Mind Games

Sir Alex Ferguson has long been regarded as a master of mind games and, by most football pundits’ accounts, has even turned it into an art form. He has certainly yielded much joy from this in the past by placing some well-timed comments before a big match.

I won’t pretend to understand some of them and to say that mind games are a double-edged sword is an understatement. Yet they somehow seem to work, don’t they?

While some of Fergie’s comments do astonish me and make me wonder whether they will backfire and motivate the opposition even more, they almost always annoy the opposition and seem to draw some sort of response.

When Ashley Cole displayed his petulant, diva-like nature to Mike Riley and showed that his parents failed to impart any sort of manners to him, Fergie straight away sounded the war trumpets and called for more respect towards refs.

Yes, that’s right. Fergie – the man who has berated and lambasted countless officials was now calling for more respect. His comments were so blatantly hypocritical that it angered the opposition, as well as the critics and journalists in the media, but it had its desired effect.

In the next league game against Liverpoo, Javier Mascherano obliged to highlight the need for more respect by losing his marbles and Steve Bennett did not have to dig deep to show him a second yellow card.

That was Fergie’s triumph and we all know it.

It was not the only time that Fergie’s comments seemed to have an effect on the 2007/08 season.

Towards the tail end of the season, Chelsea were facing a fixture pile-up and had to play Wigan and Everton in the space of three days and Avram ‘Rant’ had a right moan about the Prem’s inability to plan - cue Sir Alex Ferguson.

Fergie said: "They have two games in three days [72 hours], then five days to prepare for a possible Champions League final, that's all right,".

In a reference to a fixture move last season, when Chelsea hosted Spurs at Stamford Bridge, winning 1-0, 36 hours after Spurs had played a Uefa Cup tie in Seville, he added: "They had the advantage over us last season, and we still won the title."
"I like Alex but, what day is it?" said Grant alluding to 1 April. "I think he must be joking."

Fergie’s unsympathetic jibe had the Chelsea camp up in arms. They simply could not believe that a man, who has bemoaned fixture pile-ups on so many occasions, had the gall to belittle their concerns.

Once again, I’m not sure how Fergie’s comments work, but work they do.
Maybe Chelsea were so fixated on the Everton match, that they tried to conserve their energy against Wigan and, having watched the match, I can say that Chel$ki really did play within themselves.

Whether, it was Grant’s instructions to do so or whether it was his inability to motivate his squad, we shall not know, but Chelsea did us a little favour by dropping 2 points against Wigan ….. and the rest, as they say, is history.

Even before the last day of the season, Fergie had to endure the media’s blatant questioning of Wigan’s determination to play well against us and when he finally decided to say something it had an amazing effect.

"All you wonderful people in the press have been talking about the integrity of Wigan; all we have seen is Wigan players saying how they will beat Manchester United," Ferguson retorted. "Fine. I have no problem with that but then you hear about Bolton players being out all week celebrating. Both teams are safe but one is all keyed up to play Manchester United while the other is out celebrating."

Bolton played out of their skin to earn a late 1-1 draw against Roman’s mercenaries and Gary Megson later admitted that he called Fergie to tell him HIS team talk had done the trick.

Sir Alex has fired this season’s opening salvo much earlier than usual and I think it’s because he is expecting this season to be a very tough one.
The United boss said "no one" could top the exploits of Jose Mourinho, Scolari's predecessor-but-one at the glamorous London club who assembled much of the current squad.

"Mourinho won the title two years in a row and beat us in the FA Cup final, so there's no one who can improve on his record really," Ferguson said.
"It's hard to see where there's going to be a big improvement with a team that's really very experienced. 'Plateau' is maybe not the word, but how can they accelerate beyond what they've done up to now?"

Ferguson was confident that United's youth made them title favourites. The two sides face an early-season clash at Stamford Bridge in September.

"I'm not saying necessarily that they're old because, with the modern-day training methods, you should be playing in your thirties," he said.
"What I am saying is that I don't see outstanding progress in a team that's in their thirties."

While new Chelsea boss Filipe Scolari has refused to be drawn into a battle of wits, two of Chelsea’s stars could not resist.

Essien duly implied that Chelsea have the stronger squad and today Deco said in an interview: "I've got a lot of new things to learn. I consider coming to Chelsea as a challenge."

"Overall I think Chelsea has a very strong team and there are definitely still things to learn, despite being 30."

In all honesty, I think Fergie’s comments are easy to argue against, BUT they are meant to sew a little seed of doubt. He plants it in the opponents' minds and let’s them nourish the seed until it blooms.

Essien and Deco issuing retorts to his comments are testament to this.

Sir Alex Ferguson 2 – 0 Chel$ki

^Edit 27/07/08: Now Michael Ballack has outed himself and declared that you're not too old improve whether you're 13 or 31.

