Posts Tagged → football
The Keeper Situation Summer 2011
Champions League Final 2008
Heres an odd one, a post on a future position. I normally look at the business side and the governing side of football but this to me is very important. Its an issue which everyone will have a say on and it needs to be correct. Who ever is picked at first won’t be the right player for some people. Others will think a keeper from within the club should take over the Number One shirt but I don’t see it like that. If the perfect goal keeper costs nothing or £20m, Fergie needs to pick who he thinks is correct. If he’s not satisfied we’ll know.
Since 1991 we’ve seen many come and go but there are only three who have played over 100 games since that date. Edwin Van Der Sar, Fabien Barthez and Schmeichel. One of those in many peoples eyes won’t be considered what Ferguson was really after. So in the last 20 years most people and fans would say Van Der Sar and Schmeichel have been the two stand out truly world keepers. I don’t think Kuszczak is in the same class as either of those two. For those who think he could be I’d just ask this. ‘If he was going to be number one, why as yet has he not taken Van Der Sar’s number one shirt? or been told he will get it?’ Lindegaard is the only other choice in the side currently who could take it and until now hes totally unproven. At 26 years of age, there are many others in a better position and you can’t call him a youth team player. My view is its unlikely to be either of these two but Ferguson might know better.
Youth can work but you only have to look at Arsenal to see how they’ve messed it up. United can’t take that chance if they want to compete at top level. It can be the difference between winning or losing. Champions League is a key area which proves this. Very demanding games which can go 1:0 either way. United need an experienced keeper, someone who has been in the big games, it doesn’t matter if they have lost or won the big games. Our top two have been on the larger side. Tall keepers with great range and for Van Der Sar great ball control. So who do United go for? From the Spanish, Russian, German and Dutch leagues take your pick. There are many young and already experienced goal keepers who in theory should do a job. As ever its never guaranteed but you always have to take a chance with anyone you sign.
Interms of targets many names have been mentioned. Some daft ones like Reina and Buffon. One is scouse, we aren’t giving them £20m for anyone. The other has had a host of injury problems and hasn’t featured in the Juventus side this season. I can’t see him leaving that club. David De Gea is one player who for many is mentioned and at 20 years old will Ferguson go with that youth? For me he’d be a great signing but maybe he’d be better progressing where he currently is. Stekelenburg or Neuer would for me be better targets and as United have never signed a German player it could be time to do so. Stekelenburg is Dutch, hes tall, hes very experienced and is a top keeper. United have had Dutch players in the past. A keeper at 28 years old isn’t old for me. That’s prime age. Its very easy to get another 10 or so years out of Stekelenburg. If he could do what Edwin has done, any cash spent would not be wasted. You could say ‘value’ has finally been found.
The Olympic Stadium, what about the fans?
This may not be Manchester United related and some will say keep your nose out but its been noticed and I’ve seen the photos of the Spurs fans protesting against any move from White Heart Lane.
In a football environment what you want isn’t what Crystal Palace have got planned or what the FA did with Wembley. What you need is seats near the pitch, you don’t want a running track creating extra yards to the pitch. At Wembley you need a mobile phone to talk to the person next you as they are that far away. You also need a tv if your in the heavens to see what score it is. I’ve been to Moscow and Rome, stadiums with running tracks. Fact is no, it doesn’t work. Olympic stadiums with running tracks over the years have been redeveloped or become underused. You give Westham the track for running and by 2025 they’ll be looking for another option. Trust me now, interms of a bid and move for football the Spurs bid is the one to go for. City removed the running track in Manchester. Bayern Munich moved from the Olympiastadion as soon as they had the chance. Juve are currently converting the old Stadio delle Alpi into a proper football stadium with no running track. Give Roma and Lazio a chance, they’ll move of out their running tracked stadium. The Spurs move seems like the best option but for the fans it might not be. Spurs currently have plans in place to redevelop their current stadium, my view go ahead with that. Now Westham, interms of location they aren’t a million miles away from their home and some Westham fans won’t want to move. The perfect option that I can see is the Stadium goes as Spurs plan to do, its knocked down or made smaller, with a new stadium built next door. Westham build a new 40,000-60,000 seater football stadium, as Spurs have planned and a smaller athletics stadium is in place. The site which the stadium sits on the areas around the current stadium should in theory be large enough for both. In the short term this might seem like total madness but in the long term, more than likely UK athletics always has the possibility of losing its track. Spurs plan to knock it down anyway. It says alot about the stadium which has been put up for the games, about how they funded it and built it in the first place. The plan from the start was to reduce it down to 20-25,000 seats after the games. The two plans put forward don’t really seem to suit anyone and more than likely it will cause more hassle which ever route they choose. If they choose Westham or Spurs, this will end up in the courts and it will go on for along time. Football gets its self in a mess again. If your a director of Spurs listen to the fans, they know what is good for the club, its why they support it.
