Pea Shooter

The Mexico coach keeps wanting to overlook him it seems but Javier Hernandez just won’t go away.

Around ten minutes into the second half of Mexico’s World Cup match against France, Hernandez was brought in with the scores deadlocked at 0-0.

Less than ten minutes later, he was on the scoresheet after springing the offside trap perfectly to race clear, round the keeper and slot coolly home.

United fans were obviously hoping to see Hernandez do something in this World Cup and he has not disappointed so far despite his limited chances. It looks very much like we’ll be seeing plenty more of him too as a draw against Uruguay in their final game (a nailed on bet, if you ask me) should see them through to the knockout stages.

The Premier League Fixtures for the 2010/11 Season have just been announced and our first game is at Old Trafford against newly promoted Championship Champions Newcastle.

Newcastle looked to be in all kinds of trouble a couple of years ago and were duly relegated but Chris Hughton did a brilliant job of just getting on with things in the Championship and has brought them straight back up.

Due to copyright restrictions, I can’t divulge further details of the fixture list here so head on over to the Official Manchester United site for the full information – December looks interesting!

Zoran Tosic

One of the strangest United careers in history was finally brought to an end today as it was revealed that Zoran Tosic has joined CSKA Moscow for a reported £8million.

I could never understand why we signed Tosic in the first place because Fergie has continually overlooked him since he arrived (I think he only made two appearances for the first team and I don’t think either of those were starts).

He played several times for the reserves though and looked more than good enough to have been given more of a chance in the first team than he was ever given. When you consider the amount of chances the likes of Nani and Berbatov have been given to “come good”, it’s all the more baffling.

Oh well. He’s gone now and it seems like a good move for the lad. I just hope it doesn’t come back to haunt us at some point in the future because I think he’s got great potential.

Another case of the face not fitting, it seems.

A Load of Old Ballacks

I know that we didn’t exactly set the world alight with our signings last season and the signing of Michael Owen on a free was a bit of a stunner for everyone but this is getting a bit ridiculous.

The other week, all the talk was that we would be in for Joe Cole on a free transfer. OK. I can just about get my head around that one. He’s a decent player, still only 28 years old and would certainly provide a bit of something different in attack.

The other day, I heard we were in for Michael Ballack and that one is surely a non-starter? He’s too old, too injured and too… well… Michael Ballackish for my liking. If there’s anything we need in midfield (like a bit of pace and artistry) then it most certainly won’t be provided by Ballack.

Yesterday took the biscuit though as I read that Raul was about to be released by Real Madrid and would therefore be available on a free. Naturally, we are “monitoring the situation”.

Give me a break. What’s going on here? Are we running some kind of retirement home for crocked has-beens?

I don’t know if anyone has noticed but Fergie has been bringing in an awful lot of younger players recently, he’s rebuilding for the future. Michael Owen was a convenient stop-gap because, having lost Tevez and Ronaldo, we looked a little short up-front and we needed a bit of proven quality up there.

I don’t think for one minute that it signalled a new transfer policy of only signing every other club’s rejects.

That’s Manchester City’s job.

Andersred has advised readers of his blog NOT to renew their season tickets.

The Red Knights are not prepared/can’t afford to pay whatever it is that the Glazers want for Manchester United and so Andersred is now officially advising supporters that the best way to support their club is to not support it.

What follows is his personal view:-

“Any reduction in income will increase the chances of the Glazers selling our club.  They can only take out dividends if certain profit targets are met.  This makes them vulnerable to lower income.

The most effective action supporters can take to shorten the Glazers’ ownership of our club is to not renew their season tickets for 2010/11.

I understand that giving up going to Old Trafford is an incredibly hard thing for fans to do, not renewing my own ticket has been very difficult. It was difficult too for the many fans who stopped going in 2005. Sacrifices are sometimes needed to achieve important change.

Many supporters will want to continue to go on an occasional basis and switching to “match-by-match” and reducing the money you pay the Glazers in this way is also helpful to the cause, although obviously has less impact.

I really believe that supporter action can accelerate the process of changing the ownership of our football club. It is not just tokenism. Ridding our club of the Glazers requires both an offer for the club and a willingness on the family’s part to sell at a reasonable price. Non-renewal introduces risk to their business model and increases the chance of them selling.”

No assurances can be given as to whether those giving up their season tickets will ever be able to get them back or whether this will lead to an actual bid (let alone a takeover) by The Red Knights.

Even if it does come to that, we have absolutely no idea what their ownership will be like.

So the general plan appears to be to continue to undermine and damage the current ownership with absolutely nothing in place to replace it with. Brilliant.

My own personal view is that if anyone gives up their season tickets on the back of Andersred’s advice then they may live to regret it.

I have every reason to believe that the next few years are going to be a great time for Manchester United supporters, there are young and exciting players being purchased all the time and the reserves and the academy contain several jewels.

Revenues are growing all the time and the Club’s debt is under control.

If there has been doom and gloom around Old Trafford of late then it is directly because of the MUST propoganda that Manchester United are on the way to hell in a handbasket and that we are witnessing the death throes of a footballing giant.