It simply goes to show that Fergie's comments have had an effect on his intended targets and it has them thinking about his words.

So, Sir Alex Ferguson 3 – 0 Chel$ki

I suspect that Fergie will have a small smile on his face when he reads those comments in the papers today.

At some point in the season there will be some really tried legs in a Chelsea kit and as they head for a bore-draw or extra time, they will look around and realize that most of their best players are past their peak and Fergie’s words will echo loud in the back of their mind.

Chelsea have an excellent squad, arguably the finest in the Premier League, but Fergie is correct - almost the entire squad is over 26 and there’s not much room for improvement.

As I’ve said, I don’t fully understand how Fergie’s mind games work, but work they do and long may they continue to work!

The following Highlights Chelsea's squad strength, but also the quality of young players at Manchester United, which means more room for improvement.

*Indicates part-time footballer
**Denotes a slave

Chelsea
Player	Age
Nicolas Anelka	29
Juliano Haus Belletti	32
Carlo Cudicini*	34
Paulo Ferreira*	29
Florent Malouda	28
Michael Ballack*	31
Ashley Cole	26
Claudio Miguel Pizarro	29
Tal Ben-Haim	26
John Terry	27
Ricardo Carvalho	30
Didier Drogba	30
Frank Lampard	30
Anderson Deco	30
Andriy Shevchenko*	31
Wayne Bridge*	27
Shaun Wright-Phillips	26
Joe Cole	26
José Bosingwa	26
Alex da Dias Costa	26
Wayne Bridge*	27
Petr Cech	26

Below 26
Franco Di Santo	19
Salomon Kalou	22
John Mikel Obi	21
Michael Essien	25
Branislav Ivanovic*	24

ManchesterUnited
Player				Age

Below 26
Ben Foster	25
Danny Simpson	21
Darren Fletcher	24
Fraizer Campbell	20
Jonathan Evans	20
Nani	21
Cristiano Ronaldo**	23
Wayne Rooney	22
Carlos Tevez	24
Anderson	20

Midfield Madness

Last summer saw the acquisitions of midfielders Owen Hargreaves, Luis Nani and Anderson. Hargreaves’ transfer
was a long drawn out affair with United being forced to wait over 12 months before securing the signature of the 27
year old.

He made his debut in the Manchester derby against City at the Council House, putting in a man of the match
performance despite the team losing 1-0.

He struggled with injuries in his first season, meaning he was in and out of the team. And with Paul Scholes out for
a couple of months, United were in need of some power in the engine room. It came in the form of 20 year old former
Gremio and Porto player Anderson.

Full name Anderson Luís de Abreu Oliveira, the Brazilian set about his career at Old Trafford like he’d been there for
years. The £18M signing made the loss of Paul Scholes and Owen Hargreaves unnoticeable with rampaging
performances against the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool, making established Premiership players Steven Gerrard and
Cesc Fabregas look average.

His performances became worse towards the end of the season, but that’s to be expected from a boy who had only
made 23 senior appearances combined at Gremio and Porto. But the potential was there for all to see, Sir Alex had
unearthed a gem.

The last of the midfielders acquired in the summer is Luis Nani. The Portuguese winger widely tipped to be the new
Ronaldo (let’s hope he has more loyalty).

He was criticized sometimes for his inconsistency, but with 11 assists in 37 appearances, it’s hard to criticize. He also
scored a couple of wonder goals against Middlesbrough, Tottenham and bitter rivals Liverpool, meaning it’ll be hard
for Fergie to overlook him next season.

Also fighting for places in United’s midfield are Paul Scholes, Michael Carrick, Ryan Giggs, Darren Fletcher, Park Ji
Sung and John O’Shea. I’ve left Ronaldo’s name out because his name on the team sheet is a no brainer.

All of these names and all of this quality give Sir Alex a selection nightmare ahead of the new season. Does he go with
youth? Experience? A mixture of both? Only he will know the answer to that and I’ll be looking forward to see who’s
in the starting lineup against Newcastle as United look to kick off the new season with a win.

Who would make your first choice midfield?

Rooney – Will this be HIS season?

At the start of the 2007/08 season, a lot of fans on forums and football sites voiced their belief that this would be Wayne’s season.

The signs were there: He had finished the previous season strongly and his overall performances on the pitch had grown in confidence and versatility. He had become a more refined footballer, who could pull defences apart, creating space for his team mates to take advantage of and on top of that, he had the ability to get the ball to them.

The above decription, however is more befitting of a winger or an attacking midfielder than a striker and there were growing concerns regarding his finishing, most notably during a 10 game barren run at the start of 2006/07.

