Charity Begins At....................Old Trafford !

Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra have joined forces with UNICEF to front a new AIDS awareness advertising campaign in Sierra Leone.

The trio have teamed up to promote HIV and AIDS prevention amongst the country’s three million young people, many of whom are at increasing risk of HIV and AIDS. Recent figures suggest there has been a 75% increase in new HIV infections in Sierra Leone, while few youngsters understand how to protect themselves against the virus. With low awareness of the dangers, and infection rates rapidly rising, the need to reach young people with accurate information to encourage them to change their sexual behaviour is vital.

In Sierra Leone, United’s players enjoy an unrivalled high profile and are instantly recognised as role models. Realising this popularity and the power of football to reach the country’s young people, the advertising campaign features each player delivering a unique HIV and AIDS prevention message. The messages focus on three key themes: stigma, encouraging safe sexual practice and getting tested.

This campaign marks the latest stage in Manchester United’s commitment to combating HIV and AIDS through the United for UNICEF partnership......Back To Home Page

Scholes Could Be Out For Up To 13 Weeks !!

---

Paul Scholes the resident Manchester United
resident midfield orchestrator will be out of
action for up to 13 weeks after suffering
medial ligament damage in last night’s
Champions League win over Aalborg.

The injury means that he will not be back
until the December 13 meeting with Tott-
enham and is set to miss the remainder of
the Champions League group stage, plus
key Premier League away games at Everton,
Arsenal and Manchester City. In total the
33-year-old could miss 16 matches.

Every time Giggsy, Scholes or Nev get an
injury it gets me so nervous. One of these
days it's going to be the last time we see
them all play and it's not in the too distant
future I wouldn't imagine. These 3 are all
that's left of "The kids you can't win any-
thing with".

I hope Scholesy makes a miracle recovery
in 6 weeks, we can ill afford to miss too
much of him in his Manchester United twilight years !

Fergie Fuming !!

Fergie hopes he never sees another tackle like the one that Emanuel Pogatetz caught Rodrigo Possebon with at Old Trafford last night.

Even Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate admitted he could have no complaints at the red card instantly shown to Pogatetz during the second half of his side's 3-1 Carling Cup defeat to Manchester United.

But here's the sad part, Pogatetz will 'maybe' get a 3 match ban and Possebon faces a good few weeks recovering, I am amazed they get away with it like this.

Possebon needed oxygen on the pitch and was then taken straight to hospital for further treatment, with Fergie fearing bad news for the 19 year old.

"You don't want to see things like that and I hope I never see anything like it again. It is such a pity for the boy and took the gloss off what was a really good performance. The thing that gets me about challenges like that is that the opponent always claims he has done nothing wrong. He (Pogatetz] should have just walked off the field. Then you get their bench screaming that it wasn't a sending off and there is nothing wrong with our player. At least Gareth Southgate was very good about it. He apologised and understood the gravity. It was an absolutely terrible tackle."

Southgate branded the challenge "poor" and admitted members of his bench had stepped out of line.

"A couple of lads on our bench did not have the same view as I did but that is dealt with now," he said.

"We can have no complaints about the decision. It is difficult to know why it happened.

"It was an unusual aberration for him because his discipline has improved in the last two years."

Boro never looked the same team after Pogatetz had gone off.

At that point, Boro had levelled through Adam Johnson after Cristiano Ronaldo had marked his first start of the season with his first goal since the Champions League final win over Chelsea in Moscow.

And Ferguson, feels the furore involving Real Madrid has is now well and truly behind the Slave.

"I think Cristiano has come to accept that at this stage of his career, United is the place for him," he said.

"Southern Europeans want at some point to play for Real Madrid or Barcelona, so I understood what was going on in Cristiano's mind when he declared he wanted to join Real.

"But once we had talked he accepted it was a move for the future.

"I pointed out to him how much better it would be to leave like Eric Cantona, with the fans loving and appreciating him.

"The crowd still chant Cantona's name and I told Cristiano, 'Leave a hero like Eric' and one day he will. But not yet."

Without Pogatetz, the visitors lost their shape and Ryan Giggs took advantage of Gary O'Neil's slip 11 minutes from time before Nani sealed a place in the fourth round in stoppage time.

