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Father Ted
23 Feb 2004, 10:32 AM
From today's Irish Independant:
There was another twist last night when it was revealed that Martin O'Neill spent an hour in John Magnier's company last week during a break in Barbados as a guest of Dermot Desmond.
O'Neill's name has been repeatedly mentioned as a successor to Ferguson if the Scot was to leave in the summer and while O'Neill is believed to have agreed in principle to take over at Tottenham Hotspur in the summer. O'Neill refused to comment on the meeting with Magnier, but has denied that any deal has been agreed with Spurs.
http://www.unison.ie/sportsdesk/stories.php3?ca=12&si=1131763
bigtoga
23 Feb 2004, 10:45 AM
There was something on Rednews last week mentioning this same idea, FT. O'Neill would likely be a good interim candidate once SAF decides to leave and until Keano is ready...
Motterman
24 Feb 2004, 04:36 PM
Fulham have a 2-0 lead in the 85th min, should they hold on against West Ham, we will host them in the next round of the FA Cup.
Mac_Howard
25 Feb 2004, 12:34 AM
Fulham it is!
Motterman
25 Feb 2004, 12:36 PM
http://www.skysports.com/skysports/article/0,,7-1124803,00.html
Mikael Silvestre could be set for a quicker return than anticipated, after responding positively to treatment on the ankle injury he sustained in Manchester United's draw against Leeds.
Reliable sources in France state that the original suggestion that Silvestre would be missing for three weeks is now looking pessimistic.
In fact, the France international could return in as little as ten days, after an MRI scan revealed no damage to his ligaments or bone in the joint.
BillyManutd
26 Feb 2004, 04:43 PM
Lou Macari told SAF to restore Scholes in a central position so that MU don't suffer a disaster.
http://www.4thegame.com/club/mufc/news/148990/.html
Sofabloke
27 Feb 2004, 02:28 AM
Originally posted by BillyManutd
Lou Macari told SAF to restore Scholes in a central position so that MU don't suffer a disaster.
http://www.4thegame.com/club/mufc/news/148990/.html
Amen to that. When I saw the line-up against Porto I was sure that Saha would play wide right and Scholes in the middle just in front of Butt/Keane. Against Leeds, playing on the left Scholes was terrible.
Rio, Ruud, Giggs, Keane, Scholes are our world-class players and they should be played in their natural positions.
Saw this story which was an interesting opinion on our troubles. Contrasts us to AC Milan http://www.football365.com/You_Say_We_say/Football365_Opinion/story_101675.shtml
The leaders angle is an intersting one that I would agree with. Rio, Gary and in the past Becks are the only players in recent history that could be considered leaders (in addition to Keano). Not enough given Becks has gone, Gary is right-back and not able to influence others from there, Rio is suspended and Roy is not considered able to play in every game.
The time has come to buy a midfield general in addition to the experienced central defender we all agree we need.
Achtung
27 Feb 2004, 10:41 AM
The leadership angle is an interesting one. Something odd is that out of that 92 FA Youth Cup squad, I haven't really gotten the feeling that there are any big leaders there. They were all sort of dubbed Fergie's Fledglings with an "all for one and one for all" spirit. Sure they won plenty of silverware, but generally under the leadership of guys like Steve Bruce, Bryan Robson, and Roy Keane, all of whom came in as transfers.
While I don't doubt the class and general leadership of Giggs, Scholes, Gary Neville, and Butt (and previously Beckham), I don't know that I see any of them as being in the mold of a Manchester United captain. None of them has really stepped up to that position. If you were to ask me who I would instill as captain after Keane, I'd probably say Rio (another big transfer) and after him maybe Howard. I don't see Ruud as being at that level of leadership either, but maybe things will change.
Motterman
27 Feb 2004, 01:33 PM
"FIFA president Sepp Blatter has hailed Wenger's men as the best team in the world"
A little insight into Blatter's motives regarding the Rio situation perhaps?
Potomac Red Devil
27 Feb 2004, 01:34 PM
Watching Man Utd-Blackburn from Aug of 2001, on YES last night, made me wish he had Beckham and Veron back. They both made some absolutely fantastic passes/crosses....Veron in particular.
I don't understand why they were both sold in the same year.
Motterman
27 Feb 2004, 02:06 PM
Originally posted by Potomac Red Devil
Watching Man Utd-Blackburn from Aug of 2001, on YES last night, made me wish he had Beckham and Veron back. They both made some absolutely fantastic passes/crosses....Veron in particular.
I don't understand why they were both sold in the same year.
Veron played very well when he first came to the club, and then opposing teams started to crowd him and he's rarely (if ever) produced that form in the Premiership since.
