Manchester United Banter Archive February 01 2013

01 Feb 2013 21:46:54
Another transfer window closes and the team has not been strengthened, perhaps there was "no value in the Market". We've still got a great chance of winning the Premiership but in truth we are not a great team and it's a pretty poor league this year. We have consistently struggled against teams we should have demolished and we have very clear weaknesses in midfield and on the wings. The major cause for optimism is the strength we have in Ferdinand, Vidic, Evans, Smalling and Jones, no additions needed there.
Perhaps the biggest cause for concern is the lack of fitness, touch etc from Rooney. He came back from preseason in a very poor condition and more is expected from a highly paid professional sportsman. Perhaps his fitness needs to be monitored not just during the season but outside it as well. The Champions League is almost certainly beyond us and the coming Summer is crucial in rebuilding through buying as well as bringing on some of our younger talent.
Paulo

01 Feb 2013 22:02:49
the midfield targets we wanted simply wasn't available. Celtic don't want to sell wanyama till summer. Same with psv and strootman. Same with the benders. And so on. Not really sure what people expect in january. The only people who do anything is relegation haunted teams like qpr.

01 Feb 2013 18:35:14
Getting a bit sick and tired of the constant De Gea bashing. At a young age he was big enough to accept the challenge of playing for the biggest team in England not to mention replacing someone like Van De Sar. The press can't see past Joe Hart no matter how many mistakes he's made and there are quite a few! De Gea is an exceptional shot stopper, he is composed with his feet and, more importantly, he doesn't shy away if he makes a mistake. His stats back all of that up. I can accept that at times he struggles with crosses but again he doesn't shy away from them and picks himself up for the next one. Now I've never seen a keeper who enjoys coming for crosses and throughout a weekend of football a fair percentage of premier league keepers will flap at at least 1 cross. The criticism depend on the shirt you wear! De Geas ability to use his feet when a ball is deflected at the last minute is astounding and quite unique. Long story short, he's a young man playing for a massive club, under unfair scrutiny every week and he still pulls on the shirt and puts himself out there. For me in terms of keepers there is Courtois at Athletico on loan from Chelsea, Hart and De Gea, all of similar age and ability. Courtois, in my opinion, will be top class and Hart is up there too but I wouldn't swap De Gea for either. If you don't want to support your own teams goalkeeper and you can't see the obvious abilities he possesses then there's a cocky keeper with an itchy scalp across the way who would love a hand to wash his hair!

Oxred

Ox, we know what his attributes are my friend, what's worrying is what he is still struggling with. He doesn't seem to be improving in certain areas of his game and he doesn't seem to be putting on any weight either. United are heavily scouting goalkeepers, whether that's because he is homesick or whether SAF is unhappy with his progress I don't know, but I think it's looking like Begovic in, De Gea out at the moment. That said I wouldn't mind us sticking with him for one more season to see if he can improve his weak areas. I do not think he deserved any criticism for the Southampton goal as it was Carrick's fault which he owned up to. I do think he could have done better with that punch at Spurs and I do think he has bottled a catch here and there, other than that he has been exceptional and if he could polish off his flaws he would be the best keeper in the world by his mid-20's. Just not sure he will get the time he will need at United sadly.

Sydney!

Begovic is not the answer. This smacks of when Schmeichel retired and we chopped and changed. To have spent �17M on someone only to offload them in their second year would be very disappointing. Unless we are going to buy a top class keeper, which Begovic is not, we should stick with DDG and work on his shortcomings.

AJH

AJH, Begovic has come on leaps and bounds over this season, but I agree he doesn't have the talent De Gea possesses if he can sort out his flaws.

Sydney!

I would rather have De Gea with his flaws than Begovic.

Mike

Begovic is not the answers and anybody who thinks United will dump a young player with the potential to be worldclass hasn't got a clue
For me ddg is improving and in a couple of years will be a top player just like smalling Jones etc
If I was to sell a keeper it would be linders not really sure he's ever going to be United class, ddg on the other hand will be.

