Republik Of Mancunia |
- Giggs: Fans made me feel 10 feet tall
- LIVE BLOG: United vs Norwich City
- CONFIRMED LINE-UP: United vs Norwich
- Sead Kolasinac confirms United offer
- PICTURE: Club photoshop Moyes out of season ticket renewals picture
- Class of ’92 return is gift to suffering fans
- Should the players be ashamed of themselves?
- PICTURE: David Moyes’ message to season ticket holders
- PICTURE: Brilliant picture for season ticket renewals
- PICTURES: Giggs and Robson over the years
| Giggs: Fans made me feel 10 feet tall Posted: 26 Apr 2014 02:33 PM PDT New Manchester United manager, Ryan Giggs, has reflected on his first game in charge, following our 4-0 victory over Norwich. “I was nervous, but as soon as I came out of the tunnel the reception I got, the staff got and the players got was brilliant,” he told MUTV. “I’ve got to thank the fans for that because it's not been an easy week, but I felt ten feet tall.” Ten teams had a better home record than us before kick-off, but you wouldn’t have known it after looking at our performance today. "We looked like scoring goals and creating chances,” he told Sky Sports. “In the first half, we were a little bit slow, so I just reminded the players that the tempo needed to be quicker and they reacted well to that. They're all good players and all of us have let ourselves down this year. We haven't played to the level that we're capable of this season, but we did that today. I said yesterday that it can't just be for one game, it has to be for longer than that. Every time you play for Manchester United you have to stay at that level, and they have to keep to these standards against Sunderland.” |
| LIVE BLOG: United vs Norwich City Posted: 26 Apr 2014 09:04 AM PDT |
| CONFIRMED LINE-UP: United vs Norwich Posted: 26 Apr 2014 08:43 AM PDT De Gea; Jones, Vidic (c), Ferdinand, Evra; Valencia, Carrick, Cleverley, Kagawa; Welbeck, Rooney. Bench: Lindegaard, Smalling, Mata, Chicharito, Nani, Young, Fletcher. |
| Sead Kolasinac confirms United offer Posted: 26 Apr 2014 06:53 AM PDT
The 20-year-old was born in Germany to Bosnian parents and played for Germany U-18s, U-19s and U-20s, before confirming he would represent Bosnia and Herzegovina at international level. He made his debut for them last November and has played another game for them since. He made his way up through the ranks at Schalke and has played 22 games this season for the 3rd ranked side in Germany. “Yes, I have offer from Manchester United,” he said. “But, I will not hurry with the decision. I have to see what Schalke think about it.” Kolašinac was in the press this week after German newspaper BILD pictured him in a night club in the early hours “surrounded by alcohol and cigarettes”. “My friend and former teammate of Schalke’s Kevin Kuranyi, who is currently playing with Dinamo Moscow, was visiting Cologne and that night he called for his friends hanging out in a nightclub ‘Nachtflug’, including several former and current players Schalke,” the player explained. “I stayed in the club for only half an hour, while Bild had its photographers there who was probably trying to take a picture of something that I would not want to be seen doing by the public. I do not smoke and am not an alcoholic. On the half hour I drank a Coke and the cigarettes which can be seen in the photo are not nicotine. I did not do anything bad and I never would let my private activities affect my commitment to the field.” |
| PICTURE: Club photoshop Moyes out of season ticket renewals picture Posted: 26 Apr 2014 06:00 AM PDT Yesterday, I received through the post the booklet about renewing my season ticket. On the front of the glossy thing they sent was a picture of the team with David Moyes standing alongside the players and fans.
However, on the e-mail that fans have received, Moyes has been photoshopped out.
