I’m not surprised David feels a bit aggrieved with the situation, you always are when a big club is trying to sign one of your best players.

We already analyzed Mark Hughes’ behaviour in the past but things seem to become worse and worse every day.

You don’t become a big club because of your spending power, but because of your results!.

According to Sparky’s logic, who seems to have another Code of Conduct than every other manager and will continue his chase to sign Joleon Lescott from Everton, there have been many big clubs in recent years, but he forgets where these clubs have ended.

Newcastle United FC

When Mike Ashley decided to invest in the Magpies the future seemed rose and suddenly everyone over at St. James Park thought that the misery years were over and NUFC would soon be competing for Europe again. Until Keegan decided to walk, as only Keegan knows and can walk, and results stayed out. The NUFC saga became more interesting than Little Britain and suddenly the once mighty Newcastle ended up in the Championship. The team still is managerless and rumour has it that free agent (!) Sol Campbell might sign for them.

West Ham

Not so long ago West Ham suddenly became a force or a big club with a valuation of £110m. But the fun wouldn’t last long.
Once the Mascherano and Tevez saga started to roll the club was only fighting relegation anymore and luckily could escape it, thanks to a golden goal from the crybaby at Old Trafford. Not two years later the club every year has to fill the squad with players on loan because there is no cash available. The Icelandic Bank crash took West Ham from big club to very little club.

Leeds United FC

Not many words need to be said about this black patch on the English Football history.

Fact is that Sparky has taken an incredible nosedive with ManCity last season after the brilliant work of former England manager Sven. The only question that remains is: ‘How long will Hughes be at the helm at The Council House?’. When players like Adebayor and Robinho don’t perform, will he be able to give them the ‘hair dryer’ at half time and be respected for his manners, will he be able to cope with super stars? Will he be able to contain cryboy Tevez and samba player, and late holiday returner, Robinho? If the latter’s attitude might have changed and now he might think that MCFC has the desire to become a winning team, this certainly is not due to Hughes but to the big wallet of the Arabians. Hughes still has everything to prove, so far he only is a small manager of a small team who has never won anything.

And I bet you that at the end of the Season 2009-2010 the Stretford End Ticker will be updated once more and Manchester City will have to admit that they still a small club are. Albeit with a new manager.

After a bomb attack on the hotel Manchester United was supposed to stay in for the game against an Indonesian All Star team, ManUtd cancelled both the trip to Indonesia and game. At least eight people died in the attacks and 50 people or more were injured.
The Australian Football Assosociation had offered to organize a game against Melbourne Victory or Sydney FC but ManUtd refused to take on the offer because it would mean an additional 20 hrs of travel time. Instead the Red Devils agreed to play a rematch against Malaysia XI in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

Malaysia XI 2-3 Manchester United

Manchester United won their first friendly of the pre-season against a Malaysia All Star team with Rooney, Nani and Michael Owen netting the goals. In a professional manner the Red Devils took a 2-0 lead in front of almost 100.000 fans in Kuala Lumpur. Wayne Rooney slotted the first goal of the game home before Nani the second goal scored. ManUtd seemed to lead the game comfortably until Mohammed Amri Yahyah fired home a stunning long-range effort from outside the box just before the break.

The Malaysians drew level after an error from Ben Foster who was replaced VDS in the second half. Michael Owen, who also came of the bench, scored his first goal for our team five minutes before the final whistle.

Line up:van der Sar (Foster 46); O’Shea, Ferdinand (Brown 61), Evans, Evra (Fabio 61); Gibson, Scholes (Tosic 61), Anderson (Giggs 76), Nani, Rooney (Owen 61), Berbatov (Macheda 76).
Goals: Rooney 8, Nani 28, Owen 85

Manucho signs for Valladolid

Senegalese striker who we signed after a three week trial in December 2007, will sign a 5 year deal with Spanish side Real Valladolid. Manucho only managed to make one appearance in the first squad, last season against Stoke City. During the first 6 months of his ManUtd contract he was loaned out to Pananthinaikos in Greece. After failing to make an impact with the reserves he was loaned out to Hull City for the latter part of last season.

Mame Biram Diouf signed at OT

Senegalese talent Mame Biram Diouf has been signed from Norwegian club Molde FK, the same club we signed Legend Ole Gunnar Solskjær from. The Senegalese striker will stay at Molde until the end of the year, trying to help Molde win the title. There are doubts about Diouf being able to obtain a working permit as he hasn’t featured in the Senegalese national squad so far, only on youth level. Sir Alex Ferguson insisted ManUtd had to sign the talented youngster because other European clubs had made bids already. The ManUtd scouting staff has observed Mame Diouf since two years already. Since arriving in Denmark he has scored 38 goals in 73 appearances for Molde FK.