Jred

01 Feb 2013 22:54:04
Oxred join markthered in stealing my complete post! Perhaps one of the eds could confirm that the above post is in fact mine!

Big G {Ed007's Note - I don't know what has been going on with posts but it has been looked at. As far as I can see some wee pr1ck has been posting using everyone's names. If anyone else has had the same problem, it has been sorted out. I would apologise but we will call it quits for all the abuse over the last week from sad-sack gilfnards :-)
Now that the window is closed me and Ed002 have a chance to kick back and reacquaint our love.}

02 Feb 2013 02:28:50
Much obliged.

Big G

01 Feb 2013 17:32:45
I think we will start with this team tomorrow.

De Gea, Rafa, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Valencia, Cleverley, Carrick, Kagawa, Rooney, RvP.

I think this will be a tougher game than it was one week ago. They are a different side when playing at home. We have been a little lucky with Berbatov not being fit. Also two of their three signings will not be ready to play. They are missing Diarra, Sidwell & Richardson so they do have injuries. Danny Murphy who has always been a pain in the ass for us no longer plays for Fulham and the same can be said for Dembele so we are in good stead to play them tomorrow. Rafael, Ferdinand & Kagawa only played part of the last game and Cleverley & Valencia have had a good rest so we should look fresh, especially with Anderson, Nani, Smalling, Jones, Hernandez etc on the bench who will all be fresh and ready for the title run-in.

Sydney!

I will go for another shaky 2. 1 win.

Sydney!

I'd go with the same team with Nani instead of Valencia. Atleast Nani offers something.

01 Feb 2013 16:23:49
Evening Gents,

I get tired of hearing on the radio, reading in the papers, seeing on the TV that SAF and United get better treatment from the FA.

Well hearing that Hazard is only serving a 3 match ban for the red card shows that the FA treat Manchester United a lot harsher then others.

Wayne Rooney got a 5 match ban for swearing down the camera, there was nothing in place that states the punishment for this situation so coming up with a 5 match ban from no where for an incident that has never occured before sets a president. I'm not defending Rooney, he did wrong and got punished, fair enough.

However, Hazard kicks a ball boy, gets sent off and it ends there? Because the ref had sent him off the matter has been dealt with? Had the ref sent Rooney off for foul and abusive language would it of ended in a 3 match ban and that's it? I would suggest not. Had Rooney of been in Hazard's position, would it of been a 3 match ban and that's it? I would suggest not.

SAF has been called before the FA for his comments on the officials yet Mancini and Redknapp escape punishment. In March 2011 he was given a 5 match touchline ban and fined £30,000 for comments about Martin Atkinson, the largest punishment a Manager has ever been given.

So to those who say Manchester United get treated differently, then your right, but not in the way they think, SAF and Manchester United are a big scalp and if the FA think they can get one over on them they will.

I'm not saying United should never get punished but the FA need to employ some consistency in their disciplinary policies.

Ports

Ports

Didnt rooney get only 2 games? And lets be honest fergie uses the media to his advantage when its needed and sometimes gets called up for it, but he knows wot he's doing, I generally think top clubs get punished tougher for things but I wouldn't say they are always out to get us, 3 games is fair maybe four, its quite different to wot eric done.
Chris the REDman

Chris the REDman

"wot eric done"

you should get a three day ban for that

|Luke Chadwicks Teeth|

Maybe it was 2 matches but seemed like 5 :) Funny it coincided with FA Cup semi against City, well played Bernstein!

I'm not disputing the bans, I'm not disputing what SAF does, to be honest, they all do but SAF is the master.

What I get frustrated about is the attitude that United get away with Murder, this isn't the case!

Ports

The FA Clearly bottled it. Whatever was written in that Chelsea letter changed their minds. He was definitely going to receive further punishment had Chelsea not opposed further action. It warranted an extra game ban IMO. Very strange that they never added on more games.

Sydney!

