Author: The Editor

I write words about things I care about and hopefully you'll care about them too when I'm done.

Part 2

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I have to get behind this lot, it’s important for national unity and all that. The staff of my local all have England shirts on and I get the message. There are players I would love at United, most of them have decent hair cuts already so it would make the move to Manchester easier for them.

England expects – some how the public expect them to win the thing. Drinkwater, a premier league winner is not in the squad… Wilshire, this generations sick note is in the squad. Chris Smalling is too. It’s not too long before I start hoping our lads avoid injury and drama. We know what happens when England crash out and it’s down to a United player don’t we? That player gets vilified. Rooney will be ok if England make him the scapegoat – United fans have been ripping into him for a while now. Taken some a while to give him credit, it has.

Woy seems to find him undroppable too. A fun tournament awaits then.

The landlord of my local thinks he has to find a white charger because his phone is white. As that example of phone racism sinks in Harry Kane puts the ball in the net but the whistle had already gone. I’m tapped on the shoulder and told by someone that he and I could beat Russia on our own. I’ve had fewer injuries than Jamie Redknapp and less operations than Jack Wilshire and he’s in France! By that reckoning I should win the balon d’Orr.

Bring on the fireball shots

See you in part 3

Part 1

Ok so the European championships are in France this year and yet again I have to get used to seeing my boys, United boys, in another shirt playing alongside players I could swear they detest during the league season. It might be easier to get my head around this year given that there is no John Terry and no Steven Gerrard. Those England fans who detest Wayne Rooney even when he plays for England? Well done, I applaud the consistency. I hope the United boys do well, Marcus Rashford is a little genius and if I accept that Woy will play players all over the place in order to accommodate Wayne Rooney then this might not descend into a hail of sarcasm and bitterness.

They’ve got Joe Hart. I have to cheer a City player ?

Sarcasm and bitterness it is then.

First to the Wales game though. I dont think there is anyone left in Wales and the BBC have snapped up all the celebrity ones for their coverage. I see Hartson, Saunders, Savage… that’s the lot isn’t it ? And Gareth Bale. You know all the scoring pressure lies on him. The first major tournament game in ages for Wales, you knew he would score it.

The Wales fans sing ARE YOU WATCHING, ENGLAND?

England are in the same group, and this is game 1. It’s not the final of a competition Wales knocked England out of, both teams are still in it: there’s nothing to gloat at yet, Wales.

Wales win, well done… and Bale only scored one of them! Throw a national party.

I’ll write part two as England play and there may be drink consumed. Fair warning.

Strings of Life

Ferguson, Moyes, Van Gaal, Mourinho, Best, Cantona, Keane, Blind, Mata…. Zlatan

Comings and goings are part of football – rhythm is rhythm

Sunday, May 19th 2013 – the last day of the season and the last match in the managerial career of Sir Alex Ferguson; it was at the Hawthorns against West Brom and it ended five all. FIVE ALL. It was a downright bonkers match and seemingly the result of Sir Alex’s pre-match encouragement to ‘go and express yourselves’, they certainly did that. Maybe, just maybe it was the last time Manchester United showed themselves in a real attacking way.
Saturday, May 21st 2016 – Manchester United win the FA Cup final against Crystal Palace, Louis Van Gaal winning the first trophy since the end of the Ferguson era and losing his job hours later. In the intervening three years United have become a laughing-stock; David Moyes’ management made our world-class players second guess themselves, apparently his coaching methods and dossiers would focus on so many positive aspects of the opposition, the United squad would leave team meetings thinking Crystal Palace had turned into Barcelona.

sharpemcclaircantona_zpseaiktujcLouis Van Gaal came across with more promise and in the end did not deliver us to a position much higher than that of laughing-stock. It’s unfair to call him clueless, it’s perhaps nicer to say that whatever ideas were in his head never quite made it to the match day football pitch. I am glad he is gone, he had to go, it seems ruthless to do so as quickly as we did but such is life; Van Gaal knew the industry he was in.

Jose will do a lot right at Manchester United. His methods have a lot of fans worried and a lot of players are seeking assurances, sorry if this sounds cold, but all of this is good to hear. I like the idea that certain players are looking over their shoulder, I think some of them were never United quality and that some buys were only brought in because they played at a level a previous manager knew and was comfortable with. The wilderness years (they weren’t really, were they, but go with it) need to end and end now but they have changed my views on certain things.

Will he play United’s way, is he a United type? Leave all that at the door please. The men in charge of this decision saw fit to give the keys to Camelot to DAVID MOYES on the say so of Sir Alex Ferguson, the same Ferguson who had doubts about Jose. He chose DAVID MOYES. He told David Moyes that he was the next manager of Manchester United. I thank him for everything he has done in bringing my football team where we are, but he needs to sit down and be quiet. DAVID MOYES. Sir Alex has forfeited his right to express his opinion.

Juan Mata. I love Juan Mata. He comes across like he knows what playing for Manchester United is about. I’m sure he does. He’s a lovely guy by all accounts but that doesn’t change the fact that, like Van Gaal, he knows the business he got into. Jose has a history of getting rid of Juan Mata so our Spanish genius is allowed to wonder if the same will happen now. Probably. And I’ll be sad but I’ve lost Kanchelskis when I didn’t want to, Ince when I didn’t want to, Alan Smith when I didn’t want to, the man in charge decided it was time to go and they went. We will move on from the loss by buying a player of equal or better quallity. They decided to bench Best, he decided he’d move on. We moved on from Eric Cantona in terms of quality, there have been better players at OT since the Frenchman said au reviour, none have meant the same to me personally, he is the King, but we did move on from him.
Daley Blind almost made Mourinho’s mind up for him by speaking out in support of Louis Van Gaal. It’s commendable, on some level but on another more realistic level you cannot have a player appear to call out the upper level management on the way they handle anything. An ex player mouthing off is bad enough, you wish they just leave the memories alone, but a player currently on club books cannot say the things attributed to Blind. Players do grow a set when they are with their international squads, Blind’s pair appear to have gained him a first class ticket out of Manchester.

I want Manchester United to be the best they can be, I’m sorry that certain players had their Old Trafford years while we were shit and won’t taste the glory that might be about to come back – but they have Man United on their CV so I’m sure they will be fine. The same applies to Ryan Giggs, we have to leave at the door his history with us – it’s as a player for one thing, he has yet to achieve anything as a coach and he has been part of the backroom at Old Trafford during not one but two disastrous periods. He may achieve good things as a coach, but he will have to do that away from us for now. The reports that he is “disappointed” not to be considered for the main job can be believed but I have to ask, how big is Ryan Giggs’ ego for him to be thinking he was in with a legitimate shout of the managing at Manchester United. Someday maybe, not now. He may be dissapointed and surprised, I was not.

Thanks for the memories, Ryan, my God they were good. We love you.

At the end of the day, there is one thing to bear in mind; players come and go, they smack you with brilliance and then depart and most of them ride of into the sunset without opening their gobs and ruining their mystique. Managers come and go, this one will go, eventually, hopefully at the end of a haul of silverware and the start of a period of continued dominance; the foundations laid to rule Britannia, once again.

The fans are Manchester United, we will be here for every game next season and beyond – you cannot leave your football team (OK so you can, some United fans have proven that too now I come to think of it, splitters).

Welcome back, Manchester United – let’s go and sign Ibrahimovic – he’s an arrogant SOB and I’m going to love him, WE are going to love him. It’ll be a good ride, hold on tight.