The opposition’s corner

The skyblues continues their spending spree and now also signed Adebayor for a fee around £5m. This means that the Abu Dhabi team has spend more than £100m at strikers only in less than 12 months. Considered their tales from last year this is very promising for when they play away from home, considered their run last season.

Forever ManUtd fan Becks has backed Chelsea to win the League title this season. Apparently the glamour boy reckons that Carlos Ancelotti more talented is than SAF.

By now panic must start to set in at the Council House. Other than the signing of Roque Santa Cruz, and Gareth Barry who could not wait for an offer from Rafa but chose for the big bucks, nothing much has happened. Other than failures.

City are said to make a THIRD approach for John Terry with a staggering £40m offer for the international, even though Ancelotti already claimed that Terry is going nowhere. Over here at ManUtd Blog we love JT because he’s always good for some funny lines or slippery. JT certainly is a great defender but one has to wonder if the international £40m worth is. Especially since City seems to aim at Champions League football any time soon but still struggles in the offensive department. Last season the skyblues managed to capture a player who went signed for the wrong squad and for a long time didn’t show his immense talent because of the attitude ‘We’ll never win anything’.

This season City was said to have wanted Eto but they already moved on from this deal and the Tevez still has not finalized. Again there are rumours that the Argentinean will sign and be presented on Wednesday, but with the fierce comptetion of Robinho, Santa Cruz and Stephen Ireland it seems rather doubtfull that Tevez is ready to put pen to paper. After his months of whining about not playing enough I seriously wonder that he will want to sign without receiving guarantees about being in the starting eleven and Hughes does not seem to be the kind of manager who will promise Tevez a starting spot above his personal favourite Santa Cruz.

With the crazy time still going on and many teams, top teams looking to reinforce their squad, it seems unlikely that City will be able to sign any star of international fame. City will always be City.

After a rather quiet end of 2008-2009 season our favourite Spanish manager has kicked of the new season with a good old fashioned whine again.

For once though our manager surprisingly is not the victim of a Spanish tirade but Benitez publicly lamented the well documented Anfield Road credit crunch the astronomical sums offered for players in this transfer window.

“The market is now crazy. It is all money, money, money now”

“We had to pay big money. But we were signing a good player, an England player (Johnson), and that is very positive.”

Surprisingly the next swipe went out to The Council House and Real Madrid.

“City have signed a lot of good players, but that is no guarantee they will win anything. But it will be interesting to see what happens next season”

“If you spend big it is always easier to perform well. But when you have a good understanding between players, that is also important. If they are together, they work hard, that is just as important.”

It is no secret that Real Madrid has never won anything during the first Galacticos period and there is no doubt that The Council House will never win anything but one has to agree with Rafa because the team spirit IS more important than having a star struck squad. But why did the whine have to start immediately on return, even before the real pre-season kicks off? It seems that age can do weird things to people.

After 6 gameweeks, Funky Toon F.C. and Riverdale United have taken a clear early lead, and Funky Toon F.C. could still score points today when Newcastle tries to add another victory to their not too bad balance this year. After the jump, at the end of the entry, a screenshot of the Top #20 so far.

With the Champions League starting tomorrow, of course we also launch another league, for the UCL only.
Join this league at the official official UEFA site and after you have signed up and created your team, use the code

111162-18831

to join this league.

And now to the funnier parts. John Terry.

Remember when John Terry said some weeks ago that ManUtd already faced an uphill battle after only some games?

I would have expected United to have started a bit better but a lot of clubs have bought really well over the summer. Five points is a hell of a gap to have this early on.
…
It’s going to be difficult for United.

Funny (and good) thing in sports is that things can change fast. We are only two games in the season further, and already Mr. Terry needs to be corrected.

Sorry, Mr. Terry, but we are actually standing above you, with the same number of points, but a better goal difference.

And with Sunday’s upcoming clash against Chelsea F.C., at OT, things can only get better for us, as it seems we finally found our winning spirit back and I bet that Wednesday’s Champions League game the prove of this will be. I probably will be live-reporting the game again.

Photo Credits: Paul Bence.

I want a quick solution. My lawyers have told me a meeting with the Premier League is possible to advance the matter next week…

…The club had guaranteed my transfer if a good offer came in and nobody specified anything about the club whether it be a foreign team or Liverpool.

…I am a total professional and I have always behaved as such. Now I just ask that they respect me and accept what I was promised.