Ports you are right.

how can they say that swearing = 5 game ban, whilst kicking a boy whilst on the floor = 3. it is just crazy when you think about it. are they saying swearing is worse than kicking someone when they are on the floor.

mental

oxred

Oh in that case I agree there is the thought the fa favour utd which is not true!

Luke ummmm. ok mate

Chris the RedMan

Seems to be someone posing as me for some reason. didn't think I was THAT famous!

Ed - I put in the same name in the fields as I did the other day

|Luke Chadwick's Teeth| {Ed007's Note - Are you putting it in the e-mail field mate? Just put your unique tag (doesn't need to be an e-mail addy and I will get that linked for you. No tag came through on this post if that helps buddy.}

When it comes to the FA and Manchester United they always seem to hand out severe punishments i. e. When Ferdinand missed his drug test he offered to come back and get it done but they said no then the FA banned him from all football including training for 8 months yet when Kolo Toure at city tested positive for a banned substance he got a poxy 6 month ban and was still allowed to train, Hazard kicks a ball boy and gets away with a 3 match ban yet Cantona who was severely provoked during the match and when he was sent off gets a 9 month ban and people say we get away easy off the FA you must be joking if you think that. The FA in this country are a joke and need to be consistant with their punishments for everyone.
cheats2005

Cheers Ed - Stuck my name and email in the fields that say Not Required after them just in case. i'll prob have 2 ips, this one and works one where I spend pretty much all day refreshing this site

To be fair to whoever wrote it, it was pretty funny. Just a bit weird to nick someone elses' tag - not that hard to think of one!

Plus mine is a ball ache to type each time, but ill stick with it!

|Luke Chadwick's Teeth| {Ed007's Note - No problems buddy, as long as your tag is on it it will get posted. The sites are moving to a log in system sometime in the near future, that should help all the regulars out.}

We do seem to have a right little wannabe on here lately. Mort

01 Feb 2013 19:36:57
Cheats, I do not think Hazard's crime was anywhere near as bad as Cantona's, although I will say Cantona shouldn't have been banned for that long and Hazard should have received a longer ban due to the severity of it. I think a 4-6 game ban would have sufficed and set a clear message to all. Cantona should have got a 23 game ban (half a season). With Rio it was very unfair as he did a hair sample a week later which proved he hadn't taken drugs for at least a month.

Sydney!

01 Feb 2013 12:53:58
Please, Please, Please, can people stop listing assists to justify their point about a player as this stat is completely mis-leading. If a player is fouled and the resultant free-kick / penalty is directly scored from then the fouled player gets an assist. If a player's shot is going miles wide and another player diverts the 'shot' into the goal, it counts as an assist to the player whose shot was going wide. If a player crosses the ball and it is diverted into their own goal by a defender then it counts as an assist to the player who crossed the ball. If a player passes the ball to another player and he scores with a 30yd thunderbolt then it counts as an assist to the player who passed the ball.
A grey area is the corner taker, if you score it is an assist to the corner taker, but is it really an assist if the ball is just knocked into the box and someone wins a header and scores. If it is a set move and a goal is scored then I accept this is an assist, but not every corner scored from should count as an assist. For those that feel a player taking a corner always deserves an assist if a goal is scored, are you therefore happy that it should count as a mis-placed pass by the corner taker if a defender wins the ball, after all he has given possession away.
Personally I would count an assist as something like Kagawa to Rooney on Weds, but some of the assist criteria above are just ridiculous. Surely an assist is a deliberate action by the player providing the opportunity for someone else to score, not just someone being fouled or knocking a hopeful cross / corner into the box.
Sorry, rant over, not a happy Friday.

Yougottalaugh {Ed007's Note - I am in total agreement, there are far too many factors involved to allow it to be accurate.}

Does that mean we shouldn't be using goal stats either? How many goals to strikers get from penalties, ricochets off the back of their head or balls that hit a defender and land at the feet of the striker? My point is that more often than not a player gets an assist by getting into the right positions and putting the ball into the right areas so IMO, just like goal scoring, you make your own luck by doing the right things.