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| Class of ’92 return is gift to suffering fans Posted: 26 Apr 2014 01:30 AM PDT If 1999 never happened and you watched a film that told the same story, you would spend the duration rolling your eyes and tutting. As if that could happen. As if you could get a group of local lads, playing for one of the biggest teams in the world, go on to achieve something no English team had before. As if United would be a goal down to their hated rivals Liverpool on 88 minutes in the FA Cup, only to win the game 2-1. As if Ryan Giggs would have scored that goal against Arsenal. As if United would come back from 2-0 down to beat Juventus 3-2 in the semi-finals of the European Cup. As if United would won the league by one point. As if United would be 1-0 down on 90 minutes in the European Cup final, only to win the game 2-1. It’s just ridiculous. What a ridiculous fairytale. But it is a ridiculous story that we got to live and breathe. Whatever any club achieves, even if it is the Treble, they will never win it the way we did and they will never win it with a core group of players who have grown up supporting that team. If I hadn’t seen such riches, I could live with being poor. When Sir Alex Ferguson first got the United job, finishing 7th and winning nothing would have been a decent season. The fact that things could be so much worse than they have been this season means we are labelled spoilt for being so angry about what has happened with David Moyes as manager. It’s hard to argue that we’re not spoilt, given that we haven’t finished outside the top three since 1990 and haven’t gone longer than a season without a trophy since then. But when you’re the champions of England and one of the most profitable “franchises” in the world, surely there’s nothing wrong with saying that 7th in the league isn’t anywhere near good enough. So, this season has been awful. The only silver lining is the fact defeats don’t ruin my weekend anymore, so accustomed have I become to seeing the team lose. I could walk up to the ground for games against the likes of City and Liverpool without a care in the world. There were no nerves. We were obviously going to lose and, even when we did, it would make no difference to our season anyway. But things are different now. The grey clouds that loomed large when Moyes were in charge have shifted. It’s nothing to do with the results though, as United may well stumble against Norwich today, but everything to do with the approach to the game. We’ve got a United man in charge now and there’s no way we will play the football that Moyes employed. It’s hard to avoid sounding cheesy when talking about Ryan Giggs’ appointment as our temporary manager but I’m genuinely over the moon he’s got the job. Not just that, but that his mates get to join him. I went to the Class of ’92 premiere in Manchester last year and it gave an even greater insight to the bond between these players. Nicky Butt put it pretty well yesterday when reflecting on it all. “It will be massive for us, a proud moment for us all. To be there together is a bit of a surreal thing. We walked in here together when we were 12 and to be here now – I'm not 40 yet but Giggsy is, and myself and Scholes are nearly there too. So for us and Phil to be there together is a very proud moment.” Giggs has revealed how this situation even came about in the first place, with him making the calls to his former team mates. "Nicky was with the Reserves so I asked him to come up and help with the first team which he was more than happy to do. Then I phoned Scholesy because I know how much the club means to these people. They feel the same way I do about the club and I know in the short space of time we have they'll give it everything to make it a success.” ‘Not arrogant – just better’ was our banner which has gone missing this season. It’s hard to brag when you win fuck all, get outplayed by your rivals, and don’t even hold a place in the table that will see you qualify for Europa. But what our fans are experiencing now is better than anyone else can imagine. It’s cheesy to talk about it and rival fans can dismiss it as desperation or anything else they like, but this, right now, is incredible. These next four games rank amongst some of the most highly anticipated games I’ve experienced as a United fan. Not because I think they count or make any difference to our season though. Liverpool will probably win the league and nothing we can say or do will make that feel any better. But because we get to celebrate our heroes, our legends, the former players who love the club just like we do, and no other English fans get to experience anything close to that. "I've got to say it's the proudest moment of my life,” said Giggs. “I've supported Manchester United all my life, it's been the biggest part of my life since I was 14.” Who else has a manager who can talk about the club like that? I’m not even just talking about England now, but worldwide football. Giggs is a lifelong red, he’s spent his entire career at United, he’s won 13 league titles, he’s played almost 1,000 games for the club, and he’s our manager. Our coaching staff is made up of other proper reds, who also joined the club when they were kids, who are best mates, who came through the ranks together, and who went on to enjoy the most successful season any club in English football has ever experienced. No other fans in English football can come close to comprehending what that feels like. Roy Keane released his autobiography in 2002 and talked about the group of players who will now take charge of our remaining games this season. "They form the core of the team, on and off the field and are bonded in a way that excludes the rest of us. At the heart of our club there is something solid, something real, something identifiably Mancunian, an attitude created by the Six Amigos, that is fundamental to the team and its success. When players join United, however much they cost, wherever they come from, it is this attitude they must plug into." This is it. This is what separates us from everyone else. I’m not being arrogant, we are just better, and I’m not being flippant when I say that. These remaining weeks are golden and however spoilt we may be, and however shit it will be to see another team lift our trophy, let’s not to be too spoilt to appreciate just how fortunate we are to be reds. Ryan Giggs’ red and white army. |
