alex Fergson.
'It was good to meet and actually talk to him,' said the 23-year-old.
'He had some nice things to say to me. It would be nice if I end up playing in the Premier League.' ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119597-8-Manchester-United-pull-out-of-Mohamed-Diame-transfer http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119596-7-If-you-use-this-news-the-VIP-option-to-see-the-news-ALL-on-1-scrollable-page-(no-clicking-on-each-story)-will-save-you-roughly-15-mins-EVERY-DAY&goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 01:36:59 GMT If you use this news, the VIP option to see the news ALL on 1 scrollable page (no clicking on each story) will save you roughly 15 mins EVERY SINGLE... If you use this news, the VIP option to see the news ALL on 1 scrollable page (no clicking on each story) will save you roughly 15 mins EVERY SINGLE DAY! Oh what you could do in that time!


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It's that simple! Any queries get in touch with us at feedback@rednews.co.uk cheers ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119596-7-If-you-use-this-news-the-VIP-option-to-see-the-news-ALL-on-1-scrollable-page-(no-clicking-on-each-story)-will-save-you-roughly-15-mins-EVERY-DAY http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119594-6-Wayne-Rooney-on-growing-up-and-learning-as-a-footballer-and-then-how-he-prepares-now-and-tries-to-take-in-everything-going-on-during-a-match&goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 01:35:12 GMT Wayne Rooney overhead kick canvas






from http://espnfc.com/us/en/news/1071240...ful-mind-.html


ALAN SHEARER, the former England football captain, doesn't think much of my theory.


I'm loitering outside an interview room half a mile from the grounds of Old Trafford, home of Manchester United, waiting to interview the team's mercurial striker, Wayne Rooney, about his singular football genius. My suspicion: Behind his prominent brow and famously thick skull resides an underappreciated mind.




Shearer, the legendary center-forward turned BBC commentator, has just completed his own sit-down with Rooney, and when I ask him to rank the 26-year-old in the pantheon of football greats, he is resolute. Rooney, he says, belongs in the same exalted category as Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo. "Wayne Rooney can do everything," says Shearer, 41, who scored 379 goals over his 19-year pro career. "If you ask him to play right back, he would be the best right back. Likewise center half. If he plays up front on his own, he can do that, no problem. Or he can play with a partner. He's now coming into his prime, which is a pretty scary prospect for all those defenders out there who think they got a chance of stopping him."




Shearer rolls on -- lauding Rooney's technique, admiring his courage, praising his growing maturity. He notes Rooney's accomplishments: the four Premier League titles, his role in United's Champions League victory of 2008, the six career Premier League hat tricks, most of any United player. But when I inform Shearer of my plan to ask Rooney about the thinking behind his game, he adapts a faintly pitying look: "I think he probably won't be able to tell you how he got his talent and his ability. He was born with it."


Rooney can do everything, in other words, except explain what it is that he does.


NATURE OVER NURTURE. Innate talent over hard work. These are deeply held notions in England, this most class-obsessed of nations, where a man's lot in life traditionally has been inscribed on his birth certificate. And nowhere is this clearer than in the country's view of Wayne Rooney -- the self-made genius cast in the role of dullard.




He is a far more complete player than, say, David Beckham. He shoots with power and precision. His close control is miraculous. His passing at times is stunningly perceptive. When the mood takes him, he can dribble and juggle like a Brazilian. He's scored 180 goals in 364 games with United and has shelves full of awards, including both the English football writers' and players' player of the year for 2010.




Yet few in Rooney's home country suspect that an intellect might lurk within his chunky frame. Ask them what they make of the player and they'll likely note the temper, the thuggery, how he left school without qualifications. He is, to many, an idiot savant, emphasis on the idiot. A nitwit with useful brute instincts.




He is not without blame in the building of this reputation. "Cheating Roo Beds Hooker." "Furious Rooney Threatens to Knock Out Fan." The tabloids have made a meal of him, and he's often seemed only too happy to provide the salt. He was sent off in the 2006 FIFA World Cup after apparently stomping on the genitals of Portugal's center half. He will miss England's first two Euro 2012 matches in Ukraine for hacking at an opponent in Montenegro. When he inked a riposte to his detractors on his arm -- Just Enough Education to Perform, the title of an album by his favorite band, Stereophonics -- the Daily Telegraph, perhaps willfully missing the joke, sneered that the tattoo "alludes to the fact he's not too bright."




It is not at all easy being Wayne Rooney. But Rooney doesn't always make it easy on himself.


ROONEY'S HISTORY WITH the media is clearly a complicated one. So when I sit down for our interview three days after United's 1-0 loss at Man City and announce that I want to ask him about his craft -- rather than the latest City-United spat -- he seems nonplussed. "Okay ..." he says warily. His agent, Paul Stretford, had warned me that as an "instinctive" player, Rooney might be unwilling or unable to discuss his game in conceptual terms. To warm him to the task, I suggest we start with his childhood.




Rooney grew up the oldest of three brothers in the Croxteth neighborhood of the largely working-class city of Liverpool. His father, also named Wayne, was a laborer, often out of work; his mother, Jeanette, worked part time cleaning schools. Today, Croxteth is noteworthy for being two things: a hotbed of gang violence and the birthplace of Wayne Rooney.




As a child, he played football for endless hours on the streets around his home or the asphalt five-a-side pitch behind his house. He played in darkness. He played alone. "You used to do it some days so long your sugar levels would be gone," he says. "But you'd just love playing football. From the minute I woke up, I had the ball until I went to bed." When his ball burst, he played with a pair of rolled-up socks.




Rooney developed games to amuse himself: He kicked balls over passing cars to hit a little road sign across the street. He imagined the wall in front of an abandoned nursery as a line of defenders to be dribbled past or beaten with a curled shot. At age 9, he scored 99 goals for his junior league club, and a scout for the local club, Everton, got wise and signed him. (The prevailing attitude at the club was that the boy's gifts were God-given and he couldn't really be improved by teaching. On the whole, coaches left him alone.)




When Rooney was 10, he made his "debut" at Everton's Goodison Park as a mascot for the derby game against Liverpool. In British football, mascots are young children chosen to appear on the pitch before the match, pose with the captains, even take a ceremonial part in the warmup -- the goalkeeper rolls the ball to the mascot, and the mascot kicks it back. Perfunctory stuff. But when Rooney's turn came, instead of obediently passing to keeper Neville Southall, young Wayne chipped the ball over the keeper's head and into the net. He'd been practicing the shot all week.




"Neville Southall didn't like that!" Rooney says. "He called me a 'flash git.'?" Rough translation: obnoxious show-off. "When I was younger," he continues, "I was quite cheeky, I think, but you need to be as well, because to be a top footballer you need to have a bit of arrogance, a bit of swagger about you."




It also helps to have a bit of genius, and here Rooney's began to reveal itself. Over the past decades, visualization has become increasingly common in sports, numerous studies suggesting that mental imagery coupled with repetitive training helps the brain create neural patterns, like building a circuit inside a computer. Earl Woods trained Tiger this way. Olympic sprint champion Michael Johnson pictured himself winning his races before they started. Wayne Rooney, a child in Croxteth, knew none of this. But he devised visualization techniques that he uses to this day.




“When a cross comes into a box, there's so many things that go through your mind in a split second, like five or six different things you can do with the ball.”
Wayne Rooney


"Part of my preparation is I go and ask the kit man what color we're wearing -- if it's red top, white shorts, white socks or black socks," he says. "Then I lie in bed the night before the game and visualize myself scoring goals or doing well. You're trying to put yourself in that moment and trying to prepare yourself, to have a 'memory' before the game. I don't know if you'd call it visualizing or dreaming, but I've always done it, my whole life."




Did anyone teach you that? I ask. "No. When I was younger, I used to visualize myself scoring wonder goals, stuff like that. From 30 yards out, dribbling through teams. You used to visualize yourself doing all that, and obviously when you get older and you're playing professionally, you realize it's important for your preparation -- and you need to visualize realistic things that are going to happen in a game."




AT THIS POINT in our story, it's probably worth noting that Rooney has, shall we say, a unique manner of talking. He favors odd, back-to-front constructions. He overuses the word "obviously." He frequently refers to himself as "you." It's the Liverpool in him showing, and the result requires a patient listener. He'd make a good character in a Guy Ritchie film.




"I think, I suppose," says Rooney, when asked about his precocious genius, "when you are younger, you're always …you're a bit more advanced than the kids your age, so there are times on the pitch where you can see different things, but they can't obviously see it. So then it's like you get annoyed, but they are not obviously …It's like you said before. They can't calculate. I suppose it's like when you play snooker, you're always thinking three or four shots down the line. I suppose with football, it's like that. You've got to think three or four passes where the ball is going to come to down the line. And I think the very best footballers, they're able to see that before ... Much quicker than a lot of other footballers. So ..."




One can gather his meaning, if not diagram the sentences. But for the fullest definition, look no further than Rooney's second goal in a 4-4 home draw with Everton this season. At the 69-minute mark of the match, a ball sweeps in from the right and finds Rooney 30 yards out. Two defenders are closing in, but he has already solved the physical chess puzzle in his mind. He instantly lays off the ball to his right for strike partner Danny Welbeck to meet it just outside the penalty area. As Rooney's marker is forced to follow the ball, Rooney races into the unguarded space behind him. The other defenders sprint to cover the gap but are too late; Rooney is now a yard clear. When Welbeck's return comes, Rooney sweeps it in powerfully from just outside the 6-yard line.




Lost to many of his fans is that even such moments of creativity draw from Rooney's meticulous preparation, his study of spatial permutations in practice. "Basically you go in one position in the penalty box, and I'll have like 10 shots at the keeper," he says. "I'll tell him to go a bit early one time, and then you work out what decision is the best, and then if you get in that position in the game, that comes back to you. It's basically stored in your mind."




IN THE 1960s, a revolution took place in Holland. That's hardly surprising; it was a decade of revolutions. But this was a football revolution, one in which Ajax coach Rinus Michels and on-field genius Johan Cruyff began to develop their theories of "total football," a style that used space in a way never before imagined. Instead of rigid lines and fixed positions, Dutch players began switching positions fluidly, treating the field as a single space to be expanded and compressed at will. The Dutch drew on Vermeer, Mondrian and hundreds of years of a cultural tradition of measuring space in art and architecture. The kid from Croxteth got there by watching TV.




"I used to watch Jari Litmanen [the Finnish 'shadow striker' of the great Ajax team of the 1990s] a lot," he says. "I enjoyed how he moved and got into space. And he was patient. If you looked at him, he always never looked like he was rushed doing anything. He always used to take his time. Then, when the opportunity came, he found the space to get the ball in the net. The more you do it, the more it works. You need to know where everyone is on the pitch. You need to see everything."




Although the clock on our interview is ticking down -- we are, if anything, in injury time -- Rooney is fully engaged. It seems a fine time to ask about his famed bicycle-kick goal against Man City last season (see above). How much of the play was instinctive? At what point did he decide to try to score?




"When a cross comes into a box," Rooney says, his eyes darting back and forth as he works the play over again, making little feints with his head as if trying to bewilder a defender, "there's so many things that go through your mind in a split second, like five or six different things you can do with the ball. You're asking yourself six questions in a split second. Maybe you've got time to bring it down on the chest and shoot, or you have to head it first-time. If the defender is there, you've obviously got to try and hit it first-time. If he's farther back, you've got space to take a touch. You get the decision made. Then it's obviously about the execution."




And in the case of that play -- with a crossing pass curling behind him, a trailing defender closing on his right side, a near defender on his left shoulder slipping momentarily in an attempt to readjust to the ball -- the unlikeliest option was, in fact, the most likely to succeed. Elevate, lay back, one-time, over the shoulder. Like he had probably visualized hundreds of times as a child. The product of an agile mind. A wonder goal.




"What people don't realize is that it's obviously a physical game, but after the game, mentally, you're tired as well," he says. "Your mind has been through so much. There's so many decisions you have to make through your head. And then you're trying to calculate other people's decisions as well. It's probably more mentally tiring than physically, to be honest."