We've Won Three, Now We Want Four !!

So Manchester United have won the Champions League 3 times in their history, and twice in 9 years, in the most dramatic fashion in Moscow. But do the players, the manager, the fans, want it to stop there ?

Now the new season is underway, I took a look back at some of the quotes from Fergie, the players, the fans etc etc and already I'm looking for another Champions League win. How nice would it be to become the first team ever to defend the trophy too ?

With Dimitar Berbatov added to the squad ..... well, ya never know ??

The manager

Sir Alex Ferguson: “The satisfaction of winning it is fantastic. I’ve said before we should have won it more times and three wins has a far better ring to it. Hopefully we can build on that.”

“Defending the European Cup is not an easy thing to do but I think the team is good enough. They will improve next year.”

The players

Rio Ferdinand: “This is a great feeling to be victorious, but this is a bunch of players that are going to do it again. We’re not going to rest on our laurels. We’ll enjoy this moment. But we’ll be thinking about next season in the not-too-distant future because we want to be successful and the players are hungry for more success.”

Nemanja Vidic: “When you pick up the trophy and you celebrate with your team-mates and the fans it makes you want to do it all over again because the feeling is so good. It’s something I’ll always remember and I hope I get to experience it again.”

Cristiano Ronaldo: “We showed this season that we are the best team in Europe and in England and it’s a great feeling. Next season we will try to do the same. I feel very proud. It means everything to me - it is the happiest day of my life.”

Wayne Rooney: “I hope we can win it again. Doing it this year has given us a taste for it and we want to do well again next season. We’ve got some great young players in the squad mixed with experience, so hopefully we can do well again.”

Owen Hargreaves: “I’m not going to reflect on anything. It’s fabulous to get a reward for all the hard work you put in during the season, but for me that’s in the past and I’m looking to next season. I’m looking forward to improving on things I did wrong this season, we’ll sign some new players and keep improving. That’s my goal, I can look back when I’m finished football, but now’s not the time. I’m excited about next season already.”

Ryan Giggs: “I want nights like this again.”

The fans

“We want more, we want more, we want more!”

With such a quality-filled, youthful, hungry squad - with the likes of Rooney, Tevez, Ronaldo, Carrick, Nani, Anderson to name just a few - this Manchester United squad aren’t going to settle for what they’ve got, that’s for sure. And with the signing of Berbatov the team just got stronger.

Doesn’t it feel great to be a United fan right now?!

Every One Of Us ......

Every One Of Us

.........should realise how lucky we have been to see the greatest manager ever to
walk the planet, manage the club we all follow - Manchester United..

United did the double last year !! Champions of England and Champions of Europe but no one
seems to have celebrated it or even recognised the fact they did it. Probably because we have
had to put up with the precocious antics of Ronaldo, then listen to the idiot Sepp Blatter declare
all players are becoming slaves, albeit on £100,000 per week !! Then we had Euro 2008
followed by The Beijing Olympics and voila, here we are, another season begins.

I hear a lot of people putting Sir Fergie down, pushing aside his records and all he has achieved
with United. I think it's an English thing. They gave Capello 28 minutes into his first game with
England before booing them !! They love failure for some reason they even court it. They expect
to fail, then they fail, then they get bitter because they failed. In the same vein, they wont
recognise anything Fergie does until he is long gone !!

This is sad, a great shame. The simple truth is, no matter who believes it, Sir Alex Chapman
Ferguson CBE, is the greatest football coach/manager to ever walk this planet it's as simple as
that and there is no argument possible to even contest it !

In statistical terms, Ferguson's career is, quite simply, incredible and would be so even if it were
fiction. The end of last season brought him a tenth English league championship in 21 seasons as
United's manager. No other manager in English history even comes close: Bob Paisley won six
with Liverpool, Matt Busby five with United and Herbert Chapman four with Arsenal and
Huddersfield in the 1930s. If we look outside England, Rinus Michels won five league
championships (4 with Ajax and one with Barcelona) whilst Fabio Capello won seven (4 at AC
Milan, 2 at Real Madrid and another at Roma; another two at Juventus were taken off him
because he CHEATED !!!

