Manchester United

[redrus]

Anybody about in The Kok for the game tomorrow night....?????

redrus

Would love to be there but will be at the home of football (stamford bridge) watching the game......I do fancy our chances tomorrow, the draw against the yids did us a confidence boosting favour as well as having the big guns back we seem to turn it on for the big games......I reckon we will win 3-1

Home of football.......... [myarsesmiliegif]....

3-1 is pushing it mate.....! I think we'll edge if one of is to but, I think its got draw written all over it....

redrus

[rixalex]

Would love to be there but will be at the home of football (stamford bridge) watching the game......I do fancy our chances tomorrow, the draw against the yids did us a confidence boosting favour as well as having the big guns back we seem to turn it on for the big games......I reckon we will win 3-1

If that had been my team playing against Spurs, i wouldn't have found it inspiring of a confidence boost at all. Sure you got stronger in the second half, but it took a handball and a goal keeping blunder to get you back in it, and then when the goal keeper gifted you a second time, you, or should i say "Drogba", blew the chance.

If all that brings confidence, all i can say is it obviously takes very little. Either that or it's a lot of BS to do with the club / manager projecting how they want themselves and the fans to be feeling.

Anyway, all that said, i expect a tight game. We've been so hot and cold this season that it could go any way. Odds on a draw, which wouldn't be a bad result for us, truth be known.

[rixalex]

Anybody about in The Kok for the game tomorrow night....?????

redrus

Heading out of Bangers (can we call it that rather than your name? visions of a male go go bar in my head for some reason) early evening sadly. What venue did you have in mind mate?

[redrus]

Anybody about in The Kok for the game tomorrow night....?????

redrus

Heading out of Bangers (can we call it that rather than your name? visions of a male go go bar in my head for some reason) early evening sadly. What venue did you have in mind mate?

Easy Tiger boy.....!

Er, no idea, was thinking of maybe meeting BigToe in The Crossabar then, I'm open to suggestions...., as long as theres no male go go bars involved that is..!

redrus

[redrus]

Word on the Manchester vine is the game has been postponed....!!!!

redrus

[mrbojangles]

Word on the Manchester vine is the game has been postponed....!!!!

Yep, it's definately postponed.

BTW. What are your plans Red. I'm back over there on Friday

Edited December 18, 2010 by mrbojangles

[rixalex]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1339869/Wantaway-City-captain-Carlos-Tevez-begs-United-manager-Sir-Alex-Ferguson-back.html

Wantaway City captain Carlos Tevez begs United manager Sir Alex Ferguson to take him back.

You couldn't make this crap up! Or maybe you could and someone just did. Who knows?! One thing i do know, a man like him is the last thing we need or want.

[smokie36]

http://www.dailymail...guson-back.html

Wantaway City captain Carlos Tevez begs United manager Sir Alex Ferguson to take him back.

You couldn't make this crap up! Or maybe you could and someone just did. Who knows?! One thing i do know, a man like him is the last thing we need or want.

:D

A real Manc soap story......go on SAF.....do a swap eal with Rooney....ya know he's a blue anyway!!

[rixalex]

A real Manc soap story......go on SAF.....do a swap eal with Rooney....ya know he's a blue anyway!!

Rooney a blue?

If all this business over the last month or so has taught us anything, it's that these players only colour is the one that currently offers them and their agent the best deal.

[smokie36]

A real Manc soap story......go on SAF.....do a swap eal with Rooney....ya know he's a blue anyway!!

Rooney a blue?

If all this business over the last month or so has taught us anything, it's that these players only colour is the one that currently offers them and their agent the best deal.

Here's the new away shirt.....

[carmine]

A real Manc soap story......go on SAF.....do a swap eal with Rooney....ya know he's a blue anyway!!

Rooney a blue?

If all this business over the last month or so has taught us anything, it's that these players only colour is the one that currently offers them and their agent the best deal.

Here's the new away shirt.....

Is that supposed to be a gay teddy smokie?

[smokie36]

Its a bit slow today carmine old son.....Berbatov on a night out perhaps?

[nev]

Chelsea running scared calling the game off and i do not blame them better for them call off now with there form at the moment and play us later in the season when there on a better run of form.

[smokie36]

Chelsea running scared calling the game off and i do not blame them better for them call off now with there form at the moment and play us later in the season when there on a better run of form.

Nah the big worry was with the trains not running up from Surrey.....how would the Man Yoo fans get to the ground?