Which, all in all, is pretty well put -- for a man, that is, who supposedly can do everything except explain what it is that he does. ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119594-6-Wayne-Rooney-on-growing-up-and-learning-as-a-footballer-and-then-how-he-prepares-now-and-tries-to-take-in-everything-going-on-during-a-match http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119593-5-For-those-that-want-it…-you-can-pre-order-the-Manchester-United-end-of-Season-DVD-2011-12-out-in-June-here&goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 01:27:08 GMT For those that want it… you can pre-order the Manchester United end of Season DVD 2011/12 out in June, here


]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119593-5-For-those-that-want-it…-you-can-pre-order-the-Manchester-United-end-of-Season-DVD-2011-12-out-in-June-here http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119592-4-Sol-Campbell-surprised-by-Rio-non-selection-and-thinks-it-has-to-do-with-John-Terry&goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 01:26:50 GMT "I think it did play a small, or a big part in it, because, you know, you're away for four to six weeks together, Hodgson's probably saying: 'Maybe something might happen at the camp. Who knows? But you can't say football reasons, Rio Ferdinand shouldn't be going. Because he's experienced, he knows how to play football, an excellent defender, he's done fantastic for his club and country, especially in the last, say three months. I can't believe it. He's played the last 10, 12 games for Manchester United, he's played excellent, he's fit as a fiddle … You need the most experienced players at the tournament. He knows his way around all these tournaments. You need people like that. You need characters like that. When it comes to those tough games, and you need that experience, you're not going to have it." ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119592-4-Sol-Campbell-surprised-by-Rio-non-selection-and-thinks-it-has-to-do-with-John-Terry http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119591-3-Expedia-£50-discount-Voucher-Code-for-Hotels-here&goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 01:25:21 GMT Expedia £50 discount Voucher Code for Hotels here OFFER: £50 off on all Hotels worldwide CODE - MAY50 MIN SPEND - 500 GBP Expedia £50 discount Voucher Code for Hotels here


OFFER: £50 off on all Hotels worldwide


CODE - MAY50


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BOOKING WINDOW - 15-21 May inclusive


TRAVEL WINDOW - 15 May until 15 Nov 2012 (6 months)


]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119591-3-Expedia-£50-discount-Voucher-Code-for-Hotels-here http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119590-2-Mirror-go-with-a-back-page-headline-story-that-Rio-blames-Fergie-for-Euro-snub&goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 01:25:04 GMT http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footba...rguson-836536?


"Gutted" defender won't play at the Euros after his club manager cast doubt on his ability to play three matches in eight days


Rio Ferdinand believes Sir Alex Ferguson played a part in him being axed from England’s Euro 2012 squad.


Manchester United manager Ferguson claimed his vastly experienced centre-back could not cope with the demands of playing games in such a short space of time at this summer’s tournament.


England have three games in eight days in the group stage and Ferguson questioned whether Ferdinand’s 33-year-old body would hold up to that punishing schedule, given his injury history.


Ferdinand was abroad with his family on Wednesday night as he tried to come to terms with missing out on Euro 2012 and the bitter end of his England career after 81 caps.


Before flying out of the UK, the player revealed his disappointment when he tweeted: “Absolutely loved playing for England....to say I’m gutted is an understatement of the highest order.”


But it was Ferguson’s pointed comments regarding Ferdinand’s fitness, ahead of the squad being announced, that are said to have angered the crestfallen United defender.


“You play something like a game every four days at the Euros and Rio couldn’t do that,” said Ferguson, who had previously talked up Ferdinand’s chances of going to Euro 2012.


On May 3, Ferguson talked of how vital Ferdinand’s “experience” would be for England, only to change his tune eight days later by casting doubts over his fitness.


Ferdinand is understood to have been unhappy with Ferguson’s comments, believing they may ultimately have persuaded England boss Roy Hodgson to leave him out.


Hodgson claimed Ferdinand was left out of his 23-man squad for purely football reasons and not because of concerns over the 33-year-old central defender’s fitness.


But those close to Ferdinand believe Ferguson’s remarks, as well as a conversation between the United boss and Hodgson over the player’s fitness, helped seal his fate.


A source close to Ferdinand said: “I don’t think Ferguson’s comments did Rio any favours at all.”


Hodgson, who confirmed his squad on Wednesday, insisted Ferdinand had not been left out because of the impending race row case involving his brother Anton and John Terry.


“I selected John Terry for footballing reasons and left out Rio Ferdinand for footballing reasons,” said Hodgson.


“I had to decide on the basis of what I have seen over the last few months. Rio has only played once for England in the last year and three times since 2010


“Rio has done exceptionally well this year, has played lots of games through injury and has sometimes played three times in a week.


“I would be lying if I said that was the major reason for not selecting him, it was purely on other footballing decisions.”


Ferdinand, who went to three World Cups with England but who has never played at a European Championship, is said to be considering his international future.


He is out of contract with United at the end of next season and so far no talks have been scheduled with his representatives to discuss a new deal. ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119590-2-Mirror-go-with-a-back-page-headline-story-that-Rio-blames-Fergie-for-Euro-snub http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119589-1-Harry-Gregg-video-interview-about-his-footballing-life&goto=newpost Thu, 17 May 2012 01:19:35 GMT

video at http://www.u.tv/sport/Harry-Gregg-sh...4-263b147fadaa ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119589-1-Harry-Gregg-video-interview-about-his-footballing-life http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119588-41-More-Patrice-Evra-on-a-difficult-year-and-that-hone-game-against-Liverpool&goto=newpost Wed, 16 May 2012 22:43:15 GMT “There were a lot of difficult moments. Before the game against Manchester City in October my dad called me to tell me I’d just lost my brother.... “There were a lot of difficult moments. Before the game against Manchester City in October my dad called me to tell me I’d just lost my brother. Nothing else can be more difficult than that to find out before a big game. There was the case with Luis Suarez as well. I know that's not the way a Manchester United player should talk when you don't win the league. It sounds like I'm finding an excuse. But it's the truth. I don't want to lie to people. This year has been so difficult. It was a very difficult time. For my family as well. It was difficult, so difficult. I think that game at Old Trafford was the most pressure I've ever felt in my life... all about shaking his hand. For me it was very difficult before the game, to decide to shake his hand. I think many people would never have tried to shake his hand. But I tried and he refused. For me, it was like, ‘What's going on?’. But I couldn’t go mad. Although, you see the first tackle, a tackle on Rio Ferdinand. If I had caught Suarez then I could have had a red card straight away and I'd have been off the pitch. People thought my celebration at the end of the Liverpool game was because Suarez had abused me. But it was more than that. Finally I could say thanks to my team-mates. I know everybody was playing to win for Manchester United that day, but also a little bit for myself. That's why my celebration was like that. What's happened to me – personal things – this year have been really tough. But I just kept playing. In your life you have good and bad experiences but the most important thing is how you react, and I think I reacted in a good way. That's why I'm proud of myself. People can criticise me and say many things but this year I am stronger than ever, mentally. It was a big challenge this year, a personal challenge with myself.” ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119588-41-More-Patrice-Evra-on-a-difficult-year-and-that-hone-game-against-Liverpool http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119587-40-Michael-Carrick-turned-down-opportunity-to-be-in-England-stand-by-squad&goto=newpost Wed, 16 May 2012 22:27:08 GMT http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/england/9271052/Manchester-Uniteds-Michael-Carrick-told-FA-he-did-not-want-to-be-bit-part-player-at-Eu... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...Euro-2012.html


England manager Roy Hodgson revealed on Wednesday that Michael Carrick had ruled himself out of going to the finals of Euro 2012 because he did not want to be a squad player.
The Football Association then confirmed that the Manchester United midfielder had told them “a few months” back that at this stage of his career he “did not want to be sitting on the subs’ bench”.
The England manager had caused a surprise by not even including the 30 year-old in his standby list - Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson was selected instead - after naming his 23-man squad on Wednesday.
“I wouldn’t dream of putting Michael Carrick on a standby list after he’s made it clear in the past he doesn’t want to be involved like that,” Hodgson said. “I’d have to be convinced he was better than the four [central midfielders] I’ve selected, and that he’d be happy to come out of retirement.”
The FA immediately clarified that Carrick, who won the last of his 22 caps almost two years ago, had not formally retired but would help England “in extremis”.
Stoke City striker Peter Crouch is also believed to have ruled himself out for the standby list after being told he would not be in the squad, with Andy Carroll ahead of him. Given he has taken the England job only recently, it was understandable that Hodgson’s squad selection was conservative, but he has a decision to make over the fitness of Scott Parker, which could see him turn to Carrick or include Henderson. ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119587-40-Michael-Carrick-turned-down-opportunity-to-be-in-England-stand-by-squad http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119586-39-Pete-Shaw-won-t-be-pleased…-Michael-Owen-may-be-offered-new-deal&goto=newpost Wed, 16 May 2012 22:23:37 GMT




http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...extension.html


Michael Owen could be handed a surprise extension to his Manchester United career with Sir Alex Ferguson still to decide on the former England forward’s Old Trafford future.
Owen, 32, appeared to have made his final appearance for the club during a 62 minute outing in Harry Gregg’s testimonial against Irish League Select XI in Belfast on Tuesday.
The former Liverpool, Real Madrid and Newcastle striker, a free transfer signing in July 2009, is out of contract next month and had been expected to be released by United after injuries restricted him to just four appearances this season -- his last competitive action being a Champions League clash against Otelul Galati last November.
But despite Owen’s limited contribution during the past 12 months, Ferguson is understood to be undecided about the player’s future and could yet offer him an incentivised contract based on appearances for the 2012-13 campaign.
Manchester United must submit their list of retained and released players to the Premier League by Saturday lunchtime, but with Ferguson due to depart on his summer holiday this weekend, a decision on Owen’s future could yet be delayed until the club gain a clearer picture of their targets this summer and whether Dimitar Berbatov will leave Old Trafford as anticipated.
Owen is known to be happy at United, having accepted his role as a squad player rather regular starter, and Ferguson has been impressed by his contribution within the dressing-room and among the club’s younger players.
And with the prospect of a further season at United, Owen is believed to be prepared to wait for Ferguson to weigh up his options before clarifying his situation. ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119586-39-Pete-Shaw-won-t-be-pleased…-Michael-Owen-may-be-offered-new-deal http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119585-38-Patrice-Evra-on-the-loss-of-his-brother-this-season&goto=newpost Wed, 16 May 2012 22:21:10 GMT "It is the most difficult season that I've ever had for Manchester United. Before the home game against City, my dad called me and said I had just lost my brother. That's why I'm very proud of myself. I've been stronger mentally than ever because of the personal things that have happened to me this year. To keep going and to play every game is just amazing." ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119585-38-Patrice-Evra-on-the-loss-of-his-brother-this-season http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119584-37-Patrice-Evra-on-the-Luis-Suarez-affair-and-his-celebration-after-the-win-at-home-to-Liverpool&goto=newpost Wed, 16 May 2012 22:20:26 GMT "There have been lots of difficult moments, including the case with Suarez. Bad and good experiences happen. The most important thing is how you react and I think I reacted in a good way. It was more than the win. I know everyone was playing to win that game, for Manchester United of course, but a little part for myself as well. That's why my celebration was like that. I think it's the game in which I've had the most pressure in all my life. It was really difficult for me. Many people would never have tried to shake his hand. I did and he refused. People can criticise me and say many things, but this year I have been stronger than ever." ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119584-37-Patrice-Evra-on-the-Luis-Suarez-affair-and-his-celebration-after-the-win-at-home-to-Liverpool http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119583-36-Rio-Ferdinand-tweets-his-response-to-no-Euros&goto=newpost Wed, 16 May 2012 22:18:52 GMT "Absolutely loved playing for England....to say I'm gutted is an understatement of the highest order...," ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119583-36-Rio-Ferdinand-tweets-his-response-to-no-Euros http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119582-35-Carlos-Tevez-isn-t-sorry-for-the-RIP-Fergie-banner-and-hits-out&goto=newpost Wed, 16 May 2012 22:17:12 GMT var uri = 'http://impgb.tradedoubler.com/imp?type(img)g(18324116)a(608750)' + new String (Math.random()).substring (2,...]]>

"It seems like Ferguson is the president of England. Every time he speaks badly about a player or says terrible things about me, nobody says that he has to apologise. When someone comes out with a joke or banter, you have to say sorry - but I don't say sorry." ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119582-35-Carlos-Tevez-isn-t-sorry-for-the-RIP-Fergie-banner-and-hits-out http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119579-Pete-Shaw-gives-his-MUFC-Players-End-of-Season-Report-you-ll-disagree-or-maybe-agree&goto=newpost Wed, 16 May 2012 18:16:05 GMT You can read the forthright Pete Shaw every Red News in the printed mag. Order a printed sub or digital pdf sub at... You can read the forthright Pete Shaw every Red News in the printed mag. Order a printed sub or digital pdf sub at http://www.rednews.co.uk/subscription.php - we’re different and so is he!


