Manchester United

i think its just trying to make us look like reluctant sellers so that we can get a higher fee. if we said we wanted to sell him, then PSG would only offer a lower one.

^^ That's true. United, if planning to sell, will hold out for as long as possible and not sell for cheap.
But maybe leave a tiny fraction of doubt in your mind just in case Rooney is still here next season. ;)

yep. have to use a LOTR reference. how did it come to this?

I really wanted us to sign J.Rodriguez.

I am gutted.

But we cant compete with daft money like that... No point even trying.

I actually feel good...because both were linked to our rivals in the PL. Rodriguez won't be going to City and Moutinho not going to Spurs.

according to gill, rooney's not going anywhere. i'd imagine him having a new kid, transplanting himself to france wouldn't be ideal. not sure what to believe, but i hope this gets resolved very quickly.

It's probably a statement to hint to PSG that the ball is still in our court and that if they want Rooney, they'll need to get that huge briefcase of cash ready.

Why is Ibra going back to Italy? Not because of that bust up with Leonardo right?

Who in Italy could afford Ibra's wages now? Or the transfer fee for that matter... Italian football is broke.

^Definitely Ruud. I miss them Ruud vs Henry days , those were the best.

It may be too soon but Hernandez is something special.

Ruud Van Nistelrooy. We had no live match coverage of PL then in our country. Every morning the name of the scorer I would hear on FM news was Nistelrooy and of course, Henry. Later I got to see about 2 hr of MUTV each week in a TV Channel where they would replay matches and I simply started loving Ruud.

Solksjaer. when he joined, he was a nobody. but what a finisher. tried to copy him so many times, but i am a pretty awful finisher in the box.

van Nistelrooy vs Henry were great days. used to dream about them being a partnership in some club when they would leave United and Arsenal. would have loved to see that more than Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi being a partnership, or Scholes and Xavi/Zidane.

Lol True

don't forget

Tony Pulis: The Sacked One
Harry Redknapp: The Useless One

lol redknapp is useless

Brendan Rodger: The Delusional One
Sam Allardyce: The Long Ball One.

Sir Alex Ferguson: The Phenomenal One.

Rafael Benitez: The Fat (oops, Interim) One.

Eric Steele should not have gone.

I can understand Moyes wanting his own assistant but there was NO need to change the GK coach.

He has done so much for De Gea. Awful decision.

I really hope Rene stays as well. We don't want the Everton staff David.

i didnt get the point of sacking Steele. he has been brilliant for us. does Moyes think whoever he brings in will do better than Steele? its obvious that Dave benefited a lot from him, so why remove him.

i agree with the decision to remove Phelan, because he would need someone who knows how he works thoroughly, plus i find Phelan to be uninspiring as a coach in terms of the tactics he helped employ, compared to the ones that Quieroz used to implement.

I totally agree with @mufc1990 Steele should have stayed, he helped De Gea make so much progress since he joined us.
Eric Steele even took spanish lessons before De Gea signed for us just to help him settle quickly.

Like I said earlier Steele play a major part in helping DDG, and he even take some class to learn Spanish so DDG can settle better. It's a bad idea to removed him, unless Moyes can prove me wrong, but atm I don't like the sound of him leaving

...and who are we going to replace Steele with, Is it someone from Everton? o.O

annoying, why did steele have to go? i am confident much of de gea's progress has been due to steele's efforts.

phelan was always going to go, when a new manager comes, they always handpick their #2/assistant

I also dont understand why Steele had to go. He has played a role in help developing De Gea as a Goalkeeper. I wouldn't worry too much though because De Gea was going to improve no matter who is coaching him.

Also Chris Woods the GK coach of Everton has trained several times with Peter Shilton when he was a goalkeeper as well so I am sure he can help De Gea improve.

Nobody should be surprised that Phelan would be going as that was expected because managers want their own assistants someone they can work with.

Now i agree that Steele shouldn't had been let go as he is a great GK coach having worked and improved both Hart and De Gea. So i am a little disappointed but at the same time we always knew De Gea was a class keeper and needed proper direction to show that. Steele molded him and i think he knows now what is to be expected of him even without steele, atleast that's what i am hoping for.

" i think he knows now what is to be expected of him even without steele, atleast that's what i am hoping for."

Thats the point though.

Why would we want to change Steele? It's just a ludicrous decision and if we end up with the Everton GK coach as a replacement I wont be impressed at all as that is a downgrade in every sense of the word.

Possibly, but you don't know the guy so you can't really say he'd be a downgrade. One thing though i would mention is the vast improvement in Howard at Everton compared to his stint at OT. So you can view that as a silver lining because other than that neither me nor you know much about that bloke so i don't wanna call him a downgrade before he even does anything for us.

However, i also believe in "Don't fix it when its not broken" implying Steele should had stayed but this all about making our manager comfortable and if he thinks his choice would be better for him to work with then we should just wait and see how it turns out.

If Rene goes, I'm going to cry.

That said, I'm with the consensus that it was time for Phelan to go, but wish Steele was allowed to stay on.

Haha brilliant from Van Persie and arsenal fans must be embarrased having Piers Morgan as a gooner.