In order to do everything possible to make absolutely sure that this is the case, senior MUST members are now suggesting that you withhold funds from Manchester United in order to drag it to it’s knees so that the value is low enough for The Red Knights to come in and “save it”.

Unbelievable. Disgusting. How these people can claim to hold moral high ground is beyond me.

But they “only have the fans’ best interests at heart” so it must be ok.

I have been reading an awful lot about the Glazer situation over the last few weeks and I do believe that I have finally got to grips with it and I have never been more satisfied that they will, on balance and at the end of the day, be beneficial to Manchester United.

I have no ties to the Glazers and, unlike MUST and Andersred, no vested interest in taking one view over another. That is the conclusion of my own independent judgement and I’ll stand by it.

I have nothing to win or lose either way. Manchester United will be here forever.

Simon Kjaer - He'd Look Crap In Blue

As you will know, I don’t tend to write much about transfer speculation on this site because, let’s face it, if I did, I would be sat here all day typing stuff that would turn out to be 99% rubbish when I try to aim for just 90% rubbish

However, with Vidic’s agent playing “being an agent” and suggesting that Vidic doesn’t know if his future is at Manchester United, I decided to write on this one.

Incidentally, and call me old fashioned, but when you sign a contract that expires three or four years hence, isn’t that exactly what your future is unless you’re told otherwise? Yes, I’m quite aware that this is naive and that four year contracts are, in reality, just two or three year contract with room for negotiation at the end to prevent a Bosman but I just find it an arrogant stance to actually say during a contract that your “client” hasn’t told you what he wants to do.

Anyway, look, already off on a tangent and I haven’t even started.

The point of all this is that if Vidic is going to go, we will be a bit light in defence and if the last season proved anything it is that you can never have too many defenders.

We have already purchased Smalling but it is generally agreed that whilst his rise to the top has been rapid and eyecatching, he remains one for the future at the moment.

Jonny Evans has done a brilliant job over the last couple of seasons but even he looked like he was suffering under the pressure in the third quarter of the season and needed a rest before coming back to his best again.

Rio Ferdinand is now one big question mark due to his fitness.

We do have old faithfuls like Brown and O’Shea who can do a job in the centre of defence if an experienced head is required but I still do think that if Vidic goes and Rio is on his way out or only able to play 10-15 games a season then an older, more experienced central defender of proven quality is what we need.

However, if reports are anything to go by, Fergie is lining up a move for 21 year old Palermo defender Simon Kjaer.

At a price likely to be around £12 Million it seems a decent price for the highly rated young player.

The waters are muddied somewhat, however, by speculation that Manchester City are also in the hunt. If this is true then that £12 Million-ish valuation could end up being £25 Million and whilst I have no doubts that his future would be better served playing for the Red side of Manchester, money talks and the noisy neighbours have louder money than anyone else.

From what I can gather, Kjaer himself has no particular leaning towards either ourselves or City (I believe he is a Liverpool fan if anything) and so we have no edge on that score.

Fergie knows that he cannot get into a bidding war with City and if it looks likely that that is how it will turn out, I can see him turning his attentions elsewhere.

Kjaer himself might prefer to go to the Club that can offer him Champions League football and a genuine chance of winning trophies next season but Palermo will want the best price possible for one of their crown jewels.

It might all be pie in the sky media speculation but I believe that there is substance to this story due to our own defensive situation and it is going to be interesting to see how it unfolds.

In the meantime, you can catch Kjaer in the World Cup when Denmark take on Holland next Monday.

Who Would Have Foreseen This Twenty Years Ago?

Far away from Manchester, Florida, PIKs and Debts, all eyes will be on South Africa tomorrow and I, for one, will be glad for that.

Yes, the World Cup is now just one day from kick-off.

First up is the match between hosts South Africa and Mexico. I’ll be watching as much of this one as possible and hoping to see our own Chicharito doing the business on the big stage.

Later tomorrow, is Uruguay against France and our own Patrice Evra has been named as Captain (reportedly causing some annoyance for William “Permasulk” Gallas). United fans will know that if there’s one player in the French team who deserves that armband, it is Evra.

A genuine player who gives 100% in every game, a role model on and off the pitch and, as far as I am aware, has never deliberately handled the ball in the penalty area in order to qualify for the World Cup.

All this is just for starters. The day after we have, of course, England against the USA but I intend to cover that one in a bit more depth tomorrow.

It promises to be a great tournament. I can hardly wait.

Well, I watched the Panorama documentary last night and, funnily enough, I didn’t think it was as bad as I thought it was going to be.

It was soooo one-sided that anyone with half a brain should have been able to see that it was basically a MUST propoganda film.

I’m actually more annoyed by the fact that I am forced to fund this kind of thing due to the TV Licence tax Fee.

Of course, the BBC made some attempt at putting it across as an impartial piece of documentary by saying on several occasions that they had invited certain people to comment such as the Glazers themselves, the FA and the Premier League but all had declined.

