Michael Carrick in for £18 million and We're Officially the Dumbest Team in the World

I think I'm going nuts here. We absolutely have the worst board here, and probably the dumbest manager in the world when it comes to finances.

What a way to do business, selling Ruud on the cheap and purchasing Carrick at £18 million. £18 million?!?!?! That's probably a couple of million pounds higher than the highest value he'd EVER command on the transfer market. We got fleeced, yet again. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

To compound our stupidity, Michael Carrick isn't even the best midfielder in Spurs! They have Jenas and Davids who are in no way worse off than Carrick. For freaking £18 million, you'd expect us to get all 3 of them instead of one. This is a desparate buy, almost as bad as the Rio purchase.

Not to pour scorn on Carrick, he's a decent passer of the ball, but he's not even near the top few midfielders in the English team. Right off the bat, you can think of Lampard, Gerrard, Becks, Cole and Jenas. The first four are definitely, without a shadow of a doubt better than Carrick. Teammate, or should I say ex-teammate Jenas is effy at best.

This off season is driving me bananas. Let's hope fucking Fergie sees more in Carrick than I can.

Goodbye Ruud

Well, so much for the United board holding out for £15 million. In the end we sold him for a cut-price of 15 million euros, which works out to something slightly more than £10 million (exchange here). Did I mention we have one of the weakest boards in the entire world of football?

To make things worse, we sold him to Real Madrid. I personally rather he joined Bayern Munich. Never really liked the way Real handled business. They resemble like a team I hate in the EPL....cough....Chelsea...cough.

Now without Ruud, you gotta start wondering where in the world the goals are going to come. I don't see any of our first team strikers consistantly scoring 20 goals per season. Rooney is a fantastic talent, but he's not an out-and-out striker. I certainly don't see Saha doing it, even if he's given the first team place. Ole's just returned from a long long layoff and Rossi's just too untested to put any faith in him.

So, where are the freaking goals going to come from? Looks like we're going back to the pre-Ruud days of scoring by committee. Time for the midfielders and wingers to do their part. Of the lot, only Scholes and Giggs are capable of scoring goals on a consistent basis. Maybe Ronaldo (if he bloody stays) might contribute to the tally. I don't see Fletch, Park or O'Shea doing much, considering their past performances.

Of course scoring by committee was so successful in the 90s, coz we have defenders like Daisy and Dolly. Look at the current crop of defenders and tell me who can consistantly head the bloody ball? We already have trouble heading the damn ball out of our own penalty area!

Thankfully all is not doom and gloom....yet. We have yet to dip our fingers in the transfer market, but I'm sure we'd screw that up as well. With Torres off the market, the pickings are slim. And the chances of us getting an establish player seems to diminish with time.

I'm not even going to speculate who we'd be getting. My main targets were Veira and Torres, but neither are going to step into Old Trafford. Everything else looks foggy at best. The only consolation this up and coming season is that Chelsea is going to probably win the title for the 3rd year running. Yup, you read that right, I said 'consolation'. With Liverpool significantly strengthening their squad, I'm glad Chelsea and Abramo'bitch' are around.

Everything Wrong with Football

Seriously football is getting from bad to anal.

FIFA and the Zidane Episode
I'm pretty sure FIFA is made up of monkeys. I mean Zidane, who retired from international football, was banned for 3 matches and given a paltry fine. Don't these idiots at FIFA know what retirement is? Not to mention that fine....ouch! It much really hurt Zidane's pocket to be fined £3260.

As for Materazzi, he was fined £2170 and given a 2 match ban for the heinous crime of being a victim of a headbutt. I have no idea what's on FIFA's mind or which set of animals run it.

Glazer and Debt
Looks like Glazer's team managed to reduce the annual interest payments but increased the overall debt incurred. So now apparently we are able to afford the interest payments and still plunge into the transfer markets to buy the players we want (more on that later). The question now is, given that we have the money for the interest payment and transfer kitty, when in the world can we actually reduce our new debt of £660 million?

New Players?
Dream on. We look hopeless on the transfer markets. I have no idea who we're targetting, but one thing's for sure, we look like we're going to get fleeced yet again.

For once I actually miss Martin Edwards. He's the only one able to stand up to Fergie and say 'NO Fergie...that's a bad Fergie!'. Every other idiot who has succeed him has been giving in to Fergie's fancy, resulting in over-priced and over-rated players who simply cannot perform in a red jersey. Players like Veron, Kleberson and Forlan come to mind. Even when we get good players, we tend to over pay (Rio, Rooney), coz none of the donkeys at the rein can bargain effectively. I bet the aunties at my millipede infested market can bargain better than them.

