Silvestre Out Six Weeks

Looks like the injury sustained during the encounter with Arsenal a couple of weeks back wasn't just a simple knock. Apparently Silvestre injured his metatarsa and is confirmed out for at least 6 weeks.

This should be good news since we wouldn't have to see Silvestre making anymore defensive boo boos for at least a month and a half, however this also means that Evra will be the first line of defense in the absence of Heinze. Between dumb and dumber, I'd take Silvestre anytime over the hapless Evra. I'm sure many of us would rather Evra got injured instead.

Don't get me wrong, I hate to see any United players get injured, but if it happens to players like Silvestre or Evra, it's usually addition by subtraction.

Ronaldo Exorcises Demons At The Stadium Of Light (Benfica 0 - Manchester United 1)

Ronaldo earned his right to begin his journey as a United legend tonight. It was at the Estadio da Luz where he fell from grace in Dec 05, with a disgraceful and immature performance and a sending off. I was ready to write him off then. However tonight he not only redeemed himself with a scintillating display but capped it off with a level of maturity and presence that's only reserved for United legends. Tonight he showed why he will be special. Tonight he stood up to be counted when so many of his teammates went missing.

For a full 60 minutes, we were horribly shit. Apart from Ronaldo, our entire midfield was bullied into submission. Scholes and Carrick were awful, giving the ball away cheaply, leaving O'Shea to clean up their mess. Today the result went our way, but our lack of a ball winner will come back to haunt us in a big way one day. Suddenly having a Phil Neville, Nicky Butt or even a Quinton Fortune in midfield doesn't sound too bad.

Rooney had his 4th off day in a row. His touch was simply absymal. He was either hitting it too hard or too softly. Ferguson should have substituted him much earlier in the game. Everytime the ball went to Rooney, it was given away to the opponents. Rooney needs to get out of his funk soon. He's one of our key players and we can't have him playing badly, especially when so many other players are playing like shit too.

Thankfully for the entire game, Benfica's forwards were as inert as our midfield. Despite all their possession, they hardly threatened our goal.

Our goal came in the 60th minute when Ronaldo (every good move was started by him) released Saha on the right wing. Saha cut passed his man and fired a screamer into the goal from the edge of the penalty area.

The goal practically killed off Benfica's challenge. Or at least the game suddenly became easier on us. We still gave the ball away alot, but the Benfica players seemed to play with their heads held low.

This was not a classic display by our lads, but I'm glad to have the 3 points in the bag. This is an easy group and we should make it into the next round without much trouble. However if we continue playing like the way we have, we're going to be in big trouble in the next round when we face some of the better teams. The consolation is that we would probably have the opportunity to strengthen our squad, especially the midfield.

Normal Service Has Been Resumed (Reading 1 - Manchester United 1)

Before I go into this entry/bitching session proper, I would just like to say I'd be boycotting Ghim Moh Road block 10 kopitiam's drink store. I was watching the game with Kentona, and the bloody motherless son of a goat who calls himself the owner switched off the tele with a fucking 5 minutes left to play. I sincerely pray to the football gods to hear my pleas and bestow upon him genital herpes or anything similar. May he never have a proper fuck, ever again.

Now that I've placed the curse of a thousand unsatisfied fucks, I'm ready to go into today's game proper.

This is so typical of Manchester United. When everyone (talking bout last season's top 4) picks up points and scores easy victories, we would screw up. We've been doing this party trick so often, that it's no longer funny nor novel. Everytime we play a later game when our rivals have already won, we tend to fuck it up for some inexplicable reason.

Kentona and I went to block 10 in Ghim Moh to catch the game. We missed the lineups as the TV was showing the City - West Ham game instead. By the time the channels were switched, the game had already started and we were left guessing who started for us. Of course it didn't help that we had all sorts of trouble identifying our own players coz the screen was pretty far away and the commentary was off. In fact for most parts of the game, we were left wondering why Saha looked so lacklustre and why our 18 million pound man was left on the bench again.

It wasn't until in the middle of the second half that we realised that Carrick had started for us and Saha was sitting on the bench! To say we were both totally stumped would be an understatement! Fucking Carrick was completely invisible for almost 65 minutes into the game! We fucking spent 18 million pounds for this piece of Houdini act!

And speaking of shit, Richardson was shit. I've been rather tolerant of him ever since he rejected WBA and announced that he wanted to fight for his place in the squad. But today's gotta be the last straw. He's simply NOT good enough......by a long long long shot. We are so poor whenever he plays, giving away possession or making stray passes. It doesn't help that he gave the Ronaldo crap of last season.

