foxyfmu

Guys, MU fan in peace. From an outside perspective it seems like Roman has brought success unprecedented in Chelsea's history to the club. Yet you seem unable to keep managers for very long or have team stability. Now Abramovich seems to be tightening purse strings and trying to run you more like a business. I'm not suggesting for a minute he's leading you to failure, but have you ever considered whether you would be better off losing Abramovich? Losing the millions but getting a solid foundation you can build on, rather than bringing in a new man every few years with different ideas. Or worse, Abramovich turning you into Roman FC with everyone in the club his best mate...?

Manc here. Don't listen to RedCafe, it's as bad as RAWK for dillusioned quick to change their tone "fans". Rooney is a quality player, probably our best player on form. We have some really decent players, and I believe we still have an excellent core to the team - lacking another winger and a world class creative midfielder (and a striker if Roo leaves). I am massively surprised at the news, how often has Rooney said he was at United for life? It was clear to everyone he loved the game and so we naiively thought he wasn't in it for the money. I don't buy it can be anything other than money or the desire to escape the media (although it sounds like City have already done a deal), United will always be competing for the top trophies - even with the Glazers (for the record i'd rather they weren't out owners). Of course he can pass, shoot, not sure about dribbling he was never that sort of player. However as i'm sure every fan of every club would say if a player doesn't want to play then good riddance. If we're selling in January, which I can't believe either, then I can't see it would be to Man City if they're any where near the top of the table.

I've been wondering that but I presumed without Spurs say so the F.A. could do nothing so after the agreement they reach with Scousers to drop charges there was only going to be one outcome with regards to that here. How we fit Berba in is a point of much debate. But I reckon something like this: ----------------Berbatov--------------- --Tevez -----------------------Rooney--- ------Scholes -- Carrick----Fletcher-------- When EVERYONE is fit then something like this maybe --------------------Berbatov ------------ -----------------------Rooney ----------- Tevez-------------------------------Ronaldo ---------------Scholes -- Carrick --- I think the front 3 (exc. Berba) should all be given complete freedom to roam. So you may expect to see something like this during games -----------------------Berbatov-------------- ----------------------------------------Ronaldo ---------Tevez/Roo ---------------Rooney/Tevez ------------------Scholes --- Carrick-------- It will be impossible to mark anyone as they all have such movement. Berbatov won't roam so to speak but if you watch the highlights they often pick out how he similar to Ruud but better and almost akin to the Scholes of old, drifts unseen into spaces and actually has good movement off the ball if not as noticeable as Rooney's and Tevez's due to the different styles. Put Roo in one position albeit a free one and play him there consistently he'll do well and with Berbatov to play off I think we'll see the fruit of his ability as we did when Van Nistelrooy was in front of him.

We have spent more than most for quite a long time, except for Liverpool - not sure the exact stats but they seem to waste money at quite a rate! But apart from them and until a certain Russian came along we most certainly did spend more than others! I'm going to put Fraizer Campbell in my fantasy football team now and hope your prediction comes true! In defence though we seem to be spending less these days, if you exclude the large transfer buying of last season I expect only to see one or two players come in per season which I think is largely down to stable management. Clubs like Newcastle and to a lesser extent, Chelsea, chop and change manager a lot and each manager has their own ideas of playing style and usually bring players from their old clubs which invariably leads to a high turnover in players.

Thanks again for all the responses. I could only really choose two people, so thanks to Alan and bjd your comments are now published: Thanks alot peeps, great help. If you want anything changing n your comments let me know :P

It was firmly tongue in cheek, very balanced replies with a hint of bias which is what you come to expect but also what you're after on a fansite. Bias leads to banter which is all good! forum is http://forevermanutd.com/forum