Indeed, Manchester United fans were fortunate to see the best of Louis Saha’s form since joining the Red Devils from Fulham, which helped to carry the team, while Rooney was finding his scoring boots.

Wayne did eventually begin to find the back of the net with regularity and finally ended his two and a half year drought in the Champions League with goals against Roma and AC Milan.

The stage was set for Wayne to have a brilliant 2007/08 campaign, but this was immediately halted by a foot injury in the very first game of the season against Reading, which sidelined him for a month and an additional injury during a game of head tennis in November, which put him out of action for a further three weeks.

Having a season disrupted by injury will surely upset any footballer’s rhythm, but once Rooney returned, we witnessed something that we weren’t really accustomed to, which was our Boy Wonder missing some absolute sitters.

The forums were abuzz with debates about his finishing and there seemed to be various schools of thought on the subject – one of the many being that he was doing too much running out on the left, which left him with little energy to score, while others thought that his profligate finishing was down to a mental block and poor decision making.

One frustrating aspect of Wayne Rooney is his ability to score absolute beauties like against Newcastle at St James Park and then miss gilt-edged chances, which were seemingly easier to score.

For me, it seems to be a combination of factors and I think Sir Alex Ferguson might feel the same way.

In an interview, Sir Alex conceded that he needs to find the best position to play Rooney in and that he had not quite figured it out yet. To me, it is of utmost importance that he needs to play in a more central role again. In the absence of a recognized left winger, due to Giggsy’s decline in pace, Wayne was played on the left while Ryan drifted infield most of the time.

The addition of Nani has started to alleviate that problem and it should not be underestimated how much Wayne will benefit from Nani’s continuing improvement and presence on the left.

Rooney also seems happier playing off a classic centre forward, who can hold the ball up and bring him into play and a player like Dimitar Berbatov would give Wayne the opportunity to play that way again.

But finally, it all comes down to Wayne.

While The Slave has continuously improved his goal-scoring from season to season, Rooney has become more adapt at creating opportunities for others, which can be seen in his yearly increase in assists.

Premier League Stats

Wayne Rooney

2004/05 - 11 Goals | 4 Assists

2005/06 – 16 Goals | 9 Assists

2006/07 – 14 Goals | 11 Assists

2007/08 – 12 Goals | 13 Assists

Slave

2004/05 – 5 Goals | 4 Assists

2005/06 – 9 Goals | 6 Assists

2006/07 – 17 Goals | 13 Assists

2007/08 – 31 Goals | 7 Assists

However, I really feel that it is time for Wayne to step up his goal poaching and with the slave out of action till October; he has the chance to steal the limelight and showcase his goal-scoring abilities.

Simply put, he needs to seize this opportunity to show himself and his fans what well all know to be true – that we haven’t seen the best of Wayne Rooney yet.

When he introduced himself to the Old Trafford faithful with a hat-trick against Fernerbahce, I think we all thought we were looking at the most gifted English footballer of this generation.

While this may be true, I think most of us are feeling a bit frustrated, because we know that there is even more to come than what we’ve seen so far and that it is sitting there, ready to explode.

And we want it to explode. Oh yes…we so want!

A lot has been made about the old, raging version of Wayne Rooney versus the current version.

Truth be told, while he is a better overall footballer now, I do miss that raw power he used to display.

In any case, he will need to knuckle down and make better decisions in front of goal than last season. (That and lose about 8 pounds of flab he put on at McD's, Wendy's and at KFC!)

Maybe he needs to think more, maybe he needs to think less; only Wayne Rooney can find that out, but I have a gut feeling that all he needs to do is just to tap in to that amazing talent he has been blessed with, block out all the noise from the media and surely he will put the bloody ball into the onion bag!

Here's hoping that 2008/09 will be the season Wayne Rooney plays to his full potential and that it will be a very memorable one!

Who Can Make The Breakthrough?

There are always academy youngsters tipped to break into the first team at Manchester United, but since the class of 1992, very few have managed it. And not since Mark Hughes has a young striker made it from the academy to the senior team.

Many have been highly praised like Guiseppe Rossi and Dong Fangzhou (shirt seller surely?), but not until now have we had players that actually might reach the finishing post.

Fraizer Campbell played twice for us last season; against Manchester Ciddeh and Coventry. We lost both games, but the experience of being with the first team will have helped him along a little bit, as will travelling with the first team on their pre season tour of South Africa. The striker, who has pace to burn, scored 15 goals whilst on loan at Hull City last season helping them gain promotion to the Premiership and is highly regarded by Manager Phil Brown who’d love the opportunity to put him on his team sheet once again. If Fraizer became available we'd certainly be interested in taking him, either permanently or on loan."