Speaking of Ronaldo, he looks like he's completely matured after the Word Cup. He's been a model citizen and has been one of the few players who has really played his heart out for the team the entire season. No whining, no diving, no nonsense. Just pure class all around.

As for the game itself, there's really not much to say. We were poor. In fact we were awful until Saha and Ole came on in the 70th minute. Well....actually we were still awful after they came on.

In the end it was probably a lucky result for us. With the tactics we used today, we didn't even deserve a point. We did have more clear cut chances but on the whole Reading gave a really good account of themselves. They are a honest hardworking team, very much like Wigan last season.

Lastly I would just like to add that Ferguson has completely lost it. Tactically we were naive. We have a fully fit Saha and we put him on the bench. We played a semi-fit Rooney up front on his own. Hasn't the England World Cup experiment been disastrous enough? If an armchair critic like myself can see the obvious, why can't an old fool like Ferguson see it? I wish he would stop playing people out of position and start playing them where they play best at.

I personally don't like the Glazers but if they do what's right and remove Ferguson (together with his cancerous appendix Carlos Queiroz) before he ruins the club any further, I might....might just find it in my heart to accept them as owners. I don't care if we never win another trophy in my lifetime again, but I hope to see someone steeped in our tradition and lore take over as manager. Someone like Sparky, or maybe even Keano, but I know I'm asking for too much from the Americans. The only thing they know and care about is the £.

In Carrick's Defense

I know I've been rather harsh on Carrick recently, and quite frankly his performance hasn't really given me any reason to change my stance either.

However I do need to clarify some things about Carrick. He's not as bad a midfielder as I've portrayed him to be. In fact in certain respects, he's better than Darren 'Saviour of Scotland' Fletcher and John 'Out of his Depth' O'Shea. But at £18 million, you're over paying for someone to be just better than the 2 mentioned above. Looking back at the last game, Carrick's pegged lower than Scholes in the eyes of Fergie. Surely, we didn't pay £18 million just to have someone warming the bench as a replacement for Scholes!?!?! I suppose that's my main grouse here. If you spend £18 million, then you better make sure he's good enough to start when he's fit.

As for Carrick's abilities, he's a decent player. In fact I probably would rank him as an above average midfielder. Just look at how Spurs is faring without him. They seem to sore lack someone to make that killer pass when it matters. They seem to be playing and doing well everywhere on the pitch except that last third where for some reason, they lack that imagination to penetrate the defense.

I suppose that's the reason why we splashed £18 million for Carrick.....to ensure there would be no competition for the 4th Champion's League spot. Brilliant strategy by the board to thwart Tottenham's ambitions. Let's hope the likes of Portsmouth, Everton and Villa do not play the role of party poopers at the end of the season.

Top 4.......Here We Come!

The Wheels Are Falling Off (Manchester United 0 - Arsenal 1)

It was the first big game of the season and we flunk the test, against an Arsenal team playing without Henry and Van Persie. I've always thought we were not good enough this season, and it's finally showing. Against a short-handed and struggling Arsenal, we were finally exposed as the pretenders we are. I wonder how many lucky games we can squeeze out, especially after our last 2 league games.

For some reason, Tomasz Kuszczak stared instead of EVS. When I saw him in the lineup, I just had a bad feeling about this game.I can only assume EVS must have been injuried. Thankfully Kuszczak had a brilliant debut, unfortunately for him, he ended up on the losing end. He was one of the few players in the team who actually played well. As early as the 12th minute, he was called to save a dubious penalty. Throughout the game he made some fine stops, but was unable to save the winner from Adebayor, at the 86th minute, after our defense was expertly carved open by Fabegas.

The Arsenal midfield controlled the game right from kickoff and never once allowed ours to settle. We simple had no answer to they energetic and vibrant midfield. They basically laid seige in our half, and we had to settle for the counter-attack, or punting long balls to our front men. This wasn't to say that we didn't have chances. However, Lehmann stopped whatever we threw at him.

Perhaps the entire complexion of the game could have changed if Silvestre wasn't substituted early in the first half by the utterly incompetent Evra. I believe he single handedly made the game so much easier for Arsenal. My patience for him has totally and completely ended, and I can't wait for Heinze to return to left back. Frankly, Ferguson should stop being an ass and play Bardsley there, or even the pathetic Richardson. Evra is just plain useless. He's our Achilles heel.

As for our performers, only Kuszczak, Scholes, Fletcher and Saha were wearing a red shirt today. Everyone else honestly sucked, not as badly as Evra, but sucked all the same. We were unable to match Arsenal both in terms of tactics as well as desire. As an armchair critic, for once I'm unable to critic Ferguson. They were simply better in every department. Perhaps we could have been more motivated, but I can hardly fault Fergie for the inadequacies of the players. I can only hope this would serve as a wake up call for the players.