| Should the players be ashamed of themselves? Posted: 26 Apr 2014 01:00 AM PDT Manchester United are not a sacking club. It’s easy to make statements like that when you’ve shown faith in a manager in the 1980s, when you were in the relegation zone, and he’s gone on to prove himself as one of the greatest managers of all time. When David Moyes struggled, the board, the fans and the players all stuck by him publicly. Who knows what was going on behind the scenes at the club, or what was being said on the training ground, but inside Old Trafford the fans were keen to show they weren’t about to start booing or bringing in banners to get the manager sacked. During the 4-1 win over Aston Villa, following the plane funded by some fans off a football forum with the sign ‘Moyes Out’, the fans started chanting “stand up for David Moyes”. To my amazement, everyone around me stood up. I didn’t. In the post-match interviews, the players were quick to dismiss any fault on the manager’s part and instead insisted that they had to take responsibility for yet another poor performance. Rival fans will scoff now, following the dismissal of Moyes. “Not a sacking club, you say?” But the truth remains that any other club, and I literally mean, any other club, would have got rid of Moyes long before now. In February, Gianluca Vialli claimed that Moyes would have been sacked three times by then if he was coaching in Italy. It is not acceptable to spend over £60 million and drop six places in the league, whether you’re at the top of Serie A or midtable in La Liga, Moyes’ end product was nowhere near what is required for any football club. Still, despite this, the players have come in for some stick from some sections of the press and fans. Roy Keane, who is no stranger to sticking the boot in these days, was quick to criticise them. “I think it’s a shame, he should have been given more time,” said Keane of Moyes. “Some of the players should be ashamed of themselves, they really let him down.” Really? More time? And is this the players’ fault? On New Year’s Day, United were just 3 points behind Chelsea. We’d suffered a few poor results but for the most part, we were still challenging, even if from a distance. You’d assume the title was out of grasp but it wasn’t implausible that United would have a strong second half of the season, as they usually did, and be in amongst the teams going for the title. As it is, we now find ourselves 18 points behind Chelsea and, crucially, 23 points behind league leaders Liverpool. Gutting. So, having had more time at the club, more time to settle, a better understanding of how things work, more knowledge of how good the players are and what their strengths are, United’s performances have got worse. But who is to blame? You could argue that the backroom staff United had prior to Moyes, who oversaw league title after league title, had the players ticking over nicely. The winning mentality was ingrained in to the players thanks to Ferguson. But as the months went on, in the absence of both the training expertise and the managerial presence, the strengths of the seasons before slowly drained away. Let’s not forget that in the 2007-2008 season, when Jose Mourinho was sacked after a few months, Chelsea managed to take the title challenge to the last day and the European Cup to a penalty shoot-out, before bowing out, and that was with Avram Grant in charge. If you’ve got a team of winners that have been trained well by the manager, they can keep themselves ticking over in the mean time. The difference between these scenarios is that the useless Grant kept as much of the backroom staff in place as he could. Obviously Rui Faria left with Mourinho, but the likes of Steve Clarke stayed put. To replace the quality staff that left, Chelsea brought in world class replacements like Henk ten Cate, who left his role as Ajax manager, having been the assistant manager at Barcelona for three years. In contrast, Moyes got rid of all of United’s backroom staff and replaced them with Steve Round and Jimmy Lumsden. Round’s CV boasts being a coach at Middlesbrough, Newcastle and Moyes’ assistant at Everton. After a failed managerial career with Bristol City and Rochdale, Lumsden’s coaching career consists of working for Moyes at Preston and Everton. Another argument is that the United players never gave Moyes or his coaches the time of day. For Keane to suggest they should be ashamed of themselves, it implies that from day one they were unprepared to adapt to a new way of doing things. Giggs was rumoured to have serious problems with the way Moyes conducted training, to the point where he stopped attending coaches’ meetings and walked out of training after spending two hours working on defensive tactics. Maybe a third scenario is more