Now the main issue is selling Ruud. It's obvious he's probably leaving the team. While for once, the board has refused to sell someone on the cheap. I hope the Ruud saga doesn't drag on for too long. The longer it goes, the less his value becomes. He might even become a locker room cancer, thus devaluing him further. And of course when that happens, be prepared to be lowballed.

As for purchases, I hope we get Vieira from Juve. He's been tested and proven to be effective in the EPL. The last thing we need is another Veron, Kleberson, Djemba Djemba or Liam Miller coming in and raising our hopes and wasting our money.

Torres looks like a good target to replace Ruud too. I used to think he was like Joaquim, someone big and tall, but weak physically. However the World Cup has proven otherwise. Torres has proven himself to be every bit as physical as the top strikers playing in the EPL. I hope when we do get him, it wouldn't be for the moon.

New Jersey

I puked my dinner out the first time I saw the new jersey. That AIG logo has got to be the ugliest piece of shit on a shirt! They may have paid a king's ransom to have that logo on the Manchester United jersey, but it's going to be a marketing nightmare, coz it looks goddamn awful. It better not reflect the way the players play though.

Zidane's Golden Balls

Alright the World Cup is now officially over and it's time to reflect over all that's transpired. Oh heck, let's just concentrate on Zidane since he's the only one making the news anyway. Screw Italy, their World Cup victory and their domestic match-fixing scandal.

Well, apparently there are two versions of why Zidane decided to treat Materazzi's chest like the ball. The first one was that Materazzi said something which was perceived to have insulted Zidane's mum. If this was the case, either Zidane's a mommy's boy or it was a bad case of a 'Yo Mama' joke that went horribly wrong. Which reminds me to keep off the 'yo mama' jokes from my own soccer games, some guys just don't have a sense of humour.

The second and possibly more official reason (or at least that's what's on Soccernet), is that Materazzi called Zidane a 'dirty terrorist'. I wouldn't know if Zidane is a terrorist or not, but judging from his reaction, he's definitely one dirty bastard.

In any case, Zidane's a pussy. As captain and your team's best penalty taker, you keep your composure no matter what insults get thrown at you. Moreover with his wealth of experience playing at the top level, even winning the World Cup in 98, he should have known better than to retaliate the way he had. While it probably didn't change anything with the French team in the final reckoning. But with him off the pitch, certainly boosted the morale of the Italians in the penalty shootout. Remember this is an Italian side which has constantly flopped in the penalty shootouts for the last 20 years.

And while I'm taking potshots at Zidane, might as well throw a few in the direction of FIFA. What in the world were they thinking when they awarded Zidane his golden balls? They had done tremendously well in denying Ronaldo the young player award for all the antics (ie cheating diver) he produced. Then to turn 180 degrees and award Zidane a pair of golden balls is a smack in the face of fairplay. It's more disgraceful than the headbutt by Zidane.

And speaking of headbutts, I received this in my email and had me in tears for the better half of the day.

Zidane's Headbutt
To play the game again. hit the 'refresh' button. Have fun.

World Cup Finals - Italy Breaks Penalty Jinx (AET Italy 1 - France 1) *Italy Wins 5-3 on Penalties

It wasn't a classic, but what mattered was that Italy won the World Cup for the 4th time. And even more importantly, they did it with penalties. Italy is a team that hardly EVER wins penalty shootouts, and they must have been dreading it when the final whistle blew.

The game itself was full of talking points and by no means a dull draw. It was a stop/start half, with plenty of early injuries and fouls. An early penalty by Zidane made sure the game would be an interesting one. Or at least it wouldn't be a scoreless game. The penalty looked dubious as Malouda fell in the area. The replays on TV showed that he was not touched, but nevertheless, the fact that it was given was what mattered.

Italy played well in the first half and defender Materazzi climbed above Vieira to head a bullet from a corner. In fact Italy looked brilliant from corners. Whenever they had one, Pirlo would send it right to the head of either Materazzi or Toni.

In the second half, France took the game by the scruff of the neck and squeezed the Italians back into their own half. The French were so dominant that Italy probably barely had been able to string 3-4 passes the entire half.

In the first period of extra time, Zidane nearly scored from a header only to have Buffon make a miraculous. Then in the second period, he did something that you would never expect from Zidane. He headbutted Materazzi with full intent. It was inexcusable, and the referee rightfully sent him off. It's a shame that someone with such an illustrious international career would end it in disgrace.