TK-Red

01 Feb 2013 11:53:50
I'd just like to thank the Ed's for all the hard work they put into the site especially over January when everything goes crazy on the sites. Over the last few days i've seen a few posts moaning or slating them, this imo is bang out of order.

So Thank you for all the work you do, and i'm sure most of the other regulars feel the same.

Shappy {Ed002's Note - We appreciate it S.}

I'll second that.

GDS

Here here, keeps me sane when the wife and kids are driving me mad :-)

Brendan

Good job eds I wonder how many spellings of sneijder you saw this month!

ms85

Here here. . . I second that motion

CAIN

Here here

NTRed

I think its a fabulous site. It kills so much of my time.

Keep it up.

Singh

01 Feb 2013 20:03:44
I knew the Eds suffered a certain amount of abusive posts that never get posted. But i'm staggerd by the number of disagrees this post has got.

If you don't like the site or the way its run then what the hell are you doing here? I mean if you don't like cabbage then you don't eat it, what kind of masacist must you be.

Just when I thought i'd seen all the stupid the world has to offer then I find these persons. Lol.


Shappy

It will be one keyboard warrior shappy who didn't even bother posting. The real users of this site agree wholeheartedly.

GDS

01 Feb 2013 09:24:56
EDD002. Why don't you block people from putting a load of bull on this site, firstly it would make your site more repitable, and secoundly we would all get some proper information about the club we all love. I quite like the site but it just winds me up when people come on here talking a load of crap. I recently told a freind about your site who is always spot on when it comes to information about united but he said he will not be using this site because off all the people who talk nonsence. This is not a dig at you or the site but you do need to syphen out the day dreamers and stop them putting rubbish on here. anyway moan over just another point I did tell everyone a few weeks ago that united would not be signing anyone in this window because fergie wouldn't want to unsettle the teams balance whilst we are 7 points clear. ok we signed up zaha but loaned him back to palace but that was because fergies hand was pushed with arsenal sniffing around but other than that I was right but there will be 2 or 3 big deals tied up in the summer lewandoski being one.

M. U. F. C SALFORD. {Ed002's Note - Much of the "bull" gets cut already. Other "bull" gets put in to the Banter, Teams, Dodgy folders. It is not easy for the Eds to get it all right.}

What if this turns out to be bull and Lewandowski doesn't sign. How should the Ed' determine that? If you are willing to spend your time reading a rumours site I think you have the time to read a few lines of nonsense.

Jono

01 Feb 2013 10:32:34
i think it depends on what you class as rubbish. Some of the stuff is blatantly daft but its amusing. Personally I don't see the harm. Don't like it don't read it. Not sure what your after anyway. Its a football rumours site not a football confirmed transfer site. Anyway I think everyone knew we wouldn't make any signings in january. We never do unless someone else goes for a target. And our main targets are all unavailable in january. And cup tied as well. Also I can't remember seeing anything on here that's ever came true anyway. MrE

Give them a break Salford, the eds do a great job keeping this site running the last thing we need is someone criticizing it, if you don't like what you see just ignore it.

Posts like this a ruining the site.

-JakeW

Just wondering did anyone hear anything about younis belanda according to moroccan media he will sign 4 Manchester United the first july any truth in it or is it nonsense

That's a bit of a sanctimonious comment. You may view comments as bull but why is your opinion more valid than others? If you are going to block posts for allegedly being bull, then why not block posts for shockingly poor spelling and grammar too? That being the case, we wouldn't have seen your post. Chill out mate, you shouldn't be on a banter site if you can't tolerate opinions other than your own.
PerthDave

Remember Salford that as annoying as they are its a BANTER site.
laugh em off, its what I do. you have to be pretty sad to want to come on here spouting pointless drivel. remember all liverpool fans can do I remind s that they ONCE were half decent.

ms85

Also without dodgy rumours or the more blatantly personic posts please give a thought to the 100s of mickey mousers whos scouse site would have to close.

