United Rant

Reshaping United

There is a curious aspect to Sir Alex Ferguson’s time at Old Trafford – more than 25 years of evolution and sustained glory – that the great Scot has probably never signed a free-spirited ‘number 10′. The player, in the parlance of modern tactics-speak, who ghosts between the lines; neither midfielder, nor attacker in any [...]

Seven Reds up for Euro Cup

Sir Alex Ferguson was never one for international football, especially when it gets in the way of Manchester United’s priorities – like a kerching-tastic trip to China, South Africa and Norway this summer. The three-leg, 20,000 mile, summer tour will presumably will take place without those players on international duty at Euro 2012 and the [...]

Book review: Manchester United’s Golden Age 1903-1914

Season’s over and it’s time for ‘trusted sources’ and those ‘in-the-know’ to shine – the period when wild transfer speculation takes over. Considering that the summer ahead is arguably the most important for Manchester United in recent years, and the  Glazers’ generosity is to be tested once again, it’s hard not to find the guessing [...]

Pogba departure leaves Reds pondering youth future

So there it is, confirmation bar wet ink on a contract, that Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba will move to Italian champions Juventus this summer. United will receive compensation in the region of £300,000, while Pogba will enjoy a huge salary bump to more than €1 million per season on a four-year contract with the [...]

Berba’s long goodbye

Dimitar Berbatov’s inevitable Manchester United exit, ignominious and embarrassing for the £30 million summer 2008 acquisition, has been a long time coming. A very long time. Indeed, Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to leave the player out of the 2011 Champions League final signalled the end of the Bulgarian’s time in the Old Trafford limelight, with [...]

Trolling, and Eden Hazard

Eden Hazard, Wesley Sneijder, Alan Shearer, Dimitar Berabtov, Ronaldinho, Celio Silva… Celio Silva. Another summer, another tiresome transfer ‘saga’ in the offing as Belgian midfielder-cum-winger Hazard cock-teases his way around Europe’s major clubs, before inevitably joining “the project” over at Manchester City. It’s all about the trophies you see. And the filthy lucre. The drawn-out [...]

The hire race

There will come a day when Sir Alex Ferguson’s name is associated not with Manchester United’s dug-out, but the North Stand at Old Trafford. It may not be in the coming summer, nor perhaps until the 70-year-old Scot is carried from the Theatre of Dreams in a box, but a change, as Sam Cooke once [...]

Rant Cast 114 – end of season spectaculaaaaar

In the final double-length Rant Cast of the season regulars Ed and Paul look back on Manchester United’s victory over Sunderland, which ultimately proved fruitless as Manchester City stole the Premier League crown in dramatic circumstances. We offer an all encompassing review of the season, looking at the reasons United didn’t take this year’s title [...]

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Rant’s Premier Predictions 2011/12 revisited

Every year United Rant uses a highly complex mathematical formula developed by the boffins working on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Switzerland, to predict the future. Drawing on the same supercomputing power that is looking at the very beginnings of the universe, Rant forecasts the season’s winners and losers with uncanny accuracy. Well, either [...]

Season review and ratings 2011/12

Barely 12 months on from the glory of a 19th league triumph the season has ended in disappointment on five fronts: beaten by Manchester City in the Premier League, knocked out of two European competitions at a premature stage, and defeated early in the domestic cup competitions too. Trophyless for the first time since 2005, [...]