Suck it Pierssss

Piers Morgan is seriously a douche bag!
The only good thing I remember of him was praising Susan Boyle, the rest of his carrier sucked big time!

I bet the Arsenal fans still get mad at Van Persie over this despite the fact that they all hate Piers.

yeah...enemy 's enemy is my friend doesnt work in this scenario

yeah we all know Piers is a clueless twat with no class though - he is the bane of the Arsenal fanbase.

Piers acts like a complete moron on twitter. He is just a backstabbing idiot.

No enough to challenge Carrick.

ya that is why i dont see any point in buying fellaini for 25mp..

just as good as phil jones if not A LITTLE better.

signing Fellaini to play as a CM would be our biggest flop signing since Veron ..

Fellaini wont flop at United, and he is definitely better than Jones in CM, way better. there just seem to be better, cheaper, and more suitable options to the CM role than Fellaini. but he aint some bad player.

He wouldn't be playing in place of Carrick but alongside him and Thiago in a midfield 3. Fellaini is a massive upgrade over Ando and at the moment Thiago is ahead of clevz and jones is just not a CM.

Prophet is right.

Fellaini would comfortably upgrade our current midfield.

Fellaini is a thug. Even now he still prefers using his elbows to his feet.

I would have thought there are better options available for Utd

While Phelan was a nice guy, he was an absolutely useless coach. Hopefully he finds a proper coaching role in another club

Why Eric Steele?

Dumbass move by Moyes. Steele learned basic Spanish and everything to help De Gea and has been a key factor in turning him into the keeper he is now.

I've never quite been convinced by Phelan maybe its his manner/appearance whatever but I don't want the Everton staff at United neither... This is a whole different club to Everton.

I really hope there are NO more staff changes. Dont try to fix what isn't broken ffs.

Yeah sacking Steele was short-sighted to say the least

"absolutely useless coach"..wtf??

Did you even know what all stuff he did and what his duties were?..just because he doesn't have a charismatic personality doesn't mean he did nothing. Players loved mikey and while fans who don't know what goes inside the club should reserve their opinions atleast an ignorant one at that.

Ok here comes Prophet the all knowing soothsayer of United. Sorry, none of us combined know even a fragment of what you know but i'll still try and explain my ignorant opinion.

I said he was a nice guy and i have no doubt players loved him but he provided nothing in tactical department, suggesting subs and change of tactics to Fergie based on the result, none of that.
Compare that to Quieroz.
As far as i know that's what the 2nd man in charge should be doing, not making himself liked by players as his #1 priority.

But sorry oh all-knowing Prophet, that my ignorant opinion offended you so much, i'll withdraw while you proceed to shower us with your endless encyclopedia of United-related knowledge

Yeah good job misunderstanding my point...i never claimed that i know all what Mike Phelan does and doesn't..infact nobody other than club insiders and players do. Fans usually form their opinion based on what other fans correlated from his uneventful personality.

Rene Mulllensteen is our tactical adviser as he is often regarded by the media as one of the best coaches in the world so from that and from what our players have said about him you can deduce what he does for United and how good he is.

On the contrary, Phelan's role has never been mentioned by the media nor by the players other than that he is an integral part of United management and that they all like him very much and i agree that alone shouldn't be enough to work under Fergie but here is the kicker Fergie himself appointed him and trusts him. He's been with the club for over 10 yrs going from the the first team coach to now the assistant manager...that in itself should be enough for people to think that his role however it may seem ambiguous is still vital and so thinks Fergie as well because if not that he'd be ousted by Fergie himself long ago...simple as that.

So who knows if he is/was in charge of the tactical decisions as well along with Rene....but if Fergie liked him and wanted him by his side he has to be a productive sob because Fergie doesn't take 2nd rate class.

Agreed. EDS and short term trophies should not be used in the same breath at all. There can either be one of the two, or a controlled hybrid, never both.

The frustration of the City fans is that nobody knows what the clear goals are (and never might unless we have a strong figure like SAF). Evolving goals is OK, changing goals is not.

At one point City has an emphasis on EDS, on another Ferran talks about 5 trophies. Conflicting stmts. I am dying to see things unfold in the next month or two to see what the clear picture is. Are we going for direct football or tiki taka. Are we going for Pellegrini (hush Mou is around too) or not?

Totally agree to your point of view, hoping that the City execs really have a mastermind in place which will unfold over the next few months/years. We will all be there to notice what happens.