Stories Of The Week….
So far this week I’ve nearly seen it all, apart from Glazer leaving. Abit of FC United, Manchester United, Liverpools new American owners(where I think they are going) and one or two other pieces. I think I’ll start with last nights Rochdale Vs FC United Game for starters. I think all United fans will relate to this in some way or another. Am not saying your a fan(I am not myself, MUFC for me), but alot I’ve spoken too find it very interesting. Even the die hard reds. Unless you’ve been living under a rock or live on the other side of the world, which is possible if you’ve come from twitter. FC United have made it into the second round of the FA Cup, which to me is unbelievable. They won 3-2 with a injury time goal.
Here is a quote from me…. “I know its asking for alot and most FC United fans will say it won’t happen for many years, if ever but at this moment in time there is that tiny chance. Maths says a 1st round win, then a 2nd round win into a draw with Premier League sides.” …. lets change that to, 2nd round win into a draw with Premier League sides. I’ll leave it at that.
From my last review of Manchester United I’d say its been a slow start but we’re not losing which is always important. I might be the first to say this but could United be running into a small bit of form. Since the shocking second half against West Brom, United have won 5 on the bounce. Won 3 cup games and 2 League games. The game in Turkey the other night was the most impressive so far. I only say the start of form because they need to prove in the league they can do well in the next few games. These include Wolves tomorrow, which from fans I’ve spoken to no expect less than 3 goals from the strike force. The big one is City away. With City losing 3 on the bounce, am hoping we can get a good win today, then go and put a proper show of football on midweek.
One other interesting thing which is floating around is over in Anfield. You’ll likely want to hear something else but considering that another group of Americans have took over an English club. Its relevant when looking at owners as a whole. This time the Americans seem to be increasingly open talk to the press. I get the feeling they don’t really know what they are doing and in areas they’ve admitted that. This gives me a real insight into the people in the game. They’ve just got a new manager and now new owners. Dan Roan from the BBC asked them alot of questions yesterday. The ones that stood out to me were the 39th game question and language used. The term ‘EPL’ like ‘NFL’ was used alot. Later on there were other questions asked around the club its self. All I heard was ‘we want to increase revenues’. Where have we heard that before! The Glazers? Tom Hicks? Anyone. It basically means putting ticket prices up and selling more shirts. On the new stadium, I believe there is a strong possibility of a future ground share. Liverpool fans don’t want it? Tough. You wanted more American owners. You got em and if the Everton Kirby stadium was only going to cost around £78m for a 50k stadium as part of a larger £240m development, the new Americans will bite Evertons hands off. If they can half the cost with Everton, instead of spending a risky £300m development, they can spend possibly less than 1/3 of that and get the extra 10,000-30,000 seats they wanted to milk more cows. These Americans aren’t stupid and will milk them, like they are milking United. Theres one other thing, if your a Liverpool fan reading this (I don’t know why you would be reading this) at home feeling all happy about no more debt. First thing I’d be doing is digging to find out just where that money came from to buy the club. All of that will come clear over the next year or so, apart from the ticket prices. Yep, they’ll be going up.
One week ago we had the ‘United Against Glazer’ protest, an important article involving Jeremy Hunt midweek but I’ve also had one or two other interesting things come up. I won’t make them public just yet but they’ll come out during the week, so keep an eye out. Might not be big or that exciting but there interesting nonetheless. The protest and the Jeremy Hunt comments are very important and hopefully you’ve read the past blog posts, if not just go down the page. As ever my comments repeating the pressuring of your local MP, The Government, Number 10, The Sports Minster, The FA and PL all still stand strong. Go for it.