It is strange that a season contested over 38 games should be drawn towards seconds - the 420 that United failed to defend a lead at home to Everton, the 300 that turned the title on its head in the Manchester City-QPR Game.


It was that kind of season; surreal. And a bit of a head fuck.


So that you look towards specific moments - when it was won, lost, celebrated, expected, resigned and then clutched from an unusual grasp - but it is across the season that defines the team and its individuals. And whilst it is mad, a few days on, to think that 89 points was not enough, equally many Manchester United supporters though spoilt expecting too much success on any occasion, are not without their rights to argue that though the points total should have been enough, certainly in any other season, the actual type of football we played, and saw, much of the time, was not enough.


We demand better then, not to eye more points, or wins, but just, better football. That may seem mad, and spoilt, after just querying a table that loses us a league not by seconds, as such, but by eight goals - a four goal turnaround in one Derby ffs, but the unit out performed itself, its members did not on a one by one basis. That is the story of our season. Whilst we annoyingly scratch heads at 'what ifs' - if Evra's header had gone in instead of against a post at 4-2 up against Everton we'd be Champions now, but that does us no good, life is shitty 'ifs' - if I was shagging Kelly Brook right now, I wouldn't be writing this, would I?


So how did each player, perform then?


Well, whilst Robin Van Persie collected personal accolades and awards which were out of reach for his actual team, it's strange that the man in our kit just behind him in the scoring stakes wasn't a shoe in for his own MUFC Player of the season. 27 league goals and he was nowhere near.


In fact the RN readers' poll (http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showt...Season-2011-12) is led by a player - however gifted, and great the gamble paid off - who only played half the season he's winning it for as a whole, not damning praise upon his little gifted Ginger freckled shoulders, but possibly for those around him.


It says much about Rooney's performances - good, but not regularly great - and our team itself that there has been no stand out performer. Antonio Valencia finished the season well, but did not start it in that vein, via injury and pushed out of position. The votes cast online by RN readers for POTS telling; Scholes ahead, however satisfying that return, yet still only back for half a season, and it the grit and dime players up there rather than the creative sparks who usually walk it, who won the votes this time.


We knew this season was one of 'transition', it became almost a motto for the team when we were chasing in the title race as if to justify our position, or excuse the poorer times, and though you can't ignore the incredible run of bad luck with injuries (now such a recurring theme each season, no wonder Fergie keeps praising the fitness and physio staff, or should that be questioning them!) so that all things considered, with the Polo Mint hole in our midfield barely covered by the tarpaulin of Carrick's resurgence and Scholes' saving of the day, we did as well as we could have what with the young additions. It the failure to sort the issue that has been an issue for so long now, it's almost ignored as an issue. Experience was needed last summer. It did not come. We waited for Godot and paid for it. The midfield banshee screams, Medusa like, its glare and impact on our team will not go away until we sort it. Few are the Florida voices who hear it. Or want to.


However good Jonny Evans has been, and as much credit for coming back from the brink of really shite performances the season before last (though he improved near its finale last Spring, showing what we'd see this season) to the consistency we see now, that he was a real contender for the main prize says much too. Was he really that good? I mean, top quality good that United should be? The team did perhaps as well as they could, many individuals did not, Evans not one of them but he and they have much left to give, and whilst that is pleasing that they nearly all have more left in the tank, it has you head scratching as to when exactly they will show this, many now here for several seasons and can't just keep being tagged as 'ones for the future'; when will they actually deliver? Also, you can't keep hoping that Sir Alex will get more out of the collective than the individuals are actually giving him back because that over reliance on his skills could bite us. The failure this season might heighten awareness once again to what is needed - its silence never uttered within Old Trafford not hiding the leon bright light each game shining on our midfield for a Modric, or whoever - because not winning the league this season will not paper over the cracks what triumph might have - 'all is good with what we have and the world as there's no frigging value anyway', etc - a line that has reached its end point.


David De Gea arrived under a dodgy bit of white linen to have his medical. It didn't stop the world and his dog seeing that it was him about to sign, and at times over Christmas, his defences looked as shaky as that holding his linen, but thankfully, as the season wore on, the only sheets we remembered were clean ones. We kept 20 this season, the most by any team, and quite a record. The title was lost in the games we let in too many goals. We always knew DDG had it, we just worried if it was too soon for him, too much expectation. Certainly Fergie made an error thinking that keeping both him and Anders happy (an able deputy and no bad thing to have his supreme self confidence thinking he's much better than that, only when he gets the hump as a bit part player will that become a problem when he realises for much of the time at United he really is just here to 'pick his nose') with rotation, rotation, rotation made sense, when a keeper under the microscope right from the off, just needed a run, and the confidence that brings. To deny DDG his run, cost him confidence.


The press went for DDG after his first league game, at West Brom, one tabloid with a headline: 'Error-prone Manchester United keeper'. What the fuck!. As Peter Schmeichel said: "I think he had unfair deal with the media, they thought 'finally we have a decision that Sir Alex has made, that we can have a dig at him', it was more them trying to have a dig at Sir Alex, but the thing is I knew he could play at the highest level, but even before that 1st game the press said he's not very good, but he's 20 years of age, that's bound to get to you, nerves come in, I think Sir Alex rested De Gea a little bit too much which didn't do him any favours because the other one came in, and that was more fuel on the press fire. He's now had a consistent run and he's proving himself capable of the job." I did wobble about him a bit around the time of the Blackburn game, and he still needs to bulk up and command himself from crosses - but that seems his only real weakness or concern and the key is whether a keeper not only saves you points but help wins them, From Chelsea onwards he did that. In a new league, language and culture (where it's not acceptable to have such bum fluff, so get that sorted), and at 21, he's done brilliant all things considered. He's the least of our worries, if you accept this is a 10 year plan where mistakes early days may happen, but the rewards over that decade will far outweigh the negatives for a goalie who could be a world best, until Barca or Madrid start tempting him with 'his dream' of course.


Rafael is one step forward, one step back. Brilliant at Blackburn, seeming to cut out the rashness (but still a member of that boy band, the Rashalettes), and then a nightmare at Everton as if he were a kid at primary school who didn't know how to defend (just boot the ball into row Z), and though youth on his side, his progression isn't as brilliant as we'd like and Utd need. You can't say for certain he'll be automatic right back next season, an Anderson-esque that you know something is there but why does it go into hiding? Against Bayern and now Everton he's made costly errors on massive occasions, that is the price you pay for having young kids not making these mistakes in just the League Cup, but in chases for trophies, and I am not as certain as most that he'll make it. One good game in two is not good enough for Manchester United, even at the age of 21, and I still have reservations over the pubic twins. Because Fabio is even less certain, the one thing they do have in common is both struggling to last 90 minutes as if going off injured at some stage is hereditary, it comical in the same game earlier this season. A loan may do him good, but both were over hyped as our full backs for a generation, and neither, still, gives me such hopes on an individual or collective level. I don't care that they are going to miss each other when separated this summer, they need to strengthen up mentally and physically. Quite mad to think that Fabio was felt good enough for the Barcelona Final a year ago, but next season, what? A loan at Norwich?


State the bleeding obvious statement arrival time. Any Utd team from any season would miss Nemanja. His six league games provided 5 wins, 4 clean sheets and only two goals conceded. The 20 clean sheets as a whole show when the defence had an off day, it was a FUCKING off day. Since his injury, we've let in over 3 goals on seven or more occasions, almost unheard of for any United side. Jonny Evans and Rio thankfully recreated something of a partnership that came together as best they could, it worked well for long periods but something about the whole defence for the nightmare games suggested there's something not quite right there. They do not fight as a unit. I have said before that Rio was entering that last phase of a career where he could be considered a liability, at that uncertain point when you don't know when he's going to cross 'that' line (as John Terry already has!), but Rio made me eat those words, but that doesn't mean he'll continue doing so, and with a bad back that you recoil whenever he looks twitchy, and Fergie being quite blunt - and getting a response in return - by admitting that he could no longer use his pace for his game, we can't rely on him anymore. If Rio wasn't a United player, nobody would be really surprised that he's not playing for England. There's only so much left in the tank, especially after a season when he's had to go out when injured because he had to, what toll will that take? He may keep this run going, but we have to assume the future is Vidic and A.n.other. And then plan for Vidic reaching 'that' line.


It's whether Evans can maintain that level, or whether he was merely playing out of his skin and comfort zone because he was in last chance saloon. But I've been impressed. Not quite as much as Fergie though: "He is now arguably the best defender in the country." No, I don't think so. But for those who are too easy to moan and groan at games, does it serve a purpose? Fans went for Evans, but it did not do any good, it didn't help him. Look what Evans said of that criticism: "Sometimes you can feel the crowd are getting on your back. In the end it was a case of 'stuff it, what have I got to lose'" How many had written him off? Will you give the next lad a chance? Save your moaning away from games. Like here, for example!


I still think Smalling is the most naturally gifted defender behind Vidic and don't think he had as many bad games at the back as the others, but injury and circumstances prevented more games in the finale. Whereas Phil Jones was unfortunate in that our early season start coincided with the ejaculation of some Reds as they labelled him the next Big Dunc. It's all just idle pub chat, unless the player starts to believe the hype and when the Guardian started asking him how it all felt, the comparisons became a problem, it's bound to affect a kid, go to his head. Add to the fact he was moved around more than Michael Gordon Peterson at Her Majesty's and he was unable to find his feet by the season end. Sad that some Reds who'd over-hyped him started talking of a loan move to help him when he needs no such thing. It's his first season after being at Blackburn, he's learning about the game as much as himself and United, so I do hope SAF doesn't go tinkerbell mad with him - Mike Duxbury like which didn't help him over a career - so that he has no idea like us where his best position actually is (though he himself says centre-back) when a run somewhere - anywehere! - will be better for him, and us, to see. Players aren't stupid either, despite all our jokes, they do see what we see. Jones knows he dipped: "I need to hold down a regular place in a regular position."


How Patrice Evra gets away with his inconsistencies these last 18 months I do not know, if it were any other player, especially one who United fans like to scapegoat (Carrick, Berbatov), you'd imagine the torches would have been bulked purchased from B&Q to begin the witch-hunt but however much we like the man, and what he says (though a bit too often for my liking nowadays, especially when we've lost), all that matters is what he does on the pitch. Still good and positive going forward, that's not actually the tilt to what he's paid to do; defending is, and at that he's looked average at best, laxidasical tracking back, some bizarre hand motions when trying to stop a cross and time and time again not just targetted by opponents, but successfully exploited by them. I didn't despair at Fabio going out on loan - makes sense - but I did when I heard Fergie say it was due to Evra's consistently good form - you what? "It would have been difficult for anyone as second choice because Patrice Evra has been such a consistent performer over the last five years. " Having no real challenge can also aid whatever complacency or whatever it is that has happened to Evra (one of our own POTY remember a few years back) and if burnt out, what good having no back-up?


So you hope we have a Plan B, like a Leighton Baines back up idea; as United should not just be about having two world class players vying for every position (I know, dream on), but certainly having one who, for now at least, is living on past glories. And as club captain after the Bilbao defeat whilst saying this: "They have the right spirit, better than us. That's why they won." should perhaps be going round each and every player under him and asking why our spirit was lacking. He certainly talks better than he plays at the moment. Before city: "If you play for Manchester United, if you’re a leader or a captain, it’s to play in a match like this. You have to accept your responsibility." Did you Paddy? Really? The end of season DVD will confirm just how many goals have been scored against us exploiting his side. Roy Keane also noticed this: "I’ve got my doubts about Evra. He’s been captain since Nemanja Vidic was injured but he needs to stand up and be counted in big games. One or two players were going past him too easily against City and he has to get the players around him playing more than they do." The #askevra hashtag created by a Utd staffer after the Derby for a Q&A and the responses to it from Reds shows how many have lost patience; for admiration for a person does not cloud the fact that Utd carry nobody. 'TRACK BACK ,TRACK BACK', I feel like shouting every match in Alan Partridge like tones at him ('Dan, Dan'). Oh, and he's still waiting for a fucking apology, Suarez.


