Post by Scott on Dec 31, 2006 0:23:49 GMT
Welcome to the 8th edition of Republik of Mancunia: The Paper. We seem to get bigger and bigger editions with every passing month, so cheers for everyone who’s contributing.
No snow in Manchester this Christmas, so I’ve had to rely on the snow on the forum to give me my white Christmas
Don’t forget to check out the RoM.org's Christmas Music Player #Christmas_smile_Smile#The results for RoM.org’s awards will be presented on Tuesday at 8pm, and I want to give a massive thanks to all of you who have voted so far. It would be great if as many of you as possible could be online. They will be announced one at a time as in a real awards ceremony… and don’t forget to whip out your tuxes and practice your surprised face (and maybe some of this #Christmas_Smilie_Laugh# )
Because we're so kind to you, more designs have been added to the RoM.org Shop.
And bumper stickers for less than a fiver to show what you're all about...
As well as modified older designs:
If you like a design but want it on a different colour, or with something else different on it, just give me a shout, and I'll see what I can do.
If you feel like you have something to offer The Paper, whether it be Match/Player of the month reviews, an article, or anything else you feel could be of interest to our forum, don’t hesitate to give me a shout. We encourage anyone and everyone to take part in The Paper, as it is for you lot, and we appreciate diverse opinions on our club. Remember, when a member has contributed four times to The Paper they will be classed as an Official Contributor, with their own member group and button in the sig to prove it ;D So get in touch.
Now let us begin:
Member of the Month
This month’s winner goes to a member who has been with us since pretty much the very beginning. We can always rely on him to bring a bit of realism to the discussion, and he’s good for a laugh. So, I’m sure you’ll all join me in congratulating MoxDevil as this month’s winner.
Interview
Time for the interview. MissUnited, everyone’s favourite female member of staff (#Christmas_Smilie_Wink#), has kindly taken the time to give us a bit of insight on herself. Read on to learn more…
Real name: Silje (Sil)
Where are you from: The high mountains and deep fjords of Norway.
Who is your biggest inspiration: hmmm... I could come up with someone really impressive like Mandela or Princess Diana, ooo or maybe Mother Theresa... but I'd be lying. My little daughter is my inspiration.
What would you like to be better at: Time management? I can't manage my time and get everything I'm supposed to do done. It's actually really sad.
If you could ask anyone, living or dead, a question, who and what would it be? I really have no idea… hmm. I was always curious about who really killed Marilyn Monroe, but then I also think that some things should remains secretive. Must be the romantic in me.
What is your all time favourite film? Casablanca. I have a lot of favourite films, but that's my absolute favourites. I don't really like romantic films or anything (give me horror, ghosts and gore any day) but I love that film.
If you won the lottery, how would you spend it? I'm a really boring person, so I would spend it on a house and stuff like that, invest the rest. I'm so responsible me.
One job in the world, what would it be? Right now, freelance writer. Wanted to become a Criminal Psychologist before I became a mum, but I'm old fashioned, so don't want to miss out on too much time with my family.
What’s your biggest ambition in life? Publish a book.
What’s your greatest ever achievement? Being a good parent.
What’s your biggest regret? I don't live in the past, so I don't have any regrets. Can't live your life thinking about what could or should have been.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years time? Hopefully a successful writer, besides from that I'm pretty happy with how life is now, so wouldn't want it to change too much.
Who do you hate most: City/Liverpool/Leeds/Arsenal/Other Liverpool. Not helped by growing up in a house of bin dipping supporters
Then City and even Leeds. I don't care enough about Arsenal or Chelsea and the likes to hate them.Do you enjoy being a mod on the forum? What are the good and bad bits? I love it, the power is such a turn on. Really. Seriously though, it's good fun, everyone's relatively well behaved so it's an easy job. Bad bits are, I spend waaay too much time on here when I should be doing other things. Shame on me
Who do you hope we'll sign in January? Hargreaves, Joe Cole would be nice too but don’t see it too likely
Whats the best game you've ever been too? I’ve seen United three times, one of which was a friendly in Norway, another was the 2-1 win at Upton Park last season which was brilliant. My favourite match was at Old Trafford though, lost 1-0 to Liverpool, but the atmosphere was amazing. And someone came over to me on the bus after and gave me a hug and said to cheer up as we’d bounce back. Northerners are so lovely
Who's your favourite member on the forum? Hmm, now that is hardly a fair question to ask, whoever I don’t mention would feel left out. If I have to pick one thought, it would be Moxdevil, he is so funny.