One thing for sure is that our squad simply isn't good enough. Unless our board can find some players in the January transfer window, we're pretty much screwed. Well, I'm not much of a believer, but divine intervention would help too.

I'm not really keen to see us face Reading next Saturday away. As far as I'm concerned, no Steve Coppell team is a pushover, especially the way we're playing.

And So It Begins II - Giggs Out For 4 Weeks

Looks like Giggs hurt his hamstring in yesterday's game and is projected to be sidelined for 4 weeks. Giggs has been our best player by a mile so far in this short season. I'm really hoping this doesn't derail our strong start. As the weeks go on and the injuries start to pile up, I'm beginning to hate our lack of activity in the transfer market. The bright spot is that Heinze, Vidic and Smith would and could probably be set for a return to first team action sometime soon.

And let's hope the only guy we brought in during the transfer window, Carrick, proves his worth sooner rather than later. So far he's the guy we paid too much to do too little.

United Not Convincing (Manchester United 3 - Celtic 2)

We were awesome in attack, led by the irresistable Saha. However if we're going to defend the way we did in this game, it's going to be a long long season.

The entire defence was practically napping throughout the game. Rio in particular was awful. He was slow, sloppy and stupid. He allowed Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink to nip in behind him for the first goal of the day.

Giggs then got fouled in the box to win us a penalty, which Saha put away emphatically. To be honest, I felt it was a weak penalty to give. In fact I thought it wasn't a penalty, but the referee gave it and I'm not really complaining. Saha then put us in front but minutes before the half time whistle, Nakamura scored from a freekick that brought the scores level at the half.

Our defense at this point was in shambles. Brown had a poor game and needless to say, Rio was simply awful. We were not controlling the ball in midfield either. Carrick and Scholes couldn't keep up with Graveson, Lennon or Jarosik. Giggs was replaced by Ole after the penalty incident and Ronaldo was suspended for this game.

Thankfully we scored early in the second half thru Ole, pouncing on a loose ball which was parried by the keeper from a Saha shot. It remained scoreless for the rest of game but Saha could and probably should have had a hattrick. The bulk of the best chances went to him but the Celtic keeper was having a brilliant game. Besides a really good chance for Rooney, he was practically non existant in this game.

Overall, I felt we barely deserved to win this game, especially on the performance of our defence. Had it not been for a superb display by Saha, we probably would have come out with a point instead of 3. To compound matters, we didn't beat the spread of 1.5 goals, which particularly pissed me off big time since I had a huge bet on us to do so. If we continue napping in defence and playing like pussies in midfield, we're going to be in for a rough time, both in the league and in Europe.

On Sunday we face Arsenal. I hope we maintain our 100% record, but I'm not convinced, based on the last couple of games. Arsenal would probably be up for the game.

And So It Begins - Park Out For 3 Months

Just thought I'd squeeze this in before the Celtic game. Shamelessly taken from Soccernet. A couple more injuries like this and we can kiss our season goodbye.

Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-sung has been ruled out of action for three months with ankle ligament damage. Sir Alex Ferguson revealed on Tuesday that the 25-year-old South Korea international was going for a scan after picking up an injury in training but expressed the hope that Park could be fit for tonight's encounter with the Scottish champions. However, United officials confirmed Park will require an operation that could keep him out for three months, effectively ruling him out of all United's European group games plus 12 Premiership games. Coming less than a fortnight after the transfer window closed, Park's absence could cause a major disruption to an already stretched United midfield, which Ferguson revealed today he had tried to strengthen by making a bid for Villarreal's Marcos Senna on deadline day.

Lucky Win (Manchester United 1 - Spurs 0)

I considered us lucky to get away with 3 points today. Our performance was patchy at best and certainly nothing to crow about, especially after Giggs had put us ahead early in the first half with what I thought was a fluke header from a parry from Robinson, after a superb Ronaldo freekick.

I've always considered Martin Jol a good manager, why he consistantly leaves Defoe on the bench is beyond me. For the entire match, both teams conspired to play some pretty awful football, until Defoe was introduced in the middle of the second half. He singlehandedly took the bulls by the horns and spurred Spurs (pardon the pun) to another level of play. We were honestly lucky not to have conceded an equaliser.

Frankly, I'm not impressed with Carrick at all. Sure we caught glimpses of his passing range here and there, but they were not consistant, nor frequent enough to put any pressure on the Spurs defence. I hope he does well in the long run, but so far he is drawing a blank on my scorecard.