If Anderson, as Fergie seemed to suggest at the end of the season, is here next season to once again iron out his patches of form because 'we know he has the ability', it will drain me of blood much like baby seal slaughtering; ignoring the fact that he'd have then been at OT longer than say Eric, whilst we know he has something, the question has always been what exactly? Early season we see the odd good game, but it's never enough, and then he gets injured. It's not a particularly pleasant beat of rhythm I have patience to repeat - let alone him partying back in Brazil which is as daft an idea to send him back to rehab for as trying it on poor old Amy - and persisting with him sums up the malaise in our entire midfield. He's young, yes, right, so is Justin Bieber, what does that matter, it's what they actually do with any talent, and for that amount of money, around the same time we could have got Yaya Toure, which makes me squeal louder than a seal in fact. Whilst he and Tom Cleverley looked to have something when partnered together, sadly again because of injury and then Scholes' return, it was more about TC23's engine off the pitch (his marketing) than on it that we'll remember for now. Tweets like he was the second coming were a bit of a grate, a hairstyle more Take That than take that Scousers, but we know there's something there, and not in a 'neverneverland' way like Anderson. He needs to chill it off the pitch and just get his head down so next season doesn't pass him by on it.


Ji Sung Park had as little an impact as a North Korean missile, and whilst I appreciate his land is more south, that's where his United career seems to be heading as his use as an impact player began to be reduced as the success of Rooney and Welbeck meant his chance as coming in as a 5th player in the midfield rescinded. I appreciate his workload and all that - tries his heart out - and has done well at places like Arsenal in important games but I still don't get him really; effort over essence and whilst there's no harm having him in the squad, I doubt he'd see himself as some 'fluffer' role at United only used sparingly when the bigger names need a rest. Again, if offloading him and Anderson bought in more able additions, go for it, but he sells shedloads of credit cards so despite the denials from dear old Comfortable that that is what his role now is, no chance he'll go, that is unless we replace him with Kagawa and a new credit card starts to print. But lay off the abuse blaming him for the city game, that was Fergie's bizarre choice, and the first game in ages was never going to produce a Park spark; though just why he fell on his arse so many times when actually doing nothing baffles.


Maybe Paul Scholes needed a rest and re-charge, maybe he just maintained a level that hammered home how poor the alternatives were but his return wasn't just a poke in the eye fill-up for the Cup game when we were feeling low, it actually became almost essential to our chances so a signing none of us ever re-considered, apart form him and Fergie, became so telling to what he has and what the rest haven't that when it naturally become a question of when to rest him - and just getting it right as to where - at 37 years of age, his absence provoked that costly bum rattling defeat at Wigan. It was a joy to see him slot back in; the goals, the passes, what we haven't got or had. But also sad in that it should have left some of the others ruefully averting their eyes, shuffling at their feet, at what his return said about them. And how long can he carry it on for? We talked all last summer of not being able to replace Paul Scholes, so fair enough, whilst still admonishing the money men, we did the next best thing, getting him back. But there's only so long that enjoyably smokes and mirrors trick can last, shame as it is as we wish it would last forever. He's just class. As Giggs said this week - he just has more time on the ball than anyone else. He finds the time.


Certainly Michael Carrick did improve. He doesn't quite split fans as much as Berbatov anymore, quite possibly because those that don't get him keep their counsel as they know he's both been good, and there's no other alternative, but I wouldn't quite go as overboard as some with all this Xarrick nonsense. His passing ratio is good, as it should be when they are as short as many are made, and whilst I'll never understand why it takes so long to get him going each season as if he's some cherished old sports car needing attention before it hits the ground running, he did do what he does well; consistently reach a level good enough, but not great enough for many, myself included. I still want him to grab games by the scruff of the neck, impose himself more, do a QPR away which almost seemed un-Carrick like in its execution and belief, but after this long we have to accept that it's not him, to ask that which is not possible makes no sense. Something his detractors might well notice; we play well in long bursts and runs usually when he is playing, and playing well. Good, but not great, in fact what any United player here for as long as he has been should reach as a bear minimum, not overflowing gushing praise because he's done his job at a big club and that's what he is here to do but certainly worthy of more praise than poison. But I want more, it almost annoys me because it clouds what he's given. But there you go, that's his enigma I suppose.


Nani was yet another one cursed by injury, and looked better come the end of the season, but not enough wow moments and a revert back to irritating 'pass the ball' curses. He is more of a team player nowadays, but whilst he can go around saying 'please don't compare me with Cristiano' in a manner which is beaming 'no, go on, please do', there are none to be made, which is why none of the big boys have asked him about his own dreams. Now is his time to make the leaps that Ronnie did, for we need more than by his own admittance that: "Sometimes I play a nice game, sometimes I play not such a fantastic game, but I think everyone knows me and what I can do." We know there are displays like Arsenal away last season in his lock up, too often like at city he shows no real progress from 2/3 years ago - are you worth your own hype? Not often enough - and even he admits it. Must do better, especially after doing so well last season. But only ever patches, like a quilt that needs a good whack after washing.


Whilst we were crying out for a midfielder so that some balked at the signing of Ashley Young ('not another winger'), I saw it as no bad thing, again creating real challenge for positions, the shame that we didn't also add to the middle. Young is a strange one, he started well, drifted towards many thinking 'that's an Aston Villa player not a United one we've got there', but a knack, with us and England, to score even when he's been shite. He is an impact player and that's no bad thing, he's just there, that knack, at the centre of things, but Spurs away showed something more, it's just how far he can progress that I maybe have doubts about. The diving needs to be binned but I sense more negativity towards him than there should be, give him a chance and all that and he's not had the worst of first seasons; what did people expect?


Darren Fletcher sadly seems the one player behind Vidic who we quietly missed, who wasn't great in terms of natural ability, but could be great on occasions for us, and the potential to do great things when needed, and we missed that, even though some people devalued his contribution by thinking we didn't or failed to give him much mention once 'we knew'. Influence or drive is what he gave the side, and the cynic wants you to ask why we gave him a new deal and blustered about his condition when it was well known his career was in doubt a while back, but no time for churlishness, you hope he can just keep control and ahead of his condition to live a normal life, coming back as a player, and certainly to former levels, not even worth talking about right now.


People forget how long a pesky achilles injury can take to recover form - hell, Neil Webb never even did - so Antonio Valencia took a while to get his mojo back, especially when (without complaint) he had to put up with all that shit filling in at right-back, but when he did get it back; fucking hell, who gives a fuck about his other foot when he can do that with one! A constant menace, he's actually one of the only players in the United side right now who gets you up off your arse in excitement when he has the ball, and the Blackburn goal (and even a smile) showed his form has probably bolstered a lacking self confidence to believe he actually has the making of any full-back he wants to beat if he wants. Because he does have them, so do it more. Lowkey in personality, high in assists, I bloody love him, as you suspect Rooney does, and whilst binning Rafael for city after Everton made sense, with so few players going into such a crucial game in form, playing Valencia, in the form of his life, in a fixture we had to get a result in, didn't just make perfect sense but the only sense. Instead Valencia was on the bench. He was the players' player of the year; you wonder if anyone of them saw the teamsheet at the Boo Camp and asked why our best player at the time wasn't selected? It still makes no sense.


So from the perfect pro. to Paul Pogba. If he's as good as his agent and he think he is, we've got the next Zidane, Pele and Maradona let alone Vieira! And we're just about to lose him. You'd have hoped he'd have got more chances, but then he started acting the cock so I stopped giving a shit until it's sorted one way or the next. I don't mind players wanting what they think their worth, but when he (and Rooney) do it during the season it pisses me off. Ravel got the boot for the same so there must be something (and of course without all the shite that went off the pitch with Morrison, many of which still hasn't come out) in Pogba that Fergie wants to persist in if he did actually stay, when usually he'd show him the door outright. For certain if he chooses Juve this summer over us he'll regret it; not least because Turin is a shit hole and no youngster is half as good as they think they are; that's the problem, from Van Persie to Ronaldo, it takes years to nurture into the finished article, and then they still can leave, which is why United's young ethos is always admirable, but buying players at the dreaded Gill banned age of 27 when they are ready made there makes as perfect sense as the financial cheaper ones the owners want to set as a cast iron policy which might not work, or leave when they finally do reach their very own perch.


Good but not great was how I described Rooney. Great that he can now be like that though, whereas before his inconsistencies would see large groupings of games with no goals, now he'll play badly and still score one or two. I don't quite agree with Fergie saying: "When the game gets to that casual bit, he's worse than the rest of them. He gets really casual." but he does drift in terms of space on the pitch, in terms of during a game and then on the pitch as he tries to chase the ball and involve himself in the action when we need him up front, simply put at the end of a move (and why he take corners?). But any criticism of him - wanting world class rather than Premiership class - is offset that however angry I still feel about his cow and fields strop that Autumn, he did have a point, thus now proven.


Whilst his wages gave way to bigger expectation of what he should produce, he's still, on the whole, been surrounded by less ability and ambition which must get on his tits. He's still young, that's crucial, especially when he himself plays down performing to these heights in his 30s, but we're running out of time to see a real Ronnie like win games every single week single handed as by his own level of ambition as well as what he asked of the club to match his, meant that's pretty much what we should be seeing - a player who can win games on his own. By the end of the season we got more stroppy arm actions frustrated at others, Ruud like, and whilst partly understandable considering the lack of feeding him, and he having to hunt the ball so deep makes no sense, he should be worrying as much about his own efforts as those around him.


Maybe I'm looking too closely when I think or see he's fed up, but that strange subbing at Wigan suggests that something is still 'there' deep down between he and Fergie, or certainly the latter in what he had done to him, needing all his reserves to win that battle, with one of his own, and it's bound to still stew even subconsciously. Nothing would surprise me with Rooney; where he'd end up, or what he could still achieve at United. But when you're criticising a player with 20 goals in 20 odd games you know he's nearing the world class level you so want to see all the time. A positive enigma rolled into a player in goal return that keeps improving, if not in actual week in-week out performances.


Dimitar Berbatov on the other hand is a paradox in an entirely different realm/universe. We've seen this way its ended all before of course; for bigger heroes like Ruud, Beckham even. But once the slight of not even being on the bench for Wembley last summer had sunk in, what point was there for either side to carry on this sorry last dance knowing we were going to separate ways at the end of it, no grand last tango, instead this season being a request for the Birdie Dance. He deserved after helping us to 19 to play more, elsewhere if needs be, but Fergie had run out of patience as many Utd fans had, not with his ability, but for crunch time, say those chances against city in the Semi Finals, where you don't get a second chance to linger. But we owed him better than this, as if Fergie was almost teaching him a lesson, so unforgiving that anyone would get on the bench ahead of him. It became an Unrequited love story, he had the few with him outweighed by the many who didn't get him, seeing only work rate and end product ahead of his gifts, but those who took him on face value game by game still saw too many lapses to give hope that he could change. He needed to, to win the majority and Fergie over, his game a gift but not enough, it was alright at Spurs, this level, but this was no Eric, it wasn't all worthwhile because of the gifts and goals, it's not that we've moved on, simply Eric always involved himself in a game, with good or bad results. Whereas Berbatov in his last home league appearance was criticised for slowly plodding back from play, you wondered what exactly went wrong; should it never have been, did we expect too much, did we ask too much or he not bothered to give enough?


Who knows, some loved him, some didn't, right from the off almost and it should be more productive than that, taking him on face value rather than taking sides… but it certainly needn't have ended like this, off to Coventry like all the others, never properly forgiven until a handshake and real story comes out, in 5-10 years time. His run of goals at Christmas showed that someone will get a belter of a player; but United is more than just ability alone, sad as that may seem to the few believers, this story from Danny Taylor in the Guardian sort of summed it up: "In a game last year, one of Berbatov's team-mates took issue with him for not running hard enough. Berbatov pointed out that was the way he played and he didn't need to go faster. "You do at this club," came the reply, expletives removed."


‘Ill hold my hands up and admit I didn't think Welbeck had it in him to be as good as he's shown. And he will get better. Still too gangly at times, and cumbersome with his Bambi legs going this way and that, that will be ironed out with age but the loan to Sunderland clearly worked, the self confidence in abundance started to graft a player to go with it and this year that loan has benefited us. And he's still only 21. He's developing all the time, so be patient you fickle fuckers out there in the stands and give him a chance, local lad not withstanding, there's something exciting he has. For now it won't come off every game, but if you can turn your blinkers off for Evra, persist with Welbeck as I think he really has it in him for some future. And we need more of this mentality and produce: "Playing on the streets in Manchester you would do things in the little games and think, “I’ll do this at Old Trafford”. Now it’s finally happening - it’s the stuff that dreams are made of". I think he could be really something special.