[mrbojangles]

Chelsea running scared calling the game off and i do not blame them better for them call off now with there form at the moment and play us later in the season when there on a better run of form.

Nah the big worry was with the trains not running up from Surrey.....how would the Man Yoo fans get to the ground?

[redrus]

Word on the Manchester vine is the game has been postponed....!!!!

Yep, it's definately postponed.

BTW. What are your plans Red. I'm back over there on Friday

Typical....., I fly home for Chrimbo on Tuesday... I fly back in on the 4th though, where you at then....?

redrus

[mrbojangles]

Word on the Manchester vine is the game has been postponed....!!!!

Yep, it's definately postponed.

BTW. What are your plans Red. I'm back over there on Friday

Typical....., I fly home for Chrimbo on Tuesday... I fly back in on the 4th though, where you at then....?

Fly back to Saudi on the 18th Jan. Sure we'll have some time.

[redrus]

Sweet mate....

redrus

[mrbojangles]

Nice one. We've got:-

05 January Away to Arsenal

09 January Away Leicester City FA Cup

15 January Home to Wolves

[redrus]

^

You gonna be in Patters all that time mate.....??

'Super Sunday' scuppered so Sky unleash Rocket on troops,

MARY HANNIGAN- theirishtimes.com

TV VIEW: SEVERAL HOURS after Chelsea and Manchester United’s planned Sunday ding-dong at Stamford Bridge had been postponed on Saturday, Sky Sports were still advertising this particular clash of the titans.

It’s possible, then, a few souls tuned in yesterday expecting to see the Super Sunday skirmish, only to be greeted by Richard Keys declaring: “Camp Bastion is our venue this afternoon!”

It’d have been less puzzling, though, if they’d been watching Sky Sports News earlier in the day, Geoff Shreeves reporting from the British military base in Afghanistan, and advising us to tune in at 3pm for Richard, Andy Gray and Jamie Redknapp’s chat with the troops.

Geoff was accompanied on his week-long trip by Soccer AM presenter Rocket, who was asked by Hayley McQueen back in the studio to describe his experience in Afghanistan. “It’s been absolutely amazing,” he said, “every TV has Sky Sports on it.”

This, it has to be said, was news to us, we had no clue Sky’s tentacles spread as far as, say, the homes of Helmand Province, but Geoff quickly clarified it was just the tellies at the Camp that had the channel on them. “And Sky Sports is a big, big part of their lives out here,” he assured us.

“The chaps were telling us that during a contact, when they were being fired upon and were returning fire as well, their mate actually turned to them and said ‘Listen, if we don’t wrap this up in half an hour we’re going to miss Soccer AM’.”

Rocket beamed with pride, it quite clearly had never dawned on him the troops’ desire to see, say, The Crossbar Challenge, was actually encouraging them to complete hostilities early doors, thus speeding up Britain’s entire mission in Afghanistan.

We misunderstood Keys entirely when he told us Sky had sent Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs in to combat, leaving us assuming he meant Afghanistan. At that point we half expected to see footage of hundreds of thousands of Taliban coming out with their arms up, howling “please, no, NOT Gary Neville!”

Sky, though, spared the Taliban that ordeal, instead sending Gary and Ryan to an army base in England where they had a go at a flight simulation thingie. Both players, sadly, crashed their planes, Ryan turning a luminous shade of green as his machine rollercoastered its way to a virtual runway. Gary’s verdict on the experience as he left the cockpit? It was succinct enough: “Jesus.”

The troops back at Camp Bastion were less than impressed, not least Chelsea fan and Royal Air Force man Xavier. He had other things on his mind, though, particularly that mangled Chelsea shirt he had in his hands.

“What happened it?” asked a stunned Geoff. “The lads from the squadron took it away and blew it up,” he explained.

“Oh,” said Geoff.

Next, Manchester City fan Corporal Tom Moore. “But all me mates call me Moonhead,” he told Geoff. “Why do they call you Moonhead?” “It’s a long story, like, I don’t really want to go in to it,” he said, so Geoff thought it best to leave it.

Anyway, Moonhead wanted to know if City were all set for world domination, so Jamie and Andy told him, pretty much, they were.

But, to be honest, they’d said much the same thing to the Torquay supporter, so hell-bent were they on raising all the troops’ morale.

That was Super Sunday, then, utterly football-less, which was almost the case on Snowy Saturday, Ipswich v Leicester one of the few games to beat the elements. Well, ish.