Anything else you want to tell us? If I did I would have to kill you…. Just thanks to Scott for starting the forum and also to everyone who posts and stuff, you all make RoM the best United forum online. (I would just like to say for the record, I am not sucking up to anyone, I am getting paid to say it
)Article
This month’s article is written by RedYank.
Mission: Hargreaves
So here we are in late December with our minds set on making some new signings in the upcoming transfer window. While several names have been thrown around as potential reinforcements to United's midfield, the wooing of Owen Hargreaves from Bayern Munich has reached soap opera levels. His world cup performance catapulted him into the eyes of English supporters who up to that point were quick to question his inclusion on the England squad. Hargreaves had been plying his trade in the Bundesliga where he is a much beloved player by the supporters of Bayern Munich, and rightfully so as he is a hard working midfielder with both defensive and offensive capabilities. These qualities came to the forefront in his World cup performance where there wasn't one part of the pitch that seemed to be devoid of Hargreaves either tackling or making offensive runs.
After the World Cup the rumors started about a move for Hargreaves as part of United's much needed signings. Slowly but surely more articles started appearing exposing our interest in him, but just as quickly as the links were made Bayern's front office expressly denied they were going to sell. Things took a turn for the worse when Owen came out in the media claiming he wanted to leave Bayern for United because he wanted to explore new opportunities, this angered Rummenigge and Hoeness resulting in colorful comments like "Hargreaves is a whore for United" among others. Bayern had even threatened to report United for tapping up one of their players which only complicated matters. While no one can fault Bayern for not wanting to sell one of their players, the situation could have been handled much better than it was. At the time I figured it would only be a matter of time until Bayern would be willing to let him go, it was just a matter of them finding a replacement as their midfield had recently lost Ballack. There was a bit of hope for Hargreaves coming in the summer when Van Bommel signed for Bayern and came out in the media stating he was the replacement for Hargreaves, yet it was not to be....that summer at least. Now in December after Hargreaves being sidelined with a broken leg, Bayern have changed their tune and are more receptive for transfer talks. The current price floating around is 20 mil which certainly isn't reasonable, but we can be sure Gill will do his best to bring the price down. I have the feeling Bayern will keep in mind our 18 mil signing of Carrick this past summer and will be looking for something similar.
I will be honest in saying that I would not have been all that excited about a move for Hargreaves prior to the World Cup, while I was relatively familiar with his gameplay at Bayern I hadn't really seen enough of him to be sure he was the type of player United needs in the midfield. What his performance did show was his versatility and this is certainly something United desperately needs in the midfield. The current team has a very solid midfield but lacks a ball winning player that can also provide an attacking option; Ronaldo has been brilliant for us this season and at times we see him tracking back but it's certainly not his strong point. Scholes we all know really has no business tackling anyone, and Paul we love you, but stick to the brilliant passes and the now and again blast from outside the box. Carrick has also done some defensive work, the best for me was in the match against Chelsea but again not something we can expect on a regular basis. During the summer I had my hopes set on Gattuso (part of me still does) but I think Hargreaves would be a great fit in our midfield, and with the Bundesliga being a physical league as well there shouldn't be much worry about him adjusting to life in the Premiership. Equally important is the fact that Hargreaves wants to come to United and is looking forward to making more of a name for himself in England. There are some questions regarding his ability to come back from his injury and get back to form, rightfully so, but he has the work ethic to bounce back and I am confident he will. United needs depth in the midfield and in Hargreaves there will be more options in depth both tactically and in the event of injury; with Larsson on board until March and Hargreaves signed in January we will have reinforced the areas which need the most attention. I look forward to posting in the "Welcome Hargreaves" thread once he's in a United shirt.
Match of the Month
We’ve had a few good results to choose from, and this month’s write up is by Scott.