Another youngster that has caught the eye is Salford lad Danny Simpson. He made three starts for us last season, against Everton, Roma and Dynamo Kyiv, but his most notable appearance was as a substitute against Wigan, where he flew down the right wing and crossed perfectly for Rooney to head home United’s fourth goal. With the retirement of club legend Gary
Neville expected to come within the next year or two, Danny’s rise to the top couldn’t be happening at a better time.



Danny Wellbeck is another promising strike talent who could yet make it to the big time. He top scored for the youth team, and was quite rightly promoted to the reserves where he continues to excel. He won the Young player of the year award too which is no small feat. His debut came against Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia in a friendly at Christmas last season. He came on
as a substitute and looked lively, but unfortunately missed a penalty. Even Ronaldo misses penalties though ;-)

We have other promising talent ready to come through, with Ben Foster, Jonny Evans, Rodrigo Possebom and many others.

So the future of Manchester united is looking extremely bright.

Who do you think will make the breakthrough?

Wayne's World Part Three

Dear Diary,
Bloody hell! Has it been almost 2 months since that amazing night in Moscow?! Unbelievable!

I’ve been wondering where I put you and I’ve finally found you at the bottom of my kitbag, which I forgot to unpack since that fateful night on the 21st of May.

You can’t blame me for forgetting with all the partying, but I am sorry that I put you in between Carvalho’s and Ronaldo’s underwear.

The morning after was a blur anyway and I just woke up in time to see the both of them leaving with two Russian birds. I tried to ask them what was going on, but I had a rubber ball in my mouth, which was surprising but not as surprising as discovering that I was handcuffed.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw some movement and Carlos Queiroz and Ramon Calderon stepped out of the bathroom in bath robes. Q was nice enough to remove the rubber ball, but laughed at me when I asked him about the handcuffs.

Ramon patted me on the head and said I was a good boy; the best he’d ever had and they both walked out of my room. He’s such a silly git - I don’t even play for Real Madrid!

Nani and Anderson were nice enough to uncuff me after Ronnie bumped into them in the corridor and gave them instructions to do so. I just wished they hadn’t gone for breakfast first, because Rio and Wes found me before they did and got thier tattoo artist friend to give me a tattoo on my arm. It looks quite awful, but the words are pure poetry and I hear it’s something from the Koran. Maybe I can impress that chick from the Man Utd forum with it. :-)
………….
After the celebrations, we joined up with the England squad, whch was a laugh. Hargo came up with the idea of slipping on to our arses whenever John passed us the ball. It was hilarious!

The only person who didn’t find it hilarious apart from the Chel$ki boys was Don Capello, he looked so angry that we all just pointed at Rio and said it was his idea and the poor guy had to fly out to Trinidad and Tobago because of that.
The following weeks were a blur and before I knew it, Colleen and I were tying the knot.

It was a perfect day and my only regret is that Rio and Wes couldn’t make it. They had been there the night before, but mysteriously didn’t attend the wedding

I caught them sneaking out of Colleen’s room the night before and was ready to kill them, but they told me they had been helping Colleen write a song for our wedding and begged me not to ruin the surprise.

I felt so ashamed. I can be so slow sometimes! What else would her guitar teachers be doing in her room on the eve of her wedding?! *smackshead* Hello, Wayne? Anybody home?!

Anyway, I’m writing this entry from a hotel room in Las Vegas while we’re on honeymoon.
Did you know that everything in America is bigger and better? I swear!

The Double Whopper with cheese is H-U-G-E and totally owns the burgers in England.

Sir Alex saw one of the pics of Colleen and me at the KFC and he wasn’t happy at all. He rang me up straight away and gave me a right ear full! Bloody geezer! He said, if I kept eating that stuff, I wouldn’t age gracefully and I should take care of myself like Ryan, Gazza and he have.

I asked him if he had looked in the mirror lately and while he was fumbling for words I told him that if Gary had aged a bit more gracefully, maybe he wouldn’t have frightened that poor Welsh lad at Carrington and he might have signed for us instead of ArseAnal.

(quite good eh? I came up with that all by myself!…..chuffed!).

I hung up and haven’t been taking his calls since. He can be quite persistent and annoying, so I did what Roonie told me he had done and just got my mobile provider to forward Fergie’s calls to Ramon Calderon.

That’s going to cost me, I know, and I already fear for my backside, but a man has got to take a stand and enough is enough. As long as he doesn’t make me wear the Shrek outfit while he does it, I’ll be ok.

I don’t quite know why Ronnie forwards his calls to Calderon, but he has a strange sense of humour, that Cristiano! A few weeks back, he hired a hacker to take over a Man Utd forum and deleted all the threads and banned people.
He can be quite evil.

Back to the present and I’m getting ready to got out to dinner with my sweetness. She’s so gorgeous and totally out of my league.