They would have to stick to football manager and never be heard from again. Oh! hang on that may be a thought

Pardoe

I love this sight it makes me smile do not change anything :) zee

. although people could possibly occasionally use spell check.

AJH

01 Feb 2013 06:01:25
Syd, KLOOT and other esteemed regulars - I'm after your take on this:-

Yesterday Syd alluded to our current capacity and potential redevelopment of OT to approx 95,000 capacity. My opinion like many others is that this is desirable and would cement our status as the biggest club in the world. We all know the design problems related to this expansion which would involve the demolition of residential properties not currently owned by the club and an alternative plan for the railway line.
My questions are: Does the club have a plan to eventually take this expansion forward? Is it feasible from an architectural and financial perspective? Is anything likely to happen in the next 5 to 10 years or is it just a pipe dream?
PerthDave

Ha ha, why on gods would you for one minute believe anybody on this site would have the foggiest, some of them talk like they know the ins and outs but believe me they dont, i'm from heywood and one of my mates is mike tunnicliffe and he knows nowt so believe me people who claim to know people around carrington (yeah right)still know nowt.
big red bob

You were right the club looked at it very seriously and considered building over the Railway line. They have bought up a lot of property round the area, but if it were to go ahead it would mean buying a couple of streets worth of houses on the other side of the tracks. The big sticking block at the moment is the economic climate. United are for the first time in a very long time struggling to sell out the ground. There is no waiting list for Season tickets and they are looking for seperate revenue streams. In the long term they will hope to be able to do their own TV deals with the far east etc which is why they set up MUTV and have been running it at a loss for so long. It is in place and when or if they are given the green light it will be in place. Match day revenue is no longer the main source of income and as has been pointed out to me on many occasions United have supporters/Customers all over the world that they are ready to tap into. The intention is to make it less of a football club and more of a sports brand that can be identified and sold all over the world hence taking the words Football Club off the badge. So to answer your original question I don't see it happening in the near future. If it was going to happen it would have been 3 years ago when everyone was pushing for it. Would be nice though. I AM KLOOT

Twice in 3 days I have agreed with a KLOOT post. Never thought I would say that :-)

Brendan

KLOOT, if they take Football Club off the badge, I will gladly be your bi*ch on this site for evermore.

I know there's some hare-brained ideas floating around football these days regarding generating income, but I can't ever see it happening - we're Manchester Utd, not Newcastle.

StevieK

I thought 1 bloke refused to move?

loved listening to game from his garden or something?

ms85

01 Feb 2013 13:11:50
football club went off the badge nearly twenty years ago if I remember correctly. Down to edwards not even the glazers.

StevieK, the club badge hasn't said 'Manchester United Football Club' for a very long time. Just 'Manchester United'

Personally I hated it when they removed the words football club from the crest and would happily see it back

NTRed

'StevieK'

The words have already been taken off the badge, in 1998. The idea and process of the club becoming more of a brand was put in place long before the Glazers.

TK-Red

TK, there are other things that started happening before the Glazer takeover too which people are not very clued up on. For example ticket prices were due to rise prior to the Glazer takeover. It was decided as a PLC that the prices will start to increase by a considerable amount. Of course it was the Glazers that put the prices up, but it was going to happen regardless.

Sydney!

Oooops. Shows you how long its been since I last wore a replica top!

Cheers for making me look like a buffoon, guys!

StevieK

Exactly Syd! but its all too easy to blame such things on the Glazers isn't it. Now I'm not going to get into a debate about how bad or good the Glazers have been for the club as that topic has been done to death and we all know where everyone stands but a bit of objectivity wouldn't hurt anyone.

TK-Red

TK, couldn't agree more, a balanced view is not too much to ask for surely?

Sydney!

Would �500M cover the ground expansion? :-)

AJH

4-5 times over mate ;)

Sydney!