Saturday, 6th March 2009 – KO: 17:30

When we met Wolves at our place just before Christmas last year, Mick McCarthy all but conceded defeat before a ball was kicked by naming a drastically changed side. We won 3-0. Wolves were handed a £25,000 suspended fine for effectively breaching Premier League rules.

I think most people understood what McCarthy did but my own feeling was that it could set a dangerous precedent and the Premier League were right to impose some from of punishment (even if it was only a token gesture).

I don’t expect any such capitulation from Wolves in this one though. Three months on and Wolves find themselves very much in the relegation battle Mick McCarthy was so desperate to avoid.

The League is so congested down there at the moment that a point or three here and there can catapult a relegation threatened team into lower mid-division in no time.

What will encourage them as well is the fact that we seem to have a little bit of an injury crisis again at the moment and a massive Champions League match coming up against AC Milan.

McCarthy will be hoping that Fergie and at least a couple of the players will have one eye on this match and take this one lightly.

He might hope for that but if there’s one person who will not be taking this one lightly it is Fergie. We have some very tough matches ahead of us and it is highly likely that we will drop points in those and so it is imperative that we go for the jugular in the ones we would normally be expected to win with comparative ease.

With all due respect to Wolves, this is one of those games.

I expect Fergie will put out the strongest possible team he can for this one with a view to getting a healthy lead fairly early so that he can bring a few off as soon as possible.

I think the team will be Van Der Sar, Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Nani, Fletcher, Carrick, Valencia, Rooney, Berbatov.

If we can get ahead to the tune of 2-0, he will bring off Valencia, put on Park, move Nani to the right with Park taking up the left. Bring off Rooney and put on Diouf. Ferdinand might also be replaced by Brown (I believe Evans picked up a knock in midweek).

How’s THAT for a prediction?

(If that comes true, I will eat my socks live on Youtube – I have to keep my hat because of a previous promise I made regarding Arsenal not winning the League!)

The worst thing that can happen here is for Wolves to take the lead as that could scupper a lot of plans. The best thing that could happen is for us to take a 2-0 lead before half-time.

I fancy that we can pull off the latter and that the changes Fergie will make at that point will not weaken the team to the degree that we end up conceding a goal.

We should win this one and it is a case of by how many as far as I’m concerned.

However, I am going to go back into the Corner market for this one. Games between us tend to have a lot of corners and I see no reason why this should change here tonight.

The bet is 2 points over 11 Corner @ 1.85 with Bet365.

Well, as half-expected Rooney didn’t play a part in this one and Berbatov was chosen to play upfront alone and I must admit, he was quite a revelation up there on his own and probably did more chasing around in this game than the rest of his United career put together. Having said that, there has been a bit more donkey work from Berby in recent games so maybe the penny has finally dropped that he can’t just rely on teammates to do it all for him.

Anyway, Wolves made things very tough for us here and if anything, they had the better of the chances. Vokes’ miss in the dying moments in particular will give him nightmares for the rest of his life should Wolves eventually get relegated by one point.

However, with very little going our way (even one of the linesmen must have had a tenner on Wolves because he gave us nothing), we had to rely on a solid defence and one or two lapses aside, the re-united Rio and Vidic dealt with everything very well and it is good to see them back for the most crucial stage of the season.

The difference in the end was the class of Scholes. I watched a replay on ESPN and Chris Waddle said that the Wolves defender unfortunately slipped as Scholes was lining up his shot but I don’t think that was the case at all. Scholes dropped him on his backside and committed the other Wolves defender with a great little shimmy before driving past the diving keeper.

Diouf got an hour in this game and after bigging him up for quite some time now, I was disappointed with him really. He just seemed to be trying too hard to me. For the reserves, he is cool and calm. The step up into the pressure cooker atmosphere of the first team is proving to be a little bit too much for him at the moment.

Hopefully Fergie can have a word with him because I do think he’s got it (his movement to create space for himself was brilliant) but he just needs to relax more and stop beating himself up after every missed opportunity.

As for the bet. Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong. There were just six corners in the whole game which must be the worst corner count of the season (we only managed four ourselves).

