Life of Ryan

 

I caught that documentary the other night on the 4-match spell Ryan Giggs had as interim player-manager following the late season sacking of David Moyes at Manchester United earlier this year. If you can recall there was a lot of media and pundit/player commentary at the time saying that the board at Man U should award the permanent job to Giggs and pass the club baton on ‘within house’ having seen the external candidate (and Sir Alex’s personal choice as his replacement) fail abysmally. After all he was the Premiership’s most decorated player, scorer of over 150 goals and a real one-club player having appeared for ManU almost 1000 times over the last 22 seasons. It’s hard to dispute the logic of the argument. Then I watched the film…

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the mad,mad,mad,mad world of football

Well it’s an interesting scene. It could easily be the venue, approved by FIFA, for the 2014 World Cup Final rather than say the Maracana.  I mean it’s got everything that Blatter & C0 look for – a totally remote location, a terrifying gradient yes but look at those stunning views, absolutely no facilities for spectators and that oh so important on-pitch shade for the players. I’m joking – honestly. I was just using this image as a sign that the world of football has gone completely frigging mad.

want away wayne

And so all those dark utterings are accurate. Sir Alex Ferguson of all people has been forced to hold a press conference today to confirm that Wayne Rooney won’t be signing a new contract and wants to leave the club. Inside two seasons Man U will have lost the services of Ronaldo, Tevez and Rooney – that’s a lot of fire power which will have gone to rival clubs and not been replaced following relationship breakdowns with SAF. Could any club survive that? Once upon a time Man U would have been big enough to ride it through and possibly even prosper by bringing through new talent and buying world class replacements. After all they thrived after jettisoning players of the calibre of Ince, Staam, van Nistelrooy, Beckham, Keene etc But not now. And that’s the bigger story today I fear, not that player greed is now seemingly unquenchable but that Man U are just not the force they were even two years ago.

a great day for football

Well Happy New Year folks! I haven’t done a footie posting for a while and despite feeling crap from the flu, it’s great to look forward today to the most intriguing stage in the whole of the FA Cup – the 3rd round. This is the day that footballing legends and history get made. All my teams are at home and facing finger-licking ties; Man Utd take on the oldest enemy (tomorrow) in dirty damned Leeds Utd whilst Blackpool host Ipswich with crazy Keano, Boro take on the new Princes of Excess, Mecca City, and humble Millwall must fancy a tiny bit of giant-killing against Derby County. Can’t wait.

so it’s adios manchester, hola madrid and last night in paris

I’ve mentioned my grandson S’s passion for all things football. He’s only 7 but simply loves the game; he plays whenever he can, reads every footie magazine he can get his hands on, listens to footie song CD’s in the car on the way to and from school, collects Match Attak footballer cards and can tell you any fact from them , watches any match he’s allowed to on Sky tv (including classics) and he talks about the game with such insight that he makes Mottie look like a rookie. He’s constantly posing me questions like who was better and why, Zidane, George Best or Cantona? And he expects a well-argued response.

climax to the season

Well it’s turning into a bloody dramatic climax to the football season, isn’t it?  Tomorrow sees those magnificent men of Man Utd take on not-bad Barca in a mouth-watering gladiatorial Champions’ League final (more thoughts on my guest posting on http://www.ensland.blogspot.com) then a couple of teams in blue contest the FA Cup final on Saturday. But what about the last few days of intriguing action eh?

football forecasts: check this out

Well after my earlier posting saying how bored I was with the whole footie scene, suddenly it all kicks off. What a last 24 hours! And I have to say that several of my predictions have already kicked in:

–  Utd land Berbatov at last but what a frigging protracted saga. I got a call from my good mate Shay from the States a couple of hours before the transfer deadline, who’d just heard that Man City had made an audacious bid for the player. He’s a big Spurs fan (London boy) and was pissed that the club were considering selling a key player to a top 4 team. I think he could have lived with selling him to Bayern or Barca but Man U (or City) was too much after Keeno left for Liverpool. Fact is money spoke and once the bidding got beyond £30M, all those issues at board level at Spurs got forgotten (including the tapping up accusations against Man U). All very cynical. But I think the loan deal with F Campbell is inspired – how did Gill/Ferguson pull that off?

–  Wenger makes a last minute bid for Alonso. I said he was a great buy for Arsenal. But why did AW wait till the last minute to make the bid – by all accounts he had a £30M transfer kitty so why delay? I suspect AW wants to be viewed as the Prince of Parsimony because he feels the financial structure of the major clubs isn’t ethical. So was he looking for a last day bargain?  I suspect yes, but he’s short in midfield and I would have signed Alonso weeks ago. But despite having the money, AW missed out. Bad call in my view sorry PGOB but this was a player you absolutely needed in my view and could have had for less than £10M.

–  I said Curbishley would go soon but he has left within frigging hours. Bilic must be in the frame.

–  I also said Thaksin would sell up his interests at City but I didn’t figure he’d do it within 24 hours….So City are now owned by the Abu Dhabi bunch. Total fun. I cannot believe that they tried to high-jack the  Berbastov deal but I am absolutely delighted that they stole Robinhio from Kenyon’s grasp. Such fun. I can’t believe that Man City are backed by impossible wealth but bring it on. Roman Ab are you watching?–

–  Newcastle. I said it could implode and it looks like it’s about to happen wih Keegan’s apparent departure. Surely all they are discussing now is KK’s severance pay – it’ll no doubt be millions. Ah well Kev back to the football circus eh. They could go down. Sorry Lol.

Now that’s what I call a new season 08!!!!

pp

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das tw*t ronaldo

A provocative headline I agree. But I’ve just received a brilliant video spoof from my old friend Eric, who I hope’s doing really well. It might be my shortest posting ever (though not without significance). Here’s the scene where Jens Glazier ealises that run-away Ronnie is determined to leave for those Real shits in the Bendatruth::

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oh jawohl!

pp