Unfortunately, by this time, the Italians looked extremely exhausted and were not physically capable of making their one man advantage count. The game went into penalties and Italy made theirs count and won the World Cup.

And the statistic that really mattered, was that I made a recovery on that bet I made for Italy to win the tounament. Covered all my losses the entire World Cup, plus some. Yeah, love Italy.

World Cup 3rd/4th Placing - Game Fitting for Finals (Germany 3 - Portugal 1)

I half dreaded to watch this game. It was one which could go either way in terms of entertainment. Either they were to despondent to play, resulting in a sterile draw, with neither side picking themselves up for a meaningless game, or it could result in both teams playing without any pressure and a desire to entertain their legion of adoring fans. Luckily it was latter that prevailed.

It was pretty much end to end stuff right from the kick off, with both teams really going for the goals. Although neither could break the deadlock by half time, both keepers were kept busy with some enterprising attacking play. There was no lack of imagination nor creativity that led to the goalscoring chances at both ends. The play was positive, something which has been sorely lacking since the knockout phases began.

In the end, it was German midfielder Schweinsteiger (what a mouthful) who drew first blood with a rasping shot that caught Ricardo wrongfooted. Minutes later, Portugal was somewhat unlucky to go two down when Petit screwed a clearance into his own net.

Like in the previous game against France, Portugal went on to literally camp in the German half, forcing veteran German keeper Oliver Kahn into some outstanding saves. However it was Germany who scored again on the counter attack. Schweinsteiger (still a mouthful) fired home another thunderbolt while the outnumbered Portguese defence backed away from him.

Portugal was completely and utterly destroyed, but to their credit, they kept on fighting and kept on pressing, and were duely rewarded with 2 minutes left on the clock. Substitute Figo, floated in a superb cross for Nuno Gomes to score with a beautiful diving header beyond previous World Cup Golden Ball winner, Kahn.

This was an evenly fought out battle between two teams playing for nothing more than just pride, and what a spectacle it turned out for the neutral fan.

In less than 24hrs, the World Cup campaign will end in the grand finale Italy vs France. I can only hope the performance of both teams will be half as entertaining as this game.

World Cup Semi Finals - Zidane Books French Place in Finals (Portugal 0 - France 1)

Knockout games are always so tedious to watch (especially so at 3am in the morning). Boths teams playing in such games are usually too afraid to make that mistake, thus tend to play negatively. Thankfully this wasn't one of them.

A penalty scored by Zidane in the first half changed the face of the game. Goals always force the trailing team to come forward and Portugal spent much of the second half camped in the French half as they pushed hard for an equalising goal.

However, try as they might, Portugal simply lacked match winners. They lacked the players who would make things happen. Ronaldo was probably the only player in a Portugese shirt that looked threatening and likely to score a goal, but he was just one guy against the entire French defense, marshalled brilliantly by Lilian Thuram.

Perhaps Scolari didn't feel the Portugese strikers were good enough, but putting only one striker up front when a goal down, and time running out, seems like a bad idea to me. Pauleta for practically the entire game was left alone in the penalty area without much service. I don't understand why Scolari didn't substitute another striker to ease his burden. And when Scolari did make a change, he made a direct swap, taking Pauleta out and replacing him with Simao (???). He essentially kept the same formation which never looked like causing the French any problems.

Anyway, the French set up a date on Sunday with Italy. I can't see the Italians losing this one unless Zidane and Henry decide to go crazy. The French, themselves, would be hoping the entire team goes crazy, except Barthez, whose shown in the past that he's already nuts.

World Cup Semi Finals - Late Goals See Italy to Finals (AET Germany 0 - Italy 2)

Talk about climaxing late. Italy scored two incredibly late goals in extra time to book a place in the finals of the 2006 World Cup. I had almost conceded to the game being decided on penalties.

The game itself wasn't a classic by any means. Both sides were nervous and given the occasion, it was to be expected. Italy dominated the first half with their tactical superiority and the Germans had the edge in the second with penetrating runs at their opponents. But neither could break the deadlock. The Germans as a team defended well, while Cannavaro once again shown for the Italians.

At the start of extra time, the Italians hit the post twice but failed to make it count. Podolski forced a brilliant save from Buffon on the other end, as penalties soon become the focal point on everyone's mind.

Italy in particular seemed to be playing for the penalties which seems somewhat strange to me. Given their piss poor experience as a national team with penalties, the last thing you would expect is for them to actually want to participate in another penalty shootout. Especially against a team like Germany who has only ever lost one penalty shootout in their entire history, and that was in the 70s!