Whilst Michael Owen just lives in the past. As one RN reader put it: 'what a waste of a dressing room peg'. With yet another injury, he showed an almost miracle like ability to actually gain another (groin) injury when already out, and whilst he'd pop up from time to time, back from the dead if you like, in between seemingly wanking off horses, to say he'd dreamed he had an important goal still to be scored this season, probably is right as it could only happen now in his head. We knew this was the gamble, but that goal withstanding, I don't think it has actually worked. We'll celebrate anyone scoring in a game like that, against them, and yes there were a couple of others but overall it's been slightly embarrassing that a club like United took on such a gamble to reduce the wage bill and maintain a false wall of 'everything is ok and still respectable, look we've signed a once world classs has-been'. I never liked him, took to him, he's not one of us, he played for them and that should have been that. 'You'll eat your words' I was told. Hardly, it took some doing to out injure Owen Hargreaves and even under the Gimps there's no way they'll extend this contract as otherwise they may as well give it to you or I for all the playing time they'd get from it. Then we can just try and forget about it. He'll talk of '98, and every once in a while we'll talk of 4-3, and that would have been that, from him and us. Wish it never happened, of course loved that goal, but as pointless a relationship as many of us told you it would be; and possibly stopping a 4th striker who may well have scored more 'vital' goals this season. Even Fergie seemed to finally run out of patience in April: "As we know when he gets an injury it's never an easy one". Understatement.


I'm not quite so sure if Javier Hernandez's dip is down to 'second season syndrome', too easy a tag to plant on someone. A cliche if you may. You never hear of 'third season syndrome'. He certainly provided some crucial point winning goals during the season, tipped at the start, but did that head injury do more damage than mere bruising and scans alone, especially after an equally significant injury back in Mexico? I don't quite think there's something we don't know about what's been going on but maybe a dent to head, pride and confidence, together with trying to cope with the endless rotation of partners for Rooney, then Welbeck's form made it hard for him to find his own rhythm. His clinical goalscoring technique has actually improved, think headers, that blast at Wolves, but his first touch needs a lot of work and he has struggled with the ball pinged at him when we're moving as a counter attacking unit, fast. He's young, he'll grow, at what speed to become the next Rooney, or not, we will find out. Of more worry is him accounting for 50% of all our offsides, something that must get sorted if our ploy is to feed the ball to him on the break. He needs a rest this summer. Thankfully he's getting it.


Which just leaves shagging/playing/trophy winning when he wants, Giggsy. Certainly he regained that irritating tendency to start the season well and decline for its finale that he possessed a decade or so ago but that in itself when you're looking at patterns over 20 years tells its own story of how we view Giggsy as a talisman and the expectancy that goes with it. His goal at Norwich could have been a turning point, and whilst he has been patchy, I doubt the team see that, or feel the same as they look to him as much or more so than Scholes as the 'go to man'. For that alone, all he's done, what he represents, what he offers, how others perceive him, he has that almost unique ability to have a free hall pass at United to do what he wants. Not to advocate for anyone else, he deserves his almost habitual extension not so much for what he still has to offer, but what he has. Sam Pilger in his enjoyable Best XI Manchester United talks of Giggs finding medals all over his house in a clear out in 2010: “I had no idea they were there in the back of drawers, I had forgotten about them." Pilger writes of the 24 winning medal man: 'While the Chelsea and England captain John Terry built an entire annex to his house to display his medals, including mannequins behind glass dressed in his old shirts, Giggs has never had any interest in creating such a shrine to himself, and instead donates most of his medals to be displayed at the Old Trafford museum.' That he is our talisman and Terry theirs is telling on field as much as what they represent and what each club is off it, and whilst his twilight renaissance somewhat stalled this season after a good run of seasons - and 900+ games! - you put nothing past what may come next for a player who is still not revered as much as he should be by all United fans.


When we learnt Vidic was out for the season, we all felt like Fergie: "I must admit my heart sank a little when I learned just how long Nemanja Vidic was going to be out." That we managed to cope with not only that, but all the injuries, plus city's spending and owners whilst we are restricted with ours, is incredible even if the football wasn't. We always strive for better and I suppose it's a good thing that we know there is so much more room for improvement. It is both proud inducing for what United's loyalty represents, and scary (as well as spelling out this 'no value' era) that we relied on a 37 and 38 year old as the go-to's in our biggest game at the Boo Camp. That can't go on; it won't. They won't. Key though is that whilst many can improve, others might not, so whilst we got away, again with 'no value' ringing in our ears as Gill plots an 'interesting summer' (which I suspect translated in bean counter talk as 'quite dull'), it's accepting that maybe, yes, this was one of transition but don't stop there, squad fine tuning is all well and good, but improving it is more crucial this summer than it was last. And that midfield issue has to be dealt with. Otherwise we'll all go bloody mad.


Phil Jones asked last week of himself: "There is definitely a bit of personal intimidation. You always raise the question to yourself. Am I good enough to be here?" - but perhaps it's better to aim it to the squad as a whole Phil. Many are, some aren't, and some may or may not be - but not many lived up to their billing and it isn't a question of 'they can do better'; they simply, must do better. The Words of the RN Ed also ring true, as he praised Fergie for working his magic with pebbles, instead of granite. It's now time for a few diamonds. Or we'll have to start getting used to this feeling of the past few days.


Enjoy the summer. Here's to some value.


Pete Shaw. 2012. Red News


You can read the forthright Pete Shaw every Red News mag, order a printed sub or digital pdf sub at http://www.rednews.co.uk/subscription.php ]]> RN Free MUFC Discussion Forum Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119579-Pete-Shaw-gives-his-MUFC-Players-End-of-Season-Report-you-ll-disagree-or-maybe-agree http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119578-34-Pete-Shaw-writing-for-Red-News-Online-gives-his-MUFC-Players-End-of-Season-Report&goto=newpost Wed, 16 May 2012 18:13:58 GMT You can read the forthright Pete Shaw every Red News in the printed mag. Order a printed sub or digital pdf sub at... You can read the forthright Pete Shaw every Red News in the printed mag. Order a printed sub or digital pdf sub at http://www.rednews.co.uk/subscription.php - we’re different and so is he!


It is strange that a season contested over 38 games should be drawn towards seconds - the 420 that United failed to defend a lead at home to Everton, the 300 that turned the title on its head in the Manchester City-QPR Game.


It was that kind of season; surreal. And a bit of a head fuck.


So that you look towards specific moments - when it was won, lost, celebrated, expected, resigned and then clutched from an unusual grasp - but it is across the season that defines the team and its individuals. And whilst it is mad, a few days on, to think that 89 points was not enough, equally many Manchester United supporters though spoilt expecting too much success on any occasion, are not without their rights to argue that though the points total should have been enough, certainly in any other season, the actual type of football we played, and saw, much of the time, was not enough.


We demand better then, not to eye more points, or wins, but just, better football. That may seem mad, and spoilt, after just querying a table that loses us a league not by seconds, as such, but by eight goals - a four goal turnaround in one Derby ffs, but the unit out performed itself, its members did not on a one by one basis. That is the story of our season. Whilst we annoyingly scratch heads at 'what ifs' - if Evra's header had gone in instead of against a post at 4-2 up against Everton we'd be Champions now, but that does us no good, life is shitty 'ifs' - if I was shagging Kelly Brook right now, I wouldn't be writing this, would I?


So how did each player, perform then?


Well, whilst Robin Van Persie collected personal accolades and awards which were out of reach for his actual team, it's strange that the man in our kit just behind him in the scoring stakes wasn't a shoe in for his own MUFC Player of the season. 27 league goals and he was nowhere near.


In fact the RN readers' poll (http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showt...Season-2011-12) is led by a player - however gifted, and great the gamble paid off - who only played half the season he's winning it for as a whole, not damning praise upon his little gifted Ginger freckled shoulders, but possibly for those around him.


It says much about Rooney's performances - good, but not regularly great - and our team itself that there has been no stand out performer. Antonio Valencia finished the season well, but did not start it in that vein, via injury and pushed out of position. The votes cast online by RN readers for POTS telling; Scholes ahead, however satisfying that return, yet still only back for half a season, and it the grit and dime players up there rather than the creative sparks who usually walk it, who won the votes this time.


We knew this season was one of 'transition', it became almost a motto for the team when we were chasing in the title race as if to justify our position, or excuse the poorer times, and though you can't ignore the incredible run of bad luck with injuries (now such a recurring theme each season, no wonder Fergie keeps praising the fitness and physio staff, or should that be questioning them!) so that all things considered, with the Polo Mint hole in our midfield barely covered by the tarpaulin of Carrick's resurgence and Scholes' saving of the day, we did as well as we could have what with the young additions. It the failure to sort the issue that has been an issue for so long now, it's almost ignored as an issue. Experience was needed last summer. It did not come. We waited for Godot and paid for it. The midfield banshee screams, Medusa like, its glare and impact on our team will not go away until we sort it. Few are the Florida voices who hear it. Or want to.


However good Jonny Evans has been, and as much credit for coming back from the brink of really shite performances the season before last (though he improved near its finale last Spring, showing what we'd see this season) to the consistency we see now, that he was a real contender for the main prize says much too. Was he really that good? I mean, top quality good that United should be? The team did perhaps as well as they could, many individuals did not, Evans not one of them but he and they have much left to give, and whilst that is pleasing that they nearly all have more left in the tank, it has you head scratching as to when exactly they will show this, many now here for several seasons and can't just keep being tagged as 'ones for the future'; when will they actually deliver? Also, you can't keep hoping that Sir Alex will get more out of the collective than the individuals are actually giving him back because that over reliance on his skills could bite us. The failure this season might heighten awareness once again to what is needed - its silence never uttered within Old Trafford not hiding the leon bright light each game shining on our midfield for a Modric, or whoever - because not winning the league this season will not paper over the cracks what triumph might have - 'all is good with what we have and the world as there's no frigging value anyway', etc - a line that has reached its end point.


David De Gea arrived under a dodgy bit of white linen to have his medical. It didn't stop the world and his dog seeing that it was him about to sign, and at times over Christmas, his defences looked as shaky as that holding his linen, but thankfully, as the season wore on, the only sheets we remembered were clean ones. We kept 20 this season, the most by any team, and quite a record. The title was lost in the games we let in too many goals. We always knew DDG had it, we just worried if it was too soon for him, too much expectation. Certainly Fergie made an error thinking that keeping both him and Anders happy (an able deputy and no bad thing to have his supreme self confidence thinking he's much better than that, only when he gets the hump as a bit part player will that become a problem when he realises for much of the time at United he really is just here to 'pick his nose') with rotation, rotation, rotation made sense, when a keeper under the microscope right from the off, just needed a run, and the confidence that brings. To deny DDG his run, cost him confidence.


The press went for DDG after his first league game, at West Brom, one tabloid with a headline: 'Error-prone Manchester United keeper'. What the fuck!. As Peter Schmeichel said: "I think he had unfair deal with the media, they thought 'finally we have a decision that Sir Alex has made, that we can have a dig at him', it was more them trying to have a dig at Sir Alex, but the thing is I knew he could play at the highest level, but even before that 1st game the press said he's not very good, but he's 20 years of age, that's bound to get to you, nerves come in, I think Sir Alex rested De Gea a little bit too much which didn't do him any favours because the other one came in, and that was more fuel on the press fire. He's now had a consistent run and he's proving himself capable of the job." I did wobble about him a bit around the time of the Blackburn game, and he still needs to bulk up and command himself from crosses - but that seems his only real weakness or concern and the key is whether a keeper not only saves you points but help wins them, From Chelsea onwards he did that. In a new league, language and culture (where it's not acceptable to have such bum fluff, so get that sorted), and at 21, he's done brilliant all things considered. He's the least of our worries, if you accept this is a 10 year plan where mistakes early days may happen, but the rewards over that decade will far outweigh the negatives for a goalie who could be a world best, until Barca or Madrid start tempting him with 'his dream' of course.


