public enemy

I wouldn't take Ledley King to be honest. We'd need someone with a lot of experience who's preferably over the 28-mark. Bringing in King, another youngster albeit a talented one, would only set-back others breaking into the team and thats something I'm very confident both Wes Brown and John O'Shea will do. United still has the drawing power of one of Europe's top teams, a replacement shouldn't be too hard to find and from the kind of cash we'd get from Rio we'd surely end up with a decent one. EDIT: In fairness MM, I don't think we've quite yet seen the best of Ferdinand. I think in the next World Cup, paired with John Terry (Fuck Sol ) he'll work brilliantly. He may not be the best defender in the world like you said, but he plays more of the underapreciated role in defence and still has his best years ahead of him. Given the over-pricing and over-paying of players in modern day football, I'd say that by comparison £100,000 is reasonable...Anything above that is not.

First off, Rio Ferdinand can fuck right off. We're allready offering him £100,000 a week. That alone is a huge ammount of money and would automatically upon acceptance make him the highest earning player in the club's history. Don't get me wrong Rio Ferdinand, despite what a lot of people recently have been arguing against, is a fantastic player. I think that the reason he hasen't shone this season is our current set-up. He and Silvestre, who for the most part of the season was his partner, are too similar in they're play. Both are the kind of defenders who sit-back and play clean-up rather than directly challenge for the ball like John Terry, Sol Campbell and Sami Hyypia to quote a few would. To have a great defence you must have a combination of some-one who will challenge and some-one who will clean-up. Losing Ferdinand would'nt be the end of the world right now for us because of Silvestre. Not only would he fetch a decent price but with the money we could easily buy an experienced replacement to fill the void whilst some of our less experienced center-halfs come through the ranks, both John O'Shea and Wes Brown have looked great in the past and will do again whilst plenty of our reserves have massive potential (Pique, Bardsley and McShane to name a few). It may look like Ferdinand is currently in the drivers seat over negociations. We've stood by our offer for over a year now and it's up to him how we progress. But one thing's for sure, losing him would not be as crushing a blow as he may think it would be. If he is greedy enough to demand wages of anywhere in between £115,000-£125,000 a week then he can demand elsewhere. Selling him wouldn't be a problem as I doubt he'd look out-of-place in the Real Madrid's and Barcelona's of this world. It just sickens me that the loyalty the club showed him during his drug ban and the fee we originally paid to bring him to the club are left unrewarded because of the greed of the player. The very fact that the manager is now refusing to give Rio the captain's arm-band shows his frustration and I believe that if Rio doesn't accept the current terms within the next few weeks, he will be on his way out of Old Trafford.

It was never actually announced how much we had to spend, it was just speculation. When buying Rooney, the manager sacrificed all available transfer funds for this season from the board. When the Glazers took over it was reported by the papers that there would be a transfer cap, that we could not spend over £25Million in a season for the next four seasons. In the exclusive interview with MUTV, Joel Glazer rubished all rumours of a transfer budget cap claiming that if a player became available that the manager thought would improve the team, they would provide the funds necessary to buy that player. The extent to which Joel Glazer was telling the truth is unknown. No-one really knows how much we have to spend or how much the Glazers are prepared to pay. All of our transfers thus far have been on a small scale, the Glazers haven't actually funded any of them with the money coming from players leaving the club. Bayern may only want £12Million on paper but when other clubs pick up on the race, United may not necessarily be able to keep up unless the Glazer's heavily bankroll the transfer.

In an ideal circumstance (read: Chelsea's) I'd agree with you. Unfortunately, such a transfer may not be possible with the Glazer's possibly being unwilling to fork out any more money so early after the takeover. Although a big signing would calm supporter unrest over the said takeover, Ballack could be very costly and we could face some serious competition over his signature. He may only have one year left on his contract but Bayern aren’t going to let him go for cheap especially given the similar circumstances with Julio Baptista and the massive fees being quoted for him despite the player having no European experience, something Ballack can seriously offer. Alan Smith can be moulded into a Roy Keane replacement certainly, but for the meantime we could really do with a player like Ballack...Let's just hope the Glazer's can see it that way.

Manchester United 6 - Peterborough United 0 Thank fuck we're actually winning some Pre-Season games this term, not to mention in emphatic fashion. Last night’s game was a bit of a slow-starter in the sense that it only really came to life in the second half with the attempts in the first proving ineffective. Several players looked increasingly sharp once again, both Saha and Rooney providing a number of good shots on goal. Kieran Richardson was perhaps the most impressive in the first half though, filling in as left back just like at the weekend, his pace going forward was un-matched and he even made some decisive defensive tackles. If there's any negative factor in the first half it was over new-boy Park. Not looking like he had any definitive position, Park worked his way across the field left wing to right constantly losing possession with Peterborough's defence just running through him. I'm predicting the tour of the far-east will either make or break Park’s position in the United team in the upcoming season and prove whether or not he’ll be subjected to life on the sidelines. In comparison to the second, the first half seemed rather dull and uneventful with the only break-through coming in the form of the own-goal which was for no valid reason disallowed by the ref. Another 11-man change at half-time from United left the tired and depleted Peterborough men against a fresh batch of Ronaldo’s, Scholes and Van Nistelrooys...Those three alone constantly showing they’re class in outplaying the opposition. Youth was again the standout with the reserve stars in Rossi, McShane and Eckersley all impressing amongst the first-team. Truth be told, all of our goals were top-class and it was no surprise given his form at the weekend for Ruud to accomplish his first hatrick in recent memory. All in all it was another fantastic performance and an experiment which duly paid off. The only bad thing is that now I can't fucking wait for the new season to start... EDIT:

I've not heard much of Ben Foster either to be honest. They were saying on MUTV that he came as a recommendation from Sir Alex's son at Wrexham, the club at which Foster was loaned out to. Whether he's a future number one of not, time will only tell but he'll most likely spend a season or two on loan or at least at Reserve level. £1Million is quite the sum for a practical unknown but we payed close to the same ammount for young Luke Steele, our current reserve keeper, and he's really came on leaps and bounds since joining us. Both seem to be two promising keepers for the future.