Our December started out well, winning our first three games. There was the 2-1 win at Boro, where Saha got rid of any penalty fears after missing against Celtic, and Darren Fletcher racked up our winning goal, less than two minutes after the home team equalised. We had the 3-1 win at home to Benfica, which put us through to the next round of the Champions League, at the expense of our opposition, who had knocked us out at the same stage the season before. Then, our 3-1 win on derby day with goals from Rooney, Saha and Ronaldo.
My choice for game of the month though was our early Christmas present match, against Villa on December 23rd. We had just lost to West Ham away, and the press were on our back. People were harping on about strength in depth, and how Chelsea had the character of Champions, coming back twice from behind against Everton to win. The pressure was on us, and our lead at the top had gone from a potential eight points, to just two.
The first half was nothing to write home about. United controlled the game, as we have done with most our games this season, but just couldn't seem to find the opening goal. It was starting to look like it might be "one of those days". Thankfully, man of the moment, Cristiano Ronaldo, saw to it that we had a better day out than that.
With a splendid individual effort, Ronaldo ran the ball from our half in to the Villa box. He saw his first attempt blocked, but made no mistake with the second, hitting the ball so cleanly, and watching it rocket just inside the post. Goal one.
United weren't through with scoring great goals that day though, and if there's anyone capable of scoring a screamer, it's our man Paul Scholes. Five minutes later, the ball fell to him 30 yards out, and casually he swung at it. The ball looped up in the air, dropping just over the keepers glove, hitting the underside of the bar, and rebounding over the line. A truly superb goal. Goal 2.
The match was won, but to rub salt in the wounds, Ferguson brought Rooney on for the last twenty five minutes to keep on the pressure. Scholes picked up the ball from the edge of our area, played through a great ball to Ronaldo. He flicked this on to Rooney who ran the ball to the edge of the area, only to give it to Gary Neville. Our captain crossed in a perfect ball for Ronaldo to tap in. A goal created from just four passes. Goal 3.
Aston Villa: Kiraly, Hughes, Mellberg, Cahill, Barry, Agbonlahor, McCann (Angel 76), Gardner, Petrov, Davis, Sutton. Subs Not Used: Olejnik, Baros, Bouma, Ridgewell.
Booked: McCann, Sutton.
United: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Ronaldo, Fletcher, Park (Rooney 66), Scholes (Silvestre 88), Giggs (O'Shea 88), Saha.
Subs Not Used: Kuszczak, Brown.
Booked: Vidic, Scholes.
Goals: Ronaldo 58, Scholes 64, Ronaldo 85.
Att: 42,551
Ref: S Bennett (Kent).
Player of the Month
This month’s write up is by Adam, and he has now contributed enough times to be classed as an official contributor, so well done mate
It's an obvious choice for December's Player of the Month so I won't fanny around, the award goes to..Cristiano Ronaldo.
Arguably United's player of the season thus far, in the month of December he scored seven goals in seven games.
The month started with the media talking about "a dive that never was a dive" according to Sir Alex after Ronaldo was accused of play acting to win a penalty, despite being a clear award it was just another example of the English media waiting to jump on anything Ronaldo done or was accused of doing. Despite this Ronaldo has consistently performed throughout the season and December has bared fruition to a player who is maturing and becoming an all round player.
One goal against City to wrap the game up, two versus Aston Villa, two versus Wigan and another two versus Reading. The boys on fire!
Combining sheer pace, skill and confidence with the willingness to provide for others as well as having the end product which the young Portuguese winger has been criticised for lacking in the past.
Finishes against the likes of Aston Villa and Reading when the chips were down and the games were deadlocked have helped United gain a six point advantage and left defences wishing the boy had indeed left the country.
That's twelve goals for the season, all twelve coming in the league. It leaves him one behind top scorer, Drogba and prompted Edwin Van Der Sar to say his target should now be twenty and Ferguson to all but give up on his wager with Cristiano.
Now altogether now, "he plays on the left, he plays on the right, that boy Ronaldo made England look shite!"
Official RoM.org Wallpaper
Adam has been the first to contribute to this latest feature on the forum.
Here's the preview:
Click here to download it.
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I hope you enjoyed the eighth edition of The Paper. Any comments about it please leave in the comments thread on this board
Editor: Scott