“This is not a bad case of dandruff, this is serious snow,” Peter Beagrie assured us as he updated us from the Portman Road pitch at half-time, his head and shoulders almost disappearing under the drift.

With Ipswich 3-0 up the consensus was the referee would earn himself a George Cross if he had the courage to inform Roy Keane he was abandoning the game, even though Roy and Leicester counterpart Sven-Goran Eriksson had, by then, taken on the look of Frosty the Snowman in their respective dug-outs.

The ref, though, was valiant enough to call the players off for 15 minutes in the second half to allow the groundstaff time to locate the pitch markings under the snow. It was a decision that impressed neither Roy nor Peter, the latter noting “the last thing we want is to be sat here at midnight, we’ll turn in to pumpkins”.

They returned, though, the Tractor/Snowplough Boys holding out for the points. “We are not good on snow, that’s for sure – I didn’t know that before, now I do,” said a peeved Sven. “In Sweden we go skiing on snow, we don’t play football.”

The weather outside might have been frightful, but the win was positively delightful for Roy. From now til May? “Let it snow,” he hummed as he sleighed home

redrus

[redrus]

Sir Alex Ferguson has avoided the fate of other great managers

The Scot has surpassed Sir Matt Busby's reign at Manchester United by skilful control of his own supremacy

Paul Hayward

The Observer, Sun 19 Dec 2010 00.07 GMT

The pathos of football management is that most great careers end badly. Bill Shankly faded into a regretful ghost, Jock Stein died on the job, Sir Bobby Robson's great Newcastle repatriation finished with the sack from Freddy Shepherd and Brian Clough hit the bottle.

Even Matt Busby, whose longevity at Manchester United Sir Alex Ferguson surpasses today, presided over disintegration as his last act. Prolonged exposure to the strains of satisfying players, spectators and directors while also fighting to subdue mighty rivals empties most men out in the end. But if you look at Ferguson now, after 24 years, one month and 14 days in charge, you see a 68-year-old who has reversed the old law of diminution to grow stronger with every trial.

The miracle of his survival is that each test has tightened his grip on power. There is a formidable litany of challenges faced and overcome. Some were external: Liverpool, back in the 1980s, then Arsène Wenger's Arsenal and Roman Abramovich's wealth. These days United are the second richest club in Manchester but Ferguson welcomes City's provocations because they reaffirm his own team's most cherished values: experience, unity and the faith in youth that connects him to Busby.

All those gauntlets have clattered at his feet since the supposed turning point of January 1990, when United faced Nottingham Forest in the third round of the FA Cup with Ferguson's job in jeopardy. But if Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and now Manchester City supplied the threats from beyond Old Trafford, internal obstacles were no more easily surmounted.

Ferguson spent his formative managerial years attempting to reach a perfect autocratic state. "I'm in complete command here," Vince Lombardi, the great Green Bay Packers coach, told his players and public. Ferguson, who admires Lombardi, has been able to claim much the same in the face of challenges from Roy Keane, David Beckham and, most recently, Wayne Rooney, not to mention the drinking culture he inherited in November 1986 and the changes in the club's ownership – any one of which might have weakened his position.

The truth at the heart of his thinking is that either the manager is in control or other people are. And those other people might be celebrity players (Beckham), self‑appointed unofficial dressing-room sergeants (Keane) or complication‑causing owners (the former plc, or the Glazers, should they deviate from their policy of staying well out of Ferguson's way).

This obsession, which is often cast as a power addiction, is rooted generally in logic. Ferguson's empirical belief is that clubs who are dictated to by star players are doomed to decline and that no director can know as much as a manager who has won 11 Premier League titles, two European Cups, five FA Cups and four League Cups.

Ferguson saw the late Sir Bobby Robson, who always urged him "never to retire", buffeted by the whims of Newcastle's owners. To him that was anathema. He saw Shankly mistreated in retirement and now observes the random sackings of friends and colleagues. To him the choice was always simple. Football is him or me; them and us. Like Clough and Stein he worked out that only success could place him beyond the reach of directors or empire builders who might try to pick a fight. So, when Keane became drunk on the sound of his own disputatious voice, Ferguson knew a rival authority was encroaching on his turf. Even then Keane needed to exceed the bounds of acceptable opposition to cause his own eviction. An enduring myth is that Ferguson rules only by fear. In fact he learned from Stein the dangers of alienating players through needless bullying.

