Premier League Fixtures 23-25th August 2014

Kimbo wrote:I never thought I'd see Man U with a bottom 5 standard midfield, regularly. Could say the same about the defence actually.

Everyone plays like a bunch of Sharks/Piranhas against Man Utd these days, we can all smell the blood in the water.

Isco Benny wrote: We wont be getting smashed by 5 or 6 this year.

So much of a chance this will come back to haunt you

Van hahahahal

christmasborocooper wrote:

Isco Benny wrote: We wont be getting smashed by 5 or 6 this year.

So much of a chance this will come back to haunt you

Thats how I like to roll, balls dangling out like two ripe plums about to be taken down to the farmers market, glistening triumphantly in the sunlight

At this rate, the Glazers/Woodward could easily turn Man Utd into footy's Dallas Cowbows, New York Knicks or Toronto Maple Leafs. Even Ferrari are headed that way (again) in F1.

Roy Keane's son just come on in defence.

Deluded F*ck™ wrote:At this rate, the Glazers/Woodward could easily turn Man Utd into footy's Dallas Cowbows, New York Knicks or Toronto Maple Leafs. Even Ferrari are headed that way (again) in F1.

I'm fully against the way the Glazers bought the club and have been milking it for their own gains. However, in terms of making funds available for transfers and wages, I can't see them having any negative impact whatsoever. ManU have spent ridiculous amounts over the last 2 seasons. Its the rest of the board, the ones who are supposed to know stuff about football, that have let ManU down. They seem to have no direction and plan for squad building. They're being very opportunistic and desperate in the transfer market. That's not the Glazers' fault.

I really think they need to be willing to rebuild over 2/3 seasons and not be so desperate to get back to the top. The club are behaving way too entitled and making mistakes on the way - like other big spending clubs have done. The the difference is Madrid/Barca/PSG can get away with it as they don't really have challengers to overthrow them and seemingly unlimited funds. ManC/Chelsea previously had unlimited funds and also less challengers at the top than ManU now.

I've got a feeling if all the big spending ManU are doing, if they don't get back to the top straight away, they'll have a very bloated star studded squad which doesn't work together much like Barcelona before Laporta. It'll mean they'll have to wait until they get the big earners off the books before they can have another spending spree to try again. That could be 3-5 years away.

They really should be building slowly and smartly like Liverpool had and when they do put a good team together, they'll have the finance to keep hold of the stars that'll emerge. They won't have to do what Arsenal/Spurs/ Liverpool have done and sell their Fabregas, Modric, Suarez without being able to replace them.

Great post

They have people like Fey walking about whistling The Circle Of Life by Elton John, in the deluded believe that because they are Manchester United everything will be fine as long as they buy a couple of marquee expensive players. Yet they still play a back line of Smalling, Jones and some youth reserve.

United are just shit all over the park it turns out. Not just defence and central midfield.

What an awful game. United look so abject. Will they ever recover from Fergie leaving?

Confirmed as £64m for Di Maria

Staggering

COTR wrote:Confirmed as £64m for Di Maria

Staggering

Wow!!

Whoever is negotiating sales for Madrid should have insisted on a commission based contract. Getting £64m after £42M for for two players the club doesn't actually want is incredible, not as incredible as the Luiz transfer but still doing very well.

Even more so when the big fee players are meant to be justified on their commercial added value. Di Maria is a really good player but he's not a star to sell shirts. For better or worse, he wont ever be a populist football icon.

Man United have spent £200m in 12 months

And the squad is still terrible

What a waste

Wanna look what Liverpool and SPurs wasted over the years?

This is the opposite of van Gaal's policy, I love Di Maria, but that money is mad, must say that for a few years I thought the transfermarktet became normal again, yet the last 3 years its totally out of control again with ridiculous signings all over the place.

Could have gotten Depay, Kroos, De Vrij and Vidal for that money.  

I guess given how absolutely shit they were today, it makes a bit more sense to sign Di Maria.

Sunerland are underrated though, never an easy place to go mid august. Though, I admit Dazza Fletcherino isnt all that.  TC23 is still a great prospect though. Also get rid of Welbeck and Young. Bah. Hate those two.

Who have United sold in that time though Fey?

At least Liverpool & Spurs can say they have made a lot of money back through Torres, Suarez, Bale, Modric etc.

@Shaz

You misinterpreted what I'm saying - if you look at all the clubs/teams I mentioned, in their various sports, they are the biggest spenders and draw in the most commercial revenue and are valued the highest. All spend ridiculous amounts (even taking into accounts the salary cap in certain sports), and think just chucking money at things will solve their inherent issues, instead of developing from the ground up. This makes the process of getting back to the top even longer.

Like those clubs Man Utd's spending power is in no way affected by their results, they have too many fans and commercial appeal for that.


Ferguson left and nobody at the club has even a hint of his foresight and vision.

Fey wrote:Sunerland are underrated though, never an easy place to go mid august. Though, I admit Dazza Fletcherino isnt all that.  TC23 is still a great prospect though. Also get rid of Welbeck and Young. Bah. Hate those two.

Cleverly did a very commendable job today. Was ManU's best midfielder today. Fletcher was the weakest and is clearly past it, ManU have needed an upgrade for a while. Mata wasn't creative enough, just tidy, but there isn't enough movement to take advantage of his vision.