Rafael is one step forward, one step back. Brilliant at Blackburn, seeming to cut out the rashness (but still a member of that boy band, the Rashalettes), and then a nightmare at Everton as if he were a kid at primary school who didn't know how to defend (just boot the ball into row Z), and though youth on his side, his progression isn't as brilliant as we'd like and Utd need. You can't say for certain he'll be automatic right back next season, an Anderson-esque that you know something is there but why does it go into hiding? Against Bayern and now Everton he's made costly errors on massive occasions, that is the price you pay for having young kids not making these mistakes in just the League Cup, but in chases for trophies, and I am not as certain as most that he'll make it. One good game in two is not good enough for Manchester United, even at the age of 21, and I still have reservations over the pubic twins. Because Fabio is even less certain, the one thing they do have in common is both struggling to last 90 minutes as if going off injured at some stage is hereditary, it comical in the same game earlier this season. A loan may do him good, but both were over hyped as our full backs for a generation, and neither, still, gives me such hopes on an individual or collective level. I don't care that they are going to miss each other when separated this summer, they need to strengthen up mentally and physically. Quite mad to think that Fabio was felt good enough for the Barcelona Final a year ago, but next season, what? A loan at Norwich?


State the bleeding obvious statement arrival time. Any Utd team from any season would miss Nemanja. His six league games provided 5 wins, 4 clean sheets and only two goals conceded. The 20 clean sheets as a whole show when the defence had an off day, it was a FUCKING off day. Since his injury, we've let in over 3 goals on seven or more occasions, almost unheard of for any United side. Jonny Evans and Rio thankfully recreated something of a partnership that came together as best they could, it worked well for long periods but something about the whole defence for the nightmare games suggested there's something not quite right there. They do not fight as a unit. I have said before that Rio was entering that last phase of a career where he could be considered a liability, at that uncertain point when you don't know when he's going to cross 'that' line (as John Terry already has!), but Rio made me eat those words, but that doesn't mean he'll continue doing so, and with a bad back that you recoil whenever he looks twitchy, and Fergie being quite blunt - and getting a response in return - by admitting that he could no longer use his pace for his game, we can't rely on him anymore. If Rio wasn't a United player, nobody would be really surprised that he's not playing for England. There's only so much left in the tank, especially after a season when he's had to go out when injured because he had to, what toll will that take? He may keep this run going, but we have to assume the future is Vidic and A.n.other. And then plan for Vidic reaching 'that' line.


It's whether Evans can maintain that level, or whether he was merely playing out of his skin and comfort zone because he was in last chance saloon. But I've been impressed. Not quite as much as Fergie though: "He is now arguably the best defender in the country." No, I don't think so. But for those who are too easy to moan and groan at games, does it serve a purpose? Fans went for Evans, but it did not do any good, it didn't help him. Look what Evans said of that criticism: "Sometimes you can feel the crowd are getting on your back. In the end it was a case of 'stuff it, what have I got to lose'" How many had written him off? Will you give the next lad a chance? Save your moaning away from games. Like here, for example!


I still think Smalling is the most naturally gifted defender behind Vidic and don't think he had as many bad games at the back as the others, but injury and circumstances prevented more games in the finale. Whereas Phil Jones was unfortunate in that our early season start coincided with the ejaculation of some Reds as they labelled him the next Big Dunc. It's all just idle pub chat, unless the player starts to believe the hype and when the Guardian started asking him how it all felt, the comparisons became a problem, it's bound to affect a kid, go to his head. Add to the fact he was moved around more than Michael Gordon Peterson at Her Majesty's and he was unable to find his feet by the season end. Sad that some Reds who'd over-hyped him started talking of a loan move to help him when he needs no such thing. It's his first season after being at Blackburn, he's learning about the game as much as himself and United, so I do hope SAF doesn't go tinkerbell mad with him - Mike Duxbury like which didn't help him over a career - so that he has no idea like us where his best position actually is (though he himself says centre-back) when a run somewhere - anywehere! - will be better for him, and us, to see. Players aren't stupid either, despite all our jokes, they do see what we see. Jones knows he dipped: "I need to hold down a regular place in a regular position."


How Patrice Evra gets away with his inconsistencies these last 18 months I do not know, if it were any other player, especially one who United fans like to scapegoat (Carrick, Berbatov), you'd imagine the torches would have been bulked purchased from B&Q to begin the witch-hunt but however much we like the man, and what he says (though a bit too often for my liking nowadays, especially when we've lost), all that matters is what he does on the pitch. Still good and positive going forward, that's not actually the tilt to what he's paid to do; defending is, and at that he's looked average at best, laxidasical tracking back, some bizarre hand motions when trying to stop a cross and time and time again not just targetted by opponents, but successfully exploited by them. I didn't despair at Fabio going out on loan - makes sense - but I did when I heard Fergie say it was due to Evra's consistently good form - you what? "It would have been difficult for anyone as second choice because Patrice Evra has been such a consistent performer over the last five years. " Having no real challenge can also aid whatever complacency or whatever it is that has happened to Evra (one of our own POTY remember a few years back) and if burnt out, what good having no back-up?


So you hope we have a Plan B, like a Leighton Baines back up idea; as United should not just be about having two world class players vying for every position (I know, dream on), but certainly having one who, for now at least, is living on past glories. And as club captain after the Bilbao defeat whilst saying this: "They have the right spirit, better than us. That's why they won." should perhaps be going round each and every player under him and asking why our spirit was lacking. He certainly talks better than he plays at the moment. Before city: "If you play for Manchester United, if you’re a leader or a captain, it’s to play in a match like this. You have to accept your responsibility." Did you Paddy? Really? The end of season DVD will confirm just how many goals have been scored against us exploiting his side. Roy Keane also noticed this: "I’ve got my doubts about Evra. He’s been captain since Nemanja Vidic was injured but he needs to stand up and be counted in big games. One or two players were going past him too easily against City and he has to get the players around him playing more than they do." The #askevra hashtag created by a Utd staffer after the Derby for a Q&A and the responses to it from Reds shows how many have lost patience; for admiration for a person does not cloud the fact that Utd carry nobody. 'TRACK BACK ,TRACK BACK', I feel like shouting every match in Alan Partridge like tones at him ('Dan, Dan'). Oh, and he's still waiting for a fucking apology, Suarez.


If Anderson, as Fergie seemed to suggest at the end of the season, is here next season to once again iron out his patches of form because 'we know he has the ability', it will drain me of blood much like baby seal slaughtering; ignoring the fact that he'd have then been at OT longer than say Eric, whilst we know he has something, the question has always been what exactly? Early season we see the odd good game, but it's never enough, and then he gets injured. It's not a particularly pleasant beat of rhythm I have patience to repeat - let alone him partying back in Brazil which is as daft an idea to send him back to rehab for as trying it on poor old Amy - and persisting with him sums up the malaise in our entire midfield. He's young, yes, right, so is Justin Bieber, what does that matter, it's what they actually do with any talent, and for that amount of money, around the same time we could have got Yaya Toure, which makes me squeal louder than a seal in fact. Whilst he and Tom Cleverley looked to have something when partnered together, sadly again because of injury and then Scholes' return, it was more about TC23's engine off the pitch (his marketing) than on it that we'll remember for now. Tweets like he was the second coming were a bit of a grate, a hairstyle more Take That than take that Scousers, but we know there's something there, and not in a 'neverneverland' way like Anderson. He needs to chill it off the pitch and just get his head down so next season doesn't pass him by on it.


Ji Sung Park had as little an impact as a North Korean missile, and whilst I appreciate his land is more south, that's where his United career seems to be heading as his use as an impact player began to be reduced as the success of Rooney and Welbeck meant his chance as coming in as a 5th player in the midfield rescinded. I appreciate his workload and all that - tries his heart out - and has done well at places like Arsenal in important games but I still don't get him really; effort over essence and whilst there's no harm having him in the squad, I doubt he'd see himself as some 'fluffer' role at United only used sparingly when the bigger names need a rest. Again, if offloading him and Anderson bought in more able additions, go for it, but he sells shedloads of credit cards so despite the denials from dear old Comfortable that that is what his role now is, no chance he'll go, that is unless we replace him with Kagawa and a new credit card starts to print. But lay off the abuse blaming him for the city game, that was Fergie's bizarre choice, and the first game in ages was never going to produce a Park spark; though just why he fell on his arse so many times when actually doing nothing baffles.


Maybe Paul Scholes needed a rest and re-charge, maybe he just maintained a level that hammered home how poor the alternatives were but his return wasn't just a poke in the eye fill-up for the Cup game when we were feeling low, it actually became almost essential to our chances so a signing none of us ever re-considered, apart form him and Fergie, became so telling to what he has and what the rest haven't that when it naturally become a question of when to rest him - and just getting it right as to where - at 37 years of age, his absence provoked that costly bum rattling defeat at Wigan. It was a joy to see him slot back in; the goals, the passes, what we haven't got or had. But also sad in that it should have left some of the others ruefully averting their eyes, shuffling at their feet, at what his return said about them. And how long can he carry it on for? We talked all last summer of not being able to replace Paul Scholes, so fair enough, whilst still admonishing the money men, we did the next best thing, getting him back. But there's only so long that enjoyably smokes and mirrors trick can last, shame as it is as we wish it would last forever. He's just class. As Giggs said this week - he just has more time on the ball than anyone else. He finds the time.


Certainly Michael Carrick did improve. He doesn't quite split fans as much as Berbatov anymore, quite possibly because those that don't get him keep their counsel as they know he's both been good, and there's no other alternative, but I wouldn't quite go as overboard as some with all this Xarrick nonsense. His passing ratio is good, as it should be when they are as short as many are made, and whilst I'll never understand why it takes so long to get him going each season as if he's some cherished old sports car needing attention before it hits the ground running, he did do what he does well; consistently reach a level good enough, but not great enough for many, myself included. I still want him to grab games by the scruff of the neck, impose himself more, do a QPR away which almost seemed un-Carrick like in its execution and belief, but after this long we have to accept that it's not him, to ask that which is not possible makes no sense. Something his detractors might well notice; we play well in long bursts and runs usually when he is playing, and playing well. Good, but not great, in fact what any United player here for as long as he has been should reach as a bear minimum, not overflowing gushing praise because he's done his job at a big club and that's what he is here to do but certainly worthy of more praise than poison. But I want more, it almost annoys me because it clouds what he's given. But there you go, that's his enigma I suppose.


Nani was yet another one cursed by injury, and looked better come the end of the season, but not enough wow moments and a revert back to irritating 'pass the ball' curses. He is more of a team player nowadays, but whilst he can go around saying 'please don't compare me with Cristiano' in a manner which is beaming 'no, go on, please do', there are none to be made, which is why none of the big boys have asked him about his own dreams. Now is his time to make the leaps that Ronnie did, for we need more than by his own admittance that: "Sometimes I play a nice game, sometimes I play not such a fantastic game, but I think everyone knows me and what I can do." We know there are displays like Arsenal away last season in his lock up, too often like at city he shows no real progress from 2/3 years ago - are you worth your own hype? Not often enough - and even he admits it. Must do better, especially after doing so well last season. But only ever patches, like a quilt that needs a good whack after washing.


Whilst we were crying out for a midfielder so that some balked at the signing of Ashley Young ('not another winger'), I saw it as no bad thing, again creating real challenge for positions, the shame that we didn't also add to the middle. Young is a strange one, he started well, drifted towards many thinking 'that's an Aston Villa player not a United one we've got there', but a knack, with us and England, to score even when he's been shite. He is an impact player and that's no bad thing, he's just there, that knack, at the centre of things, but Spurs away showed something more, it's just how far he can progress that I maybe have doubts about. The diving needs to be binned but I sense more negativity towards him than there should be, give him a chance and all that and he's not had the worst of first seasons; what did people expect?


Darren Fletcher sadly seems the one player behind Vidic who we quietly missed, who wasn't great in terms of natural ability, but could be great on occasions for us, and the potential to do great things when needed, and we missed that, even though some people devalued his contribution by thinking we didn't or failed to give him much mention once 'we knew'. Influence or drive is what he gave the side, and the cynic wants you to ask why we gave him a new deal and blustered about his condition when it was well known his career was in doubt a while back, but no time for churlishness, you hope he can just keep control and ahead of his condition to live a normal life, coming back as a player, and certainly to former levels, not even worth talking about right now.