Luckily for the Italians, they didn't have to. Right on the death, Pirlo, who had a fabulous game, somehow managed a pass to Grosso between 2 German defenders. Grosso hit the ball first time and it curled past the outstretched hands of Lehmann and into the German goal. Italy was thru.

With less than a minute left, Germany pushed forward but were caught out by the counter attack, leaving Del Piero alone with Lehmann. He flicked it into the top right hand corner, making the game beyond Germany. Not that there was any time left to play. The referee blew the final whistle, whilst the Italians were celebrating.

I'm personally glad Italy makes it. I bought pretty damn good odds on them winning the competition. Only one game left to win to see some money.

Superman Takes Off Gracefully, But Lands Like a Drunk Elephant

I know this is supposed to be a blog on Manchester United and soccer related stuff, but I just had to do this. With a handle like 'spectre', you can only assume I'm either a huge James Bond fan or a huge DC Comic fan. And the picture in my profile should confirm which catergory I belong to.

Don't let the title of this entry fool you. I love Superman. I've always loved Superman when I was a young boy, eversince that 78 movie starring the late Christopher Reeves. I even have a NM copy of the 87 Superman Volume 2 issue #1 comic with me (any takers?...going cheap).

As for the movie Superman Returns, if you haven't caught the movie, I suggest you stop reading here and just catch the last 2 words. After the movie, ponder over it. I'm still having nightmares over it.

Ok, today is/was Youth Day in Singapore and what better way to celebrate it than to catch Superman Returns to reminisce my own childhood. The opening of the movie brought back old nostalgic feeling of the first Superman movie. The music/score was similar and the way the opening credits were presented was almost exactly the way the 78 movie was done. For a moment I really felt I was watching a re-run of that movie.

Director Bryan Singer did an almost brilliant (note I used 'almost') job in keeping to the 70-80s Superman movies. Even the lead actor, Brandon Routh, resembles Christopher Reeves. And Kate Bosworth looked gorgeous as Lois Lane. She certainly was a great improvement from the actress (what's her name) who played Lois the other times.

The movie started off a little draggy, with Singer trying to tie up loose ends between the old movies and the current installment. Something I thought was pretty damn good.

I also liked the way the characters were built up throughout the entire movie. Unfortunately I didn't really warm up to Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. Gene Hackman is a tough act to follow, even for an oscar winner. He lacked the edge and didn't seem sinister enough as the villian. I prefered a slightly crazed Lex whose main aim in life was to destroy Superman, and than claim world domination, and not the other way around. Seems like Lex has his obsessions reversed. But hey, reversed or not, Lex is still Lex, entertaining as ever.

The action in the movie was passable. Not brilliant but still good enough to carry the movie. I believe alot of it was due to the emotional roller coaster the entire movie put me thru. Did I mention I love Superman (but not in a gay way)? Singer did a great job letting us feel the emotions of Superman and out pouring love the world has for Superman. There were moments in the movie where I had to seriously hold back tears or look like a wuss in front of my girlfriend. Eg, when the baseball stadium was cheering for Superman and when Superman was in a coma.

Then of course Singer had to spoil everything that was so painstakingly built up. He freaking gave Superman a son! WTF! I'm a traditionist and a conservative, and I think the whole damn story was killed when the suggestion was put into our minds, or at least my mine.

Throughout the entire experience, I had a myriad of emotions and thoughts flowing through my mind and yet when I left the bloody cinema, the only thing that was on my mind was.....

CHILDCARE SUPPORT!

World Cup Quarter Finals - France Brushes Aside World Champions (Brazil 0 - France 1)

Wow, this was a surprise scoreline. And a pleasent one might I add. France showed glimpses of the French team of 98. Yes, during certain periods in the game, they reminded me of that great French team.

France seems to have shaken off their lacklustre performances in the first couple of games in this tournament and looks like gaining momentum as the games come in. From their last game against the Spanish and this one, they are probably peaking at the right time.

I'm personally glad Brazil is out of this World Cup. They, like England, have been overhyped. None of their performances impressed me. Sure they score goals but seem to lack that flair we're so used to samba soccer.

Today, especially, Brazil looked nervous and quite frankly, they were poor. The French with the speedy Ribery on the wings and Henry manning the attack, always looked likely to score. And rightfully they did when Henry volleyed in a Zidane freekick in the 56th minute.