The wing backs aren't dynamic enough to make this formation work so that's why they want Di Maria. Unbelievable to think a wing back cost £60m...and the his back up is £30m. Rafael should be an asset on the right side.

VP and Rooney aren't a strike partnership that works together. In this era of football, I don't thing you can justify weakening other parts of the team to play two up front unless the two have a brilliant working partnership. This is the area that's going to hold this team back.

Deluded F*ck™ wrote:


Ferguson left and nobody at the club has even a hint of his foresight and vision.

You say that, he is one of the main reasons for this current malaise.

His failed attempts to replace the successful old guard and also allowing the old guard to hang on too long are the reason they are suddenly so shit. Although of course whichever idiot is conducting the current transfer policy also takes a fair share of the blame.

Deluded F*ck™ wrote:Who have United sold in that time though Fey?

At least Liverpool & Spurs can say they have made a lot of money back through Torres, Suarez, Bale, Modric etc.

@Shaz

You misinterpreted what I'm saying - if you look at all the clubs/teams I mentioned, in their various sports, they are the biggest spenders and draw in the most commercial revenue and are valued the highest. All spend ridiculous amounts (even taking into accounts the salary cap in certain sports), and think just chucking money at things will solve their inherent issues, instead of developing from the ground up. This makes the process of getting back to the top even longer.

Like those clubs Man Utd's spending power is in no way affected by their results, they have too many fans and commercial appeal for that.


Ferguson left and nobody at the club has even a hint of his foresight and vision.

Fair enough. I don't actually know anything about US sports. I guessed they were fallen giants with greedy owners not spending.

We never sell anyone, because we are the top of the food chain, the great motherfuckin white shark, that only once in a while gets bitten by the Orca(Madrid)

And the ones that do go to the lesser gods, are the ones that hardly bring in the money, though compared to other clubs we hardly sign big money transfers either, at least not on the same annual scale. We used to bring in our own players with a smart transfer here and there. But that has gone overboard it seems.

COTR wrote:

Deluded F*ck wrote:


Ferguson left and nobody at the club has even a hint of his foresight and vision.

You say that, he is one of the main reasons for this current malaise.

His failed attempts to replace the successful old guard and also allowing the old guard to hang on too long are the reason they are suddenly so shit. Although of course whichever idiot is conducting the current transfer policy also takes a fair share of the blame.

He's still on the board. Post Ferguson ManU needed a proven director of football who understood where the club was. They still need that.

COTR wrote:

Deluded F*ck™ wrote:


Ferguson left and nobody at the club has even a hint of his foresight and vision.

You say that, he is one of the main reasons for this current malaise.

His failed attempts to replace the successful old guard and also allowing the old guard to hang on too long are the reason they are suddenly so shit. Although of course whichever idiot is conducting the current transfer policy also takes a fair share of the blame.

This is true - I can understand him not bothering recycling the team one more time, if he's not going to take the credit for it. To be fair though, Ferguson opened the door for Rooney to be moved out so the side could be refreshed but Moyes bottled it. Now they are stuck with him as captain, Van Persie also guaranteed a start, whilst DM & CB are massively weakened.

People forget the 2004-06 era where he took so much stick to the point of being called senile. He lacked the energy to go through that again.

Fey wrote:We never sell anyone, because we are the top of the food chain, the great motherfuckin white shark, that only once in a while gets bitten by the Orca(Madrid)

And the ones that do go to the lesser gods, are the ones that hardly bring in the money, though compared to other clubs we hardly sign big money transfers either, at least not on the same annual scale. We used to bring in our own players with a smart transfer here and there. But that has gone overboard it seems.

Nonsense - surely You seen how much the Orca have been able to get from Lesser fish over the years for various players?

Even Barca have started this policy, and Chelsea have too.

Well those lesser fish tend to be in another bracket as ours.

Shame the scouser deleted his post cause here we can see what we spend of the years vs what Liverpool did.

http://www.transferleague.co.uk/premiership-transfers/manchester-united-transfers.html

http://www.transferleague.co.uk/premiership-transfers/liverpool-transfers.html

Sure there are some absolute howlers for us, like Veron, Fellaini, Bebe, Smalling etc..but compared to Liverpool....and they have what to show for?

We fucking sold Butters with profit, thats mental!

Best Di Maria joke I've seen and feel to steal:

I was astounded when Lahm retired from international football after winning the world cup. Even though he is not in the same class I'm fairly shocked that Di Maria is retiring from European football after winning the champions league.

Expected team tonight:

Mignolet

Johnson
Skrtel
Lovren
Moreno

Allen
Henderson
Gerrard

Sterling
Coutinho
Sturridge

Looks like Johnson is being kept over Manquillo - Manquillo did well last week but I'm not overly sold on him yet, got skinned a couple of times. Johnson is abysmal though but I guess while Flanagan is injured there's no one else.

Bench will probably look something like: Jones, Sakho, Manquillo, Lucas, Can, Lambert, Markovic

Lallana and Balotelli will probably be in the squad for Spurs next week. Certainly Balotelli will.

Team is exactly as I predicted.

Toure on the bench over Lucas is the only thing different!

As strong as we could probably go right now.

A point would do me here.

Luis wrote:Lallana and Balotelli will probably be in the squad for Spurs next week. Certainly Balotelli will.

What I wouldn't have given to watch Balotelli play today at City... you could almost bet he would score and then make some stupid gesture at the City fans!