People forget how long a pesky achilles injury can take to recover form - hell, Neil Webb never even did - so Antonio Valencia took a while to get his mojo back, especially when (without complaint) he had to put up with all that shit filling in at right-back, but when he did get it back; fucking hell, who gives a fuck about his other foot when he can do that with one! A constant menace, he's actually one of the only players in the United side right now who gets you up off your arse in excitement when he has the ball, and the Blackburn goal (and even a smile) showed his form has probably bolstered a lacking self confidence to believe he actually has the making of any full-back he wants to beat if he wants. Because he does have them, so do it more. Lowkey in personality, high in assists, I bloody love him, as you suspect Rooney does, and whilst binning Rafael for city after Everton made sense, with so few players going into such a crucial game in form, playing Valencia, in the form of his life, in a fixture we had to get a result in, didn't just make perfect sense but the only sense. Instead Valencia was on the bench. He was the players' player of the year; you wonder if anyone of them saw the teamsheet at the Boo Camp and asked why our best player at the time wasn't selected? It still makes no sense.


So from the perfect pro. to Paul Pogba. If he's as good as his agent and he think he is, we've got the next Zidane, Pele and Maradona let alone Vieira! And we're just about to lose him. You'd have hoped he'd have got more chances, but then he started acting the cock so I stopped giving a shit until it's sorted one way or the next. I don't mind players wanting what they think their worth, but when he (and Rooney) do it during the season it pisses me off. Ravel got the boot for the same so there must be something (and of course without all the shite that went off the pitch with Morrison, many of which still hasn't come out) in Pogba that Fergie wants to persist in if he did actually stay, when usually he'd show him the door outright. For certain if he chooses Juve this summer over us he'll regret it; not least because Turin is a shit hole and no youngster is half as good as they think they are; that's the problem, from Van Persie to Ronaldo, it takes years to nurture into the finished article, and then they still can leave, which is why United's young ethos is always admirable, but buying players at the dreaded Gill banned age of 27 when they are ready made there makes as perfect sense as the financial cheaper ones the owners want to set as a cast iron policy which might not work, or leave when they finally do reach their very own perch.


Good but not great was how I described Rooney. Great that he can now be like that though, whereas before his inconsistencies would see large groupings of games with no goals, now he'll play badly and still score one or two. I don't quite agree with Fergie saying: "When the game gets to that casual bit, he's worse than the rest of them. He gets really casual." but he does drift in terms of space on the pitch, in terms of during a game and then on the pitch as he tries to chase the ball and involve himself in the action when we need him up front, simply put at the end of a move (and why he take corners?). But any criticism of him - wanting world class rather than Premiership class - is offset that however angry I still feel about his cow and fields strop that Autumn, he did have a point, thus now proven.


Whilst his wages gave way to bigger expectation of what he should produce, he's still, on the whole, been surrounded by less ability and ambition which must get on his tits. He's still young, that's crucial, especially when he himself plays down performing to these heights in his 30s, but we're running out of time to see a real Ronnie like win games every single week single handed as by his own level of ambition as well as what he asked of the club to match his, meant that's pretty much what we should be seeing - a player who can win games on his own. By the end of the season we got more stroppy arm actions frustrated at others, Ruud like, and whilst partly understandable considering the lack of feeding him, and he having to hunt the ball so deep makes no sense, he should be worrying as much about his own efforts as those around him.


Maybe I'm looking too closely when I think or see he's fed up, but that strange subbing at Wigan suggests that something is still 'there' deep down between he and Fergie, or certainly the latter in what he had done to him, needing all his reserves to win that battle, with one of his own, and it's bound to still stew even subconsciously. Nothing would surprise me with Rooney; where he'd end up, or what he could still achieve at United. But when you're criticising a player with 20 goals in 20 odd games you know he's nearing the world class level you so want to see all the time. A positive enigma rolled into a player in goal return that keeps improving, if not in actual week in-week out performances.


Dimitar Berbatov on the other hand is a paradox in an entirely different realm/universe. We've seen this way its ended all before of course; for bigger heroes like Ruud, Beckham even. But once the slight of not even being on the bench for Wembley last summer had sunk in, what point was there for either side to carry on this sorry last dance knowing we were going to separate ways at the end of it, no grand last tango, instead this season being a request for the Birdie Dance. He deserved after helping us to 19 to play more, elsewhere if needs be, but Fergie had run out of patience as many Utd fans had, not with his ability, but for crunch time, say those chances against city in the Semi Finals, where you don't get a second chance to linger. But we owed him better than this, as if Fergie was almost teaching him a lesson, so unforgiving that anyone would get on the bench ahead of him. It became an Unrequited love story, he had the few with him outweighed by the many who didn't get him, seeing only work rate and end product ahead of his gifts, but those who took him on face value game by game still saw too many lapses to give hope that he could change. He needed to, to win the majority and Fergie over, his game a gift but not enough, it was alright at Spurs, this level, but this was no Eric, it wasn't all worthwhile because of the gifts and goals, it's not that we've moved on, simply Eric always involved himself in a game, with good or bad results. Whereas Berbatov in his last home league appearance was criticised for slowly plodding back from play, you wondered what exactly went wrong; should it never have been, did we expect too much, did we ask too much or he not bothered to give enough?


Who knows, some loved him, some didn't, right from the off almost and it should be more productive than that, taking him on face value rather than taking sides… but it certainly needn't have ended like this, off to Coventry like all the others, never properly forgiven until a handshake and real story comes out, in 5-10 years time. His run of goals at Christmas showed that someone will get a belter of a player; but United is more than just ability alone, sad as that may seem to the few believers, this story from Danny Taylor in the Guardian sort of summed it up: "In a game last year, one of Berbatov's team-mates took issue with him for not running hard enough. Berbatov pointed out that was the way he played and he didn't need to go faster. "You do at this club," came the reply, expletives removed."


‘Ill hold my hands up and admit I didn't think Welbeck had it in him to be as good as he's shown. And he will get better. Still too gangly at times, and cumbersome with his Bambi legs going this way and that, that will be ironed out with age but the loan to Sunderland clearly worked, the self confidence in abundance started to graft a player to go with it and this year that loan has benefited us. And he's still only 21. He's developing all the time, so be patient you fickle fuckers out there in the stands and give him a chance, local lad not withstanding, there's something exciting he has. For now it won't come off every game, but if you can turn your blinkers off for Evra, persist with Welbeck as I think he really has it in him for some future. And we need more of this mentality and produce: "Playing on the streets in Manchester you would do things in the little games and think, “I’ll do this at Old Trafford”. Now it’s finally happening - it’s the stuff that dreams are made of". I think he could be really something special.


Whilst Michael Owen just lives in the past. As one RN reader put it: 'what a waste of a dressing room peg'. With yet another injury, he showed an almost miracle like ability to actually gain another (groin) injury when already out, and whilst he'd pop up from time to time, back from the dead if you like, in between seemingly wanking off horses, to say he'd dreamed he had an important goal still to be scored this season, probably is right as it could only happen now in his head. We knew this was the gamble, but that goal withstanding, I don't think it has actually worked. We'll celebrate anyone scoring in a game like that, against them, and yes there were a couple of others but overall it's been slightly embarrassing that a club like United took on such a gamble to reduce the wage bill and maintain a false wall of 'everything is ok and still respectable, look we've signed a once world classs has-been'. I never liked him, took to him, he's not one of us, he played for them and that should have been that. 'You'll eat your words' I was told. Hardly, it took some doing to out injure Owen Hargreaves and even under the Gimps there's no way they'll extend this contract as otherwise they may as well give it to you or I for all the playing time they'd get from it. Then we can just try and forget about it. He'll talk of '98, and every once in a while we'll talk of 4-3, and that would have been that, from him and us. Wish it never happened, of course loved that goal, but as pointless a relationship as many of us told you it would be; and possibly stopping a 4th striker who may well have scored more 'vital' goals this season. Even Fergie seemed to finally run out of patience in April: "As we know when he gets an injury it's never an easy one". Understatement.


I'm not quite so sure if Javier Hernandez's dip is down to 'second season syndrome', too easy a tag to plant on someone. A cliche if you may. You never hear of 'third season syndrome'. He certainly provided some crucial point winning goals during the season, tipped at the start, but did that head injury do more damage than mere bruising and scans alone, especially after an equally significant injury back in Mexico? I don't quite think there's something we don't know about what's been going on but maybe a dent to head, pride and confidence, together with trying to cope with the endless rotation of partners for Rooney, then Welbeck's form made it hard for him to find his own rhythm. His clinical goalscoring technique has actually improved, think headers, that blast at Wolves, but his first touch needs a lot of work and he has struggled with the ball pinged at him when we're moving as a counter attacking unit, fast. He's young, he'll grow, at what speed to become the next Rooney, or not, we will find out. Of more worry is him accounting for 50% of all our offsides, something that must get sorted if our ploy is to feed the ball to him on the break. He needs a rest this summer. Thankfully he's getting it.


Which just leaves shagging/playing/trophy winning when he wants, Giggsy. Certainly he regained that irritating tendency to start the season well and decline for its finale that he possessed a decade or so ago but that in itself when you're looking at patterns over 20 years tells its own story of how we view Giggsy as a talisman and the expectancy that goes with it. His goal at Norwich could have been a turning point, and whilst he has been patchy, I doubt the team see that, or feel the same as they look to him as much or more so than Scholes as the 'go to man'. For that alone, all he's done, what he represents, what he offers, how others perceive him, he has that almost unique ability to have a free hall pass at United to do what he wants. Not to advocate for anyone else, he deserves his almost habitual extension not so much for what he still has to offer, but what he has. Sam Pilger in his enjoyable Best XI Manchester United talks of Giggs finding medals all over his house in a clear out in 2010: “I had no idea they were there in the back of drawers, I had forgotten about them." Pilger writes of the 24 winning medal man: 'While the Chelsea and England captain John Terry built an entire annex to his house to display his medals, including mannequins behind glass dressed in his old shirts, Giggs has never had any interest in creating such a shrine to himself, and instead donates most of his medals to be displayed at the Old Trafford museum.' That he is our talisman and Terry theirs is telling on field as much as what they represent and what each club is off it, and whilst his twilight renaissance somewhat stalled this season after a good run of seasons - and 900+ games! - you put nothing past what may come next for a player who is still not revered as much as he should be by all United fans.


When we learnt Vidic was out for the season, we all felt like Fergie: "I must admit my heart sank a little when I learned just how long Nemanja Vidic was going to be out." That we managed to cope with not only that, but all the injuries, plus city's spending and owners whilst we are restricted with ours, is incredible even if the football wasn't. We always strive for better and I suppose it's a good thing that we know there is so much more room for improvement. It is both proud inducing for what United's loyalty represents, and scary (as well as spelling out this 'no value' era) that we relied on a 37 and 38 year old as the go-to's in our biggest game at the Boo Camp. That can't go on; it won't. They won't. Key though is that whilst many can improve, others might not, so whilst we got away, again with 'no value' ringing in our ears as Gill plots an 'interesting summer' (which I suspect translated in bean counter talk as 'quite dull'), it's accepting that maybe, yes, this was one of transition but don't stop there, squad fine tuning is all well and good, but improving it is more crucial this summer than it was last. And that midfield issue has to be dealt with. Otherwise we'll all go bloody mad.


Phil Jones asked last week of himself: "There is definitely a bit of personal intimidation. You always raise the question to yourself. Am I good enough to be here?" - but perhaps it's better to aim it to the squad as a whole Phil. Many are, some aren't, and some may or may not be - but not many lived up to their billing and it isn't a question of 'they can do better'; they simply, must do better. The Words of the RN Ed also ring true, as he praised Fergie for working his magic with pebbles, instead of granite. It's now time for a few diamonds. Or we'll have to start getting used to this feeling of the past few days.


Enjoy the summer. Here's to some value.


