United Rant

United in triumph over divided City

There was a fleeting moment of guilty pleasure just prior to 6pm on Sunday night. The pleasure as Mario Balotelli finally, deservedly, saw red and Manchester City’s title bid evaporated at the Emirates. Guilt as a young City fan broke down in tears, live on national television. Inconsolable heart-break played out for all to see [...]

Hubris be dammed

“I am constant as the northern star, Of whose true-fix’d and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament.” Julius Caesar (III, i, 60 – 62) There is, of course, more than one reason to moderate any temptation to engage in Caesar’s hubris this spring, despite Manchester United’s increasingly powerful position in the Premier [...]

De Gea excels and now comes the grudging respect

“OMG,” extolled BBC pundit Mark Bright on Twitter in August, “Man Utd cannot win the Premier League with de Gea.” Bright’s deliciously reactionary, and embarrassingly premature assertion, made on the evidence one suspects, of having watched young David de Gea in matches against Manchester City and West Bromwich Albion alone, was not the only knee-jerk [...]

Them’s the breaks

There is a strange breed of football fan; you know the type, lurking in the nether reaches of cyberspace, conspiracy theorising to a fever pitch of mouth-frothing, self-aggrandising, irrational frenzy. Social media has magnified, even exacerbated the phenomenon, of course, but it has always existed in one form or another. The pub bore, cave-dwelling mouth [...]

Owen: hopeful failure to the last

When Michael Owen joined Manchester United, summer 2009, the theory, with Owen approaching 30 and available on a free transfer, was that was former Liverpool striker would add short-term goals at a reasonable price. Three years on and Owen has proven no more value to United, even with no fee, than he did for Newcastle [...]

Sprightly Rio dancing towards new deal

Rio Ferdinand is set to be offered a new contract with Manchester United after the 34-year-old defender finally overcame three years of injury trouble to once again become a key part of the Reds’ title charge this season. The former West Ham United defender had been expected to leave Old Trafford after nearly a decade [...]

Desperados

When Patrick Vieira, this week, labelled Paul Scholes’ return to Manchester United “desperate,” the former Arsenal midfield struck a chord. After all, Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to re-recruit the 37-year-old midfielder came just months after Scholes had retired, with the player’s admission that his ‘legs had gone’, firmly front-of-mind. Almost three months after the midfielder’s [...]

The fourth striker

When Manchester United started the current season Sir Alex Ferguson could boast seven first team strikers; the Scot may go into the summer with just three. Indeed, while Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernández and Danny Welbeck will certainly start the 2012/13 campaign at Old Trafford, doubts abound whether Ferguson’s remaining forwards will be with the club. [...]

Reds close in as Fergie chalks off another match

There’s the old football cliché about ‘taking each match as it comes’, as if focus on the big prize could somehow diminish the here and now. But as Manchester United chalked off another win on Sunday, romping to a five goal victory and a four point Premier League lead, manager Sir Alex Ferguson returned to [...]

Berbanigma

I don’t actually know what the weather is typically like in Bulgaria, but I’m going to guess that the winters are chilly. And a good job too, because Dimitar Berbatov will have had some practice at being out in the cold; his position in the Manchester United pecking order is a solid fourth choice. Rooney’s [...]