Only in Scotland is Ferguson's achievement matched: Jock Stein, his friend and mentor, led
Celtic to 11 Scottish titles. All due respect to Scotland and their FA, but it's not quite as
competitive up there so I personally think Fergies achievements are a lot better.

In all, United have won 702 (58%) of the 1210 league games played under Ferguson to the end
of May 2008. That surpasses even the record of Matt Busby: 576 (50%) wins out of 1141
games. And Ferguson's teams lost only 18% of their competitive games, compared with 26%
under Busby. Since the inception of the Premier League, Ferguson's record has been even more
remarkable, beyond belief in fact.

In the 16 years of the Premiership, United have totalled 155 more league points than Arsenal,
their nearest challengers, 221 more than Chelsea and 244 more than Liverpool. That's nearly 10
points a season better than Arsenal on average,nearly 14 points better than Chelsea and more
than 16 points better than Liverpool - astonishing margins. In the process, United also played
the more attractive football consistently, averaging 1.97 goals per game (compared with 1.69 for
Arsenal, 1.58 for Chelsea, and 1.6 for Liverpool) and defended better (conceding 0.87 goals per
game compared with 0.88, 0.98 and 0.98 respectively for their main rivals).

If all that were not enough, Ferguson has also brought United two European Cups, a European
Cup-Winners Cup, five FA Cups (a record for a manager) and two League Cups, 20 major
trophies in all. Against that, Michels won a total of 14, Paisley 13, Capello 9, Busby 7 and
Chapman 6. But there's more. Before joining United in 1986, Ferguson led Aberdeen to 3 league
championships, 4 FA Cups, one League Cup and a European Cup-Winners Cup in Scotland.

There's also the matter of two European Super Cups (one with each club) and an Intercontinental
Cup (United became, so far, the only English winners of that trophy). That's 32
major trophies overall, ahead even of Stein's 29 in Scotland (and as I said achieved in a much
tougher competitive environment). Along the way, there have been three English League and
FA Cup doubles (the first to do it twice and then three times), and one League and European
Cup double. Above all, in 1999 Ferguson led United to the treble of League championship, FA
Cup and European Cup, the single greatest achievement by any club in English football history
and something unmatched in Europe's main leagues (England, Italy, Spain, Germany and France).

You could not make it up. However much partisanship might colour our perceptions of the
relative merits of the great managers, indisputably Ferguson stands pre-eminent in the history
of English and European football. Yet statistics do not give us the full substance of the man. It is
all too easy to forget, that Ferguson took over something of an empty shell in 1986, a club living
on fading memories of the Busby era, as much about tabloid notoriety as football achievement.

With a ferocity that many found difficult to live with, he removed the drinking culture that he
found, got rid of some outstanding players who had lost their way, confined the media to the
fringes of the club's business, resurrected the club's youth development system, built a
professional training and coaching system still unsurpassed in England, and demanded and got
(as the price of being at the club) a unity of purpose and clarity of focus that turned talented
players into winners.

Perhaps his greatest achievement has been that he has managed to blend the demands of a more
tactical and defensive modern game with the attacking verve and individual swagger established
by Busby as the United way of playing, a way that made a provincial club the best supported
team in the world.

It was a challenge that defeated previous United managers (including even Busby in his late
years) but Ferguson's teams have managed to provide plenty of scope for individual expression
within the framework of team organization.

Thus, players like Cantona, Giggs, Rooney, Ronaldo, Scholes, Sharpe, Yorke, Cole, Beckham,
Anderson and others have developed into artists who could stretch the imagination of those
lucky enough to watch them while they still played winning football.

These skills have been paraded through four successful United teams built by Ferguson.

If the first (1990-2) was something of a transitional side, the other three - 1993-4, 1999-2001
and 2006-8 - have all been great ones.

The treble in 1999 must rank that side as the greatest of them, indeed as the greatest in English
club history, not only for the magnitude of the success but also for the flair and style with which
it was done. It exemplified what all Ferguson's teams are about - skill and flair embedded in a
high level of organization and a ferocious team spirit.

All this makes Fergie something more than a successful coach and places him in the ranks of
those great managers who can 'build a club', as the saying goes, men like Michels, Stein, Shankly,
Clough, Nicholson, Wenger.