Thanks for all your replies, i'm not sure what to do I only needed one, at least they're consistent! I don't know the personality of every visitor to the site but the peeps on the forum won't laugh at how bitter you are we got a Scouse and a City fan on there so they're used to hearing all this crap :o I agree largely with what you said. I was very impressed by Ballack last season more so than Ricky I think. Though the latter certainly is a bit more sporting and elegant on the field. We should have tied up the league much sooner than we did. Champions League we dominated you in the first half and should have scored more than one and put the game to bed. But you came back in the second half and it was a deserved equaliser. We both had moments of luck, then when it gets to penalties it could go either way, though I don't think Cech is very good at saving penalties (but his orange loose jersey was very effective at making him look bigger/the goal smaller). I thought our season was brilliant as you've said can't ask for much more shame about the F.A. Cup and would have liked to see our reserves give a better shot at the CC. Still need to learn how to play our own style in Europe although you have to change your tactics slightly I think we could have beaten Barca with our own game. For me, after Ronaldo, Carrick impressed me hugely last season fought off competiton from Hargreaves and Anderson by adding more to his game and is now one of the first names on the teamsheet. Scholes and Anderson obviously impressed too, you forget how much the gingerman brings to the field. I've got United down as winning the league while retaining the CL IF Ronaldo stays or Berbatov comes. Should be a good battle, between us two again though I think. The attraction of having Scolari in charge is clear with a lot of Portugese and Brazilians being linked to you. Not sure he's the best man for the job but we'll have to see, got quite a lot to live up to. I can understand why you want Malouda to leave hasn't impressed me at all. Don't think Robinho would be much better though, Quaresma would probably be better but still not good enough. I think Sheva could still make it. I'll let you know when the articles up and link back.

I run forevermanutd.com and we're running a feature pre-season trying to get the thoughts of all the other clubs on last season and next. I was hoping someone could answer these questions? 1. How do you rate your last season? 2. Who was your star player? 3. What was your view on our own season? 4. Which player impressed you most from United? 5. How do you see this season going? 6. Is there any player you would like to see join or leave your club and why? Many thanks to Loz who gave me permission to post these questions here :)

Hi mate, were proud of our lot, one quick Q before you go. Do you lot rate Rooney, word is he was hiding under the turf for most of the game, he really does look ordinary. Hi mate, were proud of our lot, one quick Q before you go. Do you lot rate Rooney, word is he was hiding under the turf for most of the game, he really does look ordinary. Jumping back a bit here to reply to this so apologies. He was crap in the final bar a couple of decent passes, though since you controlled the midfield in the second half all our attacking players were rather cut off from the rest of the team but yes expected more from him. Never the less while it hasn't been his best season he's still been very good he just needs to learn to take the chances he gets - all the critiscm at Ronaldo for only scoring 1 in 4 but Rooney you would have to say is a lot worse in terms of finishing. I think the injury in the first game of the season affected him a bit. Next season you'll hopefully (maybe not from your POV) see a better Rooney. I run a United site and forum and some people feel he may be more suited to an advanced Paul Scholes role as apposed to striker. Depends on your view. I haven't time to read all the posts on this topic, but I read a few saying how Rooney doesn't get slated in the media as much as Drogba for his antics. It is true, I think Colleen provides a nice distraction for the tabloids most of the time. Rooney has to learn to shut up sometimes and get some discipline when things aren't going his way - though you have to say credit as things weren't going Drogba's way either but they reacted differently. What winds me up about Drogba is his play-acting (we had a couple of attacks which broke down because we put the ball out as he was on the floor only to recover almost as soon as the ball was out of play) . He's still your biggest threat so if he goes i'm not sure who you're going to get to replace him unless you go 4-4-2 and put Anelka and Schevchenko up front (the potential is there, don't know how you see it?). On another note the game, the quote there are lies damn lies and statistics is very poignant in this case. If you look at the stats I think it says Van Der Sar had 1 save to make (Rio's header) while Cech had 3 and we also had more "shots on target". This clearly does not tell the whole story with your 2 shots that hit the post (in match time). I think 1-1 was a fair result then after that penalties are a lottery we just had more winning numbers. Someone said that when you have a cause it can really drive you on, we had Duncan Edwards, Tommy Taylor, David Pegg et al. while Lampard had his mother. I think the success and failure enjoyed and endured respectively, is very much put into perspective when you consider these losses.

United fan. Just to say unlucky, it was a great match and Chelsea played their part in that. Could have gone either way with penalties although obviously Drogba proved a pivotal moment.

I've been lurking for a wee while. By the by not my video. He did leave a foot in but i'm not sure if theres contact, if there is its extremely minimal and he could certainly have stayed up. At least thats my two pence!