@Tomikato

i dont think most City fans have ever met a Sheikh. they are not the sort of people that like to get disappointed. i have mets Sheikhs, and spent a short spell with the Crown Prince of my country. he is a cool guy, but they are different people when you see them behind closed doors.

my dad, a doctor used to go on the "tours and holidays" with Sheikhs from my country's royal family, including the current King's brother. stuff like, month long trips to Turkmenistan at random months of the year, and since my dad was a favourite of the Sheikhs, he was also "asked" (more like expected, or ordered to) to be part of the travelling party and live for a month in the middle of nowhere while the Sheikh does his hunting and so on. my dad even got to know the late King, and current King and the Crown Prince pretty well, and knows loads about how Sheikhs are in reality. some of the stories of excess and brutality that i have heard is crazy, but even if 5% of it is true, then its still a lot. Mancini disappointed the Sheikh, bam, he is gone. if Pelligrini or anyone else does that, then he goes too. i dont think the Sheikh seriously cares enough about that City youth part of the project. why else would Mancini stay stuff like they need to sign 3-4 top players ever summer? obviously he must have gotten the memo from the top that such a thing is fine, right? now that Pelligrini/whoever-it-is will come, he will change the squad and change the playing personnel. i dont see the youth getting a chance for another 2 or so years. Mancini was sacked since he didnt deliver trophies, and if Pelligrini tries to integrate EDS products, then he would likely fail in getting trophies too. so, eventually he will get sacked as well. thats why i always said, that City is just another Chelsea. big plans, but never actually walking the talk.

if the Sheikh wants trophies every year, then Pelligrini will have to deliver. as i said, they dont like to be disappointed or hear a "no". my dad, even after retirement from the hospital, started a private clinic. but even a few years after retirement, he would still get "requests" from the Sheikhs to come on their trips. he is an old man, he cant do that sort of stuff anymore. he was even "expected" to be the attending physician for a young royal family couple on their bloody honeymoon. finally, after years of politely refusing, the calls stopped, but strangely, some of my dads work started to become slower, like official documentation needed to run the clinic from the government ministries. stuff that should have taken a couple of months, took almost two years. i dont believe in coincidence, not when its that big.

if Sheikh Mansour was serious about turning City into a sustainable proper club, that has a fully involved youth program, then he would have done so by now. i hear City fans go on and on about Guidetti, Rekik, etc, and if City are serious about it, then they would have given them a chance in the first team by now (appearances in the two domestic cups vs really small teams dont count imo, because even Chelsea do that).

if City wants to be the club they say they are, or plan to become, then they have to take the plunge and integrate their young home-grown talents into the first team picture, otherwise its all just pipe dreams that City fans believe in. when City start using their young talent, the performance levels of the club will drop to an extent, and City obviously dont even want to contemplate that. the Uniteds and Dortmunds do that, and there have been times when performances havent been so good (like Uniteds performance in the Incivibles and the first 2 Mourinho years, where we were developing CR and Rooney).

its almost as if, City only want to start integrating the youth when they have the best squad in the world by a landslide compared to their rivals. as if their rivals will drop dead for a couple of years, thus allowing City to bring in their EDS and give the space needed to accommodate their errors, without it harming their pursuits for big trophies.

i would have respect City if they walked the talk, because they did have a nice talk, and i really liked their plans (especially the EDS, new training complex, community projects, etc). but, as i thought, City is pretty much going down the Chelsea route, and the Sheikh will do whatever he wants to do with City, regardless of what the City fans think (such as the Mancini sacking). but my message to other Citys fans (not you, Tomikato, i would never say it to you), is "if you get in bed with the Sheikh, dont be surprised if you are royally screwed). all this talk that City fans say that the Sheikh loves City, and was/is huge City fan pre-takeover, is such BS, that its laughable at the very least. i wouldnt mind seeing City crash and burn sufficiently enough for City fans to finally wake up, smell the coffee and get over this delusion that the Sheikh is their blue-hearted knight in shining armour. he is just using City as a marketing tool for Abu Dhabi, and on behalf of Abu Dhabi. when its no longer useful to him, he will dispose of the club, and likely City will go back to midtable obscurity. why? because i see other clubs making sustainable, but ambitious plans for becoming big clubs (like Spurs and Liverpool), and i dont see why they wont take Citys spot when the Sheikh no longer needs the club.

Good to get some deep insight from someone who has had so much interaction with the Sheikhs. Anyone City fan reading this post will have a massive concern about the coming years.

Having said that, I am truthfully hoping that they go the EDS path (with a sprinking of stardust every year, which is of course required) so that City is self sufficient when the Sheikh pulls the plug. If you remember I had said last year, hopefully City does not become another Malaga in the future.

I can feel the truth in your words, as a City fan I have no choice but to hope against it, and of course enjoy the present and the football!

i can see why Sorriano said City need 5 trophies in the next 5 years. they probably are going to need it in order to legimitise some of the inflated sponsorships they have got (in terms of market value, like Etihad). when they go on a run of trophies, then it will be easier to get sponsors through natural means (instead of family owned companies giving questionable amounts of money to a club owned by someone in that same family), and attract more fans of course.

but, that would also mean that the EDS is barely going to get a look in for the next 5-ish years, assuming it even does. i will wait and see what City do, but i know what happened at Chelsea since 2003 and all the talking and planning that they did, so i have already placed my bets.

i remember Chelsea (Roman A., pretty much) said they will be self-sufficient, and the biggest club in the world, by 2010 i think it was. only last year did they make a profit since the takeover, and statistics show Chelsea arent even in the top 5 of most supported clubs in the world, and their youth academy is like a luxury that is never used, except making backup squad players at best. i would be a little surprised if Chelsea dont make a financial loss this year, since they made peanuts for profit last year, due to the run to the CL final and winning it of course, but that doesnt happen often, and certainly didnt happen this year.