It just amazes me, that a guy who is otherwise that involved in his style, can become this desperate. Desperate for a move to just another bench. Honestly, if Heinze with his actual performance moves to the Merseyside, he certainly IS NOT going to start many games. There is no way that he’ll get the nod on Riise, who has been one of the most important players for Liverpool over the last years now.

Image Credits: caramelacorleonebarc e_cuatro.

The fans, everyone should just chill out and relax. Let me do my job, that is what I am paid very well to do.

Roy Keane, Sunderland manager, on the possibilities of landing a big name. (Emphasis mine)

The transfer market was quiet, also for the teams who would love to compete with us next season.
Actually it is pretty hilarious.

Chelsea obviously has capped Jose’s budget. And so far even hasn’t proven to be ready to pay their best performing players enough to keep them.
OK, they landed Pizarro, but honestly what were they thinking? I remember Pizarro from when I lived in Germany. He just started collecting name and fame, playing for Werder Bremen, but when he moved to Bayern Munich, his little dream started to crumble. Obviously when you play at Bayern you are confronted with other defenses than when you play at Werder Bremen who just started to resurrect during his spell there. What was Pizarro’s record again? 99 Goals in 203 games? Sounds Coca-Cola Championship ready to me. I mean scoring against the likes of Mainz05, Freiburg or Hansa Rostock can’t be compared to play Blackburn Rovers, Bolton or even Reading and Wigan, not to mention his almost inexisting record in the Champions League.
Alex is finally joining his employer’s squad and hopes to prove himself in the Prem, competing the likes of Terry, Cole and Carvahlo. I hope for him that Chelsea will suffer many injuries again, because otherwise it looks bad for him.
Nevertheless, I think a fit Chelsea could go far, except that they don’t improve and suffer the inconvenience of having Mourinho as a manager.

The other Londoner club, Arsenal, still seem to suffer that they really aren’t competitive on the market and every time they get rid of players, those prove themselves to become even better.
Maybe this year for the first time they might acquire some experience as David Trezeguet is rumoured to be considered by Wenger, but honestly I never understood the Trezeguet hype. And he certainly doesn’t fit in the Arsenal style either.
Also, Arsenal seems to have a prestige problem. Or maybe it’s rather a form of greediness from Wenger, but with Champions League, a brand new stadium and the strongest league in the world, it is rather pityful if you’re not able to land a fellow Frenchman and young international talents prefer to go to Bayern Munich, even if that means playing UEFA Cup next year.
They secured a new keeper. Do they have 3 internationals competing for one spot now?
On the leave at Arsenal are Baptista (too expensive), Reyes (doesn’t want to return – and obviously Wenger has problems getting rid of him) and last but not least Thierry Henry. I think Henry finally realized he’ll never win anything with the Gooners and is now looking to at least have the chance to be internationally competitive.

Last but not least we’ve got that club with the beer sponsor. Probably the best beer in the world, but the Danes obviously made an error when deciding whom to sponsor and certainly didn’t chose the best club in the world, because there’s only one and that ManU!
The transfer period at Liverpool looks pretty much like a Season of Eastenders to me: Rafa has done his best to secure players who have proven over the last years not to be competitive enough to win the Prem, but they are good enough to secure long deals at Anfield.
Furthermore there’s the whole soap around Gillet and investment during the transfer period. Once more Gillet has said they will be active, but I fear Gillet is looking at another type of builders for Liverpool than the kind of builders they need. I fear Gillet’s eyes are more focused on the construction sector than on a decent striker.

All in all, so far it looks like we are set for a new title next year.
Already having secured our deals, and the title in the Museum, it looks like next weeks here we’ll be able to have some more fun at the expense of the opponent’s corner, but hey… they hand us the fun on a golden plate!

But the season is not yet over as he still has to contribute in adding the FA Cup Winner’s medal at Wembley next week. But at the moment, lifting the Premiership trophy is all that matters and savoring the moment is at their foremost minds.

“We’ll enjoy tonight, but we’re looking forward to next Saturday and we don’t want to lose the first final at the new Wembley,” he said. “The lads in the dressing room are desperate to win it. We’ll be up for it.” – Celebrations sweet for Smith

However, as it is now the turn of the United Manchester team to host, no other than Sir Alex Fergusson assured the safety of over 4,000 fans that will be on hand to watch the match. Although still upset over what transpired, Sir Fergusson assured the Roma fans safety in the next match which proves to be another exciting one. Hopefully, the United Manchester fans will support Sir Fergusson on his promise to spare innocent fans from getting caught in between the crossfire.

[tags]hooliganism, united manchester, uefa 2007, soccer, fergusson[/tags]