While we were at the pool just now, she handed me a cigarette and asked me to hold it while she tied up her hair. I then heard some clicking and when I looked up, I saw a bloody photographer sitting in a tree snapping away.

I was about to throw a rock at him, when Colleen stopped me and asked me not to be silly and told the photographer to get down. She then handed him a big wad of cash and told him that would be all.

She saw the utter bewilderment on my face and just flashed her angel smile and gave me a kiss.

Apparently, she had hired the photographer to take candid pictures of us for our wedding album and asked him to take them from weird positions, so he could “capture the essence of our love from all angles.”

I know……. I AM THE LUCKIEST SCOUSER ALIVE!!

;-)

Written by RedForceRising on ManUtd Talk Forums

Wayne's World Part two

Dear Diary,It's been awhile since my last entry and I do apologize, but thing's have just been crazy at Carrington. In fact, if I hadn't stolen myself out of Lord Fergie's office, while he was on the phone with Steve Bennett and Steve Bruce, I would still be shining his shoes in his closet.

It's a good thing, I cut out that hole during all my long, lonely nights during my first season at Old Trafford.

Good news! Even though I didn't score against Barcelona, Rio and the boys are still giving me a share in their new business venture! In fact, they let me be a major shareholder, because they have decided to concentrate on teaching Colleen and her friends guitar, so they can make them into an all girl band.

I was really angry that they didn't want to involve me, and to be honest that I hadn't thought of it first, but then they told me to think of all the money I would be making setting up hair saloons all over the country allowing people to get their hair done just like Carlos Tevez and Didier Drogba.

That really made me happy!To celebrate my goal against Chel$ki (smart innit? - the $ sign replacing the 's'. I think I'm a genius! ), Rio and Ronaldo gave me a banjo and a life-size poster of cow's behind. They presented it in front of the whole dressing room and everyone was laughing until I pointed out that I don't play banjo - I've started learning GUITAR! HELLOOO?! That made the dressing room go silent and everybody was looking at each other - and rightly so! They don't know me like they think they do!

Speaking of goals, I was analyzing John Arne Riise's own goal against the scum. What a beauty. I've been practicing it with Rene everyday after training at Carrington and I just can't get it right. He must be an amazing talent! Rafa and Stevie are so lucky to have such a great footballer in their team and he;s ginger-haired too!

I asked Giggsy, if he knew how to time a header like that and how to get the angle right, but he just shook his head and just said that it only comes with experience.

He highlighted his goal against Wigan as an example. After he received my pass he actually wanted to turn and shoot it against Titus Bramble and then have a laugh as the ball bounced off him and past Kirkland, but at the last moment his natural, predator instincts, which have been honed throughout the many years took over and he decided to pass it, but he scuffed the pass and it actually went it to the goal.

He was well pleased and I'm chuffed for him!

BRB, I hear the phone ringing. Promise!

OK, I'm back. That was my cousin who works at Heathrow. Apparently he just saw Roman Abramovic with a bunch of nice birds, but as soon as they entered the transit lounge, the girls went to sit with a guy named Lubos Michel.

Apparently he's a ref of some sort. My cousin suspected something might be amiss, but I told him not to worry. Roman did the same thing for Ronnie and me at Stamford Bridge. We didn't have much to talk about, because I don't speak Russian, so I sent them to Ronnie. That Ronnie.... he has a very bad sense of navigation or maybe trying to talk to the girls in Russian disorientated him, because he said he got lost on the way back to the dressing room and missed the start of the game.

Sir Alex gave me the hairdryer treatment and now I have to be with him at all times before a game. - What a bummer!

OK, I have to go now.

I need to go into town to buy a video camera for Colleen. Speaking of her, I went to that Man Utd forum the other day (I don't know why I still bother) and this bloke started a thread about footballers' wives who are fit and only two people mentioned Colleen! Are they bloody stupid or what? They must be, cos they mispelt wives and thought Kieran's lass is hot.

Those lads are clueless, mate!

Anyways, off to get that camera. Colleen wants to record her guitar lessons with Rio and Wes, so she and her band mates can practice when they're alone at home.

I really am a lucky guy!

Bye diary, I'll write after the CL final against CHel$ki!


Written by RedForceRising on ManUtd Talk Forums

Wayne's World Part One

Dear diary,I missed a sitter against Blackburn today. I was clean through on goal when I saw a girl in the stands. She looked like Colleen…..hmmm yummy. Now that I’m thinking of her, I don’t think she came home last night. Ever since she bought me a guitar and had it signed by that Oasis lad, she’s been at his house every day. She says he’s teaching her guitar and new fingering techniques. I’d call her, but she always gets so angry when I call her nowadays.