accurate though. Maybe the players were fairly shocked to see Ferguson leave, particularly the ones who had spend most, if not all, of their career playing for him. But still they were prepared to give the new manager a go. But when Moyes came in and decided to bin off all the things they were doing before, introduce a knackering training regime to the pre-season (one that had always seen Everton start the season slowly) and replace the world class, proven coaches with men who had achieved nothing in the game, maybe the players worked out that he wasn’t up for the job. Maybe they were genuinely prepared to give him a go but nothing he did, from Carrington to the dressing room, inspired any confidence in him having the ability to take the club forward. Keane brands some of the players a disgrace. If Giggs behaved in a way that helped move along an incapable manager, so that a better manager could be brought in his place, is that a disgrace? You would imagine that, as professional footballers earning an obscene amount of money, they would be able to turn it on regardless of who was giving the instructions. But when you look to that game against Fulham, when the instructions were to keep playing it wide and crossing it in, despite this clearly not working, you do have to wonder what you expect the players to do. Should they ignore their managers tactics and do what they think will work? Would that be less of a disgrace than doing what the manager told them to do and dropping points? “The players have to take massive responsibility,” Neville said. “They are the ones out on the football pitch. I never once in my 18-year career at United said, ‘You lost us that game boss’. Players have to take responsibility and accountability in football, but the fact of the matter is you don't go and sack 24 players. Those players there are not as bad as they have been showing.” Whilst we should remember that Neville spent his entire career playing for Sir Alex Ferguson, one of the greatest of all time, and not David Moyes, he still makes a valid point. No, he wouldn’t walk off a pitch and blame Fergie, but if he was playing for Moyes, he might have felt differently. Still, this season, the only players to improve have been David de Gea and Danny Welbeck. However, with De Gea having another year’s experience of the Premier League and Welbeck playing more games up front instead of on the wing, you could argue these players would have done better this season regardless of who the manager is. So what have the players been doing? Why have they under performed? Either the tactics weren’t good enough or they didn’t respect the manager so actively decided not to play for him. Neither scenario is particularly encouraging for United fans, although the former is less daunting now that the manager has been sacked. Are players obliged to show up regardless of who is in charge? It’s not really on that Wayne Rooney earns over £200k-a-week but can’t control the ball to save his life. But then if they played out of their skin, managed to finish 5th with Moyes’ archaic approach to football, would we be in a better position? Even if we managed to finish in the top 4, that would only mean Moyes kept his job, but he’s shown that he isn’t capable of managing the champions. So did the players do us a favour? I’m sure over that in our lifetime we will get to read an autobiography or two that will shed light on what went on behind the scenes. Has Rio Ferdinand been as disruptive as we’ve been lead to believe? Did Giggs run out of patience months ago? Is he now thoroughly enjoying getting one over Moyes? Who knows. But the fact that Robin van Persie has immediately returned from Holland, that the players are playing practical jokes with their ‘gaffer’ sign over Giggs’ seat at Carrington, and the players are all speaking so positively about Giggs’ appointment, arguably shows that they all felt Moyes wasn’t up to the job. Would it have been more professional to give 100% on the pitch like they did for Fergie? Definitely. But would that have helped the future of the club? Almost probably not. Moyes has gone now and we can look to a brighter future. I’m certainly not ashamed of our players and I’m looking forward to them turning it around under a proper manager next season. |
| PICTURE: David Moyes’ message to season ticket holders Posted: 26 Apr 2014 01:00 AM PDT In the package sent to season ticket holders, David Moyes’ message to season ticket holders sings the praises of Manchester United fans.
You are a credit to your Club. Since I became Manager of Manchester United, I have been so impressed by the dedication shown by United fans – the support has been magnificent. I already knew about the backing our travelling support gives the team but the passion and the fervour of the Old Trafford faithful – particularly when urging the team to launch another attack – is an unforgettable experience. Whether a player or a Manager, the first time you hear that is special. It's addictive. You want to experience it again and again. The fans at United are a crucial part of this great Club's success. Fans give football the colour and the vibrancy that makes it the world's game. No place demonstrates that better than a packed Old Trafford. I look forward to welcoming you back home next season so myself and the players can enjoy your wonderful support once more. |
| PICTURE: Brilliant picture for season ticket renewals Posted: 26 Apr 2014 12:45 AM PDT
(Shame about Moyes) |
| PICTURES: Giggs and Robson over the years Posted: 25 Apr 2014 05:37 PM PDT
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