M4GvwFyZemk I'm intrigued, did none of you see Malouda's dive to win the free kick? Don't know if the youtube embedding works if not http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=M4GvwFyZemk about 1min in. Not a WUM just interested that you all slate Ronaldo for diving, which he does on occasions, but when Malouda dives theres a hushed silence about it.

What's wrong with wanting the world's best players to play for the club you support? Go to any club board and ask them if they'd turn down a chance to sign Kaka,Messi or Riquelme if they had an opportunity to do it. I don't give a rat's arse what 'other fans' think of us. ManU and Pool spent much more than us in the summer, are they trying to buy the league, too? Before Roman had arrived they were way ahead of us in terms of spending, i don't remember anybody complaining. And it's not their money anymore, it's their yank owners' money that bankrolls their success. This is the team Mourinho had assembled and he did it according to the tactics he had in mind. Whether we like it or not, he's gone now and the new people are in charge so it's only natural they'd want to make some changes. I'm sure Grant and Co are intelligent enough to realize that they have to keep the core of the team intact but they'd need new additions to play the new style of football. Was Mourinho disrespectful to Duff and Gudjohnsen when he showed them the door some time ago or was it a necessary move? Some fans are still questioning these decisions but he felt it was the right thing to do at the time. I find it odd you say that Bluenut. You're one of the staunchest Jose supporters but he was arguably the most arrogant person in world football and never had a problem at spending lots of money on players. In fact, one of his biggest fallouts with Roman if i remember correctly happened when he decided to throw more money to fix squad problems and was turned down by the owner. Riqueleme is not that great a player and Totti is hardly the definition of reliable. We earnt the money we spent though and we've never spent 200m+ in 2 years. Also if you're going to start making assertions its better to check the facts. The Glazers have not put a penny of their own money into the club and any money we are spending comes directly from the clubs funds. At the moment we also seem to be operating a revolving door policy to cover the purchases. I think you have enough players as it is although your recent activity hasn't been particuarly clever. Ben Haim not Chelsea class, nor is Sidwell. He may give 100% but you need more than that to challenge for the title. Malouda, good yes but not as creative as Robben even though he was unreliable. I doubt you're going to win the title this season, too much disruption already for that. But with a decent manager you should be able to win the title with the current team. A creative midfielder? Is that not what Lampard is? I don't understand why you think you suddenly need a new team because you've lost your manager and a couple of games. Still largely the same squad which won two titles back to back.

I hate to hold you responsible but..

Utd fan, in peace. Just a few observations, probably repeating what people have said already but hopefully adding something else. Mikels tackle, it was reckless rather than malicious, you've seen less given a red card but personally I think it warranted a yellow card and a word in the ear. Was Terry not as silly as Mikel by trying to stop Dean giving the red card, could have been a yellow, I know some refs wouldn't have taken kindly to having their arm pulled down. Jole Cole's tackle on Evra should have been a penalty. Got about 99% player. Stoppage time, isn't what the fourth official signals the minimum amount of time? 2 minutes didn't seem much for all that happened. Still should have defended it better. Your passing generally was atrocious as has been said, you seemed to want to give the ball to us most of the time. Unfortunatley our players seemed to shy to shoot half the time. Sheva looked as though he was happy and almost looked like he was playing to make a point but at the same time knowing his position wasn't under threat. In the sense that he tried hard but when it didn't come off he didn't seem to bothered. Abramovic was certainly clapping very energetically as he came off. Terry wasn't very vocal today, usually when I see you playing he's shouting and organising the whole team. Seemed very subdued today. Joe Cole should have seen red for that lunge on Ronaldo, he wasn't even interested in the ball. Pizzaro looked good when he came on, certainly more lively than Sheva. It could have been a penalty, Saha looked like he was held back. He certainly got knocked but simulated getting tripped to try and increase the chances of getting a penalty. Very convincing fall I must admit. Still Ben Haim shouldn't have hung his leg out like that. Why did he start? Because he's the same nationality as the coach? You had a good 10 minute spell mid second half but never looked like scoring I mean the stats say it all, not one shot on target. Van Der Sar's only action was catching a lofted long ball which completely missed its target. Surely Drogba and Lampard aren't that crucial to your team that you're devoid of creativity when they're absent?