Anyway, after the match, the geezer was really nice to me and said he’s not worried about my finishing and that forwards always go through good and bad spells. He’s always nice to me, old Ferg, but that meanie Ronaldo said to me that my bad spell is lasting longer than the last ice age. He said it in Portuguese and Nani and Anderson had a good laugh at me. I wouldn’t have known, if it weren’t for Carlos Q. I told him off, cos I didn’t ask him init, but he said he wanted me to hear it anyway. He hates me too.

When I got home, I decided to unwind by surfing the net. I went to my favourite Man Utd forum and they were slagging me off too. These people know nothing about football. How do I know? They were being mean about Darren Fletcher too! Can’t they see how brilliant Fletch is? He wouldn’t be the captain of Scotland if he were rubbish. Gaarrrghh,….

Ole called me and asked me to join him at Carrington for some shooting practice, but I think I’m going to follow Carlos T to his favourite hairdresser instead. Wes, Rio and Mike just used their signing-on money from their new contracts to buy the business and are going to open several hair salons all over the country where people can get their hair done just like Carlos, cos everybody has been saying how good it looks. I’m sure the business will be a hit. Rio told me, if I score against Barca he’ll let me be a minority share holder. He’s such a nice guy Rio. He even told me he would give Colleen guitar lessons, if I didn’t like that Oasis bloke doing it. I didn’t even know, he plays the guitar, but that just shows what a great guy he is.

OK, gotta go now, the guys from the dealership just delivered the new Aston Martin, left the keys at the door and ran away. They’re always so shy! I should leave them signed autographs at the door next time to break the ice.

I’ll write more tomorrow about how it went at the hair salon........


Written by RedForceRising on ManUtd Talk Forums

Fixtures 2008/2009

Pre-season friendlies

12 Jul vs Aberdeen

19 Jul vs Kaizer Chiefs

22 Jul vs Orlando Pirates

26 Jul vs Kaizer Chiefs or Orlando Pirates

27 Jul vs Portsmouth

02 Aug vs RCD Espanyol

04 Aug vs Peterborough

06 Aug vs Juventus




2008/2009 Season


August

Sun 10th Portsmouth - Charity Shield

Sat 16th Newcastle
Sat 23rd Portsmouth
Fri 29th Zenit St Petersburg - European Super Cup
Sat 30th Fulham

September

Sat 13th Liverpool
Sat 20th Chelsea
Sat 27th Bolton

October

Sat 4th Blackburn
Sat 18th West Brom
Sat 25th Everton
Tue 28th West Ham

November

Sat 1st Hull
Sat 8th Arsenal
Sat 15th Stoke
Sat 22nd Aston Villa
Sat 29th Man City

December

Sat 6th Sunderland
Sat 13th Tottenham
Sat 20th Wigan
Fri 26th Stoke
Sun 27th Middlesbrough

January

Sat 10th Chelsea
Sat 17th Bolton
Sat 27th West Brom
Jan 31st Everton

February

Sat 7th West Ham
Sat 21st Blackburn
Sat 28th Portsmouth

March

Sat 4th Newcastle
Sat 14th Liverpool
Sat 21st Fulham

April

Sat 4th Aston Villa
Sat 11th Sunderland
Sat 18th Wigan
Sat 25th Tottenham

May

Sat 2nd Middlesbrough
Sat 9th Man City
Sat 16th Arsenal
Sat 24th Hull

Munich Clock

Munich Clock
On 25th of Feb 1960 Dan Marsden, chairman of the Ground Committee, unveiled the Munich clock, a poignant reminder commermorating the players, club officials, members of the press and others who died in the disaster. The clock is situated under the Manchester United Football Club sign at the front of Old Trafford's South stand. On the United road corner of K stand is the Munich plaque, once again in memory of those that died so tragically. It was unveiled, also on the 25th by Matt Busby.

Babes Last Game at Old Trafford
On January 25th, the Old Trafford faithful saw the Babes play there for the last time. Busby's all-conquering team beat Ipswich town 2-0 in this 4th round FACup tie. One of the greatest of them all, Bobby Charlton scored both goals. Before the next round of the cup was played, seven of Bobby's team-mates were dead, an eighth, Duncan Edwards, died 2 days after United's 5th round win over Sheffield Wednesday.

The Last Match of The Babes
On the 5th of February, United were in Belgrade for the 2nd leg of the European Cup Quarter Final against the Yugolslav champions. United held a 2-1 advantage from the home leg 2 weeks earlier. The Babes got off to a great start and quietened the huge, intimidating 55,000 crowd by going 3-0 up early doors. The fiercely partisan crowd then turned on the Babes. A number of subsequent reports on the game questioned a number of the referee's decisions, including giving the home team a very dubious penalty. They got back in the game and made it 3-3 on the night but United went through 5-4 on aggregate. The next day,United's plane crashed at the airport.