The French could have had more as Brazil pushed forward to bring the game to extra time, but Dida did his job. On the other side of the pitch, the French defence was disciplined and hardly allowed the Brazilians a sniff of goal. Brazil, on their part, were disappointing. They relied on taking their opponents instead of passing the ball.

The French in the end were worthy winners. I'd be looking forward to another vintage French performance in the semis.

World Cup Quarter Finals - England in Penalty Heartbreak (AET England 0 - Portugal 0) *Portugal wins 3-1 on Penalties

The first half was a sterile affair. Good thing I had a horrible backache and a high fever, so I went to bed without wasting my time watching 2 teams playing dull football.

Unfortunately it seems it's my loss. The second seemed action-packed with England down to 10 men after Rooney was sent off. What particularly interest me was how Rooney got himself sent off. Apparently Manchester United teammate was at the heart of it all, remonstrating to the referee to do it.

The question here is how it would affect their friendship as well as relationship in the upcoming season. Or is it part of Ronaldo's plan to get himself into the bad books of Ferguson, since he has openly expressed the desire to leave United for Real Madrid.

Anyway, the 10 men England held Portugal, and penalties ensued. Predictably, England lost yet again on penalties. Despite their brave performance, they had no one to blame. The entire tournament, they played dull, conservative and sometimes negative football. The tournament is definitely better without them, especially Eriksson.

World Cup Quarter Finals - Italy in Comfortable Win (Italy 3 - Ukraine 0)

I was really dreading to watch this game. I had half the mind to wank myself silly instead, and it would probably have given me more satisfaction than watching a game that's going to be boring. For some reason, I decided to watch the game.

Italy scored in the 6th minute thru a superb strike by defender Zambrotta from way outside the penalty box. Unfortunately for the rest of the half, both teams decided to play themselves, the crowd and me to death. By half time I wished I had chosen wanking. Definitely more satisfying.

Again for some reason I decided to stay on for the second half. This time I'm glad my perseverance paid off. Ukraine actually threw caution to the wind and relentlessly attacked the Italian goal. If not for the brilliance of Buffon, Italy might have been rocked off that cradle that they were so comfortable in. Perhaps Ukraine just didn't have lady luck on their side today. They just weren't able to beat the world's best keeper.

On the hour, Italy's pedigree surfaced. Luca Toni, Serial A's top scorer, scored two simple goals against the run of play to put Italy beyond reach. It was his first goals of the tournament, and for a point in time, I was wondering if he would ever score a single goal in Germany.

Credit to Ukraine, they never stopped fighting, never stopped trying to beat Buffon. It opened up the game with Ukraine pressing for a consolation goal and the Italians hitting them on the counter. Although Ukraine lost this one convincingly, they leave Germany with their heads held high. The quality of the Italians was just too much for them.

Italy now meets hosts, Germany, in an intriguing semi-finals in 4 days time. Whether they can oust the hosts remains to be seen, but their performance have been improving and look like a team that's peaking at the right time.

World Cup Quarter Finals - Hosts Thru on Penalties (AET Germany 1 - Argentina 1) *Germany Wins 4-2 on Penalties

Lost a bundle here, due to heavy bets on Argentina to win the World Cup. In the end Argentina just weren't good enough.

They were let down by poor tactics and an injury to first choice goalkeeper, Roberto Abbondanzieri. For the entire game, Germany never really got their machine going and never looked like threatening the Argentine goal.

Argentina controlled the game the first half and were deservedly in front early in the second half when Ayala shook free from Klose to head home a corner. Midway thru the half, Abbondanzieri was taken off because of an injury and was replaced by substiture keeper, Leo Franco. Then Pekerman decided to change tactics by playing defensive to hold on to the one goal lead. He took off Crespo and Riquelme.

It gave Germany the impetus to charge forward looking for the equaliser. Eventually, Klose scored from a header in the 80th minute to send both teams into extra time. Neither team could conjure a winner in the 30 minutes played.

Germany went on to win the penalties 4-2 and Argentina paid the penalty of poor tactics. Perhaps this is just as well. A team that can't hold a one goal advantage in the last 10 minutes deserves to be knocked out anyway. Klinnsman has really surprised me by the way the Germans have played. While Argentina was probably the better team, Germany showed enough character for me to root for them.

This World Cup looks set for a Germany - Brazil finale, a repeat of the last World Cup. This is of course barring something dramatic happening to either teams.

Well, you win some and you lose some. I'm really dreading watching the next game between Italy and Ukraine. All the statistics point to an ultra boring game. Hopefully sleep will get to me before the game starts.