Christmas Parties, Champions League Draw and Manucho

Stupid Spoilt Whores
I've been dreading to write about this, but having received a grand total of a whooping 2 emails on the subject (over 66.6% of my readership), I've decided to put my unpopular 2 cents worth on the subject.

As we all know, the news in the past week have been all about our blotched Christmas party organised by our resident party animal, Rio, and the alleged rape by Johnny Evans. What's perhaps more disturbing were the raunchy details that have found their way into the news.

Firstly, I'd just like to say I'm not surprised that Rio was the ring leader of it all, given his legendary 'roasting' stories that have made the news in various forms and different times. While it was probably not his fault that things came to the state that they are now, I still hold him responsible for the aftermath and ultimately tainting the image of Manchester United....once again.

Ferguson reading him the riot act does little to alleviate the tense situation. Rio is a first class dick and has always been. Time and time again, he puts his brain into reverse mode and undoes all the good he has done. Despite his good performances, he somehow manages to find a way to get himself into the negative side of both the news and the fans. I bet, if not for the fact we paid a record fee for him, he'd be shown the door faster that Ruud or Stam. Fucking wanker!

I just wish that the club would have the balls to do the right thing with Rio. I'd rather have a defence that is leaking goals than have this piece of human trash lying around.

As for Johnny Evans, I'll keep my opinions until the evidence finds him guilty. The truth is that it's a matter for the police and the courts to decide based on the evidence gathered. If he's found guilty, by all means throw him to the lions. Rape is a serious crime and the guilty should be punished.

And for the rest of the players, I'll just have to say I'm sorely disappointed, but I understand. I was young once (although no where near as rich). Hopefully they learnt their lesson. Like it or not, they are ambassadors of the club, whether they wear the jersey or not and such behaviour is unbecoming of players of the greatest club on the planet.

Human Trash
And while I'm on the topic of stupid spoilt whores, I might as well add my 2 cents worth to this. Judas extraodinaire, Sol Campbell has been urging the FA to put a stop to abuses against players and managers.

I have nothing against the message. It is a sound and timely one. And about time someone had the balls to bring it up. Racist chants in particular are the most vicious and reflects the type of people attending these games. And Sol Campbell is absolutely right when he says that 'animals don't behave like that'.

Unfortunately, it was the right message, by the wrong person. Of all the people in the world, Sol should be the last person complaining. We're talking about a guy who betrayed his club to join the enemy on a free transfer. And we're not even talking about normal rivals but possibly the greatest rivalry in English football....that of Arsenal and Spurs!

I'm sorry, but Sol deserves every bit of abuse he gets, coz he JUST DOESN'T GET IT! What he did was worse than what animals would do. He bit the hand that fed him and even the most foul of beasts in the animal kingdom wouldn't do it. If there is one piece of human trash that is worst than our own Rio, it's gotta be Sol Campbell. He is the reason the term 'Judas' was coined over 2000 years ago.

Champions League Draw
Now that we're gotta the whole hate-filled venom off my chest, let's move on to more pleasant stuff like the champions league draw which was done a couple of hours ago.

We got picked to face Lyon. Lyon is probably no longer the force they were a few seasons back, but they are still no pushovers. I have every bit of confidence that we will beat them handily and move into the quarters, if we have our heads screwed on correctly.

The other interesting draws are that Liverpool and Arsenal got to face Inter and AC milan respectively. I'll probably be rooting for both Pool and Arse to make it past their Italian opponents only for the sole reason that it should keep them distracted from the Premiership race. Either way, it's good to get two strong clubs out of the way, whichever sides win.

United Signs Manucho
United just signed 24 year old Angolan, Manucho.

Who? Exactly. I'm as clueless as you.

Searches on youtube for 'Manucho' and 'Mateus Alberto Contreiras Goncalves' have drawn up a blank. Maybe when the news gets around, someone would put something up, if only just to tease us.

I can only assume that at his age, he's going to be a player for the present and possibly going to be our fourth striker. The not so good news is that he wouldn't be around in January since he's going to be involved in the African Nations Cup.

I personally would have preferred to have Anelka as the fourth option (or even the third, displacing Saha), but I'll defer to Ferguson's judgement. ;o)

Youth Beat Doncaster (Doncaster 0 - Manchester United 2)

With less than 48hrs to the season curtain raiser, Fergie opted to field a team largely made up from the reserves and the youth team. Well, actually the reserve team has been mainly made up of under 21s from what I've been seeing on MUTV for the past season.

This game would probably be noted as Anderson's debut and he really didn't do too badly. He certainly did much much better in the red of United than the yellow of Brazil for the Copa. Coming with a somewhat big reputation and a larger price tag, he was marked tightly throughout the time he was on the pitch. At times he was hounded by two doncaster players. Despite the ultra tight marking job, he still managed to spray some telling passes and literally worked his ass off in winning the ball. While he wasn't really effective as a tackler, you could tell his intent desire to impress. As I've said time and again, he possesses the natural ability to make the big leap into a really good player, but as of right now, he's incredibly raw. Perhaps it would help if he played with the first team. At least the bulk of attention would be on the other players.

The other lads performed credibly. There's nothing much to praise or complain about. Johhny Evans and Gerald Pique were formidable as the central defensive pairing. Absolutely nothing got past them in the first half. Both were taken off in the second half. Johhny Evan in particular was outstanding. He certainly looked comfortable with the ball and his positioning was impeccable.

Perhaps the only downside to yesterday's game was the fact that I had to use the same dodgy Thai stream that had failed so miserably during the Inter game. This time the stream lasted a good 70 minutes, when it dropped. The timing was seriously unreal. The goals were scored on the 70th and 90th minutes and I missed them both.

In any case I'm glad to have caught our youngsters in action. I'm going out on a limb and saying that Johnny Evans looks every bit like a future star in the making. It's no wonder Roy Keane is so high on this youngster.

Reserves : On Loan Today, Stars Tomorrow?

After the rather doom and gloom piece the last entry, I found this gem of an article in MEN (Manchester Evening News). It gives a rather nice round up of the players who are on loan. It's probably a puff piece, but still a good read for those of us who are unable to follow the progress of our future stars.

Worthy mention of Johnny Evans, Giuseppi Rossi, Ben Foster and Lee Martin, who I think are all in contention of breaking the first team based on what limited footage I've caught on them the last couple of years.