Pete Shaw. 2012. Red News


You can read the forthright Pete Shaw every Red News mag, order a printed sub or digital pdf sub at http://www.rednews.co.uk/subscription.php ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119578-34-Pete-Shaw-writing-for-Red-News-Online-gives-his-MUFC-Players-End-of-Season-Report http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119577-33-Order-Max-Payne-3-HERE!&goto=newpost Wed, 16 May 2012 17:18:51 GMT ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119577-33-Order-Max-Payne-3-HERE! http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119574-32-More-Shinji-Kagawa-on-nice-things-Alex-Ferguson-said-to-him-but-says-a-number-of-clubs-are-in-for-him&goto=newpost Wed, 16 May 2012 15:50:49 GMT Expedia £50 discount Voucher Code for Hotels here OFFER: £50 off on all Hotels worldwide CODE - MAY50 MIN SPEND - 500 GBP Expedia £50 discount Voucher Code for Hotels here


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"It was good to meet and actually talk to him. He had some nice things to say to me. There's no timetable on my decision. I've been in touch with a number of clubs, and I can't say which one is the best for me yet. But I want to go to a team where it'll be challenging for me. It'd be nice if I end up playing in the Premier League." ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119574-32-More-Shinji-Kagawa-on-nice-things-Alex-Ferguson-said-to-him-but-says-a-number-of-clubs-are-in-for-him http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119572-31-Gary-Lineker-wants-Wayne-Rooney-and-Ryan-Giggs-at-the-Olympics&goto=newpost Wed, 16 May 2012 14:49:32 GMT "It seems like Beckham is a shoo-in and I would love to see somebody like Ryan Giggs chosen. I don't know as it is hard to work out who is 23 and above. The thing is at the moment that we have got lots of really good young players and some very good old players, but the players in their prime [are not really a choice]. Rooney will obviously go to the Euros and it would be a shame we couldn't play him because I'd like to see him. He is not going to play the first two games at Euro 2012 anyway, and I know it's not going to happen but if I were Rooney I would knock on Sir Alex's door and say, `Right, let me play as this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play in an Olympic Games in my own country - let me play in the Olympics'." ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119572-31-Gary-Lineker-wants-Wayne-Rooney-and-Ryan-Giggs-at-the-Olympics http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119571-30-There-has-be-quality-Red-only-conversation-in-the-VIP-Forum-this-week-Part-2-City-deserved-to-win-the-league&goto=newpost Wed, 16 May 2012 14:30:32 GMT There has be quality Red only conversation in the VIP Forum this week. Part 2 'City deserved to win the league'


You can become a VIP for just £12.50 for a whole year (and you get a FREE mag) at http://www.rednews.co.uk/vip.php it keeps this site going, and is invaluable support plus good Red on Red debate, gossip, opinion, match comment and match going perspective and all round MUFC laughs, frowns and life. And all the news on one scrollable page! cheers


by REDDON


City deserved to win the league - best team, best squad, played best football, trashed us away, beat us at home when it mattered most - simple.


In a perverse way, I am 'glad' [searching for a better word to describe how I feel] that Utd did not win it this year. We have no divine right to win it every year as some on here seem to think. This is a stale team in its current format. A team in transition. IMO It would have devalued the league, devalued the tradition of Utd to have won the league again given the manner in how we have played this year. I would rather lose it this year and win it back with style, with flair, with a team I get excited watching - not by a style of foregone conclusion.


All empires - sporting, commercial, political require challanges/failures to renew, to inspire them to move forward. The challenge has never been greater given that it is City and their resources. There can be no excuses for not investing. Assuming the players come in and our young players learn from this season I fully expect us come back stronger next season.


Lets keep the faith. Game on.


You can become a VIP for just £12.50 for a whole year (and you get a FREE mag) at http://www.rednews.co.uk/vip.php it keeps this site going, and is invaluable support plus good Red on Red debate, gossip, opinion, match comment and match going perspective and all round MUFC laughs, frowns and life. And all the news on one scrollable page! cheers ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119571-30-There-has-be-quality-Red-only-conversation-in-the-VIP-Forum-this-week-Part-2-City-deserved-to-win-the-league http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119570-29-There-has-be-quality-Red-only-conversation-in-the-VIP-Forum-this-week-Part-1-Well-We-may-not-be-Champions-But-at-least-we-re-not-bitters!!&goto=newpost Wed, 16 May 2012 14:28:06 GMT There has be quality Red only conversation in the VIP Forum this week. Part 1 Well - We may not be Champions, But at least we're not bitters!!


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by Bunter1969


Well, we may not be champions
But at least we're not bitters!!


Just cobbling together a few thoughts from things that have been aired recently and trying to put a little perspective on things for myself.


I've avoided the news, and any media outlets since the third goal went in for City yesterday, and I will continue to do so for the next few days (perhaps with the exception of MUTV) although I have seen, in print, Fergies post match commments.


We may have thrown it away from a position that seemed to have it done and dusted, but what an effort to get to that position in the first place, considering City were being heralded as champions elect as early as last October. It's not easy, and the enormity of yesterday is still sinking in with me, we were so very, very close to achieving what seemed impossible at several junctures over the season.


We may also have just been subjected to a glimpse of a very painful future. We know that City will spend big again, the top talent will have it's collective head turned, by the money of course, but also by the fact that City are now a viable proposition in terms of actually winning things. What the future holds nobody knows, but with the Glazers at the helm it's impossible to predict how, or even if, we will go about strengthening ourselves, wether we will be capable of attracting and/or affording talent of the stature we need to secure if we are to mount a serious challenge again next year, because I doubt that City will relenquish their hold on the title too easily, and I'm sure other sides will improve.


I woke up yesterday and to be honest, I found it very difficult to see past anything but a City victory against QPR, so that has at least tempered the disappointment a little, but it was the manner of the victroy that hurts, they did it in the grand United manner, never say die football, scoring when the clock was about to make it's final chime (albeit against a side that seemed to have completely switched off and become spectators for the 5 minutes of added time) and they will live off this for a long time. And perhaps, in a perverse way, it's hard to begrudge them it, I know how I, how we, would have reacted had we done the same to them, or pretty much anybody in truth. To win anything in such a manner is truly magnificent for the victor, and truly soul destroying for the vanquished.


I've just spent a 12 hour night shift in the company of some of the most tedious pricks imaginable, celebrating the great success yesterday, one a Preston fan, another a follower of the mighty Walsall, the obligatory scouser, and an Everton supporter who sympathised with me, all accompanied by the only to be expected digs being thrown in from people who usually claim not to have much interest in football. I took most of it in good part as it was inevitable, but I did take exception to afforementioned Preston supporter when he walked into the changing rooms at work singing champions.


I asked exactly who it was he supports, and his retort was, who cares, I fucking hate United at which point a blew up. He has little or no reason to profess this hatred, he seldom goes to watch Preston even if there was some huge rivalry between our clubs. I asked him why he hates United, and he couldn't tell me, instead he called me bitter, and a bad loser, telling me that I hate Liverpool, and I hate City, and I hate Leeds.... I told him that the only thing I hate in football are the small minded pricks like him that gloat when United suffer a setback, but can't even tell me how his own team had gotten on on the same day, because their hate of United is greater than their alleged love of their own team. I won't go into the episode where he later started to sing Blue Moon, needless to say, it ended rapidly, and with more than a little embarassment for him.


You see he's wrong, badly wrong, I don't hate Liverpool, and I don't hate City, and I don't hate Leeds either. For me hate is a very strong word used to describe a very strong emotion, an emotion that is very much akin to passion and for me, all my passion is used up supporting United, and although I appreciate the subtleties of our rivalries, I don't have enough passion left over to hate any team, a healthy dislike, yes, but hate, no never, because these teams are not important enough too me and only come onto my radar in the immediate days before we play against them. Unlike a nation of football supporters that seem to obsess on United irrespective of their own allegiances.


I have had one or two genuine fans come up to me and offer me commiserations, much like Chelsea a few years back, there are those people who would normally spit on United, wanting them to get the best of City because of the way City have achieved their goals, and that at least is refreshing. But these people are unfortunately few and far between.


We've heard many times, during the course of the season, that this is the worst United side in decades. We've been blighted by injuries to crucial players, often at crucial times, and in many senses are going through at least a mini transition.


We've had to find stability from a new keeper, and until the last few games, an ever changing back four. We've been trying to integrate new players in Smalling (not as new, but not a regular) Jones, Young and again, De Gea, chuck Lindegaard into the mix as well and you have a few new faces trying to find their feet in the side.


When all comes to all, we've gone toe to toe with a club that have apparently spent £930 million pounds in just four seasons, a club who will seemingly spend many more millions in the coming months as money appears to be no object to them. And the end result, we lost the title, in the 93rd minute of the final game of the season, and only then on goal difference. We achieved the highest points total never to win the league, we matched them in terms of results despite our obvious hinderances, and they have spent £930 million in just four years, just four short years to best us on goal difference. It's a victory, one 44 years in the making, a victory that see's City equal the record of the footballing giant that is Huddersfield, joining them on three titles won in their history, a victory that will be heralded as historical, a victory for my mind that is hollow, bought at the whim of a stupidly rich person that had nothing else to spend said riches on.


As painful as it still is at the moment, I think we can take credit from our efforts. The last six games, christ, the last two minutes of the season, thats how close we got!! We very nearly did it, in spite of everything that seemed to be stacked against us. Yes, all that history will show is that we finished second, but I think we can take some positives form the season as a whole (yes, yes there will no doubt be as many, if not more, negatives, but right now I prefer not to dwell on them.) 8-2 against Arsenal, Johnny Evans emerging as a confident, even reliable player, Valencia bouncing back from his broken leg to terrorise defenses, De Gea looking like he can prove his detractors as nothing more than headline hungry ABU's that jumped the gun in their collective assessment of him, the fightback at Stamford Bridge, the experience of a title run in for the new players that will hopefully prove beneficial in the future, sometimes you have to lose it to learn how to win it. It's not all doom and gloom, at least not for me.


Anyhoo, not having had the chance to sleep on things, all of the above has been swimming around in my head all night, and I felt the need to subject you lot too it in the hope that I might yet clear my head and get some shut eye. It's been a shit night, when they have fished and I've responded, I'm biting, and being a bad sport, if I ignore them, I'm sulking, and being a bad sport. It's been a no win situation for me and I've bottled up an awful lot as a result, this has been my release I guess!!


So, roll on August, right!!


We'll never die!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoaktW-Lu38&feature=fvst


You can become a VIP for just £12.50 for a whole year (and you get a FREE mag) at http://www.rednews.co.uk/vip.php it keeps this site going, and is invaluable support plus good Red on Red debate, gossip, opinion, match comment and match going perspective and all round MUFC laughs, frowns and life. And all the news on one scrollable page! cheers ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119570-29-There-has-be-quality-Red-only-conversation-in-the-VIP-Forum-this-week-Part-1-Well-We-may-not-be-Champions-But-at-least-we-re-not-bitters!! http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119569-28-Roy-Hodgson-on-talking-to-Alex-Ferguson-and-Rio-Ferdinand-and-Roy-s-argument-not-sounding-too-strong-about-football-reasons&goto=newpost Wed, 16 May 2012 14:16:23 GMT "I had a private conversation with Sir Alex as long ago as ten days ago. He did mention because I asked about all the Manchester United players, and I think Rio has done exceptionally well this year. I think he has played a lot of matches through injury. I think he's actually got himself onto the field of play where many a player maybe might not have done so and maybe blamed an injury for not being able to play, but I'm also wary of that because I know that there have been times in the season where Rio has played at least 3 matches in a week so I'd be lying if I said that was the major reason for not selecting him, it was purely on other footballing reasons. 1 game in the last year, only 3 games since 2010, and having taken over the squad as I have done, I've been very conscious I'm to some extent being parachuted in to take charge of Capello's squad which has qualified for this tournament, and I've wanted to at least where I can, to remain faithful to the players who have got us there. I wanted a squad of players which suited me, which gave me balance, which gave me what I wanted for the squad and as a result I have selected John Terry and I did not consider Rio for this particular tournament. Rio was very graceful, he was obviously very disappointed, I would have been surprised had he not been because people want to play for England, I'm pleased they want to play for England but he was very gracious and he wished myself and the team the very best of luck in the tournament. I have never once said it's because he's never played enough games (RN - it seems he has, with regard not playing enough for England), I've never once said I don't think he can play a game after another. I've said I had a decision to make. I admire Rio Ferdinand as a player, I think he's a fine footballer and I respect him but I had to pick a squad with defenders that I wanted to take to the Euros and for purely footballing reasons on this occasion I decided not to select him, but there's no question of me not being aware that he's been playing games for United and I'm not prepared to go down the route that he's not capable of playing one game after another although I know Alex has hinted that might be the case, but I'm not prepared to say that because I have no evidence of it." ]]> NEWS Red News http://www.rednews.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?119569-28-Roy-Hodgson-on-talking-to-Alex-Ferguson-and-Rio-Ferdinand-and-Roy-s-argument-not-sounding-too-strong-about-football-reasons