Lots of niggly things

[missunited]

The truth about Keane is... yeah, he probably was past it as a player, sadly his injuries put an end to his career a few years before it really should have done, but he has been a brilliant player for us, and is a legend. We could have done with keeping him on the training staff. Although I am not saying that his comments about the players is something that should have been for the public, a lot of what he said everyone else was thinking, he was just the only one who said it.

The whole Ruud business is very confusing, and it seems as though Sir Alex don't quite know what he was doing with it himself. The truth is though, we need our top scorer and we cannot afford our top scorer to lose his form due to disagreements with the manager, it's hardly very professional. Louis Saha in my opinion is not a very good substitute for him as I never am going to think him good enough for United, he is never going to be more than an average player that we paid too much money for from an average club where to be fair, he was doing much better than he is with us. Sure he has scored some goals, but he has a tendency of being lazy and expecting the ball to come to him rather than him trying to get the ball. Although this might have slightly improved towards the end of last season, it is still not good enough. You can argue that Ruud has the same problem, and I do think that he can be incredibly selfish and fail to be a team player, but if we're going to drop him, we need a world class striker to replace him next to Rooney.

Rio Ferdinand is quite possibly the most stupid footballer you're going to come across. When he says he forgot about the drug test, you can actually believe that it's true as he is well known for doing stupid things. Sadly, this stupid thing got him suspended. To be fair, giving him 8months was harsh as he did take a drug test and passed it, but it was made a point of because it was United. Both before and after players who have been caught taking drugs have received shorter bans than what Rio did. Now, as for Rio's paycheck... It's been good to see RIo and Wes together, they've made a good team, but especially in the first half of the season Rio was making too many mistakes for someone who is supposedly one of the best defenders in the country. His ego makes him make silly slip ups and sometimes it doesn't even seem like he realises he's playing. Maybe if he stopped spending the matches planning what "bling" to buy next, he'd have more luck. About the contract however, he's a footballer and that's his job, when you're doing a job you hold out to try and get yourself the best deal possible, which is what he did. We can't really blame him as, lets face it, he doesn't love United nor the fans, he is just doing his job.

Ronaldo doesn't look happy at United, and ever since his dad died he has seem even more unhappy. Maybe he misses his homeland, family and friends, or maybe he just doesn't like it at United. His form has been going up and down like a yoyo and although I was very impressed with him when he first joined United, I am starting to worry whether he is ever going to settle in. As much as I would hate to see him play for a different club, I am uncertain as to whether he can reach his full potential at United. Looking at the bright side... at least his diving has become less obvious since he joined.

[theteamof99]

Cast your minds back folks to the bad old days when SAF took the helm at United we were a joke, we had just gone through a period of changing managers akin to Beckham changing hairstyles. We and the press were baying for SAF's blood then and fair play to Martin Edwards and co. they stuck by him and the rest is history so to speak. Lets face it there is a little problem at the THEATRE OF DREAMS at the moment but its not with the management it lies with the playing staff, Yes people can say then that is a management problem but we were devastated by Injuries last season and played 99% of the season without a midfield I think Fergie did wonders last year considering the resources he had to hand. There is obviously a problem with 1 or 2 of the star players but I think that a lot of it is down to frustration. We need to make a couple of decent signings in the midfield area problem solved, lets face it we won the League cup with half a team. Scholesy should be back in August Heinze is fit again. I truly believe we are 1 good signing (midfielder) away from regaining our crown

[chiff]

theteamof99 said:

Cast your minds back folks to the bad old days when SAF took the helm at United we were a joke, we had just gone through a period of changing managers akin to Beckham changing hairstyles. We and the press were baying for SAF's blood then and fair play to Martin Edwards and co. they stuck by him and the rest is history so to speak. Lets face it there is a little problem at the THEATRE OF DREAMS at the moment but its not with the management it lies with the playing staff, Yes people can say then that is a management problem but we were devastated by Injuries last season and played 99% of the season without a midfield I think Fergie did wonders last year considering the resources he had to hand. There is obviously a problem with 1 or 2 of the star players but I think that a lot of it is down to frustration. We need to make a couple of decent signings in the midfield area problem solved, lets face it we won the League cup with half a team. Scholesy should be back in August Heinze is fit again. I truly believe we are 1 good signing (midfielder) away from regaining our crown

