United Rant

Legendary pair offer inspiration for youthful future

Twenty years ago, almost to the day, Ryan Giggs was helping Manchester United’s youth side into the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup. As the current youth crop beat their Swansea counterparts 5-1 on Thursday night, Giggs, alongside that other doyen of the United squad, Paul Scholes, is almost incredibly preparing to face Chelsea at [...]

Oh, Ravel

The great white hope is dead; long live the next over-hyped Manchester United youngster. At least that’s the prevailing message today, as revisionism kicks in among the United fan base. Indeed, Ravel Morrison’s move to West Ham United has ended one of the most enduring dramas at the club. While the transfer also comes as [...]

Patience required for de Gea’s time to come

Fans, so the cliché goes, can be fickle. Indeed, supporters’ frustration, together with social media’s immediacy, has created the impression that Manchester United fans swing from one instant reaction to the next. One mistake, a poor game, let alone defeat, results in a tsunami of opinion, often debased to mindless vitriolic abuse. The rush to [...]

Evra stands tall in the cauldron of Liverpool’s hate

The match did not conclude well for Patrice Evra, with the Manchester United captain allowing Dirk Kuyt to run inside and score Liverpool’s winning goal at the Kop End on Saturday. Indeed, by the end of a tortuous 90 minutes Evra looked mentally and physically shattered; beaten both by his opponents and fatigue. Yet, at [...]

Welbeck: from awkward kid to United’s star turn

The finish was calm, the celebration familiar, as local-boy-done-good Danny Welbeck wheeled away having smashed home Manchester United’s winner at the Emirates on Sunday. The strike was yet another on an increasingly upward trajectory in the 21-year-old’s career. Gone are the legitimate doubts about whether Welbeck is ‘United’ quality. Indeed, fitness permitting, Welbeck is now [...]

Be witty, be loud – just don’t mention Suárez

It recalls that classic Fawlty Towers episode. You know the one, where Basil does everything he can to ‘not mention the war’ as a group of German tourists visit his ramshackle hotel. Except, of course, the bit about not mentioning the war. Sir Alex Ferguson appears to have heeded that particular, if farcical, lesson this [...]

Reds’ win leaves title race on the edge

The bookies will tell you today that Manchester City is now odds-on for the Premier League title after recording an injury time win over Tottenham Hotspur at Eastlands on Sunday afternoon. The win, together with Manchester United’s away victory at Arsenal, leaves City three points clear with 16 games to go. But even if one [...]

Reds look to returning injured, with pivotal games on the horizon

Manchester United heads south this weekend at the start of a testing stretch for Sir Alex Ferguson’s men. The Scot’s side visits Arsenal on Sunday, with a month of potentially decisive fixtures ahead. But Ferguson must again do without without a phalanx of key players at the Emirates as injury continues to bite into the [...]

Red youth bid for yet another FA Cup

Manchester United’s academy side wrapped up a second FA Youth Cup win of the season on Wednesday night to seal a place in round five of the competition. Having dispatched Torquay United in the third round before Christmas, Paul McGuinness’ under-18s beat Derby County 2-1 in Altrincham thanks to a Jack Barmby double. While the [...]

Play it, Dimitar

For cinephiles, Rick’s assertion to his erstwhile lover Isla that she must board the plane to Lisbon, for fear of regretting it should she not, still ranks as one of film’s great moments. Captured in three fleeting minutes is the pain of inevitable, and surely permanent, separation. Rick, although embittered by his past with Ilsa, [...]