Still, the name of the game today was three points and whilst we rode our luck on occasion (helped by the fact that Wolves have been woeful in front of goal all season) we achieved that objective to go back to the top of the table.

I was thinking tonight about how far we have come under the Fergie regime and that little comment he made many moons ago about “knocking Liverpool off their perch”.

At the time, it seemed like an act of bravado and few believed he would actually accomplish it but here we are with a 19th League title so near and yet so far away from our grasp. It is the one that will knock Liverpool off their perch. It is the one that will mean more to Sir Alex Ferguson than all the rest with the possible exception of the very first.

Of course, to truly knock Liverpool off their perch, we would have to overtake their domestic haul AND their haul of five European Cups. That Fergie has not been able to at least equal them on that score as well despite having some excellent teams down the years will probably irk him to his grave.

The fact that Liverpool won it for that fifth time despite seeming to be second best throughout most of their campaign just doesn’t seem justified to me and had they not won it that year then they would be on four with us capable of winning four this season.

However, they DID win it for the fifth time and we are stuck on three and it has taken Fergie 24 years to win two of those. At that rate, he will have to remain in the job well into his nineties! Personally, I think a Fergie with senile dementia and the loss of basic bodily functions could still do a better job than most but it ain’t gonna happen is it?

If we could win the Champions League this season then that magical haul of five would be tantalisingly within our grasp next season, just as that 19th Premier League title is this season.

So, whilst we are not guaranteed either trophy this season. What do you think Fergie would take if you offered it him right now?

The Champions League but you lose the Premier League or the Premier League but you go out of the Champions League against AC Milan?

Or do you think he would say “I would fight to win them both and if I fall between two stools and win neither, so be it!”?

For the record, I would go with the Premier League. No one has ever won the League four years in a row. It would be a special piece of history that would make winning it all the sweeter.

What would YOU say?

Despite not actually playing very many minutes so far this season, Michael Owen has always been a re-assuring option to have on the bench or at least waiting in the wings should Rooney or Berby not be available for whatever reason.

Now that we know we can count him out for the rest of the season, we look for those other options and, to be quite honest, there aren’t that many.

Rooney has been absolutely immense so far this season but I am almost positive that Fergie had tomorrow’s game against Wolves pencilled in as as good an opportunity as we are likely to get for the remainder of the season to give him a rest.

I think he would have been on the bench with Owen and Berby resuming the partnership that worked well in the Carling Cup Final until Owen’s injury called a premature end to it.

The word was that Rooney went into the England game with a minor knee injury. With this in mind and with the game being a meaningless friendly, we are all a bit pressed to understand exactly why Capello played Rooney for 85 minutes. It certainly wouldn’t have done his injury any good.

If the injury is still troubling Rooney then surely Fergie now has to let him rest. Imagine if it develops into something worse and he has to miss a couple of the upcoming matches?

if Rooney is rested tomorrow, who does he play? Berby is clearly not the man to do the lone strikers job so he needs someone alongside him (the slight predicament here is that Fergie does like to employ the 4-5-1 formation in away games!)

Kiko Macheda has become something of a forgotten man despite his heroics last season. He has been injured recently and Fergie has said that he is about to resume training so I doubt we’ll be seeing much of him for the next couple of weeks at least.

Danny Welbeck is, of course, on loan at Preston and I can’t see him being recalled as his longer term development is probably more important than a short term fix for United (he’s not exactly the solution anyway).

That leaves Mame Biram Diouf. I believe this player was brought in with next season in mind rather than this (he didn’t even come to us until January despite being purchased in the Summer) but at 22 years of age, he can hardly be considered a “kid” and physically, I think he’s ready to go into the first team right now. We’ve not had much chance to see him play for the first team but anyone who has been watching the reserves recently will know that this lad has many of the qualities required to be a top class striker.

Namely: Pace, shot power (right and left foot) , accuracy, a cool head, height and a willingness to chase down balls to keep an attacking move alive.

So if Rooney is rested tomorrow, that’s what I would like to see – Berby and Diouf.