Sorry but you are being a bit naive in your thinking. Your reasoning is OK - ie the fact that we did not do well was because of A B and C. But these are irrelevant to a Director. Scholesy was unfit. "Didn't you know his medical history? Cover?". Heinze unfit? " But you must realise when you signed him that this was always a likelyhood with that kind of player" "Mr Ferguson, what are the statistics for a defender being injured? What cover did you have in place? How many of your reserves have had 1st team experience? " And so on.

As a football club, we expect that the worst will happen SOMETIMES. Last season was shit with these "sometimes". But the fact remains that we had an almighty turd of a squad last year. This was as a result of
1) Resources stretched too thin anyway
2) Loyalty to some older players
3) Poor Buying
4) Not discarding players who had been given a chance and were NEVER going to make it
5) Competition had unlimited resources.
At the risk of becoming boring, we have needed a midfield for two , maybe three seasons. We have been utterly outwitted in the transfer market by other clubs and NOT just Chavski. We cannot attract the right players. And the result of this is we haven't won the PL since..........?
Now the fact of life in today's world is you have a job description. In this case it's "Football Manager". And somewhere in between the usual HR crap, it will say something to the effect of "the jobholder is successful when....." and in the case of the manager of Colchester it will say " keeping the club in the league". But this is United. And it will say "reaching the last eight of the CL or something". It will not say "reaching the last eight..etc providing Rio doesn't fail to take a drugs test." Hidden in the crap it will say "Responsibilities - Maintaining a club structure which ensures that the players act within the laws and the proprities of the game" And a manager delegates this to a PA or whoever but when it goes tits up -ITS THE BOSSES FAULT. Hence the fiasco in Germany is Sven's fault.

I feel sorry for Fergie. He's a streetfighter in an IT world. He has been the best manager at OT and that includes Sir Matt. But this isn't his world any more. And the boys who will be pulling his strings don't care about 1999, they want X% return. That's not life as we remember it - but you'd better believe it that it's what's coming if not already here.

[danishred]

Rio not turning up for his drug test meant that he had used something and therefore i do agree that United should have come down strong on him...

[Red Yank]

Chiff you're right on the money about the responsibility of the success (or lack there of) of the team being the manager's. He's paid to make the operational decisions and base them on both his own expertise as well as his staff's. Is Fergie competing in a sport who's value system has changed? Absolutely. There is certainly nothing wrong with being loyal to players whom you might have faith in, but in a world where immediate performance is key your decisions should be made accordingly because it will only be you who will have to face the tough questions not your subordinates. The signings he makes now will have to serve the club well otherwise strictly from a managerial perspective, he would have failed to bring success for yet another year. I love Fergie and all of the managers who fight for their players and truly want the best for the clubs they manage, so for tough bird like Fergie I hope this year is the one where he shines once more.

[chiff]

danishred said:

Rio not turning up for his drug test meant that he had used something and therefore i do agree that United should have come down strong on him...

That's what a lot of people thought at the time but now I think he's so empty headed OUTSIDE FOOTBALL, I don't know. One bit says that he mixes with a lot of people and "recreationals" and the other bit says he's probably quite capable of forgetting what day it is. What I don't believe is that someone like him would EVER be without his Mobile.

[missunited]

danishred said:

Rio not turning up for his drug test meant that he had used something and therefore i do agree that United should have come down strong on him...

According to Rio he "forgot" about it, he was moving houses on that day and the forgetting of the test was most likely an act of stupidity or arrogance. Rio is known for forgetting things, like interviews and stuff and to be fair he aint the brightest person around.

It is very unlikely that Rio was on drugs as he offered to have the test done hours later on the day that he were supposed to, but this was refused him and it was rescheduled and done 36hours later. Although any serious drugs might have been out of his blood by then they should have been able to trace any abuse via other methods. The club should have penalised him more than they did, however, they didn't, probably out of fear of unsettling their record signing. This is all in the past though, and hardly matters anymore.