For any questions or comments you can follow me on Twitter @wewantglazerout
United Against Glazer Protest
I’d been promoting the United Against Glazer March on twitter for the last few weeks and yesterday was the day of the march. From the media coverage you’d think not alot had happened, in the reality it could have been the biggest march since Glazer took over. I could only find 4 or 5 mentions of the protest and those where in reports of the game its self.
Once it got up the road, I headed off and stopped at the front of Old Trafford to watch it come by. I was stood just by the gates where the away fans coaches are, by then the green and gold flares were going off. I also noticed the Megastore shutters were down. After 5 mintues of watching green and gold, united against glazer, must, love united hate glazer, young and old groups of fans I carried on my way. As I moved on it was still coming past. Its estimated around 3,000 set off from near the tollgate and once it got down Warwick Road it was more like 5,000. Now considering FC United were playing, this was done just via word of mouth and via small parts of the internet. It was an extremely good turn out. For me the most shocking thing is after reading blog after blog and story after story of ‘the protest is dead because of the red knights’, we then have the biggest march since they took over. I put this too those reds who put out that claim! The Reds Knight bid maybe dead but the fans protests against the Glazers clearly aren’t. This is at a time when the team aren’t doing too bad, we’re not playing great football but we are unbeaten this season, and the Glazers are doing all they can to appease the fans. Buying past players medals and using David Gill as a media puppet.
Anyone thinking David Gill talks sense, just remember, his pay has now risen too £2m a year and I don’t get paid anything from anyone. Who are you going to believe someone who is paid by the Club to be told what to say or fans like me who do nothing but explain what’s really happening. How can a club have 4 or 5 different factions of fans against Glazer and be wrong according to Gill? Also remember David Gill was once against the takeover, then his pay cheques increased and now hes on Glazers side. Would he be on Glazers side if he got sacked or left the club. I doubt it! What I can see now is now the start of panic in the Glazer ranks, as they know it wouldn’t take much to cause a major uproar. If 5-10k turn up when there is just the possibility of the team struggling. What will happen if they use the clubs money to pay debt off? What will happen if the team really does start to struggle? I personally don’t want to find out and I’d call on all fans now to stand up and fight the cause. As I’ve said in the past, the first port of call is to pressure the Government. Email/phone/send a letter to number 10, your local MP and the minster for sport Hugh Robertson. So get on with it and fight your corner!
Pictures From The March http://www.stretfordendarising.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1038 Supplied By @SEA_MUFC On Twitter
The United Movement And The Glazers
This second post will touch on how, why and what. In This Fight Against Glazer I’ve seen four maybe five different groups of fans. You may class yourself as in all or in none.
First you have FC United, the 2005 group of fans which saw that Manchester United was no longer welcoming them. The Glazers banned IMUSA a big part of what alot of fans saw as the start of fans having say within the club. The deals reached with between the club and fans was ripped up. Who ever said the PLC wasn’t all good. £25 match tickets under the PLC, well not under Glazer.
Second group is Shareholders United, now known as the Manchester United Supporters Trust, another group of fans pushed aside and ignored by the Glazers. Until around January/February MUSTs main aim spend aload of cash on a club house. Now alot of fans think they are just collecting email addresses. I think MUST as a group do alot of work but some of the other things they’ve planned in the past just don’t add up. For example should MUST even have a view on Rooney signing? Clutching at straws. MUST had the Phoenix fund which is still going but if you ask anyone about it? What’s that? I’ve had a number of people asking me why don’t we set up a fund to buy the club back? I say we have one already. Do we? Yes Is Called the Capital Share Scheme. My view is MUST should be setting funding goals each year how much they plan to raise for the Capital Share Scheme. I’ve been actively tweeting for over 9 months about the Glazer issue. I have no idea how much they have currently raised. Back in 2006 it was around £2m. How Much Is In that fund now?