First Game after Munich
On February 18th, amid an emotional atmosphere at OT, United played their first game since the disaster. The crowd of nearly 60,000 wept openly in memory of those who had lost their lives. Their red and white scarves were draped in black that day. The space for the United line up on the programme was left blank as no one knew who the team would be. United won the game with a complete makeshift side. 3-0 with Shay Brennan getting 2 on his debut and Alex Dawson grabbing the other. Legends like Foulkes and Gregg played in this game, which was only 2 weeks after they had been involved in the crash. There is footage of them after the game and the emptyness in their eyes was there for all to see. They seemed lost but they were brave enough to play the game and win, despite the odds. What made the victory even more remarkable is that United had failed to beat Wednesday in the previous 3 cup games, losing 0-6, 0-1 and 0-2. The wednesday captain on the night was Albert Quixall, who would later on join United.

League Football Resumes
United's first league game after the disaster was a 1-1 home draw with Forest. Jimmy Murphy, Busby's right hand man, assumed charge of the team affairs while Sir Matt recovered. The attendance of 66,123 at the time set a club post war league attendance record at Old Trafford.

Matt Busby Arrives Home
On 18th of April 1958 Matt Busby arrived back at his home in Kings Road, Chorlton, 71 days after the Munich disaster. A huge crowd turned out to welcome him back.

Byrne Keeps His Promise
Following United's disappointing Fa Cup final defeat to Villa in 1957, Roger Byrne, the United captain, promised the fans that they would be back at Wembley the following year. Byrne was true to his word, but sadly he never made the final. He lost his life in Munich, 3 months before United stepped out at Wembley to face Bolton in the final.

Against The Odds
Jimmy Murphy led the team out to Wembley against all the odds. They had somehow made it to the final. Matt Busby sat in the stadium watching. However, this makeshift side were not good enough on the day to beat Nat Lofthouse and his Bolton team, who won 2-0. United became the first team to lose 2 finals in a row in the 20th century. They also had their keeper injured, both years running. United's keeper was taken out of the game and with no subs in those days, there was only going to be one winner. None of the Bolton side had previously played for another club, also a first time that had happened in a final.

Foulkes The Indestructable
Despite being involved in the tragedy, Bill Foulkes ended the 57/58 season having played in ALL 42 of United's league games. Dennis Viollet was the onlyother player to have competed in both the first and last games of the season. On the 9th of January 1953 Foulkes played the first of his 61 Fa Cup games for United. Remarkably all 61 appearences were made consecutively.


The following is a beautiful video made by Johanceder, celebrating 50 years since the crash
and that eventful night in Moscow. Please watch it, you wont be disappointed.
You can find more work from Johanceder on youtube. Thanks to him for this great video.

Berbatov To Emulate Cantona

Way back in 1992, United were challenging for the title but fell slightly short, they finished second to winners Leeds.
They had a lot of quality but were still missing something. That something was Eric Cantona.

The Frenchman arrived from Leeds for a bargain £1M. He went on to become a United legend. He completed the puzzle, he had what the French call Je ne sais quoi.

He epitomized the style that Manchester United have been famous for and he was an inspiration to the talented youngsters we had coming through at the time.

We're in need of a player with that same je ne sais quoi once again. A talisman up front who can turn a game on it's head with a moment of brilliance. Of course we have Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney, but both favour the support striker role and don't have the build of a typical target man or centre forward. Then we have the 'slave' Cristiano Ronaldo, he can score goals with the best of them, but I honestly believe last season was a freak season that he can never repeat, though I hope I'm wrong.

The player we need is Dimitar Berbatov. He leads the frontline brilliantly for the Spuds and has rightly been identified as Sir Alex's number one transfer target. At a reported £28M he isn't anywhere near as cheap as Cantona was, but he certainly has the same qualities to add to a team that can already boast being champions of Europe and England.

Ex United striker Andy Ritchie believes Berbatov would be a hit at Old Trafford.

Speaking to the M.E.N, he said, "There are similarities to Eric Cantona.

"He has got the same presence about him. He's very skilful and scores the tap-ins and the awesome goals.

"But he has other qualities as well. He's got the height which United haven't really had in their regular front men since Ruud van Nistelrooy left.

"He can also hold the ball up really well because he is strong and brings other players into the game. As a forward you also say if you can get your body between yourself and the ball then defenders shouldn't be able to dispossess you.

"You don't see Berbatov being knocked off the ball or getting the ball nicked off him. He's not got electrifying pace but he's not slow."

Berbatov has banged in 46 goals in his 101 appearances in a Spuds shirt but that hasn't stopped people calling him lazy.

