Category Archives: Manchester United
#mnfdiscussions – BRFC v MUFC
This evening’s #mnfdiscussions came from a quote from Sunday Supplement. One of the journalists said that manager’s need to get at least 50% of their signings correct. Someone once said “Manager’s live and die by their signings”. Slightly extreme, but you get the drift. Therefore we posed the question of “Who is the worst ever Manchester United signing”. Twitter answered the question for us in the following fashion:
NickOD84: David bellion!
Calder104: Bebe?
mcarlton9: Ralph Milne. So bad he became a cult figure
JAScammell: Can you afford to overlook Bebe?!” terrible!
Arsenal v Manchester United: Fergie shines through
With a recent conversation in the pub inspiring this blog I felt it good timing (ish) to post this with Sir Alex Ferguson celebrating 25 years at the helm. Although the topic of conversation over a pint wasn’t led with Fergie, his brilliance naturally shines through whilst discussing the topic covered.
Henry, Bergkamp, Pires, Petit, Vieira.
Scholes, Neville, Giggs, Solskjaer, Keane. Read the rest of this entry
Head to Head: The Manchester Derby – Who Will Be Top Dog In 5 Years Time?
With the Manchester derby now tantalisingly close (kicking off at 1:30 tomorrow), the same can certainly be said of the two clubs in the city. United only by a hatred of Carlos Tevez, the rivalry between those teams is stronger than ever, following the injection of money into Manchester City and their associated rise as a force to be reckoned with in both the Premier League and Europe. With this in mind, we thought we’d test a fan of each club, asking who will hold the city’s bragging rights in five years time.
Guest Blog: Carlos Tevez – through the eyes of the fans that once loved him
Carlos Tevez – through the eyes of the fans that once loved him
The football world was left stunned by Carlos Tevez on Tuesday, when he refused to come off the bench for City in their Champions League fixture against Bayern. We asked fans of his current and previous English clubs whether this has fatally tainted him in their eyes, if that hadn’t happened already, or whether there’s still some love left for the man and his unquestionable talent on the pitch.
Guest Blog: Are Manchester United Fans Getting Carried Away Too Soon?
With Manchester United off to a flying start this season and scoring hatfuls along the way, I’ve decided that Manchester United fans are getting too carried away too soon. This might be because I’m slightly bitter because they signed Villa’s best player in the summer, but it might just be that fans of United (and City for that matter) should err on the side of caution when claiming the title is theirs so soon. They only need to look at Chelsea last season when Chelsea were 5 points clear of their rivals in October and off to a flyer. It’s a long season! I asked Man Utd fan Sam (@Cranno7) for his thoughts on the matter.
The new United: Are we all getting carried away too soon?
Four games in and much of the early hype has been about the new-look Manchester United and how they swept aside Arsenal at Old Trafford two weeks ago and Bolton at the Reebok yesterday. There is no doubt that Sir Alex Ferguson’s young team are looking the part at this stage but it is a long season and I’m not sure United have their 20th title in the bag just yet.
What Sir Alex appears to have got right is getting his squad together early. The team that have started the Premier League campaign this season enjoyed a full tour of the United States together in the pre-season. In the US, the likes of Young, Cleverly and Welbeck were able to learn the Manchester United philosophy of attacking, whilst Smalling and Jones got themselves accustomed to the United backline. The one weak link so far appears to be the Spaniard between the posts who has the potential to be the next Massimo Taibi (remember that calamity against Southampton!?). The jury is certainly still out on him. But the US tour meant that when United began their competitive season against Manchester City at Wembley they looked far more composed, comfortable and unified than their city rivals and this was encapsulated with Nani’s first goal after a great team move.
Sir Alex had his full squad whilst the other big teams were sweating over transfer deals on deadline day (Sneijder never looked likely from the outset). And four early wins, including an 8-2 demolition of Arsenal, sees the pundits and journalists already engraving Manchester United on the Premiership trophy. But… after a shaky opening game at the Reebok, Manchester City have four wins from four and a strike-force of Dzeko, Aguero and Silva who are all enjoying their football at City and scoring goals in the process. Questions will continue to be asked about Mancini and whether he has the ability to keep his very large and very talented squad happy. You feel that if the City boss can solve his selection dilemma and keep his team content then he might just be able to take the Premier League trophy to Eastlands.
Away from Manchester the other top contenders are looking far from threatening. Liverpool, who were tipped by many to be a real title challenger this season, have failed to impress thus far and suffered their first defeat yesterday to Stoke. Kenny Dalglish has spent a huge amount of money since January on players that would probably not make the first XI if they found themselves at City or United. After four games they are already five points behind the leaders and will need to do a lot more to impress. Tottenham have had a dreadful start to their season including a 5-1 thrashing at home to City and Harry Redknapp’s team seem to be a long way from the team that beat AC Milan in the San Siro in February. Redknapp will hope that the signings of Parker and Adebayor will make the difference at White Hart Lane and they were pivotal in their win away at Wolves yesterday. As for Arsenal… we shall see! Chelsea, though, look the only other credible threat to United apart from City.
As it stands it looks like a three horse race but it is only the beginning of September and there are a lot of games to play. One of the major factors marking United and City apart from their rivals at this stage is the number of goals they are scoring at home and away – both have goal differences in double figures already with Chelsea leading the rest of the pack with just four.
The question of this blog was whether we’re all getting carried away with this new Manchester United team. In reality the answer is yes – much can happen between now and May but with Wayne Rooney and his new hair getting back-to-back hat-tricks it is extremely difficult not to get carried away. City are posting big scores but the message from United every weekend seems to be ‘anything you can do we can do better’.
For me, the most important dates to remember this season are 23 October (United v City at Old Trafford) and 28 April (City v United at Eastlands). This is where the title could be won or lost because both teams look unbeatable right now.
You can read more from Sam Cranston on his great Blog, but for now, why not let us know your thoughts below!!
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