In this company, Busby stands supreme: we cannot begin to imagine what it took to turn a
bankrupt, provincial club without a stadium into one renowned throughout the world, to change
the idea of football in favour of youth and flair, to drag English football into Europe, to resurrect
the club after the Munich air crash (by contrast, Torino have never recovered fully after losing
their great team in a 1949 air crash) and to win the European Cup just a decade after Munich.

Yet Ferguson, too, belongs here, adapting the Busby legacy to new realities and taking the club
to new heights.

It is only in his relations with the media that Fergie can be considered less than successful. If it is
true he has had to deal with a more unscrupulous and contemptible press than any that Busby,
Shankly or Stein faced, it is also true that his constant conflicts with them have done neither
himself nor his club any favours. It has encouraged a sustained campaign against the club by the
London media so that United's enormous contribution to the community and to Unicef and other
charities gets a Chinese-government type media blackout !!! It has also led to a media caricature
of Fergie with little basis in reality but with a life of its own.

The ranting bully terrorizing his players does not square with their fierce loyalty to him
or with their unshakeable will to win games from seemingly hopeless
positions or with the flair and joy they so often bring to their play.

Nor does it square with the esteem in which he is held throughout football, or with the
appreciation by other managers of the support and generosity he accords them or, for that
matter, with the help and friendship he has extended to individual
journalists facing crises in their lives.

The wealth and fame he has achieved in football, and the political and business circles to which
he has access as a result, have not altered his friendships, most of which go back to his youth, or
his focus on family ties or his social values.

Perhaps that is a truer reflection of the nature of the beast than the media picture......

AND MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, ONCE HE'S RETIRED AND NO LONGER
THREATENS THEM THEY WILL FINALLY GIVE HIM HIS FULL DUE !!!

Manchester United Trivia - The More We All Know The Better

I've been rummaging through my United books again.
I have all the stats books and the facts and figures of
this, that and the other, I follow it all.

Who scored six goals in one game for us on 7th Feb 1970 in an
8-2 win over Northampton Town in the FA Cup 5th Round ?
That's easy, George Best, but he's not alone. I thought Georgie
was the only one, but on 25th Sep 1911, whilst playing in the
Charity Shield against Swindon at Stamford Bridge, Harold Halse
also scored six !!

Five in a game is easy. 4th Mar 1995 in the FA Premiership, playing
Ipswich Town in a 9-0 victory Mr Andrew Cole scored 5 ! Scoring 5
in one game and winning 9-0 are both Premiership records too by
the way. But once again, he's not alone. On 12th Feb 1949, in the FA
Cup 5th round versus Yeovil Town, Jack Rowley scored five too !!

The scoring of 4 goals in a game is far too easy, I mean 54 people have
done that for goodness sake, boring !! Well ... not if you bang them all
in within 12 minutes of coming off the bench ! As 20legend did. He
bagged his 4 and United scored a further four for an 8-1 away win at
Forest, the fastest four goals ever scored and the record win in the
Premiership, away from home !! Another game where they set two
records, that must be a record too, surely, or am I being greedy here ?

Our top five record victories, every fan should know this if they wish
to appear genuine !

10-0 v Anderlecht, EC Cup Prelim 2nd leg, 26 Sep 56 at Maine Road in
front of 40,000.
10-1 v Wolves, Division 2, 15 Oct 1892 at North Road in front of 4,000.
9-0 v Walsall, Division 2, 3 Apr 1895 at Bank Street in front of 6,000.
9-0 v Darwen, Division 2, 24 Dec 1898 at Bank Street in front of 2,000.
9-0 v Ipswich, FA Premiership, 4 Mar 1995 at Old Trafford in front of
43,806.

And don't you forget it - Grrrrrrrrrrrr ... !!

Now I'm always fair, so if we have the top 5 victories, then yes, you got
it, we better have the top 5 defeats ... and the 5th one is a nightmare !!
So, ahem, to be fair, here we go ...

0-7 v Blackburn, Division 1, 10 Apr 1926 at Ewood Park in front of 15,870.
0-7 v Villa, Division 1, 27 Dec 1930 at Villa Park in front of 32,505.
0-7 v Wolves, Division 2, 26 Dec 1931 at Molineux in front of 37,207.
1-7 v Stoke, Division 2, 7 Jan 1893 at the Victoria Ground in front of 10,000.
1-7 v Liverpool (Aarrgghhhhhhhhh !!), 12 Oct 1895 at Anfailed in front of 7,000.