Which, of course, left the programme open to MUST activists such as Green and Drasgo to spout off as much as they wanted whilst the Glazers were substituted by silent but intentionally insulting and ridiculous garden gnomes.

Perhaps the funniest interview was with Drasgo who said something along the lines of “when the Glazers took control of Manchester United, they were given the keys to the vault and went in there with a forklift truck”.

He is still clearly in denial and doesn’t accept the fact that the Glazers do actually own the club.

The fact that the Glazers haven’t actually gone in with a forklift truck and helped themselves to Manchester United riches also seems to escape him.

No, where this documentary went wrong is down to the fact that even without Glazer input, they could, if they wished, have looked at the other side of the balance sheet. Oh yes, in case you didn’t realise (and if you were to rely on the BBC for your education then you would be forgiven), a balance sheet consists of TWO columns.

There has been an awful lot of money coming IN to Manchester United since the Glazers took over. That is kind of how they can afford to pay the interest on the debts.

No mention of this in the documentary.

Then we were shown a couple of the shopping malls that the Glazers own in America and they were pitiful. Empty lots and not a customer in sight. But they own more than a couple and some are making good profits. These weren’t shown or mentioned which was “unfortunate” because it might have provided a bit of balance.

And then we were made to feel even more resentment towards the Glazers because they “avoid tax”. You see, a natty little by-product of all these debts means that for the last five years, we haven’t spent a penny on corporation tax (something that is never taken into account by Andy Green when he puts out his “Cost of the Glazers” figures nor are the shareholder dividends or the salaries for the old Directors and other administration costs taken up by the PLC setup).

Ummm… again, that is part of the business model and the avoidance of tax is a consideration for ANY business-person.

Note. This is tax avoidance (legal) not tax evasion (illegal).

We were then told that in the last year or so they have sold one of their homes for $25 Million and one of their businesses for $75 Million… “Why?”, asks the BBC.

The inference is, of course, that they needed the money. What wasn’t mentioned was how much profit (if any) that they made on either of those deals.

If I had two homes, bought for £100k each and someone offered me £200k for one of them, I would probably sell whether I needed the money or not.

If I had a ton of businesses scattered all over the world and found that it was all getting a bit too much for me handle and someone offered me an attractive sum for one of them that I had perhaps lost a bit of interest in then I would probably sell.

Of course, with the Glazers declining to comment on these things all I and the BBC can do is speculate.

What it does show, however, is that contrary to what MUST have been saying all along is that the Glazers do have other means of raising cash if they need it without dipping their fingers into Manchester United coffers (or indeed driving a forklift truck into the vault).

Having said all that, I can’t sit here and pretend all is rosy under the Glazers. They are clearly feeling the pinch that the recession of the last couple of years has had on just about every business in the world and things do look a bit precarious.

However, I do find that I have a grudging respect for the Glazers. They have pulled off the most audacious ownership deal right under the noses of the whole world and, so far, have not only pulled it off but are making it work.

A perverse part of me wants to see this ownership played out to the end to see if they can pull it off in the long-term. I’m not happy that they are playing/gambling with my football club but so long as the team remains competitive on the field then I don’t really have a problem.

What I do want to see, however, is that they are given a level playing field and that is why I am against boycotts or season tickets and merchandise.

I want to see this debt reduced and eventually eliminated entirely as soon as possible and then see the Glazers take their cut of the profits each year and the rest staying in the club for player investment and ground development.

If we can do so well under the Glazers even with the debt, how well could we do once it is cleared?

As Andy Green is fond of saying… Time will tell…

Love United. BE United.

Wayne Rooney is our Hero (The Irish World Cup Song) is a song by the Corrigan Brothers & Shay Healy and is something of a world first because it is a World Cup song by a country that aren’t even participating in the competition.

But hey, they are Irish!

Is that racist? I dunno…

Basically the song is backing Wayne Rooney to kick the cheating Thierry Henry’s backside if England meet France in the World Cup and anything that advocates such behaviour gets my vote every time.

“HE HOLDS THE HOPES OF ENGLAND LIKE 1966
And when they face the French,
Our Wayne may place a kick
He’ll drive his golden boot
Up cheating Henry’s Derriere
A hero for old Ireland is Wayne Rooney”

Nani Out of World Cup

Nani has apparently been ruled out of the World Cup due to a shoulder injury.

He picked up the injury during training and at first said that it was minor and wouldn’t affect his chances of playing in the World Cup. However, it seems to be more serious than first thought and a statement is now being made that he will miss the tournament.

I don’t know if it is in any way related and this is just me speculating here but you might remember that he dislocated his shoulder in last season’s Community Shield and missed several games at the start of the season due to the injury and I wonder if this is the same injury to the same shoulder again? (Slight update as I type – the injury is being described as being to his clavicle (collarbone) rather than his shoulder so it looks like it could be a break and unrelated to the injury suffered previously).

Whatever… that’s irrelevant at the moment. Another big name star is now out of the World Cup and I’m sure that all Manchester United supporters were looking forward to seeing Nani continue his great Man Utd form for Portugal.

Tough luck, Nani.