Manchester United Banter Archive January 30 2015

30 Jan 2015 18:42:53
Hi guys, haven't posted in time! but randomly come on now and then to see what you guys are saying and the Ed's of course!

Anyway, I thought I would ask a question, (away from all the tactic talk and transfers) and that is, what are your 5 favourite highlights of our season so far? Thought it would be a nice change to the usual doom and gloom! Ed's feel free to join if you wish. Mine would be;

1. Di Maria's goal vs Leicester - Just incredible and my goal of the season so far, due to the sheer originality of it.

2. David de Gea - Our MVP without a doubt. Sign the contract!

3. Rojo - Many didn't really rate him and was probably our most unidentified signing, but he has been great and I love how he fights for our club. He's clearly fallen in love with United and hopefully he just keeps getting better better.

4. Fellaini - This is more at him surprising me with some decent performances and big goals. He was useless last year and I still don't think he is exactly United quality, but it's good to see him come out of his shell a bit and make an impact on games. like he did at Everton so regularly.

5. LVG - It might not be going the way we wanted it too and some of his decisions are bizarre, but he is one funny guy and his press conferences crack me up.

1 signing Shaw
2 signing Herrera
3 signing Blind
4 signing DiMaria
5 signing Rojo
Can I have a 6th
6 loaning Falcao

29 Jan 2015 16:46:13
Hi Ed, Do you think we would sign someone before the end of the transfer window?

{Ed002's Note - Sure, the young defender from Salford.}

Sadiq El Fitouri

Does anyone know anything about Sadiq El Fitouri?
I know he's a Libyan born 20 year old defender who was at Manchester City for a while. When they let him go he was picked up by Salford in December and has now signed with us for 18 months.
Has anyone seen him play or heard any more about him whilst he was at City or Salford? Hopefully he has something we're looking for!
Welcome and I wish you all the best at THE REAL Manchester club.

He must be our answer to the RB problem, all hail LVG.

30 Jan 2015 18:11:55
I remember the last city youth cast off we signed in a January window, so I won't be expecting much.

Ha ha understand your post Mr e but I also remember us signing a Welshman called giggs who was with city at the time.he didn't turn out too bad

30 Jan 2015 22:11:53
True but you could see something in giggs. Hope this lad surprises me but not holding my breath.

A first team player would be more important right now

It's a signing for the U21's, it doesn't really concern LvG. It's a riskless signing.

30 Jan 2015 14:09:02
Carrick arguably our best player of the season so far along with De Gea is out for up to a month during a time were we must take as many points as possible to stay in contention for the Champions League. I have not been openly critical of Van Gaal this season but if he decides not to play Herrera and instead makes one of his strange decisions and plays Jones or McNair or Valencia CM instead I will lose all respect for the guy.

Also with Carrick injured is it really smart to let Fletcher go this window?

We have Blind and the wig who could play his position but don't be surprised if he puts Falcao there instead :-)

Injured how, in Training?

Hopefully, we will see a midfield three of Blind, Herrera and Di Maria, which for me, looked very good earlier on in the season when they played together.

Good he's to slow and slows are already slow play down

This might be a blessing in that we go back to the diamond

30 Jan 2015 18:49:07
Carrick injured falling of his chair when he heard jones was to play up front and Evans to take free kicks

Haha, good post eric is a god!

Cant say i'm to upset with that news. Now we might see herrera blind and di maria in there playing with a bit of urgency.

30 Jan 2015 12:52:51
Thats carrick out again then, could be a chance for herrera to show van gaal his class, i really hope he gets a run of games as i think he can add the much needed increase in tempo we need

Not to be misconstrued as an attack on Carrick because this is a general comment. I am Fed up with; today this player out tomorrow that one out. Clear the locker room of those brittle players. Bones made of crisps and muscles made of cheese! We need real men to play the game! Players on such wages cannot have the luxury to be fragile!

30 Jan 2015 13:39:38
Hopefully Herrera starts now but I be the plays failaini!
Blind Herrera maybe pereira gets a game.

Hope so! He will prob put jonny Evans in the holding role with fellaini on free kicks tho! I joke, I hope a joke anyway

I think with Carrick its more likely to be an age thing, after all he is 49 next birthday.
:-)

Carrick has missed very few games until this year, he is anything but brittle

And if Hererra is now blind then we have real problems.

AJH,
I did say this WASN'T a Carrick post, and i am not campaigning for his transfer, that being said, Carrick has played 14 games this season. Last year he was out for over 10 weeks, this year an apparent 4 weeks already looms. He is 33, recovery at this age isn't as fast. Hope he recovers soon as he is a plus to our squad!