As the Rooney saga demonstrated, his political skills have sharpened down the years, perhaps because he reads so much about American presidents and other influential figures. On United's pre-season tour to the States he made a pilgrimage to Gettysburg. Cristiano Ronaldo's yearning to return to Iberia – another crisis – was handled cunningly, with the manager persuading him to stay one more year before his move to Real Madrid for £80m and then bidding adieu with the fondness of a father waving a son off on a gap year.

The stability of the Glazer years is explained by Ferguson's close and trusting relationship with David Gill, the chief executive. This synchronicity is a model few other clubs can match. Probably the biggest threat to Ferguson's reign arrived when he took on John Magnier and JP McManus, then shareholders in United, over the breeding rights to Rock of Gibraltar, but by then he had won too many trophies to expose himself to any serious risk of dismissal.

A talent for power-retention would be worthless without a gift for team building, for regeneration. In two seasons, after his first great side had reclaimed the league title in 1993, Ferguson lost the services of Paul Parker, Steve Bruce, Paul Ince, Bryan Robson, Mark Hughes, Andrei Kanchelskis and Lee Sharpe but built a new team around the FA Youth Cup-winning team of 1992, and then extended the club's reach to marquee foreign talent: Jaap Stam, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ronaldo.

All through those 24 years you see United sides reach the end of cycles and then reform. In the past 10 years alone he has planned to retire (in 2002) and changed his mind, had a pacemaker fitted, been usurped by José Mourinho's Chelsea, put Ronaldo on the game's summit, landed a second Champions League trophy and won three consecutive Premier League titles up to 2009 to draw level with Liverpool on 18 English championships.

Busby-era veterans would say there has been no trial for any modern Manchester United manager to match the Munich air disaster, which destroyed a young team and left a wrenching emotional legacy that is still visible in the survivors, not least Sir Bobby Charlton. Busby even had his own sideshow: George Best, the pathfinder for errant poster boys.But in the main Busby inhabited a time of slow change. Financially and culturally English football evolved in inches, if at all, between 1945 and 1970. In Ferguson's time the footballer has mutated into a multi-millionaire one-man corporation. Armies of agents, fixers, charlatans, sponsors, spin merchants and speculators have flooded the industry.

The clan loyalty of Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville will expire with Ferguson's tenure but he would say new allegiances to the badge are forming at Carrington all the time. "Repel all boarders" is a favourite saying. The task was to manage change, to control it, for 24 years, one month and 14 days. And to be in control of the ending after all that time is a feat we are unlikely to see repeated.

redrus

[mrbojangles]

^

You gonna be in Patters all that time mate.....??

No buddy. Family are taking care of the little one for the first 2 weeks, so we'll be there then as we are also meeting up with some mates who are over from the UK and then we are going up to pick the little one up and maybe do a bit of driving around various spots for 10 days or so.

[MrRed]

^ A legend in the world of football,the game will only understand how much he is thought of inside and ouside of Old Trafford when he finally retires,or should i say if he ever retires.

Sir Alex Ferguson :jap: in god we trust.

[smokie36]

^ A legend in the world of football,the game will only understand how much he is thought of inside and ouside of Old Trafford when he finally retires,or should i say if he ever retires.

Sir Alex Ferguson :jap: in god we trust.

Welcome back James.

[BIGTOE3]

^ A legend in the world of football,the game will only understand how much he is thought of inside and ouside of Old Trafford when he finally retires,or should i say if he ever retires.

Sir Alex Ferguson :jap: in god we trust.

Welcome back James.

Nice one Smokie..... but he may get banned ??????

bt

[smokie36]

^ A legend in the world of football,the game will only understand how much he is thought of inside and ouside of Old Trafford when he finally retires,or should i say if he ever retires.

Sir Alex Ferguson :jap: in god we trust.

Welcome back James.

Nice one Smokie..... but he may get banned ??????

bt

Both of 'em hopefully!

Merry Xmas by the way BIGTOE3!

Edited December 20, 2010 by smokie36

[bkkjames]

What are you on about smokes? Not banned, just pacing myself

[MrRed]

A happy christmas to all football followers worldwide from MrRed.

MANCHESTER UNITED

[smokie36]

I can't help it...every time I look at that red flag I expect to see a maple leaf fluttering in its centre......!

[imola]

I can't help it...every time I look at that red flag I expect to see a maple leaf fluttering in its centre......!

surrey written all over it either that or adelaiade, or hull its alll confusing with manure