The Red Knights are mentioned alot next to MUST and I think its time MUST made a big decision. We were told a bid was coming. June and July came and went. Nothing happened. My view politely drop Keith Harris, keep it quiet until they can make a bid or start to lose the movement. The one good thing I can note which MUST has done in the last few weeks is to push the Government. MUST shouldn’t involve its self with Rooney. Instead it should be writing weekly letters to all different people, MPs, public departments and the PM/DPM offices pushing football ownership. It should be talking to all other supporters groups through supporters direct aiming to launch a join protest or some sort of join action which aims at promoting the issue of fan ownership. This could start in the form of letter signed by all clubs part of supporters direct calling for change. Second needs to be pressuing the Minister For Sport – Hugh Robertson for change. An another active letter for starts by all clubs to him would show we won’t accept half hearted measures. Following the responses pressure can be called on where to go next. I have contacted Hugh and I got the response back its not The Governments to tell the FA/PL what to do but they will pressure them to put certain changes into place. What about charities? Banks? and other areas? They all have their own laws should sport be allowed to do as it pleases when it clearly cannot control its self. If they cannot run themselfs correctly it is the Governments job to step in. They stepped in with the banks, if should step in when Pompey, Westham and other clubs need to be saved from certain owners. It is not acceptable to say its not the Governments job. They created laws in the stands when that was a problem, they can have laws on the ownership of clubs. If Cameron finally wants to do something right fix this, I might just vote for you at the next election. Otherwise I don’t think I’ll bother.
The next group is the Love United Hate Glazer movement. Some see this as a militant group but I’d say its more of a movement. You need the guys who cause some trouble and anger in a fight like this to keep that interest going. I can’t really fault them, doing what they can with small resources showing that in the ground even a flag can’t even be shown without CES thugs ripping it down. That’s one thing I do not like about Glazer. Inside Old Trafford they treat fans like dirt then threaten them over and over again.
When we consider the groups above they likely cover a large % of hardcore fans. I’d say the 4th and 5th groups are two groups of fans. One side knows Glazer is bad for the club but isn’t someone who will boycott or doesn’t fully understand the options either on offer. They ask the simple question, ‘how are we going to get rid of the glazers?’ and expect you to answer in less than 9 words. If you don’t they don’t really want to know. Its too hard for their minds to accept anything else other than what’s happening now. This is the group putting the most into the club interms of revenue. They’ll either go to all the games or they won’t go to any but they’ll have the latest AON shirt. I’d say this group of fans is still quiet large but I expect it too drop in size hugely if Glazer makes the wrong move. My view it drops in size every day.
The last group of fans is a smaller group of fans, this is the most worrying set. This is either the fan who thinks United made £100m last year have £160m in the bank whats the problem. The fan who either doesn’t know about the debt or knows about it in great detail but still doesn’t see a problem. This is the business model person or the new fan from India or China. The business model person may see your argument about it being a football club but the money issues will not be a problem for them. That for me is the most worrying thing for every fan you or I tell there will be 1000 more who don’t know the full facts.
In every 1000 fans most people will go into these groups and that’s where the group talk stops. If you support FC United or go to every United this season, and think the Glazers are good because we won the league three times, the point is, its time we all started a fresh, become United, see the club as a club, not a business, then push for what this should have started out as. The fans aim to own part of the club. MUST need to move on, they need pressure the government and then set funding targets. The fans need to unite. In my view it can be that simple but this is Manchester United. Nothing is ever that easy.
First Post Background, Rooney, David Gill, FC And The Enemy
Welcome to my blog. Many of you we’ll have likely come here via my twitter page @wewantglazerout and this blog will hopefully provide yourself with information and more detail about what’s going down in the world of Manchester United, Malcolm Glazer and the supporters fight of removing the cancer of our club. I am known as ‘the tweeting carrington resident in one or two places, or the big red from South Manchester for those that know me.
For those who don’t know, Manchester United Were Brought By A Man Called Malcolm Glazer in 2005 under a heavy amount of protests. Afew years before the protests worked and the Government stopped the owner of Sky called Rupert Murdoch buying the club before Glazer came along. The first time it wasn’t about debt and until 2005 no one really knew what was too come. Manchester United Are Now In Over £700m Of Debt Thanks To Malcolm Glazer. Around £520m on the club and around another £220m and rising in their personal PIK debts. Alot of people believe the PIK debts are the Glazers debts. Well in 2010 this changed. The Bank debt the club was originally brought with was converted into bonds. This is still debt and the club still owes this money. The issue is the bank rules on what the Glazers could take out has been relaxed. The Glazers plan was to use Manchester Uniteds accounts which currently have £160m in, to pay part of this debt off but this has been delayed after the protests and to avoid any more fan backlashes. The bond rules state they could take out around £70m and use this to pay down the PIK debt. This has not yet happened. A meeting was reported on the bloomberg website between the Glazers and the 10 or so holders of the PIK debt last week which showed the only reason they weren’t going to use the clubs cash was because of a fan backlash.