So, there we go, all is fair here.

July is the only month where United have never played a competitive
game. I would have said June too ... but no, apparently not. On 6 Jun
1965 in the NEP Stedion, we played Ferencvaros in the Fairs Cup Semi
Final play off and lost 1-0. Then on 16 Jun 1965 in the NEP Stedion, we
played Ferencvaros again in the 2nd leg of the match (both legs away
from home ?) and we lost 2-1, both with crowds of 60,000. My advice
- don't play in June, we've never won or drawn a game !! Played 2,
lost 2, for 1 against 3.


April is our busiest month since United were born. We've played 680
times winning 320, drawing 164 with 196 defeats. We scored 1126
times and let in 804. Pretty good huh ? I could give you the figures for
every month but you would never come back it would be so boring. I'll
tell you that overall, we have played a grand total of 5049 games winning
2424 times and drawing 1214 with 1411 defeats. We scored 8755 and
let in 6334.

Home and away league doubles are always satisfying, especially
against the Bindippers.

We've done the double over the Scousers a total of ten times !! But it
gets better, we can rub it in real bad now. Five of the ten have come
in the 16 years since the birth of the Premier League but wait !!! It
gets better ... 3 have come in the last 4 years and four have come in
the last 6 years !!! Oh yes Scouser, we got your boys whooped pretty
bad !!

What about the all-time top substitute ? He came off the bench 84
times in the Prem and scored 16 times. He also came on 15 times in the
FA Cup for 3 goals. In the League Cup 3 times and 1 goal. Check this
out !! In the Champions League, 45 times and 8 goals !! Giving a grand
total of 150 appearances as sub for 28 goals, one of which arrived with
a rather famous phrase .....AND SOLSKJAER HAS WON IT !!!! Enough
said, Ole a real legend !!

The top scorers in Europe surprised me ! Well, RVN top of the list is no
surprise on 38 goals. But two of Sir Matts guys are still there. One in
second still ... Denis Law with 28 !! Giggsy in 3rd on 25 with Scholes two
back on 23 and Bobby Charlton still fifth on 22.

Top scorers in the Premiership has really closed up now with 5 goals
covering the top 5. We now have joint leaders on 96, Giggs and Scholes
again. Third is RVN on 95, two back to Cole on 93 and a further 2 more
back is ........... Ole Gunnar !!! The Slave is 25 further back, but I think
he is capable of closing that gap quite a bit before joining City for £600
trillion next season !!

We have 451 wins by a score of 1-0. 381 at 2-0 and 234 for 3-0. 106
times we have scraped home 4-0 and 60 times by 5-0. 6-0 is a mere 19
ocassions with 8 at 7-0, 1 at 8-0, and surprisingly 9-0 three times with
a single 10-0.

2-1 victories come in at 385, 3-1 is 254, 4-1 is 117 and 5-1 57 times, uh ?
Then there are 26 6-1 wins with 7 at 7-1, 2 more at 8-1 and a nice 10-1.

What about 3-2 ? 159, 4-2 is 60 and 5-2 has turned up 31 times. 6-2 is
rare, surely, well 13 times for us 7-2 on 5 days and 8-2 just the once !

Conceding 3 goals and winning is possible. 20 times we did it 4-3, 5-3 is
14 ocassions including being 3-0 down at HT and winning 5-3 v Spurs.
We also have 4 wins of 6-3.

How about conceding 4 goals and winning ? Well, we can do that too.......
5-4, 6-4 and 8-4 once each. Surely no one has ever conceded 5 and won ?
We did, v Chelsea in one of the all time great matches.

I'll maybe cover that in my trivia rush. Now be sure to memorise all this
as I WILL be asking questions Muahahahaha .......

Berbatov Is Sulky - What A Load Of Old Tosh !!