You're right, if Sevilla were to accept a bid there's no doubt in my mind he'd accept a contract from another club. However, I personally don't think that the player still wants a move to the premiership and that's why the club’s been holding off all offers from Arsenal and Spurs. I think his original plea to the premiership clubs, his 'come and get me' offer, was directed primarily at Chelsea. It seems he's after a big-money move and at the time of his rumoured transfer, he would have been exactly what Chelsea were after in a striker. Now that other English clubs are interested, he doesn't seem too fussed. I think and I'm sure others would tend to agree that he wants to play for another Spanish club most likely Barcelona. In the interview I posted, he clearly admits his desire to stay in Spain and gain his citizenship. The original price tag and even the re-vamped one for the player seemed to be enough to throw several clubs off the scent. I think Baptista would much prefer to sit-out the remainder of his contract and leave on a free to one of the bigger clubs than to leave now for either of the two premiership clubs chasing his signature. Sevilla would have been foolish to turn down any offer in excess of £15Million given the fact that the player could just as easily walk out for free the following year. Its that which makes me think that either the club believes they can tie him down to a contract extension (the unlikely option) or that the player himself has told the club he will not leave for England and only for Spain.

House Of Flying Daggers - 9/10 Awesome. I thought Hero was slightly better though.

Phrased it wrong. Said the opposite of what I meant to say. >_< Damn You Malenko >_<

Ballack's more offensive than he is defensive, if he were brought in it would be as a replacement for Keane and not Scholes.

SWP's officially signed for Chelsea on a five-year deal says Skysports. EDIT:

Dark Water (Original Japanese) - 7/10 Wouldn't usually be my sort of thing but I enjoyed it, I'm sure its a lot better than the American-ised version out at the minute...even though it does have Jennifer Connelly.

Good match yesterday I thought. Clyde put up a good fight and made it an excellent start to a pre-season for both teams. Just a few thoughts on certain players; Nice to see the debutants in Park and Van Der Saar at last although neither of the two really had much of an impact. Park seemed to be trying a little too hard; originally starting on the right he played three or four different positions throughout the first half giving a few good balls but with no real pay-off. Still, nice to see he was giving it his all on his debut. Van Der Saar hardly got a touch from what I remember, a few simple saves but nothing extraordinary just yet. Once again it was Rio who was the figure of some controversy. The fans booing his every touch was nothing more than what he deserved after such a lengthy stall in the contract talks. Saha was another very lively character in the first half, always popping up and having a chance at goal. Hopefully this will be his season in the sense that he can stay fit long enough to provide a challenge for Ruud’s place. Kleberson scoring first came as a bit of a shock even if it was only because he was in the right place at the right time, much like Miller’s goal later in the second half. Hopefully a few good pre-season performances like that one could fetch us a decent price for him or help restore some confidence in his ability. Tim Howard is still shit. And although the conceded goal wasn’t necessarily his fault, he did make a few cock-ups before and after. Stars in the second half were Paul Scholes who really dominated the mid-field, Giggs who provided a few killer-balls and Ruud who finally looked himself in scoring form once again. In total the game was a good assessment, a friendly with a sharper edge towards it in the sense that Clyde were there to play. Some of our reserves looked good mixed in with the first-team and hopefully with our six other pre-season games we'll be more than ready to kick off the new season at Goodison. Manchester United – Optical Express Cup Winners '05

I'm up for a battle. (Y)

Argh...both are great once again making my job all the more difficult. I'm loving the faded navigation bar on HFD's graphic but the reel on JP's is just as if not more effective. If the bottom text on JP's was changed (as Summers said) and the Final Fanstasy logo moved to the middle, It would be perfect. HFD's on the otherhand I just can't pick a fault with. Another close battle guys but I'm going with HFD for this one...

Its not fair though, the training kit looks much better with the badge and number placement not to mention the improvement in colour. Why couldn't they use that instead?

Ah, never thought of that. Still, its gotta be buggy as hell and Trevor Brooking isn't that bad. Right?

Its the real United Away Kit, not the training one as far as I know. Over the past few days, they've had a section of two on the unvieling of the new kit on the official website and all the pictures indicate that it is indeed the new kit. The one that fourstarfizzle posted on the previous page with the red was probably an earlier estimate. EDIT: Actually Mudda, you might be right afterall. The kit itself does look darker but in some of the official pictures, it still is red. :blink:

You'd be safer just looking into getting a Maxdrive. Last time I checked they were still fairly cheap (around a tenner off play.com) and they do all the work for you in terms of updated kits, names and transfers.

Chelsea Home Kit Manchester United Away Kit Blue rocks...