First post and too much to blog about, first thing is Wayne Rooney, I’ll keep this short because we’ve heard enough about him. Some of us reds hate him and some will still love him but he either got away with it or something had been set up. Fergie didn’t let Beckham, Ruud, Stam or Keane get away with it, theres no reason why he’d let Wayne and his agent the hoover man get away with it. When I say set up, Fergie and Rooney planned this to make it known to the Glazers ‘I am this club and we can hold you to ransom.’ or it was a private plan to get funding. Why else would it be public? Fergie gets a proper transfer fund, Gill gets a story to prolong his job and Rooney gets his lifes biggest pay off. Everyones happy apart from the Glazers. They now have to watch part of their fund towards debt go towards a player and if they have allowed Fergie to spend big, its gonna be big bucks not being paid on debt. I am not the only one to have come up with that conclusion. One or two scousers I’ve spoken to agree.
David Gill, what can we say about the Man. To most hes known as Judas Gill but I’ve come up with a new one The Manchester United Information Minster. Have a watch…. The Iraqi Information Minister
For those that don’t know he doesn’t think debt is a problem at Manchester United and he thinks United can challenge Manchester City interms of money power. City are owned by a billionaire oil tycoon and have spent over £400m so far just on players. They spent £22m on Lescott and deal for Tevez could be reportedly worth £41m by the end of it. Tevez might be hated now but at the time fans were singing his name and asking for Fergie to sign him up. Why didn’t he sign, money. United just could not compete and I believe they didn’t want to be held ransom next to what City could offer. If United ever go in for a top player City will be watching and waiting to do the same thing. The Debt and City Money Bags. Were not talking about winning things simply about signing players and United were held back by Chelsea and now City. Back when Roman took over, we were in for Duff, Essien and Mikel. Mikel was a clear sign of how money and agents twist todays game. We got priced out of Duff and then Essien. Its something David Gill won’t admit because the money hes paid. Funny that. Won’t admit theres a problem with money because hes paid too much money.
Am not really a fan of FC United, my team is United and only United but I do keep an eye out too see just what they are up to. I think the best things they bring to the table is to show that fan ownership of a club is perfectly viable and the stadium development they have planned is fantastic for the City and Local Area it will stand on. I was reading they have raised just over £300k of £500k needed for donations back on the 21st Of Sempetber the day their share sheme was launched which aims to raise a total of £1.5m. If you are an FC United supporter no doubt you’ll have put paid in but if you haven’t done I’d recommend you do so. This share offer closes on the 30th of November 2010 so do it now for success. Its possible that the ground could be built for the start of 2011 if all goes well but as FC United say it can only work if enough fans put in. Link below…. Copy and paste.
http://www.fc-utd.co.uk/communityshares
The other big news story is that FC United have entered the FA Cup in the first round after beating Barrow 1:0 and will now play away against Rochdale at 3pm on the 6th Of November. This is a big if but if they do beat Rochdale to enter the second round, then beat their second round opposition, it gets tasty against the really big boys with the a possible draw against Manchester United. As I say its a massive if, but what a story that could be.
Final piece of the first blog which cannot be missed is the enemy. Liverpool, City and Leeds. Leeds got beat tonight you’ll all be pleased to know. 4:0 at home against Cardiff which leaves them 16th in the Championship. I’d say its safe to say we won’t be playing them anytime soon, shame. City well they were back to their best this weekend after Arsenal put them back in their place after a 3:0 which I can say rather enjoyed after last weeks ‘Rooney is signing for City’ Couple of pictures of idiot city fans on twitter that most of you should have seen and Liverpool, yes they won but they are still down in 18th place. They play Bolton and then Chelsea next so that could be interesting. To any City fans reading this. 35 years in February.