If Sir Alex isn't worried about this then neither am I. If we can't trust the Manchester United manager to bring out the best in a player then who can we trust?

Richie believes Sir Alex will inspire a lot more effort from the former Bayer Leverkusen frontman.

"It is almost a pre-requisite at United that you have to put in the work,"

"But I think that can be brought out in him. Not everybody has it on arrival but being in that environment brings it out in everyone.

"I think Berbatov would become a more complete player at United. You have the two smaller workhorses like Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez who will put the miles in for you. Tevez was amazing last season.

"Berbatov will have fantastic work rate around him but I think that will also motivate him to put in more hard work.

"In Sir Alex's era he and his backroom team have always managed to make players better.

"Look at Cristiano Ronaldo, for instance, the club has certainly brought out the best and more in him.

"I foresee that happening if Berbatov signs. He's made people sit up and take notice of him at Spurs but a club like United could make even more of him. He can only get better.

"If United get him it will add something extra to all the qualities already in the squad. It's just what you need when you have just won the title and the Champions League. It keeps you moving upwards."

Huntelaar or Berbatov?

Sir Alex has said that he only expects to make one signing which will surely be a powerful striker, these are the two that are clearly at the top of our list. Huntelaar confirmed yesterday that we are very interested in his services, and we have been interested in Berbatov for a long time.

In terms of pure ability Berbatov is a better player than Huntelaar, he reminds me of Cantona in many ways. He would fit into our style of our play very well as he likes to come deep to get the ball and is very creative, but can also lead the line very well. He is already settled in the EPL so that would not be a problem, and he clearly wants the move.

Huntelaar is an out an out goalscorer in the Ruud Van Nistelrooy mould. Our style of play would change slightly with him as he would be the main player that we would look to supply to, Ronaldo would not score as many goals with Huntelaar in the team. However Huntelaar is a prolific finisher and would also be an excellent player for us. He has said in recent days that he would love to join us and emulate Van Nistelrooy, so it is a bonus when a player wants to come so much.

The amount of money we are willing to spend will largely decide which one of these two we purchase. We would be able to secure Huntelaar for around 18M, which is around the same amount we paid for Van Nistelrooy. Tottenham want more than 30M for Berbatov which will obviously be too much for us. We made an offer of 24M last season, so I expect a compromise would be made at around 27M. When you consider that Barcelona are prepared to spend 30M on Adebayor, I think it is not too bad.

In my opinion Berbatov is the one we should go for, he is a player capable of creating and scoring a goal on his own, whereas Huntelaar requires alot more from his team mates to create chances for him. Of course it is alot of money, but Berbatov does not rely on his pace, it is all about his touch and vision. So there is no reason why he could not go on playing for us till he is 34 or 35, Bergkamp played for Arsenal until he was 37.

Well that is my opinion anyway, what does everyone else think?

Bruce Bouyant After Landing World’s Best Striker

Wigan Athletic boss Steve Bruce is hoping Egyptian striker Amr Zaki can light up the Premier League with the scoring form that has seen him ranked as the best hitman on the planet.

After a lengthy negotiation process, the Latics have finally secured Zaki’s services on an initial loan deal from El Zamalek, which could cost up to ₤2million depending on add-ons.

The 25-year-old has been prolific for both club and country since returning to Egypt after a horror spell at Lokomotiv Moscow in 2006, during which he failed to feature at all.

But Bruce hopes his new recruit can put his previous stint in Europe behind him and transfer the form he displayed for the Pharaohs in February to the JJB Stadium.

“According to FIFA statistics, Zaki is rated No 1 in the world,” Bruce said in the Daily Mail.

“He's scored better than one in two for his country and Egypt won the Africa Cup of Nations. He's a big star out there - I hope he can be for us.”

Giggs is awarded honorary degree

Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs has been awarded an honorary degree for his contribution to sport and charitable causes.

Giggs, 33, was made a master of arts by the University of Salford in a ceremony at the Lowry Theatre.

Collecting his award, he said: "I'm really pleased to accept this degree.

"I grew up in Salford and it's been a big part of my life for 30 years, so it's great to be a part of Salford University now."

The Cardiff-born midfielder beat Sir Bobby Charlton's record of 758 appearances for the Old Trafford club in May as the team secured another Premier League title.

Giggs has won the Premier League 10 times with Manchester United as well as four FA Cups, two Champions League titles and two League Cups.

Salford University Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Harloe said: "It is not only his great achievements on the pitch for which he deserves recognition, but for his valuable charity work with developing countries."

Aside from football, Giggs is an ambassador for Unicef and regularly campaigns for children in South Africa who have been made vulnerable by HIV and Aids.

He was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List last year for his services to football.