Man Utd v Tottenham (Old Trafford, Sunday 1600 BST)
Luckily, we’re “last on”, which is usually better than 12 o’clock (poor poor put upon Rafa) and we’ll know based on the Chelsea result against Portsmouth whether this is really a must win game in August.
What we really need is someone with magic healing hands to repair Lois Saha (shockingly he might be on the bench), but failing that we’ll probably have the same team that lost to City with as yet unplayed Anderson on the bench for the first time. There wasn’t a lot wrong with the City performance except in front of goal. Major players Rooney and Ronaldo are still out with foot-knack and eyebrow-butt suspension respectively.
If there was one team in worse shape that United it would be Bolton, but if it wasn’t Bolton it would be Spurs whose 4-0 demolition of relegated Derby has been overshadowed by the off field drama surrounding manager Martin Jol. Typically, it will probably make the players perform that much better “for their manager” and they will fight their way to a draw. However, just remember even if we are 3-0 down, we can come back ! And ex-England goalkeeper, Paul Robinson is so out of form Silvestre will probably fluke a cross straight into the net.
Prediction 2-1 (Robinson o.g., Silvestre)
Popularity: 14% [?]
FC United of Manchester, the club formed from Manchester United supporters following Malcolm Glazier’s takeover, have had an equally rough start to their season as their “elder brother”.
Now playing in the Unibond First Division the team have suffered defeats in both their opening games. Lancaster beat them 2-1 and Garforth Town 1-0. According to the reports, the poor start is not the only similarity between the two United’s. Star player Stuart Rudd was unfairly sent off in the 1-0 defeat to Garforth and FC United have had the majority of possession in both games
The Reds hit the bar, had a goal disallowed for offside in the dying seconds and had the lion’s share of possession throughout the match, but if truth be told they failed to create enough clear-cut chances in front of goal and were hit on the break with less than 20 minutes to go by Jason St Juste.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it ?
Unfortunately, this season it doesn’t look like I will be able to see anything of FC United as Channel M has stopped showing the highlights package that I watched. Unlike, biffafootie, as a Timperley boy myself, I’ll still view Channel M occasionally for some more odd stuff from Frank Sidebottom.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Two pieces of good news for both Real Madrid and Manchester United as it is reported that Real are to unveil Heinze and Robben
Obviously it is a relief that Heinze has left (and so quick; he gave up on Liverpool pretty quick, didn’t he?) for all parties concerned, especially as the reported fee is £8 million which is more than what the “walk-out” fee was supposed to me. After trying to get a move to Liverpool it was obvious he was never going to go near the 1st team and Fergie again. Real are taking a gamble that the player can recapture his form from before he was injured and United have made money on a player who they have replaced. It’s actually odd for United to so well in a transfer deal for someone who clearly wanted out. As I’ve mentioned before, the one thing the Glazer’s seem to be good for is transfers, but then they couldn’t have been worse that Slippery Kenyon.
The other good news is that Robben has left Chelsea. For all his theatrics he was actually quite a good player on occasion and it is better that Chelsea won’t have him available.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Apparently, Rafa Benitez is wondering why the world is so much against Liverpool that it was so eash for United to sign Tevez
“Then I want to ask the Premier League why it was so difficult for Liverpool to sign Javier Mascherano, when we had to wait a long time for the paperwork, but it was so easy for Carlos Tevez to join Manchester United?”
It was very easy wasn’t it? I mean Fergie just walked into the West Ham Shop and said “I’d like to buy 1 Carlos Tevez please?” and Alan Curbishley replied “Sure, that will be 5 of your English pounds”. Fergie paid cash and walked back to Old Trafford with him in a brown bag (oops, don’t mean to imply there was any sort of George Graham-ing going on there).
What didn’t happen was a convoluted transfer saga that took weeks and weeks; was complicated by dodgy loan deals and ownership claims; bored the pants off everyone; left Tevez in limbo for the entire pre-season meaning that he wasn’t even signed before the first game of the season, or fit for the next game. Cos that wouldn’t have been easy, would it?
Nor did Tevez make it easy by claiming he had a letter that promised he could join Man United, nor did he try to create ill feeling amongst the West Ham United fans by openly stating he wanted to join their bitterest rivals after said fans had stuck by the player after a serious injury kept him out for a season.
Life isn’t easy, Rafa and you’ll find you job won’t be easy when you don’t win the league again this summer if you want everything handed to you on a plate. btw, I’d rather have Riise than Heinze anyday. Can we have a swap ?
Popularity: 16% [?]
My new Manchester United Blog is up and running at the URL — http://www.unitedonfire.co.uk. Whilst the old URL should work fine (with a search engine friendly 301 redirect) for as long as I’m on the same server, I’d advise you to update your bookmarks or links to the new URL. Please let me know if you have found any issues, or get a dead link or anything.
The old RSS feed will still work as well, but I’ve taken the trouble to burn a new RSS feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/UnitedOnFire . You can also now subscribe via email using the form on the righthand side.
Hopefully all the software issues are resolved. I’m planning a proper design soon, and more features/sections to come – random speculation on whether Le Sulk is coming to United does not exactly make a good blog.
btw, all the Reading football fans should head over to my friend Terry’s site as he has his Reading football blog up and running at a new URL too, http://www.readingfcblog.co.uk
Popularity: 5% [?]