We wouldn't have missed Becks this much had Ole not gotten injured. We could've brought these new younger player signings up a bit more carefully and had an experience veteran on the right wing, instead of the Fletch/Klebs/Scholes/Ronaldo/Giggs rotation....
johno
27 Feb 2004, 07:38 PM
Yes, it is true that untimely injuries have hurt us, but more than anything poor managing has been our downfall either picking up the wrong players... or not picking up the right players and fielding the wrong teams...
Think about this... we have Keane, Butt, P.Nev, Scholes who are all established players in the middle of the park... in the wings we have Kleberson, Djemba Djemba and then that Miller kid. Too many central mids... way too many
On the wings we have Giggs, OGS, Ronaldo and Fletcher... when Fletcher and OGS are supposed to be playing different possitions and Fletcher is crap anyway.
We should have bought a defender in the winter and we did not and now we struggle to put even a decent tackler on the bench if we lose someone during a game to injury...
There is no reason we cant spend 10 million on Robben... we need to spend about 50million on good players.. because we lost Becks... great for us and Veron, influential if not always great because teams had to pay attention to him, and we have added some maybes... Ronaldo is the future, Klebs is good, but again he is a central mid.
This season, even when we were playing better, has been a bad one to be a fan.
Sofabloke
27 Feb 2004, 11:11 PM
Originally posted by mtkillamanjohno
Yes, it is true that untimely injuries have hurt us, but more than anything poor managing has been our downfall either picking up the wrong players... or not picking up the right players and fielding the wrong teams...
Think about this... we have Keane, Butt, P.Nev, Scholes who are all established players in the middle of the park... in the wings we have Kleberson, Djemba Djemba and then that Miller kid. Too many central mids... way too many
On the wings we have Giggs, OGS, Ronaldo and Fletcher... when Fletcher and OGS are supposed to be playing different possitions and Fletcher is crap anyway.
We should have bought a defender in the winter and we did not and now we struggle to put even a decent tackler on the bench if we lose someone during a game to injury...
There is no reason we cant spend 10 million on Robben... we need to spend about 50million on good players.. because we lost Becks... great for us and Veron, influential if not always great because teams had to pay attention to him, and we have added some maybes... Ronaldo is the future, Klebs is good, but again he is a central mid.
This season, even when we were playing better, has been a bad one to be a fan.
By all accounts, Fletcher is really more a central mid too.
The only reason I can think for SAF buying so many central mids is that he had already decided that 4-5-1 was the only route to Euro success, so he was willing to gamble the Prem on making this our regular formation. Maybe he was also thinking Butt was not quite good enough any more and that Keane is not a two game a week player who needs a long term replacement.
On the downside, I agree - even before this bad run we have not played in the style of old. The 4-5-1 stuff has been pretty turgid, we have not been the quick passing and ball holding teams of old. Kept waiting for us to get started, instead we have nearly stalled.
On the plus side, we are second in the Prem, in the FA cup quarter finals, in the CL with only a narrow deficit from the first leg and an away goal. So aside from probably having let Arsenal go to far in the Prem it is not over by a long way.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/3519489.stm
this is not good news for getting Robben or any PSV player in the future.
United20
01 Mar 2004, 09:05 AM
PSV and Chelsea? Dunno why PSV want to be considered a grooming club for one specific club or at all?
Also, this would be interesting - Figo lining up on the right side. I would like to see ManU make another attempt for Thurman of Juve...defense wins championships.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id=292892&cc=5901
DaeHaMinGuk
01 Mar 2004, 05:29 PM
Man U is too cheap to get Figo, unless he was free. Or maybe Real would have to pay Man U to take him.
Man U dropped the ball by letting Chelski outmaneuver them on the xfer market, yet again. 3rd place in the EPL will be a familiar sight as long as Man U keeps selling its best players and replaces them with kids.
Achtung
01 Mar 2004, 06:30 PM
We've been replacing our players with kids for a long time now. It's just that you can't expect them to succeed without a little leadership out there. Nor can you expect them to all turn into superstars overnight.
Motterman
02 Mar 2004, 03:37 PM
Silvestre should be fit for the return leg of United's Champions League tie at Old Trafford against Porto.
Potomac Red Devil
02 Mar 2004, 04:00 PM
Originally posted by Motterman
Silvestre should be fit for the return leg of United's Champions League tie at Old Trafford against Porto.
----Saha------Ruud------
-------Scholes-----------
--Giggs---Klebs----Ole----
-Fortune--Silv--Brown--G Nev
-------Howard-----------
johno
02 Mar 2004, 07:35 PM
Originally posted by Potomac Red Devil
----Saha------Ruud------
-------Scholes-----------
--Giggs---Klebs----Ole----
-Fortune--Silv--Brown--G Nev
-------Howard-----------
Maybe O'Shea for Quinton... Fortune had a great year up until the defence collapsed so maybe its not him but the team... his positioning has been terrible, creeping into the middle because of a lack of confidence in the central defenders...
but we will see, we only have CL to look forward to, hopefully we can have a good showing..