Or even just Diouf with the midfield getting forward more to help him out. It’s about time a midfielder scored again (the last midfielder to actually score in a Premier League game was Park in January against Arsenal).

Sorted.

A little rumour filtering through suggests that Owen Hargreaves has finally said that he feels ready to make his long awaited comeback from injury and is being pencilled in for next Thursday’s Reserve game which I believe is against Manchester City (hmmmm….)

If this is true then it is obviously great news especially with Anderson out for the rest of the season but I think anyone connected with Manchester United will be watching him with one hand covering their eyes whenever he goes in for one of those crunching tackles.

I hope that his injuries are now all behind him but the news about Michael Owen this morning has just served to curb any great optimism I might have had that this will actually be the case.

It has just been confirmed that the hamstring injury Michael Owen sustained during last weekend’s Carling Cup Final is going to keep him out for the rest of the season.

It has been a very mixed bag for Owen all season. Whilst he has made 31 appearances for United, 20 of those were substitute appearances and even a couple of the starts have ended with him being substituted due to a variety of injuries.

When we signed him, many people were questioning his ability to stay free from injury but personally, I felt that he would fare far better at Manchester United simply because he would get the needed rest between games. This has clearly not proved to be the case and whilst this might seem a bit kneejerk, serious questions must now be raised about the future for Michael Owen.

It is clear that he can break down at any given moment and that is not ideal for any team.

However, despite not having an enormous amount of minutes on the pitch, he has managed to score an impressive nine goals for Manchester United. The equaliser in the Carling Cup Final was perhaps the most important but no one will ever forget the winner he scored against Manchester City earlier in the season.

It’s a shame for Michael Owen and we must now go into the most crucial stage of the season without him.

Before I start, can I just state that I am getting this story from the Daily Mail and you can read it for yourself right here.

It might be a true story or it might be made up. It might be just yet more anti-Glazer, pro-MUST propaganda designed to fill the anti-Glazer faction with yet more feelings of hatred for the Glazers whilst at the same time, drumming up yet more support for their own cause.

The man claims that he was asked to leave the MUTV Studio during the Red Cafe programme for refusing to take off his green and gold scarf.

He states, “About 20  minutes into the programme during an advertising break, suddenly I got a tap on  my shoulder and there were two or three security guards saying: ‘You have to  take that off or leave.’”

And continues “I have been  wearing it for the last five or six weeks. I wore it at work and in town and I didn’t even think about it when I went to the show with it on. I wore it on the Red Cafe about three weeks ago and no one said a thing.”

I must say that my first thoughts were that the thing probably could do with going in the washing machine by now and my second thoughts were, what the hell did he expect?

He says that it is a peaceful protest and, of course it is. He’s quite entitled to protest.

However, the right to protest is a bit like the right to free speech. You are entitled to say whatever you want but you cannot demand a stage from which to say it. You certainly cannot expect the very people who you are protesting against to provide you with the stage!

That’s just taking the piss.

I watched the England v Egypt match last night with some interest because I believe it is the last game the national side have before we head off to the World Cup and so I wanted to see if it gave some clues as to who would be going.

For much of the first half, I felt just as much in the dark as ever as the England players hardly even seemed to know each other, let alone play together.

I was also interested to see how our own Wayne Rooney got on and the answer is probably that he will be glad to get back to his United teammates.

One thing I have noticed about Rooney this season is that his temper has been held in check for much of the time. Of course, he still has the odd outburst but he rarely seems the frustrated figure that we have seen in recent years. Last night with England, there were signs of the red mist descending and it was probably just as well that someone equalised for England or he might have flipped his lid.

What I was also interested to see was just how long Fabio would play Rooney for. The answer was around 85 minutes. Brilliant.

Fergie tried to give Rooney a breather against Aston Villa in last week’s Carling Cup Final but it didn’t really work out because Owen had to come off injured after 40 minutes or so.

It could now mean that Fergie will try again against Wolves on Saturday but with Owen injured, who will he play upfront? Berby on his own? Well, the midfielders had better bring their passing shoes because if the ball doesn’t arrive within three inches of Berby’s toe, he isn’t likely to go chasing after it.

Diouf with Berby maybe? I wouldn’t mind seeing that.