Everyone is sulky sometimes. A lot of people always mention that Berbatov is sulky, moody and
disruptive and it makes me laugh to be honest. I personally believe Berbatov is nowhere near
his best, we haven't seen all he has. For four years now I have classed him as a footballing
genious if given the chance to grow. No disrespect to Spurs but they were hardly going to set the
world alight in the past 2 seasons. Berba was left up front alone, waiting for the kind of service
he needs to score. Given Spurs
erratic form week by week it must
have been frustrating for him. When
your team mates are simply not in
the same class as you, then it would
drive you to insanity.

Despite not getting the service he
requires, he has still scored 23 goals
in the past two seasons and 11 assists
last year. In a team that scored just
66% of the goals United did !!!


Put him in a rampant United team, tearing up the pitch scaring the opposition half to
death and spraying the ball all over the pitch and Berbatov will be in heaven !!
He'll think he has died and been despatched to paradise. With feeling like this
flowing through the team as it does every year, Berba will have no need to be
stressed and go off sulking.

Lou Macari, talking to The Sun this week made some very good observations. I've
robbed the quotes off The Sun, in true Scouse fashion and now I have accredited
them with these quotes I'm sure they'll be cool.

Macari observed that Dimitar Berbatov will not disrupt dressing room harmony at United when
he becomes the Reds' only summer newcomer. The European and Premier League champions
pride themselves on team spirit. It has always been the cornerstone to the 18-year success
story Sir Alex Ferguson has forged since his first trophy in 1990.

Last summer Owen Hargreaves, Nani, Anderson and Carlos Tevez were integrated into the
senior squad family and the accord saw United to the double. But Tottenham's Bulgarian hitman
has a reputation as a sulker. Berbatov has allegedly been moody at White Hart Lane whilst the
controversial switch to Old Trafford see-sawed. But if United can land Fergie's only major
summer target then ex-Red Lou Macari is convinced Berbatov will slip smoothly into the squad
togetherness.

"He won't disrupt things with Sir Alex Ferguson in charge, nor will the long-servers
like Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes allow it. They wouldn't stand for
anything that would cause problems to one of the foundations of United's success. I
don't think Berbatov himself would come in with anything other than full commitment
and a desire to get to the very top. He has gone stale at Spurs but this is his big
chance and probably his last chance at a major opportunity like this. He's not
going to put that on the line. He won't get another chance to be a top player at
a massive club so he'll knuckle down and go along with whatever it is that makes United tick."

Macari believes, however, the 27-year-old will arrive with a burden of expectancy.

"It will be a huge fee that brings him to Old Trafford and there will be a lot of anticipation. He's
got to deliver. The price will be big and people will question it, but I think he will relish the
chance to show he is worth every penny. He doesn't look the kind who would let anything faze
him."

Macari doesn't believe United's lack of transfer activity suggests the Reds won't be challenging
again.

"I don't think Sir Alex Ferguson would have been biting his nails about cover at full back or
central defence or in midfield, but there may have been concerns about lack of firepower. If
Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez stay fit and you get Cristiano Ronaldo back soon then all well
and good. But if Rooney or Tevez is injured early on where do you go ? That would be a
problem.

"You can't afford to take that chance so targeting a striker like Berbatov was right and if he does
come then I don't think United need any more than that to show they will be challenging
again."The squad is stronger than 1999 and the one major signing would be enough."

Pre-Season Games Are Almost Here Again !

It's that time of the year again - pre-season. Time to forget about the double,
that's consigned to the history books now !

It's time for Fergie and the boys to plan for the coming season ahead.

It's looking like no new signings for us - and no Ronnie departure. Which is not a
bad thing I guess. I think our team from last season is more than capable of
finishing above Liverpool and Arsenal again. As for Chelsea ... well I see this
season being a learning curve for Scolari and the players as they all get used to life
without Avram !

So here's the pre-season schedule down below. A good mix of games. Maybe Fergie
could despatch Nemanja oh oh oh ohhhhh Nemanja oh oh oh ohhhhhhhhh to go
and have a word with Mugabe and put him back on the straight and narrow while
United visit South Africa.

12 Jul vs Aberdeen

19 Jul vs Kaizer Chiefs

22 Jul vs Orlando Pirates

26 Jul vs Kaizer Chiefs or Orlando Pirates

27 Jul vs Portsmouth

02 Aug vs RCD Espanyol

04 Aug vs Peterborough

06 Aug vs Juventus