This game also showed why Richardson is not a good enough player for us. He kept trying to get past his man, Chimbonda, who had the better of him the entire game. Overall, Richardson seems like a one trick pony, and when his trick is exposed, he's practically useless.

Thankfully Gary Neville and, particularly, Wes Brown had a superb game. Brown was everywhere, and probably was my man of the match by a far margin over everyone else wearing a red jersery.

Evra deserved special mention today. He was his usual useless self the first half, but in the second half, he got into a tangle with Ghaly. For some reason, it lit a bonfire up his nonchalant ass, and he started to play like it mattered. It was the first time I actually saw the flames of desire in his eyes. If he had that from the go-get, he could easily have been my man of the match! Now we just need someone to give him a good kick up that ass of his to light that fire before any game.

Everyone else had a normal game, probably not worth any mention. The good thing here is that some of the non performers will have to make way for Scholes and Rooney's return. It should make our next home game against Celtic in midweek all that more interesting.

And we're still top of the table with a perfect record, made sweeter with Liverfools getting their asses whipped by bitter rivals, Everton, with Phil Neville and Tim Howard leading the charge. And with Arsenal only managing a draw at their new stadium against Boro. The weekend would have been made perfect had Chelsea also squandered points against Chalton. But let's enjoy our short success while we can.

We rejected Tevez and Mascherano...?!!?!?!?

I just read this from TribalFootball.com. All I have to say is that we're a bunch of idiots for not doing so when we had the chance, and we're a bigger bunch of idiots for admitting it.

Manchester United chief David Gill has explained why they passed up on new West Ham signings Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano.

"We were never interested in Tevez," Gill told BBC Five Live's Sportsweek programme.

"We were also offered Mascherano but we didn't want to go for him."

Gill added: "We were offered Mascherano for a significant sum at the start of the summer and also last week on a loan deal.

"We had watched him last season but the manager and his staff didn't want to pursue him.

"While he is clearly a very good player it was decided he wasn't required at the club."

I'm pretty sure this is complete and utter bullshit. Any one can tell that this is a face saving interview for the bloop job. Gill and his bunch of croonies should never ever step onto the negociating table ever again. It seems all they do is screw up.

Come to think of it, a scary thought just slipped into my mind. What if this was not a face saving interview? What if he actually meant what he said? If this much is true, then we're truthly screwed by incompetence. Suddenly signings like Kleberson and Djemba Djemba come to mind.

I suppose as fans, all we can hope for is for the squad to remain healthy. Injuries will totally undo all the good we've done in the first 3 games of the season.

More On Tevez and Mascherano, Chelsea and Abramobitch

I've had time to calm down....somewhat. Good thing I don't own a cat, it not it would have be kicked silly the entire night.

Let's give this deal some thought. Tevez and Mascherano are 2 world class players, and I mean REAL world class players. They are the type of players who could, and probably would, step into the first 11 of practically any team on this globe. So I don't believe for a moment that they would sign for West Ham to win trophies. I mean there are about a 100 teams in Europe which have more pedigree than the modern day West Ham. However, if they truely felt this way about West Ham, all the more power to them.

Let's dig deeper into this whole anal transfer. Media Sports Investment (MSI) owns the rights to both players and it's an open secret that Abramobitch owns part of MSI. Are you seeing the light yet? Since they are not signing on to Chelsea this season, it becomes paramount to keep them away from bitter rivals Arsenal and Manchester United, and all the other teams playing in the Champions League. Wow, the sun's rays don't even shine that brightly.

So what better way to screw everyone else than to 'loan' both players to West Ham? Just gives you another reason to hate Chelsea over and over again. And another reason to pray to the football Gods (if there ever were any) that Abramobitch gets caught for some money laundering scheme or some tax evasion charge.

West Ham Signs Tevez and Mascherano

You gotta be kidding me. Seriously you gotta be kidding me. How in the world did we not do this and let West Ham do it is beyond me, especially after all the news coming in that we've been trying to sign them. Actually, I know how the hell this slipped thru our hands....we have a bunch of donkeys at the helm. I'm serious!

Ly and I have always thought that Mascherano was the ideal midfielder we're looking for. He's display with Argentina during the World Cup was exactly what we needed, a tough man in the centre of the pitch. To make things worse, he's able to pass the ball better than some 18 million pound man we got.

And don't get me started on Tevez. This was a guy who wore a Manchester United jersery during one of the interviews last season! We're really one of the worst teams when it comes to making deals....and sort of deals.

So far we've had a brilliant start to the season, however when the wheels start to fall off (which eventually will), we're going to rue this chance to sign 2 world class players.