Somehow though, I suspect that Wayne will have to dust himself off and get himself ready for another start and then go all over again against Milan next week. Cheers Fabio!

I’ve been keeping tabs on the stories surrounding the “Red Knights” over the last few weeks and mentioned in a post a couple of weeks ago that it was fast approaching the time for the Red Knights to put up or shut up.

My basic stance on the Red Knights remains that I would love to believe that they truly are the best thing that could ever happen to Manchester United, that they will come along and take away all that nasty debt and make everything all better.

However, I was born in Manchester, not Cloud Cuckoo Land and I wasn’t born yesterday. Something about it all just seems too good to be true and the more this little saga drags on, the more it is starting to smell just a little bit fishy to me.

This post was prompted by an email I received today encouraging me to sign up with MUST because apparently, the mysterious red Knights met up with MUST earlier this week and told them that they whilst they have pledges of some £1 Billion in funds, they will only press ahead if they know that they have the backing of the fans.

What would it take to show them that they truly have the backing of the fans? Well, I’m sorry to all of you who’ve been proudly sporting them for the past few weeks but those Green & Gold scarves are not going to do it.

The only way for you to show your support for the Red Knights is by becoming an e-member of MUST.

There are currently 50,000 members of MUST but the Red Knights have told them that they have to double that figure to 100,000 and then, and only then, will they be satisfied that they have the backing of the fans.

So, if you truly care about Manchester United and don’t want to see it destroyed beyond all recognition by those evil Glazers, it is now your DUTY as a Manchester United supporter to join MUST. If you don’t, you don’t care about Manchester United and it will all be YOUR fault when the Club implodes.

So. Let me just get this straight. This is a group of very wealthy individuals (according to figures I am reading, there are around fifty of them) who are about to commit an average of £20 Million each of their own personal fortunes in order to try and oust the Glazers for the good of us all but will only do it if they’re made to feel loved first?

I must admit that the thought of 50 people running the club sounded like a recipe for disaster but when those fifty require the backing of 100,000 others before they make a decision, it takes it to a whole new level of chaos. What the hell kind of leadership are they going to provide if they do gain control?

Of course, this is all good for MUST and doubling their membership to 100,000 will not only give them even greater clout but would also provide one hell of a payday when the free membership becomes a “nominal fee membership”.

I’m sorry. That was probably a little below the belt. It is not right to accuse people of acts that they may or may not commit in the future in order to add strength to your argument is it?

Personally, I don’t think even 1 Million names on a database is going to make much difference. I think the Glazer’s are here to stay and if they do sell up, it is going to take way more than £1 Billion to force their hand and guess who will be asked to fund the difference?

If you were going to sell your house. Who would you sell it to? The Property Developer who is in it as a business and will offer you 80% of market value for a quick cash sale or the couple who fall in love with your house and are prepared to offer you 20% more than market value to ensure it is theirs?

Action might well be imminent and the story remains a page turner. I can’t wait to see how it all ends!

England take on Egypt this evening in what should be a pretty entertaining game considering it’s a meaningless friendly and all eyes will be on Wayne Rooney to see if he can continue his excellent Manchester United form for England.

I honestly thought Fergie would have found some kind of injury that would prevent Rooney from taking part in tonight’s game but as we all know, trying to stop Rooney from playing football is like trying to stop a runaway train.

However, Fabio Capello has been quoted in recent months saying things to the effect of “I hope Wayne Rooney is not over-used at Manchester United to the point that he is burnt out by the time the World Cup comes around. I hope he gets a rest now and again.”

Well Fabio, you can do your bit here by NOT playing Rooney for the full ninety minutes tonight.

Uchi Mata is a very well known throw in Judo.

I don’t know why I just thought of that except that I was just watching a replay of Vidic “tackling” Gabriel Agbonlahor and it just came to me.

I don’t know if Vidic has ever had any formal Judo training but if he hasn’t, I think he should give it a go. He’s a natural.

Joking aside though, this isn’t the first time we have seen Vidic resort to these desperate tactics (aka cheating) and I am just starting to wonder: Is he becoming a liability?