30 Jan 2015 09:34:07
Happy new years to all banters. Just wanted to throw which of youngsters will realistically break through the first team game @ OT for next season? Looking for sth positive :)

Haven't we had enough breaking in this year? Blackett, Mcnair, Lingard, Perriera, Wilson. Maybe next will be powell and Thorpe

29 Jan 2015 23:48:12
With Real Madrid about to sell the naming rights of the Bernabeu to the U.A.E for a colossal figure, perhaps it is something that we should consider? It seems to be a the latest way to inject capital into a huge club via sponsorship. City, Arsenal and Bayern have done it among others and now Madrid are contemplating renaming possibly the greatest Stadia of all.

I know there would be many objections to re-naming Old Trafford, but sentiments aside, the way football is evolving and financially growing year by year it is certainly something to consider. If we decided to cash in on the Stadiums name surely the figure being talked about for Madrid's deal with the U.A.E would be similar to what we would get in return. No matter what the name may be, it will always be the Theatre of Dreams to me.

30 Jan 2015 00:19:41
Sorry I said I'm going to stop posting for a few months but Old Trafford should always be called old Trafford.

We have no need to sell our naming rights and should never do so!

Arsenal built a new stadium as did bayern so the change was easy, there are a lot of things for sale in football, let's try and keep some of our history.

Let the abuse start in 3. 2. 1. GO!

I hear what you guys are saying and I agree completely. I didn't say I want the name to change. All I said is if Madrid can raise €500millon from the sale of a stadia name is it worth considering?

Chris you say we don't need the money but €500million is an unreal amount of cash, could anyone in any corporation turn that down? In any business be that a sporting institution or any other sector, cash is king.

30 Jan 2015 07:00:50
I agree the amount is unfathomable, but do we need it? Is over 100 years of history for sale for £500m?

then where does it stop? Because next it will be the club name, we will have a super bowl esc halft time show, 15 min intervals for ads etc.

I agree with juanmatasbeard.

I understand the sentiment but unfortunately nowadays with ffp etc it is something I would consider, as said before if we could get £500million from it then I think we should consider it

30 Jan 2015 07:19:05
I would like to hear from the people living there in Britain about how such changes have affected the clubs and its image in the past?

For example, Newcastle changed the name of St. James Park to Sports Direct Arena and I understand that they even changed the signs on the road leading to the staduim but the fans still call the stadium as the St. James Park.

It WILL happen in the coming years, of that I have no doubt. I don't think these owners will do it as they have caused enough trouble, but I think it will be discussed with any prospective new owners to get the price up. I don't really like the idea, but if the money was used to the benefit of the team/fans and as long as it still has Old Trafford in the name, I'd accept it I think. It's just modern day football, nothing we all say will stop it happening if owners decide to do it

It should never happen, principals and history is of greater value then extra millions.

I agree Singh, but I don't think the owners/shareholders give a rats ass about tradition.

30 Jan 2015 11:57:51
Right this is a very unpopular idea and a very sensitive subject but let's throw some realism into the mix as we do live in the real world and not the romantic fantasy world we all view our club in.

In the last 10 years the club has had huge progress commercially but has fallen behind out on the pitch, Sir Alex held us together for as long as he could and his sheer force of will kept us competing even when the quality on show was below par. We fell behind out on the pitch because of the weight of the debt the club became saddled with, now i'm not going to turn this into an anti Glazer post. But the reality is the money having to be focused on the debt meant it couldn't be spent on the team. It looks like they have realised their folly with a loosening of the purse strings seen last summer.

But the reality of the new FFP rules mean we can't afford to fall behind our rivals, if Real Madrid are looking at selling the naming rights to their stadium then that will only give them more money to compete with and force us further behind them.

Football is steadily becoming more and more commercial, we can either accept this or fight against it, the teams that have fought against it up until now have all fallen behind their rivals.

I spent most of last year living up in Newcastle and obviously they have recently renamed their iconic stadium, but every single Geordie I spoke to still refer to it as St James, the metro station that serves the stadium is still called St James, the park behind the stadium is still called St James.

If Old Trafford was to be renamed it would not delete our history, it would just be a new phase of our future. Sharp used to be on our shirts, as did Vodafone and AIG and now Chevrolet. At no point does anyone call us Chevrolet United. Its just the commercial side of football and although it doesn't sit easy with any of us, we accept it as part of football now.

Old Trafford will always be Old Trafford, but if in the media they want to call it something else so that we get a big pay check that enables us to stay ahead of the competiton and keep on writing our name into the history books then so be it. When every stadium in the land is called something different it really won't be such a big deal, and that time is just around the corner.

We need to make peace with this now and accept it is the future, the decision isn't about disregarding our history but about looking to the future and looking to build on that history.

There's a club down the road that is more concerned with their history than their future and they haven't added to that history in over 20 years.

We need to look forward and not backwards.

Fine post Shappy. My thoughts exactly!

Exactly my thoughts Shappy, just couldn't be apsed going into that detail, that is what your posts are for :-)